University of Virginia Library

Scene the Second.

To them Scipio, Massanissa, Flaminius, other Romane Legates.
Han.
Ha! Scipio and Flaminius
Amongst the Romane Legates! there's some treachery.
Informe thy selfe Himulco. His pursuing
Exit.
My course, imports no good, and my sad soule
Labours with a prophetick apprehension
Of something he intends. Be ready thou,
Thou my last refuge.

Prus.
Sudden clouds me thinkes
Creepe o're your eyes. Though you be enemies,
Peace warrants gentle greeting. Shee is emblem'd
In Doves that have no gall. Y'are here my guests,
And shall partake a courtly entertainment
Worthy such persons.

Scip.
Hannibal I know
Hath put of the rough habit which his mind
Was lately wrapt in: and since chance hath made him
The subject of my conquest, in the peace
Rome hath allow'd his Country (the conditions
Being stricktly kept) all past contentions
Must lose their memory, and after strifes
Be stifled in their first birth by prevention.
I must acknowledge my ambition
Bo're my thoughts higher than my Countries good,
Or her enlargement onely. Had my fortune
Captiv'd the person of great Hannibal,
My triumph should out-vye all the rich pompes
That ever made Rome shine.

Han.
That person yet
Is free, and capable of new designes,
To make himselfe full owner of a glory
'Bove Scipio's conquest. Tis not thy successe
Declines me the least step towards subjection
Of my still high built hopes: which being strongly
Propt with my resolutions, shall in time
Raise monuments of fame unto my actions.
Let not one chance exalt thee. Hannibal,
Though Carthage ownes him not, command's a world
Greater than her, or Rome.

Scip.
But the dimensions
Are bounded with that strict necessity
They cannot be extended. Flatter not
Those hopes with expectation of a change
To any better than the now condition
Of thy subverted greatnesse: which being ruin'd
Beyond all reparation, thy attempts
To build it new, wanting materials,
Are vainer farre than the Sycilian Dogs
Barking against the Moone.

Han.
Be not deceiv'd
With too much confidence. The more th'are prest,
The more palmes flourish. That that would make Scipio
Looke downewards, lifts me up.

Scip.
How thou art mockt
With selfe-opinion! Know I have a soule
So full instructed, it hath power to temper
The difference of my fortune with that meane,
That even the highest glory to my selfe
Is but adversity, and an abject state
No lesse then is my present greatnesse. Man
From outward accidents should not derive
The knowledge of himselfe: for so hee's made
The creature of beginnings over which
His vertue may command: Fortune and chance.
When he by speculation hath inform'd
His divine part hee's perfect; and 'till then
But a rough matter, onely capable
Of better forme. It oft begets my wonder
That thou a rude Barbarian, ignorant
Of all art, but of warres, which custome onely
Hath (being joyn'd to thy first nature) taught thee,
Shouldst know so much of man.

Han.
I study man
Better from practice, than thou canst from bookes.
Thy learning's but opinion, mine knowne truth;
Subject to no grosse errours, such as cannot
Be reconcil'd, but by production
Of new and greater. Did thy learned Masters
Of Arts, with whom even arm'd thou hast converst
Before a battayle joyn'd (if fame speake truth)
By their instructions show thee surer wayes
To victory, than Fortune joyn'd to valour,
And a full strength of men?

Scip.
That which consists
In action onely, and th'event, depends
Vpon no certaine rule demonstrative,
Is fates, not reasons.

Prus.
Fie, this strife sounds harshly,
Come Massanissa, you have shar'd your part
Of vertue and of fortune.

Han.
Least of vertue,
That left a just cause to support a wrong one;
Such was his fall from Carthage.

Massa.
You being judge
In your owne cause: but who will else subscribe
To such a partiall sentence?

Prus.
Pray' no more.
My Court lookes like a Parliament of Souldiers;
Where warre me thinkes should be discours'd on; how
A battaile should be order'd, or what forme
Hath most advantage. What men have you knowne,
Or History doth mention, that exceeded
In the degrees of merit?

Han.
Alexander
The first best Captaine.

Scip.
Who the second?

Han.
Pyrrhus.

Prus.
And who the third?

Han.
Doubtlesse my selfe.

Scip.
What then
Am I that conquer'd Hanniball?

Han.
If I
Had conquer'd Scipio, I had then beene first.

Scip.
Did ever pride so swell th'infected parts
Of a rich soule! Were not his mind corrupted
With that disease of vertue, I should covet
To joyne mine with't in an eternall fellowship;
And onely here in outward enmity
Divide our bodies.