The face of men not seen, and scarce the day,
To thousands that communicate our loss."
Nor can I argue these of weakness; since
They take but natural ways; yet I must seek
For stronger aids, and those fair helps draw out
From warm embraces of the common-wealth.
Our mother, great Augusta, 's struck with time,
Our self imprest with aged characters,
Drusus is gone, his children young and babes;
Our aims must now reflect on those that may
Give timely succour to these present ills,
And are our only glad-surviving hopes,
The noble issue of Germanicus,

Nero and Drusus: might it please the consul
Honour them in, they both attend without.
I would present them to the senate's care,
And raise those suns of joy that should drink up'
These floods of sorrow in your drowned eyes.
Arr. By Jove, I am not Oedipus enough

To understand this Sphynx.

Sab. The princes come.

Enter NERO and DRUSUS junior.

Tib. Approach you, noble Nero, noble Drusus. These princes, fathers, when their parent died, I gave unto their uncle, with this prayer, That though he had proper issue of his own, He would no less bring up, and foster these, Than that self-blood; and by that act confirm Their worths to him, and to posterity.

• That communicate our loss.] Share in our loss, a latinism. WHAL. And raise those suns of joy that should drink up, &c.] The quarto reads,

And raise those springs of joy that should exhaust, &c.

Drusus ta'en hence, I turn my prayers to you,
And 'fore our country, and our gods, beseech
You take, and rule Angustus' nephew's sons,
Sprung of the noblest ancestors; and so
Accomplish both my duty, and your own.
Nero, and Drusus, these shall be to you
In place of parents, these your fathers, these;
And not unfitly for you are so born,

As all your good, or ill's the common-wealth's. Receive them, you strong guardians; and blest gods,

Make all their actions answer to their bloods:
Let their great titles find increase by them,
Not they by titles. Set them as in place,
So in example, above all the Romans:
And may they know no rivals but themselves.*
Let Fortune give them nothing; but attend
Upon their virtue: and that still come forth
Greater than hope, and better than their fame.
Relieve me, fathers, with your general voice.
Senators. May all the gods consent to Cæsar's
wish,

And add to any honours that may crown
The hopeful issue of Germanicus!

Tib. We thank you, reverend fathers, in their right.

8 And may they know no rivals but themselves.] In the Double Falsehood, brought out by Mr. Theobald as written by Shakspeare, is this line:

"None but himself can be his parallel,"

a mode of expression, which drew on him the ridicule of wits and critics. In vindication of himself he produced many similar passages from the classics, &c. and against this verse of Jonson, in the margin of his copy, he hath written parallel, as an instance of the like kind. I will add another from the Dumb Knight, 1608, A. 1. S. 1.

"She is herself, compared with herself,

For but herself she hath no companion." WHAL.

Arr. If this were true now! but the space, the space

Between the breast and lips-Tiberius' heart
Lies a thought farther than another man's. [Aside.
Tib. My comforts are so flowing in my joys,
As, in them, all my streams of grief are lost,
No less than are land-waters in the sea,

Or showers in rivers; though their cause was such,

As might have sprinkled ev'n the gods with tears: Yet, since the greater doth embrace the less, We covetously obey.

Arr. Well acted, Cæsar.

[Aside.

Tib. And now I am the happy witness made Of your so much desired affections To this great issue, I could wish, the Fates Would here set peaceful period to my days; However to my labours, I entreat,

And beg it of this senate, some fit ease.

h

Arr. Laugh, fathers, laugh: have you no spleens about you?

Tib. The burden is too heavy I sustain On my unwilling shoulders; and I pray It may be taken off, and reconferred

[Aside.

h Tacit. Lib. iv. p. 76. Ad vana et toties inrisa revolutus de reddenda Rep. utque consules, seu quis alius regimen susciperent. It may be added that Jonson is perfectly justified in putting this language into the mouth of Arruntius; as both he and his friend Asinius Gallus, were well known to be hostile to the new order of things, and indeed had been pointed out as determined republicans by Augustus, in one of his last conversations with Tiberius. They had also detected the hypocrisy of the latter, when, on another occasion, he had expressed a wish, as here, to share the burden of the empire with the senate, and bluntly demanded what part he would choose to take on himself: a question which completely silenced Tiberius, and which, though he openly expressed no displeasure at it, he neither forgot nor forgave.

Upon the consuls, or some other Roman,
More able, and more worthy.

Arr. Laugh on still.

[Aside.

Sab. Why this doth render all the rest sus

pected!

Gal. It poisons all.

Arr. O, do you taste it then?

Sab. It takes away my faith to any thing He shall hereafter speak.

Arr. Ay, to pray that,

Which would be to his head as hot as thunder, 'Gainst which he wears that charm,' should but

the court

Receive him at his word.

Gal. Hear!

Tib. For my self

I know my weakness, and so little covet,
Like some gone past, the weight that will oppress

me,

As my ambition is the counter-point.

Arr. Finely maintained; good still!
Sej. But Rome, whose blood,

Whose nerves, whose life, whose very frame relies

On Cæsar's strength, no less than heaven on Atlas, Cannot admit it but with general ruin.

Arr. Ah! are you there to bring him off?

Sej. Let Cæsar

No more then urge a point so contrary

[Aside.

To Cæsar's greatness, the grieved senate's vows, Or Rome's necessity.

i 'Gainst which he wears that charm.] Tonitrua præter modum expavescebat; et turbatiore cœlo nunquam non coronam lauream capite gestavit, quod fulmine afflari negetur id genus frondis. Suet. Tib. c. 69. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. xv. c. 20.

Gal. He comes about

Arr. More nimbly than Vertumnus.
Tib. For the publick,

I may be drawn to shew I can neglect
All private aims, though I affect my rest;
But if the senate still command me serve,
I must be glad to practise my obedience.'
Arr. You must and will, sir. We do know it.
[Aside.

Senators. Cæsar,

Live long and happy, great and royal Cæsar;
The gods preserve thee and thy modesty,

Thy wisdom and thy innocence!

Arr. Where is't?

The prayer is made before the subject. [Aside.

Senators. Guard

His meekness, Jove, his piety, his care,

His bounty

Arr. And his subtilty, I'll put in:

Yet he'll keep that himself, without the gods. All prayers are vain for him.

Tib. We will not hold

[Aside.

Your patience, fathers, with long answer; but

Shall still contend to be what you desire,

And work to satisfy so great a hope.

Proceed to your affairs.

Arr. Now, Silius, guard thee;

The curtain's drawing. Afer advanceth. [Aside.

Pra. Silence!

Afer. Cite Caius Silius.

Præ. Caius Silius!

Sil. Here.

Afer. The triumph that thou hadst in Germany

i Semper perplexa et obscura orat. Tib. vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i.

p. 5.

* Citabatur reus è tribunali voce præconis. vid. Bar. Brisson. Lib. 5, de form.