ABSTRACT
Julius Ctesar only concrete reference in the play to any evil act done by the dead dictator. Brutus did not mention it earlier (11.1.10-34) because Shakespeare wished him to base his decision entirely on principle, and the decision was to be seen as without a sufficient cause. Shakespeare would find it not only in the Life of Brutus (inj. 115) but also in the Antonius (inj. 261), but he is following the former biography closely here. The argument about which of the two is the better soldier is invented by Shakespeare but based on his knowledge that Cassius 'was the elder man' and a more experienced general, and also exceedingly choleric (inj. 110). The quarrel deepens when Brutus, self-righteously asserting his inability to extort money 'from the hard hands of peasants', says that Cassius had refused him 'certain sums of gold'. Actually Cassius' friends had urged him to refuse it but he had sent Brutus a third of all he had (Brutus, inj. I I 1). So Cassius is right when he says 'I denied you not.' In Plutarch the poet's intrusion stops their quarrel only temporarily. In Shakespeare the better nature and mutual loyalty of the two friends have already brought about a reconciliation when he forces his way into the tent and serves as a comic epilogue which also makes it appear that the hot-tempered Cassius has a richer sense of humour than Brutus, who chides the fatuous intruder impatiently, thus making a link with what follows. The idea of making him a bad poet comes from North's doggerel translation of a perfectly good line quoted in Plutarch from Homer.
