Some two scenes after Brutus et al have stabbed Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play of the same name, “Cinna the Poet” comes on stage. He is walking to Caesar’s funeral and is met with four “plebians” (or “citizens” in some texts) – the same four who one scene earlier were the audience for Brutus’s rationale as to why he killed Caesar, and Antony’s famous “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” speech. In the previous scene, the citizens change from declaring themselves in favour of Brutus – “’Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here!” – and anti-Caesar – ‘This Caesar was a tyrant’ – to believing that “Caesar has had great wrong” and that Brutus and the others “were traitors”.