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Subject Area: Literature
Debate: Cato and Caesar

ACT I. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VIII The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Mérope, Olympia, The Orphan of China, Brutus) and Part II (Mahomet, Amelia, Oedipus, Mariamne, Socrates). [1901]

Edition used:

The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version. A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901). In 21 vols. Vol. VIII The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Mérope, Olympia, The Orphan of China, Brutus) and Part II (Mahomet, Amelia, Oedipus, Mariamne, Socrates).

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


ACT I.

SCENE I.

brutus. the senate.

The scene represents part of the house appointed for the consuls on the Tarpeian mount: at a distance is seen the temple of the capitol. The senators are assembled between the temple and the house, before the altar of Mars: the two consuls, Brutus and Valerius Publicola preside; the senators ranged in a semicircle, behind them the lictors with their fasces.

brutus.

  • At length, my noble friends, Rome’s honored senate,
  • The scourge of tyrants, you who own no kings
  • But Numa’s gods, your virtues, and your laws,
  • Our foe begins to know us: this proud Tuscan,
  • The fierce Porsenna, Tarquin’s boasted friend,
  • Pleased to protect a tyrant like himself;
  • He who o’er Tiber’s banks hath spread his hosts,
  • And borne his head so loftily, now speaks
  • In lowlier terms, respects the senate’s power,
  • And dreads the sons of freedom and of Rome:
  • This day he comes, by his ambassador,
  • To treat of peace, and Aruns, sent by him,
  • Demands an audience: he attends even now
  • Your orders in the temple: you’ll determine
  • Or to refuse or to admit him to us.

valerius publicola.

  • Whate’er his errand be, let him be sent
  • Back to his king; imperial Rome should never
  • Treat with her foes till she has conquered them:
  • Thy valiant son, the avenger of his country,
  • Has twice repulsed Etruria’s haughty monarch,
  • And much we owe to his victorious arm:
  • But this is not enough; Rome, still besieged,
  • Sees with a jealous eye the tyrant’s friends:
  • Let Tarquin yield to our decrees; the laws
  • Doomed him to exile; let him leave the realm,
  • And purge the state of royal villainy;
  • Perhaps we then may listen to his prayers.
  • But this new embassy, it seems, has caught
  • Your easy faith: can you not see that Tarquin,
  • Who could not conquer, thinks he may deceive you.
  • I never loved these king’s ambassadors,
  • The worst of foes beneath the mask of friendship;
  • Who only bear an honorable title,
  • And come to cheat us with impunity;
  • Armed with state-cunning, or elate with pride,
  • Commissioned to insult us, or betray.
  • Listen not, Rome, to their deluding tongues;
  • Stranger to art, thy business is, to fight;
  • Conquer the foes that murmur at thy glory,
  • Punish the pride of kings, or fall thyself;
  • Such be thy treaties.

brutus.

  • Rome already knows
  • How much I prize her safety and her freedom;
  • The same my spirit, and the same my purpose,
  • I differ in opinion from Valerius;
  • And must confess, this first great homage paid
  • The citizens of Rome, to me is grateful.
  • I would accustom the despotic power
  • Of princes on an easy level first
  • To treat with our renowned commonweal,
  • Till heaven shall crown our arms with victory,
  • And make them subjects; then, Publicola,
  • As such we’ll use them: meantime, Aruns comes,
  • Doubtless to mark the state of Rome, to count
  • Her treasures, and observe her growing power,
  • And therefore would I have him be admitted;
  • Would have him know us fully: a king’s slave
  • Shall look on men; the novelty may please him:
  • Let him at leisure cast his eyes o’er Rome,
  • Let him behold her in your patriot breasts,
  • You are her best defence; let him revere
  • The God who calls us hither; let him see
  • The senate, hear and tremble.

valerius publicola.

  • I submit;
  • [The senators rise and come forward to give their votes.
  • The general voice is yours: Rome and her Brutus
  • Must be obeyed: for me, I disapprove it:
  • Lictors, attend, and introduce him to us:
  • Never may Rome repent of this!
  • [To Brutus.
  • On thee
  • Our eyes are fixed; on Brutus, who first broke
  • Our chains; let freedom use a father’s voice,
  • And speak by thee.

SCENE II.

the senate, aruns, albinus.

Attendants.

[Aruns enters, preceded by two lictors, with Albinus, his friend; he passes by the consuls and senate, salutes them, and sits down on a seat prepared for him towards the front of the stage.

aruns.

  • With pleasure I behold
  • This great assembly, Rome’s illustrious senate,
  • And her sage consuls, famed for truth and justice,
  • Which ne’er till now suffered reproach or blame:
  • I know your deeds, and I admire your virtues;
  • Unlike the wild licentious multitude,
  • The vulgar crowd, whom party rage or joins
  • Or disunites, who love and hate by turns,
  • They know not why, taught in one changeful hour
  • To boast or beg, to rail or to obey;
  • Whose rashness—

brutus.

  • Stop, and learn with more respect
  • To treat the citizens of Rome; for know,
  • It is the senate’s glory and her praise
  • To represent that brave and virtuous people
  • Whom thou hast thus reviled: for ourselves,
  • Let us not hear the voice of flattery;
  • It is the poison of Etrurian courts,
  • But ne’er has tainted yet a Roman senate.
  • On with thy message.

aruns.

  • Little doth the pride
  • Of Rome affect me; but I own I feel
  • For her misfortunes, and would plead her cause
  • With filial love: you see the gathering storm
  • Hangs o’er your heads, and threatens sure destruction:
  • In vain hath Titus striven to save his country;
  • With pity I behold that noble youth,
  • Whose ardent courage labors to support
  • Expiring Rome, and make her fall more glorious:
  • His victories cost you dear; they thin your ramparts,
  • And weaken your small force: no longer then
  • Refuse a peace so needful to your safety.
  • The senate bears a father’s love to Rome,
  • So does Porsenna to the hapless kings
  • Whom you oppress: but tell me, you who judge
  • Depending monarchs, you who thus determine
  • The rights of all mankind, was it not here,
  • Even at these altars, at this capitol,
  • You called the gods to witness your allegiance,
  • And bound your faith to your acknowledged king,
  • To Tarquin? Say, what power has broken the tie?
  • Who snatched the diadem from Tarquin’s head?
  • Who can acquit you of your oaths?

brutus.

  • Himself:
  • Talk not of ties dissolved by guilt, of gods
  • Whom he renounced, or rights which he has lost;
  • We paid him homage, bound ourselves by oath,
  • Oaths of obedience, not of slavery:
  • But since thou bidst us call to our remembrance,
  • The senate making vows for Tarquin’s health,
  • And kneeling at his feet, remember thou,
  • That on this sacred spot, this altar here,
  • Before the same attesting gods, that Tarquin
  • Swore to be just; such was the mutual bond
  • Of prince and people, and he gave us back
  • The oath we made, when he forgot his own:
  • Since to Rome’s laws no more he pays obedience,
  • Rome is no longer subject to his power,
  • And Tarquin is the rebel, not his people.

aruns.

  • But, grant it true, that power unlimited,
  • And absolute dominion, had misled
  • The unhappy monarch from the paths of duty,
  • Is there a man from human error free?
  • Is there a king without some human weakness?
  • Or if there were, have you a right to punish,
  • You, who were born his subjects; you, whose duty
  • Is to obey? The son doth never arm
  • Against the sire, but with averted eyes
  • Laments his errors, and reveres him still:
  • And not less sacred are the rights of kings;
  • They are our fathers, and the gods alone
  • Their judges: if in anger heaven sometimes
  • Doth send them down, why would you therefore call
  • For heavier chains, and judgments more severe?
  • Why violate the laws you would defend,
  • And only change your empire to destroy it?
  • Taught by misfortune, best of monitors,
  • Tarquin henceforth, more worthy of his throne,
  • Will be more wise and just; the legal bonds
  • Of king and people now may be confirmed
  • By happiest union; public liberty
  • Shall flourish then beneath the awful shade
  • Of regal power.

brutus.

  • Aruns, ’tis now too late:
  • Each nation has its laws, by nature given,
  • Or changed by choice: Etruria, born to serve,
  • Hath ever been the slave of kings or priests;
  • Loves to obey, and, happy in her chains,
  • Would bind them on the necks of all mankind.
  • Greece boasts her freedom; soft Ionia bends
  • Beneath a shameful bondage; Rome had once
  • Her kings, but they were never absolute:
  • Her first great citizen was Romulus,
  • With him his people shared the weight of empire;
  • Numa was governed by the laws he made;
  • Rome fell at last indeed beneath herself,
  • When from Etruria she received her kings,
  • Or from Porsenna; tyranny and vice
  • From your corrupted courts flowed in upon us.
  • Forgive us, gods, the crime of sparing Tarquin
  • So many years! at length his murderous hands,
  • Dyed with our blood, have broke the shameful chain
  • Of our long slavery, and the Roman people
  • Have through misfortune found the road to virtue:
  • Tarquin restores the rights by Tarquin lost,
  • And by his crimes has fixed the public safety:
  • We’ve taught the Etruscans how to shake off tyrants,
  • And hope they’ll profit by the fair example.
  • [The consuls descend towards the altar, and the senate rises.
  • O Mars, thou god of battles, and of Rome!
  • Thou who dost guard these sacred walls, and fight
  • For thy own people, on thy altar here
  • Deign to accept our solemn oaths, for me
  • And for the senate, for thy worthy sons:
  • If in Rome’s bosom there be found a traitor,
  • Who weeps for banished kings, and seeks once more
  • To be a slave, in torments shall he die;
  • His guilty ashes, scattered to the winds,
  • Shall leave behind a more detested name,
  • Even than those tyrant kings which Rome abhors.

aruns.

  • [Stepping towards the altar.
  • And on this altar, which you thus profane,
  • I call that god to witness, in the name
  • Of him whom you oppress, the injured Tarquin,
  • And great Porsenna, his avenger, here
  • I swear eternal war with you, O Romans!
  • And your posterity—
  • [The senators are going off towards the capitol.
  • A moment stop
  • Ere you depart, O senators! and hear
  • What I have more to offer: Tarquin’s daughter,
  • Must she too fall a sacrifice to Rome?
  • With ignommious fetters will ye bind
  • Her royal hands, to triumph o’er her father,
  • Whose treasures you detain? Ungenerous victors!
  • As if the right of conquest gave them to you:
  • Where are his riches? was it for the spoil
  • You robbed him of his throne? let Brutus speak,
  • And own the plunder.

brutus.

  • Little dost thou know
  • Of Rome, her manners, and her noble nature;
  • But learn, mistaken man, her great protectors,
  • The friends of truth and justice, are grown old
  • In honest poverty; above the pride
  • Of wealth, which they disdain; it is their boast
  • To conquer kings, who love such tinsel greatness.
  • Take back your gold, it is beneath our notice;
  • And for the hateful tyrant’s hapless daughter,
  • Though I abhor the wretched race, yet know
  • The senate has consigned her to my care:
  • She hath not tasted here the baneful cup
  • Of flattery, that sweet poison of a court,
  • Or viewed the pomp and dangerous luxury
  • Of Tarquin’s palace: little did her youth
  • Profit by them; but all that to her age
  • And sex was due, all her misfortunes claimed,
  • She hath received: let her return this day
  • To Tarquin; Brutus yields her back with joy:
  • Naught should the tyrant have within these walls
  • But Rome’s fixed hatred, and the wrath of heaven:
  • You have a day to carry off your treasures,
  • That must suffice: meantime, the sacred rights
  • Of hospitality await thee here;
  • Beneath my roof thou mayest remain in safety:
  • The senate thus by me decrees: bear thou
  • Our answer to Porsenna, and then tell
  • Proud Tarquin, you have seen a Roman senate.
  • [Turning to the senators.
  • Let us, my friends, adorn the capitol
  • With laurel wreaths, that round the brows of Titus
  • Have spread their noble shade; the arrows too,
  • And bloody ensigns, his victorious hand
  • Hath wrested from the Etruscans: ever thus,
  • From age to age, may the successful race
  • Of Brutus still defend their much loved country:
  • Thus, O ye gods, may you protect us ever;
  • Guide the son’s arm, and bless the father’s councils!

SCENE III.

aruns, albinus.

[Supposed to have retired from the hall of audience into an apartment of Brutus’ house.

aruns.

  • Didst thou observe the fierce unbending spirit
  • Of this proud senate, which believes itself
  • Invincible? and so perhaps it might be,
  • Were Rome at leisure to confirm her sons
  • In valor and in wisdom: liberty,
  • That liberty, my friend, which all adore,
  • And I admire, though I would wrest it from them,
  • Inspires the heart of man with nobler courage
  • Than nature gives, and warmth almost divine.
  • Beneath the Tarquin’s yoke, a slavish court
  • Enfeebled their corrupted hearts, and spoiled
  • Their active valor; whilst their tyrant kings,
  • Busied in conquering their own subjects, left
  • Our happier Etruscans in the arms of peace;
  • But if the senate should awake their virtues,
  • If Rome is free, Italia soon must fall:
  • These lions, whom their keepers made so gentle,
  • Will find their strength again, and rush upon us;
  • Let us then stop this rapid stream of woes,
  • Even at its source, and free a sinking world
  • From slavery; let us bind these haughty Romans
  • Even with the chains which they would throw on us,
  • And all mankind.—But will Messala come,
  • May I expect him here? and will he dare—

albinus.

  • My Lord, he will attend you; every minute
  • We look for him; and Titus is our friend.

aruns.

  • Have you conferred; may I depend on him?

albinus.

  • Messala, if I err not, means to change
  • His own estate, rather than that of Rome;
  • As firm and fearless as if honor guided,
  • And patriot love inspired him; ever secret,
  • And master of himself; no passions move
  • No rage disturbs him; in his height of zeal
  • Calm and unruffled.

aruns.

  • Such he seemed to me
  • When first I saw him at the court of Tarquin;
  • His letters since—but, see, he comes.

SCENE IV.

aruns, messala, albinus.

aruns.

  • Messala,
  • Thou generous friend of an unhappy master,
  • Will neither Tarquin’s nor Porsenna’s gold
  • Shake the firm faith of these rough senators?
  • Will neither fear, nor hope, nor pleasure bend
  • Their stubborn hearts? These fierce patrician chiefs.
  • That judge mankind, are they without or vice
  • Or passion? is there aught that’s mortal in them?

messala.

  • Their boasts are mighty, but their false pretence
  • To justice, and the fierce austerity
  • Of their proud hearts, are nothing but the thirst
  • Of empire; their pride treads on diadems;
  • Yet whilst they break one chain, they forge another.
  • These great avengers of our liberty,
  • Armed to defend it, are its worst oppressors:
  • Beneath the name of patrons they assume
  • The part of monarchs; Rome but changed her fetters,
  • And for one king hath found a hundred tyrants.

aruns.

  • Is there amongst your citizens a man
  • Honest enough to hate such shameful bondage?

messala.

  • Few, very few, yet feel their miseries:
  • Their spirits, still elate with this new change,
  • Are mad with joy: the meanest wretch among them,
  • Because he helped to pull down monarchy,
  • Assumes its pride, and thinks himself a king:
  • But I’ve already told you I have friends,
  • Who with reluctance bend to this new yoke;
  • Who look with scorn on a deluded people,
  • And stem the torrent with unshaken firmness;
  • Good men and true, whose hands and hearts were made
  • To change the state of kingdoms, or destroy them.

aruns.

  • What may I hope from these brave Romans? say,
  • Will they serve Tarquin?

messala.

  • They’ll do anything;
  • Their lives are thine; but think not, like blind vassals,
  • They will obey a base ungrateful master:
  • They boast no wild enthusiastic zeal,
  • To fall the victims of despotic power,
  • Or madly rush on death to save a tyrant,
  • Who will not know them. Tarquin promises
  • Most nobly, but when he shall be their master,
  • Perhaps he then may fear, perhaps forget them.
  • I know the great too well: in their misfortunes
  • No friends so warm; but in prosperity,
  • Ungrateful oft, they change to bitterest foes:
  • We are the servile tools of their ambition;
  • When useless, thrown aside with proud disdain,
  • Or broke without remorse when we grow dangerous.
  • Our friends expect conditions shall be made;
  • On certain terms you may depend upon them:
  • They only ask a brave and worthy leader
  • To please their fickle taste; a man well known,
  • And well respected; one who may have power
  • To force the king to keep his plighted faith
  • If we succeed; and if we fail, endued
  • With manly courage to avenge our cause.

aruns.

  • You wrote me word the haughty Titus—

messala.

  • Titus
  • Is Rome’s support, the son of Brutus; yet—

aruns.

  • How does he brook the senate’s base reward
  • For all his services? he saved the city,
  • And merited the consulship, which they,
  • I find, refuse him.

messala.

  • And he murmurs at it.
  • I know his proud and fiery soul is full
  • Of the base injury: for his noble deeds,
  • Naught has he gained but a vain empty triumph;
  • A fleeting shadow of unreal bliss:
  • I am no stranger to his throbbing heart,
  • And strength of passion; in the paths of glory
  • So lately entered, ’twere an easy task
  • To turn his steps aside; for fiery youth
  • Is easily betrayed: and yet what bars
  • To our design! a consul, and a father;
  • His hate of kings; Rome pleading for her safety;
  • The dread of shame, and all his triumphs past.
  • But I have stole into his heart, and know
  • The secret poison that inflames his soul:
  • He sighs for Tullia.

aruns.

  • Ha! for Tullia?

messala.

  • Yes:
  • Scarce could I draw the secret from his breast;
  • He blushed himself at the discovery,
  • Ashamed to own his love; for midst the tumult
  • Of jarring passions, still his zeal prevails
  • For liberty.

aruns.

  • Thus on a single heart,
  • And its unequal movements, must depend,
  • Spite of myself, the fate of Rome: but hence,
  • Albinus, and prepare for Tarquin’s tent.
  • [Turning to Messala.
  • We’ll to the princess: I have gained some knowledge,
  • By long experience, of the human heart:
  • I’ll try to read her soul; perhaps her hands
  • May weave a net to catch this Roman senate.

End of the First Act.