A Plain in Syria. | |
| |
Enter VENTIDIUS, in triumph, with SILIUS and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead body of PACORUS borne before him. | |
| Ven. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now | |
| Pleas’d fortune does of Marcus Crassus’ death | 4 |
| Make me revenger. Bear the king’s son’s body | |
| Before our army. Thy Pacorus, Orodes, | |
| Pays this for Marcus Crassus. | |
| Sil. Noble Ventidius, | 8 |
| Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm, | |
| The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media, | |
| Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither | |
| The routed fly; so thy grand captain Antony | 12 |
| Shall set thee on triumphant chariots and | |
| Put garlands on thy head. | |
| Ven. O Silius, Silius! | |
| I have done enough; a lower place, note well, | 16 |
| May make too great an act; for learn this, Silius, | |
| Better to leave undone than by our deed | |
| Acquire too high a fame when him we serve’s away. | |
| Cæsar and Antony have ever won | 20 |
| More in their officer than person; Sossius, | |
| One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant, | |
| For quick accumulation of renown, | |
| Which he achiev’d by the minute, lost his favour. | 24 |
| Who does i’ the wars more than his captain can | |
| Becomes his captain’s captain; and ambition, | |
| The soldier’s virtue, rather makes choice of loss | |
| Than gain which darkens him. | 28 |
| I could do more to do Antonius good, | |
| But ’twould offend him; and in his offence | |
| Should my performance perish. | |
| Sil. Thou hast, Ventidius, that | 32 |
| Without the which a soldier, and his sword, | |
| Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony? | |
| Ven. I’ll humbly signify what in his name, | |
| That magical word of war, we have effected; | 36 |
| How, with his banners and his well-paid ranks, | |
| The ne’er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia | |
| We have jaded out o’ the field. | |
| Sil. Where is he now? | 40 |
| Ven. He purposeth to Athens; whither, with what haste | |
| The weight we must convey with ’s will permit, | |
| We shall appear before him. On, there; pass along. [Exeunt. | |
