"Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!" Simulazione e dissimulazione della liberetà in Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s political drama par excellence, revolves around two antithetical conceptions of power: the Caesarean, which comes from God, and the republican, which is legitimized by the people and their representatives. In the tragedy, freedom is simulated and dissimulated in order to obtain that consent that legitimizes power. Freedom means to free oneself from the tyrant, but it is also to feel being part and maker of his power. This essay, starting from the Rome of the Elizabethans and the reception of the figure of Caesar in early modern England, will explore the mechanisms by which freedom is simulated and dissimulated in Julius Caesar, and how the people who should legitimize republican power will eventually legitimize the new Caesarean power.