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Tib. Let all depart that chamber, and the next. [Exeunt Attendants. Sit down, my comfort. When the master prince Of all the world, Sejanus, saith he fears,

Is it not fatal?

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Sej. Yes, to those are fear'd.

Tib. And not to him?

Sej. Not, if he wisely turn.

That part of fate he holdeth, first on them.

Tib. That nature, blood, and laws of kind forbid. Sej. Do policy and state forbid it?

Tib. No.

Sej. The rest of poor respects, then, let go by; State is enough to make the act just, them guilty Tib. Long hate pursues such acts.

Sej. Whom hatred frights,

Let him not dream of sovereignty.

Tib. Are rites

Of faith, love, piety, to be trod down
Forgotten, and made vain?

Sej. All for a crown.

The prince who shames a tyrant's name to bear,
Shall never dare do any thing, but fear;

All the command of sceptres quite doth perish,
If it begin religious thoughts to cherish:
Whole empires fall, sway'd by those nice respects;
It is the license of dark deeds protects
Ev'n states most hated, when no laws resist
The sword, but that it acteth what it list.
Tib. Yet so, we may do all things cruelly,
Not safely.

Sej. Yes, and do them thoroughly.

Tib. Knows yet Sejanus whom we point at? Sej. Ay,

• De hac consultatione, vid. Suet. Tib. c. 55.

Or else my thought, my sense, or both do err: 'Tis Agrippina.

Tib. She, and her proud race.

Sej. Proud! dangerous, Cæsar: for in them apace

The father's spirit shoots up. Germanicus' Lives in their looks, their gait, their form, t'upbraid us

With his close death, if not revenge the same. Tib. The act's not known.

Sej. Not proved; but whispering Fame

Knowledge and proof doth to the jealous give, Who, than to fail, would their own thought believe.2

It is not safe, the children draw long breath,
That are provoked by a parent's death.

Tib. It is as dangerous to make them hence, If nothing but their birth be their offence.

Sej. Stay, till they strike at Cæsar; then their

crime

Will be enough; but late and out of time

For him to punish.

Tib. Do they purpose

it?

Sej. You know, sir, thunder speaks not till it hit.

2 Who. than to fail, would their own thought believe.] i. e. Who, rather than fail of proof, would believe the mere evidence of their own thoughts. Jonson affects great brevity in his expression, and, in consequence of that, is not always so clear as he might be. WHAL.

P De Agrip. vid. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 69.

a De Sejani consil. in Agrip. leg. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 23, et Lib. iv. p. 77-79. de Tib. susp. Lib. iii. p. 52.

Gnaris omnibus lætam Tiberio Germanici mortem male dissimulari. Tacit. Lib. iii. ibid. Huc confer Tacit. narrat. de morte Pisonis. p. 55. et Lib. iv. p. 74. Germanici mortem inter prospera ducebat.

Be not secure; none swiftlier are opprest,
Than they whom confidence betrays to rest.
Let not your daring make your danger such:
All power is to be fear'd, where 'tis too much.
The youths are of themselves hot, violent,
Full of great thought; and that male-spirited
dame,'

Their mother, slacks no means to put them on,
By large allowance, popular presentings,
Increase of train and state, suing for titles;
Hath them commended with like prayers,' like

Vows,

To the same gods, with Cæsar: days and nights
She spends in banquets and ambitious feasts
For the nobility; where Caius Silius,
Titius Sabinus, old Arruntius,

Asinius Gallus, Furnius, Regulus,

And others of that discontented list,

Are the prime guests. There, and to these, she tells

Whose niece she was," whose daughter, and whose wife.

And then must they compare her with Augusta,
Ay, and prefer her too; commend her form,
Extol her fruitfulness; at which a shower
Falls for the memory of Germanicus,

Which they blow over straight with windy praise,
And puffing hopes of her aspiring sons;
Who, with these hourly ticklings, grow so pleased,
And wantonly conceited of themselves,
As now, they stick not to believe they're such

• De anim. virili Agrip. cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 12 et 22. Lib. ii. p. 47. t Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 79. " Erat enim neptis Augusti, Agrippa et Juliæ filia, Germanici Suet. Aug. c. 64.

uxor.

p. 77.

De fœcund. ejus. vid. Tacit. Ann Lib. ii. p. 39. et Lib. iv.

As these do give them out; and would be thought
More than competitors, immediate heirs.

Whilst to their thirst of rule, they win the rout
(That's still the friend of novelty)" with hope
Of future freedom, which on every change
That greedily, though emp:ily expects.
Cæsar, 'tis age in all things breeds neglects,
And princes that will keep old dignity
Must not admit too youthful heirs stand by;
Not their own issue; but so darkly set
As shadows are in picture, to give height
And lustre to themselves.

Tib. We will command2

Their rank thoughts down, and with a stricter hand Than we have yet put forth; their trains must bate, Their titles, feasts, and factions.

Sej. Or your state.

But how, sir, will you work?

Tib. Confine them.

Sej. No.

They are too great, and that too faint a blow
To give them now; it would have serv'd at first,
When with the weakest touch their knot had burst.
But, now, your care must be, not to detect
The smallest cord, or line of your suspect;
For such, who know the weight of prince's fear,
Will, when they find themselves discover'd, rear
Their forces, like seen snakes, that else would lie
Roll'd in their circles, close: nought is more high,
Daring, or desperate, than offenders found;
Where guilt is, rage and courage both abound.

3

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"Deprensis; iram et animos a crimine sumunt. Juv. Sat. vi.

y Displicere regnantibus civilia filiorum ingenia: neque ob aliud interceptos quam quia Pop. Rom. æquo jure complecti, reddita libertate, agitaverint. Nat. Tacit. Lib. ii. Ann. p. 49.

2 Vid. Suet. Tib. c. 54.

The course must be, to let them still swell up, Riot, and surfeit on blind fortune's cup;

Give them more place, more dignities, more style,
Call them to court, to senate; in the while,
Take from their strength some one or twain, or
more,

Of the main fautors, (it will fright the store,)
And, by some by-occasion. Thus, with slight
You shall disarm them first; and they, in night
Of their ambition, not perceive the train,
Till in the engine they are caught and slain.
Tib. We would not kill, if we knew how to save;
Yet, than a throne, 'tis cheaper give a grave.
Is there no way to bind them by deserts?

Sej. Sir, wolves do change their hair, but not their hearts.

While thus your thought unto a mean is tied,
You neither dare enough, nor do provide.
All modesty is fond; and chiefly where
The subject is no less compell'd to bear,
Than praise his sovereign's acts.

Tib. We can no longer2

Keep on our mask to thee, our dear Sejanus; Thy thoughts are ours, in all, and we but proved Their voice, in our designs, which by assenting Hath more confirm'd us, than if heart'ning Jove Had, from his hundred statues, bid us strike, And at the stroke click'd all his marble thumbs." But who shall first be struck?

2 Tiberium variis artibus devinxit adeo Sejanus, ut obscurum adversum alios, sibi uni incautum, intectumque efficeret. Tacit. AnnLib. iv. p. 74. Vid. Dio. Hist. Rom. Lib. Ivii. p. 707.

b Premere pollicem, apud Romanos, maximi favoris erat signum. Horat. Epist. ad Lollium. Fautor utroque horum laudabit pollice ludum. Et Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib xxviii. cap. 2. Pollices, cum faveamus, premere etiam proverbio jubemur. De interp. loci, vid. Ang. Pol. Miscell. cap. xlii. et Turn. Adver. Lib. xi. cap. vi.

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