SCENE I.-The Senate-House
Enter Praenes, Lictores, SEJANUS, VARRO, LATIARIS, COTTA, and AFER

Sej.
'Tis only you must urge against him, Varro;
Nor I nor Caesar may appear therein,
Except in your defence, who are the consul;
And, under colour of late enmity
Between your father and his, may better do it,
As free from all suspicion of a practice.
Here be your notes, what points to touch at; read:
Be cunning in them. Afer has them too.

Var. But is he summon'd?

Sej.
No. It was debated
By Caesar, and concluded as most fit
To take him unprepared.

Afer.
And prosecute
All under name of treason.

Var. I conceive.
Enter SABINUS, GALLUS, LEPIDUS, and ARRUNTIUS.
Sab. Drusus being dead, Caesar will not be here.

Gal. What should the business of this senate be?

Arr.
That can my subtle whisperers tell you: we
That are the good-dull-noble lookers on,
Are only call'd to keep the marble warm.
What should we do with those deep mysteries,
Proper to these fine heads? let them alone.
Our ignorance may, perchance, help us be saved
From whips and furies.

Gall. See, see, see their action!

Arr.
Ay, now their heads do travail, now they work;
Their faces run like shittles; they are weaving
Some curious cobweb to catch flies.

Sab.
Observe,
They take their places.

Arr. What, so low!

Gal.
O yes,
They must be seen to flatter Caesar's grief,
Though but in sitting.

Var. Bid us silence.

Prae. Silence!

Var.
Fathers conseript, may this our present meeting,
Turn fair, and fortunate to the common-wealth!
Enter SILIUS, and other Senators.
Sej. See, Silius enters.

Sil. Hail, grave fathers!

Lic.
Stand.
Silius, forbear thy place.

Ben. How!

Prae.
Silius, stand forth,
The consul hath to charge thee.

Lic. Room for Caesar.

Arr. Is he come too! nay then expect a trick.

Sab. Silius accused! sure he will answer nobly.
Enter TIBERIUS, attended.
Tib.
We stand amazed, fathers, to behold
This general dejection. Wherefore sit
Rome's consuls thus dissolved, as they had lost
All the remembrance both of style and place
It not becomes. No woes are of fit weight,
To make the honour of the empire stoop:
Though I, in my peculiar self, may meet
Just reprehension, that so suddenly,
And, in so fresh a grief, would greet the senate,
When private tongues, of kinsmen and allies,
Inspired with comforts, lothly are endured,
The face of men not seen, and scarce the day,
To thousands that communicate our loss.
Nor can I argue these of weakness; since
They take but natural ways; yet I must seek
For stronger aids, and those fair helps draw out
From warm embraces of the common-wealth.
Our mother, great Augusta, 's struck with time,
Our self imprest with aged characters,
Drusus is gone, his children young and babes;
Our aims must now reflect on those that may
Give timely succour to these present ills,
And are our only glad-surviving hopes,
The noble issue of Germanicus,
Nero and Drusus: might it please the consul
Honour them in, they both attend without.
I would present them to the senate's care,
And raise those suns of joy that should drink up
These floods of sorrow in your drowned eyes.

Arr.
By Jove, I am not OEdipus enough
To understand this Sphynx.

Sab. The princes come.
Enter NERO, and DRUSUS, junior.
Tib.
Approach you, noble Nero, noble Drusus.
These princes, fathers, when their parent died,
I gave unto their uncle, with this prayer,
That though he had proper issue of his own,
He would no less bring up, and foster these,
Than that self-blood; and by that act confirm
Their worths to him, and to posterity.
Drusus ta'en hence, I turn my prayers to you,
And 'fore our country, and our gods, beseech
You take, and rule Augustus' nephew's sons,
Sprung of the noblest ancestors; and so
Accomplish both my duty, and your own,
Nero, and Drusus, these shall be to you
In place of parents, these your fathers, these;
And not unfitly: for you are so born,
As all your good, or ill's the common-wealth's.
Receive them, you strong guardians; and blest gods,
Make all their actions answer to their bloods:
Let their great titles find increase by them,
Not they by titles. Set them as in place,
So in example, above all the Romans:
And may they know no rivals but themselves.
Let Fortune give them nothing; but attend
Upon their virtue: and that still come forth
Greater than hope, and better than their fame.
Relieve me, fathers, with your general voice.

Senators.
May all the gods consent to Caesar's wish,
And add to any honours that may crown
The hopeful issue of Germanicus

Tib. We thank you, reverend fathers, in their right.

Arr.
If this were true now! but the space, the space
Between the breast and lips——Tiberius' heart
Lies a thought further than another man's. [Aside.

Tib.
My comforts are so flowing in my joys,
As, in them, all my streams of grief are lost,
No less than are land-waters in the sea,
Or showers in rivers; though their cause was such,
As might have sprinkled ev'n the gods with tears:
Yet, since the greater doth embrace the less,
We covetously obey.

Arr. Well acted, Caesar. [Aside.

Tib.
And now I am the happy witness made
Of your so much desired affections
To this great issue, I could wish, the
Fates Would here set peaceful period to my days;
However to my labours, I entreat,
And beg it of this senate, some fit ease.

Arr. Laugh, fathers, laugh: have you no spleens about you?
[Aside.
Tib.
The burden is too heavy I sustain
On my unwilling shoulders; and I pray
It may be taken off, and reconferred
Upon the consuls, or some other Roman,
More able, and more worthy.

Arr. Laugh on still. [Aside.

Sab. Why this doth render all the rest suspected!

Gal. It poisons all.

Arr. O, do you taste it then?

Sab.
It takes away my faith to any thing,
He shall hereafter speak.

Arr.
Ay, to pray that,
Which would be to his head as hot as thunder,
'Gainst which he wears that charm should but the court
Receive him at his word.

Gal. Hear!

Tib.
For myself
I know my weakness, and so little covet,
Like some gone past, the weight that will oppress me,
As my ambition is the counter-point.

Arr. Finely maintained; good still!

Sej.
But Rome, whose blood,
Whose nerves, whose life, whose very frame relies
On Caesar's strength, no less than heaven on Atlas,
Cannot admit it but with general ruin.

Arr. Ah! are you there to bring him off? [Aside.

Sej.
Let Caesar
No more then urge a point so contrary
To Caesar's greatness, the grieved senate's vows,
Or Rome's necessity.

Gal. He comes about——

Arr. More nimbly than Vertumnus.

Tib.
For the publick,
I may be drawn to shew I can neglect
All private aims, though I affect my rest;
But if the senate still command me serve,
I must be glad to practise my obedience.

Arr. You must and will, sir. We do know it. [Aside.

Senators.
Caesar,
Live long and happy, great and royal Caesar;
The gods preserve thee and thy modesty,
Thy wisdom and thy innocence

Arr.
Where is't?
The prayer is made before the subject. [Aside.

Senators.
Guard
His meekness, Jove; his piety, his care,
His bounty——

Arr.
And his subtility, I'll put in:
Yet he'll keep that himself, without the gods.
All prayers are vain for him. [Aside.
Tib.
We will not hold
Your patience, fathers, with long answer; but
Shall still contend to be what you desire,
And work to satisfy so great a hope.
Proceed to your affairs.

Arr.
Now, Silius, guard thee;
The curtain's drawing. Afer advanceth. [Aside.

Prae. Silence!

Afer. Cite Caius Silius.

Prae. Caius Silius!

Sil. Here.

Afer.
The triumph that thou hadst in Germany
For thy late victory on Sacrovir,
Thou hast enjoy'd so freely, Caius Silius,<