 | Conspiracy |  |
ACT IV.
SCENE I.
An Apartment in the Palace.—Titus, Cornelia.Titus.
Conspire against my life! said you not so?
Cornelia.
Hoping my intercession might prevail
To obtain his pardon from your clemency,
One of the traitors made confession full.
The man you know, and like the chief he follow'd
A worthless object of your frequent bounty:
Yet to be prais'd in this.
49
Then Lentulus
Is guilty. That bad man, unfit for trust,
Check'd by my power in his rapacity,
Wou'd wipe the memory out of past offence
But by transgressing deeper. In the account
Of foes like him I count my own desert.
His enmity's a laurel. But what further?
Cornelia.
Lentulus, the impious Lentulus
Devised the enterprise, with mad design
To wrest Rome's sceptre from thy sacred hand.
He fired the capitol to raise the tumult,
And in the imperial robe and wreath expected
The giddy crowd, for ever fond of change,
And ever for the worst, shou'd shout him up
A sovereign for his plumage. But the robe,
(How just is heaven) assumed for thy perdition,
Assured his own. One of the desperate band
Mistaking the impostor for the prince,
Drench'd in the blood of Lentulus his steel,
Deceived but by that garment.
Titus.
Is he dead?
Cornelia.
Of that I'm yet to learn.
Titus.
Methinks 'tis strange
They cou'd so long conceal the bold design.
Cornelia.
Oh generous prince! thou art not yet secure,
Treason is round thee. See this crimson badge,
A riband such as this binds up the robe
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[Shewing a riband.
Observe it, and be cautious.
Titus.
My fair friend!
These are the joys of empire. Judge me Truth!
Have I not held my people's happiness
Much dearer than my own, yet all my cares
Are sown in barrenness, or shoot rank weeds
Choking the soil that nurs'd them. From my brow
One desperate hand wou'd tear this hard-earn'd wreath
To wear it on his own, and still more strange
He finds abettors. Can it be in Rome?
Does Rome then hate thee, Titus?
Cornelia.
Think not so.
Think it a monster which the matron Rome
'Gainst Nature's course shook in convulsions forth,
Which when the startled parent found to swell
With venom dangerous to her proper life
With her own hands she strangled.
Titus.
Heavenly Synod,
You know if I have serv'd her. You beheld
When on the banks of Ister or of Nile,
Patient I felt the changing season's rage,
Or scorch'd in sultry Syria for her glory,
For her indulgence, cruel to myself,
I stifled my affections, banish'd from me
The first dear object of a mutual passion.
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Even thus am I requited.
Cornelia.
Never yet
Was man so vile, or enterprize so wild,
Scorn'd or detested by the general sense,
As to want followers, from vice or folly,
Tho' hopeless still the issue.
To them, Sextus.
Sextus.
Oh that face!
I dare not look upon it.
Titus.
Sextus welcome!
How oft have we reproved our satyrists
For dark'ning Nature with black characters
Impress'd but by their spleen, nor could believe
The principles of ill so widely sown
In human bosoms to give countenance
For such irreverence 'gainst our common parent.
But farewell now fond plausibility,
Our milkiness be henceforth turn'd to gall.
For wou'd'st thou think it, Titus is betray'd?
Sextus.
Alas too well I know it!
[Aside.
Titus.
Wou'd'st thou think
Titus is Rome's abhorrence. Thou canst tell,
(For thou hast visited my inmost soul)
Have I deserv'd to be abhor'd by Rome?
Sextus.
Abhor'd!
Titus.
Nay tell me friend.—
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I cannot speak.
Titus.
Thy tears speak for thee. Come to my embrace
Why this is retribution, these console me,
Such tender proofs of thy unshaken faith
For Rome's ingratitude.
Sextus.
I cannot bear it.
[Aside.
My silence is a second treachery.
To them, Vitellia.
Vitellia.
Ha! Sextus here, then all is secret yet.
[Aside.
Sextus.
I will shake off this load.
[Aside.
Vitellia.
Victorious Cæsar!
[Advancing.
The gods still guard thee! this auspicious hour
Thy country 'midst her happiest registers
Shall keep enroll'd for ever. Our glad altars
When the revolving sun renews this day,
Smoke with rich incense, and large hecatombs,
Attesting thee preserv'd, and heaven propitious.
Titus.
Thanks for this pious wish! yet trust me princess
Nor life, nor empire do I prize so high
To think them worth a struggle for themselves.
Let heaven reclaim my life, and Rome her empire
Thankful for their short date, I will resign them.
But go my Sextus, in the emperor's name
Send to their homes the astonish'd citizens.
Tell them the danger's past, and thank their love
That made my safety their peculiar care
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That done, return. A grateful labour, Sextus,
Bears its own thanks.
Sextus.
Oh Janus, what an office!
[Aside.
[Exit Sextus.
At the opposite door enter Annius, in the robe of Sextus.
Annius.
Order resumes its place, the flames are quell'd,
But wou'd our gilded palaces had choked
Their masters with their ashes, ere the shame
Of spreading them to catch the life of Titus
Had stain'd our annals. Therefore, Sir! take heed.
There are who seek thy death.
Titus.
Too plain I see it.
I read it with broad eyes, yet still my heart
Combats the witness, and wou'd fain disprove
The palpable conviction of their sense.
While you like an ambiguous sorcerer,
Shew me at once my fate, and warn against it.
'Tis past all doubt—Cornelia, look, behold!
The very badge, the traitorous ensign see
Hangs on the arm of Annius.
Cornelia.
Ha, it blinds me.
Titus.
Too plain, too plain. The very form, the colour.
Vitellia.
He in our league! I have destroyed him too.
[Aside.
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Traitor!
Annius.
Amazement, and from thee Cornelia.
Titus.
And wou'd'st thou shed my blood, my son, my Annius.
Annius.
Sooner let furies seize, or lightning blast me!
Titus.
Dissembling now is vain. That crimson flag,
That blushing symbol, is the kindred badge
Of perfidy and murder.
[The riband on the robe of Annius
Annius.
This, what's this?
You make me wonder. By my soul I swear
I know of no device this silk contains.
Vitellia.
Distraction comes for thought. O pitying powers!
[Aside.
Suggest some lucky artifice to save him.
Annius.
But Sir forgive my honest indignation!
My conscious innocence assumes the licence.
Had any tongue—but thine—thus dared to accuse me,
I shou'd not tamely stand to expostulate,
Nor put my well tried truth on affirmation,
But my quick sword had started from my side,
And stab'd the lie in the foul slanderer's throat.
Titus.
The injured must complain, nor wou'd I check
A decent freedom in the meanest tongue.
Such passion shou'd have praise with honesty.
Yet think not loudness can outorganize
The silent crimination of that silk.
Why dost thou wear it?
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Wear it Sir? this silk?
Unhappy friend! No Sextus I will spare thee.
[Aside.
Vitellia.
Oh that the earth wou'd yawn, and swallow me!
[Aside.
Titus.
'Tis manifest. Guilt chokes his utterance.
Vitellia.
Heart, heart be still. Thy throbbing will betray me.
[Aside.
Titus.
Cornelia pity me. All men but me
Make friends by bounties. When I pray the Gods,
I must not pray against mine enemies
Who meet me in the glittering files of war,
But that the bosom of the friend I cherish,
And strain to mine, may not hide daggers 'gainst me,
That every benefit my hand confers,
By transformation most unnatural,
Become not, like the ooze of ebbing Nile
A bed to engender asps and crocodiles.
Cornelia.
Medusa's sever'd head, that brew'd a pest
With every drop that fell, produced no fang,
No viper keen as this ingratitude.
Titus.
May thunder strike me, if I wou'd not rather
Had I unnumber'd lives at once resign them,
Than hold one fitful feverish being thus
With such vile thoughts, and such detested caution.
Vitellia.
Oh for an age of bliss, I'd not endure
[Aside.
The hell of this distraction in my bosom.
Titus.
Now own the improvidence of perfidy.
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Trifles betray the deep concerted wile
With all black powers of night evoked to hide it.
Behold him there, the lover for whose arms
Thy constancy refused Rome's diadem.
Cornelia.
Oh add not to my sorrow. On this cheek
Deep glows the unextinguishable shame
Which that proud front still bold and unabash'd,
Tho' native to his crime, disdains to wear.
Titus.
Yet answer me, say most ungrateful man!
How could thy bosom harbour the foul thought,
To murder him who loved thee? Answer me.
Annius.
Appearances condemn me. Let your wisdom
Against this fluttering frivolous levity,
[the riband,
Weigh the whole tenor of my life, my truth
Protested strongly, this encreasing wonder
That almost strangles utterance, then determine
Which scale preponderates.
Titus.
So may it prove.
Publius, I grieve to see his conscious pangs.
My presence doubles his distress and shame.
See him secured: and straight instruct the senate
To examine his design, and find its source.
I leave thee to thy heart, a keener monitor
Than my reproaches, which henceforth I spare thee.
Proportion but thy sorrow to thy sin,
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[Exit Titus. Publius signs to an Officer who puts chains on Annius, and exit.
Remain Annius, Vitellia and Cornelia.
Annius.
All is not lost, thou ever kind and gentle,
My rest, my harbour from the storms of fate!
My tempest beaten bosom flies to thee,
And longs to be enfolded by thy softness.
What means this scorn?
Cornelia.
Away, and come not near me
Unless thou mean'st still deeper to impress,
My rooted detestation. Witness Dian!
Had fortune emptied her whole quiver on thee
Stript thee of wealth and honours, chang'd thy form
(Thus goodly as it is) to loathsome foulness,
My constancy had triumph'd o'er her malice,
And woes on woes had more endear'd thee to me,
But now to love thee, treacherous, base, ungrateful,
Were to forget myself, renounce my honour,
And make me share the perfidy I scorn.
[Exit Cornelia.
Annius, Vitellia,
Annius.
Yet innocent, I will abide it all.
Princess you gaze as I were dangerous,
Yet seeming, not reality, confounds me.
As from the eclipse of black surrounding clouds
The sun's effulgence breaks with double lustre
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And shine more bright from base obscurity.
Vitellia.
O rank not me with those obdurate hearts
Which always frail, and often hypocrite,
Less adverse to the crime, than the detection,
Wou'd sharpen hard affliction's keenest pang
As they were charter'd against mortal frailty.
I have a thousand things to say to thee,
I staid not to upbraid, but give thee comfort.
Know Annius!
To them, Sextus entering.
Sextus.
Bear me whirlwinds to his feet.
Hold on your lives—Off with these shameful bonds
Shall truth and honour walk thus manacled,
While treason roams at large. That robe was mine,
The guilt is mine. Be quick ye tardy slaves!
Fix your vile fetters here—
Vitellia.
Be patient Sextus!
(He heeds me not.) These have no power to free him.
Officer.
My lord, the consuls send to summon us
To the assembled senate.
Annius.
Lead me to them.
Thou see'st what I endure. Push'd to the brink,
I kept thy fatal secret. If 'tis possible
Save thy own life, but O preserve my honour.
[Exit Annius guarded.
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Sextus.
Off, let me pass.
[To Vitellia who holds him.
Vitellia.
Yet hold a little moment
Sextus.
Is't not enough? What, not yet satisfied?
Vitellia.
Oh do not waste these precious hours in strife,
But fly this moment, and by flight preserve
Thy life, and poor Vitellia's.
Sextus.
How! by flight?
And leave my guiltless friend exposed to ruin.
Vitellia.
I will preserve thy friend. Frame thou the form
Of any solemn oath, be heaven and hell
Attested for its sanction, bind me down
To pains on earth, to Tartarus hereafter,
Write it in blood, my own blood, boiling blood,
May my remaining hours be more accurs'd,
The pangs more sharp than those I suffer now,
May I be still more wretched.—
Sextus.
No, I stir not,
While the rais'd sword hangs threatning o'er his head.
What leave him in this dire extremity,
The forfeit of my crime?
Vitellia.
How shall I swear?
By heaven, by all my hopes I will preserve him.
Sextus.
But what avails my flight?
Vitellia.
Is that a question?
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Discovery must destroy thee, and my secret
Becomes as public as the capitol.
Sextus.
No, fear not. By my life, and all things sacred,
Here shall it rest, deep buried in my bosom,
To death I will conceal it.
Vitellia.
I cou'd trust thee,
If less thy love to Titus. 'Gainst his rigour
Thy courage wou'd sustain thee. But his mercy,
His gentleness and friendship must subdue,
And melt thy soul to weakness. Hear, oh hear me!
By the dear memory of the first soft hours
That charm'd thy soul to fondness, by our loves,
By all thy hopes hold dear, I beg thee fly,
Confirm my fluttering heart. I owe thee much,
O make me more thy debtor, 'tis the boon,
The mightiest thy affection can bestow,
Or mine accept: It gives me peace and honour.
See on my knees I supplicate. Oh Sextus!
[Kneels.
Let me prevail;—can'st thou behold me thus,
See these uplifted hands, these streaming eyes?
Sextus.
Wou'd we had never met, our destinies
[Raising her.
Had slept divided centuries asunder.
But fate ordain'd us, dreadful instruments
To toil together in one Stygian web,
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Vitellia.
Oh impotence of wishes! what avail they!
The child, the dotard's waste of hours unpriz'd,
Who was e'er wise or happy for a wish?
Will they recall time past, secure my honour,
Seal up the senate's ears, or break thy fall,
When the grim lictor drags thee to the rock,
(Thy mildest doom) to hurl thee down for ever.
Sextus.
Thy counsels have been ever fatal to me,
And shall I trust them now? My deafen'd ears
Still ring with thy reproach, thy love avow'd
Even for the man you rais'd my arm to murder.
Vitellia.
These were the rash effusions of despair
The last I e'er shall utter. From this hour
Let peace and gentleness unite our hearts.
Sorrow and shame have so subdued me since
Scarce have I power enough to ask forgiveness
Yet listen to my suit. Thy soften'd eyes
Beam sweet compliance. Yes thou dost consent,
I read it in thy looks, thy soft'ning brow.
Turn not away, say do my hopes deceive me?
With my heart's wings spread over thee I wait.
Pity my anguish! Speak, oh speak and ease me.
Sextus.
I can forgive my wrongs, and mourn thy sorrow
I wou'd obey thee too, but my poor friend,
My generous Annius, he forbids my flight,
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Rather than poorly fly, and let him perish.
Vitellia.
Inexorable still! then take thy fate.
My fears were most for thee. I have a heart
Can give bold counsel in extremity,
A hand can execute. And each resolv'd
This dagger ends our strife.
[Draws a dagger.
Sextus.
For pity hold!
Depend upon my faith—again I swear
No torture from my breast shall wring the secret.
To them, Publius, with a guard.
Publius.
I grieve at the sad office, but my duty
Requires that I demand that dangerous sword.
Sextus.
Why dost thou ask it?
Publius.
Know unhappy man!
Fierce Lentulus still lives. You guess the rest.
Vitellia.
Oh death to all my hopes!
[Aside.
Sextus.
The toils are round me.
Seest thou Vitellia?
Publius.
I must lead thee hence.
Already are the senators assembled,
To sentence or acquit thee. 'Tis my charge
To bring thee to the trial. With reluctance
Unfelt before must I fulfill the office.
Follow me this way.
[Exit Publius.
Vitellia, Sextus.
Vitellia.
Thou self sacrificed!
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Farewell, this one embrace, 'tis all I have left,
For the vast ruin I have brought down on thee.
Sextus.
O if prolong'd, 'twou'd make death smile, Vitellia!
Once I had fame and honour, both are lost,
And 'tis but fit, my life shou'd follow them.
[Exit guarded.
Vitellia,
alone.
Oh most compleatly wretched! swallow'd quick
All the proud structure of my towering hopes.
Love, glory, empire to the centre sink,
And leave me whelm'd in infamy and horror.
Hark, the invenomed whisper spreads around.
My shame becomes the tale of babbling Rome.
Lo, Sextus drags me to the bloody bar,
And awful Titus by my rage devoted,
Mounts his tribunal, and to death consigns me,
Then, since thy frantic jealousy cou'd rise
To mock at danger, and to spurn all laws,
Let one bold frenzy soar a nobler height,
Cut short the specious forms of tardy justice,
And satiate hell with voluntary blood.
[Exit.
END OF FOURTH ACT.
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