An upper Room of AGRIPPINA'S HOUSE.
Enter LATIARIS, RUFUS, and OPSIUS
Lat.
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,
Reveal yourselves, and take him.
Ruf.
Is he come?
Lat.
I'll now go fetch him.
Ops.
With good speed.-I long
To merit from the state in such an action.
Ruf.
I hope, it will obtain the consulship
For one of us...
Ops.
We cannot think of less,
To bring in one so dangerous as Sabinus.
Ruf.
He was follower of Germanicus,
And still is an observer of his wife
And children, though they be declined in grace
A daily visitant, keeps them company
In private and in public, and is noted
To be the only client of the house:
Pray Jove. he will be free to Latiaris.
Ops.
He's allied to him, and doth trust him well.
Ruf: And he'll requite his trust!
Ops.
To do an office
So grateful to the state, I know no man
But would strain nearer bands, than kindred——
Ruf.
List!
I hear them come.
Ops.
Shift to our holes with silence.
[They retire
Re-enter LATIARIS and SABINUS.
Lat.
It is a noble constancy you shew
To this afflicted house; that not like others,
The friends of season, you do follow fortune,
And, in the winter of their fate, forsake
The place whose glories warm'd you. You are just,
And worthy such a princely patron's love,
As was the world's renown'd Germanicus:
Whose ample merit when I call to thought,
And see his wife and issue, objects made
To so much envy, jealousy, and hate;
It makes me ready to accuse the gods
Of negligence, as men of tyranny.
Sab.
They must be patient, so must we.
Lat.
O Jove,
What will become of us or of the times,
When, to be high or noble, are made crimes,
When land and treasure are most dangerous faults!
Sab.
Nay, when our table, yea our bed, assaults
Our peace and safety? when our writings are,
By any envious instruments, that dare
Apply them to the guilty, made to speak
What they will have to fit their tyrannous wreak?
When ignorance is scarcely innocence;
And knowledge made a capital offence!
When not so much, but the bare empty shade
Of liberty is raft us; and we made
The prey to greedy vultures and vile spies,
That first transfix us with their murdering eyes.
Lat.
Methinks the genius of the Roman race
Should not be so extinct, but that bright flame
Of liberty might be revived again,
(Which no good man but. with his life should lose)
And we not sit like spent and patient fools,
Still puffing in the dark at one poor coal,
Held on by hope till the last spark is out.
The cause is public, and the honour, name,
The immortality of every soul,
That is not bast*rd or a slave in Rome,
Therein concern'd: whereto, if men would change
The wearied arm, and for the weighty shield
So long sustain'd, employ the facile sword,
We might soon have assurance of our vows.
This ass's fortitude doth tire us all:
It must be active valour must redeem
Our loss, or none. The rock and 'our hard steel
Should meet to enforce those glorious fires again,
Whose splendour cheer'd the world, and heat gave life,
No less than doth the sun's. Sab. 'Twere better stay
In lasting darkness, and despair of day.
No ill should force the subject undertake
Against the sovereign, more than hell should make
The gods do wrong. A good man should and must
Sit rather down with loss, than rise unjust.
Though, when the Romans first did yield themselves
To one man's power, they did not mean their lives,
Their fortunes and their liberties, should be
His absolute spoil, as purchased by the sword.
Lat.
Why we are worse, if to be slaves, and bond
To Caesar's slave be such, the proud Sejanus!
He that is all, does all, gives Caesar leave
To hide his ulcerous and anointed face,
With his bald crown at Rhodes, while he here stalks
Upon the heads of Romans, and their princes,
Familiarly to empire.
Sab.
Now you touch
A point indeed, wherein he shews his art,
As well as power.
Lat.
And villainy in both.
Do you observe where Livia lodges? how
Drusus came dead? what men have been cut off?
Sab.
Yes, those are things removed: I nearer look'd
Into his later practice, where he stands
Declared a master in his mystery.
First, ere Tiberius went, he wrought his fear
To think that Agrippina sought his death.
Then put those doubts in her; sent her oft word.
Under the show of friendship, to beware
Of Caesar, for he laid to poison her:
Drave them to frowns, to mutual jealousies,
Which, now, in visible hatred are burst out.
Since, he hath had his hired instruments
To work on Nero, and to heave him up;
To tell him Caesar's old, that all the people,
Yea, all the army have their eyes on him;
That both do long to have him undertake
Something of worth, to give the world a hope;
Bids him to court their grace: the easy youth
Perhaps gives ear, which straight he writes to Caesar;
And with this comment: See yon dangerous boy;
Note but the practice of the mother, there;
She's tying him for purposes at hand,
With men of sword. Here's Caesar put in fright
'Gainst son and mother. Yet, he leaves not thus.
The second brother, Drusus, a fierce nature,
And fitter for his snares, because ambitious
And full of envy, him he clasps and hugs,
Poisons with praise, tells him what hearts he wears,
How bright he stands in popular expectance;
That Rome doth suffer with him in the wrong
His mother does him, by preferring Nero:
Thus sets he them asunder, each 'gainst other,
Projects the course that serves him to condemn,
Keeps in opinion of a friend to all,
And all drives on to ruin.
Lat.
Caesar sleeps, And nods at this.
Sab.
Would he might ever sleep,
Bogg'd in his filthy lusts!
[Opsius and Rufus rush in.
Ops.
Treason to Caesar!
Ruf.
Lay hands upon the traitor, Latiaris,
Or take the name thyself.
Lat.
I am for Caesar.
Sab.
Am I then catch'd?
Ruf.
How think you, sir? you are.
Sab.
Spies of this head, so white, so full of years!
Well, my most reverend monsters, you may live
To see yourselves thus snared.
Ops, Away with him!
Lat.
Hale him away.
Ruf.
To be a spy for traitors,
Is honourable vigilance.
Sab.
You do well,
My most officious instruments of state;
Men of all uses: drag me hence, away.
The year is well begun, and I fall fit
To be an offering to Sejanus. Go!
Ops.
Cover him with his garments, hide his face.
Sab.
It shall not need. Forbear your rude assault.
The fault's not shameful, villainy makes a fault.
[Exeunt.