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Enter SEJANUS.

Here comes his lordship.
Sej. Now, good Satrius.

Sat. This is the gentleman, my lord.
Sej. Is this?

Give me your hand, we must be more acquainted.
Report, sir, hath spoke out your art and learning:
And I am glad I have so needful cause,
However in itself painful and hard,

To make me known to so great virtue.-Look, Who is that, Satrius? [Exit Sat.]—I have a grief, sir,

That will desire your help. Your name's Eudemus?
Eud. Yes.
Sej. Sir?

Eud. It is, my lord.

Sej. I hear you are

Physician to Livia,' the princess.

Eud. I minister unto her, my good lord.
Sej. You minister to a royal lady then.
Eud. She is, my lord, and fair.

Sej. That's understood

Of all their sex, who are or would be so;
And those that would be, physic soon can make

them:

For those that are, their beauties fear no colours. Eud. Your lordship is conceited.'

Sej. Sir, you know it.

And can, if need be, read a learned lecture
On this, and other secrets. 'Pray you, tell me,

3 Your lordship is conceited.] Merry, disposed to joke. So in Every Man in his Humour, "You are conceited, sir." WHAL.

• Germanici soror, uxor Drusi. Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74.

What more of ladies, besides Livia,
Have you your patients?

Eud. Many, my good lord.

t

The great Augusta, Urgulania,"

Mutilia Prisca,* and Plancina; divers-
Sej. And, all these tell you the particulars
Of every several grief? how first it grew,
And then increased; what action caused that;
What passion that: and answer to each point
That you will put them?

Eud. Else, my lord, we know not
How to prescribe the remedies.
Sej. Go to,

You are a subtile nation, you physicians!
And grown the only cabinets in court,
To ladies privacies. Faith, which of these
Is the most pleasant lady in her physic?
Come, you are modest now.

Eud. 'Tis fit, my lord.

Sej. Why, sir, I do not ask you of their urines, Whose smell's most violet, or whose siege is best,* Or who makes hardest faces on her stool? Which lady sleeps with her own face a nights?

4 Whose siege is best,] This word which was growing out of use in Jonson's time, is found in Barclay's Eclogues :

"For sure the lord's siege and the rural man's

"Is of like savour."

It is also used by Shakspeare, Tempest, A. II. S. 2, where it is well explained by Steevens.

Mater Tiberii. vid. Tacit. Ann. 1, 2, 3, 4, moritur 5. Suet.

Tib. Dio. Rom. Hist. 57, 58.

" Delicium Augustæ. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. et iv. * Adultera Julii Posthumi. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. y Pisonis uxor. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. iii. iv.

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2 Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74. et Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. xxix.

Which puts her teeth off, with her clothes, in court?
Or, which her hair, which her complexion,
And, in which box she puts it? These were ques-
tions,

That might, perhaps, have put your gravity
To some defence of blush. But, I enquired,
Which was the wittiest, merriest, wantonnest?
Harmless intergatories, but conceits.
Methinks Augusta should be most perverse,
And froward in her fit.

Eud. She's so, my lord.

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Sej. I knew it and Mutilia the most jocund.
Eud. "Tis very true, my lord.

Sej. And why would you

Conceal this from me, now? Come, what is Livia? I know she's quick and quaintly spirited,

And will have strange thoughts, when she is at leisure:

She tells them all to you.

Eud. My noblest lord,

He breathes not in the empire, or on earth,
Whom I would be ambitious to serve

In any act, that may preserve mine honour,
Before your lordship.

Sej. Sir, you can lose no honour,

By trusting aught to me. The coarsest act
Done to my service, I can so requite,

As all the world shall style it honourable:
Your idle, virtuous definitions,

Keep honour poor, and are as scorn'd as vain:
Those deeds breathe honour that do suck in gain.
Eud. But, good, my lord, if I should thus betray
The counsels of my patient, and a lady's
Of her high place and worth; what might your
lordship,

Who presently are to trust me with your own,
Judge of my faith?

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Sej. Only the best, I swear.

Say now that I should utter you my grief,
And with it the true cause; that it were love,
And love to Livia; you should tell her this:
Should she suspect your faith? I would you could
Tell me as much from her; see if my brain
Could be turn'd jealous.

Eud. Happily, my lord,

I could in time tell you as much and more;
So I might safely promise but the first
To her from you.

Sej. As safely, my Eudemus,

I now dare call thee so, as I have put
The secret into thee.

Eud. My lord

Sej. Protest not,

Thy looks are vows to me; use only speed,
And but affect her with Sejanus' love,

Thou art a man, made to make consuls. Go.
Eud. My lord, I'll promise you a private meeting
This day together.

Sej. Canst thou?

Eud. Yes.

Sej. The place?

Eud. My gardens, whither I shall fetch your lordship.

Sej. Let me adore my Esculapius.

Why, this indeed is physic! and outspeaks
The knowledge of cheap drugs, or any use
Can be made out of it! more comforting
Than all your opiates, juleps, apozems,
Magistral syrups, or--Be gone, my friend,
Not barely styled, but created so;

Expect things greater than thy largest hopes,

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To overtake thee: Fortune shall be taught
To know how ill she hath deserv'd thus long,
To come behind thy wishes. Go, and speed.
[Exit Eudemus.
Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need.
These fellows, by the favour of their art,
Have still the means to tempt; oft-times the
power.

If Livia will be now corrupted, then

Thou hast the way, Sejanus, to work out
His secrets, who, thou know'st, endures thee not,
Her husband, Drusus: and to work against them.
Prosper it, Pallas, thou that better'st wit;
For Venus hath the smallest share in it.

Enter TIBERIUS and DRUSUs, attended,

Tib. [to Haterius, who kneels to him.] We not endure these flatteries; let him stand; Our empire, ensigns, axes, rods and state Take not away our human nature from us: Look up on us, and fall before the gods. Sej. How like a god speaks Cæsar!

Arr. There, observe!

He can endure that second, that's no flattery.
O, what is it, proud slime will not believe

*Exit Eudemus.] Sejanus plays on the vanity of this man, with singular cunning and dexterity.

5 0, what is it proud slime, &c.]

"nihil est quod credere de se

"Non possit, cum laudatur Diis æqua potestas?

Juv. Sat. iv.

Eud. specie artis frequens secretis. Tacit. ibid. Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. xxix. c. 1. in criminat. medicorum.

a De initio Tiberii principatus vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 23, Lib. iv. p. 75. et Suet. Tib. c. 27. De Haterio vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 6.

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