SCENE.—ROME and its outskirts, DELPHI, and ARDEA.
ACT THE FIRST.
ENTER TARQUIN, TULLIA, SEXTUS, ARUNS, LUCRETIUS, VALERIUS, POPLICOLA, AND SENATORS BEFORE THEM.
TULLIA.
Withdraw; we must have private conference
With our dear husband.
[Exeunt all except TARQUIN and
TULLIA.
TARQUIN.
What wouldst thou, wife?
TULLIA.
Be what I am not; make thee greater far
Than thou canst aim to be.
TARQUIN.
Why, I am
Tarquin.
TULLIA.
And I am Tullia—what of that?
What diapason’s more in Tarquin’s name
Than in a subject’s? or what’s Tullia
More in the sound than to become the name
Of a poor maid or waiting gentlewoman?
I am a princess both by birth and thoughts,
Yet all’s but Tullia. There’s no resonance
In a bare style; my title bears no breadth,
Nor hath it any state. O me, I’m sick!
TARQUIN.
Sick, lady!
TULLIA.
Sick at heart.
TARQUIN.
Why, my sweet Tullia?
TULLIA.
To be a queen I long, long, and am sick;
With ardency my hot appetite’s a-fire,
Till my swollen fervour be deliverèd
Of that great title queen. My heart’s all royal,
Not to be circumscribed in servile bounds.
While there’s a king that rules the peers of Rome,
Tarquin makes legs,[1] and Tullia curtsies low,
Bows at each nod, and must not near the state
Without obeisance. Oh! I hate this awe;
My proud heart cannot brook it.
TARQUIN.
Hear me, wife.
TULLIA.
I am no wife of Tarquin’s if not king:
Oh, had Jove made me man, I would have mounted
Above the base tribunals of the earth,
Up to the clouds, for pompous sovereignty.
Thou art a man: oh, bear my royal mind,
Mount heaven, and see if Tullia lag behind.
There is no earth in me, I am all fire;
Were Tarquin so, then should we both aspire.
TARQUIN.
O Tullia, though my body taste of dulness,
My soul is winged to soar as high as thine;
But note what flags our wings,—forty-five years
The king thy father hath protected Rome.
TULLIA.
That makes for us: the people covet change;
Even the best things in time grow tedious.
TARQUIN.
’Twould seem unnatural in thee, my Tullia,
The reverend king thy father to depose.
TULLIA.
A kingdom’s quest makes sons and fathers foes.
TARQUIN.
And but by Servius’ fall we cannot climb;
The balm[2] that must anoint us is his blood.
TULLIA.
Let’s lave our brows then in that crimson flood;
We must be bold and dreadless: who aspires,
Mounts by the lives of fathers, sons, and sires.
TARQUIN.
And so must I, since, for a kingdom’s love,
Thou canst despise a father for a crown.
Tarquin shall mount, Servius be tumbled down,
For he usurps my state, and first deposed
My father in my swathèd infancy,
For which he shall be countant:[3] to this end
I have sounded all the peers and senators,
And, though unknown to thee, my Tullia,
They all embrace my faction; and so they
Love change of state, a new king to obey.
TULLIA.
Now is my Tarquin worthy Tullia’s grace,
Since in my arms I thus a king embrace.
TARQUIN.
The king should meet this day in parliament
With all the Senate and Estates[4] of Rome.
His place will I assume, and there proclaim
All our decrees in royal Tarquin’s name.
[Flourish.
RE-ENTER SEXTUS, ARUNS, LUCRETIUS, VALERIUS, COLLATINE, AND SENATORS.
LUCRETIUS.
May it please thee, noble Tarquin, to attend
The king this day in the high Capitol?
TULLIA.
Attend!
TARQUIN.
We intend this day to see the Capitol.
You knew our father, good Lucretius?
LUCRETIUS.
I did, my lord.
TARQUIN.
Was not I his son?
The queen my mother was of royal thoughts,
And heart pure as unblemished innocence.
LUCRETIUS.
What asks my lord?
TARQUIN.
Sons should succeed their fathers: but anon
You shall hear more; high time that we were gone.
[Flourish. Exeunt all but COLLATINE and VALERIUS.
COLLATINE.
There’s moral sure in this, Valerius:
Here’s model, yea, and matter too to breed
Strange meditations in the provident brains
Of our grave fathers: some strange project lives
This day in cradle that’s but newly born.
VALERIUS.
No doubt, Collatine, no doubt, here’s a giddy and drunken world; it reels; it hath got the staggers; the commonwealth is sick of an ague, of which nothing can cure her but some violent and sudden affrightment.
COLLATINE.
The wife of Tarquin would be a queen—nay, on my life, she is with child till she be so.
VALERIUS.
And longs to be brought to bed of a kingdom. I divine we shall see scuffling to-day in the Capitol.
COLLATINE.
If there be any difference among the princes and Senate, whose faction will Valerius follow?
VALERIUS.
Oh, Collatine, I am a true citizen, and in this I will best show myself to be one, to take part with the strongest. If Servius o’ercome, I am liegeman to Servius; and if Tarquin subdue, I am for vive Tarquinius.
COLLATINE.
Valerius, no more, this talk does but keep us from the sight of this solemnity: by this the princes are entering the Capitol: come, we must attend.
[Exeunt.
Enter TARQUIN, TULLIA, SEXTUS, ARUNS, LUCRETIUS on one side: BRUTUS meeting them on the other very humorously.[5]
TARQUIN.
This place is not for fools, this parliament
Assembles not the strains of idiotism,
Only the grave and wisest of the land:
Important are the affairs we have in hand.
Hence with that mome.[6]
LUCRETIUS.
Brutus, forbear the presence.
BRUTUS.
Forbear the presence! why, pray?
SEXTUS.
None are admitted to this grave concourse
But wise men. Nay, good
Brutus.
BRUTUS.
You’ll have an empty parliament then.
ARUNS.
Here is no room for fools.
BRUTUS.
Then what makest thou here, or he, or he? O Jupiter! if this command be kept strictly, we shall have empty benches: get you home, you that are here, for here will be nothing to do this day. A general concourse of wise men! ’twas never seen since the first chaos. Tarquin, if the general rule have no exceptions, thou wilt have an empty consistory.
TULLIA.
Brutus, you trouble us.
BRUTUS.
How powerful am I, you Roman deities, that am able to trouble her that troubles a whole empire! Fools exempted, and women admitted! laugh, Democritus.[7] But have you nothing to say to madmen?
TARQUIN.
Madmen have here no place.
BRUTUS.
Then out of doors with Tarquin. What’s he that may sit in a calm valley, and will choose to repose in a tempestuous mountain, but a madman? that may live in tranquillous pleasures, and will seek out a kingdom’s care, but a madman? who would seek innovation in a commonwealth in public, or be overruled by a curst[8] wife in private, but a fool or a madman? Give me thy hand, Tarquin; shall we two be dismissed together from the Capitol?
TARQUIN.
Restrain his folly.
TULLIA.
Drive the frantic hence.
ARUNS.
Nay,
Brutus.
SEXTUS.
Good
Brutus.
BRUTUS.
Nay, soft, soft, good blood of the Tarquins, let’s have a few cold words first, and I am gone in an instant. I claim the privilege of the nobility of Rome, and by that privilege my seat in the Capitol. I am a lord by birth, my place is as free in the Capitol as Horatius, thine; or thine, Lucretius; thine, Sextus; Aruns, thine; or any here: I am a lord, and you banish all the lord fools from the presence. You’ll have few to wait upon the king, but gentlemen. Nay, I am easily persuaded then—hands off! since you will not have my company, you shall have my room.
[Aside.] My room indeed; for what I seem to be
Brutus is not, but born great Rome[9] to free.
The state is full of dropsy, and swollen big
With windy vapours, which my sword must pierce,
To purge the infected blood bred by the pride
Of these infested bloods. Nay, now I go;
Behold, I vanish, since ’tis Tarquin’s mind:
One small fool goes, but great fools leaves behind. [Exit.
LUCRETIUS.
’Tis pity one so generously[10] derived
Should be deprived his best induements thus,
And want the true directions of the soul.
TARQUIN.
To leave these dilatory trifles, lords,
Now to the public business of the land.
Lords, take your several places.
LUCRETIUS.
Not, great Tarquin,
Before the king assume his regal throne,
Whose coming we attend.
TULLIA.
He’s come already.
LUCRETIUS.
The king?
TARQUIN.
The king.
COLLATINE.
Servius?
TARQUIN.
Tarquinius.
LUCRETIUS.
Servius is king.
TARQUIN.
He was: by power divine[11]
The throne that long since he usurped is mine.
Here we enthrone ourselves, cathedral state,
Long since detained us, justly we resume;
Then let our friends and such as love us cry,
Live Tarquin, and enjoy this sovereignty!
ALL.
Live Tarquin and enjoy this sovereignty!
[Flourish.
ENTER
VALERIUS.
VALERIUS.
The king himself, with such confederate peers
As stoutly embrace his faction, being informed
Of Tarquin’s usurpation, armèd comes
Near to the entrance of the Capitol.
TARQUIN.
No man give place; he that dares to arise
And do him reverence, we his love despise.
ENTER SERVIUS, HORATIUS, SCEVOLA, AND SOLDIERS.
SERVIUS.
Traitor!
TARQUIN.
Usurper!
SERVIUS.
Descend.
TULLIA.
Sit still.
SERVIUS.
In Servius’ name, Rome’s great imperial monarch,
I charge thee, Tarquin, disenthrone thyself,
And throw thee at our feet, prostrate for mercy.
HORATIUS.
Spoke like a king.
TARQUIN.
In Tarquin’s name, now Rome’s imperial monarch,
We charge thee, Servius, make free resignation
Of that arched wreath thou hast usurped so long.
TULLIA.
Words worth an empire.
HORATIUS.
Shall this be brooked, my sovereign?
Dismount the traitor.
SEXTUS.
Touch him he that dares.
HORATIUS.
Dares!
TULLIA.
Dares.
SERVIUS.
Strumpet, no child of mine!
TULLIA.
Dotard, and not my father!
SERVIUS.
Kneel to thy king.
TULLIA.
Submit thou to thy queen.
SERVIUS.
Insufferable treason! with bright steel
Lop down these interponents that withstand
The passage to our throne.
HORATIUS.
That Cocles dares.
SEXTUS.
We with our steel guard Tarquin and his chair.
SCEVOLA.
A Servius!
ARUNS.
A Tarquin!
[They fight; SERVIUS is slain.
TARQUIN.
Now are we king indeed; our awe is builded
Upon this royal base, the slaughtered body
Of a dead king; we by his ruin rise
To a monarchal throne.
TULLIA.
We have our longing;
My father’s death gives me a second life
Much better than the first; my birth was servile,
But this new breath of reign is large and free:
Welcome, my second life of sovereignty!
LUCRETIUS.
I have a daughter, but, I hope, of mettle
Subject to better temperature; should my Lucrece
Be of this pride, these hands should sacrifice
Her blood unto the gods that dwell below;
The abortive brat should not out-live my spleen.
But Lucrece is my daughter, this my queen.
TULLIA.
Tear off the crown that yet empales the temples
Of our usurping father—quickly, lords—
And in the face of his yet bleeding wounds
Let us receive our honours.
TARQUIN.
The same breath
Gives our state life, that was the usurper’s death.
TULLIA.
Here then by Heaven’s hand we invest ourselves:
Music, whose loftiest tones grace princes crowned,
Unto our novel coronation sound.
[Flourish. VALERIUS leads forward HORATIUS and
SCEVOLA.
TARQUIN.
Whom doth Valerius to our state present?
VALERIUS.
Two valiant Romans; this Horatius Cocles,
This gentleman called Mutius Scevola,
Who, whilst King Servius wore the diadem,
Upheld his sway and princedom by their loves;
But he being fallen, since all the peers of Rome
Applaud King Tarquin in his sovereignty,
They with like suffrage greet your coronation.
HORATIUS.
This hand, allied unto the Roman crown,
Whom never fear dejected or cast low,
Lays his victorious sword at Tarquin’s feet,
And prostrates with that sword allegiance.
King Servius’ life we loved, but, he expired,
Great Tarquin’s life is in our hearts desired.
SCEVOLA.
Who, whilst he rules with justice and integrity,
Shall with our dreadless hands our hearts command,
Even with the best employments of our lives.
Since fortune lifts thee, we submit to fate:
Ourselves are vassals to the Roman state.
TARQUIN.
Your rooms were empty in our train of friends,
Which we rejoice to see so well supplied:
Receive our grace, live in our clement favours,
In whose submission our young glory grows
To his ripe height: fall in our friendly train,
And strengthen with your loves our infant reign.
HORATIUS.
We live for
Tarquin.
SCEVOLA.
And to thee alone,
Whilst Justice keeps thy sword and thou thy throne.
TARQUIN.
Then are you ours. And now conduct us straight
In triumph through the populous streets of Rome
To the king’s palace, our majestic seat.
Your hearts, though freely proffered, we entreat.
[Music.
As they march, TULLIA treads on SERVIUS’S dead body and pauses.
TULLIA.
What block is that we tread on?
LUCRETIUS.
’Tis the body
Of your deceasèd father, madam queen;
Your shoe is crimsoned with his vital blood.
TULLIA.
No matter; let his mangled body lie,
And with his base confederates strew the streets,
That, in disgrace of his usurpèd pride,
We o’er his trunk may in our chariot ride;
For, mounted like a queen, ’twould do me good
To wash my coach-naves[12] in my father’s blood.
LUCRETIUS.
Here’s a good child!
TARQUIN.
Remove it, we command,
And bear his carcase to the funeral pile,
Where, after this dejection, let it have
His solemn and due obsequies. Fair Tullia,
Thy hate to him grows from thy love to us;
Thou show’st thyself in this unnatural strife
An unkind daughter, but a loving wife.
But on unto our palace: this blest day,
A king’s increase grows by a king’s decay.
[Exeunt.
SCENE III.—A Public Place in Rome.
ENTER
BRUTUS.
BRUTUS.
Murder the king! a high and capital treason.
Those giants that waged war against the gods,
For which the o’erwhelmed mountains hurled by Jove
To scatter them, and give them timeless[13] graves,
Was not more cruel than this butchery,
This slaughter made by Tarquin. But the queen!
A woman—fie, fie! did not this she-parricide
Add to her father’s wounds? and when his body
Lay all besmeared and stained in the blood royal,
Did not this monster, this infernal hag,
Make her unwilling charioter drive on,
And with his shod wheels crush her father’s bones,
Break his crazed skull, and dash his sparkled[14] brains
Upon the pavements, whilst she held the reins?
The affrighted sun at this abhorrèd object
Put on a mask of blood, and yet she blushed not.
Jove, art thou just? hast thou reward for piety,
And for offence no vengeance? or canst punish
Felons, and pardon traitors? chastise murderers,
And wink at parricides? if thou be worthy,
As well we know thou art, to fill the throne
Of all eternity, then with that hand
That flings the trifurk[15] thunder, let the pride
Of these our irreligious monarchisers
Be crowned in blood. This makes poor Brutus mad,—
To see sin frolic, and the virtuous sad.
ENTER SEXTUS AND
ARUNS.
ARUNS.
Soft, here’s Brutus; let us acquaint him with the news.
SEXTUS.
Content. Now, cousin
Brutus.
BRUTUS.
Who, I your kinsman! though I be of the blood of the Tarquins, yet no cousin, gentle prince.
ARUNS.
And why so, Brutus? scorn you our alliance?
BRUTUS.
No; I was cousin to the Tarquins when they were subjects, but dare claim no kindred as they are sovereigns; Brutus is not so mad, though he be merry, but he hath wit enough to keep his head on his shoulders.
ARUNS.
Why do you, my lord, thus lose your hours, and neither profess war nor domestic profit? the first might beget you love, the other riches.
BRUTUS.
Because I would live. Have I not answered you? because I would live. Fools and madmen are no rubs[16] in the way of usurpers; the firmament can brook but one sun, and for my part I must not shine: I had rather live an obscure black than appear a fair white to be shot at. The end of all is, I would live. Had Servius been a shrub, the wind had not shook him: or a madman, he had not perished. I covet no more wit nor employment than as much as will keep life and soul together—I would but live.
ARUNS.
You are satirical, cousin Brutus: but to the purpose. The king dreamt a strange and ominous dream last night, and, to be resolved of the event, my brother Sextus and I must to the oracle.
SEXTUS.
And, because we would be well accompanied, we have got leave of the king that you, Brutus, shall associate us, for our purpose is to make a merry journey on’t.
BRUTUS.
So you’ll carry me along with you to be your fool, and make you merry.
SEXTUS.
Not our fool, but—
BRUTUS.
To make you merry: I shall, nay, I would make you merry, or tickle you till you laugh. The oracle! I’ll go to be resolved of some doubts private to myself: nay, princes, I am so much endeared both to your loves and companies, that you shall not have the power to be rid of me. What limits have we for our journey?
SEXTUS.
Five days, no more.
BRUTUS.
I shall fit me to your preparations. But one thing more: goes Collatine along?
SEXTUS.
Collatine is troubled with the common disease of all new-married men; he’s sick of the wife: his excuse is, forsooth, that Lucrece will not let him go: but you, having neither wife nor wit to hold you, I hope will not disappoint us.
BRUTUS.
Had I both, yet should you prevail with me above either.
ARUNS.
We shall expect you.
BRUTUS.
Horatius Cocles and Mutius Scevola are not engaged in this expedition?
ARUNS.
No, they attend the king. Farewell.
BRUTUS.
Lucretius stays at home too, and Valerius?
SEXTUS.
The palace cannot spare them.
BRUTUS.
None but we three?
SEXTUS.
We three.
BRUTUS.
We three; well, five days hence.
SEXTUS.
You have the time, farewell.
[EXEUNT SEXTUS AND
ARUNS.
BRUTUS.
The time I hope cannot be circumscribed
Within so short a limit; Rome and I
Are not so happy. What’s the reason then,
Heaven spares his rod so long? Mercury, tell me.
I have’t, the fruit of pride is yet but green,
Not mellow; though it grows apace, it comes not
To his full height: Jove oft delays his vengeance,
That when it haps ’t may prove more terrible.
Despair not, Brutus, then, but let thy country
And thee take this last comfort after all:
Pride, when thy fruit is ripe ’t must rot and fall.
But to the oracle. [Exit.