The First Brutus A Tragedy |
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| 2. | SCENE THE SECOND. |
 | The First Brutus |  |
SCENE THE SECOND.
Brutus and Collatinus in the Rostrum. Valerius, People, Senators, Patricians. The Conspirators all in Chains among the Lictors; the last of these Titus and Tiberius.People.
Ah! how many,
How many may the traitors be? ... Oh heaven!
Behold the sons of Brutus! ...
Col.
Ah! I cannot
Longer restrain my tears ...
Bru.
—A great day,
A noble day is this, and evermore
Will be a memorable one for Rome.—
Oh ye, perfidiously base, who dared
Your scarce-awaken'd country to betray,
Behold ye all before assembled Rome.
Let each of you, if it be possible,
Defend himself before her.—All are silent.—
Rome and the consuls ask of you yourselves,
Whether to you, convicted criminals,
The punishment of death be due?—
(UNIVERSAL SILENCE.)
Bru.
—To death
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The people's majesty, with one consent,
Pronounces th'irreversible decree.
Why should we longer tarry?—Oh! my colleague
Weeps, and is silent ... Silent is the senate ...
Silent the citizens.
People.
Oh fatal moment! ...
Yet just and necessary is their death.
Tit.
One innocent alone, amongst us all,
Now dies; and this is he.
People.
Oh pity! See,
He of his brother speaks.
Tib.
Believe him not:
Or we are both equally innocent,
Or equally transgressors. In the paper
My name is written next to his.
Bru.
No one
Whose name is written in that fatal scroll
Can be call'd innocent. Some may, perchance,
Have been less culpable in their intent,
But only to the gods the intent is known;
And it would be an arbitrary judgment,
And thence unjust, the guilty to absolve,
As to condemn them from the inference
Drawn from profess'd intention. It would be
A spurious judgment, such as kings assume;
Not such as by a just and simple people
Is held in reverence: people who alone
To the tremendous sacred laws submit;
And who, save of the letter of those laws,
In their decrees, of nought avail themselves.
Col.
... Romans, 'tis true, that these unhappy youths
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Involved; but that they were solicited,
Confounded, tamper'd with, and finally,
By the iniquitous Mamilius
In an inextricable snare entrapp'd,
Is also as indubitably true.
He made them think that all was in the power
Of the expell'd Tarquinii: thence their names
(Would you believe it?) also they subscribed
Only to save their sire from death ...
People.
Oh heaven! ...
And is this true indeed? We should then save
These two alone ...
Bru.
Alas! what do I hear? ...
Is this the people's voice? Just, free, and strong,
Ye now would make yourselves, and how? would ye
Lay, as the base of such an edifice,
A partial application of your laws?
That I, a father, might not weep, would ye
Now make so many other citizens,
Sons, brothers, fathers, weep? To the keen axe,
Which they have merited, shall now so many,
So many others yield their passive necks,
And shall two culprits only be exempt
From this, because they seem not what they are?
They were the consul's sons, although in deeds
They were not so: 'mong the conspirators
With their own hand were they enroll'd: or all
Or none of them should die. Absolve them all,
And at once ruin Rome; save two alone,
And if it seem so, it would be unjust.
Now, less a just than a compassionate judge,
Hath Collatinus these two youths defended,
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Perhaps this was true; but perhaps the others wish'd,
Their fathers some, their brothers some, and some
Their sons to save; and not on this account
Are they less guilty, since they rather chose
To sacrifice their country than their friends.
The father in his heart may weep for this;
But in the first place should the genuine consul
Secure the safety of his native country ...
And afterwards, by mighty grief o'erwhelm'd,
Fall on the bodies of his lifeless sons.—
Ye will behold, ere many hours are past,
To what excess of danger, by these men,
Ye have been brought: to fortify our hearts
In strength imparted by the strength of others,
In individual strength to make us strong,
Inflexible as champions of freedom,
Cruel, though just, 'tis indispensable
That we abide this memorable test.—
Depart, oh lictors; be the culprits all
Bound to the columns; let the hatchet fall
Upon them.—I have not a heart of steel ...
Ah! Collatinus, this is the time for thee
To pity me: perform for me the rest.
People.
Oh cruel sight! ... The wretched father dare
Not look at them ... And yet, their death is just.
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—The punishment approaches.—The delinquents
Have heard the sentence of the consuls ... Now
Think on the pangs of the distracted father ...
The cleaving hatchet o'er each neck impends ...
Oh heaven! my very heart is rent in twain! ...
I with my mantle am constrain'd to hide
Th'insufferable sight! ... This may, at least,
Be granted to the father ...
But ye, fix ye on them your eyes: now Rome
Free and eternal rises from that blood.
Col.
Oh superhuman strength! ...
Va.
Of Rome is Brutus
The father and the god ...
People.
Yes, Brutus is
The father and the god of Rome ...
Bru.
I am
The most unhappy man that ever lived.
| The First Brutus | |