University of Virginia Library

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE THE FIRST.

Brutus, Titus.
Tit.
All the patricians were invited, father,
As thou commandedst, to th'august assembly.
The fourth hour now approaches; thou wilt have
The whole of Rome subservient to thy nod.
It almost doth bereave me of my reason
To see thee lord of Rome.

Bru.
Thou seest me
Lord of myself, and not of Rome, oh Titus:
Nor shall you have a lord in any shape
In Rome henceforward. This by her I swear;
I, who till now was a vile slave. Oh sons,
Ye saw me such, while with the tyrant's children
I educated you for servitude
In a corrupted court. Alas! I could not
Sow in your hearts the seeds of liberty,
A trembling and degraded father: hence
Ye are a cause, ye the most special cause,
Whence I should triumph in recover'd freedom.
My independent animating carriage
Will instigate you more to excellence,
Than my anterior servitude to baseness.
Contented for my country shall I die,
When I with confidence shall leave my sons
The associates of free-born citizens.

Tit.
Father, there needed to thy lofty heart,
Whose lustre always broke upon thy sons,
A field no less magnificent for action
Than that which fortune opens to thee now.
Ah, might we in the noble enterprize
Assist thee! But the obstacles are many,
And they are terrible. The multitude
Is in itself inconstant: to the Tarquins
What manifold resources yet remain! ...

Bru.
Were there no obstacle remaining yet,
The enterprize were dangerless, and thence
Unworthy Brutus: but if Brutus fear'd them,
He were unworthy to accomplish it.—
To the immutable, lofty, austere,
Peremptory decision of thy father,
Do thou thy youthful vehemence unite;
Thus at once son of Brutus and of Rome
Shalt thou be, Titus.—But thy brother comes ...
Hear we what news he brings.

SCENE THE SECOND.

Tiberius, Titus, Brutus.
Tib.
Beloved father,
Never could I have met thee in the forum
More opportunely. Wild with joy thou seest me:
I sought for thee. Breathless from too much haste
I am: with impulses ne'er felt before,
I am at once transported and oppress'd.
I have just seen the execrable Tarquins,
And trembled not ...

Tit.
Where was it?

Bru.
Where? ...

Tib.
I am
By my own eyes persuaded that the tyrant
Is of all men the least. The haughty king,
With impious Sextius, scarce had heard that Rome
Had risen in tumult, ere he left the camp;
And with a chosen escort towards the city
Fled with full speed: and here were they arrived
At the Carmental gate ...

Tit.
Precisely there
Where thou wert sentinel.

Tib.
Blest that I am!
I first against the tyrants, I the first
My sword unsheathed.—The iron gate was closed,
And fortified: in its defence myself,
With twenty other armed Romans, paced,
Accoutred all, exterior to the gate,
With circumambient vigilance. Behold,
With cries, with howlings, and with menaces,
The troop, twice ours in number, rush'd towards us.
To hear, to see, to recognize the miscreants,
To fall upon them with our weapons, seem'd
The labour of an instant. In ourselves
There was a strength and rage unlike to theirs:
Tyrants, they thought that they were meeting slaves:
But soon they learn'd that liberty and death,
Like twin-born instincts, hover'd round our swords.
Already ten or more had we destroy'd;
The residue, and Tarquin first of these,
Betook themselves to flight. Upon their heels
Fiercely and long we press'd, but press'd in vain;
Fear gave them wings. I afterwards return'd
To my appointed post beside the gate;
And, warm yet with the victory, swift I come
To thee to tell it.

Bru.
Trifling though it be,
Such sample of our prowess should be deem'd
An omen of prosperity to Rome.
Fain would I in that fray have borne a part;
For nothing so intensely do I covet
As to confront them in the strife of blood.
Oh! wherefore in the forum and the camp
Cannot I tongue, and intellect, and sword,
All, all at once exert! But with such sons
I can with ease be many things at once.

Tib.
Still have I more to tell thee. When to flight
I had these miscreants driven, as I return'd
Towards the walls, the sound of steeds I heard
Behind, advancing on our homeward path;
Backward I look'd, and lo! there came towards us
A single horseman from the tyrant's train.
His right-hand weaponless he raised; no sword
Guarded his side; an olive-branch he held
In his left-hand; beckoning to me, he cried:
I halted; he advanced; the messenger
Of peace, in supplicating tones he ask'd
Admission into Rome. T'enunciate
Conditions and apologies, he comes
To Brutus and the senate.

Bru.
To the people—
For Brutus is a portion of the people,
Or he is nothing. And the herald is? ...

Tib.
Mamilius: strict injunctions to my troops
Without the gates I gave to guard him well.
I came to know what must be done with him.

Bru.
He comes at the right time. This messenger
Could not have chosen to present himself
A day more solemn or more opportune.
Go, to the gate return; seek him; with thee
Quickly conduct him hither. If he dare,
Here shall he speak to universal Rome:
And here, an answer not of Rome unworthy
He will, I hope, receive.

Tib.
To him I fly.

SCENE THE THIRD.

Brutus, Titus.
Bru.
Meanwhile go thou to meet the senators;
See in the forum that they yield to them
The most conspicuous places. Even now
The concourse of the multitude increases;
And several of the senators I see.
Go hence; oh Titus, go without delay.

SCENE THE FOURTH.

Brutus, People, Senators, and Patricians, who place themselves successively in the Forum.
Bru.
Oh thou supreme discerner of those thoughts
Which lurk most privily in human breasts!
Thou who dost see and dost inflame my heart!
Rome's great protector, everlasting Jove!
Give me, I pray thee, language, sense, and ardour
To the great cause proportion'd ... Yes, oh Jove,
This wilt thou do, if it be true that thou
Hast chosen me to be the instrument
Of liberty, thy first and genuine blessing.

SCENE THE FIFTH.

Brutus, having mounted the Rostrum, Valerius, Titus, People, Senators, Patricians.
Bru.
I come, oh fellow-citizens, to make
To you all strict confession of my deeds.
With one consent you have appointed me
And Collatinus to a dignity
Without a precedent in Rome: the lictors,
The fasces, and the hatchets (hitherto
Th'insignia of kings) ye have been pleased
T'annex to our elective annual office.
Yet not for this hath the malignant taint
Of mad ambition crept into my heart;
With honours, no, (though yours are real ones,)
I'm not transported; but with liberty,
With love for Rome, and with implacable,
Fierce, and eternal hatred for the Tarquins.
These are my sole pretensions; and may each
Of you in such a noble strife excel me;
I have no wish beyond.

People.
Thy dignified
And manly aspect, Brutus, thy frank speech,
All, all announce in thee to us the sire
Of Rome and of the Romans.

Bru.
Oh my sons,
My genuine sons, (since with the name of father
Ye have been pleased to honour me,) I hope
Shortly to shew you, by no doubtful proofs,
That beyond all things, e'en myself, I love you.—
My colleague arm'd is from the city gone,
With many heroes, to the camp, to meet
And safely to collect those who have left
Justly the standard of our vile oppressors.
People, patricians, knights, and senators,
I all of you assemble in the forum;
Since the great cause of all I wish to treat
Before you all convened. Now every Roman
Is so inalienably a part of Rome,
That nothing but his own degeneracy
Can from her solemn meetings banish him.—
Noble patricians, ye, the scanty remnant,
Uninjured by th'exterminating sword
Of the despotic king; and ye, their flower,
Oh senators, ye will not be averse
To mingle with a free and manly people.
Ah no, ye are too lofty. All around,
Far as I cast my eyes, I see all Romans;
And there are none of them unworthy you,
Since among us there are no longer kings.—
Trembling and insecure, kings hitherto
Our lips have seal'd: nor was there left for us
Any alternative, except to load
Ourselves with infamy, giving assent
To their iniquitous flagitious laws;
Or, if the courage rose in us, to oppose
Ourselves to them in vain, to be the first
To fall the luckless victims of their rage.

Va.
Brutus, thy words are true.—I, in the name
Of all the senators, appeal to Rome.
Too true indeed are they.—We a long time
On Rome's obscurest citizens reduced
To look with envy; more than any culprit
Forced to despise ourselves; what need more words?
Besides our portion in the common load
Of execrable servitude, compell'd
In the dark mysteries of tyranny
To take a part, we, yes, we sunk ourselves
Below the lowest people; and we were so.
Nor to the multitude should one of us
Hope to seem guiltless, save the many slain
By th'impious royal axe. Nought else remains
To us to-day, then, but to reunite
Our heartiest efforts with the noble people's;
Nor otherwise to covet to surpass them,
Except in hate to kings. This sacred hate
Will be th'eternal, sublime base of Rome.
We then, yes, we, by the infernal gods,
By our own blood, and by our children's blood,
Swear it ferociously with one accord.

People.
Oh noble! oh magnanimous! Oh ye
Alone now worthy to surpass us! We
Gladly accept the noble strife of virtue.
What people now will undertake to cope,
Much less the vanquish'd execrable kings,
(Already vanquish'd by their turpitude,)
With us, at once Romans and citizens?

Bru.
Immortal contest! superhuman words! ...
I die contented: I for once at least
Have utter'd accents worthy of a Roman;
And have indeed with these my ears once heard
True Roman eloquence. Now since Rome trusts
Herself to us wholly for her defence,
Without her walls I instantly depart;
And to you day by day of all our schemes
My colleague or myself will give account;
Until, our arms laid down, in perfect peace
Ye give a stable government to Rome.

People.
'Tis needful first wholly to disconcert
Defeat, and slay the tyrants.

Bru.
I, in this,
And nothing else, will be your chief.—Be pleased
Briefly to hear a messenger of theirs;
He, in their name, solicits to address you.
Would you believe it? Tarquin, and with him
The impious Sextius, and a few more, dared
Erewhile to make incursion with full speed
Almost to Rome; thinking to come to us
As to a timorous flock, vain-glorious fools!
But they in this were much deceived; my son
Tiberius the honour robb'd from me
Of first attacking them. The miscreants
Betook themselves from him by sudden flight:
Descending thence from force to art, they dare
To send to you as an ambassador
Mamilius. What may be the unworthy terms
Will you be pleased to hear?

People.
There are 'twixt us
No other terms except their death or ours.

Bru.
This let him hear then, and report.

People.
To us
Now let this servile herald quickly come.
Let him too hear the sentiments of Rome,
And bear them back to him who sent him hither.

SCENE THE SIXTH.

Brutus, Titus, Tiberius, Mamilius, Valerius, People, Senators, Patricians.
Bru.
Mamilius, come, advance; examine well
By whom thou art surrounded. In the court
Of Tarquin thou, effeminately nursed,
Hast never yet seen Rome; this, this is she,
Behold her undisguised, and patiently
Prepared to hear thy message. Now proceed.

Ma.
Oh Brutus, with no unimportant words
Was I commission'd to bespeak thy hearing:
But in this vast assembly, ... to divulge ...
Without premeditation ...

Bru.
Audibly
Address thyself to all, and not to me.
Sublime announcer of the will of kings,
Divulge it to the people, to the senate:
Brutus will also hear thee with the rest.

People.
Speak, speak to all; and thou of all shalt hear,
In a few words, the answer, from the mouth
Of our great consul Brutus. See in him
Our genuine interpreter; alone
Worthy to be the organ of our thoughts.
Make haste, proceed: and brief be thy harangue:
Frank and explicit shall our answer be.

Bru.
Heard'st thou?

Ma.
I tremble. Tarquin, king ...

People.
Not king
Of Rome ...

Ma.
—Of Rome, Tarquin the friend and father ...

People.
He is the father of the impious Sextius,
And not of us ...

Bru.
Whate'er his words may be,
May ye be pleased to hear him in complete
Dignified silence.

Ma.
To yourselves erewhile
Came Tarquin, at the earliest news that Rome
Rebell'd; almost defenceless and alone,
Fully relying on his innocence,
And on his people's loyalty, he came:
But armed men repell'd him. Hence he sent me,
A messenger of peace; and by my means
Enquires, what is the crime, whence in your sight
So guilty, that to-day he's doom'd to lose
The throne of Rome, once his by your consent ...

People.
Heard ye? Incredible audacity!
Slain is Lucretia, and he asks his crime?

Ma.
That was the guilt of Sextius, not his ...

Tib.
And Sextius also at his father's side
Erewhile repair'd to Rome: and had they not
Both been compell'd to save their lives by flight,
Here had ye seen him now.

People.
Ah why did ye
Frustrate their wish to gain access to Rome?
Already had we torn their scatter'd limbs
In thousand thousand pieces.

Ma.
It is true,
Sextius was also with his father there:
But Tarquin, more a monarch than a father,
Thither enticed his son, to subject him
To a retributory punishment.

Bru.
This is an impudent unmanly lie;
And robs me utterly of self-controul.
If, to preserve his throne, the guilty father
Offer'd to sacrifice his guilty son,
Should we consent to it? The murder'd lady
Hath brought, 'tis true, our sufferance to a crisis;
But, without this, is not the haughty father,
The mother, and the whole opprobrious race
Of impure Sextius, stain'd with thousand crimes?
Servius, that perfect king, and Tullia's father,
Was by the husband of that Tullia slain:
Tullia, detested monster! mounts the throne,
Trampling beneath her horses feet the corse
Of her slain father: afterwards their reign
By bloodshed and oppression was distinguish'd;
The senators and citizens destroy'd;
And those not murder'd cruelly despoil'd;
Dragg'd from the service of magnanimous war,
(To which alone are Roman heroes born,)
Vilely to hollow and to pile whole quarries,
Which will remain eternal monument
Both of their bondage and of regal pride.
One after t'other, their so many crimes ...
When, when should I conclude my narrative,
If one by one I should enumerate
The Tarquins' trespasses? Lucretia's death
Was last of these; and their impiety,
And our endurance, terminate with this.

People.
This is the last; Rome swears it is the last.

Va.
This we all swear: we all will rather die
Ere impious Tarquin e'er return to Rome.

Bru.
Mamilius, well, thou art confused and mute;
Thou mightest clearly have foreseen the answer.
Go then, repeat it to thy lord, since thou
To being a man, preferr'st to be a slave.

Ma.
I might urge many arguments; ... but none ...

People.
No, no! there are 'twixt citizens oppress'd
And a despotic king no arguments,
Save those which hurtle in the field of Mars.
Heard he indeed our arguments and prayers
When on the throne he sat, puff'd up with pride,
And steel'd with cruelty? Did he not then
Laugh at our tears, and scoff at our complaints?

Ma.
Then may another king with milder sway
More satisfy your hearts.—My whole discourse
I now shall terminate in one request.—
Tarquin in Rome has left abundant wealth,
Indisputably his; would it be just
That ye, besides his honours, throne, and country,
Should rob him of his substance?

People.
—Answer this,
Brutus, for us.

Bru.
His country is not taken
From Tarquin by the Romans: kings have not
A country ever; nor deserve they one:
They never were, nor are of Roman blood.
They have themselves defrauded of their honour
For a long time. Henceforth, by our decree,
The monarch and the monarchy from Rome
Are banish'd everlastingly; the throne
Is, by the flames, consumed to noisome dust;
Nor is a trace remaining of it now.
'Tis true in part, that, when they came to Rome,
Their foreign innovating ancestors
Infamous treasures brought, which, afterwards
Insidiously dispersed, at first conduced
To vitiate our simple ancient customs.
Their wealth was afterwards the fruit of rapine,
And was augmented by our sweat and blood;
From whence the Romans equitably might
Resume it for themselves. But Rome esteems
The Tarquins only worthy to enjoy it,
And gives it all to them.

People.
Oh heart sublime!
The tutelary genius of Rome
In Brutus speaks. Be his decree fulfill'd ...
Let Tarquin have this guilty wealth ...

Bru.
With gold
May vice and every royal feculence
Depart.—Go hence, Mamilius, and collect
Their treasures with all possible dispatch:
My sons shall be to thee in this thy task,
Both guardians and assistants. Go ye with him.

SCENE THE SEVENTH.

Brutus, People, Valerius, Senators, Patricians.
Bru.
Methinks, oh citizens, 'tis now high time
The forum to abandon, to repair
Arm'd to the camp. Let us, let us behold
If Tarquin dare to challenge with his sword
Another answer from us.

People.
Brutus, see
Thy chosen followers are all accoutred.

Bru.
Let us then go to victory or death.