Be buried in your ruins: On my life,
They both are guilty! Reason may assure you,
Photinus nor Achillas durst attempt you,

Or shake one dart, or sword, aimed at your safety,

Without their warrant.

Casar. For the young king, I know not
How he may be misled; but for his sister,
Unequalled Cleopatra, 'twere a kind

Of blasphemy to doubt her: Ugly treason
Durst never dwell in such a glorious building;
Nor can so clear and great a spirit as hers is
Admit of falsehood.

Ant. Let us seize on him then;
And leave her to her fortune.

Dol. If he have power,

Use it to your security, and let

His honesty acquit him; if he be false,

It is too great an honour he should die
By your victorious hand.

Caser. He comes, and I
Shall do as I find cause.

SCENE II.

Enter PHOTINUS, ACHILLAS, SEPTIMIUS, and Soldiers.

Pho. There's no retiring now; we are broke in;

The deed past hope of pardon. If we prosper,
Twill be stiled lawful, and we shall give laws
To those, that now command us: Stop not at
Or loyalty, or duty; bold ambition

To dare, and power to do, gave the first difference
Between the king and subject. Cæsar's motto,
Aut Cesar aut nihil, each of us must claim,
And use it as our own.

Achil. The deed is bloody,

If we conclude in Ptolomy's death.
Pho. The better;

The globe of empire must be so manured.
Sept. Rome, that from Romulus first took her

name,

Had her walls watered with a crimson shower, Drained from a brother's heart; nor was she raised

To this prodigious height, that overlooks
Three full parts of the earth, that pay her tribute,
But by enlarging of her narrow bounds,

By the sack of neighbour cities, not made hers
'Till they were cemented with the blood of those,
That did possess them: Cæsar, Ptolomy,
Now I am steeled, to me are empty names,
Esteemed as Pompey's was.

Pho. Well said, Septimius!
Thou now art right again.

Achil. But what course take we For the princess Cleopatra ?

Pho. Let her live

In which our worth is weighed. Casar. Presumptuous villain!

Upon what grounds hast thou presumed to raise
Thy servile hand against the king? or me,
That have a greater name?

Pho. On those, by which

Thou didst presume to pass the Rubicon
Against the laws of Rome; and, at the name
Of traitor, smile, as thou didst, when Marcellus,
The consul, with the senate's full consent,
Pronounced thee for an enemy to thy country:
Yet thou went'st on, and thy rebellious cause
Was crowned with fair success. Why should we
fear, then?

Think on that, Cæsar!

Casar. Oh, the gods! be braved thus? And be compelled to bear this from a slave, That would not brook great Pompey his superior! Achil. Thy glories now have touched the highest point,

And must descend.

Pho. Despair, and think we stand

The champions of Rome, to wreak her wrongs, Upon whose liberty thou hast set thy foot.

Sept. And that the ghosts of all those noble
Romans,

That by thy sword fell in this civil war,
Expect revenge.

Ant. Darest thou speak, and remember
There was a Pompey?

Pho. There's no hope to escape us:

If that, against the odds we have upon you,
You dare come forth and fight, receive the honour
To die like Romans; if ye faint, resolve
To starve like wretches! I disdain to change
Another syllable with you.

Ant. Let us die nobly;

Sept. I feel my resolution melts again, And that I am not knave alone, but fool, In all my purposes. This devil Photinus Employs me as a property, and, grown useless, Will shake me off again: He told me so, When I killed Pompey; nor can I hope better, When Cæsar is dispatched. Services done For such as only study their own ends, Too great to be rewarded, are returned With deadly hate: I learned this principle In his own school. Yet still he fools me; well; And yet he trusts me: Since I in my nature Was fashioned to be false, wherefore should I, That killed my general, and a Roman, one, To whom I owed all nourishments of life, Be true to an Egyptian? To save Cæsar, And turn Photinus' plots on his own head, (As it is in my power) redeem my credit, And live, to lie, and swear again in fashion, Oh, 'twere a master-piece! Ha! curse me! Cæsar? How has he got off?

Enter CESAR, PTOLOMY, ANTONY, DOLABELLA, ACHOREUS, APOLLODORUS, and soldiers. Cæsar. The fire has took,

And shews the city like a second Troy ;

The navy too is scorched; the people greedy To save their wealth and houses, while their soldiers

Cæsar. That fortune,

Which to this hour hath been a friend to Cæsar, Though for a while she cloathe her brow with

frowns,

Will smile again upon me: Who will pay her
Or sacrifice, or vows, if she forsake
Her best of works in me? or suffer him,
Whom with a strong hand she hath led triumphant
Through the whole western world, and Rome ac-
knowledged

Her sovereign lord, to end ingloriously
A life admired by all? The threatened danger
Must, by a way more horrid, be avoided,
And I will run the hazard. Fire the palace,
And the rich magazines, that neighbour it,
In which the wealth of Egypt is contained!
Start not; it shall be so; that while the people
Labour in quenching the ensuing flames,
Like Cæsar, with this handful of my friends,
Through fire, and swords, I force a passage to
My conquering legions. King, if thou darest, fol-

low,

are safe.

I'll lead you like a thunder-bolt!

Sept. Stay, Cæsar.

Casar. Who's this? the dog Septimius?
Ant. Cut his throat.

Dol. You barked but now; fawn you so soon?
Sept. Oh, hear me !

What I'll deliver is for Cæsar's safety,
For all your good.

Ant. Good from a mouth like thine,
That never belched but blasphemy and treason,
On festival days!

Sept. I am an altered man,

Altered indeed; and I will give you cause
To say I am a Roman.

Dol. Rogue, I grant thee.

Sept. Trust me, I'll make the passage smooth and easy,

For your escape.

Ant. I'll trust the devil sooner, And make a safer bargain.

Sept. I am trusted

With all Photinus' secrets.

Part of your fortitude.

Eros. I still am fearful:

I dare not tell a lie: You, that were born

Daughters and sisters unto kings, may nourish

handmaid,

Must not presume to rival.

Cleo. Yet, my Eros,

Though thou hast profited nothing by observing
The whole course of my life, learn in my death,
Though not to equal, yet to imitate,
Thy fearless mistress.

Dare raise a storın, when we command a calm?
Are duty and obedience fled to heaven,
And, in their room, ambition and pride
Sent into Egypt? That face speaks thee Photinus,
A thing, thy mother brought into the world
My brother's and my slave: But thy behaviour,
Opposed to that, an insolent intruder
Upon that sovereignty, thou shouldst bow to!
If in the gulph of base ingratitude,
All loyalty to Ptolomy the king

Be swallowed up, remember who I am,
Whose daughter, and whose sister; or, suppose
That is forgot too, let the name of Cæsar
(Which nations quake at) stop thy desperate mad-

ness

From running headlong on to thy confusion.
Throw from thee quickly those rebellious arms,
And let me read submission in thine eyes;
Thy wrongs to us we will not only pardon,
But be a ready advocate to plead for thee
To Casar and my brother.

Pho. Plead my pardon!

Το I bow;
you
but scorn as much to stoop thus
To Ptolomy, to Cæsar, nay the gods,
As to put off the figure of a man,
And change my essence with a sensual beast:
All my designs, my counsels, and dark ends,
Were aimed to purchase you.

Cleo. How durst thou, being

The scorn of baseness, nourish such a thought! Pho. They, that have power, are royal; and those base,

That live at the devotion of another.
What birth gave Ptolomy, or fortune Cæsar,
By engines fashioned in this Protean anvil,
I have made mine; and only stoop at you,
Whom I would still preserve free, to command

'Tis deadly aconite to my cold heart;

It choaks my vital spirits! Where was your care? Did the guards sleep?

Achil. He roused them with his sword; (We talk of Mars, but I am sure his courage Admits of no comparison but itself!) And, as inspired by him, his following friends, With such a confidence as young eaglets prey, Under the large wing of their fiercer dam, Brake through our troops, and scattered them, He went on,

But still pursued by us: When, on the sudden,
He turned his head, and from his eyes flew terror,
Which struck in us no less fear and amazement,
Than if we had encountered with the lightning,
Hurled from Jove's cloudy brow.

Cleo. 'Twas like my Cæsar!
Achil. We fallen back, he made on; and, as
our fear

Had parted from us with his dreadful looks,
Again we followed: But, got near the sea,
On which his navy anchored, in one hand
Holding a scroll he had above the waves,
And in the other grasping fast his sword,
As it had been a trident forged by Vulcan
To calm the raging ocean, he made away,
As if he had been Neptune; his friends, like
So many Tritons followed, their bold shouts
Yielding a chearful music. We showered darts
Upon them, but in vain; they reached their ships:
And in their safety we are sunk; for Cæsar
Prepares for war.

Pho. How fell the king?

Achil. Unable

To follow Cæsar, he was trod to death By the pursuers, and with him the priest Of Isis, good Achoreuş.

Ars. May the earth

Lie gently on their ashes!

Pho. I feel now,

That there are powers above us; and that 'tis not Within the searching policies of man

To alter their decrees.

Cleo. I laugh at thee!

Where are thy threats now, fool? thy scoffs and

scorns

Against the gods? I see calamity