POMPONIUS.
O, sir, he has a wife; and the young prince
An appetite: he can look up, and spy
Flies in the roof, when there are fleas i’ the bed;
And hath a learned nose to assure his sleeps.
Who to be favour’d of the rising sun,
Would not lend little of his waning moon?
It is the saf’st ambition. Noble Terentius!
TERENTIUS.
The night grows fast upon us. At your service.
[Exeunt.]
ACT V
SCENE I.—An Apartment in SEJANUS’ House.
Enter Sejanus.
SEJANUS.
Swell, swell, my joys; and faint not to declare
Yourselves as ample as your causes are.
I did not live till now; this my first hour;
Wherein I see my thoughts reach’d by my power.
But this, and gripe my wishes. Great and high,
The world knows only two, that’s Rome and I.
My roof receives me not; ’tis air I tread;
And, at each step, I feel my advanced head
Knock out a star in heaven! rear’d to this height,
All my desires seem modest, poor, and slight,
That did before sound impudent: ’tis place,
Not blood, discerns the noble and the base.
Is there not something more than to be Cæsar?
Must we rest there? it irks t’ have come so far,
To be so near a stay. Caligula,
Would thou stood’st stiff, and many in our way!
Winds lose their strength, when they do empty fly,
Unmet of woods or buildings; great fires die,
That want their matter to withstand them: so,
It is our grief, and will be our loss, to know
Our power shall want opposites; unless
The gods, by mixing in the cause, would bless
Our fortune with their conquest. That were worth
Sejanus’ strife; durst fates but bring it forth.
Enter Terentius.
TERENTIUS.
Safety to great Sejanus!
SEJANUS.
Now, Terentius?