Achillas Septius Saluius with souldiers Ach. Haile to Romes great Commander to whom Aegypt Not long since seated in his kingdome by thee And sent to by thee in thy passage by Sends vs with answer which withdraw and heare Pom I le kisse my children first Sep. Blesse me my Lord Pom. I will and Cyris my poore daughter too Euen that high hand that hurld me downe thus low Keepe you from rising high I heare now tell me I thinke my friend you once seru'd vnder me Septius only nods with his head Pom. Nod onely not a word daigne what are these Cornelia I am now not worth mens words Ach. Please you receiue your ayde Sir Pom. I I come Exit Pom. They draw and follow Cor. Why draw they See my Lords attend them vshers Sen. O they haue slaine great Pompey Cor. O my husband Sept. Cyr. Mother take comfort Enter Pompey bleeding O my Lord and father Pom. See heauens your sufferings is my Countries loue The iustice of an Empire pietie Worth this end in their leader last yet life And bring the gods off fairer after this Who will adore or serue the deities He hides his face with his robe Enter the Murtherers Ach. Helpe hale him off and take his head for Caesar Sep. Mother O saue vs Pompey O my father Enter the two Lentuli and Demetrius bleeding and kneele about Cornelia 1 Len. Yet fals not heauen Madam O make good Your late great spirits all the world will say You know not how to beare aduerse euents If now you languish Omn. Take her to her coach They beare her out Cato with a booke in his hand O Beastly apprehenders of things manly And merely heauenly they with all the reasons I vsde for iust mens liberties to beare Their liues and deaths vp in their owne free hands Feare still my resolution though I seeme To giue it off like them and now am woonne To thinke my life in lawes rule not mine owne When once it comes to death as if the law Made for a sort of outlawes must bound me In their subiection as if I could Be rackt out of my vaines to liue in others As so I must if others rule my life And publique power keepe all the right of death As if men needes must serue the place of iustice The forme and idoll and renounce it selfe Our selues and all our rights in God and goodnesse Our whole contents and freedomes to dispose All in the ioyes and wayes of arrant rogues No stay but their wilde errors to sustaine vs No forges but their throats to vent our breaths To forme our liues in and repose our deaths See they haue got my sword Who 's there Enter Marcillius bare Mar. My Lord Cat. Who tooke my sword hence Dumb I doe not aske For any vse or care of it but hope I may be answered Goe Sir let me haue it Exit Mar. Poore slaues how terrible this death is to them If men would sleepe they would be wroth with all That interrupt them Physick take to take The golden rest it brings both pay and pray For good and soundest naps all friends consenting In those kinde inuocations praying all Good rest the gods vouchsafe you put when death Sleepes naturall brother comes that 's nothing worse But better being more rich and keepes the store Sleepe euer fickle wayward still and poore O how men grudge and shake and deare and fly His sterne approaches all their comforts taken In faith and knowledge of the blisse and beauties That watch their wakings in an endlesse life Dround in the paines and horrors of their sense Sustainde but for an houre be all the earth Rapt with this error lie pursue my reason And hold that as my light and fiery pillar Th' eternall law of heauen and earth no firmer But while I seeke to conquer conquering Caesar My soft-splen'd seruants ouerrule and curb me He knocks and Brutus enters Where 's he I sent to fetch and place my sword Where late I left it Dumb to Come another Enter Cleanthes Where 's my sword hung here Cle. My Lord I know not Ent. Marcilius Cat. The rest come in there Where 's the sword I charg'd you To giue his place againe I le breake your lips ope Spight of my freedome all my seruants friends My sonne and all will needs betray me naked To th' armed malice of a foe so fierce And Beare-like mankinde of the blood of virtue O gods who euer saw me thus contemn'd Goe call my sonne in tell him that the lesse He shewes himselfe my sonne the lesse I le care To liue his father Enter Athenodorus Porcius Porcius kneeling Brutus Cleanthes and Marcilius by him Por. I beseech you Sir Rest patient of my duty and my loue Your other children think on our poore mother Your family your Country Cat. If the gods Giue ouer all I le fly the world with them Athenodorus I admire the changes I note in heauenly prouidence When Pompey Did all things out of course past right past reason He stood inuincible against the world Yet now his cares grew pious and his powers Set all vp for his Countrey he is conquered Ath. The gods wills secret are nor must we measure Their chast-reserued deepes by our dry shallowes Sufficeth vs we are entirely such As twixt them and our consciences we know Their graces in our virtues shall present Vnspotted with the earth to 'th high throne That ouerlookes vs for this gyant world Let 's not contend with it when heauen it selfe Failes to reforme it why should we affect The least hand ouer it in that ambition A heape t is of digested villany Virtue in labor with eternall Chaos Prest to a liuing death and rackt beneath it Her throwes vnpitied euery worthy man Limb by limb sawne out of her virgine wombe To liue here peecemeall tortur'd fly life then Your life and death made presidents for men Exit Cat. Ye heare my masters what a life this is And vse much reason to respect it so But mine shall serue ye Yet restore my sword Lest too much ye presume and I conceiue Ye front me like my fortunes Where 's Statilius Por. I think Sir gone with the three hundred Romans In Lucius Caesars charge to serue the victor Cat. And would not take his leaue of his poore friend Then the Philosophers haue stoop't his spirit Which I admire in one so free and knowing And such a fiery hater of base life Besides being such a vow'd and noted foe To our great Conqueror But I aduisde him To spare his youth and liue Por. My brother Brutus Is gone to Caesar Cat. Brutus Of mine honor Although he be my sonne in law I must say There went as worthy and as learned a President As liues in Romes whole rule for all lifes actions And yet your sister Porcia his wife Would scarce haue done this But for you my sonne Howeuer Caesar deales with me be counsailde By your experienc't father not to touch At any
when so many soules So hard a taske approue it nor my hopes Of his sincere loue to his Country build On sandier grounds then Caesars since he can As good Cards shew for it as Caesar did And quit therein the close aspersion Of his ambition seeking to imploy His army in the breast of Italy Pomp. Let me not thus imperiall Bench and Senate Feele myselfe beat about the eares and tost With others breathes to any coast they please And not put some stay to my errors in them The gods can witnesse that not my ambition Hath brought to question th' entry of my army And therefore not suspected the effect Of which that entry is supposde the cause Which is a will in me to giue my power The rule of Romes sole Empire that most strangely Would put my will in others powers and powers Vnforfeit by my fault in others wills My selfe-loue out of which all this must rise I will not wrong the knowne proofes of my loue To this my natiue Cities publique good To quit or thinke of nor repeat those proofes Confirm'd in those three triumphs I haue made For conquest of the whole inhabited world First Affrick Europe and then Asia Which neuer Consull but my selfe could boast Nor can blinde Fortune vaunt her partiall hand In any part of all my seruices Though some haue said she was the page of Caesar Both sayling marching fighting and preparing His fights in very order of his battailes The parts she plaid for him inuerting nature As giuing calmnesse to th' enraged sea Imposing Summers weather on sterne winter Winging the slowest foot he did command And his most Cowherd making fierce of hand And all this euer when the force of man Was quite exceeded in it all and she In th' instant adding her cleare deity Yet her for me I both disclaime and scorne And where all fortune is renounc't no reason Will thinke one man transferd with affectation Of all Pomes Empire for he must haue fortune That goes beyond a man and where so many Their hand-fulls finde with it the one is mad That vndergoes it and where that is clear'd Th' imputed meanes to it which is my sute For entry of mine army I confute Cat. What rests then this of all parts being disclaimd Met. My part Sir rests that let great Pompey beare What spirit he lists 't is needfull yet for Rome That this Law be establisht for his army Caes. T is then as needfull to admit in mine Or else let both lay downe our armes for else To take my charge off and leaue Pompey his You wrongfully accuse me to intend A tyranny amongst ye and shall giue Pompey full meanes to be himselfe a tyrant Anth. Can this be answer'd 1 Cons. Is it then your wils That Pompey shall cease armes Anth. What else Omnes No no 2 Cons. Shall Caesar cease his armes Omn. I I Anth. For shame Then yeeld to this cleare equity that both May leaue their armes Omn. We indifferent stand Met. Read but this law and you shall see a difference Twixt equity and your indifferency All mens obiections answered Read it Notary Cat. He shall not read it Met. I will read it then Min. Nor thou shalt read it being a thing so vaine Pretending cause for Pompeys armies entry That only by thy Complices and thee T is forg'd to set the Senate in an vproare Met. I haue it Sir in memory and will speake it Cat. Thou shalt be dumbe as soone Caes. Pull downe this Cato Author of factions and to prison with him Gen. Come downe Sir He drawes and all draw Pom. Hence ye mercenary Ruffians 1 Cons. What outrage shew you sheath your insolent swords Or be proclaim'd your Countreys foes and traytors Pom. How insolent a part was this in you To offer the imprisonment of Cato When there is right in him were forme so answer'd With termes and place to send vs both to prison If of our owne ambitions we should offer Th' entry of our armies for who knowes That of vs both the best friend to his Country And freest from his owne particular ends Being in his power would not assume the Empire And hauing it could rule the State so well As now 't is gouer'nd for the common good Caes: Accuse your selfe Sir if your conscience vrge it Or of ambition or corruption Or insufficiency to rule the Empire And sound not me with your Lead Pom. Lead t is Gold And spirit of Gold too to the politique drosse With which false Caesar sounds men and for which His praise and honour crownes them who sounds not The inmost sand of Caesar for but sand Is all the rope of your great parts affected You speake well and are learn'd and golden speech Did Nature neuer giue man but to guild A copper soule in him and all that learning That heartily is spent in painting speech Is merely painted and no solid knowledge But y 'aue another praise for temperance Which nought commends your free choice to be temperate· For so you must be at least in your meales Since y 'aue a malady that tyes you to it For feare of daily fals in your aspirings And your disease the gods nere gaue to man But such a one as had a spirit too great For all his bodies passages to serue it Which notes th' excesse of your ambition The malady chancing where the pores and passages Through which the spirit of a man is borne So narrow are and straight that oftentimes They intercept it quite and choake it vp And yet because the greatnesse of it notes A heat mere fleshly and of bloods ranck fire Goates are of all beasts subiect'st to it most Caes. Your selfe might haue it then if those faults cause it But deales this man ingeniously to tax Men with a frailty that the gods inflict Pomp. The gods inflict on men diseases neuer Or other outward maimes but to decipher Correct and order some rude vice within them And why decipher they it but to make Men note and shun and tax it to th' extreame Nor will I see my Countryes hopes abusde In any man commanding in her Empire If my more tryall of him makes me see more Into his intricasies and my freedome Hath spirit to speake more then obseruers seruile Caes. Be free Sir of your insight and your speech And speak and see more then the world besides I must remember I haue heard of one That fame gaue out could see thorow Oke and stone And of another set in Sicily That could discerne the Carthaginian Nauy And number them distinctly leauing harbor Though full a day and nights faile distant thence But these things Reuerend Fathers I conceiue Hardly appeare to you worth graue beliefe And therefore since such strange things haue beene seene In my so deepe and foule detractions By only Lyncean Pompey who was most Lou'd and beleeu'd of Romes most famous whore Infamous Flora by so fine a man As Galba or Sarmentus any iester Or flatterer
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
These friends thus gone t is more then time we minded Our lost friend Vibius Gab. You can want no friends See our two Consuls Sir betwixt them bringing The worthy Brutus Enter two Consuls leading Brutus betwixt them 1 Cons. We attend my Lord With no meane friend to spirit your next encounter Six thousand of our choice Patrician youths Brought in his conduct 2 Cons And though neuer yet He hath saluted you with any word Or looke of slendrest loue in his whole life Since that long time since of his fathers death By your hand authord yet see at your need He comes to serue you freely for his Country Pom. His friendly presence making vp a third With both your persons I as gladly welcome As if Iones triple flame had guilt this field And lightn'd on my right hand from his shield Bru. I well assure my selfe Sir that no thought In your ingenious construction touches At the aspersion that my tendred seruice Proceeds from my despaire of elsewhere safety But that my Countreys safety owning iustly My whole liabilities of life and fortunes And you the ablest fautor of her safty Her loue and for your loue of her your owne Only makes sacred to your vse my offering Pom. Farre fly all other thought from my construction And due acceptance of the liberall honor Your loue hath done me which the gods are witnesse I take as stirr'd vp in you by their fauours Nor lesse esteeme it then an offering holy Since as of all things man is said the measure So your full merits measure forth a man 1 Cons. See yet my Lord more friends 2 Cons. Fiue Kings your seruants Enter fiue Kings Hib. Conquest and all grace crowne the gracious Pompey To serue whom in the sacred Romane safety My selfe Iberias King present my forces Thess. And I that hold the tributary Throne Of Grecian Thessaly submit my homage To Rome and Pompey Cil. So Cilicia too Epir. And so Epirus Thra. Lastly I from Thrace Present the duties of my power and seruice Pom. Your royall aides deserue of Rome and Pompey Our vtmost honors O may now our fortune Not ballance her broad breast twixt two light wings Nor on a slippery globe sustaine her steps But as the Spartans say the Paphian Queene The flood Eurotas passing laid a side Her Glasse her Ceston and her amorous graces And in Lycurgus fauor arm'd her beauties With Shield and Iaueline so may fortune now The flood of all our enemies forces passing With her faire Ensignes and arriu'd as ours Displume her shoulders cast off her wing'd shooes Her faithlesse and still-rowling stone spurne from her And enter our powers as she may remaine Our firme assistent that the generall aydes Fauours and honors you performe to Rome May make her build with you her endlesse home Omn. The gods vouchsafe it and our causes right Dem. What suddaine Shade is this obserue my Lords The night me thinks comes on before her houre Thunder and lightning Gab. Nor trust me if my thoughts conceiue not so Bru. What thin clouds fly the winds like swiftest shafts Along aires middle region 1 Cons. They presage Vnusuall tempests 2 Cons. And t is their repaire That timelesse darken thus the gloomy ayre Pom. Let 's force no omen from it but avoid The vapors furies now by Ioue employd Thunder continued and Caesar enters disguisde The wrathfull tempest of the angry night Where hell flyes mufl'd vp in clouds of pitch Mingl'd with Sulphure and those dreadfull bolts The Cyclops Ram in Ioues Artillery Hath rousde the furies arm'd in all their horrors Vp to the enuious seas in spight of Caesar O night O ielous night of all the noblest Beauties and glories where the gods haue stroke Their foure digestions from thy gastly Chaos Blush thus to drowne them all in this houre sign'd By the necessity of fate for Caesar I that haue ransackt all the world for worth To forme in man the image of the gods Must like them haue the power to check the worst Of all things vnder their celestiall Empire Stoope it and burst it or breake through it all With vse and safety till the Crowne be set On all my actions that the hand of nature In all her worst works ayming at an end May in a master-peece of hers be seru'd With tops and state fit for his virtuous Crowne Not lift arts thus farre vp in glorious frame To let them vanish thus in smoke and shame This riuer Anius in whose mouth now lyes A Pynnace I would passe in to fetch on My armies dull rest from Brundusium That is at all times else exceeding calme By reason of a purling winde that flyes Off from the shore each morning driuing vp The billows farre to sea in this night yet Beares such a terrible gale put off from sea As beats the land wind back and thrusts the flood Vp in such vproare that no boat dare stirre And on it is disperst all Pompeys nauy To make my perill yet more enuious Shall I yet shrinke for all were all yet more There is a certaine need that I must giue Way to my passe none knowne that I must liue Enter Master of a ship with Sailors Mast. What battaile is there sought now in the ayre That threats the wrack of nature Caes. Master come Shall we thrust through it all Mast. What lost man Art thou in hopes and fortunes that dar'st make So desperate a motion Caes. Launch man and all thy feares fraight disauow Thou carriest Caesar and his fortunes now Act III. Scene I. Pompey two Consuls fiue Kings Brutus Gabinitis Demetrius NOw to Pharsalia where the smarting strokes Of our resolu'd contention must resound My Lords and friends of Rome I giue you all Such welcome as the spirit of all my fortunes Conquests and triumphs now come for their crowne Can crowne your fauours with and serue the hopes Of my deare Country to her vtmost wish I can but set vp all my being to giue So good an end to my forerunning Acts The powers in me that formd them hauing lost No least time since in gathering skill to better But like so many Bees haue brought me home The sweet of whatsoeuer flowers haue growne In all the meades and gardens of the world All which hath growne still as the time encrease In which t was gather'd and with which it stemm'd That what decay soeuer blood inferr'd Might with my mindes store be suppli'd and cher'd All which in one fire of this instant fight I le burne and sacrifice to euery cinder In sacred offering to my Countreys loue And therefore what euent soeuer sort As I no praise will looke for but the good Freely bestow on all if good succeed So if aduerse fate fall I wish no blame But th' ill befalne me made my fortunes shame Not mine nor my fault 1 Cons. We too well loue Pompey To doe him that iniustice Bru. Who more thirsts The Conquest then resolues to beare the foile Pom. Said Brutus-like giue
good Vibius Be ransom'd with my loue and haste to Pompey Entreating him from me that we may meet And for that reason which I know this day Was giuen by Cato for his pursutes stay Which was preuention of our Romane blood Propose my offer of our hearty peace That being reconcil'd and mutuall faith Giuen on our either part not three dayes light May further shew vs foes but both our armies Disperst in Garisons we may returne Within that time to Italy such friends As in our Countryes loue containe our splenes Vib. T is offerd Sir 'boue the rate of Caesar In other men but in what I approue Beneath his merits which I will not faile T' enforce at full to Pompey nor forget In any time the gratitude of my seruice Vi. salutes Ant. and the other exit Caes. Your loue Sir and your friendship Ant. This prepares a good induction to the change of fortune In this dayes issue if the pride it kindles In Pompeys vaines makes him deny a peace So gently offerd for her alterd hand Works neuer surer from her ill to good On his side she hath hurt and on the other With other changes then when meanes are vsde To keepe her constant yet retire refusde Caes. I try no such conclusion but desire Directly peace In meane space I le prepare For other issue in my vtmost meanes Whose hopes now resting at Brundusium In that part of my army with Sabinus I wonder he so long delaies to bring me And must in person haste him if this Euen I heare not from him Crass. That I hope flyes farre Your full intent my Lord since Pompeys navie You know lies houering all alongst those seas In too much danger for what ayde soeuer You can procure to passe your person safe Acil. Which doubt may proue the cause that stayes Sabinus And if with shipping fit to passe your army He yet straines time to venture I presume You will not passe your person with such Conuoy Of those poore vessels as may serue you here Caes. How shall I helpe it shall I suffer this Torment of his delay and rack suspitions Worse then assur'd destructions through my thoughts Anth. Past doubt he will be here I left all orderd And full agreement made with him to make All vtmost haste no least let once suspected Caes. Suspected what suspection should feare a friend In such assur'd streights from his friends enlargement If t were his souldiers safeties he so tenders Were it not better they should sinke by sea Then wrack their number King and cause ashore Their stay is worth their ruine should we liue If they in fault were if their leader he Sould dye the deaths of all in meane space I That should not beare all fly the sight in shame Thou eye of nature and abortiue night Fall dead amongst vs with defects defects Must serue proportion iustice neuer can Be else restor'd nor right the wrongs of man Exeunt Pompey Cato Gabinius Demetrius Athenodorus Porcius Statilius Pomp. This charge of our fierce foe the firiendly gods Haue in our stregthen'd spirits beaten back With happy issue and his forces lessen'd Of two and thirty Ensignes forc't from him Two thousand souldiers slaine Cat. O boast not that Their losse is yours my Lord Pomp. I boast it not But only name the number Gab. Which right well You might haue raisde so high that on their tops Your Throne was offer'd euer t' ouerlooke Subuerted Caesar had you beene so blest To giue such honor to your Captaines Counsailes As their alacrities did long to merit With proofefull action Dem. O t was ill neglected Stat. It was deferr'd with reason which not yet Th' euent so cleare is to confute Pom. If t were Our likeliest then was not to hazard battaile Th' aduenture being so casuall if compar'd With our more certaine meanes to his subuersion For finding now our army amply storde With all things fit to tarry surer time Reason thought better to extend to length The warre betwixt vs that his little strength May by degrees proue none which vrged now Consisting of his best and ablest souldiers We should haue found at one direct set battaile Of matchlesse valours their defects of victuall Not tyring yet enough on their tough nerues Where on the other part to put them still In motion and remotion here and there Enforcing them to fortifying still Where euer they set downe to siege a wall Keepe watch all night in armour their most part Can neuer beare it by their yeares oppression Spent heretofore too much in those steele toyles Cat. I so aduisde and yet repent it not But much reioyce in so much saued blood As had beene pour'd out in the stroke of battaile Whose fury thus preuented comprehends Your Countreys good and Empires in whose care Let me beseech you that in all this warre You sack no City subiect to our Rule Nor put to sword one Citizen of Rome But when the needfull fury of the sword Can make no fit distinction in maine battaile That you will please still to prolong the stroke Of absolute decision to these iarres Considering you shall strike it with a man Of much skill and experience and one That will his Conquest sell at infinite rate If that must end your difference but I doubt There will come humble offer on his part Of honor'd peace to you for whose sweet name So cryed out to you in our late-met Senate Lost no fit offer of that wished treaty Take pity on your Countreys blood as much As possible may stand without the danger Of hindering her iustice on her foes Which all the gods to your full wish dispose Pom. Why will you leaue vs whither will you goe To keepe your worthyest person in more safety Then in my army so deuoted to you Cat. My person is the least my Lord I value I am commanded by our powerfull Senate To view the Cities and the kingdomes scituate About your either army that which side Soeuer conquer no disordered straglers Puft with the Conquest or by need impeld May take their swinge more then the care of one May curb and order in these neighbor confines My chiefe passe yet resolues for Vtica Pom. Your passe my truest friend and worthy Father May all good powers make safe and alwayes answer Your infinite merits with their like protection In which I make no doubt but we shall meet With mutuall greetings or for absolute conquest Or peace preuenting that our bloody stroke Nor let our parting be dishonor'd so As not to take into our noblest notice Your selfe most learned and admired Father Whose merits if I liue shall lack no honor Porcius Statilius though your spirits with mine Would highly chere me yet ye shall bestow them In much more worthy conduct but loue me And wish me conquest for your Countreys sake Sta. Our liues shall seale our loues Sir with worst deaths Aduentur'd in your seruice Pom. Y' are my friends Exeunt Cat. Athen. Por. Sat.