Var. An enemy to the state.

Sil. Because I am an enemy to thee, And such corrupted ministers o' the state, That here art made a present instrument To gratify it with thine own disgrace.

Sej. This, to the consul, is most insolent, And impious!

Sil. Ay, take part. Reveal yourselves, Alas! I scent not your confederacies, Your plots, and combinations! I not know Minion Sejanus hates me; and that all This boast of law, and law, is but a form, A net of Vulcan's filing, a mere ingine, To take that life by a pretext of justice, Which you pursue in malice! I want brain, Or nostril to persuade me, that your ends, And purposes are made to what they are, Before my answer! O, you equal gods, Whose justice not a world of wolf-turn'd men Shall make me to accuse, howe'er provoked; Have I for this so oft engaged my self? Stood in the heat and fervour of a fight, When Phoebus sooner hath forsook the day Than I the field, against the blue-eyed Gauls, And crisped Germans? when our Roman eagles Have fann'd the fire, with their labouring wings, And no blow dealt, that left not death behind it? When I have charged, alone, into the troops Of curl'd Sicambrians,' routed them, and came

¶ Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 79. Immissusque Varro consul qui paternas inimicitias obtendens, odiis Sejani per dedecus suum gratifi

cabatur.

r

Populi Germ. hodie Geldri in Belgica sunt inter Mosam et Rhenum, quos celebrat Mart. Spect. 3.

Crinibus in nodum tortis venere Sicambri. The blue eyes, and crisped looks of the Germans, mentioned above, are from Juvenal:

Carula quis stupuit Germani lumina, flavam

Cæsariem, et madido torquantem cornua cirro. Sat. 13. 164.

Not off, with backward ensigns of a slave;
But forward marks, wounds on my breast and face,
Were meant to thee, O Cæsar, and thy Rome?
And have I this return! did I, for this,
Perform so noble, and so brave defeat,
On Sacrovir! O Jove, let it become me
To boast my deeds, when he, whom they concern,
Shall thus forget them.

Afer. Silius, Silius,

These are the common customs of thy blood,
When it is high with wine, as now with rage:
This well agrees with that intemperate vaunt,
Thou lately mad'st at Agrippina's table,
That, when all other of the troops were prone
To fall into rebellion, only thine

Remain'd in their obedience. Thou wert he
That saved the empire, which had then been lost
Had but thy legions, there, rebell'd, or mutined;
Thy virtue met, and fronted every peril.
Thou gav'st to Cæsar, and to Rome their surety;
Their name, their strength, their spirit, and their
state,

Their being was a donative from thee.

Arr. Well worded, and most like an orator. Tib. Is this true, Silius?

Sil. Save thy question, Cæsar,

Thy spy of famous credit hath affirm'd it.

Arr. Excellent Roman!

Sab. He doth answer stoutly.

Sej. If this be so, there needs no farther cause

Of crime against him.

Var. What can more impeach

The royal dignity and state of Cæsar,
Than to be urged with a benefit
He cannot pay?

Cot. In this, all Cæsar's fortune Is made unequal to the courtesy.

Lat. His means are clean destroyed that should requite.

Gal. Nothing is great enough for Silius' merit. Arr. Gallus on that side too!

Sil. Come, do not hunt,

And labour so about for circumstance,

[Aside.

To make him guilty, whom you have foredoom'd:

Take shorter ways, I'll meet your purposes.
The words were mine, and more I now will say:
Since I have done thee that great service, Cæsar,
Thou still hast fear'd me; and, in place of grace,
Return'd me hatred: so soon all best turns,
With doubtful princes, turn deep injuries
In estimation, when they greater rise
Than can be answer'd. Benefits, with you,
Are of no longer pleasure, than you can
With ease restore them; that transcended once,
Your studies are not how to thank, but kill.
It is your nature, to have all men slaves
To you, but you acknowledging to none.
The means that make your greatness, must not

come

In mention of it; if it do, it takes

So much away, you think: and that which help'd,
Shall soonest perish, if it stand in eye,
Where it may front, or but upbraid the high.
Cot. Suffer him speak no more.

Var. Note but his spirit.

Afer. This shews him in the rest.

Lat. Let him be censured.

Sej. He hath spoke enough to prove him Cæ

sar's foe.

Cot. His thoughts look through his words.
Sej. A censure.

Sil. Stay,

Stay, most officious senate, I shall straight
Delude thy fury. Silius hath not placed
His guards within him, against fortune's spite,
So weakly, but he can escape your gripe
That are but hands of fortune: she herself,
When virtue doth oppose, must lose her threats.
All that can happen in humanity,

The frown of Caesar, proud Sejanus' hatred,
Base Varro's spleen, and Afer's bloodying tongue,
The senate's servile flattery, and these
Muster'd to kill, I'm fortified against;

And can look down upon: they are beneath me.
It is not life whereof I stand enamour'd;
Nor shall my end make me accuse my fate.
The coward and the valiant man must fall,
Only the cause, and manner how, discerns them:
Which then are gladdest, when they cost us
dearest.

Romans, if

any here be in this senate, Would know to mock Tiberius' tyranny, Look upon Silius, and so learn to die."

[Stabs himself.

2 Look upon Silius, and so learn to die.] Silius (says the historian) imminentem damnationem voluntario fine prævertit. Ann. l. iv. c. 19. It doth not appear, however, that this happened in the senate-house, or at the immediate time of his accusation: yet the liberty which the poet hath taken, is easily allowable. Afer has a part in this transaction not assigned him by Tacitus; but it is given him with the utmost probability, and with the exactest preservation of character. For we may remark, to the honour of Jonson's judgment, that whenever he departs from the thread of the narration, it is always with an improvement of the subject, and upon the strongest grounds of presumption. Thus, by introducing Afer as a manager of the impeachment against Silius, he hath a proper opportunity of displaying the mercenary oratory, and art of the informers, prevalent in the reign of Tiberius, which are finely contrasted by the truly honest and spirited replies of Silius. WHAL.

Var. O desperate act!

Arr. An honourable hand!
Tib. Look, is he dead?

Sab. 'Twas nobly struck, and home.

Arr. My thought did prompt him to it. Farewell, Silius.

Be famous ever for thy great example.

Tib. We are not pleased in this sad accident, That thus hath stalled, and abused our mercy, Intended to preserve thee, noble Roman, And to prevent thy hopes.

Arr. Excellent wolf! Now he is full he howls. Sej. Cæsar doth wrong

[Aside.

His dignity and safety thus to mourn
The desery'd end of so profest a traitor,
And doth, by this his lenity, instruct
Others as factious to the like offence.
Tib. The confiscation merely of his state
Had been enough.

Arr. O, that was gaped for then?
Var. Remove the body.

Sej. Let citation

Go out for Sosia.

Gal. Let her be proscribed:

And for the goods, I think it fit that half
Go to the treasure, half unto the children.

[Aside.

Lep. With leave of Cæsar, I would think that

fourth,

The which the law doth cast on the informers, Should be enough; the rest go to the children. Wherein the prince shall shew humanity,

And bounty; not to force them by their want, Which in their parents' trespass they deserv'd, To take ill courses.

Tib. It shall please us.

Arr. Ay,