Be hot and cold with him; change every mood, Habit, and garb, as often as he varies; Observe him, as his watch observes his clock; And true, as turkoise in the dear lord's ring,

Look well or ill with him; ready to praise His lordship, if he spit, or but piss fair, Have an indifferent stool, or break wind well;

Nothing can 'scape their catch.

Sab. Alas! these things

Deserve no note, conferr'd with other vile,
And filthier flatteries, that corrupt the times:
When, not alone our gentries chief are fain
To make their safety from such sordid acts,
But all our consuls, and no little part
Of such as have been prætors, yea, the most
Of senators (that else not use their voices ^)
Pedarii.

Start up in public senate, and there strive Who shall propound most abject things, and base;

So much, as oft Tiberius hath been heard,
Leaving the court, to cry, O race of men,
Prepar'd for servitude! which shew'd that
he,

Who least the public liberty could like,
As lothly brook'd their flat servility.

Sil. Well, all is worthy of us, were it more, Who with our riots, pride, and civil hate, Have so provok'd the justice of the gods. We, that (within these fourscore years) were born

Free equal lords of the triumphed world",
And knew no masters, but affections;
To which betraying first our liberties,
We since became the slaves to one man's
lusts;

And now to many: every ministering spy
That will accuse and swear, is lord of you,
Of me, of all our fortunes and our lives.
Our looks are call'd to question, and our
words,

How innocent soever, are made crimes; We shall not shortly dare to tell our dreams,

Or think, but 'twill be treason. Sab. "Tyrants' arts

[power:

"Are to give flatterers grace; accusers, "That those may seem to kill whom they "devour."

Now, good Cremutius Cordus.
Cor. Hail to your lordship.

Nat. Who's that salutes your cousin?
Lat. 'Tis one Cordus, [They whisper.
A gentleman of Rome; one that has writ
Annals of late, they say, and very well.
Nat. Annals? of what times?
Lat. I think of Pompey's,

And Caius Cæsar's; and so down to these. Nat. How stands h' affected to the present state?

Is he or Drusian? or Germanican?
Or ours? or neutral ?

Lat. I know him not so far.

Nat. Those times are somewhat queasie

to be toucht. [work! Have you or seen, or heard part of his Lat. Not I; he means they shall be public shortly.

Nat. O, Cordus do you call him?
Lat. I.

Sub. But these our times
Are not the same, Arruntius.
Arr. Times? the men,

The men are not the same: 'tis we are base,
Poor, and degenerate from th' exalted strain
Of our great fathers. Where is now the soul
Of god-like Cato? he, that durst be good,
When Cæsar durst be evil; and had power,
As not to live his slave, to die his master.
Or where's the constant Brutus? that (being
proof

Against all charm of benefits) did strike
So brave a blow into the monster's heart
That sought unkindly 'to captive his country.
O, they are fled the light. Those mighty
spirits

Lie rak'd up with their ashes in their urns,
And not a spark of their eternal fire
Glows in a present bosom. All's but blaze,

The lines that follow, are a

Sat. 3. 106.

O race of men,

Flashes, and smoke, wherewith we labour so, There's nothing Roman in us; nothing good, Gallant or great: 'tis true that Cordus says, "Brave Cassius was the last of all that race." [Drusus passes by.

Sab. Stand by, lord Drusus.
Hat. Th' emperor's son, give place.
Sil. I like the prince well.

Arr. A riotous youth.

There's little hope of him.
Sab. That fault his age
Will, as it grows, correct Methinks he bears
Himself each day, more nobly than other;
And wins no less on men's affections,
Than doth his father lose. Believe me, I
love him;

And chiefly for opposing to Sejanus."

Sil. And I, for gracing his young kins

Arr. His name was, while he liv'd, above all envy;

And being dead, without it. O, that man! If there were seeds of the old virtue lett, They liv'd in him.

Sil. He had the fruits, Arruntius, More than the seeds: Sabinus, and myself Had means to know him, within; and can report him. [friends.)

We were his followers, (he would call us
'He was a man 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 reverent
In face, than fame: he could so use his state
Temp'ring his greatness with his gravity,
As it avoided all self-love in him,
And spight in others. What his funerals lack'd
In images, and pomp, they had supply'd
With honourable sorrow, soldiers' sadness,
A kind of silent mourning, such, as men

(Who know no tears, but from their cap tives) use

To shew in so great losses.
Cor. I thought once 10,
[deaths,
Considering their forms, age, manner of
The nearness of the places where they fell,
T'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.

Sub. 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 bond-man'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

[he:

Honour'd and lov'd, there is a trick in state
(Which jealous princes never fail to use)
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
And had his seconds there, sent by Tiberius,
And his more subtle dam, to discontent him;
To breed and cherish mutinies; detract
His greatest actions; give audacious check

• He was a man most like to virtue; in all

And every action, nearer to the gods,

10 I thought once

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 [ducing Mace him a strength too, strangely, by reAll 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 enterprise
Should be attempted, their united strength
Would be far more than sever'd; and their
life

More strict, if from the city more remov’d. Sub. Where, now, he builds, what kind of forts he please,

Is heard to court the soldier, by his name, Wooes, feasts the chiefest men of action, Whose wants, not loves, compel them to

be his.

But I would find it out: and with my hand
I'd hurl h's panting brain about the air
In mites, as small as atomes, to undo
The knotted bed→→

Sub. You are observ'd, Arruntius.
Arr. Death! I dare tell him so; and all
his spies: [He turns to Sejanus' Clients.
You, sir, I would, do you look? and you.
Sub. Forbear.

Satrius, Endeus, Sejanus.

Sat. Here he will in tant be; let's walk a You're in a muse, Eudemus? [turn;

Eud Not I, sir.

I wonder he should mark me cut so! well, Jove and Apollo form it for the best.

Sat. Your fortune's made unto you now, Eudemus,

If you can but lay hold upon the means; Do but observe his humour, and--believe it

He is the noblest Roman, where he takes--Here comes his lordship.

Sej. Now, good Satrius.

Sat. This is the gentleman, my lord.
Sej. Is this?

[quainted. Give me your hand, we must be more acReport, sir, hath spoke out your art and learning:

And I am glad I have so needful cause,
(However in itself painful and hard)
To make me known to so great virtue. Look,
Who is that, Satrius ?—I have a grief, sir,
That will desire your help. Your name's
Eudemus?

Sej. Go to,

You are a subtle nation, you physicians!
And grown the only cabinets in court,
To ladies' privacies. Faith, which of these
Is the most pleasant lady in her physick?
Come, you are modest now.
Eud.Lis fit, my lord.

Sej. Why, sir, I do not ask you of their urines, [is best? Whose smell's most violet? or whose siege Or who makes hardest faces on her stool? Which lady sleeps with her own face anights? Which puts her teeth off, with her clothes, in court?

“in gain.”

[betray

Eud. But, good my lord, if I should thus The counsels of my patient, and a lady's Of her high place and worth; what might your lordship

(Who presently are to trust me with your Judge of my faith? [own,)

Sej. Only the best I swear. Say now that I should utter you my grief? And with it the true cause; that it were love, And love to Livia; you should tell her this? Should she suspect your faith? I would you could

Tell me as much from her; see if my brain Could be turn'd jealous.

Eud. Happily, my lord,

I could in time tell you as much and more ;
So I might safely promise but the first
To her from you.

Sej. As safely, my Eudemus,

(I now dare call thee so) as I have put The secret into thee.

Eud. Yes.

Sej. The place? [your lordship. Eud. My gardens, whither I shall fetch Sej. Let me adore my Esculapius. Why, this indeed is physick! and outspeaks

The knowledge of cheap drugs, or any use Can be made out of it! more comforting Than all your opiates, juleps, apozems, Magistral syrups, or-- -Be gone, my friend, Not barely styled, but created so;

Expect things greater than thy largest hopes, To overtake thee: fortune shall be taught To know how ill she hath deserv'd thus Jong,

To come behind thy wishes. Go, and speed. "Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need."

These fellows, by the favour of their art, Have still the means to tempt; oft-times the power.

If Livia will be now corrupted, then
Thou hast the way, Sejanus, to work out
His secrets, who (thou know'st) endures thee
not,
[them.
Her husband Drusus: and to work against
Prosper it, Pallas, thou that better st wit ;
For Venus hath the smallest share in it.
Tiberius, Sejanus, Drusus.

[One kneels to him. Tib. We not endure these flatteries, let him stand;

Our empire, ensigns, axes, rods and state
Take not away our human nature from us:
Look up, on us, and tali before the gods.
Sej. How like a god speaks Cæsar!
Arr. There observe!
[tery.
He can endure that second, that's no lat-
O, what is it, proud slime will not believe
Of his own worth, to hear it equal prais'd
Thus with the gods?

Cor. He did not hear it, sir.

Arr. He did not? Tut, he must not,
we think meanly.

'Tis your most courtly known confederacy,
To have your private parasite redeem
What he in public subtilly will lose,
In making him a name.

Hat. Right mighty lord――

Tib. We must make up our ears 'gainst