University of Virginia Library

ACT IV.

SCENE, a Room in the Court.
Enter Lepidus and Salome.
Lep.
Oh! Madam! I was in a dreadfull fright;
Had you appear'd in our young Emperors sight.

Sal.
Sir, I have no temptations to allure
So great a Prince, and therefore I'm secure.

Lep.
Oh! you've all qualities, can be desir'd;
You are by all, but by your self admir'd.
Y'are to a wonder fair, and yet not vain,
Your innocence and fame have not a stain.
Y'are humble tho' of high extraction sprung;
Devout, and Grave, and Prudent, tho' young.
Like all your Fathers works, your worth is high,
With great delight perus'd by every eye.
Oh! if kind Heaven wou'd grant my hearts request,
This work shou'd be immortal like the rest.

Sal.
This Charity I thankfully receive;
But affairs call me hence, I take my leave.

Lep.
Affairs? no, Madam, you are too severe;
Why shou'd not you Angels sometimes appear:
But, Angel like, you with the Heavens converse,
And with poor mortals will have no commerce.

Sal.
Sir, you oft talk to me of Love,

Lep.
I do;
And shew Religion in admiring you.
If o're my heart your Vertue had no sway,
Ah! what Celestial Law should I obey?
What Revelation shou'd not I disdain;
What miracle to me not shew'd in vain.

Sal.
Till joyn'd in faith, our hearts, Sir, must not joyn;
Our Laws, which many wonders prove Divine,
From Forreign Love strictly enclose our race:
Shou'd I climb o're those Walls to your embrace,
And boldly lay all piety aside,
You wou'd not, Sir, accept me for your Bride,
For to Religion shou'd I prove untrue,
You cou'd not hope I wou'd keep faith with you.
I sin if to your Love I lend an ear,
Therefore, in generous Charity forbear.

Lep.
Oh! 'tis the nature of a flame to rove,
My eyes will in your presence talk of Love.
My heavy sighs will silently complain,
And own my secret languishings and pain.

Sal.
Oh! I'm afraid you own your love elsewhere,
And it will reach your angry Emperors ear.
Have you confest your Love to none.

Lep.
I have;
I talk so much of Love, Men think I rave.
I mention not your name; but fair and young.
Lovely, and Love, dwell always on my Tongue;
And these serve me for every reply.
Some ask where Cæsar is—in Love—say I.
Some ask what new rais'd Forces we prepare,
Against the spring;—I answer, young and fair.
Some, if the Towns, that Cæsar took, were strong;
I answer, wond'rous beautiful and young.

Sal.
Oh! Sir! avoid me, least I shou'd be won,
And then you share our fate, and be undone.
To Cæsar's Image we'll not humbly fall;
And now his fury flames around us all.
A horror sits on ev'ry Jewish brow;
Our Nation has a frightful aspect now.
Sir, for my peace, give your Addresses o'r,
And for your safety never see me more.

Lep.
Ah! cruel doom! and not to be obey'd;
Who can live always in a mournful shade?
Well, tho' your Laws, and you, all hope deny,
Sweet Maid! I must love on.—

Sal.
Ah! so must I.
[Aside.
Sir, pray retire, I see my Father near;
He'll be displeas'd if he shou'd find you here.

Lep.
Since you command, I must, and will withdraw;
But I hope yet, in your dividing Law,
To find a passage, where our hearts may meet,
And have delights, as innocent, as sweet.

[Ex. Lep. Sal. at several doors.
Enter Caligula, Attendants, Guards.
Cal.
I went for a dead miracle of Art,
And a fair living Wonder charm'd my heart;
A Divine beauty! she exceeds all praise:
I sent Vitellius for her, and he stays.
How dares he let my pleasure be delay'd?
He knows I'm not of patient metal made.
'Tis dangerous my appetites to pall,
Or make 'em await a minute, when they call.
Enter Consuls, and Senators.
What wou'd you have?

1 Cons.
Cæsar was pleas'd to send
His Orders to us, that we shou'd attend.

Cal.
My Lords, you are all deep in Cæsar's debt,
For Cæsars Wars; and crimes you oft commit.

1 Cons.
Into Court-mysteries we dare not pry;
Cæsar's Commands are writ (we know not why)
In Characters, which can be read by none;
So into faults we fall, to us unknown.

Cal.
You say my characters cannot be read;
Our Roman Priests, and Lawyers, earn their Bread
By turning Laws, and Jupiter's Commands,
To mystick stuff, no mortal understands.
Thus they deceive you, yet ne'r repine;
You are their fools, why shou'd you not be mine?

2 Cons.
Sir, when your Will you legibly express,
We to our duty readily address

Cal.
No; for my Wars, when I exact my due,
No streams are louder murmurers than you.
The World is all my own, 'tis all Crown-Land:
I reign from Heav'n to Hell;—perhaps beyond.
You live on the Estates I'm pleas'd to lend,
Yet you'd have me upon your Alms depend.
You are the Consuls.

1 Con.
Yes, great Sir, we are.

Cal.
Those Offices you shall no longer bear
I'll chuse a Consul, that has Youth and Force,
Spirit and Fire; I'll chuse my fav'rite Horse.
Y'are ruld by Brutes, who are not half so wise;
How often Fools to Magistracy rise?
Elephants carry Castles in the East;
Here Tow'rs and Towns often support a Beast.
You'll honour, only for his noble breed,
A Blockhead, and why not a noble Steed?
Our Roman Priests rule ev'ry Soul and Purse,
Yet they've no more Religion than my Horse.
Begone! begone! the charming beauty's won;
Through all my veins enlivening pleasures run.
[Ex. Cons.
The news! the news!

Sen. and enter Lucius, Vitellius.
Vit.
Sir, ere she was aware,
We snatch'd her up, and forc'd her to a Chair;
And then she shriek'd, and tore her beautious hair.

Cal.
I would lose nothing of her, 'tis confest,
Except her hair; thou hast brought all the rest.

Vit.
Yes, Sir.

Cal.
Go, bring her.

[Enter Julia, forc'd by a Guard.
Jul.
I'm in Cæsar's pow'r;
I came to Rome in a dark fatal hour.
Oh! Cæsar!

[She kneels.
Cal.
Goddess!—so no doubt you are;
No mortal can be so divinely fair.
Nay, nay, at my request, sweet Madam, rise;
Let all your Graces entertain my eyes:
To Cæsar grant the infinite delight
To touch, and see a hand so soft and white.
Were all thy other beauties cheats of Art,
This hand might palm a passion on my heart.
Where have you liv'd?

Jul.
In Woods remote from hence;
And, till this hour, in peaceful innocence.

Cal.
In Woods? there were no shades, whilst you shone there:
Why wou'd you not at Cæsar's Court appear,
But hide, in a remote and lonely Grove,
The only perfect Workmanship of Jove?
I saw you walk by Tibur, all alone,
In a fair Garden, bord'ring on my own;
And in amazing rapture, and transport,
I sent this Lord to bring you to my Court.

Jul.
Sir, I am married to a valiant Lord,
Who has serv'd Cæsar nobly with his Sword.

Cal.
He loves thee not; else he wou'd love to shew
The happiness in thee his Stars bestow:
For all Mankind are ostentatious, vain;
And pleasures, when expos'd, most entertain.
Men think their fortunes droop, when they're conceal'd,
And pleasure sweetest, when 'tis air'd reveal'd.
And of my Empire too, he has possest
A part, I value above all the rest;
By Venus, I wou'd rather quit my Throne.
Madam, I may, and will assume my own.

Jul.
A thousand painful deaths I'll rather chuse.

Cal.
I die a painful death if you refuse.
Madam, my Time, nay more, my Life you waste;
Yes, Madam, now 'tis Treason to be chaste.

Jul.
Sir, for the World I'd not my Honour lose.

Cal.
Oh! I'm the Fountain whence all Honour flows.
Yes, Madam; sure you are not to be told,
Men honour nothing more than Pow'r, and Gold.
I can make Vertue scorn'd, and Vice esteem'd;
I can make Hell ador'd, and Heav'n blasphem'd.
Success, Dominion, and the longest Sword,
Make any Creeds believ'd, or Gods ador'd.

Jul.
Oh! save me! save me! all you Pow'rs above!

Cal.
I will hear nothing, from that voice, but love.

Jul.
Assist me, gracious Gods! without delay!

Cal.
Does she love noise? then let my musick play.

[Cal. forces her out; she shrieks, and the Musick plays. Vit. follows. Enter at another door Cesonia, looking in a glass.
Ces.
This Bath has cleans'd my blood, and made it thin;
Has reviv'd all the Lillies in my skin,
The Roses in my cheeks, with such a red
The blushing morning leaves her watry Bed.
This way my Cæsar went, as I'm inform'd—
The door is shut the Castle must be storm'd.

(She knocks, Vit. answers within.
Vit.
Who's there?—

Ces.
Your Empress.
Enter Vitellius.
I look wondrous well.
[She looks in the Glass.
Now all my Sex, nay, I my self excell:
Fresh Roses in my Cheeks now sweetly blow.
Your Emp'ror went this way not long ago.

Vit.
Over that Beauty? Yes, I must confess,
That has been long his only Paradise.
There his heart liv'd, there his Lips often stray'd;
But Cæsar now is by new Beauty sway'd.
(Aside.
Madam, your pleasure with your humble slave?

Ces.
I've business—

Vit.
With your Glass;—I see you have.
Well, we have now three Empresses in Town;
This beauteous Empress here, whose falling Crown,
Unknown to her, sits loosely on her head;
One Empress in a Glass, and one i'Bed.

(Aside.
Ces.
I think I never look so clear and fair;
I'll steal on Cæsar, like a shape of air.

Vit.
Most Sacred Madam, Cæsar now retires
For great affairs, and privacy desires.

Ces.
From me?

Vit.
From all the World, for half an hour.

Ces.
Dare you oppose me? then I've lost my power;
And some new beauty over Cæsar Reigns:
My blood will start out of my swelling Veins.

Vit.
Cæsar indeed, too often to his cost,
Injures himself and you; himself the most:
And your misfortune you have rightly guest.

Ces.
My heart can never have a moments rest.
Why do I loyter whilst my int'rests bleed?
(She offers to go, and he interposes.
Ha! stop me: You are a bold bawd indeed
Wert thou a flaming Mountain I'd not stay,
But thro' thy burning bowels force my way.

Enter Caligula.
Cal.
How now? from whence is this presumptious noise
Who dares break in on Cæsar's Privacies?

Ces.
Love is the offender, Sir; Love urg'd me on
To stay your heart, e're 'tis for ever gone.
For I am told, my Interests decline;
You have found Beauty that charms more than mine.

Cal.
Come, Madam, y'are Luxurious, Haughty, Vain;
Cæsar you love, because you love to Reign.

Ces.
Cæsar I love more than his Glorious Crown;
And I love Cæsar let him smile or frown.
Ætna did never with more fury burn:
I love to madness, and as madly mourn.

Cal.
Oh! you are mad no doubt, for who is not?
Cowards are mad, they fear they know not what.
What death is to the living ne're was shewn:
Life is not more to the unborn unknown.
The brave are mad, for fame they'll madly die,
Which after death they hope not to enjoy.
The Learn'd are mad, and madly tear their brains
For knowledge; which no mortal e're attains.
And what confusion from Learn'd madness springs,
Among Religions, Laws, States, Realms, and Kings?
And yet in Schools, where thoughtfull madness Reigns
The mad are free, and Books are bound in Chains:
The Vitious are all mad, by Laws confin'd:
The Vertuous are more mad, themselves they bind:
And Jove was mad, when he made mad Mankind.
There's one great flaw runs through the Earth and Sky;
And ev'ry God and Man is mad, but I.

Ces.
Wou'd I were mad; I shou'd be more at ease,
And have no sense of all my Miseries.
New Beauties vanquish Cæsar ev'ry hour;
Then how does raging grief my heart devour?
My heart to Cæsar fixt, more torment feels,
Than if he dragg'd me at his Chariot wheels.

Cal.
I love, and hunt variety, 'tis true:
And does not Mother nature love it too?
Good Gods! how does she vary humane mold?
She often makes new faces o'the Old.
If any have in Life continued long,
We always say they're Old, we do 'em wrong;
And if we call'd 'em Young, 'tis but their due,
Their Shapes and Features are entirely new.
How oft does nature change us e're we die?
She loves new faces, then why shou'd not I?
In chace of change my Nature loves to run,
Yet to amazement I have doted on.
Two years and more, I have thy will obey'd;
Others enjoy'd seem in a night decay'd.
They've sprung to Cæsar's Bed, young, lovely, gay;
And I have thought 'em old by break o'day,
Have thought 'em dead with age: and I've decreed
To burn 'em or embowel 'em with speed.
But to thy arms I've been two years confin'd;
Th'art an Enchanttess and canst fix the wind,
Back to its spring canst make a torrent run,
And stop the fiery Chariot o'the Sun.
The Beauty only cou'd not have the Power
To fix my heart: never see Cæsar more.

Ces.
Oh! these eternal Tempests who can bear?
I'll rather sink into profound despair.
I'm hourly broken on a golden shore,
A barren beach cou'd not afflict me more.
I never in your presence will appear;
Ill Labour to forget you ever were.
No Image of you shall my griefs renew:
And so a long farewell to Love and you.

Cal.
Come back?

Ces.
Only to love, and mourn in vain,
And be a follower, id my Rivals train?

Cal.
I'll have thee wrack'd, to make thee own the art,
Which thus eternally enslaves my heart.
When any one but thee I've oft embrac'd,
Corrupted Water has a sweeter tast.
But thee I never can abandon long:
Thy tempting Beauty, and Inchanting Tongue,
Soon make the wandring Gods of Love return;
And now once more with violence I burn.

Ces.
Oh! Cæsar, Cæsar! tempt my heart no more:
For can I moderately Love, Adore,
A Prince so Great, so Gracefull, so Divine?
Ah! what do I enjoy whilst Cæsar's mine?
And when I loose his heart, does he believe
That I can calmly, moderately grieve?

Cal.
I know in Love my Godhead I exert,
Therefore I'm lov'd by thy voluptuous heart.
Cast from thy mind all jealousie and fear;
I'll ne're forsake thee, by my Life I swear.

Ces.
Your heart no beauty scarce an hour endures:
I could dwell years upon a kiss o'yours.

Cal.
Thou art a Golden Harp Divinely tun'd,
What Statue wou'd not dance to such a sound?
Rase from thy memory my sinfull hours,
And all my little vagabond amours;
They're meteors, and like other vagrants poor,
Soon wast their fires, and then appear no more.
Others no more the riots can supply
Of such an Epicure in Love as I;
Than a Plebeian fortune can support
My Guards, my Fleets, my Armies, and my Court.
But my excursions from thy arms improve
Thy joys and mine, and make new springs in Love.
So an Arabian gains by his retreats,
The livelier sense of his o'recoming sweets.

Ces.
Cost what it will, to Cæsar's arms I'll fly,
I cannot pay too dear for so much joy.

(She runs to Cæsar's embraces.
Cal.
Oh! Welcome to my arms my Charming Love?

Ces.
Welcome to mine; my young Illustrious Jove.
Oh! my excess of Love gluts Cæsar's heart.
If I were wise I'd temp'rate Love with art;
But I am too immoderately kind.

Cal.
Have I a temp'rate and a mod'rate mind?
Is Cæsar to thy heart no better known?
Give me extravagant delights or none.
Mod'rate delight is but a waking dream:
And of all pleasures Love is the supreme.
And therefore Love immoderate Love deserves:
Excess o'recomes, but moderation starves.
Fear not my wandrings; for go where I will,
I'm in my Empresses dominion still.

Ces.
And tho' he wonders, I love Cæsar still.
Cæsar! methinks the name of Cæsar charms.
Cæsar I love, tho' in a Rivals arms.
More in my own embraces, I confess:
And I will Love to infinite excess.

Cal.
Love to excess, th'art infinitely fair,
In my delights I can no limits bear.
But (for what reason never cou'd be known)
Our joys have bounds, and our desires have none.

(Ex. Cal. Ces. Attendants, Guards.
Enter Valerius Asiaticus.
Val. A.
Oh! I have met with News, which makes me flame;
And every eye upbraids me with my shame.
My services have met a kind reward:
The hour I quitted my Domestick Guard,
The Emperors Bawds ravish'd my Wife away;
And he's devouring now the Luscious prey.
She comes—
Enter Julia.
Oh! Julia! what has Cæsar done?

Jul.
Oh! my Lord! leave me to my griefs alone.
Do not look on me, I'm a hatefull sight,
And long to hide in everlasting night.
As in my Garden I walk'd all alone,
Securely, as I thought, unseen, unknown,
The Emperor, from an Apartment nigh,
Often beheld me with a greedy eye,
And forc'd me thence.—Let me not tell the rest;
Oh! thou most wrong'd of Men, and yet the best.

Val. A.
New Giants have bound Jove, so he lies still,
And lets this filthy Tyrant take his fill
Of Whoredom, Blood, Rapes, Incest, what he will.
Had Cæsar ravish'd from me all my Lands,
Bottomless treasures, numberless commands,
But to thy beauty never had approach'd,
Had left me thee unblemish'd, and untouch'd;
My heart is so devoted to thy love,
I wou'd not have chang'd happiness with Jove.

Jul.
Oh! my dear Lord, your wrongs with patience bear,
Trust not your dang'rous passions to the air.

Val. A.
Revenge, revenge, my love I must pursue,
The Tyrant with more ease I can subdue.
And fear him not; for as the lofty Sky,
And bright full Moon, attract a mad man's eye,
This gawdy Tyrant's meditations gaze
On the bright splendors that around him blaze,
And so to others no regard he pays.
Like a fierce Panther I will hunt my prey,
And with his blood wash all my spots away.
Come, let me lead thee home.

Jul.
Can you endure
To touch, or to approach one so impure?
I hate to touch my self; to draw my breath
It makes me sick; and I am sick to death.
For Love I prize, for Love I lose my life;
I liv'd your chaste, and die your martyr'd Wife.

Val. A.
Oh! Cæsar! Cæsar! thou shalt feel my Sword;
Shall is too sluggish, and too faint a word.
The Tyrant's fallen, on his Neck I tread;
He's dying by my Sword; nay more, he's dead.
But can one death for all his crimes atone?
He breaks thy Laws: Oh! Nature! break thy own
Let him have many Lives, be often born,
That he may often be in pieces torn.