SCENE I.-A Camp, or Pavilion Royal.
Enter MAXIMIN, CHARINUS, PLACIDIUS, ALBINUS, VALERIUS, APOLLONIUS, and Guards.
Mar. Thus far my arms have with success been crowned,
And found no stop, or vanquished what they found.
The German lakes my legions have o'erpast,
With all the bars which art or nature cast:
My foes, in watery fastnesses inclosed,
I fought alone, to their whole war exposed;
Did first the depth of trembling marshes sound,
And fixed my eagles in unfaithful ground;
By force submitted to the Roman sway
Fierce nations, and unknowing to obey;
And now, for my reward, ungrateful Rome,
For which I fought abroad, rebels at home.
Alb. Yet 'tis their fear which does this war main
They cannot brook a martial monarch's reign:
Your valour would their sloth too much accuse;
And therefore, like themselves they princes chuse.
Plac. Two tame gown'd princes, who at ease de-
bate,
In lazy chairs, the business of the state;
Who reign but while the people they can please,
And only know the little arts of peace.
Char. In fields they dare not fight, where honour calls;
But breathe a faint defiance from their walls.
The very noise of war their souls does wound;
They quake, but hearing their own trumpets sound.
Val. An easy summons but for form they wait,
And to your fame will open wide the gate.
Plac. I wish our fame that swift success may find;
But conquests, sir, are easily designed.
However soft within themselves they are,
To you they will be valiant by despair:
For, having once been guilty, well they know,
To a revengeful prince they still are so.
Alb. 'Tis true, that, since the senate's succours
They grow more bold.
Max. That senate's but a name:
Or they are pageant princes which they make; That power they give away, they would partake. Two equal powers two different ways will draw, While each may check, and give the other law. True, they secure propriety and peace;
But are not fit an empire to increase.
When they should aid their prince, the slaves dispute;
And fear success should make him absolute.
They let foes conquer, to secure the state,
And lend a sword, whose edge themselves rebate. Char. When to increase the gods you late are
I'll swiftly chuse to die, or reign alone:
But these half kings our courage cannot fright;
The thrifty state will bargain ere they fight:
Give just so much for every victory,
And rather lose a fight than overbuy.
Max. Since all delays are dangerous in war,
Your men, Albinus, for assault prepare;
Crispinus and Meniphilus, I hear,
Two consulars, these Aquileians cheer;
By whom they may, if we protract the time,
Be taught the courage to defend their crime.
Plac. Put off the assault but only for this day: No loss can come by such a small delay.
Char. We are not sure to-morrow will be ours: Wars have, like love, their favourable hours. Let us use all; for if we lose one day, That white one, in the crowd, may slip away.
Mar. Fate's dark recesses we can never find; But fortune, at some hours, to all is kind:
The lucky have whole days, which still they chuse;
The unlucky have but hours, and those they lose.
Plac. I have consulted one, who reads heaven's
doom,
And sees, as present, things which are to come.
'Tis that Nigrinus, made by your command
A tribune in the new Pannonian band.
Him have I seen (on Ister's banks he stood,
Where last we wintered), bind the headlong flood
In sudden ice; and, where most swift it flows,
In crystal nets the wond'ring fishes close.
Then, with a moment's thaw, the streams enlarge,
And from the mesh the twinkling guests discharge.
In a deep vale, or near some ruined wall,
He would the ghosts of slaughtered soldiers call;
Who slow to wounded bodies did repair,
And, loth to enter, shivered in the air;
These his dread wand did to short life compel,
And forced the fates of battles to foretel.
Max. 'Tis wonderous strange! But, good Placidius, say,
What prophecies Nigrinus of this day?
Plac. In a lone tent, all hung with black, I saw,
Where in a square he did a circle draw;
Four angles, made by that circumference,
Bore holy words inscribed, of mystic sense.
When first a hollow wind began to blow,
The sky grew black, and bellied down more low;
Around the fields did nimble lightning play,
Which offered us by fits, and snatched the day.
'Midst this was heard the shrill and tender cry
Of well-pleased ghosts, which in the storm did fly;
Danced to and fro, and skimmed along the ground,
Till to the magic circle they were bound.
They coursing it, while we were fenced within,
We saw this dreadful scene of fate begin.
Char. Speak without fear; what did the vision shew?
Plac. A curtain, drawn, presented to our view A town besieged; and on the neighbouring plain Lay heaps of visionary soldiers slain.
A rising mist obscured the gloomy head
Of one, who, in imperial robes, lay dead.
Near this, in fetters, stood a virgin crowned,
Whom many Cupids strove in vain to wound:
A voice,-To-morrow, still To-morrow rung;
Another,-Io, Io Paan sung.
Char. Visions and oracles still doubtful are,
And ne'er expounded till the event of war.
The gods' foreknowledge on our swords will wait:
If we fight well, they must foreshow good fate.
Cent. A rising dust, which troubles all the air, And this way travels, shews some army near. Char. I hear the sound of trumpets from afar. [Exit ALBINUS. Max. It seems the voice of triumph, not of war.
Alb. Health and success our emperor attends:
The forces, marching on the plain, are friends.
Porphyrius, whom you Egypt's prætor made,
Is come from Alexandria to your aid.
Mar. It well becomes the conduct and the care Of one so famed and fortunate in war.
You must resign, Placidius, your command;
To him I promised the prætorian band.
Your duty in your swift compliance show;
I will provide some other charge for you.
Plac. May Cæsar's pleasure ever be obeyed,
With that submission, which by me is paid.
Now all the curses envy ever knew,
Or could invent, Porphyrius pursue!
[Aside.
Alb. Placidius does too tamely bear his loss;
[To CHARINUS.
This new pretender will all power engross :
All things must now by his direction move,
And you, sir, must resign your father's love.
Char. Yes; every name to his repute must bow;
There grow no bays for any other brow.
He blasts my early honour in the bud,
Like some tall tree, the monster of the wood;
O'ershading all which under him would grow,
He sheds his venom on the plants below.
Alb. You must some noble action undertake, Equal with his your own renown to make.
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