II
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, indulges in a soliloquy, and then vanishes from the scene. Obviously Pescetti intended him to play the part of the tried friend and counsellor, but there is nothing resembling individuality 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 è una perpetua guerra,
Ove l’un l’altro atterra,
E si tosto, ch’un manca
Rinasce un’ 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 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 acceptably 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 sà quel, ch’ordinato
Sia nel celeste regno? A me medesmo
Di non mancar deliberato sono,
Se mi presenta occasione il cielo,
E mi mostra la via di conseguire
Quel, che può farmi un’ altro Giove in terra,
A pormi in man dell’ universo il freno.
In tanto io cercherò per ogni via,
D’accattar appo il popolo favore,
E di farmi benevoli i soldati,
Acciò, mancando Cesare per morte
O naturale, ò violenta, i possa
Col mezzo lor por sù quel grado il piede,
Ov’ hà 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. Unfortunately, Pescetti fails to give Antony an opportunity to realize his ambition, but he provides material for the delineation 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., 1, 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 l’acuto
Dente, e l’avide labbia
Nella già 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., 1, 263).
Jove commands Mars:
“Mescola sdegni, odi, discordie, versa
Sopra il popol Roman furor, disio
Di sangue, di vendetta, ond’ alla fine
Tutti gli empi dal mondo il ferro tolga.”—P. 11.
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.