74
VOLTAIRE.
But with clear conscience give my anger way.
Facile too long, I now of pardoning tire;
Sylla I'll copy even in his rage,
And all you traitors at the storm shall quake.
Inhuman foe, go, seek your worthless friends;
They all defy me, all shall feel my wrath,
And, knowing what I can, learn what I dare.
Ruthless I'll show myself, and thou the cause.'"
Facile too long, I now of pardoning tire;
Sylla I'll copy even in his rage,
And all you traitors at the storm shall quake.
Inhuman foe, go, seek your worthless friends;
They all defy me, all shall feel my wrath,
And, knowing what I can, learn what I dare.
Ruthless I'll show myself, and thou the cause.'"
Brutus imparts the secret of his birth to the other conspirators, and resolves that it shall not move him from his purpose. In another scene with Cæsar, he so far softens as to kneel to him in entreaty that he will forego the crown at which he aims; both are inflexible, and "the mightiest Julius" is slain. Antony addresses the people, but not with the artful eloquence which renders his speech, in the English play, unequalled as a popular appeal. Nevertheless the situations, the conduct, the language of Voltaire's play, are all of a stamp that will cause most of its readers (especially if they do not place it at the disadvantage of a comparison with the "monstrous work of Shakespeare") to think it worthy of its lofty theme.
