A note on Shakespeare's use of Plutarch

Answer: In using Plutarch's versions of the lives of Caeser, Brutus, and Antony for a single play, Shakespeare was faced with the problem of simplifying complex details. He has done this admirably. It was a stroke of genius on his part to avoid a mere chronological record of Caeser's life ending with his murder.

Instead of choosing this natural course, Shakespeare preferred to take a wider range; he made the fight against Caeserism, the struggle of a band of political conspirators against the ideas represented by Caeser which continued to be active even after Caeser's death and finally triumphed over the conspirators, the theme of the drama. Thus it was not the man Caeser, but the conspirators who fought against Caeserism that engaged Shakespeare's attention. Here he derived valuable hints from Plutarch, for Plutarch also was mainly concerned with a study of the character and personality of these men. Among the conspirators Cassius and Brutus were major. Shakespeare followed Plutarch in motivating Brutus's hostility to Caeser on disinterested political grounds, and that of Cassius on personal jealousy. It was Plutarch also who gave the hint to Shakespeare regarding the intimate personal relationship between Caeser and Brutus. A scholar of character like Shakespeare could not but be interested in the dramatic dilemma that this would provide. Indeed the conflict of personality between Caeser and Brutus in the opening scenes of the drama, between Antony and Brutus in the middle, and between Brutus and Cassius at the end, greatly interested Shakespeare, and his use of Plutarch was influenced by these considerations. He selected such materials from the three Plutarch-lives as could most serve his purpose. He took up and filled in many indications and proposals in them. Plutarch's orientation to Brutus's laconic epistolary fashion supplied Shakespeare with a hint for framing his oratorical style. In short, Plutarch supplied Shakespeare with precious indications as to character and episodes, with the help of these it remained for him to assemble the play and to fill out the scenes.

Perhaps Shakespeare's somewhat unsatisfactory treatment of Caeser's character is due to Plutarch's apparent want of sympathy with the Roman dictator.