[Exit Sejanus, guarded.]
COTTA.
Let all the traitor’s titles be defaced.
TRIO.
His images and statues be pull’d down.
HATERIUS.
His chariot-wheels be broken.
ARRUNTIUS.
And the legs
Of the poor horses, that deseryed nought,
Let them be broken too!
[Exeunt Lictors, Præcones, Macro, Regulus, Trio, Haterius and Sanquinius: manent Lepidus, Arruntius and a few Senators.]
LEPIDUS.
O violent change,
And whirl of men’s affections!
ARRUNTIUS.
Like, as both
Their bulks and souls were bound on Fortune’s wheel,
And must act only with her motion.
LEPIDUS.
Who would depend upon the popular air,
Or voice of men, that have to-day beheld
That which, if all the gods had fore-declared,
Would not have been believed, Sejanus’ fall?
He, that this morn rose proudly, as the sun,
And, breaking through a mist of clients’ breath,
Came on, as gazed at and admired 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!
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 changed state, as pity!
ARRUNTIUS.
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,
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 shames for honours, and black taunts for titles!
Who would trust slippery chance?