Die Verwandlung der senecanischen Tragödie in Marc-Antoine Murets “Julius Caesar” und Jacques Grévins “César”

Abstract

In 1547 Marc-Antoine Muret wroteJulius Caesar, the first tragedy by a French author with an exclusively historical plot. While imitating the dramatic structure of Seneca's tragedies, he fundamentally changed the nature of the tragic conflict, transferring it from the character of the tragic hero to the clash of two basically positive principles, monarchy and Republican liberty. Muret's Caesar does not plan a revengeful crime as the Senecan heroes did; he is rather the successful statesman, ready to die after having won the victory over the entire world, and his apotheosis is soon fulfilled by the gods. On the other side are the Republican heroes Brutus and Cassius who succeed in killing the tyrant Caesar. The chorus, however, interprets the events as results of the everlasting reversals of powers. Therefore there is no monarchic tendency to be found in Muret's drama, but the unending clash between political principles. In 1560 Jacques Grevin reworked the Latin tragedy of his master Muretus for the French stage, reinforcing the themes of political strife and inevitable change of power, while avoiding to glorify Caesar and monarchy. This was the period when—some years later—Michel de Montaigne would underline the two sides of Caesar, his genius and his destructive power, and when Etienne de la Boetie would criticize the actual state of slavery of the French people.