 | Timoleon |  |
SCENE THE SECOND.
Timophanes, Demariste, Echilus.Dem.
Oh son; ... alas! ... what hast thou done, oh son?
A deed, more fitted to confirm the blot
Of tyranny, with which thou art aspersed,
Could'st thou have done than this? All shudder at it;
And, by it, thou hast forfeited for ever
Thy brother's love. Alas! who now can tell
What the result will be? ... Thy bosom friend,
Echilus, even him thou hast alienated:
Thou hast made thy mother also weep. Alas!
Too true, too true it is, thou broodest over
Both illegitimate and perilous schemes,
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The bandage, which did blind me in thy favour,
Thou, from my forehead, hast at length removed.
Tim.
Whence this extravagant and frantic grief?
Wherefore? What evil can result to thee?
Was Archidas by amity, or blood,
With thee connected? I perceive it clearly,
Thine is a borrowed grief.
Dem.
To me what evil?
What evils to thyself may thence ...
Ech.
And ought
Thence to result.
Dem.
Call'st thou the public hate,
Which I am forced to share with thee, no evil?
To have thy mother always trembling for thee?
To gain the hatred of my other son?
To see 'twixt you an everlasting discord? ...
Tim.
And must I hear you then, yourselves not vulgar,
Judge with the vulgar? Do thou with thy words,
I, by my actions, try to change my brother.
Archidas had, so long as he had breathed
The breath of life, in him, against myself,
Hatred, and anger, evermore transfused:
Yes, of my brother's fondness he usurped
The better part from me. This finally,
Among his many other crimes, appeared,
To me, the capital delinquency.
Ech.
He was too patriotic, and too upright;
This was his crime.—But hast thou recollected,
That to their country not exhausted quite,
Timoleon and Echilus yet remain? ...
Infatuate man! ... Ah! whither dost thou rush?
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I am yet faithful; and I thought thee so:
And so thou wert with me at first; a friend
Thou had'st in me, a friend I had in thee ...
By blood alone we are united now;
Ah spare, ah spare, this last remaining tie.
Behold me, I am one that loftily,
And loudly both profess and swear to be
The bitter foe of simulated virtue.—
Tim.
Less fickle than yourselves, I do not change
So suddenly as you my love to hate.
Dear above every thing I held you once,
And still I hold you: to regain my friend,
And brother, every means I will adopt.
Thy frank remonstrances offend me not:
But yet I hope, now that I have removed
The chiefest hindrance, to recover thee.
As to thee, mother, I have long ago
Fully convinced thee, that I would impose
A more efficient government on Corinth.
Let me not have to appease you all at once! ...
Dem.
I am offended for thy brother ...
Ech.
What? ...
Art thou impassive as respects thy country?
Dem.
I am a mother ...
Ech.
Of Timophanes.—
Dem.
Of both ...
Ech.
No, of Timoleon thou art not.
Dem.
Thou hearest him? ... Ah wretched me! ...
Tim.
Permit,
That I alone confront my brother's rage
Before thou hear him. It would be to thee,
To listen to his fierce rebukes, too painful.
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Converts of these: no evil can result
From thence to them: and, spite of his aversion,
I will, that with myself Timoleon share
That power, which now securely I possess.
From me, do not thou, by thyself dissent:
A blind love of thy country sways thee not:
Thou lov'st thy children, thou. Leave me awhile;
Perchance my brother will come here to me;
I would convince him first: and afterwards
Thou in our mutual joy shall bear a part.
Ech.
Is it so possible that he should yield,
As that myself should yield to thee ... ah say:
Art thou resolved, if he should not relent,
To follow thy infatuated schemes?
Think of it; speak ...
Dem.
—Echilus ... in my heart
What horrible presentiment I feel! ...
Ah! son, I pray thee; do not move at least
A step from hence, of which I know not first.
Tim.
I promise this to thee: now go in peace:
Nothing henceforward will I undertake
Without thy approbation: live secure;
I swear that I will not. I feel within me
A certainty that I shall be ere long
To thee the herald of domestic peace
As well established, as our public grandeur.
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