Cassilanes:
Admit no Souldier
near us till the Senate
Have took their
places.
Arcanes:
You are obey’d, my Lord.
Antinous:
Decius, fall off.
Decius:
I shall.
Cassilanes:
Give leave Arcanes:
Young man, come
nearer to me: who am I?
Antinous:
It were a sin
against the piety
Of filial duty,
if I should forget
The debt I owe
my Father on my knee:
Your pleasure?
Cassilanes:
What, so low?
canst thou find joints,
Yet be an Elephant?
Antinous, rise;
Thou wilt belye
opinion, and rebate
The ambition of
thy gallantry, that they
Whose confidence
thou hast bewitch’d, should see
Their little God
of War, kneel to his Father,
Though in my hand
I did grasp Thunder.
Antinous:
Sir,
For proof that
I acknowledge you the Author
Of giving me my
Birth, I have discharg’d
A part of my Obedience.
But if now
You should (as
cruel fathers do) proclaim
Your right, and
Tyrant-like usurp the glory
Of my peculiar
honours, not deriv’d
From successary,
but purchas’d with my bloud,
Then I must stand
first Champion for my self
Against all interposers.
Cassilanes:
Boldly urg’d,
And proudly, I
could love thee, did not anger
Consult with just
disdain, in open language
To call thee most
ungrateful. Say freely,
Wilt thou resign
the flatteries whereon
The reeling pillars
of a popular breath
Have rais’d
thy Giant-like conceit, to add
A suffrage to
thy Fathers merit? speak.
241]
Antinous:
Sir, hear me:
were there not a Chronicle
Well pen’d
by all their tongues, who can report
What they have
seen you do; or had you not
Best in your own
performance writ your self,
And been your
own text, I would undertake
Alone, without
the help of Art, or Character,
But only to recount
your deeds in Arms,
And you should
ever then be fam’d a President
Of living victory:
But as you are
Great, and well
worthy to be stiled Great,
It would betray
a poverty of Spirit
In me to obstruct
my fortunes, or descent,
If I should coward-like
surrender up
The interest which
the inheritance of your vertue
And mine own thrifty
fate can claim in honour:
My Lord, of all
the mass of Fame, which any
That wears a Sword,
and hath but seen me fight,
Gives me, I will
not share, nor yield one jot,
One tittle.
Cassilanes:
Not to me?