just Strike through the Sister at the Brother's life And wound the Husband whilst you kill the Wife Begin ye Tigers in this life of mine The Sacrifice you in your own design You in this famous combat must become A foe to Alba you a foe to Rome But I oblig'd by Birth and by my flame Unto them both an adversary am And must I be reserv'd only to see The triumph of a hateful Victory A triumph where the Blood I prize so dear Must trim the Laurels of the Triumpher Can I betwixt you then govern my heart And play at once a Wifes and Sisters part And whilst my soul the Conquest does abhor With open arms imbrace the Conqueror No e're that happen Death shall close these eyes From triumphs mixt with my Friends Obsequies My ruine shall prevent it and what you Withdraw your hands from my own hands shall do Go on then Monsters who your rage withstands I shall find means enough to force your hands Which shall no sooner be prepar'd to kill But with this brest I 'le intercept your Steel And though you now deny me force your blows To send my soul unto its wisht repose Horace Dear Wife Curiace Dear Sister Camilla Courage you prevail Sabina Your bosoms groan forth sighs your cheeks grow pale What frights you thus are these the men on whom The stakes are laid of Alba and of Rome Horace Wherein Sabina have I done amiss That can deserve such a revenge as this How has my Honour injur'd thee that thou With all thy power assault'st my vertue so To have astonish'd me let it suffice And let me finish this brave enterprize Thy love has rais'd a conflict in my brest But Wife insult not in the pow'r thou hast Go strive no more for conquest 't is to me T' have suffer'd this debate an infamy Permit me that I may with honour dye Sabina You need not fear your succours are so nigh Scena Septima Horace the Father Horace Curiace Sabina Camilla Horace the Father Is this a time in Love parleys to spend When Rome and Alba do your Arms attend When Blood should weep do you converse with tears Go leave these Women to their womens fears Their griefs my Sons too subtil are for you And by contagion will your hearts subdue Nor can you but by flight evade their powers Sabina Doubt them not Sir they 'r worthy to be yours And slighting all our prayers resolv'd prepare For acts becoming him whose Sons they are But if our tears have soft'ned them we do Thus give you scope to fortifie them new Come Sister let us go we weep in vain Tears are too weak to tonquer bruitish man To our sole refuge black despair we fly Go Tygers then and fight whilst we go die Scena Octava Horace the Father Horace Curiace Horace Confine Sir I beseech you to the House These foolish Women that they break not loose For if they should their over-fondness might With cries and tears perhaps disturb our fight And make the cens'ring world believe that we Our selves were of the vile conspiracy This honour we should purchase then too dear If once suspected of so base a fear Horace the Father Leave that to me and go your Brothers stay And now your duty to your Countries pay Curiace How should I part or in what method take Horace the Father Ah! do not tempt my grief for vertues sake My voice wants terms t'enflame your noble brest And with perplexed thoughts my heart 's opprest My tears swell up to force their tender gates Do your devoire and leave th' event to fates SONG 1. TO Arms to Arms the Heroes cry A glorious Death or Victory Beauty and Love although combin'd And each so powerful alone Cannot prevail against a mind bound up in resolution Tears their weak influence vainly prove Nothing the daring breast can move Honour is blind and deaf ev'n deaf to love 2. The Field the Field where Valour bleeds Spurn'd into dust by barbed steeds Instead of wanton Beds of Down Is now the Scene where they must try To overthrow or be o'rethrown Bravely to overcome or dye Honour in her interest sits above What Beauty Prayers or tears can move Were there no Honour there would be no Love CHORVS HOw prone are people tir'd with Peace To nauseate their happiness And headlong into mischief run To feed their foul ambition Leasure and Luxury when met In populous Cities do beget That Monster War which at the first In little private discords nurst Grows higher by degrees until Having got power to his will He brake into a general flame Beyond what Politie can tame No int'rest then escapeth feer From insolence and cruelty And facts that flow from brutish lust The titles wear of great and just Nay when Wars ensigns are display'd It is Religion to invade No matter whom nor what the cause Nor is there room for other Laws Than what the Victor will on those His riots have subdu'd impose Yet there have still pretences been The vilest practices to skreen There never wanted a pretence To violate suff'ring innocence Though whatsoever men pretend Wealth and Dominion are their end Imperious Rome must Alba feel The edge of thy invading Steel Alba thy Mother from whose womb Thy Founder Romulus did come Or if thou tak'st an impious pride To be esteem'd a Parricide Can nothing satiate thy will Vnless that Brothers Brothers kill Deluded Heroes how they fly To meet a cruel Destiny And sacrifice themselves to Fame A nothing a meer airy name When in th' unnatural contests Who conquer'd falls is happiest 'T is Tyrant Honour unto thee We owe this bloody Tragedy Whom but the vertuous none obey And being so become thy prey They see in thy deluding glass Trophies and Triumphs when alas 'T is their own blood they haste to shed And live but to lament the Dead Deaf unto Piety and Love The Combatants are gone to prove Themselves true Patriots when they are The instruments of Civil War And hazard in a Combat more Than in a Battel heretofore Fate holds the balance whilst they fight And finds both scales of equal weight Valour with Valour even weighs Honour with Honour Praise with Praise But when she lays upon the beam Her partial hand and varies them Then one scale gets it whilst on high The other kicks and knocks the Sky The end of the Second Act. Actus Tertius Scena Prima Sabina LEt us at last my troubled Soul appease These inward mutinies disturb our peace And stand no longer neuter in this War But or for Alba or for Rome declare Let us no more divide our fruitless care But nourish hope to overcome despair Yet to which side alas should we adhere Where both the interests equally are dear Alas which party cleave to which refuse Or 'twixt a Brother and a Husband choose Nature or Love for either side do plead And I by duty unto both am led Then let us rather in this fatal
pronounce me dead 'Gainst Kings results Offenders vainly plead And the most innocent the Sun can show When Kings conclude them criminal are so Nay 't is a crime t' excuse our selves to those Who by their title may our lives dispose And when they cut us off we must believe It is because we are unfit to live Pronounce my doom then Sir I will obey't The life that others love I ought to hate Nor do I think Valerius too severe He prosecutes his Mistriss murtherer I do with him against my self conspire He would my death and 't is my own desire With this distinction that I think by that To keep my honour in its present height Whereas he thinks thereby to blot that name I would perpetuate to live in Fame We rarely meet occasions Sir wherein A hearts whole stock of courage may be seen Valour acts more or less as time doth fit And as occasion serves or hinders it And manly or effeminate appears At the discretion of the censurers The common sort whose understandings be By ignorance limited to what they see Proportion force by its effects and guess At Valour as effects are more or less Expecting vainly that who wonders do Blest once by Fortune should do always so After an act illustriously bright All that seem less darken that actions light Men look we always should in every place Perform our actions with an equal grace Without considering in th' occasion What could have been or more or better done Nor seeing that in actions of less fame Th' occasion 's less the vertue still the same Great names by this injustice are defac'd Mens first Acts honours perish in their last And who once reaches a supream renown If he will hold it there must there sit down I shall not boast what honour I have got Your self great Sir saw my three Combats fought But 't will be hard ever again to find An opportunity of such a kind To crown my Valours worth with a success That must not after these exploits go less So that to give my Fame immortal breath I have no way but by immediate death I should have dy'd before nor liv'd so long I 've liv'd already to my Glory 's wrong A man like me perceives his name decays When but in danger of the least disgrace And my own hand e're this had clear'd the doubt But my blood 's yours and dare not 〈◊〉 out Without your leave Sir your allowance must Precede that action else it were unjust Rome wants no generous Warriors there are those When I am gone will fight her bravest foes As well as I have done and pluck fresh boughs Of greener Laurel to adorn her brows Then with an useless man great Sir dispence And if my acts deserve a recompence Let this be it that with this conqu'ring Arm Still with the vigour of late action warm I sacrifice my self to my own fame Without a mention of my Sisters name Scena Tertia Tullius Valerius Horace the Father Horace Sabina and Iulia. Sabina Oh hear her Sir in whose afflicted mind A Wifes and Sisters sorrows are combin'd Who desolate at your sacred feet in tears Laments her Race and for her Husband fears Not that I would by Artifice withdraw A guilty man from the offended Law Use him like one maugre his Victories But the brave Criminal in me chastise Let my unhappy blood his forfeit pay The Victim's still the same nor can you say Your justice is by pity overcome Whilst I his dearer part abide your doom His matchless love makes it appear he lives In his own person less than in his Wives And he if I be sacrific'd thereby A sadder death than in himself shall dye The death Ibeg and which I must obtain Will finishmine but aggravate his pain Behold Sir here th' excesses of my woe And the sad state my life 's reduc't unto How can I without horror e're embrace A man whose Sword has murther'd all my race And without wickedness a Husband hate For his brave Service to his Prince and State By death then Sir preserve me from the Crime Either of loving or not loving him In this extremity I shall embrace The heaviest sentence for the greatest grace I soon alas with this weak arm could do The thing for which I do so humbly sue But Death will be more welcome if thereby I may redeem my Husbands infamy If by my blood I may those Deities His severe vertue may have mov'd appease Atone Camilla's angry Ghost and save To Rome a man so fortunate and brave Horace the Father speaking to the King I that defence Sir then must undertake My Son and Daughter unconcern'd forsake They with Valerius side and are all three Combin'd together in conspiracy Against that little blood does yet remain From War and Ruine to restore my name Speaking to Sabina Thou who by fruitless sorrows which oppose The duty that a Wife the Husband owes Thy Husband would'st forsake and desperate Accompany thy Brothers in their Fate Go rather and consult their generous Ghosts 'T is true their lives by Horace hand they lost But 't was in Alba's quarrel that they dy'd And they in that are fully satisfi'd Since Heav'n destin'd Alba for a slave If there remain remembrance in the Grave They less repine at their mishap and wounds Being the glory unto us redounds Thy frantick sorrow they will all disclaim Thy sighs and tears will disapprove and blame And will condemn the horror thou putst on For such a Husband has so bravely done Sabina be their Sister try your tears And do your duty as they have done theirs Speaking to the King Valerius animates himself in vain Against this noble Hero to complain A sudden passion in the course of time Was never yet reputed for a Crime Rather than punishment it merits praise When vertue does that sudden passion raise To love even to Idolatry our foes And curse our Country for their overthrows These are call'd Crimes these the offences were He could not even in his Sister spare His love to Rome and her concerns alone Prompted his hand to execution Had not his Countries love tempted his spleen He at this instant innocent had been How strangely do I talk what was 't I meant To say he had been he is innocent Or Sir I had with my own hand e're this Punish'd the forfeit had he done amiss I should have made the sovereign pow'r known That Nature gives a Father o're his Son Sir I love honour nor can brook disgrace Much less a Crime unpunish'd in my Race pointing to Valerius Of which I only shall his witness need He can resolve you what my rage decreed When ign'rant yet of one half of the fight I thought Rome ruin'd in his shameful flight I wonder who bids him busie his cares About my private Family-affairs I wonder whence the priviledge he draws Without my leave to plead my Daughters cause Or by what right does he an int'rest claim Where I her
strife Continue still a Sister and a Wife Let us their honours above all prefer Their vertues imitate and cease to fear The death that threatens is so brave an end We fearless should the sad report attend Let us no more the Fates inhumane call Think in what cause not by whose hands they fall Let us caress them who have bravely fought Nor wrong their Valours merit with a thought Save of the glory and eternal grace Their Arms atchieve unto their noble race Nor once consider at whose bloods expence Vertue has rais'd them to that eminence Let our concerns and int'rest be the same Their Houses interests are in which I am A Daughter or a Wife so near ally'd To both their noble bloods that neither side Can of the other any triumph win But by their Swords atchievements who are mine Fortune whatever ills thou dost dispence I 've found a way t' extract some joy from thence I now can view fearless and undismay'd This Tragedy in all its terrors plaid I can behold the dead without despair And without horror see the Vanquisher Oh flattering illusion false delight Thou pleasing error and impuissant light Which with a counterfeited Ray hast shown How short thy stay was and how soon th' art gone Like Lightnings in obscurity that make By their retiring flames the night more black Mine eyes thou strook'st not with a short-liv'd beam But with more darkness to envelop them By thee my griefs too soon enchanted were And for that moments truce I pay too dear I feel my heart pierc'd thorow with the steel Just now employ'd my dearest friends to kill Contemplating their deaths I not at all Think in what quarrel but by whom they fall Nor see the Victor rais'd to eminence But I consider at whose bloods expence I find my int'rest only is the same With the afflicted house in which I am A Daughter or a Wife so near ally'd To both their noble bloods that neither side Can from the other any triumph win But by their deaths and ruine who are mine Is this the peace then I have pray'd for so Ye too propitious Gods y 'ave heard my vow What thunders do you when provok'd prepare If such dire cruelties your favours are And in what sort do you correct offence When you delight to punish innocence Scena Secunda Sabina Iulia. Sabina Is it dispatcht my Iulia tell me plain Have I a Brother or a Husband slain Or have their impious weapons made at once A Sacrifice of all the Champions And to prevent my hate to th' Vanquishers T' a general obsequy condemn'd my tears Iulia. Can you so long be ign'rant of the news Sabina Is that your wonder pray how should I choose Do you not know that shut up here within Camilla and my self have pris'ners been We are secur'd our tears are dang'rous grown We else e're this betwixt their Swords had flown And our despair sprung from chast love had won Perhaps from both the Camps compassion Iulia. An object of that pity did not need Betwixt their noble courages to plead Since their appearance was enough alone To stay their furies execution No sooner were their plumed crests beheld Waving with warlike brav'ry in the Field But through both Armies strait a murmur rose To see friends so ally'd chose out for foes This horror seizes that soft pity fires A third the fury of their zeal admires This high applauds their vertue to the sky And that condemns it for barbarity Their various thoughts met in one gen'ral voice All blame their Chieftains and detest their choice And not enduring to behold the sight Of that unnatural and bloody fight Exclaiming loud some do advance in haste And interposing part them at the last Sabina I owe you incense Gods y 'ave heard my prayer Iulia. You are not yet where you suppose you are You now may hope and moderate your fears Yet there is still to justifie your tears In vain men strive t' avert them from their fate Their generosity is deaf to that The glory of this choice their Reason blinds And has so dazled their ambitious minds That when men leave them to their desp'rate ways They 're pleas'd and take all pity for disgrace The Camps affliction foils their glories light Nay they had rather with both Armies fight And perish by those hands their fury staid Than quit their int'rests in th' election made Sabina Persist they then so obstinate Iulia. They do At which both Armies to sedition grow And vote from both sides with a gen'ral voice Either for Battel or another choice Their Leaders presence can no more perswade Authority's contemn'd or disobey'd Nay their ungovern'd heat went on so far Nought could reduce them nor command nor pray'r Until the King held sometime in suspence At so undisciplin'd an insolence Was fain himself at last his pow'r to try And thus attempt t' appease the mutiny Since Souldiers thus said he you animate Your selves and fellows in this hot debate Let us consult the sacred pow'rs and try If with another choice the Gods comply What impious mortal when they once reveal Their dark decrees dares then dispute their will This said his words seem'd to be powerful charms And even from the Champions forc'd their Arms That thirst of glory which so dimm'd their eyes Blind as it was ador'd the Deities Their heat submitted unto Tullius sence And aw'd by Piety or deference A Law of his advice both Armies made As both their Scepters he alike had sway'd The rest will from the Victims deaths be known Sabina The Gods an impious Combat will not own Since 't is deferr'd my dying hopes revive And I begin to see my wishes thrive Scena Tertia Sabina Camilla Iulia. Sabina Sister I have good news Camilla I think I know What that good news is if you call it so I heard it told my Father but I find No comfort in 't to my afflicted mind This but prorogues our miseries which shall Return more violent by this interval And all the rays of comfort it doth shed Is only that our tears are respited Sabina The Gods did not in vain this tumult fire Camilla We rather do in vain of them enquire They have instructed Tullius in this choice And theirs but seldom meet the publick voice For you must know that the immortal Gods Descend more rarely to the mean abodes Of common souls than unto Princes far Who here below their own Vice-gerents are And whose unlimited pow'r's a secret beam Of the Divinity 's annext to them Iulia. To argue thus is wilfully to rear Against your self the obstacles you fear We only know Heav'ns will when mov'd by pray'r In sacred Oracles the Gods declare Neither can you despair but first you must The truth of what you late had thence distrust Camilla All Oracles do in mysterious sence Still shrowd themselves from our intelligence And when we think we understand them most The most we grope and are in error lost