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EXCHANGE

•7 : x.

A PROBABLE ITALIAN SOURCE

SHAKESPEARE'S "JULIUS C£SAR'

ALEXANDER BOECKER, PH.D.

FOR IN n JL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

ro mi. FACULTY OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY IN
PARTIAL i OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

mi. 1 )i-:<, RI i-; OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

NEW YORK
1913

I L C B S A R E

T R A G E D I A

D'GKLANDQ PESCETTi

SERENISS. PRINCIPE

ALFONSO 11.

IN VERONA,

Nclla Stampana diGirolamo Difccpolo
M D XCiiii.

A PROBABLE ITALIAN SOURCE

SHAKESPEARE'S "JULIUS CESAR'

ALEXANDER BOECKER, PH.D.

INSTRUCTOR IN THE MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

NEW YORK
1913

PRESS OF

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY

LANCASTER. PA.

PREFACE

This monograph was submitted to the Faculty of New
York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and was accepted
by them in May, 1912. Its composition was prompted chiefly
by a desire to call attention to the long forgotten work of
Orlando Pescetti, because it is at least an open question
whether Shakespeare derived from the "Cesare" of the
Italian dramatist many hints which he later used in his own
"Julius Caesar." Pescetti's drama seems to have been
entirely overlooked as a possible source, although the many
striking similarities to Shakespeare's tragedy render it well
worth investigating. I believe that the present work is
the first attempt to demonstrate the possible relation between
the two dramas.

"Cesare" seems to be the only play on the subject which
has not been exhaustively examined. The only notices in
English with which I am acquainted appeared in letters
published in the Nation, June 2 and 9, 1910, while this work
was in process of preparation. The first, by Miss Lisi Cipriano,
called attention to some marked similarities in expression
and treatment between the two dramas. In reply, two
letters appeared the following week: one from Professor
Harry Morgan Ayres of Columbia University, the other
from Professor Henry N. McCracken of Yale. Neither
seemed to regard the parallels cited by Miss Cipriano as
indicative of direct borrowing on the part of Shakespeare.
Professor Ayres had previously in the June, 1910, number of
the "American Modern Language Association Publications "
been the first to make any mention of Pescetti in relation
to Shakespeare. In his article, "Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
in the Light of Some other Versions, " he called attention to
some parallels, without, however, attaching to them any
particular significance.

The above writers seem, however, to have missed the
really vital points of contact between the two dramas. These,
I trust, will become sufficiently evident in the following pages.

iii

Pescetti has been no more fortunate in his Continental
critics. The mere mention of his name from Tiraboschi on
is all one finds till Emilio Bertana, in his "La tragedia"
(1904), gives a brief analysis and critique of the play. Fer-
dinando Neri, in his "La tragedia italiana nel Cinquecento"
(1904) has a brief mention, but none of his countrymen have
ever discussed Pescetti 's drama as a possible Shakespearean
source. It seems unknown to French and German critics.

Owing to the absence in America of material bearing upon
Pescetti, I was compelled to base my study upon a very
carefully executed transcript of the 1594 edition of "Cesare"
now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence.
Through the courtesy of Professor Ay res, I have been enabled
carefully to check all quotations by reference to his own
copy of the 1594 edition. The references to "Julius Caesar"
are to the Globe Edition. The copy of Lydgate referred to
is in the Library of Columbia University, while the quota-
tions from Ovid are taken from Golding's 1575 translation
in the Yale University Library. To the latter I am also
indebted for the extracts from the 1578 translation of Appian-
The references to Plutarch are to Professor Skeats' edition.

To Mr. Emilio Bruschi of Florence I am indebted for his
careful transcriptions of documents, and to Professor Salomone
Morpurgo, the head librarian of the Biblioteca Nazionale,
for his courtesy in putting the available material contained
therein at my disposal. To Professor Harry Morgan Ayres
I wish to express my thanks for permitting me to use his
copy of "Cesare." To Professor Theodore F. Jones and
Mr. Arthur H. Nason of New York University I owe many
valuable suggestions regarding the arrangement of subject
matter. My many obligations to Professor M. W. MacCal-
lum's "Shakespeare's Roman Plays and their Background,"
and to Professor F. H. Sykes' edition of "Julius Caesar"
are in evidence throughout.

I am above all indebted to my colleague, Dr. Edoardo
San Giovanni, for his kind help and encouragement, without
which this work would probably never have been consum-
mated.

ALEXANDER BOECKER.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION i

Purpose of Thesis — The Prologue of "Cesare" — Synopsis of its Plot
— Its Senecan Characteristics — The Dramatis Personae — Persons Com-
mon to both ' ' Cesare " and " Julius Caesar ' ' — The Relation of ' ' Cesare ' '
to its Predecessors — Contemporary Notice by Beni — The Material
derived from Classical Sources used by both Shakespeare and Pes-
cetti — Appian, Pescetti's Main Source — Pescetti the Source of the
Historical Matter in "Julius Caesar" not traceable to Plutarch.

CHAPTER II
THE INFLUENCE OF APPIAN 12

Passages in Shakespeare traceable to Appian — The Parallel Passages
in Pescetti — The Speech of Brutus and the Oration of Antony with
the Parallels in the Fifth Act of Pescetti — The Exclamations of the Mob
in both Dramas — The Behavior of the Conspirators immediately after
the Murder.

CHAPTER III
THE HANDLING OF THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT 25

The Parallelism in General Treatment — The Use of Ghosts — The Por-
tents and Prodigies — Parallels.

CHAPTER IV
THE BRUTUS-CASSIUS SCENES. . . 41

The Brutus-Cassius Scenes — The Debate Concerning Antony — Details
peculiar to both Pescetti and Shakespeare — Comparison with Muretus
and Grevin — Similarity in the Sequence of Scenes following the Debate
— The Lena-Caesar Episode — The Parallel Use of Suspense.

CHAPTER V
THE CHARACTER OF CAESAR 57

Peculiarities of Shakespeare's Delineation — The Influence of Medieval
Conception of the Character — Pescetti's Treatment — His Appreciation

of Caesar's Nobler Qualities — Their Submergence in the Action and his
Emphasis of Caesar's Weaknesses — Caesar's Susceptibility to Flat-
tery, his Pride, his Boastfulness, his Vacillation — Reasons for
Pescetti's Delineation — The Parallels in Shakespeare's Treatment
— Caesar's Relative Inferiority in the Action — His Spiritual Domina-
tion of the Tragedy.

CHAPTER VI
THE CHARACTER OF BRUTUS 76

The Moral Elevation of the Hero, and the Reason therefor —
Parallel in Content in a Brutus-Cassius Scene — Brutus as a Leader —
Pescetti's Conception of the Character — Brutus' Lack of Foresight —
His Sense of the Justice of his Cause — Lack of Definite Causes of
Resentment against Caesar — Parallelism to Shakespeare.

CHAPTER VII
THE OTHER CHARACTERS 96

Antony — Pescetti's Conception — Parallels in Shakespeare — The Bru-
tus-Portia Scenes — Their Historical and Critical Importance — Pescetti's
Delineation of Portia — Her Place in the Action — Details Common
only to Pescetti and Shakespeare — Calpurnia — Striking Parallel be-
tween one of her Speeches and one by Cassius in Shakespeare — The
Remaining Characters.

CHAPTER VIII
" CESARE " IN ENGLAND no

Pescetti's Work known in England — Probable use by Sir William Alex-
ander in the Composition of "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar" — The
Evidence — Parallels between "Cesare" and Alexander's Work —
Shakespeare's Knowledge of the Work — The Two Part Nature of
"Julius Caesar" — Jonson's assumed Collaboration — Shakespeare and
Italian.

CHAPTER IX
CONCLUSION 121

Pescetti's Drama an Improvement on its Senecan Predecessors — Its
Particular Value to the Literary Historian — Summary of the Argument
— Conclusion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY., ..126

INTRODUCTION

I intend in this monograph to demonstrate the probability
of Shakespeare's indebtedness in the composition of the
first three acts of his "Julius Caesar," to the "Cesare" of
Orlando Pescetti, an Italian tragedy on the same theme,
first published at Verona in 1594.*

This connection has never yet been demonstrated. The
work seems almost totally unknown to the English literary
world. f Shakespearean criticism, eager to investigate the
smallest matters in regard to the great poet, is silent on
Pescetti. I know of no French or GermanJ references. In
Italy, Pescetti has received scant notice; few writers have
so much as mentioned "Cesare," while not one has made any
suggestion as to a possible connection between this play and
"Julius Caesar."§

* A second edition followed in 1604 from the same press (Girolamo Dis-
cepolo) in 4°.

This is exceedingly rare; the only copy which I have traced is in the Bib-
lioteca Marciana in Venice. I use the 1594 text, following the copy in the
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale at Florence.

f The only reference in English with which I am acquainted is by Harry
Morgan Ayres in the June, 1910, number of the Proceedings of the Am. Modern
Language Association. In his article, "Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in the
Light of some other Versions" he makes a brief mention of this play. But
see Preface.

t A careful search of the forty volumes of Jahrbticher, published by the
"Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft", failed to reveal any mention of Pes-
cetti. A search of the registers of the very complete collection of German
literary periodicals contained in the library of New York University was
equally unproductive.

§ For a brief sketch of Pescetti see G. B. Gerini, Gli scrittori pedagogic!
italiani nel secolo decimo settimo. 1900. In addition to the above the fol-
lowing are the only works known to me which mention Pescetti's "Cesare":

Fonte, Michelangelo, [Paolo Beni], II Cavalcanti, 1614.

Quadrio, Fr. Saverio, Delia storia e della ragione d'ogni poesia, 1739-

Fontanini, Giusto, Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana con le annotazioni
del Sig. Apostolo Zeno, 1753.

Allaci, Leone, Drammaturgia, 1755.

vii

Vlll

The inscription upon the title page of the 1594 edition is
as follows :

II Cesare

Tragedia

d'Orlando Pescetti

Dedicata

al Sereniss. Principe

Donno Alfonso II. d'Este

Duca di Ferrara, etc.

(Device)

In Verona

Nella stamparia di Girolamo Discepolo
MDXCIIII

Pescetti 's work is in quarto, and consists of six pages of
dedicatory matter, and one hundred and fifty pages of verse,
for the most part hendecasyllabic varied with septenarians.
In the tragedy proper there are nearly four thousand lines.

The author in his dedication establishes, to his own satis-
faction at least, the descent of the family of Este from the
mighty Julius, and ventures the belief that Brutus and Cassius,
though they could not abide Caesar's rule, would rejoice in
Alfonso's. At the end of several pages of this sort of flattery
we read: "Di Verona il di 19 di Febraio 1594. Di V.A.S.
Divotiss. et umiliss. Servitore Orlando Pescetti."

Tiraboschi, Girolamo, Storia della letteratura italiana, 1822.

Ginguene, P. L., Histoire Litteraire d'ltalie, 1824.

De Sanctis, Natale, G. Cesare e M. Bruto nei poeti tragici, 1895.

Salvioli, Bibliografia universale del teatro drammatico italiano, 1903.

Bertana, Emilio, La tragedia, 1904.

Neri, Ferdinando, La tragedia italiana nel Cinquecento, 1904.

Flamini, Francesco, A History of Italian Literature. Translated by Evan-
geline O'Connor, 1907.

Of the above only Bertana has more than a brief mention. He alone attempts
an analysis of the play.

THE PLOT OF "CESARE"

The following is a list of the persons in the drama, called
by Pescetti, "Interlocutor!."

Marte 1

Venere > Fanno il Prologo

Giove J

Bruto

Cassio

Sacerdote

Porzia moglie di Bruto

Calpurnia moglie di Cesare

Cameriera di Calpurnia

Cesare

Marc 'Antonio Console

Decimo Bruto

Lenate

Messo Primo

Messo Secundo

Coro di Matrone Romane

Coro di Donne di Corte

Coro di Cittadini

Coro di Soldati

The tragedy proper is preceded by a prologue in which
Mars, Venus, and Jove are the actors. Pescetti, probably
following Ovid's account in Book XV. of the "Metamor-
phoses," represents Venus as bewailing the destined death of
Caesar, the last of her earthly descendants. Mars extends
his consolation and proffers his aid. She informs him that
Jove is responsible, and indulges in a denunciation of the
Thunderer that must have made his celestial ears tingle.
All further discussion of the matter is terminated by the
appearance of the Father of the gods, who reproves Venus
for her blasphemous utterances, assures her that his ways are
inscrutable, and consoles her by promising Caesar immortality

among the gods, and the infliction of dire punishment upon
his assassins. Venus bows to his will, and impatient Mars
hurries at Jove's command to sow the seeds of civil strife
throughout the Roman world.

This Prologue is a literary curiosity. Its style is at times
more reminiscent of the madrigal than of tragedy, while the
very earthly flavor which clings to the celestial personages is
decidedly humorous to the modern reader. Pescetti un-
doubtedly was in grim earnest when he wrote the Prologue,
but many of the sentences he puts in the mouths of his im-
mortals must have made Melpomene smile. The admonition
of Venus to Mars on omniscient Jove's approach, "Ma e' vien
ver noi, tacciam, ch'egli non ci oda, " despite its Renaissance
setting, is delightful for its sheer absurdity.

The tragedy follows immediately after this prologue. In
view of the extreme length of Pescetti 's work and the lack
of interest for our purpose in many of the speeches, I have
thought it advisable not to inflict upon the reader an extended
synopsis of the plot, but to confine my efforts to the following
outline of the story.

ACT I

The scene is not stated, but is evidently, throughout the
play, an open space before a temple in the vicinity of Caesar's
house. The time is just before dawn. Brutus is discovered
apostrophizing the shade of Pompey. He vows to deliver
Rome from the tyrant. Cassius overhears him, and commends
this resolution. Brutus relates how the ghost of Pompey
had appeared to him during the past night and commanded
him to restore the ancient liberties. Together, they enter
the temple to pray for the success of their enterprise. The
Priest now appears, deplores the prevalent irreligion, urges
the observance of the ancient rites, and then goes to prepare
the sacrifice commanded by the Dictator. Brutus and
Cassius reappear and discuss their plans. Cassius strongly
favors the killing of Antony along with Caesar. This Brutus
will not tolerate, in spite of the many forceful arguments of
his fellow conspirator. He abruptly terminates the discussion

by detailing the manner of Caesar's murder. As he concludes,
Portia enters in search of Brutus. She deplores that her sex
prevents her taking an active part in the conspiracy. She
begs to be favored with their confidence. Cassius hesitates,
but finally divulges their plans, and beseeches her to aid the
enterprise with her prayers. This, rather reluctantly, she
promises. Brutus, who has taken no part in this conversation,
now bursts into an ecstatic speech wherein, in imagination,
he already hears the rejoicing which the news of the tyrant's
death will cause among Rome's noblest families. He advises
Portia to return home while he and Cassius go to join the other
conspirators. Portia invokes the blessing of Heaven on them,
and the act concludes as the Chorus of Matrons implores
the intercession of Romulus to restore to the city its former
peace and happiness.

ACT II

Calpurnia and her nurse indulge in the inevitable lengthy
and tiresome discussion concerning the former's terrible
dream. The ghost of Caesar, horrible with wounds, had
appeared to her that night. Almost half the act is devoted
to Calpurnia's expression of grief and to her nurse's fruitless
efforts at consolation. The Chorus declaims the fickleness
of mankind, whereupon Brutus and Portia reappear. The
former, believing that his wife has wounded herself in some
domestic labor, reproves her for turning her hands to such
work. She tells him that she has wounded herself to prove
that she could commit suicide were her death necessary. She
fears that her husband may perish in his attempt against
Caesar and has resolved to restrain him. This dialogue,
filled with mutual protestations of love and constancy, is
terminated by the appearance of Calpurnia, whose perturbed
countenance prompts them to overhear her. Calpurnia, in a
long and tiresome speech, condemns the desire of men for
dominion over others as the cause of all their sufferings. The
nurse interjects the usual advice and consolation. Calpurnia
voices her determination to persuade Caesar to abandon his
contemplated visit to the Senate. Brutus petitions Jove to

steel the tyrant's heart to the appeals of his wife. Portia
retires to pray for her husband's success, while he goes to
rejoin Cassius and the others in the plot. The Chorus sings
the mutability of human happiness, and the act ends.

ACT III

Caesar and Antony indulge in a lengthy dialogue which is
started by the observations of the former regarding the banquet
at the house of Lepidus the preceding evening. Caesar, ably
seconded by Antony, enlarges upon his glories. His compan-
ion warns him against treachery, and advises a bodyguard.
Caesar scorns those who would harm him, but resolves after
this day to be surrounded by some of his trusty veterans.
He orders Antony to prepare for the Parthian campaign.
Here follows a soliloquy by Antony, in which, in contrast to
Calpurnia, he exalts the pleasures of rulership. He intends
so to contrive that in the event of Caesar's death he can seize
the reins of government. Hereupon the Priest in the longest
speech in the play recites the many and various portents
which have lately occurred. As he concludes, Caesar and
Calpurnia join him, and another long scene ensues in which
Caesar stands firm against all the arguments brought forward
to dissuade him. He is resolved to go to the Senate, and the
scene is brought to an end by a final warning from the Priest.
The Chorus sings the direful results following the disregard
of religion.

ACT IV

Brutus and Cassius discuss the probability of a detection of
their plot. It seems that Lenate, evidently not of their
number, had approached Brutus and whispered his good
wishes for the success of their enterprise. Brutus and Cassius
engage in a dialogue concerning liberty, but are interrupted
by the appearance of Decimus Brutus, who laments the per-
versity of fortune. It seems that Caesar has yielded to Cal-
purnia's entreaties and will stay at home. Worse still, on
the morrow he will appear with his bodyguard. Marcus
Brutus feels that Jove will yet favor their designs. Caesar

enters and condemns those as fools who are guided by the
advice of women. Nevertheless, as he fears treachery, he
has resolved to heed the entreaties of his wife. He indulges
in a panegyric of himself. The conspirators now approach,
and Marcus Brutus addresses him, inquiring his reasons for
not attending the important session of the Senate. Caesar
is in doubt as to the manner of his reply. The prayers of his
wife, he asserts, have influenced him. Besides, he has reason
to fear treachery. Decimus Brutus, by artfully playing on
his vanity, succeeds in overcoming his doubts. Caesar
resolves to attend the Senate. Marcus Brutus can hardly
find words fit to sing the praises of Jove, who has inspired
this determination in the tyrant's heart. The conspirators
indulge in pious prayers and felicitations. Caesar, Cal-
purnia and Decimus Brutus are the persons in the next
scene. Caesar tells Calpurnia that her entreaties are vain;
now, as formerly, the gods will protect him. She bows to
his will. Decimus, in another useless speech, continues
his laudation of Caesar and the belittlement of his fears.
Caesar at length starts for the Senate. He is detained by
Lenate who addresses him, to the great consternation of the
conspirators, who fear the revelation of their plot. Lenate
begs a favor of Caesar, which the latter is disposed to grant.
The increasing panic of the conspirators is stayed by Brutus,
who has watched Lenate and feels confident that he is not
talking of the plot. At the conclusion of Lenate's address
Caesar departs for the Senate, and Lenate joins the conspir-
ators and assures them of his silence. In the concluding
scene Calpurnia breaks into lamentations while the Chorus
of Ladies of the Court comments upon her distress and be-
seeches Juno to turn aside her wrath and spare Caesar.

ACT V

Brutus addresses the citizens and announces the death of
the tyrant. He calls on all to rejoice in their reestablished
freedom, while the conspirators shout the glad tidings. This
is his last appearance. The rest of the act is devoted to the

lamentations of Calpurnia, the report of the catastrophe by
the First and the Second Messenger, and the comments of the
various Choruses.

Pescetti's tragedy, as will readily be seen from this state-
ment of its plot, is thoroughly Senecan in its construction and
perpetuates some of the worst faults of its type. The dra-
matic unities are strictly observed ; there are the same lengthy
speeches, the same moralizing, the same absence of action
evolved before the spectator, the same lack of life charac-
teristic of this dramatic form. The actors soliloquize, con-
verse, declaim, listen; they do everything but act. Their
exits and their entrances constitute the total of visible
action. Deeds are carefully excluded, or relegated beyond
the stage; the declamatory powers of messengers, the com-
ments of the Chorus, and the speeches and conduct of the
actors are relied upon to vitalize them in the imagination of
the audience.

Of characterization, in the Shakespearean sense, there is
very little. It would be easy to dismiss the whole matter.
A careful search is necessary to locate those passages wherein
Pescetti displays any decided flashes of dramatic power in
his characterizations. Yet there are times when he attempts,
and in a measure successfully, to provide adequate motivation
for the speeches of his characters; but unfortunately, these
are rather few and far between. He almost invariably
locates these places in such a rank rhetorical jungle that it
requires considerable care to discover them. Yet he reveals
at times a true dramatic instinct in his choice of material and
in the handling of certain situations.*

But the force of convention was too strong for him success-
fully to resist its insidious influences. Following in the
footsteps of his contemporaries, he spins his drama out to
some four thousand lines, ninety-nine percent of which are
versified prose and the remainder dubiously poetic. Never-

* In parts of the Brutus-Cassius dialogue in the first act; in his attempted
contrast of Calpurnia and Portia; in his inclusion of the portents; and above
all, in the scene wherein Lenate addresses Caesar, and the ensuing panic among
the conspirators.

theless, compared with the crudities of Giraldi (Cinthio), or
the revolting horrors of Sperone and Cresci, Pescetti's work
marks an advance in Italian drama.

The dramatis personae common both to Shakespeare and
Pescetti are Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Marcus Brutus, Cas-
sius, Decius Brutus, Popilius Lena, Calpurnia and Portia.
Pescetti calls Decius, Decimo, and Popilius Lena, Lenate. In
addition, the Italian mentions incidentally Casca, Cimber, Tre-
bonius and Cicero. Of the others occurring in Shakespeare,
there is no trace. Pescetti, however, introduces two new charac-
ters : the Servant or Nurse to Calpurnia and the Priest. The
former is one of the traditional figures of the Senecan drama,
while the latter performs at various times the functions of
monitor, mediator and chorus. From non-Plutarchian sources
the Italian obtained the names Spurinna and Bucolianus, which
occur in the First Messenger's recital of the assassination.
The first he doubtless owes to Suetonius, while the second he
obtained from Appian's account of Caesar's murder. In
obedience to the formal demand of his drama, Pescetti has
the first and second Messenger, the Choruses of Roman Mat-
rons (probably suggested by Lucan),* of the Ladies of the
Court, of Citizens, and of Soldiers. The two latter are
merged in the mob of Shakespeare.

As a natural result of the limitations imposed by his model,
Pescetti has to confine his action to the events of the day of
Caesar's assassination, and can only inferentially introduce
material of which Shakespeare could avail himself to the full.
The place is always the same, and, though unmentioned by
the dramatist, is presumably an open space before a temple
in the immediate vicinity of Caesar's house. In conse-
quence of these restrictions such hints as Pescetti may have
furnished Shakespeare, are, almost exclusively, to be found
embodied in the composition of the first three acts of "Julius
Caesar."

Shakespeare's main source was Plutarch; Pescetti's was
Appian, though he did not hesitate to draw liberally from

* Pharsalia, Bk. II., where the Chorus of Matrons bewails Caesar's ap-
proach.

Plutarch, Suetonius, Lucan, Ovid, and Vergil when the
occasion required. In this I disagree with the only two com-
mentators who have given this drama more than passing
attention.* With the exception of the Brutus-Portia scene,
the portents, and his idealization of Brutus' character, in
every one of the main incidents of the first four acts, and in
the entire fifth act, the Italian follows Appian faithfully. But,
like Shakespeare, he does not hesitate to amplifyf his material
nor to invent such incidents as the exigencies of the situation
seem to demand.

That Shakespeare went further than Plutarch for his sources
has been the subject of much discussion. He introduces
historical touches not found in the biographer. I purpose
to show in the course of this work that almost every one of
these he could readily have obtained through Pescetti. This
Renaissance rhetorician was thoroughly at home in the
classics, and his work throughout bears unmistakable evidence
of their influence.

It is certain that he was well acquainted with the Latin
tragedy "Caesar," written in 1544 by the French humanist
Marc Antoine Muret (Muretus). Pescetti's enemies were
quick to recognize the resemblance between the two plays
and openly accused him of plagiarism. While the Italian
undoubtedly received many hints from the work of his prede-
cessor, there is no ground for the vicious attack made upon
him by Beni.t Moreover, his borrowings, such as they are,
in no way affect our investigation. Undoubtedly he was
also acquainted with the "C£sar" of Jacques Grevin (1561).

*Emilio Bertana in "La tragedia," 1904, and Francesco Neri in "La
tragedia italiana nel Cinquecento," 1904.

t Inflate is perhaps more accurate in Pescetti's case.

J He says, "E di qui £ che preso animo e fatto cuore, poco dipoi compose,
o piu tosto tradusse in volgare, una Tragedia del Mureto detta il Cesare. . . .
E vero che per alquanto ampliarla e ricoprir' insieme il furto, vi ando inserendo,
e qua e la traponendo, varie leggierezze e vanita di sua testa. In modo tale
che almen per queste meriterebbe d'esserne stimato Autore." From "II
Cavalcanti," by Michelangelo Fonte (Paolo Beni). In Padova per Francesco
Bolzetta, 1614. Page 107 ff. The animus back of such a charge may be
inferred from the fact that Muretus has but little over eight hundred lines,

But, whatever the hints as to treatment Pescetti may have
received from Muretus,* it is to his minute knowledge of
the classic authors that he owes the substance of his drama.
He makes a far greater use than do his predecessors of the
material later employed by Shakespeare. Very noteworthy
is the fact that here we find for the first time in any play on
the subject, the Brutus-Portia scene; the suspense occasioned
by the suspected discovery of the plot; the panic among the
conspirators when Popilius Lena addresses Caesar; the great
prominence of the portents.

The material derived from classical sources and used both
by Shakespeare and Pescetti includes the conference between
Brutus and Cassius ; the respect in which the former was held ;
his relations to his wife, and her demand to share his confidence ;
the enthusiasm of the conspirators; their sparing of Antony
at Brutus' request; the prodigies and portents that preceded
Caesar's death; Calpurnia's dream and her efforts to stay

and that Pescetti introduces much effective material not found in the former's
tragedy. FT. Saverio Quadrio in "Delia storia e della ragione d'ogni poesia,"
Milano, 1739, Vol. IV, p. 72, says of "Cesare:" "Fiorl questo poeta celebre
per altre opere circa il 1590; e questa fu la prima tragedia di tale argomento che
in lingua volgare si componesse: n£ ha che fare con quella del Mureto, come ha
malamente scritto il Fontanini, togliendolo da Paolo Beni." In Fontanini,
Giusto, "Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana con le annotazione del Sig.
Apostolo Zeno "-Venezia, Pasquali, 1753 (4 vols.), Vol. i, p. 483, we read of
Pescetti's work: " Nel Cavalcanti del Beni si fa nuovo stragio di Cesare per colpa
di questo autore, come di plagiario del Mureto nella Tragedia latina del Cesare.
Si vede, che i ladri letterari, colti in flagranti come succede, si rendono poi
scherniti e ridicoli; e che poco giova 1'andarsi rampicando per forza, quasi
erba parietaria, sulle Industrie degli altri, come se fossero loro proprie,
con cercar poi di occultarlo, quando per conoscerlo di primo aspetto,
ci vuole assai poco, mentre le cose o presto or tardi si scoprono." In a note
Zeno says: "II Cesare del Mureto, e'l Cesare del Pescetti poco piu di commune
han fra loro, che 1'argomento, la storia, ed il titolo; e pero 1'accusa di plagiario
data del Beni al Pescetti, contra del quale scrisse il suo Cavalcanti per difesa
della sua Anticrusca, e anzi dettata dalla passione che dalla verita." It is
interesting to note that Fontanini, like Allaci, speaks only of a 1604 edition
of "Cesare." Zeno, however, is careful to point out the error.

* There are portions of the speeches of the principal characters decidedly
reminiscent of Muretus, but the similarity is more in content than in expression,
and seldom enter those portions of "Cesare" which parallel those in "Julius
Caesar."

her husband at home and the counter efforts of Decimus
Brutus; the warning letter given to Caesar (only mentioned
in "Cesare" by the Messenger); all the details of the assas-
sination scene, and Brutus' speech to the people. Both also
make use of personal characteristics mentioned either in
Plutarch or in Appian. Thus Antony's friendship for Caesar,
his fondness for revelry, his hold on the soldiers; Brutus'
intense patriotism, his hatred for tyranny, his magnanimity,
his disinterestedness, his love of study; the caution of Cassius,
his hatred of tyrants ; Caesar's lately acquired superstition and
arrogance. These are all derived from the above sources.
Pescetti refers to Pompey several times, but he says nothing
about the actions of the tribunes, nor about their punishment.
Nor is there any mention of the prophecy of danger on the
Ides of March; of the offer of the Crown on the Lupercal or
on any other occasion ; of the anonymous letters sent to Brutus ;
of the conspirators' contempt for an oath; of their rejection
of Cicero as confederate; of Ligarius; of Artimidorus or his
attempted intervention; of Antony's speech.

On the other hand Pescetti introduces material either simply
hinted at or altogether omitted in Shakespeare and the
histories. Such is the account of the conversation between
Antony and Caesar, and Caesar's opinion of death; the pleas
used by Decimus Brutus; the various conversations between
Portia and Cassius; between the Priest and Calpurnia, and
between Caesar and the Priest; the lamentations of Calpurnia.
He gives much prominence to the Priest and to Calpurnia's
servant. He founded his choruses on material partly sug-
gested by Lucan, and perhaps by Muretus, Grevin and
Gamier.

While Pescetti drew liberally from Plutarch, yet his indebted-
ness to Appian is particularly significant for our purpose.
There are passages in "Julius Caesar" wherein Shakespeare
introduces historical touches which apparently can only be
explained upon the supposition that he knew and used the
English translation of Appian published in 1578. Owing to
the peculiar parallelism often evident in the accounts both of
Plutarch and of Appian, and to the absence in "Julius Caesar"

of those minutiae necessary to a positive confirmation, the
question of Shakespeare's indebtedness to the Greek historian
has remained largely conjectural. Pescetti undoubtedly used
Appian, and in his use of the materials, and in the similarity
to Shakespeare's subsequent treatment, the supposition that
Appian was the ultimate source of the disputed passages
seems to receive its strongest confirmation.

THE INFLUENCE OF APPIAN

The English translation of Appian, by " W. B.," was
published in 1578. This is the work supposedly used by
Shakespeare. In his "Julius Caesar" there are four places
in which the influence of the historian seems predominant; in
a part of the speech of Brutus to the citizens; in the oration of
Antony; in the conduct of the conspirators immediately
following the murder; and in a detail concerning Antony.

Neither the address of Brutus nor the funeral oration of
Antony is recorded in Plutarch. Both are to be found in
Appian. It has been suggested* that from him Shakespeare
got the idea for Brutus' exclamation, "Had you rather Caesar
were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to
live all freemen?" Appian's Brutus says: "We at his desire
gaue him security, and as it should seeme, afrayde of himself,
seking to make his Tyrany sure, we sware unto it. If he had
required us to sware, not only to confirme the things past,
but also to haue bene hys slaues in time to come, what woulde
they then haue done that nowe lie in wayte for our Hues?
I suppose verye Romaines indeede, wyll rather choose certaine
death as they haue oft done, than by an othe to abyde willing
seruitude."f

While it is possible that Shakespeare, following his custom
in the composition of this particular play, may have derived
this hint from the scattered pages of Plutarch, or indeed con-
ceived it independently as a dramatic consequence of Brutus*
previously expressed attitude, yet the advantage of Appian's
account is manifest. Pescetti knew and used this account,

* Especially by Prof. Frederick H. Sykes in his notes to "Julius Caesar,"
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1909.

t Appian (1578), p. 153. EJ 8e rjfuv 6/j.vvvat irpofftrraTev, oi> ri ira.pf\6bvTa,
ld>vov ofoeiv ^7/cparws, dXXa SouXei/cretv & rb fji£\\ov e^^ras, rl SLV €irpa$-av ol vvv
tirifiovXevovTes ijfjuv ; £ya> fj£v y&p, 6vras ye 'Pwjaafous, ofywu TroXXd/aj dirodaveiv
e\4ffdai /iaXXov, % 5ov\cfaiv ooWas tirl SpKtf. Appian, Ed. Didot. P. 403.

and while the same idea does not occur in Brutus' address in
"Cesare" it is repeatedly expressed throughout the play.
If we admit the possibility of Shakespeare's derivation of the
disputed hints through a careful selection from the pages of
Plutarch, there can be no strong objection to granting him
the exercise of a similar freedom in his perusal of Pescetti.
It was a common enough practice of the Elizabethan dramatists
to appropriate suitable material wherever and whenever they
encountered it, a fact which must be borne in mind throughout
this discussion.

Shakespeare could have found his matter in Pescetti.
There is nothing more repugnant to the Brutus of "Cesare"
than the idea of slavery, and he voices his opinion time and
again throughout the play. To quote but one instance:
Cassius and Brutus are discussing liberty and Brutus says:

" II Tiranno e peggior dell' omicida,
Perche la vita 1'omicida toglie,
Ma con la dignita toglie il possesso
Delia vita il Tiranno, e chi ad altrui,
Non a se, vive, e vie peggior, che morte:
Percid saggio Caton, saggio et ardito,
Ch'anzi morir, che viver servo elesse." — Ces., p. 89.

The possibility that the address of Antony, as recorded by
Appian, furnished Shakespeare hints for the oration in the
play, has recently been investigated by Prof. MacCallum.*
He concludes that while Appian's account bears little re-
semblance to the oration, it nevertheless contains some parallels
in details. Antony both in the history and in the drama
calls attention to his friendship for Caesar; to the honors the
latter had bestowed on his murderers; he proclaims his own
readiness to avenge his benefactor's death ; he recites Caesar's
triumphs and the spoils he sent to Rome ; he uncovers Caesar's
corpse and displays the bloodstained robe; he makes Caesar
cite the names of those whom he had pardoned and advanced
only to destroy him.

* "Shakespeare's Roman Plays and their Background," p. 646. MacMillan
& Company, London and New York. 1910.

Professor MacCallum confesses that the evidence is not
very convincing, but that it is strengthened greatly by the
apparent loans from the same author discernible in Shake-
speare's treatment of various passages in "Antony and Cleo-
patra." The question at present is not whether the hints in
"Julius Caesar" were derived from Appian, but whether they
were derived from the English translation. The likelihood
that Shakespeare knew and used this translation when he
wrote his later tragedy, does not exclude the possibility that
he was not acquainted with it when he composed the earlier
work, nor that he received the hints attributed to Appian
not at first hand, but through his knowledge of Pescetti's
drama.*

The Italian's work contains no funeral oration by Antony,
but the entire fifth act is dramatically parallel to the third
act of "Julius Caesar." In it we find Brutus' speech to the
people, the account of the assassination, the various laments
for Caesar, a chorus singing Brutus' praises and another
singing those of Caesar. The entire act is founded upon
Appian, and despite its comparative inferiority in dramatic
treatment, is rich in suggestions which a better dramatist
could use to great advantage. Caesar's victories, his mag-
nanimity to his enemies, their base treachery and Antony's

* As in the case of the supposed loan in the oration of Brutus, a careful
comparison of Plutarch and Appian reveals nothing which Shakespeare could
not have obtained from the former, if not directly, at least as a natural con-
sequence of Plutarch's various accounts. Even the matter of the display of
the corpse is mentioned by the biographer (Julius Caesar, p. 102, Skeat's
Edition). As a matter of history, not the corpse itself, but a waxen image
showing the mutilations, was exhibited to the populace. It is true that from
Plutarch's direct accounts of the oration, Shakespeare could have obtained
very little. The whole matter illustrates the great difficulty encountered by
the investigator who seeks to disentangle Appian's contribution from that of
Plutarch. This is especially difficult in view of the transformation inseparable
from a dramatic treatment. In many passages covering the life of Caesar
the marked similarity between the two writers has given rise to the theory that
both worked from a common Greek source now lost. The minutiae necessary
to a positive declaration in favor of Appian are lacking in Shakespeare's
treatment of this particular scene, but as will be noted from the main argument*
they are evident in Pescetti.

readiness to avenge his friend's murder; in short, all the hints*
presumably derived by Shakespeare from the English trans-
lation of Appian are brought before us. Shakespeare could
have found his material in Pescetti's drama, and the supposi-
tion that he actually did do so is greatly strengthened by the
fact that not only does the material under discussion reappear
in "Julius Caesar", but it reappears accompanied by certain
individual touches peculiar alone to Pescetti's treatment.

Calpurnia's speeches, the recitals of the Messengers, and the
comments of the Chorus are the dramatic counterpart in
"Cesare" of the speeches of Antony in "Julius Caesar."
Thus Calpurnia exlaims at the news of Caesar's death :

"O dolce, 6 caro, 6 mio fedel consorte,
O di quanti mai Roma
Produsse figli, piu possente, e forte,
O della nostra eta sovrano pregio,
O domator de' ribellanti Galli,
Del feroce German, del fier Britanno;
O altrettanto dolce

Al perdonar, quanto al combatter pronto,
O stupor delle genti,
O miracol del mondo,
Le cui maravigliose,
E soprumane prove
Stancheran tutte le piu dotte penne,
E con stupor saranno
Cantate, udite e lette
Da quei, che dopo noi
Verran mill' anni, e mille." — Ces., pp. 128-29.

"Oim£ quel, ch'ai nemici ha perdonato,
Quel, ch'il maggior nemico ha pianto morto,
E stat' ei da coloro, a cui donata
Avea la vita, indegnamente ucciso." — Ces., p. 135.

Here Caesar's kindness to his enemies, his conquests, the
sense of Rome's irreparable loss are emphasized.

"Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?"
* If we except the display of the corpse.

To Shakespeare, Pescetti's work could hardly have been
more than a recital of events connected with a notable oc-
currence in history, and while he needed no "Cesare" to point
him towards the aim of Antony's address, it is noteworthy
that Calpurnia openly urges what Antony secretly wished, and
towards which he shaped every sentence of his great oration.
Shakespeare's treatment is so vastly superior that attempts
at comparison seem well nigh ridiculous; yet, when we con-
sider how the great poet was able to transform the meanest
hints into the mighty scenes we find in his greatest dramas,*
we may well hesitate to overlook similarities, however far
removed they may seem from the matter under consideration.
Thus Calpurnia exhorts the soldiers to vengeance:

"0 robusti, o magnanimi soldati,
Che sotto la felice scorta, sotto
Le fortunate, e gloriose insegne
Del mio Cesare invitto
Mille vittorie riportate avete,
Date di mano all' arme,
Prendete il ferro, e '1 fuoco,
E 1'empia, indegna morte, e'l fiero strazio
Vendicate del vostro
Signore, e capitano:" — Pp. 133-34.

Later on the Chorus of Soldiers exclaims :

"Patirem noi, compagni,
Ch' invendicato resti
Lui, per cui fatto abbiamo
Di richezze e d'onor tanti guadagni? — P. 143.

"there were an Antony

Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." — J. C., III., n, 224.

"He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill."

Calpurnia denounces Brutus:

* Especially in those founded on material derived from Italian sources.

"O Bruto, 6 Bruto, veramente Bruto,
Non men d'animo, e d'opre, che di nome,
Come t'e dato il cuor d'uccider quello,
Ch'a te donate avea la vita e in luogo
Preso t'avea di figlio? ahi scelerato,
Ahi d'ogn' umanita nemico; cuore
Piu che d'Orso, e de Tigre Ircana crudo,
Come a ferir quel sacrosanto corpo,
Orrido gel non ti legd le membra?" — P. 133.

Antony specifically mentions Brutus as "the well beloved."
Of special significance is the fact that he makes the same play
on the name Brutus* as we find in Pescetti:

"0 judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts
And men have lost their reason." — III., n, 102.

It is noteworthy that Calpurnia, after the play on the name,
proceeds to emphasize the brutality of the murder, not only
by referring to the closeness of the relation between Brutus
and Caesar, but also by comparing the insensate cruelty of
his assassin to that of the most savage beasts. There is no
warrant for this touch in the histories. Again, note the
parallel :

"For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel;
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him."

—III., 11, 180.

Another individual touch of Pescetti's reappears in Antony's
oration. Thus the Chorus in "Cesare," on hearing that
Caesar's body is being borne to his house by a few slaves,
exclaims,

"E quegli, a cui comandamenti presti
Erano i Regi, e le provincie intiere,
Or appena ha tre servi,
Che'l portin su le spalle.f — Ces., p. 127.

* It is found in Plutarch and in Cicero's letters, but not in connection with
this scene. See Sykes' "Julius Caesar," Notes, pp. 151-2.

t And when he wente from his house to the Senate, he was wayted on with
manye of the magistrates, and great number of people, as wel Citizens as

The Messenger at the sight of the corpse laments,

"Ecco dov' e ridutto
II pur dianzi Signer dell' universe." — P. 136.

Antony says:

" But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world : now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence." — III., n, 117.

Also Act III., Sc. i:

"O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this small measure?"

Calpurnia exclaims :

" Dunque, oime, quella destra,
C'ha vinti, e debellati
Potentissimi eserciti, e distrutte
Fortissime Cittadi, or fredda torpe
Ad ogni officio inutile, e impotente?" — Ces., p. 129.

The corpse* of Caesar is not displayed upon the stage, but
the comments of the Chorus warn the spectator that it is
approaching borne by the slaves, and Calpurnia cries:

" Fermate o la, posate

Quel corpo in terra, acciocche col mio pianto
Lavi dall' aspre sue ferite il sangue." — Ces., p. 136.

The familiar,

"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now"

straungers, and servantes and free men in great multitude; all the which fleeing
away by heapes, only three seruantes taried, which layd his body in the litter.
Thus three men not suteable, did carie him home that a little before was Lorde
of sea and lande. (Appian, 1578, p. 142.) Kal al ir\tovet apxal Kal iro\ds fyaXoj
fiXXos dffTwv, Kal £^vwv, Kal iro\i>s Qepdiruv Kal ^£e\ei/0e/>os airrbv tirl rb fiovXevT-fjpiov
&K rrjs ot/aas irap€Treir6fJup€urav • &v ddpbws diaQvybrrtav, r/oetj depdirovres fdvot irapt-
fjxivav, ot rb <ru>jua ts rb tyopciov tvQt^voL, 6i€K6fu<rav otxaSe dvw/xdXws, ola rpeis, rbv
irpb 6\lyov yfjs Kal 6a\dff<rrjs irpoffraTijv. Appian, Ed. Didot. P. 394. Suetonius
has a similar account.

* It seems that the matter of the display of the corpse in Shakespeare is as
readily traceable to Plutarch as to Appian.

has its parallel in the lines of the speech of the Second Messen-
ger addressed to the Chorus of Women :

"Apparecchiate, o donne, gli occhi al pianto."* — Ces., p. 146.

Calpurnia, in her exhortation to the soldiers referred to
before, continues:

"Sit, che fate? stringete
Nell' una man il ferro
Nell' altra le facelle,
E correte alle case
De' traditori ingiusti,
E uccidete, e ardete ci6, ch'awanti
Vi si para, ond' al cielo
Salgano le faville, e'l Tebro porti
L'onde sanguigne al mare.
Che parlo? o dove sono? ahi che'l soverchio
Dolor t'h& tratta di te stessa fuori,
Infelice Calpurnia." — Ces., p. 134.

Noteworthy in the above is the touch, "Che parlo? o dove
sono?" etc. Thus Antony pauses:

"Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must wait till it come back to me."

Plutarch records the doings of the mob after they had been
aroused by Antony's speech. He recounts that the mob
cried "Kill the murderers," but chronicles no other excla-
mations. Neither does Appian. In Pescetti, Calpurnia's
speech contains material for the exclamations which interrupt
Antony's discourse, but a direct parallel is to be found in the
cry of the soldiers inflamed by the exhortations of Caesar's
wife and the laments of the Chorus. They shout:

"Su diam di mano aH'armi,
E gridando armi, armi, armi,
Alia vendetta gli animi infiammiamo.

* But, it should be noted, not quite in the same connection as in Shakespeare.
The Messenger warns the women to fly the terrors sure to follow the assassi-
nation.

Arme, arme, sangue, sangue, ammazza, ammazza,

Degli empi traditor non resti razza.

Altri occupi le porte,

Altri corra alia piazza,

Altri al Tempio di Giove, altri alia Corte, !

E per tutti apparisca orrore, e morte." — Ces., pp. 143-144.

During Antony's speech the mob cries :

"Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay!
Let not a traitor live!"

This is not only a close verbal parallel, but the similarity
in the exclamatory treatment is remarkable.

Another personal touch is to be found in the idea that
Caesar's fall was Rome's fall, which is strong throughout
Pescetti, and is not traceable to the influence of the historians.
Thus the Second Messenger says :

"Giunto e 1'ultimo di; giunto e la fine
Di questa altiera patria, 6 donne ; Roma
Fti ; noi f ummo Romani ; or ogni gloria
Ogni grandezza nostra e posta in fondo." — Ces., p. 146.

Antony exclaims,

"O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourished over us."

But one more point in connection with Antony's oration
remains for discussion. Antony's friendship for Caesar and
his desire for vengeance on the latter's murderers are matters
just as readily derivable from Plutarch's accounts as from the
oration by Antony as recorded in Appian. Pescetti, following
Appian's account of the events immediately following the
assassination, puts the following in the mouth of the Second
Messenger :

"Antonio . . .

Fuggito e a casa, e d'essere credendo
Anch'egli a morte destinato, or cinge
Di ripari fortissimi la casa,

E si prepara alia difesa contra
Chiunque oltraggio, 6 scorno fargli tenti.
Lepido s'e nell' Isola con quattro
Legion ritirato, et ha mandate
Dicendo a Marcantonio, ch'egli e pronto
Co'suoi soldati a far quanto da lui
Gli sara imposto: Onde si stima ch'egli
Per vendicar la morte dell' amico
Debba spingergli addosso a congiurati,
E lor tagliar a pezzi, e le lor case
Arder, e rovinar da fondamenti." — P. 148.

Not only is Antony's desire for vengeance intimated, but the
ultimate fate of the conspirators, and the failure of their
cause is distinctly foreshadowed. But most significant is
the fact that Pescetti, here almost literally following Appian,
makes Antony take refuge in his own house. In Shakespeare
Antony is also made to take refuge in his own house. Cassius
inquires :

1 'Where is Antony?
Trebonius — Fled to his house amazed." — (Act III., Sc. I, 96.)

This touch is certainly not derived from Plutarch. The
biographer says (Julius Caesar, p. 101): "But Antonius and
Lepidus, which were two of Caesar's chiefest friends, secretly
conveying themselves away, fled into other men's houses and
forsook their own.'1 Appian says: "Antony went to his owne
house, entending to take advice for this case of Cesars."
(Appian, 1578, p. 141.)*

But one more supposed loan from Appian remains for in-
vestigation. This is to be found in the behavior of the con-
spirators immediately after the murder. Plutarch's account
is as follows: "Brutus and his confederates on the other side,
being yet hot with this murder they had committed, having
their swords drawn in their hands, came all in a troup together
out of the Senate and went into the market-place, not as
men that made countenance to fly, but otherwise boldly

*'AvTwvi6s re rty olKlav uxupov, TeK/xaip6/uevos auveTrt^ouXerfecrtfeu T<£ Kalffapi.
Appian, Ed. Didot. P. 394.

holding up their heads like men of courage, and called to the
people to defend their liberty, and stayed to speak with every
great personage whom they met on their way." (Julius
Caesar, p. 101, Skeat's Ed.)
In Shakespeare we read :

11 Caes.— Et tu Brute? Then fall, Caesar. (Dies)
Cinna. — Liberty ! freedom ! Tyranny's dead !

Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.
Cas. — Some to the common pulpits and cry out
'Liberty, freedom and enfranchisement!'"

A little farther on Brutus exclaims:

"Stoop, Romans, stoop,
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood
Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:
Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
And waving our red weapons o'er our heads,
Let's all cry 'Peace, freedom and liberty!'"— III., I, 106.

Plutarch mentions no sayings of the conspirators; there is
no mention of the dripping swords. Shakespeare is here
supposed to follow Appian, who says: "The murderers woulde
haue sayde somewhat in ye Senate house, but no man would
tarry to heare. They wrapt their gowns about their left
armes as targets, and hauying their daggers bloudy, cryed they
had kylled a King and a Tyranne, and one bare an hatte
upon a speare, in token of Libertie. Then they exhorted them
to the common wealth of their country and remembered olde
Brutus, and the oth mode againste the old kings." (Appian,
1578, p. 142.)* Here we find the matter of the dripping
swords, and an intimation of the cry of the Conspirators.
But Pescetti, who followed Appian, supplies a still closer
parallel. Here Brutus, after announcing the death of the

* 01 St ff<payeis ^/JotfXojro \i£v TI elireiv iv rtj) povXevTyply. OvSevbs 8t Trapa-
fietvavTOS, rd Ifjuirta rats Xaicus, &<rirep &<nrl8as, TrepiTrXe^d/xevot, Kal ra %l<pr) fiera
rov atfMTos 3-xoires, tpoi)8p6iMvv /ScurtX&x /cai rtpavvov ave\eiv • Kal irt\6v ris tirl
86paros e0epe, (Ti/^jSoXov A.eu#e/)i6(reu;s • tirl re rrjv irdrpiov TroXireiav irapeK&Xovv, Ka-
"Bpofoov TOV TrdXcu Kal T&V r6re <r(p[(riv dfjua/juxrfji^vuv tirl rots Trd\ai Pa<ri\evfft.v &vd
Appian, Edition Didot, Paris, 1877. P. 395.

tyrant, and after exhorting the poeple to rejoice in their
reestablished liberties, turns to the conspirators and exclaims:

"Ma scorriam per la terra,
O voi, che fidelissimi compagni,
Mi siete stati all' onorata impresa,
Con le coltella in mano,
Del Tirannico sangue ancor stillanti
E co' pilei su Taste
E'l popolo di Marte
Chiamiamo a libertade.

Con. — Liberia, liberta, morto e il Tiranno

Libera e Roma, e rotto e il giogo indegno." — Ces., pp. 116-17.

Here we have the substance of Appian's account. Here
Brutus, as in Shakespeare, addresses his fellow conspirators.
In the one case he refers to them as "most faithful companions,"
in the other, as "Romans." In both he exhorts them to the
same purpose. In one they are to rove the streets with their
dripping swords still in their hands, and to call the people of
Rome to their reestablished liberty; in the other, they are
exhorted to walk forth waving their red weapons over their
heads, and to cry "Peace, freedom and liberty." The cry of
the chorus in Pescetti seems an answer to this appeal :

"Liberta, liberta, morto e il Tiranno
Libera e Roma e rotto e il giogo indegno."

And this again is closely parallel to Cinna's outburst,

' ' Liberty ! freedom ! Tyranny is dead !
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets!"

The latter part of this seems an echo of

"E'l popolo di Marte
Chiamiamo a libertade." — P. 116.

"Cesare" contains no close parallel to Brutus' exclamation:

"Stoop, Romans, stoop,
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood
Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:"

But Pescetti indicates a similar savage desire :

" E fu si grande del feiir la voglia
Ricandosi ciascuno a somma gloria,
Tinger la spada sua nel sacro sangue."* — P. 126.

He does say that the conspirators besmeared their swords,
and Shakespeare but intensified the scene by making the
murderers literally bathe in the blood of their victim, f

In this case, as in the others, the material from Appian is
to be found in Pescetti, and reappears in Shakespeare accom-
panied by touches due to Pescetti alone. We find further,
that in all the cases wherein the influence of Appian has been
suspected, Shakespeare could have derived his matter from
Pescetti, who, we can positively affirm, used Appian as his
source. The resemblance in Shakespeare between the scenes
under discussion and the corresponding scenes in Pescetti is
far stronger than the similarity to their alleged source in the
English translation of Appian, for not only does Shakespeare
make use of the same historical matter which Pescetti derived
from the historian, but he includes individual touches found
only in the Italian drama. The conclusion that Shakespeare
derived from Pescetti the hints previously attributed to his
acquaintance with the English translation of Appian seems,
therefore, tentatively justifiable. This conclusion will be
greatly strengthened by the evidence adducible from the other
similarities existing between the two plays. Among these the
treatment of the supernatural element in both dramas offers
points of contact which will now be discussed.

* Indicated in Plutarch also — Marcus Brutus — p. 119. He speaks of the
eagerness of the conspirators to plunge their swords into Caesar, and records
that every one of them was stained with blood.

t Also regarded as a supposedly ironical answer to Decimus' interpretation
of the dream.

THE HANDLING OF THE SUPERNATURAL
ELEMENT

Shakespeare's skill in the handling of the supernatural
element in "Julius Caesar" has been much commended. The
omens and prodigies are distributed in such a way as best to
emphasize the tragic element and they serve to invest the
entire play in an atmosphere of portent. For his material
he drew largely upon Plutarch, but he also introduces matter
apparently indicating a familiarity with Ovid, Vergil, Lucan,
and Suetonius. Pescetti makes use of the supernatural
element to a far greater extent than do his predecessors.* His
recital of the omens and the prodigies embraces almost every
item which the industry of a Renaissance scholar could cull
from the pages of Plutarch, Ovid, Vergil, Lucan, Suetonius,
and Appian. With a single exception, all the omens mentioned
by Shakespeare and not directly traceable to Plutarch, can be
found in Pescetti, whose treatment of the entire supernatural
element affords some interesting parallels.

Plutarch's account, which furnished Shakespeare the bulk
of his material, is as follows:

* In Pescetti the Priest's recital of the omens consists of some one hundred
and three lines. Muretus has Calpurnia's recital to the nurse of the dream
wherein she beheld Caesar's bleeding body, and the following:

Calp: Audere desine tu prius

Tuaeque si adeo spernis uxoris metum
Movere vatum oraculis minacibus,
Periculosam qui tibi hanc lucem admonent:
Si spectra, si te auspicia, si fibrae monent
Cavere, et hunc meum timorem comprobant:
Quid in para tarn pertinax mortem ruis?

Caes: Quando timorem ponere aliter non potes,
Ne nos tibi queraris omnino nihil
Tribuere, mittatur Senatus in hunc diem. Lines 343-52.

Hereupon D. Brutus protests to Caesar and the latter yields. Grevin has
substantially the same account. For Muretus and Grevin I use Collischonn's
reprint. See Bibliography.

" Certainly destiny may easier be foreseen than avoided, considering
the strange and wonderful signs that were said to be seen before
Caesar's death. For, touching the fires in the element, and spirits
running up and down in the night and also of the solitary birds to be
seen at noondays sitting in the great market-place, are not all these
signs perhaps worth the noting, in such a wonderful chance as hap-
pened? But Strabo, the philosopher, writeth, that men were seen
going up and down in fire; and, furthermore, that there was a slave
of the soldiers that did cast a marvelous burning flame out of his hands,
insomuch as they that saw it thought he had been burned ; but when
the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt. Caesar self also doing
sacrifice unto the gods, found that one of the beasts which was sacrificed
had no heart: which was a strange thing in nature, how a beast could
live without a heart. Furthermore there was a certain soothsayer
that had given Caesar warning long time before, to take heed of the
day of the Ides of March, (which is the fifteenth of the month), for
on that day he should be in great danger. That day being come,
Caesar going into the Senate-house, and speaking merrily unto the
soothsayer, told him 'the Ides of March be come': 'so they be,'
softly answered the soothsayer, ' but yet are they not past ! ' And the
very day before, Caesar, supping with Marcus Lepidus, sealed certain
letters, as he was wont to do, at the board : so, talk falling out amongst
them, reasoning what death was the best, he, preventing their opinions,
cried out aloud, 'Death unlooked for!' Then, going to bed the same
night, as his manner was, and lying with his wife Calpurnia, all the
windows of his chamber flying open, the noise awoke him, and made
him afraid when he saw such light; but more, when he heard his wife
Calpurnia, being fast asleep, weep and sigh, and put forth many
fumbling lamentable speeches ; for she dreamed that Caesar was slain,
and that she held him in her arms."*

Professor MacCallum, commenting upon this account says:
"It is interesting to note how Shakespeare takes this passage
to pieces, and assigns those of them for which he has a place
to their fitting and effective position. Plutarch's reflections
on destiny and Caesar's opinion on death he leaves aside.
The first warning of the soothsayer he refers back to the
Lupercalia, and the second he shifts forward to its natural
place. Calpurnia's outcries in her sleep and her prophetic
dream, the apparition of the ghosts mentioned by her among

* Life of Caesar, p. 98, Skeat's edition.

the other prodigies, the lack of the heart in the sacrificial
beast, are reserved for the scene of her expostulation with
Caesar, and are dramatically distributed among the various
speakers; Caesar, the servant, Calpurnia herself."*

Pescetti also takes this same passagef and distributes the
various sections in a manner similar to Shakespeare's treat-
ment, but dramatically infinitely inferior. He, however,
devotes nearly two hundred and fifty lines at the beginning
of the third act of "Cesare" to a dialogue between Antony
and Caesar, rather tediously moralizing on destiny and Caesar's
opinion on death. The only purpose, dramatically, is to
continue the feeling of impending disaster created in the
previous acts and to give Antony an opportunity of warning
Caesar to beware of treachery. J The warnings of the sooth-
sayer are entirely disregarded ; the only intimation we receive
of this very effective scene is the announcement of the mes-
senger in the fifth act that a paper which gave all the details
of the conspiracy, and which Caesar had had no opportunity
to read, had been found clutched in his dead hand. Nearly
half his second act is occupied by a long drawn out dialogue
between Calpurnia and the servant regarding the former's
fears, and the terrible dream she has had. The Priest, in the
third act, together with Calpurnia, recounts the portents to
Caesar, and tries to dissuade him from disregarding the mani-
fest tokens of the gods' displeasure. The inspection of the
sacrificial beast without a heart is reserved for the expostu-
lation of the Priest. Pescetti, like Shakespeare, thus attempts
a distribution of the supernatural which tends to emphasize
the impending catastrophe and to invest his play in an at-
mosphere of portent very similar to that created in "Julius
Caesar."

In both dramas ghosts play important parts. Dramatic-
ally, it is quite probable that Pescetti was only following the
Senecan tradition when he introduced the ghost of Pompey,
but, historically, it seems that he was indebted to Lucan for

* Op. cit., p. 194.

t Rather Appian's almost parallel account.

J In the "Cornelie" of Gamier (1574) he also warns Caesar.

this hint. The poet in Book IX. of the "Pharsalia" describes
how the soul of Caesar's foe, leaving the tomb, soars to the
abode of the blessed, and thence, looking down upon the
earth, inspires the breasts of Brutus and Cato.* This is the
episode which probably furnished Pescetti hints for the em-
ployment of the ghost of Pompey as the prime exciting force
upon the Brutus of his play.

Now, Plutarch mentions the apparition which appears to
Brutus at Philippi, as Brutus' "ill angel" (page 104, J. C,
Skeat). Shakespeare calls it "Caesar's ghost," thereby
immeasurably enhancing its dramatic significance. That he
should be compelled by his keen perception of its dramatic
fitness so to handle this episode, seems a very reasonable
conclusion; still, in view of his obligations to Pescetti, it
would not be stretching probabilities too far to suggest that
the Italian's use of the shade of Pompey was not without its
influence in the composition of this particular scene. What
a fitting example of poetic justice! That Pompey 's shade
should rouse Brutus to execute vengeance on a Caesar held
responsible for his death ; that this same ghost-inspired zealot
should in turn have his own doom pronounced by the shade
of his victim, closes a cycle of nemesis which surely must have
appealed to the great poet.

But it is in regard to the disturbances in the elements, and
the attendant prodigies, that we get a marked parallel between
the two plays. Casca, while the storm is raging, exclaims:

"Are you not moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.

* Pharsalia, Book IX., lines 1-23.

Cic. — Why, saw you anything more wonderful?
Casca — A common slave — you know him well by sight, —
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches joined, and yet his hand
Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched.
Besides, — I ha' not since put up my sword, —
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glared upon me, and went surly by
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the Market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
'These are their reasons: they are natural:'
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon."*

In addition to the supernatural elements recounted in
Casca's speech, Calpurnia trying to dissuade Caesar, says:

"... There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the street;
And graves have yawned and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan;
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets."

—II., H, 14.

When beggars die there are no comets seen ;

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

The servant reporting the sacrifice says :
*J. c., Act i., Sc. in, L. 1-32.

" Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
They could not find a heart within the beast."

The Priest in "Cesare" in his soliloquy exclaims:

"Giunon con spaventosi, orribil tuoni,
Con spessi lampi, e fulmini tremendi,
Con infauste comete, con istrane
Pioggie di sangue, e grandini di pietre,
Con sembianze di pugne, con orrendi
Strepiti di tamburi, e suon di trombe,
Con alte grida, pianti, urli, e lamenti,
Uditi nel suo regno ha mostro, quanto
Sia contro noi d'ira, e di sdegno accesa.
Nettun volto ha sossopra tutto il suo
Immenso regno, e si gonfiato ha 1'onde,
Che parea, che de' suoi confin volesse
Uscir, e tutta subissar la terra;

L'antica madre s'e piu volte anch' essa

Scossa si, che parea, che il grave pondo

Dell 'huom malvagio, che sostien, volesse

Scuoter del tergo suo, et in piu luoghi

Per inghiottirlo ha il vasto seno aperto :

Ne pur questi gran corpi, ond'ogni cosa

Si genera, ma molti ancor de' misti

Predetto han gli infortuni, e i danni nostri." — Pp. 74-75.

In other portions of the Priest's soliloquy we read :

"Ne questi pur co'lor maligni aspetti,
Ma la Luna ecclissata, anzi di goccie
Sanguigne tutta sparsa, e'l Sol d'oscuro,
E ferrugineo vel coperto il volto.

Da mille tetti udito s'e lo stigio
Gufo versi cantar lugubri, e mesti;
In mille tempi gli ebani, e gli avori
Lagrimar si son visti, e sudar sangue;
Per le piazze, alle case, a i tempi intorno
Notturni cani urlar si sono uditi,
E strider importune, e infauste streghe.
Si son viste grand'ombre, de' sepolcri

Uscite, andar per la Citta vagando

Nelle persone alto terror mettendo.

II monte, che ad Encelado le spalle

Col suo gran peso calca, e preme, rotte

Le bollenti fornaci ha tai torrenti

Di Zolfo, e di bitume vomitati,

E tante fiamme, e sassi liquefatti,

Ch'inondate, e distrutte,

Le soggette campagne ha de' Ciclopi.

Ma quel che piti d'ogni altro mi spaventa

E, che 1'interiora di ciascuna

Vittima mostran miseri, e infelici

Awenimenti, atroci, orribil mali:

Perche in alcune non si trova il cuore,

In altre e guasto il fegato, o'l polmone,

Altre di negro fel son tutte sparse,

Segni tutti evidenti di gran mali."* — Pp. 75-76.

The soliloquy of the Priest seems to be a composite of the
omens and prodigies mentioned by Ovid, Vergil, Plutarch,
Appian, Suetonius, and Lucan. Ovid and Vergil seem to be
his main sources.

* In Hamlet i, i, 113 seq. we read.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.

In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead,

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

Disasters in the sun; and the moist star

Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.

And even the like precurse of fierce events —

As harbingers preceding still the fates,

And prologue to the omen coming on, —

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

Unto our climatures and country men. —

The text is obviously corrupt. These lines do not appear in the Folio, nor is
there any trace of them in the earliest quarto. It has been conjectured that
the poet suppressed this passage in representation, after he had written "Julius
Caesar." Certainly the similarity to Pescetti is striking. The "dews of blood "
are again mentioned; also the eclipse of the moon, neither occurring in Plutarch.

Almost all of the ancient authorities mention the super-
natural in connection with the life of Caesar. The extra-
ordinary prodigies and portents attending his crossing of the
Rubicon and his assassination are recorded in more or less
detail. Among the authors accessible to Shakespeare, Ovid
was available in the translation of the Metamorphoses made
by Arthur Golding in 1567 and several times reprinted before
1600. Appian had been translated in 1578, while Marlowe's
translation of Lucan's first book, while it remained unpublished
till 1600 (after the first performance of "Julius Caesar*'),*
may have been know to the dramatist in manuscript. But
the substance of Lucan's account was accessible in Lydgate's
translation of Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium."
While Lucan mentions only the omens preceding Caesar's
entry into Rome at the beginning of the Civil Wars, his work
was a favorite source for the matters mentioned. Neither
Vergil's "Georgics", nor Suetonius' "Lives", had as yet been
translated.

The question of Shakespeare's classical learning does not
concern us. The problem at issue is not whether the dramatist
might have obtained his information directly from the ancient
authors or through available translations. The following dis-
cussion purposes to adduce the evidence in support of the
contention that Pescetti was the source of most, if not all, of
the non-Plutarchian matter included by the dramatist in his
handling of the supernatural.

That Shakespeare could not have built up his recital from
an imaginative transformation of Plutarch's hints seems
precluded by an examination of the various sources already
mentioned. These contain the substance of the non-Plu-
tarchian matter; it remains to establish Pescetti 's claims
against this evidence.

While there is a striking agreement as a whole in the various
accounts of the classic writers, no single one contains all the
omens recorded by Shakespeare. Pescetti, however, not only

* In an account of a visit to London written by Thomas Platter, a merchant
of Basle, he mentions a performance of "Julius Caesar," Sept. 21, 1599.
(Ency. Brit., XI. ed., Art. Shakespeare.)

has the most comprehensive extant record but he accompanies
his account with individual touches which seem reflected in
Shakespeare's subsequent treatment.

An examination of the portents mentioned by Shakespeare
reveals the following which can be traced to Plutarch: the
flaming hand; the men all in fire walking up and down; the
bird of night at noon-day hooting and shrieking in the market
place; the beast without a heart; the comet. In addition we
have the following not indicated by the biographer: the tre-
mendous storm; the earthquake; the raging seas referred to
by Casca ; the wild beasts roaming the streets ; the civil strife
in the heavens; the dead leaving their sepulchres; the battle
in the clouds.

Taking the earthquake first, a comparison of the available
sources reveals the following: Casca says to Cicero,

"Are you not moved when all the sway of earth,
Shakes like a thing unfirm?"

Vergil mentions the earthquakes in the Alps and the openings
of the earth as portents of Caesar's death.* Lucanf says
4 'The Alps shook off their ancient snows," while Lydgatet has

"Earthquaues sodayne and terrible
Ouertourned castels up so doune."

In Ovid we read,

"And with an earthquake shaken was the towne."§

Pescetti mentions not only the earthquake, but he adds the
violent upheaval of the seas, together with an individual touch
peculiar to him alone which seems reflected in Shakespeare's
treatment.

* See "Georgics," Book I., lines 463-488, for Vergil's account of the omens.

fLucan's account is found in the Pharsalia, Bk. I., lines 523-583; Ovid's
in the Metamorphoses, Bk. XV., lines 783-798.

t Lydgate's "Fall of Princes," Boke Sixte, Chap. XI., Leaf CXLVL, Edition
of 1558 (see Bibliography).

§ Translation by Golding, Ed. 1575.

"Nettun volto h£ sossopra tutto il suo
Immense regno, e si gonfiato ha 1'onde,
Che parea, che de suoi confm volesse
Uscir, e tutta subissar la terra;
E quanti legni han questi dl solcato
II mar, tanti egli n'ha miseramente
O trangugiati, o in duri scogli spinti.
L'antica madre s'e piu volte anch'essa
Scossa si, che parea, che'l grave pondo
Dell' huom malvagio, che sostien, volesse
Scuoter dal tergo suo, et in piu luoghi
Per inghiottirlo h£ il vasto seno aperto." — Pp. 75-

The disturbance of the waters is not mentioned by Plutarch
or Ovid. Casca does not specifically state that such a con-
dition of affairs prevailed; he uses it as a comparison. But
such a disturbance is indicated in Lucan. In Marlowe's*
translation we read :

"The ocean swelled as high as Spanish Galpe
Or Atlas' head."f

Lydgate has

"Wyth flodes rage, hydious and horrible
Neptunus dyd great distraction."

Vergil speaks of the overflow of Eridanus, J

"Eridanus, king of rivers, overflowed, whirling in mad eddy whole
woods along and tore away the herds with their stalls over all the
plains."§

Of all these possible sources Pescetti supplies the closest
parallel; Vergil and Lydgate seem too remote for consider-

* Works of Christopher Marlowe. Edited by Alexander Dyce. London,
Wm. Pickering, 1850.

t Tethys maioribus undis

Hesperiam Calpen summumque impleuit Atlanta. Phar. Bk. I, L. 555.
J Proluit insano contorquens vertice silvas

Fluviorum rex Eridanus, camposque per omnes

Cum stabulis armenta tulit. Geo. Bk. i, L. 481 ff. Ed. Teubner.
§ Translation by Davidson. Harper's Classical Library, New York, 1896.

ation in this connection. Were we to exclude Lucan on the
ground that his account deals with a different period of Caesar's
career, Pescetti's case would be still further strengthened, for
the Italian contains not only the substance of Casca's out-
burst, but there is a similarity in both style and sentiment.
Where Pescetti says,

"Nettun volto h& sossopra tutto il suo
Immense regno, e si gonfiato h£ 1'onde,
Che parea, che de' suoi confin volesse
Uscir, e tutta subissar la terra:"

Shakespeare supplies the more poetic,

" I have seen

The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds."

Again, the earthquake is mentioned in close connection with
the raging of the waters, a feature missing in the other possible
sources, while Casca's statement regarding the anger of the
gods finds its counterpart not only in this portion of Pescetti's
recital, but later where the dramatist, detailing other mani-
festations of the gods' displeasure, says,

"Giunon

ha mostro, quanto

Sia contra noi d'ira e di sdegno accessa."

Such a condition of affairs is only faintly adumbrated in Ovid
or Lucan.

The slave with the burning hand is from Plutarch. The
"hundred ghastly women transformed with their fear"
seems a specification of the terror inspired by the ghosts as
recorded by Pescetti,

"Si son viste grand' ombre, de' sepolcri
Uscite, andar per la Citt£ vagando
Nelle persone alto terror mettendo."* — P. 75.

* Lydgate says:

Another token pitous for here

Which astonied many a proude Romayne

Plutarch mentions the men in fire, but says nothing of the
fear inspired by them or by the ghosts.

The "bird of night sitting at noon-day upon the market
place, hooting and shrieking" was probably primarily derived
from Plutarch's "solitary birds to be seen at noon days sitting
in the great market place." The biographer calls them
"solitary birds" and makes no reference to any hooting and
shrieking. Vergil refers to the "presaging birds";* Ovid
says that the Stygian owl gave omens of ill in a thousand
places ;f Lydgate speaks of the " fowles at noonday " ; Marlowe,
translating Lucan, that "Ominous birds defil'd the day."
Pescetti, almost literally translating Ovid, has:

"Da mille tetti udito s'e lo stigio
Gufo versi cantar lugubri e mesti."

He calls the bird the owl: Shakespeare refers to "the bird
of night, hooting and shrieking." The Italian could here
supply as much as any of the other non-Plutarchian sources.

Calpurnia says,

"Graves have yawned and yielded up their dead."

Plutarch mentions the "spirits running up and down in the
night"; Vergil, that "spectres strangely pale were seen under
cloud of night."J Ovid§ says: "And everywhere appeared

Dead bodies dyd in the feldes appere
Which in battayle had afore be slayne,
Fro their tombes rising where they layne,
* Obscenaeque canes importunaeque volucres

Signa dabant. Georgics, Bk. I., line 470.

t Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina bubo. Met., Bk. XV. Ed.
Teubner. L. 791.

This Golding quaintly translates,

The Screeche owle sent from hell,
Did with her tune unfortunate in every corner yell.
J et simulacra modis pallentia miris
Visa sub obscurum noctis. L. 477. Georg. I.
§ umbrasque silentum

Erravisse ferunt. L. 797. Met., XV.

ghastly spryghtes" (Golding). Lucan mentions the ghosts;
so does Lydgate. But none of the above state that "graves
have yawned and yielded up their dead." Pescetti supplies
a close parallel :

"Si son visti grand' ombre, de' sepolcri
Uscite, andar per la citta vagando,
Nelle persone alto terror mettendo."

The battle in the clouds is mentioned by Ovid,*

"For battells feyghting in the cloudes with crasshing armour flew,
And dreadfull trumpets sownded in the ayre, and homes eeke blew."

(Golding.)

Lucan says: "Trumpets sounded and black night, amid the
silent shades, sent forth an uproar as that with which the
cohorts are mingled in combat."f In Shakespeare the combat
is closely associated with the drizzling of blood upon the
Capitol. This is not found in Lucan, while Ovid, in a detached
phrase, says:

" It often rayned droppes of blood."J (Golding.)

Shakespeare speaks of the "noise of battle hurtling in the
air" and of the groans of the dying. Pescetti has all that
Ovid mentions in this connection, closely connected and as-
sociated with the shouts and groans in the heavens. This
latter is not found in Ovid.

"Giunon con spaventosi, orribil tuoni,
Con spessi lampi, e fulmini tremendi,
Con infauste comete, con istrane
Pioggie di sangue, e grandini di pietre,
Con sembianze di pugne, con orrendi

* Arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia nubes,

Terribilesque tubas, auditaque cornua caelo. . Met., XV. LI. 783-4.
t Insonuere tubae et quanto clamore cohortes
Miscentur tantum nox astra silentibus umbris Phar., Bk. I., 578-80.

Edidit.
Vergil has, Armorum sonitum toto Germania caelo

Audiit. Georg., Bk. I., 1. 474.

J Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae. Met., Bk. XV., 1. 788.
Appian mentions the rain of blood in connection with the crossing of the Rubicon.

Strepiti di tamburi, e suon di trombe,
Con alte grida, pianti, urli, e lamenti,
Uditi nel suo regno ha mostro, quanto
Sia contra noi d'ira, e di sdegno accesa." — P. 74.

The comet is mentioned by Plutarch, but as occurring after
Caesar's death. Lucan mentions comets; so do Vergil and
Ovid. They are also in Pescetti. The omen of the beast
without a heart is recorded by Plutarch, but not as occurring
on the day of the assassination. Appian so has it and so it
appears in Pescetti.

From the foregoing it is evident that Shakespeare could
have derived through Pescetti the omens not mentioned by
Plutarch. The Italian seems to have made use of all the
generally available authorities. There is, however, one omen
mentioned by Shakespeare which is not found in any of the
assumed sources. There is no mention of the lions which
Casca saw, nor of the lioness which whelped in the street.
Vergil speaks of the " ill-omened dogs" and of "cities resound-
ing with the howling of wolves by night."* Lucanf supplies a
closer parallel.

" wild beasts were seen,

Leaving the woods, lodge in the streets of Rome."|

Lions are not mentioned, but Lydgate, translating Boccaccio,
who in turn derived from Lucan, has the following:

"Lyons and wolves came down from the forest
Wy th many other beastes sauagyne ;
Came to the cite, and some agayne kynde,
Spake as do men in Bochas as I fynde."§

Pescetti goes as far as Ovid or Vergil. Following them, he
writes,

* ; et altae

Per noctem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes. Geo., Bk. L, 1. 486.
t Siluisque feras sub nocte relictis

Audaces media posuisse cubilia Roma. Phar., Bk. I, 11. 559-60.
J Translation by Marlowe.
§ Falls of Princes, Bk. VI.

"Per le piazze, alle case, a i tempi intorno,
Notturni cani urlar si son uditi." — P. 75.

Yet none of the sources quoted above makes mention of the
lioness whelping in the streets. Lydgate affords the closest
parallel, and was probably one of Shakespeare's sources unless
we are willing to concede to the dramatist a far deeper and
wider knowledge of the classics than even the most enthusiastic
advocates of his learning have dared to maintain. The
whelping of beasts is noted as ominous in Julius Obsequens;*
but Shakespeare could hardly have derived from such an
obscure authority.

From the foregoing examination of the various portents and
prodigies included in "Julius Caesar" it is evident that, ex-
cluding those plainly derived from Plutarch, and the matter of
the lions, Shakespeare could have obtained all the rest from
Pescetti. Owing to his habitual method of manipulating
and transforming material not directly found in his main
source, it becomes exceedingly difficult definitely to fix the
dramatist's obligations to his minor sources. The case under
consideration is typical. It is certain that Plutarch did not
furnish all the hints Shakespeare employed. There seems
to be no good reason for denying him a knowledge of Ovid.
He certainly was acquainted with Golding's translation. Nor
can we fairly assume ignorance of such a mine of information
as Lydgate's work furnishes. It is altogether probable that
in the composition of the particular scenes discussed, Shake-
speare employed a wider range of sources than has been
credited. Nevertheless, while he might have built up his
incidents from a selection from various authors, Pescetti's
account, containing in its one hundred and three lines by far
the most comprehensive extant account of the omens, set
with an eye to dramatic effect in a tragedy dealing with the
death of Caesar, and accompanied by touches not recorded
elsewhere, formed the most convenient source for the dramatist.

Besides, Shakespeare's whole handling of the supernatural
element is reminiscent of Pescetti's use of the same material.

* Julius Obsequens, CXV., mentioned by Sykes in op. cit.

The Italian sought to give his drama a portentous back-
ground; Shakespeare succeeded in doing so in a manner which,
however greatly superior dramatically, seems nevertheless
but an extension of Pescetti's efforts.

The evidence herein presented is cumulative; the case for
Pescetti does not rest here. Not only could Shakespeare
have derived from Pescetti the historical matter not found in
Plutarch, but his treatment of certain original scenes in his
drama bears a very close resemblance to the same scenes as
they occur in "Cesare." This is particularly striking in
portions of the Brutus-Cassius action.

THE BRUTUS-CASSIUS SCENES

Especially important for our purpose is the fact that
Pescetti makes use of materials and situations not found in
the historians but later used by Shakespeare. Of these
perhaps the most significant is to be found in the conversation
between Brutus and Cassius regarding Antony. This is one
of the most striking parallels to be found in the play. In
Pescetti, as later in Shakespeare, Cassius strenuously favors
the killing of Antony along with Caesar, and the reasons he
advances are almost exactly those found in Shakespeare. As
in the latter's tragedy, Brutus allows his magnanimity to
overbalance his prudence, so in Pescetti, Brutus uses almost
the same arguments against Cassius' plan as he uses in Shake-
speare's work.

Plutarch nowhere specifically states that Cassius opposed
Antony's entry into the conspiracy, or suggested his death.*
Thus in the life of Marcus Antonius we read: "This was a
good encouragement for Brutus and Cassius to conspire his
death, who fell into a consort with their trustiest friends, to
execute their enterprise, but yet stood doubtful whether they
should make Antonius privy to it or not. All the rest liked
of it, saving Trebonius only. He told them that, when they
rode to meet Caesar on his return out of Spain, Antony and
he always keeping company, and lying together by the way,
he felt his mind afar off; but Antonius finding his meaning,
would hearken no more unto it, and yet notwithstanding,
never made Caesar acquainted with this talk, but had faith-
fully kept it to himself. After that, they consulted whether
they should kill Antonius with Caesar. But Brutus would
in nowise consent to it, saying, that venturing on such an
enterprise as that, for the maintenance of law and justice,
it ought to be clear from all villany."t In the life of Marcus

* Neither does Appian.

t Shakespeare's Plutarch. Ed. by W. W. Skeat, page 164.

Brutus, Plutarch writes: "For it was set down and agreed
between them, that they should kill no man but Caesar only,
and should entreat all the rest to look to defend their liberty.
All the conspirators, but Brutus,* determining upon this
matter, thought it good also to kill Antonius, because he was
a wicked man, and that in nature favored tyranny; besides,
also, for he was in great estimation with soldiers, having
been conversant of long time amongst them; and especially
having a mind bent to great enterprises, he was also of great
authority at that time, being Consul with Caesar. But
Brutus would not agree to it. First, for that he said it was
not honest; secondly, because he told them that there was
hope of change in him. For he did not mistrust but that
Antonius, being a noble-minded and courageous man (when
he should know that Caesar was dead), would willingly help
his country to recover her liberty, having them an example
unto him to follow their courage and virtue. "f

In Pescetti the conspiracy has been hatched before the play
begins, as is evident from the following lines. Thus Cassius,
finding Brutus in the gloom of early morning apostrophizing
the shade of Pompey, asks:

"Qual pensier ti molesta, e si per tempo
Abbandonar ti fa le molli piume?" — P. 15.

to which Brutus replies,

"Oggi, Cassio, disposto ho di dar fine
A quel, che gia per noi s'e divisato." — P. 16.

namely, the death of the tyrant. Brutus and Cassius enter
the temple to pray for the success of their enterprise, while the
Priest, and then the Chorus holds the stage. On their re-
appearance immediately thereafter, the two conspirators
discuss the details of the assassination. I will quote the entire
dialogue relating to Antony.

*Appian says: "Some of the Conspirators" (1578 Ed.).
Plutarch, page 119. Skeat.

f — Parmi d'avere scorto in Marcantonio
Disio di dominar: percio s'in tutto
Vogliam la patria assicurar, spegniamo
Anco lui col Tiranno, e fuor de gli occhi
Tragghiamci questo stecco, che potrebbe,
Quando che sia, non poca briga darne.
Che tu sai ben, quanto li siano amici
I veteran!, e quanto acconcio ei sia
Gli animi a concitar del volgo insano.

Bru. — S'ad altri, oltre al Tiranno, darem morte,
Si stimera dal volgo, che le cose
Sempre stravolge, e falsamente espone,
Che non disio di liberar la patria,
Ma private odio, e brama di vendetta
A ci6 sospinti n'abbia, e di quell'opra,
Onde da noi s'attende eterna fama,
N'acquisterem vergogna, e biasmo eterno:
E dove nome di pieta cerchiamo,
Sarem del titol d'empieta notati;
N£ percid a noi gran fatto avrem giovato;
Che non e Marcantonio huom, di cui deggia
Altri temer gran fatto, un'huomo al ventre
Dedito, e al sonno, e ne' piacer venerei,
Nelle dissolutioni, e nell'ebbrezze
Snervato, e rotto osara prender 1'arme
Contra color, che nulla ebber giammai
Amicizia con 1'ozio, o col piacere,
Ma tutta trapassar lor vita in duri
Studi et in faticosi aspri esercizi?
E'l veder a che fin pervengan quelli,
Ch'altrui cercan di tor la libertade,
E la recente morte del Tiranno
Spaventarallo in guisa, che s'in lui
Fosse di dominar alcun disio
Subito spegnerassi. Cas. — fe Marcantonio
Dedito certo all'ozio, et ai piaceri,
Ma di lui per contrario non si trova
Altri piu forte, e coraggioso, e delle
Fatiche, e de'disagi paziente,
Quando e'fa d'uopo; onde si poca stima
Non e da far di lui: di ci6 che dica

II volgo, il volgo sciocco, ben dovemo

Noi poco conto far, che chi si muove

Per le voci del volgo, e piti del volgo

Lieve, e incostante. Br. In somma e'non si deve

Punir, chi non ha errato, e a me non basta

L'animo di dar morte a chi nocciuto

Non m'ha, ne fatto ingiuria. Cas. A me piu saggio

Sembra colui che'l suo nemico uccide

Pria, che 1'offenda, che colui, che dopo

Ch'e stato offeso, vendica 1'ingiuria.

Bru. — Non il pensier, ma 1'opra punir vuolsi;
Oltra, che chi m'accerta, ch'ei tal mente
Abbia qual dici? Chi pu6 dentro il petto,
Suo penetrar? e ci6, che vi nasconde,
Veder? Gli uman pensier sol Giove intende.

Cas. — Bruto, tu se' troppo pietoso: voglia
II Ciel, che questa tua pieta non sia
Un giorno a noi crudel. Nel risanare
Dall'ulcere nascenti i corpi il ferro,
E'l fuoco oprar convien, che tu ben sai,
Che '1 medico pietoso infistolisce
La piaga, e spesso tutto il corpo infetta.

Bru. — Col troncar della testa all'altre membra
Troncasi ogni vigore, ogni possanza.

Cas. — Nell' Idra ov'una testa si troncava,
Ivi ne rinascean subito sette.

Bru. — Pur alia fine anch'ella estinta giacque.

Cas. — SI, ma da un figlio dell'eterno Giove.
Bru. — Chiunque ama virtu, figlio e di Giove;

Ma cid lasciam da parte, et ogni nostro

Pensier intorno si raggiri, e volga

Alia morte di Giulio.* — Pp. 25-27.

* This scene goes far beyond Muret and Grevin. In Muretus the scene
is confined to the following lines:
Cass.— •

Unus mihi nunc scrupulus res tat:

Unane opera confodiendum

Cum Caesare ipso censeas Antonium?

In Shakespeare we have the following:
Dec. — Shall no man else be touched but only Caesar?

Cas. — Decius, well urged: I think it is not meet,
Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar,
Should outlive Caesar: we shall find of him
A shrewd contriver ; and you know his means,
If he improve them, may well stretch so far
As to annoy us all : which to prevent,
Let Antony and Caesar fall together.

Bru. — Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,
Like wrath in death and envy afterwards;
For Antony is but a limb of Caesar:
Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar,

Bru. — Jam saepe dixi, id esse consilium mihi,

Salvis perimere civibus tyrannida.
Cass. — Perimatur ergo ab infimis radicibus,

Ne quando post hac caesa rursum pullulet.
Bru. — Latet sub uno tola radix corpore.
Cass. — Itan' videtur? amplius nil proloquar.

Tibi pareatur; te sequimur omnes ducem.

Vide modo, ut, cum opus erit, adsis. Brut, videro. Lines 184 ff.
Grevin differs but slightly. Cassius says:

Mais j'ay je ne scay quoy qui mi detient pensif.

N'estes vous pas d'advis que de force pareille

Nous abordions Antoine, a fin qu'il ne resveille,

L'orgueil de ce Tyran en ses nouveaux amis?
M. Brute.

Je vous ay tousjours diet que ce n'est mon advis.
Cassius.

Si seroit-ce bien faict, arrachans la racine,

Avecque le gros tronc de tout ceste vermine,

De peur qu'ell' ne revive, ou que le pied laisse,

Ne resemble celuy qui 1'auroit devance.
M. Brute.

C'est assez, soyez prest, pendant que je regarde,

Que chascun de mes gens se tienne sur sa garde. Lines 508 ff.
Cassius exults in the prospect of liberty and the scene closes. It is curious
to remark the simile regarding Antony's relations to Caesar which runs through
Muretus, Grevin, Pescetti and Shakespeare. In all Caesar is likened to a
trunk of which Antony is simply an appendage.

And in the spirit of men there is no blood :
O, that we then could come by Caesar's spirit,
And not dismember Caesar ! But, alas,
Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds;
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage
And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make
Our purpose necessary and not envious:
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him ;
For he can do no more than Caesar's arm
When Caesar's head is off.

Cas. — Yet I fear him,

For in the ingrafted love he bears to Caesar —

Bru. — Alas! good Cassius, do not think of him:
If he love Caesar, all that he can do
Is to himself, take thought, and die for Caesar;
And that were much he should, for he is given
To sports, to wild ness and much company.

Treb. — There is no fear in him; let him not die;

For he will live and laugh at this hereafter.

—II., i, 11. I54-I9L

The statements in the above quotation which can, how-
ever faintly, be traced to Plutarch, are the love of Antony for
Caesar, his power both as Consul and general, his ambitious
mind, and, at some length, his loose manner of living.f But
nowhere does the biographer mention this last among the
reasons urged by Brutus for his salvation, nor that he was but a
"limb of Caesar." Nor, in the handling of this scene by
either Pescetti or Shakespeare do we find Brutus considering
Antony a noble-minded man, who, once Caesar were dead,
would gladly help his country regain her liberty.

* Julius Caesar, n, i, 11. 154-191.

t Particularly in "Marcus Antonius," page 161.

The reasons urged by Cassius are in substance exactly the
same in Pescetti as in Shakespeare. They are either entirely
absent, or only faintly indicated in scattered hints throughout
Plutarch or Appian. The similarity is at times almost
verbal. Thus Cassius, in urging the death of Antony says:

E fuor degli occhi

Tragghiamci questo stecco, che potrebbe,
Quando che sia, non poca briga darne.

Translated this reads,

And from our eyes
Let us pluck this thorn, which might,
Some time or other, cause us no little annoyance.

Shakespeare makes Cassius exclaim,

And you know his means
If he improve them, may well stretch so far
As to annoy us all.

Sir William Alexander in his "Tragedy of Julius Caesar"
(circa 1604-7), in the course of the same debate, puts the
following in the mouth of Cassius:

Well Brutus, I protest against my will
From this black cloud, whatever tempest fall,
That mercy but most cruelly doth kill,
Which saves one, who once may plague us all.
Works of Stirling. Edition 1870, Glasgow, p. 280.

While it is still to be proved that Alexander borrowed any-
thing from Shakespeare, it is certain, as will be shown later,*
that he not only followed Grevin, but also derived many hints
from Pescetti. Although Plutarch was a common source for
all three authors, it is certainly remarkable to find them all,
in the same scene, using exactly the same term to characterize
the threatened activity of Antony. Pescetti, Shakespeare,
and Alexander agree in making Cassius urge the conspirators
to kill him, for fear, that if spared, he might annoy them all.

*Page 114 et seq.

Cassius says further:

We shall find of him

A shrewd contriver;

I
And in a later scene when Brutus says of Antony,

" I know that we shall have him well to friend,"
Cassius replies,

" I wish we may. But yet have I a mind
That fears him much ; and my misgiving still
Falls shrewdly to the purpose" (Act III., Sc. 1, 11. 144-147).

And again, in the scene between Brutus and Cassius regarding
the former's resolve to permit Antony to speak at Caesar's
funeral, Cassius urges:

Brutus, a word with you,

(Aside to Bru.) You know not what you do: do not consent
That Antony speak in his funeral :
Know you how much the people may be moved
By that which he will utter?— III., Sc. I, 11. 232-236.

All this is very similar to Cassius' argument:

"Che tu sai ben, quanto li siano amici

I veterani, e quanto acconcio ei sia
Gli animi a concitar del volgo insano."

As Brutus cannot be persuaded, Cassius adds:

"I know not what may fall; I like it not.— III., I, 1. 244.

In Pescetti, his reply to Brutus' magnanimous but short-
sighted attitude is:

"Bruto, tu se' troppo pietoso: voglia

II Ciel, che questa tua piet£ non sia
Un giorno a noi crudel."

All that Plutarch gives us of Brutus' counter-arguments is
as follows:

"First, for he said it was not honest; secondly, because he told
them that there was hope of change in him."*

* "Marcus Antonius," p. 119. Skeat.

Furthermore, we read:

" But Brutus would in nowise consent to it, saying, that venturing
on such an enterprise as that, for the maintenance of law and justice,
it ought to be clear from all villany."*

In Pescetti, Brutus says:

"S'ad altri, oltre al Tiranno, darem morte,
Si stimera, dal volgo, che le cose
Sempre stravolge, e falsamente espone,
Che non disio di liberar la patria,
Ma private odio, e brama di vendetta
A cid sospinti n'abbia, e di quell'opra,
Onde da noi s'attende eterna fama,
N'acquisterem vergogna, e biasmo eterno;
E dove nome di pieta cerchiamo
Sarem del titol d'empieta notati:
Ne percid a noi gran fatto avrem giovato.f

Note his solicitude for the opinions of the people. Witness
the parallelism, almost verbal at times, between the above
and Shakespeare's treatment.

11 This shall make

Our purpose necessary and not envious;
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be called purgers, not murderers."

Again in Pescetti:

Bru. — " In somma e' non si deve

Punir, chi non ha errato, e a me non basta
L'animo di dar morte a chi nocciuto
Non m'ha, ne fatto ingiuria.

* "Marcus Antonius," p. 164. Skeat.

t Pescetti throughout this scene follows Appian rather than Plutarch.
Appian says: "Some thought that Antony ought to be killed also because he
was consul with Caesar, and was his most powerful friend, and the one of the
most repute with the army; but Brutus said that they would win the glory of
tyrannicide from the death of Caesar alone, because that would be the killing
of a king. If they should kill his friends also, the deed would be imputed to
private enmity and to the Pompeian faction." (Civil Wars, Bk. u, Ch. XVI.,
White's Trans.)

Col troncar della testa all'altre membra
Troncasi ogni vigor, ogni possanza."*

Compare this with Shakespeare:

Bru. — "Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,
Like wrath in death and envy afterwards;
For Antony is but a limb of Caesar:
Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

And as for Mark Antony, think not of him,
For he can do no more than Caesar's arm
When Caesar's head is off."

Again Pescetti's Brutus says:

Bru. — "Che non e Marcantonio huom di cui deggia
Altri temer gran fatto, un'huom al ventre
Dedito, e al sonno, e ne' piacer venerei
Nelle dissolutioni, e nell'ebbrezze
Snervato, e rotto osar£ prender 1'arme
Contra color, che nulla ebber giammai
Amicizia con 1'ozio, e col piacere."

Thus in Shakespeare :

Bru. — "And that were much he should, for he is given
To sports, wildness and much company. "f

Not only are these scenes in both dramatists almost
exactly parallel in sentiment, but the abruptness of the con-
clusion and the sequence of the following scenes are noteworthy.
Pescetti dismisses the idea thus :

Bru. — "Chiunque ama virtu, figlio e di Giove;
Ma ci6 lasciam da parte, e ogni nostro
Pensier intorno si raggiri, e volga
Alia morte di Giulio." — P. 27.

In Shakespeare, Trebonius, whom Plutarch represents as
opposing Antony's entry into the conspiracy, lightly dismisses
the subject:

* This parallel is noted by Ayres (in work cited before),
t Noted by Ayres.

Treb. — " There is no fear in him; let him not die;

For he will live and laugh at this hereafter." — II., i, 11. 190-92.

It is peculiar that in both Pescetti and Shakespeare the
sequence of the immediately following scenes is the same. In
the former Brutus proceeds to detail the plans for Caesar's
assassination, and as he finishes, Portia enters. He concludes:

"Ma giamo ad informar del tutto gli altri,
Acci6 gli spirti destine, e le forze,
Et apparecchin 1'arme all'alta impresa. — P. 28.

This is closely followed by the entry of Portia. In Shake-
speare the conspirators discuss ways and means of getting
Caesar to the Capitol.

Towards the conclusion we have:

Cas. — "The morning comes upon's: we'll leave you, Brutus:
And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all remember
What you have said and show yourselves true Romans."

—II., I, 221.

Soon after Portia enters. It is also noteworthy that Brutus
and Cassius in both plays perfect their plans in the early
morning. There is no warrant for this in Plutarch or Appian.

Another striking parallel in situation and treatment is to be
found in the behavior of the conspirators during the con-
versation of Lenate (Popilius Lena) with Caesar immediately
preceding the murder. This is Plutarch's* account: "Another
Senator, called Popilius Lena, after he had saluted Brutus
more friendly than he was wont to do, he rounded softly in
their ears, and told them : ' I pray the gods you may go through
with that you have taken in hand; but withal dispatch, I
reade you, for your enterprise is bewrayed.' When he had
said, he presently departed from them, and left them both
afraid that their conspiracy would out . . . When Caesar
came out of his litter, Popilius Lena (that had talked before
with Brutus and Cassius, and had prayed the gods they might
bring their enterprise to pass) went unto Caesar, and kept
him a long time with a talk. Caesar gave good ear unto him:

* Substantially the same in Appian.

wherefore the conspirators (if so they should be called) not
hearing what he said to Caesar, but conjecturing by that he
had told them a little while before that his talk was none other
than the very discovery of their conspiracy, they were afraid
every man of them; and, one looking in another's face, it
was easy to see that they were of a mind, that it was no tarrying
for them till they were apprehended, but rather that they
should kill themselves with their own hands. And when Cas-
sius and certain other clapped their hands on their swords
under their gowns to draw them, Brutus, marking the counte-
nance and gesture of Lena, and considering that he did use
himself rather like an humble and earnest suitor than like an
accuser, he said nothing to his companions (because there were
many amongst them that were not of the conspiracy) but with
a pleasant countenance encouraged Cassius. And immedi-
ately after Lena went from Caesar, and kissed his hand;
which showed plainly that it was for some matter concerning
himself that he had held him so long in talk."*

Note that Plutarch, outside of Lena's remark, cites no
sayings of the conspirators, but describes their demeanor
only. Appian does likewise. Pescetti follows his account
faithfully, but in spirit very similar to Shakespeare's treat-
ment. In Pescetti, Caesar is accosted by Lena, who begs a
favor for a friend. Their conversation is entirely too lengthy
for dramatic effectiveness. Previous to this episode, Brutus,
at the beginning of the fourth act, confides to Cassius his
belief that the conspiracy will be discovered, if indeed it has
not already been revealed to Caesar. Among other state-
ments he says:

"Senza sangue rimasi dianzi, quando
Ci s'appress6 Lenate, et in disparte
Trattine, nell'orecchia fin felice
All'impresa auguronne, e dubitai,
Che gia non fosse discoperto il tutto." — P. 88.

In the scene between Lenate and Caesar, Cassius, marking the
former's approach to the Dictator, says,

* Marcus Brutus, p. 117-118.

"Bruto, noi siam spediti; ecco Lenate
Che ragiona con Cesare in secrete." — P. 107.

And then following:

Bru. — Questo ch'importa a noi?

Cas. — Come ch'importa?

Non sai, se la congiura gli e palese?

Bru. — T'intendo: ahi che valor, dove fortuna
S'opponga, nulla val. Stiam preparati,
Per proveder, se fia bisogno, al nostro
Scampo, e alia liberta farci la strada,
Se non possiam con altro, col passarci
Co'pugnali 1'un 1'altro il fianco, o'l petto." — P. 107.

Lenate and Caesar continue their talk. Cassius' fears are
increasing. He says,

"Gli occhi teniamo intend, e se fa cenno
Che presi siam, pria che ci leghi alcuno,
Sciogliam noi Talma de' corporei lacci." — P. 107.

Near the end of the conversation Brutus says,

"Respira, 6 Cassio, che li parla d'altro,
Per quel, che di qul posso dal sembiante
Comprender, e da gesti." — P. 109.

After Lenate leaves Caesar, Cassius, turning to the former,
exclaims,

"M'e ritornata 1'anima nel corpo.
II tuo parlar con Cesare n'ha messo,
Lenate, in gran spavento."

To which Lenate replies,

" Dubitando

Delia mia fede, avete dubitato,
Ch'un muto parli. Sievi pure il cielo
Propizio, com'io vi sard fedele."

This entire scene, as others in Pescetti, make us regret
that his slavish subservience to his models caused him to

smother his dramatic ability in an avalanche of verbiage.
He shows, in spite of many omissions, a true perception of
the dramatic possibilities of his material. Had he only been
able to condense his work by almost three-quarters, his
tragedy would rank high as a representative of its type.
Shakespeare uses the same material, takes out his few
ounces of gold, and casts away the tons of dross. Nothing
that can impede the swiftly approaching climax is toler-
ated, yet everything necessary to heighten the suspense is
introduced.

Pop. — I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive.

Cas. — What enterprise, Popilius?
Pop. — Fare you well

(Advances to Caesar}

Bru. — What said Popilius Lena?
Cas. — He wished to-day our enterprise might thrive.
I fear our purpose is discovered.

Bru. — Look, how he makes to Caesar: mark him.

Cas. — Casca,

Be sudden, for we fear prevention.
Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known,
Cassius, or Caesar never shall turn back,
For I will slay myself.

Bru. — Cassius, be constant:

Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes;

For, look he smiles, and Caesar doth not change.*

These scenes are not only significant from a critical stand-
point; they are historically of prime importance. In Muretus
and GreVin the matter of Antony's entry into the conspiracy
is confined to a few lines; Pescetti is the first to give it more
importance and the first to employ material which later
reappears in Shakespeare's work. The Popilius Lena scene
is even more important, for it is in "Cesare" that we find the
first dramatic treatment of this significant episode. Shake-

* J. C., Act. in., Sc. i, 11. 14-27.

speare's treatment almost exactly parallels the work of his
humble predecessor.

Pescetti seemed well aware of the dramatic value of suspense.
In "Julius Caesar", Shakespeare's use of this device is much
commended, but in this particular play he seems to have been
anticipated by the Italian. The preceding scene is not the
only one wherein it is employed by Pescetti. Some time
before, D. Brutus joins Cassius and M. Brutus, deploring
the perversity of fortune.* He fears that Caesar has scented
the conspiracy and will not attend that day's session of the
Senate. The introduction of this matter at this time strongly
resembles Shakespeare's use of the same device, under the
same circumstances. Cassius says to D. Brutus:

Cas. — Bruto tu se turbato.
D. B. — E n'hd cagione.

Cas.— Che c'e?
D. B. — S'appon fortuna, a desir nostri.

Cas. —

" Ma che cosa incontrat'e, ch'interrompe
I nostri alti disegni?

D. B. — S'£ pentito

D'ir in Senate Cesar, e dimane

Come dianzi vi dissi, prende a guardia,

Del corpo suo cinquanta huomini eletti.

Et 6 pur, che non abbia qualche cosa

Delia congiura, e dell' insidie udito." — Pp. 92-93.

In Shakespeare we read:

Cas.— " But it is doubtful yet

Whether Caesar will come forth to-day or no;

For he is superstitious grown of late,

Quite from the main opinion he held once

Of fantasy, of dreams and ceremonies.

It may be these apparent prodigies,

The unaccustomed terror of this night,

And the persuasion of his augurers,

May hold him from the Capitol to-day." Act II., 1, 1. 194 ff.

* P. 91 ff.

In both dramas the object is the same; to awaken doubts
in the spectators' minds as to the ultimate success of the
plotters and to awaken an interest in the means whereby the
conspirators succeed in overcoming Caesar's suspicion.
The difference in content in the parallels seems due to the
fact that while Pescetti follows Appian, Shakespeare follows
Plutarch.

THE CHARACTER OF CAESAR

Of all Shakespeare's portraits, there are few which have so
puzzled his critics as that of Julius Caesar. Their ingenuity
has been taxed to the utmost to account for a characterization
so at variance with historical fact, and many have been the
theories advanced in explanation. It is not my purpose to
detail this controversy. The facts are commonplaces of
Shakespearian study. Neither is it necessary to set forth all
the many and various tributes wherein Shakespeare, in his
other works, and in "Julius Caesar " itself, gives ample evidence
of his appreciation of Caesar's true greatness. What I do
purpose to show is the marked similarity between the con-
ception of Caesar's character in Shakespeare and that found
in Pescetti.

It must be understood that I employ the term characteriza-
tion as applied to Pescetti 's dramatis personae for lack of a
better term. In his type of the drama very little of the char-
acterization is brought out by the clash of conflict, although,
as I have before pointed out, there are passages in "Cesare"
in which this is to some extent true. We gain our conception
of character more through a recital of the characteristics or
traits of his persons, rather than through a revelation in action.

To Shakespeare, therefore, "Cesare" would not have ap-
pealed as a drama ; but as a history or a recital of the feelings
animating various persons during certain situations, it had
its attractions. I purpose to show in just what manner
Shakespeare in his delineation of Caesar may have availed
himself of the material provided by this long forgotten work.

It has been claimed, and in my opinion, erroneously, that
Shakespeare's peculiar characterization of his titular hero was
due to his lack of classical knowledge. Surely such a charge
can not hold against the Veronese rhetorician, whose livelihood
depended on his classical training, and who did not hesitate
to dispute with Tasso. Yet his characterization brings into

relief many of those features which have in Shakespeare's
portrait so aroused the surprise and chagrin of critics.

Professor Harry Morgan Ayres* traces these peculiarities
in Shakespeare's delineation of his titular character to the
influence of a Renaissance idea of Caesar which had its ulti-
mate source in the Hercules Oetoeus of Seneca, found its way
into the Renaissance drama through Muretus, and had become
traditional in Shakespeare's time. No claim is advanced of
any direct relation of "Julius Caesar" to preceding versions,
but the similarity in certain particulars existing between the
various characterizations of Caesar is emphasized. That
GreVin's portrait should be markedly similar to that of
Muretus is but natural in view of the former's open plagiarism.
Pescetti also owes much to the noted humanist. The latter
made Caesar a grandiloquent braggart. Pescetti, following
his example, makes Caesar's boastfulness a prominent trait of
his character. Yet neither Muretus nor GreVin emphasizes
Caesar's vacillation, nor this indecision, which, seemingly
through the Italian's drama, found its way later into Shake-
speare's portrait.

While it is quite possible that the traditional conception of
Caesar supposedly prevalent in Shakespeare's time influenced
his peculiar delination of the Dictator, there is apparently no
good reason for excluding the possibility that the dramatist's
notion of his titular hero's traditional character was confirmed
by an examination of Pescetti's work, if indeed he did not
derive from the latter all the hints supposedly due to the
tradition fixed by Muretus.

Like Shakespeare, Pescetti is not lacking in appreciation
of Caesar's greatness; of his courage, patriotism, magnanimity.
Thus Cassius says to Brutus,

"Tu sai, ch'egli & feroce, e ne' perigli
Non si sgomenta punto, anzi diviene
Allor pill ardito, e coraggioso, quando
Maggior vede il periglio."f

* In the monograph to which reference has already been made.
t Page 24. See later chapter on Brutus.

In his dedication, the highest compliment he can pay to
Alfonso d'Este is to number the mighty Julius among his
ancestors. In the prologue his approaching death troubles
the gods, and Jove promises for him immortality among the
celestials as the only fitting reward for his merit, while ruin
and destruction await his assassins. In the play the First
Messenger refers to him as "huom divino."* The Chorus
sings his praises:

"Cosl dunque

Quei, che pur dianzi un folgor fu di guerra,
Un' Achille, un Alcide di possanza,
Un' Ulisse di senno, e d'accortezza,
Un Giro, un Alessandro d'ardimento,
Di magnaminita, di cortesia,
Estinto giace miserabilmente."— P. 127.

Criticism cannot be too guarded in considering as evidence
of personal bias the words of an author's character, but cu-
mulative evidence is certainly not without its influence. The
chorus later in the play refers to Caesar again, and as

"Del pill saggio, e piu forte
Huom ch'arme unqua vestisse."* — P. 131.

The Chorus of Soldiers towards the close of the play sings his
praise. Decimus Brutus, trying to persuade Caesar, runs the
whole gamut of the latter's deeds.

Nor does Pescetti, any more than Shakespeare, begrudge
him credit for his courtesy and magnanimity. Regarding
this trait, Professor MacCallum calls particular attention
to the passage in "Julius Caesar" wherein Artemidorus urges
the consideration of his petition :

Art. — Hail, Caesar! read this schedule.

Dec. — Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read,

At your best leisure, this his humble suit.

* Compare Antony's outburst:

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times. J. C. III., I, 257-58.

Art. — 0 Caesar, read mine first; for mine's a suit

That touches Caesar nearer: read it, great Caesar.
Caes. — What touches us ourself shall be last served. — III., I, 3-8.

This is nowhere suggested in Plutarch. It is, indeed, quite
easy to regard this magnanimous action as the caprice of a
man so intoxicated by success that he has lost all sense of
social perspective; a real Colossus, for whom the ordinary
motives of men seem too insignificant for his semi-divine
being. Pescetti's Caesar leaves no room for the exercise of
surmise. In the scene between Lenate and the Dictator,
Caesar is courteous and magnanimous beyond criticism.
Lenate felicitates Caesar, who replies :

" E t&, Lenate, a pien contento renda.
Che chiedi? in che pu6 Cesare, Lenate
Servir? in c'ha dell' opra sua bisogno? — P. 106.

Lenate praises Caesar's courtesy, and Caesar tells him to name
his suit, for he will deny him nothing. Lenate begs a military
appointment for Quinto Fulvio. Caesar says:

"A lor di soddisfarti io ti prometto,
Et in soddisfacendoti maggiore
Ricever6, che non far6 servigio,
Ch'a somma grazia, e a singular favore
D'esser da ta servito mi rech'io:
E se, qual tu me lo dipingi, fia,
Come fia veramente, che Lenate
S6, che non mente, i premi all1 opre uguali
Andranno, e sara Cesare con lui
Quel, che stat' e con gli altri."

At the conclusion of this scene he remarks,

"Huom, che d'umanita si spogli, indegno
Stim* io del nome d'huomo, e fu piu degno
Di ruggir fra Leon, fremer fra gli Orsi,
Urlar fra i Lupi, e sibilar fra i Serpi
Nelle selve, negli antri, e nelle grotte,
Che formar nelle terre umani accenti." — Ces., pp. 106-110.

This, while rather declamatory, rings true.

Still, in spite of this consideration of Caesar's nobler traits,
Pescetti so emphasizes his weaknesses that the total impression
we receive from his characterization is not at all in keeping
with that which we derive from the Caesar of history. True,
Pescetti does not mention the Dictator's physical failings;
but the same pride, the same thrasonical boastfulness, the
same vacillation are to be found in both characterizations
treated in a manner singularly similar.

Caesar, on his first appearance, while he displays traits
which apparently are hard to reconcile with his future state-
ments, strikes one note which predominates throughout;
that of boastfulness. His very first words are:

" Magnifica, superba, e veramente
Qual darsi ad un Pontefice conviene,
La cena fu, che Lepido iersera
Ne die. . . ."—P. 62.

His sense of his own importance, and of the honors due to
his position, is evident. He comments philosophically upon
the delights of conversation around the banqueting board.
This gives Antony an opportunity to dilate upon the muta-
bility of human fortune. Caesar replies,

"Quest* instabilita, quest' inconstanza
Delle cose mondane, a me ricorda,
Che lo stato presente, in che m' ha posto,
O fortuna, 6 valor, non mi prometta
Perpetuo, ma ch' io creda, e stia sicuro,
Che si debba mutar, quando, che sia." — P. 66.

It must be borne in mind that Caesar is talking to an
intimate friend and companion in arms. Antony takes the
occasion to warn him :

" Delia fortuna io t'assicuro, ch'ella
Non ti sie mai contraria si nel crine
Avvolte 1' hai le mani. Dall' insidie
Ben t'esort' io guardati de' nemici.
Molti offesi da te si tengon ; molti
Portano invidia alia tua gloria ; alcuni
Abbaglia il tuo splendore: altri patire
Che tu lor sii superior, non ponno.' — Pp. 66-67

Caesar replies:

"Diman cinquanta de' piu fidi, e forti*
Seer della legion decima i voglio,
Che mi stien di continue al fianco, e scudo
Mi sien contra ogni inganno, e forza esterna.
Ch'io non son mica si di senno privo,
Ne m'ha si la dolcezza inebriato
Delle prosperita, ch'io non conosca,
Quant' abbia di temer giusta cagione:
E gia d'insidie non s6, che m'e stato
Susurrato all' orecchie: ma i disegni
Schernird di chi tenta oltraggio farmi.
Ma cid poc' or mi preme, e mi da noia:
Piu mi da noia, e preme il ricordarmi
Ch' invendicata ancor resti la morte
Di Crasso. . . ." — Page 67.

He longs to see the Roman eagle triumphant, and Rome
mistress of the world.

This speech of Caesar's is noteworthy. The dictator
affirms that the intoxication of success has not blinded his
common sense. He has reason to fear treachery, yet just
what is contemplated against him he does not know. He
despises those who would harm him. That humbled Rome
has not yet wreaked vengeance on the Parthians concerns
him far more. Here again this concern of Caesar for the
welfare of others finds its echo in Shakespeare's lines,

"What touches us ourself shall be last served."

There is no historical warrant for this attitude in this par-
ticular connection.

Courageous words ! But be it noted that Pescetti's Caesar
in the presence of Antony does not wish to convey the im-
pression of fear. He hastens to voice his scorn of treachery,
even as he recounts his suspicions. This man, who prides

*This is a detail which Pescetti derived from Appian's "Civil Wars,"
Bk. II., Ch. XVI., wherein it is stated that the conspirators had to hasten, as
Caesar contemplated departing for Parthia within four days and would there-
upon have a bodyguard. (White's translation, p. 176.)

himself on his self command, is destined to fall an easy victim
to his own vanity. His own self praise opens the way for
Antony's flattery:

"Alia fortuna, al valor tuo riserba
Quest' alta impresa il cielo, accioche nulla
A tuoi gran vanti, alle tue glorie manchi :

O quali omai trovar si ponno al tuo

Merto conformi titoli, e cognomi?

Son vili i Magni al vincitor de' Magni.

Al ciel salir convien, por man bisogna

A titoli, e a nomi de gli Dei.

Divine 1'opre son, divini i fatti

Divino e il tuo valor, divini ancora

Esser vogliono i titoli, e i cognomi

Di che la grata eta t'addorni, e fregi. — Pp. 68-69.

Ces. — Con quai nomi m'appelli il mondo, o quali
Titoli egli mi dia, poco mi cale.
A me basta, ch' ei sappia, e legga, e narri
Le da me oprate cose in pace, e in guerra;
Onde ne resti la memoria viva
Al par del Sol, con cui gareggi, e giostri
Di chiarezza, e splendor la gloria mia." — P. 69.

The dialogue has become a duet of praise, in which Antony
seeks to outsing his master. Finally Caesar says,

"Delle sovrane lodi, onde m'addorni,
Molto mi pregio, 6 Antonio, e con ragione,
Poscia, che vengon da colui, che, come
Scorge, cosl di dir h£ per costume
II vero, e in bocca h& quel, ch'egli ha nel cuore,
Ch'e cosl saggio, e candido, che come
Esser nel giudicar non pu6 ingannato,
Cosl nel dir altri ingannar non vuole." — P. 70.

He accepts Antony's praise because he feels that it is true,
coming from the heart of a sincere and plainspeaking friend.
He reposes the same faith in Antony's judgment as is the case
in Shakespeare. Thus, when he speaks of Cassius, Antony
tells him,

"Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman, and well given."

A few lines later, Caesar says,

" Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him."

In "Cesare" to Calpurnia's entreaties he retorts

"Donna, tu spargi le parole al vento;
Resta di piu pregar, se saggia sei ;
A i lamenti, alle lagrime pon fine,
Che vedrai sorger pria dall' Occidente,
Et attuffarsi il Sol la, dond' ei nasce,
Ch* io presti fede a i sogni, che possanza
Habbian di frastornarmi dall' imprese
Gia destinate i sogni, od i prodigi

Esca di questo petto anzi lo spirto,

Che' 1 timor c' entri, e massime de' sogni,

Ch' altro non son, che vane ombre, e fantasmi.

Quel, che di me prefisso e il ciel, conviene,

Che sia: ne per por mente a sogni, 6 a segni

Potr6 schivarlo, e folle a me colui

Sembra, che teme quel, che per consiglio,

N£ per saver uman non pu6 schivarsi."* — Pp. 76-77.

Let it be noted that Caesar is addressing Calpurnia in the
presence of the Priest, and it would ill become the conqueror
of the world to show fear or vacillation before them. He is
discussing his wife's dream, yet in spite of his expressed dis-
belief in omens, it was he who ordered the fateful sacrifice,
which, as the First Messenger announces after the catastrophe,
he himself inspected. Evidently he was in doubt even then,
but his vanity and the urging of the conspirators lured him to
his doom. Compare his boasts of fearlessness with Shake-
speare :

"Would he were fatter! but I fear him not:
Yet if my name were liable to fear,

* Pp. 76-77- This speech, in substance, occurs both in Muretus and in
Grevin.

I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius ....

I rather tell thee what it is to be fear'd
Than what I fear: for always, I am Caesar."*

Yet immediately thereafter he wishes Antony to give him his
true opinion of Cassius. What for?

Still, in spite of his outwardly expressed contempt of the
omens, Pescetti's Caesar yields, just as does Shakespeare's,
when the crafty Decimus plays on his vanity. In the presence
of the conspirators he soliloquizes :

"Chi da consigli governar si lascia
Delle donne, piu d'esse e vano, e stolto;
Tuttavia forza e, ch'oggi condescenda
Al voler della mia, s'aver vud pace,
E tormi questa noia dalle spalle.
Ma tanto, e cosl insolito timore,
Ond' e si fieramente tormentata,
Non e senza cagion: e benche tema
In me non abbia luogo, pur sospetto,
Che qualche tradimento alia mia vita
S'ordisca, et ho di sospettar cagione.
Ma sia che pu6: s'e destinato in cielo,
Ch'io muoia, e muoia: a voglia sua mi tolga
La morte, che non pu6, se non illustre,
E glorioso tormi : Andr£ sotterra,
Qualunque volta dal mortal sia scarca,
L'ombra mia di trionfi, e spoglie addorna:
E tal di me qui rimarr£ memoria,
Che finche giri il ciel fia con stupore
Cesare mentovato; e quel, che bee

II Tanai, 1'Ibero, il Tigre, il Gange,
Attonito udira narrar il Reno,

II Nilo, e 1'Ocean domati, e vinti
E 1' Africa, e la Spagna del Romano
Sangue da me inondate, e'l gran Pompeio,
C'h& del suo nome pien tutti i confini
Dell' ampia terra, vinto, e d'ogni sua

* I., ii. 199.

Gloria, d'ogni suo onor spogliato, e privo:
Morra il terren, che fra pochi anni ad ogni
Modo ha da sciorsi in polve : ma immortale
Rimarra del mio nome la memoria.
Abbastanza ho vissuto alia natura,
Et alia gloria, Omai ch'a far mi resti,
Per piu glorificar il nome mio
Non veggio. Asceso sono a quella altezza,
Cui non e pari in terra: oltre alia quale
Non pud salir, che del terreno incarco
Non si spoglia, et isgrava, e mette Tale."*

These are certainly "high astounding terms," but doubt
and fear are at work, and this Caesar's long cogitations are
very much like the whistling of a small boy to keep up his
courage. When Decimus approaches, and informs him that
the Senate is assembled, and awaits him, he says,

11 Debbol dir, 6 tacer? i preghi e i pianti
Di mia mogliera avuto hanno possanza
Di farmi variar proponimento;
Oltre ch'io temo, e'l mio timor fondato
E, non sopra fallaci, e vani sogni,
Ma sopra certi indizi, e chiari segni,
Che sien ordite alia mia vita insidie." — Page 95.

Here is a man who has just proudly exclaimed that fear was
foreign to him, now confessing that he fears, and that his
fears are founded not on vain dreams or portents, but upon
substantial grounds. But what are the "certi indizi, e chiari
segni" that threaten his well-being? The vague warnings of
Antony? No more substantial grounds have been presented
in the course of the drama. No conspirators have been named ;
Caesar, despite the talk regarding his conviction of impending
disaster, is unsuspectingly conversing with one of the plotters.
Are we to regard this lack of adequate reason for Caesar's
fears as a flaw in Pescetti's technique? It must be remembered
that Caesar ordered the fateful sacrifice, and that he himself

* Pp- 93. 94. 95- There are some similarities to "Cornelie" and to Gr€vin
in this passage.

confesses, in soliloquy, that Calpurnia's unusual fear has dis-
turbed him. But he dreads to ascribe his perturbation to
the influence of the portents, and lays the emphasis upon a
suspicion of treachery, which, as far as he had any personal
knowledge, we know rested on the vaguest grounds. There
is no fault in Pescetti's motivation. He presents a Caesar,
shaken by the very fears that assail baser men, but too proud
to convey such an impression, fatuously trying to persuade
himself that he is "constant as the northern star," while he
wavers like a weather-cock between his fear and his pride.
He listens to Decimus' arguments. The latter, knowing how
to "give his humor the true bent," lays great stress on Rome's
indebtedness to the Dictator: what Roman could be so base
as to contemplate his death?

D. Brutus — " e nondimeno

Crederem, che si trovi alcun di cuore
Cosl barbaro, e rio, cosi spietato
Che pensi, non dir6, ch'ardisca, 6 tenti
Di privarti di vita? io non lo credo,

10 non lo credo, n£ che sia, ch'il creda,
Credo, ne credo, che tu stesso il creda.
E come io ti consiglio, ch'a guardarti
La diligenza accresca; cosl voglio,
Ch'ogni timor deponga, ogni sospetto,
Accioche, nulla nebbia offuschi, 6 turbi

11 seren del tuo petto, e acquetate,
Dopo tanti travagli, e tante guerre
Le cose, insieme con la patria goda
Quella felicita, quella quiete,

Ch'ognun del saggio tuo governo attende." — Pp. 96-97.

Thus Decimus artfully contrives to work on Caesar's
vanity and to express his disbelief in the genuineness of
Caesar's fears. The latter is sorely touched; he recognizes
his mistake in using the word fear in his first statement, and
hastens to assure Decimus :

"Non tern' io, n6; non ha luogo il timore
In questo petto: unque il mio cuor non seppe,
Che timor fosse: e gia son giunto a tale

Etade, e tale cose oprate h6 in arme,

Che della morte aver non debba tema.*

Potr£ ben morte, ch' ogni cosa scioglie,

Questo corpo atterrar; ma la memoria

Del nome mio non spegnera in eterno." — P. 97.

Still his fears are potent, but he no longer says "temo," a
word so unbefitting Caesar ; it now becomes

"Tuttavia credo, e sopra certi segni
E conietture e il mio creder fondato,
Che si tendano insidie alia mia vita." — P. 97.

But he would not appear afraid; apprehensive lest fear may
be suspected from this statement, he continues:

"Dalle quai guarderommi in guisa, ch'io
Non paventi per6, ne del mio petto
In parte alcuna la quiete turbi;
Ma tu va trova Marcantonio, e dilli
Da parte mia, che vada a dar licenza
Al Senato, e li dica, che per oggi
In Senato non posso ritrovarmi." — P. 97.

And note the solicitude of this Colossus, for the opinion of
Caesar's Senate :

" E mi scusi con lui si, che non nasca
Sospetto in lui d'esser da me sprezzato." — P. 97.

This Caesar, in spite of his words, fears. He fears the
omens, but he will not betray his feelings. It might be claimed
that his message to the Senate is a natural result of an innate
courtesy typical of true greatness. But coming where it does
and as it does, it seems more an exhibition of that pride which
a man consciously great takes in the good opinions of his
underlings. Surely Caesar had nothing to fear from his
puppet Senators. He could just as curtly have disregarded
them; but demigods must display some good attributes, some
care for their worshippers, if only to feed the sense of their
superiority on the admiration of inferior beings.

* "Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
To be afeard to tell graybeards the truth? "

Decimus is quick to seize his opportunity and plays on this
trait of Caesar's character. Surely the Senate will think
that he has grown arrogant; that fortune has transformed a
kind and courteous Caesar. The preservation of his reputa-
tion for generosity demands his personal appearance before
the Senators. Caesar yields, while Marcus Brutus glorifies
the gods for this turn of affairs. The Dictator tells the still
anxious Calpurnia to banish her fears, for the gods which so
long have defended him, will not fail him now, while Decimus
lauds him and assures Calpurnia that it were unthinkable that
harm could befall Caesar in his own city.

This scene, between Caesar, Calpurnia, and Decimus
Brutus, seems to have no legitimate place in the plot unless
Pescetti aims to heighten the pathos by bringing into stronger
relief the vanity of the Dictator and the base treachery of his
assassins. Caesar becomes to the modern reader a pitiable,
almost a pitiful character. Any lurking admiration for the
Conspirators' cause is effectually destroyed, and a feeling of
horror supervenes. Perhaps Pescetti so intended. It is
revolting to listen to Decimus, Caesar's beloved friend and
companion in arms, recounting with smiling countenance
his benefactor's courtesy, his magnanimity, his many great
services to Rome, while he burns to plunge a dagger into his
auditor's heart. And to think that Caesar, blinded by his
vanity, allows a smiling villain to lead him like an ox to the
sacrifice! This is pitiful, not pathetic.

Later on, Decimus' praises soar to such heights that Caesar
tells him

" Assai corso 1'arringo

Hai di mie lodi, Bruto, di che debbo

Molto pregiarmi, e rallegrarmi, essendo

II lodator d'eterna lode degno.

Ch'alor la lode e finalmente vera,

Quando da huom lodato ella proviene." — Page 106.

Yet Caesar accepts this fulsome flattery because in his judg-
ment, it comes from a man well qualified to deliver it. Then,
surrounded by his murderers, he walks unsuspectingly to his
doom.

There is no historical justification for such a delineation of
the greatest man of antiquity. Plutarch's account may not be
sympathetic, but the modest author of the Commentaries is
nowhere depicted as a vain, pompous, vacillating boaster. It
is indeed difficult to account for such a characterization.
Muretus may have fixed in his drama a conception of Caesar
supposedly current in his day. But it must be remembered
that this tragedy of Muretus was a youthful product, and one
cannot expect of the student of eighteen, the mature judgment
of the scholar of forty. Grevin followed Muretus, and since
his drama is frankly an enlarged version of his predecessor's
work, it is not surprising that the young physician took over
the humanist's characterization of Caesar with scarcely any
alterations. But Pescetti's livelihood depended upon his
knowledge of the classics,* and his work bears unmistakable
evidence of wide reading in both Latin and Greek authors.
Unlike Muretus, he was over thirty when he wrote "Cesare";
surely his acquaintance with the sources must have made him
well aware of the falsity of the traditional estimate of Caesar's
character, if indeed in his time such an estimate was popularly
current. There can be no question of the influence of Muretus
in his own work, yet just why he should choose not only'to follow
the former, but further to emphasize the weaknesses of Caesar
must remain purely speculative. Pescetti's position in the
matter is all the more curious because he dedicated his work to
Alfonso D'Este, a supposed descendant of his titular hero.
Under such circumstances it certainly would have been much
to his advantage to have cast his Caesar in the most heroic
mold, instead of presenting him in such a manner as to provoke
resentment in the very quarters where he expected praise.f

* He taught grammar and rhetoric in Verona. See Gerini, " Gli scrittori
pedagogici nel secolo decimo settimo."

t Paolo Beni was quick to seize upon this feature of Pescetti's character-
ization of Caesar. He says: "Che se pur volesse alcuno che non percid restasse
suo Cesare di esser f urto, almen convien confessare ch'egli solo fosse vero Autore
dell'mgiuria la quale con tanta sciocchezza e temerita fece in tal Tragedia a
quell'Altezza et a tutta la serenissima Casa d'Este, poscia che havendo pub-
blicato e celebrato Alfonso per congiuntissimo di sangue con la Casa Giulia,
e con Giulio Cesare, finalmente si adduce a dedicarli la sua Tragedia; (che sua

Is it possible that Pescetti possessed sufficient dramatic
technique to endeavor to present Caesar not as he really was,
but as he appeared to the conspirators, and thus to give their
action some excuse?

That Shakespeare so presented him has been contended by
some critics, but the motives that actuated the dramatists
are not the point at issue. The total impression we gain in
both dramas is singularly alike, while in some details the coin-
cidence is striking ; as where Caesar says,

"Cowards die many times before their death;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear:
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come, when it will come" (II., n, 32).*

chiamerolla per hora) quella Tragedia dico nella qual Cesare vien com'empio
tiranno e traditor della patria bruttamente trucidato. Vedi imprudenza es-
trema di quest'huomo: vedi sciocchezza et audacia incomparabile: ricordare
che questo serenissimo Principe sia per sangue strettamente congiunto con
Giulio Cesare, e disceso da Giulio Cesare, e poi immantinente far che il Theatro
per ogni parte risuoni 1'impieta, la perfidia, la tirannia di Cesare: e che su gli
occhi di quell'Altezza ne venga quasi pernitioso mostro co'l ferro trucidato et
estinto. E forse che non supplica il Serenissimo Alfonso (vedi nuova impru-
denza et ardire) che faccia rappresentar questa Tragedia in publico con
nobil pompa, e dia spettacolo si horrendo d'un suo antenato al Mondo." II
Cavalcanti, 1614, p. 107 et seq.

* It is interesting to note the fascination which this remark of Caesar's had
for the dramatists of his fortunes. No doubt they drew their direct inspiration
from Plutarch, who relates that Caesar, on being urged to have a body-guard,
retorted, "It is better to die once, than always to be afraid of death." (J. C..
p. 92.) Skeat.
Thus Muretus says (Act III., verse 386):

"Sed tamen quando semel

Vel cadere praestat, quam metu longo premi."
And Grevin, Act III., v. 791:

" et si j'aime bien mieux

Mourir tout en un coup, qu'estre tous jours paoureux."
Also Act I., v. 13:

" II vault bien mieux mourir

Asseure de tout poinct, qu'incessamment perir.

Faulsement par la peur."

There is nothing novel in these views ; one is directly traceable
to Plutarch ; the others are often repeated in the classic drama,
but it is at least curious that the same thought occurs fre-
quently in Pescetti. Thus the Nurse, trying to comfort
Calpurnia, says:

"Che pill? certo e ciascun d'aver un giorno
A terminar sua vita, e'l quando £ incerto :
Ne pud verun, per giovine, e robusto,
Che sia pur un sol di, pur un momento
Promettersi di vita, or dobbiam noi
Percid viver ogn'or col cuor tremante,
Come ogn'ora il carnefice ci stesse
Col ferro ignudo sopra, e avvelenare
Tutte col timor nostro le dolcezze
Delia presente vita, anzi una morte
Perpetua far tutta la vita nostra?
Perch' in temendo il mal pena maggiore,
Che nel patir lo stesso mal si prova.*

Caesar, in response to the Priest and Calpurnia, says,

"Quel, che di me prefisso e in ciel, conviene,
Che sia; ne per por mente a sogni, 6 a segni
Potr6 schivarlo, e folle a me colui
Sembra, che teme quel, che per consiglio,
N& per saver uman non pu6 schivarsi." — Page 77.

Again, it is remarkable that in both Pescetti and Shakespeare,
D. Brutus is made the bearer of Caesar's message : in the former,
to Mark Antony, who is to address the Senate; in the latter,
he himself is to deliver the message to the Senate. t
Again, to Decius' greeting Caesar replies:

"And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my greeting to the senators,

In Garnier's "Cornelie" (Kyd's trans.) we read:
"The fear of evil doth afflict us more

Than the evil itself, though it be neer so sore."

* Pp. 39-40. Also pages 79, 80, 82, 83 and 94, in which this same idea finds
expression.

t This is not the case in Muretus or GreVin, nor is it found in Plutarch.

And tell them that I will not come to-day:
Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser:
I will not come to-day : ttll them so, Decius.

Cal— Say he is sick " (II., n, 60). ;

Who has intimated that Caesar fears to come to the Senate?
His expressions are plainly those of a man influenced by cir-
cumstances which he considers it derogatory to his own sense
of superiority to acknowledge. His exaggerated self-con-
sciousness is feverish ; even as he speaks, he builds inferences
which no one but himself could derive from the premises.*
He knows he is not sick, nor that he looks as if he were sick;
when Calpurnia tells Decius to plead his illness, he builds
another inference:

Caes. — "Shall Caesar send a lie?

Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
To be afeard to tell gray beards the truth?
Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come."

The very thought that anyone would suspect him of fear, and
worse yet, of attempting to hide his fear in a falsehood, revolts
him. An absolute exhibition of will is more becoming, and he
feels it.

Dec. — "Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so."

This request is dramatically effective: is it historically or
dramatically true? Caesar has said nothing at which the
Senate might laugh ; the commands of a Dictator were danger-
ous subjects for mirth. His entourage were in no jocund mood
after the Lupercalia.

Bru. — "I will do so; but, look you, Cassius,

The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden train.f

* True, the conspirators have suspected that the portents and the auspices
might persuade him, and Trebonius has prepared for this. But how was
Caesar to know?

1 1., ii, 182.

Yet here is a proud conqueror, that lets an underling, although
a friend, hint that his commands might be laughed at. True,
Decius says, " Lest I be laughed at," but to insult the messenger
because of Caesar's message, would surely be to scorn Caesar.
Instead of the decisive, imperious command we should expect,
we get a reiteration of a previous statement, and then the
Dictator is lost in the man. For Decius' private satisfaction,
but by no means for his public announcement, Caesar confides
his true reasons. Decius interprets the dream in a manner
most soothing to Caesar's vanity, and when he intimates that
were some one to tell of this dream to the Senate, Caesar
might become a laughing-stock and be accused of cowardice,
the Dictator is vanquished; pride has conquered fear. Yet,
mark, the dream was told to Decius as to a good friend, and in
confidence. What right had he to assume that the dream
would be told to the Senate? If it were told, he alone could
he held responsible for its telling, since he alone, (besides
Calpurnia), knew of it. Since when has the valiant Decius
become a superior interpreter of dreams? Why should his
explanations of a woman's fancies have greater weight with
Caesar than the solemn decision of the venerable college of
augurs? Decius boasts his ability to oversway Caesar, but
he succeeds only because the latter, as in "Cesare," in his
pride and vanity, is only too glad to seize an opportunity to
silence his own apprehension, without compromise to his own
exalted opinion of himself. He is blind to all other circum-
stances. This conception of the scene is the only one, which,
to me at least, renders it dramatically satisfying.

Professor MacCallum,* of all the many commentators on
this character, seems to have offered the most satisfactory
interpretation. Caesar's bearing certainly justifies this critic's
opinion, that, in a certain sense, he is playing a part and aping
the immortal to be seen of men. As has been shown above,
Pescetti's entire treatment suggests the same conception.
His Caesar, if we may overlook the omission of any mention
of his physical failings, can be aptly characterized by Professor

* MacCallum, op. cit., p. 228.

Dowden's appraisal of the character in Shakespeare. "Julius
Caesar appears in only three scenes of the play. In the first
scene of the third act he dies. When he does appear, the poet
seems anxious to insist upon the weakness rather than on the
strength of Caesar. He is subject to the vain hopes and vain
alarms of superstition. His manner of speech is pompous and
arrogant. He accepts flattery as a right; he vacillates while
professing unalterable constancy; he has lost in part his gift
of perceiving facts and of dealing efficiently with men and
events."*

Another similarity in the treatment of Caesar must be
noted. While Pescetti's tragedy is called "II Cesare," the
titular hero occupies a position of the same relative unim-
portance as the Caesar of Shakespeare's drama. He appears
in but two of the five acts, the third and the fourth, and is
fairly prominent. Yet, Brutus is the real protagonist. He
appears in each act but the third, and is conspicuous through-
out as the chief representative of the action.

Yet here, as in Shakespeare, the spirit of Caesar dominates
the play. From first to last it permeates the drama and
provides the mainspring of the action. From Brutus' first
speech to the concluding words of the Second Messenger his
name is always before us. Calpurnia beholds him in her
dreams, the Priest sees in the portents destruction threatening
him and Rome, while the Choruses beg the gods to avert the
impending disasters. Even Portia is animated by a desire to
wreak vengeance on him. The Messenger in his final lament
sees in his death the end of Rome's glories and presents him
to us as the nemesis of his murderers. The effect of this
treatment is to invest the entire play in an atmosphere of
portent, with Caesar predominant.

* "Shakespeare, A Critical Study of his Mind and Art," by Edward Dowden,
Harper & Bros., 1903, pp. 253-54.

BRUTUS

Pescetti wrote his tragedy with the evident intention of
flattering the Duke of Ferrara, yet never was fulfillment
further from promise. "Cesare" could hardly have furnished
agreeable reading to a prince, who, lauded on one page as the
greatest descendant of the mightiest Julius, finds throughout
the succeeding pages this same ancestor denounced as an
odious tyrant, and displayed in action as a weak, vacillating
braggart. Nor would his appreciation of Pescetti's efforts
have been increased by a consideration of the treatment
accorded Brutus. Far from presenting the assassin of Caesar
in a manner which might have been regarded as acceptable
to the Duke, the Italian dramatist considers him throughout
with the highest favor and never wearies of his praises.

Pescetti's dedication renders it rather difficult to account
satisfactorily for his Brutus. Possibly he harbored liberal
sympathies of which he found it hard to rid himself; possibly
he was here too greatly under Plutarch's influence; perhaps
he was simply following in the footsteps of Muretus and
Grevin. Plutarch certainly wrote the life "con amore,"
and both Pescetti and Shakespeare continue the idealization
of the character begun by the biographer. To both drama-
tists, as to Muretus and Grevin, Brutus was the "last of the
Romans," in whom the old regime found its final and noblest
champion. Under the circumstances it is difficult to seize
upon any phase of the character peculiar alone to Shakespeare
and Pescetti. Both went to the same, or nearly the same
source for their material; both followed their source faith-
fully. Yet it is this very similarity in the conception of the
character which is especially significant for our purpose, for
Shakespeare could have found in the Italian dramatist nothing
to weaken, but much to confirm the favorable impression he
gathered from the varied pages of Plutarch.

Pescetti's pronounced bias is discernible from the very

beginning. In his dedication* his fulsome flattery of Alfonso
does not prevent him hinting that Caesar was no lawful
ruler, nor from glancing at his excessive ambition, even though
he afterward, in his drama, makes little mention of the one
and none of the other. But perhaps most significant of his
own feelings are the words he puts into the mouth of the
Chorus of Citizens in his last act. The chorus sings the
praises of Brutus in a manner which makes the immediately
following praise of Caesar by the soldiers pale in comparison:

Coro di Cittadini:

O magnanimo Bruto,

Vera stirpe di lui,

Che cacci6 i Re, ch'uccise i figli sui:

O vero Re, ch'i regni

Non pur sprezzi, ma spegni,

Et, ucciso il Tiranno,

Torni la liberta nel proprio scanno;

Qual premio possiam darti

Al tuo valor condegno?

Qual lingua, qual ingegno

£ bastante a lodarti,

Quanto se' degno?

O quanto sdegno

H6, che'l mio stile

Non giunga al segno?

Delle tuo lodi, ond' io

Portar potessi, al mio

Desir conforme, il tuo nome gentile

Dal!' aureo Gange alia rimota Tile.

Dov' e, dov' e la Tromba

Ond' Achille, et Ulisse ancor rimbomba?

Che con sonoro canto

Celebri in ogni canto

II generoso, e pio

Fatto, e tolga di mano al cieco oblio. — Pp. 140-141.

* E per non fare ora qui (che n£ il luogo, ne 1'occasione il ricerca) un catalogo
di tutti, chi dell' antico, 6 del moderno secolo possiam noi trovare, che a Cesare
somigli piu, e faccia meglio parallelo di quel, che fa la Sereniss. Altezza Vostra?
Sol che quelli fosse stato Cristiano, e avesse saputo contentarsi d'esser il primo
della sua Citta, senza voler esser anche della stessa Citta piu potente, 6 Signer
legittimo fosse suto; . . ."Cesare," Dedication, p. 2.

It is difficult to consider these utterances as impersonal.
Such is Pescetti's admiration for the assassin of Caesar that
he speaks in his own person, apparently forgetting in his
enthusiasm that he has assigned the words to the Chorus
of Citizens.* A further remove from Dante's conception of
Brutus can hardly be imagined.

Such an exhibition of partiality could not have been lost
on Shakespeare. Such an emphasis of Plutarch's attitude
could not have failed to confirm the favorable impression
which he gathered from the biographer. Nor could Shake-
speare, in those scenes in "Cesare" wherein Pescetti attempts
to exhibit Brutus in action, have gathered any hints to shake
the final opinion in his own play:

"This was the noblest Roman of them all."

Like Shakespeare, Pescetti very carefully eliminates from
his characterization anything which might reflect unfavorably
upon the moral character of the protagonist. We hear nothing
of his positive moral defects; of his divorce, of his rivalry
with Cassius for offices within the gift of the Dictator, nor of
his many obligations to Caesar. All is discreetly passed over.
Whatever Pescetti's intentions, he probably found it a dra-
matic necessity to exclude them, much for the same reason
that Shakespeare, in all likelihood influenced by his example,
was led to ignore them. Possibly it was the Italian's purpose
to portray the fruitless struggle of a hopeless, though noble
and virtuous Republicanism against a condition of affairs whose
existence had been preordained by the gods, and against which
all the forces of an outraged idealism could not prevail.
The mortal embodiment of this power might fall ; a place was
ready for him with the gods, while Tartarus enlarged its
bounds to compass his foes.f

* In the classic drama it is not unusual for the Chorus to speak in the first
person, but this instance is unique in Pescetti. It strikes the reader with all
the force of an individual opinion of the author,
t In the Prologue, Jove comforts Venus, saying:

" Giulio, della cui morte tanto lutto
Meni, e cordoglio, e si ti lagni, e duoli,
Risplendera doman in ciel al pari
Della tua Stella; . . . Prologue, p. 10.

If we are to accept the opinion of some critics, Shakespeare
was influenced in his treatment of the subject by the recent
failure of the Duke of Essex' rebellion. It showed plainly
and forcibly the folly of opposition to the monarchial power.
The same idea can be discovered in Pescetti. Much as he
lauds Brutus, the practical considerations of authorship
compel him at times to a consideration of contemporary
conditions. Possibly he realized that he was going too far
in his denunciation of Caesar, for we find the Nurse engaging
in a defense of monarchs, and declaring,

"E non son altro i Regi, che Vicari
Del sommo Giove." — P. 55.

At the end of the play, the author is careful to emphasize
the futility of fighting against the established order:

" E chiaro vedrai meco,
Che questo mondo e una perpetua guerra,
Ove Tun 1'altro atterra,
E si tosto, ch'un manca,
Rinasce un altro, e'l mondo si rinfranca." — P. 149.

But it is quite possible that neither Pescetti nor Shakespeare
had the faintest idea of introducing any such problem into
their tragedy. Possibly both dramatized history as they
conceived it, without any attempt to invest their work with a
larger significance. Yet consciously or unconsciously, by
thus representing their hero as morally immaculate, actuated
solely by the highest and most unselfish motives, while the
representative of monarchy is depicted as weak, vacillating,
and tyrannous, both Pescetti and Shakespeare have secured
for the problem its most elemental and most emphatic
statement.

Both dramatists, therefore, approached the subject in the
same spirit. Both excluded from their portrait of Brutus
whatever seemed to reflect unfavorably upon his character;
both included whatever might add to his moral elevation.
It is this peculiar insistence upon certain traits of Brutus'

character to the exclusion of others, that furnishes a close
parallel between the two plays.*

The Brutus of "Cesare", at his first appearance, curiously
resembles the Brutus of "Julius Caesar" after the famous
soliloquy. He is torn by no doubts as to the moral excellence
of his plans : his whole soul is bent upon the destruction of the
tyrant. Thus, in his opening speech* he exclaims,

"Oggi a Roma fard conoscer, ch'io
Degno nipote son di quel gran Bruto,
Che di questa Citta cacciando i Regi
Alta vendetta, e memorabil feo
Del barbarico stupro di Lucrezia.
Roma, oggi questa mano, e questo ferro,
O ha da sciorre, e romper le catene,
Ond' in duro servaggio avvinta sei,
O ha da trar di vergognosa, e grave
Vita, anzi morte me." — P. 12.

This, in style, sentiment, and wording is closely parallel to
the exclamation of Brutus on reading the notes:

"Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome?
My ancestors did from the streets of Rome
The Tarquin drive, when he was called a King.
'Speak, strike, redress.' — Am I entreated
To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise
If the redress will follow, thou receivest
Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!"

The exclamatory style is particularly noteworthy, as it
occurs frequently in the parallels.

* As is well known, Plutarch nowhere condemns Brutus for his murder of
Caesar. Appian, however, while he recognizes Brutus' virtues, is strong in
condemnation of his act. He says: "Against all these virtues and merits must
be set down the crime against Caesar, which was not an ordinary or a small
one, for it was committed unexpectedly against a friend, ungratefully against
a benefactor who has spared them in war, and nefariously against the head of
the state, in the senate house, against a pontiff clothed in his sacred vestments,
against a ruler without an equal, who was most useful above all other men to
Rome and its empire." Civil Wars, White's Trans., p. 381.

It is curious to note how Pescetti here abandons Appian in favor of Plutarch.

A peculiar difference in treatment, but a striking parallel
in content, is to be found in a portion of the Brutus-Cassius
scene.* In Pescetti, Brutus enters the action fully resolved,
and though Cassius is already in the plot, that cautious con-
spirator has his doubts as to Caesar's vulnerability. Brutus
thereupon indulges in an argument curiously similar to that
used later by Cassius in Shakespeare's play when he is striving
to arouse Brutus. In Pescetti, Cassius says of Caesar:

"Tu sai, ch'egli e feroce, e ne* perigli
Non si sgomenta punto, anzi diviene
Allor piu ardito, e coraggioso, quando
Maggior vede il periglio."t — P. 24.

Brutus replies :

11 E siasi, nulla

Li giover£ 1'ardir, nulla la forza,
Che non potra, se tutto acciaio ei fosse
Resister al furor di trenta, c'hanno
Posta la propria vita in abbandono
Per liberar la patria. O Cassio, credi
Tu, ch'io non sappia, ch'in cotesto tuo
Petto non meno ardir si chiude, e serra,
Ch'in quel di Giulio? e che cotesto braccio
Non e del suo men nerboruto, e forte?"*

* Just before the discussion concerning Antony, already quoted.
F t From these words the reader may believe that the conspirators feared that
very courage of which Caesar himself proves deficient. But by courage;
Cassius here means sheer physical bravery, an attribute which no reader either
of Pescetti or of Shakespeare can deny him. The courage Caesar lacked was
that of his own convictions. Like Macbeth, the known had no terrors for him,
but like the Scottish king, he is confounded by the unseen. No Roman could
have found fault with a man for heeding the warning of the gods. The historical
Caesar, it is true, oft expressed his contempt for omens, while the Caesar of
the drama professes to disregard them. But his disregard is superficial, and
apparently the result of an attitude which we cannot but attribute to a belief
in his own semi-divine being. Rather than be suspected of feelings common
enough to ordinary mortals, Caesar deludes himself by a process of self-hyp-
notism, and is led to his doom, a victim of his lack of true courage, a sacrifice
to his own inordinate vanity.

t P. 24. Is this perhaps the hint from which Shakespeare built up the entire
scheme of physical comparisons dwelt upon by Cassius? The swimming of
the Tiber, for instance?

Shakespeare has:

Cassius — " I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Caesar; so were you.
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.*

It is remarkable that in both dramas the authors found it
necessary to convince one of their conspirators that Caesar
was physically the same as other men.

The Brutus of Pescetti is accorded the same high estimate
by his countrymen as the Brutus of Shakespeare. Cassius
refers to him as " II mio Bruto" and lauds him as

"Bruto, sovrano pregio, e gloria della
Romana gioventu, Bruto, in cui splende
Ogni prisco valor, cui chiama il cielo
A gloriose, et immortali imprese." — P. 15.

A little further on he continues:

"Or si, c'huomo ti stimo, Bruto, e vero
Ramo di quella eccelsa, e gloriosa
Stirpe, ch'a Roma il giogo indegno scosse.
Or si, che chiaro veggio ch' in te spirto
Veramente Roman si chiude, e serra;
Ch'in te quel valor vive, ch'oggi, invano
Cerco nel popol nostro, invan disio." — P. 16.

This speech follows Brutus' revelation of his determination
to kill the tyrant. In Shakespeare, after Cassius has suc-
ceeded in moving Brutus, he says,

"Well, Brutus, thou art noble. . . ."t
The shade of Pompey says to Brutus:

"... Tu puoi dunque,
Bruto, servir? tu, che 1'origin trai
Da colui, che premier la libertade
A questa alta Citta don6? tu puoi

* I., ii. 95.
1 1., ii, 308.

A Tiranno servir? tu, che discendi
Da colui, che'l leggitimo Signore
Tollerar non poteo? questo appreso hai
Da quella sacrosanta, e veneranda
Maestra della vita, e de' costumi,
. Per cui seguir gia nell' etade acerba
La patria abbandonasti, e la te'n gisti,
Ove fiorian tutti i lodati studi,
Tutte 1'arti gentili, e bei costumi?
Ahi quanto defraudato hai quella speme,
Che gia fanciullo ancor di te destasti
Nel petto di ciascun, che ti conobbe?
Mai col principio il fin s'accorda, o Bruto,
Mai risponde alia prima la mezzana
Eta: pur sai, ch'in valor dee 1'huom sempre
Irsi avanzando, qual fiume reale,
Che quanto piu dal fonte suo si scosta,
Tanto piu cresce, e al mar piu ricco corre.
Destati, e Bruto, destati, e raccendi
Quel fuoco, ch'era in te ne' tuoi primi anni;
E mostra, ch'al tuo nome corrisponde
L'animo, ne dal ceppo tuo traligni." — P. 17.

Here we find many characteristics enumerated, garnered
from Plutarch and Appian, which, in addition to those already
quoted, could have enabled Shakespeare without Plutarch's
scattered hints, to build a considerable part of his character-
ization of Brutus. In Shakespeare, Cassius says to Brutus:

"You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you."*

Here, as in Pescetti, all animosity between them is forgotten.
Further on Cassius exclaims, as Brutus assures him that he
loves the name of honor more than he fears death:

" I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favor.f

Just before this, he says:

* I.. ". 33-34-

1 1., ii, 89-90.

"And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow. I have heard
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes."*

Casca refers to Brutus as follows :

"O, he sits high in all the people's hearts."f
Cassius again :

" and no man here

But honors you ; and every one doth wish
You had but that opinion of yourself
Which every noble Roman bears of you." J

Ligarius hails him as,

"Soul of Rome,
Brave son, derived from honorable loins." §

"Set on your foot,

And with a heart new-fired I follow you,
To do I know not what; but it suffice th
That Brutus leads me on."||

The same confidence in Brutus is manifested by the Cassius of
"Cesare." As Brutus and he come out of the temple, Cassius
says:

"Scritta nel volto tuo veggio, e per gli occhi

Scintillar fuor tal tua baldanza scorgo.

Quindi felice angurio io prendo; quindi

Anch' io tutto m'inanimo, e rincuoro

E certissima speme io concepisco,

Ch'aver felice fin deggia la cosa." — P. 23.

* I., ii, 54-61.
1 1., iii, 157-
i II., i, 90.
§II.,i,32i.
II II., i, 332.

Like Shakespeare, Pescetti lays great stress upon Brutus'
lack of foresight. As is evident from the discussion regarding
Antony, he utterly fails to see the fatal mistake he makes in
sparing that subtle opportunist. That it is a mistake, Pes-
cetti shows, when, near the end of the drama, the Messenger
announced that Antony and Lepidus are about to avenge
Caesar's death. Brutus' whole argument is characteristic of
the closet philosopher; books, not men, have been the object
of his studies. He can dissect sagely the motives of his own
actions, but he is helpless to penetrate the purposes of other
men. In glaring contrast to the Brutus of the famous solilo-
quy, yet akin in his impracticability, here is a Brutus who
speaks thus, when a cautious, worldly Cassius reminds him
(in regard to Antony),

"A me pill saggio

Sembra colui che 1' suo nemico uccide
Pria che 1' offenda, che lui, che dopo
Ch' e stato offeso, vendica 1'ingiuria.
Bruto — Non il pensier, ma 1'opra punir vuolsi.
Oltra, che chi m'accerta, ch'ei tal mente
Abbia qual dici? Chi pu6 dentro il petto
Suo penetrar? e ci6, che vi nasconde
Veder? Gli uman pensier sol Giove intende." — P. 26.

He would spare Antony because he is a reveller and given
to the pleasures of the flesh. How could such a man, he asks,
triumph over those who have devoted their lives to study and
toil? He fatuously believes that Caesar's death will so in-
timidate Antony as to drive all desire of domination out of
the head of that wily schemer.

And to all of this, Cassius very appropriately replies:

"Bruto, tu se' troppo pietoso: voglia
II ciel, che questa tua pieta non sia
Un giorno a noi crudel." — P. 27.

Yet this Brutus, just like Shakespeare's Brutus, is so
carried away by the conviction of the irresistible justice of
his cause that he abruptly terminates this vital discussion
by the lofty statement:

"Chiunque ama virtu, figlio e di Giove."

This overpowering sense of the righteousness of his cause
is strong throughout. In his opening speech he exclaims,
as he addresses Jove:

" ne sdegnar, ch'io sia,

Benche indegno, ministro, et instrumento
Delia giustizia tua ; ne perche sacro
Luogo alia morte del Tiranno abbiamo
Eletto, riputar, ch'in noi s'annidi
Altro pensier, che pio: Rimira al cuore,
Che, se 1'atto e profano, il cuor e pio,
E piet£ sola e di tal atto madre." — P. 13.

He considers himself the unworthy instrument of Jove's
vengeance. He feels that the act itself is impious,* but his
lofty motives must plead his excuse.

"O conspiracy,

Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then, by day
Where will thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage ?f

Just before this he says :

Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar
I have not slept. "J

Since the shade of Pompey appeared to him, Pescetti's Brutus
exclaims that his thoughts, like those of the Greek Milthiades,

"Non mi lascian dormir, ne prender posa." — P. 15.

When Portia reminds him that fortune often opposes merit
he replies :

"H& ben fortuna per antica usanza
Di contrastar alia virtu ; ma quello
Addopra contra lei, che 1'onda insana
Del tempestoso mar nel fermo scoglio." — P. 49.

* Probably because it involved a profanation of the sacred precincts of the
Senate. But one might expect such an ardent patriot to regard Caesar's death
here as a very acceptable sacrifice to the gods he supposedly outraged. But
see Appian.

t IL, i, 77.

J II., i, 61.

This is the same spirit that prompts Shakespeare's Brutus
to reject the oath :

"What other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged
That this shall be or we will fall for it?"

" Unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt, but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,
Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath . . . ."*

In "Cesare," Brutus has such a hold over the conspirators
that they gladly, as in Shakespeare, accept his leadership and
decision on all points. To him are left all the details of the
murder. When the fateful moment comes, he stands, after
the first shock, unmoved by the fears of his fellows, and calms
their panic when Lenate speaks to Caesar.

"Respira, 6 Cassio, chi li parla d'altro,
Per quel, che di qul posso dal sembiante
Comprender, e da gesti."f

"Cassius, be constant;
Popilius Lena speaks not of our purpose;
For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change."J

The Brutus of Pescetti, who can find time to study faces at
such a critical moment, never forgets the respect due to
himself. Just like Shakespeare's Brutus, as long as a fighting
chance exists, he would fight to the last, but he would sooner
die by his own hand than grace the triumph of his enemy.
To Cassius, who rouses him to the danger in Lenate's talk to
Caesar, he replies:

"T'intendo; ahi che valor, dove fortuna
S'opponga, nulla val. Stiam preparati,
Per proveder, se fia bisogno, al nostro

*IL, i, 124.
t P. 109.
till., i, 22.

Scampo, e alia liberta farci la strada,

Se non possiam con altro, col passarci

Co' pugnali Tun 1'altro il fianco, o' 1 petto." — P. 107.

Cas. — "Then, if we lose this battle,

You are contented to be led in triumph
Thorough the streets of Rome?

Bru. — No, Cassius, no. Think not, thou noble Roman,
That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;
He bears too great a mind. But this same day
Must end that work the Ides of March begun.
And whether we shall meet again I know not ;
Therefore, our everlasting farewell take.
Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius!
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile,
If not, why then this parting was well made."*

One of the curious things in Shakespeare's drama is the
rather vague causes of resentment which the conspirators
have towards Caesar. As Professor MacCallum says, "Cas-
sius, the moving spirit of the opposition, is, at his noblest,
actuated by jealousy of greatness. And he is not always at
his noblest. He confesses that had he been in Caesar's good
graces, he would have been on Caesar's side. This strain of
servility is more apparent in the flatteries and ofnciousness of
Decius and Casca. And what is the motive? Cassius seeks
to win Antony by promising him an equal voice in disposing
of the dignities; and he presently uses his position for extor-
tion, and the patronage of corruption. Envy, ambition,
cupidity, are the principles of the governing classes ; and their
enthusiasm for freedom means nothing more than an enthu-
siasm for prestige and influence, for the privilege of parcelling
out the authority and dividing the spoils . What care have these
against the Man of Destiny, whose glories have given compass,
peace and security to the Roman world? But their plea of
liberty misleads the impractical student, the worshipper of
dreams, memories, and ideals, behind whose virtue they
shelter their selfish aims, and whose countenance alone can

* v., i, 109.

make their conspiracy respectable. And this very Brutus
enters the conspiracy, not because of what Caesar did, or
what he is, but because of what he may become ! I need not
here recount such causes of resentment which may be gleaned
from the play. They all tend to the conclusions advanced
above. The only serious charge urged against Caesar is that
he was ambitious; — surely a sorry charge upon which to
justify to the Roman populace the murder of a benefactor."*
The same lack of definiteness in the charges against Caesar
is to be found in Pescetti. The latter, like Shakespeare,
could have found enough material in Appian and in Plutarch
upon which to ground the conspiracy, but we look in vain for
some decisive accusation. There is much talk of tyranny,
much about the hard yoke under which Romans groan, but
very little in the way of elucidation. Caesar is not accused
of ambition ; no mention whatever is made of the attempts to
crown him. Envy does not seem to be a motive; at least we
gain no such idea from the conduct of the conspirators, although
Mark Antony directly hints at this in his warning to Caesar.

"Delia fortuna io t'assicuro, ch'ella
Non ti sie mai contraria si nel crine
Awolte Thai le mani. Dall'insidie
Ben t'esort' io guardarti de' nemici.
Molti offesi da te si tengon: molti
Portano invidia alia tua gloria; alcuni
Abbaglia il tuo splendore: altri patire,
Che tu lor sii superior, non ponno. — P. 67.

As far as most of the conspirators in "Julius Caesar" are
concerned, this seems to fit them; but, strange to say, it is
difficult to see where it applies in "Cesare." Of the many
offenses of which Caesar is held responsible we get very little
beyond this bare statement.

As far as Brutus is concerned, he evidently blames Caesar
for Pompey's death and burns to avenge it. Just why, is
nowhere apparent. He longs to restore the ancient liberties,
but in what degree they have been destroyed, and above

* P. 216-217, MacCallum.

all, just what part Caesar played* in their destruction is not
very clear. In the very first scene, Brutus apostrophises
the shade of Pompey, who had appeared to him during the
night, and had said,

" . . . Tu puoi dunque,
Bruto, servir? tu che I'origin trai
Da colui che primo la libertade
A questa alta Citta don6? tu puoi
A Tiranno servir? tu, che discendi
Da colui, ch'l leggitimo Signore
Tollerar non poteo? questo appreso hai
Da quella sacrosanta, e veneranda
Maestra della vita, e de' costumi,
Per cui seguir gi£ nell' etade acerba
La patria abbandonasti:f

He recounts the hopes entertained by the bright promise of
Brutus' youth, and exhorts him to prove to the world that
these hopes may yet be realized.

The shade does not demand vengeance on his own account;
he deplores Brutus' fealty to a tyrant, and states certain
conditions, but nothing specifically tyrannical. In his opening
apostrophe to the shade, Brutus indulges in the same general-
ities. I will quote this entire speech, partly for its bearing
on the matter under discussion, and partly for the light it
sheds on Pescetti's conception of Brutus' character.

"Magnanim' ombra ecch'io ti seguo, ecch'io
M'accingo all' alta impresa, a che m'esorti.
Oggi 6 del sangue del crudel Tiranno,
O del mio spargerassi il terren sacro.
Oggi 6 vendicard 1'empia tua morte,
E riporr6 la patria in libertade,
O verrotti a trovar, dovunque sei.

* The conclusion is irresistible that Pescetti was very much under the in-
fluence of Lucan. This is true not alone of the supernatural element, but also
of the general attitude of Brutus and Cassius, who talk of Caesar very much in
the spirit of the Pharsalia. In Book IX. Lucan describes how the soul of
Pompey leaving the tomb soars to the abodes of the Blessed and thence looking
down upon the earth inspires the breasts of Brutus and Cato. (Lines 1-23.)

tP. 17-

Oggi a Roma far6 conoscer, ch'io

Degno nipote son di quel gran Bruto,

Che di questa Citt£ cacciando i Regi

Alta vendetta, e memorabil feo

Del barbarico stupro di Lucrezia.

Roma, oggi questa mano, e questo ferro

O h£ da sciorre, e romper le catene,

Ond' in duro servaggio awinta sei,

O ha da trar di vergognosa, e grave

Vita, anzi morte me. Giove, se giusto

Se', se'l trar le Citt& di sotto a piedi

De superbi Tiranni, se'l punire

Gli empi, se'l dar a gli innocenti aita,

Opra e, che sovra ogn'altra aggrada, e piace

Alia tua maesta, deh favorisci

La santa impresa, e se prosontuoso

Son in tor queU'effetto alia tua destra,

Che si doveva a lei, ch'era suo proprio,

Perdona al gran disio, c'ho di vedere

Nella primiera libert£ riposta

Quest'alta patria; ne sdegnar, ch'io sia,

Benche indegno, ministro, et instrument©

Delia eiustizia tua: ne perche sacro

Luogo alia morte del Tiranno abbiamo
Eletto, riputar, ch'in noi s'annidi
Altro pensier, che pio: Rimira al cuore
Che, se 1'atto e profano, il cuore e pio,
E piet& sola e di tal atto madre."

Here is a man ready to kill Caesar because of a dream!
The Brutus of Shakespeare would kill him not because of
what he is, but for what he might become. The same state-
ment regarding tyranny, ancient liberties, etc., occurs again
and again throughout " Cesare." Cassius repeats them in the
very next speech ; but all is very vague, very indefinite. Brutus
and Cassius later indulge in a lofty dialogue concerning liberty,
and Brutus says that the only thing which has kept him alive
is the hope that some day he may be able to help Rome regain
her ancient liberties. That alone, he feels sure, has also kept
Cassius from desiring to outlive the dead Republic.*

* Pp. 89-90.

Perhaps the strongest statement is contained in Brutus'
speech at the beginning of the fifth act.f

"Cittadini, II Tiranno ha col suo sangue
Pagate le dovute pene, et ha soddisfatto
AH'anime di tanti huomini illustri,
Che son, per colpa sua, giti sotterra.
Omai libera e Roma,
Dalle nostre cervici e scosso il giogo,
Et ei conforme al merto suo nel propio
Sangue, ch'in larga vena
Per cento piaghe versa
Giace a pie della statua
Del magnanimo Duce,
Cui non vider mai par quest' alte mura:" — P. 115.

Yet there is nothing stronger in all this than in Shakespeare.
There Caesar comes in triumph over Pompey's sons; not alone
the parent, but the offspring have fallen. Brutus says,

"No, not an oath: if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse, —
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed ;
So let high sighted tyranny rage on
Till each man drop by lottery " (II., I, 114).

t In Muretus the case against Caesar is also weak. In Grevin, Brutus in
his speech to the citizens makes definite charges:

"Ce Tyran, ce Cesar, enemi du Senat,
Oppresseur du pays, qui de son Consulat
Avoit faict heritage, e de la Republique
Une commune vente en sa seule practique,
Ce bourreau d'innocens, ruine de nos loix,
La terreur des Remains , e le poison des droicts,
Ambitieux d'honneur, qui monstrant son envie,
S'estoit faict appeler Pere de la patrie,
E Consul a jamais, a jamais Dictateur,
Et pour comble de tout, du surnom d'Empereur.
II est mort ce meschant, qui decelant sa rage,
Se feit impudemment eslever un image
Entre les Rois, aussi il a eu le loyer
Par une mesme main qu'eut Tarquin le dernier."

(Lines ioi7ff.>

Nor can I, despite all this talk concerning ancient liberties,
this vehement denunciation of tyranny, discern any definite
republican tendencies in "Cesare." As has already been
pointed out, Pescetti's treatment of Caesar aroused the resent-
ment of the partisans of Alfonso d'Este, yet the author takes
pains to have it understood that princes rule by divine right
as God's vicars on earth. In the fourth act, Brutus and
Cassius indulge in a dialogue, entirely superfluous, regarding
liberty, and Cassius advances what, to a Roman at least,
must have seemed rather a novel view of this much discussed
subject.

Cas. — "La liberta null'altro

E, ch'imperio, e dominio di se stesso." — P. 89.

The interjection of this philosophical conception, seemingly
so at variance with classical traditions, serves only further to
complicate an already sufficiently complicated issue. In
short, the motives of the conspirators are not expressed
with sufficient clearness to enable us to indicate their exact
nature.

Yet, in spite of his impracticability, in spite of the haziness
of his motives, the Brutus of Pescetti, like that of Shakespeare,
leaves us in no doubt as to the sincerity of his purpose. What-
ever base motives may actuate his follows (and in Pescetti
none are discernible), he seems to deserve the same eulogy
accorded the Brutus of Shakespeare. The salvation of the
common weal alone, even at the expense of his own life, seems
to animate him. Thus, he says to Decimus Brutus:

"Albin, tanto al morir, quanto al dar morte
All' ingiusto Signer siam preparati:
Per6 succeda, come piace al cielo.
Se 1'opre de' mortai rimira Giove
Con occhio giusto, a fin felice, e lieto
Scorgera i pensier nostri, ch'all' altrui
Salute, all' altrui ben rivolti sono." — Ces., p. 93.

"He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them." — J. C., V., v, 71.

It is certainly significant, that with a wealth of material
to draw upon, both Pescetti and Shakespeare should, in regard
to Brutus, treat the available sources in a manner so similar.
Pescetti excludes much historical matter which he might have
employed ; Shakespeare makes practically the same exclusions.
Thus the histories contained sufficient data upon which to
found a formidable indictment against Caesar, but both chose
to overlook them and to found the conspirators' cause on
comparatively insignificant accusations. In both dramas,
certain phases of Brutus' character are emphasized to the
exclusion of others. Much is said of his virtues: nothing,
not even by his enemies, of his vices. In their inclusions, a
similar parallelism exists between the two dramatists. Pes-
cetti, with a keen perception of the dramatic value of that
phase of Brutus' character, assigns to his mistaken idealism
in sparing Antony, a far more significant position in the de-
velopment of his tragedy than did his predecessors.* Here
we get an individual treatment of this dramatic crux which
has a striking similarity to that in Shakespeare. It leaves us
with the same conception of Brutus' practical failings, with
the same misgivings which we experience in the work of his
great contemporary.! Unlike Muretus and GreVin, Pescetti
does not overlook the importance of the Popilius Lena incident,
and by his treatment he introduces an element of suspense
which Shakespeare could well use to advantage. Though
both dramatists used practically the same source, Pescetti 's
individual touches seem reflected in Shakespeare's handling of
this episode. Again, unlike his predecessors, Pescetti was
fully alive to the value of the Brutus-Portia scenes, and reveals
Brutus in his domestic relations very much as Shakespeare
does some ten years later 4 Finally, in both dramas the

* There is no doubt that Pescetti found in Muretus the hints for some of
Brutus' speeches, but his loans from his predecessor do not affect the argument.

t But, as usual, Pescetti fails to take full advantage of this motif. During
the wordy progress of the drama we lose, sight of Antony, and only a few lines
at the end suggest him as the Nemesis of the conspirators.

J See section on Portia.

protagonist is but a pawn moved by invisible powers, pursuing
his fated way against an ominous and supernatural back-
ground. In both tragedies, destiny has its ghostly pre-
cursors; in the one to arouse the hero to action, in the other,
to herald his doom.

THE OTHER CHARACTERS

There is little in Pescetti's presentation of the figure of
Cassius suggestive of the splendidly drawn portrait in "Julius
Caesar." Pescetti found it a difficult matter to differentiate
between Brutus and Cassius; much that the latter says or
does throughout might with equal propriety have been assigned
to his fellow conspirator. Both seem to be of one mind in
most matters ; only in the two important scenes already noted*
does Cassius seem possessed of any distinct individuality.
In one his caution is emphasized, in the other his rashness in
the face of danger.

Pescetti was little more fortunate in his characterization of
Antony. He is hardly more than a puppet who acts the part
of an echo to Caesar in the dialogue before mentioned, in-
dulges in a soliloquy, and then vanishes from the scene. Ob-
viously Pescetti intended him to play the part of the tried
friend and counsellor, but there is nothing resembling in-
dividuality in his speeches. He talks like a book, and has
about at much true vitality as an automaton. Possibly the
soliloquy was introduced to contrast his ideas on dominion
with those of Calpurnia on the same subject, and to lend force
to the dictum contained in the concluding passage of the play :

"Che questo mondo e una perpetua guerra,
Ove Tun 1'altro atterra,
E si tosto, ch'un manca,
Rinasce tin' altro, e'l mondo si rinfranca." — Ces., p. 149.

This is not a bad dramatic device, but the progress of the
plot is so obstructed by the mass of needless declamation,
that long before the end, all thought of Antony as a possible

* In regard to Antony and the Popilius Lena episode.

successor to Caesar has escaped the reader. In Antony's
recital of his secret longings, he reveals traits which justify
us in classifying his utterances as those appropriate to a crafty
opportunist. Pescetti could describe his characters accept-
ably enough, either in their own words, or in those of others,
but he could not exhibit them successfully in action; hence,
this soliloquy, while ineffective in his own drama, could readily
furnish hints which a better dramatic artist could use to
advantage. To this Antony, nothing is dearer than dominion;
for him there is no bliss comparable to the "sweet fruition of
an earthly crown."

" Ma sperar tanto

Non oso. Pur chi sa quel, ch'ordinato

Sia nel celeste regno? A me medesmo

Di non mancar deliberate sono,

Se mi presenta occasione il cielo,

E mi mostra la via di conseguire

Quel, che pu6 farmi un' altro Giove in terra,

A pormi in man dell' universe il freno.

In tanto io cercherd per ogni via,

D'accattar appo il popolo favore,

E di farmi benevoli i soldati,

Accid, mancando Cesare per morte

O naturale, 6 violenta, i possa

Col mezzo lor por su quel grado il piede,

Ov' ha condutto lui benigna Stella." — P. 72.

Antony disappears after this scene, and no mention is made
of him again till near the end of the tragedy, where he is
described as having fled to his house after the murder. Un-
fortunately, Pescetti fails to give Antony an opportunity to
realize his ambition, but he provides material for the deline-
ation of a counter player who would have delighted the
Elizabethan dramatists. Pescetti certainly was not amiss
in his estimate of the character, but it remained for a greater
dramatist to exhibit him in action.

Antony does not appear in the fifth act of " Cesare," but
there is between several of his statements in Shakespeare, and
those contained in Pescetti, a marked similarity in style and

sentiment. Some of these have already been indicated.
Among others, Antony over Caesar's body, exclaims,

"Pardon me, Julius! Here was't thou bay'd, brave hart;
Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand,
Sign'd in they spoil and crimson'd in thy lethe.

How like a deer strucken by many princes
Dost thou here lie!" — III., I, 205.

It must be remembered that Antony's "credit stands on
slippery grounds," and it is hardly to be expected that he
would use, at this critical moment, the simile employed by the
Messenger in Pescetti as he laments the murder:

"Non fu mai fatto si crudele strazio
Di mansueto agnello
Da un gregge di rabbiosi
E famelici lupi,

Com' han del Signor mio quest' empi fatto.
Parean cani bramosi
D'insanguinar 1'acuto
Dente, e 1'avide labbia
Nella gia morta fiera." — P. 120.

There seems in Antony's lament, an echo of Mars' threats
in the Prologue to "Cesare."

Ant.— ".

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife

Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;

Blood and destruction shall be so in use,

And dreadful objects so familiar,

That mothers shall but smile when they behold

Their infants quartered with the hands of war:

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:

And Caesar's spirit ranging for revenge,

With Ate by his side come hot from hell,

Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice

Cry 'Havoc', and let slip the dogs of war;

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth

With carrion men, groaning for burial " (III., I, 263).

Marie.— "Strage orribil vedrai; dell' empio sangue
Correranno le strade, e quai torrent!
Porteran 1'arme, e i corpi morti al mare.
Fin di qul n' udirai lo scoppio, e' 1 grido." — P. 6.

Jove commands Mars:

"Mescola sdegni, odi, discordie, versa
Sopra il popol Roman furor, disio
Di sangue, di vendetta, ond' alia fine
Tutti gli empi dal mondo il ferro tolga." — P. n.

The idea of civil strife is found all through the last act of
Pescetti, and is probably due to the influence of Appian, who
details the horrors following the proscription.

Ill

Historically and critically, the Brutus-Portia scenes in
"Cesare" are of prime importance: historically, because here
for the first time in any play on this subject does Portia figure
among the actors; critically, because the Italian dramatist
avails himself of the same episode chosen from the same source
and treated broadly along the same lines later followed by
Shakespeare.

Pescetti, of all the dramatists of Caesar's fortunes, seems to-
have been the first to realize the dramatic value of the Brutus-
Portia scenes. f Like Shakespeare, he found his material in
Plutarch, and while he does not adhere as faithfully to the
Plutarchian sequence, the correspondence in the motifs he

t In Muretus she has no place in the action. Brutus refers to her in his

soliloquy: Act II., lines 107 if.

Brutus — . . . Haec parum si te mo vent,

Tua jam, vir ut sis, te satis conjux monet,
Fidem cruore quae tibi obstrinxit suam,
Testata sic se avunculi prolem tui.
Si ab exequendis te avocat coeptis timer,
Animusque pigro torpet ignavus gelu.
Ex femina perdisce, quid deceat vir urn."

This is the only reference to Portia throughout the drama. Grevin makes no

mention of her, while Gamier, in his "Porcie" (1568) treats of events following

the death of Caesar.

100

employs is so close as to render the presentation of parallels
peculiar alone to the two dramatists, a matter of extreme
difficulty, and in most instances, of doubtful value. With
perhaps two exceptions, to be noted later, there are no hints
in Shakespeare's treatment which he could not have derived
from Plutarch, a fact, however, which in no way invalidates
the hypothesis herein advanced that Pescetti's inclusion of
Portia influenced Shakespeare to introduce her in his drama.
"Julius Caesar" without her would have lost nothing in
technical completeness, whatever it might have forfeited in
human interest. Voltaire, with Shakespeare's example before
him, excluded Portia from his drama on the ground that the
introduction of a love element would detract from the high
seriousness he considered proper to his tragic hero. Tech-
nically, his drama is sufficiently satisfactory, but like in
Muretus and in Grevin, her exclusion injures the fullness of
his characterization of Brutus, and robs his tragedy of a
character which, skilfully handled, would greatly have en-
hanced its popular appeal.

Shakespeare's Portia is a character with which we would
grudgingly part. Beautiful in herself, her presence serves to
bring the softer side of Brutus into relief, while after her
husband's departure on his fateful mission, her mental anguish
serves admirably to increase in the mind of the spectator
the presentiment of impending disaster.

Pescetti, like Shakespeare, makes Portia occupy a relatively
small part in the action, perhaps for the same reason that
prompted the greater dramatist. We are irresistibly attracted
to the latter 's Portia, and her persistence in the action would
inevitably have led to a divided interest. Possibly Pescetti
was dramatist enough to realize this and acted accordingly.
His Portia, like Shakespeare's, serves further to broaden our
conception of her husband's character, while in herself, she
is portrayed with power sufficient to revive, at her appearance,
the flagging interest of the modern reader, even though she
seems at times a Brutus in female attire, and shows a fondness
for dialectic more appropriate to the schoolman than to the
Roman matron.

101

From the evidence presented in Pescetti's handling of this
theme little is adducible in support of the hypothesis advanced
above; its probability must rest upon the cumulative evidence
favoring Shakespeare's knowledge of "Cesare" presented in
the course of this work.

Yet, while these scenes offer little of value for our purpose,
their historical significance, and the fact that, as far as can be
determined, this is the first time that the matter has been
dwelt upon in the literature of the subject,* must excuse the
expository character of much that follows.

In Pescetti, Portia appears three times: once in the first
act in the scene immediately following that between Brutus
and Cassius; in the second act with Brutus alone; and lastly,
in the same act in a scene wherein both overhear Calpurnia's
lament to her Nurse. In the first scene Brutus has little to
say. The dialogue is carried on mainly with Cassius. On
her first appearance Portia indulges in a soliloquy:

"Non senza gran cagion stamane uscito
Si per tempo di casa e il mio consorte:
Gran cose ei tratta certo, e se non erra
II mio pensier, egli apparecchia il giusto
Premio al Tiranno ingiusto, se pur giusto
Pu6 darsi premio ad huom si ingiusto, et empio.
Ah perche il sesso mio non mi permette
Vestir gonne maschili, e ne' consigli
Mescolarmi de gli huomini, e le cose
Trattar della Republica, e di duro
Acciar gravando il corpo in pr6 di quella
L'asta, e la spada oprar?" — P. 28.

She longs to dye her sword in the tyrant's blood. This is a
Portia, more like the Roman matrons who could calmly watch
the bloody shows in the amphitheatre than resembling the

* I know of but two notices of these scenes, neither being much more than
a mere mention. Neri says: "Su tutte ancora primeggia il Cesare d'Orlando
Pescetti, che per il rilievo della figura di Bruto, tratta da Plutarco — vedi la
bella scena di Porzia nel secondo atto, etc." (La Tragedia italiana nel Cinque
cento, Ferdinando Neri, Firenze, 1904, p. 158.) It is also referred to by Emilio
Bertana in "La tragedia," Milano, 1904, p. 75 ff.

102

idealized portrait of Shakespeare. Yet, considering her terrible
suicide,* perhaps Pescetti had the truer conception of her real
character. That, in spite of her martial bearing, he appreci-
ated her more womanly traits, is evident from the tenor of
Cassius' address, even though it does reflect the attitude of
the Renaissance courtier:

" Molto per tempo esci di casa, 6 Porzia,
Porzia, di pudicizia raro esempio,
E della matronal prudenza chiaro
E purissimo specchio, viva imago
Di quel saggio; appo cui fu stolto quale
Piu saggio ebbe la Grecia ; alia cui morte
Mori la libertade, e nello stesso
Sepolcro a canto a lui voile esser posta,
Qual facenda a quest'ora, oltra 1'usato
Tuo, qua ti mena? Senza gran cagione
Non e ci6 fermamente, che non suoli
Tu, se non per gravissime, e important!
Cagioni uscir in pubblico ; ma come
A grave, e saggia femmina conviensi
Dentro a muri domestici in onesti
Studi passar il tempo, riputando
Degna d'eterna lode quella donna,
La cui bellezza a pochi, ma la fama
fe nota a molti, che non fa del corpo
Nelle pubbliche piazze, e ne' teatri
A cupid' occhi, ma alle caste menti
Fa di sua pudicizia altiera mostra." — Pp. 29-30.

To Cassius' compliments, and his inquiry as to her early rising,
she replies that the love she bears her country demands that
she be made a party to their plans. It is in vain that they
withhold secrets from a loving woman. Cassius assures her
that no one doubts her worth and constancy, but the matters
they contemplate are such that it would be unwise to risk their
discovery. Yet, since she longs to know, he will tell her.

"Noi trattiam di trarre
Di sotto al giogo Roma, e di riporla
Nello state, ond' altrui spietata, e ingorda
Voglia di dominar la trasse a forza." — Ces., p. 31.
* Plutarch notes that she was of a "noble courage."

103

He asks her to aid the cause with her prayers. This is not
much to her liking; she would rather draw a sword against
the tyrant. Cassius assures her that the prayers of woman
have often had greater force than that of arms. Her reply
is one of Pescetti's unconscious gems of humor :

" lo dunque, poich' a me stringer non lice
Contra il Tiranno il ferro, con la lingua
Gli far6 cruda, e dispietata guerra." — P. 32.

Towards the end of the scene Brutus indulges in an exultant
outburst. He seems already to hear the paens of joy re-
sounding throughout Rome at the news of the Dictator's
death. The scene concludes as Portia invokes Heaven's
blessing on the conspirators' enterprise. She announces
her readiness to die, if failure attend their efforts, for the love
she bears her husband is such that she cannot live without him.
We get a nearer approach to Shakespeare's treatment in
Portia's dialogue with Brutus. This is opened by Brutus,
who perceiving that Portia has wounded herself, and thinking
that she had sustained the injury in the discharge of some
household duty, reproves her for turning her hands to the
lowly tools of the housewife. She replies:

"H6 voluto far prova, s'in me tanto
Regni animo, et ardir, che darmi possa
Di mia man morte, occasion venendo,
Ch'il morir bello, 6 necessario sia." — P. 49.

Brutus admires her courage, and inquires the reason for her
fears. She assures him that often fortune opposes merit, and
she fears for his safety. He loftily replies that fortune can
no more prevail against the virtue of his enterprise than the
raging sea against the immovable rocks. At this, Portia,
in spite of her martial bearing heretofore, begins to exhibit
the same vacillation as Shakespeare's Portia. Fears for her
husband now dominate; the Amazon is lost in the wife. She
replies :

"Tuttavia, benche lei* non vinca mai,
Impedisce sovente i suoi disegni;

104

Et io, s'avvien (che no'l consenta il cielo)
Che cid, che tenti, abbia infelice effetto,
E dove pensi dar, riceva morte,
H6 stabilito di tenerti dietro." — Pp. 49-50.

Bru. — "Lodo, Porzia, et ammiro la grandezza,
E generosit^ della tua mente
Sprezzatrice del fato, e della morte
E sopra modo pregiomi, et altiero
V6 di consorte tal."

Yet he does not approve of her design, and conjures her,
by the love she bears him, to refrain from all thoughts of self-
destruction. Portia replies that she cannot live if he die;

" Porzia di Bruto moglie, e di Catone
Figlia? soffrir il volto del Tiranno,
Onde sia giunto a crudel morte il padre
Et il marito, potra Porzia? O Bruto
Quanto piu ti stimava accorto, e saggio?
Dunque in tant* anni, che vissuto hai meco
Non hai Tammo mio compreso appieno?
Dell' amor, ch'io ti porto, ancor potuto
Non ho farti ben chiaro? E tu mi stimi
Si poco amante, ch'io potessi senza
T& star un' ora in vita? Bru. Io s6, che m'ami:
Ma sd dall' altra parte, che non meno
Saggia, che amante seY' — P. 50.

The scene is now spun out to include a series of mutual pro-
testations of love. It concludes as Calpurnia is seen coming
out of the temple, whereupon Brutus and Portia descend from
amatory dialogue to vulgar eavesdropping.

Plutarch relates that when Portia showed Brutus the wound
in her thigh, "he was amazed to hear what she said to him,
and lifting up his hands to heaven, he besought the gods to
give him the grace he might bring his enterprise in so good
pass, that he might be found a husband worthy of so noble a
wife as Portia: so then he did comfort her the best he could. "f

* That is, Fortune,
t Marcus Brutus, p. 116. Skeat.

In the "Julius Caesar" of Sir William Alexander, (Earl of Stirling) written
a few years after Shakespeare's play, there is a decided similarity between some

105

Pescetti does not rest Brutus' appreciation of his wife on this
basis; he rejoices in the possession of a wife so spirited.
Shakespeare idealizes the situation in Brutus' exclamation:

"O ye gods!
Render me worthy of this noble wife."

Near the end of the third scene in which Portia figures, and
wherein she and her husband overhear Calpurnia's deter-
mination to prevent her husband from attending the session
of the Senate, Brutus advises her to go home while he goes to
join the conspirators. The scene concludes as she speeds him
with her blessing.

Throughout these scenes Pescetti utilizes many of the motifs
derived from Plutarch, which Shakespeare at erwards included
in his treatment. But the emphasis upon several of them has
been shifted ; the similarity in parts between the two authors
is due mainly to this common source. There are but two
points of importance wherein distinctly individual resemblance
is noticeable. Both in Pescetti and in Shakespeare, as has
previously been pointed out, Portia enters the scene under
practically the same attendant circumstances. In both
dramas she appears immediately after the completion of the
details of the assassination. Brutus says to Cassius:

" Ma giamo ad informar del tutto gli altri,
Accid gli spirti destine, e le forze,
Et apparecchin 1'arme all' alta impresa.

Cas. — Aspetta, ch'esce fuor di casa Porzia. — P. 28.

Hereupon Portia enters.
Shakespeare has:

Cas. — The morning comes upon's. We'll leave you Brutus,
And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all remember
What you have said and show yourselves true Romans.

Bru. — And, gentlemen, look fresh and merrily;
Let not our looks put on our purposes;

portions of the Brutus- Portia scenes and those in Pescetti. The prologue seems
an echo of Pescetti's. Nor do these portions have anything verbally in common
with Seneca, the model of both tragedies. See Conclusion, page 121.

io6

But bear it as our Roman actors do,
With untired spirits and formal constancy;
And so, good-morrow to you every one.

Exeunt. Brutus remains. Act II., I.

Immediately after the few lines to Lucius, Portia enters.
While it may be simply a coincidence, it is worth remarking
that in both dramas Portia arises in the early morning to seek
her husband. There is no warrant for this in Plutarch. That
Pescetti should have the conspirators perfecting their plans
in the early morning may be regarded as a necessity of his dra-
matic form. Plutarch does not suggest this touch. Possibly
Shakespeare considered it a gain in dramatic effectiveness to
have the conspiracy confirmed during the tempestuous night.
Perhaps Pescetti's treatment influenced him. In both dramas
the interrogator comments upon Portia's early rising.

Cassius — Molto per tempo esci di casa, o Porzia. — Ces., p. 29.

Brutus — Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now?
It is not for your health thus to commit
Your weak condition to the raw, cold morning.

Portia in soliloquy says:

Non senzo gran cagion stamane uscito

Si per tempo di casa e il mio consorte. — Ces., p. 28.

In Shakespeare we read :

Portia — . . . You've ungently, Brutus,
Stole from my bed.

Plutarch says: "So when the day was come, Brutus went out
of his house with a dagger by his side under his long gown, that
nobody saw nor knew but his wife only." (Marcus Brutus,
p. 116.) • Thus, according to the biographer, the conspiracy
had been perfected days before and Portia by this time evi-
dently -knew of it.

Neither is there any warrant in the histories for Portia's
prayer for Brutus:

"O Brutus,
The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!" — Act II., Sc. IV.

Similarly, in Pescetti, Portia's last words are a blessing on
Brutus:

"Va, che ti scorga, e ti difenda Giove." — P. 58.

Even closer is her prayer at the conclusion of Brutus' rap-
turous outburst in her scene with Cassius:

" Ite, 6 forti, ite 6 saggi, te 6 de gli alti
Legnaggi, onde scendete, degni; il Cielo
Secondi i desir vostri." — P. 33.

These coincidences may be simply accidental, but taken in
connection with many other points of contact between the
two dramas, they assume greater significance, and lend
strength to the hypothesis herein advanced : that Shakespeare
was influenced by Pescetti 's treatment to include the Brutus-
Portia scenes in his own drama.

Pescetti 's other principal feminine character is the conven-
tional lay figure of the drama of his time: a lifeless automa-
ton who seems to exist solely for the purpose of indulging in
intolerably wordy lamentations.* Yet Pescetti has put in
the mouth of this lachrymose puppet a few lines which form
the closest parallel to be found between the two plays.

D. Brutus thus replies to Caesar's depreciation of his
flattery:

D. B. — "Non e lingua mortal per pronta, e scaltra
Che sia, non e di dir si ricca vena,
Ne si divino ingegno, che, non dico
Degnamente lodar, ma narrar possa
Le sopr'umane eroiche tue prove.
E se vivesse il grande Omero, altrove
Certo non volgeria 1'alto suo stile,
Che a cantar i tuoi fatti eccelsi, e magni,
E tema vil reputaria lo sdegno
D'Achille, e i lunghi error del saggio Ulisse."

* Many of the motifs of the Calpurnia-Nurse scene in Pescetti are derived
from Muretus. Others are reminiscent of Grevin.

io8

Hereupon Calpurnia exclaims:

"Ahi pur, ch'anzi a gli Euripidi non porga
Materia, onde risuonino i teatri
Ne'secoli awenir le sue sventure."

This outburst is entirely lost on Caesar, who says:

"A parlar d'altro omai volgiamo i nostri
Ragionamenti ; " . . . . — Ces., pp. 105-106.

Calpurnia's prophetic doubt is placed in such a setting
that its dramatic effect is lost. This, it seems, was too tempt-
ing a morsel for Shakespeare's keen sense of dramatic fitness
to overlook, and at the moment when the conspirators have
reached the climax of their success, we find him assigning
Calpurnia's speech to the exultant Cassius, to stir the audience
with its theatrical effect and to bewilder generations of future
critics.

Cas. — " How many ages hence

Shall this our lofty scene be acted over,
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!"

Bru. — "How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,
That now on Pompey's basis lies along
No worthier than the dust."* (Ill, I, 112.

I regard this as the most remarkable parallel between the
work of Pescetti and that of Shakespeare. It is entirely too
close in word and content to be fortuitous. The dramatic
effect of Cassius' outburst is undeniable; yet its dramatic
truth is questionable. All the more so since the speech of
Cassius immediately following,

" So oft as that shall be,

So often shall the knot of us be call'd
The men that gave their country liberty,"

* Malone long ago suggested that this scene probably refers to the popu-
larity of the play on the stage, and that it points to other contemporary dramas
on the same subject. Prolegomena, II, ff. 448-9. Ed. 1823. Prof. Sykes sees
in it a dramatic device to emphasize the reality of the presentation. "Julius
Caesar" note, page 142.

109

has always impressed me as an anticlimax. This, both in
word and in thought, coming so soon after his noble speech,
produces the same unpleasant effect as,

"O world, thou wast the forest to this hart,
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee,"

which, intruded into Antony's lament, has caused many
critics to regard these lines as interpolations. Nor does
Cassius' first exalted outburst seem in keeping with his char-
acter. Of all the conspirators he is the last whom we would
expect to find indulging in raptures at such a critical moment.
Far more in keeping are his next words,

"Ay, every man away:
Brutus shall lead, and we will grace his heels
With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome."

This indeed is Cassius; every man on the alert, and every
energy bent to insure the successful conclusion of their enter-
prise.

But, whatever its fitness to the character, Shakespeare,
from the point of view of effect, certainly could have found no
better place for its introduction. Doubtless, in his day the
gentry clenched their pipes, while the gaping groundlings
clutched their greasy jerkins, both animated by the same
feeling that oversways the modern audience at these ringing
prophetic phrases. And then the simple stage direction,
"Enter a servant:" the beginning of the end! For sheer
dramatic effect few passages in Shakespeare surpass it.

The other persons in "Cesare" may be dismissed in a few
words. The Nurse and the Priest are simply the conven-
tional lay figures of the drama of the time, while Decimus
Brutus seems to have been included because he happened
to be in the histories. Neither he nor Lenate possesses any
individuality, and considered solely in themselves, contribute
nothing of value to this investigation.

"CESARE" IN ENGLAND

Pescetti's work, tedious as it is to the modern reader, was
not without its attractions to the Elizabethan. An age which
could produce " Polyolbions " could very well tolerate a
"Cesare." It was cast in the popular dramatic form, dealt
with a popular theme, and above all, came from a land in-
separably connected in the public mind with romance and
tragedy. To the Elizabethan, "Ex Italia, semper aliquid
novi . ' ' That the work was probably known to English authors
receives additional support from the use seemingly made of
it by Sir William Alexander (Earl of Stirling) in his own
"Tragedy of Julius Caesar."

Alexander's work was issued about 1604-7. Of it, Dr. T. A.
Lester says: " In general it may be said that Alexander follows
GreVin, availing himself not only of Grevin's original scenes,
but also of GreVin's non-Plutarchian order. . . . There can
be little doubt that Alexander's 'Julius Caesar' is nothing
but GreVin's 'Cesar' rewritten and enlarged."* Alexander
followed GreVin, but he did so with an admixture of Pescetti.

Prof. H. M. Ayres claims that Alexander got his Prologue
from the Hercules Furens of Seneca, substituting Caesar for
Hercules as the object of Juno's wrath. Pescetti's Prologue
is one of the curious things about his drama. Such an in-
troduction is lacking in both Muretus and Grevin.f Possibly
both Alexander and Pescetti got their idea from Seneca, but
there are parallels in content between the two which are only
faintly adumbrated in the Latin author. Juno's censure of

* " Connections between the Drama of France and Great Britain, particularly
in the Elizabethan Period." Harvard Dissertation, 1900 (unpublished), quoted
by Ayres.

t Alexander's Prologue is the first act of the drama. Juno delivers a long
monologue and the chorus closes the act. In Muretus, Caesar and the chorus
occupy the first act. In GreVin, it is Caesar, Antony and the Chorus of Soldiers.
In Pescetti, the Prologue is separate, but like in Alexander the actors therein-
do not appear in the drama proper.

Ill

Jove's amours in the Scotchman's work bears a very close
resemblance to the denunciations of Venus as recorded by the
Italian. The threat of civil strife and discord are found in
each. But more important is the fact that in certain scenes
lacking in Grevin, there is a close parallel between Alexander
and Pescetti.

Thus, in the dialogue concerning Antony, Pescetti has:

Cas. — Parmi d'avere scorto in Marcantonio
Disio di dominar: perci6 s'in tutto
Vogliam la patria assicurar, spegniamo
Anco lui col Tiranno, e fuor degli occhi
Tragghiamci questo stecco, che potrebbe,
Quando che sia, non poca briga darne.
Che tu sai ben, quanto li siano amici
I veterani, e quanto acconcio ei sia
Gli animi a concitar del volgo insano.

Bru. — S'ad altri, oltre al Tiranno, darem morte,
Si stimera dal volgo, che le cose
Sempre stravolge, e falsamente espone,
Che non disio di liberar la patria,
Ma privato odio, e brama di vendetta
A cid sospinti n'abbia, e di quell'opra,
Onde da noi s'attende eterna fama,
N'acquisterem vergogna, e biasmo eterno:
E dove nome di pietcl cerchiamo,
Sarem del titol d'empieta notati;
Ne percid a noi gran fatto avrem giovato:

In somma e' non si deve
Punir, chi non ha errato, e a me non basta
L'animo di dar morte a chi nocciuto
Non m'ha ne fatto ingiuria.

Cas. — Bru to, tu se' troppo pietoso; voglia
II Ciel, che questa tua pieta non sia
Un giorno a noi crudel. Nel risanare
Dall' ulcere nascenti i corpi il ferro,
E'l fuoco oprar convien, che tu ben sai,

112

Che'l medico pietoso infistolisce

La piaga, e spesso tutto il corpo infetta.

In the "Tragedy of Julius Caesar" we read:

Cass. —

There is Antonius, Caesars greatest friend,
A man whose nature tyranny affects,
Whom all the soldiers daily do attend,
As one who nought but to command respects;

And in my judgment I would thinke it best,

When sacrific'd the proud usurper lyes,

That this seditious enemy of rest

Should fall with him, with whom he first did rise:

Thus, of our liberty we now may lay

A solid ground, which can be shak't by none;

Brut. — I cannot, Cassius, condescend to kill,

(Thus from the path of justice to decline)

One faultlesse yet, lest after he prove ill,

So to prevent his guiltinesse by mine ;

No, no, that neither honest were, nor just,

Which rigorous forme would but the world affright,

Men by this meane, our meaning might mistrust,

And for a little wrong damne all that's right:

If we do only kill the common foe,

Our countries zeale must then acquire due praise

But if (like tyrants) fiercely raging so,

We will be thought that which we raze to raise ;

And where we but intend to aide the state,

Though by endangering what we hold most deare,

If slaying him (as arm'd by private hate)

We to the world all partiall will appeare.

Cass. — Well Brutus, I protest against my will,

From this black cloud, whatever tempest fall,

That mercy but most cruelly doth kill,

Which thus saves one, who once may plague us all.

Page 279 et seq., Glasgow ed., 1872.

This is not in GreVin, neither is the Brutus-Portia scene.
Here again, there are significant points of contact. Alex-
ander's whole handling of the scene resembles Pescetti's
treatment, while in individual sections the parallels are almost
verbal. Portia's attitude throughout is reminiscent of Pes-
cetti's delineation. In both dramas the conspiracy is revealed
to her ; in both she proffers her help ; in both she falls back on
prayer as her best aid; in both the failure of the plot means
her self-destruction.* She says:

"Though nature, sexe, and education breed
No power in me, with such a purpose even,
I must lend help to this intended deed,
If vows and pray'rs may penetrate the heaven;
But difficulties huge my fancie findes,
Nought, save the successe, can defray my feare:

'Ah! fortune alwayes frownes on worthy mindes
As hating all who trust in ought save her.'
Yet I despaire not but thou may'st prevaile,
And by this course to ease my present grones,

I this advantage have which cannot faile:
I'll be a free-man's wife, or else be nones:
For, if all prosper not as we pretend

And that the heavens Romes bondage to decree,

Straight with thy liberty my life shall end,

Who have no comfort but what comes from thee;

My father hath me taught what way to dye,

By which if hindred from encountring death,

Some other meanes, I (though more strange) must try;

For after Brutus, none shall see me breathe."

(Tragedy of Julius Caesar, pp. 268-69, Vol. 2, Glasgow edition, 1872.)
In Pescetti Portia says:

" Piu volentier la man di ferro contra

II Tiranno armerei, che di preghiere

La lingua, e'l cuor: ma poiche ci6 mi niega

II sesso mio, con quel ch'a me conviensi

E lice, aiuterd la santa impresa." — Ces., p. 32.

* Of the above only the fact that the conspiracy was revealed to her is re-
corded by Plutarch in this connection.

" Ite, 6 forti, ite 6 saggi, te 6 de gli alti
Lenaggi, onde scendete, degni; il Cielo
Secondi i desir vostri : Scorga, e regga
Benigno i piedi, e le man vostre Giove,
Tu vedi, 6 Porzia, in che periglio posta
Del tuo consorte la salute sia.
Or di mestier t'6 preparar il petto
A colpi della morte, s'egli avviene,
Che'l Ciel (sia lunge ogni sinistro augurio)
Contrasti a generosi suoi disegni.
O libera convien, che viva, 6 chiugga
Con glorioso fin degno del padre,
E del marito tuo la vita: In questa
Luce di padre libero venisti,
Et a marito libero congiunta
Vivesti, ch'ambo altieramente amaro
Di piu tosto morir, che viver servi:
Si che di spirti generosi, e maschi
Anna il femminil petto, e'l cuor rinforza;
Onde con fin del nascimento degno,
E della vita tua la vita chiuda." — Pp. 33-34.

She says to Brutus:

" Dell' amor, ch'io ti porto, ancor potuto
Non ho farti ben chiaro? E tu mi stimi
Si poco amante, ch'io potessi senza
T£ star un ora in vita?" — P. 50.

"Or tu non sai

Quanto sovente a generosi sforzi
Soglia fortuna ingiuriosa opporsi?" — P. 49.

Following his lofty response she says:

"Tuttavia, benche let* non vinca mai,
Impedisce sovente i suoi disegni." — P. 49.

There is no historical warrant for Portia's contemplated suicide
at this time. In both dramas Brutus' reply is the same in
content:

* Fortune.

" Do not defraud the world of thy rare worth,
But of thy Brutus the remembrance love;
From this fair prison strive not to breake forth,
Till first the fates have forc'd thee to remove." — P. 269.

In Pescetti, Brutus says:

"Ma che accidente pensi tu, che possa
Addivenir, ch'armar contra te stessa
Le man ti stringa, e innanzi tempo 1'alma
Spigner del caro albergo?" — P. 49.

"Ma non approvo

Gia il tuo consiglio, e pregoti, per quanto
Amor mi porti, ch' a si fiera voglia
Dij del tuo petto bando, e 1'ora aspetti
Prefissa al tuo partir da questa vita." — P. 50.

Her "rare worth" is emphasized by Brutus:

" Ma non consentira Giove, che donna

Si valorosa, e bella, a dar salute
. A mille altri atta, se medesma uccida." — P. 52.

Alexander also makes Cassius mention that Laena had
accosted him, and expressed the wish that his desires might
prosper, thus making Cassius suspect the conspiracy was
discovered. This parallels Brutus' experience in Pescetti.
Decius refers to the banquet at the house of Lepidus and
Caesar's opinions on death. This is also mentioned in Pescetti.
Alexander's recital of Caesar's perturbation, as he describes
it in soliloquy, is too long to quote, but it is simply an echo of
Calpurnia's state of mind as revealed in Pescetti.

If we can assume that Alexander was acquainted with
Pescetti's drama, as these parallels seem to indicate, we have
no reason for supposing that it was unknown to the literati
of his time. "Cesare" was popular enough to go through
two editions in Italy. Alexander was a man of wide reading,
but no more so than was Ben Jonson. Possibly Alexander
was indebted to the latter for his knowledge of Pescetti's

116

work.* Alexander's drama followed that of Shakespeare.
If he knew Pescetti's work some few years after the composi-
tion of Shakespeare's drama, there is no reason to deny to Jon-
son, the most learned author of his day, a prior acquaintance.

In this connection, the hypothesis advanced by Frederick
Card Fleay,f regarding the two-part nature of Shakespeare's
play, assumes new significance. According to him, " Julius
Caesar" was originally written in two parts, "Caesar's
Tragedy" and "Caesar's Revenge," following a custom of
the time, and that through some exigency the two were later
merged into the play as we now have it. This is not the place
to enter this controversy. Fleay presents his reasons, and
among them the fact that in "Julius Caesar " the name Antony
occurs without the h, contrary to Shakespeare's custom in
his other plays wherein the name occurs. It may be well to
suggest here that the prevalent fondness for Italian names
probably prompted the use of the name as found in Pescetti :
Antonio or Marcantonio. But especially significant is Fleay 's
surmise that it was Jonson who performed the merging of the
two plays, and who is, therefore, responsible for the present
form. If this be the case, it may well be that Jonson intro-
duced "Cesare" to Shakespeare's notice, for notwithstanding
its tediousness, it was cast in a form which appealed to Ben's
classic taste. The hypothetical "Tragedy of Julius Caesar"
could well have been inspired by Pescetti's drama, for the
first three acts of "Julius Caesar" as we have it now, form a
satisfactory dramatic whole, and all of Shakespeare's assumed
indebtedness to the Italian is contained in these three acts.

Jonson's "Sejanus," whose composition was probably
prompted by the popularity of Shakespeare's work in the same
field, followed "Julius Caesar" in 1603. The friendly rela-

* Alexander, in his younger days, travelled in France, Spain and Italy.
He was high in the favor of James VI. of Scotland and accompanied him to
London in 1603, where he became an intimate of Prince Henry. That he was
well and favorably known to the authors of the day may be inferred from the
dedication of a sonnet to him by Michael Dray ton.

t In Shakespeare Soc. Pub., 1874, p. 357. Also his Life of Shakespeare.
1886, p. 215-6.

tions existing at this time between the two great dramatists
is sufficiently attested by the fact that Shakespeare was one
of the actors in Jonson's tragedy. "Julius Caesar " as we now
have it appears first in the 1623 folio; what alterations were
made in the preceding twenty years are matters of speculation.
Jonson was sufficiently interested in its success is strive to
rival it along purely classic lines, while about the only crit-
icism of a Shakespearean play that we possess from Ben
deals with a speech in "Julius Caesar."* It seems, therefore,
within the bounds of probability that Jonson may have
introduced "Cesare" to Shakespeare's notice.

There were, however, other means whereby Shakespeare
may have become acquainted with "Cesare." Much as we
know of his wonderful age, we do not even now realize its
vast and all-embracing activities, especially in literature.
Translations by the score were made from the Italian. f
Plagiarism, especially from foreign sources, was rampant;
nor was such plagiarism decried, t Shakespeare may not have
known Italian, yet the evidence to the contrary is steadily
growing stronger. Italian was the fashion in his day; many
of his colleagues had travelled in Italy; many knew the
language. His patron, Southampton, spoke Italian fluently,
while among his guests Italian scholars were conspicuous.

* The allusion to the phrase Act III, Sc. I.

"Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause

Will he be satisfied."
This originally stood:

"Caesar did never wrong but with just cause " and is ridiculed by Jonson in
his "Discoveries." It is quite likely that the Caesar in the play as originally
written was an even more self-important individual than he is at present.
Possibly Shakespeare saw no absurdity in the line when he first penned it.
Caesar, in his own estimation, is semi-divine. The cause of things is in his
will. What might seem wrong to the mob was not so to Caesar, for he felt that
the cause was just, no matter what the world thought. That was sufficient.
The apparent contradiction in terms thus seems capable of explanation.

t Appendix to Vol. IV of the Cambridge History of English Literature,
Also M. A. Scott, Elizabethan Translations from the Italian. Mod. Lang.
Assoc. Pub., X. to XIV., 1895-99.

t Sidney Lee, The French Renaissance in England, 1910. Phoebe Sheavyn,
The Literary Profession in the Elizabethan Age, 1909.

Amid such surroundings it is well-nigh inconceivable that
Shakespeare failed to come into intimate contact with the Ital-
ian literature of the day. Recent research renders it almost
positive that he not only did, but that he was sufficiently
versed in the language to read the literature in the original
tongue. We marvel at his intimate descriptions of Italian
life, explicable, apparently, only on the supposition that he
was an eye-witness of the scenes he describes. We wonder
at the familiarity with Italian authors evident upon a close
examination of his work. Brandes, in his study of Othello*
calls attention to several portions of that drama, which both
in content and expression, form too close a parallel to the
Italian of Ariosto and Berni to be accidental. More recently,
Professor Carlo Segref has pointed to places in Othello ex-
plicable only upon the supposition that Shakespeare was
intimately acquainted with the Italian version of Cinthio.

"Segre disagrees with Sidney Lee, who avers that Shake-
speare borrowed from Italian sources, only bare outlines and
general ideas which lent themselves to his scheme, and that
these in his masterly hands were so arranged and recon-
structed as to be almost unrecognizable. In Segr6's opinion,
Shakespeare studied the Italian literature, not only with the
analysis of a man of letters, but also with the careful attention
and open mind of a poet, for the benefit he drew from these
sources was chosen with consummate art and critical skill,
according to what seemed most useful to him in the exercise
of his marvellous gifts. "t As we have seen, Shakespeare's
procedure with "Cesare" differed in no essentials from his
usual method.

Even if Shakespeare knew no Italian, it was still possible
for him to become fairly familiar with "Cesare." Shake-
speare was a dramatist because the drama was profitable.

* Shakespeare: A Critical Study, George Brandes — London, William Heine-
man, 1902, p. 444-45.

t "Relazioni Litterarie fra Italia e Inglilterra," Florence, 1911. Reviewed
in article, " The Italian Sources of Othello," by Ethel M. de Fonblanque, Fort-
nightly Review, Nov., 1911, p. 907.

t Ethel M. de Fonblanque in Fortnightly Review, Nov., 1911.

Like a keen playwright, he studied the taste of his public.
The story of Caesar was no new one to theatre-goers. Other
plays on the subject had met with success. The chronicle
history had had its day, and with its waning popularity
Shakespeare turned to that hazy, romantic epoch in history
when Rome was mistress of the world ; for in his day Rome's
name still loomed large in the imagination of mankind.
The great dramatist never scrupled to appropriate the efforts
of others, when, by the transforming power of his genius, he
might use them to further the success of his own work. The
more we know of the Elizabethan world, the more modern
it seems to us. No doubt, in those days as in these, theatrical
managers were ever on the lookout for promising material.
Perhaps Jonson did not introduce "Cesare" to his notice, yet
what was to prevent Shakespeare's employing lowly but
learned hacks to investigate plays or other works, both native
and foreign, which promised to provide adequate material
for his own dramas? There is nothing startlingly novel in
this assumption, although it seems to have been overlooked
in the discussions concerning the poet's linguistic knowledge.
It had been done before; it was done afterwards. Association
and collaboration were common. What one man lacked
another supplied. Why did Henslowe, in 1602, commission
Munday, Drayton, Webster, Middleton, and "the rest,"
to write a "sesers falle"? Why so many to write one play?
No doubt many an old drama was ransacked for material,
many an ancient source laid under contribution, many a verbal
jewel or entire scene torn from its setting to grace the new
production. Shakespeare, employing scholarly searchers,
who brought to his notice whatever they considered valuable
in the material they investigated, had no need of knowing
various languages. He wanted the ideas; his imagination
provided the rest.

There was no lack of books. The late Professor J. Churton
Collins, in his consideration of Shakespeare as a classical
scholar, says : "The collection of books was not only the fashion,
but the passion of the age. His friend Ben Jonson had one
of the finest private libraries in England, so had Camden and

I2O

Cotton, and their liberality in lending books was proverbial.
He could have had books from the library of Southhampton
and through Southhampton from the libraries of others of
the nobility. The magnificent collection of Parker at
Lambeth would have been open to him, as well as the collection
at Gresham College. There was the Queen's library at White-
hall, well stored according to Hentzner, who visited it in 1598,
with Greek, Latin, Italian, and French books. What after-
wards formed the nucleus of the Bodleian at Oxford, which
contains, by the way, an Aldine Ovid, with his name in auto-
graph, to all appearances genuine, on the title-page, was
during the last decade of the sixteenth century almost within
a stone's throw of the Black Friars Theatre."*

* " Studies in Shakespeare."

CONCLUSION

To claim that Pescetti's drama possesses any intrinsic
attraction for the modern reader would be straining truth in
the interest of zeal. It is doubtful whether it ever attained
the dignity of a stage representation; the least regard for the
patience of humanity prompts the hope that it never was
inflicted upon an audience. Too often, throughout its toil-
some progress, "Declamation roars while Passion sleeps."
Pescetti attempted to individualize his major characters, yet
we miss the life which throbs in Shakespeare's pages; all too
frequently the passionate utterances of real men and women
are sunk in the frigid rhetoric of book-born puppets. Still
while it was not given to Pescetti to scale Olympus, he at
least glimpsed the path. His drama is true to the traditions
of its type ; in some ways it marks an advance over its prede-
cessors. While the English drama, freed from the shackles
of convention, buoyed by the exuberant spirit of a conscious
nationalism, followed the Zeitgeist to the highest pinnacle
of achievement, Italian tragedy, misled by the ignis fatuus
of a false classicism, floundered ever more helplessly and
hopelessly in the depths of the Senecan morass.

Pescetti has most of the faults of his contemporaries, but
in a few respects he rises superior to many of his predeces-
sors. His work is free from their revolting horrors; he
shows a true perception of the dramatic possibilities of his
material; he arranges his subject matter with a proper re-
gard for dramatic effect, even though he well-nigh stifles
his plot under an avalanche of words. He dares attempt
what Symonds* scarcely believed possible; to portray upon

* In his discussion of the state of the Italian drama during the sixteenth
century, Symonds says: "At the same time, we may question whether the
Despots would have welcomed tragic shows which dramatized their deeds of
violence; whether they would have suffered the patriotism of a Brutus, the
vengeance of Virginius, the plots of Catiline, or the downfall of Sejanus to be

121

122

the Italian stage the patriotism of a Brutus and the down-
fall of a tyrant.

But what renders this long-forgotten work of special interest
to the modern reader is the probability of its relation to
"Julius Caesar"; a probability which the preceding investi-
gation has sought to confirm. It seems that "Cesare"
furnished the greatest dramatist of the age with hints which
he did not hesitate to employ. It deserves recognition
because here, for the first time, we find individual scenes which
appear later in "Julius Caesar." Here for the first time in
any extant drama on this subject, we find the debate (in its
extended form) concerning the contemplated murder of
Antony. In "Cesare," Portia for the first time enters the
action, while Brutus is shown in his domestic relations in a
manner suggestive of Shakespeare's treatment. Here, for
the first time, the omens and prodigies find a prominent place
in the drama, while the significance of the Caesar-Lena episode
receives its first recognition. All these scenes appear later
in "Julius Caesar," accompanied by individual touches
peculiar alone to the Italian dramatist.

Muretus and Grevin both include in their dramas the debate
concerning Antony. But Pescetti seems to have had a better
idea of its dramatic value, for not only is his treatment of this
significant episode far more comprehensive, but he includes
matter purely his own, which, both in form and content, is
so similar to its dramatic counterpart in "Julius Caesar" as
to render the supposition of accidental coincidence highly
improbable.

In his delineation of Brutus, Pescetti continued the exal-
tation of the character, begun by Plutarch and introduced into
the Renaissance drama by Muretus. In view of the fact
that the Italian dramatist openly courted the favor of the ruler
of Ferrara, his treatment of the assassin of the Duke's great
ancestor is surprising. Pescetti could have found many

displayed with spirit-stirring pomp in the theatres of Milan and Ferrara, when
conspiracies like that of Olgaiti were frequent." John Addington Symonds,
" The Renaissance in Italy, Italian Literature," Vol. II., p. 1 19. Henry Holt &
Co., 1888.

123

things in his sources which would have detracted from the
moral excellence of his Brutus, but he ignores them, and por-
trays his protagonist along the same lines as his great con-
temporary. Therefore Shakespeare found nothing in Pescetti
to induce him to change his conception of the character.

The Brutus-Portia scenes in "Cesare" mark the first in-
troduction of this material in any drama on the same subject.
Pescetti portrays Brutus in his domestic relations along the
lines later adopted by Shakespeare, and adds touches not
traceable to Plutarch, yet included in "Julius Caesar."

Inasmuch as Pescetti dedicated his tragedy to Alfonso
D'Este, whom he hails in his preface as Caesar's reincarnation,
we naturally would expect a delineation of the titular character
cast in the most heroic mould. Yet, whatever the inten-
tion, the fulfillment seems the very antipode of the promise.
The Caesar of Pescetti appears the same weak, vacillating,
boastful figute that in Shakespeare has so puzzled his critics,
and who occupies in the drama the same position of relative
inferiority assigned to him in "Julius Caesar."

Pescetti was the first dramatist of Caesar's fortunes to
realize the dramatic value of a supernatural background.
He presents the ghost of Pompey as the exciting force on his
Brutus ; Shakespeare introduced the ghost of Caesar to herald
his doom. In his attempted distribution of the omens and
prodigies, the Italian seems to have anticipated Shakespeare's
similar but vastly superior treatment. With a single puzzling
exception, he mentions all the portents later used by Shake-
speare, and adds many more culled from the classic authors.
Shakespeare includes among the omens several not mentioned
by Plutarch ; to obtain these he had no occasion to go beyond
Pescetti.

The Italian seemed to realize the dramatic value of suspense,
and uses this device twice in a manner almost exactly parallel
to that of Shakespeare. Like the Cassius of Shakespeare, the
Decimus Brutus of Pescetti raises a doubt as to Caesar's
attending the session of the Senate, and the introduction of
this element of suspense paves the way for his ultimate per-
suasion of the Dictator. In Shakespeare's play the episode

124

performs the same office. But more significant is Pescetti's
employment of the Caesar-Lena scene, which in word and
thought constitute a very close parallel to the same scene
as it stands in "Julius Caesar."

"Cesare" seems to shed new light upon the much discussed
question of Shakespeare's indebtedness to Appian, for the
historical matter supposedly derived by the great poet from
the English translation of the history can be found in the
Italian drama, and reappears later in "Julius Caesar," ac-
companied by touches peculiar alone to Pescetti's treatment*
The resemblance between these portions of the Italian's
work and the corresponding parts in the English drama, is
far stronger than their similarity to their hitherto supposed
source.

Pescetti's minor figures are hardly suggestive of Shake-
speare's vivid portraits, but, as has been pointed out, the
significant speech which he assigns to Calpurnia furnishes the
most striking parallel between the two plays.

When Cicero said :

" But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves,"

he uttered a truism which might well serve us a warning to all
critics, especially those of Shakespeare. But the great poet
often builded better than he knew. Shakespeare to us is
what we can get from him. Because Pescetti was no Shake-
speare is no reason for interpreting his efforts in an unkindlier
spirit. His critics have, however, judged him by his fellows;
often, apparently, without reading him. We cannot attempt
to measure his influence in his own day by our modern stand-
ards. What is tedious to us was not necessarily so to the
Elizabethans. It may be well to remember that even among
Shakespeare's contemporaries the Senecan drama had its
advocates.* There are few purple patches in "Cesare" to
catch the eye of the romantic dramatist ; probably as a tragedy t
Pescetti's drama had as little attraction for Shakespeare as

*"The Monarchicke Tragedies" of Alexander by 1617 had gone through
three editions, besides several single quartos.

125

it has for us. But to a dramatist who never scrupled to ap-
propriate suitable material wherever he could find it, " Cesare"
must have appeared well worth investigation. It presented,
in convenient dramatic form, material which served to supple-
ment his own selections from the scattered pages of Plutarch.
With the sure perception of genius the great poet took from
the Italian the matter best suited to his purpose and discarded
the rest.

It is for this reason that " Cesare " is worthy of notice. It is
for this reason that the obscure pedagogue of Verona, whose
pedantic personality lay buried beneath the controversial
debris of three centuries, deserves to stand to-day among that
humbler brotherhood whom association with our greatest
dramatist has preserved for the curious admiration of the
literary world.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY

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