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
---------------------
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).