Cracks me up...

This movie is great, perhaps the best Shespearean movie I've ever seen, certainly the best performance of Julius Caesar. But one thing always makes me laugh -- every time I see a performance of Julius Caesar in which Brutus receives the note, opens it, and says, "Shall Rome, etc." I mean, really! Shakespeare wrote "Shall Rome, etc." as a cue to the actor to READ THE NOTE! He's not supposed to actually say "Shall Rome, etc."! It's like an actor saying "Reads the note aloud." Just hilarious.

I don't know if what was in the note has been lost, but I'm pretty sure I've heard performances where the actor does read the note.