University of Virginia Library

ACT. III.

SCEN. I.

FULVIA.
Not subtil Fire, from Jove's Olympus hurl'd
In Airy tracts to mortal eyes recluse,
Can be more deadly than the Plots I've form'd;
The old, the young, the dull Saturnine Soul,
And him whose lightness is Cyllenius like,
Wander the pleasant Maze; so form'd by thought,
And by the Magic of my beauty Charm'd:
So the dull Pilot from the Helm is drawn;
Rapt with the Extasy of sound, which bears
Inevitable bane, from Syrens Tongues.
Greatness, in my Perpenna, 'tis I aim;
And, while in Fields he steals the Soldiers hearts,
I'll make a greater conquest here at home.

SCEN. II.

Bebricius musing, Fulvia.
Bebr.
Like Travellers, by light delusive led,
I've wander'd from my reason, and have trod
The mystic Labyrinth of mighty Love.
Say then; Bebricius, she be virtuous, good,
Stranger to thy requests, and cold as Ice!
Let her be so; the coyest may be won:
And shall I faint, when Paradise falls short
To the blest joys which dwell upon her lips?
Ha! she is here! I grow unto the Earth;
[Starts.
And the unruly Devil promts my Tongue.
Had I the Charms that Youth and Beauty bring,
The pow'r of Gods, or of their Substitutes;
To the Divinities which habit there,
And make a Throne Celestial in those eyes,
I'd prostrate all, and, with the gift, my self:
But, void of these, how shall I frame my speech
To merit pity? Say, thou beauteous Creature,
If I offend, in saying that I love?
For, If I do, the World must err, like me;
Worship those Eyes, as Persians do the Sun,
And justly Idolize thy excellence.

Ful.
Bebricius turn'd a Lover, at these years!
Does the soft God captive the Man of War?

Bebr.
Madam, he does; at vast expense he rules;
Tributes my being, makes my heart his Seat:
Ill Chance, to Camps and Martial deeds inur'd,
Has taught my Tongue a harsh unpolish'd way;
Yet Truth and Honesty, absent from Courts
Where gaudy Birds with borrow'd Feathers wing,
Dwells in my language. Possibly you may,
For I expect it, use me with neglect;
Do more than Daggers points could, wound:
But I have said, and wait my Destiny.

Ful.
Are you then serious? Was not all this fram'd,
Invented, to delude the hours away;
The tedious hours? For, Since Perpenna's absence,
Each day's delay appears an Age to me.

Bebr.
Ev'n from the first which blest me with your sight,
I've felt the pow'r of Beauty in my Brest,
Languish'd in Torture, and have hug'd my chain:
Morpheus could ne'r close up my eyes with rest,
But your Idea Revel'd in my Soul.

Ful.
Hold, Sir. This dialect does ill becom
The Tongue of him I alwaies thought a Friend.
Thus far, my Innocence will guard it self;
But farther, were a crime that unbefits
Perpenna's choice. Leave me, thou wretched man:
I will not punish thee with ought, but Love.

Bebr.
Know, cruel Fair, life without hope is Hell;
Wretched, as they who dwell in endless night:
I dreaded the ill Fate, which did compel
This doom from you. See, thou cruel Woman,
And judg, by this, the wondrous pow'r of Love,

Ful.
What means Bebricius?

Bebr.
Say, when I am dead,
Bebricius Life and Love were so unite.
That Death it self fell short to seperate.
If there be paths the Soul when banish'd treads,
Whether on burning Phlegeton, or Styx;
Upon the flaming Shores I'll call on thee,
And make thy Spirit lose all mortal bliss,
Rack'd with the Sympathy of pains like mine.

Ful.
Hold, barbarous man. Is't not enough I heard,
And in it suffer'd; but thou threat'st my Fame:
When vulgar crouds, not promt to judg, speak loud,
Enlarge Report, spread wide her Airy wings,
With seeming Subjects blazing Infamy?
If thou dost love, in death it self, the Soul,
Th'essential Seat of the Divinity,
Still cares, with danger of the living's fate:
And wilt thou wound in death, what living thou
Ador'st?

Bebr.
Rather than suffer pains beyond all speech,
Languish in Torture to Eternity,
I'll live to merit: but when stranger thoughts
Do find a gentle passage in your brest,
Oh, let the memory of your Slave appear
A pitying object, suing for relief.

Ful.
Death waiting on a Lover's words, till now
I've been a stranger to; you've ta'ne a way
To merit pity: what th'effects may be,
I dare not guess; but Time will lighten all.

Bebr.
So Gods, when mortals doom'd to Shades below,
Revoke the Sentence of the sinking Soul,
And give a glimps of Heav'n unto their sight,
To banish from the thought the fears of Night.

[Exeunt.

SCEN. III.

Cassius, Terentia.
Cass.
From Fortune's Minion, sorrowing Cassius coms,
Where Slaughter gluts upon the Bodies slain,
Pastime and sport, to the rough Sons of War;
Sensless to me the gaudy feast appear'd;
For here, within my brest, I feell a grief
That makes a Fiction of the Vulture's gripe:
Yet, when Sertorius spoke, with hast I fled,
To pay the duty of a Friend and Lover;
And felt a kind of ease in his Commands.

Ter.
Has the indulgent Gods then heard my pray'rs?
Lives he, secure of wounds from envious men?
Say, noble Cassius, and delight my sense.

Cass.
None worthy fear; the badges of his Fame,
Which mark'd him Hers; then took an Airy flight,
Swell'd with the Greatness, mesures out the Earth,
And makes the Heav'ns too little for her head.

Ter.
How has th'Ignoble passion froze my bloud;
And, from the height of joyes, hurl'd headlong down
Too forward Hope! Gods, is he wounded then?
His mind's so great, slighting the honor'd breach,
Death, like a Thief, may steal away his life.

Cass.
Oh, Madam, doom me not the Harbinger
Of woes so killing, 'less within my self:
His Fate's beyond the reach of vulgar men;
Who suffer, meriting a kind belief,
But vanish at his Name: As when the Sun
Mounts up Olympus hill, the spangled Lights
Shrink in their Beams, and disappear, till Night
Calls forth her Ornaments.

Ter.
Let's hast; let's fly;
Add wings unto our steps: forget the name
Which breeds Impatience in a Lover's brest.

Cass.
(To the wide Region of the Air I speak:
Like Tantalus, see that which flies my tast,
And leaves me Tortur'd with the cruel thought.)

[Aside.
Ter.
Why stay we here, and not attend the Triumph?
Press to his sight, and use a Lover's hast.

Cass.
We, Madam, move within a diff'rent Sphere;
A Venus, you; and a dull Saturn, I:
Yet willingly, to meet a Friend like him.
Swift would the motion be; but all within
Is lost, in viewing of an object, hid
To vulgar eyes: but, to my Optics, plain
As Night from Day. (Her Innocence destroys,
Faster than thought can form a glimps of hope!)

Ter.
You speak a Dialect that's mystic, Cassius;
And show the mighty change from what you were:
For words confus'd betray an inward grief.
Now, by Sertorius, pity rules my brest;
And, did not expectation of his sight
Raise high my Soul, I should Conjure thee now
By the strict bonds of Friendship, to reveal
What works this change: for, Cassius, I perceive
That words imperfect habit in thy speech.
Sometimes, thy bloud flushes upon thy cheeks;
Seeming to speak, thou check'st the hasty sound,
Changest complexion to the palest hue.

Cass.
The Gods themselves may, from Divinity,
Unfold the Adamantine leaves of Fate;
But there the name of Cassius is imprest
So light, that wand'ring Pow'rs the object view,
Shunning the Sight, sinks through the mystic Writ.
Each hour I languish, and my pain's confin'd
To th'Center of my Sense; Racks torture less:
Yet, such the will of Heav'n, that I must live,
Still view at distance all the Heav'n I wish,
Dumb to request a helping, pitying hand,
Whose very touch would, by a pow'r Divine,
Pass through it's virtue to a bleeding heart.

Ter.
What God hast thou offended, who should thus
Command Megæra to let loose a Snake?
But tell me, Cassius; when my Quintus coms,
From the Penates to the Sylvan croud,
Or from the height of Heav'n to th'depth of Hell,
Not one we'l leave unsought, or uninvok'd.

Cass.
Nor Gods, nor Men, did Cassius e're offend,
In Honor, or in Virtue: should I loose
The stubborn Reins which guide our human will,
I might have ease; but on it there attends
A greater plague; Death, which gives ease to all,
Will leave me restless in my Urn. But see!
The Lusitanians croud to wait his sight.
Now must this light of mine for darkness change.

Ter.
Such is the pow'r of Friendship, that I've lost
The splendid thought which brings Sertorius home.

[Exeunt.

SCEN. IV.

Sertorius, in Triumph, crown'd with Laurel; attended by Perpenna, Aufidius, Manlius, Crassus, Ligurius, Decius. They alight from the Chariots.
Sert.
The Gods the justness of our Cause have shown,
And made the Air direct the Darts we flung,
While Victory did hover o'r our Arms.
Pompey, whose rashness spur'd him on to fight,
Thinking that Fortune, which he elswhere found,
Lacquy'd him here; but the unconstant Dame,
Viewing the mighty havock that we made,
Slighted his youth, and fled unto our Camp.

Perp.
Memnius no more shall boast his mighty deeds,
Unless in the Infernal Shades, whose Shores
Swarm with the wretched Ghosts of Romans slain;
That Charon, groaning with the mighty toyl,
Calls for more aid of Pluto, and bemoans
His endless labor. Where's Rome's General now?
Where fled to hide himself? He's bound to bless
The gaudy Trappings which adorn'd his Horse,
Whose sparkling Gems dazled the barbarous eyes
Fix'd on the object: h'had been Captive else:
Metellus force came timely to his aid.

Sert.
It did, Perpenna; else we' had whipt him home,
Wailing his loss, unto his Patron Sylla.
But, when he views the Slaughter we have made,
The num'erous Slain, which ly as Autumn leaves;
He'l find destruction waits upon our Swords,
And, when he fights with us, he Combats Fate.

SCEN. V.

Bebricius, and two Ambassadors, to Sertorius, &c.
Bebr.
Welcom, thou great Triumpher over Rome,
Whose Sword chastises her Tyrannic brood;
The Hinds of Fortune, when thou sound'st to Arms:
See how thy Fame has wing'd, and won the brest
Of Mithridates, who thy Friendship courts;
That untam'd Prince, made for the Roman Scourge,
Whose Empire's spacious, and his pow'r as great.

1. Amb.
Hail mighty Warrior! great as Hanibal!
Thy Name at distance does such terror breed
As when his Camp was in the sight of Rome.
The Lord of Kingdoms does, by us, intreat
Sertorius to his aid: which if he gains,
Pyrrhus, whose deeds were dreadful in the East,
Shall prove but Infant to his killing Sword,
Inur'd to battel, and to Slaughter bred;
Witness the dreadful dayes when it appear'd.
Say thou accept'st this offer, it again
Shall act new wonders, and make big the Air:
Then, meeting with the sound thy deeds create,
Unite into a Terror, dread as Death,
And threaten everlasting night to Rome.

2. Amb.
If Asia, torn by Siylla from his Rule,
Thou wilt give back again to his command;
Five thousand Talents of the purest Gold,
And forty Sail of well-built Ships of War,
Whose Prows are Arm'd with mighty beaks of Steel,
Shall plough th'Atlantic Ocean, and be thine:
Under thy Banners shall his Subjects march;
And Mithridates, proud of thy Ally,
Own thee Superior both on Sea and Land.

Sert.
Tell Mithridates, Cappadocia,
And the Bithynian Realms, are his again;
But what the Romans won by force of Arms,
I cannot in my Honor give away;
Or, from that Empire, lop a member off
Which Fimbria won: I'll pledge my faith to him
As far as Honor will permit, no more;
For I will cease to be, e're do a deed
That may disgrace the actions of my life.
Bebricius, see 'em honorably us'd.
If, on the Terms propos'd, your King agrees,
Or your Commissions authorize your pow'r,
We shall assist him as our Friend: This day
We give our selves to plesure; but the next
Is for the safety of this Common-wealth.

Perp.
(Surely the Gods strive to out-vye in gifts;
And all Mankind, not worthy of their care,
Must climb the Precipice of Fortune's wheel,
While blindly here she largely gives away.)

SCEN. VI.

Terentia, to Sertorius, &c.
Sertorius runs to, and embraces her.
Sert.
More plesure Gods, you by this object give,
Than all the glories that I've won in fight!
To know I'm lov'd by thee, exceeds the joyes
Of bliss eternal. 'Twas to Heav'n thou pray'dst,
And the just Pow'rs could no denial make;
From the Olympic Mansions of the Sky,
Dropt down a Laurel to adorn my Fair.

Ter.
Let it find credit in Sertorius brest,
That in thy absence, as bereav'd of Soul,
My spirit hover'd round about thy head:
Still beg'd of Jove, in an Etherial sound,
To break the edge of every Sword, that bore
Death in it's point. Oh, my Sertorius! now,
If tongue can utter, or delight can form,
I feel an Extasy above all thought.

They seem to discourse with Cassius.
Perp.
to the Romans.
See how the poyson swells, my Roman Friends!
Do not their plaudits grow within his brest?
By Heav'n, we 'tend, like Slaves, upon this Tyrant,
Unworthy notice: while the vulgar croud
Shout up his name to Heav'n, and frighten Jove.

SCEN. VII.

Bebricius, to Sertorius, &c.
Bebr.
Fulvia, Perpenna, sorrowing thy delay,
Has felt the stroke of sickness; but thy sight
(So she commanded tell thee) brings her health.

Perp.
Ha! is she ill? (She has the Signal sent
Of her success; but I must hide my joyes!)
You Gods, averse to all that's great in me,
Why wound you so? Let Triumph, Honor, all
Perish within the thought, e're I delay
A minute longer. 'Sdeath, my Gall will burst!
Aufidius, Manlius, sound the depth of Fate;
Take all my wishes with you: from this hour
We ether make, or lose all future joyes.

[Exit.
[Bebr. and Cass. whisper to Sertorius.
Auf.
What makes you study, Crassus? Is't this fight?
Or is it that the Croud, neglecting us,
Pay all their Vows to him?

Crass.
I know not what
Tumults within; but yet 'twere not amiss
They thank'd us, for the wounds we got in fight.

Man.
Ligurius! Decius! why d'ye bite your lips?
Why writh your looks into an angry frown?

Lig.
'Twas nothing, Manlius, but a sullen thought.

Dec.
Mine was the same; but, see, we are observ'd!

Sert.
You noble Lusitanians, all are bound
To pay the glories of the Day to him,
The brave Perpenna, who deserves your vows:
Not in the VVar of Heav'n, when Godheads Arm'd
And shook the mighty Empire of the Sky,
Did the Cyclopian bolts out-do his Sword.
Terentia, thou, whose longing eyes behold
Thy Quintus safety, ought to thank him for't.
VVhen bold Aquinius, circled round with Fate,
Like the Controller of the Destinies,
He forc'd his way: and the ambitious man,
Proud of the growing Glories of the Day,
Fell from th'usurped Chariot of the Sun.

Ter.
'Tis thou, my life, that dost inspire my tongue
VVith thanks, as to a saving Pow'r. Oh, where
Had thy Terentia been, when Heav'n and Earth,
One trembling, t'other Ecchoing with fierce sounds,
And Gods impartial throng'd to view the fight,
If the barbarity of him thou sav'dst
Had made a breach in life? Show me the man,
That with an obligation infinite
Has freed my fears, and blest my eyes again.

Auf.
Proud of the honor, fighting by thy side,
And glorying in the objects form'd by thee,
A servant to thy Fame; Perpenna said,
When hasting to embrace whom sickness made
A stranger to the splendid Scene, his Fulvia:
That nought but all the Tresure of his love
Could, in the lucky minute of his life,
Cause any separation from his Friend.

Sert.
VVhat said Aufidius? is Fulvia sick?
Can so much beauty temt the Gods to Fate?
Appollo Pythius, minister her health;
Summon the followers of the Delphic God,
And, with them, tell Perpenna how I grieve
At this sinister period of our joyes.

Ter.
Good Heav'n, defend! what is't I hear? you Gods,
Can then Sertorius bow to any Shrine
Than what so oft he' has sworn by? am I then
Lost in the novelty? So bliss, when reapt,
Serves only to delight in absent thought.

Sert.
By Heav'n, the Vestal fire is not more pure,
Than what my heart does offer up to thee,
The Altar of thy Love, thy Beauty's Throne;
Where thoughts take birth, as Gold by fire Refin'd.
Can I in Friendship then commit a crime,
Sorrowing that loss which might have been our own?
Honor commands a Sympathy in grief:
But Love, the noble passion of the Soul,
Does in the glass reflect upon it self,
And while it views inflames the Element.

Ter.
Forgive me, Quintus: such 'the tender seat
Where Love's enthron'd, such jealousies, such cares
'Tend on the Passion, that we tread the Maze,
And wander in the Labyrinth of thought,
When the Idea by our Fancy rais'd
Proves Rebel, and with Jealousy unites:
But now, inlightned by thy words, I feel
Joy in thy presence; with thee Sympathize.

Sert.
Lead forward, Friends, you Sinews of the War,
In shape like Men, but in your deeds like Gods;
Divide the Spoils, and Reign for ever here:
While to the Pow'rs Divine we celebrate
Thanks, suting to the Glories we have won;
Perfume the locks of the now setting Sun.

[Exeunt.