University of Virginia Library

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE THE FIRST.

Brutus, Collatinus.
Col.
Ah where, ah where, oh Brutus, would'st thou thus
Drag me by force? Quickly restore to me
This sword of mine, which with beloved blood
Is reeking yet ... —In my own breast ...

Bru.
Ah! first
This sword, now sacred, in the breast of others
Shall be immerged, I swear to thee.—Meanwhile
'Tis indispensable, that in this forum
Thy boundless sorrow, and my just revenge,
Burst unreservedly before the eyes
Of universal Rome.

Col.
Ah no! I will
Withdraw myself from every human eye.
To my unparallel'd calamity
All remedies are vain; the sword, this sword
Alone can put an end to my distress.

Bru.
Oh Collatinus, a complete revenge
Would surely be some solace; and I swear
To thee, that that revenge thou shalt obtain.—
Oh! of a chaste and innocent Roman lady
Thou sacred blood, to-day shalt thou cement
The edifice of Roman liberty.

Col.
Ah! could my heart indulge a hope like this!
The hope, ere death, of universal vengeance ...

Bru.
Hope? Be assured of it. At length, behold
The morn is dawning of the wish'd-for day:
To-day my lofty, long-projected plan
At length may gain a substance and a form.
Thou, from a wrong'd unhappy spouse, may'st now
Become the avenging citizen: e'en thou
Shalt bless that innocent blood: and then if thou
Wilt give thy own, it will not be in vain
For a true country shed ... A country, yes,
Which Brutus will to-day create with thee,
Or die with thee in such an enterprise.

Col.
Oh! what a sacred name dost thou pronounce!
I, for a genuine country's sake alone,
Could now survive my immolated wife.

Bru.
Ah! then resolve to live; co-operate
With me in this attempt. A God inspires me;
A God infuses ardour in my breast,
Who thus exhorts me: “It belongs to thee,
“Oh Collatinus, and to thee, oh Brutus,
“To give both life and liberty to Rome.”

Col.
Worthy of Brutus is thy lofty hope:
I should be vile if I defeated it.
Or, from the impious Tarquins wholly rescued,
Our country shall from us new life obtain;
Or we (but first avenged) with her will fall.

Bru.
Whether enslaved or free, we now shall fall
Illustrious and revenged. My horrible oath
Perhaps thou hast not well heard; the oath I utter'd,
When from Lucretia's palpitating heart
The dagger I dislodged which still I grasp.
Deaf from thy mighty grief, thou, in thy house,
Scarce heardest it; here once more wilt thou hear it,
By my own lips, upon th'inanimate corse
Of thy unhappy immolated wife,
And in the presence of assembled Rome,
More strenuously, more solemnly renew'd.
Already, with the rising sun, the forum
With apprehensive citizens is fill'd;
Already, by Valerius' means, the cry
Is to the multitude promulgated
Of th'impious catastrophe: th'effect
Will be far stronger on their heated hearts
When they behold the chaste and beauteous lady
With her own hands destroy'd. In their disdain,
As much as in my own, shall I confide.
But more than every man thou should'st be present:
Thine eyes from the distracting spectacle
Thou may'st avert: to thy affliction this
May be allow'd: yet here should'st thou remain:
E'en more than my impassion'd words, thy mute
And boundless grief is fitted to excite
Th'oppress'd spectators to indignant pity ...

Col.
Oh Brutus! the divinity which speaks
In thee, to lofty and ferocious rage,
Hath changed my grief already. The last words
Of the magnanimous Lucretia, seem,
In a more awful and impressive sound,
To echo in my ears, and smite my heart.
Can I be less inflexible t'avenge,
Than she to inflict her voluntary death?
In th'infamous Tarquinii's blood alone
Can I wash out the stigma of the name,
Common to me and them!

Bru.
Ah! I too spring
From their impure and arbitrary blood:
But Rome shall be convinced that I'm her son,
Not of the Tarquin's sister: and as far
As blood not Roman desecrates my veins,
I swear to change it all by shedding it
For my beloved country.—But, behold,
The multitude increases: hitherward
Numbers advance: now it is time to speak.

SCENE THE SECOND.

Brutus, Collatinus, People.
Bru.
Romans, to me, to me, oh Romans, come:
Great things have I t'impart to you.

People.
Oh Brutus,
Can that indeed which we have heard be true?

Bru.
Behold; this is the dagger reeking yet,
Yet warm, with th'innocent blood-drops of a chaste
And Roman lady, slain by her own hands.
Behold her husband; he is mute; yet weeps
And shudders. Yet he lives, but lives alone
For vengeance, till he sees by your hands torn,
The heart torn piece-meal of that impious Sextius,
That sacrilegious ravisher and tyrant.
And I live yet; but only till the day,
When, wholly disencumber'd of the Tarquins,
I see Rome free once more.

People.
Oh most unparallel'd,
Calamitous catastrophe! ...

Bru.
I see
That all of you upon th'unhappy spouse
Have fix'd your motionless and speaking eyes,
Swimming with tears, and by amazement glazed.
Yes, Romans, look at him; ah see in him,
Ye brothers, fathers, and ye husbands, see
Your infamy reflected. Thus reduced,
Death on himself he cannot now inflict;
Nor can he life endure if unavenged ...
But vain, inopportune, desist from tears,
And from astonishment.—Romans, towards me,
Turn towards me, Romans, your ferocious looks:
Perhaps from my eyes, ardent with liberty,
Ye may collect some animating spark
Which may inflame you with its fostering heat.
I Junius Brutus am; whom long ye deem'd,
Since I so feign'd myself, bereft of reason;
And such I feign'd myself, since doom'd to live
The slave of tyrants, I indulged a hope
One day to rescue, by a shock of vengeance,
Myself and Rome from their ferocious claws.
At length the day, predestined by the gods,
The hour, for my exalted scheme is come.
From this time forth 'tis in your power to rise
From slaves (for such ye were) to men. I ask
Alone to die for you; so that I die
The first free man and citizen in Rome.

People.
What have we heard? What majesty, what force,
Breathe in his words! ... But we, alas! are powerless:
Can we confront arm'd and ferocious tyrants? ...

Bru.
Ye powerless, ye? What is it that you say?
What? Do ye then so little know yourselves?
The breast of each already was inflamed
With just and inextinguishable hate
Against the impious Tarquins: now, e'en now,
Ye shall behold before your eyes display'd
The last, most execrable, fatal proof,
Of their flagitious arbitrary power.
To-day to your exalted rage, the rage
Of Collatinus, and my own, shall be
A guide, an impulse, a pervading spirit.
Ye have resolved on liberty; and ye
Deem yourselves powerless? And do you esteem
The tyrants arm'd? What force have they, what arms?
The arms, the force of Romans? Who is there,
The Roman who, that would not sooner die,
Than here, or in the camp, for Rome's oppressors,
Equip himself with arms?—By my advice,
Lucretius with his daughter's blood aspersed,
Hath to the camp repaired: this very moment
By the brave men besieging hostile Ardea,
Hath he been heard: and certainly
In hearing him, and seeing him, those men
Have turn'd their arms against their guilty tyrants,
Or swift in our defence, abandoning
Their impious banners, hitherward they fly.
The honour of the earliest enterprise
Against the tyrants, citizens, would ye
Consent indeed to yield to other men?

People.
Oh, with what just and lofty hardihood
Dost thou inflame our breasts!—What can we fear,
If all have the same will?

Col.
Your noble rage,
Your generous indignation, thoroughly
Recall me back to life. Nothing can I
Express ... to you ... for tears ... forbid ... my utterance ...
But let my sword be my interpreter;
I first unsheathe it, and to earth I cast,
Irrevocably cast, the useless scabbard.
Oh sword, I swear to plunge thee in my breast,
Or in the breast of kings.—Oh husbands, fathers,
Be ye the first to follow me! ... But ah!
What spectacle is this? ...

People.
Atrocious sight!
Behold the murder'd lady in the forum ...

Bru.
Yes, Romans, fix, (if ye have power to do it,)
Fix on that immolated form your eyes.
That mute fair form, that horrible generous wound,
That pure and sacred blood, ah! all exclaim,
“To-day resolve on liberty, or ye
“Are doom'd to death. Nought else remains.”

People.
All, all,
Yes, free we all of us will be, or dead.

Bru.
Then listen now to Brutus.—The same dagger
Which from her dying side he lately drew,
Above that innocent illustrious lady
Brutus now lifts; and to all Rome he swears
That which first on her very dying form
He swore already.—While I wear a sword,
While vital air I breathe, in Rome henceforth
No Tarquin e'er shall put his foot; I swear it:
Nor the abominable name of king,
Nor the authority, shall any man
Ever again possess.—May the just Gods
Annihilate him here, if Brutus is not
Lofty and true of heart!—Further I swear,
Many as are th'inhabitants of Rome,
To make them equal, free, and citizens;
Myself a citizen, and nothing more:
The laws alone shall have authority,
And I will be the first to yield them homage.

People.
The laws, the laws alone: we with one voice
To thine our oaths unite. And be a fate,
Worse than the fate of Collatinus, ours,
If we are ever perjured!

Bru.
These, these are
True Roman accents. Tyranny and tyrants,
At your accordant hearty will alone,
All, all have vanish'd. Nothing now is needful
Except 'gainst them to close the city gates;
Since fate to us propitious had already
Sequester'd them from Rome.

People.
But you meanwhile
Will be to us at once consuls and fathers;
You to us wisdom, we our arms to you,
Our swords, our hearts, will lend ...

Bru.
In your august
And sacred presence, on each lofty cause,
We always will deliberate: there cannot
From the collected people's majesty
Be any thing conceal'd. But it is just
That the patricians and the senate bear
A part in every thing. At the new tidings
They are not all assembled here: enough
(Alas! too much so) th'iron rod of power
Has smitten them with terror: now yourselves
To the sublime contention of great deeds
Shall summon them. Here then we will unite,
Patricians and plebeians; and by us
Freedom a stable basis shall receive.

People.
From this day forth we shall begin to live.