Cassilanes

Admit no Souldier near us till the Senate
Have took their places.

Arcanes

You are obey'd, my Lord.

Antinous

Decius, fall off.

Decius

I shall.

Cassilanes

Give leave Arcanes:
Young man, come nearer to me: who am I?

Antinous

It were a sin against the piety
Of filial duty, if I should forget
The debt I owe my Father on my knee:
Your pleasure?

Cassilanes

What, so low? canst thou find joints,
Yet be an Elephant? Antinous, rise;
Thou wilt belye opinion, and rebate
The ambition of thy gallantry, that they
Whose confidence thou hast bewitch'd, should see
Their little God of War, kneel to his Father,
Though in my hand I did grasp Thunder.

Antinous

Sir,
For proof that I acknowledge you the Author
Of giving me my Birth, I have discharg'd
A part of my Obedience. But if now
You should (as cruel fathers do) proclaim
Your right, and Tyrant-like usurp the glory
Of my peculiar honours, not deriv'd
From successary, but purchas'd with my bloud,
Then I must stand first Champion for my self
Against all interposers.

Cassilanes

Boldly urg'd,
And proudly, I could love thee, did not anger
Consult with just disdain, in open language
To call thee most ungrateful. Say freely,
Wilt thou resign the flatteries whereon
The reeling pillars of a popular breath
Have rais'd thy Giant-like conceit, to add
A suffrage to thy Fathers merit? speak.

Antinous

Sir, hear me: were there not a Chronicle
Well pen'd by all their tongues, who can report
What they have seen you do; or had you not
Best in your own performance writ your self,
And been your own text, I would undertake
Alone, without the help of Art, or Character,
But only to recount your deeds in Arms,
And you should ever then be fam'd a President
Of living victory: But as you are
Great, and well worthy to be stiled Great,
It would betray a poverty of Spirit
In me to obstruct my fortunes, or descent,
If I should coward-like surrender up
The interest which the inheritance of your vertue
And mine own thrifty fate can claim in honour:
My Lord, of all the mass of Fame, which any
That wears a Sword, and hath but seen me fight,
Gives me, I will not share, nor yield one jot,
One tittle.

Cassilanes

Not to me?

Antinous

You are my Father,
Yet not to you.

Cassilanes

Ambitious Boy, how dar'st thou
To tell me, that thou wilt contend?

Antinous

Had I
Been slothful, and not follow'd you in all
The streights of death, you might have justly then
Reputed me a Bastard: 'tis a cruelty
More than to murther Innocents, to take
The life of my yet infant-honour from me.

Cassilanes

Antinous, look upon this badge of age,
Thy Father's grey-hair'd beard: full fifty years,
(And more than half of this, ere thou wert born)
I have been known a Souldier, in which time
I found no difference 'twixt War and Peace,
For War was Peace to me, and Peace was War.
Antinous, mark me well; there hath not liv'd
These fifty years a man whom Crete prefer'd
Before thy Father; let me boldly boast,
Thy Father, both for Discipline a[n]d Action
Hath so long been the first of all his Nation;
Now, canst thou think it honest, charitable,
Nay humane, being so young, my Son, my Child,
Begot, bred, taught by me, by me thy Father,
For one days service, and that on thy first,
To rob me of a glory which I fought for
A half of hundred years?

Antinous

My case observes
Both equity and presidents; for Sir,
That very day whereon you got your Fame,
You took it from some other, who was then
Chief in repute, as you are now, and has been
Perhaps as many years deserving that
Which you gain'd in a day, as I have mine.

Cassilanes

But he was not my Father then, Antinous;
Thou leav'st out that.

Antinous

Sir, had he been your Father,
He had been then immortal; for a Father
Heightens his reputation where his Son
Inherits it, as when you give us life,
Your life is not diminish'd but renew'd
In us when you are dead, and we are still
Your living Images.

Cassilanes

So be thou curs'd
In thy posterity, as I in thee,
Dishonourable Boy; O shall that Sun,
Which not a year yet since beheld me mounted
Upon a fiery Steed, waving my Sword,
And teaching this young Man to manage Arms,
That was a raw, fresh Novice in the feats
Of Chivalrie, shall that same Sun be witness
Against this Brat of his Ingratitude?
Who, to eclipse the light of my renown,
Can no way hope to get a noble Name,
But by the treading on his Father's Greatness;
Thou wilt not yield?

Antinous

My life, but not the prize
My Sword hath purchas'd.

Arcanes

The Senate,
My Lord, are here at hand, and all the Souldiers
Begin to throng about them.

Cassilanes

Now, Arcanes, the--

Arcanes

What, Sir?

Cassilanes

Trifles will affront us; that
Fine fighting Stripling.

Arcanes

Let him have the shame on't;
'Please you withdraw on this side.

Cassilanes

My great heart
Was never quail'd before.

Decius

My Lord, be confident,
Let not your Father daunt you.

Arcanes

Decius, whither
Must I withdraw?

Decius

On this side.--See, the Souldiers