Caligula: a Play in Five Acts

Written in 1837, Caligula is one of the best nineteenth-century plays set in ancient Rome. The story of the mad, tyrannical Emperor Caligula, who reigned four years before being assassinated, is familiar to modern readers and viewers, but this version includes some new twists. Dumas makes Caligula less frightening than in real life, although he certainly qualifies as a villainous dictator bent on his own pleasure. He plans to rape his "milk-sister," an early Christian, and eventually kills her for refusing him. Dumas introduces the legend of the Three Marys, who supposedly landed in France shortly after the Crucifixion; some variations on this legend even have Jesus surviving his execution. The play was written in verse, but is here presented in prose. A fast-moving, attention-grabbing drama that seems as modern now as when it was first presented on the stage.