my Sword But since ill Chance sits heavy on my Fate Fly hence my Friends use all your art and pow'r Let Hermes dictate and the Gods inspire Take with you this good man and tell the Throng Perpenna condescends to lead 'em on Speak all the taking words that can be thought And Reign for ever in Perpenna's brest Cent. Fear not success this news like Balm to wounds Will lay the anguish and set free their doubt Exeunt SCEN. V. PERPENNA Perp. VVas there no way to pass the Labyrinth No subtil Clue the mystic path to find You partial Gods why Crown'd you with success VVas it to add to th' Laurels which he wears Now by the juster Pow'rs that war within And make a Tempest in my Soul he dyes Not angry Daemons to subvert the VVorld To ancient Chaos and inlarge their Rule VVrapt in the darkest Clouds too strong for light The ample Character of Hell's design Mine greater more secure Hypocrisie Thou smoothest Devil that can Gods beguile Rule in my brain and dictate to my sense Mischiefs excelling Heav'n or Hell to forge SCEN. VI. Fulvia Perpenna Ful. VVhy all this Tempest Cneius Look o're Fate And from the Brasen Volumes rase the hour That threatens ruin Are you mute at this Could you like Hercules perform anew His Hydra-labour it were certain hope But gainst the VVinds and Seas usurping rage Like Mariners within the giddy Bark Mix words with Air and execrate in vain To great men is ignoble Ebs and Flows Of Earthly bliss should to the noble prove Like the fixt Rocks i' th' VVatry Element Perp. So fir'd Prometheus Image with the Flame Stoln from Apollo's Car as at this sound Those wave'ring thoughts which mutiny'd within Vapor to Air as Mysts before the Sun Thou chid'st my Fair but with the famed art That Orpheus drew Eurydice from Hell Thy words like Charms make me adore thy form And pay thee Mortal worship that 's Divine Say thou my life and be as Oracle VVhile thy Perpenna substitute to thee Grows with the sound Ful. Must I then Counsel give And form the thought that must evade ill Chance Since Heav'n and thee concurring will it so Unite Sertorius pow'r and dissipate Those clouds of Fury which usurp thy Face Ill Angels hover o're despairing men And breed a mutiny within the Soul VVhile the good Spirits act in will alone Sigh out their woes and lose their words in Air Imperfect sound None but the wretched feed On abject hope for God-like men create From the extreams of ruine certain bliss So the skill'd Sea-man at vast distance knows VVhen the Salt Surges war the Element Incluse within the noble Vessel braves The angry Seas tho ruffled to a storm Perp. Oh Fulvia 't is the torture of the damn'd To rack with thought of Paradise that 's lost But thou as when the spangled lights are hid And all the Heav'ns in darkness are array'd Mortals distract with fear of endless night Till the bright Sun does usher in the day Half dead twixt doubt and fear thou giv'st new life And call'st from exile all my Reason back There 's something thunders in my Ears revenge Pierces like Lightning but has left its fire Fixt in my brest which like to Aetna burns Ful. Let it burn on it is a noble fire And in the blaze let the great Hero fall Make Lusitania the Funeral Pile Her Cities Sructures Temples perish all And from the fire let greatness take its birth Perp. Let me embrace thee O thou Excellence VVhose words have rais'd a fury in my brest Prompt to revenge but yet so form'd so wrought That Gods may wonder and not Fate prevent Yes we will meet Sertorius to his bane And in a dubious language wrought with guile Merit belief till most secure he falls So when Serenity of air by heat Becoms perspicuous and the azure skye The jarring Element of Fire reflects Through subtlest wounds the Soul her passage takes And leaves the Body sensless of her flight So shall Sertorius fall such is his Fate No Thunder shall fore-run the deadly flash Ful. Now thou art worthy of my love and court'st In Treasure that surmounts a Danae's showr My soul 's transplanted in thy brest and forms A God-like thought apt to a Pow'r supream Seated by thee I view the lower VVorld The brood of Chance like giddy Atoms reel VVhile like the Gods we scatter or collect Exeunt SCEN. VII CASSIUS Cass. VVhat strange Infection rules within my brest And Riots in my blood Not liquid fire By its first cause fomented burns more fierce In the Earths Center than I flame within 'T were better Cassius to unsheath thy Sword And open all the fluces of thy life That in a deluge to the other world Thy blood may still the Furies and thy Soul VVander an Exile in Elizium shades 'Sdeath how was it begotten so impure I dare not give it name You Fates unkind VVhy doom'd you love in so sinister way Now my ill Daemon whispers in my Soul I must love on and live Ha! see she coms SCEN. VIII Terentia Cassius Ter. Are you not well my Lord that you retire From the society of Friends we 're now Beyond the barbarous extents of Rome Forget the base Proscribing City and W' inhabit and enjoy a Paradise What sullen thought can then usurp your brest If in Sertorius pow'r or mine it lyes Your merit pleads and Friendship bids command Cass. Nor you nor he must grant the gift's so great And my ambition swell'd to such a height None but the only Jewel of his Crown Will calm the rage of warring passions here What have I said what Devil did inspire With words so killing to my Fame I 'm lost Hurry'd to ruin by resistless Charms Aside Ter. Ransack his Tresury and call it yours Did it contain more wealth than India knows No gift can equal such a Friend as you Cass. Ah Madam you 're so excellently good Plac'd in a Sphere remote beyond the World But wretched I wander in endless night And hate the Day which brought my misery In vain I hope redress in vain complain Unto the Air large floods of brinish tears With sighs commix Heav'n strike me dumb for ever Or I shall tell the Cause of all my griefs And with it bring inevitable Fate Aside Ter. 'T is wondrous strange But Cassius I must know From what hid Spring these mighty Torrents rise I always thought you worthy and would strive Knew I but how to ease these fits of grief You said a Jewel can a Toy like that Render confus'd the nobleness of mind Cassius is wiser and I fear has felt The change of quiet by his Country's changeâ— Met some obdurate Fair inur'd to scorn Stranger unto your worth Is 't not from thence Tell me and by our Friendship were she Flint Harder than Adamant I 'd melt her brest Infuse into her Soul the pangs of Love And make her proud to merit such a choice Cass. Something I fain
THE TRAGEDY OF SERTORIUS ACTED at the Theatre-ROYAL BY Their MAJESTIES Servants By IOHN BANCROFT Gent. Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis Horat. LICENSED March 10. 1678 9. ROGER L'ESTRANGE LONDON Printed for R. Bentley and M. Magnes in Russel-street in Covent-Garden 1679. TO THE HONOURABLE Capt. Rich. Savage THIS TRAGEDY OF SERTORIUS IS DEDICATED BY THE Humblest of his Servants IOHN BANCROFT ERRATA PAge 4. l. 12. r. worthiest p. 8. l. 4. r. blinds l. 6. r. from Eancy p. 9. l. 21. r. pow'r of Love p. 19. l. 6. r. you Chiefs p. 20. l. 4. r. the raising of p. 23. l. 1. r. wait thee on the way l. 26. Cyllenius like p. 24. l. ult r. fram'd for form'd p. 28. l. 31. r. unconstant Dame p. 36. l. 2. lose my life p. 41. l. 5. for of r. or l. 14. r. the novelty p. 44. l. 13. r. Takes the Decrees p. 17. r. warning Gods p. 54. l. 15. r. The paths p. 58. l. 16. r. Has hid her self Dramatis Personae Sertorius Exil'd from Rome chose head of the Lusitanians in opposition to Sylla Bebricius A Lusitanian true Friend to Sertorius Tribunius Captain of Sertorius's Guards Cassius A Roman Tribune Norbanus Exil'd Roman Senators Ligurius Crassus Decius Perpenna General of the Italian Bands a Villain Manlius His Officers Aufidius Grecinus Pompey A Roman Geneneral of Sylla's Faction Aquinius His Lieutenant Tow Pontic Ambassadors A Centurion Terentia Wife to Sertorius Fulvia Perpenna ' s. Soldiers Citizens Attendants c. SCENE Lusitania PROLOGUE AS Cowards pusht into a desperate fight Move slowly forwards like their appetite Yet when they feel the blows fill'd with despair Oft beat the brave or battel with the Air So our Gallant forc'd by his Friends to write Now dreads his Fate which must be known this Night Storm'd by his Friends they swore him into rage And forc'd him fight the Hydra of the Stage Compell'd he sigh'd and said like Phaeton He aims at Wit as t'other at the Sun That he relies on what so oft is told Fortune assists the brave and Court 's the bold But if from Fortun 's slippery Wheel he 's hurl'd From Wits vast Empire to the lower World Fate was unkind she would no pity show Be doom'd by her but doubly damn'd by you SERTORIUS ACT I. SCENE I. SERTORIUS CEASE you Celestial Pow'rs and give that ease Which to obtain I with repeated Pray'rs The bloud of Hecatombs and Incense smoke So oft have fill'd your Heav'ns and bless the Man Which from his Infancy to Autumn years Subject to every blast has known the Fate Of greatness or abjected Poverty Oh Marius through what paths Ambition led But thou' rt no more and Hell has left behind A Ianus Fury who with Sword and Pen Or Stabs or to enevitable Fate thrusts on Doom'd by Proscription numbers to attend On gastly Death while Slaughter big with blood In Sanguine hue and a Tyrannick pace Sweeps like a Plague and makes Rome's Senate look Like Sons of Earth scap'd from Deucalion's flood Oh when I call to mind Rome's base neglect Tho' with this light I bought their Suffrages Dam'd up for ever in the Marsian War When Parents with distended arms lift up Their crying Infants while the ag'd bestrid The tops of Houses fill'd the Heav'n with Shouts The plaudits of my Triumphs yet gave way To deeds ingrate when Barbarous Sylla spoke Deny'd the Tribuneship and Exile made Yet not content with miseries they hurle Repeated Plagues and hunt me like a Beast Yet Gods be kind and Sylla's brood shall know He that with Patience can endure like Me May weather out the Storm and Victim make The over-daring Fool who hastes to meet In Pompey certain Fate or Knowledge bought At dear expence Down you rebellious wrongs Incite me not to acts that misbecome A Roman mind to bear Take flight my Soul Into a Sphere like thy Essential make That I may scatter into open Air The envious mischiefs which inviron me SCENE II. Bebricius Norbanus Ligurius Crassus Decius to Sertorius Bebr. HAIL Noble Patriot of a happy State Blest in the Guardian Lusitania owes As to the Gods from undigested ways Of Brutal living unto nobler form'd Her Reformation Why 's obscur'd that brow What doubts can cause such gloomy fancies rise As in the hue of melancholy men Pensive with thought thou shun'st Society Nor. Know brave Sertorius that we all in thee Wind up our Clue of life as men devote To the Infernals humane Sacrifice Thy breath when form'd into a sound is Law And not the dead shall at the day of Doom Call'd to appear in mightier numbers rise Hudled to form from out their quiet Urns Than Lusitania from her wide extents Crowd to attend Sertorius God-like call Lig. Gods glory in thy make thou man Divine True Similar to Rome's first Founder made Excellent Roman Patron unto all That 's Great or Good Not Mars himself on Earth When Illion Field's Divinities were Arm'd For Troy or Greece wrought wonders with his Sword Out-doing thine which Fame as loudly speaks To the Extreams o' th' Universe yet known Chose out by Fate Elected by the Gods To free thy Country from Tyrannick Rule Tho' to the eye of Mortals Heav'n obscures The mystick Writ till Fate unloose the hours Which guide the Day to Rome's delivery Nor. Heav'n own'd thy birth and pleas'd was mighty Iove When in the Characters of Fate he saw A man so God-like that should know the change Of Earthly joys as he of those Divine When Sons of Earth made War against his Heav'n And climb'd Olympus else in Infant years weigh'd down with Iron Under Coepio's charge When Chance unjustly Crown'd the painted Gauls Thou swam'st the Torrent of impetuous Rhine And liv'd to gain new glories by their spoil Crass. Fame loudly speaks the Action of that Day When Celtiberians broke their solemn Vow And in Castula call'd the Gryseans in To Martyr Rome in slaughter of her Sons As angry Pow'rs ruffle their Sky to Storms Here Sun-shine there upon the Northern Pole Destroying Flames make big the Elements With Fate inevitable so did'st Thou When in the height of their vain glorious hope With speed of Hurricanes thy Sword destroy'd Consum'd the Villains e're a thought could rise And pluck'd a Laurel from the Victor's brow Bebr. 'Mongst men for deeds so great we court thy Rule And glory in thee nay the Vulgar Crowd Pay adoration to thy just desert And blaze aloud that Fate attends thy Sword Edg'd sure by Death for when thou heav'st thy arm So Plagues devast as thou mak'st void the space When throngs of Foes with Javelins fill the Air And Thunder with the Ratling of their Shields The frightned blood starts back into the heart And makes the Soul with Terror flye its Seat Sert. If Gods have form'd me as you say I live Wholly devoted yours The Roman name Shall with her Eagles take a flight to you Pearch in your Temples and a terror be To Rome's
ill Genij which have ruin'd all That from the Ashes like the Phoenix may Arise a greater nobler Nation here Bebr. Worthies of men when Sylla's bloody hands Embru'd in Slaughter threatned Death and Fate When all the terrors froze us up with fear Thou sav'dst our Country and dispers'd the Foe Did'st Acts beyond belief secur'd us all And with the Thunder of thy mighty deeds Scatter'd that storm which did obscure our day Now fafe in thee we Sylla's pow'r defie Covet to Arm when great Sertorious calls Sert. Who would refuse to spend his dearest blood When gratitude requires Oh Friends I find The deep impression which your loves have made Sole help to raise my Soul with thought deprest Nor can I fear thus circled by my Friends Vain glorious Sylla who delights in blood Rapine and Spoil wait his Triumphant Car And where he comes like angry Fates he breaks Handfuls at once not cuts 'em thread by thread Fearless of him all others I despise And his new Pupil Pompey big with threats His School-boy's rage to call us on to Arms. So the young Huntsmen fearless of success Dart distant weapons 'gainst the dreadful Beast Till some barb'd Pile pierces his tawny side Lash'd by his tail to rage he bellows out Destruction and lays waste the Armed Troop So 〈◊〉 so Arm'd by our just Cause we 'll on We fight for Liberty and for our Gods They for a Tyrant who contemns all good Who all the Temples of the Graces shuts Vertue and Peace are strangers to their breasts For them we Fight and they must Crown our Swords Bebr. Noble Sertorius Lusitania's Patron Sert. Rome's Fame shall bow to you no longer blest For all her Ornaments her Arts her all To Osca shall be led the noble youth There Educated in the Roman way So Habited when riper years come on That in the compass of an Age the VVorld Shall see Old Rome the shadow of this New Sound of Trumpets SCENE III. Tribunius Crown'd with Laurel attended with Aquinius bound and Prisoners c. Trib. Hail great Sertorius Hail thou mighty man VVhom Gods in absence fight for thus adorn'd We greet thy Genius and here offer up These Laureate Wreaths appropriate to thee Sert. So Arm'd so Crown'd the Roman Senate fought When the rough Sabines did invade their Rule Trib. Five Legions fell beneath our conqu'ring Swords Secur'd by Fate Nor could Metellus help His rage was vain So Surges dash to Air 'Gainst Rocks opposing Like the Giants fix'd We bore his Charge and prest him fiercely on When brave Aquinius to compleat the day Bedy'd in gore compass'd with num'rous Foes Fell with the number of his Wounds our Captive So angry Bores their Tushes whet in vain Fume oft as oft assay'd as did their Chiefs When old Metellus sounded the Retreat And e're the setting Sun adorn'd the East And on our Banners darted his bright Rayes Our Friends immur'd for many months were free Broke was the Roman Camp and left behind Engines of War and mighty heaps of Arms Forsook by haste as Trophies we have ta'ne Sert. The Sword of Justice has a vast extent Is mov'd by Heav'n and guided sure by Time Whose Sythe's not keener there Astrea views The Crimes of Earth and pours her vengeance forth While the just Arms are Crown'd with Victory What can Aquinius say to calm our rage Can Rome's ambition never quiet know Or must she restless as those Atoms be Which the fierce Winds subject unto their Rule If so by blood we must appease the slain And think our selves as by the Gods set forth To kill this second Python of the World Aquin. Curs'd be the man that to the Roman name Dares blemish Honour with the thought of fear I superate it and like Sylla am When most endanger'd most a Roman Chief Bred in his Cause and nourish'd in his Arms Fill'd with the glories of his mighty deeds He wan me to him Let severest Fate Speak loud her Doom to hear I stand unmov'd For if I fall Sylla will ' venge my death The brave Metellus or fierce Pompey shall Offer a Sacrifice to still my Ghost Sert. Spoke like a Roman gallantly and bold But that I scorn to soil my fame with blood Here thou should'st fall then let thy Ghost complain To barbarous Sylla for redress Did he Sided by Pompey fenc'd by old Metellus The two supporters of this lofty Oak Dare meet me face to face and stand my Ire Like angry Iove I 'd rive him to the waist Spight of his Shields unto his heart convey This fatal Steel Haste tell the Boy I wait To scourge his rashness Let Metellus know If he dares meet us he shall feel again The Thunder of this arm upon his Cask And need a Shield of Vulcan's tempering To guard this deadly weapon from his heart Sucron's the noble Field of Liberty Where Death shall glut upon the bodies slain And all the Furies gorg'd with Roman gore Grow fat with Slaughter and press down the Earth With humane weight O that it were my Fate To meet this Pompey Rome's Anteus now Like Hercules I 'd grasp him in my arms And make his Tyrant rue his forward heat Aquin. Thou shalt be fought with if not foil'd Sertorius The chance of War may leave thee destitute And us adorn then in the brunt of Arms I 'll court thy sight and on thy Casket pay A Roman thanks for Liberty and Life Sert. Guard well the last for by our Gods I swear Or thee or I will measure out the ground If e're we meet Conduct him on the way Which gives a birth to Fate and mighty deeds Ex. Aquin. But the Celestial Pow'rs have left their Heav'n And fill the Temples with their Deities 'T is Incense they expect and Sacrifice You four Patricians shall attend on me Clad in the Garb of Numa's Pontifies VVhile I officiate Maximus to Iove With heaps of Spice we 'll cloud the Altars round Seven Heifers offer beautiful and young To Iupiter the Stayer Hence my Friends See all things ready for the Sacrifice Exeunt SCENE IV. Sertorius Bebricius remain Bebr. Yet melancholy when both Gods and Men Strive to out-vye in gifts Stretch out thy arm Like angry Iove to those who envy thee VVe 'll be thy Elements to execute Sert. Thy loss Terentia does depress my Soul I grovel in the dark and when light comes Behold the falshood of my flatt'ring Stars Bebr. VVhen Heav'n is kind and pours his blessings down Not Miser-like but with a bounteous hand Who knows but Fate reserves this to the last To make invalid all the other gifts Distrust is worse than Death and blind the sense So Night to the dull Phlegmatick creates The Aiery nothings which fancy rise But when the warring Senses rouze the Soul To active heat streight the Chimoera's fled Then let not thought form'd from despair give birth To Beings far unworthy of your breast Enter a Souldier Sert. What means this rudeness in our privacy Sould. Some
she coms now let her beauty plead SCEN. XII Fulvia to them Sert. By Venus self there 's more than mortal in her Perpenna cannot err for joyes he reaps The Amorous Gods would slight their gaudy Sky And covet to enjoy her Heav'n of Love Perp. So Mortals to the Sacred Fane resort Latona's Son Invoking for success With greater heat when Battel calls go on As in thy presence such the pow'rful sway Of Beauty's Empire Doubtful of my Fate And from thy Tongue as from an Oracle Expect my Doom Pompey Metellus brave The noblest Roman to whose Fate 's ally'd All the remains Perpenna can command Ful. Absence my Cneius is the Lover's curse The Rack of Torture yet when Honor calls Thy Fulvia's Rival sense of Fame grows high Pleads in thy cause and for a space keeps down A floud of tears which take their source from Love The fate of Lovers should inseperate be But thou the killing Terrors to our Sex Mak'st thy Companions and in Arms forget'st Thy sorrowing Fulvia who like Niobe Could weep away the Being that I have Perp. Give not a birth to thoughts like these my life For when the Trumpet hastens to the Charge Death broods upon my Sword till from the Field Spred o're with slain with Laurel Crown'd I hast To pay the glories at my Fulvia's feet Thou as the Tresure of my life my Soul Must hence to Osca this brave Stranger here And stout Grecinus wait the way Cass. aside The envious Gods which plesure in our pain Have given the happy minute from my hope Oh my Terentia bloud nor death can lay The mighty anguish that thy eyes have made Ful. One look before I go and that 's the last The tast of parting joys so much increase That I could gaze my very Soul away Perp. Such pow'r the God pointed within that Ray Has chang'd the thought of Battel to desire And a few minutes would transform me quite Sert. Sound Drums and Trumpets Rise you noble Souls Fir'd with the harmony of sounds so sweet Let corage dictate and your Swords out-do The angry Fates To Arms my Friends to Arms Oh may the Fortune of the Day lay wast The many mischiefs which attend on War While the kind Gods auspiciously afford A blooming Peace to Crown the Victor's Sword Exeunt ACT. III. SCEN. I. FULVIA NOT subtil Fire from Iove's Olympus hurl'd In Airy tracts to mortal eyes recluse Can be more deadly than the Plots I 've form'd The old the young the dull Saturnine Soul And him whose lightness is Silenus like Wander the pleasant Maze so form'd by thought And by the Magic of my beauty Charm'd So the dull Pilot from the Helm is drawn Rapt with the Extasy of sound which bears Inevitable bane from Syrons Tongues Greatness in my Perpenna 't is I aim And while in Fields he steals the Soldiers hearts I 'll make a greater conquest here at home SCEN. II. Bebricius musing Fulvia Bebr. Like Travellers by light delusive led I 've wander'd from my reason and have trod The mystic Labyrinth of mighty Love Say then Bebricius she be virtuous good Stranger to thy requests and cold as Ice Let her be so the coyest may be won And shall I faint when Paradise falls short To the blest joys which dwell upon her lips Ha! she is here I grow unto the Earth Starts And the unruly Devil promts my Tongue Had I the Charms that Youth and Beauty bring The pow'r of Gods or of their Substitutes To the Divinities which habit there And make a Throne Celestial in those eyes I 'd prostrate all and with the gift my self But void of these how shall I frame my speech To merit pity Say thou beauteous Creature If I offend in saying that I love For If I do the World must err like me Worship those Eyes as Persians do the Sun And justly Idolize thy excellence Ful. Bebricius turn'd a Lover at these years Does the soft God captive the Man of War Bebr. Madam he does at vast expense he rules Tributes my being makes my heart his Seat Ill Chance to Camps and Martial deeds inur'd Has taught my Tongue a harsh unpolish'd way Yet Truth and Honesty absent from Courts Where gaudy Birds with borrow'd Feathers wing Dwells in my language Possibly you may For I expect it use me with neglect Do more than Daggers points could wound But I have said and wait my Destiny Ful. Are you then serious Was not all this form'd Invented to delude the hours away The tedious hours For Since Perpenna's absence Each day's delay appears an Age to me Bebr. Ev'n from the first which blest me with your sight I 've felt the pow'r of Beauty in my Brest Languish'd in Torture and have hug'd my chain Morpheus could ne'r close up my eyes with rest But your Idea Revel'd in my Soul Ful. Hold Sir This dialect does ill becom The Tongue of him I alwaies thought a Friend Thus far my Innocence will guard it self But farther were a crime that unbefits Perpenna's choice Leave me thou wretched man I will not punish thee with ought but Love Bebr. Know cruel Fair life without hope is Hell Wretched as they who dwell in endless night I dreaded the ill Fate which did compel This doom from you See thou cruel Woman And judg by this the wondrous pow'r of Love Ful. What means Bebricius Bebr. Say when I am dead Bebricius Life and Love were so unite That Death it self fell short to seperate If there be paths the Soul when banish'd treads Whether on burning Phlegeton or Styx Upon the flaming Shores I 'll call on thee And make thy Spirit lose all mortal bliss Rack'd with the Sympathy of pains like mine Ful. Hold barbarous man Is 't not enough I heard And in it suffer'd but thou threat'st my Fame When vulgar crouds not promt to judg speak loud Enlarge Report spread wide her Airy wings With seeming Subjects blazing Infamy If thou dost love in death it self the Soul Th' essential Seat of the Divinity Still cares with danger of the living's fate And wilt thou wound in death what living thou Ador'st Bebr. Rather than suffer pains beyond all speech Languish in Torture to Eternity I 'll live to merit but when stranger thoughts Do find a gentle passage in your brest Oh let the memory of your Slave appear A pitying object suing for relief Ful. Death waiting on a Lover's words till now I 've been a stranger to you 've ta'ne a way To merit pity what th' effects may be I dare not guess but Time will lighten all Bebr. So Gods when mortals doom'd to Shades below Revoke the Sentence of the sinking Soul And give a glimps of Heav'n unto their sight To banish from the thought the fears of Night Exeunt SCEN. III. Cassius Terentia Cass. From Fortune's Minion sorrowing Cassius coms Where Slaughter gluts upon the Bodies slain Pastime and sport to the rough Sons of War Sensless to me the gaudy feast appear'd For
say what Sacrifice What Vows what Incense may atone their Ire For I shall never tast of peace or rest Till I the Cause have quieted thy grief Cass. White as the thought of Innocence thou art Pure like the first Creation from all guilt That takes it source from the internal frame Yet tho attended circled round with gifts The only Jewel of Heav'ns Tresury Such is the violence of head-strong Fate I covet Oh how th' unwilling Soul Just on the brink of ruin all confus'd Casts a sad look upon her long-lov'd seat E're for Immortal change she takes her flight Ter. Oh free me Cassius from these doubts and fears Which make a Winter's storm within my bloud Did I not call upon Sertorius love To raise my Soul deprest with such a weight Sure I should sink in Sorrow's vast Abyss Cass. You have commanded and I will obey Free you from this but fear a second storm More dreadful and more just You call'd on Love That raises you but sinks me down to Hell For what but Love could thus effect a change Transform me from the being that I had Ter. I am amaz'd what is 't that Cassius means Cass. But oh when naming Love I view that face Like him who gazing on the works of Heav'n Lost life in admiration of the Object Pity me Fair tho justly you condemn And when I say 't is you that I adore For you thus wither and thus lose myself Stabs himself Say in my death That Honor to my Friend Held a contest with Love and master'd it Ter. Help help the wretched who distract with pain Has sheath'd his killing Dagger in his brest Enter her Women Oh run Camilla call the Sons of Art To stay this deluge in which Life does hast To find a passage Cass. In vain is human help Let me in death Adore and shoot my Soul Viewing thy face into Elizium shâ—des Forgive the boldness of my love tho Death Coms swiftly on yet ere the latest blast Let me intreat you 'l to my memory How-e're you hate me now be pitiful SCEN. III. Sertorius Terentia Cassius Sert. Who was 't that call'd for help Ha! 't is my self To bear with patience such a sight as this Gods you 're unkind more cruel than she 's false By Heav'n She weeps and baths him with her tears Oh the inconstancy of all the Sex That damns the living and torments the dead I will retire from hence and wish I could Forget I e're had being Ter. Oh my Lord Stay you so long without a helping hand Sert. Ha! by Heav'n she 'd make a Property of me Death Hell and Furies 't is too much to bear Ter. See here my Lord the noble Cassius slain Sert. What said'st thou Cassius dying How the word Has calm'd the passion at the name of Friend So the Earth's vapors when the Sun appears Dissolve to Dew Oh Cassius Oh my Friend Tell me how came this wound imprinted here Cass. Give me your hand and swear forgiveness to me Sert. By all the Gods I do Cass. Then I shall dy Freed of the bitter anguish of the mind I have offended but it was in thought 'T was the ill bloud rebell'd within my Veins But from the sluces I have loos'd the slave And dy a Roman yet my Rebel eyes Will fix upon the Object of my Soul Now plunging o'r the mighty Main of Death Dyes Sert. Forbear thou saucy Tyrant for a while If thou want'st Subjects for thy eager maw I 'll give thee thousands spare me but this one He 's gon he 's gon the fleeting Soul has past The bounds of life Night out of Chaos take The blackest of thy Wardrobe thrust back day That all the World may mourn in endless Darkness Weep on Terentia for thy tears like Balm Will please his Manes and allay my grief Takeup the Body and erect a Pile Great as a Pyramid from the blest look down And see thy last of Rites Oh might there rise Another Phoenix from the Sacrifice Exeunt SCEN. IV. Fulvia Perpenna Ful. The angry Fates now croud to serve our will Lest they should want in mischief as in pow'r Ligurius Decius are my Proselytes Greedily swallow up the gilded bait And hurry on to ruin But I fear Bebricius Friendship will admit no change For tho he loves and to the height of passion In his rough Soul such Honor is imprest He 'l sooner turn Apostate unto Love Than derogate from him who fills his praise Perp. Crassus Norbanus and Tribunius com With many more inclin'd unto our Faction The lightest Souls thou hast already fir'd While the consid'ering Fools are catch'd by me Norbanus honor nor the Tribuneship Which Crassus has nor fam'd Tribunius charge Are strong enough against th' assaults I make Ful. What doom you of Bebricius Perp. He must dy Ful. Then let him dy but shall he fall before The Tragedy intended Perp. Yes he must Lest he betray us to that Fiend Sertorius Ful. I think 't were better that you let him fall Associate with the mighty Deity He Idolizes let 'em mount together And erring from the slipp'ry paths of Heav'n Sink headlong down into eternal Night Perp. Retire my Fair and invocate of Chance To cease the motion of her giddy Wheel Till I have fixt the Engins of his Fate Exit Fulvia Answer me Iove in Thunder if that man To greatness born by interposing Fate Headlong flung down th' aspiring Precipice Yet lab'ring to regain the mighty top Views round the spacious Empire of his toil Can any guile or fraud as perse his fame Who makes his opposite his step to mount If thou darst answer me I wil speak aloud That Romulus the man thou snatch'd from Earth To Deify forgetting tyes of bloud Remov'd his Brother to secure his Rule I dare as much and court thee in my deeds Tho Ill yet great and offer 'em to thee For thou with thoughts Olympic fir'st the brave Lifts 'em from Earth into the middle sky And points 'em out the Regions of the World 'T is thee I invocate and wish I could As once unto Lycaon's House thou did'st Turn all into a Flame and Nature change Enter a Servant Serv. Sir there are many Gentlemen without That wait admittance Perp. Go conduct 'em in They 're the Conspirators Exit Servant SCEN. V. Crassus Ligurius Norbanus Decius Tribunius to Perpenna Trib. Hail noble Roman Crass. Hail noble Cneius Lig. Hail the great Perpenna Dec. Hail the great Perpenna Nor. Hail the great Perpenna Perp. The Omen's well that with a mind unite To carry on this great deliv'ering work We here are met as at a Signal given Tribunius Crassus and Ligurius Norbanus and good Decius use no speech But seat your selves Now Roman Lords and Friends Once great in Fortune not in emty sound The all that we enjoy tho we may feign Like melancholy men who Reign in thought Revel in joyes the meer Idea's form'd From Fancy wrought into a height by words But the
God Not knowing that the warring Elements Create the same without the Thund'rer's hands Must with him fall Draw all your Swords Now swear By all the Pow'rs which sat when Man was made By all the Beings abstract from those Po'wrs Sea Air and Fire by day and Erebus And by th' Eternal Flames of Pluto's Realm When Time the happy minute points out You Swords cut deep into the Monster 's heart Omnes We swear Perp. Methinks I see the Landscape of his Fate By angry Daemons stretch'd to a full length While the pleas'd Gods their heav'nly Curtins draw And from the Christal Casements of the Sky With purer light Illuminate the Moon Pale with the greatness of the glorious deed Which makes an Empire and subverts a State And from my breath forms the Decrees of Fate Exeunt ACT. V. SCEN. I. Bebricius Sertorius Bebr. IF the Decrees of Iove in Thunder spoke Or the sad Character of warring Gods In ample Prodigies inlarge themselves You must not hence unless unto your Fate Osca till now was stranger to these sights Which fright the vulgar and confound the wise Last night when Horror did in darkness Reign When Graves gave up their dead to trace the Earth And the unquiet Ghosts as robb'd of rest With horrid Schreams and howlings of the Damn'd Fill'd every Soul with terror of the change Our Priests as when Neptune his Trident struck The angry Element and call'd the Springs To vomit up a Deluge o're the Earth To every Pow'r Divine they Sacrifice While angry Heav'n in Thunder drowns their Pray'rs And with repeated Storms does threaten end To the World's frame Sert. 'T is strange indeed Bebricius But if the Gods Decree the final change Why should we dread what first or last will com Iove from the Earth form'd us to what we are Infus'd a noble fire within our Souls Whose heat gave life and wrought our stupid Sense Unto the glorious actions which create Envy in Gods and Honor in us Men And makes our Fame out-live us in our deeds Bebr. That Glory is the Soul of noble men Living to merit justly I believe But when on Earth as once was 'gainst the Heav'ns The Beings which from Chaos were produc'd Rose in Rebellion 'gainst the Lord of all The kinder Gods by glorious actions won Speak loud as far as Fate will give 'em leave To save the mortal lov'd from sudden harm Sert. Thou would'st persuade me then that this portends Danger to me pointed to me alone Would'st in my brest infuse I know not what And make me Subject to an idle fear Bebr. The Gods declare that we may shun that Storm Which gathers in the Wind and threats from far Not with a Natural war divides the Clouds But speaking forms a Thunder with his voice Which did not Fate oppose would Eccho here The Revolutions known in Skyes above I as a Prophet and by Friendship fir'd Swell with the object which my thoughts unravel And now the visits vail'd by Night and shame Appear at full made by Perpenna's guile Crassus Ligurius could not shun my sight Tho wing'd by fear and muffled with their Cloaks 'T was there I hous'd 'em and am confident A nest of Villains brood within the walls Sert. It is impossible Can they my Friends Equal in greatness and in pow'r as when Marius did awe in Rome contrive the fall Of him who rais'd 'em to that height of pow'r They now enjoy Persuade me to believe The melancholy which Norbanus bears Deep in his bloud promts him to change Oh no They court the lonely places and do hate Human Society the joy of Earth Or that Ligurius lightness in discourse May give occasion to distrust him I've In numerous dangers seen him act as far As the loud-talking Hero of the Field Tribunius merit rais'd him to that seat Which now he holds next thee and my dead Cassius The man I prize Can these my best of Friends Conspire against the man that they divide Bebr. Pray Heav'n the Nation feel not the effects This I am sure There is no good intended For when I was devoted unto Love Admir'd the beauteous creature of her Sex That Sodom Apple whose fair outside temts Death in the tast Plots and contrives like Fate Has numerous visitants of hot-brain'd youth Coveting danger for a smile from her Decius the chief who leads the pleasing Maze While she adorn'd like Venus shoots her beams Into their Souls which in a mighty blaze As subject Flames commanded by the Winds Threatens destruction Can Sertorius think Perpenna ign'orant of this work of Night No I have seen him unconcern'd behold Such amorous glances and such liberty With his fair Wife that were it not design'd To lure 'em with the specious bait of Beauty It were above an honest man to bear Sert. The ag'd Bebricius always look on youth With thoughts of danger and of Jealousy And from the gayness which they think adorns That makes 'em light and Airy in their Meen Take too severe a judgment Oh Friend in Love VVe know not what we say but if the Sex Command a deed ignoble then the brave Shake off the Fetters of the Amorous God And loath the object which affected change Bebr. 'T is fix'd in Fate Sooner the Adamant By vernal dew shall all its hardness lose Than the lost minute call from hoary Time VVhose Scythe has cut deep into ignorance 'T is not my fault you Gods for as a Friend And call'd to speak I 've utter'd every thought Hast then Sertorius struggle with thy Fate Roar like a Lyon catch'd within the Toyl Neglecting the poor Beast that gave him warning Then when inclos'd I 'll summon all my strength Or set thee free or perish in the Snare Sert. Something thou 'st said like Ice sits chilling here And the rash thought tho light as Air before Now like a weight hurl'd in som quiet stream In many circles wreaths th' adjacent floud And from the bottom raises flakes of Ouze The clearness of my mind once void of fear Thou hast infected with the poys'nous sound Oh Doubt that tortur'st more than points of Swords By Heav'n these shapes of fear these dreams of night Thus I discard for ever banish hence And live above the reach of envious men SCEN. II. Terentia Sertorius Bebricius Ter. Thou must not pass unless upon my death VVhich I oppose to fill the breach of Fate Can Oh the cruel question to be made Sertorius love love his Terentia still If I have pow'r or if these tears prevail Oh let my words find credit in thy brest Sert. By Iove my manhood fails I grow to Earth Speak and release the Agony thou 'st made Ter. By all the joys of Hymen all the sweets That wait on Love nay by the secret bliss That happy Souls enjoy Oh stir not hence Swift as a Pile hurl'd by the Delphic God Barb'd with destruction coms our ruin on Aurelia is no more I saw her Ghost The dear remembrance of a
Friend and Mother Thrice cry Curs'd Rome then from her eyes burst forth A floud of tears which usher'd on her woes Sertorius is no more she often said I saw the Fates busy about his life The thred expos'd on the immortal Sheers And all the lesser Messengers on wing This spoke she vanish'd into Air again Sert. Sure my Terentia thou but dream'd the while And this the product of thy fear Ter. Oh no. Scarce recollected viewing round the space Too true I found the Vision which out-fled Report it self a Messenger arriv'd VVith Letters which confirm the fatal chance Sert. Oh Mother art thou com to warn my Fate Left the possession of thy quiet Urn And thy distracted Spirit hovers here Speak loud you Gods for I 'm prepar'd for change VVhy all these horors is it to amate The wandring Soul when she her mansion leaves Loose all your Bolts bury me quick in Earth Rather than Rack with sounds exceeding death SCEN. III. Tribunius Crassus Norbanus Ligurius Sertorius c. Trib. Hail mighty Lord Imperial Conqueror Great in thy deeds as Phoebus is for light Give leave that we attend thee to the Feast VVhile that Perpenna of the favor proud Envies the Thrones of Friendship that we have Sert. I will not go do not inquire the cause Let it suffice it is my will Trib. 'T is true That people whisper here I find it now Sertorius doubts the constancy and faith Of men devoted wholly to his Fame Men which have sworn in death to follow thee Men which have left the Roman State for thee To ashes turn'd the Tables Sylla sent With ample restitution and full honor I see the hate thou bear'st us in thy eyes Oh would they had the pow'r of Basilisks To kill the Villain who infected thee Sert. Mistake me not Tribunius I 'm not well And do not like the fierceness of the Air. Trib. Mistake me not Sertorius nor believe Thy secret thoughts are hid I see 'em there There in thy eyes and hear 'em in thy words And curse my Stars I ever liv'd to hear Crassus Ligurius and Norbanus com Draw all your Daggers and compleat our doom To live suspected by the man we love Is worse than death Sert. What means Tribunius Trib. Thou shalt read here and glut thee with the Character Writ with these Pens of Steel upon our hearts But Oh! the wretched State of human things On what false Basis do we build our hopes Thus subject to the blast of every wind Know thou Sertorius that I hate to live Under the very Igno'miny of thought Nor. View all these Scars the badges of my love Gain'd by thy side in Battel call to mind How oft I 've interpos'd 'twixt thee and death This single arm as glorying in thy sight Has made a Lane in the opposing Foes What have I ever don to merit this What action in my life has made a crime Did I but think my Soul could harbor one Against my Friend by Heav'n I 'd stab that too Lig. Believe me General that I court thy worth A Servant to thy Virtue and this Steel Hasting to let out life when so revil'd Shall pierce as deep into a Loyal heart Nay I believe that man who loves me not Would be a pledg in Honor for my faith Bebr. Why nam'st thou me Ligurius well thou know'st When darkness summons all the World to rest You 're waking at Perpenna's loath all sleep And there confederate at such hours of Night No good can e're be hatch'd but Treason may Lig. Thou ly'st base man Now by the Thunderer Wert thou not safe within this sacred place Had'st thou as many lives as Hydra heads I 'd kill 'em one by one From hence it springs Here takes it Source and like a Plague Infects Bind me Sertorius lead me where no light E're shot its Beams and if you find it truth Invent a Torment new and terrible Exceeding all the labors of the Damn'd But till I 'm justly doom'd believe my brest Like Chrystal casts this poyson in his Teeth Sert. What thinks Terentia now how can I doubt Such Friends as these Com we will go my Fair Banish distrust and think the Prodigies Were only to amuse not to Predict Let not these men know of our inward grief Apart to Terentia But bear it with the patience of a God Ter. Yet there is something dictates in my brest This visit will be fatal and I see Like dying men prospect of mighty things From fear they cannot com to me they seem Like Meteors fix'd not flying forms of Air. Sert. Com my Bebricius do like me believe Not one of all these Romans can be false Ligurius com forgive the hasty words Age has its faults as well as fiery youth The one must bear th' other's Infirmities And credit me such is the great esteem If in the scope of Rule you cast an eye To any part which raises strong desire Command Sertorius who no Tresure knows Beyond th' intrinsic value of a Friend Exeunt SCEN. IV. PERPENNA Perp. I grow in love with mischief and the Gods Envying like me consent unto his fall If there 's a Fury greater than I feel A subtil Daemon that I have not sought Let him expand his wings and habit here Dull Fools they were that sought eternal Fame By deeds not worthy naming He that fir'd Diana's Temple or that stupid Ass Who headlong fell in flaming Aetna's womb In hopes to cheat the Vulgar lost himself I mount a Sphere above ' em As in Hell The lesser Fiends are Slaves unto their Lord And band the fiery Surges to his will So I on Earth would with this arm controul And if the disobedient Clods rebell'd Find the Connexion of the Globes above And with this Sword divide the mighty tye That headlong with its weight it sunk to Hell And made the Furies groan beneath its Orb While from the Region of the Sky I saw Its mighty dissolution unconcern'd SCEN. V. Fulvia Perpenna Ful. You seem exalted with success Perpenna Tread upon Air and breath a Soul all fire Perp. Yes and behold my Iuno fix'd by me While the connected Atoms Statue-like Know nether life nor motion till we speak Ful. How if Ixion-like we ' embrace a Cloud Perp. Why then that Cloud shall hide us both for ever Slighting the Earth we 'l put our beings off And wing for the Society of Gods I hear the noise of many feet let 's hence And meet the Victim Exeunt SCEN. VI. A Banquet At it Sertorius Perpenna Tribunius Crassus Decius Ligurius Norbanus Bebricius Attendants Perp. Such was the time in the Laâ—tean way When frightned Gods by Sons of Earth besieg'd Sat there in Council with Immortal fear Till all the fainting Pow'rs by Bacchus fir'd Forc'd Iove unto his Thunder Here we sit While Pompey's Rams are storming at our walls Whose Blows are Harmony unto our Feast Sert. It is Perpenna and a God-like sound Enough to sink the fearful into Earth
But we as seated on a Throne behold Ruin spread wide the Terror of its wings They like Cambyses rage against the wind Till weary'd with the object then we hast Mounted on Death give Reins unto the Sword And glut the Furies with whole Seas of Gore Perp. When great Sertorius speaks he should like Iove Have Thunder ready all the Elements Ready to make a second Chaos stand And all the World as dreading the fierce change Becom agast But viewing round I see The Cyclops wanting Bolts for such a work Nor has old Vulcan captiv'd Time or yet The fatal Sisters ta'ne 'em to their Sheers Bebr. Ha! means he me by Vulcan captiv'd Time By Heav'n my fears I find now are not vain How dares Perpenna thus abuse the Gods And in a language strange unto a Friend Dost call the Son of Anthropos a Iove Yet mock'st his wanting Ministers of wrath Sert. No more Bebricius he is hot with wine Give him his liberty he is our Friend Perp. Let not Sertorius doubt the proof of it Free men have Liberty 't is Slaves have Chains And well I know Quintus will ne're impose Upon a Roman what a Roman hates For Liberty Sertorius knows we 've fought And we would do 't again knee-deep in bloud Let 's see that Talker fight instead of speak Let Oratory hang upon his Sword But till the Field sets forth his mighty worth Confine that Gall which dwells upon his Tongue Sert. It is unkind Perpenna thus to rate him He is a worthy man and bears a Soul Great as the proudest Roman I have seen Wonders perform'd where er'e his Sword has com And death before the blow has made its way Such worthy actions in my Camp has don That nether Pompey nor Metellus can 't When he is nam'd but reverence the sound Perp. Now Romans be you Judges of the change So long I warn'd you of See see our Fates See all the merits that our wounds have got That now when Pompey girts us in our walls He dares prefer this man the only Friend This gray-beard Villain who contrives our fall That when the danger which invades is past 'T is he must Lord it o're our Liberties Trib. Speak thou for me how much I loath a Chain Stabs Sertorius Sert Ha! Sure 't was deadly Ho! my Guards my Guards Perp. Be not deluded with so false a hope There 's not a Soul that dares but think relief Bebr. Thou seest I've yet that strength within my arm To turn thy Dagger's point upon thy self Here Ligurius is Stab'd by Bebricius who escapes There is no safety here I 'll hast away And com attended with Revenge e're Day Exit Sert. Oh Barbarous Vaillains Treason help Perp. 'T is here Sertorius on this point despair and dy Thou base ingrateful man had'st thou surviv'd We'd been thy Slaves but thank our Swords we 're free Sert. Yet I dye pleas'd to know thy sudden Fate I see it now before me view the man Pompey revenges me I see these men That shame the name of Friend to that degree In so deplorable and lost a state That their own Souls begin to loath their make And curse the hour when first they saw Perpenna Oh my Terensia thy Prophetic fear Is now accomplish'd Oh uncertain Chance How subtil are thy ways that Greatness tread Which guides us on unto our certain Fate And never leaves us till our life is fled Perp. Dy Wizard Think'st thou that I fear my Fate No 't is on thee I build the mighty frame And seem a Body second unto Atlas Thus grasp a Scepter and thus rule my Stars Since by thy death our Liberty is gain'd Shout till your voices burst the Clouds to Air That with the violence of meeting sounds The Globe grows giddy and inconstant Fortune No longer can command her fickle Wheel Shoâ—ts Liberty Freedom Liberty SCEN. VII Terentia to Perpenna c Ter. Curs'd be the sound for ever ever curs'd She runs to Sertorius body and kneels by it The cruel Villains why is 't you delay Sheath all your murd'rous weapons in my brest And show your selves Masters in Villany That know no bounds in bloud Oh Sertorius How have the Gods ordain'd our Destinies Weeps Sert. Terentia oh Dyes Ter. Sertorius Lord 't is thy Terentia calls He 's gon he 's gon and summon'd me away To shades remote which happy souls enjoy Yet my Sertorius stay thee in thy race Hover a minute o're Terentia's Fate See with what swiftness I 'll pursue thy shade To its Immortal Mansion Flow swift my bloud Stabs her self That from this passage like a Sea broke loose My Soul shall mount still calling as it flies Justice from Gods Revenge for perjur'd men Quintus I com From Earth I now remove And seek the Ghost of an Eternal Love Dyes Perp. Som Devil sure resides within my brest I ne're knew pity till I saw this sight Nor will I now Remove these Bodies hence Place 'em within that viewing our disgrace When coward thoughts dare give themselves a birth Look on the Tyrant call to mind his deeds And if the Gods dare put a cheat upon us We 'l wait not Death but make him ' tend on us Trib. Farewel thou noble Roman we shall meet Goes to Ligurius In happy shades while thy blest soul delights In the success that waits upon our Swords Speak then Perpenna shall we sally out Or send to treat with Pompey Perp. Noble Friends It will disgrace the glory of our deeds Sully our Fame atchiev'd in fiercest War To lay those killing weapons at his feet Whose edg has forc'd him from the Field retreat Are not our Legions full their souls o' fire This City ours to back us in the fight While in their Camp Famin and Sickness Reigns Let 's out and chase these Specters from our VValls That fright us like the shadows of the night Whose wither'd substance much resembles theirs Omnes Lead on thou Soul of all the noble Romans Alarms and shout within SCEN. VIII A Roman Soldier to Perpenna c. Perp. What dreadful message dwells upon thy tongue VVhy thus confus'd Call back thy frightned sense And tell us what 's the meaning of this sound Rom. Pompey is entred Osca all is lost Bebricius scaping from the bloudy Feast Turn'd all into Sedition for the Croud No sooner heard their lov'd Sertorius dead Quitting their several stations op'd the Gates To Pompey's Soldiers fir'd with strange desire Both partyes now are one Bebricius leads The num'erous bands and has begirt us round There is no scaping hence with life Perp. Hence slave Kills him And preach to Furies in the other VVorld 'Sdeath am I catch'd betraid by Jilting Fate VVhen the full Scene of Greatness was in view It is too late to talk Com let our Swords Hew out a passage to our former state And make the wond'ring Gods call back their Ire To see how Slaughter does pursue our blows Exeunt SCEN. IX Fight After which Pompey