 | Caius Gracchus |  |
SCENE I.
—A Street in Rome—six Citizens discovered.Enter Marcus and Titus, looking occasionally back, as if observing something passing behind them.
Mar.
Who is that next him in mourning?
Tit.
His nephew; the rest are common friends.
Poor Vettius! no one will plead for him.
Mar.
Peace! they are coming on.
Enter Vettius and his four Friends, in mourning, followed by Probus and twelve other Citizens.
Vet.
Weep not, my friends, for me; for Rome—for Rome
Reserve your tears. Her pride is turn'd to shame;
Her wealth to poverty; her strength to weakness;
Her fair report into a blasted name;
Her freedom into thraldom. Who would thrive
In Rome, let him forget what honour is,
Truth, reverence for the gods, respect for man!
Ay, gaze, ye poor, despised sons of Rome!
That crouch to your own power, by men more strong,
Only because more daring, wrenched from you!
Ay, gaze; and see your lovers, one by one,
Cut off; and never curse, unless it be
Your own hands, that you dare not stretch to save them!
[Vettius and his Friends go out.
Tit.
Masters, we are in a sorrowful plight indeed, when
such a friend as Vettius spurns us.
Mar.
See! who is that he stops to speak to?
Tit.
Know you not? Why, you've seen him as often as
you've seen your own hand. 'Tis the senator Fannius—that
Fannius, that looks so sweetly on the people, and, for all that,
never yet did them a good turn.
Mar.
Oh! is it he?
Tit.
To be sure it is! See how he leans to Vettius, and
seems to pity him. I warrant you there's a tear in his eye
now, although his heart would laugh to tell you how it came
there. See, he puts his hand upon his breast; that's an appeal
to his honesty, which is always sure to be out of the way,
proper patrician!
Mar.
Think you they will condemn Vettius?
Tit.
Think you he is a friend to the people?
Mar.
Who doubts that he is?
Tit.
Who doubts, then, they will condemn him?
Mar.
See! Fannius quits him.
Tit.
And he's as much his friend as ever he was. His
absence will profit him just as much as his presence.—Yonder
comes Licinius, the brother-in-law of Caius Gracchus. Who
knows but Caius will speak for Vettius, who was his brother
Tiberius's friend?
Mar.
Not he! He never appears in the assemblies of the
people.
Pro.
No; he loves to keep house better. He is married,
you know; and his wife is a fair woman. No wonder he prefers
her company to ours.
Mar.
Do they say he is a man of any parts?
Tit.
Yes; he assisted his brother Tiberius once, when he
was tribune; and he was thought to be of great promise. 'Tis
said he is much given to study.
Mar.
'Twould seem so, indeed; and that he had not yet
found out it was the patricians who murdered his brother. I
would have taken more revenge for a cur of mine that had
been lamed, than Caius took for his brother that was murdered.
What revenge did he take? None! He kept house,
while the patricians buried his brother in the Tiber! Rome
has nothing to hope from him.
Pro.
Nay, that's certain. He'll never die for the people.
Mar.
Die! No, nor live neither.
Tit.
Silence! Licinius is here.
Enter Licinius and Caius Gracchus.
Lic.
Health to you, master!
Mar.
Health to Licinius!
Caius.
[To Licinius.]
The people look coldly on me.
Lic.
Hang them! They show fine airs at their own handiwork.
I'll speak to them.
Caius.
Gently, I pray you; they are bare and hungry,
houseless and friendless, and my heart bleeds for them.
Lic.
What is the cause of your collecting?
Lit.
We come to see Vettius condemned.
Lic.
Why do you say condemned? The laws are to try
him. He will have justice.
Mar.
Ay, from the patricians!
Lic.
What of the patricians? Are not the patricians just?
Mar.
Not to the people.
Lic.
Why not?
Mar.
Because they have the power to be otherwise. They
have as great dominion over the people, as over their oxen;
and so they treat them like their oxen,—unhide them, hack
them up, and feed upon them.
Are the people, then, no better than their oxen, that
they endure all this?
Mar.
What can the people do? They have no friends that
will speak or act for them. The people can do nothing of
themselves—they have no power. If the people could find
friends—
Lic.
Peace! peace! If you gain friends, you lose them straight.
Whoe'er would die for you, you let him die!
You shrug, you shiver, and you whine; but he
That pities you, has need, himself, of pity.
You make a big shout, and a frightful face;
But in your deeds are little to be feared.
Mar.
Are you against us, too? You that were Tiberius's
friend?
Lic.
Who but his friend should be against you? You
That fell from him in danger, who to you
In danger clung? Who would not be against you?
Drowning, you make a cry; and when a hand
Is found to keep your head above the flood,
And bear you safe to land, at the first wave
That booms upon you—idiots in your fear!
You mar his skill, and sink him to the bottom!
Mar.
Is that our way?
Lic.
Ask you for friends, who to your friends are foes?
In presence, too, of Caius Gracchus, here,
Whose brother you gave up to death?
Mar.
We gave!
Lic.
Ye gave! When, in the exercise of your rights,
The nobles, with their herd of slaves and clients,
Drove you—a base herd to be so driven!—
With clubs and levers from the market-place,
What did you then? Like spectres, with your fear,
Livid and purged of substance, you glared on,
And saw Tiberius, mangled with their staves,
Into the Tiber thrown, as butchers cast
The offal to the tide.
Caius.
No more, Licinius;
Pray you, no more; you are too stern with them.
Lic.
Too stern! Would the patricians learn of me,
I'd teach them how to cater for the people.
They should not have a vote. If free-born men
Will crouch like slaves, why would you have them freemen?
Caius.
It is his mood, friends; let him be; ne'er mind him.
[Licinius and Caius Gracchus go out.
Mar.
'Tis plain Licinius is no friend of ours.
Tit.
He says the truth. You suffered the patricians and
their slaves to murder Tiberius.
Mar.
If Licinius is so bitter against us, what must we
expect from Caius?
Tit.
Yet would he have stopped Licinius when he railed at us.
Who knows but Caius would befriend the people if he could?
Not he! He'd hang the people if he could.—Come,
masters; to the Forum. Farewell, Tiberius! He would not
see Vettius accused without defending him.—'Twill be long
before we shall see such another friend as Tiberius!
[They go out.
| Caius Gracchus | |