E, che l’interiora di ciascuna
Vittima mostran miseri, e infelici
Avvenimenti, atroci, orribil mali:
Perchè in alcune non si trova il cuore,
In altre è guasto il fegato, o ’l polmone,
Altre di negro fel son tutte sparse,
Segni tutti evidenti di gran mali.”[[32]]—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.
Almost all of the ancient authorities mention the supernatural in connection with the life of Caesar. The extraordinary 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 Appian had been translated in 1578, while Marlowe’s translation of Lucan’s first book, while it remained unpublished till 1600 (after the first performance of “Julius Caesar”),[[33]] may have been known to the dramatist in manuscript.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 discussion 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.