PORTIA. Can mine be easy then? 'tis no small thing Can vex your even Mind, and make you froward, Turning from thee is Reftleffness indeed; PORTIA. Oh, preach Content to one upon a Rack, My Soul is fo perplex'd with Fears for you, BRUTUS. Retire, retire; talking fo tenderly, You, like officious and condoling Friends, POR PORTIA. Alas! You would not use it now, if ftill you lov❜d. BRUTUS. What means my PORTIA ? PORTIA. BRUTUS unjuft! Oh, 'tis a Wonder, which your very Foes So little I deferv'd to find him fo. Am I but only Partner of your Pleasures? Fit for your trifling Hours, and to be kept To lose that Truft, which always follows Kindness. BRUTUS. In this you wrong me, PORTIA. PORTIA. Would I did: I never wifh'd a Wrong to you before. BRUTUS. How have I liv'd, and which of all my Actions PORTIA. O let me now try that soft way again. Thus low, thus tenderly, I beg to know [Falls on his Neck. That which, in troubling you, ev'n tortures me. Your Refolutions, spite of your Unkindness. BRU BRUTUS. The mighty CÆSAR ! I am that meaneft Slave, if he remain [Apart. The mighty CÆSAR. Kneel not, gentle PORTIA. PORTIA. Ifhould not need, if you were gentle BRUTUS. [Weeps. BRUTUS. O my soft Heart! my Refolution's arm'd [Takes her in his Arms. It yields to PORTIA. You are now too charming: PORTIA. 'Tis Kindness only Which makes me wish I had that Beauty too. But are you, then, not angry? BRUTUS. What, with thee? The most obdurate Creature, ev'n a Tyrant, [Kiffes .. O PORTIA, be not you that Tyrant then; For well you know your Power, and may be mine. PORTIA. But tell me all. BRUTUS. Then, know that they who came to me this Night- 'Tis to profane thy Ear, to entertain it PORTIA. But you were juft about to let me know. BRUTUS. Know what? know things that will but trouble thee? Believe me, PORTIA, 'tis dangerous For thee to tread in these obfcurer Paths; Serpents lie hidden there, whose conscious Sting Will rob thee of thy Reft. Oh, prefs not thus to bear a part in that, Which with its weight will crush thy tender Mind. PORTIA. I am a Woman, but am CATO's Daughter: Think you 'tis nothing to have fuch a Father, And fuch a Husband? VOL. I. S BRU |