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 Grévin. Plutarch certainly wrote the life "con amore,' and both Pescetti and Shakespeare continue the idealization of the character begun by the biographer. To both dramatists, as to Muretus and Grévin, 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 faithfully. 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 cacciò i Rè, ch'uccise i figli sui: Non pur sprezzi, ma spegni, Et, ucciso il Tiranno, Torni la libertà nel proprio scanno; Qual premio possiam darti Portar potessi, al mio Desir conforme, il tuo nome gentile Dall' aureo Gange alla rimota Tile. Dov'è, dov' è la Tromba Ond' Achille, et Ulisse ancor rimbomba? Che con sonoro canto Celebri in ogni canto Il generoso, e pio Fatto, e tolga di mano al cieco oblio.-Pp. 140–141. *E per non fare ora qui (che nè il luogo, nè l'occasione il ricerca) un catalogo di tutti, chi dell' antico, ò del moderno secolo possiam noi trovare, che a Cesare somigli più, 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 Città, senza voler esser anche della stessa Città più potente, ò Signor 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 Shakespeare, 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 dramatic 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.† *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. † In the Prologue, Jove comforts Venus, saying: "Giulio, della cui morte tanto lutto Meni, e cordoglio, e si ti lagni, e duoli, Risplenderà doman in ciel al pari 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 è una perpetua guerra, Ove l'un l'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 farò conoscer, ch'io 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. |