University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE THIRD.

Demariste, Timophanes.
Tim.
Perhaps he will come at thy entreaties; long
Has he to my repeated ones been deaf:
He as a foe avoids me. Thou wilt hear,
How every scheme of mine malignantly
With dark hues he disfigures.

Dem.
Evermore
Timoleon is the epitome of virtue.
Thou construest not such praise to thy reproach?
Of one son to another may a mother
Speak it unblamed. I wish to hear from him
Why he avoids thee. That thou'rt loved by him,
Thou knowest: with his premature discretion
He formerly attempered the excesses
Of thy too fervent early years; himself
Caused thee of the Corinthian cavalry
To be elected captain: well may'st thou
That fatal day remember, when thy valour
Had too far onward with thy partizans
Blindly impell'd thee, and entangled thee
Among the Argive spears: who rescued thee
From certain ruin on that fatal day?
Say did not he at his most imminent risk,
And he alone, perchance, to thy adherents
Preserve their honour, to thyself thy life,
And victory to Corinth?

Tim.
Mother, I
Am not ungrateful; all I recollect.
Ah, yes, my life is his; for him I keep it:
As much as glory I my brother love:
Tremendous dangers I alone confront;
He afterwards the precious fruit of this,
If so he will, may taste with me in peace.
But what do I suggest? He has not been,
For a long time, what he was once to me.
He ranks among his most beloved friends
My most inveterate foes. That Archidas,
That overbearing and flagitious judge,
Who at his will now absolutely rules
This residue of magistrates, who dares,
In tones of rage and envy, to proclaim me
Worthy of death; inseparable friend,
Guide, and adviser is he to my brother.—
Why cruelly preserve my life, if he
Afterwards plots to rob me of a treasure
Far, far more precious—fame?

Dem.
Do not believe
He acts with inadvertency or malice?
Let us first hear him.

Tim.
Mother, we will hear him.
Ah, be not this the day to manifest
That he in brotherly kindness is defective,
Or that I am ungrateful! Thou knowest well
That he himself would take from me that power
With which he formerly invested me;
That he professes this?

Dem.
'Twere better far
That he shared it with thee: in both of you
Is equal valour; suffer that I say it,
In prudence he surpasses thee: united,
What would ye not perform? What government
Could be so admirably harmonized?
What mother, than myself, more fortunate,
If with one glory and one power resplendent,
I saw you brothers, heroes, leaders, friends?

Tim.
Oh mother, that thou shalt not gain thy wish,
I swear to thee it shall not rest with me.