ACT IVSCENE I.—An Apartment in AGRIPPINA’S House.EnterGallusandAgrippina.GALLUS.You must have patience, royal Agrippina.AGRIPPINA.I must have vengeance, first; and that were nectarUnto my famish’d spirits. O, my fortune,Let it be sudden thou prepar’st against me;Strike all my powers of understanding blind.And ignorant of destiny to come!Let me not fear that cannot hope.GALLUS.Dear princess,These tyrannies on yourself, are worse than Cæsar’s.AGRIPPINA.Is this the happiness of being born great?Still to be aim’d at? still to be suspected?To live the subject of all jealousies?At least the colour made, if not the groundTo every painted danger? who would notChoose once to fall, than thus to hang for ever?GALLUS.You might be safe if you would—AGRIPPINA.What, my Gallus!Be lewd Sejanus’ strumpet, or the bawdTo Cæsar’s lusts, he now is gone to practise?Not these are safe, where nothing is. Yourself,While thus you stand but by me, are not safe.Was Silius safe? or the good Sosia safe?Or was my niece, dear Claudia Pulchra, safe,Or innocent Furnius? they that latest have(By being made guilty) added reputationTo Afer’s eloquence? O, foolish friends,Could not so fresh example warn your loves,But you must buy my favours with that lossUnto yourselves; and when you might perceiveThat Cæsar’s cause of raging must forsake him,Before his will! Away, good Gallus, leave me.Here to be seen, is danger; to speak, treason:To do me least observance, is call’d faction.You are unhappy in me, and I in all.Where are my sons, Nero and Drusus? WeAre they be shot at; let us fall apart;Not in our ruins, sepulchre our friends.Or shall we do some action like offence,To mock their studies that would make us faulty,And frustrate practice by preventing it?The danger’s like: for what they can contrive,They will make good. No innocence is safe,When power contests: nor can they trespass more,Whose only being was all crime before.EnterNero, DrususandCaligula.NERO.You hear Sejanus is come back from Cæsar?GALLUS.No. How? disgraced?DRUSUS.More graced now than ever.GALLUS.By what mischance?CALIGULA.A fortune like enoughOnce to be bad.DRUSUS.But turn’d too good to both.GALLUS.What was’t?NERO.Tiberius sitting at his meat,In a farm-house they call Spelunca, sitedBy the sea-side, among the Fundane hills,Within a natural cave; part of the grot,About the entry, fen, and overwhelm’dSome of the waiters; others ran away:Only Sejanus with his knees, hands, face,O’erhanging Cæsar, did oppose himselfTo the remaining ruins, and was foundIn that so labouring posture by the soldiersThat came to succour him. With which adventure,He hath so fix’d himself in Cæsar’s trust,As thunder cannot move him, and is comeWith all the height of Cæsar’s praise to Rome.AGRIPPINA.And power, to turn those ruins all on us;And bury whole posterities beneath them.Nero, and Drusus, and Caligula,Your places are the next, and therefore mostIn their offence. Think on your birth and blood.Awake your spirits, meet their violence;’Tis princely when a tyrant doth oppose,And is a fortune sent to exerciseYour virtue, as the wind doth try strong trees,Who by vexation grow more sound and firm.After your father’s fall, and uncle’s fate,What can you hope, but all the change of strokeThat force or sleight can give? then stand upright;And though you do not act, yet suffer nobly:Be worthy of my womb, and take strong cheer;What we do know will come, we should not fear.[Exeunt.]SCENE II.—The Street.EnterMacro.MACRO.Return’d so soon! renew’d in trust and grace!Is Cæsar then so weak, or hath the placeBut wrought this alteration with the air;And he, on next remove, will all repair?Macro, thou art engaged: and what beforeWas public; now, must be thy private, more.The weal of Cæsar, fitness did imply;But thine own fate confers necessityOn thy employment; and the thoughts born nearestUnto ourselves, move swiftest still, and dearest.If he recover, thou art lost; yea, allThe weight of preparation to his fallWill turn on thee, and crush thee: therefore strikeBefore he settle, to prevent the likeUpon thyself. He doth his vantage know,That makes it home, and gives the foremost blow.[Exit.]SCENE III.—An upper Room of AGRIPPINA’S HOUSE.EnterLatiaris, RufusandOpsius.LATIARIS.It is a service lord Sejanus willSee well requited, and accept of nobly.Here place yourself between the roof and ceiling;And when I bring him to his words of danger,Reveal yourselves, and take him.RUFUS.Is he come?LATIARIS.I’ll now go fetch him.[Exit.]OPSIUS.With good speed.—I longTo merit from the state in such an action.RUFUS.I hope, it will obtain the consulshipFor one of us...OPSIUS.We cannot think of less,To bring in one so dangerous as Sabinus.RUFUS.He was follower of Germanicus,And still is an observer of his wifeAnd children, though they be declined in graceA daily visitant, keeps them companyIn private and in public, and is notedTo be the only client of the house:Pray Jove, he will be free to Latiaris.OPSIUS.He’s allied to him, and doth trust him well.RUFUS.And he’ll requite his trust!OPSIUS.To do an officeSo grateful to the state, I know no manBut would strain nearer bands, than kindred—RUFUS.List!I hear them come.OPSIUS.Shift to our holes with silence.[They retire.]Re-enterLatiarisandSabinus.LATIARIS.It is a noble constancy you shewTo this afflicted house; that not like others,The friends of season, you do follow fortune,And, in the winter of their fate, forsakeThe place whose glories warm’d you. You are just,And worthy such a princely patron’s love,As was the world’s renown’d Germanicus:Whose ample merit when I call to thought,And see his wife and issue, objects madeTo so much envy, jealousy, and hate;It makes me ready to accuse the godsOf negligence, as men of tyranny.SABINUS.They must be patient, so must we.LATIARIS.O Jove,What will become of us or of the times,When, to be high or noble, are made crimes,When land and treasure are most dangerous faults!SABINUS.Nay, when our table, yea our bed, assaultsOur peace and safety? when our writings are,By any envious instruments, that dareApply them to the guilty, made to speakWhat they will have to fit their tyrannous wreak?When ignorance is scarcely innocence;And knowledge made a capital offence!When not so much, but the bare empty shadeOf liberty is raft us; and we madeThe prey to greedy vultures and vile spies,That first transfix us with their murdering eyes.LATIARIS.Methinks the genius of the Roman raceShould not be so extinct, but that bright flameOf liberty might be revived again,(Which no good man but. with his life should lose)And we not sit like spent and patient fools,Still puffing in the dark at one poor coal,Held on by hope till the last spark is out.The cause is public, and the honour, name,The immortality of every soul,That is not bastard or a slave in Rome,Therein concern’d: whereto, if men would changeThe wearied arm, and for the weighty shieldSo long sustain’d, employ the facile sword,We might soon have assurance of our vows.This ass’s fortitude doth tire us all:It must be active valour must redeemOur loss, or none. The rock and our hard steelShould meet to enforce those glorious fires again,Whose splendour cheer’d the world, and heat gave life,No less than doth the sun’s.SABINUS.’Twere better stayIn lasting darkness, and despair of day.No ill should force the subject undertakeAgainst the sovereign, more than hell should makeThe gods do wrong. A good man should and mustSit rather down with loss, than rise unjust.Though, when the Romans first did yield themselvesTo one man’s power, they did not mean their lives,Their fortunes and their liberties, should beHis absolute spoil, as purchased by the sword.LATIARIS.Why we are worse, if to be slaves, and bondTo Cæsar’s slave be such, the proud Sejanus!He that is all, does all, gives Cæsar leaveTo hide his ulcerous and anointed face,With his bald crown at Rhodes, while he here stalksUpon the heads of Romans, and their princes,Familiarly to empire.SABINUS.Now you touchA point indeed, wherein he shews his art,As well as power.LATIARIS.And villainy in both.Do you observe where Livia lodges? howDrusus came dead? what men have been cut off?SABINUS.Yes, those are things removed: I nearer look’dInto his later practice, where he standsDeclared a master in his mystery.First, ere Tiberius went, he wrought his fearTo think that Agrippina sought his death.Then put those doubts in her; sent her oft word.Under the show of friendship, to bewareOf Cæsar, for he laid to poison her:Drave them to frowns, to mutual jealousies,Which, now, in visible hatred are burst out.Since, he hath had his hired instrumentsTo work on Nero, and to heave him up;To tell him Cæsar’s old, that all the people,Yea, all the army have their eyes on him;That both do long to have him undertakeSomething of worth, to give the world a hope;Bids him to court their grace: the easy youthPerhaps gives ear, which straight he writes to Cæsar;And with this comment: See yon dangerous boy;Note but the practice of the mother, there;She’s tying him for purposes at hand,With men of sword. Here’s Cæsar put in fright’Gainst son and mother. Yet, he leaves not thus.The second brother, Drusus, a fierce nature,And fitter for his snares, because ambitiousAnd full of envy, him he clasps and hugs,Poisons with praise, tells him what hearts he wears,How bright he stands in popular expectance;That Rome doth suffer with him in the wrongHis mother does him, by preferring Nero:Thus sets he them asunder, each ’gainst other,Projects the course that serves him to condemn,Keeps in opinion of a friend to all,And all drives on to ruin.LATIARIS.Cæsar sleeps,And nods at this.SABINUS.Would he might ever sleep,Bogg’d in his filthy lusts!OpsiusandRufusrush in.OPSIUS.Treason to Cæsar!RUFUS.Lay hands upon the traitor, Latiaris,Or take the name thyself.LATIARIS.I am for Cæsar.SABINUS.Am I then catch’d?RUFUS.How think you, sir? you are.SABINUS.Spies of this head, so white, so full of years!Well, my most reverend monsters, you may liveTo see yourselves thus snared.OPSIUS.Away with him!LATIARIS.Hale him away.RUFUS.To be a spy for traitors,Is honourable vigilance.SABINUS.You do well,My most officious instruments of state;Men of all uses: drag me hence, away.The year is well begun, and I fall fitTo be an offering to Sejanus. Go!OPSIUS.Cover him with his garments, hide his face.SABINUS.It shall not need. Forbear your rude assault.The fault’s not shameful, villainy makes a fault.[Exeunt.]SCENE IV.—The Street before AGRIPPINA’S House.EnterMacroandCaligula.MACRO.Sir, but observe how thick your dangers meetIn his clear drifts! your mother and your brothers,Now cited to the senate; their friend Gallus,Feasted to-day by Cæsar, since committed!Sabinus here we met, hurried to fetters:The senators all strook with fear and silence,Save those whose hopes depend not on good means,But force their private prey from public spoil.And you must know, if here you stay, your stateIs sure to be the subject of his hate,As now the object.CALIGULA.What would you advise me?MACRO.To go for Capreae presently; and thereGive up yourself entirely to your uncle.Tell Cæsar (since your mother is accusedTo fly for succours to Augustus’ statue,And to the army with your brethren) youHave rather chose to place your aids in him,Than live suspected; or in hourly fearTo be thrust out, by bold Sejanus’ plots:Which, you shall confidently urge to beMost full of peril to the state, and Cæsar,As being laid to his peculiar ends,And not to be let run with common safety.All which, upon the second, I’ll make plain,So both shall love and trust with Cæsar gain.CALIGULA.Away then, let’s prepare us for our journey.[Exeunt.]SCENE V.—Another part of the Street.EnterArruntius.ARRUNTIUS.Still dost thou suffer, heaven! will no flame,No heat of sin, make thy just wrath to boilIn thy distemper’d bosom, and o’erflowThe pitchy blazes of impiety,Kindled beneath thy throne! Still canst thou sleep,Patient, while vice doth make an antick faceAt thy dread power, and blow dust and smokeInto thy nostrils! Jove! will nothing wake thee?Must vile Sejanus pull thee by the beard,Ere thou wilt open thy black-lidded eye,And look him dead? Well! snore on, dreaming gods,And let this last of that proud giant-raceHeave mountain upon mountain, ’gainst your state—Be good unto me, Fortune and you powers,Whom I, expostulating, have profaned;I see what’s equal with a prodigy,A great, a noble Roman, and an honest,Live an old man!—EnterLepidus.O Marcus Lepidus,When is our turn to bleed? Thyself and I,Without our boast, are almost all the fewLeft to be honest in these impious times.LEPIDUS.What we are left to be, we will be, Lucius;Though tyranny did stare as wide as death,To fright us from it.ARRUNTIUS.’T hath so on Sabinus.LEPIDUS.I saw him now drawn from the Gemonies,And, what increased the direness of the fact,His faithful dog, upbraiding all us Romans,Never forsook the corps, but, seeing it thrownInto the stream, leap’d in, and drown’d with it.ARRUNTIUS.O act, to be envied him of us men!We are the next the hook lays hold on, Marcus:What are thy arts, good patriot, teach them me,That have preserved thy hairs to this white dye,And kept so reverend and so dear a headSafe on his comely shoulders?LEPIDUS.Arts, Arruntius!None, but the plain and passive fortitude,To suffer and be silent; never stretchThese arms against the torrent; live at home,With my own thoughts, and innocence about me,Not tempting the wolves’ jaws: these are my arts.ARRUNTIUS.I would begin to study ’em, if I thoughtThey would secure me. May I pray to JoveIn secret and be safe? ay, or aloud,With open wishes, so I do not mentionTiberius or Sejanus? yes, I must,If I speak out. ’Tis hard that. May I think,And not be rack’d? What danger is’t to dream,Talk in one’s sleep, or cough? Who knows the law?May I shake my head without a comment? sayIt rains, or it holds up, and not be thrownUpon the Gemonies? These now are things,Whereon men’s fortune, yea, their faith depends.Nothing hath privilege ’gainst the violent ear.No place, no day, no hour, we see, is free,Not our religious and most sacred times,From some one kind of cruelty: all matterNay, all occasion pleaseth. Madmen’s rage,The idleness of drunkards, women’s nothing,Jester’s simplicity, all, all is goodThat can be catcht at...Nor is now the eventOf any person, or for any crime,To be expected; for ’tis always one:Death, with some little difference of place,Or time—What’s this? Prince Nero, guarded!EnterLacoandNerowithGuards.LACO.On, lictors, keep your way. My lords, forbear.On pain of Cæsar’s wrath, no man attemptSpeech with the prisoner.NERO.Noble friends, be safe;To lose yourselves for words, were as vain hazard,As unto me small comfort: fare you well.Would all Rome’s sufferings in my fate did dwell!LACO.Lictors, away.LEPIDUS.Where goes he, Laco?LACO.Sir,He’s banish’d into Pontia by the senate.ARRUNTIUS.Do I see, hear, and feel? May I trust sense,Or doth my phant’sie form it?LEPIDUS.Where’s his brother?LACO.Drusus is prisoner in the palace.ARRUNTIUS.Ha!I smell it now: ’tis rank. Where’s Agrippina?LACO.The princess is confined to Pandataria.ARRUNTIUS.Bolts, Vulcan; bolts for Jove! Phœbus, thy bow;Stern Mars, thy sword: and, blue-ey’d maid, thy spear;Thy club, Alcides: all the armouryOf heaven is too little!—Ha!—to guardThe gods, I meant. Fine, rare dispatch I this sameWas swiftly born! Confined, imprison’d, banish’d?Most tripartite! the cause, sir?LACO.Treason.ARRUNTIUS.O!The complement of all accusings! thatWill hit, when all else fails.LEPIDUS.This turn is strange!But yesterday the people would not hear,Far less objected, but cried Cæsar’s lettersWere false and forged; that all these plots were malice;And that the ruin of the prince’s houseWas practised ’gainst his knowledge. Where are nowTheir voices, now, that they behold his heirsLock’d up, disgraced, led into exile?ARRUNTIUS.Hush’d,Drown’d in their bellies. Wild Sejanus’ breathHath, like a whirlwind, scatter’d that poor dust,With this rude blast—We’ll talk no treason, sir,[Turns to Laco and the rest.]If that be it you stand for. Fare you well.We have no need of horse-leeches. Good spy,Now you are spied, be gone.[ExeuntLaco, NeroandGuards.]LEPIDUS.I fear you wrong him:He has the voice to be an honest Roman.ARRUNTIUS.And trusted to this office! Lepidus,I’d sooner trust Greek Sinon, than a manOur state employs. He’s gone: and being gone,I dare tell you, whom I dare better trust,That our night-eyed Tiberius doth not seeHis minion’s drifts; or, if he do, he’s notSo arrant subtile, as we fools do take him;To breed a mungrel up, in his own house,With his own blood, and, if the good gods please,At his own throat, flesh him, to take a leap.I do not beg it, heaven; but if the fatesGrant it these eyes, they must not wink.LEPIDUS.They mustNot see it, Lucius.ARRUNTIUS.Who should let them?LEPIDUS.Zeal,And duty: with the thought he is our prince.ARRUNTIUS.He is our monster: forfeited to viceSo far, as no rack’d virtue can redeem him.His loathed person fouler than all crimes:An emperor, only in his lusts. Retired,From all regard of his own fame, or Rome’s,Into an obscure island; where he livesActing his tragedies with a comic face,Amidst his rout of Chaldees: spending hours,Days, weeks, and months, in the unkind abuseOf grave astrology, to the bane of men,Casting the scope of men’s nativities,And having found aught worthy in their fortune,Kill, or precipitate them in the sea,And boast, he can mock fate. Nay, muse not: theseAre far from ends of evil, scarce degrees.He hath his slaughter-house at Capreae;Where he doth study murder, as an art;And they are dearest in his grace, that canDevise the deepest tortures. Thither, too,He hath his boys, and beauteous girls ta’en upOut of our noblest houses, the best form’d,Best nurtured, and most modest; what’s their good,Serves to provoke his bad. Some are allured,Some threaten’d; others, by their friends detained,Are ravish’d hence, like captives, and, in sightOf their most grieved parents, dealt awayUnto his spintries, sellaries, and slaves,Masters of strange and new commented lusts,For which wise nature hath not left a name.To this (what most strikes us, and bleeding Rome)He is, with all his craft, become the wardTo his own vassal, a stale catamite:Whom he, upon our low and suffering necks,Hath raised from excrement to side the gods,And have his proper sacrifice in Rome:Which Jove beholds, and yet will sooner riveA senseless oak with thunder than his trunk!—Re-enterLacowithPomponiusandMinutius.LACO.These letters make men doubtful what t’ expect,Whether his coming, or his death.POMPONIUS.Troth, both:And which comes soonest, thank the gods for.ARRUNTIUS.List!Their talk is Cæsar; I would hear all voices.[ArruntiusandLepidusstand aside.]MINUTIUS.One day, he’s well; and will return to Rome;The next day, sick; and knows not when to hope it.LACO.True; and to-day, one of Sejanus’ friendsHonour’d by special writ; and on the morrowAnother punish’d—POMPONIUS.By more special writ.MINUTIUS.This man receives his praises of Sejanus,A second but slight mention, a third none,A fourth rebukes: and thus he leaves the senateDivided and suspended, all uncertain.LACO.These forked tricks, I understand them not:Would he would tell us whom he loves or hates,That we might follow, without fear or doubt.ARRUNTIUS.Good Heliotrope! Is this your honest man?Let him be yours so still; he is my knave.POMPONIUS.I cannot tell, Sejanus still goes on,And mounts, we see; new statues are advanced,Fresh leaves of titles, large inscriptions read,His fortune sworn by, himself new gone outCæsar’s colleague in the fifth consulship;More altars smoke to him than all the gods:What would we more?ARRUNTIUS.That the dear smoke would choke him,That would I more.LEPIDUS.Peace, good Arruntius.LATIARIS.But there are letters come, they say, ev’n now,Which do forbid that last.MINUTIUS.Do you hear so?LACO.Yes.POMPONIUS.By Castor, that’s the worst.ARRUNTIUS.By Pollux, best.MINUTIUS.I did not like the sign, when Regulus,Whom all we know no friend unto Sejanus,Did, by Tiberius’ so precise command,Succeed a fellow in the consulship:It boded somewhat.POMPONIUS.Not a mote. His partner,Fulcinius Trio, is his own, and sure.—Here comes Terentius.EnterTerentius.He can give us more.[They whisper with Terentius.]LEPIDUS.I’ll ne’er believe, but Cæsar hath some scentOf bold Sejanus’ footing. These cross pointsOf varying letters, and opposing consuls,Mingling his honours and his punishments,Feigning now ill, now well, raising Sejanus,And then depressing him, as now of lateIn all reports we have it, cannot beEmpty of practice: ’tis Tiberius’ art.For having found his favourite grown too great,And with his greatness strong; that all the soldiersAre, with their leaders, made a his devotion;That almost all the senate are his creatures,Or hold on him their main dependencies,Either for benefit, or hope, or fear;And that himself hath lost much of his own,By parting unto him; and, by th’ increaseOf his rank lusts and rages, quite disarm’dHimself of love, or other public means,To dare an open contestation;His subtilty hath chose this doubling line,To hold him even in: not so to fear him,As wholly put him out, and yet give checkUnto his farther boldness. In mean time,By his employments, makes him odiousUnto the staggering rout, whose aid, in fine,He hopes to use, as sure, who, when they sway.Bear down, o’erturn all objects in their way.ARRUNTIUS.You may be a Lynceus, Lepidus: yet ISee no such cause, but that a politic tyrant,Who can so well disguise it, should have ta’enA nearer way: feign’d honest, and come homeTo cut his throat, by law.LEPIDUS.Ay, but his fearWould ne’er be mask’d, allbe his vices were.POMPONIUS.His lordship then is still in grace?TERENTIUS.Assure you,Never in more, either of grace or power.POMPONIUS.The gods are wise and just.ARRUNTIUS.The fiends they are,To suffer thee belie ’em.TERENTIUS.I have hereHis last and present letters, where he writes him,The partner of his cares, and his Sejanus.—LACO.But is that true? it is prohibitedTo sacrifice unto him?TERENTIUS.Some such thingCæsar makes scruple of, but forbids it not;No more than to himself: says he could wishIt were forborn to all.LACO.Is it no other?TERENTIUS.No other, on my trust. For your more surety,Here is that letter too.ARRUNTIUS.How easilyDo wretched men believe, what they would have!Looks this like plot?LEPIDUS.Noble Arruntius, stay.LACO.He names him here without his titles.LEPIDUS.Note!ARRUNTIUS.Yes, and come off your notable fool. I willLACO.No other than Sejanus.POMPONIUS.That’s but hasteIn him that writes: here he gives large amends.MARCUS LEPIDUS.And with his own hand written?POMPONIUS.Yes.LACO.Indeed?TERENTIUS.Believe it, gentlemen, Sejanus’ breastNever received more full contentments in,Than at this present.POMPONIUS.Takes he well the escapeOf young Caligula, with Macro?TERENTIUS.Faith,At the first air it somewhat troubled him.LEPIDUS.Observe you?ARRUNTIUS.Nothing; riddles. Till I seeSejanus struck, no sound thereof strikes me.[ExeuntArruntiusandLepidus.]POMPONIUS.I like it not. I muse he would not attemptSomewhat against him in the consulship,Seeing the people ’gin to favour him.TERENTIUS.He doth repent it now; but he has employ’dPagonianus after him: and he holdsThat correspondence there, with all that areNear about Cæsar, as no thought can passWithout his knowledge, thence in act to front him.POMPONIUS.I gratulate the news.LACO.But how comes MacroSo in trust and favour with Caligula?POMPONIUS.O, sir, he has a wife; and the young princeAn appetite: he can look up, and spyFlies in the roof, when there are fleas i’ the bed;And hath a learned nose to assure his sleeps.Who to be favour’d of the rising sun,Would not lend little of his waning moon?It is the saf’st ambition. Noble Terentius!TERENTIUS.The night grows fast upon us. At your service.[Exeunt.]
EnterGallusandAgrippina.
GALLUS.You must have patience, royal Agrippina.
AGRIPPINA.I must have vengeance, first; and that were nectarUnto my famish’d spirits. O, my fortune,Let it be sudden thou prepar’st against me;Strike all my powers of understanding blind.And ignorant of destiny to come!Let me not fear that cannot hope.
GALLUS.Dear princess,These tyrannies on yourself, are worse than Cæsar’s.
AGRIPPINA.Is this the happiness of being born great?Still to be aim’d at? still to be suspected?To live the subject of all jealousies?At least the colour made, if not the groundTo every painted danger? who would notChoose once to fall, than thus to hang for ever?
GALLUS.You might be safe if you would—
AGRIPPINA.What, my Gallus!Be lewd Sejanus’ strumpet, or the bawdTo Cæsar’s lusts, he now is gone to practise?Not these are safe, where nothing is. Yourself,While thus you stand but by me, are not safe.Was Silius safe? or the good Sosia safe?Or was my niece, dear Claudia Pulchra, safe,Or innocent Furnius? they that latest have(By being made guilty) added reputationTo Afer’s eloquence? O, foolish friends,Could not so fresh example warn your loves,But you must buy my favours with that lossUnto yourselves; and when you might perceiveThat Cæsar’s cause of raging must forsake him,Before his will! Away, good Gallus, leave me.Here to be seen, is danger; to speak, treason:To do me least observance, is call’d faction.You are unhappy in me, and I in all.Where are my sons, Nero and Drusus? WeAre they be shot at; let us fall apart;Not in our ruins, sepulchre our friends.Or shall we do some action like offence,To mock their studies that would make us faulty,And frustrate practice by preventing it?The danger’s like: for what they can contrive,They will make good. No innocence is safe,When power contests: nor can they trespass more,Whose only being was all crime before.
EnterNero, DrususandCaligula.
NERO.You hear Sejanus is come back from Cæsar?
GALLUS.No. How? disgraced?
DRUSUS.More graced now than ever.
GALLUS.By what mischance?
CALIGULA.A fortune like enoughOnce to be bad.
DRUSUS.But turn’d too good to both.
GALLUS.What was’t?
NERO.Tiberius sitting at his meat,In a farm-house they call Spelunca, sitedBy the sea-side, among the Fundane hills,Within a natural cave; part of the grot,About the entry, fen, and overwhelm’dSome of the waiters; others ran away:Only Sejanus with his knees, hands, face,O’erhanging Cæsar, did oppose himselfTo the remaining ruins, and was foundIn that so labouring posture by the soldiersThat came to succour him. With which adventure,He hath so fix’d himself in Cæsar’s trust,As thunder cannot move him, and is comeWith all the height of Cæsar’s praise to Rome.
AGRIPPINA.And power, to turn those ruins all on us;And bury whole posterities beneath them.Nero, and Drusus, and Caligula,Your places are the next, and therefore mostIn their offence. Think on your birth and blood.Awake your spirits, meet their violence;’Tis princely when a tyrant doth oppose,And is a fortune sent to exerciseYour virtue, as the wind doth try strong trees,Who by vexation grow more sound and firm.After your father’s fall, and uncle’s fate,What can you hope, but all the change of strokeThat force or sleight can give? then stand upright;And though you do not act, yet suffer nobly:Be worthy of my womb, and take strong cheer;What we do know will come, we should not fear.
[Exeunt.]
EnterMacro.
MACRO.Return’d so soon! renew’d in trust and grace!Is Cæsar then so weak, or hath the placeBut wrought this alteration with the air;And he, on next remove, will all repair?Macro, thou art engaged: and what beforeWas public; now, must be thy private, more.The weal of Cæsar, fitness did imply;But thine own fate confers necessityOn thy employment; and the thoughts born nearestUnto ourselves, move swiftest still, and dearest.If he recover, thou art lost; yea, allThe weight of preparation to his fallWill turn on thee, and crush thee: therefore strikeBefore he settle, to prevent the likeUpon thyself. He doth his vantage know,That makes it home, and gives the foremost blow.
[Exit.]
EnterLatiaris, RufusandOpsius.
LATIARIS.It is a service lord Sejanus willSee well requited, and accept of nobly.Here place yourself between the roof and ceiling;And when I bring him to his words of danger,Reveal yourselves, and take him.
RUFUS.Is he come?
LATIARIS.I’ll now go fetch him.
[Exit.]
OPSIUS.With good speed.—I longTo merit from the state in such an action.
RUFUS.I hope, it will obtain the consulshipFor one of us...
OPSIUS.We cannot think of less,To bring in one so dangerous as Sabinus.
RUFUS.He was follower of Germanicus,And still is an observer of his wifeAnd children, though they be declined in graceA daily visitant, keeps them companyIn private and in public, and is notedTo be the only client of the house:Pray Jove, he will be free to Latiaris.
OPSIUS.He’s allied to him, and doth trust him well.
RUFUS.And he’ll requite his trust!
OPSIUS.To do an officeSo grateful to the state, I know no manBut would strain nearer bands, than kindred—
RUFUS.List!I hear them come.
OPSIUS.Shift to our holes with silence.
[They retire.]
Re-enterLatiarisandSabinus.
LATIARIS.It is a noble constancy you shewTo this afflicted house; that not like others,The friends of season, you do follow fortune,And, in the winter of their fate, forsakeThe place whose glories warm’d you. You are just,And worthy such a princely patron’s love,As was the world’s renown’d Germanicus:Whose ample merit when I call to thought,And see his wife and issue, objects madeTo so much envy, jealousy, and hate;It makes me ready to accuse the godsOf negligence, as men of tyranny.
SABINUS.They must be patient, so must we.
LATIARIS.O Jove,What will become of us or of the times,When, to be high or noble, are made crimes,When land and treasure are most dangerous faults!
SABINUS.Nay, when our table, yea our bed, assaultsOur peace and safety? when our writings are,By any envious instruments, that dareApply them to the guilty, made to speakWhat they will have to fit their tyrannous wreak?When ignorance is scarcely innocence;And knowledge made a capital offence!When not so much, but the bare empty shadeOf liberty is raft us; and we madeThe prey to greedy vultures and vile spies,That first transfix us with their murdering eyes.
LATIARIS.Methinks the genius of the Roman raceShould not be so extinct, but that bright flameOf liberty might be revived again,(Which no good man but. with his life should lose)And we not sit like spent and patient fools,Still puffing in the dark at one poor coal,Held on by hope till the last spark is out.The cause is public, and the honour, name,The immortality of every soul,That is not bastard or a slave in Rome,Therein concern’d: whereto, if men would changeThe wearied arm, and for the weighty shieldSo long sustain’d, employ the facile sword,We might soon have assurance of our vows.This ass’s fortitude doth tire us all:It must be active valour must redeemOur loss, or none. The rock and our hard steelShould meet to enforce those glorious fires again,Whose splendour cheer’d the world, and heat gave life,No less than doth the sun’s.
SABINUS.’Twere better stayIn lasting darkness, and despair of day.No ill should force the subject undertakeAgainst the sovereign, more than hell should makeThe gods do wrong. A good man should and mustSit rather down with loss, than rise unjust.Though, when the Romans first did yield themselvesTo one man’s power, they did not mean their lives,Their fortunes and their liberties, should beHis absolute spoil, as purchased by the sword.
LATIARIS.Why we are worse, if to be slaves, and bondTo Cæsar’s slave be such, the proud Sejanus!He that is all, does all, gives Cæsar leaveTo hide his ulcerous and anointed face,With his bald crown at Rhodes, while he here stalksUpon the heads of Romans, and their princes,Familiarly to empire.
SABINUS.Now you touchA point indeed, wherein he shews his art,As well as power.
LATIARIS.And villainy in both.Do you observe where Livia lodges? howDrusus came dead? what men have been cut off?
SABINUS.Yes, those are things removed: I nearer look’dInto his later practice, where he standsDeclared a master in his mystery.First, ere Tiberius went, he wrought his fearTo think that Agrippina sought his death.Then put those doubts in her; sent her oft word.Under the show of friendship, to bewareOf Cæsar, for he laid to poison her:Drave them to frowns, to mutual jealousies,Which, now, in visible hatred are burst out.Since, he hath had his hired instrumentsTo work on Nero, and to heave him up;To tell him Cæsar’s old, that all the people,Yea, all the army have their eyes on him;That both do long to have him undertakeSomething of worth, to give the world a hope;Bids him to court their grace: the easy youthPerhaps gives ear, which straight he writes to Cæsar;And with this comment: See yon dangerous boy;Note but the practice of the mother, there;She’s tying him for purposes at hand,With men of sword. Here’s Cæsar put in fright’Gainst son and mother. Yet, he leaves not thus.The second brother, Drusus, a fierce nature,And fitter for his snares, because ambitiousAnd full of envy, him he clasps and hugs,Poisons with praise, tells him what hearts he wears,How bright he stands in popular expectance;That Rome doth suffer with him in the wrongHis mother does him, by preferring Nero:Thus sets he them asunder, each ’gainst other,Projects the course that serves him to condemn,Keeps in opinion of a friend to all,And all drives on to ruin.
LATIARIS.Cæsar sleeps,And nods at this.
SABINUS.Would he might ever sleep,Bogg’d in his filthy lusts!
OpsiusandRufusrush in.
OPSIUS.Treason to Cæsar!
RUFUS.Lay hands upon the traitor, Latiaris,Or take the name thyself.
LATIARIS.I am for Cæsar.
SABINUS.Am I then catch’d?
RUFUS.How think you, sir? you are.
SABINUS.Spies of this head, so white, so full of years!Well, my most reverend monsters, you may liveTo see yourselves thus snared.
OPSIUS.Away with him!
LATIARIS.Hale him away.
RUFUS.To be a spy for traitors,Is honourable vigilance.
SABINUS.You do well,My most officious instruments of state;Men of all uses: drag me hence, away.The year is well begun, and I fall fitTo be an offering to Sejanus. Go!
OPSIUS.Cover him with his garments, hide his face.
SABINUS.It shall not need. Forbear your rude assault.The fault’s not shameful, villainy makes a fault.
[Exeunt.]
EnterMacroandCaligula.
MACRO.Sir, but observe how thick your dangers meetIn his clear drifts! your mother and your brothers,Now cited to the senate; their friend Gallus,Feasted to-day by Cæsar, since committed!Sabinus here we met, hurried to fetters:The senators all strook with fear and silence,Save those whose hopes depend not on good means,But force their private prey from public spoil.And you must know, if here you stay, your stateIs sure to be the subject of his hate,As now the object.
CALIGULA.What would you advise me?
MACRO.To go for Capreae presently; and thereGive up yourself entirely to your uncle.Tell Cæsar (since your mother is accusedTo fly for succours to Augustus’ statue,And to the army with your brethren) youHave rather chose to place your aids in him,Than live suspected; or in hourly fearTo be thrust out, by bold Sejanus’ plots:Which, you shall confidently urge to beMost full of peril to the state, and Cæsar,As being laid to his peculiar ends,And not to be let run with common safety.All which, upon the second, I’ll make plain,So both shall love and trust with Cæsar gain.
CALIGULA.Away then, let’s prepare us for our journey.
[Exeunt.]
EnterArruntius.
ARRUNTIUS.Still dost thou suffer, heaven! will no flame,No heat of sin, make thy just wrath to boilIn thy distemper’d bosom, and o’erflowThe pitchy blazes of impiety,Kindled beneath thy throne! Still canst thou sleep,Patient, while vice doth make an antick faceAt thy dread power, and blow dust and smokeInto thy nostrils! Jove! will nothing wake thee?Must vile Sejanus pull thee by the beard,Ere thou wilt open thy black-lidded eye,And look him dead? Well! snore on, dreaming gods,And let this last of that proud giant-raceHeave mountain upon mountain, ’gainst your state—Be good unto me, Fortune and you powers,Whom I, expostulating, have profaned;I see what’s equal with a prodigy,A great, a noble Roman, and an honest,Live an old man!—
EnterLepidus.
O Marcus Lepidus,When is our turn to bleed? Thyself and I,Without our boast, are almost all the fewLeft to be honest in these impious times.
LEPIDUS.What we are left to be, we will be, Lucius;Though tyranny did stare as wide as death,To fright us from it.
ARRUNTIUS.’T hath so on Sabinus.
LEPIDUS.I saw him now drawn from the Gemonies,And, what increased the direness of the fact,His faithful dog, upbraiding all us Romans,Never forsook the corps, but, seeing it thrownInto the stream, leap’d in, and drown’d with it.
ARRUNTIUS.O act, to be envied him of us men!We are the next the hook lays hold on, Marcus:What are thy arts, good patriot, teach them me,That have preserved thy hairs to this white dye,And kept so reverend and so dear a headSafe on his comely shoulders?
LEPIDUS.Arts, Arruntius!None, but the plain and passive fortitude,To suffer and be silent; never stretchThese arms against the torrent; live at home,With my own thoughts, and innocence about me,Not tempting the wolves’ jaws: these are my arts.
ARRUNTIUS.I would begin to study ’em, if I thoughtThey would secure me. May I pray to JoveIn secret and be safe? ay, or aloud,With open wishes, so I do not mentionTiberius or Sejanus? yes, I must,If I speak out. ’Tis hard that. May I think,And not be rack’d? What danger is’t to dream,Talk in one’s sleep, or cough? Who knows the law?May I shake my head without a comment? sayIt rains, or it holds up, and not be thrownUpon the Gemonies? These now are things,Whereon men’s fortune, yea, their faith depends.Nothing hath privilege ’gainst the violent ear.No place, no day, no hour, we see, is free,Not our religious and most sacred times,From some one kind of cruelty: all matterNay, all occasion pleaseth. Madmen’s rage,The idleness of drunkards, women’s nothing,Jester’s simplicity, all, all is goodThat can be catcht at...Nor is now the eventOf any person, or for any crime,To be expected; for ’tis always one:Death, with some little difference of place,Or time—What’s this? Prince Nero, guarded!
EnterLacoandNerowithGuards.
LACO.On, lictors, keep your way. My lords, forbear.On pain of Cæsar’s wrath, no man attemptSpeech with the prisoner.
NERO.Noble friends, be safe;To lose yourselves for words, were as vain hazard,As unto me small comfort: fare you well.Would all Rome’s sufferings in my fate did dwell!
LACO.Lictors, away.
LEPIDUS.Where goes he, Laco?
LACO.Sir,He’s banish’d into Pontia by the senate.
ARRUNTIUS.Do I see, hear, and feel? May I trust sense,Or doth my phant’sie form it?
LEPIDUS.Where’s his brother?
LACO.Drusus is prisoner in the palace.
ARRUNTIUS.Ha!I smell it now: ’tis rank. Where’s Agrippina?
LACO.The princess is confined to Pandataria.
ARRUNTIUS.Bolts, Vulcan; bolts for Jove! Phœbus, thy bow;Stern Mars, thy sword: and, blue-ey’d maid, thy spear;Thy club, Alcides: all the armouryOf heaven is too little!—Ha!—to guardThe gods, I meant. Fine, rare dispatch I this sameWas swiftly born! Confined, imprison’d, banish’d?Most tripartite! the cause, sir?
LACO.Treason.
ARRUNTIUS.O!The complement of all accusings! thatWill hit, when all else fails.
LEPIDUS.This turn is strange!But yesterday the people would not hear,Far less objected, but cried Cæsar’s lettersWere false and forged; that all these plots were malice;And that the ruin of the prince’s houseWas practised ’gainst his knowledge. Where are nowTheir voices, now, that they behold his heirsLock’d up, disgraced, led into exile?
ARRUNTIUS.Hush’d,Drown’d in their bellies. Wild Sejanus’ breathHath, like a whirlwind, scatter’d that poor dust,With this rude blast—We’ll talk no treason, sir,[Turns to Laco and the rest.]If that be it you stand for. Fare you well.We have no need of horse-leeches. Good spy,Now you are spied, be gone.
[ExeuntLaco, NeroandGuards.]
LEPIDUS.I fear you wrong him:He has the voice to be an honest Roman.
ARRUNTIUS.And trusted to this office! Lepidus,I’d sooner trust Greek Sinon, than a manOur state employs. He’s gone: and being gone,I dare tell you, whom I dare better trust,That our night-eyed Tiberius doth not seeHis minion’s drifts; or, if he do, he’s notSo arrant subtile, as we fools do take him;To breed a mungrel up, in his own house,With his own blood, and, if the good gods please,At his own throat, flesh him, to take a leap.I do not beg it, heaven; but if the fatesGrant it these eyes, they must not wink.
LEPIDUS.They mustNot see it, Lucius.
ARRUNTIUS.Who should let them?
LEPIDUS.Zeal,And duty: with the thought he is our prince.
ARRUNTIUS.He is our monster: forfeited to viceSo far, as no rack’d virtue can redeem him.His loathed person fouler than all crimes:An emperor, only in his lusts. Retired,From all regard of his own fame, or Rome’s,Into an obscure island; where he livesActing his tragedies with a comic face,Amidst his rout of Chaldees: spending hours,Days, weeks, and months, in the unkind abuseOf grave astrology, to the bane of men,Casting the scope of men’s nativities,And having found aught worthy in their fortune,Kill, or precipitate them in the sea,And boast, he can mock fate. Nay, muse not: theseAre far from ends of evil, scarce degrees.He hath his slaughter-house at Capreae;Where he doth study murder, as an art;And they are dearest in his grace, that canDevise the deepest tortures. Thither, too,He hath his boys, and beauteous girls ta’en upOut of our noblest houses, the best form’d,Best nurtured, and most modest; what’s their good,Serves to provoke his bad. Some are allured,Some threaten’d; others, by their friends detained,Are ravish’d hence, like captives, and, in sightOf their most grieved parents, dealt awayUnto his spintries, sellaries, and slaves,Masters of strange and new commented lusts,For which wise nature hath not left a name.To this (what most strikes us, and bleeding Rome)He is, with all his craft, become the wardTo his own vassal, a stale catamite:Whom he, upon our low and suffering necks,Hath raised from excrement to side the gods,And have his proper sacrifice in Rome:Which Jove beholds, and yet will sooner riveA senseless oak with thunder than his trunk!—
Re-enterLacowithPomponiusandMinutius.
LACO.These letters make men doubtful what t’ expect,Whether his coming, or his death.
POMPONIUS.Troth, both:And which comes soonest, thank the gods for.
ARRUNTIUS.List!Their talk is Cæsar; I would hear all voices.
[ArruntiusandLepidusstand aside.]
MINUTIUS.One day, he’s well; and will return to Rome;The next day, sick; and knows not when to hope it.
LACO.True; and to-day, one of Sejanus’ friendsHonour’d by special writ; and on the morrowAnother punish’d—
POMPONIUS.By more special writ.
MINUTIUS.This man receives his praises of Sejanus,A second but slight mention, a third none,A fourth rebukes: and thus he leaves the senateDivided and suspended, all uncertain.
LACO.These forked tricks, I understand them not:Would he would tell us whom he loves or hates,That we might follow, without fear or doubt.
ARRUNTIUS.Good Heliotrope! Is this your honest man?Let him be yours so still; he is my knave.
POMPONIUS.I cannot tell, Sejanus still goes on,And mounts, we see; new statues are advanced,Fresh leaves of titles, large inscriptions read,His fortune sworn by, himself new gone outCæsar’s colleague in the fifth consulship;More altars smoke to him than all the gods:What would we more?
ARRUNTIUS.That the dear smoke would choke him,That would I more.
LEPIDUS.Peace, good Arruntius.
LATIARIS.But there are letters come, they say, ev’n now,Which do forbid that last.
MINUTIUS.Do you hear so?
LACO.Yes.
POMPONIUS.By Castor, that’s the worst.
ARRUNTIUS.By Pollux, best.
MINUTIUS.I did not like the sign, when Regulus,Whom all we know no friend unto Sejanus,Did, by Tiberius’ so precise command,Succeed a fellow in the consulship:It boded somewhat.
POMPONIUS.Not a mote. His partner,Fulcinius Trio, is his own, and sure.—Here comes Terentius.
EnterTerentius.
He can give us more.[They whisper with Terentius.]
LEPIDUS.I’ll ne’er believe, but Cæsar hath some scentOf bold Sejanus’ footing. These cross pointsOf varying letters, and opposing consuls,Mingling his honours and his punishments,Feigning now ill, now well, raising Sejanus,And then depressing him, as now of lateIn all reports we have it, cannot beEmpty of practice: ’tis Tiberius’ art.For having found his favourite grown too great,And with his greatness strong; that all the soldiersAre, with their leaders, made a his devotion;That almost all the senate are his creatures,Or hold on him their main dependencies,Either for benefit, or hope, or fear;And that himself hath lost much of his own,By parting unto him; and, by th’ increaseOf his rank lusts and rages, quite disarm’dHimself of love, or other public means,To dare an open contestation;His subtilty hath chose this doubling line,To hold him even in: not so to fear him,As wholly put him out, and yet give checkUnto his farther boldness. In mean time,By his employments, makes him odiousUnto the staggering rout, whose aid, in fine,He hopes to use, as sure, who, when they sway.Bear down, o’erturn all objects in their way.
ARRUNTIUS.You may be a Lynceus, Lepidus: yet ISee no such cause, but that a politic tyrant,Who can so well disguise it, should have ta’enA nearer way: feign’d honest, and come homeTo cut his throat, by law.
LEPIDUS.Ay, but his fearWould ne’er be mask’d, allbe his vices were.
POMPONIUS.His lordship then is still in grace?
TERENTIUS.Assure you,Never in more, either of grace or power.
POMPONIUS.The gods are wise and just.
ARRUNTIUS.The fiends they are,To suffer thee belie ’em.
TERENTIUS.I have hereHis last and present letters, where he writes him,The partner of his cares, and his Sejanus.—
LACO.But is that true? it is prohibitedTo sacrifice unto him?
TERENTIUS.Some such thingCæsar makes scruple of, but forbids it not;No more than to himself: says he could wishIt were forborn to all.
LACO.Is it no other?
TERENTIUS.No other, on my trust. For your more surety,Here is that letter too.
ARRUNTIUS.How easilyDo wretched men believe, what they would have!Looks this like plot?
LEPIDUS.Noble Arruntius, stay.
LACO.He names him here without his titles.
LEPIDUS.Note!
ARRUNTIUS.Yes, and come off your notable fool. I will
LACO.No other than Sejanus.
POMPONIUS.That’s but hasteIn him that writes: here he gives large amends.
MARCUS LEPIDUS.And with his own hand written?
POMPONIUS.Yes.
LACO.Indeed?
TERENTIUS.Believe it, gentlemen, Sejanus’ breastNever received more full contentments in,Than at this present.
POMPONIUS.Takes he well the escapeOf young Caligula, with Macro?
TERENTIUS.Faith,At the first air it somewhat troubled him.
LEPIDUS.Observe you?
ARRUNTIUS.Nothing; riddles. Till I seeSejanus struck, no sound thereof strikes me.
[ExeuntArruntiusandLepidus.]
POMPONIUS.I like it not. I muse he would not attemptSomewhat against him in the consulship,Seeing the people ’gin to favour him.
TERENTIUS.He doth repent it now; but he has employ’dPagonianus after him: and he holdsThat correspondence there, with all that areNear about Cæsar, as no thought can passWithout his knowledge, thence in act to front him.
POMPONIUS.I gratulate the news.
LACO.But how comes MacroSo in trust and favour with Caligula?
POMPONIUS.O, sir, he has a wife; and the young princeAn appetite: he can look up, and spyFlies in the roof, when there are fleas i’ the bed;And hath a learned nose to assure his sleeps.Who to be favour’d of the rising sun,Would not lend little of his waning moon?It is the saf’st ambition. Noble Terentius!
TERENTIUS.The night grows fast upon us. At your service.
[Exeunt.]