The friends of season, you do follow fortune,
And, in the winter of their fate, forsake
The place whose glories warm'd you. You are just,
And worthy such a princely patron's love,
As was the world's renown'd Germanicus:
Whose ample merit when I call to thought,
And see his wife and issue, objects made
To so much envy, jealousy, and hate;
It makes me ready to accuse the gods
Of negligence, as men of tyranny.

Sab. They must be patient, so must we.
Lat. O Jove,

What will become of us or of the times,
When, to be high or noble, are made crimes,
When land and treasure are most dangerous faults?
Sab. Nay, when our table, yea our bed,' assaults
Our peace and safety? when our writings are,
By any envious instruments, that dare
Apply them to the guilty, made to speak
What they will have to fit their tyrannous wreak?
When ignorance is scarcely innocence;
And knowledge made a capital offence?
When not so much, but the bare empty shade
Of liberty is reft us; and we made

The prey to greedy vultures and vile spies,
That first transfix us with their murdering eyes?
Lat. Methinks the genius of the Roman race
Should not be so extinct, but that bright flame
Of liberty might be revived again,

(Which no good man but with his life should lose)
And we not sit like spent and patient fools,
Still puffing in the dark at one poor coal,
Held on by hope till the last spark is out.
The cause is public, and the honour, name,

Ne nox quidem secura, cum uxor (Neronis) vigilias, somnos, suspiria matri Livia, atque illa Sejano patefaceret. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 92.

The immortality of every soul,
That is not bastard or a slave in Rome,

Therein concern'd: whereto, if men would change
The wearied arm, and for the weighty shield
So long sustain'd, employ the facile sword,
We might have soon assurance of our vows.
This ass's fortitude doth tire us all:

It must be active valour must redeem

Our loss, or none. The rock and our hard steel Should meet to enforce those glorious fires again, Whose splendor cheer'd the world, and heat gave life,

No less than doth the sun's.

Sab. "Twere better stay

In lasting darkness, and despair of day.
No ill should force the subject undertake
Against the sovereign, more than hell should make
The gods do wrong. A good man should and must
Sit rather down with loss, than rise unjust.
Though, when the Romans first did yield them-
selves

To one man's power, they did not mean their lives,
Their fortunes and their liberties should be
His absolute spoil, as purchased by the sword.
Lat. Why we are worse, if to be slaves, and bond
To Cæsar's slave be such, the proud Sejanus!
He that is all, does all, gives Cæsar leave
To hide his ulcerous and anointed face,

With his bald crown at 'Rhodes, while he here stalks

z Facies ulcerosa ac plerumque medicaminibus interstincta. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 91.

2 Tacit. ibid. Et Rhodi secreto, vitare cœtus, recondere voluptates insuerat.

Whalley observes, that Jonson has confounded two events very distinct in time. The residence of Tiberius at Rhodes took place during the life of Augustus, and he was now at Capua, as the author well knew, and indeed expressly mentions just

.

Upon the heads of Romans, and their princes,
Familiarly to empire.

Sab. Now you touch

A point indeed, wherein he shews his art,
As well as power.

Lat. And villainy in both.

Do you observe where Livia lodges? how

Drusus came dead? what men have been cut off?
Sab. Yes, those are things removed: I nearer
look'd

Into his later practice, where he stands
Declared a master in his mystery.

First, ere Tiberius went, he wrought his fear
To think that Agrippina sought his death.
Then put those doubts in her; sent her oft word,
Under the show of friendship, to beware
Of Cæsar, for he laid to "poison her:
Drave them to frowns, to mutual jealousies,
Which, now, in visible hatred are burst out.
Since, he hath had his hired instruments
To work on Nero, and to heave him up;
To tell him Cæsar's old, that all the people,
Yea, all the army have their eyes on him;

below. Either this is one of the inadvertencies to which the correctest minds are occasionally subject; or, as I rather think, a line has dropped out, and been subsequently overlooked. Perhaps the passage might originally have stood somewhat in this way:

gives Cæsar leave

To hide his ulcerous and anointed face,

With his bald crown, and ply his secret lusts,
As once he did, at Rhodes, &c.

Whalley adds, that Tacitus, from whom Jonson derived most of his facts, is prejudiced against Tiberius. It cannot be denied; but, after full allowance is made for this, more than enough will remain to prove that at this period of his life he was one of the most detestable and dangerous characters with which the old world was acquainted.

b Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 90.

c Tacit. Lib. eod. pp. 91, 92,

That both do long to have him undertake
Something of worth, to give the world a hope;
Bids him to court their grace: the easy youth
Perhaps gives ear, which straight he writes to
Cæsar;

And with this comment; See yon dangerous boy;
Note but the practice of the mother, there ;
She's tying him for purposes at hand,

With men of sword. Here's Cæsar put in fright
'Gainst son and mother. Yet, he leaves not thus.
The second brother, Drusus, a fierce nature,
And fitter for his snares, because ambitious
And full of envy, 'him he clasps and hugs,
Poisons with praise, tells him what hearts he wears,
How bright he stands in popular expectance;
That Rome doth suffer with him in the wrong
His mother does him, by preferring Nero:
Thus sets he them asunder, each 'gainst other,
Projects the course that serves him to condemn,
Keeps in opinion of a friend to all,

And all drives on to ruin.

Lat. Cæsar sleeps,

And nods at this.

Sab. Would he might ever sleep,

Bogg'd in his filthy lusts!

[Opsius and Rufus rush in.

Ops. Treason to Cæsar!

Ruf. Lay hands upon the traitor, Latiaris,

Or take the name thyself.

Lat. I am for Cæsar.

Sab. Am I then catch'd?

Ruf. How think you, sir? you are.

Sab. Spies of this head, so white, so full of years! Well, my most reverend monsters, you may live To see yourselves thus snared.

Ops. Away with him.

Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. pp. 91, 92.

Lat. Hale him away.

Ruf. To be a spy for traitors, Is honourable vigilance.

Sab. You do well,

My most officious instruments of state;
Men of all uses: drag me hence, away.
The year is well begun, and I fall fit
To be an offering to Sejanus. Go!

Ops. Cover him with his garments, hide his face." Sab. It shall not need. Forbear your rude assault. The fault's not shameful, villainy makes a fault. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Street before Agrippina's House.

Enter MACRO and CALIGULA.

Mac. Sir, but observe how thick your dangers meet

In his clear drifts! your mother and your brothers,
Now cited to the senate; their friend Gallus,
Feasted to-day by Cæsar, since committed!
Sabinus here we met, hurried to fetters:
The senators all strook with fear and silence,
Save those whose hopes depend not on good means,
But force their private prey from public spoil.
And you must know, if here you stay, your state
Is sure to be the subject of his hate,
As now the object.

2 Cover him with his garments, &c.] Alluding to the form by which a criminal was condemned to death; "I, lictor, colliga manus, caput obnubito," &c.

e Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. pp. 94, 95.

f Tacit. Ann. Lib. v. p. 98.

Asinium Gal. eodem die et convivam Tiberii fuisse et eo subornante damnatum narrat Dio. Lib. lviii. p. 713.