Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Did glut himself again: | a meal was bought
With blood; and each sat sullenly apart, |
Gorging himself in gloom.

No love' was left; |

All earth was but one thought; and that was death, | Immediate, and inglo'rious; and the pang

Of famine fed upon all en trails. | Men

Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; |
The meager by the meager were devour'd. |
Ev'n dogs' assail'd their masters; | all, save one, |
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept

The birds, and beasts, and famish❜d men at bay', |
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead |
Lured their lank jaws. Himself sought out no food, |
But with a piteous, and perpetual moan, |
And a quick, desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer'd not with a caress, | he died. |

The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two'
Of an enormous city, did survive ; |

And they were enemies. They met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place, |

Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things |
For an unholy u'sage: they rak'd up, |

And, shivering, scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands, |
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath |

Blew for a little life, and made a flame |

Which was a mockery. Then they lifted up

Their eyes as it grew lighter', and beheld

Each other's aspects- saw, and shriek'd', and died: |
Ev'n of their mutual hid'eousness they died, |

Unknowing who he was upon whose brow |
Famine had written fiend. |

The world was void; |

The populous, and the powerful was* a lump, |

*Some, being anxious to correct what is already right, have substituted were for was.

Seasonless, herb.less, tree less, I man'less, | life less― |
A lump of death a chaos of hard clay.[
The rivers, lakes', and o'cean, all stood still; |
And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths. |
Ships, sai lorless, | lay rotting on the sea; |
And their masts fell down piece-meal; as they dropp'd,
They slept on the abyss, without a surge.
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,-
The moon, their mistress, had expired before ; |
The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air; |
And the clouds perish'd. | Darkness had no need
Of aid from them she
she,, was the universe. |

[ocr errors]

-

[ocr errors]

CATO'S SENATE.

(ADDISON.)

Lucius, Sempronius, and Senators.

[ocr errors]

Semp. Rome still survives in this assembl'd sen ate! | Let us remember we are Ca'to's friends, | And act like men who claim that glorious title. |

Luc. Cato will soon be here, and open to us

The occasion of our meeting. Hark! he comes ! |

[Flourish of Trumpets.

May all the guardian gods of Rome direct him! |

[Enter CATO.]

Cato. Fathers, we once again are met in council— |
Cæsar's approach has summon'd us together; |
And Rome attends her fate from our resolves. |
How shall we treat this bold aspiring man? |
Success still follows him, and backs his crimes、 : |
Pharsalia gave him Rome'; | Egypt has since
Receiv'd his yoke; and the whole Nile' is Cæsar's. |
Why should I mention Juba's overthrow,

And Scipio's death? | Numidia's burning sands
Still smoke with blood. | 'Tis time we should decree
What course to take. Our foe advan'ces on us, |
And envies us e'en Libya's sultry deserts.

Fathers, pronounce your thoughts are they still fixt| To hold it out, and fight it to the last? |

Or are your hearts subdu'd at length, and wrought By time, and ill success, to a submission? | Sempronius, speak. |

Semp.

My voice is still for war. }

Can a Roman senate long debate |
Which of the two to choose

| slav'ry, or death' ? | No let us rise at once, gird on our swords', | And, at the head of our remaining troops, |

[ocr errors]

Attack the foe, | break through the thick array |
Of his throng'd legions, and charge home' upon him:|
Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest, |

May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage.!
Rise, fathers, rise'!'T is Rome demands your help; |
Rise, and revenge her slaughter'd cit`izens, |

Or share their fate! The corpse of half her sen`ate, |
Manure the fields of Thessaly, while we
Sit here deliberating in cold debates, I
Whether to sacrifice our lives to honour, |
Or wear them out in servitude, and chains. |
Rouse up, for shame! | our brothers of Pharsalia |
Point at their wounds, and cry aloud to bat'tle! |
Great Pompey's shade, | complains that we are slow; |
And Scipio's ghost | walks unreveng'd' amongst us! |
Cato. Let not a torrent of impetuous zeal |
Transport thee thus beyond the bounds of reason: |
True fortitude | is seen in great exploits |

That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides,- |
All else is tow'ring frenzy and distraction. |
Are not the lives of those who draw the sword
In Rome's defence, entrusted to our care? |
Should we thus lead them to a field of slaughter, |
Might not the impartial world, with reason, say, |
We lavish'd at our deaths | the blood of thou'sands, |
To grace our fall, and make our ruin glorious? |
Lucius, we next would know what's your' opinion.

Luc. My thoughts, I must confess, are turn'd on peace.

Already have our quarrels | fill'd the world
With widows, and with orphans: | Scythia mourns
Our guilty wars, and earth's remotest regions |
Lie half unpeopled by the feuds of Rome. -|
"T is time to sheathe the sword, and spare mankind. |
It is not Cæsar, | but the gods', my fathers, |
The gods declare against us, and repel

[ocr errors]

Our vain attempts. To urge the foe to battle, |
Prompted by blind revenge, and wild despair,
Were to refuse the awards of providence,a |
And not to rest in heav''n's determination. |
Already have we shown our love to Rome,
Now, let us show submission to the gods. |
We took up arms, not to revenge' ourselves, |
But free the commonwealth: when this end fails, |
Arms have no further use. Our country's cause, |
That drew our swords, now wrests them from our hands,
And bids us not delight in Roman blood, |
Unprofitably shed. What men could do, |

Is done already: | heaven, and earth will witness, |
If Rōme must fall, that we are innocent. |

Semp. This smooth

Conceal a traitor
All is not right. -

[ocr errors]

discourse, and mild behaviour, oft something whispers me Cato, beware of Lucius. |

[ocr errors]

[Aside to Cato.

[ocr errors]

Cato. Let us be neither rash nor diffident
Immod'rate valour swells into a fault; }
And fear, admitted into public councils, I
Betrays like treason. | Let us shun them both. |
Fathers, I cannot see that our affairs

Are grown

thus desp❜rate | we have bulwarks'

round us: |

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Within our walls, | are troops, inured to toil
In Afric's heat, and season'd to the sun
Numidia's spacious kingdom lies behind us, |
Ready to rise at its young prince's call. |

a Prov'è-dêns; not prov'ur-dunce.

b Bůl'wůrks.

While there is hope, I do not distrust the gods'; }
But wait, at least, till Cæsar's near approach |
Force' us to yield. | 'T will never be too late |
To sue for chains, and own a conqueror.
Why should Rome fall a moment ere her time? |
No, let us draw her term of freedom out |
In its full length', and spin it to the last |
So shall we gain still one day's liberty: |
And let me perish, but in Cato's judgment, |
A day, an hour', of virtuous liberty, |
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage. |

[Enter MARCUS.]

Marc. Fathers, this moment, as I watch'd the gate, | Lodg'd on my post, a her'ald is arriv'd

From Cæsar's camp; and with him, comes old De'cius,
The Roman knight he carries in his looks
Impatience, and demands to speak with Ca to. |
Cato. By your permission, fathers bid him enter.
| I

[ocr errors]

[Exit Marcus.

Decius was once my friend; but other prospects Have loos'd those ties, and bound him fast to Cæsar. | His message may determine our resolves. |

[Enter DECIUS.]

Dec. Cæsar sends health to Ca'to. |

Cato.

Could he send it

To Cato's slaughter'd friends, it would be welcome. | Are not your orders to address the senʼate? |

Dec. My business is with Ca'to. Cæsar sees The straits to which you 're driven; and, as he knows Cato's high worth, is anxious for your life. I

Cato. My life is grafted on the fate of Rome'. | Would he save Cato, bid him spare his country. Tell your dictator this and tell him too, | Cato Disdains a life | which he has power to offer. |

Dec. Rome, and her senators, submit to Cæsar; | Her generals, and her consuls, are no more, |

« AnteriorContinuar »