More of Sejanus
Nun. Yes.
Lep.
What can be added?
We know him dead.
Nun.
Then there begin your pity.
There is enough behind to melt ev'n Rome,
And Caesar into tears; since never slave
Could yet so highly offend, but tyranny,
In torturing him, would make him worth lamenting.---
A son and daughter to the dead Sejanus,
(Of whom there is not now so much remaining
As would give fast'ning to the hangman's hook,)
Have they drawn forth for farther sacrifice;
Whose tenderness of knowledge, unripe years,
And childish silly innocence was such,
As scarce would lend them feeling of their danger:
The girl so simple, as she often ask'd
"Where they would lead her? for what cause they dragg'd her?"
Cried, "She would do no more:" that she could take
"Warning with beating." And because our laws
Admit no virgin immature to die,
The wittily and strangely cruel Macro
Deliver'd her to be deflower'd and spoil'd,
By the rude lust of the licentious hangman,
Then to be strangled with her harmless brother.
Lep.
O, act most worthy hell, and lasting night,
To hide it from the world!
Nun.
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