Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Tiber, the River

The Tiber

By William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

(From Julius Cæsar)

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,

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.

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!”

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

A wretched creature, and must bend his body,

If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.