Sejanus: His Fall eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 220 pages of information about Sejanus.

Sejanus: His Fall eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 220 pages of information about Sejanus.
   Crying to heaven, then to them; at last,
   Her drowned voice gat up above her woes,
   And with such black and bitter execrations,
   As might affright the gods, and force the sun
   Run backward to the east; nay, make the old
   Deformed chaos rise again, to o’erwhelm
   Them, us, and all the world, she fills the air,
   Upbraids the heavens with their partial dooms,
   Defies their tyrannous powers, and demands,
   What she, and those poor innocents have transgress’d,
   That they must suffer such a share in vengeance,
   Whilst Livia, Lygdus, and Eudemus live,
   Who, as she says, and firmly vows to prove it
   To Caesar and the senate, poison’d Drusus?

Lup.  Confederates with her husband!

Nun.  Ay.

Lep.  Strange act!

Arr. 
   And strangely open’d:  what says now my monster,
   The multitude? they reel now, do they not?

Nun. 
   Their gall is gone, and now they ’gin to weep
   The mischief they have done.

Arr.  I thank ’em, rogues.

Nun. 
   Part are so stupid, or so flexible,
   As they believe him innocent; all grieve: 
   And some whose hands yet reek with his warm blood,
   And gripe the part which they did tear of him,
   Wish him collected and created new.

Lep. 
   How Fortune plies her sports, when she begins
   To practise them! pursues, continues, adds,
   Confounds with varying her impassion’d moods!

Arr. 
   Dost thou hope, Fortune, to redeem thy crimes,
   To make amend for thy ill-placed favours,
   With these strange punishments?  Forbear, you things
   That stand upon the pinnacles of state,
   To boast your slippery height; when you do fall,
   You pash yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise;
   And he that lends you pity, is not wise.

Ter. 
   Let this example move the insolent man,
   Not to grow proud and careless of the gods. 
   It is an odious wisdom to blaspheme,
   Much more to slighten, or deny their powers: 
   For, whom the morning saw so great and high,
   Thus low and little, fore the even doth lie. [Exeunt

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GLOSSARY

Abate, cast down, subdue.

Abhorring, repugnant (to), at variance.

Abject, base, degraded thing, outcast.

ABRASE, smooth, blank.

Absolute(ly), faultless(ly).

Abstracted, abstract, abstruse.

Abuse, deceive, insult, dishonour, make ill use of.

ACATER, caterer.

ACATES, cates.

Acceptive, willing, ready to accept, receive.

Accommodate, fit, befitting. (The word was a fashionable one and used on all occasions.  See “Henry iv.,” pt. 2, iii. 4).

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Sejanus: His Fall from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.