Andreas Tille
In
Julius Caesar, Shakespeare did much to render the Roman emperor’s death iconic: in the Roman Senate, Caesar is set upon by a group of conspirators who stab him as he cries out, Et tu, Brute? to his trusted friend Brutus, who has sided with the schemers. It wasn’t until 2012 that archaeologists announced that they had confidently identified the spot where Caesar was killed: the Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in the center of Rome today filled with ancient ruins and stray cats.
Forest of Arden
Thomas B. Hollyman/Photo Researchers
In
As You Like It, after a duke is sent into exile by his usurping brother, he and his supporters end up in the Forest of Arden. It is a place of banishment, but it’s also a place of freedom from the constraints of court life. Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden had several real-life precedents: the Ardennes forest on mainland Europe was one, but another was the ancient Forest of Arden in Warwickshire, near the town where Shake