Lac. But is that true, it is prohibited To sacrifice unto him?

Ter. Some such thing

Cæsar makes scruple of, but forbids it not; No more than to himself: says he could wish It were forborn to all.

Lac. Is it no other?

Ter. No other, on my trust. For your more surety,

Here is that letter too.

Arr. How easily

Do wretched men believe, what they would have!

Looks this like plot?

Lep. Noble Arruntius, stay.

Lac. He names him here without his titles.

In him that writes: here he gives large amends. Mar. And with his own hand written?

Pom. Yes.

Lac. Indeed?

Ter. Believe it, gentlemen, Sejanus' breast Never received more full contentments in, Than at this present.

Pom. Takes he well the escape Of young Caligula, with Macro?

Ter. Faith,

At the first air it somewhat troubled him.
Lep. Observe you?

P Dio. Hist. Rom. Lib. lviii. p. 718.

q Dio. ibid.

Dio. p. 717.

Arr. Nothing; riddles. Till I see Sejanus struck, no sound thereof strikes me. [Exeunt Arrun. and Lepidus. Pom. I like it not. Imuse he would not attempt Somewhat against him in the consulship, Seeing the people 'gin to favour him.

Ter. He doth repent it now; but he has employ'd

t

Pagonianus after him: and he holds

That correspondence there, with all that are Near about Cæsar, as no thought can pass Without his knowledge, thence in act to front him.

Pom. I gratulate the news.

Lac. But how comes Macro

So in trust and favour with Caligula?

Pom. O, sir, he has a wife; and the young

prince

An appetite: he can look

up, and spy

Flies in the roof, when there are fleas i' the bed;
And hath a learned nose to assure his sleeps.
Who to be favour'd of the rising sun,
Would not lend little of his waning moon?
It is the saf'st ambition. Noble Terentius!
Ter. The night grows fast upon us.
service.

s Dio. p. 717.

At your

[Exeunt.

* De Pagoniano, vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. vi. p. 101. alibi Paconiano. ▪ Tacit. cons. Ann. Lib. vi. p. 114.

ACT V. SCENE I.

An Apartment in Sejanus's House.

Enter SEJANUS.

Sej. Swell, swell, my joys; and faint not to

declare

Yourselves 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 head
Knock 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 know
Our power shall want opposites; unless
The gods, by mixing in the cause, would bless
Our fortune with their conquest. That were
worth

Sejanus' strife; durst fates but bring it forth.

* De fastu Sejani leg. Dio. Hist. Rom. Lib. lviii. p. 715, et Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 96.

Enter TERENTIUS.

Ter. Safety to great Sejanus!

Sej. Now, Terentius?

Ter. Hears not my lord the wonder?
Sej. Speak it; no.

Ter. 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 forth
A smoke, as from a furnace, black and dreadful.
Sej. Some traitor hath put fire in: you, go see,
And let the head be taken off, to look
What 'tis. [Exit Terentius.]. -Some slave hath
practised an imposture,

To stir the people.-How now! why return you?

Re-enter TERENTIUS, with SATRIUS and NATTA.

Sat. The head, my lord, already is ta'en off, I saw it; and, at opening, there leapt out A great and monstrous serpent.

Sej. Monstrous! why?

Had it a beard, and horns? no heart? a tongue
Forked as flattery? look'd it of the hue,

To such as live in great men's bosoms? was
The spirit of it Macro's?

Nat. May it please

The 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

Sej. O, the fates!

What a wild muster's here of attributes,
T'express a worm, a snake!

Y Dio. Hist. Rom. Lib. lviii. p. 717.

z Dio. ibid.

Ter. But how that should
Come there, my lord!

Sej. What, and you too, Terentius !
I think you mean to make 't a prodigy
In your reporting.

Ter. Can the wise Sejanus

Think heaven hath meant it less?
Sej. O, superstition!

a

Why, then the falling of our bed, that brake
This 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.

Ter. I think them ominous :

And would they had not happen'd! As, to-day,
The fate of some your servants: who, declining
Their 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 croking ravens
Flagg'd up and down, and from the sacrifice
Flew 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 gods
Once more with sacrifice.

Sej. What excellent fools

7 Who, declining their way,] Turning out of the way. This is from the folio, 1616: the quarto reads diverting; but as declining seems to have been the poet's own choice, and the language of that age, I have given it the preference. So the author of Aulicus Coquinaria, speaking of sir Walter Raleigh, when out of place, says, that, "when it fell out to be so, he would wisely decline himself out of the court-road." WHAL.

a Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lviii. p. 715.
• Dio. ibid.
d Dio. ibid.

b Dio. ibid. p. 716.