Unto my children, this I wish: myself
Have no ambition farther than to end
My days in service of so dear a master.
Tib. We cannot but commend thy piety;
Most loved Sejanus, in acknowledging
Those bounties; which we, faintly, such re-
member-

But to thy suit. The rest of mortal men,
In all their drifts and counsels, pursue profit;
Princes alone are of a different sort,
Directing their main actions still to fame:
We therefore will take time to think and answer.
For Livia she can best, herself, resolve

If she will marry, after Drusus, or
Continue in the family; besides,

She hath a mother, and a grandam yet,

Whose nearer counsels she may guide her by:
But I will simply deal. That enmity
Thou fear'st in Agrippina, would burn more,
If Livia's marriage should, as 'twere in parts,
Divide the imperial house; an emulation
Between the women might break forth; and
discord

с

Ruin the sons and nephews on both hands.
What if it cause some present difference?
Thou art not safe, Sejanus, if thou prove it.
Canst thou believe, that Livia, first the wife
To Caius Cæsar, then my Drusus, now
Will be contented to grow old with thee,
Born but a private gentleman of Rome,
And raise thee with her loss, if not her shame ?
Or say that I should wish it, canst thou think
The senate, or the people (who have seen
Her brother, father, and our ancestors,
In highest place of empire) will endure it?

с

August. nepoti et M. Vapsanii Agrippa filio ex Julia.

The state thou hold'st already, is in talk;
Men murmur at thy greatness; and the nobles
Stick not, in public, to upbraid thy climbing
Above our father's favours, or thy scale:
And dare accuse me, from their hate to thee.
Be wise, dear friend. We would not hide these
things,

For friendship's dear respect: nor will we stand
Adverse to thine, or Livia's designments.

What we have purposed to thee, in our thought,
And with what near degrees of love to bind thee,
And make thee equal to us; for the present,
We will forbear to speak. Only, thus much
Believe, our loved Sejanus, we not know
That height in blood or honour, which thy virtue
And mind to us, may not aspire with merit.
And this we'll publish, on all watch'd occasion
The senate or the people shall present.

Sej. I am restored, and to my sense again,
Which I had lost in this so blinding suit.
Cæsar hath taught me better to refuse,
Than I knew how to ask. How pleaseth' Cæsar
T'embrace my late advice for leaving Rome?
Tib. We are resolved.

Sej. Here are some motives more,

[Gives him a paper. Which I have thought on since, may more confirm. Tib. Careful Sejanus! we will straight peruse

them :

Go forward in our main design, and prosper.

[Exit.

Sej. If those but take, I shall. Dull, heavy

Cæsar!

Wouldst thou tell me, thy favours were made crimes,

f Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 85, Dio. Lib. Iviii.

And that my fortunes were esteem'd thy faults,
That thou for me wert hated, and not think
I would with winged haste prevent that change,
When thou might'st win all to thyself again,
By forfeiture of me? Did those fond words
Fly swifter from thy lips, than this my brain,
This sparkling forge, created me an armour
T'encounter chance and thee? Well, read my
charms,

And may they lay that hold upon thy senses,
As thou hadst snuft up hemlock, or ta'en down

The juice of poppy and of mandrakes. Sleep, Voluptuous Cæsar, and security

Seize on thy stupid powers, and leave them dead

To public cares; awake but to thy lusts,

The strength of which makes thy libidinous soul
Itch to leave Rome! and I have thrust it on;
With blaming of the city business,

The multitude of suits, the confluence
Of suitors; then their importunacies,
The manifold distractions he must suffer,
Besides ill-rumours, envies, and reproaches,
All which a quiet and retired life,

Larded with ease and pleasure, did avoid:
And yet for any weighty and great affair,
The fittest place to give the soundest counsels.
By this I shall remove him both from thought
And knowledge of his own most dear affairs;
Draw all dispatches through my private hands;
Know his designments, and pursue mine own;
Make mine own strengths by giving suits and
places,

Conferring dignities and offices;

And these that hate me now, wanting access

• Tacit, ibid.

To him, will make their envy none, or less:
For when they see me arbiter of all,

They must observe; or else, with Cæsar fall.

SCENE. III.

Another Room in the same.

Enter TIBERIUS.

[Exit.

Tib. To marry Livia! will no less, Sejanus, Content thy aims? no lower object? well! Thou know'st how thou art wrought into our trust;

Woven in our design; and think'st we must
Now use thee, whatsoe'er thy projects are:
'Tis true. But yet with caution and fit care.
And, now we better think- who's there within?

Off. Cæsar!

Enter an Officer.

Tib. To leave our journey off, were sin 'Gainst our decreed delights; and would appear Doubt; or, what less becomes a prince, low

fear.

Yet doubt hath law, and fears have their excuse,
Where princes' states plead necessary use;
As ours doth now: more in Sejanus' pride,
Than all fell Agrippina's hates beside.
Those are the dreadful enemies, we raise
With favours, and make dangerous with praise;
The injured by us may have will alike,,
But 'tis the favourite hath the power to strike;
And fury ever boils more high and strong,
Heat with ambition, than revenge of wrong.

'Tis then a part of supreme skill, to grace No man too much; but hold a certain space Between the ascender's rise, and thine own flat, Lest, when all rounds be reach'd, his aim be that. 'Tis thought [Aside.]—Is Macro in the palace?

see:

If not, go seek him, to come to us. [Exit Officer.] -He

Must be the organ we must work by now;
Though none less apt for trust: need doth allow
What choice would not., I have heard that
aconite,

Being timely taken, hath a healing might
Against the scorpion's stroke; the proof we'll give:
That, while two poisons wrestle, we may live.
He hath a spirit too working to be used
But to the encounter of his like; excused
Are wiser sov'reigns then, that raise one ill
Against another, and both safely kill:

The prince that feeds great natures, they will sway him;

Who nourisheth a lion, must obey him.

Re-enter Officer with MACRO.

Macro, we sent for you.

Mac. I heard so, Cæsar.

Tib. Leave us a while. [Exit Offi.]-When you shall know, good Macro,

I have heard that aconite,

Being timely taken, hath a healing might

Against the scorpion's stroke ;] Hoc quoque tamen in usus humanæ salutis vertere; scorpionum ictibus adversari experiendo, datum in vino calido. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 27, C. 2. WHAL.

h De Macrone isto, vid. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lii. p. 718, et Tacit. Ann. Lib. vi. p. 109, &c.