That sought unkindly' to captive his country?
O, they are fled the light! Those mighty spirits
Lie raked up with their ashes in their urns,
And not a spark of their eternal fire

Glows in a present bosom. All's but blaze,
Flashes and smoke, wherewith we labour so,
There's nothing Roman in us; nothing good,
Gallant, or great: 'tis true that Cordus says,
"Brave Cassius was the last of all that race."
[Drusus passes over the stage, attended by
Haterius, &c.

Sab. Stand by lord Drusus.

Hat. The emperor's son! give place.
Sil. I like the prince well.
Arr. A riotous youth;"
There's little hope of him.
Sab. That fault his age

Will, as it grows, correct.

Methinks he bears

Himself each day, more nobly than other;
And wins no less on men's affections,

Than doth his father lose. Believe me, I love him;
And chiefly for opposing to Sejanus."

Sil. And I, for gracing his young kinsmen so,

7 Unkindly to captive his country?] i. e. unnaturally; for the word kind signifying nature, with its compounds and derivatives, was thus used by the writers of that age. WHAL.

"Let any candid judge," says one of the commentators," 66 compare Sejanus with the third-rate tragedies of Shakspeare, and he will find it far inferior to the worst of them." The critic had probably just got up from this speech of Arruntius, when he exhibited so notable a specimen of his own candour and judgment.

* Lege de Druso Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 9. Suet. Tib. c. 52. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 699.

y Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 62.

2 Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74.

a

Ann. Lib. iv. p. 75, 76.

The sons of prince Germanicus: it shews
A gallant clearness in him, a straight mind,
That envies not, in them, their father's name.
Arr. His name was, while he lived, above all

envy;

And, being dead, without it. O, that man!
If there were seeds of the old virtue left,
They lived in him.

Sil. He had the fruits, Arruntius,

More than the seeds: Sabinus, and myself
Had means to know him within; and can report

him.

We were his followers, he would call us friends;
He was a man' most like to virtue; in all,
And every action, nearer to the gods,
Than men, in nature; of a body as fair
As was his mind; and no less reverend
In face, than fame: he could so use his state,
Tempering his greatness with his gravity,

He was a man, &c.] Jonson has borrowed the noble character which Paterculus hath given Cato, and applies it with great propriety to Germanicus. Iomo virtuti simillimus, et per omnia ingenio diis quam hominibus propior, 1. 2. c. 35. His references to the Roman historians are chiefly brought as vouchers for the facts alluded to, or the descriptions which he gives of the persons concerned. When he borrows the sentiment or thought, he is frequently silent; and particularly, he takes no notice of being here indebted to Paterculus. WHAL.

Whalley should have read a few lines farther. Jonson refers expressly to the passage.

Nero, Drusus, Caius, qui in castris genitus, et Caligula nominatus. Tacit. Ann. Lib. 1.

с

De Germanico cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 14. et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. Ivii. p. 694.

705.

Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 79.

Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 47, et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p.

As it avoided all self-love in him,

And spite in others. What his funerals lack'd
In images and pomp, they had supplied
With honourable sorrow, soldiers' sadness,
A kind of silent mourning, such, as men,
Who know no tears, but from their captives, use
To shew in so great losses.

Cor. I thought once,

Considering their forms, age, manner of deaths,
The nearness of the places where they fell,
To have parallel'd him with great Alexander:'
For both were of best feature, of high race,
Year'd but to thirty, and, in foreign lands,
By their own people alike made away.

Sab. I know not, for his death, how you might wrest it:

But, for his life, it did as much disdain
Comparison, with that voluptuous, rash,
Giddy, and drunken Macedon's, as mine
Doth with my bondman's. All the good in him,
His valour, and his fortune, he made his;
But he had other touches of late Romans,
That more did speak him: Pompey's dignity,
The innocence of Cato, Cæsar's spirit,

Wise Brutus' temperance; and every virtue,
Which, parted unto others, gave them name,
Flow'd mix'd in him. He was the soul of good-

ness;

9 I thought once

To have parallel'd him with great Alexander :] This observation comes with great decorum of character from the mouth of Cordus: but Tacitus, from whom it is taken, assigns no particular person as the author of the parallel: Erant qui formam, ætatem, genus mortis, ob propinquitatem etiam locorum in quibus interiit, magni Alexandri fatis adequarent, Annal. 1. 2. c. 73. WHAL.

f Vid. apud Vell. Paterc. Lips. 4to. p. 35-47, istorum hominum, characteres.

And all our praises of him are like streams Drawn from a spring, that still rise full, and leave The part remaining greatest.

Arr. I am sure

He was too great for us, and that they knew
Who did remove him hence.

Sab. When men grow fast

Honour'd and loved, there is a trick in state,
Which jealous princes never fail to use,
How to decline that growth, with fair pretext,
And honourable colours of employment,
Either by embassy, the war, or such,
To shift them forth into another air,

Where they may purge, and lessen; so was he:"
And had his seconds there, sent by Tiberius,
And his more subtile dam, to discontent him;
To breed and cherish mutinies; detract
His greatest actions; give audacious check
To his commands; and work to put him out
In open act of treason. All which snares
When his wise cares prevented,' a fine poison
Was thought on, to mature their practices.

Enter SEJANUS talking to TERENTIUS; followed by SATRIUS, NATTA, &c.

Cor. Here comes Sejanus.* Sil. Now observe the stoops, The bendings, and the falls.

Vid. Tacit. Lib. ii. Ann. p. 28 et p. 34. Div. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 705.

Con. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 39. de occultis mandatis Pisoni, et postea p. 42, 43, 48. Orat. D. Celeris. Est Tibi Augustæ conscientia, est Cæsaris favor, sed in occulto, &c. Leg. Suet. Tib. c. 52. Dio. p. 706.

i Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 46, 47. Lib. iii. p. 54. et Suct. Cal. c. 1 et 2.

* De Sejano vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 9. Lib. iv. princip. et per tot. Suet. Tib. Dio. Lib. lvii. lviii. et Plin. et Senec.

Arr. Most creeping base!

Sej. [to Natta.] I note them well: no more. Say you?

Sat. My lord,

There is a gentleman of Rome would buy-
Sej. How call you him you talk'd with?
Sat. Please your lordship,

It is Eudemus,' the physician
To Livia, Drusus' wife.

Sej. On with your suit.

Would buy, you said

. Sat. A tribune's place, my lord. Sej. What will he give?

Sat. Fifty sestertia."

Sej. Livia's physician, say you, is that fellow? Sat. It is, my lord: Your lordship's answer. Sej. To what?

Sat. The place, my lord. 'Tis for a gentleman Your lordship will well like of, when you see him; And one, that you may make yours, by the grant. Sej. Well, let him bring his money, and his

name.

Sat. "Thank your lordship. He shall, my lord. Sej. Come hither. Know you this same Eudemus? is he learn'd?

Sat. Reputed so, my lord, and of deep practice. Sej. Bring him in, to me, in the gallery; And take you cause to leave us there together: I would confer with him, about a griefOn. [Exeunt Sejanus, Satrius, Terentius, &c. Arr. So! yet another? yet? O desperate state Of groveling honour! seest thou this, O sun, And do we see thee after? Methinks, day Should lose his light, when men do lose their shames,

1 De Eudemo isto vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74.

Monetæ nostræ 375 lib. vid. Budæum de asse, Lib. ii. p. 64.