ARTicles vol. 6 i.3b: Shakespeare and Plutarch

Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar in 1599, soon after completing As You Like It and months before starting work on Hamlet. As with Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra, the two other “Roman Plays” that followed several years later, Julius Caesar is based on The Parallel Lives of the Most Noble Grecians and Romans by the Greek historian Plutarch. Shakespeare not only took the narrative of Julius Caesar from The Parallel Lives, he also quoted or paraphrased its language extensively to create his dialogue. More, perhaps, than any of his other plays, Julius Caesar is a close dramatization of its source material.

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus was born in Greece around 46 CE. He studied in Athens, but held Roman citizenship and earned the title of honorary consul. This dual loyalty was a profound influence in his writing, and in part explains his equivalent interest in Greek and Roman history. He began his intellectual career as a philosopher, delivering a number of lectures on the subject of morality, but in the latter part of his life he started work on the series of biographies that became The Parallel Lives. These biographies, not always factually accurate, would eventually encompass more than 1,100 pages and detail the lives of over fifty prominent Greeks and Romans.

Plutarch presented his biographies in pairs, comparing the life of a well-known Greek with that of a celebrated Roman. He matched Julius Caesar with Alexander the Great, Antony with the rowdy general Demetrius, and Brutus with Plato’s disciple Dion. This parallel structure made apparent each individual’s strengths and weaknesses of character. At the conclusion of a biographical entry, Plutarch attached a summary that highlighted the differences between the two men.

Plutarch structured his biographies around anecdotes. These brief narratives provide his readers with an understanding of his subjects’ personalities as well as the world in which they lived. As he notes in his biography of Alexander the Great, “Often times a light occasion, a word, or some sport, makes men’s natural dispositions and manners appear more plain, than the famous battles won.” Shakespeare frequently inserts these anecdotes into the plot of Julius Caesar. For instance, Plutarch speaks of Flavius and Marullus, two tribunes who vandalized statues of Caesar. Shakespeare opens his play with this event. Similarly, during an argument with Brutus, Portia reveals a self-inflicted thigh wound to demonstrate her fortitude; this incident, too, comes directly from The Parallel Lives. Even the supernatural occurrences in the play derive from Plutarch. The soothsayer’s warning to Caesar, the slave who torched his hand only to find it unscathed, the sacrifice of the beast with no heart, Calpurnia’s premonition of Caesar’s death, and Brutus’ encounter with the ghost of Caesar – all these have their origins in The Parallel Lives. In short, every major event in Julius Caesar can be found in Plutarch’s biographies.

Shakespeare worked from the first translation of Plutarch into English, which had been published by the scholar Sir Thomas North in 1579. The language of Julius Caesar owes a good deal to North, whom Shakespeare copied, paraphrased and versified. For example, North’s Caesar says, “It was better to die once, than always to be afraid of death,” while Shakespeare’s character declares, “Cowards die many times before their deaths / The valiant never taste of death but once.” It is recorded in North’s translation that Brutus hoped “he might be found a husband, worthy of so noble a wife as Porcia.” Shakespeare places these words into Brutus’ mouth, giving him the line: “O ye gods, / Render me worthy of this noble wife!” Minor characters such as Caius Ligarius also adopt North’s language. The Ligarius of The Parallel Lives says, “If thou hast any great enterprise in hand worthy of thy self, I am whole,” while Shakespeare’s Ligarius proclaims, “I am not sick if Brutus have in hand / Any exploit worthy of the name of honour.”

In order to compress three years of history into a three-hour theatrical event, Shakespeare often conflated events from The Parallel Lives into a single scene. In Plutarch’s narrative, Julius Caesar celebrated his victory over Pompey’s sons in October. He then observed the Feast of Lupercal the following February, exactly one month before his assassination. Shakespeare, however, combines these two events and moves them to the eve of Caesar’s murder. This modification gives Julius Caesar a feeling of urgency, causing a series of events to unfold in rapid succession. When dramatizing the aftermath of the assassination, Shakespeare adopts a similar approach. Plutarch describes a number of meetings between the conspirators and Antony and Lepidus in the two days following the assassination. Shakespeare elides these political conferences into one tense meeting between Antony and the assassins in front of the corpse of Caesar. This compression makes the meeting more dramatic, and Shakespeare further intensifies the scene by leaving Caesar’s corpse onstage. As a result of these modifications, Julius Caesar preserves the integrity of Plutarch’s narrative while simultaneously concentrating many events into a short, indeterminate timeframe.
Marshall Botvinick is a first-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute.
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PLUTARCH’S ROME

Extracts from Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives of the Most Noble Grecians and Romans (75AD) translated by Sir Thomas North (1579)

From The Life of Marcus Brutus

“Cassius being bold, and taking hold of this word: Why, quoth he, what Roman is he alive that will suffer thee to die for the liberty? What, knowest thou not that thou art Brutus?”

“Then perceiving her husband was marvelously out of quiet, and that he could take no rest: even in her greatest pain of all, Porcia spake in this sort unto him: “I being, O Brutus,” (said she) “the daughter of Cato, was married unto thee, not to be thy bedfellow and companion in bed and at board only, like a harlot, but to be partaker also with thee, of thy good and evil fortune… but for my part, how may I show my duty towards thee, and how much I would do for thy sake, if I cannot constantly bear a secret mischance or grief with thee, which requireth secrecy and fidelity?”

“For Porcia being very careful and pensive for that which was to come, and being too weak to away with so great and inward grief of mind: she could hardly keep within, but was frighted with every little nose and cry she heard, as those that are taken and possessed with the fury of the Bacchantes, asking every man that came from the market-place, what Brutus did, and still sent messenger after messenger, to know what news.”

“Another Senator called Popillius Laena, after he had saluted Brutus and Cassius 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 read you, for your enterprise is betrayed. When he had said, he presently departed from them, and left them both afraid that their conspiracy would out.”

“Then Cimber with both his hands plucked Caesar’s gown over his shoulders, and Casca that stood behind him, drew his dagger first, and struck Caesar upon the shoulder, but gave him no great wound. Caesar feeling himself hurt, took him straight by the hand he held his dagger in, and cried out in Latin: O traitor, Casca, what doest thou? Casca on the other side cried in Greek, and called his brother to help him. So divers running on a heap together to fly upon Caesar, he looking about him to have fled, saw Brutus with a sword drawn in his hand ready to strike at him: then he let Casca’s hand go, and casting his gown over his face, suffered every man to strike him that would.”

From The Life of Julius Caesar

“Antonius who was Consul at that time, was one of them that ran this holy course. So when he came into the marketplace, the people made a lane for him to run at liberty, and he came to Caesar, and presented him a diadem wreathed about with laurel. Whereupon there rose a certain cry of rejoicing, not very great, done only by a few, appointed for the purpose. But when Caesar refused the diadem, then all the people together made an outcry of joy. Then Antonius offering it him again, there was a second shout of joy, but yet of a few. But when Caesar refused it again the second time, then all the whole people shouted. Caesar having made this proof, found that the people did not like it, and thereupon rose out of his chair, and commanded the crown to be carried unto Jupiter in the Capitol.”

“Then going to bed the same night as his manner was, and lying with his wife Calpurnia, all the windows and doors 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 had him in her arms.”

From The Life of Marcus Antonius

“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 villainy. Yet they fearing Antonius’ power, and the authority of his office, appointed certain of the conspiracy, that when Caesar were gone into the Senate, and while others should execute their enterprise, they should keep Antonius in a talk out of the Senate-house.”

“When Caesar’s body was brought to the place where it should be buried, he made a funeral oration in the commendation of Caesar, according to the ancient custom of praising nobleman at their funerals. When he saw that the people were very glad and desirous also to hear Caesar spoken of, and his praises uttered, he mingled his oration with lamentable words, and by amplifying of matters did greatly move their hearts and affections unto pity and compassion. In fine to conclude his oration, he unfolded before the whole assembly the bloody garments of the dead, thrust through in many places with their swords, and called the malefactors, cruel and cursed murderers. With these words he put the people into such a fury, that they presently took Caesar’s body, and burnt it in the market-place, with such tables and forms as they could get together. Then when the fire was kindled, they took fire-brands, and ran to the murderers’ houses to set them afire.”

Articles issue as 6_3