Et l'on doit mettre au rang des plus cuisans malheurs La mort d'un ennemi qui coute tant de pleurs.

Mais peut-on en verser alors qu'on venge un père? Est-il perte à ce prix qui ne semble légére ?

Et quand son assassin tombe sous notre effort,
Doit-on considérer ce que coûte sa mort ?
Cessez, vaines frayeurs, cessez, lâches tendresses,
De jetter dans mon cœur vos indignes faiblesses:
Et toi qui les produis par tes soins superflus,
Amour, sers mon devoir, & ne le combats plus.
Lui céder c'est ta gloire, & le vaincre ta honte ;
Montre-toi généreux, souffrant qu'il te surmonte.
Plus tu lui donneras, 'plus il te va donner,
Et ne triomphera que pour te couronner.

I do not pretend, as Mr. Voltaire does, to make the reader a judge of the style of Corneille by my translation; he must allow for the want of versification, and be content with the thoughts, the sentiments, the conceits of the original.

66

EMILIA.

Impatient desires of an illustrious vengeance, to which the death of my father gave birth, impetuous children of my resent_

ment,

ment, which my deluded sorrow embraces too blindly, you assume too great an empire over my mind. Suffer me to breathe a moment, and let me consider the state I am in, what I hazard, and what I would attempt. When I behold Cæsar in the midst of glory, you (I suppose this means, you the impetuous children of the impatient desires of an illustrious vengeance) reproach my melancholy memory, that my father, massacred by his hand, was the first step to the throne on which I see him. And when you present me that bloody image, the cause of my hatred, the effect of his rage, I abandon myself to your violent transports, and think that for one death I owe him a thousand deaths. In the midst of so just an indignation I still love Cinna more than I hate Augustus; and I find this boiling anger cool, when to obey it, I must hazard my lover. Yes, Cinna, against myself, myself am angry, when I think of the dangers into which I precipitate thee. Though to serve me thou fearest nothing, to ask thee for blood is to One beats not down heads expose thine. from so high a place, without drawing upon

one's

one's self a thousand and a thousand storms; the issue is doubtful, the peril is certain. The order ill concerted, the opportunity ill chosen, may on their author overturn the whole enterprise, turn on thee the blow thou wouldst strike, and even envelope thee in his ruin; and what thou executest for my sake, may crush thee in its fall. Ah! do not run into this danger. To ruin yourself, in reThat venging me, is not to revenge me.

heart is too cruel which finds a sweetness in that vengeance, which is corrupted by the bitterness of sorrow: and one should put in the rank of the greatest misfortunes, the death of an enemy, which, costs so many tears. But can one shed tears when one revenges a father? Is there a loss which does not seem light at that price? And when his assassin dies by our means, ought we to consider what his death costs us? Cease, vain fears, cease, foolish tenderness, to affect my heart with your unworthy weaknesses: and thou who producest them by thy superfluous anxieties, O love, assist my duty, do not combat with it; to yield to it is thy glory, to vanquish it thy disgrace; shew thy self gene

rous, suffer it to overcome thee. The more thou givest to it, the more it will give thee, and will triumph only to crown thee."

Such mighty nothings in so strange a style

Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile.

The second scene of Emilia, and Fulvia her friend, is not so absurd as the soliloquy; but the answer Emilia gives to Fulvia, who urges to her, that the benefits she has received from Augustus, and the credit she has with him should mitigate her resentment, shews her disposition to be ungrateful, violent, and treacherous.

EMILIE.

Les bienfaits ne font pas toûjours ce que tu penses;
D'une main odieuse ils tiennent lieu d'offenses:
Plus nous en prodiguons à qui nous peut haïr,
Plus d'armes nous donnons à qui nous veut trahir.
Il m'en fait chaque jour sans changer mon courage.
Je suis ce que j'étais, & je puis davantage;
Et des mêmes présens qu'il verse dans mes mains
J'achette contre lui les esprits des Romains.
Je recevrais de lui la place de Livie,

Comme un moyen plus sûr d'attenter à sa vie.

"Benefits

"Benefits do not always do what you think. From an odious hand they are so many offences; the more we bestow upon those who hate us, the more arms we furnish to those who may betray us. He bestows them upon me every day, without changing my resolution. I am what I was, and I am able to effect more; and with the presents he pours into my hands, I purchase the hearts of Romans to set them against him. I would receive from him the place of Livia, to obtain surer means to attempt his life."

The next scene, Cinna enters, and tells his furious charmer, that the conspirators enter into the plot with as much zeal as if they too were serving a mistress.

CINNA.

Tous s'y montrent portés avec tant d'allégresse,
Qu'ils semblent comme moi servir une maîtresse.-
Plût aux dieux que vous-même cussiez vû de quel zèle
Cette troupe entrepend une action si belle!

Au seul nom de César, d'Auguste, d'Empereur,
Vous eussiez vû leurs yeux s'enflammer de fureur ;
Et dans un même instant, par un effet contraire,
Leur front pâlir d' horreur, & rougir de colère.

Here