for feares With mocks and scandals that would make a man Of lead a lightning in the desperat'st onset That euer trampled vnder death his life I beare the touch of feare for all their safeties Or for mine owne enlarge with twice as many Selfe-liues selfe-fortunes they shall sinke beneath Their owne credulities before I crosse them Come haste dispose our battaile Vib. Good my Lord Against your Genius warre not for the world Pom. By all worlds he that moues me next to beare Their scofs and imputations of my feare For any cause shall beare this sword to hell Away to battaile good my Lord lead you The whole six thousand of our yong Patricians Plac't in the left wing to enuiron Caesar My father Scipio shall lead the battaile Domitius the left wing I the right Against Marc Anthony Take now your fils Ye beastly doters on your barbarous wills Exeunt Alarme excursions of al The fiue Kings driuen ouer the Stage Crassinius chiefely pursuing At the dore enter againe the fiue Kings The battell continued within Epir. Fly fly the day was lost before t was fought Thess. The Romans feard their shadowes Cil. Were there euer Such monstrous confidences as last night Their Cups and musique shew'd Before the morning Made such amazes ere one stroke was struck Iber. It made great Pompey mad which who could mend The gods had hand in it Tra. It made the Consuls Run on their swords to see 't The braue Patricians Fled with their spoyled faces arrowes sticking As shot from heauen at them Thess. T was the charge That Caesar gaue against them Epir. Come away Leaue all and wonder at this fatall day Exeunt The fight neerer and enter Crassineus a sword as thrust through his face he fals To him Pompey and Caesar fighting Pompey giues way Caesar follows and enters at another dore Caes. Pursue pursue the gods foreshew'd their powers Which we gaue issue and the day is ours Crassineus O looke vp he does and shewes Death in his broken eyes which Caesars hands Shall doe the honor of eternall closure Too well thou keptst thy word that thou this day Wouldst doe me seruice to our victory Which in thy life or death I should behold And praise thee for I doe and must admire Thy matchles valour euer euer rest Thy manly lineaments which in a tombe Erected to thy noble name and virtues I le curiosly preserue with balmes and spices In eminent place of these Pharsalian fields Inscrib'd with this true soule of funerall Epitaphi Crassineus fought for fame and died for Rome Whose publique weale springs from this priuate tombe Enter some taking him off whom Caesar helps Enter Pompey Demetrius with black robes in their hands broad hats c. Pom. Thus haue the gods their iustice men their wils And I by mens wils rulde my selfe renouncing Am by my Angell and the gods abhorr'd Who drew me like a vapour vp to heauen To dash me like a tempest 'gainst the earth O the deserued terrors that attend On humane confidence had euer men Such outrage of presumption to be victors Before they arm'd To send to Rome before For houses neare the market place their tents Strowd all with flowers and nosegayes tables couer'd With cups and banquets bayes and mirtle garlands As ready to doe sacrifice for conquest Rather then arme them for fit fight t' enforce it Which when I saw I knew as well th' euent As now I feele it and because I rag'd In that presage my Genius shewing me clearely As in a mirror all this cursed issue And therefore vrg'd all meanes to put it off For this day or from these fields to some other Or from this ominous confidence till I saw Their spirits settl'd in some grauer knowledge Of what belong'd to such a deare decision They spotted me with feare with loue of glory To keepe in my command so many Kings So great an army all the hellish blastings That could be breath'd on me to strike me blinde Of honor spirit and soule And should I then Saue them that would in spight of heauen be ruinde And in their safeties ruine me and mine In euerlasting rage of their detraction Dem. Your safety and owne honor did deserue Respect past all their values O my Lord Would you Pom. Vpbraid me not goe to goe on Dem. No I le not rub the wound The misery is The gods for any error in a man Which they might rectify and should because That man maintain'd the right should suffer wrong To be thus insolent thus grac't thus blest Pom. O the strange carriage of their acts by which Men order theirs and their deuotions in them Much rather striuing to entangle men In pathlesse error then with regular right Confirme their reasons and their pieties light For now Sir whatsoeuer was foreshowne By heauen or prodigy ten parts more for vs Forewarning vs deterring vs and all Our blinde and brainlesse frenzies then for Caesar All yet will be ascribde to his regard Giuen by the gods for his good parts preferring Their glosse being starck impostures to the iustice Loue honor piety of our lawes and Countrey Though I thinke these are arguments enow For my acquitall that for all these fought Dem. Y' are cleare my Lord Pom. Gods helpe me as I am What euer my vntoucht command of millions Through all my eight and fifty yeares hath woonne This one day in the worlds esteeme hath lost So vile is praise and dispraise by euent For I am still my selfe in euery worth The world could grace me with had this dayes Euen In one blaze ioyn'd with all my other Conquests And shall my comforts in my well-knowne selfe Faile me for their false fires Demetrius Dem. O no my Lord Pom. Take griefe for them as if The rotten-hearted world could steepe my soule In filthy putrifaction of their owne Since their applauses faile me that are hisses To euery sound acceptance I confesse That till th' affaire was past my passions flam'd But now t is helplesse and no cause in me Rest in these embers my vnmoued soule With any outward change this dystick minding No man should more allow his owne losse woes Being past his fault then any stranger does And for the worlds false loues and ayry honors What soule that euer lou'd them most in life Once seuer'd from this breathing sepulchre Againe came and appearde in any kind Their kinde admirer still or did the state Of any best man here associate And euery true soule should be here so seuer'd From loue of such men as here drowne their soules As all the world does Cato sole accepted To whom I le fly now and my wife in way Poore Lady and poore children worse then fatherlesse Visit and comfort Come Demetrius They disguise themselues We now must sute our habites to our fortunes And since these changes euer chance to greatest Nor desire to be Doe fortune to exceed it what she can A Pompey or a Caesar but a man Exeunt Enter
CAESAR AND POMPEY A Roman Tragedy declaring their Warres Out of whose euents is euicted this Proposition Only a iust man is a freeman By GEORGE CHAPMAN LONDON Printed by THOMAS HARPER and are to be sold by Godfrey Emondson and Thomas Althorus M.DC.XXXI TO THE RIGHT HONOrable his exceeding good Lord the Earle of Middlesex c. THough my good Lord this martiall History suffer the diuision of Acts and Scenes both for the more perspicuity and height of the celebration yet neuer toucht it at the Stage or if it had though some may perhaps causelesly empaire it yet would it I hope fall vnder no exception in your Lordships better-iudgeing estimation since scenicall representation is so farre from giuing iust cause of any least diminution that the personall and exact life it giues to any History or other such delineation of humane actions ads to them luster spirit and apprehension which the only section of Acts and Scenes makes mee stand vpon thus much since that only in some precisianismes will require a little preuention And the hasty prose the stile auoides obtaine to the more temperate and stai'd numerous elocution some assistance to the acceptation and grace of it Though ingeniously my gratitude confesseth my Lord it is not such as hereafter J vow to your honor being written so long since and had not the timely ripenesse of that age that J thank God J yet finde no fault withall for any old defects Good my Lord vouchsafe your idle minutes may admit some slight glances at this till some worke of more nouelty and fashion may conferre this the more liking of your honors more worthy deseruings To which his bounden affection vowes all seruices Euer your Lordships GEO. CHAPMAN The Argument POmpey and Caesar bring their Armies so neare Rome that the Senate except against them Caesar vnduly and ambitiously commanding his forces Pompey more for feare of Caesars violence to the State then mou'd with any affectation of his own greatnesse Their opposite pleadings out of which admirable narrations are made which yet not conducing to their ends warre ends them In which at first Caesar is forc't to fly whom Pompey not pursuing with such wings as fitted a speeding Conqueror his victory was preuented and he vnhappily dishonor'd Whose ill fortune his most louing and learned wife Cornelia trauailde after with paines solemne and carefull enough whom the two Lentuli and others attended till she miserably found him and saw him monstrously murthered Both the Consuls and Cato are slaughterd with their owne invincible hands and Caesar in spight of all his fortune without his victory victor ONELY A IVST MAN IS A FREE MAN Act I. Scene I. Cato Athenodorus Porcius Statilius Cat. NOw will the two Suns of our Romane Heauen Pompey Caesar in their Tropicke burning With their contention all the clouds assemble That threaten tempests to our peace Empire Which we shall shortly see poure down in bloud Ciuill and naturall wilde and barbarous turning Ath. From whence presage you this Cat. From both their Armies Now gathered neere our Italie contending To enter seuerally Pompeys brought so neere By Romes consent for feare of tyranous Caesar Which Caesar fearing to be done in fauour Of Pompey and his passage to the Empire Hath brought on his for interuention And such a flocke of Puttocks follow Caesar For fall of his ill-disposed Purse That neuer yet spar'd Crosse to Aquiline vertue As well may make all ciuill spirits suspicious Looke how against great raines a standing Poole Of Paddockes Todes and water-Snakes put vp Their speckl'd throates aboue the venemous Lake Croking and gasping for some fresh falne drops To quench their poisond thirst being neere to stifle With clotterd purgings of their owne foule bane So still where Caesar goes there thrust vp head Impostors Flatterers Fauorites and Bawdes Buffons Intelligencers select wits Close Murtherers Montibanckes and decaied Theeues To gaine their banefull liues reliefes from him From Britaine Belgia France and Germanie The scum of either Countrie chus'd by him To be his blacke Guard and red Agents here Swarming about him Porc. And all these are said To be suborn'd in chiefe against your selfe Since Caesar chiefly feares that you will sit This day his opposite in the cause for which Both you were sent for home and he hath stolne Accesse so soone here Pompey whole rest raisde To his encounter and on both sides Rome In generall vproare Stat. Which Sir if you saw And knew how for the danger all suspect To this your worthiest friend for that knowne freedome His spirit will vse this day 'gainst both the Riuals His wife and familie mourne no food no comfort Allowd them for his danger you would vse Your vtmost powrs to stay him from the Senate All this daies Session Cat. Hee 's too wise Statilius For all is nothing Stat. Nothing Sir I saw Castor and Pollux Temple thrust vp full With all the damn'd crew you haue lately nam'd The market place and suburbs swarming with them And where the Senate sit are Ruffians pointed To keepe from entring the degrees that goe Vp to the Bench all other but the Consuls Caesar and Pompey and the Senators And all for no cause but to keepe out Cato With any violence any villanie And is this nothing Sir Is his One life On whom all good liues and their goods depend In Romes whole Empire All the Iustice there That 's free and simple all such virtues too And all such knowledge Nothing nothing all Cat. Away Statilius how long shall thy loue Exceede thy knowledge of me and the Gods Whose rights thou wrongst for my right haue not Their powers to guard me in a cause of theirs Their iustice and integrity included In what I stand for he that feares the Gods For guard of any goodnesse all things feares Earth Seas and Aire Heauen darknesse broade day-light Rumor and Silence and his very shade And what an Aspen soule hath such a creature How dangerous to his soule is such a feare In whose cold fits is all heauens iustice shaken To his faint thoughts and all the goodnesse there Due to all good men by the gods owne vowes Nay by the firmenesse of their endlesse Being All which shall faile as soone as any one Good to a good man in them for his goodnesse Proceeds from them and is a beame of theirs O neuer more Statilius may this feare Taint thy bould bosome for thy selfe or friend More then the gods are fearefull to defend Athen. Come let him goe Statilius and your fright This man hath inward guard past your yong sight Exeunt Enter Minutius manet Cato Cat. Welcome come stand by me in what is fit For our poore Cities safety nor respect Her proudest foes corruption or our danger Of what seene face soeuer Min. I am yours But what alas Sir can the weaknesse doe Against our whole State of vs only two You know our Statists spirits are so corrupt And seruile to the greatest that
and deeper braine To obtaine hell Thinkst thou earths great Potentates haue gotten their places there with Any single act of murther poysoning adutery And the rest No t is a purchase for all manner Of villany especially that may be priuiledg'd By Authority colourd with holinesse and enioyd With pleasure Fro. O this were most honourable and admirable Oph. Why such an admirable honorable villane shalt Thou be Fro. Is 't possible Oph. Make no doubt on 't I le inspire thee Fro. Sacred and puissant He kneeles Oph. Away Companion and friend giue me thy Hand say dost not loue me art not enamourd Of my acquaintance Fro. Protest I am Oph. Well said protest and t is enough And know for Infallible I haue promotion for thee both here and Hereafter which not one great one amongst Millions shall euer aspire to Alexander nor great Cyrus retaine those titles in hell that they did On earth Fro. No Oph. No he that sold Seacoale here shall be A Baron there he that was a cheating Rogue here shall be a Iustice of peace there A knaue here a knight there In the meane Space learne what it is to liue and thou shalt Haue Chopines at commandment to any height Of life thou canst wish Fro. I feare my fall is too low Oph. Too low foole hast thou not heard of Vulcans falling Out of heauen Light a thy legges and no matter Though thou halt'st with thy best friend euer after t is The more comely and fashionable Better goe lame In the fashion with Pompey then neuer so vpright Quite out of the fashon with Cato Fro. Yet you cannot change the old fashion they say And hide your clouen feet Oph. No I can weare Roses that shall spread quite Ouer them Fro. For loue of the fashion doe then Oph. Goe to I will hereafter Fro. But for the Priesthood you offer me I affect it not Oph. No what saist thou to a rich office then Fro. The only second meanes to raise a rascall In the earth Oph. Goe to I le helpe thee to the best i th earth then And that 's in Sicilia the very storehouse of the Romanes where the Lord chiefe Censor there Lyes now a dying whose soule I will haue and Thou shalt haue his office Fro. Excellent was euer great office better supplied Exeunt Nuntius Now is the mighty Empresse of the earth Great Rome fast lockt vp in her fancied strength All broke in vproares fearing the iust gods In plagues will drowne her so abused blessings In which feare all without her wals fly in By both their iarring Champions rushing out And those that were within as fast fly forth The Consuls both are fled without one rite Of sacrifice submitted to the gods As euer heretofore their custome was When they began the bloody frights of warre In which our two great Souldiers now encountring Since both left Rome oppos'd in bitter skirmish Pompey not willing yet to hazard battaile By Catos counsaile vrging good cause fled Which firing Caesars spirit he pursu'd So home and fiercely that great Pompey skorning The heart he tooke by his aduised flight Despisde aduice as much as his pursuite And as in Lybia an aged Lion Vrg'd from his peacefull couert feares the light With his vnready and diseas'd appearance Giues way to chace a while and coldly hunts Till with the youthfull hunters wanton heat He all his coole wrath frets into a flame And then his sides he swinges with his Sterne To lash his strenth vp let 's downe all his browes About his burning eyes erects his mane Breakes all his throat in thunders and to wreake His hunters insolence his heart euen barking He frees his fury turnes and rushes back With such a gastly horror that in heapes His proud foes fly and he that station keepes So Pompeys coole spirits put to all their heat By Caesars hard pursuit he turnd fresh head And flew vpon his foe with such a rapture As tooke vp into furies all friends feares Who fir'd with his first turning all turnd head And gaue so fierce a charge their followers fled Whose instant issue on their both sides see And after set out such a tragedy As all the Princes of the earth may come To take their patternes by the spirits of Rome Alarme after which enter Caesar following Crassinius calling to the Souldiers Crass. Stay cowherd fly ye Caesars fortunes Caes. Forbeare foolish Crassinius we contend in vaine To stay these vapours and must raise our Campe Crass. How shall we rise my Lord but all in vproares Being still pursude Enter Acilius The pursuit stayes my Lord Pompey hath sounded a retreat resigning His time to you to vse in instant raysing Your ill-lodg'd army pitching now where fortune May good amends make for her fault to day Caes. It was not fortunes fault but mine Acilius To giue my foe charge being so neare the sea Where well I knew the eminence of his strength And should haue driuen th' encounter further off Bearing before me such a goodly Country So plentifull and rich in all things fit To haue suppli'd my armies want with victuals And th' able Cities too to strengthen it Of Macedon and Thessaly where now I rather was besieg'd for want of food Then did assault with fighting force of armes Enter Anthony Vibius with others Ant. See Sir here 's one friend of your foes recouer'd Caes. Vibius In happy houre Vib. For me vnhappy Caes. What brought against your will Vib. Else had not come Ant. Sir hee 's your prisoner but had made you his Had all the rest pursu'd the chace like him He draue on like a fury past all friends But we that tooke him quick in his engagement Caes. O Vibius you deserue to pay a ransome Of infinite rate for had your Generall ioyn'd In your addression or knowne how to conquer This day had prou'd him the supreame of Caesar Vib. Knowne how to conquer His fiue hundred Conquests Atchieu'd ere this day make that doubt vnfit For him that flyes him for of issues doubtfull Who can at all times put on for the best If I were mad must hee his army venture In my engagement Nor are Generalls euer Their powers disposers by their proper Angels But trust against them oftentimes their Counsailes Wherein I doubt not Caesars selfe hath err'd Sometimes as well as Pompey Caes. Or done worse In disobeying my Counsaile Vibius Of which this dayes abused light is witnesse By which I might haue seene a course secure Of this discomfiture Ant. Amends sits euer Aboue repentance what 's done wish not vndone But that prepared patience that you know Best fits a souldier charg'd with hardest fortunes Asks still your vse since powers still temperate kept Ope still the clearer eyes by one faults sight To place the next act in the surer right Caes. You prompt me nobly Sir repayring in me Mine owne stayes practice out of whose repose The strong convulsions of my spirits forc't me Thus farre beyond my temper but