Have so provok'd the justice of the gods: Sab. Tyrants arts Are to give flatterers grace; accusers, power; That those may seem to kill whom they devour. Enter CORDUS and ARRUNTIUS. Now, good Cremutius Cordus." Cor. [salutes Sabinus.] Hail to your lordship! Nat. [whispers Latiaris.] Who's that salutes your cousin? Lat. 'Tis one Cordus, A gentleman of Rome: one that has writ 5 Equal lords of the triumphed world,] i. c. The Roman empire. The expression is fine, and gives us an admirable idea of what every private citizen of Rome esteemed himself, in the times of the republic. WHAL. P Lege Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 24. de Romano, Hispano, et cœteris, ibid. et Lib. iii. Ann. p. 61 et 62. Juv. Sut. x. v. 87. Suet. Tib. cap. 61. 9 Vid. Tacit. Ann. i. p. 4, et Lib. iii. p. 62. Suet. Tib. cap. 61. Senec de Benef. Lib. iii. cap. 26. De Crem. Cordo, vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 83, 84. Senec. Cons. ad Marciam. Dio, Lib. lvii. p. 710. Suet. Aug. c. 35. - Tib. c. 61. Cal. c. 16. Nat. Annals! of what times? Lat. I think of Pompey's,' And Caius Cæsar's; and so down to these. Is he or Drusian,' or Germanican, Lat. I know him not so far. Nat. Those times are somewhat queasy to be touch'd.' Have you or seen, or heard part of his work? Lat. Not I; he means they shall be public shortly. Nat. O, Cordus do you call him? [Exeunt Natta and Satrius. Sab. But these our times Are not the same, Arruntius." Arr. Times! the men, The men are not the same: 'tis we are base, So brave a blow into the monster's heart 6 Queasy to be touch'd.] Nice, tender, delicate. Thus Shakspeare: "And I have one thing of a queasy question." • Suet. Aug. cap. 35. King Lear, A. II. S. 1. Vid. de faction. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 39 et Lib. iv. p. 79. " De Lu. Arrün. isto vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 6. et Lib. iii, p. 60. et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. 58. That sought unkindly' to captive his country? Glows in a present bosom. All's but blaze, Sab. Stand by lord Drusus. Hat. The emperor's son! give place. Will, as it grows, correct. Methinks he bears Himself each day, more nobly than other; Than doth his father lose. Believe me, I love him; Sil. And I, for gracing his young kinsmen so,* Unkindly to captive his country?] i. e. unnaturally; for the word kind signifying nature, with its compounds and derivatives, was thus used by the writers of that age. WHAL. "Let any cundid judge," says one of the commentators," 66 compare Sejanus with the third-rate tragedies of Shakspeare, and he will find it far inferior to the worst of them." The critic had probably just got up from this speech of Arruntius, when he exhibited so notable a specimen of his own candour and judgment. Lege de Druso Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 9. Suet. Tib. c. 52, Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 699. y Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 62. z Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 75, 76. The sons of prince Germanicus: it shews envy; And, being dead, without it. O, that man! Sil. He had the fruits, Arruntius, More than the seeds: Sabinus, and myself him. We were his followers, he would call us friends; He was a man, &c.] Jonson has borrowed the noble character which Paterculus hath given Cato, and applies it with great propriety to Germanicus. Homo virtuti simillimus, et per omnia ingenio diis quam hominibus propior, 1. 2. c. 35. His references to the Roman historians are chiefly brought as vouchers for the facts alluded to, or the descriptions which he gives of the persons concerned. When he borrows the sentiment or thought, he is frequently silent; and particularly, he takes no notice of being here indebted to Paterculus. WH HAL. Whalley should have read a few lines farther. Jonson refers expressly to the passage. Nero, Drusus, Caius, qui in castris genitus, et Caligula nominatus. Tacit. Ann. Lib. 1. C De Germanico cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 14. et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 694. Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 79. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 47, et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 705. As it avoided all self-love in him, And spite in others. What his funerals lack'd Cor. I thought once, Considering their forms, age, manner of deaths, Sab. I know not, for his death, how you might wrest it: But, for his life, it did as much disdain Wise Brutus' temperance; and every virtue, I thought once To have parallel'd him with great Alexander :] This observation comes with great decorum of character from the mouth of Cor. dus: but Tacitus, from whom it is taken, assigns no particular person as the author of the parallel: Erant qui formam, ætatem, genus mortis, ob propinquitatem etiam locorum in quibus interiit, magni Alexandri fatis adequarent, Annal. 1. 2. c. 73. WHAL. Vid. apud Vell. Paterc. Lips. 4to. p. 35-47, istorum hominum characteres. |