Sejanus: His Fall Part 18

Tib.

Leave us awhile.---- [Exit Officer.]

When you shall know. good Macro, The causes of our sending, and the ends, You will then hearken nearer; and be pleas'd You stand so high both in our choice and trust.

Mac.

The humblest place in Caesar's choice or trust, May make glad Macro proud; without ambition.

Save to do Caesar service.

Tib.

Leave your courtings.

We are in purpose, Macro, to depart The city for a time, and see Campania; Not for our pleasures, but to dedicate A pair of temples, one to Jupiter At Capua; th' other at Nola, to Augustus: In which great work, perhaps our stay will be Beyond our will produced...Now since we are Not ignorant what danger may be born Out of our shortest absence in a state So subject unto envy, and embroil'd With hate and faction; we have thought on thee, Amongst a field of Romans, worthiest Macro, To be our eye and ear: to keep strict watch On Agrippina, Nero, Drusus; ay, And on Seja.n.u.s: not that we distrust His loyalty, or do repent one grace Of all that heap we have conferred on him; For that were to disparage our election, And call that judgment now in doubt, which then Seem'd as unquestion'd as an oracle- But, greatness hath his cankers. Worms and moths Breed out of too much humour, in the things Which after they consume, transferring quite The substance of their makers into themselves.

Macro is sharp, and apprehends: besides, I know him subtle, close, wise, and well-read In man, and his large nature; he hath studied Affections, pa.s.sions, knows their springs, their ends, Which way, and whether they will work: 'tis proof Enough of his great merit, that we trust him.

Then to a point, because our conference Cannot be long without suspicion---- Here, Macro, we a.s.sign thee, both to spy, Inform, and chastise; think, and use thy means, Thy ministers, what, where, on whom thou wilt; Explore, plot, practise: all thou dost in this Shall be, as if the Senate, or the laws Had given it privilege, and thou thence styled The saviour both of Caesar and of Rome.

We will not take thy answer but in act: Whereto, as thou proceed'st, we hope to hear By trusted messengers. If't be inquired, Wherefore we call'd you, say you have in charge To see our chariots ready, and our horse.---- Be still our loved and, shortly, honour'd Macro.

Mac.

I will not ask, why Caesar bids do this; But joy that he bids me. It is the bliss Of courts to be employ'd, no matter how; A prince's power makes all his actions virtue.

We, whom he works by, are dumb instruments, To do, but not inquire: his great intents Are to be served, not search'd. Yet, as that bow Is most in hand, whose owner best doth know To affect his aims; so let that statesman hope Most use, most price, can hit his prince's scope.

Nor must he look at what, or whom to strike, But loose at all; each mark must be alike.

Were it to plot against the fame, the life Of one, with whom I twinn'd; remove a wife From my warm side, as loved as is the air; Practise sway each parent; draw mine heir In compa.s.s, though but one; work all my kin To swift perdition; leave no untrain'd engine, For friends.h.i.+p, or for innocence; nay, make The G.o.ds all guilty; I would undertake This, being imposed me, both with gain and ease: The way to rise is to obey and please.

He that will thrive in state, he must neglect The trodden paths that truth and right respect; And prove new, wilder ways: for virtue there Is not that narrow thing, she is elsewhere; Men's fortune there is virtue; reason their will; Their license, law; and their observance, skill.

Occasion is their foil; conscience, their stain; Profit their l.u.s.tre; and what else is, vain.

If then it be the l.u.s.t of Caesar's power, To have raised Seja.n.u.s up, and in an hour O'erturn him, tumbling down, from height of all; We are his ready engine: and his fall May be our rise. It is no uncouth thing To see fresh buildings from old ruins spring. [Exit.

ACT IV

SCENE I.-An Apartment in AGRIPPINA'S House.

Enter GALLUS and AGRIPPINA.

Gal. You must have patience, royal Agrippina.

Agr.

I must have vengeance, first; and that were nectar Unto my famish'd spirits. O, my fortune, Let it be sudden thou prepar'st against me; Strike all my powers of understanding blind.

And ignorant of destiny to come!

Let me not fear that cannot hope.

Gal.

Dear princess, These tyrannies on yourself, are worse than Caesar's.

Agr.

Is this the happiness of being born great?

Still to be aim'd at? still to be suspected?

To live the subject of all jealousies?

At least the colour made, if not the ground To every painted danger? who would not Choose once to fall, than thus to hang for ever?

Gal. You might be safe if you would----

Agr.

What, my Gallus!

Be lewd Seja.n.u.s' strumpet, or the bawd To Caesar's l.u.s.ts, he now is gone to practise?

Not these are safe, where nothing is. Yourself, While thus you stand but by me, are not safe.

Was Silius safe? or the good Sosia safe?

Or was my niece, dear Claudia Pulchra, safe, Or innocent Furnius? they that latest have (By being made guilty) added reputation To Afer's eloquence? O, foolish friends, Could not so fresh example warn your loves, But you must buy my favours with that loss Unto yourselves; and when you might perceive That Caesar's cause of raging must forsake him, Before his will! Away, good Gallus, leave me.

Here to be seen, is danger; to speak, treason: To do me least observance, is call'd faction.

You are unhappy in me, and I in all.

Where are my sons, Nero and Drusus? We Are they be shot at; let us fall apart; Not in our ruins, sepulchre our friends.

Or shall we do some action like offence, To mock their studies that would make us faulty, And frustrate practice by preventing it?

The danger's like: for what they can contrive, They will make good. No innocence is safe, When power contests: nor can they trespa.s.s more, Whose only being was all crime before.

Enter NERO, DRUSUS, and CALIGULA.

Ner. You hear Seja.n.u.s is come back from Caesar?

Gal. No. How? disgraced?

Dru. More graced now than ever.

Cal. By what mischance?

Cal.

A fortune like enough Once to be bad.

Dru. But turn'd too good to both.

Gal. What was't?

Ner.

Tiberius sitting at his meat, In a farm-house they call Spelunca, sited By the sea-side, among the Fundane hills, Within a natural cave; part of the grot, About the entry, fen, and overwhelm'd Some of the waiters; others ran away: Only Seja.n.u.s with his knees, hands, face, O'erhanging Caesar, did oppose himself To the remaining ruins, and was found In that so labouring posture by the soldiers That came to succour him. With which adventure, He hath so fix'd himself in Caesar's trust, As thunder cannot move him, and is come With all the height of Caesar's praise to Rome.

Agr.

And power, to turn those ruins all on us; And bury whole posterities beneath them.

Nero, and Drusus, and Caligula, Your places are the next, and therefore most In their offence. Think on your birth and blood.

Awake your spirits, meet their violence; 'Tis princely when a tyrant doth oppose, And is a fortune sent to exercise Your virtue, as the wind doth try strong trees, Who by vexation grow more sound and firm.

After your father's fall, and uncle's fate, What can you hope, but all the change of stroke That force or sleight can give? then stand upright; And though you do not act, yet suffer n.o.bly: Be worthy of my womb, and take strong chear; What we do know will come, we should not fear. [Exeunt.

SCENE ll.----The Street

Enter MACRO.

Mac.

Return'd so soon! renew'd in trust and grace!

Is Caesar then so weak, or hath the place But wrought this alteration with the air; And he, on next remove, will all repair?

Macro, thou art engaged: and what before Was public; now, must be thy private, more.