'Twas only fear first in the world made Tiberius, Sejanus. Tib. Is yet Sejanus come? Tib. Let all depart that chamber, and the next: [prince Sej. Yes, to those are fear'd. Sej. Not, if he wisely turn That part of fate he holdeth, first on them. Tib. That nature, blood, and laws of kind' forbid. Sej. Do policy and state forbid it? Sej. The rest of poor respects, then, let go by; [guilty. State is enough to make th' act just, them Tib. Long hate pursues such acts. Sej. Whom hatred frights, Let him not dream of sov'reignty. Tib. Are rites Of faith, love, piety, to be trod down, Forgotten, and made vain? Sej. All for a crown. [bear, The prince who shames a tyrant's name to Shall never dare do any thing, but fear; All the command of sceptres quite doth perish, If it begin religious thoughts to cherish: Whole empires fall, sway'd by those nice respects; It is the licence of dark deeds protects Ev'n states most hated, when no laws resist The sword, but that it acteth what it list. Tib. Yet so, we may do all things cruelly, Not safely. Sej. Yes, and do them thoroughly. Tib. Knows yet Sejanus whom we point at ? Sej. I, [err: Or else my thought, my sense, or both do 'Tis Agrippina. Tib. She, and her proud race. Sej. Proud! dangerous, Cæsar. For in them apace The father's spirit shoots up. Germanicus Lives in their looks, their gait, their form, t' upbraid us With his close death, if not revenge the same. Tib. The act's not known. Sej. Not prov'd: but whispering fame Knowledge and proof doth to the jealous give, [believe. 'Who, than to fail, would their own thought It is not safe, the children draw long breath, That are provoked by a parent's death. Tib. It is as dangerous to make them hence, If nothing but their birth be their offence. Sej. Stay, till they strike at Cæsar; then their crime Will be enough, but late and out of time Tib. Do they purpose it? [till it hit. To the same gods, with Cæsar: days and 7 she tells ''Twas only fear first in the world made gods.] A translation from Petronius Arbiter : Primus in orbe deos fecit timor. Dr. GREY. Laws of KIND forbid.] Laws of nature. Who, than to fail, would their own thought believe.] i. e. Who, rather than want, or fail of proof, would believe the mere evidence of their own thoughts. Jonson affects great. brevity in his expression, and, in consequence of that, is not always so clear as he might be. She tells, Whose niece she was, whose daughter, and whose wife.] Agrippina was the niece of Augustus, the daugliter of Agrippa and Julia, and the wife of Germanicus. D d (That's still the friend of novelty) with hope Tib. We will command Their rank thoughts down, and with a stricter hand [must bate, Than we have yet put forth; their trains Their titles, feasts and factions. Sej. Or your state. But how, sir, will you work? Tib. Confine 'em. Stj. No. 1 They are too great, and that too faint a blow To give them now; it would have serv'd at first, [burst. When with the weakest touch their knot had But, now, your care must be, not to detect The smallest cord, or line of your suspect; For such, who know the weight of princes' fear, [rear Will, when they find themselves discover'd, Their forces, like seen snakes, that else would lie [high, Roul'd in their circles, close: nought is more Daring, or desperate, than offenders found; Where guilt is, rage and courage both [up, The course must be, to let them still swell Riot, and surfeit on blind fortune's cup; Give 'em more place, more dignities, more stile, abound. Call 'em to court, to senate; in the while, Take from their strength some one or twain, or more, Of the main fautors; (it will fright the store) And, by some by-occasion. Thus, with slight [night You shall disarm them first; and they (in While thus your thought unto a mean is ty'd, You neither dare enough, nor do provide. All modesty is fond; and chiefly where The subject is no less compell'd to bear, Than praise his sov'reign's acts. Tib. We can no longer Keep on our mask to thee, our dear Sejanus; Thy thoughts are ours, in all, and we but prov'd [ing Their voice, in our designs, which by assentHath more confirm'd us, than if heart'ning Jove Had, from his hundred statues, bid us strike, And at the stroke clickt all his marble But who shall first be struck? [thumbs: Sej. First, Caius Silius; He is the most of mark, and most of danger: In power and reputation equal strong, Having commanded an imperial army Seven years together, vanquish'd Sacrovir In Germany, and thence obtain'd to wear The ornaments triumphal. His steep fall, By how much it doth give the weightier crack, Will send more wounding terror to the rest, Command them stand aloof, and give more To our surprizing of the principal. [way Tib. But what, Sabinus? Sej. Let him grow a while, His fate is not yet ripe: we must not pluck trick, No practice unexamin'd, parallels For the old liberty And at the stroke clickt all his marble thumbs.] The sense is obscure; but the poet hath let us into his meaning, by his own note upon the place. It alludes to the Roman eustom of shewing favour, or pronouncing death, to the vanquished gladiators, by bending the thumb. Jonson's words are these: Premere pollicem, apud Romanos, maximi favoris erat signum. Horat. ep. ad Lollium. Fautor utroque tuum laudabit pollice ludum. Et Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 28. cap. 2. Pollices, cum faveumus, premere etiam proverbio jubemur. To be quite broken, and ta'en hence by us, Than have the strain to be preserv'd by such. Have we the means to make these guilty [power, first? Sej. Trust that to me; let Cæsar," by his But cause a formal meeting of the senate, I will have matter, and accusers ready. Tib. But how? let us consult. Sej. We shall mispend The time of action. Counsels are unfit Thrive more by execution than advice. 9 cess; And (by your kindest friend) get swift ac[Mutilia Prisca. Acquaint her with these meetings: tell the words 10 You brought me (th' other day) of Silius, Add somewhat to 'em. Make her understand The danger of Sabinus, and the times, Out of his closeness. Give Arruntius words Of malice against Cæsar; so, to Gallus: But, (above all) to Agrippina. Say, (As you may truly) that her infinite pride, Propt with the hopes of her too fruitful womb, With popular studies gapes for sovereignty, And threatens Cæsar. Pray Augusta then, That for her own, great Cæsar's, and the public [gers. Safety, she be pleas'd to urge these danCæsar is too secure (he must be told, And best he'll take it from a mother's tongue:) Alas! what is't for us to sound, t' explore, To earnest and most present execution, Our late design, and spur on Cæsar's rage: Which else might grow remiss. The way to put fear; A prince in blood, is to present the shapes Of dangers, greater than they are (like late, Or early shadows) and, sometimes, to feign Where there are none, only to make him [entred, His fear will make him cruel: and once He doth not easily learn to stop, or spare Where he may doubt. This have I made my rule, Epu dávoνros yaia xew upi.] This Greek verse, as the historians say, Tiberius had often in his mouth, and the poet thought it too memorable to omit it. 10 -Tell the words You brought me (th' other day) of Silius.] The words of Silius, to which the poet refers, are related by Tacitus in this manner: Immodicè jactantis (sc. Silii) suum militem in obsequio duravisse, cùm alii ad seditiones prolaberentur: neque mansurum Tiberio imperium, si iis quoque legionibus cupido novandi fuisset. Anual. 1. 4. c. 18. "The public safety, &c.] To complete the measure of the verse, Jonson, by a licence common in the ancient poets, divides the word public into both these verses; ending one of them with the first syllable of it, and beginning the other with the last; That for her own, great Cæsar's, and the pub lic safety, she be pleas'd to urge these dangers. And they are so printed in the folio of 1616. must rouse, To make the great ones sport. Cor. Did you observe How they inveigh'd'gainst Cæsar? For us to bite at: would I have my flesh Cor. Here comes another. Arr. I, there's a man, Afer the orator! One that hath phrases, figures, and fine flowers, [haste To strew his rhetorick with, and doth make To get him note, or name, by any offer Where blood, or gain be objects; steeps his words, I dare not, with my manners, to attempt Agr. Farewell, noble Silius. Sil. She is your servant, and doth owe An honest, but unprofitable love. Agr. How can that be, when there's no gain, but virtuous 13 ? Sil. You take the moral, not the politic sense. I meant, as she is bold, and free of speech, state Is waited on by envies, as by eyes; comes. What conference you have, with whom, where, when, What the discourse is, what the locks, the Of ev'ry person there, they do extract, Agr. Hear me, Silius. Were all Tiberius' body stuck with eyes, Sil. 'Tis great, and bravely spoken, like Of Agrippina: yet, your highness knows, I be so, Agrippina: but I fear [strike Some subtle practice. They that durst to Till all my BETS be clear'd.] This reading is corrupt, and the expression unintelligible: the quarto gives us the true word lets; obstructions, impediments. It occurs likewise in the argument," Finding the lets he must encounter to be many and hard." Mr. Seward and Mr. Sympson both corrected it in this manner by conjecture. 13 How can that be, when there's no gain, but VIRTUous?] i. e. no real gain, but virtuous gain; what is acquired and proceeds from virtue. The quarto, with less embarrassment of the sense, reads virtue's. Sil. Toys, mere toys; What wisdom's now i' th' streets, i' th' Dru. Fears, whisp'rings, tumults, noise, They say the senate sit. Sil. Haste you, my lords, To visit the sick prince; tender your loves, Chorus-of Musicians. 14 At So EXAMP-LESS and unblam'd a life.] At a life that had no parallel; was beyond all example, or imitation. Examp-less is a term of the author's coining; and by the same poetical prerogative, Chapman, in his verses on this tragedy, uses the word exampling: Our Phoebus may with his exampling beams." " He threatens many, that hath injur'd one.] Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam.-PUB. SYRUS. In this fulness and frequency of sentence, as he calls it in his preface, Jonson placeth one part of the office of a tragic poet: and the learned reader will perceive, from the brevity and number of these maxims, that instead of copying after the models of antient Greece, he hath conformed to the practice of Seneca the tragedian. The SENATE. ACT III. Sejanus, Varro, Latiaris, Cotta, Afer. Gallus, Lepidus, Arruntius. Præcones, Lic tores. Sej. "TIS IS only you must urge against Nor I, nor Cæsar may appear therein, As free from all suspicion of a practice. Be cunning in them. Afer has them too. Sej. No. It was debated By Cæsar, and concluded as most fit Afer. And prosecute |