Sylla, a Tragedy. Transl

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829 Excerpt: ... ACT III. SCENE I. CATILINE, ROSCIUS. CATILINE. The populace are all commotion;--yes, A female rebel calls them openly On to sedition; not a man is found Her griefs have failed to move, her cries t' inflame. None fear t' afford a shelter to the proscripts, And Claudius, by a traitor warned of danger, E'en now by flight insults his master's orders. ROSCIUS. What matters it he's cleared the walls of Rome? Whether on barren rocks, in dreary caves, Hate still pursues him; evil destiny His only crime, and wheresoe'er he flies The dogs of vengeance follow up their victim. CATILINE. Roscius is apt to feign unreal sorrows. ROSCIUS. Thou know'st, far better than I do, to ope The source of grief--I but paint tyranny To make it odious--as alike ambition To shew its folly; and that vice, the more PufF'd up by hateful triumph, till arrives That hour, though late, with Heaven's full vengeance charged, That hideous one of calumny. CATILINE. And so 'Tis thus that Roscius shews his profound wisdom; Conscious suspicion ne'er can fall on him; The senate, the Dictator too condemning, Declares himself to-day the friend of faction, And comes, relying on the people's favour, Yea, rather adoration, to display The virtues of the stage here in the forum. ROSCIUS. The scornful words just utter'd, and which ne'er Before have stigmatized my name, are met By Sylla's favour and by Cato's friendship. In vain would Catiline pretend he knows not The sentiments he here has heard me broach. Plots I detest, and whosoe'er they be, The authors of them--but I fear alike The contrary, and hate informers; with Disdain I see those hireling flatterers, Consular slaves, deck'd out in faded purple, Destroyers of their own all-hallowed altars, In turn to Marius and to Sylla cringe, Pursue a guiltless ri...