L’ira del Cesare di Plutarco in Shakespeare e Alfieri

In chapter 61 of the Life of Caesar, Plutarch tells that during the Lupercals of 44 bc Antonio attempted to crown Caesar. He refused the crown three times. Each refusal followed thunderous applause from the audience, which irritated Cesar. This confirmed to the senators his tyrannical aspirations and sparked the conspiracy. This narrative will be taken by Shakespeare and Alfieri. In The tragedy of Julius Caesar I, II, 160-241 and in Bruto minore I, I, 241-254, all the elements of Plutarch’s tale are present on stage: the celebration of the Lupercals, the small crown and, above all, the irritation that Cesar tries to hide. The bland verb παροξύνω (“to irritate”), used by Plutarch, becomes “angry” and “rabbia”in the tragedians, clearly manifesting the desire for tyranny. Through a syncretic comparison of three works by Plutarch (the Lives of Caesar, Antony and Brutus) and the two tragedies mentioned we will try to catch the influence of the reception of Plutarch’s opera in Shakespearean and Alfieri’s theater and to reflect, from a political perspective, on the representation of the anger in theater, in a case where a famous mighty is angry at the shame that he believes has been moved to himself.