in Cornelia (Pompey the Great His Fair Cornelia's Tragedy) — Kyd, Thomas, trans.; Garnier, Robert
Metadata
Play
Cornelia (Pompey the Great His Fair Cornelia's Tragedy)
Author
Kyd, Thomas, trans.; Garnier, Robert
Year (catalogued)
1594
First performance
1594
Decade
1590s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Closet (?) Translation
Speech prefix(es)
Brutus. | Bru. | Brut.
Words
257
Characters
1408
Typicality
0.29 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01500
BritDrama no.
954
Cluster
Cluster 2 — Allegory, Nature & pageant voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
swear by heaven, immortals highest throne, Their Temples, Altars, and their Images, To see (for one,) that Brutus suffer not His ancient liberty to be repressed. I freely marched with Caesar in his wars, Not to be subject, but to aid his right. But if (envenomed with ambitious thoughts) He lift his hand imperiously over us, If he determine but to reign in Room, Or followed Pompey but to this effect: Or if (these civil discords now dissolved) He render not the Empire back to Room, Then shall he see, that Brutus this day bears, The selfsame Arms to be avenged on him. And that this hand (though Caesar blood abhor,) Shall toil in his, which I am sorry for. I love, I love him dearly. "But the love "That men their Country and their birthright bear, "Exceeds all loves, and dearer is by far "Our Countries love, then friends or children are. He is not bloody. Yet haply he (as Sulla whilom did,) When he hath rooted civil war from Room, Will therewithal discharge the pour he hath. Why then you think there is no praise in war. He hath enriched the Empire with new states. He hath revenged the Gauls old injury, And made them subject to our Roman Laws. The wars once ended, we shall quickly know, Whither he will restore the state or no. A generous or true ennobled spirit, Detests to learn what tastes of servitude. But Cassius, Caesar is not yet a King. Soldiers with such reproach should not be blamed.
Plot summary
Plot — Cornelia (Pompey the Great His Fair Cornelia's Tragedy)
Gigéfo laments the decline of Rome: after presumptuously conquering the nations of the world, the city has been laid waste by civil war, and now lives under a tyrant. @6ffélia laments the successive deaths of her two husbands, Gfassiis and Pompey. She and Gieér dispute which is greater: the common grief or hers in particular. He talks her out of committing suicide. She sees her dead husband in a dream; he tells her that her father has been killed in the African war, and asks her to send their son Sextus away from Rome for his own safety. Philip, a witness to Pompey’s murder, brings his ashes to @6FHelia. Both Cicero and Cornelia look forward to Caesar’s violent downfall. ’ Caesar returns to Rome in triumph. His supporter Decimus Brutus fears that he intends to assume absolute power in Rome; in that event, he and @assils plan to kill the tyrant. MaFR§AMtOMy warns Caesar against plots, but Caesar refuses to be cowed by fear. A messenger recounts to Cornelia how her father killed himself after G@A@8ar defeated him in battle. With her father dead and her husband’s property confiscated, @G6FMelia decides to defer suicide until she has erected their tombs.