University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

A Street: the Portal of Cicero's Palace at one Side. A Crowd of Patricians from the Banquet, with Garlands on their Heads, and Torches and Swords in their Hands, rush in tumultuously, led by Cethegus. They stop and gather round him as he addresses them.
FIRST PATRICIAN.
Silence!

CETHEGUS.
Roman youth!

SECOND PATRICIAN
(keeping back the crowd).
Gallant Cethegus speaks—

CETHEGUS.
Patricians! Shall the tale be told in Rome,
That upstarts should engross the consulate?

FIRST PATRICIAN.
By Romulus! it is a common shame
To every nobleman!

CETHEGUS.
Who's Cicero?
A peasant; an Arpinian. No man knows
This Consul's grandfather. A talking slave,
That makes his bread by squabbles in the courts.

SECOND PATRICIAN.
A dastard! that wears armour in the streets,
To make the rabble roar for him.

CETHEGUS.
Come on!
Yonder's the upstart's house. There's not a rogue
That rubs our horses' heels, or sweeps our gates,
But may be consul now. There's not a year,
But some base Sabine, or Apulian clown,
Will beard us at the elections. All he wants
Is cunning, and low flattery of the tribes,
To seize the fasces.

THIRD PATRICIAN.
We must have him down.

FOURTH PATRICIAN.
We'll fire the house, and give the orator,
More than his father had, a funeral pile.

CETHEGUS.
Now to your work, Patricians! If his guards—

SECOND PATRICIAN
(recoiling).
Troops in the house?

CETHEGUS.
Ay—lictors, Greeks, and slaves!
We'll storm his garrison; we'll make him show
His generalship!

THIRD PATRICIAN
(laughing).
He was a general once.

FIRST PATRICIAN.
Ay, in Cilicia; where he swears he fought—

CETHEGUS.
The highwaymen! [Shouts and laughing.

Now strike—for Catiline!

[They rush within the Gates. The Scene closes.