Marlowe, Christopher The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe. Fredson Bowers, ed. Cambridge: The University Press, 1973 1593 MarPhar Wars worse than civil on thessalian plains, And outrage strangling law and people strong, We sing, whose conquering swords their own breasts Launched, Armies allied, the kingdom's league uprooted, Th' affrighted world's force bent on public spoil, Trumpets, and drums like deadly threat'ning other, Eagles alike displayed, darts answering darts. Romans, what madness, what huge lust of war Hath made barbarians drunk with latin blood? Now babylon, (proud through our spoil) should stoop, While slaughtered crassus' ghost walks unrevenged. Will ye wage war, for which you shall not triumph? Aye me, o what a world of land and sea Might they have won whom civil broils have slain! As far as titan springs where night dims heaven, Ay, to the torrid zone where midday burns, And where stiff winter whom no spring resolves, Fetters the euxin sea with chains of ice: Scythia and wild armenia had been yoked, And they of nilus' mouth (if there live any.) Rome, if thou take delight in impious war, First conquer all the earth, then turn thy force Against thyself: as yet thou wants not foes. That now the walls of houses half reared totter, That rampires fallen down, huge heaps of stone Lie in our towns that houses are abandoned, And few live that behold their ancient seats; Italy many years hath lain untilled, And choked with thorns, that greedy earth wants hinds. Fierce pyrrhus, neither thou nor hannibal Art cause, no foreign foe could so afflict us, These plagues arise from wreak of civil power. But if for nero (then unborn) the fates Would find no other means, (and gods not sleightly Purchase immortal thrones; nor jove joyed heaven Until the cruel giants' war was done.) For nero's sake: Pharsalia groan with slaughter, And carthage souls be glutted with our bloods; At munda let the dreadful battles join; Add caesar, to these ills perusian famine; The mutin toils; the fleet at leuca sunk; And cruel field near burning aetna fought: Yet rome is much bound to these civil arms, Which made thee emperor, thee (seeing thou being old Must shine a star) shall heaven (whom thou lovest,) Receive with shouts; where thou wilt reign as king, Or mount the sun's plume bearing chariot, And with bright restless fire compass the earth, Undaunted though her former guide be changed. Nature, and every power shall give thee place, What god it please thee be, or where to sway: But neither choose the north t' erect thy seat; Nor yet the adverse reeking southern pole, Whence thou shouldst view thy rome with squinting Beams. If any one part of vast heaven thou swayest, The burdened axes with thy force will bend; The midst is best; that place is pure, and bright, There caesar mayst thou shine and no cloud dim thee; Then men from war shall 'bide in league, and ease, Peace through the world from janus' fane shall fly, And bolt the brazen gates with bars of iron Thou caesar at this instant art my god, Thee if i invocate, i shall not need To crave apollo's aid, or bacchus' help; Thy power inspires the muse that sings this war. The causes first i purpose to unfold Of these garboils, whence springs a long discourse, And what made madding people shake off peace. The fates are envious, high seats quickly perish, Under great burdens falls are ever grievous; Rome was so great it could not bear itself: So when this world's compounded union breaks, Time ends and to old chaos all things turn; Confused stars shall meet, celestial fire Fleet on the floods, the earth shoulder the sea, Chase phoebus and enraged affect his place, And strive to shine by day, and full of strife Dissolve the engines of the broken world. All great things crush themselves, such end the gods Allot the height of honor, men so strong By land, and sea, no foreign force could ruin: O rome thyself art cause of all these evils, Thyself thus shivered out to three men's shares: Dire league of partners in a kingdom last not. O faintly joined friends with ambition blind, Why join you force to share the world betwixt you? While th' earth the sea, and air the earth sustains; While titan strives against the world's swift course; Or cynthia, night's queen, waits upon the day; Shall never faith be found in fellow kings. Dominion cannot suffer partnership; This need no foreign proof, nor far fet story: Rome's infant walls were steeped in brothers' blood; Nor then was land, or sea, to breed such hate, A town with one poor church set them at odds. Caesar's, and pompey's jarring love soon ended, 'twas peace against their wills; betwixt them both Stepped crassus in: even as the slender isthmus, Betwixt the aegean and the ionian sea, Keeps each from other, but being worn away They both burst out, and each encounter other: So whenas crassus' wretched death, who stayed them, Had filled assyrian carras' walls with blood, His loss made way for roman outrages. Parthians y' afflict us more than yet suppose, Being conquered, we are plagued with civil war. Swords share our empire, fortune that made rome Govern the earth, the sea, the world itself Would not admit two lords: for julia Snatched hence by cruel fates with ominous howls, Bare down to hell her son the pledge of peace, And all bands of that death presaging alliance. Julia, had heaven given thee longer life Thou hadst restrained thy headstrong husband's rage, Yea, and thy father too, and swords thrown down, Thy death broke amity and trained to war These captains emulous of each other's glory. Thou feared'st (great pompey) that late deeds would Dim Old triumphs, and that caesar's conquering france Would dash the wreath thou wear'st for pirate's wrack. Thee war's use stirred, and thoughts that always Scorned A second place; pompey could bide no equal, Nor caesar no superior, which of both Had justest cause unlawful 'tis to judge: Each side had great partakers; caesar's cause The gods abetted; cato liked the other. Both differed much, pompey was strook in years, And by long rest forgot to manage arms, And being popular sought by liberal gifts, To gain the light unstable commons' love, And joyed to hear his theater's applause; He lived secure boasting his former deeds, And thought his name sufficient to uphold him, Like to a tall oak in a fruitful field, Bearing old spoils and conquerors' monuments Who though his root be weak, and his own weight Keep him within the ground, his arms all bare, His body (not his boughs) send forth a shade; Though every blast it nod, and seem to fall, When all the woods about stand bolt upright, Yet he alone is held in reverence. Caesar's renown for war was less, he restless, Shaming to strive but where he did subdue, When ire, or hope provoked, heady, and bold, At all times charging home, and making havoc; Urging his fortune, trusting in the gods, Destroying what withstood his proud desires, And glad when blood, and ruin made him way: So thunder which the wind tears from the clouds, With crack of riven air and hideous sound Filling the world, leaps out and throws forth fire, Affrights poor fearful men, and blasts their eyes With overthwarting flames, and raging shoots Alongst the air and nought resisting it Such humors stirred them up; but this war's seed Was even the same that wracks all great dominion. When fortune made us lords of all, wealth flowed, And then we grew licentious and rude, The soldier's prey, and rapine brought in riot, Men took delight in jewels, houses, plate, And scorned old sparing diet, and ware robes Too light for women; poverty (who hatched Rome's greatest wits) was loathed, and all the world Ransacked for gold, which breeds the world decay; And then large limits had their butting lands, The ground which curius and camillus tilled, Was stretched unto the fields of hinds unknown; Again, this people could not brook calm peace, Them freedom without war might not suffice, Quarrels were rife, greedy desire still poor Did vild deeds, then 'twas worth the price of blood And deemed renown to spoil their native town, Force mastered right, the strongest governed all. Hence came it that th' edicts were overruled, That laws were broke, tribunes with consuls strove, Sale made of offices, and people's voices Bought by themselves and sold, and every year Frauds and corruption in the field of mars; Hence interest and devouring usury sprang, Faith's breach, and hence came war to most men Welcome. Now caesar overpassed the snowy alps. His mind was troubled, and he aimed at war, And coming to the ford of rubicon, At night in dreadful vision fearful rome, Mourning appeared, whose hoary hairs were torn, And on her turret bearing head dispersed, And arms all naked, who with broken sighs, And staring, thus bespoke: what mean'st thou caesar? Whether goes my standard? romans if ye be, And bear true hearts, stay here. this spectacle Stroke caesar's heart with fear, his hair stood up, And faintness numbed his steps there on the brink: He thus cried out: thou thunderer that guard'st Yet gods of phrygia and julus line, Quirinus rites and latian jove advanced On alba hill, o vestal flames, o rome, My thoughts' sole goddess, aid mine enterprise. I hate thee not, to thee my conquests stoop, Caesar is thine, so please it thee, thy soldier; He, he afflicts rome that made me rome's foe. This said, he laying aside all lets of war, Approached the swelling stream with drum and ensign, Like to a lion of scorched desert afric, Who seeing hunters pauseth till fell wrath And kingly rage increase, then having whisked His tail athwart his back, and crest heaved up, With jaws wide open ghastly roaring out; (albeit the moor's light javelin or his spear Sticks in his side) yet runs upon the hunter. In summer time the purple rubicon, Which issues from a small spring, is but shallow, And creeps along the vales dividing just The bounds of italy from cisalpine france; But now the winter's wrath and wat'ry moon, Being three days old enforced the flood to swell, And frozen alps thawed with resolving winds. The thunder hooved horse in a crooked line, To scape the violence of the stream first waded, Which being broke, the foot had easy passage. As soon as caesar got unto the bank And bounds of italy; here, here (saith he) An end of peace; here end polluted laws; Hence leagues, and covenants; fortune thee i follow, War and the destinies shall try my cause. This said, the restless general through the dark (swifter than bullets thrown from spanish slings, Or darts which parthians backward shoot) marched on And then (when lucifer did shine alone, And some dim stars) he arriminum entered: Day rose and viewed these tumults of the war; Whether the gods, or blust'ring south were cause I know not, but the cloudy air did frown; The soldiers having won the market place, There spread the colors, with confused noise The people started; young men left their beds, And snatched arms near their household gods hung up Such as peace yields; worm-eaten leathern targets, Through which the wood peered, headless darts, old Swords With ugly teeth of black rust fouly scarred: But seeing white eagles, and rome's flags well known, And lofty caesar in the thickest throng, They shook for fear, and cold benumbed their limbs, And muttering much, thus to themselves complained: O walls unfortunate too near to france, Predestinate to ruin; all lands else Have stable peace, here war's rage first begins, We bide the first brunt; safer might we dwell Under the frosty bear, or parching east, Wagons or tents, than in this frontier town. We first sustained the uproars of the gauls, And furious cimbrians and of carthage moors, As oft as rome was sacked, here 'gan the spoil. Thus sighing whispered they, and none durst speak And show their fear, or grief: but as the fields When birds are silent thorough winter's rage; Or sea far from the land, so all were whist. Now light had quite dissolved the misty night, And caesar's mind unsettled musing stood; But gods and fortune pricked him to this war, Infringing all excuse of modest shame, And laboring to approve his quarrel good. The angry senate urging grachus' deeds, From doubtful rome wrongly expelled the tribunes, That crossed them; both which now approached the camp, And with them curio, sometime tribune too, One that was feed for caesar, and whose tongue Could tune the people to the nobles' mind. Caesar (said he) while eloquence prevailed, And i might plead, and draw the commons' minds To favor thee against the senate's will, Five years i lengthened thy command in france: But law being put to silence by the wars, We from our houses driven, most willingly Now while their part is weak, and fears, march hence. Where men are ready, lingering ever hurts: In ten years wonn'st thou france; rome may be won With far less toil, and yet the honor's more; Few battles fought with prosperous success May bring her down, and with her all the world. Nor shalt thou triumph when thou com'st to rome, Nor capital be adorned with sacred bays; Envy denies all, with thy blood must thou Aby thy conquest past: the son decrees To expel the father; share the world thou canst not; Enjoy it all thou mayest. thus curio spake, And therewith caesar prone enough to war, Was so incensed as are eleius' steeds With clamors: who though locked and chained in stalls, Souse down the walls, and make a passage forth. Straight summoned he his several companies Unto the standard: his grave look appeased The wrestling tumult, and right hand made silence: And thus he spake: you that with me have borne A thousand brunts, and tried me full ten years, See how they quit our bloodshed in the north, Our friends' death, and our wounds, our wintering Under the alps; rome rageth now in arms As if the carthage hannibal were near; Cornets of horse are mustered for the field; Woods turned to ships; both land and sea against us. Had foreign wars ill thrived; or wrathful france Pursued us hither, how were we bestead When 'coming conqueror rome afflicts me thus? Let come their leaders whom long peace hath quailed Raw soldiers lately pressed, and troops of gowns; Brabbling marcellus; cato whom fools reverence; Must pompey's followers with strangers' aid, (whom from his youth he bribed) needs make him king? And shall he triumph long before his time, And having once got head still shall he reign? What should i talk of men's corn reaped by force, And by him kept of purpose for a dearth? Who sees not war sit by the quivering judge; And laws assailed, and armed men in the senate? 'twas his troop hemmed in milo being accused; And now lest age might wane his state, he casts For civil war, wherein through use he's known To exceed his master, that arch-traitor sylla. A brood of barbarous tigers having lapped The blood of many a herd, whilst with their dams They kenneled in hircania, evermore Will rage and prey: so, pompey, thou having licked Warm gore from sylla's sword art yet athirst, Jaws fleshed with blood continue murderous. Speak, when shall this thy long usurped power end? What end of mischief? sylla teaching thee, At last learn wretch to leave thy monarchy. What, now sicilian pirates are suppressed, And jaded king of pontus poisoned slain, Must pompey as his last foe plume on me, Because at his command i wound not up My conquering eagles? say i merit nought, Yet for long service done, reward these men, And so they triumph, be't with whom ye will. Whither now shall these old bloodless souls repair? What seats for their deserts? what store of ground For servitors to till? what colonies To rest their bones? say pompey, are these worse Than pirates of sicilia? they had houses. Spread, spread these flags that ten years' space have Conquered, Let's use our tried force, they that now thwart right In wars will yield to wrong: the gods are with us. Neither spoil, nor kingdom seek we by these arms, But rome at thralldom's feet to rid from tyrants. This spoke, none answered, but a murmuring buzz Th' unstable people made: their household gods And love to rome (though slaughter steeled their Hearts And minds were prone) restrained them; but war's love And caesar's awe dashed all: then lalius The chief centurion crowned with oaken leaves, For saving of a roman citizen, Force, So be i may be bold to speak a truth, We grieve at this thy patience and delay. What doubt'st thou us? even now when youthful blood Pricks forth our lively bodies, and strong arms Can mainly throw the dart, wilt thou endure These purple grooms? that senate's tyranny? Is conquest got by civil war so heinous? Well, lead us then to syrtes' desert shore; Or scythia; or hot libya's thirsty sands. This hand that all behind us might be quailed, Hath with thee passed the swelling ocean, And swept the foaming breast of arctic's rhine. Love overrules my will, i must obey thee, Caesar, he whom i hear thy trumpets charge I hold no roman; by these ten blest ensigns And all thy several triumphs, shouldst thou bid me Entomb my sword within my brother's bowels; Or father's throat; or woman's groaning womb; This hand (albeit unwilling) should perform it; Or rob the gods; or sacred temples fire: These troops should soon pull down the church of jove. If to encamp on tuscan tiber's streams, I'll boldly quarter out the fields of rome; What walls thou wilt be leveled with the ground, These hands shall thrust the ram, and make them fly, Albeit the city thou wouldst have so razed Be rome itself. here every band applauded, And with their hands help up, all jointly cried They'll follow where he please: the shouts rent Heaven, As when against pine-bearing ossa's rocks Beats thracian boreas; or when trees bowed down, And rustling swing up as the wind fets breath When caesar saw his army prone to war, And fates so bent, lest sloth and long delay Might cross him, he withdrew his troops from france, And in all quarters musters men for rome. They by lemannus' nook forsook their tents; They whom the lingones foiled with painted spears, Under the rocks by crooked vogesus; Who running long, falls in a greater flood, And ere he sees the sea loseth his name; The yellow ruthens left their garrisons; Mild atax glad it bears not roman boats, And frontier varus that the camp is far, Sent aid; so did alcides port, whose seas Eat hollow rocks, and where the northwest wind Nor zephyr rules not, but the north alone Turmoils the coast, and enterance forbids; And others came from that uncertain shore, Which is nor sea, nor land, but ofttimes both, And changeth as the ocean ebbs and flows: Whither the sea rolled always from that point, Whence the wind blows still forced to-and-fro; Or that the wandering main follow the moon; Or flaming titan (feeding on the deep) Pulls them aloft, and makes the surge kiss heaven, Philosophers look you, for unto me Thou cause, whate'er thou be whom god assigns This great effect, art hid. they came that dwell By nemes' fields, and banks of satirus, Where tarbel's winding shores embrace the sea, The santons that rejoice in caesar's love, Those of bituriges and light axon pikes; And they of rhine and leuca, cunning darters, And sequana that well could manage steeds; The belgians apt to govern british cars; Th' averni, too, which boldly feign themselves The romans' brethren, sprung of ilian race; The stubborn nervians stained with cotta's blood, And vangions who like those of sarmata, Were open slops: and fierce batavians, Whom trumpet's clang incites, and those that dwell By cynga's stream, and where swift rhodanus Drives araris to sea; they near the hills, Under whose hoary rocks gebenna hangs; And trevier, thou being glad that wars are past thee; And you late shorn ligurians, who were wont In large spread heir to exceed the rest of france; And where to hesus, and fell mercury They offer human flesh, and where jove seems Bloody like dian, whom the scythians serve; Renown the valiant souls slain in your wars, Sit safe at home and chant sweet poesy. And druids you now in peace renew Your barbarous customs, and sinister rites, In unfelled woods, and sacred groves you dwell, And only gods and heavenly powers you know, Or only know you nothing. for you hold That souls pass not to silent erebus Or pluto's bloodless kingdom, but elsewhere Resume a body: so (if truth you sing) Death brings long life. doubtless these northern men Whom death the greatest of all fears affright not, Are blest by such sweet error, this makes them Run on the sword's point and desire to die, And shame to spare life which being lost is won. You likewise that repulsed the caick foe, March towards rome; and you fierce men of rhine Leaving your country open to the spoil. These being come, their huge power made him bold To manage greater deeds; the bordering towns He garrisoned; and italy he filled with soldiers. Vain fame increased true fear, and did invade The people's minds, and laid before their eyes Slaughter to come, and swiftly bringing news Of present war, made many lies and tales. One swears his troops of daring horsemen fought Upon mevanias plain, where bulls are grazed; Other that caesar's barbarous bands were spread Along nar flood that into tiber falls, And that his own ten ensigns, and the rest Marched not entirely, and yet hide the ground, And that he's much changed, looking wild and big, And far more barbarous than the french (his vassals) And that he lags behind with them of purpose Borne twixt the alps and rhine, which he hath brought From out their northern parts, and that rome He looking on by these men should be sacked. Thus in his fright did each man strengthen fame, And without ground, feared what themselves had Feigned; Nor were the commons only strook to heart The fathers' selves leaped from their seats; and Flying Left hateful war decreed to both the consuls. Then with their fear, and danger all distract, Their sway of flight carries the heady rout That in chained troops break forth at every port; You would have thought their houses had been fired Or dropping-ripe, ready to fall with ruin, So rushed the inconsiderate multitude Thorough the city hurried headlong on, As if the only hope (that did remain To their afflictions) were t' abandon rome. Look how when stormy auster from the breach Of libyan syrtes rolls a monstrous wave, Which makes the mainsail fall with hideous sound; The pilot from the helm leaps in the sea; And mariners, albeit the keel be sound, Shipwrack themselves: even so the city left, All rise in arms; nor could the bedrid parents Keep back their sons, or women's tears their husbands; They stayed not either to pray or sacrifice, Their household gods restrain them not, none lingered, As loath to leave rome whom they held so dear: Th' irrevocable people fly in troops. O gods, that easy grant men great estates, But hardly grace to keep them: rome that flows With citizens and captives, and would hold The world (were it together) is by cowards Left as a prey now caesar doth approach: When romans are besieged by foreign foes, With slender trench they escape night stratagems, And sudden rampire raised of turf snatched up Would make them sleep securely in their tents. Thou rome at name of war runn'st from thyself, And wilt not trust thy city walls one night: Well might these fear, when pompey feared and fled. Now evermore lest some one hope might ease The commons' jangling minds, apparent signs arose, Strange sights appeared, the angry threat'ning gods Filled both the earth and seas with prodigies; Great store of strange and unknown stars were seen Fly in the air, and dreadful bearded stars, And comets that presage the fall of kingdoms. The flattering sky glittered in often flames, And sundry fiery meteors blazed in heaven: Now spearlike, long; now like a spreading torch Lightning in silence stole forth without clouds, And from the northern climate snatching fire Blasted the capital: the lesser stars Which wont to run their course through empty night At noonday mustered; phoebe having filled Her meeting horns to match her brother's light, Strook with th' earth's sudden shadow waxed pale, Titan himself throned in the midst of heaven, His burning chariot plunged in sable clouds, And whelmed the world in darkness, making men Despair of day, as did thiestes town, (mycenae) phoebus flying through the east: Fierce mulciber unbarred aetna's gate, Which flamed not on high; but headlong pitched Her burning head on bending hespery. Coal-black charybdis whirled a sea of blood; Fierce mastiffs hold; the vestal fires went out, The flame in alba consecrate to jove Parted in twain, and with a double point Rose like the theban brothers' funeral fire; The earth went off her hinges; and the alps Shook the old snow from off their trembling laps. The ocean swelled as high as spanish calpe, Or atlas' head; their saints and household gods Sweat tears to show the travails of their city. Crowns fell from holy statues, ominous birds Defiled the day, and wild beasts were seen, Leaving the woods, lodge in the streets of rome. Cattle were seen that muttered human speech: Prodigous births with more and ugly joints, Than nature gives, whose sight appalls the mother, And dismal prophesies were spread abroad: And they whom fierce bellonae's fury moves To wound their arms, sing vengeance, sibyl's priests, Curling their bloody locks, howl dreadful things, Souls quiet and appeased sighed from their graves, Shrill voices shrieked, and ghosts encounter men. Those that inhabited the suburb fields Fled, foul erinnis stalked about the walls, Shaking her snaky hair and crooked pine With flaming top, much like that hellish fiend Which made the stern lycurgus wound his thigh, Or fierce agave mad; or like megaera That scared alcides, when by juno's task He had before looked pluto in the face. Trumpets were heard to sound; and with what noise An armed battle joins, such and more strange Black night brought forth in secret: sylla's ghost Was seen to walk, singing sad oracles, And marius' head above cold tau'ron peering (his grave broke open) did affright the boars. To these ostents (as their old custom was) They call th' etrurian augurs, amongst whom The gravest, aruns, dwelt in forsaken leuca, (or luna, Well skilled in pyromancy; one that knew The hearts of beasts, and flight of wandering fowls. First he commands such monsters nature hatched Against her kind (the barren mule's loathed issue) To be cut forth and cast in dismal fires: Then, that the trembling citizens should walk About the city; then the sacred priests That with divine lustration purged the walls, And went the round, in, and without the town. Next, an inferior troop in tucked up vestures, After the gabine manner: then the nuns And their veiled matron, who alone might view Minerva's statue; then, they that keep, and read Sibylla's secret works, and washed their saint In almo's flood: next learned augurs follow, Apollo's soothsayers, and jove's feasting priests; The skipping salii with shields like wedges; And flamin's last, with network woolen veils. While these thus in and out had circled rome, Look, what the lightning blasted aruns takes And it inters with murmurs dolorous, And calls the place bidental: on the altar He lays a ne'er-yoked bull, and pours down wine, The beast long struggled, as being like to prove An awkward sacrifice, but by the horns The quick priest pulled him on his knees and slew him: No vein sprung out but from the yawning gash, Instead of red blood wallowed venomous gore. These direful signs made aruns stand amazed, And searching farther for the gods' displeasure, The very color scared him; a dead blackness Ran through the blood, that turned it all to jelly, And stained the bowels with dark loathsome spots; The liver swelled with filth, and every vein Did threaten horror from the host of caesar; A small thin skin contained the vital parts, The heart stirred not, and from the gaping liver Squeezed matter through the caul; the entrails 'peared, And which (aye me) ever pretendeth ill, At that bunch where the liver is, appeared A knob of flesh, whereof one half did look Dead, and discolored, th' other lean and thin. By these he seeing what mischiefs must ensue, Cried out, o gods! i tremble to unfold What you intend: great jove is now displeased, And in the breast of this slain bull are crept Th' infernal powers. my fear transcends my words, Yet more will happen than i can unfold. Turn all to good, by augury vain, and tages Th' arts' master false. thus in ambiguous terms, Involving all, did aruns darkly sing. But figulus more seen in heavenly mysteries, Whose like egyptian memphis never had For skill in stars, and tuneful planeting, In this sort spake: the world's swift course is Lawless And casual; all the stars at random rage: Or if fate rule them, rome thy citizens Are near some plague: what mischief shall ensue? Shall towns be swallowed? shall the thickened air, Become intemperate? shall the earth be barren? Shall water be congealed and turned to ice? O gods what death prepare ye? with what plague Meets in one period. if cold noisome saturn Were now exalted, and with blue beams shined, Then ganymede would renew deucalion's flood, And in the fleeting sea the earth be drenched. O phoebus shouldst thou with thy rays now sing The fell nemean beast, th' earth would be fired, And heaven tormented with thy chafing heat, But thy fire's hurt not; mars, 'tis thou inflam'st The threat'ning scorpion with the burning tail And fir'st his claws. why art thou thus enraged? Kind jupiter hath low declined himself; Venus is faint; swift hermes retrograde; Mars only rules the heaven: why do the planets Alter their course and vainly dim their virtue? Sword-girt orion's side glisters too bright. War's rage draws near; and to the sword's strong hand Let all laws yield, sin bear the name of virtue, Many a year these furious broils let last, Why should we wish the gods should ever end them? War only gives us peace, o rome continue The course of mischief, and stretch out the date Of slaughter; only civil broils make peace. These sad presages were enough to scare The quivering romans, but worse things affright them. As maenus full of wine on pindus raves, So runs a matron through th' amazed streets, Disclosing phoebus' fury in this sort; Pean whither am i haled? where shall i fall? Thus borne aloft i see pangeus hill, With hoary top, and under hemus mount Philippi plains; phoebus what rage is this? Why grapples rome, and makes war, having no foes? Whither turn i now? thou lead'st me toward th' east, Where nile augmenteth the pelusian sea: This headless trunk that lies on nilus sand I know: now throughout the air i fly To doubtful syrtes and dry afric, where A fury leads the emathian bands; from thence To the pine-bearing hills, hence to the mounts Pyrene, and so back to rome again. So impious war defiles the senate house, I go; o phoebus show me neptune's shore, And other regions, i have seen philippi: This said, being tired with fury she sunk down. Finis.