________________________________________________
_ SCENE X. The Temple of Apollo.
[Enter HATERIUS, TRIO, SANQUINIUS, COTTA, REGULUS,
SEJANUS, POMPONIUS, LATIARIS, LEPIDUS, ARRUNTIUS,
and divers other Senators; Praecones, and Lictors.]
HAT. How well, his lordship looks to-day!
TRI.
As if
He had been born, or made for this hour's state.
CAT. Your fellow consul's come about, methinks?
TRI. Ay, he is wise.
SAN. Sejanus trusts him well.
TRI. Sejanus is a noble, bounteous lord.
HAT. He is so, and most valiant.
LAT. And most wise.
1 SEN. He's every thing.
LAT.
Worthy of all, and more
Than bounty can bestow.
TRI.
This dignity
Will make him worthy.
POM. Above Caesar.
SAN.
Tut,
Caesar is but the rector of an isle,
He of the empire.
TRI.
Now he will have power
More to reward than ever.
CAT.
Let us look
We be not slack in giving him our voices.
LAT. Not I.
SAN. Nor I.
COT.
The readier we seem
To propagate his honours, will more bind
His thoughts to ours.
HAT.
I think right with your lordship;
It is the way to have us hold our places.
SAN. Ay, and get more.
LAT. More office and more titles.
POM.
I will not lose the part I hope to share I
n these his fortunes, for my patrimony.
LAT. See, how Arruntius sits, and Lepidus!
TRI. Let them alone, they will be mark'd anon.
1 SEN. I'll do with others.
2 SEN. So will I.
3 SEN.
And I.
Men grow not in the state, but as they are planted
Warm in his favours.
COT. Noble Sejanus!
HAT. Honour'd Sejanus!
LAT. Worthy and great Sejanus!
ARR.
Gods! how the sponges open and take in,
And shut again! look, look! is not he blest
That 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 buz
Fly-blow his ears?
PRAET. Proclaim the senate's peace,
And give last summons by the edict.
PRAE.
Silence!
In name of Caesar, 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.
TRI. Note who are absent, and record their names.
REG.
Fathers conscript, may what I am to utter
Turn good and happy for the commonwealth!
And thou, Apollo, in whose holy house
We here have met, inspire us all with truth,
And liberty of censure to our thought!
The majesty of great Tiberius Caesar
Propounds to this grave senate, the bestowing
Upon 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?
SEN. Read, read them, open, publicly read them.
COT.
Caesar hath honour'd his own greatness much
In thinking of this act.
TRI.
It was a thought
Happy, and worthy Caesar.
LAT.
And the lord
As worthy it, on whom it is directed!
HAT. Most worthy!
SAN.
Rome did never boast the virtue
That could give envy bounds, but his: Sejanus---
1 SEN. Honour'd and noble!
2 SEN. Good and great Sejanus!
ARR. O, most tame slavery, and fierce flattery!
PRAE. Silence!
[TIBERIUS CAESAR to 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.
ARR. 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
SEN. 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.
ARR. 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.
SEN. 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.
ARR. 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 praetorian 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.
SEN. This is strange!
ARR. 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.
SEN. O, he has restored all; list!
And give last summons by the edict.
PRAE.
Silence!
In name of Caesar, 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.
TRI. Note who are absent, and record their names.
REG.
Fathers conscript, may what I am to utter
Turn good and happy for the commonwealth!
And thou, Apollo, in whose holy house
We here have met, inspire us all with truth,
And liberty of censure to our thought!
The majesty of great Tiberius Caesar
Propounds to this grave senate, the bestowing
Upon 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?
SEN. Read, read them, open, publicly read them.
COT.
Caesar hath honour'd his own greatness much
In thinking of this act.
TRI.
It was a thought
Happy, and worthy Caesar.
LAT.
And the lord
As worthy it, on whom it is directed!
HAT. Most worthy!
SAN.
Rome did never boast the virtue
That could give envy bounds, but his: Sejanus---
1 SEN. Honour'd and noble!
2 SEN. Good and great Sejanus!
ARR. O, most tame slavery, and fierce flattery!
PRAE. Silence!
[TIBERIUS CAESAR to 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."
ARR. 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"
SEN. 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."
ARR. 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."
SEN. 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."
ARR. 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 praetorian 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."
SEN. This is strange!
ARR. 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."
SEN. 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.]
ARR. 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 lothing,
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."
1 SEN. Away.
2 SEN. Sit farther.
COT. Let's remove-
ARR. 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--"
SEN. How!
SAN. [thrusting by.] By your leave.
ARR.
Come, porpoise; where's Haterius?
His gout keeps him most miserably constant;
Your dancing shews a tempest.
SEJ. Read no more.
REG. Lords of the senate, hold your seats: read on.
SEJ. These letters they are forged.
REG. A guard! sit still.
[Enter LACO, with the Guards.]
ARR. Here's change!
REG. Bid silence, and read forward.
PRAE. 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."
REG. A guard on Latiaris!
ARR.
O, the spy,
The reverend spy is caught! who pities him?
Reward, sir, for your service: now, you have done
Your property, you see what use is made!
[Exeunt Latiaris and Natta, guarded.]
Hang up the instrument.
SEJ. Give leave.
LAC.
Stand, stand!
He comes upon his 'death, that doth advance
An inch toward my point.
SEJ. Have we no friends here?
ARR.
Hush'd!
Where now are all the hails and acclamations?
[Enter MACRO.]
MAC. Hail to the consuls, and this noble senate!
SEJ.
Is Macro here?
O, thou art lost, Sejanus! [Aside.]
MAC.
Sit still, and unaffrighted, reverend fathers:
Macro, by Caesar's grace, the new-made provost,
And now possest of the praetorian bands,
An honour late belong'd to that proud man,
Bids you be safe: and to your constant doom
Of his deservings, offers you the surety
Of all the soldiers, tribunes, and centurions,
Received in our command.
REG. Sejanus, Sejanus, Stand forth, Sejanus!
SEJ. Am I call'd?
MAC.
Ay, thou,
Thou insolent monster, art bid stand.
SEJ.
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, confirm
Whose insolence is most.
MAC.
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 brains
Into the earth.
REG. Forbear.
MAC.
If I could lose
All my humanity now, 'twere well to torture
So meriting a traitor.-Wherefore, fathers,
Sit you amazed and silent; and not censure
This wretch, who, in the hour he first rebell'd
'Gainst Caesar's bounty, did condemn himself?
Phlegra, the field where all the sons of earth
Muster'd against the gods, did ne'er acknowledge
So proud and huge a monster.
REG.
Take him hence;
And all the gods guard Caesar!
TRI. Take him hence.
HAT. Hence.
COT. To the dungeon with him.
SAN. He deserves it.
SEN. Crown all our doors with bays.
SAN.
And let an ox,
With gilded horns and garlands, straight be led
Unto the Capitol---
HAT.
And sacrificed
To Jove, for Caesar's safety.
TRI.
All our gods
Be present still to Caesar!
COT. Phoebus.
SAN. Mars.
HAT. Diana.
SAN. Pallas.
SEN.
Juno, Mercury,
All guard him!
MAC. Forth, thou prodigy of men!
[Exit Sejanus, guarded.]
COT. Let all the traitor's titles be defaced.
TRI. His images and statues be pull'd down.
HAT. His chariot-wheels be broken.
ARR.
And the legs
Of the poor horses, that deseryed nought,
Let them be broken too!
[Exeunt Lictors, Praecones, Macro, Regulus, Trio,
Haterius, and Sanquinius: manent Lepidus, Arruntius,
and a few Senators.]
LEP.
O violent change,
And whirl of men's affections!
ARR.
Like, as both
Their bulks and souls were bound on Fortune's wheel,
And must act only with her motion.
LEP.
Who would depend upon the popular air,
Or voice of men, that have to-day beheld
That 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 him
As 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 look
That durst appear his friend, or lend so much
Of vain relief, to his changed state, as pity!
ARR.
They that before, like gnats, play'd in his beams,
And throng'd to circumscribe him, now not seen
Nor 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?
LEP.
They that would make
Themselves her spoil; and foolishly forget,
When she doth flatter, that she comes to prey.
Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men
Had wisdom: we have placed thee so high,
By fond belief in thy felicity.
[Shout within.]
The gods guard Caesar!
All the gods guard Caesar!
[Re-enter MACRO, REGULUS, and divers Senators.]
MAC.
Now, great Sejanus, you that awed the state,
And sought to bring the nobles to your whip;
That would be Caesar's tutor, and dispose
Of dignities and offices! that had
The 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'd
To your huge greatness; now you lie as flat,
As was your pride advanced!
REG. Thanks to the gods!
SEN.
And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!
Liberty, liberty, liberty! Lead on,
And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!
[Exeunt all but Arruntius and Lepidus.]
ARR.
I prophesy, out of the senate's flattery,
That this new fellow, Macro, will become
A greater prodigy in Rome, than he
That now is fallen.
[Enter TERENTIUS.]
TER.
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 yet
Knew why to love or hate, but only pleased
T' express their rage of power) no sooner heard
The murmur of Sejanus in decline,
But with that speed and heat of appetite,
With which they greedily devour the way
To 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 sensitive
Of their wild fury; first, they tear them down;
Then fastening ropes, drag them along the streets,
Crying in scorn, This, this was that rich head
Was crown'd with garlands, and with odours, this
That was in Rome so reverenced! Now
The furnace and the bellows shall to work,
The great Sejanus crack, and piece by piece
Drop in the founder's pit.
LEP. O popular rage!
TER.
The whilst the senate at the temple of Concord
Make 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 fear
Their 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; ask
After 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 letter
From Capreae against him. Did there so?
O, they are satisfied; no more.
LEP. Alas!
They follow Fortune, and hate men condemn'd,
Guilty or not.
ARR.
But had Sejanus thrived
In his design, and prosperously opprest
The old Tiberius; then, in that same minute,
These very rascals, that now rage like furies,
Would have proclaim'd Sejanus emperor.
LEP. But what hath follow'd?
TER.
Sentence by the senate,
To lose his head; which was no sooner off,
But that and the unfortunate trunk were seized
By the rude multitude; who not content
With what the forward justice of the state.
Officiously had done, with violent rage
Have 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 brains
Sprinkling 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 wants
Nothing 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 Caesar, 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!
[Enter NUNTIUS]
ARR. More of Sejanus
NUN. Yes.
LEP.
What can be added?
We know him dead.
NUN.
Then there begin your pity.
There is enough behind to melt ev'n Rome,
And Caesar into tears; since never slave
Could 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 remaining
As 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 laws
Admit no virgin immature to die,
The wittily and strangely cruel Macro
Deliver'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.
LEP.
O, act most worthy hell, and lasting night,
To hide it from the world!
NUN.
Their bodies thrown
Into 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 sun
Run backward to the east; nay, make the old
Deformed chaos rise again, to o'erwhelm
Them, 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 it
To Caesar and the senate, poison'd Drusus?
LEP. Confederates with her husband!
NUN. Ay.
LEP. Strange act!
ARR.
And strangely open'd: what says now my monster,
The multitude? they reel now, do they not?
NUN.
Their gall is gone, and now they 'gin to weep
The mischief they have done.
ARR. I thank 'em, rogues.
NUN.
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.
LEP.
How Fortune plies her sports, when she begins
To practise them! pursues, continues, adds,
Confounds with varying her impassion'd moods!
ARR.
Dost thou hope, Fortune, to redeem thy crimes,
To make amend for thy ill-placed favours,
With these strange punishments? Forbear, you things
That 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.
TER.
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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