LEPIDUS.
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,
By fond belief in thy felicity.
[Shout within.] The gods guard Cæsar!
All the gods guard Cæsar!
Re-enter Macro, Regulus and divers Senators.
MACRO.
Now, great Sejanus, you that awed the state,
And sought to bring the nobles to your whip;
That would be Cæsar’s tutor, and dispose
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 flat,
As was your pride advanced!
REGULUS.
Thanks to the gods!
SENATORS.
And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!
Liberty, liberty, liberty! Lead on,
And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!
[Exeunt all but Arruntius and Lepidus.]
ARRUNTIUS.
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 fallen.
Enter Terentius.
TERENTIUS.
O you, whose minds are good,
And have not forced all mankind from your breasts;
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 yet
Knew why to love or hate, but only pleased
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 way
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 sensitive
Of their wild fury; first, they tear them down;
Then fastening 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,
The great Sejanus crack, and piece by piece
Drop in the founder’s pit.
LEPIDUS.
O popular rage!