Johnson's Lives of the Poets. Volume 1. Samuel Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ better been made acquainted with the result of that debate in some private apartment of the palace. But the poet was driven upon this absurdity to make way for another, and that is to give Juba an opportunity to demand Marcia of her father. But the quarrel and rage of Juba and Syphax, in the same act; the invectives of Syphax against the Romans and Cato; the advice that he gives Juba in her father's hall to bear away Marcia by force; and his brutal and clamorous rage upon his refusal, and at a time when Cato was scarcely out of sight, and perhaps not out of hearing, at least some of his guards or domestics must necessarily be supposed to be within hearing; is a thing that is so far from being probable, that it is hardly possible.

      "Sempronius, in the second act, comes back once more in the same morning to the governor's hall to carry on the conspiracy with Syphax against the governor, his country, and his family: which is so stupid that it is below the wisdom of the O–s, the Macs, and the Teagues; even Eustace Commins himself would never have gone to Justice-hall to have conspired against the Government. If officers at Portsmouth should lay their heads together in order to the carrying off J– G–'s niece or daughter, would they meet in J–G–'s hall to carry on that conspiracy? There would be no necessity for their meeting there—at least, till they came to the execution of their plot—because there would be other places to meet in. There would be no probability that they should meet there, because there would be places more private and more commodious. Now there ought to be nothing in a tragical action but what is necessary or probable.

      "But treason is not the only thing that is carried on in this hall; that, and love and philosophy take their turns in it, without any manner of necessity or probability occasioned by the action, as duly and as regularly, without interrupting one another, as if there were a triple league between them, and a mutual agreement that each should give place to and make way for the other in a due and orderly succession.

      "We now come to the third act. Sempronius, in this act, comes into the governor's hall with the leaders of the mutiny; but as soon as Cato is gone, Sempronius, who but just before had acted like an unparalleled knave, discovers himself, like an egregious fool, to be an accomplice in the conspiracy.

      "'SEMP.  Know, villains, when such paltry slaves presume

      To mix in treason, if the plot succeeds,

      They're thrown neglected by; but, if it fails,

      They're sure to die like dogs, as you shall do.

      Here, take these factious monsters, drag them forth

      To sudden death.'

      "'Tis true, indeed, the second leader says there are none there but friends; but is that possible at such a juncture? Can a parcel of rogues attempt to assassinate the governor of a town of war, in his own house, in midday, and, after they are discovered and defeated, can there be none near them but friends? Is it not plain, from these words of Sempronius—

      "'Here, take these factious monsters, drag them forth

      To sudden death—'

      and from the entrance of the guards upon the word of command, that those guards were within ear-shot? Behold Sempronius, then, palpably discovered. How comes it to pass, then, that instead of being hanged up with the rest, he remains secure in the governor's hall, and there carries on his conspiracy against the Government, the third time in the same day, with his old comrade Syphax, who enters at the same time that the guards are carrying away the leaders, big with the news of the defeat of Sempronius?—though where he had his intelligence so soon is difficult to imagine. And now the reader may expect a very extraordinary scene. There is not abundance of spirit, indeed, nor a great deal of passion, but there is wisdom more than enough to supply all defects.

      "'SYPH.  Our first design, my friend, has proved abortive;

      Still there remains an after-game to play:

      My troops are mounted; their Numidian steeds

      Snuff up the winds, and long to scour the desert.

      Let but Sempronius lead us in our flight,

      We'll force the gate where Marcus keeps his guard,

      And hew down all that would oppose our passage;

      A day will bring us into Caesar's camp.

      SEMP. Confusion! I have failed of half my purpose;

      Marcia, the charming Marcia's left behind.'

      Well, but though he tells us the half-purpose he has failed of, he does not tell us the half that he has carried. But what does he mean by

      "'Marcia, the charming Marcia's left behind'?

      He is now in her own house! and we have neither seen her nor heard of her anywhere else since the play began. But now let us hear Syphax:—

      "'What hinders, then, but that you find her out,

      And hurry her away by manly force?'

      But what does old Syphax mean by finding her out? They talk as if she were as hard to be found as a hare in a frosty morning.

      "'SEMP.  But how to gain admission?'

      Oh! she is found out then, it seems.

      "'But how to gain admission? for access

      Is giv'n to none but Juba and her brothers.'

      But, raillery apart, why access to Juba? For he was owned and received as a lover neither by the father nor by the daughter. Well, but let that pass. Syphax puts Sempronius out of pain immediately; and, being a Numidian, abounding in wiles, supplies him with a stratagem for admission that, I believe, is a nonpareil.

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