Note 25 — THE HANDLING OF THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT

In Pescetti the Priest’s recital of the omens consists of some one hundred and three lines. Muretus has Calpurnia’s recital to the nurse of the dream wherein she beheld Caesar’s bleeding body, and the following:

Calp:

Audere desine tu prius Tuaeque si adeo spernis uxoris metum Movere vatum oraculis minacibus, Periculosam qui tibi hanc lucem admonent: Si spectra, si te auspicia, si fibrae monent Cavere, et hunc meum timorem comprobant: Quid in paratam pertinax mortem ruis?

Caes:

Quando timorem ponere aliter non potes, Ne nos tibi queraris omnino nihil Tribuere, mittatur Senatus in hunc diem. Lines 343–52.

Hereupon D. Brutus protests to Caesar and the latter yields. Grévin has substantially the same account. For Muretus and Grévin I use Collischonn’s reprint. See Bibliography.