posterity Shall e’er approve, nor yet keep silent: things That for their cunning, close, and cruel mark, Thy father would wish his: and shall, perhaps, Carry the empty name, but we the prize. On, then, my soul, and start not in thy course; Though heaven drop sulphur, and hell belch out fire, Laugh at the idle terrors; tell proud Jove, Between his power and thine there is no odds: ’Twas only fear first in the world made gods! 

 Enter Tiberius, attended.

Tiberius

 TIBERIUS. Is yet Sejanus come? 

 SEJANUS. He’s here, dread Cæsar. 

 TIBERIUS. Let all depart that chamber, and the next. 

 [Exeunt Attendants.]

Attendants

 Sit down, my comfort. When the master prince Of all the world, Sejanus, saith he fears, Is it not fatal? 

 SEJANUS. Yes, to those are fear’d. 

 TIBERIUS. And not to him? 

 SEJANUS. Not, if he wisely turn That part of fate he holdeth, first on them. 

 TIBERIUS. That nature, blood, and laws of kind forbid. 

 SEJANUS. Do policy and state forbid it? 

 TIBERIUS. No. 

 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? 

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