kept a sordid hostelry
In the Jews' quarter--my good mother cleansed
Linen for honest hire.--Canst thou say worse?

_Ang_. Can worse be said?

_Rie_. Add, that my boasted schoolcraft
Was gained from such base toil, gained with such pain,
That the nice nurture of the mind was oft
Stolen at the body's cost. I have gone dinnerless
And supperless, the scoff of our poor street,
For tattered vestments and lean, hungry looks,
To pay the pedagogue.--Add what thou wilt
Of injury. Say that, grown into man,
I've known the pittance of the hospital,
And, more degrading still, the patronage
Of the Colonna. Of the tallest trees
The roots delve deepest. Yes, I've trod thy halls,
Scorned and derided midst their ribald crew,
A licensed jester, save the cap and bells,
I have borne this--and I have borne the death,
The unavenged death, of a dear brother.
I seemed, I was, a base, ignoble slave.
What am I?--Peace, I say!--What am I now?
Head of this great republic, chief of Rome--
In all but name, her sovereign--last of all,
Thy father.

CIVIL WAR.

The city's full
Of camp-like noises--tramp of steeds, and clash
Of mail, and trumpet-blast, and ringing clang
Of busy armourers--the grim ban-dog bays--
The champing war horse in his stall neighs loud--
The vulture shrieks aloft.

FEAR.

Terror, not love,
Strikes anchor in ignoble souls.

THE CAPITOL BELL.[3]

[3] The passage between commas is omitted in the representation, but we
know not why.

It is the bell that thou so oft hast heard
Summoning the band of liberty--"the bell
That pealed its loud, triumphant note, and raised
Its mighty voice with such a mastery
Of glorious power, as if the spirit of sound
That dwells in the viewless wind, and walks the waves
Of the chafed sea, and rules the thunder-cloud
That shrouded him in that small orb, to spread
Tidings of freedom to the nations."

RIENZI'S FALL.

And for such I left
The assured condition of my lowliness,--
The laughing days, the peaceful nights, the joys
Of a small, quiet home--for such I risked
Thy peace, my daughter. Abject, crouching slaves!
False, fickle, treacherous, perjured slaves!

* * * * *

Oh, had I laid
All earthly passion, pride, and pomp, and power,
And high ambition, and hot lust of rule,
Like sacrificial fruits, upon the altar
Of Liberty,