_Mar._ Can you flatter Yourselves with such false hopes? Or dare you think That your imperious lords, that never fail'd To punish with severity petty slips In your neglect of labour, may be won To pardon those licentious outrages Which noble enemies forbear to practise Upon the conquer'd? We have gone too far To think now of retiring; in our courage, And daring, lies our safety: if you are not Slaves in your abject minds, as in your fortunes, Since to die is the worst, better expose Our naked breasts to their keen swords, and sell Our lives with the most advantage, than to trust In a forestall'd remission, or yield up Our bodies to the furnace of their fury, Thrice heated with revenge. _Grac._ You led us on. _Cimb._ And 'tis but justice you should bring us off. _Grac._ And we expect it. _Mar._ Hear then, and obey me; And I will either save you, or fall with you. Man the walls strongly, and make good the ports; Boldly deny their entrance, and rip up Your grievances, and what compell'd you to This desperate course: if they disdain to hear Of composition, we have in our powers Their aged fathers, children, and their wives, Who, to preserve themselves, must willingly Make intercession for us. 'Tis not time now To talk, but do: a glorious end, or freedom, Is now proposed us; stand resolved for either, And, like good fellows, live or die together. [_Exeunt._ FOOTNOTES: [116] _Moppes_,] i. e. the quick and grinning motions of the teeth and lips which apes make when they are irritated. [117] _What for ourself, your lord?_] Here Asotus must be supposed to leap, or rather tumble, in token of obedience. Our ancestors certainly excelled us in the education which they bestowed on their animals. Banks's horse far surpassed all that have been brought up in the academy of Mr. Astley; and the apes of these days are mere clowns to their progenitors. The apes of Massinger's time were gifted with a pretty smattering of politics and philosophy. The widow Wild had one of them: "He would _come over_ for all my friends, but was the dogged'st thing to my enemies! he would sit upon his tail before them, and frown like John-a-napes when the pope is named." _The Parson's Wedding._--GIFFORD. [118] _Let us, like conquering Romans, walk in triumph._] Gracculo speaks in the spirit of prophecy; for the _conquering Romans_ were at this time struggling with their neighbours for a few miserable huts to hide their heads in; and if any _captives followed_, or rather preceded, their _triumphs_, it was a herd of stolen beeves.--GIFFORD. [119] _Jane-of-apes_;] Meaning Corisca: he plays upon _Jack-an-apes_, the name he had given to Asotus.--GIFFORD. SCENE IV. _The Country near Syracuse. The Camp of_ TIMOLEON.