Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

Cor. Did you observe

How they inveigh'd 'gainst Cæsar?
Arr. Ay, baits, baits,

For us to bite at: would I have my flesh. Torn by the public hook, these qualified hangmen

Should be my company.

Cor. Here comes another.

[Dom. Afer passes over the stage. Arr. Ay, there's a man, Afer the orator! One that hath phrases, figures, and fine flowers, To strew his rhetoric with, and doth make haste, To get him note, or name, by any offer

Where blood or gain be objects; steeps his words,

When he would kill, in artificial tears:
The crocodile of Tyber! him I love,

That man is mine; he hath my heart and voice
When I would curse! he, he.

Sab. Contemn the slaves,

Their present lives will be their future graves.

SCENE IV.

Another Apartment in the same.

[Exeunt.

Enter SILIUS, AGRIPPINA, NERO, and SOSIA.

Sil. May't please your highness not forget
yourself;

I dare not, with my manners, to attempt
Your trouble farther.

Agr. Farewell, noble Silius!

s De Domit. Af. vid. Tac. Ann. Lib iv. p. 89-93.

t

Quoquo facinore properus clarescere. Tacit. ibid. Et infra. prosperiure eloquentiæ quam morum famâ fuit. Et p. 93. diu egens, et parto nuper præmio male usus, plura ad flagitia accingeretur.

Sil. Most royal princess.

Agr. Sosia stays with us?

Sil. She is your servant, and doth owe your

grace

An honest, but unprofitable love.

Agr. How can that be, when there's no gain but virtue's?

u

Sil. You take the moral, not the politic sense. I meant, as she is bold, and free of speech, Earnest to utter what her zealous thought Travails withal, in honour of your house; Which act, as it is simply born in her, Partakes of love and honesty; but may, By the over-often, and unseason'd use, Turn to your loss and danger: for your state Is waited on by envies, as by eyes;

And every second guest your tables take

Is a fee'd spy, to observe who goes, who comes; What conference you have, with whom, where, when,

What the discourse is, what the looks, the thoughts

Of every person there, they do extract,
And make into a substance.

Agr. Hear me, Silius.

Were all Tiberius' body stuck with eyes,
And every wall and hanging in my house.
Transparent, as this lawn I wear, or air;
Yea, had Sejanus both his ears as long
As to my inmost closet, I would hate
To whisper any thought, or change an act,
To be made Juno's rival. Virtue's forces
Shew ever noblest in conspicuous courses.
Sil. 'Tis great, and bravely spoken, like the
spirit

u Vid. Tac. Ann. Lib. iv. p 79

× Ibid. p. 77.

Of Agrippina: yet, your highness knows,
There is nor loss nor shame in providence;
Few can, what all should do, beware enough.
You may perceive with what officious face,
Satrius, and Natta, Afer, and the rest

Visit your house, of late, to enquire the secrets;
And with what bold and privileged art, they rail
Against Augusta, yea, and at Tiberius;
Tell tricks of Livia, and Sejanus; all
To excite, and call your indignation on,
That they might hear it at more liberty.
Agr. You're too suspicious, Silius.
Sil. Pray the gods,

I be so, Agrippina; but I fear

[ocr errors]

Some subtile practice." They that durst to strike
At so exampless, and unblamed a life,*
As that of the renowned Germanicus,
Will not sit down with that exploit alone:
He threatens many that hath injured one."
Ner. "Twere best rip forth their tongues, sear
out their eyes,

When next they come.

Sos. A fit reward for spies.

✦ At so exampless and unblam'd a life.] At a life that had no parallel; was beyond all example, or imitation. Examp-less is a term of the author's coining; and by the same poetical prerogative, Chapman, in his verses on this tragedy, uses the word exampling.

"Our Phoebus may with his exampling beams." 5 He threatens many that hath injured one.]

Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam.

WHAL.

PUB. SYRUS.

In this fulness and frequency of sentence, as he calls it in his preface, Jonson placeth one part of the office of a tragic poet: and the learned reader will perceive, from the brevity and num. ber of these maxims, that instead of copying after the models of ancient Greece, he hath conformed to the practice of Seneca the tragedian. WHAL.

7 Tacit. ibid. et pp. 90 et 92.

z Suet. Tib. c. 2. Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p, 705.

Enter DRUSUS jun.

Dru. jun. Hear you the rumour?

Agr. What?

Dru. jun Drusus is dying."
Agr. Dying!

Nero. That's strange!

Agr. You were with him yesternight.

Dru. jun. One met Eudemus the physician, Sent for, but now; who thinks he cannot live. Sil. Thinks! if it be arrived at that, he knows, Or none.

Agr. 'Tis quick! what should be his disease? Sil. Poison, poison

Agr. How, Silius !

Nero. What's that?

Sil. Nay, nothing. There was late a certain

[blocks in formation]

Dru. jun. And what of that?

Sil. I'm glad I gave it not.

Nero. But there is somewhat else?

Sil. Yes, private meetings,

With a great lady [sir], at a physician's,

And a wife turn'd away.

Nero. Ha!

Sil. Toys, mere toys:

What wisdom's now in th' streets, in the common mouth?

Dru. jun. Fears, whisperings, tumults, noise, I know not what:

They say the Senate sit."

• Tac. Ann. Lib. iv. pp. 74, 75, 76, 77.

b Vid. Tac. Ann. Lib. iv.

p. 76.

Sil. I'll thither straight;

And see what's in the forge.
Agr. Good Silius do;
Sosia and I will in.

Sil. Haste you, my lords,

To visit the sick prince; tender your loves,
And sorrows to the people. This Sejanus,
Trust my divining soul, hath plots on all:
No tree, that stops his prospect, but must fall.
[Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Enter Præcones, Lictores, SEJANUS, VARRO, LaTIARIS, COTTA, and AFER.

Sej. 'Tis only you must urge against him,
Varro;

Nor I, nor Cæsar may appear therein,

Except in your defence, who are the consul;
And, under colour of late enmity

Between your father and his, may better do it,
As free from all suspicion of a practice.

Here be your notes, what points to touch at; read:

Be cunning in them. Afer has them too.
Var. But is he summon'd?

Sej. No. It was debated

By Cæsar, and concluded as most fit

To take him unprepared.

VOL. III.

• Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 79.
F

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »