JULIUS CAESAR

By wisdom, manhood, and by great labour,

From humble bed to royal majesty

Up rose he, Julius the conqueror,

Who won the Occident by land and sea,

By force of arms, or else by clear treaty,

And unto Rome made all this tributary;

And then of Rome the emperor was he,

Till Fortune came to be his adversary.

O mighty Caesar, who in Thessaly

Against great Pompey, father of yours in law,

That of the East had all the chivalry

From farthest places that the sun e’er saw,

You, by your knighthood broke them for death’s maw,

Save those few men who thence with Pompey fled,

Whereby you put the Orient in awe.

Thank Fortune now that you so well have sped.

But now a little while I will bewail

This Pompey, this so noble governor

Of Rome, who fled when battle’s chance did fail;

I say, one of his men, a false traitor,

Smote off his head to win himself favour

With Julius, and there the head he brought.

Alas, Pompey! Of Orient conqueror,

That Fortune such an end for thee hath wrought!

To Rome again repaired great Julius,

To have his triumph, laureate full high;

But on a time Brutus and Cassius,

Who ever had of great estate envy,

Full secretly did lay conspiracy

Against this Julius, in subtle wise,

And fixed the place at which he soon should die

By dagger thrusts, as I shall you apprise.

This Julius, to the Capitol he went

Upon a day, as he’d been wont to go,

And there they seized on him, as well they meant,

This treacherous Brutus and each other foe,

And struck him with their daggers, high and low,

And gave him many a wound and let him die;

But never groaned he, save at one stroke, no

(Or two perchance), unless his legend lie.

So manly was this Julius in his heart,

And so well loved he stately decency,

That, though his deadly wounds did burn and smart,

His mantle yet about his hips cast he,

That no man there should see his privity.

And as he lay there, dying, in a trance,

And knew that he was dying, verily,

Of decency yet had he remembrance.

Lucan to tell this story I commend,

Suetonius too, Valerius also,

Who of the tale have written to the end

And told how, of these mighty conquerors two,

Fortune was first the friend and then the foe.

No man may trust in Fortune’s favour long,

But as one fearing ambush must he go.

Witness the end of all these conquerors strong.