(III. i. 148.)
But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world: now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.
(III. ii. 123.)
Owing to Weever’s reference we cannot put Julius Caesar after Hamlet, but it seems to have closer relations with Hamlet than with Henry V. It is not rash to place it between the two, in 1600 or 1601. This does not however mean that we necessarily have it quite in its original form. On the contrary, there are indications that it may have been revised some time after the date of composition.
Thus Ben Jonson in his Discoveries writes of Shakespeare: “His wit was in his own power: would the rule of it had been so too! Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter, as when he said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him, ‘Caesar, thou dost me wrong,’ he replied, ‘Caesar did never wrong but with just cause,’ and such like; which were ridiculous.” Most people would see in this a very ordinary example of the figure called Paradox, and some would explain wrong in such a way that even the paradox disappears: but the alleged bêtise tickled Ben’s fancy, for he recurs to it to make a point in the Introduction to the Staple of News. One of the persons says: “I can do that too, if I have cause”; to which the reply is made: “Cry you mercy; you never did wrong but with just cause.”
Now in the present play there is no such expression. The nearest analogue occurs in the conclusion of the speech, in which Caesar refuses the petition for Publius Cimber’s recall,
Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause
Will he be satisfied.