NUNTIUS. Their bodies thrown Into the Gemonies, (I know not how, Or by what accident return’d.) the mother, The expulsed Apicata, finds them there; Whom when she saw lie spread on the degrees, After a world of fury on herself, Tearing her hair, defacing of her face, Beating her breasts and womb, kneeling amaz’d, 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 Cæsar and the senate, poison’d Drusus? LEPIDUS. Confederates with her husband! NUNTIUS. Ay. LEPIDUS. Strange act! ARRUNTIUS. And strangely open’d: what says now my monster, The multitude? they reel now, do they not? NUNTIUS. Their gall is gone, and now they ’gin to weep The mischief they have done. ARRUNTIUS. I thank ’em, rogues. NUNTIUS. 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. LEPIDUS. How Fortune plies her sports, when she begins To practise them! pursues, continues, adds, Confounds with varying her impassion’d moods! ARRUNTIUS. 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. TERENTIUS. 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). ACCOST, draw near, approach. ACKNOWN, confessedly acquainted with. ACME, full maturity. ADALANTADO, lord deputy or governor of a Spanish province. ADJECTION, addition. ADMIRATION, astonishment. ADMIRE, wonder, wonder at. ADROP, philosopher’s stone, or substance from which obtained. ADSCRIVE, subscribe.