ACT III
SCENE I.—The Senate-House
Enter Præcones, Lictores, Sejanus, Varro, Latiaris, Cotta and Afer.
SEJANUS.
’Tis only you must urge against him, Varro;
Nor I nor Cæsar may appear therein,
Except in your defence, who are the consul;
And, under colour of late enmity
Between your father and his, may better do it,
As free from all suspicion of a practice.
Here be your notes, what points to touch at; read:
Be cunning in them. Afer has them too.
VARRO.
But is he summon’d?
SEJANUS.
No. It was debated
By Cæsar, and concluded as most fit
To take him unprepared.
AFER.
And prosecute
All under name of treason.
VARRO.
I conceive.
Enter Sabinus, Gallus, Lepidus and Arruntius.
SABINUS.
Drusus being dead, Cæsar will not be here.
GALLUS.
What should the business of this senate be?
ARRUNTIUS.
That can my subtle whisperers tell you: we
That are the good-dull-noble lookers on,
Are only call’d to keep the marble warm.
What should we do with those deep mysteries,
Proper to these fine heads? let them alone.
Our ignorance may, perchance, help us be saved
From whips and furies.
GALLUS.
See, see, see their action!
ARRUNTIUS.
Ay, now their heads do travail, now they work;
Their faces run like shittles; they are weaving
Some curious cobweb to catch flies.
SABINUS.
Observe,
They take their places.
ARRUNTIUS.
What, so low!
GALLUS.
O yes,
They must be seen to flatter Cæsar’s grief,
Though but in sitting.
VARRO.
Bid us silence.
PRÆCONES.
Silence!
VARRO.
Fathers conscript, may this our present meeting,
Turn fair, and fortunate to the common-wealth!
Enter Silius and other Senators.
SEJANUS.
See, Silius enters.
SILIUS.
Hail, grave fathers!
LICTORES.
Stand.
Silius, forbear thy place.
SENATORS.
How!
PRÆCONES.
Silius, stand forth,
The consul hath to charge thee.
LICTORES.
Room for Cæsar.
ARRUNTIUS.
Is he come too! nay then expect a trick.
SABINUS.
Silius accused! sure he will answer nobly.
Enter Tiberius, attended.
TIBERIUS.
We stand amazed, fathers, to behold
This general dejection. Wherefore sit
Rome’s consuls thus dissolved, as they had lost
All the remembrance both of style and place
It not becomes. No woes are of fit weight,
To make the honour of the empire stoop:
Though I, in my peculiar self, may meet
Just reprehension, that so suddenly,
And, in so fresh a grief, would greet the senate,
When private tongues, of kinsmen and allies,
Inspired with comforts, lothly are endured,
The face of men not seen, and scarce the day,
To thousands that communicate our loss.
Nor can I argue these of weakness; since
They take but natural ways; yet I must seek
For stronger aids, and those fair helps draw out
From warm embraces of the common-wealth.
Our mother, great Augusta, ’s struck with time,
Our self imprest with aged characters,
Drusus is gone, his children young and babes;
Our aims must now reflect on those that may
Give timely succour to these present ills,
And are our only glad-surviving hopes,
The noble issue of Germanicus,
Nero and Drusus: might it please the consul
Honour them in, they both attend without.
I would present them to the senate’s care,
And raise those suns of joy that should drink up
These floods of sorrow in your drowned eyes.
ARRUNTIUS.
By Jove, I am not Œdipus enough
To understand this Sphynx.
SABINUS.
The princes come.
Enter Nero and Drusus junior.
TIBERIUS.
Approach you, noble Nero, noble Drusus.
These princes, fathers, when their parent died,
I gave unto their uncle, with this prayer,
That though he had proper issue of his own,
He would no less bring up, and foster these,
Than that self-blood; and by that act confirm
Their worths to him, and to posterity.
Drusus ta’en hence, I turn my prayers to you,
And ’fore our country, and our gods, beseech
You take, and rule Augustus’ nephew’s sons,
Sprung of the noblest ancestors; and so
Accomplish both my duty, and your own,
Nero, and Drusus, these shall be to you
In place of parents, these your fathers, these;
And not unfitly: for you are so born,
As all your good, or ill’s the common-wealth’s.
Receive them, you strong guardians; and blest gods,
Make all their actions answer to their bloods:
Let their great titles find increase by them,
Not they by titles. Set them as in place,
So in example, above all the Romans:
And may they know no rivals but themselves.
Let Fortune give them nothing; but attend
Upon their virtue: and that still come forth
Greater than hope, and better than their fame.
Relieve me, fathers, with your general voice.
SENATORS.
May all the gods consent to Cæsar’s wish,
And add to any honours that may crown
The hopeful issue of Germanicus!
TIBERIUS.
We thank you, reverend fathers, in their right.
ARRUNTIUS.
If this were true now! but the space, the space
Between the breast and lips—Tiberius’ heart
Lies a thought further than another man’s. [Aside.]
TIBERIUS.
My comforts are so flowing in my joys,
As, in them, all my streams of grief are lost,
No less than are land-waters in the sea,
Or showers in rivers; though their cause was such,
As might have sprinkled ev’n the gods with tears:
Yet, since the greater doth embrace the less,
We covetously obey.
ARRUNTIUS.
Well acted, Cæsar. [Aside.]
TIBERIUS.
And now I am the happy witness made
Of your so much desired affections
To this great issue, I could wish, the
Fates Would here set peaceful period to my days;
However to my labours, I entreat,
And beg it of this senate, some fit ease.
ARRUNTIUS.
Laugh, fathers, laugh: have you no spleens about you?
[Aside.]
TIBERIUS.
The burden is too heavy I sustain
On my unwilling shoulders; and I pray
It may be taken off, and reconferred
Upon the consuls, or some other Roman,
More able, and more worthy.
ARRUNTIUS.
Laugh on still. [Aside.]
SABINUS.
Why this doth render all the rest suspected!
GALLUS.
It poisons all.
ARRUNTIUS.
O, do you taste it then?
SABINUS.
It takes away my faith to any thing,
He shall hereafter speak.
ARRUNTIUS.
Ay, to pray that,
Which would be to his head as hot as thunder,
’Gainst which he wears that charm should but the court
Receive him at his word.
GALLUS.
Hear!
TIBERIUS.
For myself
I know my weakness, and so little covet,
Like some gone past, the weight that will oppress me,
As my ambition is the counter-point.
ARRUNTIUS.
Finely maintained; good still!
SEJANUS.
But Rome, whose blood,
Whose nerves, whose life, whose very frame relies
On Cæsar’s strength, no less than heaven on Atlas,
Cannot admit it but with general ruin.
ARRUNTIUS.
Ah! are you there to bring him off? [Aside.]
SEJANUS.
Let Cæsar
No more then urge a point so contrary
To Cæsar’s greatness, the grieved senate’s vows,
Or Rome’s necessity.
GALLUS.
He comes about—
ARRUNTIUS.
More nimbly than Vertumnus.
TIBERIUS.
For the publick,
I may be drawn to shew I can neglect
All private aims, though I affect my rest;
But if the senate still command me serve,
I must be glad to practise my obedience.
ARRUNTIUS.
You must and will, sir. We do know it. [Aside.]
SENATORS.
Cæsar,
Live long and happy, great and royal Cæsar;
The gods preserve thee and thy modesty,
Thy wisdom and thy innocence
ARRUNTIUS.
Where is’t?
The prayer is made before the subject. [Aside.]
SENATORS.
Guard
His meekness, Jove; his piety, his care,
His bounty—
ARRUNTIUS.
And his subtility, I’ll put in:
Yet he’ll keep that himself, without the gods.
All prayers are vain for him. [Aside.]
TIBERIUS.
We will not hold
Your patience, fathers, with long answer; but
Shall still contend to be what you desire,
And work to satisfy so great a hope.
Proceed to your affairs.
ARRUNTIUS.
Now, Silius, guard thee;
The curtain’s drawing. Afer advanceth. [Aside.]
PRÆCONES.
Silence!
AFER.
Cite Caius Silius.
PRÆCONES.
Caius Silius!
SILIUS.
Here.
AFER.
The triumph that thou hadst in Germany
For thy late victory on Sacrovir,
Thou hast enjoy’d so freely, Caius Silius,
As no man it envied thee; nor would Cæsar,
Or Rome admit, that thou wert then defrauded
Of any honours thy deserts could claim,
In the fair service of the common-wealth:
But now, if, after all their loves and graces,
(Thy actions, and their courses being discover’d)
It shall appear to Cæsar and this senate,
Thou hast defiled those glories with thy crimes—
SILIUS.
Crimes!
AFER.
Patience, Silius.
SILIUS.
Tell thy mule of patience;
I am a Roman. What are my crimes? proclaim them.
Am I too rich, too honest for the times?
Have I or treasure, jewels, land, or houses
That some informer gapes for? is my strength
Too much to be admitted, or my knowledge?
These now are crimes.
AFER.
Nay, Silius, if the name
Of crime so touch thee, with what impotence
Wilt thou endure the matter to be search’d?
SILIUS.
I tell thee, Afer, with more scorn than fear:
Employ your mercenary tongue and art.
Where’s my accuser?
VARRO.
Here.
ARRUNTIUS.
Varro, the consul!
Is he thrust in? [Aside.]
VARRO.
’Tis I accuse thee, Silius.
Against the majesty of Rome, and Cæsar,
I do pronounce thee here a guilty cause,
First of beginning and occasioning,
Next, drawing out the war in Gallia,
For which thou late triumph’st; dissembling long
That Sacrovir to be an enemy,
Only to make thy entertainment more.
Whilst thou, and thy wife Sosia, poll’d the province:
Wherein, with sordid, base desire of gain,
Thou hast discredited thy actions’ worth,
And been a traitor to the state.
SILIUS.
Thou liest.
ARRUNTIUS.
I thank thee, Silius, speak so still and often.
VARRO.
If I not prove it, Cæsar, but unjustly
Have call’d him into trial; here I bind
Myself to suffer, what I claim against him;
And yield to have what I have spoke, confirm’d
By judgment of the court, and all good men.
SILIUS.
Cæsar, I crave to have my cause deferr’d,
Till this man’s consulship be out.
TIBERIUS.
We cannot,
Nor may we grant it.
SILIUS.
Why? shall he design
My day of trial? Is he my accuser,
And must he be my judge?
TIBERIUS.
It hath been usual,
And is a right that custom hath allow’d
The magistrate, to call forth private men;
And to appoint their day: which privilege
We may not in the consul see infringed,
By whose deep watches, and industrious care
It is so labour’d, as the common-wealth
Receive no loss, by any oblique course.
SILIUS.
Cæsar, thy fraud is worse than violence.
TIBERIUS.
Silius, mistake us not, we dare not use
The credit of the consul to thy wrong;
But only to preserve his place and power,
So far as it concerns the dignity
And honour of the state.
ARRUNTIUS.
Believe him, Silius.
COTTA.
Why, so he may, Arruntius.
ARRUNTIUS.
I say so.
And he may choose too.
TIBERIUS.
By the Capitol,
And all our gods, but that the dear republic,
Our sacred laws, and just authority
Are interess’d therein, I should be silent.
AFER.
Please Cæsar to give way unto his trial,
He shall have justice.
SILIUS.
Nay, I shall have law;
Shall I not, Afer? speak.
AFER.
Would you have more?
SILIUS.
No, my well-spoken man, I would no more;
Nor less: might I enjoy it natural,.
Not taught to speak unto your present ends,
Free from thine, his, and all your unkind handling,
Furious enforcing, most unjust presuming,
Malicious, and manifold applying,
Foul wresting, and impossible construction.
AFER.
He raves, he raves.
SILIUS.
Thou durst not tell me so,
Hadst thou not Cæsar’s warrant. I can see
Whose power condemns me.
VARRO.
This betrays his spirit:
This doth enough declare him what he is.
SILIUS.
What am I? speak.
VARRO.
An enemy to the state.
SILIUS.
Because I am an enemy to thee,
And such corrupted ministers o’ the state,
That here art made a present instrument
To gratify it with thine own disgrace.
SEJANUS.
This, to the consul, is most insolent,
And impious.
SILIUS.
Ay, take part. Reveal yourselves,
Alas! I scent not your confederacies,
Your plots, and combinations! I not know
Minion Sejanus hates me: and that all,
This boast of law, and law, is but a form,
A net of Vulcan’s filing, a mere ingine,
To take that life by a pretext of justice,
Which you pursue in malice! I want brain,
Or nostril to persuade me, that your ends,
And purposes are made to what they are,
Before my answer! O, you equal gods,
Whose justice not a world of wolf-turn’d men
Shall make me to accuse, howe’er provoked;
Have I for this so oft engaged myself?
Stood in the heat and fervour of a fight,
When Phœbus sooner hath forsook the day
Than I the field, against the blue-eyed Gauls,
And crisped Germans? when our Roman eagles
Have fann’d the fire, with their labouring wings,
And no blow dealt, that left not death behind it?
When I have charged, alone, into the troops
Of curl’d Sicambrians, routed them, and came
Not off, with backward ensigns of a slave;
But forward marks, wounds on my breast and face,
Were meant to thee, O Cæsar, and thy Rome?
And have I this return! did I, for this,
Perform so noble and so brave defeat
On Sacrovir! O Jove, let it become me
To boast my deeds, when he whom they concern,
Shall thus forget them.
AFER.
Silius, Silius,
These are the common customs of thy blood,
When it is high with wine, as now with rage:
This well agrees with that intemperate vaunt,
Thou lately mad’st at Agrippina’s table,
That, when all other of the troops were prone
To fall into rebellion, only thine
Remain’d in their obedience. Thou wert he
That saved the empire, which had then been lost
Had but thy legions, there, rebell’d, or mutined;
Thy virtue met, and fronted every peril.
Thou gav’st to Cæsar, and to Rome their surety;
Their name, their strength, their spirit, and their state,
Their being was a donative from thee.
ARRUNTIUS.
Well worded, and most like an orator.
TIBERIUS.
Is this true, Silius?
SILIUS.
Save thy question, Cæsar;
Thy spy of famous credit hath affirm’d it.
ARRUNTIUS.
Excellent Roman!
SABINUS.
He doth answer stoutly.
SEJANUS.
If this be so, there needs no farther cause
Of crime against him.
VARRO.
What can more impeach
The royal dignity and state of Cæsar,
Than to be urged with a benefit He cannot pay?
COTTA.
In this, all Ceesar’s fortune
Is made unequal to the courtesy.
LATIARIS.
His means are clean destroyed that should requite.
GALLUS.
Nothing is great enough for Silius’ merit.
ARRUNTIUS.
Gallus on that side too! [Aside.]
SILIUS.
Come, do not hunt,
And labour so about for circumstance,
To make him guilty whom you have foredoom’d:
Take shorter ways, I’ll meet your purposes.
The words were mine, and more I now will say:
Since I have done thee that great service, Cæsar,
Thou still hast fear’d me; and in place of grace,
Return’d me hatred: so soon all best turns,
With doubtful princes, turn deep injuries
In estimation, when they greater rise
Than can be answer’d. Benefits, with you,
Are of no longer pleasure, than you can
With ease restore them; that transcended once,
Your studies are not how to thank, but kill.
It is your nature, to have all men slaves
To you, but you acknowledging to none.
The means that make your greatness, must not come
In mention of it; if it do, it takes
So much away, you think: and that which help’d,
Shall soonest perish, if it stand in eye,
Where it may front, or but upbraid the high.
COTTA.
Suffer him speak no more.
VARRO.
Note but his spirit.
AFER.
This shews him in the rest.
LATIARIS.
Let him be censured.
SEJANUS.
He hath spoke enough to prove him Cæsar’s foe.
COTTA.
His thoughts look through his words.
SEJANUS.
A censure.
SILIUS.
Stay,
Stay, most officious senate, I shall straight
Delude thy fury. Silius hath not placed
His guards within him, against fortune’s spite,
So weakly, but he can escape your gripe
That are but hands of fortune: she herself,
When virtue doth oppose, must lose her threats!
All that can happen in humanity,
The frown of Cæsar, proud Sejanus’ hatred,
Base Varro’s spleen, and Afer’s bloodying tongue,
The senate’s servile flattery, and these
Muster’d to kill, I’m fortified against;
And can look down upon: they are beneath me.
It is not life whereof I stand enamour’d;
Nor shall my end make me accuse my fate.
The coward and the valiant man must fall,
Only the cause and manner how, discerns them:
Which then are gladdest, when they cost us dearest.
Romans, if any here be in this senate,
Would know to mock Tiberius’ tyranny,
Look upon Silius, and so learn to die.
[Stabs himself.]
VARRO.
O desperate act!
ARRUNTIUS.
An honourable hand!
TIBERIUS.
Look, is he dead?
SABINUS.
’Twas nobly struck, and home.
ARRUNTIUS.
My thought did prompt him to it. Farewell. Silius.
Be famous ever for thy great example.
TIBERIUS.
We are not pleased in this sad accident,
That thus hath stalled, and abused our mercy,
Intended to preserve thee, noble Roman,
And to prevent thy hopes.
ARRUNTIUS.
Excellent wolf!
Now he is full he howls. [Aside.]
SEJANUS.
Cæsar doth wrong
His dignity and safety thus to mourn
The deserv’d end of so profest a traitor,
And doth, by this his lenity, instruct
Others as factious to the like offence.
TIBERIUS.
The confiscation merely of his state
Had been enough.
ARRUNTIUS.
O, that was gaped for then? [Aside.]
VARRO.
Remove the body.
SEJANUS.
Let citation Go out for Sosia.
GALLUS.
Let her be proscribed:
And for the goods, I think it fit that half
Go to the treasure, half unto the children.
LEPIDUS.
With leave of Cæsar, I would think that fourth,
The which the law doth cast on the informers,
Should be enough; the rest go to the children.
Wherein the prince shall shew humanity,
And bounty; not to force them by their want,
Which in their parents’ trespass they deserv’d,
To take ill courses.
TIBERIUS.
It shall please us.
ARRUNTIUS.
Ay,
Out of necessity. This Lepidus
Is grave and honest, and I have observed
A moderation still in all his censures.
SABINUS.
And bending to the better—Stay, who’s this?
Enter Satrius and Natta, with Cremutius Cordus guarded.
Cremutius Cordus! What! is he brought in?
ARRUNTIUS.
More blood into the banquet! Noble Cordus,
I wish thee good: be as thy writings, free,
And honest.
TIBERIUS.
What is he?
SEJANUS.
For the Annals, Cæsar.
PRÆCONES.
Cremutius Cordus!
CORDUS.
Here.
PRÆCONES.
Satrius Secundus,
Pinnarius Natta, you are his accusers.
ARRUNTIUS.
Two of Sejanus’ blood-hounds, whom he breeds
With human flesh, to bay at citizens.
AFER.
Stand forth before the senate, and confront him.
SATRIUS.
I do accuse thee here, Cremutius Cordus,
To be a man factious and dangerous,
A sower of sedition in the state,
A turbulent and discontented spirit,
Which I will prove from thine own writings, here,
The Annals thou hast publish’d; where thou bit’st
The present age, and with a viper’s tooth,
Being a member of it, dar’st that ill
Which never yet degenerous bastard did
Upon his parent.
NATTA.
To this, I subscribe;
And, forth a world of more particulars,
Instance in only one: comparing men,
And times, thou praisest Brutus, and affirm’st
That Cassius was the last of all the Romans.
COTTA.
How! what are we then?
VARRO.
What is Cæsar? nothing?
AFER.
My lords, this strikes at every Roman’s private,
In whom reigns gentry, and estate of spirit,
To have a Brutus brought in parallel,
A parricide, an enemy of his country,
Rank’d, and preferr’d to any real worth
That Rome now holds. This is most strangely invective,
Most full of spite, and insolent upbraiding.
Nor is’t the time alone is here disprised,
But the whole man of time, yea, Cæsar’s self
Brought in disvalue; and he aimed at most,
By oblique glance of his licentious pen.
Cæsar, if Cassius were the last of Romans,
Thou hast no name.
TIBERIUS.
Let’s hear him answer. Silence!
CORDUS.
So innocent I am of fact, my lords,
As but my words are argued: yet those words
Not reaching either prince or prince’s parent:
The which your law of treason comprehends.
Brutus and Cassius I am charged to have praised;
Whose deeds, when many more, besides myself,
Have writ, not one hath mention’d without honour.
Great Titus Livius, great for eloquence,
And faith amongst us, in his history,
With so great praises Pompey did extol,
As oft Augustus call’d him a Pompeian:
Yet this not hurt their friendship. In his book
He often names Scipio, Afranius,
Yea, the same Cassius, and this Brutus too,
As worthiest men; not thieves and parricides,
Which notes upon their fames are now imposed.
Asinius Pollio’s writings quite throughout
Give them a noble memory; so Messala
Renown’d his general Cassius: yet both these
Lived with Augustus, full of wealth and honours,
To Cicero’s book, where Cato was heav’d up
Equal with Heaven, what else did Cæsar answer,
Being then dictator, but with a penn’d oration,
As if before the judges? Do but see
Antonius’ letters; read but Brutus’ pleadings:
What vile reproach they hold against Augustus,
False, I confess, but with much bitterness.
The epigrams of Bibaculus and Catullus
Are read, full stuft with spite of both the Cæsars;
Yet deified Julius, and no less Augustus,
Both bore them, and contemn’d them: I not know,
Promptly to speak it, whether done with more
Temper, or wisdom; for such obloquies
If they despised be, they die supprest;
But if with rage acknowledg’d, they are confest.
The Greeks I slip, whose license not alone,
But also lust did scape unpunished:
Or where some one, by chance, exception took,
He words with words revenged. But, in my work,
What could be aim’d more free, or farther off
From the time’s scandal, than to write of those,
Whom death from grace or hatred had exempted?
Did I, with Brutus and with Cassius,
Arm’d, and possess’d of the Philippi fields,
Incense the people in the civil cause,
With dangerous speeches? Or do they, being slain
Seventy years since, as by their images,
Which not the conqueror hath defaced, appears,
Retain that guilty memory with writers?
Posterity pays every man his honour;
Nor shall there want, though I condemned am,
That will not only Cassius well approve,
And of great Brutus’ honour mindful be,
But that will also mention make of me.
ARRUNTIUS.
Freely and nobly spoken!
SABINUS.
With good temper;
I like him, that he is not moved with passion.
ARRUNTIUS.
He puts them to their whisper.
TIBERIUS.
Take him hence;
We shall determine of him at next sitting.
[Exeunt Officers with Cordus.]
COTTA.
Mean time, give order, that his books be burnt,
To the aediles.
SEJANUS.
You have well advised.
AFER.
It fits not such licentious things should live
T’upbraid the age.
ARRUNTIUS.
If the age were good, they might.
LATIARIS.
Let them be burnt.
GALLUS.
All sought, and burnt to-day.
PRÆCONES.
The court is up; lictors, resume the fasces.
[Exeunt all but Arruntius, Sabinus and Lepidus.]
ARRUNTIUS.
Let them be burnt! O, how ridiculous
Appears the senate’s brainless diligence,
Who think they can, with present power, extinguish
The memory of all succeeding times!
SABINUS.
’Tis true; when, contrary, the punishment
Of wit, doth make the authority increase.
Nor do they aught, that use this cruelty
Of interdiction, and this rage of burning,
But purchase to themselves rebuke and shame,
And to the writers an eternal name.
LEPIDUS.
It is an argument the times are sore,
When virtue cannot safely be advanced;
Nor vice reproved.
ARRUNTIUS.
Ay, noble Lepidus;
Augustus well foresaw what we should suffer
Under Tiberius, when he did pronounce
The Roman race most wretched, that should live
Between so slow jaws, and so long a bruising.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II.—A Room in the Palace.
Enter Tiberius and Sejanus.
TIBERIUS.
This business hath succeeded well, Sejanus,
And quite removed all jealousy of practice
’Gainst Agrippina, and our nephews. Now,
We must bethink us how to plant our ingine,
For th’ other pair, Sabinus and Arruntius,
And Gallus too: howe’er he flatter us,
His heart we know.
SEJANUS.
Give it some respite, Cæsar.
Time shall mature, and bring to perfect crown,
What we, with so good vultures have begun:
Sabinus shall be next.
TIBERIUS.
Rather Arruntius.
SEJANUS.
By any means, preserve him. His frank tongue
Being let the reins, would take away all thought
Of malice, in your course against the rest:
We must keep him to stalk with.
TIBERIUS.
Dearest head,
To thy most fortunate design I yield it.
SEJANUS.
Sir,—I have been so long train’d up in grace,
First with your father, great Augustus; since,
With your most happy bounties so familiar
As I not sooner would commit my hopes
Or wishes to the gods. than to your ears.
Nor have I ever, yet, been covetous
Of over-bright and dazzling honour; rather
To watch and travail in great Cæsar’s safety,
With the most common soldier.
TIBERIUS.
’Tis confest.
SEJANUS.
The only gain, and which I count most fair
Of all my fortunes, is, that mighty Cæsar
Has thought me worthy his alliance. Hence
Begin my hopes.
TIBERIUS.
Umph!
SEJANUS.
I have heard, Augustus,
In the bestowing of his daughter, thought
But even of gentlemen of Rome: if so,—
I know not how to hope so great a favour—
But if a husband should be sought for Livia,
And I he had in mind, as Cæsar’s friend,
I would but use the glory of the kindred:
It should not make me slothful, or less caring
For Cæsar’s state: it were enough to me
It did confirm, and strengthen my weak house,
Against the now unequal opposition
Of Agrippina; and for dear regard
Unto my children, this I wish: myself
Have no ambition farther than to end
My days in service of so dear a master.
TIBERIUS.
We cannot but commend thy piety,
Most loved Sejanus, in acknowledging
Those bounties; which we, faintly, such remember—
But to thy suit. The rest of mortal men,
In all their drifts and counsels, pursue profit;
Princes alone are of a different sort,
Directing their main actions still to fame:
We therefore will take time to think and answer.
For Livia she can best, herself, resolve
If she will marry, after Drusus, or
Continue in the family; besides,
She hath a mother, and a grandam yet,
Whose nearer counsels she may guide her by:
But I will simply deal. That enmity
Thou fear’st in Agrippina, would burn more,
If Livia’s marriage should, as ’twere in parts,
Divide the imperial house; an emulation
Between the women might break forth; and discord
Ruin the sons and nephews on both hands.
What if it cause some present difference?
Thou art not safe, Sejanus, if thou prove it.
Canst thou believe, that Livia, first the wife
To Caius Cæsar, then my Drusus, now
Will be contented to grow old with thee,
Born but a private gentleman of Rome,
And raise thee with her loss, if not her shame?
Or say that I should wish it, canst thou think
The senate, or the people (who have seen
Her brother, father, and our ancestors,
In highest place of empire) will endure it!
The state thou hold’st already, is in talk;
Men murmur at thy greatness; and the noble!
Stick not, in public, to upbraid thy climbing
Above our father’s favours, or thy scale:
And dare accuse me, from their hate to thee.
Be wise, dear friend. We would not hide these things,
For friendship’s dear respect: Nor will we stand
Adverse to thine, or Livia’s designments.
What we have purposed to thee, in our thought,
And with what near degrees of love to bind thee,
And make thee equal to us; for the present,
We will forbear to speak. Only thus much
Believe, our loved Sejanus, we not know
That height in blood or honour, which thy virtue
And mind to us, may not aspire with merit.
And this we’ll publish on all watch’d occasion
The senate or the people shall present.
SEJANUS.
I am restored, and to my sense again,
Which I had lost in this so blinding suit.
Cæsar hath taught me better to refuse,
Than I knew how to ask. How pleaseth Cæsar
T’ embrace my late advice for leaving Rome!
TIBERIUS.
We are resolved.
SEJANUS.
Here are some motives more,
[Gives him a paper.]
Which I have thought on since, may more confirm.
TIBERIUS.
Careful Sejanus! we will straight peruse them:
Go forward in our main design, and prosper.
[Exit.]
SEJANUS.
If those but take, I shall. Dull, heavy Cæsar!
Wouldst thou tell me, thy favours were made crimes,
And that my fortunes were esteem’d thy faults,
That thou for me wert hated, and not think
I would with winged haste prevent that change,
When thou might’st win all to thyself again,
By forfeiture of me! Did those fond words
Fly swifter from thy lips, than this my brain,
This sparkling forge, created me an armour
T’ encounter chance and thee? Well, read my charms,
And may they lay that hold upon thy senses,
As thou hadst snuft up hemlock, or ta’en down
The juice of poppy and of mandrakes. Sleep,
Voluptuous Cæsar, and security
Seize on thy stupid powers, and leave them dead
To public cares; awake but to thy lusts,
The strength of which makes thy libidinous soul
Itch to leave Rome! and I have thrust it on;
With blaming of the city business,
The multitude of suits, the confluence
Of suitors; then their importunacies,
The manifold distractions he must suffer,
Besides ill-rumours, envies, and reproaches,
All which a quiet and retired life,
Larded with ease and pleasure, did avoid:
And yet for any weighty and great affair,
The fittest place to give the soundest counsels.
By this I shall remove him both from thought
And knowledge of his own most dear affairs;
Draw all dispatches through my private hands;
Know his designments, and pursue mine own;
Make mine own strengths by giving suits and places.
Conferring dignities and offices;
And these that hate me now, wanting access
To him, will make their envy none, or less:
For when they see me arbiter of all,
They must observe; or else, with Cæsar fall.
[Exit.]
SCENE III.—Another Room in the same.
Enter Tiberius.
TIBERIUS.
To marry Livia! will no less, Sejanus,
Content thy aim? no lower object? well!
Thou know’st how thou art wrought into our trust;
Woven in our design; and think’st we must
Now use thee, whatsoe’er thy projects are:
’Tis true. But yet with caution and fit care.
And, now we better think—who’s there within?
Enter an Officer.
OFFICER.
Cæsar!
TIBERIUS.
To leave our journey off, were sin
’Gainst our decreed delights; and would appear
Doubt; or, what less becomes a prince, low fear.
Yet doubt hath law, and fears have their excuse.
Where princes’ states plead necessary use;
As ours doth now: more in Sejanus’ pride,
Than all fell Agrippina’s hates beside.
Those are the dreadful enemies we raise
With favours, and make dangerous with praise;
The injured by us may have will alike,
But ’tis the favourite hath the power to strike;
And fury ever boils more high and strong,
Heat with ambition, than revenge of wrong.
’Tis then a part of supreme skill, to grace
No man too much; but hold a certain space
Between the ascender’s rise, and thine own flat,
Lest, when all rounds be reach’d, his aim be that.
’Tis thought. [Aside.]
Is Macro in the palace? see:
If not, go seek him, to come to us.—
[Exit Officer.]
He must be the organ we must work by now;
Though none less apt for trust: need doth allow
What choice would not. I have heard that aconite,
Being timely taken, hath a healing might
Against the scorpion’s stroke: the proof we’ll give:
That, while two poisons wrestle, we may live.
He hath a spirit too working to be used
But to the encounter of his like; excused
Are wiser sov’reigns then, that raise one ill
Against another, and both safely kill:
The prince that feeds great natures, they will slay him;
Who nourisheth a lion must obey him.—
Re-enter Officer with Macro.
Macro, we sent for you.
MACRO.
I heard so, Cæsar.
TIBERIUS.
Leave us awhile.—
[Exit Officer.]
When you shall know. good Macro,
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.
MACRO.
The humblest place in Cæsar’s choice or trust,
May make glad Macro proud; without ambition.
Save to do Cæsar service.
TIBERIUS.
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 moths
Breed out of too much humour, in the things
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 inquired,
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.]
MACRO.
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 inquire: his great intents
Are to be served, not search’d. Yet, as that bow
Is most in hand, whose owner best doth know
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 sway each parent; draw mine heir
In compass, though but one; work all my kin
To swift perdition; leave no untrain’d engine,
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 thing
To see fresh buildings from old ruins spring.
[Exit.]