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• The Works of Voltaire: the Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Ix— Part I
• Alzire
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Orestes
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• SÉmiramis
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Catiline
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Pandora
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Ix—part Ii
• The Scotch Woman
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Nanine
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• The Prude
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Tatler
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

catiline.

• [Soldiers at the bottom of the stage.
• Yes, thou proud talker, thou vile instrument
• Of a deluded people, soon thy power
• Shall be no more; and thou whose savage virtue,
• Inflexibly severe, destroys the nation
• It means to save, imperious Cato, know
• Thy doom is passed, thou and the tyrant senate
• Must fall together; they who keep the world
• In bondage shall themselves be slaves; their chains
• Are forged already, and usurping Pompey
• Shall pay for dear bought honors with his blood.
• Cæsar, his haughty rival, shall oppose him,
• His equal Cæsar: he who, like myself,
• Was ever factious, shall assist my cause;
• The snare is laid, and Cæsar shall prepare
• The throne for Catiline; I’ll make them all
• Subservient to my purpose: Cicero’s self,
• The man whom most I hate, shall be my friend:
• My wife too may be useful, and may prove
• A step to greatness: fathers, husbands, all
• Those empty names mistaken mortals call
• Most sacred, hence, I give you to the winds:
• Ambition, I am thine.

SCENE II.

catiline, cethegus.

catiline.

• Well, my Cethegus,
• Whilst Rome and our designs are hid in night,
• Say, hast thou called together our brave chiefs?

cethegus.

• Even here, my lord, beneath this portico,
• Safe from the consul’s prying eyes, and near
• That impious scene where our proud tyrants sit,
• Thy friends shall meet—already they have signed
• The solemn compact, and are sworn to serve thee.
• But how stands Cæsar, will he second us?

catiline.

• He is a turbulent unruly spirit,
• And acts but for himself.

cethegus.

• And yet without him
• We never shall succeed.

catiline.

• I’ve laid a snare
• He cannot escape: my soldiers, in his name,
• Shall seize Præneste—he’s been long suspected.
• This will confirm his guilt—the furious consul
• Shall soon accuse him to the senate—Cæsar
• Will hazard all to satiate his revenge.
• I’ll rouse this sleeping lion from his den,
• And make him roar for me.

cethegus.

• But Nonnius still
• Rules in Præneste; he’s a friend to Rome.
• In vain already thou hast tried to tempt
• His stubborn virtue—what must be his fate?

catiline.

• Thou knowest I love his daughter, though I hate
• Her surly father: long he strove in vain
• To thwart our mutual passion, and prevent
• Our private marriage, which at last the churl
• Unwillingly consented to: he feared
• To incur his angry party’s high displeasure
• And the proud consul’s—but I’ve made his pride
• Subservient to our purpose—he is bound
• By solemn oaths to keep our marriage still
• A secret: Sura only and Cethegus
• Are privy to it: this perhaps may serve
• More purposes than one: Aurelia’s palace
• Conducts us to the temple; there I’ve placed
• My instruments of ruin, arms, and firebrands,
• To execute our great design: thy zeal
• To friendship much I owe, but more to love.
• Beneath the senate’s sacred vault, beneath
• The roof of Nonnius will we sacrifice
• These tyrants—you, my friends, must to Præneste;
• You to the capitol; remember whom
• You serve, the oath that binds you, and the cause
• You are engaged in—thou, my loved Cethegus,
• Must watch o’er all, and guide the great machine.

SCENE III.

aurelia, catiline.

aurelia.

• O Catiline, my lord, my husband, ease
• My troubled heart, remove my doubts, my fears,
• My horror, my despair—alas! what means
• This dreadful preparation?—every step
• I tread alarms me; why these soldiers, why
• With arms and torches is my palace filled?
• The days of Marius and of Sulla sure
• Are now returned, and discord reigns amongst us:
• Explain, my lord, this dreadful mystery:
• Do not turn from me—by the sacred tie
• That joins our hearts, by the dear babe thou lovest,
• I talk not to thee of its mother’s danger,
• For thee alone I tremble: pity me,
• Pity a wretched wife, and tell me all.

catiline.

• Know then, my life, my fortune, and my fame,
• Thy safety, and my own, the common cause,
• Demand a conduct which thy fears condemn:
• But if thou lovest me, let whate’er thou seest
• Be buried in thy breast: I mean to save
• Rome’s better part; the senate and the people
• Are disunited—danger threats the state
• On every side; I’ve taken the best means
• To make all well again.

aurelia.

• I hope thou hast;
• But can we hide our hearts from those we love?
• Canst thou deceive me? yet what thou hast said
• Doubles my fears. Alas! thy looks are wild,
• And full of horror. What will Nonnius say
• When he shall see these dreadful preparations?
• The voice of nature, and the tender names
• Of father and brother oft have passed
• Unheard and unregarded when the cause
• Of Rome required it—well thou knowest our marriage
• Gave much offence, and when my angry father
• Returning, shall behold these sad effects
• Of our unhappy union, what, my lord,
• Must I expect? O why wilt thou abuse
• The power which love has given thee o’er a heart
• Devoted to thy service?—thou hast gained
• A party, but consider well my father,
• Cato, and Cicero, and Rome, and heaven,
• Are all thy foes: Nonnius perhaps may come
• This very day on purpose to destroy thee.

catiline.

• Be not afraid, I know he cannot.

aurelia.

• How?

catiline.

• Whene’er he comes he must approve our purpose:
• I am not left at liberty to tell thee
• What we design, suffice it that his interest
• And mine are one: I know when he shall find
• The fair result, he then will join with me
• To pull down the proud tyrants he obeys:
• Trust me, Aurelia, what I do shall prove
• The fertile spring of everlasting glory
• And honor to you both—

aurelia.

• Alas! the honor
• I fear is doubtful, and the danger certain:
• What seekest thou? wherefore wouldst thou urge thy fate?
• Is it not enough to rank among the first
• Of human kind, and rule the subject world?
• Why wouldst thou mount the giddy heights of power,
• And court destruction? my foreboding heart
• Already sees, and trembles at thy danger.
• Are these the promised joys of flattering love?
• The peace I hoped for? I have lost it now
• For ever: O, my lord, when last these eyes
• Were in a short and broken slumber closed,
• Methought I saw in flames imperial Rome;
• Saw murders, deaths, and rivers stained with blood,
• My father massacred in open senate,
• And thee, my Catiline, amidst a band
• Of vile assassins, breathing forth thy soul
• In dreadful agonies: I rose, and fled
• From these sad images to find my lord,
• My guardian, my protector—thou art here,
• And I, alas! am but the more unhappy.

catiline.

• Away—thy omens fright not Catiline;
• Complain not, but be resolute: I want
• Thy courage, not thy tears, when I am serving
• Thee and my country.

aurelia.

• Is it thus thou meanst
• To serve her? O, my lord, I know not what
• Thy purpose is, but were it fair and just
• Perhaps I might long since have been consulted;
• Our mutual interest claimed it from a husband:
• If thou dissemblest with me, I have cause
• To doubt, and to be wretched—Cicero
• Has long suspected thee, and Rome thou knowest
• Adores him.

catiline.

• Whom? my hated rival?

SCENE IV.

catiline, aurelia, martian.

One of the Conspirators.

martian.

• Sir,
• The consul comes this way—by his command
• The senate meet; he wishes first to see
• And speak with you.

aurelia.

• I tremble at his name.

catiline.

• Why tremble at the name of Cicero?
• Let Nonnius fear and reverence him, disgrace
• His rank and character by mean submission;
• I pity the weak senator, but hoped
• To find in thee a noble soul: not thus,
• Remember, acted thy brave ancestors:
• Gods! that a woman, and a Roman, sprung
• From Nero’s blood, should thus be void of pride
• Or of ambition! noble minds are ne’er
• Without them.

aurelia.

• Mine perhaps thou thinkest is mean
• And timid; cruelty alone with thee
• Is courage; thy reproach is most unkind;
• But know me better; know that this fond wife,
• Whom thou contemnest, who has not power to change
• Or soften thee, has more of Roman in her
• Than thou canst boast; and, coward as she is,
• Can teach thee how to die.

catiline.

• How many cares
• At once surround me!—Cicero comes—but him
• I fear not: this Aurelia.—

SCENE V.

cicero, catiline,Chief of the Lictors.

cicero.

• [To the Chief Lictor.
• Do as I
• Command you—I’ll try if I can sound
• This faithless heart; leave me alone with him:
• Sometimes a villain may be wrought by fear
• To better counsel, and renounce his purpose.
• Who’s there? the proud plebeian, chosen by Rome
• To be her master?
• [Turns to Cataline.
• Ere the senate meet,
• Catiline, I come for the last time to hold
• The friendly torch, and save thy wandering steps
• From the dread precipice of guilt and ruin.

catiline.

• Who, thou?

cicero.

• Yes, I.

catiline.

• And is it thus thy hate
• Pursues me?

cicero.

• Call it pity—but observe me.
• The capitol is weary of thy plaints,
• Thy factious cries, and bold impertinence;
• Rome, and the senate have, it seems, debased
• The consul’s dignity by choosing me:
• Thy pride we know expected it, but how
• Hadst thou deserved it? was it by the name,
• Or family, thy valor, or the pride
• Of a loose prodigal in shows and feasts
• And idle pomp; could these entitle thee
• To such exalted honors? couldst thou hope
• To be the great dispenser of the laws,
• To guide the mistress of the world who rules
• O’er prostrate kings? had Catiline been what
• He ought to be, I might perhaps to him
• Have yielded the contested palm.—Hereafter
• Thou mayest support the state, but to be consul
• ’Tis fit thou first shouldst be—a citizen.
• Thinkest thou by vile reflections on my birth,
• My fortune, and my fame, to taint my honor,
• Or weaken the firm basis of my power?
• In our corrupted days it is not name,
• Or family, that Rome has need of: no:
• ’Tis virtue; and the pride of Cicero
• Hath ever been, that he should nothing owe
• To his forefathers—my nobility
• Springs from myself, and thine may end in thee.

catiline.

• It ill becomes a temporary power,
• Like thine, to boast of its authority.

cicero.

• Had Cicero used that power as thou deservest,
• Thou wouldst not have been here to question it:
• Thou who hast stained our altars with pollution
• And sacrilegious rage, thy days are numbered
• But by thy crimes: thy merit is to dare,
• To strike at all, dissemble, and betray:
• Thou hast abused the precious gifts that heaven
• Bestowed on thee for other purposes:
• Sense, beauty, courage, and heroic warmth,
• All the fair ornaments of human nature,
• In thee are but the instruments of ill.
• My voice, which still is raised to scourge the wicked,
• And plead for the oppressed, hath spared thee yet;
• Nor with the odious Verres ranked the name
• Of Catiline: but long impunity
• Hath made thee shameless, and insensible
• Of all reproof—thou hast betrayed the state:
• At Rome, and in Etruria all is discord,
• And foul confusion; Umbria is revolted;
• Præneste staggers in her faith; the soldiers
• Of barbarous Sulla, drenched in blood, come forth
• From their dark caves prepared for slaughter, armed
• By cruel Mallius; all are leagued with thee;
• Thy partisans declared, or secret friends,
• All are united in one guilty bond,
• And sworn to the destruction of their country:
• I know thee for their chief, for I have eyes
• On every side, and hands too, thou shalt find,
• That, spite of thee, shall vindicate the cause
• Of injured Rome; thy guilty friends shall feel
• My justice too: thou hast beheld me long
• But as thy rival, now behold thy judge,
• And thy accuser, who will force thee soon
• To answer for thy actions by those laws
• Which thou so oft hast trampled on unpunished,
• Those laws which thou contemnest, and I revenge.

catiline.

• I’ve told you, sir, already, that your office
• But ill excuses this indecent freedom:
• But for that country’s sake, whom both are bound
• To serve, I pardon your unjust suspicions;
• Nay, I do more, I honor your warm zeal;
• Blind though it be, in such a cause ’tis just:
• But do not thus reproach me for past errors,
• For the wild follies of impetuous youth,
• That soon are o’er; your senate is to blame,
• I followed their example; pomp and pride,
• Excess and luxury, the fruits of conquest,
• Are the time’s vices, not the native bent
• Of Catiline’s heart: I served the commonweal
• In Asia as a soldier, as a judge
• In Africa: spite of our domestic feuds,
• Did I not make the name of Rome revered
• Among the nations? I who have defended
• Shall ne’er betray her.

cicero.

• Sulla too and Marius
• Both served their country well, and then destroyed her.
• Tyrants have all some specious show of virtue,
• And ere they break their country’s laws support them.

catiline.

• If you suspect each brave and gallant soldier,
• Let Cæsar, Pompey, Crassus be accused:
• Why fix on me amongst so many? why
• Am I the only object of your fears?
• Have I deserved it?

cicero.

• That you best can tell.
• But wherefore deign I thus to answer you?

catiline.

• The more I plead in my defence, the more
• Will Cicero condemn me: if as friend
• Thou talkest to me, thou but deceivest thyself,
• I am thy foe; if as a citizen,
• So too is Catiline; if as a consul,
• A consul’s not a master, he presides
• But in the senate, I defy him there.

cicero.

• Thou durst not; for I there can punish guilt:
• If thou art innocent, I will protect thee;
• If not, I charge thee, be not seen in Rome.

catiline.

• This is too much: I will no longer bear
• Thy insults, though I scorn thy vague suspicions:
• Yet know I think the worst affront that thou
• Couldst put on Catiline, would be to protect him.

cicero.

• [Alone.
• Insolent traitor! means he thus to prove
• His innocence by false affected pride?
• Perfidious wretch, I’m not to be deceived,
• Nor shalt thou thus escape the watchful eye
• Of vengeance.

SCENE VI.

cicero, cato.

cicero.

• Well, my friend, hast thou prepared
• For Rome’s defence?

cato.

• Your orders are obeyed;
• I have disposed the chiefs, and all are ready
• To march as you direct them; but I fear
• The people, nay the senate.

cicero.

• Ha! the senate?

cato.

• Ay—they are swollen with pride—and foul division
• Will soon enslave them.

cicero.

• Much indeed I fear
• Our vices will avenge the conquered world;
• Our liberty and virtue are no more;
• But Rome may still have hope whilst Cato lives.

cato.

• Alas! who serves his country often serves
• A most ungrateful mistress—even thy merit
• Offends the senate; with a jealous eye
• It views thy greatness.

cicero.

• Cato’s approbation
• Is recompense enough; thy honest praise
• Will more than balance their ingratitude;
• On that and on posterity alone
• I shall rely; let us perform our duty,
• And leave the rest to heaven.

cato.

• How shall we stem
• The torrent of corruption? when I see,
• Even in this sacred temple, raised to virtue,
• Infamous treason rise with shameless front:
• Can we suppose that Manlius, that proud rebel,
• Would dare advance his standard, and blow up
• The flames of civil war, if greater powers
• Did not support him, if some secret foe
• Abetted not their vile conspiracy?
• The leaders of the senate may betray us;
• From Sulla’s ashes may new tyrants rise:
• My just suspicions light on Cæsar.

cicero.

• Mine
• On Catiline; perfidious, sordid, rash,
• And bold; he loves rebellion, and delights
• In novelty; more dangerous than Cæsar;
• I know him well; even now I parted from him:
• What passed between us but confirms me more
• In my suspicions; on his face I read
• Rage and resentment, the determined pride
• Of his fierce spirit, that no longer deigned
• To hide its purpose, but stood forth, and owned
• Its enmity to Rome.—I must discover
• His bold compeers, perhaps I may prevent
• His future crimes, and save my falling country.

cato.

• Catiline has friends, and much I fear the power
• Of these united tyrants may prove fatal:
• Our forces are in Asia, and at Rome
• We are corrupted; but one upright man
• May save the state.

cicero.

• If we unite, our country
• Has naught to fear—in factions discord soon
• Dissolves the tie: Cæsar perhaps may join them;
• But, if I know him right, his noble soul
• Will never stoop to serve a worthless tyrant;
• He loves his country still, and hates a master;
• Though soon the time will come when he shall strive
• To be one; both are eager for applause,
• And both ambitious: both are raised too high
• To meet in friendship long; by their division
• Rome may be saved; let us not tamely wait
• To see our country’s ruin, or behold
• In shameful chains the masters of mankind.

End of the First Act.