ABSTRACT
To expatiate on Cresar's past exploits and the reforms which as Dictator he was planning for Rome, his acts of generosity (including his honouring of his late enemy Brutus) would be to make Brutus into the criminal Dante thought him. On the other hand, the assassination of Cresar, the strong ruler who had brought order out of chaos, must not seem a virtuous act. Shakespeare was no republican but a defender of the Tudor monarchy which had brought peace out of civil war and was always afraid of a relapse. Yet in following Plutarch's portrait of Brutus and making him a noble sinner, an altruistic murderer, the dramatist must not give tangible proof that Brutus' suspicions of Cresar's intentions were wrong.
