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, conterr'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

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.
Nut. How stands h' affected to the pre-
sent 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,

1

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,

And true, as TURKISE in the dear lord's ring, Look well or ill with him.] Alluding to the fable of the turkoise stone, which is said to change its colour, as the wearer is in good or bad health. The lines that follow, are a translation from these of Juvenal:

-Laudare paratus,

Si bene ructavit, si rectum minxit amicus,
Si trulla inverso crepitum dedit aurea fundo.

Sat. 3. 106.

Senators, that else not use their voices.] The poet has here added in the margin the word Pedurii. It is the classical expression for those who never spoke in the senate, but only went over to the side they voted for: hence they were said pedibus ire in sententiam.

O race of men,

Prepar'd for servitude! &c.] Tacitus explains this; Memoria proditur Tiberium, quotiens curia egrederetur, Græcis verbis in hunc modum eloqui solitum, "O homines ad servitutem paratos!" scilicet etiam illum, qui libertatem publicam nollet, tam projectæ servientium patientiæ tædebat. Annal. 1. 3. c. 65.

• Equal lords of the triumphed world.] i. e. The Roman empire. The expression is fine, and gives us an admirable idea of what every private citizen of Rome esteemed himself, in the times of the republick.

' UNKINDLY to captive his country.] i. e. unnaturally: for the word kind, signifying nature, with its compounds and derivatives, was thus used by the writers of that age.

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.

love him;

Believe me, I

8

And chiefly for opposing to Sejanus. *
Sil. And I, for gracing his young kins-

name.

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

10
>

To shew in so great losses.
Cor. I thought once
[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.

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 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
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:

For opposing to Sejanus.] This construction is a glaring Latinism. Spenser has many instances of the same nature: and the Arcadia supplies us with one exactly parallel; "Resist to its oppressor." Book 5. p. 455. edit. fol. 1674. Mr. SYMPSON.

Our translation of the Bible furnisheth us with another instance of the same nature; a construction by no means inelegant, even in prose: "His servants ye are, to whom ye obey," i. e. are obedient, Rom. vi. 16.

9

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

And every action, nearer to the gods,

Than men, in nature.] 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 quàm hominibus propior. Paterculus, 1. 2. c. 35. The margin of the edition in 1605, is crouded with references to the Roman historians; but they 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. 10 I thought once

T' have parallel'd him with great Alexander.] This observation comes with great decorum of character from the mouth of Cordus the historian: 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.

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.
Cor. Here comes Sejanus.
Sil. Now observe the stoops,
The bendings, and the fails.
Arr. Most creeping base!

Sejanus, Satrius, Terentius, &c.
[They pass over the stage.
Sej. I note 'em well: no more. Say you.
Sat. My lord,

There is a gentleman of Rome would
buy

Sej. How do you call him you talk'd with?
Sat. 'Please your lordship,

It is Eudemus, the physician
To Livia, Drusus' wife.

Sej. On with your suit.

Would buy, you said

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

Sat. Fifty sestertia".

Sej. Livia's physician, say you, is that

fellow?

learn'd?

Fifty sestertia.] That is of our money, as Jonson himself hath noted, 375l. for which he refers us to Budæus de asse, 1. 2, p. 64. 12 And for the empty circumstance of life, Betray their cause of living.]

Et propter vitam, vivendi perdere causam. · Juvenal. sat. 8. v. 84.

Dr. GREY.

13 I knew him at Caius trencher.] He means Caius Cæsar, the grandson of Augustus. Primâ juventá C. Cæsarem Divi Augusti nepotem sectatus, non sine rumore Apicio diviti et prodigo stuprum venum dedisse. Tacit. Annal. I. 4. c. 1.

14 To that great GORMOND fat APICIUS.] Apicius was a thorough-paced epicure. Apicius homo luxuriosissimus; 128 libros de condimentis jusculorum et ferculorum scripsit. To him Juvenal alludes, sat. xi. 2, 3.

est.

-Quid enim majore cachinno

Excipitur vulgi, quàm pauper Apicius?

Not. Lubini. Pauper Apicius, prorsus proverbii speciem habet in illum qui gulosus et inops Tres fuisse Apicios, eosdemque gulosos, diversis fuisse temporibus, animadvertit Lipsius. Comment. ad l. 4. Annal. Tacit. Vide plura Fabricii bibliothec. Latin. He calls him gormond from Gormond, called likewise Guthrum, the Danish king, who was overcome by king Alfred. "In regard the Danes consumed their time in profuseness and "belly-cheer, in idleness, and sloth-in so much, that from the laziness of the Danes in "general, we even to this day call a slothful, idle person a Lurdane. So from the licen"tiousness of this Gurmond and his army, we brand all luxurious people with the name of "gurmondizers."

Webb's Vindication of Stone-henge restored, 2d ed. 1725. p. 227. "Gurmond lived about the middle of the ninth century." Dr. GREY.

Cc

"He ne'er were liberal BY KIND.] By nature. See note 7.

16 Your lordship is conceited.] Merry, disposed to joke. So in Every Man in his Humour, "You are conceited, sir."

"Harmless inter'gatories, BUT conceits.] i. e. nothing, but conceits. Though Mr. Sympson conjectures that pure is the true reading.