The causes of our sending, and the ends,
You will then hearken nearer; and be pleas'd
You stand so high both in our choice and trust.
Mac. The humblest place in Cæsar's choice or
trust,
May make glad Macro proud; without ambition,
Save to do Cæsar service.
Tib. Leave your courtings.
We are in purpose, Macro, to depart
The city for a time, and see Campania;
Not for our pleasures, but to dedicate
A pair of temples, one to Jupiter
At Capua; th' other at Nola, to Augustus:
In which great work, perhaps our stay will be
Beyond our will produced. Now, since we are
Not ignorant what danger may be born.
Out of our shortest absence in a state
So subject unto envy, and embroil'd
With hate and faction; we have thought on thee,
Amongst a field of Romans, worthiest Macro,
To be our eye and ear: to keep strict watch
On Agrippina, Nero, Drusus; ay,
And on Sejanus: not that we distrust
His loyalty, or do repent one grace,
Of all that heap we have conferred on him;
For that were to disparage our election,
And call that judgment now in doubt, which then
Seem'd as unquestion'd as an oracle
But, greatness hath his cankers. Worms and
Breed out of too much humour,' in the things
9 Breed out of too much humour, &c.] This is agreeable to the notion of equivocal generation received in that age. WHAL.
Saet. Tib. c. 4. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lviii. p. 711. * Suet. Tib. c. 43. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 91.
Which after they consume, transferring quite
The substance of their makers into themselves.
Macro is sharp, and apprehends: besides,
I know him subtle, close, wise, and well-read
In man, and his large nature; he hath studied
Affections, passions, knows their springs, their
ends,
Which way, and whether they will work: 'tis proof
Enough of his great merit, that we trust him.
Then to a point, because our conference
Cannot be long without suspicion--
Here, Macro, we assign thee, both to spy,
Inform, and chastise; think, and use thy means,
Thy ministers, what, where, on whom thou wilt;
Explore, plot, practise: all thou dost in this,
Shall be, as if the senate, or the laws
Had given it privilege, and thou thence styled
The saviour both of Cæsar and of Rome.
We will not take thy answer but in act:
Whereto, as thou proceed'st, we hope to hear
By trusted messengers. If 't be enquired,
Wherefore we call'd you, say you have in charge
To see our chariots ready, and our horse.-
Be still our loved and, shortly, honour'd Macro.
[Exit.
Mac. I will not ask, why Cæsar bids do this;
But joy, that he bids me.' It is the bliss
Of courts, to be employ'd, no matter how;
A prince's power makes all his actions virtue.
We, whom he works by, are dumb instruments,
To do, but not enquire: his great intents
Are to be served, not search'd. Yet, as that bow
Is most in hand, whose owner best doth know
De Macrone et ingenio ejus, cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. vi. pp. 114, 115.
To affect his aims; so let that statesman hope
Most use, most price, can hit his prince's scope.
Nor must he look at what, or whom to strike,
But loose at all; each mark must be alike.
Were it to plot against the fame, the life
Of one, with whom I twinn'd; remove a wife
From my warm side, as loved as is the air;
Practise away each parent; draw mine heir
In compass, though but one; work all my kin
To swift perdition; leave no untrain'd engin,
For friendship, or for innocence; nay make
The Gods all guilty; I would undertake
This, being imposed me, both with gain and ease:
The way to rise is to obey and please.
He that will thrive in state, he must neglect
The trodden paths that truth and right respect;
And prove new, wilder ways: for virtue there
Is not that narrow thing, she is elsewhere;
Men's fortune there is virtue; reason their will;
Their license, law; and their observance, skill.
Occasion is their foil; conscience, their stain;
Profit their lustre; and what else is, vain.
If then it be the lust of Cæsar's power,"
To have raised Sejanus up, and in an hour
O'erturn him, tumbling down, from height of all;
We are his ready engine: and his fall
May be our rise. It is no uncouth thing1
To see fresh buildings from old ruins spring.
It is no uncouth thing, &c.] i. e. strange, unknown, unproved. Thus Spenser, F. Q. B. 1, c. ii. 20:
"The percing steele there wrought a wound full wyde, That with the uncouth smart the monster loudly cryde."
And Milton, the constant follower of our poet,
"And through the palpable obscure find out
His uncouth way." Par. Lost, B. 2, 404.
Vide Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lviii. p. 718, &c.
An Apartment in Agrippina's House.
Enter GALLUS and AGRIPPINA.
Gal. You must have patience," royal Agrippina. Agr. I must have vengeance, first; and that
Unto my famish'd spirits. O, my fortune,
Let it be sudden thou prepar'st against me;
Strike all my powers of understanding blind,
And ignorant of destiny to come!
Let me not fear, that cannot hope.
Gal. Dear princess,
These tyrannies on yourself, are worse than Cæsar's.
Agr. Is this the happiness of being born great?
Still to be aim'd at? still to be suspected?
To live the subject of all jealousies?
At least the colour made, if not the ground
To every painted danger? who would not
Choose once to fall, than thus to hang for ever?
Gal. You might be safe if you would-
Agr. What, my Gallus!
Be lewd Sejanus' strumpet, or the bawd
To Cæsar's lusts, he now is gone to practise?
Not these are safe, where nothing is. Yourself,
While thus you stand but by me, are not safe.
Was Silius safe? or the good Sosia safe?
Or was my niece, dear Claudia Pulchra, safe,
" Agrippina semper atrox, tum et periculo propinquæ accensa. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 89.
• Pulchra et Furnius damnat. Tacit. Ann, ibid.
Or innocent Furnius? they that latest have
(By being made guilty) added reputation
To Afer's eloquence? O, foolish friends,
Could not so fresh example warn your loves,
But you must buy my favours with that loss
Unto yourselves; and when you might perceive
That Cæsar's cause of raging must forsake him,
Before his will! Away, good Gallus, leave me.
Here to be seen, is danger; to speak, treason:
To do me least observance, is call'd faction.
You are unhappy in me, and I in all.
Where are my sons, Nero and Drusus? We
Are they be shot at; let us fall apart;
Not in our ruins, sepulchre our friends.
Or shall we do some action like offence,
To mock their studies that would make us faulty,
And frustrate practice by preventing it?
The danger's like: for what they can contrive,
They will make good. No innocence is safe,
When power contests: nor can they trespass more,
Whose only being was all crime before.
Enter NERO, DRUSUS, and CALIGULA.
Ner. You hear Sejanus is come back from Cæsar? Gal. No. How? disgraced?
Dru. More graced now than ever.
Gal. By what mischance?
Cal. A fortune like enough
Once to be bad.
Dru. But turn'd too good to both.
Gal. What was't?
P Afer primoribus oratorum additus, divulgato ingenio, &c. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 89.
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