Sejanus: His Fall Part 21

Arr.

Bolts, Vulcan; bolts for Jove! Phoebus, thy bow; Stern Mars, thy sword: and, blue-ey'd maid, thy spear; Thy club, Alcides: all the armoury Of heaven is too little!----Ha!----to guard The G.o.ds, I meant. Fine, rare dispatch I this same Was swiftly born! Confined, imprison'd, banish'd?

Most tripart.i.te! the cause, sir?

Lac. Treason.

Arr.

O!

The complement of all accusings! that Will hit, when all else fails.

Lep.

This turn is strange!

But yesterday the people would not hear, Far less objected, but cried Caesar's letters Were false and forged; that all these plots were malice; And that the ruin of the prince's house Was practised' gainst his knowledge. Where are now Their voices, now, that they behold his heirs Lock'd up, disgraced, led into exile?

Arr.

Hush'd, Drown'd in their bellies. Wild Seja.n.u.s' breath Hath, like a whirlwind, scatter'd that poor dust, With this rude blast----We'll talk no treason, sir, [Turns to Laco and the rest If that be it you stand for. Fare you well.

We have no need of horse-leeches. Good spy, Now you are spied, be gone.

[Exeunt Laco, Nero, and Guards.

Lep.

I fear you wrong him: He has the voice to be an honest Roman.

Arr.

And trusted to this office! Lepidus, I'd sooner trust Greek Sinon, than a man Our state employs. He's gone: and being gone, I dare tell you, whom I dare better trust, That our night-eyed Tiberius doth not see His minion's drifts; or, if he do, he's not So arrant subtile, as we fools do take him; To breed a mungrel up, in his own house, With his own blood, and, if the good G.o.ds please, At his own throat, flesh him, to take a leap.

I do not beg it, heaven; but if the fates Grant it these eyes, they must not wink.

Lep.

They must Not see it, Lucius.

Arr. Who should let them?

Lep.

Zeal, And duty: with the thought he is our prince.

Arr.

He is our monster: forfeited to vice So far, as no rack'd virtue can redeem him.

His loathed person fouler than all crimes: An emperor, only in his l.u.s.ts. Retired, From all regard of his own fame, or Rome's, Into an obscure island; where he lives Acting his tragedies with a comic face, Amidst his route of Chaldees: spending hours, Days, weeks, and months, in the unkind abuse Of grave astrology, to the bane of men, Casting the scope of men's nativities, And having found aught worthy in their fortune, Kill, or precipitate them in the sea, And boast, he can mock fate. Nay, muse not: these Are far from ends of evil, scarce degrees.

He hath his slaughter-house at Capreae; Where he doth study murder, as an art; And they are dearest in his grace, that can Devise the deepest tortures. Thither, too, He hath his boys, and beauteous girls ta'en up Out of our n.o.blest houses, the best form'd, Best nurtured, and most modest; what's their good, Serves to provoke his bad. Some are allured, Some threaten'd; others, by their friends detained, Are ravish'd hence, like captives, and, in sight Of their most grieved parents, dealt away Unto his spintries, sellaries, and slaves, Masters of strange and new commented l.u.s.ts, For which wise nature hath not left a name.

To this (what most strikes us, and bleeding Rome) He is, with all his craft, become the ward To his own va.s.sal, a stale catamite: Whom he, upon our low and suffering necks, Hath raised from excrement to side the G.o.ds, And have his proper sacrifice in Rome: Which Jove beholds, and yet will sooner rive A senseless oak with thunder than his trunk!----

Re-enter LACO with POMPONIUS and MINUTIUS.

Lac.

These letters make men doubtful what t' expect, Whether his coming, or his death.

Pom.

Troth, both: And which comes soonest, thank the G.o.ds for.

Arr.

List!

Their talk is Caesar; I would hear all voices.

[Arrunt. and Lepidus stand aside Min.

One day, he's well; and will return to Rome; The next day, sick; and knows not when to hope it.

Lac.

True; and to-day, one of Seja.n.u.s' friends Honour'd by special writ; and on the morrow Another punish'd----

Pom. By more special writ.

Min.

This man receives his praises of Seja.n.u.s, A second but slight mention, a third none, A fourth rebukes: and thus he leaves the senate Divided and suspended, all uncertain.

Lac.

These forked tricks, I understand them not: Would he would tell us whom he loves or hates, That we might follow, without fear or doubt.

Arr.

Good Heliotrope! Is this your honest man?

Let him be yours so still; he is my knave.

Pom.

I cannot tell, Seja.n.u.s still goes on, And mounts, we see; new statues are advanced, Fresh leaves of t.i.tles, large inscriptions read, His fortune sworn by, himself new gone out Caesar's colleague in the fifth consuls.h.i.+p; More altars smoke to him than all the G.o.ds: What would we more?

Arr.

That the dear smoke would choke him, That would I more.

Lep. Peace, good Arruntius.

Lat.

But there are letters come, they say, ev'n now, Which do forbid that last.

Min. Do you hear so?

Lac. Yes.

Pom. By Castor, that's the worst.

Arr. By Pollux, best.

Min.

I did not like the sign, when Regulus, Whom all we know no friend unto Seja.n.u.s, Did, by Tiberius' so precise command, Succeed a fellow in the consuls.h.i.+p: It boded somewhat.

Pom.

Not a mote. His partner, Fulcinius Trio, is his own, and sure.---- Here comes Terentius.

Enter TERENTIUS.

He can give us more.

[They whisper with Terentius.

Lep.

I'll ne'er believe, but Caesar hath some scent Of bold Seja.n.u.s' footing. These cross points Of varying letters, and opposing consuls, Mingling his honours and his punishments, Feigning now ill, now well, raising Seja.n.u.s, And then depressing him, as now of late In all reports we have it, cannot be Empty of practice: 'tis Tiberius' art.

For having found his favourite grown too great, And with his greatness strong; that all the soldiers Are, with their leaders, made a his devotion; That almost all the senate are his creatures, Or hold on him their main dependencies, Either for benefit, or hope, or fear; And that himself hath lost much of his own, By parting unto him; and, by th' increase Of his rank l.u.s.ts and rages, quite disarm'd Himself of love, or other public means, To dare an open contestation; His subtilty hath chose this doubling line, To hold him even in: not so to fear him, As wholly put him out, and yet give check Unto his farther boldness. In mean time, By his employments, makes him odious Unto the staggering rout, whose aid, in fine, He hopes to use, as sure, who, when they sway.