CATILINE his CONSPIRACY.  
Written by BEN: JONSON.  
— His non Plebecula gaudet.  
Verum Equitis quoque, iam migravit ab aure voluptas,  
Omnis, ad incertos oculos, & gaudia vana.  
LONDON, Printed for Walter Burr. 1611.   

TO THE GREAT EXAMPLE OF HONOUR, AND VIRTUE, THE MOST NOBLE WILLIAM EARL OF PEMBROKE, etc.  
MY LORD,  
IN so thick, and dark an ignorance, as now almost covers the Age, I crave leave to stand near your light: and, by that, to be read. Posterity may pay your benefit the honour, and thanks; when it shall know, that you dare, in these jig-given times, to countenance a legitimate poem. I must call it so, against all noise of opinion: from whose crude, and airy reports, I appeal, to that great and singular faculty of judgement in your Lordship, able to vindicate truth from error. It is the first (of this race) that ever I dedicated to any Person, and had I not thought it the best, it should have been taught a less ambition. Now, it approacheth your censure cheerfully, and with the same assurance, that Innocency would appear before a Magistrate.  
Your Lo. most faithful Honourer. Ben. jonson.   

TO THE READER IN ordinary.  
THE Muses forbid, that I should restrain your meddling, whom I see already busy with the Title, 〈◊〉 over the leaves: It is your own. I departed with my right, when I let it first abroad. And, now, so secure an Interpreter I am of my chance, that neither praise, nor dispraise from you can affect me. Though you commend the two first Acts, with the people, because they are the worst; and dislike the Oration of Cicero, in regard you read some pieces of it, at school, and understand them not yet; I shall find the way to forgive you. Be any thing you will be, at your own charge. Would I had deserved but half so well of it in translation, as that aught to deserve of you in judgement, if you have any. I know you will pretend (whosoever you are) to have that, and more. But all pretences are not just claims. The commendation of good things may fall within a many, their approbation but in a few; for the most commend out of affection, self tickling, an easiness, or imitation: but men judge only out of knowledge. That is the trying faculty. And, to those works that will bear a judge, nothing is more dangerous than a foolish praise. You will say I shall not have yours, therefore; but rather the contrary, all vexation of Censure. If I were not above such molestations now, I had great cause to think unworthily of my studies, or they had so of me. But I leave you to your exercise. Begin.   

To the Reader extraordinary.  
YOu I would understand to be the better Man, though Places in Court go otherwise: to you I submit myself, and work. Farewell.  
BEN: JONSON.   

To my friend Mr. Ben: jonson, upon his Catiline.  
IF thou hadst itched after the wild applause  
Of common people, and hadst made thy Laws.  
In writing, such, as catched at present voice,  
I should commend the thing, but not thy choice.  
But thou hast squared thy rules, by what is good;  
And art, three Ages yet, from understood:  
And (I dare say) in it, there lies much Wit  
Lost, till thy Readers can grow up to it.  
Which they can near outgrow, to find it ill,  
But must fall back again, or like it still.  
Franc: Beaumond.   

To his worthy friend Mr. Ben. jonson.  
HE, that dares wrong this Play, it should appear  
Dares utter more, than other men dare hear,  
That have their wits about 'em: yet such men,  
Dear friend, must see your Book, and read; and then,  
Out of their learned ignorance, cry ill,  
And lay you by, calling for mad Pasquil,  
Or Green's dear Groatsworth, or Tom Coryate,  
The new Lexicon, with the errant Pate;  
And pick away, from all these several ends,  
And dirty ones, to make their as-wise friends  
Beleeeve they are transslaters. Of this, pity,  
There is a great plague hanging o'er the City:  
Unless she purge her judgement presently.  
But, O thou happy man, that must not die  
As these things shall: leaving no more behind  
But a thin memory (like a passing wind)  
That blows, and is forgotten, ere they are cold.  
Thy labours shall out live thee; and, like gold  
Stamped for continuance, shall be currant, where  
There is a Sun, a People, or a Year.  
john Fletcher.   

To his worthy beloved friend Mr. BEN. JONSON.  
HAD the great thoughts of Catiline been good,  
The memory of his name, stream of his blood,  
His plots passed into acts, (which would have turned  
His Infamy to Fame, though Rome had burned)  
Had not begot him equal grace with men,  
As this, that he is writ by such a Pen:  
Whose inspirations, if great Rome had had,  
Her good things had been bettered, and her bad  
Undone; the first for joy, the last for fear,  
That such a Muse should spread them, to our Year.  
But woe to us then: for thy laureate brow  
If Rome enjoyed had, we had wanted now.  
But, in this Age, where jigs and Dances move,  
How few there are, that this pure work approve!  
Yet, better than I rail at, thou canst scorn  
Censures, that die, ere they be thoroughly borne.  
Each Subject thou, still thee each Subject raises.  
And whosoever thy Book, himself dispraises:  
Nat. Field.   


The names of the Actors.  
SULLA'S GHOST.  
CATILINE.  
LENTULUS.  
CETHEGUS.  
CURIUS.  
AUTRONIUS.  
VARGUNTEIUS.  
LONGINUS.  
LECCA.  
FULVIUS.  
BESTIA.  
GABINIUS.  
STATILIUS.  
CEPARIUS.  
CORNELIUS.  
VOLTURTIUS.  
AURELIA.  
FULVIA.  
SEMPRONIA:  
GALLA.  
CLCERO.  
ANTONIUS.  
CATO.  
CATULUS.  
CRASSUS.  
CAESAR.  
QU. CICERO.  
SYLLANUS.  
FLACCUS.  
POMTINIUS.  
SANGA.  
SENATORS.  
ALLOBROGESES.  
PETREIUS.  
SOLDIER'S.  
PORTER.  
LICTORS.  
SERVANTS.  
PAGES.  
CHORUS.    

CATILINE.  
ACT. i.  SULLA'S Ghost. 
Dost thou not feel me, Rome? Not yet? Is night  
So heavy on thee, and my weight so light?  
Can Sylla's Ghost arise within thy walls,  
Less threatening, than an earthquake, the quick falls  
Of thee, and thine? shake not the frighted heads  
Of thy steep towers? or shrink to their first beds?  
Or, as their ruin the large Tiber fills,  
Make that swell up, and drown thy seven proud hills?  
What sleep is this doth seize thee, so like death,  
And is not it? Wake, feel her, in my breath.  
Behold, I come, sent from the Stygian Sound,  
As a dire Vapour, that had cleft the ground,  
T'engender with the night, and blast the day;  
Or like a Pestilence, that should display  
Infection through the world: which, thus, I do.  
Pluto be at thy counsels; and into  
Thy darker bosom enter Sylla's spirit:  
All, that was mine, and bad, thy breast inherit.  
Alas, how weak is that, for Catiline!  
Did I but say (vain voice) all that was mine?  
All, that the Gracchis, Cinna, Marius would;  
What now, had I a body again, I could,  
Coming from hell; what Fiends would wish should be;  
And Hannibal could not have wished to see:  
Think thou, and practise. Let the long-hid seeds  
Of treason, in thee, now shoot forth in deeds,  
Ranker than horror; and thy former facts  
Not fall in mention, but to urge new acts:  
Conscience of them provoke thee on to more.  
Be still thy Incests, Murders, Rapes before  
Thy sense; thy forcing first a Vestal Nun;  
Thy parricide, late, on thine own natural Son,  
After his Mother, to make empty way  
For thy last wicked Nuptials; worse, than they,  
That fame that act of thy incestuous life,  
Which got thee, at once, a Daughter, and a Wife.  
I leave the slaughters, that thou didst for me,  
Of Senators; for which, I hid for thee  
Thy murder of thy Brother, (being so bribed)  
And writ him in the list of my proscribed  
After thy fact, to save thy little shame:  
Thy incest, with thy Sister, I not name.  
These are too light. Fate will have thee pursue  
Deeds, after which no Mischief can be new;  
The ruin of thy Country: Thou wert built  
For such a work, and borne for no less guilt:  
What though defeated once thoust been, and known,  
Tempt it again; That is thy act, or none.  
What all the several Ills, that visit earth,  
(Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth)  
Plagues, Famine, Fire could not reach unto,  
The Sword, nor Surfeits; let thy fury do:  
Make all past, present, future ill thine own;  
And conquer all example, in thy one.  
Nor let thy thought find any vacant time  
To hate an old, but still a fresher crime  
Drown the remembrance; Let not mischief cease,  
But, while it is in punishing, increase.  
Conscience, and care die in thee; And be free  
Not Heaven itself from thy impiety:  
Let Night grow blacker with thy plots; and Day,  
At showing but thy head forth, start away  
From this half- Sphere: and leave Rome's blinded walls  
T'embrace lusts, hatreds, slaughters, funerals,  
And not recover sight, till their own flames  
Do light them to their ruins. All the names  
Of thy Confederates, too, be no less great  
In hell, then here; That, when we would repeat  
Our strengths in Muster, we may name you all,  
And Furies, upon you, for Furies, call.  
Whilst, what you do, doth strike them into fears,  
Or make them grieve, and wish your mischief theirs.  CATILINE. 
IT is decreed. Nor shall thy Fate, o Rome,  
Resist my vow. Though hills were set on Hills,  
And Seas met Seas, to guard thee; I would through:  
I, plough up rocks, steep as the Alps, in dust;  
And lave the Tyrrhene waters, into clouds;  
But I would reach thy head, thy head, proud City:  
The ills, that I have done, cannot be safe  
But by attempting greater; and I feel  
A spirit, within me, chides my sluggish hands.  
And says, they have been innocent too long.  
Was I a Man, bred great, as Rome herself?  
One, formed for all her honours, all her glories?  
Equal to all her titles? That could stand  
Close up, with Atlas; and sustain her name  
As strong, as he doth Heaven? And, was I,  
Of all her brood, marked out for the repulse  
By her no voice, when I stood Candidate,  
To be Commander in the Pontic war?  
I will, hereafter, call her Stepdame, ever.  
If she can lose her nature, I can lose  
My piety; and in her stony entrails  
Dig me a seat: where, I will live, again,  
The labour of her womb, and be a burden  
Weightier than all the Prodigies, and Monsters,  
That she hath teemed with, since she first knew Mars.  CATILINE, AURELIA. 
WHo's there?  AUR. 
'tis I.  CAT. 
Aurelia?  AUR. 
Yes.  AUR. 
Appear,  
And break, like day, my beauty, to this circle:  
Upbraid thy Phoebus, that he is so long  
In mounting to that point, which should give thee  
Thy proper splendour. Wherefore frowns my sweet?  
Have I too long been absent from these lips,  
This cheek, these eyes? what is my trepass? speak.  AUR. 
It seems, you know, that can accuse yourself.  CAT. 
I will redeem it.  AUR. 
Still, you say so. When?  CAT. 
When Orestilla by her bearing well  
These my retirements, and stolen times for thought  
Shall give their effects leave to call her Queen  
Or all the world, in place of humbled Rome.  AUR. 
You court me, now.  CAT. 
As I would always, Love,  
By this Ambrosiac kiss, and this of Nectar,  
Wouldst thou but hear as gladly, as I speak.  
Could my Aurelia think, I meant her less;  
When, wooing her, I first removed a Wife,  
And then a Son, to make my bed, and house  
Spacious, and sir t'embrace her? These were deeds  
Not t'have begun with, but to end with more,  
And greater:" He that, building, stays at one  
" Floor, or the second, hath erected none.  
'Twas how to raise thee, I was meditating;  
To make some act of mine answer thy love:  
That love, that, when my state was now quite sunk,  
Came with thy wealth, and weighed it up again,  
And made my ' emergent Fortune once more look  
Above the main; which, now, shall hit the stars,  
And stick my Orestilla, there, amongst 'em,  
If any tempest can but make the billow,  
And any billow can but lift her greatness.  
But, I must pray my love, she will put on  
Like habits with myself. I have to do  
With many men, and many natures. Some,  
That must be blown, and soothed; as Lentulus,  
Whom I have heaved, with magnifying his blood,  
And a vain dream, out of the sybil's books,  
That a third man, of that great family  
Whereof he is descended, the Cornelijs,  
Should be a King in Rome: which I have hired  
The flattering Augurs to interpret him,  
Cinna, and Sylla dead. Then, bold Cethegus,  
Whose valour I have turned into his poison,  
And praised so into daring, as he would  
Go on upon the Gods, kiss lightning, wrest  
The engine from the Cyclop's, and give fire  
At face of a full cloud, and stand his ire,  
When I would bid him move. Others there are  
Whom envy to the state draws, and puts on,  
For contumelies received, (and such are sure ones)  
As Curius, and the forenamed Lentulus,  
Both which have been degraded, in the Senate,  
And must have their disgraces, still, new rubbed,  
To make 'em smart, and labour of revenge.  
Others, whom mere ambition fires, and dole  
Of Provinces abroad, which they have feigned  
To their crude hopes, and I as amply promised:  
these, Lecca, Vargunteius, Bestia, Autronius,  
Some, whom their wants oppress, as th'idle Captains  
Of Sylla's troops; and divers Roman Knights  
(The profuse wasters of their patrimonies)  
So threatened with debts, as they will, now,  
Run any desperate fortune, for a change.  
These, for a time, we must relieve, Aurelia,  
And make our house their safeguard. Like, for those,  
That fear the law, or stand within her gripe,  
For any act past, or to come. Such will  
From their own crimes, be factious, as from ours.  
Some more there be flight Ayrelings, will be won,  
With dogs, and horses; or, perhaps, a whore;  
Which must be had: And, if they venture lives,  
For us▪ Aurelia, we must hazard honours  
A little. Get thee store, and change of women,  
As I have boys; and give 'em time, and place,  
And all connivence: Be thyself, too, courtly;  
And entertain, and feast, sit up, and revel;  
Call all the great, the fair, and spirited Dames  
Of Rome about thee, and begin a fashion  
Of freedom, & community. Some will thank thee,  
Though the sour Senate frown, whose heads must ache  
In fear, and feeling too. We must not spare  
Or cost, or modesty. It can but show  
Like one of Juno's, or of Jove's disguises  
In either thee, or me; and will as soon,  
When things succeed, be thrown by, or let fall;  
As is a vail put of, a visor changed,  
Or the Scene shifted, in our theatres.  
Who's that? It is the voice of Lentulus.  AUR. 
Or of Cethegus.  CAT. 
In, my fair Aurelia,  
And think upon these arts: They must not see,  
How far you are trusted with these privacies;  
Though, by their shoulders, necks, & heads you rise.  LENTULUS. CETHEGUS. CATILINE. 
IT is, me thinks, a Morning, full of Fate.  
It riseth slowly, as her sullen car  
Had all the weights of sleep, and death hung at it.  
She is not rosy-fingerd, but swollen black.  
Her face is like a water, turned to blood,  
And her sick head is bound about with clouds,  
As if she threatened night, ere noon of day.  
It does not look, as it would have a Hail  
Or Health, wished in it, as on other Morn's.  CET. 
Why, all the fitter, Lentulus: Our coming  
Is not for salutation, we have business.  CAT. 
Said nobly, brave Cethegus. Where's Autronius?  CET. 
Is he not come?  CAT. 
Not here.  CET. 
Nor Vargunteius?  CAT. 
Neither.  CET. 
A fire in their beds, and bosoms,  
That so will serve their sloth, rather than virtue.  
They are no Romans, and at such high need  
As now.  LEN. 
Both they, Longinus, Lecca, Curius,  
Fuluius, Gabinius, gave me word, last night,  
By Lucius Bestia, they would all be here,  
And early.  CET. 
Yes. As you, had I not called you.  
Come, we all sleep, and are mere Dormice; Flies,  
A little less than dead: More dullness hangs  
On us, then on the Morn. W''re spirit-bound,  
In ribs of ice; our whole bloods are one stone;  
And Honour cannot thaw us; nor our wants,  
Though they burn, hot as fevers, to our states.  CAT. 
I muse they would be tardy, at an hour  
Of so great purpose.  CET. 
If the Gods had called  
Them, to a purpose, they would just have come  
With the same Tortoise speed, that are thus slow  
To such an action, which the Gods will envy.  
As ask no less means, than all their powers  
Conjoined, t'effect. I would have seen Rome burnt,  
By this time; and her ashes in an Urn:  
The Kingdom of the Senate, rend asunder;  
And the degenerate, talking Gown, run frighted,  
Out of the air of Italy.  CAT. 
Spirit of men!  
Thou, heart of our great enterprise! how much  
I love these voices in thee!  CET. 
O the days  
Of Sylla's sway, when the free sword took leave  
To act all that it would!  CAT. 
And was familiar  
With entrails, as our Augurs!  CET. 
Sons killed Fathers,  
Brothers their Brothers.  CAT. 
And had price and praise.  
All hate had licence given it; all rage raynes.  CET. 
Slaughter bestrid the streets, and stretched himself  
To seem more huge; whilst to his stained thighs  
The gore he drew flowed up: and carried down  
Whole heaps of limbs, and bodies, through his arch.  
No Age was spared, no Sex.  CAT. 
Nay, no Degree.  CET. 
Not Infants, in the porch of life were free.  
The Sick, the Old, that could but hope a day  
Longer, by nature's bounty, not let stay.  
Virgins, and Widows, Matrons, prognant Wives,  
All died.  CAT. 
'Twas crime enough, that they had lives.  
To strike but only those, that could do hurt,  
Was dull, and poor. Some fell to make the number  
As some the prey.  CET. 
The rugged Charon fainted,  
And asked a navy, rather than a boat,  
To ferry over the sad world that came:  
The maws, and dens of beasts could not receive  
The bodies, that those souls were frighted from;  
And even the graves were filled with men yet living,  
Whose flight, and fear had mixed them, with the dead.  CAT. 
And this shall be again, and more, and more,  
Now Lentulus, the third Cornelius,  
Is to stand up in Rome.  LEN. 
Nay, urge not that  
Is so uncertain.  CAT. 
How!  LEN. 
I mean, not cleared.  
And, therefore, not to be reflected on.  CAT. 
The sybil's leaves uncertain? or the Comments  
Of our grave, deep, divining men not clear?  LEN. 
All Prophecies, you know, suffer the torture.  CAT. 
But this, already, hath confessed without.  
And so been weighed, examined, and compared,  
As 't were malicious ignorance in him,  
Would faint in the belief.  LEN. 
Do you believe it?  CAT. 
Do I love Lentulus? or pray to see it?  LEN. 
The Augurs all are constant, I am meant.  CAT. 
They had lost their science else.  LEN. 
They count from Cinna.  CAT. 
And Sylla next, and so make you the third;  
All that can say the Sun is risen, must think it.  LEN. 
Men mark me more, of late, as I come forth.  CAT. 
Why, what can they do less? Cinna, and Sylla  
Are set, and gone: And we must turn our eyes  
On him that is, and shines. Noble Cethegus,  
But view him with me, here: He looks, already,  
As if he shook a Sceptre, o'er the Senate,  
And the awed purple dropped their rods, and axes.  
The Statues melt again; and household Gods  
In groans confess the travail of the City;  
The very walls sweat blood before the change;  
And stones start out to ruin, ere it comes.  CET. 
But he, and we, and all are idle still.  LEN. 
I am your creature, Sergius: And what ere  
The great Cornelian Name shall win to be,  
It is not Augury, nor the Sibyl's Books,  
But Catiline that makes it.  CAT. 
I am shadow  
To honoured Lentulus, and Cethegus here,  
Who are the heirs of Mars.  CET. 
By Mars himself,  
Catiline is more my parent: For whose virtue  
Earth cannot make a shadow great enough,  
Though Envy should come too. O, there theyare.  
Now we shall talk more, though we yet do nothing.  AUTRONIUS, VARGUNTEIUS, LONGINUS, CURIUS, LECCA, BESTIA, FULVIUS, GABINIUS, etc. 
Hail Lucius Catiline.  VAR. 
Hail noble Sergius.  LON. 
Hail Publius Lentulus.  CUR. 
Hail the third Cornelius.  LEC. 
Caius Cethegus hail.  CET. 
Hail sloth, and words,  
In steed of Men, and Spirits.  CAT. 
Nay, dear Caius;  CET, 
Are your eyes yet unseeled? Dare they look day  
In the dull face?  CAT. 
he's zealous, for th'affair;  
And blames your tardy coming, Gentlemen.  CET. 
Unless, we had sold ourselves to sleep, and ease,  
And would be our slaves slaves.  CAT. 
Pray you forbear.  CET. 
The North is not so stark, and cold.  CAT. 
Cethegus.  BES. 
We shall redeem all, if your fire will let us.  CAT. 
You are too full of lightning, noble Caius.  
Boy, see all doors be shut, that none approach us,  
On this part of the house. Go you, and bid  
The Priest, he kill the slave I marked last night;  
And bring me of his blood, when I shall call him:  
Till then, wait all without.  VAR. 
How is't, Autronius!  AUT. 
Longinus?  LON. 
Curius?  CUR. 
Lecca?  VAR. 
Feel you nothing?  LON. 
A strange, unwonted horror doth invade me,  
I know not what it is!  LEC. 
The day goes back,  
Or else my senses!  CUR. 
As at Atreus' feast!  FUL. 
Darkness grows more & more!  LEN. 
The Vest all flame,  
I think, be out.  GAB. 
What groan was that?  CET. 
Our fantasies.  
Strike fire, out of ourselves, and force a day.  AUT. 
Again it sounds! BES. As all the City gave it!  CET. 
We fear what ourselves fain.  VAR. 
What light is this?  CUR. 
Look forth. Len. It still grows greater.  LEC. 
From whence comes it?  LON. 
A Bloody arm it is, that holds a pine  
Lighted, above the Capitol: And, now,  
It waves unto us.  CAT. 
Brave, and ominous!  
Our enterprise is sealed.  CET. 
In spite of darkness,  
That would discountenance it. Look no more;  
We lose time, and ourselves: To what we came for,  
Speak Lucius, we attend you.  CAT. 
Noblest Romans,  
If you were less, or, that your faith, and virtue  
Did not hold good that title, with your blood,  
I should not, now, unprofitably spend  
Myself in words, or catch at empty hopes,  
By airy ways, for solid certainties.  
But since in many, and the greatest dangers,  
I still have known you no less true, then valiant,  
And that I taste, in you, the same affections,  
To will, or nill, to think things good, or bad,  
Alike with me: (which argues your firm friendship)  
I dare the boldlier, with you, set on foot,  
Or lead, unto this great, and goodliest action.  
What I have thought of it afore, you all  
Have heard apart; I than expressed my zeal  
Unto the glory; Now, the need inflames me:  
When I forethink the hard conditions,  
Our states must undergo, except, in time,  
We do redeem ourselves to liberty,  
And break the iron yoke, forged for our necks.  
For, what less can we call it? when we see  
The commonwealth engrossed so by a few,  
The Giants of the state, that do, by turns,  
Enjoy her, and defile her. All the Earth,  
Her Kings, and Tetrarches, are their tributaries;  
People, and Nations pay them hourly stipends:  
The riches of the world flows to their coffers,  
And not, to Rome's. While (but those few) the rest,  
How ever great we are, honest, and valiant,  
Are herded with the vulgar; and so kept,  
As we were only bred, to consume corn,  
Or wear out wool, to drink the City's water:  
Ungraced, without authority, or mark,  
Trembling beneath their rods, to whom, (if all  
Were well in Rome) we should come forth bright axes.  
All Places, Honours, Offices are theirs;  
Or where they will confer 'em: They leave us  
The dangers, the repulses, judgements, wants;  
Which how long will you bear most valiant spirits?  
Were we not better to fall, once, with virtue,  
Then draw a wretched, and dishonoured breath  
To lose with shame, when these men's pride will laugh?  
I call the faith of Gods, and Men to question;  
The power is in our hands; our bodies able;  
Our minds as strong; O'th' contrary, in them,  
All things grown aged, with their wealth, and years.  
There wants, but only to begin the business,  
The issue is certain.  CET. 
LON. On, Let us go on.  CUR. 
BES. Go on, brave Sergius.  CAT. 
It doth strike my soul,  
(And, who can scape the stroke, that hath a soul,  
Or, but the smallest air of Man within him?)  
To see them swell with treasure; which they pour  
Out i'their riots, eating, drinking, building,  
I, i' the sea: planing of Hills with Valleys;  
And raising Valleys above Hills, whilst we  
Have not, to give our Body's Necessaries.  
They ha' their change of Houses, Manors, Lordships;  
We scarce a fire, or poor household Lar.  
They buy rare Attic statues, Tyrian hangings,  
Ephesian pictures, and Corinthian plate,  
Attalic garments, and, now newfound, Gems  
Since Pompey went for Asia; which they purchase  
At price of Provinces. The River Phasis  
Cannot afford 'em Fowl; nor Lucrine Lake  
Oysters enough: Circei, too, is searched  
To please the witty Gluttony of a meal.  
Their ancient Habitations they neglect,  
And set up new; Then, if the Echo like not  
In such a room, they pluck down those; build newer,  
Alter them too; and, by all frantic ways,  
Vex their wild wealth, as they molest the people,  
From whom they force it; Yet, they cannot tame,  
Or overcome their riches: Not, by making,  
Baths, Orchards, Fishpools, letting in of seas,  
Here; and, then there, forcing 'em out again,  
With mountainous heaps; for which the Earth hath lost  
Most of her ribs, as entrails, being now  
Wounded no less for Marble, then for gold.  
We, all this while, like calm, benumbed Spectators,  
Sat, till our seats do crack; and do not hear  
The thundering ruins, whilst, at home, our wants,  
Abroad, our debts do urge us, our states daily  
Bending to bad, our hopes to worse: And, what  
Is left, but to be crushed? Wake, wake brave Friends,  
And meet the liberty you oft have wished for.  
Behold, renown, riches, and glory court you.  
Fortune holds out these to you, as rewards.  
Me thinks (though I were dumb) th'affair itself  
The opportunity, your needs, and dangers,  
With the brave spoil the war brings, should invite you.  
Use me your General, or Soldier: Neither,  
My Mind, nor Body shall be wanting to you.  
And, being Consul, I not doubt t'effect,  
All that you wish: If Trust not flatter me,  
And you had, rather, still be slaves, then free.  CET. 
Free, free.  LON. 
'tis freedom.  CUR. 
Freedom we all stand for.  CAT. 
Why, these are noble voices. Nothing wants then,  
But that we take a solemn Sacrament,  
To strengthen our design.  CET. 
And so to act it.  
Differing hurts, where powers are most prepared.  AUT. 
Yet, ere we enter into open act,  
(With favour) 't were no loss, if't might be inquired  
What the Condition of these Arms would be?  VAR. 
ay, and the means, to carry us through.  CAT. 
How, Friends!  
Think you, that I would bid you, grasp the wind?  
Or call you to th'embracing of a cloud?  
Put your known valours on so dear a business,  
And have no other second than the Danger,  
Nor other Garland than the loss? Become  
Your own assurances. And, for the means,  
Consider, first, the stark security  
The common wealth is in, now; the whole Senate  
Sleepy, and dreaming no such violent blow;  
Their forces all abroad; of which the greatest,  
That might annoy us most, is farthest off,  
In Asia, under Pompey: Those, near hand,  
Commanded, by our friends; one Army ' in Spain,  
By Cneus Piso; th'other in Mauritania,  
By Nucerinus; both which I have firm,  
And fast unto our Plot. Myself, then, standing  
Now to be Consul; with my hoped Colleague  
Caius Antonius, one, no less engaged  
By his wants than we: And whom I'have power to melt,  
And cast in any mould. Beside, some others  
That will not yet be named, (both sure, and Great ones)  
Who, when the time comes, shall declare themselves,  
Strong, for our party; so, that no resistance  
In nature can be thought. For our reward, then;  
First, all our Debts are paid; Dangers of Law,  
Actions, Decrees, judgements against us quitted;  
The rich Men, as in Sylla's times, proscribed,  
And Publication made of all their goods;  
That House is yours; That Land is his; Those Waters,  
Orchards, and walks a third's: He'has that Honour,  
And he that Office. Such a Province falls  
To Vargunleius: This to ' Autronius: That  
To bold Cethegus: Rome to Lentulus:  
You share the World, her Magistracies, Priesthoods,  
Wealth, and Felicity amongst you, Friends;  
And Catiline your servant. Would you, Curius,  
Revenge the Contumely stuck upon you,  
In being removed from the Senate? Now,  
Now, is your time. Would Publius Lentulus  
Strike, for the like disgrace? Now, is his time.  
Would stout Longinus walk the streets of Rome,  
Facing the Praetor? Now, has he a time  
To spurn, and tread the Fasces, into dirt  
Made of the Usurers, and the Lictor's brains.  
Is there a Beauty, here in Rome, you love?  
An Enemy you would kill? What Head's not yours?  
Whose Wife, which Boy, whose Daughter, of what race,  
That th'husband, or glad Parents shall not bring you,  
And boasting of the office? Only, spare  
Yourselves, and you have all the earth beside,  
A field, to exercise your longings in.  
I see you raised, and read your forward minds  
High, i' your faces. Bring the wine, and blood  
You have prepared there.  LON. 
How!  CAT. 
I have killed a slave,  
And of his blood caused to be mixed with wine.  
Fill every man his bowl. There cannot be  
A fitter drink, to make this Sanction in.  
Here, I begin the Sacrament to all.  
O, for a clap of thunder now, as loud,  
As to be heard throughout the Universe,  
To tell the world the fact, and to applaud it.  
Be firm, my hand; not shed a drop: but pour  
fierceness into me, with it; and fell thirst  
Of more, and more: Till Rome be left as bloodless,  
As ever her fears made her, or the sword.  
And, when I leave to wish this to thee, Stepdame  
Or stop, to effect it, with my powers fainting;  
So may my blood be drawn, and so drunk up  
As is this slaves.  LON. 
And so be mine.  LEN. 
And mine.  AUT. 
And mine.  VAR. 
And mine.  CET. 
Crown me my bowl yet fuller.  
Here, I do drink this, as I would do Cato's,  
Or the new fellow Cicero's: with that vow  
Which Catiline hath given.  CUR. 
So do I.  LEC. 
And I.  BES. 
And I.  FUL. 
And I.  GAB. 
And all of us.  CAT. 
Why, now's the business safe, & each man strengthened.  
Sirrah, what ail you?  PAG. 
Nothing.  BES. 
Somewhat modest.  CAT. 
Slave, I will strike your soul out, with my foot,  
Let me but find you again with such a face:  
You Whelp.  BES. 
Nay Lucius.  CAT. 
Are you coying it,  
When I command you to be free, and general  
To all?  BES. 
You'll be observed.  CAT. 
Arise, and show  
But any least aversion i' your look  
To him that boards you next, and your throat opens.  
Noble Confederates, thus far is perfect.  
Only your suffrages I will expect,  
At the assembly for the choosing Consuls,  
And all the voices you can make by friends  
To my election. Then let me work out  
Your fortunes, and mine own. Mean while, all rest  
Sealed up, and silent, as when rigid frosts  
Have bound up Brooks, and Rivers, forced wild beasts  
Unto their caves, and birds into the woods,  
Clowns to their houses, and the Country sleeps;  
That, when the sudden thaw comes, we may break  
Upon 'em like a deluge, bearing down  
Half Rome before us, and invade the rest  
With cries, and noise able to wake the Urns  
Of those are dead, and make their ashes fear.  
" The horrors, that do strike the world, should come  
" Loud, and unlooked for; Till they strike, be dumb.  CET. 
Oraculous Sergius.  LEN. 
Godlike Catiline.  CHORUS. 
CAn nothing great, and at the height  
Remain so long? but it's own weight  
Will ruin it? Or, is't blind Chance,  
That still desires new States t'advance,  
And quit the old? Else, why must Rome  
Be by itself; now, overcome?  
Hath she not foes enough of those,  
Whom she hath made such, and enclose  
Her round about? Or, are they none,  
Except she first become her own?  
O wretchedness of greatest States,  
To be obnoxious to these Fates:  
That cannot keep, what they do gain;  
And what they raise so ill sustain.  
Rome, now, is Mistress of the whole  
World, Sea, and Land, to either Pole;  
And even that Fortune will destroy  
The power that made it. She doth joy  
So much in plenty, wealth, and ease,  
As, now, th'excess is her disease.  
She builds in gold; And, to the Stars:  
As, if she threatened Heaven with wars;  
And seeks for Hell, in quarries deep,  
Giving the fiends, that there do keep,  
A hope of day. Her Women wear  
The spoils of Nations, in an ear,  
Changed for the treasure of a shell;  
And, in their loose attires, do swell  
More light than sails, when all winds play:  
Yet, are the men more loose than they,  
More combed, and bathed, and rubbed, and trimmed,  
More sleeked, more soft, and slacker limned;  
As prostitute: so much, that kind  
May seek itself there, and not find.  
They eat on beds of silk, and gold;  
At ivory tables; or, wood sold  
Dearer than it: and, leaving plate,  
Do drink in stone of higher rate.  
They hunt all grounds; and draw all seas;  
Fowl every brook, and bush; to please  
Their wanton tastes: and, in request  
Have new, and rare things; not the best.  
Hence comes that wild, and vast expense,  
That hath enforced Rome's virtue, thence,  
Which simple poverty first made;  
And, now, ambition doth invade  
Her state, with eating avarice,  
Riot, and every other vice.  
Decrees are bought, and Laws are sold,  
Honours, and Offices for gold;  
The people's voices: And the free  
Tongues, in the Senate, bribed be.  
Such ruin of her manners Rome  
Doth suffer now, as she's become  
(Without the Gods it soon gainsay)  
Both her own spoiler, and own pray.  
So, Asia, ' art thou cruelly even.  
With us, for all the blows thee given;  
When we, whose virtue conquered thee,  
Thus, by thy vices, ruined be.   

ACT. ij.  FULVIA, GALLA, SERVANT. 
THose Rome's do smell extremely; Bring my glass,  
And table hither, Galla.  GAL. 
Madame.  FUL. 
Look  
Within, i'my blue Cabinet, for the pearl  
I'had sent me last, and bring it.  GAL. 
That from Clodius?  FUL. 
From Caius Caesar. You're for Clodius, still.  
Or Curius. Sirrah, if Quintus Curius come,  
I am not in fit mood; I keep my Chamber:  
Give warning so, without.  GAL. 
Is this it? Madame.  FUL. 
Yes, help to hang it in mine ear.  GAL. 
Believe me,  
It is a rich one, Madam.  FUL. 
I hope so:  
It should not be worn there else. Make an end,  
And bind my hair up.  GAL. 
As 'twas yesterday?  FUL. 
No, nor the other day. When knew you me  
Appear, two days together, in one dressing?  GAL. 
Will you have't i'the globe, or spire?  FUL. 
How thou wilt;  
Any way, so thou wilt do it, good Impertinence.  
Thy company, if I slept not very well  
A nights, would make me, an errant fool, with questions.  GAL. 
Alas Madam.  FUL. 
Nay gentle half o'the Dialogue, cease.  GAL. 
I do it, indeed, but for your exercise,  
As your Physician bids me.  FUL. 
How! Does he bid you  
To anger me for exercise?  GAL. 
Not to anger you,  
But stir your blood a little: There's difference  
Between lukewarm, and boiling, Madam.  FUL. 
jove!  
She means to cook me, I think? Pray you, ha'done.  GAL. 
I mean to dress you, Madam.  FUL. 
O my juno,  
Be friend to me! Offering at wit, too? Why, Galla!  
Where hast thou been?  GAL. 
Why, Madam?  FUL. 
What hast thou done  
With thy poor innocent self?  GAL. 
Wherefore, sweet Madam?  FUL. 
Thus to come forth, so suddenly, a wit-worm?  GAL. 
It pleases you to flout one. I did dream  
Of Lady Sempronia.  FUL. 
O, the wonder is out.  
That did infect thee? Well, and how?  GAL. 
Me thought,  
She did discourse the best.  FUL. 
That ever thou heard'st?  GAL. 
Yes.  FUL. 
I' thy sleep? Of what was her discourse?  GAL. 
O' the Republic, Madam, and the State,  
And how she was in debt, and where she meant  
To raise fresh sums: she's a great States-woman.  FUL. 
Thou dreamp'tst all this?  GAL. 
No, but you know she is Madam,  
And both a Mistress of the Latin tongue,  
And of the Greek.  FUL. 
ay, but I never dreamt it, Galla,  
As thou hast done, and therefore you must pardon me.  GAL. 
Indeed, you mock me, Madam.  FUL. 
Indeed, no.  
Forth with your learned Lady: She has a wit, too?  GAL. 
A very masculine one.  FUL. 
A she- Critic, Galla?  
And can compose, in verse, and make quick jests,  
Modest, or otherwise?  GAL. 
Yes Madam.  FUL. 
She can sing, too?  
And play on Instruments?  GAL. 
Of all kinds, they say.  FUL. 
And doth dance rarely?  GAL. 
Excellent. So well,  
As a bald Senator made a jest, and said,  
'Twas better, than an honest woman need.  GUL. 
Tut, she may bear that. Few wise women's honesties  
Will do their courtship hurt.  GAL. 
she's liberal too, Madam.  FUL. 
What of her money, or her honour, pray thee?  GAL. 
Of both, you know not which she doth spare least.  FUL. 
A comely commendation.  GAL. 
Troth, 'tis pity  
She is in years.  FUL. 
Why Galla?  GAL. 
For it is.  FUL. 
O, is that all? I thought thou ' hadst had a reason.  GAL. 
Why so I have. She has been a fine Lady,  
And, yet, she dresses herself, (except you Madam)  
One o' the best in Rome: and paints, and hides  
Her decays very well.  FUL. 
They say, it is  
Rather a visor, than a face she wears.  GAL. 
They wrong her verily Madam, she does sleek  
With crumbs of bread, and milk, and lies a nights  
In as neat gloves. But she is fain of late  
To seek, more than she's sought to (the same is)  
And so spends that way.  FUL. 
Thou know'st all. But Galla,  
What say you to Catiline's Lady, Orestilla?  
There is the Gallant.  GAL. 
She does well. She has  
Very good suits, and very rich: but, then,  
She cannot put 'em on. She knows not, how  
To wear a garment. You shall have her all  
jewels, and gold sometimes, so that herself  
Appears the least part of herself. No in troth,  
As I live, Madam, you put 'em all down  
With your mere strength of judgement; and do draw, too,  
The world of Rome to follow you: you attire  
Yourself so diversly, and with that spirit,  
Still to the noblest humours. They could make  
Love to your dress, although your face were away, they say.  FUL. 
And body too, and ha' the better match on't?  
Say they not so too, Galla? Now! What news  
Travails your countenance with?  SER. 
If't please you, Madam  
The Lady Sempronia is lighted at the gate;  GAL. 
Castor, my dream, my dream.  SER. 
And comes to see you  GAL. 
For Venus' sake, good Madam see her.  FUL. 
Peace  
The fool is wild, I think.  GAL. 
And hear her talk,  
Sweet Madam, of State-matters, and the Senate.  SEMPRONIA, FULVIA, GALLA. 
FVluia, good wench, how dost thou?  FUL. 
Well, Sempronia▪  
Whither are you thus early addressed?  SEM. 
To see  
Aurelia Orestilla. She sent for me.  
I came to call thee, with me; wilt thou go?  FUL. 
I cannot now, in troth, I have some letters  
To write, and send away.  SEM. 
Alas, I pity thee.  
I ha'bene writing all this night, (and am  
So very weary) unto all the Tribes,  
And Centuries, for their voices, to help Catiline,  
In his election. We shall make him Consul  
I hope, amongst us. Crassus, I, and Caesar  
Will carry it for him.  FUL. 
Does he stand for't?  SEM. 
he's the chief Candidate.  FUL. 
Who stands beside?  
Give me some wine, and powder for my teeth.  SEM. 
Here's a good pearl in troth.  FUL. 
A pretty one.  SEM. 
A very orient one. There are Competitors,  
Caius Antonius, Publius Galbe, Lucius  
Cassius Longinus, Quintus Cornificius,  
Caius Licinius, and that talker, Cicero.  
But Catiline, and Antonius will be chosen.  
For four of the other, Lincinius, Longinus,  
Galba, and Cornificius will give way.  
And Cicero they will not choose.  FUL. 
No? Why?  SEM. 
It will be crossed, by the Nobility.  GAL. 
How she does understand the common business!  SEM. 
Nor, were it fit. He is but a new fellow,  
An Inmate here in Rome (as Catiline calls him)  
And, the Patricians should do very ill,  
To let the Consulship be so defiled  
As't would be, if he obtained it? A mere upstarr,  
That has no pedigree, no house, no coat,  
No ensigns of a family?  FUL. 
He ' has virtue.  SEM. 
Hang virtue, where there is no blood: 'tis vice  
And, in him, sauciness. Why should he presume  
To be more learned, or more eloquent,  
Then the Nobility? or boast any quality  
Worthy a Noble man, himself not noble?  FUL. 
'Twas virtue only, at first, made all men noble.  SEM. 
I yield you, it might, at first, in Rome's poor age;  
When both her Kings, and Consuls held the plough,  
Or gardened well▪ But, now, we ha' no need,  
To dig, or lose our sweat for't. We have wealth,  
Fortune and ease, and then their stock, to spend on,  
Of Name, for Virtue, which will bear us out  
Against all new comers: and can never fail us,  
While the succession stays. And, we must glorify,  
A Mushroom? one of yesterday? a fine speaker?  
'Cause he has sucked at Athens? and advance him,  
To our own loss? No Fulvia. There are they  
Can speak Greek too, if need were. Caesar and I  
Have sat upon him; so hath Grassus, too;  
And others. We have all decreed his rest,  
For rising farther.  GAL. 
Excellent rare Lady!  FUL. 
Sempronia, you are beholden to my woman, here.  
She does admire you.  SEM. 
O good Galla, how dost thou?  GAL. 
The better, for your learned Ladyship.  SEM. 
Is this grey powder, a good Dentifrice?  FUL. 
You see I use it.  SEM. 
I have one is whiter.  FUL. 
It may be so.  SEM. 
Yet this smells well.  GAL. 
And cleanses  
Very well, Madam, and resists the crudities.  SEM. 
Fulvia, I pray thee, who comes to thee, now?  
Which of our great Patricians?  FUL. 
Faith, I keep  
No Catalogue of 'hem. Sometimes I have one,  
Sometimes another, as the toy takes their bloods.  SEM. 
Thou hast them all. Faith, when was Quintus Curius,  
Thy special servant, here?  FUL. 
My special servant?  SEM. 
Yes, thy Idolater, I call him.  FUL. 
He may be yours,  
If you do like him.  SEM. 
How!  FUL. 
He comes, not, here,  
I have forbid him, hence.  SEM. 
Venus forbid!  FUL. 
Why?  SEM. 
Your so constant Lover.  FUL. 
So much the rather.  
I would have change. So would you too, I am sure.  
And now, you may have him.  SEM. 
he's fresh yet, Fulvia:  
Beware, how you do tempt me.  FUL. 
Faith, for me,  
He ' is somewhat too fresh, indeed. The salt is gone,  
That gave him season. His good gifts are done.  
He does not yield the crop that he was wont.  
And, for the act, I can have secret fellows,  
With backs worth ten of him, and shall please me  
(Now that the Land is fled) a myriad better.  SEM. 
And those one may command.  FUL. 
'tis true, These Lordings,  
Your noble Fauns, they are so imperious, saucy,  
Rude, and as boisterous as Centaurs; leaping  
A Lady, at first sight.  SEM. 
And must be borne  
Both with, and out, they think.  FUL. 
Tut, I'll obferue  
None of 'em all: nor humour 'em a jot  
Longer, than they come laden in the hand,  
And say, here's tone, for th'tother.  SEM. 
Does Caesar give well?  FW. 
They shall all give, and pay well, that come here  
If they will have it; and that jewels, pearl,  
Plate, or round sums, to buy these. I'm not taken  
With a Cob-Swan, or a high-mounting Bull,  
As foolish Leda, and Europa were,  
But the bright gold, with Danae. For such price,  
I would endure, a rough, harsh jupiter,  
Or ten such thundering Gamesters, and refrain  
To laugh at 'em, till they are gone, with my much suffering.  SEM. 
thouart a most happy wench, that thus canst make  
Use of they youth, and freshness, in the season:  
And hast it to make use of.  FUL. 
(Which is the happiness.)  SEM. 
I am, now, fain to give to them, and keep  
Music, and a continual Table, to invite 'em;  FUL. 
Yes, and they study your kitchen, more than you:  SEM. 
Eat myself out with usury, and my Lord, too,  
And all my officers, and friends beside,  
To procure moneys, for the needful charge  
I must be at, to have 'em: And, yet, scarce  
Can I achieve 'em, so.  FUL. 
Why, that's because  
You affect young faces only, and smooth chins,  
Sempronia. If you'd love beards, and bristles,  
(One with another, as others do) or wrinkles—  
Who's that? Look Galla.  GAL. 
'tis the party, Madam.  FUL. 
What party? Has he no name?  GAL. 
'tis Quintus Curius.  FUL. 
Did I not bid 'em, say, I kept may chamber?  GAL. 
Why, so they do.  SEM. 
I'll leave you, Fulvia.  FUL. 
Nay, good Sempronia, stay.  SEM. 
In faith, I will not.  FUL. 
By juno, I would not see him.  SEM. 
I'll not hinder you.  GAL. 
You know, he will not be kept out, Madam.  SEM. 
No,  
Nor shall not, careful Galla, by my means.  FUL. 
As I do live, Sempronia.  SEM. 
What needs this?  FUL. 
Go, say, I am asleep, and ill at ease.  SEM. 
By Castor, no; I'll tell him, you are awake;  
And very well. Stay Galla. Farewell Fulvia:  
I know my manners. Why do you labour, thus,  
With action, against purpose? Quintus Curius,  
She is, i'faith, here, and in disposition:  FUL. 
Spite, with your courtesy. How shall I be tortured!  CURIUS, FULVIA, GALLA. 
WHere are you, fair one, that conceal yourself;  
And keep your beauty, within locks, and bars, here,  
Like a fools treasure?  FUL. 
True, she was a fool,  
When, first she show'd it to a thief.  CUR. 
How pretty Solennesse!  
So harsh, and short?  FUL. 
The fools Artillery, sir.  CUR. 
Then, make my gown off, for the'encounter.  FUL. 
Stay sir.  
I am not in the mood.  CUR. 
I'll put you into't.  FUL. 
Best, put yourself, i'your case again, and keep  
Your furious appetite warm, against you have place for't.  CUR. 
What! do you coy it?  FUL. 
No sir. I'm not proud.  CUR. 
I would you were. You think, this state becomes you?  
By Hercules, it does not. Look i'your glass, now,  
And see, how sciruely that countenance shows;  
You would be loath to own it.  FUL. 
I shall not change it.  CUR. 
Faith, but you must; and slack this bended brow;  
And shoot less scorn: There is a Fortune coming  
Towards you, Dainty, that will take thee, thus,  
And set thee aloft, to tread upon the head  
Of her own statue here in Rome.  FUL. 
I wonder,  
Who let this Promiser in! Did you, good Diligence?  
Give him his bribe, again. Or if you had none,  
Pray you demand him, why he is so venturous,  
To press, thus, to my chamber, being for bidden  
Both, by myself, and servants?  CUR. 
How! This's handsome!  
And somewhat a new strain!  FUL. 
'Tis not strained, Sir.  
'Tis very natural.  CUR. 
I have known it otherwise,  
Between the parties, though.  FUL. 
For your foreknowledge,  
Thank that, which made it. It will not be so,  
Hereafter, I assure you.  CUR. 
No, my Mistress?  FUL. 
No though you bring the same materials.  CUR. 
Hear me,  
You over act when you should underdoe.  
A little call yourself again, and think.  
If you do this to practise on me ' or find  
At what forced distance you can hold your servant;  
That ' it be an artificial trick, to inflame,  
And fire me more, fearing my love may need it,  
As, heretofore, you ha' done; why, proceed.  FUL. 
As I ha' done heretofore?  CUR. 
Yes, when you'd feign  
Your husband's jealousy, your servants watches,  
Speak softly, and run often to the door,  
Or to the window, form strange fears that were not;  
As if the pleasure were less accountable,  
That were secure.  FUL. 
You are an impudent fellow.  CUR. 
And, when you might better have done it, at the gate,  
To take me in at the casement.  FUL. 
I take you in?  CUR. 
Yes, you my Lady. And, then, being a-bed with you,  
To have your well taught waiter, here, come running,  
And cry, her Lord, and hide me without cause,  
Crushed in a chest, or thrust up in a chimney.  
When he, tame, Crow, was winking at his Farm;  
Or, had he been here, and present, would have kept  
Both eyes, and beak sealed up, for six sesterces.  FUL. 
You have a slanderous, beastly, unwashed tongue,  
I' your rude mouth, and savouring yourself,  
Unmannered Lord.  CUR. 
How now!  FUL. 
It is your title, Sir.  
Who (since you ha' lost your own good name, and know not  
What to lose more) care not, whose honour you wound,  
Or fame ' you poison with it. You should go,  
And vent yourself, i' the region, where you live,  
Among the Suburbe-Brothels, Bawds, and Brokers,  
Whither your broken fortunes have designed you.  CUR. 
Nay, than I must stop your fury, I see; and pluck  
The tragic visor off. Come, Lady Cypris,  
Know your own virtues, quickly. I'll not be  
Put to the wooing of you thus, afresh,  
At every turn, for all the Venus in you.  
Yield, and be pliant; or by Pollux— How now?  
Will Lais turn a Lucrece?  FUL. 
No, but by Castor,  
Hold off your Ravishers hands, I pierce your heart, else.  
I'll not be put to kill myself, as she did  
For you, sweet Tarquin. What? do you fall off?  
Nay, it becomes you graciously. Put not up.  
You'll sooner draw your weapon on me, I think it,  
Then on the Senate, who have cast you forth  
Disgracefully, to be the common tale  
Of the whole City; base, infamous Man:  
For, were you other, you would there employ  
Your desperate dagger.  CUR. 
Fulvia, you do know  
The strengths you have upon me; Do not use  
Your power too like a Tyrant: I can bear,  
Almost until you break me.  FUL. 
I do know, Sir,  
So does the Senate, too, know, you can bear.  CUR. 
By all the Gods, that Senate will smart deep  
For your upbraid. I should be right sorry  
To have the means so to be venged on you,  
(At least, the will) as I shall shortly on them.  
But, go you on still: Fare you well, dear Lady;  
You could not still be faire'vnlesse you were proud.  
You will repent these moods, and ere't be long, too.  
I shall ha' you come about, again.  FUL. 
Do you think so?  CUR. 
Yes, and I know so.  FUL. 
By what Augury?  CUR. 
By the fair Entrails of the Matron's chests,  
Gold, Pearl, and jewels, here in Rome, which Fulvia,  
Will then (but late) say that she might have shared.  
And, grieving, miss.  FUL. 
Tut, all your promised Mountains,  
And Seas, I am so stalely acquainted with—.  CUR. 
But, when you see the universal flood  
Run by your coffers; that my Lords, the Senator's,  
Are sold for slaves, their Wives for bondwomen,  
Their Houses, and fine Gardens given away,  
And all their goods, under the Spear, at outcry,  
And you have none of this; but are still Fulvia,  
Or perhaps less, while you are thinking of it:  
You will advise then, Coyness, with your cushion,  
And look o' your fingers; say, how you were wished;  
And so, he left, you.  FUL. 
Call him again, Galla:  
This is not usual, something hangs on this  
That I must win out of him.  CUR. 
How now, melt you?  FUL. 
Come, you will laugh, now, at my easiness?  
But, 'tis no miracle; Doves, they say, will bill,  
After their pecking, and their murmuring.  CUR. 
Yes,  
And then 'tis kindly. I would have my Love  
Angry, sometimes, to sweeten off the rest  
Of her behaviour.  FUL. 
You do see, I study  
How I may please you, then. But you think, Curius  
'tis covetise hath wrought me; If you love me  
Change that unkind conceit.  CUR. 
By my loved soul,  
I love thee, like to it; and 'tis my study,  
More than mine own revenge, to make thee happy.  FUL. 
And'tis that just revenge doth make me happy  
To hear you prosecute: and which, indeed,  
Hath won me, to you, more, than all the hope  
Of what can else be promised. I love valour  
Better, than any Lady loves her face,  
Or dressing: than myself does. Let me grow  
Still, where I do embrace. But what good means  
Ha' you t'effect it? Shall I know your project?  CUR. 
Thou shalt, if thou'lt be gracious.  FUL. 
As I can be.  CUR. 
And wilt thou kiss me, then?  FUL. 
As close as shells  
Of Cockles meet.  CUR. 
And print 'em deep?  FUL. 
Quite through  
Our subtle lips.  CUR. 
And often?  FUL. 
I will sow 'hem.  
Faster than you can reap. What is your plot?  CUR. 
Why, now my Fulvia looks, like her bright name,  
And is herself.  FUL. 
Nay, answer me, your plot:  
I pray thee tell me, Quintus.  CUR. 
ay, these sounds  
Become a Mistress. Here is harmony.  
When you are harsh, I see, the way to bend you  
Is not with violence, but service. Cruel,  
A Lady is a fire, gentle, a light.  FUL. 
Will you not tell me, what I ask you?  CUR. 
All,  
That I can think, sweet Love, or my breast holds,  
I'll pour into thee.  FUL. 
What is your design, then?  CUR. 
I'll tell thee; Catiline shall now be Consul:  
But, you will hear more, shortly.  FUL. 
Nay, dear love.  CUR. 
I'll speak it, in thine arms; Let us go in.  
Rome will be sacked, her wealth will be our prize;  
By public ruin, private spirits must rise.  CHORUS. 
GReat Father Mars, and greater jove,  
By whose high auspice, Rome hath stood  
So long; and, first, was built in blood  
Of your great Nephew, that then strove  
Not with his brother, but your Rites:  
Be present to her now, as then,  
And let not proud, and factious Men  
Against your wills oppose their mights.  
Our Consuls, now, are to be made;  
O, put it in the public voice  
To make a free, and worthy choice;  
Excluding such as would invade  
The Common wealth. Let whom we name  
Have wisdom, foresight, fortitude,  
Be more with faith, than face endued,  
And study conscience, above fame.  
Such, as not seek to get the start  
In State, by power, parts, or bribes,  
Ambition's bawds; but move the Tribes  
By Virtue, modesty, desert.  
Such, as to justice will adhaere,  
What ever great one it offend,  
And from the embraced truth not bend  
For envy, hatred, gifts, or fear.  
That, by their deeds, will make it known,  
Whose dignity they do sustain;  
And life, state, glory, all they gain,  
Count the Republics, not their own.  
Such the old Bruti, Deccis were,  
The Cipi, Curtij, who did give  
Themselves for Rome: And would not live,  
As men, good, only for a year.  
Such were the great Camilli, too;  
The Fabiuses, Seipio's; that still thought  
No work, at price enough, was bought,  
That for their Country they could do.  
And, to her honour, so did knit;  
As all their acts were understood  
The sinews of the Public good:  
And they themselves, one soul, with it.  
These men were truly Magistrates;  
These neither practised force, nor forms;  
Nor did they leave the helm, in storms:  
And such they are make happy States.   

ACT. iij.  CICERO, CATO, CATULUS, ANTONIUS, CRASSUS, CAESAR, CHORUS, LICTORS. 
GReat Honours are great burdens: But, on whom  
theyare cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.  
His cares must still be double to his joys,  
In any Dignity; where, if he err  
He finds no pardon: and, for doing well  
A most small praise, and that wrung out, by force.  
I speak this, Romans, knowing what the weight  
Of the high charge, you ' have trusted to me, is.  
Not, that thereby I would with art decline  
The good, or greatness of your benefit;  
For, I ascribe it to your singular grace  
And vow, to owe it to no title else,  
Except the Gods, that Cicero'is your Consul.  
I have no urns; no dusty monuments;  
No broken images of ancestors,  
Wanting an ear, or nose; no forged tables  
Of long descents, to boast false honours from;  
Or be my undertakers to your trust.  
But a new Man (as I am styled in Rome)  
Whom you have dignified; and more, in whom  
You've cut a way, and left it open for virtue  
Hereafter, to that place, which our Great men  
Held shut up, with all rampires, for themselves.  
Nor have but few of them, in time been made  
Your Consuls so; New men, before me, none:  
At my first suit; In my just year; Preferred  
To all competitors; and some the noblest.  CRA. 
Now the vain swells.  CAES. 
Up glory.  CIC. 
And to have  
Your loud consents, from your own uttered voices;  
Not silent books: nor from the meaner tribes,  
But first, and last, the universal concourse.  
This is my joy, my gladness. But my care,  
My industry, and vigilance now must work,  
That still your counsel of me be approved;  
Both, by yourselves, and those, to whom you have,  
With grudge, preferred me: Two things I must labour,  
That neither they upbraid, nor you repent you.  
For every lapse of mine will, now, be called  
Your error; if I make such: But, my hope is,  
So to bear through, and out, the Consulship,  
As spite shall ne'er wound you, though it may me.  
And, for myself, I have prepared this strength,  
To do so well; as, if there happen ill  
Unto me, it shall make the Gods to blush,  
And be their crime, not mine, that I am envied;  CAES. 
O confidence! more new, then is the Man!  CIC. 
I know well, in what terms I do receive  
The Common wealth, how vexed, how perplexed:  
In which, there's not that mischief, or ill fate,  
That good men fear not, wicked men expect not.  
I know, beside, some turbulent practices  
Already on foot, and rumours of more dangers,  CRA. 
Or you will make them, if there be none.  CIC. 
Last,  
I know, 'twas this, which made the envy, and pride  
Of the Great Roman blood bate, and give way  
To my election.  CAT. 
Marcus Tullius, true;  
Our need made thee our Consul, and thy virtue.  CAES. 
Cato, you will undo him, with your praise.  CAT. 
Caesar will hurt himself, with his own envy.  CHO. 
The voice of Cato is the voice of Rome.  CAT. 
The voice of Rome is the consent of Heaven;  
And that hath placed thee, Cicero, at the helm,  
Where thou must render, now, thyself a Man,  
And Master of thy art. Each petty hand  
Can steer a ship becalmed; but he that will  
Govern, and carry her to her ends, must know  
His tides, his currents; how to shift his sails;  
What she will be are in foul, what in fair weathers;  
Where her springs are, her leaks; & how to stop 'em;  
What sands, what shelves, what rocks to threaten her;  
The forces, and the natures of all winds,  
Gusts, storms, & tempests; when her keel ploughs hell  
And deck knocks heaven: then, to manage her  
Becomes the name, and office of a Pilot.  CIC. 
Which I'll perform, with all the diligence,  
And fortitude I have; not for my year,  
But for my life; except my life be less,  
And that my year conclude it: If it must,  
Your will, loved Gods. This heart shall yet employ  
A day, an hour is left me, so, for Rome.  
As it shall spring a life, out of my death,  
To shine, for ever glorious in my facts:  
" The vicious count their years, virtuous their acts.  CHO. 
Most noble Consul! Let us wait him home.  CAES. 
Most popular Consul he is grown, me thinks.  CRA. 
How the rout cling to him!  CAES. 
And Cato leads 'hem!  CRA. 
You, his colleague, Antonius, are not looked on.  ANT. 
Not I, nor do I care.  CAES, 
He enjoys rest,  
And ease, the while: Let th'other's spirit toil,  
And wake it out, that was inspired for turmoil.  CATU. 
If all reports be true, yet, Caius Caesar,  
The time hath need of such a watch, and spirit:  CAES. 
Reports? Do you believe 'em Catulus,  
Why, he does make, and breed 'em for the people;  
T' endear his service to 'hem. Do you not taste  
An art, that is so common? Popular men,  
They must create strange Monsters, and then quell 'em;  
To make their arts seem something. Would you have  
Such an Herculean Actor in the Scene,  
And not his Hydra? They must sweat no less  
To fit their properties, then t' express their parts.  CRA. 
" Treasons, and guilty men are made in States  
" Too oft, to dignify the Magistrates.  CATU. 
" Those States be wretched, that are forced to buy  
" Their Ruler's fame, with their own infamy.  CRA. 
We therefore, should provide that ours do not.  CAES. 
That will Antonius make his care.  ANT. 
I shall.  CAES. 
And watch the watcher.  CATU. 
Here comes Catiline.  
How does he brook his late repulse?  CAES. 
I know not.  
But hardly sure.  CAT. 
Longinus, too, did stand?  CAES. 
At first: But he gave way unto his friend.  CATU. 
Who's that come? Lentulus?  CAES. 
Yes, He is again  
Taken into the Senate.  ANT. 
And made Praetor.  CAT. 
I know't. He had my suffrage, next the Consuls;  CAES. 
True, you were there, Prince of the Senate, then.  CATILINE, ANTONIUS, CATULUS, CAESAR. CRASSUS, LONGINUS, LENTULUS. 
Hail noblest Romans. The most worthy Consul,  
I gratulate your honour.  ANT. 
I could wish  
It had been happier, by your fellowship,  
Most noble Sergius, had it pleased the people.  CATI. 
It did not please the Gods; who'instruct the people.  
And their unquestioned pleasures must be served.  
They know what's fitter for us, than ourselves;  
And 'twere impiety, to think against them.  CATU. 
You bear it rightly, Lucius; and, it glads, me,  
To find your thoughts so even.  CATI. 
I shall still  
Study to make them such to Rome, and Heaven.  
I would withdraw with you, a little, julius.  CAES. 
I'll come home to you: Crassus would not ha' you  
To speak to him, 'fore Quintus Catulus.  CATI. 
I apprehend you. No, when they shall judge  
Honours convenient for me, I shall have 'em,  
With a full hand: I know it. In mean time,  
They are no less part of the Commonwealth,  
That do obey, than those, that do command.  CATU. 
O, let me kiss your forehead, Lucius.  
How are you wronged!  CATI. 
By whom?  CATU. 
Public report.  
That gives you out, to stomach your repulse;  
And brook it deadly.  CATI. 
Sir: she brooks not me.  
Believe me rather, and yourself, now, of me;  
It is a kind of slander, to trust rumour.  CATU. 
I know it. And I could be angry with it.  CATI. 
So may not I Where it concerns himself,  
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.  CATU. 
Most noble Sergius! This your temper melts me.  CRA. 
Will you do office to the Consul, Quintus?  CAES. 
That Cato, and the Rout have done the other?  CATU. 
I wait, when he will go. Be still yourself.  
He wants no state, or honours, that hath virtue,  CATI. 
Did I appear so tame, as this man thinks me?  
Looked I so poor, so dead? So like that nothing,  
Which he calls virtuous? O my breast, break quickly;  
And show my friends my inparts, lest they think  
I have betrayed 'hem.  LON. 
Where's Gabinius?  LEN. 
Gone.  LON. 
And Vargunteius?  LEN. 
Slipped away; all shrunk:  
Now that he missed the Consulship.  CATI. 
I am  
The scorn of bondmen; who are next to beasts.  
What can I worse pronounce myself, that's fitter?  
The Owl of Rome, whom Boys, and Girls will hout;  
That were I set up, for that wooden God,  
That keeps our gardens, could not fright the crows,  
Or the least Bird from muting on my head.  LON. 
'tis strange how he should miss it.  LEN. 
Is't not stranger,  
The upstart Cicero should carry it so,  
By all consents, from men so much his Masters?  LON. 
'tis true.  CATI. 
To what a shadow, am I melted!  LON. 
Antonius won it but by some few voices.  CATI. 
Struck through, like air, and feel it not. My wounds  
Close faster, then they're made.  LEN. 
The whole design,  
And enterprise is lost by't. All hands quit it,  
Upon his fail.  CATI. 
I grow mad at my patience.  
It is a Visor that hath poisoned me.  
Would it had burnt me up, and I died inward:  
My heart first turned to ashes.  LON. 
Here's Cethegus yet.  CATILINE, CETHEGUS, LENTULUS, LONGINUS, CATO. 
REpulse upon repulse? An Inmate, Consul?  
That I could reach the axle, where the pings are,  
Which bolt this frame; that I might pull 'em out,  
And pluck all into Chaos, with myself.  CET. 
What, are we wishing now?  CATI. 
Yes, my Cethegus.  
Who would not fall with all the world about him?  CET. 
Not I, that would stand on it, when it falls;  
And force new Nature out, to make another.  
These wish taste of woman, not of Roman.  
Let us seek other arms.  CATI. 
What should we do?  CET. 
Do, & not wish; something, that wishes take not:  
So sudden, as the Gods should not prevent,  
Nor scarce have time, to fear.  CATI. 
O noble Caius!  CET. 
It likes me better, that you are not Consul.  
I would not go through open doors, but break 'em;  
Swim to my ends, through blood; or build a bridge  
Of carcases; make on, upon the heads  
Of men, struck down, like piles; to reach the lives  
Of those remain, and stand: Then is't a prey,  
When Danger stops, and Ruin makes the way.  CATI. 
How thou dost utter me, brave soul, that may not,  
At all times, show such as I am; but bend  
Unto occasion? Lentulus, this man,  
If all our fire were out, would fetch down new,  
Out of the hand of jove; and rivet him  
To Caucasus, should he but frown: and let  
His own gaunt Eagle fly at him, to tyre.  LEN. 
Peace, here comes Cato.  CAT. 
Let him come, and hear.  
I will no more dissemble. Quit us all;  
I, and my loved Cethegus here, alone  
Will undertake this Giant's war, and carry it.  LEN. 
What needs this, Lucius?  LON. 
Sergius be more wary.  CATI. 
Now, Marcus Cato, our new Consuls spy,  
What is your sour austerity sent t' explore.  CATO. 
Nothing in thee, licentious Catiline:  
Halters, and racks cannot express from thee  
More, than thy deeds. 'tis only judgement waits thee.  CATI. 
Whose? Cato's? shall he judge me?  CAT. 
No, the Gods▪  
" Who, ever, follow those, they go not with:  
And Senate; who, with fire, must purge sick Rome  
Of noisome Citizens, whereof thou art one.  
Be gone, or else let me. 'tis bane to draw  
The same air with thee.  CET. 
Strike him.  LEN. 
Hold good Caius;  CET, 
Fearest thou not, Cato?  CATO. 
Rash Cethegus, no.  
'twere wrong with Rome, when Catiline and thou  
Do threat, if Cato feared.  CATI. 
The fire you speak of  
If any flame of it approach my fortunes,  
I'll quench it, not with water, but with ruin.  CATO. 
You hear this, Romans.  CATI. 
Bear it to the Consul.  CET. 
I would have sent away his soul, before him.  
You are too heavy, Lentulus, and remiss;  
It is for you we labour, and the Kingdom  
Promised you by the Sibyll's.  CATI. 
Which his Praetorship,  
And some small flattery of the Senate more,  
Will make him to forget.  LEN. 
You wrong me, Lucius'.  LON. 
He will not need these spurs.  CET. 
The action needs 'hem.  
" These things, when they proceed not, they go backward.  LEN. 
Let us consult then.  CET, 
Let us, first, take arms.  
They that deny us just things, now, will give  
All that we ask; if once they see our swords.  CAT. 
Our objects must be sought with wounds, not words.  CICERO, FULVIA. 
IS there a Heaven? and Gods? and can it be  
They should so slowly hear, so slowly see?  
Hath jove no thunder? or is jove become  
Stupid as thou art? o neare-wretched Rome,  
When both thy Senate, and thy Gods do sleep,  
And neither thine, not their own States do keep!  
What will awake thee, Heaven? what can excite  
Thine anger, if this practice be too light?  
His former drifts partake of former times,  
But this last plot was only Catilines.  
O, that it were his last. But he, before  
Hath safely done so much, he'll still dare more.  
Ambition, like a torrent, near looks back;  
And is a swelling, and the last affection  
A high mind can put off: being both a Rebel  
Unto the soul, and reason, and enforceth  
All laws, all conscience, treads upon religion,  
And offereth violence to Nature's self.  
But here, is that transcends it. A black purpose  
To confound Nature: and to ruin that,  
Which never Age, nor Mankind can repair.  
Sat down, good Lady; Cicero is lost  
In this your fable: for, to think it true  
Tempteth my reason. It so far exceeds  
All insolent fictions of the tragic Scene.  
The Commonwealth, yet panting, underneath  
The stripes, and wounds of a late civil war,  
Gasping for life, and scarce restored to hope;  
To seek t'oppress her, with new cruelty,  
And utterly extinguish her long name,  
With so prodigious, and unheard-of fierceness!  
What sink of Monsters, wretches of lost minds,  
Mad after change, and desperate in their states,  
Wearied, and galled with their necessities,  
(For all this I allow them) durst have thought it?  
Would not the barbarous deeds have been believed,  
Of Marius, and Sylla, by our Children,  
Without, this fact had rise forth greater, for them?  
All, that they did, was piety, to this.  
They, yet, but murdered Kinsfolk, Brothers, Parents,  
Ravished the Virgins, and, perhaps, some Matrons;  
They left the City standing, and the Temples:  
The Gods, and Majesty of Rome were safe yet.  
These purpose to fire it, to despoil them,  
(Beyond the other evils,) and lay waste  
The far-triumphed world: For, unto whom  
Rome is too little, what can be enough?  FUL. 
'tis true, my Lord, I had the same discourse.  CIC. 
And, then, to take a horrid Sacrament  
In human blood, for execution  
Of this their dire design; which might be called  
The height of wickedness: but that, that was higher,  
For which they did it.  FUL. 
I assure your Lordship,  
The extreme horror of it almost turned me  
To air, when first I heard it; I was all  
A vapour, when 't was told me; And I longed  
To vent it any where; 'Twas such a secret,  
I thought, it would have burnt me up.  CIC. 
Good Fulvia,  
Fear not your act; and less repent you of it.  FUL. 
I do not, my good Lord. I know to whom  
I have uttered it.  CIC. 
You have discharged it, safely.  
Should Rome, for whom you have done the happy service,  
Turn most ingrate; yet were your virtue paid  
In conscience of the fact: so much good deeds  
Reward themselves.  FUL. 
My Lord, I did it not  
To any other aim, but for itself.  
To no ambition.  CIC. 
You have learned the difference  
Of doing office to the public weal,  
And private friendship, and have shown it, Lady.  
Be still yourself. I have sent for Quintus Curius,  
And (for your virtuous sake) if I can win him,  
Yet, to the common wealth; He shall be safe too.  FULL 
I'll undertake, my Lord, he will be won.  CIC. 
Pray you, join with me, then: And help to work him.  CICERO, LICTOR, FULVIA, CURIUS. 
HOw now? Is he come?  LIC. 
He's here, my Lord.  CIC. 
Go presently,  
Pray my Colleague Antonius, I may speak with him,  
About some present business of the State;  
And (as you go) call on my brother Quintus,  
And pray him, with the Tribunes to come to me.  
Bid Curius enter. Fuluia, you will aid me?  FUL. 
It is my duty.  CIC. 
O, my noble Lord!  
I have to chide you, i'faith. Give me your hand.  
Nay, be not troubled; 't shallbe gently, Curius.  
You look upon this Lady? What? Do you guess  
My business, yet? Come, If you frown, I thunder:  
Therefore, put on your better looks, and thoughts.  
There's nought but fair, and good intended to you:  
And I would make those your complexion.  
Would you, of whom the Senate had that hope,  
As, on my knowledge, it was in their purpose,  
Next sitting, to restore you: as they ha' done  
The stupid, and ungrateful Lentulus;  
(Excuse me, that I name you thus, together,  
For, yet, you are not such) would you, I say,  
A person both of Blood and Honour, stocked  
In a long race of virtuous Ancestors,  
Embark yourself for such a hellish action,  
With Parricides, and Traitors, men turned Furies,  
Out of the waist, and ruin of their fortunes;  
(For 'tis despair, that is the mother of madness)  
Such as want (that, which all Conspirators,  
But they, have first) mere colour for their mischief?  
O, I must blush with you. Come, you shall not labour  
To extenuate your guilt, but quit it clean;  
" Bad men excuse their faults, good men will leave 'hem.  
" He acts the third crime, that defends the first.  
Here is a Lady, that hath got the start,  
in piety, of us all; and, for whose virtue,  
I could almost turn Lover, again: but that  
Terentia would be jealous. What an honour  
Hath she achieved to herself! What voices,  
Titles, and loud applauses will pursue her,  
Through every street! What windows will be filled,  
To shoot eyes at her! What envy, and grief in Matrons,  
They are not she! when this her act shall seem  
Worthier a Chariot, then if Pompey came,  
With Asia chained! All this is while she lives.  
But dead, her very name will be a Statue,  
Not wrought for time, but rooted in the minds  
Of all posterity; when Brass, and Marble,  
I, and the Capitol itself is dust.  FUL. 
Your Honour thinks too highly of me.  CIC. 
No:  
I cannot think enough. And I would have  
Him emulate you. 'Tis no shame, to follow  
The better precedent. She shows you, Curius,  
What claim your Country lays to you; and what duty  
You owe to it: Be not afraid, to break  
With Murderers, and Traitors, for the saving  
A life, so near, and necessary to you,  
As is your Countries. Think but on her right.  
" 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.  CUR. 
Do you know it?  FUL. 
Yes, let me speak with you.  CUR. 
O you are—.  FUL. 
What am I?  CUR. 
Speak not so loud.  FUL. 
I am, what you should be,  
Come, do you think, I'd walk in any plot,  
Where Madam Sempronia should take place of me,  
And Fulvia come i' 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 fantasy of yours. Apply  
Yourself to me, and the Consul, and be wife;  
Follow the fortune I ha' put you into:  
You may be some thing this way, and with safety.  CIC. 
Nay, I must tolerate no whisperings, Lady.  FUL. 
Sir, you may hear. I tell him, in the way,  
Wherein he was, how hazardous his course was.  CIC. 
How hazardous? how certain to all ruin.  
Did he, or do, yet, any of them imagine  
The Gods would sleep, to such a Stygian practice,  
Against that Commonwealth, which they have founded  
With so much labour, and like care have kept,  
Now near seven hundred years? It is a madness,  
Wherewith Heaven blinds 'em, when it would confound 'em,  
That they should think it. Come, my Curius,  
I see your nature's right; you shall no more  
Be mentioned with them: I will call you mine,  
And trouble this good shame, 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,  
Then 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 Countries: 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.  CIC. 
Good Curius,  
It shall be dearer rather, and because  
I'd make it such, hear how I trust you more.  
Keep still your former face; and mix again  
With those lost spirits. Run all their mazes with'hem;  
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 near 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 whither their hopes point; to war: or ruin,  
By some surprise. Explore all their intents,  
And what you find may profit the Republic,  
Acquaint me with it, either, by yourself,  
Or this your virtuous friend, on whom I lay  
The care of urging you; I'll see, that Rome  
Shall prove a thankful, and a bounteous Mother:  
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,  
With much protesting: Who is there! This way,  
Lest you be seen, and met. And when you come,  
Be this your token; to this fellow. Light 'hem.  
O Rome, in what a sickness art thou fallen!  
How dangerous, and deadly! when thy head  
Is drowned in sleep, and all thy body fevery!  
No noise, no pulling, no vexation wakes thee,  
Thy Lethargy is such: or if, by chance,  
Thou heavest thy eyelids up, thou dost forget  
Sooner, than thou wert told, thy proper danger.  
I did unreverendly, 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  
From any worthy member, but a base  
And common strumpet, worthless to be named  
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 'em, in the act; have sent  
Death, like a damp, to all their families;  
Or caused their consciences to burst 'hem. But,  
When they will show thee what thou art, and make  
A scornful difference 'twixt their power, and thee,  
They help thee by such aids, as Geese, and Harlots.  
How now? What answer? Is he come?  LIC. 
Your Brother,  
Will straight be here; and your Colleague Antonius  
Said, coldly, he would follow me.  CIC. 
ay, that  
Troubles me somewhat, and is worth my fear;  
He is a man, against 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,  
priest 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 borne,  
A friend unto the public; and bestow  
The Province on him; which is by the Senate  
Decreed to me: That benefit will bind him.  
'tis well, if some men will do well, for price;  
" So few are virtuous, when the reward's away:  
Nor must I be unmindful of my private;  
For which I have called my Brother, and the Tribunes,  
My Kinsfolk, and my Clients to be near me;  
" He that stands up against Traitors, and their ends,  
" Shall need a double guard, of law, and friends:  
" Especially, in such an envious State,  
" That sooner will accuse the Magistrate,  
" Then the Delinquent; and will rather grieve  
" The Treason is not acted, then believe.  CAESAR, CATILINE. 
THe night grows on; and you are for your meeting:  
I'll therefore end in few. Be resolute,  
And put your enterprise in act: The more  
" Actions of depth, and danger are considered,  
" The less assuredly they are performed.  
And thence it happeneth, that the bravest plots  
(Not executed strait) have been discovered.  
Say, you are constant, or another, a third,  
Or more; there may be yet one wretched spirit,  
With whom the fear of punishment shall work  
'bove all the thoughts of honour, and revenge.  
You are not, now, to think what's best to do,  
As in beginnings; but, what must be done,  
Being thus entered: and slip no advantage  
That may secure you. Let 'em call it mischief;  
" When it is past, and prospered, 't will be virtue.  
" theyare petty crimes are punished, great rewarded.  
Nor must you think of peril; since," Attempts,  
Begun with danger, still do end with glory:  
" And, when need spurs, despair will be called wisdom.  
Less ought the care of men, or fame to fright you;  
" For they, that win, do seldom receive shame  
" Of victory: how ere it be achieved;  
And vengeance, lest. For who, besieged with wants,  
Would stop at death, or any thing beyond it?  
Come, there was never any great thing thing, yet,  
Aspired, but by violence, or fraud:  
And he that sticks (for folly of a conscience)  
To reach it—.  CAT. 
Is a good religious fool.  CAES. 
A superstitious slave, and will die beast.  
Good night. You know what Crassus thinks, and I,  
By this: Prepare you wings, as large as sails,  
To cut through air, and leave no print behind you.  
A Serpent, ere he comes to be a Dragon,  
Does eat a Bat: and so must you a Consul,  
That watches. What you do, do quickly Sergius.  
You shall not stir for me.  CAT. 
Excuse me, lights there.  CAES. 
By no means.  CAT. 
Stay then. All good thoughts to Caesar.  
And like to Crassus.  CAES. 
Mind but your friends counsels.  CATILINE, AURELIA, LECCA. 
OR, I will bear no mind. How now, Aurelia?  
Are your confederates come? the Ladies?  AUR. 
Yes.  CAT. 
And is Simpronia there?  AUR. 
She is.  CAT. 
That's well.  
She has a sulphurous spirit, and will take  
Light at a spark. Break with them, gentle love,  
About the drawing as many of their Husbands,  
Into the plot, as can: If not, to rid 'hem.  
That will be the easier practice, unto some,  
Who have been tired with 'em long. Solicit  
Their aids, for money; and their Servants help,  
In firing of the City, at the time  
Shall be designed. Promise 'em States, and Empires,  
And men, for Lovers, made of better clay,  
Then ever the old Potter Titan knew.  
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? Porcius, fetch the silver Eagle  
I give you in charge. And pray 'em, they will enter.  CATILINE, CETHEGUS, CURIUS, LENTULUS, VARGUNTEIUS, LONGINUS, GABINIUS, CEPARIUS, AUTRONIUS. & C. 
O Friends, your faces glad me. This will be  
Our last, I hope, of consultation.  CAT. 
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.  CET. 
As we are, here.  LON. 
And, as it is 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  
Into the Picene territory; and julius,  
To raise force, for us, in Apulia:  
Manlius at Fesulae is (by this time) up,  
With the old needy troops, that followed Sylla;  
And all do but expect, when we will give  
The blow at home. Behold this silver Eagle,  
Was Marius' standard, in the Cimbrian war,  
Fatal to Rome; and, as our Augurs tell me,  
Shall still be so: For which one ominous cause,  
I have kept it safe, and done it sacred rites,  
As to a Godhead; in a Chapel built  
Of purpose to it. Pledge then all your hands,  
To follow it, with vows of death, and ruin,  
Struck silently, and home. So waters speak  
When they run deepest. Now's the time, this year,  
The twenti'th, from the firing of the Capitol,  
As fatal too, to Rome, by all predictions;  
And, in which, honoured Lentulus must rise  
A King, if he pursue it.  CUR. 
If he do not,  
He is not worthy the great destiny.  LEN. 
It is too great for me, but what the Gods,  
And their great loves decree me, I must not  
Seem careless of.  CAT. 
No nor we envious.  
We have enough beside, all Gallia, Belgia,  
Greece, Spain, and Africa.  CUR. 
●and Asia too,  
Now Pompey is returning.  CAT. 
Noblest Romans,  
Me thinks our looks, are not so quick and high,  
As they were wont.  CUR. 
No? whose is not?  CAT. 
We have  
No anger in our eyes, no storm, no lightning:  
Our hate is spent, and fumed away in vapour,  
Before our hands be'at work. I can accuse  
Not any one, but all of slackness.  CET. 
Yes,  
And be yourself such, while you do it.  CAT. 
Ha?  
'tis sharply answered, Caius,  CET. 
Truly, truly.  LEN. 
Come, let us each one know his part to do,  
And then be accused. Leave these untimely quarrels.  CUR. 
I would there were more Rome's then one, to ruin.  CET. 
More Rome's? More Worlds.  CUR. 
Nay then more Gods, & Natures,  
If they took part.  LEN. 
When shall the time be, first?  CAT. 
I think the Saturnals.  CET. 
'Twill be too long.  CAT. 
They are not now far off, 'tis not a month.  CET. 
A week, a day, an hour is too far off,  
Now, were the fittest time.  CAT. 
We ha' not laid  
All things so safe, and ready.  CET. 
While we're laying,  
We shall all lie; and grow to earth. Would I  
Were nothing in it, if not now. These things  
They should be done, e'er thought.  CAT. 
Nay, now your reason  
Forsakes you, Caius. Think, but what commodity  
That time will minister; the City's custom  
Of being, then, in mirth, and feast.  LEN. 
Loosed whole  
In pleasure and security.  AUL. 
Each house  
Resolved in freedom.  CUR. 
Every slave a master.  LON. 
And they too no mean aids.  CUR. 
Made from their hope  
Of liberty.  LEN. 
Or hate unto their Lords.  VAR. 
'tis sure, there cannot be a time found out  
More apt, and natural.  LEN. 
Nay, good Cethegus,  
Why do your passions, now, disturb our hopes?  CET. 
Why do your hopes delude your certainties?  CAT. 
You must lend him his way. Think, for the order,  
And process of it.  LON. 
Yes.  LEN. 
I like not fire:  
'Twill too much waste my City.  CAT. 
Were it embers,  
There will be wealth enough, raked out of them,  
To spring a new: It must be fire, or nothing.  LON. 
What else should fright, or terrify 'hem?  VAR. 
True.  
In that confusion, must be the chief slaughter.  CUR. 
Then we shall kill 'em bravest.  CEP. 
And in heaps.  AUT. 
Strew Sacrifices.  CUR. 
Make the Earth an Altar.  LON, 
And Rome the fire.  LEC. 
'Twill be a noble night.  VAR. 
And worth all Sylla's days.  CUR. 
When Husbands, Wives,  
Grandfires, and Nephews, Servants, and their Lords,  
Virgins, and Priests, the Infant, and the Nurse  
Go all to hell, together, in a fleet.  CAT. 
I would have you, Longinus, and Statilius,  
To take the charge o' the firing, which must be,  
At a sign given with a trumpet, done  
In twelve chief places of the City, at once.  
The flax, and sulphur, are already laid  
In, at Cethegus house. So are the weapons.  
Gabinius, you, with other force, shall stop  
The pipes, and conduits: And kill those that come  
For water.  CUR. 
What shall I do?  CAT. 
All will have  
Employment, fear not: Ply the execution.  CUR. 
For that, trust me, and Cethegus.  CAT. 
I will be  
At hand, with the army, to meet those that scape.  
And Lentulus, begird you Pompey's house,  
To seize his sons alive: for they are they  
Must make our peace with him. All else cut off,  
As Tarquin did the poppy heads; or mowers  
A field of thistles; or else, up, as ploughs  
Do barren lands; and strike together flints,  
And clods; th'ungrateful Senate, and the People:  
Till no rage, gone before, or coming after  
May weigh with yours, though Horror leapt herself  
Into the scale: but, in your violent acts,  
The fall of torrents, and the noise of tempests,  
The boiling of Charybdis, the Seas wildness,  
The eating force of flames, and wings of winds,  
Be all outwrought, by your transcendent furies.  
It had been done, ere this, had I been Consul;  
We'had had no stop, no let.  LEN. 
How find you Antonius?  CAT. 
th'other has won him lost, that Cicero  
Was borne to be my opposition,  
And stands in all our ways.  CUR. 
Remove him first.  CET. 
May that, yet, be done sooner?  CAT. 
Would it were done.  CUR. VAR. 
I'll do't.  CET. 
It is my province; none usurp it.  LEN. 
What are your means?  CET. 
Inquire not. He shall die.  
Shall, was too slowly said. He's dying. That  
Is, yet, too slow. He's dead.  CAT. 
Brave, only Roman,  
Whose soul might be the world's soul, were that dying;  
Refuse not, yet, the aids of these your friends:  LEN. 
Here's Vargunteius holds good quarter with him.  CAT. 
And under the pretext of clientele  
And visitation, with the morning hail,  
Will be admitted.  CET. 
What is that to me?  VAR. 
Yes, we may kill him in his bed, and safely.  CET. 
Safe is your way, then; take it. Mine's mine own.  CAT. 
Follow him, Vargunteius, and persuade,  
The morning is the fittest time.  LON. 
The night  
Will turn all into tumult.  LEN. 
And perhaps  
Miss of him too.  CAT. 
Entreat, and conjure him.  
In all our names.  LEN. 
By all our vows, and friendships.  SEMPRONIA, AURELIA, FULVIA, to them. 
WHat! is our Council broke up first?  AUR. 
You say,  
Women are greatest talkers.  SEM. 
We ha' done;  
And are now fit for action.  LON. 
Which is passion.  
There's your best activity, Lady.  SEM. 
How  
knows your wise fatness that?  LON. 
Your Mother's daughter  
Did teach me, Madam.  CET. 
Come Sempronia, leave him:  
He is a Giber. And our present business  
Is of more serious consequence. Aurelia  
Tells me, you ' have done most masculinely within,  
And played the Orator.  SEM. 
But we must hasten  
To our design as well, and execute:  
Not hang still, in the fever of an accident.  CAT. 
You say well, Lady.  SEM. 
I do like our plot  
Exceeding well, 'tis sure; and we shall leave  
Little to fortune, in it.  CAT. 
Your banquet stays.  
Aurelia take her in. Where's Fuluia?  SEM. 
O the two Lovers are coupling.  CUR. 
In good faith,  
She's very ill, with sitting up.  SEM. 
you'd have her  
Laugh, and lie down.  FUL. 
No, faith, Sempronia,  
I am not well; I'll take my leave, it draws  
Toward the morning. Curius shall stay with you.  
Madam, I pray you pardon me, my health  
I must respect.  AUR. 
Farewell, good Fulvia.  CUR. 
Make haste, and bid him get his guards about him.  
For Vargunteius, and Cornelius  
Have undertaken it, should Cethegus miss:  
Their reason, that they think his open rashness  
Will suffer easier discovery,  
Then their attempt; so veiled under friendship.  
I'll bring you to your Coach. Tell him, beside,  
Of Caesar's coming forth, here.  CAT. 
My sweet Madam,  
Will you be gone?  FUL. 
I am, my Lord, in truth,  
In some indisposition.  CAT. 
I do wish  
You had all your health, sweet Lady. Lentulus,  
You'll do her service.  LEN. 
To her coach, and duty.  CATILINE. 
WHat ministers men must, for practise, use!  
The rash, th' ambitious, needy, desperate,  
Foolish, and wretched, e'en the dregs of Mankind,  
To whores, and women! Still, it must be so.  
Each have their proper place; and, in their rooms.  
They are the best. grooms fittest kindle fires,  
Slaves carry burdens, Butchers are for slaughters,  
Apothecaries, Butlers, Cooks for poisons;  
As these for me: Dull, stupid Lentulus,  
My stale, with whom I stalk; the rash Cethegus,  
My executioner; and fat Longinus,  
Statilius, Curius, Ceparius, Cimber.  
My labourers, pioneers, and incendiaries;  
With these domestic traitors, bosom thieves,  
Whom custom hath called Wives; the readiest helps,  
To strangle headstrong Husbands; rob the easy;  
And lend the moneys, on returns of lust.  
Shall Catiline not do, now, with these aids,  
So sought, so sorted, something shall be called  
Their labour, but his profit? and make Caesar  
Repent his venturing counsels, to a spirit,  
So much his Lord in mischief? when all these,  
Shall, like the Brethren sprung of Dragon's teeth,  
Ruin each other; and he fall amongst 'em:  
With Crassus, Pompey, or who else appears,  
But like, or near a great one. May my brain  
Resolve to water, and my blood turn phlegm,  
My hands, drop off, unworthy of my sword,  
And that b' inspired, of itself, to rip  
My breast, for my lost entrails; when I leave  
A soul, that will not serve. And who will, are  
The same with slaves; such clay I dare not fear.  
The cruelty, I mean to act, I wish  
Should be called mine, and tarry in my name;  
Whilst after Ages do toil out themselves  
In thinking for the like, but do it less:  
And, were the power of all the fiends let loose,  
With Fate to boot, it should be, still, example.  
When, what the Gaul, or Moor could not effect,  
Nor emulous Carthage, with their length of spite,  
Shall be the work of one, and that my night.  CICERO, FULVIA, QVINTUS. 
I Thank your vigilance. Where's my brother, Quintus?  
Call all my servants up. Tell noble Curius,  
And say it to yourself, you are my sauces;  
But that's too little for you, you are Rome's:  
What could I then, hope less? O brother! now,  
The engines I told you of, are working;  
The machine 'gin's to move. Where are your weapons?  
Arm all my household presently. And charge  
The Porter, he let no man in, till day.  QVI. 
Not Clients, and your friends?  CIC. 
They wear those names,  
That come to murder me. Yet send for Cato,  
And Quintus Catulus; those I dare trust;  
And Flaccus, and Pomtinius, the Praetors,  
By the back way.  QVI. 
Take care, good brother Marcus,  
Your fears be not formed greater, than they should;  
And make your friends grieve, while your enemies laugh.  CIC. 
'tis brother's counsel, and worth thanks, But do  
As I entreat you. I provide, not fear.  
Was Caesar there, say you?  FUL. 
Curius says, he met him,  
Coming from thence.  CIC. 
O, so. And, had you a counsel  
Of Ladies too? Who was your Speaker, Madam?  FUL. 
She that would be, had there been forty more;  
Sempronia, who had both her Greek, and Figures;  
And, ever and anon, would ask us, if  
The witty Consul could have mended that?  
Or Orator Cicero could have said it better?  CIC. 
she's my gentle enemy. Would Cethegus  
Had no more danger in him. But, my guards  
Are you, great powers; and th' unbated strengths  
Of a firm conscience, which shall arm each step  
Ta'en for the State; and teach me slack no pace  
For fear of malice. How now, Brother?  QVI. 
Cato,  
And Quintus Catulus were coming to you,  
And Crassus with 'hem. I have let 'em in,  
By th' garden.  CIC. 
What would Crassus have?  QVI. 
I hear  
Some whispering 'bout the gate; and making doubt,  
Whither it be not yet too early, or no?  
But I do think, they are your friends, and Clients,  
Are fearful to disturb you.  CIC. 
You will change  
To ' another thought, anon. Ha' you given the Porter  
The charge, I willed you?  QVI. 
Yes.  CIC. 
Withdraw, and hearken.  VARGUNTEIUS, CORNELIUS, PORTER, CICERO, CATO, CATULUS, CRASSUS. 
THe door's not open, yet.  COR. 
You ' were best to knock.  VAR. 
Let them stand close, then: And, when we are in,  
Rush after us.  COR. 
But where's Cethegus?  VAR. 
He  
Has left it, since he might not do't his way.  POR. 
Who's there?  VAR. 
A friend, or more.  POR. 
I may not let  
Any man in, till day.  VAR. 
No? why?  COR. 
Thy reason?  POR. 
I am commanded so.  VAR. 
By whom?  COR. 
I hope  
We are not discovered.  VAR. 
Yes, by revelation.  
Pray thee good slave, who has commanded thee?  POR. 
He that may best, the Consul.  VAR. 
We are his friends.  POR. 
All's one.  COR. 
Best give your name.  VAR. 
Dost thou hear, fellow?  
I have some instant business with the Consul.  
My name is Vargunteius.  CIC. 
True, he knows it;  
And for what friendly office you are sent.  
Cornelius, too, is there?  VAR. 
We are betrayed.  CIC. 
And desperate Cethegus, is he not?  VAR. 
Speak you, he knows my voice.  CIC. 
What say you to't?  COR. 
You are deceived Sir.  CIC. 
No, 'tis you are so:  
Poor, misled men. Your states are yet worth pity,  
If you would hear, and change your savage minds.  
Leave to be mad; forsake your purposes  
Of Treason, Rapine, Murder, Fire, and Horror:  
The common wealth hath eyes, that wake as sharply  
Over her life, as yours do for her ruin.  
Be not deceived, to think her lenity  
Will be perpetual; or, if Men be wanting,  
The Gods will be, to such a calling cause.  
Consider your attempts, and while there's time,  
Repent you of 'hem. It doth make me tremble  
There should those spirits yet breath, that when they cannot  
Live honestly, would rather perish basely.  CATO. 
You talk to much to 'em, Marcus, theyare lost.  
Go forth, and apprehend 'hem.  CATU. 
If you prove  
This practice; what should let the Commonwealth  
To take due vengeance?  VAR. 
Let us shift, away.  
The darkness hath concealed us, yet: we'll say  
Some have abused our names.  COR. 
Deny it all.  CATO. 
Quintus, what guards ha' you? Call the Tribunes aid▪  
And raise the City. Consul, you are too mild,  
" The foulness of some facts takes thence all mercy:  
Report it to the Senate. Hear: The Gods  
Grow angry with your patience." 'tis their care,  
" And must be yours, that guilty men escape not.  
" As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.  CHORUS. 
WHat is it, Heavens, you prepare  
With so much swiftness, and so sudden rising?  
There are no Sons of earth, that dare,  
Again, rebellion: or the Gods surprising?  
The World doth shake, and Nature fears,  
Yet is the tumult, and the horror greater  
Within our minds, then in our ears,  
So much Rome's faults (now grown her Fate) do threat her.  
The Priests, and People run about,  
Each Order, Age, and Sex amazed at other;  
And, at the ports, all thronging out,  
As if their safety were to quit their Mother:  
Yet find they the same dangers there,  
From which they make such haste to be preserved;  
For guilty States do ever bear  
The plagues about them, which they have deserved.  
And, till those plagues do get above  
The mountain of our faults, and there do sit;  
We see 'em not. Thus, still we love  
th'evil we do, until we suffer it.  
But, most, ambition, that near vice  
To virtue, hath the fate of Rome provoked;  
And made, that now Rome's self no price,  
To free her from the death, wherewith she's yoked.  
That restless Ill, that still doth build  
Upon success; and ends not in aspiring:  
But there begins. And near is filled,  
While ought remains that seems but worth desiring.  
Where in the Thought, unlike the Eye,  
To which things far, seem smaller than they are,  
deems all contentment placed on high:  
And thinks there's nothing great, but what is far.  
O, that in time, Rome did not cast  
Her errors up, this fortune to prevent;  
T'have seen her crimes'ere they were passed:  
And felt her faults, before her punishment.   

Act. iiii.  ALLOBROGESES. 
CAn these men fear? who are not only ours,  
But the world's masters? Then I see, the Gods  
Upbraid our sufferings, or would humble them;  
By sending these affrights, while we are here:  
That we might laugh at their ridiculous fear,  
Whose names, we trembled at, beyond the Alps.  
Of all that pass, I do not see a face  
Worthy a man, that dares look up, and stand  
One thunder out; but downward all, like beasts,  
Running away from every flash is made.  
The falling world could not deserve such baseness.  
Are we employed here, by our miseries,  
Like superstitious fools (or rather slaves)  
To plain our griefs, wrongs, and oppressions,  
To a mere clothed Senate, whom our folly  
Hath made, and still intends to keep our tyrants?  
It is our base petitionary breath  
That blows 'em to this greatness; which this prick  
Would soon let out, if we were bold, and wretched.  
When they have taken all we have; our goods,  
Crop, lands, and houses, they will leave us this:  
A weapon, and an arm will still be found,  
Though naked left, and lower than the ground.  CATO, CATULUS, CICERO. 
Do; urge thine anger, still; good Heaven, and just.  
Tell guilty men, what powers are above them.  
In such a confidence of wickedness,  
'Twas time, they should know something fit to fear.  CATU. 
I never saw a morn more full of horror.  CATO. 
To Catiline, and his: But, to just men,  
Though Heaven should speak, with all his wrath at once,  
That, with his breath, the hinges of the world  
Did crack; we should stand upright, and unfeared.  CIC. 
Why, so we do, good Cato. Who be these?  CATU. 
Ambassadors, from the Allobroges,  
I take 'em, by their habits.  ALL. 
ay, these men  
Seem of another race; Let's sue to these  
There's hope of justice, with their fortitude.  CIC. 
Friends of the Senate, and of Rome, to day  
We pray you to forbear us: on the morrow  
What suit you have, let us, by Fabius Sanga,  
(Whose Patronage your State doth use) but know it,  
And, on the Consull's word, you shall receive  
Dispatch, or else an answer, worth your patience.  ALL. 
We could not hope for more, most worthy Consul.  
This Magistrate hath struck an awe into me,  
And, by his sweetness, won a more regard  
Unto his place, than all the boisterous moods  
That ignorant Greatness practiseth, to fill  
The large, unfit authority it wears.  
How easy is a noble spirit discerned  
From harsh, and sulphurous matter, that flies out  
In contumelies, makes a noise, and stinks.  
May we find good, and great men, that know how  
To stoop to wants, and meet necessities,  
And will not turn from any equal suits.  
" Such men, they do not succour more the cause,  
" They undertake, with favour, and success;  
" Then, by it, their own judgements they do raise,  
" In turning just men's needs, into their praise.  THE SENATE. PRAE. 
Room for the Consuls. Fathers, take your places.  
Here, in the house of jupiter, the STAYER,  
By edict from the Consul, Marcus Tullius,  
You're met, a frequent Senate. Hear him speak.  CIC. 
Which may be happy, and auspicious still  
To Rome, and hers. honoured and Conscript Fathers,  
If I were silent, and that all the dangers  
Threatening the State, and you, were yet so hid  
In night, or darkness, thicker in their breasts,  
That are the black contrivers; so, that no  
beam of the light could pierce 'em: Yet the voice  
Of Heaven, this morning, hath spoke loud enough,  
T'instruct you with a feeling of the horror;  
And wake you from a sleep, as dead, as death.  
I have, of late, spoke often in this Senate,  
Touching this argument, but still have wanted  
Either your ears, or faith: so ' incredible  
Their plots have seemed, or I so vain, to make  
These things for mine own glory, and false greatness,  
As hath been given out. But be it so:  
When they break forth, and shall declare themselves,  
By their too foul effects, then, then, the envy  
Of my just cares will find another name.  
For me, I am but one: And this poor life,  
So lately aimed at, not an hour yet since,  
They cannot with more eagerness pursue,  
Then I with gladness would lay down, and loose,  
To buy Rome's peace, if that would purchase it.  
But when I see, they'd make it but the step  
To more, and greater; unto yours, Rome's, all:  
I would with those preserve it, or then fall.  CAES. 
ay, I, let you alone, cunning Artificer!  
See, how his gorget peers above his gown;  
To tell the people, in what danger he was.  
It was absurdly done of Vargunteius,  
To name himself, before he was got in.  CRA. 
It matters not, so they deny it all:  
And can but carry the lie constantly.  
Will Catiline be here?  CAES. 
I have sent for him.  CRA. 
And ha' you bid him to be confident?  CAES. 
To that his own necessity will prompt him.  CRA. 
Seem to believe nothing at all, that Cicero  
Relates us.  CAES. 
It will mad him.  CRA. 
O, and help  
The other party. Who is that? His Brother?  
What new intelligence has he brought him now?  CAES. 
Some cautions from his Wife, how to behave him.  CIC. 
Place some of them without, and some bring in.  
Thank their kind loves. It is a comfort yet,  
That all depart not from their Country's cause.  CAES. 
How now, what means this Muster? Consul, Antonius?  ANT. 
I do not know, ask my Colleague, he'll tell you.  
There is some reason in state, that I must yield to;  
And I have promised him: Indeed he has bought it,  
With giving me the Province.  CIC. 
I profess,  
It grieves me, Fathers, that I am compelled  
To draw these arms, and aids for your defence;  
And, more, against a Citizen of Rome,  
Borne here amongst you, a Patrician,  
A man, I must confess, of no mean house,  
Nor no small virtue, if he had employed  
Those excellent gifts of Fortune, and of Nature,  
Unto the good, not ruin of the State.  
But being bred in's father's needy fortunes,  
Brought up in's sister's prostitution,  
Confirmed in civil slaughter, entering first  
The Commonwealth, with murder of the gentry;  
Since, both by study, and custom, conversant  
With all licentiousness: what could be hoped  
In such a field of riot, but a course  
Extreme pernicious? Though, I must protest,  
I found his mischiefs, sooner, with mine eyes,  
Then with my thought; and with these hands of mine  
Before they touched, at my suspicion.  CAES. 
What are his mischiefs, Consul? you declaim  
Against his manners, and corrupt your own;  
" No wise man should, for hate of guilty men,  
" Lose his own innocence.  CIC. 
The noble Caesar  
Speaks Godlike truth. But, when he hears, I can  
Convince him, by his manners, of his mischiefs,  
He might be silent: And not cast away  
His sentences in vain, where they scarce look.  
Toward his subject.  CAT. 
Here he comes himself.  
If he be woe thy any good man's voice,  
That good man sit down, by him: Cato will not.  CATU. 
If Cato leave him. I'll not keep aside.  CATI. 
What face is this, the Senate here puts on,  
Against me, Fathers! Give my modesty  
Leave, to demand the cause of so much strangeness.  CAES. 
It is reported here, you are the head  
To a strange faction, Lucius'.  CIC. 
ay, and will  
Be proved against him.  CAT. 
Let it be. Why, Consul,  
If in the Commonwealth, there be two bodies,  
One lean, weak, rotten, and that hath a head;  
The other strong, and healthful, but hath none:  
If I do give it one, do I offend?  
Restore yourselves, unto your temper, Fathers;  
And, without perturbation, hear me speak:  
Remember who I am, and of what place,  
What petty fellow this is, that opposes;  
One, that hath exercised his eloquence,  
Still to the bane of the Nobility:  
A boasting, insolent tongue-man.  CATO. 
Peace lewd Traitor,  
Or wash thy mouth. He is an honest man  
And loves his Country; would thou didst so, too.  CATI. 
Cato, you are too zealous for him.  CATO. 
No,  
Thou art too impudent.  CATU. 
Catiline be silent.  CATI. 
Nay then, I easily fear, my just defence  
Will come too late, to so much prejudice.  CAES. 
Will he sit down?  CATI. 
Yet, let the world forsake me,  
My innocence must not.  CATO. 
Thou innocent?  
So are the Furies.  CIC. 
Yes, and Ate, too.  
Dost thou not blush, pernicious Catiline?  
Or, hath the paleness of thy guilt drunk up  
Thy blood, and drawn thy veins, as dry of that,  
As is thy heart of truth, thy breast of virtue?  
Whither at length wilt thou abuse our patience?  
Still shall thy fury mock us? To what licence  
Dares thy unbridled boldness run itself?  
Do all the nightly guards, kept on the Palace,  
The City's watches, with the People's fears,  
The concourse of all Good men, this so strong  
And fortified seat here of the Senate,  
The present looks upon thee, strike thee nothing?  
Dost thou not feel thy Counsels all laid open?  
And see thy wild Conspiracy bound in  
With each man's knowledge? which of all this Order  
Canst thou think ignorant (if they'll but utter  
Their conscience to the right) of what thou didst  
Last night, what on the former, where thou wert,  
Whom thou didst call together, what your plots were?  
O Age, and Manners! This the Consul fees,  
The Senate understands, yet this man lives!  
lives? ay, and comes here into Council with us;  
Partakes the public cares: and with his eye  
Marks, and points out each man of us to slaughter.  
And we, good men, do satisfy the State,  
If we can shun but this man's sword, and madness.  
There was that virtue, once, in Rome, when good men  
Would, with more sharp coërtion, have restrained  
A wicked Citizen, than the deadliest Foe.  
We have that law still, Catiline, for thee;  
An art as grave, as sharp: The State's not wanting,  
Nor the authority of this Senate; we,  
We, that are Consuls, only fail ourselves.  
This twenty days, the edge of that decree  
We have let dull, and rust; kept it shut up,  
As in a sheath, which drawn should take thy head.  
Yet still thou liv'st: and liv'st not to lay by  
Thy wicked confidence, but to confirm it.  
I could desire, Fathers, to be found  
Still merciful, to seem in these main perils,  
Grasping the state, a man remiss, and slack;  
But then, I should condemn myself of sloth,  
And treachery. Their camp's in Italy,  
Pitched in the jaws, here, of Hetruria;  
Their numbers daily increasing, and their General  
Within our walls: nay in our Council, plotting  
Hourly some fatal mischief to the Public.  
If, Catiline, I should command thee, now,  
Here, to be taken, killed; I make just doubt,  
Whether all good men would not think it done  
Rather too late, than any man too cruel.  CATO. 
Except he were of the same meal, and batch.  CIC. 
But that, which ought to have been done long since,  
I will, and (for good reason) yet forbear.  
Then will I take thee, when no man is found  
So lost, so wicked, nay so like thyself,  
But shall profess, 'tis done of need, and right.  
While there is one, that dares befend thee, live;  
Thou shalt have leave; but so, as now thou liv'st:  
Watched at a hand, besieged, and oppressed  
From working least commotion to the State.  
I have those eyes, and ears, shall still keep guard,  
And spial on thee, as they have ever done,  
And thou not feel it. What, then, canst thou hope?  
If neither Night can, with her darkness, hide  
Thy wicked meetings; not a private House  
Can, in her walls, contain the guilty whispers  
Of thy conspiracy: If all break out,  
All be discovered, change thy mind at last,  
And lose thy thoughts of ruin, flame, and slaughter.  
Remember, how I told, here, to the Senate,  
That such a day, thy Lictor, Caius Manlius,  
Would be in arms. Was I deceived, Catiline,  
Or in the fact, or in the time? the hour?  
I told too, in this Senate, that thy purpose  
Was, on the fifth, the Kalends of November,  
T' have slaughtered this whole Order: which my caution  
Made many leave the City. Canft thou here  
Deny, but this thy black design was hindered,  
That very day, by me, thyself closed in  
Within my strengths, so that thou couldst not move  
Against a public reed? when thou wert heard  
To say, upon the parting of the rest,  
Thou wouldst content thee, with the murder of us,  
That did remain. Hadst thou not hope, beside,  
By a surprise, by night, to take Praeneste?  
Where when thou cam'st, didst thou not find the place  
Made good against thee, with my aids, my watches?  
My Garrisons fortified it. Thou dost nothing, Sergius,  
Thou canst endeavour nothing, nay not think,  
But I both see, and hear it; and am with thee,  
By, and before, about, and in thee, too.  
Call but to mind thy last night's business. Come,  
I'll use no circumstance: at Lecca's house,  
The shop, and mint of your conspiracy,  
Among your Swordmen, where so many associates  
Both of thy mischief, and thy madness, met.  
Dar'st thou deny this? wherefore art thou silent?  
Speak, and this shall convince thee: Here they are,  
I see 'em, in this Senate, that were with thee.  
O you immortal Gods! in what clime are we?  
What region do we live in? in what air?  
What Commonwealth, or State is this we have?  
Here, here, amongst us, our own number, Fathers,  
In this most holy Council of the world,  
They are, that seek the spoil of me, of you,  
Of ours, of all; what I can name's too narrow:  
Follow the Sun, and find not their ambition.  
These I behold, being Consul; Nay, I ask  
Their counsels of the State, as from good Patriots:  
Whom it were fit the axe should hew in pieces,  
I not so much as wound, yet, with my voice.  
Thou wast, last night, with Lecca, Catiline,  
Your shares, of Italy, you there divided;  
Appointed who, and whither, each should go;  
What men should stay behind, in Rome, were chosen;  
Your offices set down; the parts marked out,  
And places of the City, for the fire;  
Thyself (thou ' affirmedst) wast ready to depart,  
Only, a little let there was, that stayed thee,  
That I yet lived: Upon the word, stepped forth  
Three of thy crew, to rid thee of that care;  
Two undertook this morning, before day,  
To kill me in my bed. All this I knew,  
Your convent scarce dismissed, armed all my servants,  
Called both my brother, and friends, shut out your clients,  
You sent to visit me; whose names I told  
To some there, of good place, before they came.  CATO. 
Yes, ay, and Quintus Catulus can affirm it.  CAES. 
he's lost, and gone. His spirits have forsook him.  CIC. 
If this be so, why, Catiline, dost thou stay?  
Go, where thou meanest: The Ports are open; forth.  
The Camp abroad wants thee, their Chief, too long.  
Led with thee all thy troops out. Purge the City.  
Draw dry that noisome, and pernicious sink,  
Which left, behind thee, would infect the world.  
Thou wilt free me of all my fears, at once,  
To see a wall between us. Dost thou stop  
To do that now, commanded; which before,  
Of thine own choice, thou'rt prone to? Go. The Consul  
Bids thee, an enemy, to depart the City.  
Whither, thou'lt ask? to exile? I not bid  
Thee that. But ask my counsel, I persuade it.  
What is there, here, in Rome, that can delight thee?  
Where not a soul, without thine own foul knot,  
But fears, and hates thee. What domestic note  
Of private filthiness, but is burnt in  
Into thy life? What close, and secret shame,  
But is grown one, with thy known infamy?  
What lust was ever absent from thine eyes?  
What lewd fact from thy hands? what wickedness  
From thy whole body? where's that youth drawn in  
Within thy nets, or catched up with thy baits,  
Before whose rage, thou hast not borne a sword,  
And to whose lusts thou hast not ' held a torch?  
Thy latter Nuptials I let pass in silence;  
Where sins incredible, on sins, were heaped:  
Which I not name, lest, in a civil State,  
So monstrous facts should either appear to be,  
Or not to be revenged. Thy Fortunes, too,  
I glance not at, which hang but till next Ides.  
I come to that, which is more known, more public;  
The life, and safety of us all, by thee  
Threatened, and sought. Stoodst thou not in the field,  
When Lepidus, and Tullus were our Consuls,  
Upon the day of choice, armed, and with forces,  
To take their lives, and our chief Citizens;  
When, not thy fear, nor conscience changed thy mind,  
But the mere fortune of the Commonwealth  
Withstood thy active malice? Speak but right.  
How often hast thou made attempt on me?  
How many of thy assaults have I declined  
With shifting but my body, (as we'd say)  
Wrested thy dagger from thy hand, how oft?  
how often hath it fallen, or slipped by chance?  
Yet can thy side not want it: which, how vowed,  
Or with what rites, 'tis sacred of thee, I know not,  
That still thou mak'st it a necessity,  
To fix it in the body of a Consul.  
But let me lose this way, and speak to thee,  
Not as one moved with hatred, which I ought,  
But pity, of which none is owing thee.  CAT. 
No more than unto Tantalus, or Tityus.  CIC. 
Thou cam'st, ere while, into this Senate. Who  
Of such a frequency, so many friends,  
And kindred thou hast here, saluted thee?  
Were not the seats made bare, upon thy entrance?  
R●ss ' not the Consular men? and left their places,  
So soon as thou satst down? and fled thy side,  
Like to a plague, or ruin; knowing, how oft  
They had been, by thee, marked out for the Shambles?  
How dost thou bear this? Surely, if my Slaves  
At home feared me, with half th' affright, and horror,  
That, here, thy fellow Citizens do thee,  
I should soon quit my house, and think it need too.  
Yet thou dar'st tarry here? Go forth, at last;  
Condemn thyself to flight, and solitude.  
Discharge the Commonwealth, of her deep fear.  
Go; into banishment, if thou waitest the word.  
Why dost thou look? They all consent unto it.  
Dost thou expect th' authority of their voices,  
Whose silent wills condemn thee? While they sit,  
They approve it; while they suffer it, they decree it;  
And while they ' are silent to it, they proclaim it.  
Prove thou there honest, I le endure the envy.  
But there's no thought, thou shouldst be ever he,  
Whom either shame should call from filthiness,  
Terror from danger, or discourse from fury.  
Go; I entreat thee: yet, why do I so?  
When I already know, theyare sent afore,  
That tarry for theein arms, and do expect thee  
On the Aurelian way. I know the day  
Set down, twixt thee, and Manlius; unto whom  
The silver Eagle too is sent, before:  
Which I do hope shall prove, to thee as baneful,  
As thou conceiv'st it to the Commonwealth.  
But, may this wise, and sacred Senate say,  
What meanest thou Marcus Tullius? If thou knowst  
That Catiline be looked for, to be Chief  
Of an intestine war; that mischief the Author  
Of such a wickedness; the Caller out  
Of men of mark in mischiefs, to an action  
Of so much horror; Prince of such a treason;  
Why dost thou send him forth? why let him scape?  
This is to give him liberty, and power:  
Rather, thou shouldst lay hold upon him, send him  
To deserved death, and a just punishment.  
To these so holy voices, thus I answer.  
If I did think it timely, Conscript Fathers,  
To punish him with death, I would not give  
The Fencer use of one short hour, to breath;  
But when there are in this grave Order, some,  
Who, with soft censures, still do nurse his hopes;  
Some, that with not believing, have confirmed  
His designs more, and whose authority  
The weaker, as the worst men, too, have followed:  
I would now send him, where they all should see  
Clear, as the light, his heart shine; where no man  
Could be so wickedly, or fond stupid,  
But should cry out he saw, touched, felt, and grasp 't it.  
Then, when he hath run out himself; led forth  
His desperate party with him; blown together  
Aids of all kinds, both shipwrecked minds & fortunes:  
Not only the grown evil, that now is sprung,  
And sprouted forth, would be plucked up, & weeded;  
But the stock, root, and seed of all the mischiefs,  
Choking the Commonwealth. Where, should we take  
Of such a swarm of traitors, only him,  
Our cares, and fears might seem a while relieved,  
But the main peril would bide still enclosed  
Deep, in the veins, and bowels of the State.  
As human bodies, labouring with fevers,  
While they are tossed with heat, if they do take  
Cold water, seem for that short space much eased,  
But afterward, are ten times more afflicted.  
Wherhfore, I say, let all this wicked crew  
Depart, divide themselves from good men, gather  
Their forces to one head; as I said oft,  
Let 'em be severed from us with a wall;  
Let 'em leave off attempts, upon the Consul,  
In his own house; to circle in the Praetor;  
To girt the Court with weapons; to prepare  
Fire, and balls, swords, torches, sulphur, brands:  
In short, let it be writ in each man's forehead  
What thoughts he bears the Public. I here promise,  
Father's Conscript, to you, and to myself,  
That diligence in us Consuls, for my honoured  
Colleague, abroad, and for myself, at home;  
So great authority in you; so much  
Virtue, in these, the Gentlemen of Rome;  
Whom I could scarce restrain to day, in zeal,  
From seeking out the Parricide, to slaughter;  
So much consent in all good men, and minds,  
As, on the going out of this one Catiline▪  
All shall be clear, made plain, oppressed, revenged.  
And, with this omen, go, pernicious plague,  
Out of the City, to the wished destruction  
Of thee, and those, that, to the ruin of her,  
Have ta'en that bloody, and black sacrament.  
Thou jupiter, whom we do call the STAYER  
Both of this City, and this Empire, wilt  
(With the same auspice thou didst raise it first)  
Drive from thy Altars, and all other Temples,  
And Buildings of this City; from our Walls;  
Lives, states, and fortunes of our Citizens;  
This fiend, this fury, with his complices.  
And all the offence of good men (these known traitors  
Unto their country, thieves of Italy,  
Joined in so damned a league of mischief) thou  
Wilt with perpetual plagues, alive, and dead,  
Punish for Rome, and save her innocent head.  CATI. 
If an Oration, or high language, Fathers,  
Could make me guilty, here is one, hath done it:  
HE has strove to emulate this morning's thunder,  
With his prodigious rhetoric. But I hope,  
This Senate is more grave, then to give credit  
Rashly to all he vomits, against a man  
Of your own Order, a Patrician;  
And one, whose ancestors have more deserved  
Of Rome, than this man's eloquence could utter,  
Turned the best way, as still, it is the worst.  CATO. 
His eloquence hath more deserved to day,  
Speaking thy ill, than all thy ancestors  
Did, in their good: And that the State will find,  
Which he hath saved.  CATI. 
How he? were I that enemy,  
That he would make me: I'd not wish the State  
More wretched, then to need his preservation.  
What do you make him, Cato, such a Hercules?  
An Atlas? A poor petty In- mate.  CATO. 
Traitor.  CATI. 
He save the State? A Burgesses son of Arpinum.  
The Gods would rather twenty Rome's should perish,  
Then have that contumely stuck upon 'em,  
That he should share with them, in the preserving  
A shed, or signpost.  CATO. 
Peace, thou prodigy.  CATI. 
They would be run themselves, again, and lost  
In the first, rude, and indigested heap;  
Ere such a wretched name, as Cicero,  
Should sound with theirs.  CATU. 
Away, thou impudent head.  CATI. 
Do you all back him? are you silent too?  
Well, I will leave you Fathers; I will go.  
But— my fine dainty speaker.—  CIC. 
What now Fury?  
Wilt thou assault me here?  CHO. 
Help, aid the Consul.  CATI. 
See Fathers, laugh you not? who threatened him?  
In vain thou dost conceive, ambitious Orator,  
Hope of so brave a death, as by this hand.  CATO. 
Out, of the Court, with the pernicious traitor.  CATI. 
There is no title, that this flattering Senate,  
Nor honour, the base multitude can give thee,  
Shall make thee worthy Catiline's anger.  CATO. 
Stop,  
Stop that portentous mouth.  CATI. 
Or, when it shall,  
I'll look thee dead.  CATO. 
Will none restrain the Monster?  CATU. 
Parricide.  QVI. 
Butcher, Traitor, leave the Senate.  CATI. 
I am gone, to banishment, to please you Fathers.  
Thrust headlong forth?  CATO. 
Still, dost thou murmur, Monster?  CATI. 
Since, I am thus put out, and made a.—  CIC. 
What?  CATU. 
Not guiltier than thou art.  CATI. 
I will not burn  
Without my funeral pile.  CATO. 
What says the Fiend?  CATI. 
I will have matter, timber.  CATO. 
Sing out Screech-owl.  CATI. 
It shall be in—  CATU. 
Speak thy imperfect thoughts.  CATI. 
The common fire, rather than mine own.  
For fall I will with all, ere fall alone.  CRA. 
he's lost, there is no hope of him.  CAES. 
Unless  
He presently take arms; and give a blow,  
Before the Consul's forces can be leuieed.  CIC. 
What is your pleasure, Fathers, shall be done?  CATU. 
See, that the Commonwealth receive no loss.  CATO. 
Commit the care thereof unto the Consuls.  CRA. 
'tis time.  CAES. 
And need.  CIC. 
Thanks to this frequent Senate.  
But what decree they, unto Curius,  
And Fulvia?  CATU. 
What the Consul shall think meet.  CIC. 
They must receive reward, though't be not known;  
Least when a State needs ministers, they ha' none.  CATO. 
Yet, Marcus Tullius, do not I believe,  
but Crassus, and this Caesar here ring hollow.  CIC. 
And would appear so, if that we durst prove 'hem.  CATO. 
Why dare we not? What honest act is that,  
The Roman Senate should not dare, and do?  CIC. 
Not an unprofitable, dangerous act,  
To stir too many Serpents up at once.  
Caesar, and Crassus, if they be ill men,  
Are mighty ones; and, we must so provide,  
That, while we take one head, from this foul Hydra,  
There spring not twenty more.  CATO. 
I' prove your Counsel.  CIC. 
They shall be watched, and looked too. Till they do  
Declare themselves, I will not put 'em out  
By any question. There they stand. I'll make  
Myself no enemies, nor the State, no traitors.  CATILINE, LENTULUS, CETHEGUS, CURIUS, GABINIUS, LONGINUS, STATILIUS. 
FAlse to ourselves? All our designs discovered  
To this State-Cat?  CET. 
ay, had I had my way,  
He ' had mewed in flames, at home, not i' the Senate:  
I had singed his furs, by this time.  CAT. 
Well, there's, now,  
No time of calling back, or standing still.  
Friends, be yourselves; keep the same Roman hearts,  
And ready minds, you ' had yesternight: Prepare  
To execute, what we resolved. And let not  
Labour, or danger, or discovery fright you.  
I'll to the army: you (the while) mature  
Things, here, at home. Draw to you any aids,  
That you think fit, of men of all conditions,  
Or any fortunes, that may help a war.  
I'll bleed a life, or win an Empire for you.  
Within these few days, look to see my ensigns,  
Here, at the walls: Be you but firm within.  
Mean time, to draw an envy on the Consul,  
And give a less suspicion of our course,  
Let it be given out, here in the City,  
That I am gone, an innocent man, to exile,  
Into Massilia, willing to give way  
To fortune, and the times; being unable  
To stand so great a faction, without troubling  
The Commonwealth: whose peace I rather seek,  
Then all the glory of contention,  
Or the support of mine own innocence.  
Farewell the noble Lentulus, Longinus,  
Curius, the rest; and thou, my better Genius,  
The brave Cethegus: when we meet again,  
we'll sacrifice to Liberty.  CET. 
And Revenge.  
That we may praise our hands once.  LEN. 
O you Fates,  
Give Fortune now her eyes, to see with whom  
She goes along, that she may near forsake him.  CUR. 
He needs not her, nor them. Go but on, Sergius.  
" A valiant man is his own Fate, and Fortune.  LON. 
The Fate, and Fortune of us all go with him.  GAB. STA. 
And ever guard him.  CAT. 
I am all your Creature.  LEN. 
Now friends, 'tis left with us. I have already  
Dealt, by Vmbrenus, with the Allobroges,  
Here resiant in Rome; whose State, I hear,  
Is discontent with the great usuries,  
They are oppressed with: and have made complaints  
divers, unto the Senate, but all vain.  
These men, I'have thought, both for their own oppressions,  
As also that, by nature, theyare a people  
Warlike, and fierce, still watching after change,  
And now, in present hatred with our State,  
The fittest, and the easiest to be drawn  
To our society, and to aid the war.  
The rather, for their seat: being next bordrers  
On Italy: and that they ' abound with horse,  
Of which one want our Camp doth only labour.  
And I have found 'em coming. They will meet  
Soon at Sempronia's house, where I would pray you  
All to be present, to confirm 'em more.  
The sight of such spirits hurt not, nor the store.  GAB. 
I will not fail.  STA. 
Nor 1  CUR. 
Nor 1  CET. 
Would I  
Had some what by myself, apart, to do.  
I ha' no genius to these many counsels.  
Let me kill all the Senate, for my share,  
I'll do it at next sitting.  LEN. 
Worthy Caius,  
Your presence will add much.  CET. 
I shall mar more.  CICERO. SANGA. ALLOBROGESES. 
THe State's beholden to you, Fabius Sanga,  
For this great care: And those Allobroges  
Are more than wretched, if they lend a listening  
To such persuasion.  SAN. 
They, most worthy Consul,  
As men employed here, from a grieved State,  
Groaning beneath a multitude of wrongs,  
And being told, there was small hope of ease  
To be expected, to their evils, from hence,  
Were willing, at the first to give an ear  
To any thing, that sounded liberty:  
But since, on better thoughts, and my urged reasons,  
They ' are come about, and won, to the true side.  
The fortune of the Commonwealth hath conquered.  CIC. 
What is that same Vmbrenus, was the Agent?  SAN. 
One that hath had negotiation  
In Gallia oft, and known unto their State.  CIC. 
Are the Ambassadors come with you?  SAN. 
Yes.  CIC. 
Well, bring 'em in, if they be firm, and honest,  
Never had men the means so to deserve  
Of Rome, as they. A happy, wished occasion,  
And thrust into my hands, for the discovery,  
And manifest conviction of these traitors.  
Be thanked; o jupiter. My worthy Lords,  
Confederates of the Senate, you are welcome.  
I understand by Quintus Fabius Sanga,  
Your careful Patron here, you have been lately  
Solicited against the Commonwealth,  
By one Vmbrenus (take a seat, I pray you)  
From Publius Lentulus, to be associates  
In their intended war. I could advise,  
That men, whose fortunes are yet flourishing,  
And are Rome's friends, would not, without a cause,  
Become her enemies; and mix themselves  
And their estates, with the lost hopes of Catiline,  
Or Lentulus, whose mere despair doth arm 'em:  
That were to hazard certainties, for air,  
And undergo all danger, for a voice.  
Believe me, friends:" loud tumults are not laid  
" With half the easiness▪ that they are raised.  
" All may begin a war, but few can end it.  
The Senate have decreed, that my Colleague  
Shall lead their army, against Catiline,  
And have declared both him, and Manlius traitors.  
Metellus Celer hath already given  
Part of their troops defeat. honours are promised  
To all, will quit'hem; and rewards proposed  
Even to slaves, that can detect their courses.  
Here, in the City, I have by the Praetors,  
And Tribunes, placed my guards, and watches so,  
That not a foot can tread, a breath can whisper,  
But I have knowledge. And be sure, the Senate,  
And People of Rome, of their accustomed greatness,  
Will sharply, and severely vindicate,  
Not only any fact, but any practice  
Or purpose, against the State. Therefore, my Lords,  
Consult of your own ways, and think which hand  
Is best to take. You, now, are present suitors  
For some redress of wrongs; I'll undertake  
Not only that shall be assured you, but  
What grace or privilege else, Senate, or People  
Can cast upon you, worthy such a service,  
As you have now the way, and means, to do 'em;  
If but your wills consent, with my designs.  ALL. 
We covet nothing more, most worthy Consul.  
And how so ere we have been tempted lately,  
To a defection, that not makes us guilty:  
We are not yet so wretched in our fortunes,  
Nor in our wills so lost, as to abandon  
A friendship, prodigally, of that price,  
As is the Senate, and the People of Rome's,  
For hopes, that do precipitate themselves.  CIC. 
You than are wise, and honest. Do but this, then:  
When shall you speak with Lentulus, and the rest?  ALL. 
We are to meet anon, at Brutus' house.  CIC. 
Who? Decius Brutus? He is not in Rome.  SAN. 
O, but his wife Sempronia.  CIC. 
You instruct me,  
She is a Chief. Well, fail not you to meet 'em▪  
And to express the best affection  
You can put on, to all that they intent.  
Like it, applaud it, give the Commonwealth  
And Senate, lost to 'hem. Promise any aids  
By arms, or counsel. What they can desire  
I would have you prevent. Only, say this,  
You ' have had dispatch, in private, by the Consul  
Of your affairs, and for the many fears  
The State's now in, you are willed by him, this evening,  
To depart Rome: which you, by all sought means,  
Will do, of reason to decline suspicion.  
Now, for the more authority of the business  
They ' have trusted to you, and to give it credit  
With your own State, at home, you would desire  
Their letters to your Senate, and your People,  
Which shown, you durst engage both life, and honour,  
The rest should every way answer their hopes.  
Those had, pretend sudden departure you,  
And, as you give me notice, at what Port  
You will go out, I'll ha' you intercepted,  
And all the letters taken with you: So  
As you shall be redeemed in all opinions,  
And they convicted of their manifest treason.  
" Ill deeds are well turned back, upon their Authors:  
" And against an Injurer, the revenge is just.  
This must be done, now.  ALL. 
Cheerfully, and firmly.  
We ' are they, would rather hast to undertake it,  
Then stay, to say so.  CIC. 
With that confidence, go:  
Make yourselves happy, while you make Rome so.  
By Sanga, let me have notice from you.  ALL. 
Yes.  SEMPRONIA, LENTULUS, CETHEGUS, GABINIUS, STATILIUS, LONGINUS, VOLTURTIUS, ALLOBROGESES. 
WHen come these Creatures, the Ambassadors?  
I would fain see 'hem. Are they any Scholars?  LEN. 
I think not, Madam.  SEM. 
Ha' they no Greek?  LEN. 
No surely.  SEM. 
Fie, what do I here, waiting on 'em then?  
If they be nothing but mere Statesmen.  LEN. 
Yes,  
Your Ladyship shall observe their gravity,  
And their reservedness, their many cautions,  
Fitting their persons.  SEM. 
I do wonder much,  
That States, and Commonwealths employ not women,  
To be Ambassadors, sometimes: we should▪  
Do as good public service, and could make  
As honourable Spies (for so Thucydides  
Calls all Ambassadors.) Are they come, Cethegus?  CET. 
Do you ask me? Am I your scout, or bawd?  LEN. 
O Caius, it is no such business.  CET. 
No?  
What does a woman at it then?  SEM. 
Good Sir,  
There are of us can be as exquisite Traitors,  
As ere a male-Conspirator of you all.  CET. 
ay, at smock-treason, Matron, I believe you;  
And if I were your husband; But when I  
Trust to your cobweb-bosomes any other  
Let me there die a Fly; and feast you, Spider.  LEN. 
You are too sour, and harsh Cethegus.  CET. 
You  
Are kind, and courtly. I'd be torn in pieces,  
With wild Hippolytus, nay prove the death,  
Every limb over, ere I'd trust a woman,  
With wind, could I retain it.  SEM. 
Sir. They'll be trusted  
With as good secrets, yet, as you have any,  
And carry 'em too, as close, and as concealed,  
As you shall for your heart.  CET. 
I'll not contend with you  
Either in tongue, or carriage, good Calypso:  LON. 
Th' Ambassadors are come.  CET. 
Thanks to thee Mercury,  
That so hast rescued me.  LEN. 
How now, Volturtius?  VOL. 
They do desire some speech with you, in private.  LEN, 
O! 'tis about the prophecy, belike,  
And promise of the Sibylls';  GAB. 
it may be.  SEM. 
Shun they, to treat with me, too?  GAB. 
No, good Lady,  
You may partake: I have told 'em, who you are.  SEM. 
I should be loath to be left out, and here too.  CET. 
Can these, or such, be any aids, to us?  
Look they, as they were built to shake the world,  
Or be a moment to our enterprise?  
A thousand, such as they are, could not make  
One Atom of our souls. They should be men  
Worth Heavens fear, that looking up, but thus,  
Would make jove stand upon his guard, and draw  
Himself within his Thunder; which, amazed,  
He should discharge in vain, and they unhurt.  
Or, if they were, like Capaneus, at Thebes,  
They should hang dead, upon the highest spires,  
And ask the second charge, to be thrown down.  
Why, Lentulus, talk you so long? This time  
Had been enough, t'have scattered all the Stars,  
T'have quenched the Sun, and Moon, and made the World  
Despair of day, or any light, but ours.  LEN. 
How do you like this spirit? In such men,  
Mankind doth live. They are such souls, as these,  
That move the world.  SEN. 
ay, though he bear me hard,  
I, yet, must do him right. He is a spirit.  
Of the right Martian breed.  ALL. 
He is a Mars.  
Would we had time to live here, and admire him.  LEN. 
Well, I do see you would prevent the Consul.  
And I commend your care: It was but reason,  
To ask our Letters, and we had prepared them.  
Go in, and we will take an oath, and seal 'hem.  
You shall have Letters, too, to Catiline,  
To visit him i'the way, and to confirm  
The association. This our friend, Volturtius,  
Shall go along with you. Tell our great General,  
That we are ready here; that Lucius Bestia  
The Tribune, is provided of a speech,  
To lay the envy of the war on Cicero;  
That all but long for his approach, and person:  
And then, you are made Freemen, as ourselves.  CICERO. FLACCUS. POMTINIUS. SANGA. 
I Cannot fear the war but to succeed well,  
Both for the honour of the cause, and worth  
Of him that doth command. For my Colleague,  
Being so ill affected with the gout,  
Will not be able to be there in person;  
And then Petreius, his Lieutenant, must  
Of need take charge o'the army: who is much  
The better soldier, having been a Tribune,  
Perfect, Lieutenant, Praetor in the war,  
These thirty years, so conversant i' the army,  
As he knows all the soldiers, by their names.  FLA. 
They'll fight then, bravely, with him.  POM. 
ay, and he  
Will lead 'em on, as bravely.  CIC. 
They'haue a foe  
Will ask their braveries, whose necessities  
Will arm him like a fury. But, how ever,  
I'll trust it to the manage, and the fortune  
Of good Petreius, who's a worthy Patriot.  
Metellus Celer, with three Legions, too,  
Will stop their course, for Gallia. How now, Fabius?  SAN. 
The train hath taken. You must instantly  
Dispose your guards upon the Miluian bridge:  
For, by that way, they mean to come.  CIC. 
Then, thither  
Pomtinius, and Flaccus, I must pray you  
To lead that force you have; and seize them all:  
Let not a person scape. Th'ambassadors  
Will yield themselves. If there be any tumult  
I'll send you aid. ay, in mean time will call  
Lentulus to me, Gabinius, and Cethegus,  
Statilius, Ceparius, and all these  
By several messengers: who no doubt will come,  
Without sense, or suspicion." Prodigal men  
" Feel not their own stock wasting. When I have 'em,  
I'll place those guards, upon 'em, that they start not,  SAN. 
But what'll you do with Sempronia?  CIC. 
" A State  
" Should not take knowledge either of Fools, or Women.  
I do not know whether my joy or care  
Ought to be greater; that I have discovered  
So foul a treason: or must undergo  
The envy of so many great men's fate.  
But, happen what there can, I will be just,  
My fortune may forsake me, not my virtue:  
That shall go with me, and before me, still,  
And glad me, doing well, though I hear ill.  PRAETORS, ALLOBROGESES, VOLTURTIUS. FLA. 
Stand, who goes there?  ALL. 
We are th' Allobroges,  
And friends of Rome.  POM. 
If you be so, then yield  
Yourselves unto the Praetors, who in name  
Of the whole Senate, and the people of Rome,  
Yet, till you clear you selves, charge you of practice  
Against the State.  VOL. 
Die friends, and be not taken.  FLA. 
What voice is that? Down with 'em all.  ALL. 
We yield.  POM. 
What's he stands out? Kill him there.  VOL. 
Hold, hold, hold.  
I yield upon conditions.  FLA. 
We give none  
To traitors, strike him down.  VOL. 
My name's Volturtius:  
I know Pomtinius.  POM. 
But he knows not you,  
While you stand out upon these traitorous terms.  VOL. 
I'll yield upon the safety of my life.  POM. 
If it be forfeited, we cannot save it.  VOL. 
Promise to do your best. I'm not so guilty,  
As many others, I can name; and will:  
If you will grant me favour.  POM. 
All we can  
Is to deliver you to the Consul. Take him,  
And thank the Gods, that thus have saved Rome.  CHORUS. 
NOw, do our ears, before our eyes,  
Like men in mists,  
Discover, who'd the State surprise,  
And who resists?  
And, as these clouds do yield to light,  
Now, do we see,  
Our thoughts of things, how they did fight,  
Which seemed t'agree?  
Of what strange pieces are we made,  
Who nothing know;  
But, as new Airs our ears invade,  
Still censure so?  
That now do hope, and now do fear,  
And now envy;  
And then do hate, and then love dear,  
But know not, why:  
Or, if we do, it is so late,  
As our best mood,  
Though true, is then thought out of date,  
And empty of good.  
How have we changed, and come about  
In every doom,  
Since wicked Catiline went out,  
And quitted Rome?  
One while, we thought him innocent;  
And, then, w' accused  
The Consul, for his malice spent;  
And power abused.  
Since, that we hear, he is in Arms,  
We think not so:  
Yet charge the Consul, with our harms,  
That let him go.  
So, in our censure of the State,  
We still do wander;  
And make the careful Magistrate  
The mark of slander.  
What age is this, where honest men,  
Placed at the helm,  
A Sea of some foul mouth, or pen,  
Shall overwhelm?  
And call their diligence, deceit;  
Their virtue, vice;  
Their watchfulness, but lying in wait▪  
And blood, the price.  
O, let us pluck this evil seed  
Out of our spirits;  
And give, to every noble deed,  
The name it merits.  
Lest we seem fallen (if this endures)  
Into those times,  
To love disease: and brook the cures  
Worse, than the crimes.   

Act. V.  PETREIUS. THE ARMY. 
IT is my fortune, and my glory, Soldiers,  
This day, to lead you on; the worthy Consul  
Kept from the honour of it, by disease:  
And I am proud, to have so brave a cause  
To exercise your arms in. We not, now,  
Fight for how long, how broad, how great, and large  
th'extent, and bounds o'th' people of Rome shall be;  
But to retain what our great Ancestors,  
With all their labours, counsels, arts, and actions,  
For us, were purchasing so many years.  
The quarrel is not, now, of fame, of tribute,  
Or of wrongs, done unto Confederates,  
For which, the Army of the people of Rome  
Was wont to move: but for your own Republic,  
For the raised Temples of th'immortal Gods,  
For all your Fortunes, Altars, and your Fires,  
For the dear souls of your loved Wives, and Children,  
Your Parents tombs, your Rites, Laws, Liberty,  
And, briefly, for the safety of the World:  
Against such men, as only by their crimes  
Are known; thrust out by riot, want, or rashness.  
One sort, Sylla's old troops, left here in Fesulae,  
Who suddenly made rich, in those dire times,  
Are since, by their unbounded, vast expense,  
Grown needy, and poor, and have but left t'expect,  
From Catiline, new Bills, and new Proscriptions.  
These men (they say) are valiant; yet, I think 'em  
Not worth your pause: For either their old virtue  
Is, in their sloth, and pleasures lost; or, if  
It tarry with 'em, so ill match to yours,  
As they are short in number, or in cause.  
The second sort are of those (City-beasts,  
Rather than Citizens) who whilst they reach  
After our fortunes, have let fly their own;  
These, whelmed in wine, swelled up with meats, and weakened  
With hourly whoredoms, never left the side  
Of Catiline, in Rome; nor, here, are loosed  
From his embraces: Such, as (trust me) never  
In riding, or in using well their arms,  
Watching, or other military labour,  
Did exercise their youth; but learned to love,  
Drink, dance, and sing, make feasts, and be fine gamesters.  
And these will wish more hurt to ' you, than they bring you.  
The rest are a mixed kind, all sorts of furies▪  
Adulterers, Dicers, Fencers, Outlaws, thieves,  
The Murderers of their Parents, all the sink,  
And plague of Italy, met in one torrent,  
To take, to day, from us the punishment,  
Due to their mischiefs, for so many years.  
And who, in such a cause, and against such fiends,  
Would not now wish himself all arm, and weapon?  
To cut such poisons from the earth, and let  
Their blood out, to be drawn away in clouds,  
And poured, on some inhabitable place,  
Where the hot Sun, and Slime breeds nought but Monsters?  
Chiefly, when this sure joy shall crown our side,  
That the least man, that falls upon our party  
This day (as some must give their happy names  
To fate, and that eternal memory  
Of the best death, writ with it, for their Country)  
Shall walk at pleasure, in the tents of rest;  
And see far off, beneath him, all their host  
Tormented after life: and Catiline, there,  
Walking a wretched, and less Ghost, than he.  
I'll urge no more: Move forward, with your Eagles,  
And trust the Senates, and Rome's cause to Heaven.  ARM. 
To thee, great Father Mars, and greater jove.  CAESAR, CRASSUS. 
I Ever looked for this of Lentulus,  
When Catiline was gone.  CRA. 
I gave 'em lost,  
Many days since.  CAES. 
But, wherefore did you bear  
Their letter to the Consul, that they sent you,  
To warn you from the City?  CRA. 
Did I know  
Whether he made it? It might come from him,  
For aught I could assure me: if they meant,  
I should be safe, among so many, they might  
Have come, as well as writ.  CAES. 
There is no loss  
In being secure. I have, of late, too, plied him,  
Thick, with intelligences, but they ' have been  
Of things he knew before.  CRA. 
A little serves  
To keep a man upright, on these State-bridges,  
Although the passage were more dangerous.  
Let us now take the standing part.  CAES. 
We must,  
And be as zealous for't, as Cato. Yet  
I would fain help these wretched men.  CRA. 
You cannot.  
Who would save them, that have betrayed themselves?  CICERO, QVINTUS, CATO. 
I Will not be wrought to it, Brother Quintus.  
There's no man's private enmity shall make  
Me violate the dignity of another.  
If there were proof against Caesar, or who ever,  
To speak him guilty, I would so declare him.  
But Quintus Catulus, and Piso both,  
Shall know, the Consul will not, for their grudge,  
Have any man accused, or named falsely.  QVI. 
Not falsely, but if any circumstance,  
By the Allobroges, or from Volturtius,  
Would carry it.  CIC. 
That shall not be sought by me.  
If it reveal itself, I would not spare  
You, Brother, if it pointed at you, trust me.  CATO. 
Good Marcus Tullius (which is more, then great)  
Thou hadst thy education, with the Gods.  CIC. 
Send Lentulus, forth, and bring away the rest.  
This office, I am sorry, Sir, to do you.  THE SENATE. 
WHat may be happy still, and fortunate,  
To Rome, and to this Senate: Please you, Fathers,  
To break these letters, and to view them round.  
If that be not found in them, which I fear,  
I, yet, entreat, at such a time, as this,  
My diligence be not contemned. Ha' you brought  
The weapons hither, from Cethegus house?  PRAE. 
They are without.  CIC. 
Be ready, with Volturtins,  
To bring him, when the Senate calls; And see  
None of the rest, confer together. Fathers,  
What do you read? Is it yet worth your care,  
If not your fear, what you find practised there?  CAES. 
It hath a face of horror.  CRA. 
I'm amazed.  CATO. 
Look there.  SYL. 
Gods! Can such men draw common air?  CIC. 
Although the greatness of the mischief, Fathers,  
Hath often made my faith small, in this Senate,  
Yet, since my casting Catiline out (for now  
I do not fear the envy of the word,  
Unless the deed be rather to be feared,  
That he went hence alive; when those I meant  
Should follow him, did not) I have spent both days,  
And nights, in watching, what their fury ' and rage  
Was bend on, that so stayed, against my thought:  
And that I might but take 'em in that light,  
Where, when you met their treason, with your eyes,  
Your minds, at length, would think for your own safety.  
And, now, 'tis done. There are their hands, and seals.  
Their persons, too, are safe, thanks to the Gods.  
Bring in Volturtius, and the Allobroges.  
These be the men, were trusted with their letters.  VOL. 
Fathers, believe me, I knew nothing: I  
Was travailing for Gallia, and am sorry.—  CIC. 
Quake not Volturtius, speak the truth, and hope  
Well of this Senate, on the Consul's word.  VOL. 
Then, I knew all. But truly ' I was drawn in  
But other day.  CAES. 
Say, what thou knowst, and fear not.  
Thou hast the Senate's faith, and Consul's word,  
To fortify thee.  VOL. 
I was sent with letters—  
And had a message too— from Lentulus—  
To Catiline— that he should use all aids—  
Servants, or others— and come with his army,  
Assoon, unto the City as he could—  
For they were ready, and but stayed for him—  
To intercept those, that should flee the fire—  
These Men, the Allobroges, did hear it too.  ALL. 
Yes Fathers, and they took an oath, to us.  
Besides their letters, that we should be free;  
And urged us, for some present aid of horse.  CIC. 
Nay, here be other testimonies, Fathers,  
Cethegus Armoury.  CRA. 
What, not all these?  CIC. 
Here's not the hundred part. Call in the Fencer,  
That we may know the arms to all these weapons.  
Come, my brave Swordplayer, to what active use,  
Was all this steel provided?  CET. 
Had you asked  
In Sulla's days, it had been to cut throats;  
But, now, it was to look on, only: I loved  
To see good blades, and feel their edge, and points.  
To put a helm upon a block, and cleave it,  
And, now and then, to stab an armour through.  CIC. 
Know you that paper? That will stab you through.  
Is it your hand? Hold, save the pieces. Traitor,  
Hath thy guilt waked thy fury?  CET. 
I did write,  
I know not what; nor care not: That Fool Lentulus  
Did dictate▪ and I other Fool, did sign it.  CIC. 
Bring in Statilius: Does he know his hand too?  
And Lentulus. Reach him that letter.  STA. 
I  
Confess it all.  CIC. 
Know you that seal yet, Publius?  LEN. 
Yes, it is mine.  CIC. 
Whose image is that, on it?  LEN. 
My Grandfathers.  CIC. 
What, that renowned good man,  
That did so only ' embrace his Countrey', and loved  
His fellow Citizens! Was not his picture,  
Though mute, of power to call thee from a fact,  
So foul.—  LEN. 
As what, impetuous Cicero?  CIC. 
As thou art, for I do not know what's fouler.  
Look upon these. Do not these faces argue  
Thy guilt, and impudence?  LEN. 
What are these to me?  
I know 'em not.  ALL. 
No Publius? we were with you,  
At Brutus' house.  VOL. 
Last night.  LEN. 
What did you there?  
Who sent for you?  ALL. 
Yourself did. We had letters  
From you, Cethegus, this Statilius here,  
Gabinius Cimber, all, but from Longinus,  
Who would not write, because he was to come  
Shortly, in person, after us (he said)  
To take the charge o'the horse, which we should levy.  CIC. 
And he is fled, to Catiline, I hear.  LEN. 
Spies? spies?  ALL. 
You told us too, o'the Sibylls' books▪  
And how you were to be a King, this year,  
The twentieth, from the burning of the Capitol.  
That three Cornelijs were to reign, in Rome,  
Of which you were the last: and praised Cethegus,  
And the great spirits, were with you, in the action.  CET. 
These are your honourable Ambassadors,  
My Sovereign Lord.  CAT. 
Peace, that too bold Cethegus.  ALL. 
Besides Gabinius, your Agent, named  
Autronius, Servius Silvius, Vargunteius,  
And divers others.  VOL. 
I had letters from you,  
To Catiline, and a message, which I have told  
Unto the Senate, truly, word for word:  
For which, I hope, they will be gracious to me.  
I was drawn in, by that same wicked Cimber,  
And thought no hurt at all.  CIC. 
Volturtius, peace.  
Where is thy visor, or thy voice, now, Lentulus?  
Art thou confounded? Wherefore speakest thou not?  
Is all so clear, so plain, so manifest,  
That both thy eloquence, and impudence,  
And thy ill nature, too, have left thee, at once?  
Take him aside. There's yet one more. Gabinius,  
The Engineer of all. Show him that paper,  
If he do know it?  GAB. 
I know nothing.  CIC. 
No?  GAB. 
No. Nor I will not know.  CAT. 
Impudent head?  
Stick it into his throat; were I the Consul,  
I'd make thee eat the mischief, thou haft vented.  GAB. 
Is there a Law for't, Cato?  CAT. 
Dost thou ask  
After a Law, that wouldst have broke all laws,  
Of Nature, Manhood, Conscience, and Religion.  GAB. 
Yes, I may ask for't.  CAT. 
No, pernicious Cimber,  
" Th'inquiring after good, does not belong  
" Unto a wicked person.  GAB. 
ay, but Cato  
Does nothing, but by law.  CRA. 
Take him aside.  
There's proof enough, though he confess not.  GAB. 
Stay  
I will confess. All's true, your spies have told you.  
Make much of'hem.  CET. 
Yes, and reward 'em well,  
For fear you get no more such, See, they do not  
Die in a ditch, and stink, now you ha' done with 'em;  
Or beg, o'the bridges, here in Rome, whose Arches  
Their active industry hath saved.  CIC. 
See, Fathers,  
What minds, and spirits these are, that, being convicted  
Of such a treason, and by such a cloud  
Of witnesses, dare yet retain their boldness?  
What would their rage have done, if they had conquered?  
I thought, when I had thrust out Catiline,  
Neither the State, nor I, should need t'have feared  
Lentulus' sleep here, or Longinus fat,  
Or this Cethegus rashness; It was he,  
I only watched, while he was in our walls,  
As one, that had the brain, the hand, the heart.  
But now, we find the contrary. Where was there  
A People grieved, or a State discontent,  
Able to make, or help a war against Rome,  
But these, th' Allobroges, and those they found?  
Whom had not the just Gods been pleased to make  
More friends unto our safety, than their own,  
As it then seemed, neglecting these men's offers,  
Where had we been? or where the Commonwealth?  
When their great Chief had been called home; This man,  
Their absolute King, (whose noble Grandfather,  
Armed in pursuit of the seditious Gracchus,  
took a brave wound, for dear defence of that,  
Which he would spoil) had gathered all his aids  
Of Ruffians, Slaves, and other Slaughtermen;  
Given us up for murder, to Cethegus;  
The other rank of Citizens, to Gabinius;  
The City, to be fired by Cassius;  
And Italy, nay the world, to be laid waist  
By cursed Catiline, and his complices.  
Lay but the thought of it, before you, Fathers,  
Think but with me you saw this glorious City,  
The Light of all the earth, Tower of all Nations,  
Suddenly falling in one flame. Imagine,  
You viewed your Country buried with the heaps  
Of slaughtered Citizens, that had no grave;  
This Lentulus here, reigning, (as he dreamed)  
And those his purple Senate; Catiline come  
With his fierce army; and the cries of Matrons,  
The flight of Children, and the rape of Virgins,  
Shrieks of the living, with the dying groans  
On every side t' invade your sense; until  
The blood of Rome, were mixed with her ashes.  
This was the Spectacle these fiends intended  
To please their malice.  CET. 
ay, and it would  
Have been a brave one, Consul. But your part  
Had not then been so long, as now it is:  
I should have quite defeated your Oration;  
And slit that fine rhetorical pipe of yours,  
I' the first Scene.  CAT. 
Insolent Monster!  CIC. 
Fathers,  
Is it your pleasures, they shall be committed  
Unto some safe, but a free custody,  
Until the Senate can determine farther?  SEN. 
It pleaseth well.  CIC. 
Then, Marcus Crassus,  
Take you charge of Gabinius: send him home  
Unto your house. You Caesar, of Statilius.  
Cethegus shall be sent to Cornificius;  
And Lentulus, to Publius Lentulus Spinther,  
Who now is Aedile.  CAT. 
It were best, the Praetors  
Carried 'em to their houses, and delivered 'hem.  CIC. 
Let it be so. Take 'em from hence.  CAES. 
But, first,  
Let Lentulus put off his Praetorship.  LEN. 
I do resign it here unto the Senate.  CAES. 
So, now, there's no offence done to religion.  CAT. 
Caesar, 'twas piously, and timely urged.  CIC. 
What do you decree to th' Allobroges?  
That were the lights to this discovery?  CRA. 
A free grant from the State, of all their suits.  CAES. 
And a reward, out of the public treasure.  CAT. 
ay, and the title of honest men, to crown 'em.  CIC. 
What to Volturtius?  CAES. 
Life, and fauor's well.  VOL. 
I ask no more.  CAT. 
Yes, yes, some money, thou needest it.  
'Twill keep thee honest: Want made thee a knave.  SYL. 
Let Flaccus, and Pomtinius, the Praetors,  
Have public thanks, and Quintus Fabius Sanga,  
For their good service.  CRA. 
They deserve it all.  CAT. 
But what do we decree unto the Consul,  
Whose virtue, counsel, watchfulness, and wisdom,  
Hath freed the Commonwealth, and without tumult,  
Slaughter, or blood, or scarce raising a force,  
Rescued us all out of the jaws of Fate?  CRA. 
We owe our Lives unto him, and our Fortunes.  CAES. 
Our Wives, our Children, Parents, and our Gods.  SYL. 
We all are saved, by his fortitude.  CAT. 
The Commonwealth owes him a civicke garland.  
He is the only Father of his Country.  CAES. 
Let there be public prayer, to all the Gods,  
Made in that name, for him.  CRA. 
And in these words.  
For that he hath, by his vigilance, preserved  
Rome from the flame, the Senate from the sword,  
And all her Citizens from massacre.  CIC. 
How are my labours more than paid, grave Fathers,  
In these great titles, and decreed honours!  
Such, as to me, first, of the civil rob,  
Of any man, since Rome was Rome, have happened;  
And from this frequent Senate: which more glads me,  
That I now see, you ' have sense of your own safety.  
If those good days come no less grateful to us,  
Wherein we are preserved from some great danger,  
Then those, wherein we're borne, and brought, to light,  
Because the gladness of our safety is certain,  
But the condition of our birth not so;  
And that we are saved with pleasure, but are borne  
Without the sense of joy: why should not, then,  
This day, to us, and all posterity  
Of ours, be had in equal fame, and honour,  
With that, when Romulus first reared these walls,  
When so much more is saved, than he built?  CAES. 
It ought.  CRA. 
Let it be added to our Fasti.  CIC. 
What tumult's that?  FLA. 
Here's one Tarqvinius taken,  
Going to Catiline; and says he was sent  
By Marcus Crassus: whom he names, to be  
Guilty of the conspiracy.  CIC. 
Some lying varlet.  
Take him away, to prison.  CRA. 
Bring him in,  
And let me see him.  CIC. 
He is not worth it, Crassus.  
Keep him up close, and hungry, till he tell,  
By whose pernicious counsel, he durst slander  
So great, and good a Citizen.  CRA. 
By yours  
I fear, 'twill prove.  SYL. 
Some o'the Traitors, sure,  
To give their action the more credit, bid him  
Name you, or any man.  CIC. 
I know myself,  
By all the tracts, and courses of this business,  
Crassus is noble, just, and loves his Country.  FLA. 
Here is a Libel too, accusing Caesar,  
From Lucius Vectius, and confirmed by Curius.  CIC. 
Away with all, throw'it out o'the Court.  CAES. 
A trick on me, too?  CIC. 
It is some men's malice.  
I said to Curius, I did not believe him.  CAES. 
Was not that Curius your spy, that had  
Reward decreed unto him, the last Senate,  
With Fulvia, upon your private motion?  CIC. 
Yes.  CAES. 
But he has not that reward, yet?  CIC. 
No.  
Let not this trouble you, Caesar, none believes it.  CAES. 
It shall not, if that he have no reward.  
But if he have, sure I shall think myself  
Very untimely, and unsafely honest,  
Where such, as he is, may have pay t'accuse me.  CIC. 
You shall have no wrong done you, noble Caesar,  
But all contentment.  CAES. 
Consul, I am silent.  CATILINE. THE ARMY. 
I Never yet knew, Soldiers, that, in fight,  
Words added virtue unto valiant men;  
Or, that a General's oration made  
An Army fall, or stand: But how much prowess  
Habitual, or natural each man's breast  
Was owner of, so much in act it show'd.  
" Whom neither glory ' or danger can excite  
" 'tis vain t'attempt with speech: For the minds fear  
" Keeps all brave sounds from entering at that ear.  
ay, yet, would warn you some few things, my Friends,  
And give you reason of my present counsels.  
You know, no less than I, what state, what point  
Our affairs stand in; And you all have heard,  
What a calamitous misery the sloth,  
And sleepiness of Lentulus, hath plucked  
Both on himself, and us: How, whilst our aids  
There, in the City looked for, are defeated,  
Our entrance into Gallia, too, is stopped.  
Two Armies wait us: One from Rome, the other  
From the Gaule-provinces. And, where we are,  
(Although I most desire it) the great want  
Of corn, and victual, forbids longer stay.  
So that, of need, we must remove, but whither  
The sword must both direct, and cut the passage.  
I only, therefore, wish you, when you strike,  
To have your valours, and your souls, about you;  
And think, you carry in your labouring hands  
The things, you seek, glory, and liberty,  
Your Country, which you want now, with the Fates,  
That are to be instructed, by our swords.  
If we can give the blow, all will be safe to'vs.  
We shall not want provision, nor supplies.  
The Colonies, and free Towns will lie open.  
Where, if we yield to fear, expect no place,  
Nor friend, to shelter those, whom their own Fortune,  
And ill used Arms have left without protection.  
You might have lived in servitude, or exile,  
Or safe at Rome, depending on the great ones;  
But that you thought those things unfit for men.  
And, in that thought, you then were valiant.  
For no man ever yet changed peace for war,  
But he, that meant to conquer. Hold that purpose.  
There's more necessity, you should be such,  
In fight for yourselves, than they for others.  
" he's base, that trusts his feet, whose hands are armed.  
Me thinks, I see Death, and the Furies, waiting  
What we will do; and all the Heauen' at leisure  
For the great Spectacle. Draw, then, your swords:  
And, if our destiny envy our virtue  
The honour of the day, yet let us care  
To fell ourselves, at such a price, as may  
Undo the world to buy us: and make Fate,  
While she tempts ours, fear her own estate.  THE SENATE. SEN. 
What means this hasty calling of the Senate?  SEN. 
We shall know strait. Wait, till the Consul speaks.  POM. 
Father's Conscript, bethink you of your safeties,  
And what to do, with these Conspirators;  
Some of their Clients, their Freed men, and Slaves  
‛ Gin to make head: There is one of Lentulus' Bawds  
Runs up and down the shops, through every street,  
With money to corrupt, the poor artificers,  
And needy tradesmen, to their aid. Cethegus  
Hath sent, too, to his servants; who are many,  
Chosen, and exercised in bold attempt,  
That forthwith they should arm themselves, and prove  
His rescue: All will be in instant uproar,  
If you prevent it not, with present counsels.  
We have done what we can, to meet the fury,  
And will do more. Be you good to yourselves.  CIC. 
What is your pleasure, Fathers, shall be done?  
Syllanus, you are Consul next designed.  
Your sentence, of these men.  SYL. 
'Tis short, and this.  
Since they have sought to blot the name of Rome,  
Out of the world; and raze this glorious Empire  
With her own hands, and arms, turned on herself:  
I think it fit they die. And, could my breath  
Now execute 'em, they should not enjoy  
An article of time, or eye of light,  
Longer, to poison this our common air.  SEN. 
I think so too.  SEN. 
And I.  SEN. 
And I.  SEN. 
And I.  CIC. 
Your sentence, Caius Caesar.  CAES. 
Conscript Fathers,  
In great affairs, and doubtful, it behooves  
Men, that are asked their sentence, to be free  
From either hate, or love, anger, or pity:  
For, where the least of these do hinder, there  
The mind not easily discerns the truth.  
I speak this to you, in the name of Rome,  
For whom you stand; and to the present cause:  
That this foul fact of Lentulus, and the rest,  
Weigh not more with you, than your dignity;  
And you be more indulgent to your passion,  
Then to your honour. If there could be found  
A pain, or punishment, equal to their crimes,  
I would devise, and help: But if the greatness  
Of what they ha' done, exceed all man's invention,  
I think it fit, to stay, where our laws do.  
Poor petty States may alter, upon humour,  
Where, if they ' offend with anger, few do know it,  
Because they are obscure; their Fame, and Fortune  
Is equal, and the same: But they, that are  
Head of the world, and live in that seen height,  
All Mankind knows their actions. So we see  
The greater fortune hath the lesser licence.  
They must nor favour, hate, and lest be angry:  
For what with others is called anger, there,  
Is cruelty, and pride. I know Syllanus,  
Who spoke before me, a just, valiant Man,  
A lover of the State, and one that would not,  
In such a business, use or grace, or hatred;  
I know, too, well his manners, and his modesty:  
Nor do I think his sentence cruel (for  
Against such delinquents, what can be too bloody?)  
But that it is abhorring from our state;  
Since to a Citizen of Rome, offending,  
Our Laws give exile, and not death. Why then  
Decrees he that? 'Twere vain to think, for fear;  
When, by the diligence of so worthy a Consul,  
All is made safe, and certain. Is't for punishment?  
Why Death's the end of evils, and a rest,  
Rather than torment: It dissolves all griefs.  
And beyond that, is neither care, nor joy.  
You hear, my sentence would not have 'em die.  
How then? set free, and increase Catiline's Army?  
So will they, being but banished. No, grave Fathers,  
I judge 'em, first, to have their states confiscate,  
Then, that their persons remain prisoners  
I' the free towns, far off from Rome, and severed ':  
Where they might neither have relation,  
Hereafter, to the Senate, or the People.  
Or, if they had, those towns, then to be mulcted.  
As enemies to the State, that had their guard.  SEN. 
'tis good, and honourable, Caesar, hath uttered.  CIC. 
Fathers, I see your faces, and your eyes  
All bend on me, to note of these two censures  
Which I incline to. Either of them are grave,  
And answering the dignity of the speakers,  
The greatness of th'affair, and both severe.  
One urgeth death: And he may well remember  
This State hath punished wicked Citizens so.  
The other bonds: and those perpetual, which  
He thinks found out for the more singular plague.  
Decree which you shall please. You have a Consul  
Not readier to obey, then to defend  
What ever you shall act, for the Republic;  
And meet with willing shoulders any burden,  
Or any fortune, with an even face,  
Though it were death: which to a valiant man  
Can never happen foul, nor to a Consul  
Be immature, or to a wise man wretched.  SYL. 
Fathers, I spoke, but as I thought: the needs  
O'th' Commonwealth required.  CAT. 
Excuse it not.  CIC. 
Cato, speak you your sentence.  CAT. 
This it is.  
You here dispute, on kinds of punishment,  
And stand consulting, what you should decree  
Against those, of whom, you rather should beware.  
This mischief is not like those common facts,  
Which, when they are done, the laws may prosecute.  
But this, if you provide not, ere it happen,  
When it is happened, will not wait your judgement.  
Good Caius Caesar, here, hath very well,  
And subtly discoursed of life, and death,  
As if he thought those things, a pretty fable,  
That are delivered us of Hell, and Furies,  
Or of the divers way, that ill men go  
From good, to filthy, dark, and ugly places.  
And therefore he would have these live; and long too;  
But far from Rome, and in the small free Towns,  
Lest, here, they might have rescue: As if Men,  
Fit for such acts, were only in the City,  
And not throughout all Italy? or that boldness  
Could not do more, where it found least resistance?  
'tis a vain Counsel, if he think them dangerous.  
Which, if he do not, but that he alone  
In so great fear of all men, stand unfrighted,  
He gives me cause, and you, more to fear him.  
I am plain, Fathers. Here you look about,  
One at another, doubting what to do:  
With faces, as you trusted to the Gods,  
That still have saved you; and they can do't: But  
They are not wish, or base womanish prayers  
Can draw their aids: but vigilance, counsel, action:  
Which they will be ashamed to forsake.  
'tis sloth they hate, and cowardice. Here you have  
The Traitors in your houses, yet you stand  
Fearing what to do with 'em; Let 'em lose,  
And send 'em hence with arms too; that your Mercy  
May turn your misery, as soon as't can.  
O, but, they, are great men, and have offended  
But through ambition. We would spare their honour:  
I, if themselves had spared it, or their fame,  
Or modesty, or either God, or Man:  
Then I would spare 'hem. But, as things now stand,  
Fathers, to spare these men, were to commit  
A greater wickedness, than you would revenge.  
If there had been but time, and place for you,  
To have repaired this fault, you should have made it;  
It should have been your punishment, to'haue felt  
Your tardy error: But necessity,  
Now, bids me say let 'em not live an hour,  
If you mean Rome should live a day. I have done.  SEN. 
Cato hath spoken like an Oracle,  CRA. 
Let it be so decreed.  SEN. 
We all were fearful.  SYL. 
And had been base, had not his virtue raised us.  SEN. 
Go forth, most worthy Consul, we'll assist you.  CAES. 
I'm not yet changed in my sentence, Fathers.  CAT. 
No matter. What be those?  SER. 
Letters, for Caesar.  CAT. 
From whom? let'hem be read, in open Senate;  
Fathers, they come from the Conspirators.  
I crave to have 'em read, for the Republic.  CAES. 
Cato, read you it. 'tis a Love-letter,  
From your dear sister, to me: though you hate me.  
Do not discover it.  CAT. 
Hold thee drunkard. Consul.  
Go forth, and confidently.  CAES. 
You'll repent  
This rashness, Cicero.  PRAE. 
Caesar shall repent it.  CIC. 
Hold friends.  PRAE. 
he's scarce a friend unto the Public.  CIC. 
No violence. Caesar be safe. Lead on:  
Where are the public Executioners?  
Bid 'em wait on us. On to Spinthers' house.  
Bring Lentulus forth. Here, you, the sad revengers  
Of capital crimes, against the Public, take  
This man unto your justice: strangle him.  LEN. 
Thou dost well, Consul. 'twas a cast at dice  
In Fortune's hand, not long since, that thyself  
Shouldst have heard these, or other words as fatal.  CIC. 
Lead on to Quintus Cornificius house;  
Bring forth Cethegus. Take him to the due  
Death, that he hath deserved: and let it be  
Said, He was once.  CET. 
A beast, or, what is worse,  
A slave, Cethegus. Let that be the name  
For all that's base hereafter: That would let  
This worm pronounce on him: and not have trampled  
His body into— Ha! Art thou not moved?  CIC. 
" justice is never angry: Take him hence.  CET. 
O the whore Fortune! and her bawds the Fates!  
That put these tricks on men, which knew the way  
To death by ' a sword. Strangle me, I may sleep:  
I shall grow angry with the Gods, else.  CIC. 
Lead  
To Caius Caesar's, for Statilius.  
Bring him, and rude Gabinius, out. Here, take 'em  
To your cold hands, and let 'em feel death from you:  GAB. 
I thank you, you do me a pleasure.  STA. 
And me too.  CAT. 
So, Marcus Tullius, thou mayst now stand up,  
And call it happy Rome, thou being Consul.  
Great Parent of thy Country, go, and let  
The Old men of the City, ere they die,  
Kiss thee; the Matrons dwell about thy neck;  
The Youths, and Maids lay up, against they are old  
What kind of man thou wert, to tell their Nephews,  
When, such a year, they read, within our Fasti,  
Thy Consulship. Who's this? Petreius?  CIC. 
Welcome,  
Welcome renowned Soldier. What's the news?  
This face can bring no ill with't, unto Rome.  
How does the worthy Consul, my Colleague?  PET. 
As well as victory can make him, Sir.  
He greets the Fathers, and to me hath trusted  
The sad relation of the Civil strife,  
For, in such war, the conquest still is black.  CIC. 
Shall we withdraw into the House of Concord?  CAT. 
No, happy Consul, here; let all ears take  
The benefit of this tale. If he had voice,  
To spread unto the Poles, and strike it through  
The Centre, to the Antipodes; It would ask it.  PET. 
The straits, and needs of Catiline being such,  
As he must fight, with one of the two Armies,  
That then had near enclosed him; It pleased Fate,  
To make us th'object of his desperate choice,  
Wherein the danger almost poised the honour:  
And as he rose ', the day grew black with him;  
And Fate descended nearer to the earth,  
As if she meant to hide the name of things  
under her wings, and make the world her quarry.  
At this we roused, lest one small minutes stay  
Had left it to be ' inquired, what Rome was.  
And (as we ought) armed in the confidence  
Of our great cause, in form of battle, stood.  
Whilst Catiline came on, not with the face  
Of any man, but of a public ruin:  
His Countenance was a civil war itself.  
And all his host had standing in their looks  
The paleness of the death, that was to come.  
Yet cried they out like Vultures, and urged on,  
As if they would precipitate our fates.  
Nor stayed we longer for 'em; But himself  
Struck the first stroke: And, with it, fled a life.  
Which cut, it seemed a narrow neck of land  
Had broke between two mighty Seas; and either  
Flowed into other; for so did the slaughter:  
And whirled about, as when two violent Tides  
Meet, and not yield. The Furies stood, on hills  
Circling the place, and trembled to see men  
Do more, than they: whilst Piety left the field,  
Grieved for that side, that, in so bad a cause,  
They knew not, what a crime their valour was.  
The Sun stood still, and was, behind the cloud  
The battle made, seen sweeting, to drive up  
His frighted Horse, whom still the noise drove backward.  
And now had fierce Enyo, like a flame,  
Consumed all it could reach, and then itself;  
Had not the Fortune of the Commonwealth  
Come Pallas-like, to every Roman thought.  
Which Catiline seeing, and that now his Troops.  
Covered that earth, they ' had fought on, with their trunks,  
Ambitious of great fame, to crown his ill,  
Collected all his fury, and ran in  
(Armed with a glory, high as his despair)  
Into our battle, like a Lybian Lion,  
Upon his hunters, scornful of our weapons,  
Careless of wounds, plucking down lives about him,  
Till he had circled in himself with death:  
Then fell he too, t'embrace it where it lay.  
And as, in that rebellion against the Gods,  
Minerva holding forth Medusa's head,  
One of the Giant Brethren felt himself  
Grow marble at the kill sight, and now,  
Almost made stone, began t'inquire, what flint,  
What rock it was, that crept through all his limbs,  
And, ere he could think more, was that he feared;  
So Catiline, at the fight of Rome in us,  
Became his Tomb: yet did his look retain  
Some of his fierceness, and his hands still moved,  
As if he laboured, yet, to grasp the State,  
With those rebellious parts.  CAT. 
A brave bad death.  
Had this been honest now, and for his Country,  
As 'twas against it, who had ere fallen greater?  CIC. 
Honoured Petreius, Rome, not I must thank you.  
How modestly has he spoken of himself!  CAT. 
He did the more.  CIC. 
Thanks to the'immortall Gods,  
Romans, I now am paid for all my labours,  
My watchings, and my dangers. Here conclude  
Your praises, triumphs, honours, and rewards  
Decreed to me: only the memory  
Of this glad day, if I may know it live  
Within your thoughts, shall much affect my conscience,  
Which I must always study before fame.  
" Though both be good, the latter yet is worst,  
" And ever is ill got, without the first.  
The end.