Act 5 — [Scene X.][1544]

Hat. How well his lordship looks to-day! Tri. As if He had been born, or made for this hour’s state. Cot. Your fellow consul’s come about, methinks? Tri. Ay, he is wise, San. Sejanus trusts him well. Tri. Sejanus is a noble, bounteous lord.5 Hat. He is so, and most valiant. Lat. And most wise. [1] Sen. He’s everything. Lat. Worthy of all, and more Than bounty can bestow. Tri. This dignity Will make him worthy. Pom. Above Caesar. San. Tut, Caesar is but the rector of an isle,10 He of the Empire. Tri. Now he will have power More to reward than ever. Cot. Let us look We be not slack in giving him our voices. Lat. Not I. San. Nor I. Cot. The readier we seem To propagate his honours, will more bind15 His thoughts to ours. Hat. I think right with your lordship; It is the way to have us hold our places. San. Ay, and get more. Lat. More office and more titles. Pom. I will not lose the part I hope to share In these his fortunes, for my patrimony.20 Lat. See how Arruntius sits, and Lepidus! Tri. Let ’em alone, they will be markt anon. 1 Sen. I’ll do with others. 2 Sen. So will I. 3 Sen. And I. Men grow not in the state but as they are planted Warm in his favours. Cot. Noble Sejanus!25 Hat. Honour’d Sejanus! Lat. Worthy and great Sejanus! Arr. 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 but most30 Can claw his subtile elbow, or with a buz Fly-bow his ears? Praet. Proclaim the senate’s peace, And give last summons by the edict. Prae. Silence! In the name of Caesar, and the senate, silence!

Tri. Note who are absent, and record their names.45 Reg. Fathers conscript, may what I am to utter Turn good and happy for the commonwealth! And thou, Apollo, in whose holy house We here are met, inspire us all with truth, And liberty of censure to our thought!50 The majesty of great Tiberius Caesar Propounds to this grave senate, the bestowing Upon the man he loves, honour’d Sejanus, The tribunitial dignity and power: Here are his letters, signed with his signet.55 What pleaseth now the fathers to be done? Sen. Read, read ’em, open, publicly read ’em. Cot. Caesar hath honour’d his own greatness much In thinking of this act. Tri. It was a thought Happy, and worthy Caesar. Lat. And the lord60 As worthy it, on whom it is directed! Hat. Most worthy! San. Rome did never boast the virtue That could give envy bounds, but his: Sejanus—— [1] Sen. Honour’d and noble! [2] Sen. Good and great Sejanus!64 Arr. O, most tame slavery, and fierce flattery! Prae. Silence! (Reads.)

Arr. Come, porpoise. (Aside.) Where’s Haterius? His gout keeps him most miserably constant!— Your dancing shows a tempest. Sej. Read no more. Reg. Lords of the senate, hold your seats: read on. Sej. These letters, they are forg’d. Reg. A guard! sit still.170 Enter Laco, with the Guards. Arr. There’s change! Reg. Bid silence, and read forward.

Reg. A guard on Latiaris! Arr. O, the spy. The reverend spy is caught! Who pities him? Reward, sir, for your service: now, you ha’ done Your property.[1549] you see what use is made! [Exeunt Latiaris and Natta guarded.] Hang up the instrument. Sej. Give leave. Lac. Stand, stand!206 He comes upon his death, that doth advance An inch toward my point. Sej. Have we no friends here? Arr. Husht! Where now are all the hails and acclamations?

Mac. Hail to the consuls, and this noble senate! Sej. [Aside.] Is Macro here? O, thou art lost, Sejanus!210 Mac. Sit still, and unaffrighted, reverend fathers; Macro, by Caesar’s grace the new-made provost, And now possest of the praetorian bands, An honour late belong’d to that proud man, Bids you be safe: and to your constant doom[1550]215 Of his deservings, offers you the surety Of all the soldiers, tribunes, and centurions, Receiv’d in our command. Reg. Sejanus, Sejanus, Stand forth, Sejanus! Sej. Am I call’d! Mac. Ay, thou, Thou insolent monster, art bid stand. Sej. Why, Macro,220 It hath been otherwise between you and I; This court, that knows us both, hath seen a difference, And can, if it be pleas’d to speak, confirm Whose insolence is most. Mac. Come down, Typhoeus. If mine be most, lo! thus I make it more;225 Kick up thy heels in air, tear off thy robe, Play with thy beard and nostrils. Thus ’t is fit (And no man take compassion of thy state) To use th’ ingrateful viper, tread his brains Into the earth. Reg. Forbear. Mac. If I could lose230 All my humanity now, ’t were well to torture So meriting a traitor.—Wherefore, fathers, Sit you amaz’d and silent; and not censure This wretch, who, in the hour he first rebell’d ’Gainst Caesar’s bounty, did condemn himself? Phlegra, the field where all the sons of earth Muster’d against the gods, did ne’er acknowledge237 So proud and huge a monster. Reg. Take him hence; And all the gods guard Caesar! Tri. Take him hence. Hat. Hence. Cot. To the dungeon with him. San. He deserves it.240 Sen. Crown all our doors with bays. San. And let an ox, With gilded horns and garlands, straight be led Unto the Capitol. Hat. And sacrific’d To Jove, for Caesar’s safety. Tri. All our gods Be present still to Caesar! Cot. Phoebus. San. Mars.244 Hat. Diana. San. Pallas. Sen. Juno, Mercury, All guard him! Mac. Forth thou prodigy of men. [Exit Sejanus, guarded.] Cot. Let all the traitor’s titles be defac’d. Tri. His images and statues be pull’d down. Hat. His chariot-wheels be broken. Arr. And the legs Of the poor horses, that deserved nought,251 Let them be broken too! Lep. O violent change, And whirl of men’s affections! Arr. Like, as both Their bulks and souls were bound on Fortune’s wheel, And must act only with her motion.255

Lep. Who would depend upon the popular air, Or voice of men, that have to-day beheld That which, if all the gods had fore-declar’d, Would not have been believ’d Sejanus’ fall? He that this morn rose proudly as the sun,260 And, breaking through a mist of clients’ breath, Came on as gaz’d at and admir’d as he, When superstitious Moors salute his light! That had our servile nobles waiting him As common grooms; and hanging on his look No less than human life on destiny!265 That had men’s knees as frequent as the gods; And sacrifices more than Rome had altars: And this man fall! fall? ay, without a look That durst appear his friend, or lend so much Of vain relief, to his chang’d state, as pity!271 Arr. They that before, like gnats, play’d in his beams, And throng’d to circumscribe him, now not seen, Nor deign to hold a common seat with him! Others, that waited him unto the senate,275 Now inhumanely ravish him to prison, Whom but this morn they follow’d as their lord! Guard through the streets, bound like a fugitive. Instead of wreaths give fetters, strokes for stoops: Blind shame for honours, and black taunts for titles!280 Who would trust slippery Chance? Lep. They that would make Themselves her spoil; and foolishly forget, When she doth flatter, that she comes to prey. Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom: we have placed thee so high,285 By fond belief in thy felicity. (Shout within.) The gods guard Caesar! All the gods guard Caesar!

Mac. Now, great Sejanus, you that aw’d the state, And sought to bring the nobles to your whip; That would be Caesar’s tutor, and dispose290 Of dignities and offices! that had The public head still bare to your designs, And made the general voice to echo yours! That look’d for salutations twelve score off, And would have pyramids, yea, temples, rear’d To your huge greatness; now you lie as flat295 As was your pride advanc’d![1551] Reg. Thanks to the gods! Sen. And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome! Liberty, liberty, liberty! Lead on, And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!300

Arr. I prophesy, out of the senate’s flattery, That this new fellow, Macro, will become A greater prodigy in Rome than he That now is fall’n.

Ter. O you, whose minds are good, And have not forc’d all mankind from your breasts;305 That yet have so much stock of virtue left To pity guilty states, when they are wretched: Lend your soft ears to hear, and eyes to weep Deeds done by men, beyond the acts of furies. The eager multitude (who never yet310 Knew why to love or hate, but only pleas’d T’ express their rage of power) no sooner heard The murmur of Sejanus in decline, But with that speed and heat of appetite, With which they greedily devour the way315 To some great sports, or a new theatre, They fill’d the Capitol, and Pompey’s Cirque Where, like so many mastiffs biting stones, As if his statues now were sensitive319 Of their wild fury; first, they tear them down; Then fast’ning ropes, drag them along the streets, Crying in scorn, “This, this was that rich head Was crown’d with garlands, and with odours, this That was in Rome so reverenced! Now The furnace and the bellows shall to work,325 The great Sejanus crack, and piece by piece Drop in the founder’s pit.” Lep. O popular rage! Ter. The whilst the senate at the temple of Concord Make haste to meet again, and thronging cry, “Let us condemn him, tread him down in water, While he doth lie upon the bank; away!”331 While some, more tardy, cry unto their bearers, “He will be censur’d ere we come; run, knaves,” And use that furious diligence, for fear Their bondmen should inform against their slackness,335 And bring their quaking flesh unto the hook. The rout, they follow with confused voice, Crying they’re glad, say they could ne’er abide him; Inquire what man he was, what kind of face, What beard he had, what nose, what lips? protest340 They ever did presage he’d come to this; They never thought him wise, nor valiant; ask After his garments, when he dies, what death; And not a beast of all the herd demands What was his crime, or who were his accusers, Under what proof or testimony he fell.346 There came, says one, a huge long-worded letter From Capreae against him. Did there so? O, they are satisfied; no more. Lep. Alas! They follow Fortune, and hate men condemn’d, Guilty or not. Arr. But had Sejanus thriv’d351 In his design, and prosperously opprest The old Tiberius; then, in that same minute, These very rascals, that now rage like furies, Would have proclaim’d Sejanus emperor.355 Lep. But what hath follow’d? Ter. Sentence by the senate, To lose his head; which was no sooner off, But that and th’ unfortunate trunk were seiz’d By the rude multitude; who not content With what the forward justice of the state360 Officiously had done, with violent rage Have rent it limb from limb. A thousand heads, A thousand hands, ten thousand tongues and voices, Employ’d at once in several acts of malice! Old men not staid with age, virgins with shame, Late wives with loss of husbands, mothers of children,366 Losing all grief in joy of his sad fall, Run quite transported with their cruelty! These mounting at his head, these at his face, These digging out his eyes, those with his brain Sprinkling themselves, their houses and their friends;371 Others are met, have ravish’d thence an arm, And deal small pieces of the flesh for favours; These with a thigh, this hath cut off his hands, And this his feet; these fingers, and these toes;375 That hath his liver, he his heart: there wants Nothing but room for wrath, and place for hatred! What cannot oft be done, is now o’erdone. The whole, and all of what was great Sejanus, And, next to Caesar, did possess the world,380 Now torn and scatter’d, as he needs no grave Each little dust covers a little part: So lies he nowhere, and yet often buried!

Arr. More of Sejanus? Nun. Yes. Lep. What can be added? We know him dead. Nun. Then there begin your pity,385 There is enough behind to melt ev’n Rome, And Caesar into tears; since never slave Could yet so highly offend, but tyranny, In tormenting him, would make him worth lamenting. A son and daughter to the dead Sejanus,390 (Of whom there is not now so much remaining As would give fast’ning to the hangman’s hook,) Have they drawn forth for farther sacrifice; Whose tenderness of knowledge, unripe years, And childish silly innocence was such,395 As scarce would lend them feeling of their danger: The girl so simple, as she often askt Where they would lead her? for what cause they dragg’d her? Cried, she would do no more: that she could take Warning with beating. And because our laws400 Admit no virgin immature to die, The wittily and strangely cruel Macro Deliver’d her to be deflower’d and spoil’d By the rude lust of the licentious hangman,404 Then to be strangled with her harmless brother. Lep. O, act most worthy hell, and lasting night, To hide it from the world! Nun. Their bodies thrown Into the Gemonies, (I know not how, Or by what accident return’d,) the mother, Th’ expulsed[1552] Apicata, finds them there;410 Whom when she saw lie spread on the degrees,[1553] After a world of fury on herself, Tearing her hair, defacing of her face, Beating her breasts and womb, kneeling amaz’d, Crying to heaven, then to them; at last,415 Her drowned voice gat up above her woes, And with such black and bitter execrations As might affright the gods, and force the sun Run backward to the east; nay, make the old Deformed chaos rise again, t’ o’erwhelm420 Them, us, and all the world, she fills the air, Upbraids the heavens with their partial dooms, Defies their tyrannous powers, and demands, What she, and those poor innocents have transgress’d, That they must suffer such a share in vengeance,425 Whilst Livia, Lygdus, and Eudemus live, Who, as she says, and firmly vows to prove it To Caesar and the senate, poison’d Drusus? Lep. Confederates with her husband! Nun. Ay. Lep. Strange act! Arr. And strangely open’d. What says now my monster,430 The multitude? They reel now, do they not? Nun. Their gall is gone, and now they ’gin to weep The mischief they have done. Arr. I thank ’em, rogues. Nun. Part are so stupid, or so flexible, As they believe him innocent; all grieve:435 And some, whose hands yet reek with his warm blood, And grip the part which they did tear of him, Wish him collected and created new. Lep. How Fortune plies her sports, when she begins To practise ’em! pursues, continues, adds,440 Confounds with varying her impassion’d moods! Arr. Dost thou hope, Fortune, to redeem thy crimes, To make amend for thy ill placed favours, With these strange punishments! Forbear, you things That stand upon the pinnacles of state,445 To boast your slippery height; when you do fall, You pash[1554] yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise; And he that lends you pity, is not wise. Ter. Let this example move the insolent man Not to grow proud and careless of the gods.450 It is an odious wisdom to blaspheme, Much more to slighten, or deny their powers: For whom the morning saw so great and high, Thus low and little, ’fore the even doth lie. [Exeunt.]