what duty You owe to it: be not afraid to break No child can be too natural to his parent: She is our common mother, and doth challenge The prime part of us; do not stop, but give it. He that is void of fear, may soon be just; And no religion binds men to be traitors. Ful. My lord, he understands it, and will follow Your saving counsel; but his shame yet stays him. I know that he is coming.1 Cur. Do you know it? Ful. Yes; let me speak with you. [Takes him aside. Cur. O, you are Ful. What am I? Cur. Speak not so loud. Ful. I am what you should be. [Lowering her voice. Come, do you think I'd walk in any plot Where Madam Sempronia should take place of me, And Fulvia come in the rear, or on the by? That I would be her second in a business, Though it might vantage me all the sun sees? It was a silly phant'sy of yours. Apply Yourself to me and the consul, and be wise; Follow the fortune I have put you into: You may be something this way, and with safety. Be mentioned with them: I will call you mine, And trouble this good shame3 no farther. Stand Firm for your country, and become a man Honoured and loved: it were a noble life, To be found dead, embracing her. Know you What thanks, what titles, what rewards the senate Will heap upon you, certain, for your service ? Let not a desperate action more engage you, Than safety should; and wicked friendship force, What honesty and virtue cannot work. Ful. He tells you right, sweet friend: 'tis saving counsel. Cur, Most noble consul, I am yours and hers, I mean my country's; you have formed me new, Inspiring me with what I should be truly: And I entreat my faith may not seem cheaper For springing out of penitence. "Perdere quos vult Jupiter, dementat prius." WHAL. This good shame] Cicero is complimentary and poetical at once:-this modest and virtuous lady. Examples of a similar kind are to be found in Shakspeare and others, where the predominant quality of the moment is turned into an appellative. Thus Coriolanus terms Volumnia his "gracious silence." Cic. Good Curius, It shall be dearer rather; and because more. Keep still your former face, and mix again With these lost spirits; run all their mazes with them; For such are treasons: find their windings out, And subtle turnings; watch their snaky ways. Through brakes and hedges, into woods of darkness Where they are fain to creep upon their breasts In paths ne'er trod by men, but wolves and panthers. Learn, beside Catiline, Lentulus, and those Whose names I have, what new ones they draw in ; Who else are likely; what those great ones are They do not name; what ways they mean to take; And whether their hopes point to war, or ruin By some surprise. Explore all their intents; And what you find may profit the republic, Be secret as the night. Cur. And constant, sir. Cic. I do not doubt it, though the time cut off All vows. The dignity of truth is lost I did unreverently to blame the gods, Who wake for thee, though thou snore to thyself. Is it not strange thou shouldst be so diseased, And so secure? but more, that the first symptoms Of such a malady should not rise out A hair, or part of thee? Think, think, hereafter, What thy needs were, when thou must use such means; And lay it to thy breast, how much the gods Upbraid thy foul neglect of them, by making So vile a thing the author of thy safety. They could have wrought by nobler ways, have struck Thy foes with forked lightning, or rammed thunder; Thrown hills upon them in the act; have sent Death, like a damp, to all their families; Or caused their consciences to burst them: but When they will shew thee what thou art, and make A scornful difference 'twixt their power and thee, They help thee by such aids as geese1 and harlots. Re-enter Lictor. How now, what answer? is he come ? Will straight be here, and your colleague Said coldly he would follow me. [Exit. Cic. Ay, that Troubles me somewhat, and is worth my fear. He is a man 'gainst whom I must provide, That, as he'll do no good, he do no harm. He, though he be not of the plot, will like it, And wish it should proceed; for unto men Prest with their wants, all change is ever welcome. I must with offices and patience win him, Make him by art that which he is not born, 1 By such aids as geese] He alludes to the waking the guards of the Capitol when the trite story of "the cackling of these animals Gauls were on the point of surprising it." A friend unto the public, and bestow Decreed to me;1 that benefit will bind him: So few are virtuous when the reward's away. Nor must I be unmindful of my private ;2 For which I have called my brother and the tribunes, My kinsfolks, and my clients, to be near me. He that stands up 'gainst traitors and their ends, Shall need a double guard of law, and Especially in such an envious state, The treason is not acted than believe. [Exit. SCENE III.-A Room in Catiline's House. Enter Cæsar and Catiline. wisdom. Less ought the care of men, or fame, to For they that win do seldom receive shame Cas. The night grows on, and you are And vengeance, least: for who, besieged for your meeting; I'll therefore end in few. Be resolute, The province on him which is by the senate Decreed to me ;] Antonius, who was somewhat deeper in the plot than Cicero seems to imagine, was overwhelmed with debt. Macedonia therefore, which was one of the most desirable governments in the republic, and which had fallen to Cicero by lot, was a bribe well calculated to secure the fidelity and co-operation of his colleague. Cicero received in exchange the province of Cisalpine Gaul, an appointment no way suited to his unwarlike disposition, and which indeed he afterwards wisely transferred to his friend Metellus Celer. The city was his proper stage of action; there the senate and the forum heard him with alternate wonder and delight. In the lines which immediately follow Cicero has quoted Ovid and Juvenal in the spirit of prophecy not that the thought was originally theirs; for the world had not reached the age of Cicero without some one asking: "Quis virtutem amplectitur ipsam Præmia si tollas?" with wants, Would stop at death or anything beyond it? Cat. Is a good religious fool.4 "Of him, that his particular to foresee Smells from the general weal."-WHAL. 8 Cæs. The night, &c.] Jonson seems hostile to Cæsar, as he has made him play a more prominent part in the conspiracy than he actually appears to have done. Sallust is evidently partial to Cæsar; but even Dio, Plutarch, and Suetonius, who more than insinuate that he was an actor in the plot, produce little else for their authority than the reports of the day. That he knew of Catiline's designs cannot be doubted, and that he wished them to succeed to a certain point may be fairly conjectured from his ambitious views but that he attended any of the meetings, or directly participated in the measures of so rash and inconsiderate a set as followed the desperate fortunes of Catiline, his known prudence and political sagacity forbid us to imagine. Cat. Is a good religious fool.] It is probable that our poet uses the word religious in the same sense the Romans assigned to religiosus, superstitious person; and so Cæsar understands which was generally taken to signify a fearful, him.-WHAL. 1 A serpent, ere he comes to be a dragon, Does eat a bat ;] This is the Greek proverb, Οφις η μη φαγη οφιν, δρακων ου γενησεται, which, Erasmus says, savours to him a little of vulgarity. This, however, was not seen, or not regarded by our old writers, who make frequent use of it. "No man (says Lord Bacon) prospers so suddenly as by others' errors. Serpens nisi serpentem comederit non fit draco." And Beaumont: "The snake that would be a dragon and have wings must eat"-a snake, I suppose; but the words have dropt out of the text and the editor, who found no previous remarks on the passage, has suffered the defect to escape him; and he proceeds, like Lord Bacon, to illustrate the saying: "And what implieth that but thisthat in this cannibal age, he that would have the suit of wealth, must not care whom he feeds on," &c.-The Honest Man's Fortune, act iii. sc. 3. It is used in a similar manner by Dryden : In firing of the city at the time Shall be designed. Promise them states and empires, And men for lovers, made of better clay Than ever the old potter Titan knew.2 Enter Lecca. Who's that? O, Porcius Lecca! Are they met? Lec. They are all here. Cat. Love, you have your instructions: I'll trust you with the stuff you have to work on, You'll form it! [Exit Aurelia.] Porcius, fetch the silver eagle I gave you in charge; and pray 'em they will enter. [Exit Lecca. Enter Cethegus, Curius, Lentulus, Vargunteius, Longinus, Gabinius, Ceparius, Autronius, &c. Cat. O friends, your faces glad me! This will be Our last, I hope, of consultation. Cet. So it had need. Cur. We lose occasion daily. Cat. Ay, and our means; whereof one wounds me most That was the fairest. Piso is dead in Spain.3 Cet. As we are here. Lon. And, as 'tis thought, by envy Of Pompey's followers. Len. He too's coming back, Now out of Asia. Cat. Therefore, what we intend We must be swift in. Take your seats, and hear. I have already sent Septimius "A serpent ne'er becomes a flying dragon Till he has eat a serpent."-Edipus. 2 Than ever the old potter Titan knew.] From Juvenal: Quibus arte benigna, Et meliore luto finxit præcordia Titan." 3 Piso is dead in Spain.] Piso was murdered in his way to that province by some Spanish horse whom he had incorporated with his cavalry. He was a young nobleman of the most profligate manners, and was supposed by some to have provoked his fate by cruelty in his command; though others (as the historian adds) pretended that he was put to death at the instigation of Pompey by some of his dependents disguised as troopers. This opinion is judiciously adopted by the poet. The Julius mentioned just below was Caius Julius. |