sovereign’s acts. TIBERIUS. We can no longer Keep on our mask to thee, our dear Sejanus; Thy thoughts are ours, in all, and we but proved Their voice, in our designs, which by assenting Hath more confirm’d us, than if heart’ning Jove Had, from his hundred statues, bid us strike, And at the stroke click’d all his marble thumbs. But who shall first be struck? SEJANUS. First Caius Silius; He is the most of mark, and most of danger: In power and reputation equal strong, Having commanded an imperial army Seven years together, vanquish’d Sacrovir In Germany, and thence obtain’d to wear The ornaments triumphal. His steep fall, By how much it doth give the weightier crack, Will send more wounding terror to the rest, Command them stand aloof, and give more way To our surprising of the principal. TIBERIUS. But what, Sabinus? SEJANUS. Let him grow a while, His fate is not yet ripe: we must not pluck At all together, lest we catch ourselves. And there’s Arruntius too, he only talks. But Sosia, Silius’ wife, would be wound in Now, for she hath a fury in her breast, More than hell ever knew; and would be sent Thither in time. Then is there one Cremutius Cordus, a writing fellow, they have got To gather notes of the precedent times, And make them into Annals; a most tart And bitter spirit, I hear; who, under colour Of praising those, doth tax the present state, Censures the men, the actions, leaves no trick, No practice unexamined, parallels The times, the governments; a profest champion For the old liberty- TIBERIUS. A perishing wretch! As if there were that chaos bred in things, That laws and liberty would not rather choose To be quite broken, and ta’en hence by us, Than have the stain to be preserved by such. Have we the means to make these guilty first? SEJANUS. Trust that to me: let Cæsar, by his power But cause a formal meeting of the senate, I will have matter and accusers ready. TIBERIUS. But how? let us consult. SEJANUS. We shall misspend The time of action. Counsels are unfit In business, where all rest is more pernicious Than rashness can be. Acts of this close kind Thrive more by execution than advice. There is no lingering in that work begun, Which cannot praised be, until through done. TIBERIUS. Our edicts shall forthwith command a court. While I can live, I will prevent earth’s fury: Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω
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