Where Sejanus Went Too Far

Sejanus by Ben Jonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was better than I expected. I kinda liked it, even when I was struggling to keep up with characters and dated language.

I previously read Jonson's Every Man in His Humor, a play I found almost unreadable, one I'd be surprised could be staged in an entertaining way. I hated so much about it. (This is one of those "Everyone is unlikable" situations, and I'm one of those people who can't stand books and plays and movies where I don't like anybody.) Anyway, I put off reading anything else by him for fear of hating it. But I finally decided to try Sejanus, and it was a complete 180 from the other play.

This reads a lot like a Shakespeare tragedy or history play, definitely in the vein of a Julius Caesar or Richard III. I didn't identify any part as humorous, which you can find even in the most serious Shakespeare plays, so that's a contrast, but that's okay with me, as the elevated tone of the play matches its seriousness. Shakespeare does more with subplots, too, IMO--though I'm willing to be talked around on this if someone wants to argue.

The main type of action in this play is plotting, spying, and gossiping. Most of the real action--like poisoning, arresting, putting to death--happens offstage, reported by others. But we're privy to the pro-Sejanus plotters, which included Caesar at the start of the play, putting together trumped-up charges to remove rivals from government, and the anti-Sejanus plotters, which includes all the people who lost loved ones to his machinations, trying to counter his plans. A lot of scenes have overlapping dialogue, where the main conversation continues upstage between those supporting Sejanus, while downstage (in my imagination) a couple old guys, members of the party supporting Agrippina and her sons, comment on the underhanded stuff they're hearing. They read sorta like the old guys in the Muppets, mocking what they see, casting everything the audience is hearing in a different light. (It may be that some of these exchanges do come off as humorous for those who understand sufficiently. I'm not in that group, alas.) I found this approach very effective.

The conclusion comes quick. After sending many people off to their deaths through lies and straight-up murder, Sejanus thinks he's walking into a meeting of the senate where he will be elevated to Tribune, but instead it's a plot to arrest him and convict him. I'm not clear where Caesar changed his opinion, tbh, but he turned, and that was the end of ambitious Sejanus.

The language throughout, mostly delivered in blank verse, is emotionally charged and elevated but not unnatural or stiff. A nice example of this is the scene where Sejanus first worries that he's walking into a trap but then is satisfied that all is well:

How vain and vile a passion is this fear?
What base, uncomely things it makes men do?
Suspect their noblest friends, as I did this,
Flatter poor enemies, entreat their servants,
Stoop, court, and catch at the benevolence
Of creatures, unto whom, within this hour,
I wouldn't have vouchsafed a quarter-look,
Or piece of face? By you, that fools call gods,
Hang all the sky with your prodigious signs,
Fill earth with monsters, drop the scorpion down
Out of the zodiac, or the fiercer lion,
Shake off the loosened globe from her long hinge,
Roll all the world in darkness, and let loose
The enraged winds to turn up groves and towns;
When I do fear again, let me be struck
With forked fire, and unpitied die;
Who fears is worth of calamity.

This passage shows his pride, which would normally prevent him giving any respect to anyone else, and basically daring the gods to try to hurt him, presaging his downfall in the final act. But it also shows the kind of language Jonson was capable of, and I think it's pretty fine.

I like this play, and I really didn't expect to. I would have liked a little more real action on stage, and would have given it 5 out of 5 if it had included more of that, but even without I would recommend this play for those who enjoy older drama. Plenty of drama and lots of tragedy.

View all my reviews