Com’ han del Signor mio quest’ empi fatto.
Parean cani bramosi
D’insanguinar l’acuto
Dente, e l’avide labbia
Nella già morta fiera.”—P. 120.
There seems in Antony’s lament, an echo of Mars’ threats in the Prologue to “Cesare.”
Ant.— “ . . . . .
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war:
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar’s spirit ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc’, and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.” (III., 1, 263).
Jove commands Mars:
“Mescola sdegni, odi, discordie, versa
Sopra il popol Roman furor, disio