University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

ARUNS, ALBINUS, ATTENDANTS.
Aruns enters, preceded by two Lictors, with Albinus his Friend; he passes by the Consuls and Senate, salutes them, and takes a Seat prepared for him in the Front of the Stage.
ARUNS.
Consuls, and fathers, with what heartfelt joy
Mix I with this assembly! Hallow'd band
Of sage deliberating foes! How pleased
View all those heroes, in whose thoughts or deeds
E'en to this hour severest equity
Can find one only flaw! Your noble acts
To scan, to look with wonder on your virtues,
And crowning all the glorious sum, to hear
Rome's blended accents from the lips of Brutus.
Far from the clamours of the barbarous herd,
Wild and untutor'd, who by headstrong rage
Are hurried on, united, and disjoin'd.
Blind in their hate, in their affections blind,
Who menace, tremble, rule and cringe by turns
In one short day; whose boldness—

BRUTUS.
Cease; and learn
That more respect is due when thou would'st name
The citizens of Rome. To represent
That virtuous people, thou hast dared insult,
The senate justly glories. While with us,
Banish thy art, dismiss thy flattery,
The poison in Hetruria's court prepared,
As yet untasted by the Roman senate.
Proceed.

ARUNS.
Less moved by these sonorous words,
Than pitying your devoted state exposed
To sure destruction, like a son of Rome
Now hear me plead its cause. You see the storm
Instinct with vengeful fires and bursting round you.
In vain will Titus strive to turn aside
The furious bolt. With sorrow I perceive
His valour and his zeal can but insure
A more illustrious downfall to his country.
His victories weaken your deserted ramparts,
They seem as sapp'd and tottering with the blood
Which floats around. No longer then refuse
A peace so needful to your dearest interests.
And though the assembled senate claim the name
Of common father to the Roman people,
Remember that the race, the royal race,
Your wrath pursues, can call Porsenna theirs.
But say, you dread avengers of your country,
You whose enlightened souls expound the rights
Of all mankind, who judge dependent kings;
Mark you this place? Observe you where you are?
There stands the capitol, the altar there
On which, attesting all th'immortal gods
I saw you once, (far different then indeed
Was your religious warmth) swear to obey
Tarquin your lawful monarch; say what gods
Have since new framed the rights of kings? What power
Hath broke those ties so hallow'd erst? What hand
Hath torn the crown from Tarquin's sacred brows?
Who hath absolved you from your oaths?

BRUTUS.
Himself.
Urge not the ties his crimes have broke: the gods
Whom he hath scorn'd, the rights by him destroy'd.
When rendering homage, Aruns, to our prince
We swore obedient faith, not servitude.
But if thou here beheld'st at Tarquin's feet
The senate kneel, and offer up their vows,
Remember likewise in this very place,
On that most holy altar, and before
The same attesting deities, that he
Swore to be just. Such was the bond between
Him and his people, and he then returned
Our oath, when first he falsified his own.
When he dared prove a traitor to the laws,
Rome was no longer subject to his power,
Rebellion his alone.

ARUNS.
But grant it true that Tarquin drawn aside
By absolute dominion had a while
Stray'd from his duty, and too far pursued
Its witching blandishments; where lives the man
From error free? The king exempt from weakness?
Inform me under what pretence you claim
The right of chastisement? You who were born
His subjects? framed by Nature to obey?
The son ne'er lifts his hand against his sire
Though criminal, but with averted face
Sighs, and reveres him. Are the rights of kings
Less, think you, to be prized? We are their children.
Their judges are the gods. If in its wrath
High Heaven sometimes creates them, would you merit
Severer punishments? Destroy the laws
You seek t'avenge? And in confusion plunge
The government you only wish to change?
Tarquin henceforth, school'd by adversity,
Great tutoress of mankind, will prove more just,
More worthy of imperial Rome. Oh! brace
With happiest concord, firmest energy,
The legal bonds of prince and people! You
Possess the option, give it but effect,
And public liberty shall bloom anew
Beneath the sacred shade of regal power.

BRUTUS.
The time is past. All nations have their laws;
From their peculiar nature first derived,
Or modell'd by their choice. Their monarch's slaves,
Slaves to their priests, the Tuscans seem as born
To crouch beneath the yoke; self-satisfied
Adore the fetters rivetted by time,
And like themselves, would bend the world to bondage.
All Greece is free; while soft Ionia still
Sits languishingly weak, its mind inured
To shameful slavery. Rome hath had her kings;
Not absolute however; Romulus,
Great founder of our state was but the first
Among its citizens; they shared with him
The weight of sovereignty. Tho' Numa framed
Our laws, by them his actions too were bound.
At length (I own th'unworthy deed with shame)
Rome made an evil choice, and from the Tuscans,
From you, her king selected; with him came
From your Hetruria's bosom, from its court,
Its vices, and tyrannic thirst of sway.
[He rises.
Forgive the Roman people, mighty gods,
Their long forbearance to the guilt of Tarquin!
The torrent streams of blood, he fiercely spilt,
Have each barrier of duty swept away.
The realm long crush'd beneath his iron rod
Through dint of sufferings hath regain'd its virtue.
Tarquin hath fix'd again our native rights;
And from th'uncommon rankness of his crimes
Each public blessing sprang. Your Tuscans now
May follow, if they dare, the bright example,
And shake off tyrants.
[The Consuls descend towards the Altar, and the Senate rises.
O Immortal Power!
God of heroic chiefs, of warring hosts,
And of illustrious Rome! O Mars! receive
The vows we pour forth on thy sacred altar,
In the consenting senate's mingled name,
In mine, and that of all thy genuine sons,
Who not disgrace their sire! If hid within
Rome's secret bosom, there exist a traitor,
Who with base mind regrets the loss of kings,
And would again behold a tyrant lord;
May the wretch die beneath a thousand tortures!
His guilty ashes scattered through the air
The sport of winds, while nought remains behind
But his vile name, more loathsome to the tongue
Of latest times than that which Rome condemns
To utmost infamy, detested Tarquin's.

ARUNS.
[Approaching the Altar.
And I, upon this altar, which your vows
Have thus profaned, in Tarquin's royal name
Whom you with scorn reject, and in the name
Of great Porsenna his avenger, swear
To you and to your sons eternal war.
[The Senators move towards the Capitol.
Hear me a moment, senators, nor yet
Dismiss th'assembly; injuries there are
Which still remain unnoticed. Tarquin's daughter,
Your prisoner, say, is she a victim too,
To Rome devoted? Are her royal hands
Loaded with chains, the more t'insult her father,
And every sovereign in the world, with him?
Shall I proceed? The wealth, the stores, the treasures
Whence fed, the streams of Tarquin's bounty flowed
Through his loved city; claim you these by conquest?
Or as a gift? Was it to share the plunder
That you dethroned the monarch? Let the senate
Its orders give, and Brutus shall refuse them.

BRUTUS.
Misjudging man! how ignorant of Rome,
And her sublimer nature! See those worthies,
Patrons of justice, fathers of their country,
Grown old amid the dignities of state,
And virtuous poverty! Superior far
To treasures, which they willingly resign,
It is their boast to triumph over kings
Who prize the glittering trifles. Take it hence,
The sordid mass; our fixed souls disdain it.
As to the odious tyrant's hapless daughter,
Spite of the hate, the well-deserved hate
I bear to all her family, the senate
Confided her to my protecting care.
The flattering strains which fascinating, charm
The heirs of royalty, and taint their hearts
With subtle poison, have not reached her here.
The shining pomp, and soft voluptuousness
Of Tarquin's court, bane to the giddy mind
Of thoughtless youth, she hath not here experienced.
But well I know what generosity
And honour prompt, what to her sex is due,
Her tender age, and more, to her misfortunes.
This day to Tarquin let her be restored,
Conduct her to the camp; a secret joy
Thence rises in my soul. Oh! May the tyrant
Hereafter nought possess within our walls,
But Rome's abhorence, and the wrath of heaven!
The treasures to remove we grant a day,
Let that suffice. Meantime beneath my roof
Receive protection, and partake the rights
Of hospitality. The assembled fathers
Thus speak through me; this evening bear our answer
Back to Porsenna, we present him, war.
For Tarquin, let him know what thou hast seen
Within the Roman senate.
[To the Senators.
Let us haste
Now to the capitol, and ornament
Its vaulted dome with laurels which engird
My son's victorious brows; there let us hang
The bloody ensigns, shields, and brazen spears
Which with successful struggle his brave hands
Have wrested from the Tuscans. Ever thus
From age to age with the same spirit fired,
Worthy their country, may my offspring prove
Their zeal and steady faith! Ye gods protect
Against our foes the father's consulship!
Protect the son in the dread field of death!