The guiltless horfes, and the chariot wheel,
The fame effects of vulgar fury feel:
The fmith prepares his hammer for the ftroke,
While the lung'd bellows hiffing fire provoke;
Sejanus, almost first of Roman names,
The great Sejanus crackles in the flames :

90

Ver. 93. Sejanus was Tiberius's firft favourite, and while he continued fo had the highest marks of honour bestowed on him: ftatues and triumphal chariots were every where erected to him; but as foon as he fell into difgrace with the Emperor, thefe were all immediately difmounted, and the fenate and common people infulted over him as meanly as they had fawned on him before.

Ver. 94. The great Sejanus] Modern hiftory could not afford a more proper substitute for Sejanus, to exemplify the lamentable end of ambitious projects, than what Johnfon has given us in the following lines, in the character and fate of Wolfey:

In full-blown dignity fee Wolfey ftand,

Law in his voice, and fortune in his hand:

To him the church, the realm, their pow'rs confign,
Thro' him the rays of regal bounty fhine;
Still to new heights his reftlefs wishes tow'r,
Claim leads to claim, and pow'r advances pow'r;
Till conqueft unrefifted ceas'd to please,
And rights fubmitted left him none to feize.
At length his Sov'reign frowns-the train of state
Mark the keen glance, and watch the fign to hate;
Where'er he turns he meets a stranger's eye,
His fuppliants fcorn him, and his followers fly:
At once is loft the pride of awful state,
The golden canopy, the glitt'ring plate,
The regal palace, the luxurious board,
The liv'ried army, and the menial lord ;
With age, with cares, with maladies oppreft,
He feeks the refuge of monaftic reft;
Grief aids difeafe, remember'd folly ftings,
And his laft fighs reproach the faith of kings.

Dr. J. WARTON.

Form'd in the forge, the pliant brafs is laid 95 On anvils; and of head and limbs are made Pans, cans, and pifs-pots, a whole kitchen

trade.

100

Adorn your doors with laurels ; and a bull,
Milk white, and large, lead to the Capitol;
Sejanus with a rope is dragg'd along,
The sport and laughter of the giddy throng!
Good Lord, they cry, what Ethiop lips he
has,

How foul a fnout, and what a hanging face!
By heaven, I never could endure his fight;
But fay, how came his monstrous crimes to
light?

105

110

What is the charge, and who the evidence,
(The faviour of the nation and the prince?)
Nothing of this; but our old Cæfar fent
A noify letter to his parliament:
Nay, Sirs, if Cæfar writ, I afk no more,
He's guilty; and the question's out of door.
How
goes the mob? (for that's a mighty thing,)
When the king's trump, the mob are for the
king:

They follow fortune, and the common cry
Is ftill against the rogue condemn'd to die. 115
But the fame very mob, that rascal crowd,
Had cry'd Sejanus, with a fhout as loud;
Had his defigns (by fortune's favour bleft)
Succeeded, and the prince's age oppreft.

But long, long fince, the times have chang'd their face,

120

The people grown degenerate and base;
Not fuffer'd now the freedom of their choice,
To make their magiftrates, and fell their voice.

Our wife forefathers, great by fea and land, Had once the power and abfolute command; 125 All offices of truft, themfelves difpos'd;

Rais'd whom they pleas'd, and whom they pleas'd depos'd.

But we, who give our native rights away,
And our enflav'd pofterity betray,

Are now reduc'd to beg an alms, and

On holidays to fee a puppet-show.

go 130

There was a damn'd defign, cries one, no doubt;

For warrants are already iffued out:

I met Brutidius in a mortal fright;

He's dipt for certain, and plays least in fight; 135
I fear the rage of our offended prince,
Who thinks the fenate flack in his defence !
Come let us hafte, our loyal zeal to fhow,
And fpurn the wretched corps of Cæfar's foe:
But let our flaves be present there, left they 140
Accuse their mafters, and for gain betray.
Such were the whifpers of those jealous times,
About Sejanus' punishment and crimes.

Ver. 135. ideas.

plays leaft] One of his vulgar modern Dr. J. WARTON.

Now tell me truly, wouldft thou change thy

fate

145

To be, like him, firft minifter of ftate?
To have thy levees crouded with refort,
Of a depending, gaping, fervile court:
Dispose all honours of the fword and gown,
Grace with a nod, and ruin with a frown:
To hold thy prince in pupil-age, and fway 150
That monarch, whom the mafter'd world
obey?

154

While he, intent on fecret lufts alone,
Lives to himself, abandoning the throne;
Coop'd in a narrow ifle, obferving dreams
With flattering wizards, and erecting schemes!
I well believe, thou wouldst be great as he;
For every man's a fool to that degree;
All with the dire prerogative to kill;

Ev'n they would have the power, who want the will:

161

But wouldst thou have thy wishes understood, To take the bad together with the good, Wouldft thou not rather chufe a fmall renown, To be the mayor of fome poor paltry town,

Ver. 146. To have] Here are fix nervous and finished lines to atone for 135. Dr. J. WARTON.

Ver. 154. The island of Capreæ, which lies about a league out at fea from the Campanian fhore, was the fcene of Tiberius's pleafures in the latter part of his reign. There he lived for fome years with diviners, footh fayers, and worfe company; and from thence difpatched all his orders to the fenate.

Bigly to look, and barbarously to speak ;

To pound falfe weights, and fcanty measures break?

Then, grant we that Sejanus went aftray

165

In ev'ry wish, and knew not how to pray:
For he who grafp'd the world's exhausted store,
Yet never had enough, but wish'd for more,
Rais'd a top-heavy tower, of monftrous height,
Which mould'ring, crush'd him underneath the
weight.

171

What did the mighty Pompey's fall beget? It ruin'd him, who, greater than the Great, The ftubborn pride of Roman nobles broke; And bent their haughty necks beneath his yoke: What elfe but his immoderate luft of power, 176 Prayers made and granted in a luckless hour? For few ufurpers to the fhades defcend By a dry death, or with a quiet end.

181

The boy, who fcarce has paid his entrance down To his proud pedant, or declin'd a noun, (So fmall an elf, that when the days are foul, He and his fatchel must be born to school,) Yet prays, and hopes, and aims at nothing less, To prove a Tully, or Demofthenes :

485

Ver. 173. Julius Cæfar, who got the better of Pompey, that was filed the Great.

Ver. 185. Demofthenes and Tully both died for their oratory. Demofthenes gave himself poifon to avoid being carried to Antipater, one of Alexander's captains, who had then made himfelf master of Athens. Tully was murdered by Mark An, thony's order, in return for thofe invectives he had made against him,