Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Tiber, the River | | The Tiber | | William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
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CASSIUS. I was born free as Cæsar, so were you; | |
| We both have fed as well; and we can both | |
| Endure the winter’s cold as well as he. | |
| For once, upon a raw and gusty day, | |
| The troubled Tyber chafing with her shores, | 5 |
| Cæsar said to me, “Dar’st thou, Cassius, now | |
| Leap in with me into this angry flood, | |
| And swim to yonder point?” Upon the word, | |
| Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, | |
| And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did. | 10 |
| The torrent roar’d, and we did buffet it | |
| With lusty sinews, throwing it aside | |
| And stemming it with hearts of controversy: | |
| But, ere we could arrive the point propos’d, | |
| Cæsar cried, “Help me, Cassius, or I sink!” | 15 |
| I, as Æneas, our great ancestor, | |
| Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder | |
| The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tyber | |
| Did I the tired Cæsar. And this man | |
| Is now become a god; and Cassius is | 20 |
| A wretched creature, and must bend his body, | |
| If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him. | | | | |
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