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Liberty and Responsibility in Plutarch and Shakespeare
This List Is By:
Quentin Taylor
Resident Scholar Liberty Fund, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana
Topic
The conference will explore the dynamics between liberty, responsibility, and personal ambition in Shakespeare’s three Roman plays, Coriolanus, Julius Ceasar, and Antony and Cleopatra, against the backdrop of his chief source, Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. These works form a rich body of literature on the tensions between liberty, responsibility, and personal ambition during Rome’s tumultuous transitions from monarchy to republic and from republic to empire. Both Plutarch and Shakespeare are concerned with the factional strife of ancient politics as well as the nature of military and political expertise. Both writers also focus on leaders who are conquerors-turned-statesmen within a republic either newly established or in its waning stages. As conquerors they earn honor for their prowess in war; as statesmen they meet death for their failures to successfully negotiate the complex demands of public life. Martial virtue, the consummate virtue for the Romans, makes them either unable to deal effectively with civil strife, or inclined towards actions that exacerbate it. In the grandeur of their mistakes and the reversal of their fortunes they are tragic figures, both god-like and deeply human. They embody in their careers a problem that was of vital interest to both ancient Rome and early modern England: the world-historical individual whose military exploits help secure conditions of liberty within the state, but whose pursuit of personal ends, be it honor or pleasure, inclines him towards tyranny or conduct unbefitting a leader.
Session I: Coriolanus I: Heroic Identity and the Body Politic
In Coriolanus, Shakespeare’s most political play, the early Roman republic provides the historical backdrop for the exploration of a number of key issues regarding the theory and practice of popular government. Based on Plutarch’s “Life of Coriolanus,” the play probes such questions as the relation between class conflict and political development, foreign war and internal politics, martial virtue and civic leadership. In Acts I and II neither the aristocratic nor democratic party are portrayed in a favorable light, as patrician arrogance is countered by plebeian jealously. If the nobles’ contempt for the people betrays the seeds of despotism, the demagoguery of the tribunes points to tyranny of the majority. In the absence of a constitutional framework to resolve the crisis, Rome teeters on the verge of civil war.
Plutarch, Plutarch’s Lives. The Translation called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and Revised by A.H. Clough, in 5 volumes (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1906). Chapter: CORIOLANUS.
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1772/93921 on 2008-08-21
Session II: Coriolanus II: Revenge and Humility
In the second half of the play the tribune-led plebians succeed in banishing Coriolanus — war-hero and leader of the aristocratic faction — from Rome. The conflict involves principles as much as personalities: patrician rule based on merit versus popular rule based on numbers. This “double worship” — and the absence of a third party to moderate the extremes — points to the solution of the mixed regime, which the Roman republic eventually came to resemble. More broadly, the polarization of power and values in Coriolanus speaks to the dangers of class-based politics and the need to reconcile the claims of virtue with demands for equality.
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare), ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (Oxford University Press, 1916).
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1619 on 2008-08-21
Session III: Julius Ceasar I: Public Duty, Private Conscience, and Tyrannicide
The pompous and aging autocrat of Shakespeare’s play is largely a caricature of the vigorous colossus found in the pages of Plutarch. The biographer covers the whole of Caesar’s public life, from his colorful youth and extraordinary conquests to his dictatorship and death. While more interested in moral character than political events, Plutarch’s “Life of Caesar” provides on object lesson in personal ambition, military skill, and civil leadership. It also supplies a vivid account of the Roman republic in its death throes and the birth of the Roman empire.
Plutarch, Plutarch’s Lives. The Translation called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and Revised by A.H. Clough, in 5 volumes (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1906). Chapter: CÆSAR.
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1774/93962 on 2008-08-21
Session III: Continued
Plutarch’s “Life of Brutus” is a case study of the philosopher in politics, the man of virtue and principle who turns against his protector (Caesar) for the cause of liberty. If he was (in Shakespeare’s words) “the noblest Roman of them all,” he was not the most astute: the death of Caesar could not have restored the republic, but served to hasten its demise. What then was the wisdom of the act? It is telling that Plutarch compares Brutus with Dion, Plato’s friend who rid Sicily of a tyrannt, but who was in turn struck down. Like Brutus, Dio was a man of culture and high ideals, but his struggle against tyranny ended in death.
Plutarch, Plutarch’s Lives. The Translation called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and Revised by A.H. Clough, in 5 volumes (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1906). Chapter: MARCUS BRUTUS.
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1775/93979 on 2008-08-21
Session IV: Julius Ceasar II: Moral Virtue and Tragic Error
Drawing on Plutarch, Shakespeare’s first great tragedy explores the perils of politics and conspiracy in the late Roman republic. The real tragic figure, however, is not Caesar (who is killed half-way through the play), but Brutus, whose noble nature and love of liberty lead to assassination, civil war, and his own death. That the envious Cassius has a better grasp of “means and ends” than the principled Brutus raises interesting questions about the methods required for success in politics. Is there a point where adherence to principle and moral integrity become a liability even in a good cause?
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (Oxford University Press, 1916).
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1616 on 2008-08-21
Session V: Antony and Cleopatra I: War and the Shift in Power from Republic to Empire
As a tragic figure, Antony stands somewhere between Caesar and Brutus. While rightly critical of Antony’s faults — his inconstancy and dissipations — Plutarch is not blinded to his virtues — courage, generosity, humanity. These very contradictions in character make Antony a compelling study. His love affair with the “irresistible” Cleopatra is among history’s best examples of the dangers of mixing the personal with the political. Bereft of his judgment by the lady pharaoh, Antony becomes the pawn of events instead of the master of his destiny. His fate largely speaks for itself.
Plutarch, Plutarch’s Lives. The Translation called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and Revised by A.H. Clough, in 5 volumes (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1906). Chapter: ANTONY.
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1775/93976 on 2008-08-21
Session VI: Antony and Cleopatra II: Dying Honor, Actium and its Aftermath
If the Roman republic died before Ceasar’s death, the Roman empire was well advanced before the triumph of Octavian at Actium. In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare rounds off the cycle of events that began with the Ides of March and concluded with the unification of the empire under Augustus. The period of calm that followed — the pax Romana — suggests that Rome could no longer be governed as a republic, but required an emperor, armies, and administrators. For some time, however, the forms of the republic remained. How does this apply to the current American republic and its government?
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare), ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (Oxford University Press, 1916).
Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/1635 on 2008-08-21