'gainst me

Shall, like a figure drawn in water, fleet,
And the poor wretched papers be employ'd
To clothe tobacco, or some cheaper drug.
This I could do, and make them infamous.
But, to what end? when their own deeds
have mark'd'em;

And that I know, within his guilty breast
Each slanderer bears a whip that shall tor-
ment him

Worse than a million of these temporal
plagues:
[mour,
Which to pursue, were but a feminine hu-
And far beneath the dignity of man.

Nas. 'Tis true; for to revenge their in-
juries,
Were to confess you felt 'em. Let 'em go,
And use the treasure of the fool, their
tongues,

Who makes his gain, by speaking worst of

best.

Pol. O, but they lay particular imputations

Aut. As what?

Pol. That all your writing is mere railing.
Aut. Ha! if all the salt in the old comedy
Should be so censur'd, or the sharper wits
Of the bold satire termed scolding rage,
What age could then compare with those
for buffoons?

What should be said of Aristophanes,
Persius, or Juvenal? whose names we now
So glorify in schools, at least pretend it.
Ha' they no other?

Pol. Yes, they say you are slow,
And scarce bring forth a play a year.

Aut. 'Tis true.

I would they could not say that I did that.
There's all the joy that I take i' their trade,
Unless such scribes as these might be pro-
scrib'd

10

Th' abused theatres. They would think it strange, now,

A man should take but colts-foot for one
day,

And, between whiles, spit out a better poem
Than e'er the master of art, or giver of wit,
Their belly, made. Yet, this is possible,
If a free mind had but the patience,
To think so much together, and so vile.
But that these base and beggarly conceits
Should carry it, by the multitude of voices,
Against the most abstracted work, oppos'd
To the stuff'd nostrils of the drunken rout!
O, this would make a learn'd and liberal soul
To rive his stained quill up to the back,
And damn his long-watch'd labours to the
fire;

Things that were born when none but the
still night,

And his dumb candle, saw his pinching
throes:

Were not his own free merit a more crown
Unto his travails than their reeling claps?
This 'tis that strikes me silent, seals my lips,
And apts me rather to sleep out my time,
Than I would waste it in contemned strifes
With these vile Ibides, these unclean birds,
That make their mouths their clysters, and
still purge

From their hot entrails. But I leave the
monsters

Since the comic muse

Hath prov'd so ominous to me, I will try

If tragedy have a more kind aspect.] But the aspect of the tragic muse, it is said, was so little favourable to the poet when in buskins, that even in the choice of his subject he failed: Sejanus and Catiline are historical characters so well known, that no distress which befalls them can possibly raise any kind of pity, the chiefest and noblest passion belonging to tragedy, in the breast of the beholder. But pity is not the only passion, which the tragic poet is concerned with. To excite dread and terror in the mind of the spectator is equally the design of tragedy, with raising the softer and more tender emotions of the heart. Wickedness and guilt, when they are represented to an audience, should naturally create no other sensations but those of fear and horrour; and the catastrophe should be designed as a monitory lesson, to deter others from perpetrating the like crimes. Our poet is not singular in the choice of his subjects. One of them has lately been exhibited on a stage, that is no way famous for presenting scenes of cruelty to the beholder. The rival wits of France, monsieur Crebillon in his Catilina, and nonsieur Voltaire in his Rome sauvé, have actually pitched on the same event with Jonson, in their contest for the dramatic laurel,

THE FALL OF SEJANUS.

THE ARGUMENT.

ELIUS sovite in court, arst under Augustus ; afterward, Tiberius; grew into

LIUS Sejanus, son to Seius Strabo, a gentleman of Rome, and born at Vulsinium; that favour with the latter, and won him by those arts, as there wanted nothing but the name to make him a co-partner of the empire. Which greatness of his, Drusus, the emperor's son, not brooking; after many smother'd dislikes, it one day breaking out, the prince struck him publicly on the face. To revenge which disgrace, Livia, the wife of Drusus, being before corrupted by him to her dishonour, and the discovery of her husband's counsels) Sejanus practiseth with, together with her physician called Eudemus, and one Lygdus an eunuch, to poison Drusus. This their inhumane act having successful and unsuspected passage, it emboldeneth Sejanus to further and more insolent projects, even the ambition of the empire; where finding the lets he must encounter to be many and hard, in respect of the issue of Germanicus, (who were next in hope for the succession '> he deviseth to make Tiberius' self his means, and instils into his ears many doubts and suspicions, both against the princes, and their mother Agrippina; which Cæsar jealously hearkening to, as covetously consenteth to their ruin, and their friends. In this time, the better to mature and strengthen his design, Sejanus labours to marry Livia, and worketh (with all his ingine 2) to remove Tiberius from the knowledge of public business, with allurements of a quiet and retired' life; the latter of which, Tiberius (out of a proneness to lust, and a desire to hide those unnatural pleasures which he could not so publicly practise) embraceth: the former enkindleth his fears, and there gives him first cause of doubt or suspect towards Sejanus: against whom he raiseth (in private) a new instrument, one Sertorius Macro, and by him underworketh, discovers the other's counsels, his means, his ends, sounds the affections of the senators, divides, distracts them at last, when Sejanus least looketh, and is most secure, (with pretext of doing him an unwonted honour in the senate) he trains him from his guards, and with a long doubtful letter, in one day hath him suspected, accused, condemned, and torn in pieces by the rage of the people *.

1For the succession.] These words, wanting in the edition of 1605, were added by the poet, to complete the sense.

2 With all his INGINE.] From the Latin ingenium; it was spelt in this manner by the writers of that age.

4

RETIRED life.] The quarto reads separated.

By the rage of the people.] After this, the quarto has the following: "This do we "advance, as a mark of terror to all traitors, and treasons; to shew how just the heavens "are, in pouring and thundering down a weighty vengeance on their unnatural intents even "to the worst princes; much more to those, for the guard of whose piety and virtue the "angels are in continual watch, and God himself miraculously working.'

This seems to have been added, in compliment to K. James, on the discovery of the powder-plot.

Sil. Titius Sabinus, hail.
You're rarely met in court !
Sab. Therefore, well met.
Sil. 'Tis true: indeed, this place is not
our sphere.

Sab. No, Silius, we are no good ingineers. We want their fine arts, and their thriving [times:

use,

Should make us grac'd, or favour'd of the
We have no shift of faces, no cleft tongues,
No soft and glutinous bodies, that can stick,
Like snails on' painted walls; or, on our
breasts,
[which

Creep up, to fall from that proud height, to
We did by slavery, not by service climb.
We are no guilty men, and then no great;
We have no place in court, office in state,
That we can say, we owe unto our crimes:
We burn with no black secrets, which can
make

Us dear to the pale authors; or live fear'd
Of their still waking jealousies, to raise
Ourselves a fortune, by subverting theirs.
We stand not in the lines, that do advance
To that so courted point.

Sil. But yonder lean

A pair that do.

(Sab. Good cousin Latiaris.)

[Natta,

Sil. Satrius Secundus, and Pinnarius The great Sejanus' clients: there be two, Know more than honest counsels: whose close breasts, [found Were they rip'd up to light, it would be A poor and idle sin, to which their trunks Had not been made fit organs. These can lye,

Flatter and swear, forswear, deprave, inform,
Smile, and betray; make guilty men; then
beg

The forfeit lives, to get their livings; cut
Men's throats with whisperings; sell to ga-
ping suitors
[palace;
The empty smoke, that flies about the
Laugh when their patron laughs; sweat
when he sweats;

1 OR painted walls.] Sense, and the old copies direct us to read on.

A poor and IDLE sin.] That is, barren, unprofitable.-Mr. SYMPSON.

The word is so used by Shakspeare,

"Of antres vast, and desarts idle."

Othello.

So in the first chapter of Genesis, "The earth was without form, and void," is rendered in the Saxon, "The earth was ydæl."