CHAPTER IX

CONCLUSION 121

Pescetti’s Drama an Improvement on its Senecan Predecessors—Its Particular Value to the Literary Historian—Summary of the Argument—Conclusion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 126

INTRODUCTION

I intend in this monograph to demonstrate the probability of Shakespeare’s indebtedness in the composition of the first three acts of his “Julius Caesar,” to the “Cesare” of Orlando Pescetti, an Italian tragedy on the same theme, first published at Verona in 1594.[1]

This connection has never yet been demonstrated. The work seems almost totally unknown to the English literary world.[2] Shakespearean criticism, eager to investigate the smallest matters in regard to the great poet, is silent on Pescetti. I know of no French or German[3] references. In Italy, Pescetti has received scant notice; few writers have so much as mentioned “Cesare,” while not one has made any suggestion as to a possible connection between this play and “Julius Caesar.”[4]

The inscription upon the title page of the 1594 edition is as follows:

Il Cesare Tragedia d’Orlando Pescetti Dedicata al Sereniss. Principe Donno Alfonso II. d’Este Duca di Ferrara, etc. (Device) In Verona Nella stamparia di Girolamo Discepolo MDXCIIII

Pescetti’s work is in quarto, and consists of six pages of dedicatory matter, and one hundred and fifty pages of verse, for the most part hendecasyllabic varied with septenarians. In the tragedy proper there are nearly four thousand lines.

The author in his dedication establishes, to his own satisfaction at least, the descent of the family of Este from the mighty Julius, and ventures the belief that Brutus and Cassius, though they could not abide Caesar’s rule, would rejoice in Alfonso’s. At the end of several pages of this sort of flattery we read: “Di Verona il dì 19 di Febraio 1594. Di V.A.S. Divotiss. et umiliss. Servitore Orlando Pescetti.”

Footnote 1:

A second edition followed in 1604 from the same press (Girolamo Discepolo) in 4º.

This is exceedingly rare; the only copy which I have traced is in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. I use the 1594 text, following the copy in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale at Florence.

Footnote 2:

The only reference in English with which I am acquainted is by Harry Morgan Ayres in the June, 1910, number of the Proceedings of the Am. Modern Language Association. In his article, “Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in the Light of some other Versions” he makes a brief mention of this play. But see Preface.

Footnote 3:

A careful search of the forty volumes of Jahrbücher, published by the “Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft”, failed to reveal any mention of Pescetti. A search of the registers of the very complete collection of German literary periodicals contained in the library of New York University was equally unproductive.

Footnote 4:

For a brief sketch of Pescetti see G. B. Gerini, Gli scrittori pedagogici italiani nel secolo decimo settimo. 1900. In addition to the above the following are the only works known to me which mention Pescetti’s “Cesare”:

Fonte, Michelangelo, [Paolo Beni], Il Cavalcanti, 1614.

Quadrio, Fr. Saverio, Della storia e della ragione d’ogni poesia, 1739.

Fontanini, Giusto, Biblioteca dell’eloquenza italiana con le annotazioni del Sig. Apostolo Zeno, 1753.

Allaci, Leone, Drammaturgia, 1755.

Tiraboschi, Girolamo, Storia della letteratura italiana, 1822.

Ginguené, P. L., Histoire Littéraire d’Italie, 1824.

De Sanctis, Natale, G. Cesare e M. Bruto nei poeti tragici, 1895.

Salvioli, Bibliografia universale del teatro drammatico italiano, 1903.

Bertana, Emilio, La tragedia, 1904.

Neri, Ferdinando, La tragedia italiana nel Cinquecento, 1904.

Flamini, Francesco, A History of Italian Literature. Translated by Evangeline O’Connor, 1907.

Of the above only Bertana has more than a brief mention. He alone attempts an analysis of the play.

THE PLOT OF “CESARE”

The following is a list of the persons in the drama, called by Pescetti, “Interlocutori.”

Marte } Venere } Fanno il Prologo Giove } Bruto Cassio Sacerdote Porzia moglie di Bruto Calpurnia moglie di Cesare Cameriera di Calpurnia Cesare Marc’Antonio Consolo Decimo Bruto Lenate Messo primo Messo secondo Coro di Matrone Romane Coro di Donne di Corte Coro di Cittadini Coro di Soldati

The tragedy proper is preceded by a prologue in which Mars, Venus, and Jove are the actors. Pescetti, probably following Ovid’s account in Book XV. of the “Metamorphoses,” represents Venus as bewailing the destined death of Caesar, the last of her earthly descendants. Mars extends his consolation and proffers his aid. She informs him that Jove is responsible, and indulges in a denunciation of the Thunderer that must have made his celestial ears tingle. All further discussion of the matter is terminated by the appearance of the Father of the gods, who reproves Venus for her blasphemous utterances, assures her that his ways are inscrutable, and consoles her by promising Caesar immortality among the gods, and the infliction of dire punishment upon his assassins. Venus bows to his will, and impatient Mars hurries at Jove’s command to sow the seeds of civil strife throughout the Roman world.

This Prologue is a literary curiosity. Its style is at times more reminiscent of the madrigal than of tragedy, while the very earthly flavor which clings to the celestial personages is decidedly humorous to the modern reader. Pescetti undoubtedly was in grim earnest when he wrote the Prologue, but many of the sentences he puts in the mouths of his immortals must have made Melpomene smile. The admonition of Venus to Mars on omniscient Jove’s approach, “Ma e’ vien ver noi, tacciam, ch’egli non ci oda,” despite its Renaissance setting, is delightful for its sheer absurdity.

The tragedy follows immediately after this prologue. In view of the extreme length of Pescetti’s work and the lack of interest for our purpose in many of the speeches, I have thought it advisable not to inflict upon the reader an extended synopsis of the plot, but to confine my efforts to the following outline of the story.