University of Virginia Library

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.