Sejanus: His Fall Part 16

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' trespa.s.s 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! n.o.ble 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 Seja.n.u.s' 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d 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 Ca.s.sius 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 Ca.s.sius 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 Ca.s.sius I am charged to have praised; Whose deeds, when many more, besides myself, Have writ, not one hath mention'd without honour.

Great t.i.tus 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 friends.h.i.+p. In his book He often names Scipio, Afranius, Yea, the same Ca.s.sius, 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 n.o.ble memory; so Messala Renown'd his general Ca.s.sius: 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 l.u.s.t 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 Ca.s.sius, 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 Ca.s.sius well approve, And of great Brutus' honour mindful be, But that will also mention make of me.

Arr. Freely and n.o.bly spoken!

Sab.

With good temper; I like him, that he is not moved with pa.s.sion.

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.