It hath that rare appearance. Some will think Your fortune could not yield a deeper sound, Than mix'd with Drusus; but, when they shall hear

That, and the thunder of Sejanus meet,

Sejanus, whose high name doth strike the stars,
And rings about the concave; great Sejanus,
Whose glories, style, and titles are himself,
The often iterating of Sejanus:

They then will lose their thoughts, and be ashamed
To take acquaintance of them.

Re-enter SEJANUS,

Sej. I must make

prayer.

A rude departure, lady: Cæsar sends
With all his haste both of command and
Be resolute in our plot; you have my soul,
As certain yours as it is my body's.
And, wise physician,' so prepare the poison,
As you may lay the subtile operation
Upon some natural disease of his :

Your eunuch send to me. I kiss your hands,
Glory of ladies, and commend my love
To your best faith and memory.

Liv. My lord,

I shall but change your words. Farewell. Yet, this

Remember for your heed, he loves you not;
You know what I have told you: his designs
Are full of grudge and danger; we must use
More than a common speed.

Sej. Excellent lady,

How you do fire my blood!
Liv. Well, you must go?

1 Tacit. ibid. et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 709

show.

The thoughts be best, are least set forth to
[Exit Sejanus.
Eud. When will you take some physic, lady?
Liv. When

I shall, Eudemus: but let Drusus' drug
Be first prepared.

Eud. Were Lygdus made,' that's done;
I have it ready. And to-morrow morning
I'll send you a perfume, first to resolve
And procure sweat, and then prepare a bath
To cleanse and clear the cutis; against when
I'll have an excellent new fucus made,
Resistive 'gainst the sun, the rain, or wind,
Which you shall lay on with a breath, or oil,
As you best like, and last some fourteen hours.
This change came timely, lady, for your health,
And the restoring your complexion,

Which Drusus' choler had almost burnt up; Wherein your fortune hath prescribed you better Than art could do.

Liv. Thanks, good physician,

I'll use my fortune, you shall see, with reverence. Is my coach ready?

Eud. It attends your highness.

SCENE II.

An Apartment in the Palace.

Enter SEJANUS.

[Exeunt.

If this be not revenge, when I have done
And made it perfect, let Egyptian slaves,"

9 Were Lygdus made, &c.] i. e. prepared for the business. See Vol. I. p. 145.

Hi apud Romanos barbari et vilissimi æstimab. Juv. Mart. &c.

VOL. III.

E

Parthians, and bare-foot Hebrews brand my face, And print my body full of injuries.

Thou lost thyself, child Drusus, when thou thoughtst

Thou couldst outskip my vengeance; or outstand
The power I had to crush thee into air.

Thy follies now shall taste what kind of man
They have provoked, and this thy father's house
Crack in the flame of my incensed rage,
Whose fury shall admit no shame or mean.-
Adultery! it is the lightest ill

I will commit. A race of wicked acts
Shall flow out of my anger, and o'erspread
The world's wide face, which no posterity'
Shall e'er approve, nor yet keep silent: things
That for their cunning, close, and cruel mark,
Thy father would wish his; and shall, perhaps,
Carry the empty name, but we the prize.
On, then, my soul, and start not in thy course;
Though heaven drop sulphur, and hell belch out
fire,

Laugh at the idle terrors: tell proud Jove, Between his power and thine there is no odds: 'Twas only fear first in the world made gods."

I

Enter TIBERIUS attended.

Tib. Is yet Sejanus come?
Sej. He's here, dread Cæsar.

Which no posterity

Shall e'er approve, nor yet keep silent:] This sentiment, with what precedes and follows it, is from the Thyestes of Seneca: Age, anime, fac quod nulla posteritas probet,

Sed nulla taceat: aliquod audendum est nefas
Atrox, cruentum; tale quod frater meus

Suum esse malit.

Act. II. v. 192.

WHAL.

Idem, et Petro. Arbiter, Sut. et Statius, Lib. iii.

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 ?

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.'

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.

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.

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.