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
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 self-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
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