 | Caesar and Pompey |  |
Act I.
Scene I.
Cato, Athenodorus, Porcius, Statilius.Cat.
Now will the two Suns of our Romane Heauen
(Pompey & Cæsar) in their Tropicke burning,
With their contention, all the clouds assemble
That threaten tempests to our peace & Empire,
Which we shall shortly see poure down in bloud,
Ciuill and naturall, wilde and barbarous turning.
Ath.
From whence presage you this?
Cat.
From both their Armies,
Now gathered neere our Italie, contending
To enter seuerally: Pompeys brought so neere
By Romes consent; for feare of tyranous Cæsar,
Which Cæsar fearing to be done in fauour
Of Pompey, and his passage to the Empire;
Hath brought on his for interuention.
And such a flocke of Puttocks follow Cæsar,
For fall of his ill-disposed Purse
(That neuer yet spar'd Crosse to Aquilline vertue)
As well may make all ciuill spirits suspicious.
Looke how against great raines, a standing Poole
Of Paddockes, Todes, and water-Snakes put vp
Croking and gasping for some fresh falne drops
To quench their poisond thirst; being neere to stifle
With clotterd purgings of their owne foule bane;
So still, where Cæsar goes, there thrust vp head,
Impostors, Flatterers, Fauorites, and Bawdes,
Buffons, Intelligencers, select wits;
Close Murtherers, Montibanckes, and decaied Theeues,
To gaine their banefull liues reliefes from him.
From Britaine, Belgia, France, and Germanie,
The scum of either Countrie, (chus'd by him,
To be his blacke Guard, and red Agents here)
Swarming about him.
Porc.
And all these are said
To be suborn'd, in chiefe, against your selfe;
Since Cæsar chiefly feares, that you will sit
This day his opposite; in the cause for which
Both you were sent for home; and he hath stolne
Accesse so soone here; Pompey: whole rest raisde
To his encounter; and on both sides, Rome
In generall vproare.
Stat.
Which Sir, if you saw,
And knew, how for the danger, all suspect
To this your worthiest friend (for that knowne freedome
His spirit will vse this day, 'gainst both the Riuals,
His wife and familie mourne, no food, no comfort
Allowd them, for his danger) you would vse
Your vtmost powrs to stay him from the Senate,
All this daies Session.
Cat.
Hee's too wise, Statilius,
For all is nothing.
Stat.
Nothing Sir! I saw
Castor and Pollux Temple, thrust vp full,
With all the damn'd trew you haue lately nam'd
The market place and suburbs swarming with them:
And where the Senate sit, are Ruffians pointed
To keepe from entring the degrees that goe
Cæsar and Pompey, and the Senators,
And all for no cause, but to keepe out Cato,
With any violence, any villanie;
And is this nothing Sir? Is his One life,
On whom all good liues, and their goods depend,
In Romes whole Empire! All the Iustice there
That's free, and simple; all such virtues too,
And all such knowledge; Nothing, nothing, all?
Cat.
Away Statilius; how long shall thy loue
Exceede thy knowledge of me, and the Gods?
Whose rights thou wrongst for my right? haue not!
Their powers to guard me, in a cause of theirs?
Their iustice, and integrity included,
In what I stand for? he that feares the Gods.
For guard of any goodnesse; all things feares;
Earth, Seas, and Aire; Heauen, darknesse, broade day-light,
Rumor, and Silence, and his very shade:
And what an Aspen soule hath such a creature?
How dangerous to his soule is such a feare?
In whose cold fits, is all heauens iustice shaken
To his faint thoughts; and all the goodnesse there
Due to all good men, by the gods owne vowes,
Nay, by the firmenesse of their endlesse Being,
All which shall faile as soone as any one
Good to a good man in them: for his goodnesse
Proceeds from them, and is a beame of theirs.
O neuer more, Statilius, may this feare
Taint thy bould bosome, for thy selfe, or friend,
More then the gods are fearefull to defend.
Athen.
Come; let him goe, Statilius; and your fright;
This man hath inward guard, past your yong sight.
Exeunt.
Enter Minutius, manet Cato.
Cat.
Welcome; come stand by me in what is fit
For our poore Cities safety; nor respect
Her proudest foes corruption, or our danger
Min.
I am yours.
But what alas, Sir, can the weaknesse doe
Against our whole State of vs only two?
You know our Statists spirits are so corrupt
And seruile to the greatest; that what crosseth
Them, or their owne particular wealth, or honor,
They will not enterprise to saue the Empire.
Cat.
I know it; yet let vs doe like our selues.
Exeunt.
Enter some bearing Axes, bundles of rods, bare; before two Consuls, Cæsar and Metellus; Anthonius, and Marcellus in couples; Senators, People, Souldiers, &c. following. The Consuls enter the Degrees, with Anthonius, and Marcellus: Cæsar staying a while without with Metellus, who hath a paper in his hand.
Cæs.
Moue you for entring only Pompeys army;
Which if you gaine for him; for me, all iustice
Will ioyne with my request of entring mine.
Met.
Tis like so, and I purpose to enforce it.
Cæs.
But might we not win Cato to our friendship
By honoring speeches, nor perswasiue gifts?
Met.
Not possible.
Cæs.
Nor by enforciue vsage?
Met.
Not all the violence that can be vsde,
Of power, or set authority can stirre him,
Much lesse faire words win, or rewards corrupt him;
And therefore all meanes we must vse to keepe him
From off the Bench.
Cæs.
Giue you the course for that,
And if he offer entry, I haue fellowes
Will serue your will on him, at my giuen signall.
They ascend.
Cat.
He is the man that sits so close to Cæsar.
And holds the law there, whispering; see the Cowherd
Hath guards of arm'd men got, against one naked.
Ile part their whispering virtue.
1
Hold, keepe out.
2
What? honor'd Cato? enter, chuse thy place.
Cat.
Come in;
He drawes him in and sits betwixt Cæsar and Metellus.
—Away vnworthy groomes.
3
No more.
Cæs.
What should one say to him?
Met.
He will be Stoicall.
Cat.
Where fit place is not giuen, it must be taken.
4
Doe, take it Cato; feare no greatest of them;
Thou seek'st the peoples good; and these their owne.
5
Braue Cato! what a countenance he puts on?
Let's giue his noble will, our vtmost power.
6
Be bould in all thy will; for being iust,
Thou maist defie the gods.
Cat.
Said like a God.
Met.
We must endure these people.
Cæs.
Doe, begin.
Met.
Consuls, and reuerend Fathers; And ye people,
Whose voyces are the voyces of the Gods;
I here haue drawne a law, by good consent,
For entring into Italy, the army
Of Romes great Pompey: that his forces here,
As well as he, great Rome, may rest secure
From danger of the yet still smoaking fire,
Of Catilines abhorr'd conspiracy:
Of which the very chiefe are left aliue,
Only chastisde, but with a gentle prison.
Cat.
Put them to death then, and strike dead our feare,
Rather then keepe it quick; and two liues giue it,
By entertaining Pompeys army too.
That giues as great cause of our feare, as they.
For their conspiracy, onely was to make
One Tyrant ouer all the State of Rome.
And Pompeys army, sufferd to be entred,
Is, to make him, or giue him meanes to be so.
Met.
It followes not.
Cat.
In purpose; clearely Sir,
Which Ile illustrate, with a cleare example.
If it be day, the Sunne's aboue the earth;
Which followes not (youle answere) for 'tis day
When first the morning breakes; and yet is then
The body of the Sunne beneath the earth;
But he is virtually aboue it too,
Because his beames are there, and who then knowes not
His golden body will soone after mount.
So Pompeys army entred Italy,
Yet Pompey's not in Rome; but Pompey's beames
Who sees not there? and consequently, he
Is in all meanes enthron'd in th'Emperie.
Met.
Examples proue not, we will haue the army
Of Pompey entred.
Cato.
We? which we intend you?
Haue you already bought the peoples voices?
Or beare our Consuls or our Senate here
So small loue to their Country; that their wills
Beyond their Countrys right are so peruerse,
To giue a Tyrant here entire command?
Which I haue prou'd as cleare is day, they doe,
If either the Conspirators suruiuing
Be let to liue; or Pompeys army entred;
Both which, beat one sole path; and threat one danger.
Cæs.
Consuls, and honor'd Fathers; The sole entry
Of Pompeys army, Ile not yet examine:
But for the great Conspirators yet liuing,
To our deare Country; and deterre all therefore
That loue their Country, from their liues defence
I see no reason why such danger hangs
On their sau'd liues; being still safe kept in prison;
And since close prison, to a Roman freedome,
Ten fold torments more, then directest death,
Who can be thought to loue the lesse his Country,
That seekes to saue their liues? And lest my selfe
(Thus speaking for them) be vniustly toucht
With any lesse doubt of my Countryes loue,
Why (reuerend Fathers) may it be esteem'd
Selfe praise in me, to proue my selfe a chiefe
Both in my loue of her; and in desert
Of her like loue in me? For he that does
Most honour to his Mistrisse; well may boast
(Without least question) that he loues her most.
And though things long since done, were long since known,
And so may seeme superfluous to repeat;
Yet being forgotten, as things neuer done,
Their repetition needfull is, in iustice,
T'enflame the shame of that obliuion:
For hoping it will seeme no lesse empaire
To others acts, to truely tell mine owne;
Put all together; I haue past them all
That by their acts can boast themselues to be
Their Countries louers: first in those wilde kingdomes
Subdu'd to Rome, by my vnwearied toyles.
Which I dissauag'd and made nobly ciuill.
Next, in the multitude of those rude Realmes
That so I fashiond; and to Romes yong Empire
Of old haue added: Then the battailes numbred
This hand hath fought, and wonne for her, with all
Those infinites of dreadfull enemies
(I slue in them: Twice fifteene hundred thousand
All able Souldiers) I haue driuen at once
Before my forces: and in sundry on sets,
Besides, I tooke in lesse then ten yeares time,
By strong assault, aboue eight hundred Cities,
Three hundred seuerall Nations, in that space,
Subduing to my Countrey; all which seruice,
I trust, may interest me in her loue,
Publique, and generall enough, to aquit me
Of any selfe-loue; past her common good:
For any motion of particular iustice
(By which her generall Empire is maintaind)
That I can make for those accused prisoners,
Which is but by the way; that so the reason
Metellus makes for entring Pompeys armie,
May not more weighty seeme, then to agree
With those imprison'd nobles, vitall safeties.
Which granted, or but yeelded fit to be,
May well extenuate the necessity
Of entring Pompeys armie.
Cat.
All that need
I tooke away before; and reasons gaue
For a necessity to keepe it out
Whose entry (I thinke) he himselfe affects not.
Since I as well thinke he affects not th'Empire,
And both those thoughts hold; since he loues his Country,
In my great hopes of him too well to seeke
His sole rule of her, when so many soules,
So hard a taske approue it; nor my hopes
Of his sincere loue to his Country, build
On sandier grounds then Cæsars; since he can
As good Cards shew for it as Cæsar did,
And quit therein the close aspersion
Of his ambition, seeking to imploy
His army in the breast of Italy.
Pomp.
Let me not thus (imperiall Bench and Senate)
Feele my selfe beat about the eares, and tost
With others breathes to any coast they please:
And not put some stay to my errors in them.
Hath brought to question th'entry of my army;
And therefore not suspected the effect,
Of which that entry is supposde the cause:
Which is a will in me, to giue my power
The rule of Romes sole Empire; that most strangely
Would put my will in others powers; and powers
(Vnforfeit by my fault) in others wills.
My selfe-loue, out of which all this must rise:
I will not wrong the knowne proofes of my loue
To this my natiue Cities publique good,
To quit, or thinke of; nor repeat those proofes
Confirm'd in those three triumphs I haue made;
For conquest of the whole inhabited world;
First Affrick, Europe, and then Asia,
Which neuer Consull but my selfe could boast.
Nor can blinde Fortune vaunt her partiall hand,
In any part of all my seruices,
Though some haue said, she was the page of Cæsar,
Both sayling, marching, fighting, and preparing
His fights in very order of his battailes:
The parts she plaid for him inuerting nature,
As giuing calmnesse to th'enraged sea;
Imposing Summers weather on sterne winter;
Winging the slowest foot he did command,
And his most Cowherd making fierce of hand.
And all this euer when the force of man
Was quite exceeded in it all; and she
In th'instant adding her cleare deity.
Yet, her for me, I both disclaime and scorne;
And where all fortune is renounc't, no reason
Will thinke one man transferd with affectation
Of all Fames Empire; for he must haue fortune
That goes beyond a man; and where so many
Their hand-fulls finde with it; the one is mad
That vndergoes it: and where that is clear'd;
Th'imputed meanes to it, which is my sute
Cat.
What rests then, this of all parts being disclaimd?
Met.
My part, Sir, rests, that let great Pompey beare
What spirit he lists; 'tis needfull yet for Rome,
That this Law be establisht for his army.
Cæs.
Tis then as needfull to admit in mine;
Or else let both lay downe our armes; for else
To take my charge off, and leaue Pompey his;
You wrongfully accuse me to intend
A tyranny amongst ye; and shall giue
Pompey full meanes to be himselfe a tyrant,
Anth.
Can this be answer'd?
1 Cons.
Is it then your wils
That Pompey shall cease armes?
Anth.
What else?
Omnes.
No, no.
2 Cons.
Shall Cæsar cease his armes?
Omn.
I, I.
Anth.
For shame
Then yeeld to this cleare equity, that both
May leaue their armes.
Omn.
We indifferent stand.
Met.
Read but this law, and you shall see a difference
Twixt equity and your indifferency;
All mens obiections answered; Read it Notary.
Cat.
He shall not read it.
Met.
I will read it then.
Min.
Nor thou shalt read it, being a thing so vaine,
Pretending cause for Pompeys armies entry.
That only by thy Complices and thee;
Tis forg'd to set the Senate in an vproare.
Met.
I haue it Sir, in memory, and will speake it.
Cat.
Thou shalt be dumbe as soone.
Cæs.
Pull downe this Cato,
Author of factions, and to prison with him.
Gen.
Come downe Sir.
Pom.
Hence ye mercenary Ruffians.
He drawes, and all draw.
What outrage shew you? sheath your insolent swords,
Or be proclaim'd your Countreys foes and traytors.
Pom.
How insolent a part was this in you.
To offer the imprisonment of Cato?
When there is right in him (were forme so answer'd
With termes and place) to send vs both to prison?
If, of our owne ambitions, we should offer
Th'entry of our armies; for who knowes
That, of vs both, the best friend to his Country,
And freest from his owne particular ends;
(Being in his power) would not assume the Empire,
And hauing it, could rule the State so well
As now 'tis gouer'nd, for the common good?
Cæs:
Accuse your selfe, Sir, (if your conscience vrge it)
Or of ambition, or corruption,
Or insufficiency to rule the Empire,
And sound not me with your Lead.
Pom.
Lead? tis Gold,
And spirit of Gold too; to the politique drosse
With which false Cæsar sounds men; and for which
His praise and honour crownes them; who sounds not
The inmost sand of Cæsar? for but sand
Is all the rope of your great parts affected.
You speake well, and are learn'd; and golden speech
Did Nature neuer giue man; but to guild
A copper soule in him; and all that learning
That heartily is spent in painting speech,
Is merely painted, and no solid knowledge.
But y'aue another praise for temperance,
Which nought commends your free choice to be temperate.
For so you must be; at least in your meales,
Since y'aue a malady that tyes you to it;
For feare of daily fals in your aspirings.
And your disease the gods nere gaue to man;
But such a one, as had a spirit too great
For all his bodies passages to serue it,
Which notes th'excesse of your ambition.
Through which the spirit of a man is borne,
So narrow are, and straight, that oftentimes
They intercept it quite, and choake it vp.
And yet because the greatnesse of it notes
A heat mere fleshly, and of bloods ranck fire,
Goates are of all beasts subiect'st to it most.
Cæs.
Your selfe might haue it then, if those faults cause it;
But deales this man ingeniously, to tax
Men with a frailty that the gods inflict?
Pomp.
The gods inflict on men, diseases neuer,
Or other outward maimes, but to decipher,
Correct, and order some rude vice within them:
And why decipher they it, but to make
Men note, and shun, and tax it to th'extreame?
Nor will I see my Countryes hopes abusde,
In any man commanding in her Empire;
If my more tryall of him, makes me see more
Into his intricasies; and my freedome
Hath spirit to speake more, then obseruers seruile.
Cæs.
Be free, Sir, of your insight and your speech;
And speak, and see more, then the world besides;
I must remember I haue heard of one,
That fame gaue out, could see thorow Oke and stone:
And of another set in Sicily,
That could discerne the Carthaginian Nauy,
And number them distinctly, leauing harbor,
Though full a day and nights saile distant thence:
But these things (Reuerend Fathers) I conceiue,
Hardly appeare to you worth graue beliefe:
And therefore since such strange things haue beene seene
In my so deepe and foule detractions,
By only Lyncean Pompey; who was most
Lou'd and beleeu'd of Romes most famous whore,
Infamous Flora; by so fine a man
As Galba, or Sarmentus; any iester
Or flatterer may draw through a Ladyes Ring;
Great Agamemnon, or the king of men;
I rest vnmou'd with him; and yeeld to you
To right my wrongs, or his abuse allow.
Cat.
My Lords, ye make all Rome amaz'd to heare.
Pom.
Away, Ile heare no more; I heare it thunder
My Lords; All you that loue the good of Rome,
I charge ye, follow me; all such as stay,
Are friends to Cæsar, and their Countreys foes.
Cæs.
Th'euent will fall out contrary, my Lords.
1 Cons.
Goe, thou art a thiefe to Rome, discharge thine army,
Or be proclaim'd, forthwith, her open foe.
2 Cons.
Pompey, I charge thee, helpe thy iniur'd Country
With what powers thou hast arm'd, and leuy more.
The Ruffians.
Warre, warre, O Cæsar.
Sen. and Peop.
Peace, peace, worthy Pompey.
| Caesar and Pompey | |