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9 Lucius Arruntius, &c.] I have added the cognomen or pronomen to many of the characters, as a necessary help for the English reader, since Jonson, without noticing the circumstance, sometimes uses the one, and sometimes the other, as suits the conveniency of his verse.

SEJANUS.

ACT I. SCENE I.

A State Room in the Palace.

Enter SABINUS and SILIUS, followed by LATI

ARIS.

Sab. Hail, Caius Silius ! Sil. Titius 'Sabinus, hail! You're rarely met in court. Sab. Therefore, well met.

Sil. 'Tis true: indeed, this place is not our sphere.

Sab. No, Silius, we are no good inginers. We want their fine arts, and their thriving use Should make us graced, or favour'd of the times: We have no shift of faces, no cleft tongues, No soft and glutinous bodies, that can stick, Like snails on painted walls; or, on our breasts, Creep up, to fall from that proud height, to which We did by slavery, not by service climb. We are no guilty men, and then no great;

De Caio Silio, vid. Tacit. Lips. edit. quarto. Ann. Lib i. pag. 11. Lib. ii. p. 28 et 33. This, together with every suc ceeding note marked by the letters of the alphabet, is from the pen of Jonson.

b De Titio Sabino, vid. Tacit. Lib. iv. p. 79.

Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 2. VOL. III.

C

We have no place in court, office in taste,
That we can say, we owe unto our crimes:
We burn with no black secrets, which can make
Us dear to the pale authors; or live fear'd
Of their still waking jealousies, to raise
Ourselves a fortune, by subverting theirs.
We stand not in the lines, that do advance
To that so courted point.

Enter SATRIUS and NATTA at a distance.

Sil. But yonder lean

A pair that do.

Sab. [salutes Latiaris.] Good cousin 'Latiaris.Sil. Satrius Secundus, and Pinnarius Natta, The great Sejanus' clients: there be two,

Know more than honest counsels; whose close breasts,

Were they ripp'd up to light, it would be found A poor and idle sin,' to which their trunks

1 A poor and idle sin,] That is, barren, unprofitable. The word is so used by Shakspeare,

"Of antres vast, and desarts idle."

Othello.

So in the first chapter of Genesis, "The earth was without form, and void," is rendered in the Saxon, "The earth was ydel."

WHAL.

Mr. Pope changed idle for wild, at which Dr. Johnson expresses his surprise. Mr. Malone taxes the editor of the second folio (where Pope found the word) with ignorance of Shakspeare's meaning; and idle is triumphantly reinstated in the text. It does not seem to have occurred to the commentators that wild might add a feature of some import, even to a desert; whereas, sterile leaves it just as it found it, and is

Juv. Sat. iii. v. 49, &c.

• Juv. Sat. i. v. 75. f De Latiari, cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 94, et Dion. Step. edit. fol. Lib. lviii. p. 711. 8 De Satrio Secundo, et (h) Pinnario Natta, leg. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 83. Et de Satrio cons. Senec. Consol. ad Marciam.

Had not been made fit organs. These can lie,
Flatter, and swear, forswear, deprave, inform,
Smile, and betray; make guilty men; then beg
The forfeit lives, to get their livings; cut
Men's throats with whisperings; sell to gaping

suitors

The empty smoke, that flies about the palace; Laugh when their patron laughs; sweat when he sweats;

Be hot and cold with him; change every mood, Habit, and garb, as often as he varies;

Observe him, as his watch observes his clock; And, true, as turquoise in the dear lord's ring, Look well or ill with him: ready to praise

(without a pun) the idlest epithet which could be applied.—Mr. Pope, too, had an ear for rhythm; and as his reading has some touch of Shakspeare, which the other has not, and is besides better poetry, I should hope that it will one day resume its proper place in the text. Idle, in the line above quoted, signifies, not "barren, unprofitable," but trifling, insignificant. It would be a sin of a very paltry nature indeed, which had not engaged their attention, and been deemed worthy of their practice. In other words, no vice has escaped them.

2 Observe him as his watch observes his clock.] Steevens, who is supported by Whalley, maintains that this line refers to the figure of a watchman, which was placed on the dial-plate of our ancient clocks, with a lantern and pole to point out the hour. I have many doubts whether such a personage was ever so em, ployed; but none as to the fallacy of the explanation. The speaker alludes to the pocket-watch, which, in Jonson's days, was not so independent of correction as at present, but was constantly regulated by the motion of the clock, at that time. the more accurate machine of the two.

3 And true, as turquoise in the dear lord's ring,

Look well or ill with him :] Alluding to the fable of the turquoise, which is said to change its colour, as the wearer is in good or bad health. To this supposed quality of the stone, our old writers have innumerable allusions: "Turcois is a com

i Vid. Sen. de Benef. Lib. iii. cap. 26.
* Juv. Sat. iii. ver. 105, &c.

His lordship, if he spit, or but

P-fair, Have an indifferent stool, or break wind well; Nothing can 'scape their catch.

Sab. Alas! these things

Deserve no note, conferr'd with other vile
And filthier flatteries,' that corrupt the times;
When, not alone our gentries chief are fain
To make their safety from such sordid acts;
But all our consuls," and no little part
Of such as have been prætors, yea, the most
Of senators," that else not use their voices,*
Start up in public senate, and there strive
Who shall propound most abject things, and base.
So much, as oft Tiberius hath been heard,
Leaving the court, to cry, O race of men,
Prepared for servitude !-which shew'd that he,
Who least the public liberty could like,
As lothly brook'd their flat servility.

Sil. Well, all is worthy of us, were it more,
Who with our riots, pride, and civil hate,

passionate stone-if the wearer of it be not well it changeth colour and looketh pale and dim; but increaseth to his perfectnesse as the wearer recovereth to his health." Swan's Speculum mundi.

Again,

"Or faithful turquoises, which heaven sent
"For a discovery not a punishment;
"To shew the ill, not make it, and to tell,
66 By their pale looks, the bearer was not well."

Cartwright.

4 Senators, that else not use their voices.] The poet has here added the word Pedarii. It is the classical expression for those who never spoke in the senate, but only went over to the side for which they voted: hence they were said pedibus ire in sententiam. WHAL.

1 Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 3.

Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 69. • Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 69.

Pedarii.

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