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

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.