Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Booksides with unextinguished laughter shook, 50 Though, in his days, Abdera's simple towns No fasces knew, chairs, litters, purple gowns.-- What! had he seen, in his triumphal car, Amid the dusty Cirque, conspicuous far, The Prætor perched aloft, superbly dress'd 55 In Jove's proud tunic, with a trailing vest Of Tyrian tapestry, and o'er him spread A crown, too bulky for a mortal head, Borne by a sweating slave, maintained to ride In the same car, and mortify his pride! 60 Add now the bird, that, with expanded wing, From the raised sceptre seems prepared to spring; And trumpets here; and there the long parade Of duteous friends, who head the cavalcade; Add, too, the zeal of clients robed in white, } 65 Who hang upon his reins, and grace the sight, } Unbribed, unbought--save by the dole, at night! } Yes, in those days, in every varied scene, The good old man found matter for his spleen: A wondrous sage! whose story makes it clear 70 That men may rise in folly's atmosphere, Beneath Bœotian fogs, of soul sublime, And great examples to the coming time.-- He laughed aloud to see the vulgar fears, Laughed at their joys, and sometimes at their tears: 75 Secure the while, he mocked at Fortune's frown, And when she threatened, bade her hang or drown! Superfluous then, or fatal, is the prayer, Which, to the Immortals' knees, we fondly bear. Some, POWER hurls headlong from her envied height, 80 Some, the broad tablet, flashing on the sight, With titles, names: the statues, tumbled down, Are dragged by hooting thousands through the town; The brazen cars torn rudely from the yoke, And, with the blameless steeds, to shivers broke-- 85 Then roar the flames! the sooty artist blows, And all Sejanus in the furnace glows; Sejanus, once so honored, so adored, And only second to the world's great lord, Runs glittering from the mould, in cups and cans, 90 Basins and ewers, plates, pitchers, pots, and pans. "Crown all your doors with bay, triumphant bay! Sacred to Jove, the milk-white victim slay, For lo! where great Sejanus by the throng, A joyful spectacle! is dragged along. 95 What lips! what cheeks! ha, traitor!--for my part, I never loved the fellow--in my heart." "But tell me; Why was he adjudged to bleed? And who discovered? and who proved the deed?" "Proved!--a huge, wordy letter came to-day 100 From Capreæ." Good! what think the people? They! They follow fortune, as of old, and hate, With their whole souls, the victim of the state. Yet would the herd, thus zealous, thus on fire, Had Nurscia met the Tuscan's fond desire, 105 And crushed the unwary prince, have all combined, And hailed Sejanus, MASTER OF MANKIND! For since their votes have been no longer bought, All public care has vanished from their thought; And those who once, with unresisted sway, 110 Gave armies, empire, every thing, away, For two poor claims have long renounced the whole, And only ask--the Circus and the Dole. "But there are more to suffer." "So I find; A fire so fierce for one was ne'er designed. 115 I met my friend Brutidius, and I fear, From his pale looks, he thinks there's danger near. What if this Ajax, in his phrensy, strike, Suspicious of our zeal, at all alike!" "True: fly we then, our loyalty to show; 120 And trample on the carcass of his foe, While yet exposed on Tiber's banks it lies"-- "But let our slaves be there," another cries: "Yes; let them (lest our ardor they forswear, And drag us, pinioned, to the Bar) be there." 125 Thus of the favorite's fall the converse ran, And thus the whisper passed from man to man. Lured by the splendor of his happier hour, Would'st thou possess Sejanus' wealth and power; See crowds of suppliants at thy levee wait, 130 Give this to sway the army, that the state; And keep a prince in ward, retired to reign O'er Capreæ's crags, with his Chaldean train? Yes, yes, thou would'st (for I can read thy breast) Enjoy that favor which he once possess'd, 135 Assume all offices, grasp all commands, The Imperial Horse, and the Prætorian Bands. 'Tis nature, this; even those who want the will, Pant for the dreadful privilege to kill: Yet what delight can rank and power bestow, 140 Since every joy is balanced by its woe! --STILL would'st thou choose the favorite's purple, say? Or, thus forewarned, some paltry hamlet sway? At Gabii, or Fidenæ, rules propound, For faulty measures, and for wares unsound; 145 And take the tarnished robe, and petty state, Of poor Ulubræ's ragged magistrate?-- You grant me then, Sejanus grossly erred, Nor knew what prayer his folly had preferred: For when he begged for too much wealth and power, 150 Stage above stage, he raised a tottering tower, And higher still, and higher; to be thrown, With louder crash, and wider ruin down! What wrought the Crassi, what the Pompeys' doom, And his, who bowed the stubborn neck of Rome? 155 What but the wild, the unbounded wish to rise, Heard, in malignant kindness, by the skies! Few kings, few tyrants, find a bloodless end, Or to the grave, without a wound, descend. The child, with whom a trusty slave is sent, 160 Charged with his little scrip, has scarcely spent His mite at school, ere all his bosom glows With the fond hope he never more foregoes, To reach Demosthenes' or Tully's name, Rival of both in eloquence and fame!-- 165 Yet by this eloquence, alas! expired Each orator, so envied, so admired! Yet by the rapid and resistless sway Of torrent genius, each was swept away! Genius, for that, the baneful potion sped, 170 And lopp'd, from this, the hands and gory head: While meaner pleaders unmolested stood, Nor stained the rostrum with their wretched blood. "_How fortuNATE A NATAL day was thine,_ _In that LATE conSULATE, O Rome, of mine!_" 175 Oh, soul of eloquence! had all been found An empty vaunt, like this, a jingling sound, Thou might'st, in peace, thy humble fame have borne, And laughed the swords of Antony to scorn! Yet this would I prefer, the common jest, 180 To that which fired the fierce triumvir's breast, That second scroll, where eloquence divine Burst on the ear from every glowing line. And he too fell, whom Athens, wondering, saw Her fierce democracy, at will, o'erawe, 185 And "fulmine over Greece!" some angry Power Scowled, with dire influence, on his natal hour.-- Bleared with the glowing mass, the ambitious sire, From anvils, sledges, bellows, tongs, and fire, From tempting swords, his own more safe employ, 190 To study RHETORIC, sent his hopeful boy. The spoils of WAR; the trunk in triumph placed With all the trophies of the battle graced, Crushed helms, and battered shields; and streamers borne From vanquished fleets, and beams from chariots torn; 195 And arcs of triumph, where the captive foe Bends, in mute anguish, o'er the pomp below, Are blessings, which the slaves of glory rate Beyond a mortal's hope, a mortal's fate! Fired with the love of t |