How Julius Caesar drew on Plutarch's Lives
A documented line of influence: William Shakespeare demonstrably engaged Plutarch’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Plutarch's Lives
Plutarch · c. 110
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare · c. 1599
ShakespeareRelevance
9/10
On Julius Caesar’s page
- Julius Caesar follows Plutarch's Lives of Caesar, Brutus, and Antony so closely it's effectively the play's source code, read through North's 1579 translation
- The assassination, the funeral, the falling-out at Philippi — all are Plutarch's events, dramatized in order
- Read the three Lives and you'll see how much of the play Shakespeare found already waiting in the prose
On Plutarch's Lives’s page
- The Lives of Caesar, Brutus, and Antony are the single main source of Julius Caesar — Shakespeare's action tracks Plutarch's events directly
- He read them in Sir Thomas North's 1579 English and followed the biographies scene by scene
- This is the clearest case of Shakespeare turning Plutarch's history straight into theatre