a basis for his ownis Julius Caesar. As stated earlier, Shakespeare primarily used Sir Thomas Norths Englishtranslation of Jaques Amyots French translation of Plutarchs Latin The lives of Noble Greeciansand Romans. Norths Plutarch was well read during Shakespeares time, printed in three editions,the first in 1579, the second in 1595 and the third in 1603, the third edition was then reprinted in1612. The 1579 edition consisted of 1,175 pages, and contained the lives of fifty men, each with amedallion profile following their story. Its fairly easy to see why this book was so popular to theRenaissance reader. Plutarch offered in depth character analyses of past heroes, and also discussedthe causes and results of the Roman Civil wars. Plutarch even drew comparisons between nobleGreeks and their Roman counterparts, writing parallel lives allowed the reader to easily comparethe two societies. Many Elizabethans saw the Roman civil wars as a parallel to their own Wars ofthe Roses and so Norths translation was digested eagerly by its audience. This was also due inpart to the fact that The Lives presented these characters as the shapers of history, and thatPlutarch was believed to be an impartial judge due to the fact that about one hundred years hadpassed since these events occurred.While Holinshed was educated, he was still a somewhat of a rustic bourgeois. SirThomas North, however, was a cultivated aristocrat who wrote with flair and a sense of thedramatic. Due to the fine prose that North wrote, it has been said that entire sections could easilybe changed into the blank verse Shakespeare used in Julius Caesar. However, during my research,it became clear that Shakespeare did not borrow wholesale. Instead, Shakespeare would take anindividual line, alter its wording and insert that into his play.In Macbeth Shakespeare took entire scenes almost directly from his source. In Caesarhowever he took the accounts of Caesar, Brutus, and Antony in Pluta...
