Caesar and Antony indulge in a lengthy dialogue which is started by the observations of the former regarding the banquet at the house of Lepidus the preceding evening. Caesar, ably seconded by Antony, enlarges upon his glories. His companion warns him against treachery, and advises a bodyguard. Caesar scorns those who would harm him, but resolves after this day to be surrounded by some of his trusty veterans. He orders Antony to prepare for the Parthian campaign. Here follows a soliloquy by Antony, in which, in contrast to Calpurnia, he exalts the pleasures of rulership. He intends so to contrive that in the event of Caesar’s death he can seize the reins of government. Hereupon the Priest in the longest speech in the play recites the many and various portents which have lately occurred. As he concludes, Caesar and Calpurnia join him, and another long scene ensues in which Caesar stands firm against all the arguments brought forward to dissuade him. He is resolved to go to the Senate, and the scene is brought to an end by a final warning from the Priest. The Chorus sings the direful results following the disregard of religion.
Act IV
Brutus and Cassius discuss the probability of a detection of their plot. It seems that Lenate, evidently not of their number, had approached Brutus and whispered his good wishes for the success of their enterprise. Brutus and Cassius engage in a dialogue concerning liberty, but are interrupted by the appearance of Decimus Brutus, who laments the perversity of fortune. It seems that Caesar has yielded to Calpurnia’s entreaties and will stay at home. Worse still, on the morrow he will appear with his bodyguard. Marcus Brutus feels that Jove will yet favor their designs. Caesar enters and condemns those as fools who are guided by the advice of women. Nevertheless, as he fears treachery, he has resolved to heed the entreaties of his wife. He indulges in a panegyric of himself. The conspirators now approach, and Marcus Brutus addresses him, inquiring his reasons for not attending the important session of the Senate. Caesar is in doubt as to the manner of his reply. The prayers of his wife, he asserts, have influenced him. Besides, he has reason to fear treachery. Decimus Brutus, by artfully playing on his vanity, succeeds in overcoming his doubts. Caesar resolves to attend the Senate. Marcus Brutus can hardly find words fit to sing the praises of Jove, who has inspired this determination in the tyrant’s heart. The conspirators indulge in pious prayers and felicitations. Caesar, Calpurnia and Decimus Brutus are the persons in the next scene. Caesar tells Calpurnia that her entreaties are vain; now, as formerly, the gods will protect him. She bows to his will. Decimus, in another useless speech, continues his laudation of Caesar and the belittlement of his fears. Caesar at length starts for the Senate. He is detained by Lenate who addresses him, to the great consternation of the conspirators, who fear the revelation of their plot. Lenate begs a favor of Caesar, which the latter is disposed to grant. The increasing panic of the conspirators is stayed by Brutus, who has watched Lenate and feels confident that he is not talking of the plot. At the conclusion of Lenate’s address Caesar departs for the Senate, and Lenate joins the conspirators and assures them of his silence. In the concluding scene Calpurnia breaks into lamentations while the Chorus of Ladies of the Court comments upon her distress and beseeches Juno to turn aside her wrath and spare Caesar.
Act V
Brutus addresses the citizens and announces the death of the tyrant. He calls on all to rejoice in their reestablished freedom, while the conspirators shout the glad tidings. This is his last appearance. The rest of the act is devoted to the lamentations of Calpurnia, the report of the catastrophe by the First and the Second Messenger, and the comments of the various Choruses.
Pescetti’s tragedy, as will readily be seen from this statement of its plot, is thoroughly Senecan in its construction and perpetuates some of the worst faults of its type. The dramatic unities are strictly observed; there are the same lengthy speeches, the same moralizing, the same absence of action evolved before the spectator, the same lack of life characteristic of this dramatic form. The actors soliloquize, converse, declaim, listen; they do everything but act. Their exits and their entrances constitute the total of visible action. Deeds are carefully excluded, or relegated beyond the stage; the declamatory powers of messengers, the comments of the Chorus, and the speeches and conduct of the actors are relied upon to vitalize them in the imagination of the audience.
Of characterization, in the Shakespearean sense, there is very little. It would be easy to dismiss the whole matter. A careful search is necessary to locate those passages wherein Pescetti displays any decided flashes of dramatic power in his characterizations. Yet there are times when he attempts, and in a measure successfully, to provide adequate motivation for the speeches of his characters; but unfortunately, these are rather few and far between. He almost invariably locates these places in such a rank rhetorical jungle that it requires considerable care to discover them. Yet he reveals at times a true dramatic instinct in his choice of material and in the handling of certain situations.[[5]]
But the force of convention was too strong for him successfully to resist its insidious influences. Following in the footsteps of his contemporaries, he spins his drama out to some four thousand lines, ninety-nine percent of which are versified prose and the remainder dubiously poetic. Nevertheless, compared with the crudities of Giraldi (Cinthio), or the revolting horrors of Sperone and Cresci, Pescetti’s work marks an advance in Italian drama.
The dramatis personae common both to Shakespeare and Pescetti are Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Marcus Brutus, Cassius, Decius Brutus, Popilius Lena, Calpurnia and Portia. Pescetti calls Decius, Decimo, and Popilius Lena, Lenate. In addition, the Italian mentions incidentally Casca, Cimber, Trebonius and Cicero. Of the others occurring in Shakespeare, there is no trace. Pescetti, however, introduces two new characters: the Servant or Nurse to Calpurnia and the Priest. The former is one of the traditional figures of the Senecan drama, while the latter performs at various times the functions of monitor, mediator and chorus. From non-Plutarchian sources the Italian obtained the names Spurinna and Bucolianus, which occur in the First Messenger’s recital of the assassination. The first he doubtless owes to Suetonius, while the second he obtained from Appian’s account of Caesar’s murder. In obedience to the formal demand of his drama, Pescetti has the first and second Messenger, the Choruses of Roman Matrons (probably suggested by Lucan),[[6]] of the Ladies of the Court, of Citizens, and of Soldiers. The two latter are merged in the mob of Shakespeare.
As a natural result of the limitations imposed by his model, Pescetti has to confine his action to the events of the day of Caesar’s assassination, and can only inferentially introduce material of which Shakespeare could avail himself to the full. The place is always the same, and, though unmentioned by the dramatist, is presumably an open space before a temple in the immediate vicinity of Caesar’s house. In consequence of these restrictions such hints as Pescetti may have furnished Shakespeare, are, almost exclusively, to be found embodied in the composition of the first three acts of “Julius Caesar.”