Shakespeare’s “Monstrous State”: Divination, Typology, and the Book of Nature in Julius Caesar

Abstract

Divination shapes the central political concerns of Julius Caesar in ways that scholars have not appreciated while drawing on some of the epistemological dissonance of early modern natural philosophy. Divination also contributes to a typological structure in which the fall of Julius Caesar gives rise to the Roman Empire under Octavius “Augustus” Caesar, whose peaceful rule in turn establishes the conditions in which Christianity emerges. In subjecting signs of divination to theatrical representation—to embodied movement, dialogue, and musical performance—Shakespeare transforms the cognitive dissonance of early modern natural philosophy, especially in efforts to discern the Book of Nature, into aesthetic signs that can be received and interpreted by playgoers. Shakespeare’s tragedy attempts to realize the inexpressible through performance while depending on an ambiguous system of signs in which human action and thought remain both unfathomable and unknown.