our sorrowes to surcease Latium alreadie quaild will be destroyd ACTVS SECVNDVS Cornelia Cicero AND wil ye needs bedew my dead-grown ioyes And nourish sorrow with eternall teares O eyes and will yee cause I cannot dry Your ceaselesse springs not suffer me to die Then make the blood fro forth my branch-like vaines Lyke weeping Riuers trickle by your vaults And spunge my bodies heate of moisture so As my displeased soule may shunne my hart Heauens let me dye and let the Destinies Admit me passage to th' infernall Lake That my poore ghost may rest where powerfull fate In Deaths sad kingdom hath my husband lodg'd Fayne would I die but darksome vgly Death With-holds his darte and in disdaine doth flye me Malitiously knowing that hels horror Is mylder then mine endles discontent And that if Death vpon my life should seaze The payne supposed would procure mine ease But yee sad Powers that rule the silent deepes Of dead-sad Night where sinnes doe maske vnseene You that amongst the darksome mansions Of pyning ghosts twixt sighes and sobs and teares Do exercise your mirthlesse Empory Yee gods at whose arbitrament all stand Dislodge my soule and keepe it with your selues For I am more then halfe your prysoner My noble husbands more then noble soules Already wander vnder your commaunds O then shall wretched I that am but one Yet once both theyrs suruiue now they are gone Alas thou shouldst thou shouldst Cornelia Haue broke the sacred thred that tyde thee heere When as thy husband Crassus in his flowre Did first beare Armes and bare away my loue And not as thou hast done goe break the bands By calling Hymen once more back againe Lesse haples and more worthily thou might'st Haue made thine auncesters and thee renound If like a royall Dame with faith fast kept Thou with thy former husbands death hadst slept But partiall Fortune and the powerful Fates That at their pleasures wield our purposes Bewitcht my life and did beguile my loue Pompey the fame that ranne of thy frayle honors Made me thy wife thy loue and like a thiefe From my first husband stole my faithles griefe But if as some belieue in heauen or hell Be heauenly powers or infernall spirits That care to be aueng'd of Louers othes Oathes made in marriage and after broke Those powers those spirits mou'd with my light faith Are now displeas'd with Pompey and my selfe And doe with ciuill discord furthering it Vntye the bands that sacred Hymen knyt Els onely I am cause of both theyr wraths And of the sinne that ceeleth vp thine eyes Thyne eyes O deplorable Pompey I am shee I am that plague that sacks thy house and thee For t' is not heauen nor Crassus cause hee sees That I am thine in iealosie pursues vs. No t' is a secrete crosse an vnknowne thing That I receiu'd from heauen at my birth That I should heape misfortunes on theyr head Whom once I had receiu'd in marriage bed Then yee the noble Romulists that rest Hence-forth forbeare to seeke my murdring loue And let theyr double losse that held me deere Byd you beware for feare you be beguild Ye may be ritch and great in Fortunes grace And all your hopes with hap may be effected But if yee once be wedded to my loue Clowdes of aduersitie will couer you So pestilently fraught with change of plagues Is mine infected bosome from my youth Like poyson that once lighting in the body No sooner tutcheth then it taints the blood One while the hart another while the liuer According to th' encountring passages Nor spareth it what purely feeds the hart More then the most infected filthiest part Pompey what holpe it thee say deerest life Tell mee what holpe thy warlike valiant minde T' encounter with the least of my mishaps What holpe it thee that vnder thy commaund Thou saw'st the trembling earth with horror mazed Or where the sunne forsakes th' Ocean sea Or watereth his Coursers in the West Thaue made thy name by farre more fam'd and feard Then Summers thunder to the silly Heard What holpe it that thou saw'st when thou wert young Thy Helmet deckt with coronets of Bayes So many enemies in battaile rang'd Beate backe like flyes before a stome of hayle T' haue lookt a-skance and see so many Kings To lay their Crownes and Scepters at thy feete T' embrace thy knees and humbled by theyr fate T' attend thy mercy in this morneful state Alas and here-withall what holpe it thee That euen in all the corners of the earth Thy wandring glory was so greatly knowne And that Rome saw thee while thou tryumph'dst thrice O're three parts of the world that thou hadst yok'd That Neptune weltring on the windie playnes Escapt not free fro thy victorious hands Since thy hard hap since thy fierce destinie Enuious of all thine honors gaue thee mee By whom the former course of thy faire deeds Might with a byting brydle bee restraind By whom the glorie of thy conquests got Might die disgrac'd with mine vnhappines O haples wife thus ominous to all Worse then Megera worse then any plague What foule infernall or what stranger hell Hence-forth wilt thou inhabite where thy hap None others hopes with mischiefe may entrap Cicero What end O race of Scipio will the Eates Afford your teares Will that day neuer come That your desastrous griefes shall turne to ioy And we haue time to burie our annoy Cornelia Ne're shall I see that day for Heauen and Time Haue faild in power to calme my passion Nor can they should they pittie my complaints Once ease my life but with the pangs of death Cicero The wide worlds accidents are apt to change And tickle Fortune staies not in a place But like the Clowdes continuallie doth range Or like the Sunne that hath the Night in chace Then as the Heauens by whom our hopes are guided Doe coast the Earth with an eternall course We must not thinke a miserie betided Will neuer cease but still grow worse and worse When Isie Winter 's past then comes the spring Whom Sommers pride with sultrie heate pursues To whom mylde Autumne doth earths treasure bring The sweetest season that the wise can chuse Heauens influence was nere so constant yet In good or bad as to continue it When I was young I saw against poore Sylla Proud Cynna Marius and Carbo flesh'd So long till they gan tiranize the Towne And spilt such store of blood in euery street As there were none but dead-men to be seene Within a while I saw how Fortune plaid And wound those Tyrants vnderneath her wheele Who lost theyr liues and power at once by one That to reuenge himselfe did with his blade Commit more murther then Rome euer made Yet Sylla shaking tyrannie aside Return'd due honors to our Common-wealth Which peaceably retain'd her auncient state Growne great without the strife of Cittizens Till thys ambitious Tyrants time that toyld To stoope the world and Rome to his desires But flattring
And thy dismembred body stab'd and torne Dragd through the streets disdained to bee borne Phillip Cornelia Amongst the rest of mine extreame mishaps I finde my fortune not the least in this That I haue kept my Maister company Both in his life and at hys latest houre Pompey the great whom I haue honored With true deuotion both aliue and dead one selfesame shyp containd vs when I saw The murdring Egiptians bereaue his lyfe And when the man that had afright the earth Did homage to it with his deerest blood O're whom I shed full many a bitter teare And did performe hys obsequies with sighes And on the strond vpon the Riuer side Where to my sighes the waters seem'd to turne I woaue a Coffyn for his corse of Seggs That with the winde dyd waue like bannerets And layd his body to be burn'd thereon Which when it was consum'd I kindly tooke And sadly cloz'd within an earthen Vrne The asshie reliques of his haples bones Which hauing scapt the rage of wind and Sea I bring to faire Cornelia to interr Within his Elders Tombe that honoured her Cornelia Ayh-me what see I Phil. Pompeys tender bones which in extreames an earthen Vrne containeth Corn. O sweet deere deplorable cynders O myserable woman lyuing dying O poore Cornelia borne to be distrest Why liu'st thou toyl'd that dead mightst lye at rest O faithles hands that vnder cloake of loue Did entertaine him to torment him so O barbarous inhumaine hatefull traytors Thys your disloyall dealing hath defam'd Your King and his inhospitable seate Of the extreamest and most odious cryme That gainst the heauens might bee imagined For yee haue basely broke the Law of Armes And out-rag'd ouer an afflicted soule Murdred a man that did submit himselfe And iniur'd him that euer vs'd you kindly For which misdeed be Egipt pestered With battaile famine and perpetuall plagues Let Aspies Serpents Snakes and Lybian Beares Tygers and Lyons breed with you for euer And let fayre Nylus wont to nurse your Corne Couer your Land with Toades and Crocadils That may infect deuoure and murder you Els earth make way and hell receiue them quicke A hatefull race mongst whom there dooth abide All treason luxurie and homicide Phillip Cease these laments Corn. I doe but what I ought to mourne his death Phil. Alas that profits nought Cor. Will heauen let treason be vnpunished Phil. Heauens will performe what they haue promised Cor. I feare the heauens will not heare our prayer Phil. The plaints of men opprest doe pierce the ayre Cor. Yet Caesar liueth still Phil. Due punishment Succeedes not alwaies after an offence For oftentimes t' is for our chastisement That heauen doth with wicked men dispence That when they list they may with vsurie For all misdeeds pay home the penaltie Cor. This is the hope that feeds my haples daies Els had my life beene long agoe expired I trust the gods that see our hourely wrongs Will fire his shamefull bodie with their flames Except some man resolued shall conclude With Caesars death to end our seruitude Els god to fore my selfe may liue to see His tired corse lye toyling in his blood Gor'd with a thousand stabs and round about The wronged people leape for inward ioy And then come Murder then come vglie Death Then Lethe open thine infernall Lake I le downe with ioy because before I died Mine eyes haue seene what I in hart desir'd Pompey may not reuiue and Pompey dead Let me but see the murdrer murdered Phil. Caesar bewail'd his death Corn. His death hee mournd whom while hee lyu'd to lyue lyke him hee scorne Phil. Hee punished his murdrers Corn. Who murdred hym but hee that followd Pompey with the sword He murdred Pompey that pursu'd his death And cast the plot to catch him in the trap He that of his departure tooke the spoyle Whose fell ambition founded first in blood By nought but Pompeys lyfe could be with-stood Phil. Photis and false Achillas he beheadded Corn. That was because that Pompey being theyr freend they had determin'd once of Caesars end Phil. What got he by his death Cor. Supremacie Phil. Yet Caesar speakes of Pompey honourablie Corn. Words are but winde nor meant he what he spoke Phil. He will not let his statues be broke Cor. By which disguise what ere he doth pretend His owne from beeing broke he doth defend And by the traynes where-with he vs allures His owne estate more firmely he assures Phil. He tooke no pleasure in his death you see Corn. Because hymselfe of life did not bereaue him Phil. Nay he was mou'd with former amitie Corn. He neuer trusted him but to deceiue him But had he lou'd him with a loue vnfained Yet had it beene a vaine and trustlesse league For there is nothing in the soule of man So firmely grounded as can qualifie Th' inextinguible thyrst of signiorie Not heauens feare nor Countries sacred loue Not auncient lawes nor nuptiall chast desire Respect of blood or that which most should moue The inward zeale that Nature doth require All these nor any thing we can deuise Can stoope the hart resolu'd to tyrannize Phil. I feare your griefes increase with thys discourse Corn. My griefes are such as hardly can be worse Phil. Tyme calmeth all things Corn. No tyme quallifies my dolefull spyrits endles myseries My griefe is lyke a Rock whence ceaseles strayne Fresh springs of water at my weeping eyes Still fed by thoughts lyke floods with winters rayne For when to ease th' oppression of my hart I breathe an Autumne forth of fiery sighes Yet herewithall my passion neither dyes Nor dryes the heate the moysture of mine eyes Phil. Can nothing then recure these endlesse teares Corn. Yes newes of Caesars death that medcyn beares Phil. Madam beware for should hee heare of thys his wrath against you t' will exasperate Corn. I neither stand in feare of him nor his Phil. T' is pollicie to feare a powrefull hate Corn. What can he doe Phil. Madam what cannot men that haue the powre to doe what pleaseth them Corn. He can doe mee no mischiefe that I dread Phil. Yes cause your death Corn. Thrise happy were I dead Phil. With rigorous torments Corn. Let him torture mee Pull me in peeces famish fire mee vp Fling mee aliue into a Lyons denn There is no death so hard torments mee so As his extreame tryumphing in our woe But if he will torment me let him then Depriue me wholy of the hope of death For I had died before the fall of Rome And slept with Pompey in the peacefull deepes Saue that I lyue in hope to see ere long That Caesars death shall satisfie his wrong CHORVS FOrtune in powre imperious Vs'd ore the world and worldings thus to tirannize VVhen shee hath heap't her gifts on vs away shee flies Her feete more swift then is the winde Are more inconstant in their kinde then Autumne blasts A womans shape a womans minde that sildom lasts One while shee
should not be blam'd Cass He with his souldiers hath himselfe defam'd Bru. Why then you thinke there is no praise in war Cass Yes where the causes reasonable are Bru. He hath enricht the Empire with newe states Cass Which with ambition now he ruinates Bru. He hath reueng'd the Gaules old iniurie And made them subiect to our Romaine Lawes Cassius The restfull Almaynes with his crueltie He rashly styrd against vs without cause And hazarded our Cittie and our selues Against a harmeles Nation kindly giuen To whom we should do well for some amends To render him and reconcile old frends These Nations did he purposely prouoke To make an Armie for his after-ayde Against the Romains whom in pollicie He train'd in warre to steale theyr signiorie Like them that stryuing at th' Olympian sports To grace themselues with honor of the game Annoynt theyr sinewes fit for wrestling And ere they enter vse some exercise The Gaules were but a fore-game fecht about For ciuill discord wrought by Caesars sleights Whom to be King himselfe he so one remou'd Teaching a people hating seruitude To fight for that that did theyr deaths conclude Bru. The warrs once ended we shall quickly know Whether he will restore the state or no. Cas No Brutus neuer looke to see that day For Caesar holdeth signiorie too deere But know while Cassius hath one drop of blood To feede this worthles body that you see What reck I death to doe so many good In spite of Caesar Cassius will be free Bru. A generous or true enobled spirit Detests to learne what tasts of seruitude Cass Brutus I cannot serue nor see Rome yok'd No let me rather dye a thousand deaths The stiftneckt horses champe not on the bit Nor meekely beare the rider but by force The sturdie Oxen toyle not at the Plough Nor yeeld vnto the yoke but by constraint Shall we then that are men and Romains borne Submit vs to vnvrged slauerie Shall Rome that hath so many ouer-throwne Now make herselfe a subiect to her owne O base indignitie A beardles youth Whom King Nicomedes could ouer-reach Commaunds the world and brideleth all the earth And like a Prince controls the Romulists Braue Romaine Souldiers sterne-borne sons of Mars And none not one that dares to vndertake The intercepting of his tyrannie O Brutus speake O say Seruilius Why cry you ayme and see vs vsed thus But Brutus liues and sees and knowes and feeles That there is one that curbs their Countries weale Yet as he were the semblance not the sonne Of noble Brutus hys great Grandfather As if he wanted hands sence sight or hart He doth deuiseth sees nor dareth ought That may exstirpe or raze these tyrannies Nor ought doth Brutus that to Brute belongs But still increaseth by his negligence His owne disgrace and Caesars violence The wrong is great and ouer-long endur'd We should haue practized conspierd coniur'd A thousand waies and weapons to represse Or kill out-right this cause of our distresse Chorus WHo prodigally spends his blood Brauely to doe his country good And liueth to no other end But resolutely to attempt VVhat may the innocent defend And bloody Tyrants rage preuent And he that in his soule assur'd Hath waters force and fire endur'd And past the pikes of thousand hostes To free the truth from tyrannie And feareles scowres in danger coasts T' enlarge his countries liberty VVere all the world his foes before Now shall they loue him euer-more His glory spred abroade by Fame On wings of his posteritie From obscure death shall free his name To liue in endles memorie All after ages shall adore And honor him with bymnes therefore Yeerely the youth for ioy shall bring The fairest flowers that grow in Rome And yeerely in the Sommer sing O're his heroique kingly Tombe For so the two Athenians That from their fellow cittizens Did freely chase vile seruitude Shall liue for valiant prowesse blest No Sepulcher shall ere exclude Their glorie equall with the best But when the vulgar mad and rude Repay good with ingratitude Hardly then they them reward That to free them fro the hands Of a Tyrant nere regard In what plight their person stands For high Ioue that guideth all VVhen he lets his iust wrath fall To reuenge proud Diadems VVith huge cares doth crosse Kings liues Raysing treasons in their Realmes By their chyldren friends or wiues Therefore he whom all men feare Feareth all men euery where Feare that doth engender hate Hate enforcing them thereto Maketh many vnder-take Many things they would not doe O how many mighty Kings Liue in feare of petty things For when Kings haue sought by warrs Stranger Townes to haue o'rethrowne They haue caught deserued skarrs Seeking that was not theyr owne For no Tyrant commonly Lyuing ill can kindly die But eyther trayterously surprizd Doth coward poison quaile their breath Or their people haue deuis'd Or their guarde to seeke their death He onely liues most bappilie That free and farre from maiestie Can liue content although vnknowne He fearing none none fearing him Medling with nothing but his owne VVhile gazing eyes at crownes grow dim Caesar Mar. Anthonie Caesar O Rome that with thy pryde dost ouer-peare The worthiest Citties of the conquered world Whose honor got by famous victories Hath fild heauens fierie vaults with frightfull horror O lofty towres O stately battlements O glorious temples O proude Pallaces And you braue walls bright heauens masonrie Grac'd with a thousand kingly diadems Are yee not styrred with a strange delight To see your Caesars matchles victories And how your Empire and your praise begins Through fame which hee of stranger Nations wins O beautious Tyber with thine easie streames That glide as smothly as a Parthian shaft Turne not thy crispie tydes like siluer curle Backe to thy grass-greene bancks to welcom vs And with a gentle murmure hast to tell The foming Seas the honour of our fight Trudge not thy streames to Trytons Mariners To bruite the prayses of our conquests past And make theyr vaunts to old Oceanus That hence-forth Tyber shall salute the seas More fam'd then Tyger or fayre Euphrates Now all the world wel-nye doth stoope to Rome The sea the earth and all is almost ours Be' it where the bright Sun with his neyghbor beames Doth early light the Pearled Indians Or where his Chariot staies to stop the day Tyll heauen vnlock the darknes of the night Be' it where the Sea is wrapt in Christall Ise Or where the Sommer doth but warme the earth Or heere or there where is not Rome renownd There lyues no King how great so e're he be But trembleth if he once but heare of mee Caesar is now earths fame and Fortunes terror And Caesars worth hath staynd old souldiers prayses Rome speake no more of eyther Scipio Nor of the Fabij or Fabritians Heere let the Decij and theyr glory die Caesar hath tam'd more Nations tane more Townes And fought more battailes then the best of them Caesar doth
That they will blesse our holy purposes Me thinks I see poore Rome in horror clad And aged Senators in sad discourse Mourne for our sorrowes and theyr seruitude Me thinks I see them while lamenting thus Theyr harts and eyes lye houering ouer vs. On then braue men my fellowes and Romes friends To shew vs worthy of our auncestors And let vs fight with courage and conceite That we may rest the Maisters of the field That this braue Tyrant valiantly beset May perrish in the presse before our faces And that his troopes as tucht wyth lightning flames May by our horse in heapes be ouer-throwne And he blood-thirsting wallow in his owne Thys sayd His Army crying all at once With ioyfull tokens did applaude his speeches VVhose swift shrill noyse did pierce into the clowdes Lyke Northern windes that beate the horned Alpes The clattring Armour buskling as they paced Ronge through the Forrests with a frightfull noyse And euery Eccho tooke the Trompets clange When like a tempest rais'd with whire-winds rage They ranne at euer-each other hand and foote Where-with the dust as with a darksome clowde Arose and ouer-shadowed horse and man The Darts and Arrowes on theyr Armour glaunced And with theyr fall the trembling earth was shaken The ayre that thickned with theyr thundring cryes With pale wanne clowdes discoloured the Sunne The fire in sparks fro forth theyr Armour flew And with a duskish yellow chokt the heauens The battel 's lockt with bristle-poynted speares Doe at the halfe pyke freely charge each other And dash together like two lustie Bulls That iealous of some Heyfar in the Heard Runne head to head and sullen wil not yeeld Till dead or fled the one forsake the field The shyuered Launces ratling in the ayre Fly forth as thicke as moates about the Sunne When with theyr swords flesht with the former fight They hewe their Armour and they cleaue their casks Till streames of blood like Riuers fill the Downes That being infected with the stench thereof Surcloyes the ground and of a Champant Land Makes it a Quagmire where kneedeepe they stand Blood-thirstie Discord with her snakie hayre A fearfull Hagge with fier-darting eyes Runnes crosse the Squadrons with a smokie brand And with her murdring whip encourageth The ouer-forward hands to bloode and death Bellona fiered with a quenchles rage Runnes vp and downe and in the thickest throng Cuts casts the ground and madding makes a poole Which in her rage free passage doth afford That with our blood she may annoynt her sword Now we of our side vrge them to retreate And nowe before them we retyre as fast As on the Alpes the sharpe Nor-North-east wind Shaking a Pynetree with theyr greatest powre One while the top doth almost touch the earth And then it riseth with a counterbuffe So did the Armies presse and charge each other With selfe-same courage worth and weapons to And prodigall of life for libertie With burning hate let each at other flie Thryce did the Cornets of the souldiers cleerd Turne to the Standerd to be newe supplyde And thrice the best of both was faine to breathe And thrice recomforted they brauely ranne And fought as freshly as they first beganne Like two fierce Lyons fighting in a Desart To winne the loue of some faire Lyonesse When they haue vomited theyr long-growne rage And proou'd each others force sufficient Passant regardant softly they retyre Theyr iawbones dy'd with foming froth and blood Their lungs like spunges ramm'd within their sides Theyr tongues discouerd and theyr tailes long trailing Till iealous rage engendered with rest Returnes them sharper set then at the first And makes them couple when they see theyr prize With bristled backs and fire-sparkling eyes Tyll tyer'd or conquer'd one submits or flyes Caesar whose kinglike lookes like day-bright starrs Both comfort and encourage his to fight Marcht through the battaile laying still about him And subt'ly markt whose hand was happiest Who nicely did but dyp his speare in blood And who more roughly smear'd it to his fiste Who staggering fell with euery feeble wound And who more strongly pac'd it through the thickest Him he enflam'd and spur'd and fild with horror As when Alecto in the lowest hell Doth breathe new heate within Orestes brest Till out-ward rage with inward griefe begins A fresh remembrance of our former sins For then as if prouokt with pricking goades Theyr warlike Armies fast lockt foote to foote Stooping their heads low bent to tosse theyr staues They fiercely open both Battalions Cleaue breake and raging tempest-like o're-turne What e're makes head to meet them in this humor Our men at Armes in briefe begin to flye And neither prayers intreatie nor example Of any of theyr leaders left aliue Had powre to stay them in this strange carrier Stragling as in the faire Calabrian fields VVhen Wolues for hunger ranging fro the wood Make forth amongst the flock that scattered flyes Before the Shepheard that resistles lyes Corn. O cruell fortune Mess None resisting now the field was fild with all confusion of murder death and direfull massacres The feeble bands that yet were left entyre Had more desire to sleepe then seeke for spoyle No place was free from sorrow euery where Lay Armed men ore-troden with theyr horses Dismembred bodies drowning in theyr blood And wretched heapes lie mourning of theyr maimes VVhose blood as from a spunge or bunche of Grapes Crusht in a VVine-presse gusheth out so fast As with the sight doth make the sound agast Some should you see that had theyr heads halfe clouen And on the earth theyr braines lye trembling Here one new wounded helps another dying Here lay an arme and there a leg lay shiuer'd Here horse and man o're-turnd for mercy cryde With hands exstended to the merciles That stopt theyr eares and would not heare a word But put them all remorceles to the sword He that had hap to scape doth helpe a fresh To re-enforce the side wheron he seru'd But seeing that there the murdring Enemie Pesle-mesle pursued them like a storme of hayle They gan retyre where Iuba was encampt But there had Caesar eftsoones tyranniz'd So that dispayring to defend themselues They layd aside theyr Armour and at last Offred to yeeld vnto the enemy Whose stony hart that nere dyd Romaine good VVould melt with nothing but theyr deerest blood And Scipio my Father when he beheld His people so discomfited and scorn'd When he perceiu'd the labour profitles To seeke by new encouraging his men To come vpon them with a fresh alarme And when he saw the enemies pursuite To beate them downe as fierce as thundring flints And lay them leuell with the charged earth Lyke eares of Corne with rage of windie showres Their battailes scattred and their Ensignes taken And to conclude his men dismayd to see The passage choakt with bodies of the dead Incessantly lamenting th' extreame losse And souspirable death of so braue souldiers He spurrs his horse and breaking through the presse Trots to