C. Grac. Hold, good Opimius! do yet collect The votes.

Titus und Citizens. No! No!-No votes !

Marc. Speak, Caius Gracchus, speak.

C. Grac. I come to plead for Vettius.

Tit. Go on! Go on!

C. Grac. The brother of Tiberius, for the friend! Marc. Noble Caius, go on!

C. Grac. I pray you, gentle friends, if I should make

you

A poor, confus'd, disjointed, graceless speech,

Let it not hurt the man for whom I plead.
If I should falter-If my heart should rise
Into my throat, and choke my utterance-
Or, if my eyes should with a torrent drown
My struggling words-let it not, I beseech you,
Let it not hurt the man for whom I plead!

Marc. Tiberius lives again! Tiberius speaks.
C. Grac. Tiberius lives again! Alas, my friends!
Go ask the Tiber if he lives again.

Cry for him to its waters! they do know
Where your Tiberius lies, never to live
Again!-Their channel was his only grave,
Where they do murmur o'er him; but with all
The restless chafing of their many waves,
Cannot awake one throb in the big heart
That wont to beat so strong, when struggling for
Your liberties!

Tit. Noble Tiberius!

Marc. Noble Caius ! See how he weeps for his brother.

Opi. Their hearts are his already. Our labour's lost. C. Grac. What is't you do? Is it to banishment Or death, you are about to doom that man? Know you no heavier punishment for those That love you? Rather let them live, to hear You groan beneath the burdens of the great, And bear it!-to behold you vilely spurn'd By clients, bondsmen, hirelings, and bear it! To see you grip'd by heartless usury! To hear your children cry to you for food! Without a shelter for your wretched heads; Or land enough to serve you for a grave, And bear it! To a Roman, such as Vettius, What banishment, what death, were suffering Equal to life like this!

Tit. Most true! Most true!

Marc. Vettius is a friend to the people, and there

fore he is accused!

1st Citizen. " Ay, that's his crime."

2d Citizen. "He's innocent."

Tit. and Marc. Vettius is innocent!

Opi. Have you done, Caius ?

For, by your leave, I will produce my witnesses.
Vet. They are the creatures of thy tampering ;
Wretches that feed upon the victims of

Thy cruelty:

Opi. Hoa there! My witnesses!

Marc. No witnesses!

No witnesses!

Tit. Speak, Gracchus, speak.

We'll hear you, Gracchus, before a thousand witnesses.

Go on!

Citizens. Go on! Go on!

C. Grac. Romans! I hold a copy of the chargeAnd depositions of the witnesses.

Upon three several grounds he is arraing'd.
First, that he strove to bring the magistracy
Into contempt! next, that he form'd a plot,
With certain slaves, to raise a tumult; last-
And were there here the slightest proof, myself
Would bid him sheathe a dagger in his breast
That he conspir'd with enemies of Rome➡
With foreigners! barbarians! to betray her!
The first, I'll answer-Vettius is a Roman,
And 'tis his privilege to speak his thoughts.
The next, I'll answer-Vettius is a freeman,
And never would make compact with a slave.
The last, I'll answer-Vettius loves his country,
And who that loves his country would betray her!
But, say they, "We have witnesses against him."
Name them! Who stands the first upon the list?
A Client-I'll oppose to him a Senator.
Who next? A Slave-Set down a Roman Knight.
Who follows last? The servant of a Questor-
I'll place a Tribune opposite to him!

How stand we now? Which weighs the heavier?
Their Questor's Servant, or my Tribune?-Their
Slave, or my Roman Knight?-Their Client, or
My Senator?-Now, call your witnesses!
Marc. We'll have no witnesses!

Tit. For your sake, Caius, we acquit him.
Marc. Vettius is innocent!

"Citizens. Ay! Ay! Ay!"

Marc. The tribes acquit Vettius by acclamation.
Citizens. We do! We do!

Opi. Hear me, I say;

Citizens. No! No! No!

C. Grac. Their voices are against you, Opimius !

[Descends,

Flam. To please the people, we withdraw our

charge.

Citizens. Huzza! Huzza!

[Rises.

C. Grac. Come, Vettius, come! my brother's friend is free!

Citizens. Huzza! Huzza!

[Exeunt CAIUS, VETTIUS, and Citizens, R. Flam. (c.) [They come forward.] This was their policy! What's to be done?

Opi. (L.) Remove him from the city, and you nip
The danger in the bud! I'll take him for
My Quæstor, if you'll name him to the office,
And render good account of him-Who waits
Until a reptile stings him, ere he crushes it?
Tread on it at once!

Flam. Your counsel pleases me.

Here's the commission I design'd for Carbo,
All but the name, fill'd up. In Carbo's place,
I'll insert Caius, and dispatch it to him.
Opi. I leave Rome ere an hour.

Flam. He shall have orders

Most positive, to bear you company.

Opi. Of your decision you shall reap the fruits, Or, when you name your friends, leave out Opimius! [Exeunt OPI, and TUD. R. the rest are shut in,

SCENE III.-Caius Gracchus's House-Room with an opening in centre-Table, two Chairs, and Tambour Work, brought on and placed near R.

Enter LIVIA and LICINIA, L.

Licinia. (R.) I am the happiest wife in Rome, my Livia!

The happiest wife in Rome!

Livia. (L.C.) I doubt it not;

But there's Flaminius' wife, the other day,

Scarce from the Forum to her house could pass

For salutations, that her husband won

The Consulate.

B

Licinia. That day, my Caius sat

At home with me, and read to me, my Livia.

Little car'd I who won the Consulate !

Livia. (c.) And there's Lectorius has obtain❜d a government;

His wife will be a queen!

Licinia. Well, let her be so !

My queendom is, to be a simple wife.

This is my government, my husband's house,
Where, when he sits with me, he is enthron'd;
Enough. You'll smile; but, Juno be my witness,
I'd rather see him, with his boy upon

His knee, than seated in the Consul's chair,

With all the senate round him.

A

[During this speech she pulls forward the Table, &c. and places her embroidery.

Livia. Yet his greatness

Must needs be thine!

Licinia. I do not care for greatness.

It is a thing lives too much out of doors;
'Tis any where but at home; you will not find it
Once in a week, in its own house, at supper
With the family! Knock any hour you choose,
And ask for it; nine times in ten, they'll send you
To the Senate, or the Forum, or to such
Or such a one's, in quest of it! "Tis a month
Since Caius took a meal from home, and that
Was with my brother. If he walks, I walk
Along with him, if I choose; or, if I stay
Behind, it is a race 'twixt him and the time
He promis'd to be back again, which is first,
And when he's back, and the door shut on him,
Consummate happy in my world within,

I never think of any world without !

Livia. Well, then, you are the happiest wife in Rome. Licinia. Tell me, and did Flaminius' wife weep,

Livia,

That day that Rome did salutation unto her?
Livia. Weep!-No, why should she weep?
Licinia. For happiness.

Do you see?" I cannot talk of Caius, but
I weep, so blessed happy am I !"-There's
Cornelia-That's her step I hear! She is
The kindest mother to me, Livia; though
She sometimes chides me, that I'd have my Caius
Live for his wife alone.

Enter CORNELIA, L.

Cor. (L. c.) Good day, my Livia.

Now would I lose my head, could I not tell
What this fair thing, that calls me mother, has
Been talking of; if not her husband, then

For once hath the hundredth chance turu'd up, with all
The ninety-nine against it!

Licinia. Well, a wife

May talk of her husband!

Cor. Did I not tell you so?

Well, well! -I've just now come from thy young Caius-
We've almost quarrel'd; would you think it?-Mind,
Licinia, what I say; that boy's the making

Of a man-will not be kept on humble terms
With fortune, but walk up to her, and challenge her
To smile, or frown her most!

Licinia. It must content me,

His father is not such one!

Cor. (c.) May be !

Licinia. Ay, but I'm sure of it!

[Sits down to her embroidery.

[Crosses to L.

Livia. Good day, Licinia.

Cornelia, health be with you.

Licinia. Must you go?

You have not told me yet the morning's news!

Livia. Indeed I've heard none; save that Vettius,

They say, is to be banish'd, which no doubt

You know already.

Licinia. Not a word of it!

What is the time of day?

Livia. "Tis the third hour,

And past. Good day again.

Cor. Good day, my Livia.

[Exit LIVIA, L.

Why, my Licinia, what's the matter with you?
You've suffer'd Livia to depart, without

Saying good-bye to her.

Licinia. 'Tis past the time

Caius should have been back, almost an hour.

Cor. Well, what and if it is?-Go on with your work, And wile the time away; the sooner he'll

Be with you. [Goes to her and looks over her shoulder.] Why, you've done that rose to the life!

A musk rose, is it not? "Tis every thing
Except the scent, and that almost I think

I can perceive with looking on't! Indeed
You are a skilful needle!"