SEXTUS

Good Brutus. Touch him he that dares. We with our steel, guard Tarquin and this chair. Why? while he rules with Justice and integrity, Shall with our dreadless hands, our hearts command, Even with the best employment of our lives, Since fortune lifts thee, we submit to fate, Our selves are vassals to the Roman state. And to thee alone, while Justice keeps thy Sword & thou thy Throne. Content, now Cousin Brutus: Not our fool, but— Collatine is troubled with the common disease of all new married men, he's sick of the wife, his excuse is forsooth that Lucrece will not let him go, but you having neither wife nor wit to hold you, I hope will not disappoint us. We three. You have the time, farewell. I love her best, therefore will Sextus do his duty first. Aruns Shall down were Aruns twice my brother If he presume before me to kiss my mother. O all you Deal jan Gods look down and see, How for these wrongs I will revenged be. Nay now it shall not needs: how great's my heart! No kissing now Tarquin, great Queen adieu: Aruns On earth we would no foe but you. I shall my liege. Now Collatine to yours, either Lucrece must be better employed then the rest, or you content to have her virtues ranked with the rest. If one woman among so many bade, may be found good, If a white wench may prove a black swan, it is Lucrece her beau ty hath relation to her virtue, and her virtue correspondence to her beauty, and in both she is fellowless. And Sex us commits him wholly to the dispose of Lucr. I love the Lady and her grace desire, Nor can my love wrong what my thought admire. Aruns, no question but your wife is chaste, And thrifty, but this Lady knows no wast. Val rius, yours is modest something fair, Her Grace and beauty are without compare, Thine well disposed and of good feature, But the world yields not so divine a creature. , thine a smug lass and gram to well. But amongst all bright Lucrece does excel. Then our impertiall hearts judging eyes, This verdict fair Lucrece wins the prize Gramercy Lucrece, no we must this night sleep by Ar deam walls. He must, we have but idled from the Camp, to try a mere ry wager about their wives, and 'tis the hazard of the kings dis pleasure, should any man be missing from his charge: the powers that govern Room make divine Luc. for ever happy, goodnight. To horse, to horse, Lucrece we cannot rest, Till our hight lust imbosom in thy breast. My Lords 'tis business that concerns my life, To morrow if we live weel visit thee. Nor you, nor any, 'tis important business And serious occurrences that call me, Perhaps Lords I'll commend you to your wives. Coslatine shall I do you any service to your Lucrece? What, no private token to purchase our kind welcome? What? As I am Royal I will seet delivered. This Ring to Lucrece shall my love convey, And in this gift thou dost thy bed be ray. To morrow we shall meet, this night sweet fate, May I prove welcome though a guest ingrate. Indeed I cannot feed, but on thy face, Thou art the banquet that to my thoughts embrace. We excuse you, her imperfections Like a torrent With violence breaks upon me, and at once Invert and swallow all thats good in me. Preposterous fates, what mischiefs you involve Upon a captive Prince left to the fury Of all grand mischief, hath the grandame world Yet smothered such a strange abortive wonder, That from her virtues should arise my sin: I am worse then whats most ill, depriude all reason, My heart all firy lust, my soul all treason. A kiss and so goodnight, nay for your rings sake deny not that And thee the Like, repose with content, My vows are fixed, my thoughts on mischief bent. Night be as secret as thou art close, as close as thou art black and dark, thou ominou. Q ene Of Tenebrouse filence, make this fatal hour, as true to Rape as thou hast made it kind To murder and harsh mischief: Cintheamaske thy cheek, And all you sparkling Elamentall fires, Choke up your beauty's in prodigious fogs, Or be extinct in some thick aparous cloud, Least you behold my practice: I am bound Upon a black adventure, on a deed That must wound virtue, and make beauty bleed. Pause Sextus, and before thou runnest thy self Into this violent danger, weigh thy sin, Thou art yet free, beloved, graced in the Camp, Of great opinion and undoubted hope, Rome's Dam ling in the universal grace, Both of the field, and senate: were these Fortune's To make thee great in both, back yet, thy fame Is free from hazard, and thy style from shame. Of fate, thou hast usurped such power over man, That where thou pl dst thy will, no mortal can. On then, black mischief hurry me the way. My self I must destroy, her life betray, The state of King and Subject, the displeasure Of Prince and people, the revenge of noble, And the contempt of base, the incurdveng nce Of my wronged kinsman Colatine, the Treason A Gainst divinest Lucrece: all these total curses Foreseen not feared upon me Sextus meet, To make my days harsh so so this might be sweet No jar of clock no ominous hateful howl Of any starting Hound, no horse ro gh breathed from the Of any drowsy Groom, wakes this charmed silence, entrails discovered in her bed and starts this general silence forward still, Lucr. To make thy Lust live, all thy virtues kill. Here, here, behold! beneath these Curtains lies, That bright enchantress that hath daz worser my eyes. O who but Sextus could commit such waste? On one so fair, so kind, so truly chaste? Or Like a ravisher thus rudely stand, To offend this face, this brow, this lip, this hand? Or at such fatal hours, these revels keep, With thought once to defile thy innocent sleep, Save in this breast, such thoughts could find no place, Or pay with treason her kind hospital grace: But I am lust-burnt, all bent on what's bade, That which should calm good thoughts makes Tarquin mad. Madam, Lucresse? Sweet, 'tis I. Make room. Thy husband's at the Camp. Grant me that grace. Tarquin and thy friend, and must enjoy thee. Why do you tremble Lady? cease this fear, I am alone, there's no suspicious , That can bewray this deed: nay start not sweet. I'm bent on both, my thoughts are all on fire, Choose thee, thou must embrace death, and desire, Yet do I love thee, wilt thou accept it? If not thy love, thou must enjoy thy , where fair means cannot, force shall make my way: By Jove I must enjoy thee. I'm all impatience, violence and rage, And save thy bed, nought Can ̄ this fire Tell me why? By oue isle force thee. These cushens first shall stop thy breath, If thou but shreekest: hark how isle frame thy death. Thou canst keep neither, for if thou but , Or le st the least harsh noise Jar in my ear, I'll broach thee on my steel: that done, strait murder One of thy basest Grooms, and lay you both Grasped arm in arm, on thy adulterate bed. Then call in witness of that mechall , So shalt thou die: thy , Thy name be odious, thy suspected body Denied all funeral rites, and loving Colatin Shall hate thee even in death: then save all this, and to thy Fortune's add another friend, Give thy fears comfort, and these torments end. Tush, I am obdure. If thou raise these cries, lodged in thy slaughtered arm some base Groom die, And Room that hath thy name admired so long, Shall blot thy death with scandal from my tongue. Lucrece, thar't mine In spite of Jove & all the powers divine. Nay, weep not sweet, what's done is pastrecall, Call not thy name in question, by this sorrow Which yet is without blemish, what hath passed Is hid from the world's eye, and only private Betwixt us fair Lucrece, pull not on my head, The wrath of Room if I have done thee wrong, Love was the cause, thy fame is without blot, And thou in Sextus hast a true friend God, Nay sweet look up, thou only hast my heart, I must be gone Lucrece a kiss and partly. No? peevish dame farewell, then be the bruter Of thy own shame, which Tarquin would conceals I am armed against all can come, let mischief frown, With all his terror ar worser with ominous fates, To all their spleens a welcome I'll afford, With this bold heart, strong hand, and my good sword. Thank you. No. Well, I'll to my Tent. Traitors to heaven, to Tarquin, Room and us, Treason to Kings, does stretch even to the Gods, And those high Gods that take great Room in charge, shall punish your rebellion. O Romulus, thou that First reared yond walls, In sighed of which we stand in thy soft bosom, Is hanged the nest in which the Tarquin's built, Which in the branches of thy lofty spires, Tarquin shall perch, or where he once hath . His high built airy shall be drowned in blood, alarm then, Brutus by heaven I vow, My sword shall prove thou never wast mad till now. O cowards, slaves, and vassals what not enter? Was it for this you placed my regiment Upon a hill, to be the sad spectator Of such a general cowardice? Tarquin, Aruns, Porsenna, soldiers, pass, Horatius quickly, And they behind him will devolve the bridge And raging Tiber that's impassable, Your host must swim before you conquer Room. Degenerate slaves, the bridge is fallen, Rome's lost. Valour. Horatius thou art stronger then their Hosts, Thy strength is virtue, theirs are idle boasts. Now save thy self and leap into the waves. My father, mother, brother, fortune now, I do defy thee, I expose my self, To horrid danger, safety I despise, I dare the worst of peril I am bound. On till this pile of flesh be all one wound, Sextus defies you all, yet will you give me language ere I : 'Tis not for mercy, for I scorn that life Thats given by any, and the more to and To your immense unmeasurable hate, I was the spur unto my father's , It I that awed the Princes of the Land, That made thee Brutus mad, these discontents, I ravished the chaste Lucrece, Sextus I, The daughter and thy wife, Brutus thy cousin. Allied indeed to all, it for my Rape, Her constant hand ripped up her innocent breast, it Sextus did all this. Come all at once, I all: yet hear me Brutus, thou art Ho n rabble. And my words tend to thee: my father died By many hands, whats he amongst you can challenge The least I smallest honour in his death? If I be killed amongst this hostile hrong The poorest snaky soldier well may claim As much renown in royal Sextus death, As Brutus, thou, or thou Horatius. I am to die, and more then die I cannot, Rob not your selves of Honour in my death. When the two mightiest spirits of Greece and Troy Tugde for the mast j, Hector and Achilles, Had pu ssant Hector by Achilles hand, Died in a single monomachy Achilles, Had the orthie, but being slain by ods, The had as much honour As saint Achilles in the Trojans death. None are admitted to this graven concourse, But wise men: nay good Brutus. Five days: no more. The Palace cannot spare them, If not as king, let Delphian Phœbus yet Thus much resolve me who shall govern Room, Or of us three, bear greatest pre-eminence. Shall kiss his mother. Nothing but so, then to the Oracle. I charge thee Aruns, Iunus Brutus thee, To keep the sacred doom of the Oracle From all our train, lest when the younger lad Our brother now at home sits dandled Upon fair Tullia's lap, this understanding May kiss our beauteous M there and succeed. I fear not the madman Brutus, & for Aruns let me alone to buckle with him, I'll be the first at my mother's lips for a kingdom. Tull a, if ever thy lips were pleasing to me, let it be at my return from the Oracle. Where's Tullia? Royal mother. Though last in birth, let me be first in love. A kiss fair mother. Aruns thou must down. O heavens you have dissolved me. Thank you, no. Fit round the enemy is pounded fast In their own folds, the walls made to oppugn, Hostile incursions become a prison To keep them fast for execution; Ther's no eruption to be feared. Nay since Brutus has spoke the word, the first health shall be imposed on you Valerius, and if ever you have been germanis worser let it be after the Dutch fashion. We will entreat Valerius. Gramercy Valerius, came this hie-German health as double as his double double ruff, i'de pledge it. What's Lucrece but a woman, and what are women? But tortures and disturbance unto men. If they be foul th'are odious, and if fair, Th'are Like rich vessels full of poisonous drugs, Or Like black serpents armed with golden scales, For my own partly, they shall not trouble me. Would, would, all captains, and stand upon the honesty of your wives, is't possible think you, that women of young spirit and full age Of fluent wit, that can both sing and dance, Read, write, such as feed well and taste choice cates, That straight dissolve to purity of blo worser. That keep the veins full, and inflame the appetite, Making the spirit able, strong and prove, Can such as these their husbands being away Employed in foreign sieges or elsewhere, Deny such as importune them at home? Tell me that flax will not be touched with fire, Nor they be wone to what they most desire. Do good Brutus. Then mou ̄ to Clevall, Brutus this night take you the charge of the army, I'll see the trial of this wager, 'twould do me good to see some of them find their wives in the arms of their lovers, they are so confident in their virtues, Brutus weel interchange good night, within be thou, but as provident over the army as we (if our horses fail not) expeditious in our journey, horse, horse, horse. Not lovesick, but love lunatic, loue-mad, I am all fire, impatience, and my blood Boils on my heart, with lose and sensual thoughts. Madam, with you. You shall fit, behind us at the camp we left our state, We are but your guest, indeed you shall not wait, Her modesty hath such strong power over me, And such a reverence hath fate given her brow, That it appears a kind ofblasphemy, To have any wanton word harsh in her ears, I cannot woe, and yet I love above measure, 'Tis force, not suit, must purchase this rich treasure. O impious lust, in all things base, respectless & unjust, Thy virtue, grace and fame I must enjoy, Though in the purchase I all Room destroy. Madame, if I be welcome, as your virtue bids me presume I am, Carouse to me a health unto your husband. Nay, you must drink off all. It is to Collatine. Divinest Lucrece no. I cannot eat. Madam, I doubt I am a guest this night Too troublesome, and I offend your rest. Yet enter. You are deceived his spirits soars too High To be choked in with the base element Of water, lo he swims armed as he was, Whilst all the army have discharged their arrows. Of which the shield upon his back stick full. And hark the suit of all the multitude. Now welcomes him a land, Horatius fame Hath chekt our armies with a general shame; But come, to morrows fortune must restore, This scandal, which I of the Gods implore, Through broken spears, cracked swords, vnboweld steeds Flaude armours, mangled limbs, and battered casks, Knee deep in blood, I would pierct the Roman host to be my fa the rescue. To ravish Lucrece cuckold Collatine: And spill the chasest blood that ever ran, In any matrons veins, repents me not So much as to would wronged a gentleman So noble as the Consul in this strife. Brutus be bold, thou fightest with one scorns life. Tullia perhaps sind in our gransiers death And hath not yet by reconcilement made Atone with , at whose shrine we kneel. Yet gentle Priest let us thus far prevail, To know if Tarquin's seed shall govern Room And by succession claim the Koiall wrath. Behold me younger of the Tarquin's Raze This elder Aruns both the sons of Tullia. This Junius Brutus though a madman yet, Of the high blood of Tarquin's. Our superstitions ended, sacred Priest, Since we have had free answer from the Gods, To whose fair altars we would done endue right And hallowed them with presents acceptable, Lets now return, treading these holy measures, With which we entered great Apollo's temple. Now Phœbus let thy sweet tuned organs found, Whose spherelike music must direct our feet Upon the marble pavement: after this We le gain a kingdom by a mother's kiss. It was my duty royal Emperor, The duty of a subject and a son. We at our mother's intercession likewise, Are now atoned with Aruns, who ̄ we here receive into our bosom We would likewise sent for all our best commanders to take charge According to their merit, Lord Valerius, Lord Brutus, Cocles, Mutius, Scaevola, And Collatine to make endue preparation of such a gallant siege. And because we would be well accompanied, we have God leave of the King that you Brutus shall associate us, for our purpose is to make a merry journey on't. I repent nothing, may I live or die, Though my blood fallen, my spirit shall mount on High. No, those moist tears, contending with my fire, Q ench not my heat, but make it climb more higher: I'll drag thee hence.