CÆSAR'S MESSAGE TO CATO. 191 Would hold his lofty nature, undebased, Dearer than vengeance-ay, than freedom, dearer MRS. HEMANS (altered). II. CÆSAR'S MESSAGE TO CATO. DECIUS AND CATO. Decius. Cæsar sends health to Cato. To Cato's slaughtered friends, it would be welcome.. Dec. My business is with Cato. Cæsar sees Cato. My life is grafted on the fate of Rome. Dec. Rome and her senators submit to Cæsar; Who checked his conquests, and denied his triumphs. Cato. Those very reasons thou hast urged forbid it. And reason with you, as from friend to friend. Cato. No more; I must not think of life on such conditions. Dec. Cæsar is well acquainted with your virtues, Let him but know the price of Cato's friendship, Cato. Bid him disband his legions, And stand the judgment of a Roman Senate; Dec. Cato, the world talks loudly of your wisdom Cato. Nay, more, though Cato's voice was ne'er employed To clear the guilty, and to varnish crimes, Myself will mount the Rostrum in his favor, And at the head of your own little Senate; With all the mouths of Rome to second you. Cato. Let him consider that who drives us hither; Beset with ills, and covered with misfortunes; Dec. Does Cato send this answer back to Cæsar, ADDISON. III.-CORIOLANUS AND AUFIDIUS. The passages enclosed between brackets in the following scene are by Shaks peare; the rest, with a few alterations, are by Thomson. Coriolanus. I plainly, Tullus, by your looks perceive You disapprove my conduct. Aufidius. I mean not to assail thee with the clamor Of loud reproaches and the war of words; But, pride apart, and all that can pervert CORIOLANUS AND AUFIDIUS. 193 The light of steady reason, here to make Cor. Speak, I hear thee. Auf. I need not tell thee, that I have performed Cor. With safety?-safety? Thinkest thou that I, Will stoop to thee for safety?-No: my safeguard O, 't is an act of cowardice and baseness time very my hands are fettered Safety! To seize the Auf. Thou speakest the truth: it had not. Cor. Till I have cleared my honor in your council, As quit the station they've assigned me here! Auf. Thou canst not hope acquittal from the Volscians. - Their thanks. I will obtain them such a peace As thou durst never ask; a perfect union Of their whole nation with imperial Rome, In all her privileges, all her rights; By the just gods, I will! - What wouldst thou more? Auf. What would I more, proud Roman? This I would — Fire the cursed forest, where these Roman wolves The genuine seed of outlaws and of robbers. 'Tis not for thee, vain boaster, "Tis not for such as thou, so often spared By her victorious sword, to speak of Rome But with respect, and awful veneration. Whate'er her blots, whate'er her giddy factions, Of Roman story, than your Volscian annals Can boast through all their creeping, dark duration. Auf. I thank thy rage: - This full displays the traitor. [Cor. Traitor! How now? Auf. Ay, traitor, Marcius. Cor. Marcius! Auf. Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius: dost thou think I'll grace thee with that robbery, thy stolen name, Coriolanus, in Corioli? You lords, and heads of the state, perfidiously Cor. Hearest thou, Mars? Auf. Name not the god, thou boy of tears! Stain all your edges on me. Boy! False hound! THE RESOLVE OF REGULUS. Auf. I court The worst thy sword can do; while thou from me Quit, then, this hostile camp: once more I tell thee, 195 IV. THE RESOLVE OF REGULUS. Běg'ulus, a Roman consul, having been defeated in battle and taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, was detained in captivity five years, and then sent on an embassy to Rome to solicit peace, under a promise that he would return to Carthage if the proposals were rejected. These, it was thought, he would urge in order to obtain his own liberty; but he urged contrary and patriotic measures on his countrymen; and then, having carried his point, resisted the persuasions of his friends to remain in Rome, and returned to Carthage, where a martyr's death awaited him. Some writers say that he was thrust into a cask covered over on the inside with iron spikes, and thus rolled down hill. The following scene presents Regulus just as he has made known to his friends in Rome his resolution to return to Carthage, Enter REGULUS, followed by SERTORIUS. Sertorius. Stay, Roman, in pity!-if not for thy life, No mercy expect for thy fame or thy age! Regulus. To my captors one pledge, and one only, I gave: TO RETURN, though it were to walk into my grave! No hope I extended, no promise I made, Rome's Senate and people from war to dissuade. If the vengeance of Carthage be stored for me now, I have reaped no dishonor, have broken no vow. Sert. They released thee, but dreamed not that thou wouldst fulfill A part that would leave thee a prisoner still; They hoped thy own danger would lead thee to sway Would induce thee to urge the conditions they crave, |