Parthians, and bare-foot Hebrews brand my face,
And print my body full of injuries.
Thou lost thyself, child Drusus, when thou thoughtst
Thou couldst outskip my vengeance; or outstand
The power I had to crush thee into air.
Thy follies now shall taste what kind of man
They have provoked, and this thy father's house
Crack in the flame of my incensed rage,
Whose fury shall admit no shame or mean.----
Adultery! it is the lightest ill
I will commit A race of wicked acts
Shall flow out of my anger, and o'erspread
The world's wide face, which no 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.
Tib. Is yet Sejanus come?

Sej. He's here, dread Caesar.

Tib.
Let all depart that chamber, and the next.
[Exeunt Attendants.
Sit down, my comfort. When the master prince
Of all the world, Sejanus, saith he fears, Is it not fatal?

Sewj. Yes, to those are fear'd.

Tib. And not to him?

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

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

Sej. Do policy and state forbid it?

Tib. No.

Sej.
The rest of poor respects, then, let go by;
State is enough to make the act just, them guilty.

Tib. Long hate pursues such acts.

Sej.
Whom hatred frights,
Let him not dream of sovereignty.

Tib.
Are rites
Of faith, love, piety, to be trod down,
Forgotten, and made vain?

Sej.
All for a crown.
The prince who shames a tyrant's name to bear,
Shall never dare do any thing, but fear;
All the command of sceptres quite doth perish,
If it begin religious thoughts to cherish:
Whole empires fall, sway'd by those nice respects;
It is the license of dark deeds protects
Ev'n states most hated, when no laws resist
The sword. but that it acteth what it