Bru. I say you are not.

Cas. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further,

Bru. Away, slight man!

Cas. Is't possible!

Bru. Hear me, for I will speak.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?

Cas. O ye Gods! ye Gods! must I endure all this!

Bru. All this? Ay, more. Fret till your proud

heart break:

Go, show your slaves how cholerick you are,
And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?
Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humour? By the gods,
You shall digest the venom of your spleen,
Though it do split you; for, from this day forth;
I'll use you for my mirth; yea, for my laughter,
When you are waspish.

Cas. Is it come to this?

Bru. You say you are a better soldier;
Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,
And it shall please me well. For mine own part,
I shall be glad to learn of noble men.

Cas. You wrong me every way; you wrong me,

Brutus;

I said an elder soldier, not a better.

Did I say better?

Bru. If you did, I care not.

Cas. When Cæsar lived, he durst not thus have

moved me.

Bru. Peace, peace; you durst not so have tempt

ed him.

Cas. I durst not!

Bru. No.

Cas. What? durst not tempt him ?

Bru. For your life you durst not.

Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love.

I may do that I shall be sorry for.

Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for.

There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;

1

For I am armed so strong in honesty,
That they pass by me as the idle wind,
Which I respect not. I did send to you
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me:-
I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring
From the hard hands of peasants, their vile trash,
By any indirection. I did send

To you for gold to pay my legions;

Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius?
Should I have answered Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock such rascal counters from his friends,
Be ready, Gods, with all your thunderbolts,
Dash him in pieces.

Cas. I denied you not.

Bru. You did.

Cas. I did not: he was but a fool

That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived

my heart.

A friend should bear a friend's infirmities;

But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me.
Cas. You love me not.

Bru. I do not, like your faults.

Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear As huge as high Olympus.

Cas. Come Antony! and young Octavius, come! Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius: For Cassius is a-weary of the world:Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed, Set in a note book, learned and conned, by rote, To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep My spirit from mine eyes! - There is my dagger, And here my naked breast-within, a heart Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold; If that thou be'st a Roman take it forth: I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart. Strike as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know,

When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him

better

Than ever thou loved'st Cassius.
Bru. Sheath your dagger:

Be angry when you will, it shall have scope:
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.
O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb,
That carries anger, as the flint bears fire;
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.

Cas. Hath Cassius lived

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief and blood ill-tempered vexeth him?
Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered too.
Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.
Bru. And my heart too.-
Cas. O Brutus!

Bru. What's the matter?

Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour which my mother gave me, Makes me forgetful?

Bru. Yes, Cassius; and henceforth,
When you are over-earnest with your Brutus,
He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

KING JAMES AND RODERICK DHU.
LADY OF THE LAKE.

Scene.... A rock, with a watch-fire burning near it. A Scotch Highlander, wrapped in his tartan, is discovered sleeping by it. Enter King James, in a warrior's garb.

Soldier, [grasping his sword and springing on his

feet.] Thy name and purpose, Saxon?-stand! James. A stranger.

Sold. What dost thou require?

James. Rest and guide, and food and fire.

My life's beset, my path is lost,
The gale has chilled my limbs with frost.
Sold. Art thou a friend to Roderick?
James. No.

Sold. Thou durst not call thyself his foe?
James. I dare to him and all the band

He brings to aid his murderous hand.

Sold. Bold words! But, though the beast of game

The privilege of chase may claim;
Though space and law the stag we lend,
Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend,
Who ever cared where, how, or when
The prowling fox was trapped or slain?
Thus treacherous scouts, yet sure they lie,

Who say thou com'st a secret spy.

James. They do, by heaven! Come Roderick Dhu,

And of his clan the boldest two,
And, let me but till morning rest,
I'll write the falsehood on their crest.

Sold. If by the blaze I mark aright,
Thou bear'st the belt and spur of knight.

James. Then by these tokens may'st thou know

Each proud oppressor's mortal foe.

Sold. Enough, enough; sit down and share

A soldier's couch, a soldier's fare. [They sit down and eat together, and in a few moments

the soldier continues the conversation.]

1

Sold. Stranger, I am to Roderick Dhu
A clansman born, a kinsman true;
Each word against his honour spoke
Demands of me avenging stroke.
It rests with me to wind my horn,
Thou art with numbers overborne;
It rests with me, here, brand to brand,
Worn as thou art, to bid thee stand;
But not for clan, nor kindred's cause,
Will I depart from honour's laws.
To assail a wearied man were shame,
And Stranger is a holy name.
Guidance and rest, and food and fire
In vain he never must require.
Myself will guide thee on the way,
Through watch and ward till break of day,
As far as Coilantogle ford;
From thence thy warrant is thy sword.

James. I take thy courtesy, by Heaven;

As freely as 'tis nobly given.

Sold. Why seek these wilds, traversed by few, Without a pass from Roderick Dhu?

James. Brave man, my pass, in danger tried,

Hangs in my belt, and by my side.
Yet sooth to tell, though nought I dread,
I dreamed not now to claim its aid.
When here but three days since I came,
Bewildered in pursuit of game,
All seemed as peaceful and as still,
As the mist slumbering on yon hill.
Thy dangerous chief was then afar,
Nor soon expected back from war;
Thus said, at least, my mountain guide,
Tho' deep, perchance, the villain lied.
Sold. Yet, why a second venture try?
James. A warrior thou and ask me why?
Perhaps I sought to drive away
The lazy hours of peaceful day;
Slight cause will then suffice to guide
A knight's free footsteps far and wide;
A falcon flown, a grey-hound strayed,
The merry glance of mountain maid;
Or, if a path be dangerous known,
The danger's self is lure alone.

Sold. Thy secret keep; I urge thee not,
Yet, ere again you sought this spot,
Say, heard you not of lowland war,
Against Clan Alpine raised by Mar?

James. No, by my word; of bands prepared
To guard king James's sports I heard;
Nor doubt I aught, but, when they hear
This muster of the Mountaineer,
Their pennons will abroad be flung,
Which else in Doune had peaceful hung.
Sold. Free be they flung! for we are loath
Their silken folds should teed the moth.
Free be they flung! as free shall wave
Clan Alpine's pine in banner brave.
But, stranger, peaceful since you came,