Chapter XXXI: Appendix: C

SHAKESPEARE’S ALLEGED INDEBTEDNESS TO APPIAN IN _JULIUS CAESAR_

Plutarch gives little more than the situation and the _motif_ for Antony’s oration. He has two accounts of the incident.

(_a_) When Caesars body was brought into the Market
Place, Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of the
dead according to the ancient custom of Rome, and perceiving
that his wordes moved the common people to compassion; he
framed his eloquence to make their harts yerne the more,
and taking Caesars gowne all bloudy in his hand, he layed
it open to the sight of them all, shewing what a number of
cuts and holes it had upon it. Therewithall the people fell
presently into such a rage and mutinie, that there was no
more order kept amongs the common people.
(_Marcus Brutus._)

(_b_) When Caesars body was brought to the place
where it should be buried, he made a funeral oration in
commendacion of Caesar, according to the auncient custom of
praising noble men at their funerals. When he saw that the
people were very glad and desirous to heare Caesar spoken
of, and his praises uttered: he mingled his oration with
lamentable wordes, and by amplifying of matters did greatly
move their harts and affections unto pitie and compassion.
In fine to conclude his oration, he unfolded before the
whole assembly the bloudy garments of the dead, thrust
through in many places with their swords, and called the
malefactors, cruell and cursed murtherers. With these words
he put the people into ... a fury.
(_Marcus Antonius._)

Shakespeare certainly did not get much of the stuff for Antony’s speech from these notices.

Appian, on the other hand, gives a much fuller report, which was quite accessible to ordinary readers, for Appian had been published in 1578 by Henrie Bynniman.[304]

[304] Under the title: “An auncient Historie and exquisite Chronicle of the Romanes warres, both Ciuile and Foren. Written in Greeke by the noble Orator and Historiographer Appian of Alexandria.”

The English version of the most important passages runs thus:

Antony marking how they were affected, did not let it
slippe, but toke upon him to make Caesars funeral sermon,
as Consul, of a Consul, friend of a friend, and kinsman, of
a kinsman (for Antony was partly his kinsman) and to use
craft againe. And thus he said: “I do not thinke it meete
(O citizens) that the buriall praise of suche a man, should
rather be done by me, than by the whole country. For what
you have altogither for the loue of hys vertue giuen him
by decree, aswell the Senate as the people, I thinke your
voice, and not Antonies, oughte to expresse it.”

This he uttered with sad and heauy cheare, and wyth a
framed voice, declared euerything, chiefly upon the decree,
whereby he was made a God, holy and inuiolate, father of the
country, benefactor and gouernor, and suche a one, as neuer
in al things they entituled other man to the like. At euery
of these words Antonie directed his countenance and hands to
Caesars body, and with vehemencie of words opened the fact.
At euery title he gaue an addition, with briefe speach,
mixte with pitie and indignation. And when the decree named
him father of the country, then he saide: “This is the
testimony of our duety.”

And at these wordes, _holy_, _inuiolate_ and _untouched_,
and _the refuge of all other_, he said: “None other made
refuge of hym. But he, this holy and untouched, is kylled,
not takyng honoure by violences whiche he neuer desired, and
then be we verye thrall that bestowe them on the unworthy,
neuer suing for them. But you doe purge your selves (O
Citizens) of this unkindnesse, in that you nowe do use suche
honoure towarde hym being dead.”

Then rehearsing the othe, that all shoulde keepe Caesar
and Caesars body, and if any one wente about to betraye
hym, that they were accursed that would not defende him: at
this he extolled hys voice, and helde up his handes to the
Capitoll, saying:

“O Jupiter, Countries defendour, and you other Gods, I am
ready to reuenge, as I sware and made execration, and when
it seemes good to my companions to allowe the decrees, I
desire them to aide me.”

At these plaine speeches spoken agaynst the Senate, an
uproare being made, Antony waxed colde, and recanted hys
wordes. “It seemeth, (O Citizens),” saide hee, “that the
things done haue not bin the worke of men but of Gods, and
that we ought to haue more consideration of the present,
than of the past, bycause the thyngs to come, maye bring us
to greater danger than these we haue, if we shall returne to
oure olde [dissentions], and waste the reste of the noble
men that be in the Cittie. Therefore let us send thys holy
one to the number of the blessed, and sing to him his due
hymne and mourning verse.”

When he had saide thus, he pulled up his gowne lyke a man
beside hymselfe, and gyrded it, that he might the better
stirre his handes: he stoode ouer the Litter, as from a
Tabernacle, looking into it and opening it, and firste
sang his Himne, as to a God in heauen. And to confirme he
was a God, he held up his hands, and with a swift voice he
rehearsed the warres, the fights, the victories, the nations
that he had subdued to his countrey, and the great booties
that he had sent, making euery one to be a maruell. Then
with a continuall crie,

“This is the only unconquered of all that euer came
to hands with hym. Thou (quoth he) alone diddest
reuenge thy countrey being iniured, 300 years, and
those fierce nations that only inuaded Rome, and only
burned it, thou broughtest them on their knees.”

And when he had made these and many other inuocations,
he tourned hys voice from triumphe to mourning matter,
and began to lament and mone him as a friend that had bin
uniustly used, and did desire that he might giue hys soule
for Caesars. Then falling into moste vehement affections,
uncouered Caesars body, holding up his vesture with a
speare, cut with the woundes, and redde with the bloude of
the chiefe Ruler, by the which the people lyke a Quire,
did sing lamentation unto him, and with this passion were
againe repleate with ire. And after these speeches, other
lamentations wyth voice after the Country custome, were sung
of the Quires, and they rehearsed again his acts and his hap.

Then made he Caesar hymselfe to speake as it were in a
lamentable sort, to howe many of his enimies he hadde done
good by name, and of the killers themselves to say as in an
admiration, “Did I saue them that haue killed me?” This the
people could not abide, calling to remembraunce, that all
the kyllers (only Decimus except) were of Pompey’s faction,
and subdued by hym, to whom, in stead of punishment, he had
giuen promotion of offices, gouernments of prouinces and
armies, and thought Decimus worthy to be made his heyre and
son by adoption, and yet conspired his death.[305]

[305] In Schweighäuser’s Edition II. cxliii. to cxlvi.

Now, this is not very like the oration in the play. It may be analysed and summarised as follows:

Antony begins by praising the deceased as a consul a consul, a friend a friend, a kinsman a kinsman. He recites the public honours awarded to Caesar as a better testimony than his private opinion, and accompanies the enumeration with provocative comment. He touches on Caesar’s sacrosanct character and the unmerited honours bestowed on those who slew him, but acquits the citizens of unkindness on the ground of their presence at the funeral. He avows his own readiness for revenge, and thus censures the policy of the Senate, but admits that that policy may be for the public interest. He intones a hymn in honour of the deified Caesar; reviews his wars, battles, victories, the provinces annexed and the spoils transmitted to Rome, and glances at the subjugation of the Gauls as the payment of an ancient score. He uncovers the body of Caesar and displays the pierced and blood-stained garment to the wrath of the populace. He puts words in the mouth of the dead, and makes him cite the names of those whom he had benefited and preserved that they should destroy him. And the people brook no more.

Thus Appian’s Antony differs from Shakespeare’s Antony in his attitude to his audience, in the arrangement of his material, and to a considerable extent in the material itself. Nevertheless, in some of the details the speeches correspond. It is quite possible that Shakespeare, while retaining Plutarch’s general scheme, may have filled it in with suggestions from Appian. The evidence is not very convincing, but the conjecture is greatly strengthened by the apparent loans from the same quarter in _Antony and Cleopatra_, which would show that he was acquainted with the English translation. See Appendix D.