Sejanus His Fall Act 3. Scene 1

The Senate-House

Enter Praenes, Lictores, SEJANUS, VARRO, LATIARIS, COTTA, and AFER

Sej.
'Tis only you must urge against him, Varro;
Nor I nor Caesar 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.

Var.
But is he summon'd?

Sej.
No. It was debated
By Caesar, and concluded as most fit
To take him unprepared.

Afer.
And prosecute
All under name of treason.

Var.
I conceive.

Enter SABINUS, GALLUS, LEPIDUS, and ARRUNTIUS.

Sab.
Drusus being dead, Caesar will not be here.

Gal.
What should the business of this senate be?

Arr.
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.

Gall.
See, see, see their action!

Arr.
Ay, now their heads do travail, now they work;
Their faces run like shittles; they are weaving
Some curious cobweb to catch flies.

Sab.
Observe,
They take their places.

Arr.
What, so low!

Gal.
O yes,
They must be seen to flatter Caesar's grief,
Though but in sitting.

Var.
Bid us silence.

Prae.
Silence!

Var.
Fathers conseript, may this our present meeting,
Turn fair, and fortunate to the common-wealth!

Enter SILIUS, and other Senators.

Sej.
See, Silius enters.

Sil.
Hail, grave fathers!

Lic.
Stand.
Silius, forbear thy place.

Ben.
How!

Prae.
Silius, stand forth,
The consul hath to charge thee.

Lic.
Room for Caesar.

Arr.
Is he come too! nay then expect a trick.

Sab.
Silius accused! sure he will answer nobly.

Enter TIBERIUS, attended.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
By Jove, I am not OEdipus enough
To understand this Sphynx.

Sab.
The princes come.
Enter NERO, and DRUSUS, junior.

Tib.
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 Caesar's wish,
And add to any honours that may crown
The hopeful issue of Germanicus

Tib.
We thank you, reverend fathers, in their right.

Arr.
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.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Well acted, Caesar. [Aside.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Laugh, fathers, laugh: have you no spleens about you?
[Aside.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Laugh on still. [Aside.

Sab.
Why this doth render all the rest suspected!

Gal.
It poisons all.

Arr.
O, do you taste it then?

Sab.
It takes away my faith to any thing,
He shall hereafter speak.

Arr.
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.

Gal.
Hear!

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Finely maintained; good still!

Sej.
But Rome, whose blood,
Whose nerves, whose life, whose very frame relies
On Caesar's strength, no less than heaven on Atlas,
Cannot admit it but with general ruin.

Arr.
Ah! are you there to bring him off? [Aside.

Sej.
Let Caesar
No more then urge a point so contrary
To Caesar's greatness, the grieved senate's vows,
Or Rome's necessity.

Gal.
He comes about——

Arr.
More nimbly than Vertumnus.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
You must and will, sir. We do know it. [Aside.

Senators.
Caesar,
Live long and happy, great and royal Caesar;
The gods preserve thee and thy modesty,
Thy wisdom and thy innocence

Arr.
Where is't?
The prayer is made before the subject. [Aside.

Senators.
Guard
His meekness, Jove; his piety, his care,
His bounty——

Arr.
And his subtility, I'll put in:
Yet he'll keep that himself, without the gods.
All prayers are vain for him. [Aside.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Now, Silius, guard thee;
The curtain's drawing. Afer advanceth. [Aside.

Prae.
Silence!

Afer.
Cite Caius Silius.

Prae.
Caius Silius!

Sil.
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 Caesar,
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 Caesar and this senate,
Thou hast defiled those glories with thy crimes——

Sil.
Crimes!

Afer.
Patience, Silius.

Sil.
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?

Sil.
I tell thee, Afer, with more scorn than fear:
Employ your mercenary tongue and art.
Where's my accuser?

Var.
Here.

Arr.
Varro, the consul!
Is he thrust in? [Aside.

Var.
'Tis I accuse thee, Silius.
Against the majesty of Rome, and Caesar,
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.

Sil.
Thou liest.

Arr.
I thank thee, Silius, speak so still and often.

Var.
If I not prove it, Caesar, 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.

Sil.
Caesar, I crave to have my cause deferr'd,
Till this man's consulship be out.

Tib.
We cannot,
Nor may we grant it.

Sil.
Why? shall he design
My day of trial? Is he my accuser,
And must he be my judge?

Tib.
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.

Sil.
Caesar, thy fraud is worse than violence.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Believe him, Silius.

Cot.
Why, so he may, Arruntius.

Arr.
I say so.
And he may choose too.

Tib.
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 Caesar to give way unto his trial,
He shall have justice.

Sil.
Nay, I shall have law;
Shall I not, Afer? speak.

Afer.
Would you have more?

Sil.
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.

Sil.
Thou durst not tell me so,
Hadst thou not Crease's warrant.
I can see Whose power condemns me.

Var.
This betrays his spirit:
This doth enough declare him what he is.

Sil.
What am I? speak.

Var.
An enemy to the state.

Sil.
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.

Sej.
This, to the consul, is most insolent,
And impious.

Sil.
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 Phoebus 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar, and to Rome their surety;
Their name, their strength, their spirit, and their state,
Their being was a donative from thee.

Arr.
Well worded, and most like an orator.

Tib.
Is this true, Silius?

Sil.
Save thy question, Caesar;
Thy spy of famous credit hath affirm'd it.

Arr.
Excellent Roman!

Sab.
He doth answer stoutly.

Sej.
If this be so, there needs no farther cause
Of crime against him.

Var.
What can more impeach
The royal dignity and state of Caesar,
Than to be urged with a benefit He cannot pay?

Cot.
In this, all Ceesar's fortune
Is made unequal to the courtesy.

Lat.
His means are clean destroyed that should requite.

Gal.
Nothing is great enough for Silius' merit.

Arr.
Gallus on that side too! [Aside.

Sil.
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, Caesar,
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.

Got.
Suffer him speak no more.

Var.
Note but his spirit.

Afer.
This shews him in the rest.

Lat.
Let him be censured.

Sej.
He hath spoke enough to prove him Caesar's foe.

Got.
His thoughts look through his words. Sej.
A censure.

Sil.
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 Caesar, 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.

Var.
O desperate act!

Arr.
An honourable hand!

Tib.
Look, is he dead?

Sab.
'Twas nobly struck, and home.

Arr.
My thought did prompt him to it. Farewell. Silius.
Be famous ever for thy great example.

Tib.
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.

Arr.
Excellent wolf!
Now he is full he howls. [Aside.

Sej.
Caesar 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.

Tib.
The confiscation merely of his state
Had been enough.

Arr.
O, that was gaped for then? [Aside.

Var.
Remove the body.

Sej.
Let citation Go out for Sosia.

Gal.
Let her be proscribed:
And for the goods, I think it fit that half
Go to the treasure, half unto the children.

Lep.
With leave of Caesar, 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.

Tib.
It shall please us.

Arr.
Ay,
Out of necessity. This Lepidus
Is grave and honest, and I have observed
A moderation still in all his censures.

Sab.
And bending to the better——Stay, who's this?

Enter SATRIUS and NATTA, with CREMUTIUS CORDUS guarded.

Cremutius Cordus! What! is he brought in?

Arr.
More blood into the banquet! Noble Cordus,
I wish thee good: be as thy writings, free,
And honest.

Tib.
What is he?

Sej.
For the Annals, Caesar.

Prae.
Cremutius Cordus!

Cor.
Here.

Prae.
Satrius Secundus,
Pinnarius Natta, you are his accusers.

Arr.
Two of Sejanus' blood-hounds, whom he breeds
With human flesh, to bay at citizens.

Afer.
Stand forth before the senate, and confront him.

Sat.
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.

Nat.
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.

Cot.
How! what are we then?

Var.
What is Caesar? 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, Caesar's self
Brought in disvalue; and he aimed at most,
By oblique glance of his licentious pen.
Caesar, if Cassius were the last of Romans,
Thou hast no name.

Tib.
Let's hear him answer. Silence!

Cor.
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 Caesar 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 Caesars;
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.

Arr.
Freely and nobly spoken!

Sab.
With good temper;
I like him, that he is not moved with passion.

Arr.
He puts them to their whisper.

Tib.
Take him hence;
We shall determine of him at next sitting.

[Exeunt Officers with Cordus.

Cot.
Mean time, give order, that his books be burnt,
To the aediles.

Sej.
You have well advised.

Afer.
It fits not such licentious things should live
T'upbraid the age.

Arr.
If the age were good, they might.

Lat.
Let them be burnt.

Gal.
All sought, and burnt to-day.

Prae.
The court is up; lictors, resume the fasces.

[Exeunt all but Arruntius, Sabinus, and Lepidus.

Arr.
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!

Sab.
'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.

It is an argument the times are sore,
When virtue cannot safely be advanced;
Nor vice reproved.

Arr.
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.