Railed on our base condition, hooted at us, Made marks as far as the earth was ours, to shew us

Nothing but sea could stop our flights, despised

us,

And held it equal, whether banquetting
Or beating of the Britons were more business,
It would have galled you.

Bond. Let me think we conquered.

Car. Do; but so think, as we may be conquered; And, where we have found virtue, though in those,

That came to make us slaves, let's cherish it.
There's not a blow we gave, since Julius landed,
That was of strength and worth, but like records,
They file to after-ages. Our registers
The Romans are, for noble deeds of honour;
And shall we brand their mentions with upbraid-
ings?

Bond. No more; I see myself. Thou hast
made me, cousin,

More than my fortunes durst; for they abused

me,

And wound me up so high, I swelled with glory:
Thy temperance has cured that tympany,
And given me health again, nay more, discretion.
Shall we have peace? for now I love these Ro-

mans.

Car. Thy love and hate are both unwise ones, lady.

Bond. Your reason ?

Nen. Is not peace the end of arms?

Car. Not where the cause implies a general conquest:

Had we a difference with some petty isle,
Or with our neighbours, lady, for our landmarks,
The taking in of some rebellious lord,
Or making head against some slight commotions,
After a day of blood, peace might be argued;
But where we grapple for the ground we live on,
The liberty we hold as dear as life,

The gods we worship, and next those, our ho

nours,

And with those swords, that know no end of battle: Those men, beside themselves, allow no neighbour;

Those minds, that where the day is, claim inherit

ance,

And where the sun makes ripe the fruits, their harvest,

And where they march, but measure out more ground

To add to Rome, and here i'th' bowels on us;
It must not be. No, as they are our foes,
And those, that must be so, until we tire them,
Let's use the peace of honour, that's fair dealing,
But in our hands our swords. That hardy Roman,
That hopes to graft himself into my stock,
Must first begin his kindred under-ground,
And be allied in ashes,

Bond. Caratach,

As thou hast nobly spoken, shall be done ;
And Hengo to thy charge I here deliver:
The Romans shall have worthy wars.
Car. They shall :

drink:

Never tell me, thou shalt have drink. I see,
Like a true friend, into thy wants; 'tis drink;
And, when I leave thee to a desolation,
Especially of that dry nature, hang me.

Jun. Why do you do this to me?
Pet. For I see,

Although your modesty would fain conceal it,
Which sits as sweetly on a soldier
As an old side-saddle-

Jun. What do you see?

Pet. I see as fair as day, that thou want'st drink.

Did I not find thee gaping, like an oyster
For a new tide? Thy very thoughts lie bare,
Like a low ebb; thy soul, that rid in sack,
Lies moored for want of liquor. Do but see
Into thyself; for, by the gods, I do;

For all thy body's chapped and cracked like timber,
For want of moisture: What is it thou want'st
there, Junius,
An if it be not drink?

Jun. You have too much on't.

Pet. It may be a whore too. Say it be, come meecher,

Thou shalt have both; a pretty valiant fellow, Die for a little lap and lechery?

Pet. No, it shall ne'er be said in our country, Thou diedst of the chin-cough. Hear, thou noble

Roman,

The son of her that loves a soldier,
Hear what I promised for thee! thus I said:
Lady, I take thy son to my companion;
Lady, I love thy son, thy son loves war,

For officers, and men of action!),

cipline,

Which is society and lechery;

These two beget commanders: Fear not, lady; Thy son shall lead.

Jun. 'Tis a strange thing, Petillius,

That so ridiculous and loose a mirth
Can master your affections.

Pet. Any mirth,

And any way, of any subject, Junius,
Is better than unmanly mustiness.

What harm is in drink? in a good wholesome

Jun. Petillius,

As thou art honest, leave me !

Pet. None, I thank you?"

A modest and a decent resolution,

And well put on. Yes; I will leave you, Junius,
And leave you to the boys, that very shortly
Shall all salute you, by your new sirname,
Of Junius None I thank you.' I would starve
now,

Hang, drown, despair, deserve the forks, lie open
To all the dangerous passes of a wench,
Bound to believe her tears, wed her aches,
Ere I would own thy follies. I have found you,
Your lays, and out-leaps, Junius, haunts, and
lodges:

I have viewed you, and I have found you, by my skill,

To be a fool of the first head, Junius,
And I will hunt you: You are in love, I know it;
You are an ass, and all the camp shall know it;
A peevish idle boy, your dame shall know it;
A wronger of my care, yourself shall know it.

Enter JUDAS and four Soldiers.
Judas. A bean? a princely diet, a full banquet,
To what we compass.

1 Sold. Fight like hogs for acorns?
2 Sold. Venture our lives for pig-nuts?
Pet. What ail these rascals?

3 Sold. If this hold, we are starved.
Judas. For my part, friends,

Which is but twenty beans a day (a hard world

For mine own part, I say, I am starved already,
Not worth another bean, consumed to nothing,
Nothing but flesh and bones left, miserable:
Now, if this musty provender can prick me
To honourable matters of atchievement, gentle-
men,

Why, there's the point.

4 Sold. I'll fight no more. Pet. You'll hang then;

A sovereign help for hunger. Ye eating rascals, Whose gods are beef and brewis! whose brave

angers

Do execution upon these, and chibbals!
Ye dog's heads in the porridge-pot! ye fight no
more!

Does Rome depend upon your resolution
For eating mouldy pye-crust?

3 Sold. Would we had it!

Judas. I may do service, captain.
Pet. In a fish-market.

You, corporal Curry-comb, what will your fighting

Profit the commonwealth? do you hope to triumph?

Or dare your vamping valour, goodman Cobler, Clap a new sole to th' kingdom? 'Sdeath, ye dog-whelps,

You fight, or not fight?
Judus. Captain!

Pet. Out, ye flesh-flies!
Nothing but noise and nastiness!
Judas. Give us meat,

Whereby we may do.

Pet. Whereby hangs your valour.
Judas. Good bits afford good blows.
Pet. A good position;

How long is't since thou eatest last? Wipe thy mouth,

And then tell truth.

Judas. I have not eat to th' purpose-
Pet. To th' purpose!' what is that? half a
cow and garlic?

Ye rogues, my company cat turf, and talk not;
Timber they can digest, and fight upon it;
Old mats, and mud with spoons, rare meats.
Your shoes, slaves;

Dare ye cry out for hunger, and those extant?
Suck your sword-hilts, ye slaves; if ye be valiant,
Honour will make them marchpane. To the
purpose?

A grievous penance! Dost thou see that gentle

man,

That melancholy monsieur?

Jun. Pray you, Petillius!

Pet. He has not eat these three weeks.

2 Sold. He has drunk the more then.

3 Sold. And that is all one.

Pet. Nor drunk nor slept these two months. Judas. Captain, we do beseech you, as poor soldiers,

SCENE III.

Enter SUETONIUS, DEMETRIUS, Decius, drum and colours.

Suet. Demetrius, is the messenger dispatched To Penius, to command him to bring up The Volans regiment?

Dem. He is there by this time.

Suet. And are the horse well viewed, we brought from Mona?

Dec. The troops are full and lusty.
Suet. Good Petillius,

Look to those eating rogues, that bawl for victuals,
And stop their throats a day or two: Provision
Waits but the wind to reach us.

Pet. Sir, already

I have been tampering with their stomachs, which I find

As deaf as adders to delays: Your clemency Hath made their murmurs, mutinies; nay rebellions;

Now, an they want but mustard, they are in uproars!

No oil but Candy, Lusitanian figs,

And wine from Lesbos, now can satisfy them; The British waters are grown dull and muddy, The fruit disgustful; Orontes must be sought for, And apples from the happy isles; the truth is, They are more curious now, in having nothing, Than if the sea and land turned up their trea

sures.

This lost the colonies, and gave Bonduca
(With shame we must record it) time and strength
To look into our fortunes; great discretion
To follow offered vict'ry; and last, full pride
To brave us to our teeth, and scorn our ruins.

Suet. Nay, chide not, good Petillius! I confess
My will to conquer Mona, and long stay
To execute that will, let in these losses:
All shall be right again, and as a pine
Rent from Oeta by a sweeping tempest,
Jointed again, and made a mast, defies
Those angry winds, that split him; so will I,
Pieced to my never-failing strength and fortune,
Steer through these swelling dangers, plow their
prides up,

And bear like thunder through their loudest tempests. They keep the field still?

Dem. Confident and full.

Pet. In such a number, one would swear they
grew:

The hills are wooded with their partizans,
And all the vallies overgrown with darts,
As moors are with rank rushes; no ground left us
To charge upon, no room to strike. Say fortune
And our endeavours bring us into them,
They are so infinite, so ever-springing,
We shall be killed with killing; of desperate wo-

men,

That neither fear or shame e'er found, the devil Has ranked amongst them multitudes; say the men fail,

They'll poison us with their petticoats; say they

fail,

They've priests enough to pray us into nothing.

Suet. These are imaginations, dreams of nothing;

The man, that doubts or fears

Dec. I am free of both.
Dem. The self-same I.

Pet. And I as free as any;

As careless of my flesh, of that we call life,
So I may lose it nobly, as indifferent
As if it were my diet. Yet, noble general,
It was a wisdom learned from you, I learned it,
And worthy of a soldier's care, most worthy,
To weigh with most deliberate circumstance
The ends of accidents, above their offers;
How to go on and get; to save a Roman,
Whose one life is more worth in way of doing,
Than millions of these painted wasps: how, view-
ing,

To find advantage out; how, found, to follow it
With counsel and discretion, lest mere fortune
Should claim the victory.

Suet. 'Tis true, Petillius,

And worthily remembered: The rule is certain,
Their uses no less excellent; but where time
Cuts off occasions, danger, time and all
Tend to a present peril, 'tis required
Our swords and manhoods be best counsellors,
Our expeditions, precedents. To win is nothing,
Where Reason, Time, and Counsel are our camp-

masters;

But there to bear the field, then to be conquerors,
Where pale destruction takes us, takes us beaten,
In wants and mutinies, ourselves but handfulls,
And to ourselves our own fears, needs a new way,
A sudden and a desperate execution:
Here, how to save, is loss; to be wise, dangerous;
Only a present well-united strength,
And minds made up for all attempts, dispatch it :
Disputing and delay here cool the courage;
Necessity gives time for doubts; (things infinite,
According to the spirit they are preached to :)
Rewards like them, and names for after-ages,
Must steel the soldier, his own shame help to arm

him;

And having forced his spirit, ere he cools,
Fling him upon his enemies; sudden and swift,
Like tigers amongst foxes, we must fight for it:
Fury must be our fortune; shame, we have lost,
Spurs ever in our sides to prick us forward:
There is no other wisdom nor discretion
Due to this day of ruin, but destruction;
The soldier's order first, and then his anger.

SCENE I.

Is infinite in number better likes me,
Than if we dealt with squadrons; half her army
Shall choke themselves, their own swords dig their
graves.

I'll tell you all my fears ; one single valour,
The virtues of the valiant Caratach,

More doubts me than all Britain: He's a soldier
So forged out, and so tempered for great fortunes,
So much man thrust into him, so old in dangers,
So fortunate in all attempts, that his mere name
Fights in a thousand men, himself in millions,
To make him Roman: But no more. Petillius,
How stands your charge?

Pet. Ready for all employments, To be commanded too, sir.

Suet. 'Tis well governed;

To-morrow we'll draw out and view the cohorts:
I' th' mean time, all apply their offices.
Where's Junius?

Pet. In's cabin, sick o' th' mumps, sir.
Suet. How?

Pet. In love, indeed in love, most lamentably loving,

To the tune of Queen Dido.

Dec. Alas, poor gentleman!

Suet. 'Twill make him fight the nobler. With what lady?

I'll be a spokesman for him.
Pet. You'll scant speed, sir.

Suet. Who is it?

Pet. The devil's dam, Bonduca's daughter, Her youngest cracked i'th' ring.

Suet. I'm sorry for him:

But sure his own discretion will reclaim him;
He must deserve our anger else. Good captains,
Apply yourselves in all the pleasing forms
Ye can, unto the soldiers; fire their spirits,
And set them fit to run this action;
Mine own provisions shall be shared amongst
them,

'Till more come in; tell them, if now they conquer,

The fat of all the kingdom lies before them.
Their shames forgot, their honours infinite,
And want for ever banished. Two days hence,
Our fortunes, and our swords, and gods be for us!
[Exeunt.

Enter PENIUS, REGULUS, MACER, and DRUSIUS.

Pen. I must come?

Macer. So the general commands, sir. Pen. I must bring up my regiment? Macer. Believe, sir,

Pen. No; but 'tis lost, because it must be won;
The Britons must be victors. Whoe'er saw
A troop of bloody vultures hovering
About a few corrupted carcases,
Let him behold the silly Roman host,

Girded with millions of fierce Britain's swains,
With deaths as many as they have had hopes;
And then go thither, he that loves his shame!
I scorn my life, yet dare not lose my name.

Cur. Do not you hold it a most famous end, When both our names and lives are sacrificed For Rome's encrease?

Pen. Yes, Curius; but mark this too: What glory is there, or what lasting fame Can be to Rome or us, what full example, When one is smothered with a multitude, And crowded in amongst a nameless press? Honour got out of flint, and on their heads Whose virtues, like the sun, exhaled all valours Must not be lost in mists and fogs of people, Noteless, and out of name, both rude and naked: Nor can Rome task us with impossibilities, Or bid us fight against a flood; we serve her, That she may proudly say she has good soldiers, Not slaves to choke all hazards. Who but fools, That make no difference betwixt certain dying, And dying well, would fling their fames and for

tunes

Pen. Drusius, mark antient wisdom, and you'll find then,

He gave the overthrow that saved his men.
I must not go.

Reg. The soldiers are desirous,
Their eagles all drawn out, sir.
Pen. Who drew up? Regulus?

Ha? speak! did you? whose bold will durst attempt this!

Drawn out? why, who commands, sir? on whose

warrant

Durst they advance?

Reg. I keep mine own obedience.

Drus. 'Tis like the general cause, their love of honour,

Relieving of their wants

Pen. Without my knowledge!

Am I no more? my place but at their pleasures? Come, who did this?

Drus. By heaven, sir, I am ignorant.

[Drum softly within, then enter Soldiers, with drum and colours.

Pen. What! am I grown a shadow ?—Hark! they march.

I'll know, and will be myself.-Stand! Disobe

dience?

He, that advances one foot higher, dies for it. Run through the regiment, upon your duties, And charge them, on command, beat back again; By heaven I'll tithe them all else!

Reg. We'll do our best. [Ere. DRUS, and REG. Pen. Back! cease your bawling drums there! I'll beat the tubs about your brains else. Back! Do I speak with less fear than thunder to ye? Must I stand to beseech ye? Home, home!-Ha! D'ye stare upon me? Are those minds I moulded, Those honest valiant tempers I was proud To be a fellow to, those great discretions Made your names feared and honoured, turned

And say ye come to glut their sacrifices;
But do not say I sent ye. What ye have been,
How excellent in all parts, good, and governed,
Is only left of my command, for story;