Sejanus: His Fall

The greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, satire, and criticism who most potently of all th...

SABINUS. No, Silius, we are no good inginers. We want their fine arts, and their thriving use Should make us graced, or favour’d of the times: We have no shift of faces, no clef...

SATRIUS. Your fortune’s made unto you now, Eudemus, If you can but lay bold upon the means; Do but observe his humour, and—believe it— He is the noblest Roman, where he takes—

SEJANUS. Physician, thou art worthy of a province. For the great favours done unto our loves; And, but that greatest Livia bears a part In the requital of thy services, I should...

SEJANUS. If this be not revenge, when I have done And made it perfect, let Egyptian slaves, Parthians, and bare-foot Hebrews brand my face, And print my body full of injuries. T...

ARRUNTIUS. Ay, there’s a man, Afer the orator! One that hath phrases, figures, and fine flowers, To strew his rhetoric with, and doth make haste, To get him note, or name, by an...

SILIUS. You take the moral, not the politic sense. I meant, as she is bold, and free of speech, Earnest to utter what her zealous thought Travails withal, in honour of your hous...

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 you...

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 ing...

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 m...

AGRIPPINA. I must have vengeance, first; and that were nectar Unto my famish’d spirits. O, my fortune, Let it be sudden thou prepar’st against me; Strike all my powers of unders...

MACRO. Return’d so soon! renew’d in trust and grace! Is Cæsar then so weak, or hath the place But wrought this alteration with the air; And he, on next remove, will all repair?...

LATIARIS. It is a service lord Sejanus will See well requited, and accept of nobly. Here place yourself between the roof and ceiling; And when I bring him to his words of danger...

MACRO. Sir, but observe how thick your dangers meet In his clear drifts! your mother and your brothers, Now cited to the senate; their friend Gallus, Feasted to-day by Cæsar, si...

ARRUNTIUS. Still dost thou suffer, heaven! will no flame, No heat of sin, make thy just wrath to boil In thy distemper’d bosom, and o’erflow The pitchy blazes of impiety, Kindle...

SEJANUS. Swell, swell, my joys; and faint not to declare Yourselves as ample as your causes are. I did not live till now; this my first hour; Wherein I see my thoughts reach’d b...

MACRO. Gracinus Laco, You are a friend most welcome: by and by, I’ll speak with you.—You must procure this list Of the prætorian cohorts, with the names Of the centurions, and t...

[_While they sound again, the Flamen takes of the honey with his finger, and tastes, then ministers to all the rest; so of the milk, in an earthen vessel, he deals about; which...

SEJANUS. Now, my right dear, noble, and trusted friends, How much I am a captive to your kindness! Most worthy Cotta, Latiaris, Laco, Your valiant hand; and, gentlemen, your lov...

MACRO. Right plentifully well; as, with a prince, That still holds out the great proportion Of his large favours, where his judgment hath Made once divine election: like the god...

COTTA. Is to receive the tribunitial power. But, as you are an honourable man, Let me conjure you not to utter it; For it is trusted to me with that bond.

ARRUNTIUS. Ay, go, make haste; take heed you be not last To tender your All Hail in the wide hall Of huge Sejanus: run a lictor’s pace: Stay, not to put your robes on; but away,...

ARRUNTIUS. Gods! how the sponges open and take in, And shut again! look, look! is not he blest That gets a seat in eye-reach of him? more, That comes in ear, or tongue-reach? O...