 | The Tragedy of Sertorius |  |
SCEN. X.
Loud shouts: a Flourish.Lictors, bearing Fasces; Roman Officers; then Sertorius; attended by Cassius, Norbanus, Crassus, Ligurius. Is met in like manner by Perpenna, attended by Manlius, Grecinus, &c. They view each other.
Perp.
Fame, which to mighty deeds extends her wings,
Has, from the Confines of wide-spreading Gaul,
To view a Man famous as ancient Gods,
Drawn me Perpenna, to admire thy Fate.
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Great as the Founder of Imperial Rome:
Who, like a God, does with his presence awe.
Give here our Standard, now no more our own;
Lictors, your Fasces prostrate at his feet;
And all you Chiefs, which own'd me for your head,
Pay here Allegiance: for Perpenna vows,
By the blest light which guilds the Day, he lives
Wholly devoted to Sertorius will.
Sert.
You make me blush through all my honour'd Scars,
Naming my deeds, which are by your's eclips'd;
The Starry Light, to Cynthia's Orb compar'd:
Believe me, noble Roman, I'm more proud
Of this Days honour, by so fam'd a man;
That all the glories of my life fall short,
When this is nam'd. Bear high the Fasces still,
and let the lofty Eagle raise her Crest;
For, by the loves and lives of all my Friends,
Sertorius bows to so much Fortitude.
Perp.
Now, by the God which bears the name of War,
His mighty Soul's transplanted in thy brest:
The Shields of Rome, are forg'd, Metallic dross;
Thou only Patriot, exil'd in a Storm
Of Brutal rage: Fabius, Camillus, all
The noblest Spirits inhabit in thy mind;
And, while I praise thy Virtue, thoughts Divine
Possess my Brain, and elevate my Soul.
Sert.
We're Men, Perpenna; Men, by Fate chose out
To lanch through all the Terrors of the World;
Frail, mortal Men, subject to every Chance:
And while we praise our selves, we rob the Gods,
Let it suffice I am thy Virtue's Creature:
For, by the Gods, I covet to be thine.
Bebricius, Cassius, noblest Friends, come on,
And, with the Gordian-knot of Friendship, tye
[Shouts, and Trumpets, &c. They all embrace.
This mighty Union—Now, let Pompey come,
Metellus, or the source of Civil War,
Sylla, attended with his dire effects;
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Blast all their hopes, and scatter all their pow'r:
For Heav'n in this secures the worst of Fate,
And marks it out the raising of our Swords.
Perp.
Where e're Sertorius leads, so winds break loose;
Both Air and Earth suffer Convulsive fits:
Not angry Parcæ, mounted on a Plague,
In greater numbers kill, than where thy Sword
Points out the fatal compass, and makes way;
Like loudest Bolts forg'd by the Cyclops hands,
The mighty weapons of an angry Jove.
Proud to obey the Legions stand; their Chiefs
Glow Ætna like, and courage fills the Nerves,
While the hot-Will only the Signal waits.
Sert.
When brave Perpenna leads the coldest Soul
With Emulative Virtue Flames, and courts
The dismal'st objects, and the sharpest fights;
And when the noble Bird of Jove soars high,
The Pyes, and flocks of chatt'ring Jayes disperse,
Beat on the wing, and court the Mountains womb,
And Rocky Cliffs, for Shelter. Give command
The Salij enter, to perform those Rites
Apt to the will of Heav'n, and lives of Men.
| The Tragedy of Sertorius | |