anhappily be anticipated; not so much by his superior strength, which is greatly impaired, as through your own indolence and inactivity; and so fall absolutely under his power, before you attempt to reduce him under yours, and even before he has the confidence to flatter himself with the hopes of such success. For, except a few corrupted minions of his power, who approves of his measures? Nay, who does not wish a total change and revolution, except in that one instance of the spoils of victory? The soldiers, perhaps you will say.—Yes, the soldiers, doubtless, whose blood was spilt to enrich Tarrula and Scyrrus, the vilest of slaves! Or, will those espouse his interest, to whom, in competition for magistracy, even Fusidius was by him preferred?—Fusidius, that detestable pathic, that infamous disgrace to every high office to which he has been elevated. These reflec tions give me room to hope for assistance from the victorious troops, who must at length be sensible, that they have got nothing by a long scene of hardships, by all their wounds and bruises, but an oppressive tyrant: unless they will say that they took the field to demolish the tribunitial power, that very power raised and supported by the virtue of their ancestors; or to divest themselves of all jurisdiction and authority.-Gloriousty, indeed, they were recompensed for their past services, when, sent back to their woods and morasses, all the portion they could obtain was hatred and reproach, whilst the spoils of conquest were engrossed by a few!

How comes it, then, that such numbers follow him; that he still appears with an exulting spirit, and confi dent mien?How!-because success palliates his villainy. The moment fortune turns against him, he will become as much the object of contempt, as he is now of terror. There can be no other reason, unless his declaration of establishing peace and harmony; for those specious names has he given to treachery and parricide.-Nay, he has the assurance to affirm, that the Romans can never see an end of their civil wars, unless the expulsion of the plebeians from their paternal inheritances, the most cruel of all depredations that can be committed upon fellow-citizens, be confirmed ;-unless all that judicial power and authority, which was once lodged in the Roman people, be vested in himself alone. If you

allow this to be establishing peace and harmony, why, then, give your assent to every method of embarrassing the commonwealth-then, approve its downfall ;tamely submit to the terms of an imperious masterembrace this peaceable settlement, on the casy condition of bondage and servility;-and, by no means, let posterity want a precedent to instruct them, how the people of Rome may be so wrought upon, as to purchase their own ruin with the price of their own blood!

For myself, though the high authority with which I am invested, is sufficient to support the honour of my family, my own dignity, and the protection of my per son; yet never has it been the aim and intention of my life, to pursue my own private interest only :-the liberty of my country, though attended with perils, is to me far more inviting, than a state of subjection, with all its allurements of tranquillity.

And, if now, my countrymen, you approve of my sentiments, come on; and, with the help of the propitious gods, rise up and follow your chief-follow Marcus Æmilius, your consul, and he will shew you the way to recover your liberty!

97

PART II.

DELIBERATIVE.

I. Falconbridge encouraging King John to resist in

vasion.

BUT wherefore do ye droop? why look you sad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought:
Let not the world see fear and sad distrust
Govern the motion of a kingly eye.

Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threatener, and outface the brow
Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviours from the great,
Grow great by your example, and put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.
Away; and glister like the god of war,
When he intendeth to become the field:
Shew boldness and aspiring confidence.
What, shall they seck the lion in his den,

And fright him there? and make him tremble there?
Oh! let it not be said!-Forage and run
To meet displeasure farther from the doors,
And grapple with him, ere he come so nigh.
Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise,
Insinuation, parley and base truce
To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy,
A wicker'd silken wanton brave our fields,
And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,
Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms:
Let it at least be said,

They saw we had a purpose of defence.

II. Lord Clifford exhorting Henry the Sixth to protect his crown, and transmit it to his son.

My gracious liege, this too much lenity,
And harmful pity, must be laid aside.
To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
Whose hand is that, the forest bear doth lick?
Not his that spoils her young before her face..
Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting?
Not he that sets his foot upon her back.
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on;
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.
Ambitious York did level at thy crown,
Thou smiling, while he knit his angry brows:
He, but a duke, would have his son a king,
And raise his issue, like a loving sire;
Thou, being a king, blest with a goodly son,
Didst yield consent to disinherit him,
Which argued thee a most unloving father.
Unreasonable creatures feed their young:
And though man's face be fearful to their eyes,
Yet in protection of their tender ones,
Who hath not seen them (even with those wings
Which sometime they have us'd in fearful flight)
Make war with him that climb'd into their nest,
Offering their own lives in their young's defence?
For shame, my liege, make them your precedent!
Were it not pity, that this goodly boy

Should lose his birth-right by his father's fault?
And long hereafter say unto his child,-
"What my great grandfather and grandsire got,
My careless father fondly gave away"?
Ah, what a shame were this! Look on the boy;
And let his manly face, which promiseth
Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart,

To hold thine own, and leave thine own with him.

III.

Henry the Fifth exhorting his Soldiers. ONCE more unto the breach, dear friends, once more: Or close the wall up with the English dead:

In

peace, there's nothing so becomes a man, As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of tigers;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up, the blood;
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head,
Like brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully, as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To its full height !-On, on, you noble English,
Whose blood is set from fathers. of war proof!
Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders,
Have, in these parts, from morn till even, fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest,
That those whom you call'd fathers, did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war-And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, shew us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding: which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry-God for Harry! England! and Saint George!

IV. Duke of Vienna to Angelo, inculcating public

virtue.

ANGELO,

There is a kind of character in thy life,
That, to the observer, doth thy history
Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste