Vergil speaks of the overflow of Eridanus,[[40]]
“Eridanus, king of rivers, overflowed, whirling in mad eddy whole woods along and tore away the herds with their stalls over all the plains.”[[41]]
Of all these possible sources Pescetti supplies the closest parallel; Vergil and Lydgate seem too remote for consideration in this connection. Were we to exclude Lucan on the ground that his account deals with a different period of Caesar’s career, Pescetti’s case would be still further strengthened, for the Italian contains not only the substance of Casca’s outburst, but there is a similarity in both style and sentiment. Where Pescetti says,
“Nettun volto hà sossopra tutto il suo
Immenso regno, e sì gonfiato hà l’onde,
Che parea, che de’ suoi confin volesse
Uscir, e tutta subissar la terra:”
Shakespeare supplies the more poetic,
“I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam