Julius Caesar Plot Explanation

When the moment of crisis arrives and Caesar enters the public square, the conspirators are pent up and concerned when Popilius wishes them well. Their anxiety is at such a pitch that they are unable to determine what he actually means when he says "I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive." In fact, they almost act precipitously to kill him but are calmed by Brutus who makes them wait to see if Caesar is put …

…in the Elizabethan audience's mind. The artist was quite regularly asked to justify himself and his work, and the debate about whether he was dangerous to a stable and moral society was a common one. That the artist would feel the pressure of these demands is metaphorically evident in this scene. Dismembered at the hands of the mob, Cinna the poet is torn as easily as the paper on which those "bad verses" were written.