Critical Responses
According to one critic, Caesar and Pompey "could have been the most interesting" of Chapman's late plays, given the author's deep and long-standing interest in Stoicism; yet the play never gels as a dramatic work. "Its historical hurly-burly never achieves full form or meaning; it is ill-related to the three major characters and allows them little room and not much life." Other critics have also been harsh, calling the play "a series of dull moralistic speeches" and "a dull piece of work." A minority view is that the play is "an introspective play with integrity and clarity of meaning." Commentators have also noted that the play has a relationship with the traditional morality plays to the Middle Ages; it even includes a devil.
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