every Horror. Lamenta. little service was this privilege to him, that while he was thus asserting his citizenship, the order was given for his execution-for his execution upon the cross! O liberty! sound once delightful to Roman ear!-O sacred privilege of Roman citizenship !—once sacred!--now trampled upon;! Exciting to But what then! Is it come to this? Shall an vindication. inferior magistrate, a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and red hot plates of iron, and at the last put to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country; restrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in confidence of his riches, strikes at the root of liberty, and sets mankind at defiance. I conclude with expressing my hopes, that your wisdom, and justice, Fathers, will not, by suffering the atrocious and unexampled insolence of Caius Verres to escape the due punishment, leave room to apprehend the danger of a total subversion of authority, and introduction of general anarchy and confusion. TERROR. LXIV. DISCOVERY OF SECRET The Ghost of Hamlet king of Denmark, mur- Horatio. (Shakes. HAMLET.) LOOK! ! my lord, it comes ! Hamlet. Angels and Ministers of grace, defend us! Alarm. Starting. Trembling. (1) Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd; Bring'st with thee airs from Heav'n or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable? Thou com'st in such a questionable (2) shape, That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, Earneftnefs. King, Father, Royal Dane! O answer me, Why thy bones hears'd in canonized earth, Have burst their cerements? (3) Why the sepulchre, Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd, Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws, Queftion. Say, why is this? What would'st thou have done for thee? Horror. Ghost. (4) I am thy father's spirit, to earth return'd Foul murder to disclose-List then, O Hamlet! Narration. 'Tis given out, that sleeping in my garden, A serpent stung me. So the ear of Denmark Is, by a forged process of my death, Complaint Grossly abused. But know, thou princely youth, of injury. The serpent, that did sting thy father dead, Now wears his crown. Sleeping within an alcove, (1) Hamlet, ftanding in converfation with Horatio and Mar. cellus, is fuppofed to be turned from the place where the ghoft appears, and which is feen by Horatio. When Horatio gives the word that the ghost appears, Hamlet turns haftily round toward it in great confternation, and expreffes his fear in the first line, "Angels and Minifters," &c. Then, after a long pause, looking earnestly at the fpectre, he goes on. "Be thou a fpirit," &c. See Fear, p. 21. (2) Questionable, means inviting question. The ghoft appeared in a fhape fo interefting to the young prince, viz. that of his father, that he could not help venturing to speak to it, though with great reluctance from fear. (3) Cerements are the medicated fwathings put about a dead body, to preferve it longer from putrefaction; from cera, wax. (4) The fpeech of the ghoft to be fpoken without action, very flow and folemn, with little variation of voice, and in a hollow deep and dreary tone. With juice of cursed hebenon distill'd, Most lazar like, with vile and loathsome crust, Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, LXV. EXHORTATION. REPROACHING. The Athenians, being unsuccessful in the war against Philip of Macedon, assembled in great dejection, in order to consult what measures were to be taken to retrieve their seemingly desperate affairs. DEMOSTHENES endeavours to encourage them, by shewing that there was nothing to fear from Philip if they prosecuted the war in a proper manner. [DEMOST. PHILIP ORAT.] ATHENIANS! HAD AD this assembly been called together on an unusual occasion, I should have waited to hear the opinions of others, before I had offered Exciting. Indignation Cautioning. Anguish. Apology. my own; and if what they proposed had seemed to me judicious, I should have been silent; if Submiffion, otherwise, I should have given my reasons for dif fering from those, who had spoken before me. Apology. But as the subject of our present deliberations has been often treated by others, I hope I shall be excused, though I rise up first to offer my opinion. Had the schemes, formerly proposed, been successful, there had been no occasion for the present consultation. Encourage. Concern. First, then, my countrymen, let me intreat you not to look upon the state of our affairs as desperate, though it be unpromising. For, as on one hand, to compare the present with times past, matters haindeed a very gloomy aspect; so, on the other, if we extend our views to future times, I have good hopes, that the distresses, we are now under, will prove of greater advantage to us, than if we had never fallen into them. If it be asked, what probability there is of this, I answer, I hope, it will appear, that it is our egreReproach. gious misbehaviour alone, that has brought us Hope. Exciting. into these disadvantageous circumstances. From Directing. whence follows the necessity of altering our conduct, and the prospect of bettering our circumstances by doing so. If we had nothing to accuse Apprehen. ourselves of; and yet found our affairs in their present disorderly condition, we should not have room left even for the hope of recovering ourselves. But, my countrymen, it is known to you, partly by your own remembrance, and partly by information from others, how gloriously the Lacedæmonian war was sustained, in which we engaged in defence of our own rights, against an enemy powerful and formidable; in the whole Approba. conduct of which war nothing happened unworthy the dignity of the Athenian state; and this within these few years past. My intention in recalling to your memory this part of our history, is have no reason to fear Courage. Exciting. to shew you, that you any enemy, if your operations be wisely planned, and vigorously executed; as, on the contrary, Apprehen. that if you do not exert your natural strength in Regret. a proper manner, you have nothing to look for but disappointment and distress; and to suggest Exciting. to you, that you ought to profit by this example of what has actually been done by good conduct against the great power of the Lacedaemonians, so as in the present war to assert your superiority over the insolence of Philip; which it is evident Encourage. from experience may be effected, if you resolve to attend diligently to those important objects, which you have of late shamefully neglected. The enemy has indeed gained considerable advantages by treaty, as well as by conquest. For it is to be expected, that princes and states will court the alliance of those, who, by their counsels and arms, seem likely to procure for themselves and their confederates, distinguished honours and advantages. But, my countrymen, though you have, of late, Encourage. been too supinely negligent of what concerned you so nearly; if you will even now, resolve to Earneftness. exert yourselves unanimously, each according to his respective abilities and circumstances, the rich, by contributing liberally towards the expense of the war, and the rest by presenting themselves to be enrolled, to make up the deficiencies of the army and navy, if, in short, you will Encourage, at last resume your own character, and act like yourselves, it is not yet too late, with the help Courage. of Heaven, to recover what you have lost, and to inflict the just vengeance on your insolent enemy. Philip is but a mortal. He cannot, like a god, secure to himself, beyond the possibility of disappointment, the acquisitions he has made. There are those who hate him; there are who fear, and there are who envy him; and of these some, who seem most inseparably connected with him. These, your inactivity obliges, at present, to Reproach. stifle their real sentiments, which are in your fa Exciting. |