"Séneca y Suetonio" en Julius Caesar de W. Shakespeare

Abstract

Tradicionalmente se ha mantenido que para los dramas de ambiente romano W. Shakespeare se inspiró en Plutarco. Esta teoría, reduccionista, a menudo ignora la penetración del humanismo en las islas, gracias al cual se conocieron las obras de Virgilio, Ovidio y Lucano primero, y las tragedias de Séneca y las biografías de Suetonio más tarde, particularmente en el Trinity College de Cambridge. Por otra parte, el creciente absolutismo inglés pudo servirse de las ideas políticas de Tácito; a su favor jugaba la similitud entre la monarquía Tudor y la monarquía de Nerón que inicialmente fomentaron y finalmente padecieron Lucano y Séneca. El pasado de Roma, personificado en el ejemplo de J. César, resulta admonitorio en la dinastía Estuardo: la llamada a la moderación del príncipe. De esta manera, mediante el exemplum, la obra conjuga dos objetivos escolares, la historia y la filosofía moral.

It has been traditionally held that William Shakespeare drew on Plutarch as the main source of his inspiration for his historical plays on Roman history. This simplistic theory ignores the humanist influence in the British Isles. It was through this humanistic influence of the Renaissance that first the works of Virgil, Ovid and Lucan, and at a later stage, the tragedies by Seneca and the biographies by Suetonius, became well known, especially among the scholars at Trinity College, Cambridge. Moreover, the spread of absolutism in England might have been inspired by Tacitus” political ideas. The similarity between the Tudor Monarchy and Nero's reign acted in favour of absolutism, at first supported by Lucan and Seneca who later on suffered the consequences. The history of Roma, as portrayed in the character of Julius Caesar, acted as a warning to the House of Stuart. This example can be interpreted as a call for moderation in the code of a prince. The play thus, by means of an exemplum, combines two scholastic objectives, namely, history and moral philosophy.