Till my nurse chid me. Are you come for that? Thou dost not leave me? In thy fearful eyes, Oh! this is like the nightmare that I feared, Stood in my throat to bury utterance. I must go with thee? Never, while I live. Forth from the palace, through the glaring streets, And cry, "Thou liest ! " See, the Consul comes! "O noble man! I clasp thy garment's edge: Save me as thou wouldst save thy fair-haired girl, He cannot aid me. Where the columns range, The conscript fathers keep the weal of Rome. So quick away? Hear, Tyber, then, my cry; What's this dark vault? and what yon rusted ring With the noose dangling? Look to thine own fate! Thou dar'st not slay a virgin. I will tear Thine eyes with these small fingers ere thou come A foot's length nearer! Keep away, away, And I will twine thy halter round my throat Give me the rope! let my poor bruised hands go, As the last rapture, sweet, thou com'st too late. CAIUS CESAR. I AM the monster Caius, loathed of men, Attests the mother-pangs that brought me forth, And the small jack-boots gave my childish name Sickened with secret poisons. Ye remember The hangman's noose, and hooks of infamy. So near, he could not spring to strangle me. Knew me his master in all shameful arts, I forced the cushion 'twixt his gaping jaws, And sped his flight from earth. That was, at least, Thou couldst not stay to hear them. Hell itself My royal ways were tapestried with blood; So monstrous and unnatural my lusts, |