This, in style, sentiment, and wording is closely parallel to the exclamation of Brutus on reading the notes:
“Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe? What, Rome? My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was called a King. ‘Speak, strike, redress.’—Am I entreated To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise If the redress will follow, thou receivest Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!”
The exclamatory style is particularly noteworthy, as it occurs frequently in the parallels.
A peculiar difference in treatment, but a striking parallel in content, is to be found in a portion of the Brutus-Cassius scene.[93] In Pescetti, Brutus enters the action fully resolved, and though Cassius is already in the plot, that cautious conspirator has his doubts as to Caesar’s vulnerability. Brutus thereupon indulges in an argument curiously similar to that used later by Cassius in Shakespeare’s play when he is striving to arouse Brutus. In Pescetti, Cassius says of Caesar:
“Tu sai, ch’egli è feroce, e ne’ perigli Non si sgomenta punto, anzi diviene Allor più ardito, e coraggioso, quando Maggior vede il periglio.”[94]—P. 24.
“. . . . . E siasi, nulla Li gioverà l’ardir, nulla la forza, Che non potrà, se tutto acciaio ei fosse Resister al furor di trenta, c’hanno Posta la propria vita in abbandono Per liberar la patria. O Cassio, credi Tu, ch’io non sappia, ch’in cotesto tuo Petto non meno ardir si chiude, e serra, Ch’in quel di Giulio? e che cotesto braccio Non è del suo men nerboruto, e forte?”[95]
_Cassius_— “I had as lief not be as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself. I was born free as Caesar; so were you. We both have fed as well, and we can both Endure the winter’s cold as well as he.”[96]
It is remarkable that in both dramas the authors found it necessary to convince one of their conspirators that Caesar was physically the same as other men.
The Brutus of Pescetti is accorded the same high estimate by his countrymen as the Brutus of Shakespeare. Cassius refers to him as “Il mio Bruto” and lauds him as
“Bruto sovrano pregio, e gloria della Romana gioventù, Bruto, in cui splende Ogni prisco valor, cui chiama il cielo A gloriose, et immortali imprese.”—P. 15.