ACT V

ACT VSCENE I.—An Apartment in SEJANUS’ House.EnterSejanus.SEJANUS.Swell, swell, my joys; and faint not to declareYourselves as ample as your causes are.I did not live till now; this my first hour;Wherein I see my thoughts reach’d by my power.But this, and gripe my wishes. Great and high,The world knows only two, that’s Rome and I.My roof receives me not; ’tis air I tread;And, at each step, I feel my advanced headKnock out a star in heaven! rear’d to this height,All my desires seem modest, poor, and slight,That did before sound impudent: ’tis place,Not blood, discerns the noble and the base.Is there not something more than to be Cæsar?Must we rest there? it irks t’ have come so far,To be so near a stay. Caligula,Would thou stood’st stiff, and many in our way!Winds lose their strength, when they do empty fly,Unmet of woods or buildings; great fires die,That want their matter to withstand them: so,It is our grief, and will be our loss, to knowOur power shall want opposites; unlessThe gods, by mixing in the cause, would blessOur fortune with their conquest. That were worthSejanus’ strife; durst fates but bring it forth.EnterTerentius.TERENTIUS.Safety to great Sejanus!SEJANUS.Now, Terentius?TERENTIUS.Hears not my lord the wonder?SEJANUS.Speak it, no.TERENTIUS.I meet it violent in the people’s mouths,Who run in routs to Pompey’s theatre,To view your statue, which, they say, sends forthA smoke, as from a furnace, black and dreadful.SEJANUS.Some traitor hath put fire in: you, go see,And let the head be taken off, to lookWhat ’tis.[ExitTerentius.]Some slave hath practised an imposture,To stir the people.—How now! why return you?Re-enterTerentiuswithSatriusandNatta.SATRIUS.The head, my lord, already is ta’en off,I saw it; and, at opening, there leapt outA great and monstrous serpent.SEJANUS.Monstrous! why?Had it a beard, and horns? no heart? a tongueForked as flattery? look’d it of the hue,To such as live in great men’s bosoms? wasThe spirit of it Macro’s?NATTA.May it pleaseThe most divine Sejanus, in my days,(And by his sacred fortune, I affirm it,)I have not seen a more extended, grown,Foul, spotted, venomous, ugly—SEJANUS.O, the fates!What a wild muster’s here of attributes,T’ express a worm, a snake!TERENTIUS.But how that shouldCome there, my lord!SEJANUS.What, and you too, Terentius!I think you mean to make ’t a prodigyIn your reporting.TERENTIUS.Can the wise SejanusThink heaven hath meant it less!SEJANUS.O, superstition!Why, then the falling of our bed, that brakeThis morning, burden’d with the populous weight,Of our expecting clients, to salute us;Or running of the cat betwixt our legs,As we set forth unto the Capitol,Were prodigies.TERENTIUS.I think them ominous;And would they had not happened! As, to-day,The fate of some your servants: who, decliningTheir way, not able, for the throng, to follow,Slipt down the Gemonies, and brake their necks!Besides, in taking your last augury,No prosperous bird appear’d; but croaking ravensFlagg’d up and down, and from the sacrificeFlew to the prison, where they sat all night,Beating the air with their obstreperous beaks!I dare not counsel, but I could entreat,That great Sejanus would attempt the godsOnce more with sacrifice.SEJANUS.What excellent foolsReligion makes of men! Believes Terentius,If these were dangers, as I shame to think them,The gods could change the certain course of fate!Or, if they could they would, now in a moment,For a beeve’s fat, or less, be bribed to invertThose long decrees? Then think the gods, like flies,Are to be taken with the steam of flesh,Or blood, diffused about their altars: thinkTheir power as cheap as I esteem it small.—Of all the throng that fill th’ Olympian hall,And, without pity, lade poor Atlas’ back,I know not that one deity, but Fortune,To whom I would throw up, in begging smoke,One grain of incense; or whose ear I’d buyWith thus much oil. Her I, indeed, adore;And keep her grateful image in my house,Sometime belonging to a Roman king.But now call’d mine, as by the better style:To her I care not, if, for satisfyingYour scrupulous phant’sies, I go offer. BidOur priest prepare us honey, milk, and poppy,His masculine odours, and night-vestments: say,Our rites are instant; which perform’d, you’ll seeHow vain, and worthy laughter, your fears be.[Exeunt.]SCENE II.—Another Room in the same.EnterCottaandPomponius.COTTA.Pomponius, whither in such speed?POMPONIUS.I goTo give my lord Sejanus notice—COTTA.What?POMPONIUS.Of Macro.COTTA.Is he come?POMPONIUS.Enter’d but nowThe house of RegulusCOTTA.The opposite consul!POMPONIUS.Some half hour since.COTTA.And by night too! Stay, sir;I’ll bear you company.POMPONIUS.Along then—[Exeunt.]SCENE III.—A Room in REGULUS’S House.EnterMacro, RegulusandAttendant.MACRO.Tis Cæsar’s will to have a frequent senate;And therefore must your edict lay deep mulctOn such as shall be absent.REGULUS.So it doth.Bear it my fellow consul to adscribe.MACRO.And tell him it must early be proclaim’d:The place Apollo’s temple.[ExitAttendant.]REGULUS.That’s remember’d.MACRO.And at what hour!REGULUS.Yes.MACRO.You do forgetTo send one for the provost of the watch.REGULUS.I have not: here he comes.EnterLaco.MACRO.Gracinus Laco,You are a friend most welcome: by and by,I’ll speak with you.—You must procure this listOf the prætorian cohorts, with the namesOf the centurions, and their tribunes.REGULUS.Ay.MACRO.I bring you letters, and a health from Cæsar—LACO.Sir, both come well.MACRO.And hear you? with your note,Which are the eminent men, and most of action.REGULUS.That shall be done you too.MACRO.Most worthy Laco,Cæsar salutes you.—[ExitRegulus.]Consul! death and furies!Gone now!—The argument will please you, sir.Ho! Regulus! The anger of the godsFollow your diligent legs, and overtake ’em,In likeness of the gout!—Re-enterRegulus.O, my good lord,We lack’d you present; I would pray you sendAnother to Fulcinius Trio, straight,To tell him you will come, and speak with him:The matter we’ll devise, to stay him there,While I with Laco do survey the watch.[ExitRegulus.]What are your strengths, Gracinus?LACO.Seven cohorts.MACRO.You see what Cæsar writes; and—Gone again!H’ has sure a vein of mercury in his feet.—Know you what store of the prætorian soldiersSejanus holds about him, for his guard?LACO.I cannot the just number; but, I think,Three centuries.MACRO.Three! good.LACO.At most not four.MACRO.And who be those centurions?LACO.That the consulCan best deliver you.MACRO.When he’s away!Spite on his nimble industry—Gracinus,You find what place you hold. there, in the trustOf royal Cæsar?LACO.Ay, and I am—MACRO.Sir,The honours there proposed are but beginningsOf his great favours.LACO.They are more—MACRO.I heard himWhen he did study what to add.LACO.My life,And all I hold—MACRO.You were his own first choice:Which doth confirm as much as you can speak;And will, if we succeed, make more—Your guardsAre seven cohorts, you say?LACO.Yes.MACRO.Those we mustHold still in readiness and undischarged.LACO.I understand so much. But how it can—MACRO.Be done without suspicion, you’ll object?Re-enterRegulus.REGULUS.What’s that?LACO.The keeping of the watch in arms,When morning comes.MACRO.The senate shall be met, and setSo early in the temple, as all markOf that shall be avoided.REGULUS.If we need,We have commission to possess the palace,Enlarge prince Drusus, and make him our chief.MACRO.That secret would have burnt his reverend mouth,Had he not spit it out now: by the gods,You carry things too—Let me borrow a manOr two, to bear these—That of freeing Drusus,Cæsar projected as the last and utmost;Not else to be remember’d.EnterServants.REGULUS.Here are servants.MACRO.These to Arruntius, these to Lepidus;This bear to Cotta, this to Latiaris.If they demand you of me, say I have ta’enFresh horse, and am departed.[ExeuntServants.]You, my lord,To your colleague, and be you sure to hold himWith long narration of the new fresh favours,Meant to Sejanus, his great patron; I,With trusted Laco, here, are for the guards:Then to divide. For, night hath many eyes,Whereof, though most do sleep, yet some are spies.[Exeunt.]SCENE IV.—A Sacellum (or Chapel) in SEJANUS’S House.EnterPræcones, Flamen, Tubicines, Tibicines, Ministri, Sejanus, Terentius, Satrius, Natta, etc.PRÆCONES.Be all profane far hence; fly, fly far off:Be absent far; far hence be all profane![Tubicines and Tibicines sound while the Flamen washeth.]FLAMEN.We have been faulty, but repent us now,And bring pure hands, pure vestments, and pure minds.FIRST MINISTER.Pure vessels.SECOND MINISTER.And pure offerings.THIRD MINISTER.Garlands pure.FLAMEN.Bestow your garlands: and, with reverence, placeThe vervin on the altar.PRÆCONES.Favour your tongues.[While they sound again, the Flamen takes of the honey with his finger, and tastes, then ministers to all the rest; so of the milk, in an earthen vessel, he deals about; which done, he sprinkleth upon the altar, milk; then imposeth the honey, and kindleth his gums, and after censing about the altar, placeth his censer thereon, into which they put several branches of poppy, and the music ceasing, proceeds.]FLAMEN.Great mother Fortune, queen of human state,Redress of action, arbitress of fate,To whom all sway, all power, all empire bows,Be present; and propitious to our vows!PRÆCONES.Favour it with your tongues.MINISTRI.Be present and propitious to our vows!OMNES.Accept our offering and be pleased, great goddess.TERENTIUS.See, see, the image stirs!SATRIUS.And turns away!NATTA.Fortune averts her face.FLAMEN.Avert, you gods,The prodigy. Still! still, some pious riteWe have neglected. Yet, heaven be appeased,And be all tokens false and void, that speakThy present wrath!SEJANUS.Be thou dumb, scrupulous priest:And gather up thyself, with these thy waresWhich I, in spite of thy blind mistress, orThy juggling mystery, religion, throwThus scorned on the earth.[Overturns the statue and the altar.]Nay, hold thy lookAverted till I woo thee turn againAnd thou shalt stand to all posterity,The eternal game and laughter, with thy neckWrith’d to thy tail, like a ridiculous cat.Avoid these fumes, these superstitious lights,And all these cozening ceremonies: you,Your pure and spiced conscience![Exeunt all butSejanus, Terentius, SatriusandNatta.]I, the slaveAnd mock of fools, scorn on my worthy head!That have been titled and adored a god,Yea, sacrificed unto, myself, in Rome,No less than Jove: and I be brought to doA peevish giglot, rites! perhaps the thoughtAnd shame of that, made fortune turn her face,Knowing herself the lesser deity,And but my servant.-Bashful queen, if so,Sejanus thanks thy modesty.—Who’s that?EnterPomponiusandMinutius.POMPONIUS.His fortune suffers, till he hears my news:I have waited here too long. Macro, my lord—SEJANUS.Speak lower and withdraw.[Takes him aside.]TERENTIUS.Are these things true?MINISTRI.Thousands are gazing at it in the streets.SEJANUS.What’s that?TERENTIUS.Minutius tells us here, my lord,That a new head being set upon your statue,A rope is since found wreath’d about it! and,But now a fiery meteor in the formOf a great ball was seen to roll alongThe troubled air, where yet it hangs unperfect,The amazing wonder of the multitude!SEJANUS.No more. That Macro’s come, is more than all!TERENTIUS.Is Macro come?POMPONIUS.I saw him.TERENTIUS.Where? with whom?POMPONIUS.With Regulus.SEJANUS.Terentius!TERENTIUS.My lord.SEJANUS.Send for the tribunes, we will straight have upMore of the soldiers for our guard. [ExitTerentius.] Minutius,We pray you go for Cotta, Latiaris,Trio, the consul, or what senatorsYou know are sure, and ours. [ExitMinutius.] You, my good Natta,For Laco, provost of the watch. [ExitNatta.] Now, Satrius,The time of proof comes on; arm all our servants,And without tumult. [ExitSatrius.] You, Pomponius,Hold some good correspondence with the consul:Attempt him, noble friend. [ExitPomponius.] These things beginTo look like dangers, now, worthy my fates.Fortune, I see thy worst: let doubtful states,And things uncertain, hang upon thy will:Me surest death shall render certain still.Yet, why is now my thought turn’d toward death,Whom fates have let go on, so far in breath,Uncheck’d or unreproved? I that did helpTo fell the lofty cedar of the world,Germanicus; that at one stroke cut downDrusus, that upright elm; wither’d his vine;Laid Silius and Sabinus, two strong oaks,Flat on the earth; besides those other shrubs,Cordus and Sosia, Claudia Pulchra,Furnius and Gallus, which I have grubb’d up;And since, have set my axe so strong and deepInto the root of spreading Agrippina;Lopt off and scatter’d her proud branches,Nero. Drusus; and Caius too, although re-planted.If you will, Destinies, that after all,I faint now ere I touch my period,You are but cruel; and I already have doneThings great enough. All Rome hath been my slave;The senate sate an idle looker on,And witness of my power; when I have blush’dMore to command than it to suffer: allThe fathers have sate ready and prepared.To give me empire, temples, or their throats.When I would ask ’em; and what crowns the top,Rome, senate, people, all the world have seenJove, but my equal; Cæsar, but my second.’Tis then your malice, Fates, who, but your own,Envy and fear to have any power long known.[Exit.]SCENE V.—A Room in the same.EnterTerentiusandTribunes.TERENTIUS.Stay here: I’ll give his lordship, you are come.EnterMinutiuswithCottaandLatiaris.MINUTIUS.Marcus Terentius, pray you tell my lordHere’s Cotta, and Latiaris.TERENTIUS.Sir, I shall.[Exit.]COTTA.My letter is the very same with yours;Only requires me to be present there,And give my voice to strengthen his design.LATIARIS.Names he not what it is?COTTA.No, nor to you.LATIARIS.’Tis strange and singular doubtful!COTTA.So it is.It may be all is left to lord Sejanus.EnterNattaandGracinus Laco.NATTA.Gentlemen, where’s my lord?TRIBUNE.We wait him here.COTTA.The provost Laco! what’s the news?LATIARIS.My lord—EnterSejanus.SEJANUS.Now, my right dear, noble, and trusted friends,How much I am a captive to your kindness!Most worthy Cotta, Latiaris, Laco,Your valiant hand; and, gentlemen, your loves.I wish I could divide myself unto you;Or that it lay within our narrow powers,To satisfy for so enlarged bounty.Gracinus, we must pray you, hold your guardsUnquit when morning comes. Saw you the consul?MINUTIUS.Trio will presently be here, my lord.COTTA.They are but giving order for the edict,To warn the senate.SEJANUS.How! the senate?LACO.Yes.This morning in Apollo’s temple.COTTA.WeAre charged by letter to be there, my lord.SEJANUS.By letter! pray you, let’s see.LATIARIS.Knows not his lordship?COTTA.It seems so!SEJANUS.A senate warn’d! Without my knowledge!And on this sudden! Senators by lettersRequired to be there! who brought these?COTTA.Macro.SEJANUS.Mine enemy! and when?COTTA.This midnight.SEJANUS.Time,With every other circumstance, doth giveIt hath some strain of engine in’t!—How now?EnterSatrius.SATRIUS.My lord, Sertorius Macro is without,Alone, and prays t’ have private conferenceIn business of high nature with your lordship,He says to me, and which regards you much.SEJANUS.Let him come here.SATRIUS.Better, my lord, Withdraw:You will betray what store and strength of friendsAre now about you; which he comes to spy.SEJANUS.Is he not arm’d?SATRIUS.We’ll search him.SEJANUS.No; but take,And lead him to some room, where you conceal’dMay keep a guard upon us. [ExitSatrius.] Noble Laco,You are our trust; and till our own cohortsCan be brought up, your strengths must be our guard.Now, good Minutius, honour’d Latiaris,[He salutes them humbly.]Most worthy and my most unwearied friends:I return instantly.[Exit.]LATIARIS.Most worthy lord.COTTA.His lordship is turn’d instant kind, methinks;I have not observed it in him, heretofore.FIRST TRIBUNE.’Tis true, and it becomes him nobly.MINUTIUS.IAm wrapt withal.SECOND TRIBUNE.By Mars, he has my lives,Were they a million, for this only grace.LACO.Ay, and to name a man!LATIARIS.As he did me!MINUTIUS.And me!LATIARIS.Who would not spend his life and fortunes,To purchase but the look of such a lord?LACO.He that would nor be lord’s fool, nor the world’s. [Aside.]SCENE VI.—Another Room in the same.EnterSejanus, MacroandSatrius.SEJANUS.Macro! most welcome, a most coveted friend!Let me enjoy my longings. When arrived you?MACRO.About the noon of night.SEJANUS.Satrius, give leave.[ExitSatrius.]MACRO.I have been, since I came, with both the consuls,On a particular design from Cæsar.SEJANUS.How fares it with our great and royal master?MACRO.Right plentifully well; as, with a prince,That still holds out the great proportionOf his large favours, where his judgment hathMade once divine election: like the godThat wants not, nor is wearied to bestowWhere merit meets his bounty, as it dothIn you, already the most happy, and ereThe sun shall climb the south, most high Sejanus.Let not my lord be amused. For, to this endWas I by Cæsar sent for to the isle,With special caution to conceal my journey;And, thence, had my dispatch as privatelyAgain to Rome; charged to come here by night;And only to the consuls make narrationOf his great purpose; that the benefitMight come more full, and striking, by how muchIt was less look’d for, or aspired by you,Or least informed to the common thought.SEJANUS.What may be this? part of myself, dear Macro,If good, speak out; and share with your Sejanus.MACRO.If bad, I should for ever loath myselfTo be the messenger to so good a lord.I do exceed my instructions to acquaintYour lordship with thus much; but ’tis my ventureOn your retentive wisdom: and becauseI would no jealous scruple should molestOr rack your peace of thought. For I assureMy noble lord, no senator yet knowsThe business meant: though all by several lettersAre warned to be there, and give their voices,Only to add unto the state and graceOf what is purposed.SEJANUS.You take pleasure, Macro,Like a coy wench, in torturing your lover.What can be worth this suffering?MACRO.That which follows,The tribunitial dignity and power:Both which Sejanus is to have this dayConferr’d upon him, and by public senate.SEJANUS.Fortune be mine again! thou hast satisfiedFor thy suspected loyalty. [Aside.]MACRO.My lord,I have no longer time, the day approacheth,And I must back to Cæsar.SEJANUS.Where’s Caligula?MACRO.That I forgot to tell your lordship. Why,He lingers yonder about Capreae,Disgraced; Tiberius hath not seen him yet:He needs would thrust himself to go with me,Against my wish or will; but I have quittedHis forward trouble, with as tardy noteAs my neglect or silence could afford him.Your lordship cannot now command me aught,Because I take no knowledge that I saw you;But I shall boast to live to serve your lordship:And so take leave.SEJANUS.Honest and worthy Macro;Your love and friendship.[ExitMacro.]—Who’s there? Satrius,Attend my honourable friend forth.—O!How vain and vile a passion is this fear,What base uncomely things it makes men do!Suspect their noblest friends, as I did this,Flatter poor enemies, entreat their servants,Stoop, court, and catch at the benevolenceOf creatures, unto whom, within this hour,I would not have vouchsafed a quarter-look,Or piece of face! By you that fools call gods,Hang all the sky with your prodigious signs,Fill earth with monsters, drop the scorpion down,Out of the zodiac, or the fiercer lion,Shake off the loosen’d globe from her long hinge,Roll all the world in darkness, and let looseThe enraged winds to turn up groves and towns!When I do fear again, let me be struckWith forked fire, and unpitied die:Who fears, is worthy of calamity.[Exit.]SCENE VII.—Another Room in the same.EnterTerentius, Minutius, Laco, Cotta, LatiarisandPomponius; Regulus, Trioand others, on different sides.POMPONIUS.Is not my lord here?TERENTIUS.Sir, he will be straight.COTTA.What news, Fulcinius Trio?TRIO.Good, good tidings;But keep it to yourself. My lord SejanusIs to receive this day in open senateThe tribunitial dignity.COTTA.Is’t true?TRIO.No words, not to your thought: but, sir, believe it.LATIARIS.What says the consul?COTTA.Speak it not again:He tells me, that to-day my lord Sejanus—TRIO.I must entreat you, Cotta, on your honourNot to reveal it.COTTA.On my life, sir.LATIARIS.Say.COTTA.Is to receive the tribunitial power.But, as you are an honourable man,Let me conjure you not to utter it;For it is trusted to me with that bond.LATIARIS.I am Harpocrates.TERENTIUS.Can you assure it?POMPONIUS.The consul told it me, but keep it close.MINUTIUS.Lord Latiaris, what’s the news?LATIARIS.I’ll tell you;But you must swear to keep it secret.EnterSejanus.SEJANUS.I knew the Fates had on their distaff leftMore of our thread, than so.REGULUS.Hail, great Sejanus!TRIO.Hail, the most honour’d!COTTA.Happy!LATIARIS.High Sejanus!SEJANUS.Do you bring prodigies too?TRIO.May all presageTurn to those fair effects, whereof we bringYour lordship news.REGULUS.May’t please my lord withdraw.SEJANUS.Yes:—I will speak with you anon. [To some that stand by.]TERENTIUS.My lord,What is your pleasure for the tribunes?SEJANUS.Why,Let them be thank’d and sent away.MINUTIUS.My lord—LACO.Will’t please your lordship to command me-SEJANUS.No:You are troublesome.MINUTIUS.The mood is changed.TRIO.Not speak,Nor look!LACO.Ay, he is wise, will make him friendsOf such who never love, but for their ends.[Exeunt.]SCENE VIII.—A Space before the Temple of Apollo.EnterArruntiusandLepidus, divers Senators passing by them.ARRUNTIUS.Ay, go, make haste; take heed you be not lastTo tender your All Hail in the wide hallOf huge Sejanus: run a lictor’s pace:Stay, not to put your robes on; but away,With the pale troubled ensigns of great friendshipStamp’d in your face! Now, Marcus Lepidus,You still believe your former augury!Sejanus must go downward! You perceiveHis wane approaching fast!LEPIDUS.Believe me, Lucius, I wonder at this rising.ARRUNTIUS.Ay, and that weMust give our suffrage to it. You will say,It is to make his fall more steep and grievous:It may be so. But think it, they that canWith idle wishes ’say to bring back time:In cases desperate, all hope is crime.See, see! what troops of his officious friendsFlock to salute my lord, and start beforeMy great proud lord! to get a lord-like nod!Attend my lord unto the senate-house!Bring back my lord! like servile ushers, makeWay for my lord! proclaim his idol lordship,More than ten criers, or six noise of trumpets!Make legs, kiss hands, and take a scatter’d hairFrom my lord’s eminent shoulder!SanquiniusandHateriuspass over the stage.See, SanquiniusWith his slow belly, and his dropsy! look,What toiling haste he makes! yet here’s anotherRetarded with the gout, will be afore him.Get thee Liburnian porters, thou gross fool,To bear thy obsequious fatness, like thy peers.They are met! the gout returns, and his great carriage.Lictors, Regulus, Trio, Sejanus, Satrius,and many other Senators pass over the stage.LICTORS.Give way, make place, room for the consul!SANQUINIUS.Hail,Hail, great Sejanus!HATERIUS.Hail, my honour’d lord!ARRUNTIUS.We shall be mark’d anon, for our not Hail.LEPIDUS.That is already done.ARRUNTIUS.It is a noteOf upstart greatness, to observe and watchFor these poor trifles, which the noble mindNeglects and scorns.LEPIDUS.Ay, and they think themselvesDeeply dishonour’d where they are omitted,As if they were necessities that help’dTo the perfection of their dignities;And hate the men that but refrain them.ARRUNTIUS.O!There is a farther cause of hate. Their breastsAre guilty, that we know their obscure springs,And base beginnings; thence the anger grows.On. Follow.SCENE IX.—Another part of the same.EnterMacroandLaco.MACRO.When all are enter’d, shut the temple doors;And bring your guards up to the gate.LACO.I will.MACRO.If you shall hear commotion in the senate,Present yourself: and charge on any manShall offer to come forth.LACO.I am instructed.[Exeunt.]SCENE X.—The Temple of Apollo.EnterHaterius, Trio, Sanquinius, Cotta, Regulus, Sejanus, Pomponius, Latiaris, Lepidus, Arruntius,and divers other Senators; Præcones, and Lictors.HATERIUS.How well, his lordship looks to-day!TRIO.As ifHe had been born, or made for this hour’s state.COTTA.Your fellow consul’s come about, methinks?TRIO.Ay, he is wise.SANQUINIUS.Sejanus trusts him well.TRIO.Sejanus is a noble, bounteous lord.HATERIUS.He is so, and most valiant.LATIARIS.And most wise.FIRST SENATOR.He’s every thing.LATIARIS.Worthy of all, and moreThan bounty can bestow.TRIO.This dignityWill make him worthy.POMPONIUS.Above Cæsar.SANQUINIUS.Tut,Cæsar is but the rector of an isle,He of the empire.TRIO.Now he will have powerMore to reward than ever.COTTA.Let us lookWe be not slack in giving him our voices.LATIARIS.Not I.SANQUINIUS.Nor I.COTTA.The readier we seemTo propagate his honours, will more bindHis thoughts to ours.HATERIUS.I think right with your lordship;It is the way to have us hold our places.SANQUINIUS.Ay, and get more.LATIARIS.More office and more titles.POMPONIUS.I will not lose the part I hope to share In these his fortunes, for my patrimony.LATIARIS.See, how Arruntius sits, and Lepidus!TRIO.Let them alone, they will be mark’d anon.FIRST SENATOR.I’ll do with others.SECOND SENATOR.So will I.THIRD SENATOR.And I.Men grow not in the state, but as they are plantedWarm in his favours.COTTA.Noble Sejanus!HATERIUS.Honour’d Sejanus!LATIARIS.Worthy and great Sejanus!ARRUNTIUS.Gods! how the sponges open and take in,And shut again! look, look! is not he blestThat gets a seat in eye-reach of him? more,That comes in ear, or tongue-reach? O but most,Can claw his subtle elbow, or with a buzFly-blow his ears?PRÆTOR.Proclaim the senate’s peace,And give last summons by the edict.PRÆCONES.Silence!In name of Cæsar, and the senate, silence!Memmius Regulus, and Fulcinius Trio, consuls, these present kalends of June, with the first light, shall hold a senate, in the temple of Apollo Palatine: all that are fathers, and are registered fathers that have right of entering the senate, we warn or command you be frequently present, take knowledge the business is the commonwealth’s: whosoever is absent, his fine or mulct will be taken, his excuse will not be taken.TRIO.Note who are absent, and record their names.REGULUS.Fathers conscript, may what I am to utterTurn good and happy for the commonwealth!And thou, Apollo, in whose holy houseWe here have met, inspire us all with truth,And liberty of censure to our thought!The majesty of great Tiberius CæsarPropounds to this grave senate, the bestowingUpon the man he loves, honour’d Sejanus,The tribunitial dignity and power:Here are his letters, signed with his signet.What pleaseth now the fathers to be done?SENATORS.Read, read them, open, publicly read them.COTTA.Cæsar hath honour’d his own greatness muchIn thinking of this act.TRIO.It was a thoughtHappy, and worthy Cæsar.LATIARIS.And the lordAs worthy it, on whom it is directed!HATERIUS.Most worthy!SANQUINIUS.Rome did never boast the virtueThat could give envy bounds, but his: Sejanus—FIRST SENATOR.Honour’d and noble!SECOND SENATOR.Good and great Sejanus!ARRUNTIUS.O, most tame slavery, and fierce flattery!PRÆCONES.Silence!TIBERIUSCÆSARto the Senate, greeting.If you, conscript fathers, with your children, be in health, it is abundantly well: we with our friends here are so. The care of the commonwealth, howsoever we are removed in person, cannot be absent to our thought; although, oftentimes, even to princes most present, the truth of their own affairs is hid, than which, nothing falls out more miserable to a state, or makes the art of governing more difficult. But since it hath been our easeful happiness to enjoy both the aids and industry of so vigilant a senate, we profess to have been the more indulgent to our pleasures, not as being careless of our office, but rather secure of the necessity. Neither do these common rumours of many, and infamous libels published against our retirement, at all afflict us; being born more out of men’s ignorance than their malice: and will, neglected, find their own grave quickly, whereas, too sensibly acknowledged, it would make their obloquy ours. Nor do we desire their authors, though found, be censured, since in a free state, as ours, all men ought to enjoy both their minds and tongues free.ARRUNTIUS.The lapwing, the lapwing!Yet in things which shall worthily and more near concern the majesty of a prince, we shall fear to be so unnaturally cruel to our own fame, as to neglect them. True it is, conscript fathers, that we have raised Sejanus from obscure, and almost unknown gentry,SENATORS.How, how!to the highest and most conspicuous point of greatness, and, we hope, deservingly, yet not without danger: it being a most bold hazard in that sovereign, who, by his particular love to one, dares adventure the hatred of all his other subjects.ARRUNTIUS.This touches; the blood turns.But we affy in your loves and understandings, and do no way suspect the merit of our Sejanus, to make our favours offensive to any.SENATORS.O! good, good.Though we could have wished his zeal had run a calmer course against Agrippina and our nephews, howsoever the openness of their actions declared them delinquents, and, that he would have remembered, no innocence is so safe, but it rejoiceth to stand in the sight of mercy: the use of which in us, he hath so quite taken away, towards them, by his loyal fury, as now our clemency would be thought but wearied cruelty, if we should offer to exercise it.ARRUNTIUS.I thank him; there I look’d for’t. A good fox!Some there be that would interpret this his public severity to be particular ambition, and that, under a pretext of service to us, he doth but remove his own lets: alleging the strengths he hath made to himself, by the prætorian soldiers, by his faction in court and senate, by the offices he holds himself, and confers on others, his popularity and dependents, his urging and almost driving us to this our unwilling retirement, and, lastly, his aspiring to be our son-in-law.SENATORS.This is strange!ARRUNTIUS.I shall anon believe your vultures, Marcus.Your wisdoms, conscript fathers, are able to examine, and censure these suggestions. But, were they left to our absolving voice, we durst pronounce them, as we think them, most malicious.SENATORS.O, he has restored all; list!Yet are they offered to be averred, and on the lives of the informers. What we should say, or rather what we should not say, lords of the senate, if this be true, our gods and goddesses confound us if we know! Only we must think, we have placed our benefits ill; and conclude, that in our choice, either we were wanting to the gods, or the gods to us.[The Senators shift their places.]ARRUNTIUS.The place grows hot; they shift.We have not been covetous, honourable fathers, to change, neither is it now any new lust that alters our affection, or old loathing: but those needful jealousies of state, that warn wiser princes hourly to provide their safety, and do teach them how learned a thing it is to beware of the humblest enemy; much more of those great ones, whom their own employed favours have made fit for their fears.FIRST SENATOR.Away.SECOND SENATOR.Sit farther.COTTA.Let’s remove-ARRUNTIUS.Gods! how the leaves drop off, this little wind!We therefore desire, that the offices he holds be first seized by the senate, and himself suspended from all exercise of place or power—SENATORS.How!SANQUINIUS.[thrusting by.] By your leave.ARRUNTIUS.Come, porpoise; where’s Haterius?His gout keeps him most miserably constant;Your dancing shews a tempest.SEJANUS.Read no more.REGULUS.Lords of the senate, hold your seats: read on.SEJANUS.These letters they are forged.REGULUS.A guard! sit still.EnterLacowith theGuards.ARRUNTIUS.Here’s change!REGULUS.Bid silence, and read forward.PRÆCONES.Silence!—and himself suspended from all exercise of place or power, but till due and mature trial be made of his innocency, which yet we can faintly apprehend the necessity to doubt. If, conscript fathers, to your more searching wisdoms, there shall appear farther cause—or of farther proceeding, either to seizure of lands, goods, or more—it is not our power that shall limit your authority, or our favour that must corrupt your justice: either were dishonourable in you, and both uncharitable to ourself. We would willingly be present with your counsels in this business, but the danger of so potent a faction, if it should prove so, forbids our attempting it: except one of the consuls would be entreated for our safety, to undertake the guard of us home; then we should most readily adventure. In the mean time, it shall not be fit for us to importune so judicious a senate, who know how much they hurt the innocent, that spare the guilty; and how grateful a sacrifice to the gods is the life of an ingrateful person, We reflect not, in this, on Sejanus, (notwithstanding, if you keep an eye upon him-and there is Latiaris, a senator, and Pinnarius Natta, two of his most trusted ministers, and so professed, whom we desire not to have apprehended,) but as the necessity of the cause exacts it.REGULUS.A guard on Latiaris!ARRUNTIUS.O, the spy,The reverend spy is caught! who pities him?Reward, sir, for your service: now, you have doneYour property, you see what use is made![ExeuntLatiarisandNatta,guarded.]Hang up the instrument.SEJANUS.Give leave.LACO.Stand, stand!He comes upon his death, that doth advanceAn inch toward my point.SEJANUS.Have we no friends here?ARRUNTIUS.Hush’d!Where now are all the hails and acclamations?EnterMacro.MACRO.Hail to the consuls, and this noble senate!SEJANUS.Is Macro here?O, thou art lost, Sejanus! [Aside.]MACRO.Sit still, and unaffrighted, reverend fathers:Macro, by Cæsar’s grace, the new-made provost,And now possest of the prætorian bands,An honour late belong’d to that proud man,Bids you be safe: and to your constant doomOf his deservings, offers you the suretyOf all the soldiers, tribunes, and centurions,Received in our command.REGULUS.Sejanus, Sejanus, Stand forth, Sejanus!SEJANUS.Am I call’d?MACRO.Ay, thou,Thou insolent monster, art bid stand.SEJANUS.Why, Macro.It hath been otherwise between you and I;This court, that knows us both, hath seen a difference,And can, if it be pleased to speak, confirmWhose insolence is most.MACRO.Come down, Typhoeus.If mine be most, lo! thus I make it more;Kick up thy heels in air, tear off thy robe,Play with thy beard and nostrils. Thus ’tis fit(And no man take compassion of thy state)To use th’ ingrateful viper, tread his brainsInto the earth.REGULUS.Forbear.MACRO.If I could loseAll my humanity now, ’twere well to tortureSo meriting a traitor.-Wherefore, fathers,Sit you amazed and silent; and not censureThis wretch, who, in the hour he first rebell’d’Gainst Cæsar’s bounty, did condemn himself?Phlegra, the field where all the sons of earthMuster’d against the gods, did ne’er acknowledgeSo proud and huge a monster.REGULUS.Take him hence;And all the gods guard Cæsar!TRIO.Take him hence.HATERIUS.Hence.COTTA.To the dungeon with him.SANQUINIUS.He deserves it.SENATORS.Crown all our doors with bays.SANQUINIUS.And let an ox,With gilded horns and garlands, straight be ledUnto the Capitol—HATERIUS.And sacrificedTo Jove, for Cæsar’s safety.TRIO.All our godsBe present still to Cæsar!COTTA.Phœbus.SANQUINIUS.Mars.HATERIUS.Diana.SANQUINIUS.Pallas.SENATORS.Juno, Mercury,All guard him!MACRO.Forth, thou prodigy of men![ExitSejanus,guarded.]COTTA.Let all the traitor’s titles be defaced.TRIO.His images and statues be pull’d down.HATERIUS.His chariot-wheels be broken.ARRUNTIUS.And the legsOf the poor horses, that deseryed nought,Let them be broken too![ExeuntLictors, Præcones, Macro, Regulus, Trio, HateriusandSanquinius:manentLepidus, Arruntiusand a few Senators.]LEPIDUS.O violent change,And whirl of men’s affections!ARRUNTIUS.Like, as bothTheir bulks and souls were bound on Fortune’s wheel,And must act only with her motion.LEPIDUS.Who would depend upon the popular air,Or voice of men, that have to-day beheldThat which, if all the gods had fore-declared,Would not have been believed, Sejanus’ fall?He, that this morn rose proudly, as the sun,And, breaking through a mist of clients’ breath,Came on, as gazed at and admired as he,When superstitious Moors salute his light!That had our servile nobles waiting himAs common grooms; and hanging on his look,No less than human life on destiny!That had men’s knees as frequent as the gods;And sacrifices more than Rome had altars:And this man fall! fall? ay, without a lookThat durst appear his friend, or lend so muchOf vain relief, to his changed state, as pity!ARRUNTIUS.They that before, like gnats, play’d in his beams,And throng’d to circumscribe him, now not seenNor deign to hold a common seat with him!Others, that waited him unto the senate,Now inhumanely ravish him to prison,Whom, but this morn, they follow’d as their lord!Guard through the streets, bound like a fugitive,Instead of wreaths give fetters, strokes for stoops,Blind shames for honours, and black taunts for titles!Who would trust slippery chance?LEPIDUS.They that would makeThemselves her spoil; and foolishly forget,When she doth flatter, that she comes to prey.Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if menHad wisdom: we have placed thee so high,By fond belief in thy felicity.[Shout within.] The gods guard Cæsar!All the gods guard Cæsar!Re-enterMacro, Regulusand diversSenators.MACRO.Now, great Sejanus, you that awed the state,And sought to bring the nobles to your whip;That would be Cæsar’s tutor, and disposeOf dignities and offices! that hadThe public head still bare to your designs,And made the general voice to echo yours!That look’d for salutations twelve score off,And would have pyramids, yea temples, rear’dTo your huge greatness; now you lie as flat,As was your pride advanced!REGULUS.Thanks to the gods!SENATORS.And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!Liberty, liberty, liberty! Lead on,And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome![Exeunt all butArruntiusandLepidus.]ARRUNTIUS.I prophesy, out of the senate’s flattery,That this new fellow, Macro, will becomeA greater prodigy in Rome, than heThat now is fallen.EnterTerentius.TERENTIUS.O you, whose minds are good,And have not forced all mankind from your breasts;That yet have so much stock of virtue left,To pity guilty states, when they are wretched:Lend your soft ears to hear, and eyes to weep,Deeds done by men, beyond the acts of furies.The eager multitude (who never yetKnew why to love or hate, but only pleasedT’ express their rage of power) no sooner heardThe murmur of Sejanus in decline,But with that speed and heat of appetite,With which they greedily devour the wayTo some great sports, or a new theatre,They fill’d the Capitol, and Pompey’s Cirque,Where, like so many mastiffs, biting stones,As if his statues now were sensitiveOf their wild fury; first, they tear them down;Then fastening ropes, drag them along the streets,Crying in scorn, This, this was that rich headWas crown’d with garlands, and with odours, thisThat was in Rome so reverenced! NowThe furnace and the bellows shall to work,The great Sejanus crack, and piece by pieceDrop in the founder’s pit.LEPIDUS.O popular rage!TERENTIUS.The whilst the senate at the temple of ConcordMake haste to meet again, and thronging cry,Let us condemn him, tread him down in water,While he doth lie upon the bank; away!While some more tardy, cry unto their bearers,He will be censured ere we come; run, knaves,And use that furious diligence, for fearTheir bondmen should inform against their slackness,And bring their quaking flesh unto the hook:The rout they follow with confused voice,Crying, they’re glad, say, they could ne’er abide him,Enquire what man he was, what kind of face,What beard he had, what nose, what lips?Protest They ever did presage he’d come to this;They never thought him wise, nor valiant; askAfter his garments, when he dies, what death;And not a beast of all the herd demands,What was his crime, or who were his accusers,Under what proof or testimony he fell?There came, says one, a huge long-worded letterFrom Capreae against him. Did there so?O, they are satisfied; no more.LEPIDUS.Alas!They follow Fortune, and hate men condemn’d,Guilty or not.ARRUNTIUS.But had Sejanus thrivedIn his design, and prosperously opprestThe old Tiberius; then, in that same minute,These very rascals, that now rage like furies,Would have proclaim’d Sejanus emperor.LEPIDUS.But what hath follow’d?TERENTIUS.Sentence by the senate,To lose his head; which was no sooner off,But that and the unfortunate trunk were seizedBy the rude multitude; who not contentWith what the forward justice of the state.Officiously had done, with violent rageHave rent it limb from limb. A thousand heads,A thousand hands, ten thousand tongues and voices,Employ’d at once in several acts of malice!Old men not staid with age, virgins with shame,Late wives with loss of husbands, mothers of children,Losing all grief in joy of his sad fall,Run quite transported with their cruelty!These mounting at his head, these at his face,These digging out his eyes, those with his brainsSprinkling themselves, their houses and their friends;Others are met, have ravish’d thence an arm,And deal small pieces of the flesh for favours;These with a thigh, this hath cut off his hands,And this his feet; these fingers and these toes;That hath his liver, he his heart: there wantsNothing but room for wrath, and place for hatred!What cannot oft be done, is now o’erdone.The whole, and all of what was great Sejanus,And, next to Cæsar, did possess the World,Now torn and scatter’d, as he needs no grave;Each little dust covers a little part:So lies he no where, and yet often buried!EnterNuntius.ARRUNTIUS.More of Sejanus?NUNTIUS.Yes.LEPIDUS.What can be added?We know him dead.NUNTIUS.Then there begin your pity.There is enough behind to melt ev’n Rome,And Cæsar into tears; since never slaveCould yet so highly offend, but tyranny,In torturing him, would make him worth lamenting.—A son and daughter to the dead Sejanus,(Of whom there is not now so much remainingAs would give fast’ning to the hangman’s hook,)Have they drawn forth for farther sacrifice;Whose tenderness of knowledge, unripe years,And childish silly innocence was such,As scarce would lend them feeling of their danger:The girl so simple, as she often ask’d“Where they would lead her? for what cause they dragg’d her?”Cried, “She would do no more:” that she could take“Warning with beating.” And because our lawsAdmit no virgin immature to die,The wittily and strangely cruel MacroDeliver’d her to be deflower’d and spoil’d,By the rude lust of the licentious hangman,Then to be strangled with her harmless brother.LEPIDUS.O, act most worthy hell, and lasting night,To hide it from the world!NUNTIUS.Their bodies thrownInto the Gemonies, (I know not how,Or by what accident return’d.) the mother,The expulsed Apicata, finds them there;Whom when she saw lie spread on the degrees,After a world of fury on herself,Tearing her hair, defacing of her face,Beating her breasts and womb, kneeling amaz’d,Crying to heaven, then to them; at last,Her drowned voice gat up above her woes,And with such black and bitter execrations,As might affright the gods, and force the sunRun backward to the east; nay, make the oldDeformed chaos rise again, to o’erwhelmThem, us, and all the world, she fills the air,Upbraids the heavens with their partial dooms,Defies their tyrannous powers, and demands,What she, and those poor innocents have transgress’d,That they must suffer such a share in vengeance,Whilst Livia, Lygdus, and Eudemus live,Who, as she says, and firmly vows to prove itTo Cæsar and the senate, poison’d Drusus?LEPIDUS.Confederates with her husband!NUNTIUS.Ay.LEPIDUS.Strange act!ARRUNTIUS.And strangely open’d: what says now my monster,The multitude? they reel now, do they not?NUNTIUS.Their gall is gone, and now they ’gin to weepThe mischief they have done.ARRUNTIUS.I thank ’em, rogues.NUNTIUS.Part are so stupid, or so flexible,As they believe him innocent; all grieve:And some whose hands yet reek with his warm blood,And gripe the part which they did tear of him,Wish him collected and created new.LEPIDUS.How Fortune plies her sports, when she beginsTo practise them! pursues, continues, adds,Confounds with varying her impassion’d moods!ARRUNTIUS.Dost thou hope, Fortune, to redeem thy crimes,To make amend for thy ill-placed favours,With these strange punishments? Forbear, you thingsThat stand upon the pinnacles of state,To boast your slippery height; when you do fall,You pash yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise;And he that lends you pity, is not wise.TERENTIUS.Let this example move the insolent man,Not to grow proud and careless of the gods.It is an odious wisdom to blaspheme,Much more to slighten, or deny their powers:For, whom the morning saw so great and high,Thus low and little, fore the even doth lie.[Exeunt.]

EnterSejanus.

SEJANUS.Swell, swell, my joys; and faint not to declareYourselves as ample as your causes are.I did not live till now; this my first hour;Wherein I see my thoughts reach’d by my power.But this, and gripe my wishes. Great and high,The world knows only two, that’s Rome and I.My roof receives me not; ’tis air I tread;And, at each step, I feel my advanced headKnock out a star in heaven! rear’d to this height,All my desires seem modest, poor, and slight,That did before sound impudent: ’tis place,Not blood, discerns the noble and the base.Is there not something more than to be Cæsar?Must we rest there? it irks t’ have come so far,To be so near a stay. Caligula,Would thou stood’st stiff, and many in our way!Winds lose their strength, when they do empty fly,Unmet of woods or buildings; great fires die,That want their matter to withstand them: so,It is our grief, and will be our loss, to knowOur power shall want opposites; unlessThe gods, by mixing in the cause, would blessOur fortune with their conquest. That were worthSejanus’ strife; durst fates but bring it forth.

EnterTerentius.

TERENTIUS.Safety to great Sejanus!

SEJANUS.Now, Terentius?

TERENTIUS.Hears not my lord the wonder?

SEJANUS.Speak it, no.

TERENTIUS.I meet it violent in the people’s mouths,Who run in routs to Pompey’s theatre,To view your statue, which, they say, sends forthA smoke, as from a furnace, black and dreadful.

SEJANUS.Some traitor hath put fire in: you, go see,And let the head be taken off, to lookWhat ’tis.

[ExitTerentius.]

Some slave hath practised an imposture,To stir the people.—How now! why return you?

Re-enterTerentiuswithSatriusandNatta.

SATRIUS.The head, my lord, already is ta’en off,I saw it; and, at opening, there leapt outA great and monstrous serpent.

SEJANUS.Monstrous! why?Had it a beard, and horns? no heart? a tongueForked as flattery? look’d it of the hue,To such as live in great men’s bosoms? wasThe spirit of it Macro’s?

NATTA.May it pleaseThe most divine Sejanus, in my days,(And by his sacred fortune, I affirm it,)I have not seen a more extended, grown,Foul, spotted, venomous, ugly—

SEJANUS.O, the fates!What a wild muster’s here of attributes,T’ express a worm, a snake!

TERENTIUS.But how that shouldCome there, my lord!

SEJANUS.What, and you too, Terentius!I think you mean to make ’t a prodigyIn your reporting.

TERENTIUS.Can the wise SejanusThink heaven hath meant it less!

SEJANUS.O, superstition!Why, then the falling of our bed, that brakeThis morning, burden’d with the populous weight,Of our expecting clients, to salute us;Or running of the cat betwixt our legs,As we set forth unto the Capitol,Were prodigies.

TERENTIUS.I think them ominous;And would they had not happened! As, to-day,The fate of some your servants: who, decliningTheir way, not able, for the throng, to follow,Slipt down the Gemonies, and brake their necks!Besides, in taking your last augury,No prosperous bird appear’d; but croaking ravensFlagg’d up and down, and from the sacrificeFlew to the prison, where they sat all night,Beating the air with their obstreperous beaks!I dare not counsel, but I could entreat,That great Sejanus would attempt the godsOnce more with sacrifice.

SEJANUS.What excellent foolsReligion makes of men! Believes Terentius,If these were dangers, as I shame to think them,The gods could change the certain course of fate!Or, if they could they would, now in a moment,For a beeve’s fat, or less, be bribed to invertThose long decrees? Then think the gods, like flies,Are to be taken with the steam of flesh,Or blood, diffused about their altars: thinkTheir power as cheap as I esteem it small.—Of all the throng that fill th’ Olympian hall,And, without pity, lade poor Atlas’ back,I know not that one deity, but Fortune,To whom I would throw up, in begging smoke,One grain of incense; or whose ear I’d buyWith thus much oil. Her I, indeed, adore;And keep her grateful image in my house,Sometime belonging to a Roman king.But now call’d mine, as by the better style:To her I care not, if, for satisfyingYour scrupulous phant’sies, I go offer. BidOur priest prepare us honey, milk, and poppy,His masculine odours, and night-vestments: say,Our rites are instant; which perform’d, you’ll seeHow vain, and worthy laughter, your fears be.

[Exeunt.]

EnterCottaandPomponius.

COTTA.Pomponius, whither in such speed?

POMPONIUS.I goTo give my lord Sejanus notice—

COTTA.What?

POMPONIUS.Of Macro.

COTTA.Is he come?

POMPONIUS.Enter’d but nowThe house of Regulus

COTTA.The opposite consul!

POMPONIUS.Some half hour since.

COTTA.And by night too! Stay, sir;I’ll bear you company.

POMPONIUS.Along then—

[Exeunt.]

EnterMacro, RegulusandAttendant.

MACRO.Tis Cæsar’s will to have a frequent senate;And therefore must your edict lay deep mulctOn such as shall be absent.

REGULUS.So it doth.Bear it my fellow consul to adscribe.

MACRO.And tell him it must early be proclaim’d:The place Apollo’s temple.

[ExitAttendant.]

REGULUS.That’s remember’d.

MACRO.And at what hour!

REGULUS.Yes.

MACRO.You do forgetTo send one for the provost of the watch.

REGULUS.I have not: here he comes.

EnterLaco.

MACRO.Gracinus Laco,You are a friend most welcome: by and by,I’ll speak with you.—You must procure this listOf the prætorian cohorts, with the namesOf the centurions, and their tribunes.

REGULUS.Ay.

MACRO.I bring you letters, and a health from Cæsar—

LACO.Sir, both come well.

MACRO.And hear you? with your note,Which are the eminent men, and most of action.

REGULUS.That shall be done you too.

MACRO.Most worthy Laco,Cæsar salutes you.—

[ExitRegulus.]

Consul! death and furies!Gone now!—The argument will please you, sir.Ho! Regulus! The anger of the godsFollow your diligent legs, and overtake ’em,In likeness of the gout!—

Re-enterRegulus.

O, my good lord,We lack’d you present; I would pray you sendAnother to Fulcinius Trio, straight,To tell him you will come, and speak with him:The matter we’ll devise, to stay him there,While I with Laco do survey the watch.

[ExitRegulus.]

What are your strengths, Gracinus?

LACO.Seven cohorts.

MACRO.You see what Cæsar writes; and—Gone again!H’ has sure a vein of mercury in his feet.—Know you what store of the prætorian soldiersSejanus holds about him, for his guard?

LACO.I cannot the just number; but, I think,Three centuries.

MACRO.Three! good.

LACO.At most not four.

MACRO.And who be those centurions?

LACO.That the consulCan best deliver you.

MACRO.When he’s away!Spite on his nimble industry—Gracinus,You find what place you hold. there, in the trustOf royal Cæsar?

LACO.Ay, and I am—

MACRO.Sir,The honours there proposed are but beginningsOf his great favours.

LACO.They are more—

MACRO.I heard himWhen he did study what to add.

LACO.My life,And all I hold—

MACRO.You were his own first choice:Which doth confirm as much as you can speak;And will, if we succeed, make more—Your guardsAre seven cohorts, you say?

LACO.Yes.

MACRO.Those we mustHold still in readiness and undischarged.

LACO.I understand so much. But how it can—

MACRO.Be done without suspicion, you’ll object?

Re-enterRegulus.

REGULUS.What’s that?

LACO.The keeping of the watch in arms,When morning comes.

MACRO.The senate shall be met, and setSo early in the temple, as all markOf that shall be avoided.

REGULUS.If we need,We have commission to possess the palace,Enlarge prince Drusus, and make him our chief.

MACRO.That secret would have burnt his reverend mouth,Had he not spit it out now: by the gods,You carry things too—Let me borrow a manOr two, to bear these—That of freeing Drusus,Cæsar projected as the last and utmost;Not else to be remember’d.

EnterServants.

REGULUS.Here are servants.

MACRO.These to Arruntius, these to Lepidus;This bear to Cotta, this to Latiaris.If they demand you of me, say I have ta’enFresh horse, and am departed.

[ExeuntServants.]

You, my lord,To your colleague, and be you sure to hold himWith long narration of the new fresh favours,Meant to Sejanus, his great patron; I,With trusted Laco, here, are for the guards:Then to divide. For, night hath many eyes,Whereof, though most do sleep, yet some are spies.

[Exeunt.]

EnterPræcones, Flamen, Tubicines, Tibicines, Ministri, Sejanus, Terentius, Satrius, Natta, etc.

PRÆCONES.Be all profane far hence; fly, fly far off:Be absent far; far hence be all profane!

[Tubicines and Tibicines sound while the Flamen washeth.]

FLAMEN.We have been faulty, but repent us now,And bring pure hands, pure vestments, and pure minds.

FIRST MINISTER.Pure vessels.

SECOND MINISTER.And pure offerings.

THIRD MINISTER.Garlands pure.

FLAMEN.Bestow your garlands: and, with reverence, placeThe vervin on the altar.

PRÆCONES.Favour your tongues.

[While they sound again, the Flamen takes of the honey with his finger, and tastes, then ministers to all the rest; so of the milk, in an earthen vessel, he deals about; which done, he sprinkleth upon the altar, milk; then imposeth the honey, and kindleth his gums, and after censing about the altar, placeth his censer thereon, into which they put several branches of poppy, and the music ceasing, proceeds.]

FLAMEN.Great mother Fortune, queen of human state,Redress of action, arbitress of fate,To whom all sway, all power, all empire bows,Be present; and propitious to our vows!

PRÆCONES.Favour it with your tongues.

MINISTRI.Be present and propitious to our vows!

OMNES.Accept our offering and be pleased, great goddess.

TERENTIUS.See, see, the image stirs!

SATRIUS.And turns away!

NATTA.Fortune averts her face.

FLAMEN.Avert, you gods,The prodigy. Still! still, some pious riteWe have neglected. Yet, heaven be appeased,And be all tokens false and void, that speakThy present wrath!

SEJANUS.Be thou dumb, scrupulous priest:And gather up thyself, with these thy waresWhich I, in spite of thy blind mistress, orThy juggling mystery, religion, throwThus scorned on the earth.

[Overturns the statue and the altar.]

Nay, hold thy lookAverted till I woo thee turn againAnd thou shalt stand to all posterity,The eternal game and laughter, with thy neckWrith’d to thy tail, like a ridiculous cat.Avoid these fumes, these superstitious lights,And all these cozening ceremonies: you,Your pure and spiced conscience!

[Exeunt all butSejanus, Terentius, SatriusandNatta.]

I, the slaveAnd mock of fools, scorn on my worthy head!That have been titled and adored a god,Yea, sacrificed unto, myself, in Rome,No less than Jove: and I be brought to doA peevish giglot, rites! perhaps the thoughtAnd shame of that, made fortune turn her face,Knowing herself the lesser deity,And but my servant.-Bashful queen, if so,Sejanus thanks thy modesty.—Who’s that?

EnterPomponiusandMinutius.

POMPONIUS.His fortune suffers, till he hears my news:I have waited here too long. Macro, my lord—

SEJANUS.Speak lower and withdraw.

[Takes him aside.]

TERENTIUS.Are these things true?

MINISTRI.Thousands are gazing at it in the streets.

SEJANUS.What’s that?

TERENTIUS.Minutius tells us here, my lord,That a new head being set upon your statue,A rope is since found wreath’d about it! and,But now a fiery meteor in the formOf a great ball was seen to roll alongThe troubled air, where yet it hangs unperfect,The amazing wonder of the multitude!

SEJANUS.No more. That Macro’s come, is more than all!

TERENTIUS.Is Macro come?

POMPONIUS.I saw him.

TERENTIUS.Where? with whom?

POMPONIUS.With Regulus.

SEJANUS.Terentius!

TERENTIUS.My lord.

SEJANUS.Send for the tribunes, we will straight have upMore of the soldiers for our guard. [ExitTerentius.] Minutius,We pray you go for Cotta, Latiaris,Trio, the consul, or what senatorsYou know are sure, and ours. [ExitMinutius.] You, my good Natta,For Laco, provost of the watch. [ExitNatta.] Now, Satrius,The time of proof comes on; arm all our servants,And without tumult. [ExitSatrius.] You, Pomponius,Hold some good correspondence with the consul:Attempt him, noble friend. [ExitPomponius.] These things beginTo look like dangers, now, worthy my fates.Fortune, I see thy worst: let doubtful states,And things uncertain, hang upon thy will:Me surest death shall render certain still.Yet, why is now my thought turn’d toward death,Whom fates have let go on, so far in breath,Uncheck’d or unreproved? I that did helpTo fell the lofty cedar of the world,Germanicus; that at one stroke cut downDrusus, that upright elm; wither’d his vine;Laid Silius and Sabinus, two strong oaks,Flat on the earth; besides those other shrubs,Cordus and Sosia, Claudia Pulchra,Furnius and Gallus, which I have grubb’d up;And since, have set my axe so strong and deepInto the root of spreading Agrippina;Lopt off and scatter’d her proud branches,Nero. Drusus; and Caius too, although re-planted.If you will, Destinies, that after all,I faint now ere I touch my period,You are but cruel; and I already have doneThings great enough. All Rome hath been my slave;The senate sate an idle looker on,And witness of my power; when I have blush’dMore to command than it to suffer: allThe fathers have sate ready and prepared.To give me empire, temples, or their throats.When I would ask ’em; and what crowns the top,Rome, senate, people, all the world have seenJove, but my equal; Cæsar, but my second.’Tis then your malice, Fates, who, but your own,Envy and fear to have any power long known.

[Exit.]

EnterTerentiusandTribunes.

TERENTIUS.Stay here: I’ll give his lordship, you are come.

EnterMinutiuswithCottaandLatiaris.

MINUTIUS.Marcus Terentius, pray you tell my lordHere’s Cotta, and Latiaris.

TERENTIUS.Sir, I shall.

[Exit.]

COTTA.My letter is the very same with yours;Only requires me to be present there,And give my voice to strengthen his design.

LATIARIS.Names he not what it is?

COTTA.No, nor to you.

LATIARIS.’Tis strange and singular doubtful!

COTTA.So it is.It may be all is left to lord Sejanus.

EnterNattaandGracinus Laco.

NATTA.Gentlemen, where’s my lord?

TRIBUNE.We wait him here.

COTTA.The provost Laco! what’s the news?

LATIARIS.My lord—

EnterSejanus.

SEJANUS.Now, my right dear, noble, and trusted friends,How much I am a captive to your kindness!Most worthy Cotta, Latiaris, Laco,Your valiant hand; and, gentlemen, your loves.I wish I could divide myself unto you;Or that it lay within our narrow powers,To satisfy for so enlarged bounty.Gracinus, we must pray you, hold your guardsUnquit when morning comes. Saw you the consul?

MINUTIUS.Trio will presently be here, my lord.

COTTA.They are but giving order for the edict,To warn the senate.

SEJANUS.How! the senate?

LACO.Yes.This morning in Apollo’s temple.

COTTA.WeAre charged by letter to be there, my lord.

SEJANUS.By letter! pray you, let’s see.

LATIARIS.Knows not his lordship?

COTTA.It seems so!

SEJANUS.A senate warn’d! Without my knowledge!And on this sudden! Senators by lettersRequired to be there! who brought these?

COTTA.Macro.

SEJANUS.Mine enemy! and when?

COTTA.This midnight.

SEJANUS.Time,With every other circumstance, doth giveIt hath some strain of engine in’t!—How now?

EnterSatrius.

SATRIUS.My lord, Sertorius Macro is without,Alone, and prays t’ have private conferenceIn business of high nature with your lordship,He says to me, and which regards you much.

SEJANUS.Let him come here.

SATRIUS.Better, my lord, Withdraw:You will betray what store and strength of friendsAre now about you; which he comes to spy.

SEJANUS.Is he not arm’d?

SATRIUS.We’ll search him.

SEJANUS.No; but take,And lead him to some room, where you conceal’dMay keep a guard upon us. [ExitSatrius.] Noble Laco,You are our trust; and till our own cohortsCan be brought up, your strengths must be our guard.Now, good Minutius, honour’d Latiaris,

[He salutes them humbly.]

Most worthy and my most unwearied friends:I return instantly.

[Exit.]

LATIARIS.Most worthy lord.

COTTA.His lordship is turn’d instant kind, methinks;I have not observed it in him, heretofore.

FIRST TRIBUNE.’Tis true, and it becomes him nobly.

MINUTIUS.IAm wrapt withal.

SECOND TRIBUNE.By Mars, he has my lives,Were they a million, for this only grace.

LACO.Ay, and to name a man!

LATIARIS.As he did me!

MINUTIUS.And me!

LATIARIS.Who would not spend his life and fortunes,To purchase but the look of such a lord?

LACO.He that would nor be lord’s fool, nor the world’s. [Aside.]

EnterSejanus, MacroandSatrius.

SEJANUS.Macro! most welcome, a most coveted friend!Let me enjoy my longings. When arrived you?

MACRO.About the noon of night.

SEJANUS.Satrius, give leave.

[ExitSatrius.]

MACRO.I have been, since I came, with both the consuls,On a particular design from Cæsar.

SEJANUS.How fares it with our great and royal master?

MACRO.Right plentifully well; as, with a prince,That still holds out the great proportionOf his large favours, where his judgment hathMade once divine election: like the godThat wants not, nor is wearied to bestowWhere merit meets his bounty, as it dothIn you, already the most happy, and ereThe sun shall climb the south, most high Sejanus.Let not my lord be amused. For, to this endWas I by Cæsar sent for to the isle,With special caution to conceal my journey;And, thence, had my dispatch as privatelyAgain to Rome; charged to come here by night;And only to the consuls make narrationOf his great purpose; that the benefitMight come more full, and striking, by how muchIt was less look’d for, or aspired by you,Or least informed to the common thought.

SEJANUS.What may be this? part of myself, dear Macro,If good, speak out; and share with your Sejanus.

MACRO.If bad, I should for ever loath myselfTo be the messenger to so good a lord.I do exceed my instructions to acquaintYour lordship with thus much; but ’tis my ventureOn your retentive wisdom: and becauseI would no jealous scruple should molestOr rack your peace of thought. For I assureMy noble lord, no senator yet knowsThe business meant: though all by several lettersAre warned to be there, and give their voices,Only to add unto the state and graceOf what is purposed.

SEJANUS.You take pleasure, Macro,Like a coy wench, in torturing your lover.What can be worth this suffering?

MACRO.That which follows,The tribunitial dignity and power:Both which Sejanus is to have this dayConferr’d upon him, and by public senate.

SEJANUS.Fortune be mine again! thou hast satisfiedFor thy suspected loyalty. [Aside.]

MACRO.My lord,I have no longer time, the day approacheth,And I must back to Cæsar.

SEJANUS.Where’s Caligula?

MACRO.That I forgot to tell your lordship. Why,He lingers yonder about Capreae,Disgraced; Tiberius hath not seen him yet:He needs would thrust himself to go with me,Against my wish or will; but I have quittedHis forward trouble, with as tardy noteAs my neglect or silence could afford him.Your lordship cannot now command me aught,Because I take no knowledge that I saw you;But I shall boast to live to serve your lordship:And so take leave.

SEJANUS.Honest and worthy Macro;Your love and friendship.

[ExitMacro.]

—Who’s there? Satrius,Attend my honourable friend forth.—O!How vain and vile a passion is this fear,What base uncomely things it makes men do!Suspect their noblest friends, as I did this,Flatter poor enemies, entreat their servants,Stoop, court, and catch at the benevolenceOf creatures, unto whom, within this hour,I would not have vouchsafed a quarter-look,Or piece of face! By you that fools call gods,Hang all the sky with your prodigious signs,Fill earth with monsters, drop the scorpion down,Out of the zodiac, or the fiercer lion,Shake off the loosen’d globe from her long hinge,Roll all the world in darkness, and let looseThe enraged winds to turn up groves and towns!When I do fear again, let me be struckWith forked fire, and unpitied die:Who fears, is worthy of calamity.

[Exit.]

EnterTerentius, Minutius, Laco, Cotta, LatiarisandPomponius; Regulus, Trioand others, on different sides.

POMPONIUS.Is not my lord here?

TERENTIUS.Sir, he will be straight.

COTTA.What news, Fulcinius Trio?

TRIO.Good, good tidings;But keep it to yourself. My lord SejanusIs to receive this day in open senateThe tribunitial dignity.

COTTA.Is’t true?

TRIO.No words, not to your thought: but, sir, believe it.

LATIARIS.What says the consul?

COTTA.Speak it not again:He tells me, that to-day my lord Sejanus—

TRIO.I must entreat you, Cotta, on your honourNot to reveal it.

COTTA.On my life, sir.

LATIARIS.Say.

COTTA.Is to receive the tribunitial power.But, as you are an honourable man,Let me conjure you not to utter it;For it is trusted to me with that bond.

LATIARIS.I am Harpocrates.

TERENTIUS.Can you assure it?

POMPONIUS.The consul told it me, but keep it close.

MINUTIUS.Lord Latiaris, what’s the news?

LATIARIS.I’ll tell you;But you must swear to keep it secret.

EnterSejanus.

SEJANUS.I knew the Fates had on their distaff leftMore of our thread, than so.

REGULUS.Hail, great Sejanus!

TRIO.Hail, the most honour’d!

COTTA.Happy!

LATIARIS.High Sejanus!

SEJANUS.Do you bring prodigies too?

TRIO.May all presageTurn to those fair effects, whereof we bringYour lordship news.

REGULUS.May’t please my lord withdraw.

SEJANUS.Yes:—I will speak with you anon. [To some that stand by.]

TERENTIUS.My lord,What is your pleasure for the tribunes?

SEJANUS.Why,Let them be thank’d and sent away.

MINUTIUS.My lord—

LACO.Will’t please your lordship to command me-

SEJANUS.No:You are troublesome.

MINUTIUS.The mood is changed.

TRIO.Not speak,Nor look!

LACO.Ay, he is wise, will make him friendsOf such who never love, but for their ends.

[Exeunt.]

EnterArruntiusandLepidus, divers Senators passing by them.

ARRUNTIUS.Ay, go, make haste; take heed you be not lastTo tender your All Hail in the wide hallOf huge Sejanus: run a lictor’s pace:Stay, not to put your robes on; but away,With the pale troubled ensigns of great friendshipStamp’d in your face! Now, Marcus Lepidus,You still believe your former augury!Sejanus must go downward! You perceiveHis wane approaching fast!

LEPIDUS.Believe me, Lucius, I wonder at this rising.

ARRUNTIUS.Ay, and that weMust give our suffrage to it. You will say,It is to make his fall more steep and grievous:It may be so. But think it, they that canWith idle wishes ’say to bring back time:In cases desperate, all hope is crime.See, see! what troops of his officious friendsFlock to salute my lord, and start beforeMy great proud lord! to get a lord-like nod!Attend my lord unto the senate-house!Bring back my lord! like servile ushers, makeWay for my lord! proclaim his idol lordship,More than ten criers, or six noise of trumpets!Make legs, kiss hands, and take a scatter’d hairFrom my lord’s eminent shoulder!

SanquiniusandHateriuspass over the stage.

See, SanquiniusWith his slow belly, and his dropsy! look,What toiling haste he makes! yet here’s anotherRetarded with the gout, will be afore him.Get thee Liburnian porters, thou gross fool,To bear thy obsequious fatness, like thy peers.They are met! the gout returns, and his great carriage.

Lictors, Regulus, Trio, Sejanus, Satrius,and many other Senators pass over the stage.

LICTORS.Give way, make place, room for the consul!

SANQUINIUS.Hail,Hail, great Sejanus!

HATERIUS.Hail, my honour’d lord!

ARRUNTIUS.We shall be mark’d anon, for our not Hail.

LEPIDUS.That is already done.

ARRUNTIUS.It is a noteOf upstart greatness, to observe and watchFor these poor trifles, which the noble mindNeglects and scorns.

LEPIDUS.Ay, and they think themselvesDeeply dishonour’d where they are omitted,As if they were necessities that help’dTo the perfection of their dignities;And hate the men that but refrain them.

ARRUNTIUS.O!There is a farther cause of hate. Their breastsAre guilty, that we know their obscure springs,And base beginnings; thence the anger grows.On. Follow.

EnterMacroandLaco.

MACRO.When all are enter’d, shut the temple doors;And bring your guards up to the gate.

LACO.I will.

MACRO.If you shall hear commotion in the senate,Present yourself: and charge on any manShall offer to come forth.

LACO.I am instructed.

[Exeunt.]

EnterHaterius, Trio, Sanquinius, Cotta, Regulus, Sejanus, Pomponius, Latiaris, Lepidus, Arruntius,and divers other Senators; Præcones, and Lictors.

HATERIUS.How well, his lordship looks to-day!

TRIO.As ifHe had been born, or made for this hour’s state.

COTTA.Your fellow consul’s come about, methinks?

TRIO.Ay, he is wise.

SANQUINIUS.Sejanus trusts him well.

TRIO.Sejanus is a noble, bounteous lord.

HATERIUS.He is so, and most valiant.

LATIARIS.And most wise.

FIRST SENATOR.He’s every thing.

LATIARIS.Worthy of all, and moreThan bounty can bestow.

TRIO.This dignityWill make him worthy.

POMPONIUS.Above Cæsar.

SANQUINIUS.Tut,Cæsar is but the rector of an isle,He of the empire.

TRIO.Now he will have powerMore to reward than ever.

COTTA.Let us lookWe be not slack in giving him our voices.

LATIARIS.Not I.

SANQUINIUS.Nor I.

COTTA.The readier we seemTo propagate his honours, will more bindHis thoughts to ours.

HATERIUS.I think right with your lordship;It is the way to have us hold our places.

SANQUINIUS.Ay, and get more.

LATIARIS.More office and more titles.

POMPONIUS.I will not lose the part I hope to share In these his fortunes, for my patrimony.

LATIARIS.See, how Arruntius sits, and Lepidus!

TRIO.Let them alone, they will be mark’d anon.

FIRST SENATOR.I’ll do with others.

SECOND SENATOR.So will I.

THIRD SENATOR.And I.Men grow not in the state, but as they are plantedWarm in his favours.

COTTA.Noble Sejanus!

HATERIUS.Honour’d Sejanus!

LATIARIS.Worthy and great Sejanus!

ARRUNTIUS.Gods! how the sponges open and take in,And shut again! look, look! is not he blestThat gets a seat in eye-reach of him? more,That comes in ear, or tongue-reach? O but most,Can claw his subtle elbow, or with a buzFly-blow his ears?

PRÆTOR.Proclaim the senate’s peace,And give last summons by the edict.

PRÆCONES.Silence!In name of Cæsar, and the senate, silence!

Memmius Regulus, and Fulcinius Trio, consuls, these present kalends of June, with the first light, shall hold a senate, in the temple of Apollo Palatine: all that are fathers, and are registered fathers that have right of entering the senate, we warn or command you be frequently present, take knowledge the business is the commonwealth’s: whosoever is absent, his fine or mulct will be taken, his excuse will not be taken.

TRIO.Note who are absent, and record their names.

REGULUS.Fathers conscript, may what I am to utterTurn good and happy for the commonwealth!And thou, Apollo, in whose holy houseWe here have met, inspire us all with truth,And liberty of censure to our thought!The majesty of great Tiberius CæsarPropounds to this grave senate, the bestowingUpon the man he loves, honour’d Sejanus,The tribunitial dignity and power:Here are his letters, signed with his signet.What pleaseth now the fathers to be done?

SENATORS.Read, read them, open, publicly read them.

COTTA.Cæsar hath honour’d his own greatness muchIn thinking of this act.

TRIO.It was a thoughtHappy, and worthy Cæsar.

LATIARIS.And the lordAs worthy it, on whom it is directed!

HATERIUS.Most worthy!

SANQUINIUS.Rome did never boast the virtueThat could give envy bounds, but his: Sejanus—

FIRST SENATOR.Honour’d and noble!

SECOND SENATOR.Good and great Sejanus!

ARRUNTIUS.O, most tame slavery, and fierce flattery!

PRÆCONES.Silence!

TIBERIUSCÆSARto the Senate, greeting.

If you, conscript fathers, with your children, be in health, it is abundantly well: we with our friends here are so. The care of the commonwealth, howsoever we are removed in person, cannot be absent to our thought; although, oftentimes, even to princes most present, the truth of their own affairs is hid, than which, nothing falls out more miserable to a state, or makes the art of governing more difficult. But since it hath been our easeful happiness to enjoy both the aids and industry of so vigilant a senate, we profess to have been the more indulgent to our pleasures, not as being careless of our office, but rather secure of the necessity. Neither do these common rumours of many, and infamous libels published against our retirement, at all afflict us; being born more out of men’s ignorance than their malice: and will, neglected, find their own grave quickly, whereas, too sensibly acknowledged, it would make their obloquy ours. Nor do we desire their authors, though found, be censured, since in a free state, as ours, all men ought to enjoy both their minds and tongues free.

ARRUNTIUS.The lapwing, the lapwing!

Yet in things which shall worthily and more near concern the majesty of a prince, we shall fear to be so unnaturally cruel to our own fame, as to neglect them. True it is, conscript fathers, that we have raised Sejanus from obscure, and almost unknown gentry,

SENATORS.How, how!

to the highest and most conspicuous point of greatness, and, we hope, deservingly, yet not without danger: it being a most bold hazard in that sovereign, who, by his particular love to one, dares adventure the hatred of all his other subjects.

ARRUNTIUS.This touches; the blood turns.

But we affy in your loves and understandings, and do no way suspect the merit of our Sejanus, to make our favours offensive to any.

SENATORS.O! good, good.

Though we could have wished his zeal had run a calmer course against Agrippina and our nephews, howsoever the openness of their actions declared them delinquents, and, that he would have remembered, no innocence is so safe, but it rejoiceth to stand in the sight of mercy: the use of which in us, he hath so quite taken away, towards them, by his loyal fury, as now our clemency would be thought but wearied cruelty, if we should offer to exercise it.

ARRUNTIUS.I thank him; there I look’d for’t. A good fox!

Some there be that would interpret this his public severity to be particular ambition, and that, under a pretext of service to us, he doth but remove his own lets: alleging the strengths he hath made to himself, by the prætorian soldiers, by his faction in court and senate, by the offices he holds himself, and confers on others, his popularity and dependents, his urging and almost driving us to this our unwilling retirement, and, lastly, his aspiring to be our son-in-law.

SENATORS.This is strange!

ARRUNTIUS.I shall anon believe your vultures, Marcus.

Your wisdoms, conscript fathers, are able to examine, and censure these suggestions. But, were they left to our absolving voice, we durst pronounce them, as we think them, most malicious.

SENATORS.O, he has restored all; list!

Yet are they offered to be averred, and on the lives of the informers. What we should say, or rather what we should not say, lords of the senate, if this be true, our gods and goddesses confound us if we know! Only we must think, we have placed our benefits ill; and conclude, that in our choice, either we were wanting to the gods, or the gods to us.

[The Senators shift their places.]

ARRUNTIUS.The place grows hot; they shift.

We have not been covetous, honourable fathers, to change, neither is it now any new lust that alters our affection, or old loathing: but those needful jealousies of state, that warn wiser princes hourly to provide their safety, and do teach them how learned a thing it is to beware of the humblest enemy; much more of those great ones, whom their own employed favours have made fit for their fears.

FIRST SENATOR.Away.

SECOND SENATOR.Sit farther.

COTTA.Let’s remove-

ARRUNTIUS.Gods! how the leaves drop off, this little wind!

We therefore desire, that the offices he holds be first seized by the senate, and himself suspended from all exercise of place or power—

SENATORS.How!

SANQUINIUS.[thrusting by.] By your leave.

ARRUNTIUS.Come, porpoise; where’s Haterius?His gout keeps him most miserably constant;Your dancing shews a tempest.

SEJANUS.Read no more.

REGULUS.Lords of the senate, hold your seats: read on.

SEJANUS.These letters they are forged.

REGULUS.A guard! sit still.

EnterLacowith theGuards.

ARRUNTIUS.Here’s change!

REGULUS.Bid silence, and read forward.

PRÆCONES.Silence!—

and himself suspended from all exercise of place or power, but till due and mature trial be made of his innocency, which yet we can faintly apprehend the necessity to doubt. If, conscript fathers, to your more searching wisdoms, there shall appear farther cause—or of farther proceeding, either to seizure of lands, goods, or more—it is not our power that shall limit your authority, or our favour that must corrupt your justice: either were dishonourable in you, and both uncharitable to ourself. We would willingly be present with your counsels in this business, but the danger of so potent a faction, if it should prove so, forbids our attempting it: except one of the consuls would be entreated for our safety, to undertake the guard of us home; then we should most readily adventure. In the mean time, it shall not be fit for us to importune so judicious a senate, who know how much they hurt the innocent, that spare the guilty; and how grateful a sacrifice to the gods is the life of an ingrateful person, We reflect not, in this, on Sejanus, (notwithstanding, if you keep an eye upon him-and there is Latiaris, a senator, and Pinnarius Natta, two of his most trusted ministers, and so professed, whom we desire not to have apprehended,) but as the necessity of the cause exacts it.

REGULUS.A guard on Latiaris!

ARRUNTIUS.O, the spy,The reverend spy is caught! who pities him?Reward, sir, for your service: now, you have doneYour property, you see what use is made!

[ExeuntLatiarisandNatta,guarded.]

Hang up the instrument.

SEJANUS.Give leave.

LACO.Stand, stand!He comes upon his death, that doth advanceAn inch toward my point.

SEJANUS.Have we no friends here?

ARRUNTIUS.Hush’d!Where now are all the hails and acclamations?

EnterMacro.

MACRO.Hail to the consuls, and this noble senate!

SEJANUS.Is Macro here?O, thou art lost, Sejanus! [Aside.]

MACRO.Sit still, and unaffrighted, reverend fathers:Macro, by Cæsar’s grace, the new-made provost,And now possest of the prætorian bands,An honour late belong’d to that proud man,Bids you be safe: and to your constant doomOf his deservings, offers you the suretyOf all the soldiers, tribunes, and centurions,Received in our command.

REGULUS.Sejanus, Sejanus, Stand forth, Sejanus!

SEJANUS.Am I call’d?

MACRO.Ay, thou,Thou insolent monster, art bid stand.

SEJANUS.Why, Macro.It hath been otherwise between you and I;This court, that knows us both, hath seen a difference,And can, if it be pleased to speak, confirmWhose insolence is most.

MACRO.Come down, Typhoeus.If mine be most, lo! thus I make it more;Kick up thy heels in air, tear off thy robe,Play with thy beard and nostrils. Thus ’tis fit(And no man take compassion of thy state)To use th’ ingrateful viper, tread his brainsInto the earth.

REGULUS.Forbear.

MACRO.If I could loseAll my humanity now, ’twere well to tortureSo meriting a traitor.-Wherefore, fathers,Sit you amazed and silent; and not censureThis wretch, who, in the hour he first rebell’d’Gainst Cæsar’s bounty, did condemn himself?Phlegra, the field where all the sons of earthMuster’d against the gods, did ne’er acknowledgeSo proud and huge a monster.

REGULUS.Take him hence;And all the gods guard Cæsar!

TRIO.Take him hence.

HATERIUS.Hence.

COTTA.To the dungeon with him.

SANQUINIUS.He deserves it.

SENATORS.Crown all our doors with bays.

SANQUINIUS.And let an ox,With gilded horns and garlands, straight be ledUnto the Capitol—

HATERIUS.And sacrificedTo Jove, for Cæsar’s safety.

TRIO.All our godsBe present still to Cæsar!

COTTA.Phœbus.

SANQUINIUS.Mars.

HATERIUS.Diana.

SANQUINIUS.Pallas.

SENATORS.Juno, Mercury,All guard him!

MACRO.Forth, thou prodigy of men!

[ExitSejanus,guarded.]

COTTA.Let all the traitor’s titles be defaced.

TRIO.His images and statues be pull’d down.

HATERIUS.His chariot-wheels be broken.

ARRUNTIUS.And the legsOf the poor horses, that deseryed nought,Let them be broken too!

[ExeuntLictors, Præcones, Macro, Regulus, Trio, HateriusandSanquinius:manentLepidus, Arruntiusand a few Senators.]

LEPIDUS.O violent change,And whirl of men’s affections!

ARRUNTIUS.Like, as bothTheir bulks and souls were bound on Fortune’s wheel,And must act only with her motion.

LEPIDUS.Who would depend upon the popular air,Or voice of men, that have to-day beheldThat which, if all the gods had fore-declared,Would not have been believed, Sejanus’ fall?He, that this morn rose proudly, as the sun,And, breaking through a mist of clients’ breath,Came on, as gazed at and admired as he,When superstitious Moors salute his light!That had our servile nobles waiting himAs common grooms; and hanging on his look,No less than human life on destiny!That had men’s knees as frequent as the gods;And sacrifices more than Rome had altars:And this man fall! fall? ay, without a lookThat durst appear his friend, or lend so muchOf vain relief, to his changed state, as pity!

ARRUNTIUS.They that before, like gnats, play’d in his beams,And throng’d to circumscribe him, now not seenNor deign to hold a common seat with him!Others, that waited him unto the senate,Now inhumanely ravish him to prison,Whom, but this morn, they follow’d as their lord!Guard through the streets, bound like a fugitive,Instead of wreaths give fetters, strokes for stoops,Blind shames for honours, and black taunts for titles!Who would trust slippery chance?

LEPIDUS.They that would makeThemselves her spoil; and foolishly forget,When she doth flatter, that she comes to prey.Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if menHad wisdom: we have placed thee so high,By fond belief in thy felicity.[Shout within.] The gods guard Cæsar!All the gods guard Cæsar!

Re-enterMacro, Regulusand diversSenators.

MACRO.Now, great Sejanus, you that awed the state,And sought to bring the nobles to your whip;That would be Cæsar’s tutor, and disposeOf dignities and offices! that hadThe public head still bare to your designs,And made the general voice to echo yours!That look’d for salutations twelve score off,And would have pyramids, yea temples, rear’dTo your huge greatness; now you lie as flat,As was your pride advanced!

REGULUS.Thanks to the gods!

SENATORS.And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!Liberty, liberty, liberty! Lead on,And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!

[Exeunt all butArruntiusandLepidus.]

ARRUNTIUS.I prophesy, out of the senate’s flattery,That this new fellow, Macro, will becomeA greater prodigy in Rome, than heThat now is fallen.

EnterTerentius.

TERENTIUS.O you, whose minds are good,And have not forced all mankind from your breasts;That yet have so much stock of virtue left,To pity guilty states, when they are wretched:Lend your soft ears to hear, and eyes to weep,Deeds done by men, beyond the acts of furies.The eager multitude (who never yetKnew why to love or hate, but only pleasedT’ express their rage of power) no sooner heardThe murmur of Sejanus in decline,But with that speed and heat of appetite,With which they greedily devour the wayTo some great sports, or a new theatre,They fill’d the Capitol, and Pompey’s Cirque,Where, like so many mastiffs, biting stones,As if his statues now were sensitiveOf their wild fury; first, they tear them down;Then fastening ropes, drag them along the streets,Crying in scorn, This, this was that rich headWas crown’d with garlands, and with odours, thisThat was in Rome so reverenced! NowThe furnace and the bellows shall to work,The great Sejanus crack, and piece by pieceDrop in the founder’s pit.

LEPIDUS.O popular rage!

TERENTIUS.The whilst the senate at the temple of ConcordMake haste to meet again, and thronging cry,Let us condemn him, tread him down in water,While he doth lie upon the bank; away!While some more tardy, cry unto their bearers,He will be censured ere we come; run, knaves,And use that furious diligence, for fearTheir bondmen should inform against their slackness,And bring their quaking flesh unto the hook:The rout they follow with confused voice,Crying, they’re glad, say, they could ne’er abide him,Enquire what man he was, what kind of face,What beard he had, what nose, what lips?Protest They ever did presage he’d come to this;They never thought him wise, nor valiant; askAfter his garments, when he dies, what death;And not a beast of all the herd demands,What was his crime, or who were his accusers,Under what proof or testimony he fell?There came, says one, a huge long-worded letterFrom Capreae against him. Did there so?O, they are satisfied; no more.

LEPIDUS.Alas!They follow Fortune, and hate men condemn’d,Guilty or not.

ARRUNTIUS.But had Sejanus thrivedIn his design, and prosperously opprestThe old Tiberius; then, in that same minute,These very rascals, that now rage like furies,Would have proclaim’d Sejanus emperor.

LEPIDUS.But what hath follow’d?

TERENTIUS.Sentence by the senate,To lose his head; which was no sooner off,But that and the unfortunate trunk were seizedBy the rude multitude; who not contentWith what the forward justice of the state.Officiously had done, with violent rageHave rent it limb from limb. A thousand heads,A thousand hands, ten thousand tongues and voices,Employ’d at once in several acts of malice!Old men not staid with age, virgins with shame,Late wives with loss of husbands, mothers of children,Losing all grief in joy of his sad fall,Run quite transported with their cruelty!These mounting at his head, these at his face,These digging out his eyes, those with his brainsSprinkling themselves, their houses and their friends;Others are met, have ravish’d thence an arm,And deal small pieces of the flesh for favours;These with a thigh, this hath cut off his hands,And this his feet; these fingers and these toes;That hath his liver, he his heart: there wantsNothing but room for wrath, and place for hatred!What cannot oft be done, is now o’erdone.The whole, and all of what was great Sejanus,And, next to Cæsar, did possess the World,Now torn and scatter’d, as he needs no grave;Each little dust covers a little part:So lies he no where, and yet often buried!

EnterNuntius.

ARRUNTIUS.More of Sejanus?

NUNTIUS.Yes.

LEPIDUS.What can be added?We know him dead.

NUNTIUS.Then there begin your pity.There is enough behind to melt ev’n Rome,And Cæsar into tears; since never slaveCould yet so highly offend, but tyranny,In torturing him, would make him worth lamenting.—A son and daughter to the dead Sejanus,(Of whom there is not now so much remainingAs would give fast’ning to the hangman’s hook,)Have they drawn forth for farther sacrifice;Whose tenderness of knowledge, unripe years,And childish silly innocence was such,As scarce would lend them feeling of their danger:The girl so simple, as she often ask’d“Where they would lead her? for what cause they dragg’d her?”Cried, “She would do no more:” that she could take“Warning with beating.” And because our lawsAdmit no virgin immature to die,The wittily and strangely cruel MacroDeliver’d her to be deflower’d and spoil’d,By the rude lust of the licentious hangman,Then to be strangled with her harmless brother.

LEPIDUS.O, act most worthy hell, and lasting night,To hide it from the world!

NUNTIUS.Their bodies thrownInto the Gemonies, (I know not how,Or by what accident return’d.) the mother,The expulsed Apicata, finds them there;Whom when she saw lie spread on the degrees,After a world of fury on herself,Tearing her hair, defacing of her face,Beating her breasts and womb, kneeling amaz’d,Crying to heaven, then to them; at last,Her drowned voice gat up above her woes,And with such black and bitter execrations,As might affright the gods, and force the sunRun backward to the east; nay, make the oldDeformed chaos rise again, to o’erwhelmThem, us, and all the world, she fills the air,Upbraids the heavens with their partial dooms,Defies their tyrannous powers, and demands,What she, and those poor innocents have transgress’d,That they must suffer such a share in vengeance,Whilst Livia, Lygdus, and Eudemus live,Who, as she says, and firmly vows to prove itTo Cæsar and the senate, poison’d Drusus?

LEPIDUS.Confederates with her husband!

NUNTIUS.Ay.

LEPIDUS.Strange act!

ARRUNTIUS.And strangely open’d: what says now my monster,The multitude? they reel now, do they not?

NUNTIUS.Their gall is gone, and now they ’gin to weepThe mischief they have done.

ARRUNTIUS.I thank ’em, rogues.

NUNTIUS.Part are so stupid, or so flexible,As they believe him innocent; all grieve:And some whose hands yet reek with his warm blood,And gripe the part which they did tear of him,Wish him collected and created new.

LEPIDUS.How Fortune plies her sports, when she beginsTo practise them! pursues, continues, adds,Confounds with varying her impassion’d moods!

ARRUNTIUS.Dost thou hope, Fortune, to redeem thy crimes,To make amend for thy ill-placed favours,With these strange punishments? Forbear, you thingsThat stand upon the pinnacles of state,To boast your slippery height; when you do fall,You pash yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise;And he that lends you pity, is not wise.

TERENTIUS.Let this example move the insolent man,Not to grow proud and careless of the gods.It is an odious wisdom to blaspheme,Much more to slighten, or deny their powers:For, whom the morning saw so great and high,Thus low and little, fore the even doth lie.

[Exeunt.]

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