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Of his own worth, to hear it equal praised
Thus with the gods!

Cor. He did not hear it, sir.

Arr. He did not! Tut, he must not, we think

meanly.

'Tis your most courtly known confederacy, To have your private parasite redeem

What he, in public, subtiley will lose,

To making him a name.

Hat. Right mighty lord

[Gives him letters.

Tib. We must make up our ears 'gainst these assaults

Of charming tongues; we pray you use no more
These contumelies to us; style not us

Or lord, or mighty, who profess ourself
The servant of the senate, and are proud
T'enjoy them our good, just, and favouring lords.
Cor. Rarely dissembled !

Arr. Prince-like to the life.

Sab. When power that may command, so much descends,

Their bondage, whom it stoops to, it intends.
Tib. Whence are these letters?

Hat. From the senate.

Tib. So.

Whence these?

Lat. From thence too.

[Lat. gives him letters

Tib. Are they sitting now.

Lat. They stay thy answer, Cæsar.

Sil. If this man

Had but a mind allied unto his words,

How blest a fate were it to us, and Rome!

We could not think that state for which to change,

Cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 50, et Suet. Tib. c. 27 et 29. f Nullam œque Tiberius ex virtutibus suis quam dissimulationens diligebat. Tacit. Ann, Lib. iv, p. 95.

Although the aim were our old liberty:

The ghosts of those that fell for that, would grieve
Their bodies lived not, now, again to serve.
Men are deceived, who think there can be thrall
Beneath a virtuous prince: Wish'd liberty'
Ne'er lovelier looks, than under such a crown.
But, when his grace is merely but lip-good,
And that, no longer than he airs himself
Abroad in public, there, to seem to shun
The strokes and stripes of flatterers, which within
Are lechery unto him, and so feed

His brutish sense with their afflicting sound,
As, dead to virtue, he permits himself
Be carried like a pitcher by the ears,
To every act of vice: this is a case
Deserves our fear, and doth presage the nigh
And close approach of blood and tyranny.
Flattery is midwife unto prince's rage:

And nothing sooner doth help forth a tyrant, Than that and whisperers' grace, who have the time,

The place, the power, to make all men offenders. Arr. He should be told this; and be bid dis

semble

With fools and blind men: we that know the evil, Should hunt the palace-rats, or give them bane;

• Wish'd liberty, &c.]

86

k

-Nunquam libertas gratior exstat,

"Quam sub rege pio."

Bruti, Cassii, Catonis, &c.

Claud de laud. Stil. Lib. iii.

Vid. Dio. Hist. Lib. lvii. de moribus Tiberii.

Tyrannis fere oritur ex nimia procerum adulatione in princi. pem. Arist. Pol. Lib. v. c. 10, 11. et delatorum auctoritate. Leg. Tacit. Dio. Suet. Tib. per totum. Sub quo decreta accusatoribus præcipua præmia. Vid. Suet. Tib. c. 61. et Sen. Benef. Lib. iii.

C. 6.

* Tineas soricesque Palatii vocat istos Sex. Aurel. Vict. et Tacit,

Fright hence these worse than ravens, that devour The quick, where they but prey upon the dead: He shall be told it.

Sab. Stay, Arruntius,

We must abide our opportunity;

And practise what is fit, as what is needful.
It is not safe t' enforce a sovereign's ear:
Princes hear well, if they at all will hear.

Arr. Ha, say you so? well! In the mean time,
Jove,

(Say not, but I do call upon thee now,)

Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant;
And of all tame, a flatterer.

Sil. 'Tis well pray'd.

Tib. [having read the letters.] Return the lords this voice, We are their creature,

And it is fit a good and honest prince,

Whom they, out of their bounty, have instructed'
With so dilate and absolute a power,
Should owe the office of it to their service,
And good of all and every citizen.

Nor shall it e'er repent us to have wish'd
The senate just, and favouring lords unto us,
Since their free loves do yield no less defence
To a prince's state, than his own innocence.
Say then, there can be nothing in their thought
Shall want to please us, that hath pleased them;
Our suffrage rather shall prevent, than stay
Behind their wills: 'tis empire to obey,
Where such, so great, so grave, so good determine.
Yet, for the suit of Spain," to erect a temple
In honour of our mother and our self,
We must, with pardon of the senate, not

Hist. Lib. i. p. 233, qui secretis criminat. infamant ignarum, et quo incautior deciperetur, palam laudatum, &c.

1 Vid. Suet. Tib. c. 20. et Dio. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 696.

Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 84 et 85.

Assent thereto. Their lordships may object
Our not denying the same late request
Unto the Asian cities: we desire

That our defence for suffering that be known
In these brief reasons, with our after purpose.
Since deified Augustus hindered not

A temple to be built at Pergamum,

In honour of himself and sacred Rome;
We, that have all his deeds" and words observed
Ever, in place of laws, the rather follow'd
That pleasing precedent, because with ours,
The senate's reverence, also, there was join'd.
But as, t' have once received it, may deserve
The gain of pardon; so, to be adored
With the continued style, and note of gods,
Through all the provinces, were wild ambition,
And no less pride: yea, even Augustus' name
Would early vanish, should it be profaned
With such promiscuous flatteries. For our part,
We here protest it, and are covetous

Posterity should know it, we are mortal;
And can but deeds of men: 'twere glory enough,
Could we be truly a prince. And, they shall add
Abounding grace unto our memory,

That shall report us worthy our fore-fathers,
Careful of your affairs, constant in dangers,
And not afraid of any private frown

For public good. These things shall be to us
Temples and statues, reared in your minds,
The fairest, and most during imagery:
For those of stone or brass, if they become
Odious in judgment of posterity,

Are more contemn'd as dying sepulchres,
Than ta'en for living monuments. We then
Make here our suit, alike to gods and men;

Cons. Strab. Lib. vi. de Tib.

The one, until the period of our race,
To inspire us with a free and quiet mind,
Discerning both divine and human laws;
The other, to vouchsafe us after death,
An honourable mention, and fair praise,
To accompany our actions and our name:
The rest of greatness princes may command,
And, therefore, may neglect; only, a long,
A lasting, high, and happy memory

They should, without being satisfied, pursue:
Contempt of fame begets contempt of virtue.
Nat. Rare!

Sat. Most divine!

Sej. The oracles are ceased,

That only Cæsar, with their tongue, might speak. Arr. Let me be gone: most felt and open this! Cor. Stay.

Arr. What! to hear more cunning, and fine

words,

With their sound flatter'd ere their sense be meant? Tib. Their choice of Antium, there to place

the gift

Vow'd to the goddess for our mother's health
We will the senate know, we fairly like;
As also of their grant1 to Lepidus,
For his repairing the Emilian place,
And restoration of those monuments:
Their grace' too in confining of Silanus
To the other isle Cithera, at the suit
Of his religious' sister, much commends
Their policy, so temper'd with their mercy.
But for the honours which they have decreed
To our Sejanus,' to advance his statue

• Tacit. Lib. iii. p. 71.

a Tacit. ibid.

S

P Fortuna equestris, ibid.
Tacit. Ann Lib. iii. p. 170.

• Torquata virgo vestalis, cujus memoriam servat marmor Roma.

vid. Lips. comment. in Tacit.

Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 71.

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