The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.1590  Friday, 25 August 2000.

From:           John Senczuk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 25 Aug 2000 15:50:52 +1000
Subject:        Lightning

Currently directing an outdoor production of JULIUS CAESAR, I'm curious
to know if readers have any thoughts as to the stage direction at 1.3
and 2.2: (thunder and LIGHTNING). Cassius refers to  '... the cross blue
Lightning  [that] seem'd to open/The Breast of Heaven ... the aim, and
very flash of it.'; while Brutus remarks that 'The exhalations, whizzing
in the air,/Give so much light, that [he] may read by them.' MACBETH and
HENRY VIII throw up the same technical problem.  What did Shakespeare
have in mind, given that Brutus speakd of the 'exhalations' in the
present tense?

John Senczuk
University of Wollongong

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