Il generoso, e pio
Fatto, e tolga di mano al cieco oblio.—Pp. 140–141.
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.[[90]] 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.[[91]]
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: