Sejanus: His Fall

by Ben Jonson

SEJANUS.
The rest of poor respects, then, let go by;
State is enough to make the act just, them guilty.

TIBERIUS.
Long hate pursues such acts.

SEJANUS.
Whom hatred frights,
Let him not dream of sovereignty.

TIBERIUS.
Are rites
Of faith, love, piety, to be trod down,
Forgotten, and made vain?

SEJANUS.
All for a crown.
The prince who shames a tyrant’s name to bear,
Shall never dare do any thing, but fear;
All the command of sceptres quite doth perish,
If it begin religious thoughts to cherish:
Whole empires fall, sway’d by those nice respects;
It is the license of dark deeds protects
Ev’n states most hated, when no laws resist
The sword. but that it acteth what it list.

TIBERIUS.
Yet so, we may do all things cruelly,
Not safely.

SEJANUS.
Yes, and do them thoroughly.

TIBERIUS.
Knows yet Sejanus whom we point at?

SEJANUS.
Ay,
Or else my thought, my sense, or both do err:
’Tis Agrippina.

TIBERIUS.
She, and her proud race.