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^[11] 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 liues? I suppose verye Romaines indeede, wyll rather choose certaine death as they haue oft done, than by an othe to abyde willing seruitude.”^[12]

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 conceived 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, 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:

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.^[13] He concludes that while Appian’s account bears little resemblance 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.

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 Shakespeare’s treatment of various passages in “Antony and Cleopatra.” 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.^[14]

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 magnanimity to his enemies, their base treachery and Antony’s readiness to avenge his friend’s murder; in short, all the hints^[15] presumably derived by Shakespeare from the English translation of Appian are brought before us. Shakespeare could have found his material in Pescetti’s drama, and the supposition 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 exclaims at the news of Caesar’s death:

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

To Shakespeare, Pescetti’s work could hardly have been more than a recital of events connected with a notable occurrence 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 consider how the great poet was able to transform the meanest hints into the mighty scenes we find in his greatest dramas,^[16] 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:

Later on the Chorus of Soldiers exclaims:

Calpurnia denounces Brutus:

Antony specifically mentions Brutus as “the well beloved.” Of special significance is the fact that he makes the same play on the name Brutus^[17] as we find in Pescetti:

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:

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,

The Messenger at the sight of the corpse laments,

Antony says:

Also Act III., Sc. I:

Calpurnia exclaims:

The corpse^[19] 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:

The familiar,

has its parallel in the lines of the speech of the Second Messenger addressed to the Chorus of Women:

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

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

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 exclamations. 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:

During Antony’s speech the mob cries:

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:

Antony exclaims,

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:

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:

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.” Appian says: “Antony went to his owne house, entending to take advice for this case of Cesars.” (Appian, 1578, p. 141.)^[21]

But one more supposed loan from Appian remains for investigation. This is to be found in the behavior of the conspirators 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 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:

“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:

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.)^[22] 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 tyrant, and after exhorting the people 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 sÙ l’aste
E ’l popolo di Marte
Chiamiamo a libertade.

Con.—

LibertÀ, libertÀ, morto È il Tiranno:
Libera È Roma, e rotto È 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:

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

The latter part of this seems an echo of

“Cesare” contains no close parallel to Brutus’ exclamation:

But Pescetti indicates a similar savage desire:

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.^[24]

In this case, as in the others, the material from Appian is to be found in Pescetti, and reappears in Shakespeare accompanied 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.