Horatius and still after them Thy name shall remain great illustrious famous though the occasion lesse high or resplendent deceives the unjust expectation of th' ignorant vulgar Hate then life no more at least live for me and to serve thy King and Country longer Sir I 've said too much but th' affair concerns you and all Rome speaks by my mouth Val. Sir suffer me Tull. Valerius it is enough your sound discourse by theirs is not defac'd I keep yet in my spirit the pressing'st reasons on 't and all your arguments are present with me still this hainous action almost before our eyes doth injure nature and even wounds the Gods A sudden motion of anger that produceth such a crime cannot excuse him lawfully the Lawes that are the least severe condemn the act and if we follow them he 's worthy death If otherwise we will look on the guilty this crime though great hainous and inexcusable proceeds from the same sword and arm that makes me now Master of two States Two Scepters in my hand and Alba subject unto Rome speak highly in the favour of his life Had it not been for him I should have yeelded obedience whereas now I give forth lawes and should be subject whereas now I am twice Soveraigne There are in all the Provinces many good subjects that by feeble prayers only acquit themselves toward their Princes all can love them but all cannot assure their States by some illustrious actions and th' art and power to establish Crowns are gifts which heav'n gives but to some choice persons such servants are the wealth and strength of Kings and also are to be above the Lawes let them be silent then let Rome dissemble what from her birth she sees in Romulus She can well suffer in her Liberator what she hath suffered in her first Authour Live then Horatius live magnanimous souldier thy Vertue sets thy glory 'bove thy crime It s generous heat produced thy offence th' effect of such a fair cause must be suffer'd Live to doe service to the State but love Valerius let not any hate nor anger remain between you and whether he follow'd or love or duty without any sentiment resolve to see him Hearken lesse Sabina unto the grief that presseth you remove from this great heart those marks of imbecilitie in drying of your tears you 'l shew your self true Sister of those Brothers you lament But we do owe to morrow to the Gods a sacrifice and should have heaven but little propitious to us if our Priests before the action finde not out the means to purge it His father shall take care on 't I believe it will not be hard for him to appease Camilla's Ghost I do deplore her fortune and to give to it what her amorous spirit may happily desire since in one day an equall heat of one and the same zeal finish'd her Lovers destinie and hers it is our will that one day as a witnesse of their two deaths may see in the earth's wombe their bodies laid and shut up in one tombe The King riseth and all follow him but Julia Jul. Camilla thus heaven well advertis'd thee what tragicall events were to succeed but alwayes it conceals a part o'th'secret even from the most refin'd and clearest spirits It seem'd to speak of thy approaching marriage it seem'd to promise all things to thy prayers and hiding so from us thy sudden death it's voyce too truly hath deceiv'd our sense Thy pray'rs are heard Alba and Rome shall be to morrow in a fair Confaederacie And thou with Curiatius shalt be joyn'd never to part So have the Gods enjoyn'd FINIS
this weakness Sister quarrel with Heaven and Earth curse envious fortune but think no more of death after the combat Sir I will leave you but a moment with her since we must go together where bright honour doth call us Exit Horatius SCENA V Camilla Curiatius Cam. Wilt thou go my deare Heart art thou pleas'd with this fatall honour so farre as to purchase it at the expense of all our happiness Curiat Alas I see I must do what I can either of grief die or Horatius hand I go to this illustrious imployment as to my punishment a thousand times I curse th' accompt they make of me I hate that Valour which doth make Alba esteeme me my flame doth pass from despaire even to crime it quarrells with and doth assault the Gods I wail you and my self but I must go Cam. No no I know thee better thou desir'st that I should pray thee and that so my power excuse thee to thy Country Thou art but too famous by thy other brave exploits Alba already hath receiv'd by them all what thou ow'st her none then thee hath better sustain'd this war none with dead bodies hath more covered this ground thy name cannot grow greater there is nothing wanting to it suffer some other here t' ennoble his Curiat Should I premit and see before mine eyes another head crown'd with immortal lawrels which glory doth prepare me and my Country reproach this to my vertue that it might have trimphed if I had combated and by my Love my Valour lull'd asleepe crown so many exploits with such an infamy No Alba after th' honour thou hast given me thou shalt not fall nor vanquish but by me thou hast committed to my hands thy fate I 'le give to thee a good accompt of it and live without reproach or dye with shame Cam. I hope thou wilt not so betray my trust Curiat Before I 'm yours I must be for my Country Cam. But wilt thou for it so deprive thy self of brother in law thy sister of her husband I of my brothers Curiat Such is our misfortune the choice of Alba and of Rome takes off all sweetness from the names sometime so sweet of Brother in law and Sister Cam. Wilt thou also come to present me with his head and ask my hand for guerdon of thy Victory Curiat In the condition wherein I am I must no more think of it without hope to love you is all that which I can do You weepe my dear Heart Cam. I have cause to weepe my cruell Lover doth ordain me death and when our Hymen lights his torch alas he with his hand doth put it out and opens a tombe unto me this unpitiful heart is obstinate to my destruction and sayes it loves me when it murthers me Curiat What powerful discourse hath a Mistress when she 's blubbered with tears and how strong is a faire eye with such help how tender is my heart become at this so sad a sight my constancy against it laboureth with some regret Assault not with your griefes my glory and leave me alone to save my vertue from your tears I feele it tottering and ill defends it self the more I am your Lover the less am I Curiatius already weake in combating 'gainst Amity should it o'rcome at once both love and pity Begone love me no more shed no more tears where I oppose th' offence to such strong Armes I shall defend me better 'gainst your anger and to deserve it I 'le no more looke on you revenge your self of an ingratfull person and punish an inconstant Shew you not your self as sensible of this injury I have no more eyes for you Yet you have for me must there be more yet I renounce my faith unto you Rigorous vertue whose Victime I am What! canst not thou resist without th' assistance of a crime Cum Commit no other crime and I attest the Gods that farre from hating thee I 'le love thee more yes I will cherish thee false and ingrateful and cease t' aspire unto the name of fratricide Why am I Romane or why Art not thou so I would prepare thee Laurell with my hand I would encourage thee and not distract thee and I would treate thee as I do my brother Alas I was to day blinde in my wishes I did against thee when I did for him He returns what misfortune if the love of his wife workes no more upon his soul then mine doth upon thine SCENA VI Horatius Curiatius Sabina Camilla Curiat Good Gods Sobina followes him Is not Camilla strong enough to shake my heart but you must joyn my Sister too And leaving her tears to conquer me bring you her hither to seeke the same advantage Sab No no Brother oh no I come not here but to embrace you and to bid you adieu your blood 's too good feare not that there is any baseness in it nothing that may offend the constancy of these great hearts if this illustrious fate should shake either of you I should not own him for brother or for husband may I yet make a request unto you worthy of so brave a Husband and so brave a Brother I would at once take off impiety render unto the honour that expects it its purity without mingling of crimes set its faire lustre on it in a word I faine would make you lawfull enemies I am the sole bond of that sacred knot which joyneth you when I shall be no more you shall be nothing unto one another breaking this chaine you breake off your alliance and since your honour doth require effects of hatred purchase by my death the right and priviledge to hate Alba and Rome will have it so 't is fit that you obey them let one of you two kill me and the other revenge me then your fight shall not be strange or at least one of you shall justly fight for to revenge his wife or else his sister But what you would fully so faire Glory if any other quarrell should provoake you your zeal unto your Country doth forbid you such cares you should do very little for it if less then this unto it you must sacrifice and without hate a Brother in law no more then deferre that which you ought to do begin and practise by his wife to shed his blood begin to peirce his bosome by his sister begin to make a worthy sacrifice of your illustrious lives to your deare praties by the death of Sabina y' are enemies you unto Alba your to Rome and I to both of them what think you to reserve me to see a Victory where I shall behold the laurles of a brother or a husband smoake with a blood that I so cherished can I between you two govern my heart then fulfill the duty of sister and wife embrace the conquerour in weeping for the conquered no no before Sabina shall feel this stroake the death which expect from one of you shall readily prevent it If you deny your hands
a service and of such importance requires the rar'st and most illustrious honour you had for pawn thereof his word already I could no longer have deferred it I know by his report which I ne'r doubted how brave and like your self you bear the death of your two sons and that your soul already being resolv'd my consolation would be superfluous but I come to know what strange misfortune hath follow'd the vertue of your victorious Son and how it comes that his too much love for the publick cause bath tane an onely daughter from his father by his own hands I know what such a stroak can do upon the strongest spirit and doubt how you may bear this death Old Horat. Sir with displeasure but yet with patience Tull. 'T is plain this is the vertuous effect of your experience Many have taught by a long file of years as well as you that miseries succeed the sweetest happinesse few know like you t' apply this remedie and all their Vertue yeelds to their Interest If my compassion can ease your sorrow know that 't is extreme as is your evill and that Tullus laments you as much as he doth love you Val. Sir since Heaven doth put its justice in the hands of Kings and the force of the lawes and since the State asketh rewards for vertues and strict punishments for crimes of lawfull Princes suffer that a just occasion make you to remember that you lament too much what you should punish Suffer Old Horat. What! that we send a Conqueror to punishment Tull. Allow him leave to finish and I 'll do justice I am bound to render it to all at all hours and in every place it is by it that a King makes himself a demi-God and hence is' t that I pitie you that after such a service against him they should demand me justice Val. Suffer then O great King and the justest of all Kings that all good men speak to you by my mouth not that our hearts as jealous of his honours urge us to this if he receiveth much his high deeds do deserve it add unto it rather then lessen it we are also ready to contribute unto it but since he hath shew'd himself guilty of such a crime let him triumph as Conquerour and perish as malefactor stop his fury and save from his hands if you desire to reigne the remnant of the Romans hereupon depends the losse or safety of the rest seeing the blood shed by this fatall Warr and so many fair knots of marriage wherewith our happy destinies have so often united such neer nighbours few of us have enjoy'd such a happinesse as not I' have lost a Cosen or a brother in law an uncle or a son in law in Alba whereby to have occasion to shed tears for their own losses in the publick joy If it be an offence to Rome and that the fortune of his arms alloweth him to punish this crime of our tears what blood will this fierce Conqu'ror spare that would not pardon that of his Sister nor excuse the grief which the death of a Lover doth infuse into a Mistresse heart when ready to be lighted by the fair nuptiall Torch she sees her hope i' th' grave with him Making Rome thus to triumph he enslaves it by this means he hath a right of life and death upon us and our offending dayes shall last no longer then it shall please his clemency to suffer them I could add for the interests of Rome that such a stroak 's unworthy of a man I could demand to be brought here before you that rare exploit of a victorious arme you should see then a fair blood to accuse his rage retort into his cruel face you should behold horrours which cannot be conceiv'd her age and beauty sure would move you but I hate those means that show artifice You have deferr'd the sacrifice till to morrow Think you that the just Gods stil'd the revengers of Innocents will receive incense from a parricide hand This sacriledg would draw their punishment upon you Look upon him but as an object of their hate believe with us that the good destinie of Rome in all these three fights did more then his arm since these same Gods the Authors of his Victory permitted that he suddenly should fully the glory of it and that such a courage after so brave an Act should in one day be worthy of a Triumph and of Death It rests Sir that your Sentence decide this Rome never saw a parricide till now Fear what may follow and Heaven's anger save us from his unnaturall hand and fear the Gods Tull. Defend your self Horatius Horat. To what purpose shall I defend me Sir you know the action as being told it now what you think of it must be a law to me One ill defends himself against th' opinion of a King and th' innocentest soul that e'r was born is guiltie if he judg him to be so It is a crime t' excuse himself unto him Our blood 's his goods he can dispose thereof and we must think that when he doth do so he deprives not himself without just cause Then Sir pronounce I 'm ready to obey Others love life and I am bound to hate it I reproach not Valerius heat which makes him loving the Sister to accuse the Brother my wishes at this time conspire with his he asks my death 't is that which I desire We differ onely in this point that I seek to conserve my honour in 't and he to perish it Sir seldome is a subject offer'd to shew the vertue of a great and noble heart complete according to occasion it acts or more or lesse and appears strong or weak unto the eyes of those that are her witnesses The people that onely looks upon the outside judgeth its force by its effects and dares to think by an ill maxime that who doth a miracle must do it still After a complete action high and illustrious what glitters lesse ill answereth their expectation they would have us to be all times alike and in all places they examine not if one could better do then nor that if they see not still a wonder the occasion is lesse and Vertue equall Their injustice destroyes great names the honour of the first attchievements is forgotten by the second and when renown is pass'd beyond the mean if we 'll not fall thence we must act no more I will not boast th' exploits Sir of my arm your Majestie hath seen my three encounters hardly again shall I meet any such nor e'r the like occasion will be to shew my courage and crown the successe so that to leave here an illustrious memory death onely now can keep alive my glory and I must have it too as soon as I have conquer'd for I have outliv'd my honour Such one as I beholds his glory perish'd when he falls into any ignominie and my hand would have freed me on 't already if my bloud durst come