But nowe I see, thou doest on fortune waite.
Wherefore with paine, I nowe doe prouue it true,
That fortunes force, maie valiant hartes subdue.”
So, in the Julius Cæsar (act. v. sc. 5, l. 25, vol. vii. p. 413), the battle of Philippi being irretrievably lost to the party of the Republic, and Marcus Cato slain, Brutus, meditating self-destruction, desires aid from one of his friends that he may accomplish his purpose,—
“Good Volumnius,
Thou know’st that we two went to school together:
Even for that our love of old, I prithee,
Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it.
Vol. That’s not an office for a friend, my lord.”
The alarum continues,—the friends of Brutus again remonstrate, and Clitus urges him to escape (l. 30),—