SILIUS

TITIUS SA BINVS, Hail. Yo'are rarely met in court! It's true: Indeed, this place is not our sphere. But yonder lean A pair that do. (SAB. Good cousin LATIARIS.) SATRIUS SECUNDUS, and PINNARIUS NATTA, The great SEIANUS clients: There be two, Know more, then honest counsels: whose close breasts Were they riped up to light, it would be found A poor, and idle sin, to which their trunks Had not been made fit organs. These can lie, Flatter, and swear, forswear, deprave, inform, Smile, and betray; make guilty men; then beg The forfeit lives, to get the livings; cut Men's throats with whisperings; fell to gaping suitors The empty smoke, that flies about the Palace; Laugh, when their patron laughs; sweat, when he sweats; Be hight, and cold with him; change every mood, Habit, and garb, as often as he varies; Observe him, as his watch observes his clock; And true, as turks in the deer lords ring, Look well, or ill with him: ready to praise His lordship, if he spit, or but piss fair, Have and indifferent stool, or break wind well, Nothing can escape their catch. Well, all is worthy of us, were it more, Who with our riots, pride, and civil hate, Have so provoked the justice of the gods. We, that (within these fourscore years) were born Free, equal lords of the triumphed world, And knew no Master's, but affections, To which betraying first our liberties, We since became the slaves to one men lustest; And now to many: every ministering spy That will accuse, and swear, is lord of you, Of me, of all, our Fortune's, and our lives. Our looks are called to question, and our words, How innocent soever, are made crimes; We shall not shortly dare to tell our dreams, Or think, but it'll be reason. I Like the prince well. And I, for gracing his young kinsmen so, The sons of Prince GERMANICUS: It shows A gallant clearness in him, a straight mind, That envies not, in them, their father's name. He had the fruits, ARRUNTIUS, More then the seeds: SABINUS, and my self Had means to know him, within; and can report him. We were his followers, (he would call us friends.) He was a man most Like to vertue'; In all, And every Actium, nearer to the gods, Then men, in nature; of a Body as fair As was his mind; and no less reverend In face, then fame: He could so use his state, Tempering his greatness, with his gravity, As it avoided all selflove in him, And spite in others. What his funerals lacked In images, and pomp, they had supplied With honourable sorrow, soldiers sadness, A kind of silent mourning, such, as men (Who know no tears, but from their captives) use To show in so great losses. Now observe the stoops, The bendings, and the falls. Nothing so. SEIANUS can repair, if JOVE should ruin. He is the now court-god; And well applied With sacrifice of knees, of crooks, and cringe, He will do more then all the house of heaven Can, for a thousand hecatombs. It's he Makes us our day, or night; Hell, and Elysium Are in his look: We talk of RHADAMANTH, Furies, and firebrands; But it's his frown That is all these, where, on the adverse partly, His smile is more, then ere (yet) Poets feigned Of bliss, and shades, nectar — He hath of late Made him a strength too, strangely, by reducing All the Praetorian bans into one camp, Which he command's: pretending, that the soldier By living lose, and scattered, fell to riot; And that if any sudden enterprise Should be attempted, their united strength Would be far more, then severed; and their life More strict, if from the city more removed. Nothing, but Emperor. Sure, while he lives. If this man Had but a mind allied unto his words, How blessed a fate were it to us, and Room? We could not think that state, for which to change, Although the aim were our old liberty: The ghosts of those that fell for that, would grieve Their bodies lived not, now, again to serve. "Men are deceived, who think there can be thrall "Beneath a virtuous prince. Wished liberty "Never lovelier looks, then under such a crown. But, when his grace is merely but lip-good, And, that no longer, then he airs himself Abroad in public, there, to seem to shun The strokes, and stripes of flatterers, which within Are lechery unto him, and so feed His brutish sense with their afflicting found, As (dead to virtue) he permits himself Be carried Like a pitcher, by the ears, To every act of vice: this is a case Deserves our fear, and does presage the nigh, And close approach of blood and tyranny. "Flattery is midwife unto princes rage: "And nothing sooner, does help forth a tyrant, "Then that, and whisperers grace, who have the time, "The place, the power, to make all men offenders. It's well prayed. Check your passion; Lord DRUSUS tarries. Most royal princess. She is your servant, and does owe your grace And honest, but unprofitable love. 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 house; Which act, as it is simply born in her, Partakes of love, and honesty, but may, By th'ouer-often, and unseasoned use, Turn to your lose, and danger: For your state Is waited on by envies, as by eyes; And every second guessed your tables take, Is a feed spy, t'obserue who goes, who comes, What conference you have, with whom, where, when, What the discourse is, what the looks, the thoughts Of every person there, they do extract, And make into a substance. It's great, and bravely spoken, Like the spirit Of AGRIPPINA: yet, your highness knows, There is nor lose, nor shame in providence: Few can, what all should do, beware enough. You may perceive with what officious face, SATRIUS, and NATTA, AFER, and the rest Visit your house, of late, t'enquire the secrets; And with what bold, and privileged art, they rail Against AUGUSTA: yea, and at Tiberius, Tell tricks of LIVIA, and SEIANUS, all T'excite, and call your indignation on, That they might hear it at more liberty. Pray the gods, I be so AGRIPPINA: But I fear Some subtle practice. They, that durst to strike At so examp-lesse, and unblamed a life, As, that of the renowned GERMANICUS, Will not fit down, with that exploit alone: "He threatens many, that hath injured one. Thinks? if't be arrived at that, he knows, Or none. Poison. Poison— Nay, nothing. There was (late) a certain blow Given of the face. True. I'am glad I gave it not. Yes, private meetings, With a great lady, at a physicians, And, a wife turned away— Toys, mere toys: What wisdom's now i'th' streets? i'th' common mouth? I'll thither, straight; And see what's in the forge. Haste you, my lords, To visit the sick prince: tender your loves, And sorrows to the people. This SEIANUS (Trust my divining soul) hath plots on all: No tree, that stops his prospect, but must fallen. '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 en'mitie 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 ha them too. Hail graven Father's. Here. Crimes? Tell thy moil of pa tience, 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. I tell thee, AFER, with more scorn, then fear: Employ your mercenary tongue, and art. Where's my accuser? Thou liest. Caesar, I crave to have my cause deferred, Till this men Consulship be out. Why? shall he design My day of trial? is he my accuser? And must he be my judge? Caesar, thy fraud is worse then violence. Nay, I shall have law; Shall I not AFER? speak. 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. Thou durst not tell me so, Hadst thou not CAESARS warrant. I can see Whose power condemns me. What am I? speak. Because I am and enemy to thee, And such corrupted ministers of the state, That here art made a present instrument To gratify it with thine own disgrace. I, take partly. Reveal your selves. Alas, I sent not your confederacies? Your plots, and combinations? I not know Minion SEIANUS hates me; and that all This boast of law, and law, is but a form, A net of VULCANS filing, a mere engine, 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? Oh, you equal gods, Whose justice not a world of wolf-turned men Shall make me to accuse (how ere provoke) Have I for this so oft engaged my self? Stood in the heat, and fervor of a fight, When PHŒBUS sooner hath forsook the day Then I the field? Against the blue-eyed Gauls? And crisped Germane? when our Roman Eagles Have fanned 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 curled 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 Room? 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.) Save thy question, Caesar. Thy spy, of famous credit, hath affirmed it. Come, do not hunt, And labour so about for circumstance, To make him guilty, whom you have foredoomed: 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 feared me; and, in place of grace, Returned me hatred: so soon, all best turns, With doubtful Princes, turn deep injuries In estimation, when they greater rise, Then can be answered. Benefits, with you, Are of no longer pleasure, then 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 makes your greatness, must not come In mention of it; if it do, it takes So much away, you think: and that, which helped, Shall soonest perish, if it stand in eye, Where it may front, or but upbraid the high. 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 her self When virtue does oppose, must loose her threats. All that can happen in humanity, The frown of Caesar, proud SEIANUS hatred, Base VARRO'S spleen, and AFERS bloudying tongue, The Senates servile flattery, and these Mustered to kill, I'am fortified against; And can look down upon: they are beneath me. It is not life whereof I stand enamoured: Nor shall my end make me accuse my fate. The coward, and the valiant man must fallen, 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.