CORDUS.
Did you observe
How they inveigh’d ’gainst Cæsar?
ARRUNTIUS.
Ay, baits, baits,
For us to bite at: would I have my flesh
Torn by the public hook, these qualified hangmen
Should be my company.
CORDUS.
Here comes another.
Domitius Afer passes over the stage.
ARRUNTIUS.
Ay, there’s a man, Afer the orator!
One that hath phrases, figures, and fine flowers,
To strew his rhetoric with, and doth make haste,
To get him note, or name, by any offer
Where blood or gain be objects; steeps his words,
When he would kill, in artificial tears:
The crocodile of Tyber! him I love,
That man is mine; he hath my heart and voice
When I would curse! he, he.
SABINUS.
Contemn the slaves,
Their present lives will be their future graves.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV.—Another Apartment in the same.
Enter Silius, Agrippina, Nero and Sosia.
SILIUS.
May’t please your highness not forget yourself;
I dare not, with my manners, to attempt
Your trouble farther.