Arr. His name was, while he lived, above all
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,
Sabinus, and myself

More than the seeds:

envy;

Had means to know him within; and can report him.
We were his followers, he would call us friends;
He was a manR 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,
As it avoided all self-love in him,

e

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,

8 He was a man, &c.] Jonson has borrowed the noble character which Paterculus hath given Cato, and applies it with great propriety to Germanicus. Homo virtuti simillimus, et per omnia ingenio diis quam hominibus propior, l. 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.

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

e Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 47, et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 705.

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 goodness;
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,

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.

Vid. apud Vell. Paterc. Lips. 4to. pp. 35—47, istorum hominum

characteres.

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

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. 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,1 the physician

To Livia, Drusus' wife.

h Con. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 39, de occultis mandatis Pisoni, et postea, pp. 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. pp. 46, 47. Lib. iii. p. 54, et Suet. Cal.

C. I 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.

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

P. 74.

Sej. On with your suit.
Would buy, you said-

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

Sat. Fifty sestertia.TM

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 grief-

On. [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,
And for the empty circumstance of life,1

Betray their cause of living.

Sil. Nothing so."

Sejanus can repair, if Jove should ruin.

He is now the court god; and well applied

With sacrifice of knees, of crooks, and cringes;

1 And for the empty circumstance of life,

Betray their cause of living.]

Et propter vitam, vivendi perdere causam. Juv. Sat. viii. v. 84.

m Monetæ nostræ 375 lib. vid. Budæum de asse, Lib. ii. p. 64. "De ingenio, moribus, et potentia Sejani, leg. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. P. 74. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 708.

He will do more than all the house of heaven
Can, for a thousand hecatombs. 'Tis he
Makes us our day, or night; hell, and elysium
Are in his look: we talk of Rhadamanth,
Furies, and firebrands; but it is his frown
That is all these; where, on the adverse part,
His smile is more, than e'er yet poets feign'd
Of bliss, and shades, nectar-

Arr. A serving boy!

I knew him, at Caius' trencher," when for hire
He prostituted his abused body

To that great gormond, fat Apicius;

And was the noted pathic of the time.

Sab. And, now, the second face of the whole world!
The partner of the empire, hath his image
Rear'd equal with Tiberius, born in ensigns;
Commands, disposes every dignity,

Centurions, tribunes, heads of provinces,
Prætors and consuls; all that heretofore
Rome's general suffrage gave, is now his sale.
The gain, or rather spoil of all the earth,
One, and his house, receives.

Sil. He hath of late

Made him a strength too, strangely, by reducing
All the prætorian bands into one camp,

Which he commands: pretending that the soldiers,
By living loose and scatter'd, fell to riot;
And that if any sudden enterprize

Should be attempted, their united strength

Would be far more than sever'd; and their life

More strict, if from the city more removed.

Sab. Where, now, he builds what kind of forts he please,

Is heard to court the soldier by his name,

• Caius divi Augusti nepos. Cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74, et Dio. Lib. lvii. p. 706.

P Juv. Sat. x. v. 63, &c. Tacit. ibid. Dion. ibid. et sic passim.