University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

CLODIUS, GABINIUS.
CLODIUS.
So, he's my own! How quick the old fox doubled!
Why, what a world is this! Behold that man,
The noblest born in Rome; wealthy and old,
And seeming virtuous; yet a province buys him:
And shall a peasant of Arpinum check
The course of my success, and soar a pitch
Of virtue, which our Nobles cannot reach?

GABINIUS.
Say'st thou, our Nobles? Why they are his vassals,
And he ambitious sits among the clouds,
Like a strange meteor that appalls the world;
Whilst we the sons of earth look up aghast
And deprecate his wrath.

CLODIUS.
Not so, Gabinius,
High as he is, this arm shall reach him yet,
And crush him in his pride; the bubble broke
All men will mock its emptiness; and thus
When flamy comets vex our frighted sphere,
Tho' now the nations melt with awful fear,
From the dread omen fatal ills presage,
Dire plague and famine, and war's wasting rage;
In time some brighter genius may arise,
And banish signs and omens from the skies,
Expound the comet's nature and its cause,
Assign its periods and prescribe its laws;
Whilst man grown wise, with his discoveries fraught,
Shall wonder how he needed to be taught.