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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24785-8.txt b/24785-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78f2744 --- /dev/null +++ b/24785-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3745 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nero, by Stephen Phillips + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Nero + + +Author: Stephen Phillips + + + +Release Date: March 8, 2008 [eBook #24785] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +NERO + +by + +STEPHEN PHILLIPS + +Author of "The Sin of David" + + + + + + + +London +MacMillan and Co., Limited +New York: The MacMillan Company +1906 + +All rights reserved + +Copyright, 1906, by the MacMillan Company + + + + +CHARACTERS + + +NERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Emperor of Rome._ + +BRITANNICUS . . . . . . . . . . _Nero's Half-Brother._ + +OTHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Young Noble._ + +SENECA . . . . . . . . . . . . ) + ) +BURRUS . . . . . . . . . . . . ) + ) _Ministers of State._ +TIGELLINUS . . . . . . . . . . ) + ) +ANICETUS . . . . . . . . . . . ) + +A SEAMAN. + +PARTHIAN CHIEF. + +BRITISH CHIEF. + +XENOPHON . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Physician._ + +SLAVE TO NERO. + +AGRIPPINA . . . . . . . . . . . _Nero's Mother._ + +OCTAVIA . . . . . . . . . . . . _Sister to Britannicus._ + +POPPAEA . . . . . . . . . . . . _Wife to Otho, afterwards to Nero._ + +ACTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Captive Princess._ + +LOCUSTA . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Poisoner._ + +MYRRHA . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Maid to Poppaea._ + +HANDMAIDENS, SPIES, ETC. + + + +Five years elapse between Acts I. and II., two years between Acts III. +and IV. + + + + +ACT I + +SCENE.--_The scene is in the Great Hall in the Palace of the Caesars. +At the back are steps leading to a platform with balustrade opening on +the air, and beyond, a view of the city_. + +[_On the right of the stage is a cedarn couch on which_ CLAUDIUS _is +uneasily sleeping. On the right is a door communicating with the inner +apartments. On the left a door communicating with the outer halls_. + +[XENOPHON _is standing by the couch of_ CLAUDIUS. AGRIPPINA _is +sitting with face turned to an_ ASTROLOGER, _who stands at the top of +the steps watching the stars_. + +[LOCUSTA _is crouching beside a pillar, right. A meteor strikes across +the sky. The_ ASTROLOGER, _pointing upwards, comes down the steps +slowly_. + +ASTROLOGER. These meteors flame the dazzling doom of kings. + + [AGRIPPINA _rises apprehensively._ + +XENOPHON. Caesar is dead! + +AGRIPPINA. The drug hath found his heart. + [_To_ LOCUSTA, _who steals forward._ + Locusta, take your price and steal away! + Sound on the trumpet. Go! your part is done. + + [_Exit_ LOCUSTA. + [_Trumpet is sounded._ + + That gives the sign to the Praetorians + Upon the instant of the Emperor's death. + + [_Answering trumpets are heard._ + + Hark! trumpets answering through all the city. + Xenophon, you and I are in this death + Eternally bound. This husband have I slain + To lift unto the windy chair of the world + Nero, my son. Your silence I will buy + With endless riches; but a hint divulged---- + +XENOPHON. O Agrippina, Empress, fear not me! + +AGRIPPINA. Meantime his child, his heir, Britannicus, + Must not be seen lest he be clamoured for. + So till the sad Chaldean give the sign + Of that so yearned for, favourable hour, + When with good omens may my son succeed, + The sudden death of Claudius must be hid! + Then on the instant Nero be proclaimed + And Rome awake on an accomplished deed. + +XENOPHON. Then summon Claudius' musicians in + To play unto the dead as though he breathed. + +AGRIPPINA. Call them! A lulling music let them bring. + + [_Exit_ XENOPHON. + [_She turns to_ ASTROLOGER. + + O thou who readest all the scroll of the sky, + Stands it so sure Nero my son shall reign? + +ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign. + +AGRIPPINA. What lurks behind these words? + There is a 'but' still hovering in the stars. + +ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign. + +AGRIPPINA. The half! I'll know the rest. + +ASTROLOGER. Peer not for peril! + +AGRIPPINA. Peril! His or mine? + +ASTROLOGER. Thine then. + +AGRIPPINA. I will know all, however dark. + Finish what did so splendidly begin. + +ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign, but he shall kill his mother. + +AGRIPPINA. Kill me, but reign! + + _Enter_ SENECA + +SENECA. The trumpet summoned me, + And I am here. + +AGRIPPINA. Seneca! Speak it low! + Caesar is dead! Nero shall climb the throne. + +SENECA. I will not ask the manner of his death. + In studious ease I have protested much + Against the violent taking of a life. + But lost in action I perceive at last + That they who stand so high can falter not, + But live beyond the reaches of our blame; + That public good excuses private guile. + +AGRIPPINA. You, Xenophon and Burrus, stand with me. + + _Enter_ BURRUS, _right. He salutes the corse of_ CLAUDIUS + +BURRUS. Obedient to the trumpet-call I come. + +AGRIPPINA. Say, Burrus, quickly say, how stands our cause + With the Praetorians who unmake and make Emperors? + +BURRUS. The Praetorians are staunch, + And they are marching now upon the Palace. + +AGRIPPINA. Will they have Nero? + +BURRUS. Yes, and double pay. + There is a murmuring minority + Who toss about the name Britannicus. + These may be feared; let Nero scatter gold + There where dissension rises--it will cease. + Their signal when they shall surround the Palace, + The gleam of my unsheathed sword to the dawn. + +AGRIPPINA. Stand there until I have from him the sign, + Then let thy sword gleam upward to the dawn. + [_Turning and pointing to body of_ CLAUDIUS. + That is my work! Also, I must betroth + Nero unto the young Octavia, + And with the dead man's daughter mate my son. + This marriage sets him firmer on the throne, + And foils the party of Britannicus. + [_To_ BURRUS.] You for the army answerable stand. + [_To_ SENECA.] And, Seneca, I have entrusted Nero's mind + To you, to point an eaglet to the sun. + Nero? What does he? + +SENECA. Nero knows not yet + That Claudius is dead. Rome hath not slept, + But to the torch-lit circus all have run + To see him victor in a chariot race, + Whence he is now returning. A night race + By burning torches is his newest whim. + +AGRIPPINA. A torch-lit race! And yet why not? My child + Should climb all virgin to the throne of the earth, + Not conscious of spilt blood: and I meantime + Will sway the deep heart of the mighty world. + The peril is Britannicus: for Nero, + Careless of empire, strings but verse to verse. + How shall this dove attain the eagle cry? + +SENECA. Be not so sure of Nero's harmlessness. + +AGRIPPINA. What do you mean? + +SENECA. By me he has been taught, + And I have watched him. True, the harp, the song, + The theatre, delight this dreamer: true, + He lives but in imaginations: yet + Suppose this aesthete made omnipotent, + Feeling there is no bar he cannot break, + Knowing there is no bound he cannot pass; + Might he not then despise the written page, + A petty music, and a puny scene? + Conceive a spectacle not witnessed yet, + When he, an artist in omnipotence, + Uses for colour this red blood of ours, + Composes music out of dreadful cries, + His orchestra our human agonies, + His rhythms lamentations of the ruined, + His poet's fire not circumscribed by words, + But now translated into burning cities, + His scenes the lives of men, their deaths a drama, + His dream the desolation of mankind, + And all this pulsing world his theatre. + [_Steps heard without._ + The dead man's children startled from their sleep! + Britannicus, Octavia, wondering. + +AGRIPPINA. Till the auspicious hour he is not dead. + + +OCTAVIA _and_ BRITANNICUS _enter_ + +OCTAVIA. We could not sleep: father is very sick. + We fancied every moment that he called us. + +BRITANNICUS. And then these meteors full of coming woe---- + +OCTAVIA. So brilliant and so silent! O, I fear them. + +BRITANNICUS. Is father yet awake? We want to ask him---- + +[THEY _approach the couch_. AGRIPPINA _interposes_. + +AGRIPPINA. Do not disturb your father for this night. + +OCTAVIA. We will not speak, nor make the smallest sound + To wake him. We must kiss him ere we sleep. + +AGRIPPINA. Children, he is in need of some long rest. Go back to bed: +your father sleepeth sound. + +BRITANNICUS. I will go in to him, I will--and you + Are not our mother. By what privilege + Do you thus interpose yourself between + A father and his children? + +AGRIPPINA. Would you then + Trouble him, when to sleep is all he asks? + +OCTAVIA. Only a moment! But to see him! + +AGRIPPINA. No! + Come softly back to bed! no--no--this way! + Britannicus, with the first peer of light + You shall behold your father; but not now. + So the physician, Xenophon, enjoined me. + Now take Octavia's hand--so, both of you. + [OCTAVIA _holds her face to be kissed._ + To-night I think I will not kiss you, child. + Good-night, good-night. + +[_Exit_ OCTAVIA _and_ BRITANNICUS. + +SENECA. How often have I taught + And written, 'Children shall not be beguiled + Even for good ends.' And yet, the single lie + Must, for the general good, be spoken; yet---- + + [MUSICIANS _meanwhile have entered, and are playing dreamy + music_. AGRIPPINA _turns to_ ASTROLOGER, _holding out her + arms_. + +AGRIPPINA. How long till Rome shall greet her Emperor? + +ASTROLOGER. Behold the heavens! The moment! + + [_Exit_ ASTROLOGER. + +AGRIPPINA. Give the sign! + + [_Sounds of acclamation and cries of 'Nero.'_ BURRUS + _draws his sword_. + +BURRUS. See the Praetorians! + +SENECA. Nero returns. + + _Enter a_ HERALD _gorgeously dressed, bearing + a silver wreath_ + +MESSENGER. From Nero unto Agrippina greeting! + He comes a victor from the chariot race. + + [_Sounds of acclamation grow louder, the + crowd of_ NERO'S _friends and satellites + pours in: last comes NERO dressed as a charioteer._ + +AGRIPPINA. [_Touching_ CLAUDIUS' _body_.] + That music be a dirge: Caesar is dead. + [NERO _pauses wondering._ + Claudius is dead. Reign thou. Ave Caesar! + + [BURRUS _leads_ NERO _to back of platform, and + addresses the soldiers at back_. + +BURRUS. Caesar is dead! Behold Caesar! + + [_A great shout of_ 'NERO!' 'CAESAR!' _Meanwhile_ AGRIPPINA + _and_ SENECA _are listening close together. Discordant cries + are heard of_ 'BRITANNICUS!' _A slave or attendant on_ NERO + _scatters gold in the direction of these discordant cries, + which gradually subside, and are lost in one long shout of + 'Nero, Imperator.'_ NERO _motions for silence_. + +NERO. [_Turning to Court._] Behold this forest of uprisen spears, + Symbol of might! But I upon that might + Would not rely. You hail me Emperor-- + Then hail me as an Emperor of peace. + First, I declare divinest clemency. + No deaths have I to avenge, no wrath to bribe, + No desperate followers clamouring for spoil; + Pardon from me may beautifully fall. + Next, I bestow full liberty of speech; + I will not sway a dumb indignant earth-- + Emperor over the unuttered curse. + Were I myself the mark, I will not flinch. + Yet citizens, if freedom of the tongue + I grant, I'd wish less freedom of the feast. + Then all informers who lie life away + I'll heavily chastise; let no man think + With hinted scandal to employ mine ear. + Last, over all my earth be perfect trust, + That every tribe and people, dusk or pale, + Legions extreme and farthest provinces, + May know that this my hand which striketh down + The oppressor and the tyrant from his seat + Shall raise the afflicted and exalt the meek. + And if this burden grow too vast at times, + Then, mother, teach thy son to bear the load. + + [_Exit Court._ + +AGRIPPINA. [_Rushing to embrace him. He is vested with the purple and +laurel wreath. The body of_ CLAUDIUS _is borne off. Exit_ BURRUS. +NERO _comes down._] Nero, thou art my son! + +NERO. To rule the world. + How heavy is the sceptre of the earth! + +AGRIPPINA. [_Coming down._] Nero, upon this arm behold I clasp + This amulet. One dawn two murderers + Despatched to kill thee, stealing to thy bed + Were frightened by a snake which from beneath + Thy pillow glided. From that serpent's skin + I made this charm. Wear it, and thou shalt prosper; + But lose it, look thou for calamities. + +SENECA. [_Prepares to go also._] You will + need sleep, sir, for to-morrow's task. + +NERO. [_In terror._] I am not pale? Not heavy-eyed? + +SENECA. No! No! + +NERO. An artist, whatsoever mood he rouse + In others, should himself be ever still. + Where is a mirror? + +SENECA. Sir, one graver word. + To-morrow when you first shall sit in judgment, + And set your name unto the scroll of death---- + +NERO. [_Gazing at himself in mirror._] Ah! + Must I sign death-warrants? Then I wish + This hand had never learned to write. + +SENECA. Dear pupil! + +AGRIPPINA. Your pupil now the awful purple wears. + You tremble but to grasp the pen! But they + Who dyed it thus, feared not to grip the brand. + +NERO. [_Again looking in mirror._] It is an act to me unbeautiful. + To scatter joy, not sadness, was I born. + +AGRIPPINA. It is an act to you most necessary, + If you would sit secure where I have set you. + Now the light things of boyhood, toys of youth, + Unworthy that stern seat, you must discard. + Acte, the playmate of those careless hours, + Henceforth must be forgotten: you shall wed + A royal consort--young Octavia, + The child of Claudius, of the imperial line. + +SENECA. My peaceful counsel you will not forget. + +NERO. [_Turning to_ SENECA, _affectionately._] + Old friend, I am not like to wade in blood, + Thee at my side! I think upon the dooms + Of Julius, Caius, and Tiberius, + All Emperors--all miserably slain. + +SENECA. This dawn art thou the master of the world; + Then tremble at the task to thee assigned. + Meekly receive the purple and the wreath, + And on thy knees accept omnipotence. + Good-night, dear pupil! May my teaching lead + Thy solemn opportunity aright! + + [_Exit_ SENECA. + +NERO. You powers sustain me to endure this weight! + Mother, I shall go mad! + +AGRIPPINA. Not while this hand + Is on thy brow, and this voice in thine ear. + +NERO. To rule the world! + +AGRIPPINA. We two will rule the world. + +NERO. We two? + +AGRIPPINA. When you have need of me, then call me. + +NERO. I ever shall. I need you at this moment + More even than when my toothless gums did fumble + About thy breast in darkness of the night. + +AGRIPPINA. My dear, dear son! And + Nero, well I know + That you could never hurt or injure me. + But you will not forget who set you here-- + You will not, tell me? + +NERO. Never, mother, never! + +AGRIPPINA. Mothers for children have dared much, and more + Have suffered; but what mother hath so scarred + Her soul for the dear fruit of her body as I? + Thy birth-pang was the least of all the throes + That I for thee have suffered--a brief pain, + A little, little pain we share with creatures; + But what was this to torments of the mind, + The dark, imperial meditations, + Musing with eyes half-closed in moonless night; + The crimes--yes, crimes, the blood that has been spilt-- + Why, I have made a way for thee through ghosts. + Nero, you'll not forget? + +NERO. Ah! Never, never! + +AGRIPPINA. My son, this very night it was foretold + 'Nero shall reign, but he shall kill his mother.' + Tell me the stars have lied. + +NERO. [_Smiling._] The stars have lied. + +_Enter_ BURRUS + +BURRUS. The pass-word, sir, to-night? + +NERO. The best of mothers. + +AGRIPPINA. Kiss me; we both of us must sleep awhile. + + [_Exit_ AGRIPPINA. NERO _goes up, gazing out on the city + as the dawn comes on greyly._ + +NERO. O, all the earth to-night into these hands + Committed! I bow down beneath the load, + Empurpled in a lone omnipotence. + My softest whisper thunders in the sky, + And in my frown the temples sway and reel, + And the utmost isles are anguished. I but raise + An eyelid, and a continent shall cower; + My finger makes the city a solitude, + The murmuring metropolis a silence, + And kingdoms pine in my dispeopling nod. + I can dispearl the sea, a province wear + Upon my little finger; all the winds + Are busy blowing odours in mine eyes, + And I am wrapt in glory by the sun, + And I am lit by splendours of the moon, + And diadem'd by glittering midnight. + O wine of the world, the odour and gold of it! + There is no thirst which I may not assuage; + There is no hunger which I may not sate; + Nought is forbidden me under heaven! + [_With a cry._] I shall go mad! I shall go mad! + + [ACTE _steals in noiselessly, and waits till he turns, then + comes down to him._ + + My Acte! + +ACTE. [_Shrinking._] O, I seem so far from you, + And so beneath you now; your care henceforth + The world and nothing less. Long have you been + Nero to me, but Caesar must be now + High throned, the nations crawling at your feet. + And yet be sure that if on some far day + The throne should pass from you; if you should stand + Lonely at last; your friends all fallen away + From you; the laurel upon other brows + Set; were you dyed in blood deep as the robe + That folds you; were you dead in rags reposing, + Yet would I find you, cover up your face, + Taking the last kiss from your lips, and I + Would gently bury you within the earth. + +NERO. Ah! + +ACTE. And though none came nigh you, being dead, + Who were in life so thronged about and pressed, + One hand at least would duly pluck you flowers, + One hand at least would strew them on your grave. + Sleep now, and I will charm these eyes to close. + + [_She takes a harp, and as she plays_ NERO _drops off to sleep. + She, seeing him so, softly kisses him and noiselessly disappears. + Meanwhile_ NERO _turns uneasily in his sleep, and a procession + of dead Emperors passes_--JULIUS, _covering his face, but + withdrawing his cloak to gaze a while on_ NERO; TIBERIUS; CAIUS + _wounded_; CLAUDIUS _holding a cup_. NERO _rushes forward, + uttering a cry_. ACTE _again re-enters at the sound_. + + Nero, what ails you? Nero, how the drops + Stand on your brow! + +NERO. There, there, I seemed to see + As in procession the dead Emperors: + Julius, Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, + All bloody, and all pacing that same path. + +ACTE. [_Trying to lead him on the opposite way._] + There is another path, will you but take it. + + [NERO _is led by her a little way, then hesitates, still gazing + after the procession of Emperors. Gradually he looses_ ACTE'S + _hand, and she leaves him, gazing._ + + + + +ACT II + + +SCENE.--_The same, but signs of excessive luxury and profusion. Rich +carpets, gilded pillars, etc. As the scene opens, strange oriental +music is heard, with singing_. GIRLS _enter slowly and place wreaths +round the various statues of_ NERO, _who is depicted now as Apollo +singing, now as a charioteer_. + + [ACTE _is reclining on a couch. The time is broad + noon. A faint exotic odour pervades the palace._ + +1ST MAIDEN. O Lydia, I am drowsing, and my hands + Can scarcely wreathe the Emperor as Apollo. + +2ND MAIDEN. Ah, crown this carefully! + To-day he sings + In public; as Apollo will return + So crowned, so garbed. + +1ST MAIDEN. How is that wreath disposed? + +2ND MAIDEN. Excellent! + +3RD MAIDEN. O please tell me how to droop + These scarlet flowers. + +2ND MAIDEN. About the lyre then, thus. + +4TH MAIDEN. This bust now of the Emperor as a boy? + +1ST MAIDEN. O, covered with white flowers and birds of spring. + +5TH MAIDEN. This charioteer: with green I have dressed that. + +3RD MAIDEN. Yes, for the Emperor's colour is the green. + +1ST MAIDEN. Now all the busts are wreathed. + +2ND MAIDEN. What more to do? + +1ST MAIDEN. All is arranged. How heavy are my eyes. + +3RD MAIDEN. And this low music on my spirit hangs. + +4TH MAIDEN. And the faint odour steals upon my hair. + +1ST MAIDEN. [_Moving up and leaning out._ + See, all the city is a solitude. + +2ND MAIDEN. All Rome is gathered in the theatre + To hear the Emperor sing. + +5TH MAIDEN. O, I should sleep + On such a noon, in such a throng. + +1ST MAIDEN. That sleep + Would have no wakening, if your eyes but closed + While Caesar sang. + +4TH MAIDEN. To-night there is a feast. + Have you remembered? + +3RD MAIDEN. Yes, the dancing girls + From Egypt are arrived. + +1ST MAIDEN. We are to strew + Down from the ceiling flowers upon the guests. + + [_They recline in various attitudes about the seats and pillars._ + + +_Enter_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS + +BURRUS. Ah, Seneca, five years since Nero climbed + The throne; and in this very chamber, now + So changed, this odour--pah! This was the place, + Grim, bare, for military virtues apt. + +SENECA. And he how changed! The boy who dreamed so high + Of mightiest empire and unmeasured peace, + All I had taught him lost; by flattery sapped, + Jewelled and clothed as from the Orient, + He sings and struts with dancers and buffoons. + +ACTE. [_Starting up._] And you, when have you two dissuaded him? + Or when forbidden? Do you teach him shun + Languor or luxury? You lure him thither. + +SENECA. 'Tis true that we have not dissuaded him, + But out of high deliberate policy + Have suffered him to tread the path of folly + Rather than mischief. We have ruled the world + With wisdom these five years while he has played. + +ACTE. What of Poppaea, Otho's wife. Have you + Restrained that madness? Rather have you not + Screened it and fed it? + +SENECA. With the same design; + Better that he should vent his madness thus + In pastime to the State not perilous, + Amuse himself with her rather than Rome. + +ACTE. A woman without pity, beautiful. + She makes the earth we tread on false, the heaven + A merest mist, a vapour. Yet her face + Is as the face of a child uplifted, pure; + But plead with lightning rather than those eyes, + Or earthquake rather than that gentle bosom + Rising and falling near thy heart. Her voice + Comes running on the ear as a rivulet; + Yet if you hearken, you shall hear behind + The breaking of a sea whose waves are souls + That break upon a human-crying beach. + Ever she smileth, yet hath never smiled, + And in her lovely laughter is no joy. + Yet hath none fairer strayed into the world, + Or wandered in more witchery through the air, + Since she who drew the dreaming keels of Greece + After her over the Ionian foam. + +BURRUS. Better an Emperor fooled than Rome undone! + +ACTE. Though all unite to drive him to his doom, + Yet I will not forsake him till he die. + + [_Exit_ ACTE. + + [_Meanwhile there is an uneasy movement among the_ GIRLS, _as + at the approach of something sinister_. TIGELLINUS _enters, + gasping._ + +TIGELLINUS. [_Looking after_ ACTE.] She is a Christian! + +BURRUS. Tigellinus! + +TIGELLINUS. I + Come from the theatre. For three hours have sat + In the first bench, and feared to wink or cough. + The Emperor sang, and had for audience + The flower of Rome. In torment did we sit, + Nobles and consuls, captains, senators, + Bursting to laugh and aching but to smile. + Higher and higher rose the Emperor's voice, + But no man ventured to relax his lips. + And all around were those who peered or crept, + Inspecting each man's face, noting his look. + To sigh was treason and to laugh was death, + And yet none dared be absent: how were you + Excused? + +BURRUS. I pleaded the old wound. + +SENECA. And I + Reception of the Parthian and the Briton. + +TIGELLINUS. I + Say not so much against his moody freaks, + But to be called from bed to hear him sing-- + O, I must have my sleep at night--well, well-- + To graver things. Still the conspiracy + Of Agrippina swells: she aims to make + Her son a toy, a puppet, while she pulls + Unseen the secret strings of policy. + +SENECA. Is't not enough to bear upon her back + Stripped continents? To clasp about her throat + A civilisation in a sapphire, or + That kingdoms gleam and glow upon her brow. + Now doth she overstar us like the night + In splendour. Now she rises on our eyes + Dawning in gold; or like the blaze of noon + Taketh our breath on a sudden; or she glides + Silent, from head to foot a glimmering pearl. + But this is woman's business: 'tis not so + To listen screened to the ambassadors, + To ride abroad with Nero charioted, + Or wear her head upon the public coins. + +TIGELLINUS. And she intends this very day to hear + The Briton, seated by the Emperor's side. + Otho has joined her too. + +SENECA. But from what cause? + +TIGELLINUS. He is married. + +BURRUS. Ah, Poppaea! + +TIGELLINUS. Jealousy + Hath driven him into Agrippina's snare. + Fury at Nero's madness for his wife. + Now what if we could raise Poppaea up + As Agrippina's chief antagonist: + We match the mistress 'gainst the mother--pit + Passion 'gainst gratitude--a sudden lure + 'Gainst old ascendency, the noon of beauty + Against the evening of authority, + The luring whisper 'gainst the pleading voice, + The hand that beckons 'gainst the arm that sways, + And set a woman to defeat a woman. + To Nero I have whispered that she dotes + Upon his poems, on his rhythm hangs, + And cannot sleep for beauty of his verse. + +SENECA. This day must Nero leave his mother's lap, + And stand up as an Emperor, and alone. + + [_Trumpet._ + +BURRUS. Hark! Caesar is returning. + +[_Sounds heard of_ NERO _approaching amid cries of 'O thou Apollo!' +'Orpheus come again!' Then enter NERO with a group of satellites,_ +TIGELLINUS, OTHO, _and professional applauders and spies. His dress is +of extreme oriental richness, and profuse in jewels: his hair +elaborately curled. He carries an emerald eye-glass, and appears faint +from the exertion of singing, from which contest he has just come._ + +NERO. This languor is the penalty the gods + Exact from those whom they have gifted high. + +SENECA. [_Coming forward._] Sir, late arrived + from Parthia and Britain---- + +NERO. [_Starting up._] A draught! + [_Much hurry, zeal, and confusion among courtiers._ + This kerchief closer round my throat! + [_They tie a kerchief round his throat._ + Was I in voice to-day? The prize is won, + But I would be my own competitor + And my own rival. Was I then in voice? + +CHORUS. O Memnon struck with morning, nightingale, + Ghost-charming Orpheus, O Apollo--god! + +SATELLITE. O Caesar, I am one who speaks right out; + If it means death, yet must I speak the truth. + Thy voice was harsh. + +NERO. Was it so, friend? + +SATELLITE. Harsh and uncertain. Had it been another + Who sang, it would have ravished every ear, + But thee must I remember at thy best, + And what in others we count excellence + In thee we count a lapse, and falling off. + +NERO. There's a good fellow! + +SENECA. Caesar! + +NERO. But a moment! + +1ST SPY. [_Stealing forward._] Licinius smiled, sir, + at thy final note. + +NERO. Nothing! an artist must bear ridicule. + Were I incensed, I were ridiculous + Myself. + +1ST SPY. Shall nothing then be done? + +NERO. Nothing! + +2ND SPY. [_Stealing forward._] Sir, Labienus, in thy second song + Coughed twice. + +ANOTHER SPY. [_Cringing._] Nay, Caesar, thrice. + +2ND SPY. What punishment? + +NERO. None! Interruption must I learn to bear. + What patience must we own who would excel! + Anger I never must permit myself, + Or ruffling littleness to this great soul. + +3RD SPY. [_Creeping forward._] Sir, Titus + Cassius yawned while thou didst sing. + +4TH SPY. Nay, Caesar, worse, he slept, and must he live? + +NERO. [_Gently._] No! he must die: there is no hope in sleep. + Witness, you gods, who sent me on the earth + To be a joy to men: and witness you + Who stand around: if ever a small malice + Hath governed me: what critic have I feared? + What rival? Have I used this mighty throne + To baulk opinion or suppress dissent? + Have I not toiled for art, forsworn food, sleep, + And laboured day and night to win the crown, + Lying with weight of lead upon my chest? + Ye gods, there is no rancour in this soul. + [_Thunder._ + Silence while I am speaking. He must die, + Because he is unmindful of your gifts + And of the golden voice on me bestowed, + To me no credit; and he shall not die + Hopeless, for ere he die I'll sing to him + This night, that he may pass away in music. + How foolish will he peer amid the shades + When Orpheus asks, 'Hast thou heard Nero sing?' + If he must answer 'No!' I would not have him + Arrive ridiculous amid the dead. + +SENECA. Caesar, the Parthian and the British chiefs. + +NERO. I cannot, sirs, so suddenly return + Unto life's dreary business, or descend + Out of the real to the unreal: from that + Which is to that which is not. Leave me still. + From art to empire is too swift a drop. + +OTHO. Now what to do? Still drags the o'erlong day. + We have driven, we have eaten, we have drunk. + But all the brilliance is a burden still. + +ANICETUS. No cloud upon the noon of this despair. + O for some edge, some thrill unknown! + +LUCAN. Remorse? + + [NERO _shakes his head._ + +SENECA. Jealousy then? + +NERO. No, no--we have outlived + All passions: terror now alone is left us. + I have within me great capacities + For terror: fear, the last, the greatest passion! + +OTHO. Can one rely on death for something new? + Some other life perhaps. + +SENECA. The gods forbid! + The Power that sent us here would lead us there. + One sample is enough. + +LUCAN. Death's a dull business, + Of that one may be sure. What says the poet? + 'When I am dead, let fire devour the world.' + + [NERO _starts at these words and comes among them._ + +NERO. Nay, while I live! The sight! A burning world! + And to be dead and miss it! There's an end + Of all satiety: such fire imagine! + Born in some obscure alley of the poor, + Then leaping to embrace a splendid street, + Palaces, temples, morsels that but whet + Her appetite: the eating of huge forests: + Then with redoubled fury rushing high, + Smacking her lips over a continent, + And licking old civilisations up! + Then in tremendous battle fire and sea + Joined: and the ending of the mighty sea: + Then heaven in conflagration, stars like cinders + Falling in tempest: then the reeling poles + Crash: and the smouldering firmament subsides, + And last, this universe a single flame! + + [OTHO, _seeing the steward and musician, + who have entered, speaks._ + +OTHO. Nothing is left us but to eat and drink. + + [_Takes bill of fare which the steward passes to him._ + +NERO. The feast! + + [_Takes bill of fare from_ OTHO. + + You understand that in the perfect feast + To please the palate only is not art, + But we should minister to the eye and the ear + With colour and with music. Introduce + The embattled oysters with a melody + Of waves that wash a reef--whence do they come? + +STEWARD. From Britain, sir. + +NERO. Perhaps an angrier chord + Of island surf might be permitted then. + From Britain? Now I see thy uses, Britain. + Britain is justified: she gives us oysters, + And therefore Claudius invaded her. + Sausages upon silver gridirons? + +STEWARD. Yes. + +NERO. Dormice with poppies and milk honey? There + A slumberous music, heavy lingering chords. + Ah! slices of pomegranate underneath. + Snow--purest snow of course. + +STEWARD. 'Twas not forgot. + +NERO. Then glorying peacocks: here a sounding march, + Something triumphal--even a trifle loud. + And, ah! the mullets! You remembered them? + +STEWARD. O Caesar, yes. + +NERO. Let these be introduced + By some low dirge. And let us see them die-- + Slow-dying mullets within crystal bowls, + Dying from colour unto colour: now + Vermilion death-pangs fading into blue-- + A scarlet agony in azure ending. + There we have colour! And at last the tongues + Of nightingales--the tongues of nightingales? + O, silence with the tongues of nightingales. + + [_He dismisses_ STEWARD.] + +TIGELLINUS. Sir, grant us three a moment's audience. + + [NERO _dismisses friends and satellites with gesture._ + +SENECA. Your mother, sir, this very day intends + To hear the British chiefs in audience, + Sitting beside you. Know then that the world + Will not endure to have a woman's rule. + +BURRUS. No, nor the army. + +TIGELLINUS. And thy mother laughs + In public at thy verse. + +NERO. She has no ear. + I pity her--remember what she loses. + +TIGELLINUS. Ah, be not laughed at, sir, be it not said + Nero is tied unto his mother's robe. + Be brilliant, cruel, lustful, what you will, + But not a naughty child, rated and slapped. + Poppaea too, she will not suffer you + With her to indulge your fancy. + +SENECA. Caesar, rise! + +BURRUS. Rise--rise, and reign! + +TIGELLINUS. And be no more a doll + That dances while she pulls the string behind. + Then young Britannicus! + +NERO. O nothing! + +TIGELLINUS. Yet + He is winning on the people: he hath charm, + His voice is sweet. + +[NERO _starts._ + + Caesar, I judge it not, + But speak the common drift; and his recital, + So I am told, has for accompaniment + Gesture most eloquent. + + [NERO _is more and more roused._ + + His poems, too! + +NERO. [_Breaking the silence._] His poems! + Why, why, not a line will scan + To the true ear; and what variety, + I ask you all--what flow, or what resource + Is shown? A safe monotony of rhythm! + + [_He paces to and fro angrily._ + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar, I cannot speak to such a theme. + Merely Rome's mouthpiece. + +NERO. And his gesture, why, + 'Tis of the Orient, and gesticulation + More happily were called; never a stillness, + Never repose, but one wild whirl of arms. + +TIGELLINUS. I spoke not of fulfilment, but of promise, + The artist's dazzling future. + +NERO. A sweet voice! + Rome hath no critics! I would write a play + Lived there a single critic fit to judge it. + Whether a dancing-girl kick high enough-- + On this they can pronounce: this is their trade. + With verse upon the stage they cannot cope. + Too well they dine, too heavily, and bear + The undigested peacock to the stalls. + +TIGELLINUS. Should Agrippina on a sudden change + Her front, and clasp hands with Britannicus? + +NERO. Your words awaken in me a new thirst. + +SENECA. Sir, hear the Parthian and the British chiefs. + +NERO. [_Going to the throne._] Summon them! + + [_Exit_ SENECA. + + Think not, though my aim is art, + I cannot toy with empire easily. + The great in me does not preclude the less. + + + [_Re-enter_ SENECA _with_ PARTHIAN _and_ BRITISH AMBASSADORS, + _followed by the Court_. SENECA _brings forward the_ + PARTHIAN CHIEFS, _when_ AGRIPPINA _enters magnificently + dressed and begins to mount steps of throne_. NERO _with + courteous decision brings her down_. + + Mother, this is man's business, not for thee. + You jar the scheme of colour--mar the effect. + +PARTHIAN. Caesar, we starve: all Parthia parches: all + Our crops sun-smitten bleach upon the plains. + We ask thy aid. + +NERO. And ye shall have my aid + Even to the fullest: further, I will open + The imperial granaries for your people's wants. + +PARTHIAN. Caesar, we thank thee: and if ever thou + Shouldst need the Parthian aid, whate'er the cost, + That aid thou shalt find ready at thy side. + + [_Exit._ + +BRITISH CHIEF. Caesar, the tax that thou hast laid on us + Remit, we pray thee, else we rise in arms + And will abide thy battle. + +NERO. So! You dream + That Caesar being merciful is weak. + I who can succour, I can strike; I'll launch + The legions over sea, and I myself + Will lead them, and the eagles will unloose + Through Britain--I who sit on the world's throne + Will have no threatening from Briton, Gaul, + People or tribe inland or ocean-washed. + The terror of this purple I maintain. + You are dismissed. + + + [NERO, _spreading his hands, dismisses the Court, and comes + down to his mother_. + +NERO. Now, mother! + +AGRIPPINA. I will speak + With you alone, not compassed by these men. + + [_To_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS.] To me you owe the + height where now you stand. + Who took you, schoolmaster, from exile? Who + Unstewarded you, Burrus? If I have made, + I can unmake--Now leave me with my son. + [_To_ TIGELLINUS.] You are self-made. Gods! + I'd no hand in that! + +[_Exeunt_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ TIGELLINUS.] + + Nero, have you forgot who set you there? + +NERO. Not while I hear it twenty times a day. + +AGRIPPINA. You should not need that I remind you of it. + +NERO. A kindness harped on grows an injury. + +AGRIPPINA. Are you the babe that lay upon my breast? + +NERO. I was: but I would not lie there for ever. + +AGRIPPINA. Have I not reared you, tended you, and loved you? + +NERO. Yes, but to be your puppet and your toy. + +AGRIPPINA. Boy, never since I first looked on the sun + From man or woman had I insolence, + Who have sistered, wived, and mothered Emperors. + +NERO. I speak no insolence--you weary me! + +AGRIPPINA. Gods! you have hit on a new thing to tell me. + [_Coming to him._] Does your heart beat? Are + you all ice and pose? + Has nothing gripped you--is there aught to grip + In you, pert shadow? Have you e'er shed tears? + +NERO. For legendary sorrows I can weep: + With those of old time I have suffered much, + And I, for dreams, am capable of tears; + But not for woe too near me--and too loud. + +AGRIPPINA. O wall of stone 'gainst which I beat in vain! + Nero, I will do much to win you back + For your own sake: and though it hurts me sore, + Your passion for Poppaea I will aid. + When did a mother yield herself to this? + +NERO. When had a mother such a lust for rule + That she could even yield herself to this? + +AGRIPPINA. [_Clasping his knees._] Child, I + have done with scorn, with bitter words, + With taunt, with gibe. Now I ask only pity-- + A little pity from flesh that I conceived, + A little mercy from the body I bore, + And touches from the baby hands I kissed. + Nothing I ask of you, only to love me, + And if not that, to bear with me a while, + Who have borne much for you: no, Nero, child, + I will not weary you, I yearn for you. + Forgive me all the deeds that I have done for you, + Forget the great love I have spent on you, + Pardon the long, long life for you endured. + + [NERO _is moved and kisses her, then speaks with effort_. + +NERO. Mother, if I have seemed to be forgetful, + Or cruel even, impute it not to me + But to the State. + + [AGRIPPINA _starts._ + + 'Tis thought that neither Rome, + The provinces, nor armies, will endure + To see a woman in such eminence. + Therefore it is advised that you retire + To Antium a while, and leave Rome free. + +AGRIPPINA. [_Starting up._] Leave Rome! + Why, I would die as I did step + Outside her gates, and glide henceforth a shadow. + The blood would cease to run in my veins, my heart + Stop, and my breath subside without her walls. + All without Rome is darkness: you will not + Despatch my shadow down to Antium? + +NERO. We were remembering your toils, your age. + +AGRIPPINA. My age! Am I old then? + Look on this face, + Where am I scarred, who have steered the bark of State + As it plunged, as it rose over the waves of change? + I was renewed with salt of such a sea. + Empires and Emperors I have outlived; + A thousand loves and lusts have left no line; + Tremendous fortunes have not touched my hair, + Murder hath left my cheek as the cheek of a babe. + + [_At this moment_ BURRUS, SENECA, _and_ TIGELLINUS _return, + hearing the scene; and as_ AGRIPPINA _continues her imprecations, + the COURT return and stand in groups listening._ + +AGRIPPINA. My age! Who then accuses me of age? + Was this a flash from budding Seneca, + Or the boy Burrus' inspiration? Say? + Do I owe it to the shrivelled or the maimed? + +SENECA. Empress, it is determined you retire. + And you will better your own dignity + And his assert, if you will make this going + To seem a free inclining from yourself. + +AGRIPPINA. Bookman, shall I learn policy from you? + Be patient with me. Nero, you I ask, + Not schoolmasters or stewards I promoted. + Is it your will I go to Antium? + Speak, speak. Be not the mouthpiece of these men: + Domitius! + +NERO. Mother, 'tis my will you go. + +AGRIPPINA. Then, sir, discharge me not from your employ + Without some written commendation, + That I can tire the hair or pare the nails, + That those who were my friends may take me in! + +NERO. Lady! + +AGRIPPINA. O, lady now? Mother, no more! + +NERO. [_Pacing fiercely to and fro._] Beware + the son you bore: look lest I turn! + Chafe not too far the master of this world. + +AGRIPPINA. See the new tiger in the dancer's eye: + 'Ware of him, keepers--then, you bid me go? + [_A pause._ + Then I will go. But think not, though I go, + My spirit shall not pace the palace still. + I am too bound by guilt unto these walls. + Still shall you hear a step in dead of night; + In stillness the long rustle of my robe. + So long as stand these walls I cannot leave them. + Yet will I go: behold you, that stand by, + A mother by her own son thrust away, + Cast out--ha, ha!--in my old age, infirm, + To totter and mumble in oblivion! + +NERO. [_To_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS.] A little + violent that--did you not think so? + And yet the gesture excellent and strong! + +AGRIPPINA. Romans, behold this son: the man of men; + This harp-player, this actor, this buffoon---- + +NERO. Peace! + +AGRIPPINA. --sitting where great Julius but aspired + To sit, and died in the aspiring: see, + This mime--my son is he? And did I then + Have one mad moment with a street musician? + +SENECA. Have you no shame? + +AGRIPPINA. This son now sends me forth, + Yet it was I, his mother, set him there. + + [_Murmur._ + + And, ah! if it were known at what a price, + Witness, you shades of the Silani! + +SENECA. Peace! + +AGRIPPINA. And witness Messalina on vain knees! + + [_Murmur._ + + And witness Claudius with the envenomed cup. + +NERO. Silence, or---- + +AGRIPPINA. Not the seas shall stop me now, + Raging on all the shores of all the world. + Witness if easily my son did reign, + I am bloody from head to foot for sake of him, + And for my cub am I incarnadined. + + [_Murmur._ + + I'll go, but if I fall, Rome too shall fall: + I'll shake this empire till it reel and crash + On that ungrateful head; and if I fall, + The builded world shall tumble down in thunder. + + [_Murmur._ + + Ah! + + [_Seeing_ BRITANNICUS.] To my arms, boy! + [_Snatches him to her side._] Tremble now and shake! + Here is the true heir to the imperial throne, + Deposed by me, but now by me restored. + + [_Uproar._ + + I'll to the Praetorians! + + [_Clamour._ + + To the camp! + And there upon the one side they shall see + Britannicus the child of Claudius, + And me the daughter of Germanicus; + And on the other side a harp-player, + A withered pedant, and a maimèd sergeant, + Disputing for the diadem of the earth. + Come, Caesar, away to the Praetorians! + + [_Exit_ AGRIPPINA _leading_ BRITANNICUS, _followed by_ COURT + _in great excitement, all but_ BURRUS _and_ SENECA, + TIGELLINUS _and_ NERO--_a blank pause_. + +SENECA. Now what to do? + +TIGELLINUS. Already can I hear + The roar of the Praetorians and their march, + This time to crown another. Burrus, you + Command them. + +BURRUS. They would tear me into pieces, + As hounds a master entering in on them + Unrecognised, if Agrippina once + Hallooed to them the name 'Germanicus.' + +TIGELLINUS. Surely Britannicus must be our aim: + He gone, what threat, what counter-move hath she? + Removing him, we take the sting from her; + Then let her buzz at will. + +BURRUS. But he is gone. + +SENECA. Even as an eagle snatches up a babe, + So Agrippina caught him up and flew. + +TIGELLINUS. For once my wits are lost. + +SENECA. Still, what to do? + + [NERO _has been sitting with his back to them, suddenly rises._ + +NERO. Leave this to me! + +TIGELLINUS. O Caesar! + +NERO. [_To_ ANICETUS.] Go thou fast + And intercept my mother on her way, + And say thou thus: 'Nero thy son repents + His former ire and cancels the decree + For Antium; and prays thou may'st return + To supper, as a sign of amity, + And bring with thee the prince Britannicus.' + + [ANICETUS _is going, but_ NERO _stops him_. + + And as you go, send in to me Locusta. + + [_Exit_ ANICETUS. + + I have conceived--not fully--but conceived + The death-scene of the boy Britannicus. + Leave this to me. + +TIGELLINUS. O Caesar! + +NERO. It shall be + Performed to-night at supper: get you seats; + It shall be something new and wonderful, + Done after wine, and under falling roses; + And there shall be suspense in it, and thrill: + It shall be very sudden, very silent, + And terrible in silence--I the while, + Creator and arranger of the scene, + Reclining with a jewel in my eye; + And Agrippina shall be close to me, + Aware, yet motionless: Octavia, + Though but a child, yet too discreet for tears. + This you may deem as yet a little crude, + But other details I will add ere supper. + + [SENECA _withdraws in horror, as do the others, slowly._ + +SENECA. Here's what I feared! + +TIGELLINUS. His eyes now! Yet how calm! + So steals the panther, stirring not a leaf! + + [_Exeunt slowly_ SENECA, TIGELLINUS, _and_ BURRUS. NERO + _walks to and fro, constructing the scene in pantomime + to himself_. LOCUSTA _enters down, right_. + +NERO. You are Locusta, and your trade is poison. + + [_She makes obeisance._ + + [_Uneasily._] Is poison but a trade with you, or art? + Surely to slay is the supreme of arts; + And with no ugly wound or hideous blow, + But beautifully to extinguish life. + Have you some rare drug that kills suddenly? + As I have planned it, I can have no pause-- + Death must be sudden--silent. And my guests + Must not be wearied with a pang prolonged, + And there must be no cry. That understand. + + [LOCUSTA, _grovelling at his feet_. + +LOCUSTA. O Caesar, such a drug is known to me,-- + But I will not reveal it. + +NERO. Die then. + +LOCUSTA. Die? + O, I love life, but this I'll not reveal. + +NERO. Ah, you must live--you are an artist too. + +LOCUSTA. I have a poison that is slipped in wine-- + Not nauseous to the taste. + +NERO. An artist still! + Let me have that, and suddenly. And listen-- + The cup presented to Britannicus + Must be too hot: so that he calls for snow + To cool it. In that snow the poison lurks. + + [_Exit_ LOCUSTA. + + [ANICETUS _hastily returns_. + +ANICETUS. O Caesar, the Augusta had not left + The palace; and now, o'erjoyous at thy words, + She will be present at the supper-board, + Bringing with her the prince Britannicus. + + [_Servants enter with various dishes and arrange the tables and + couches for the guests, and supper begins._ + + [_They all recline amid a low hum of conversation. Dreamy music is + heard, which might be a continuation of the music played before._ + + NERO _reclines at the head of the central table between_ AGRIPPINA + _and_ OCTAVIA. POPPAEA _is a prominent figure_. BRITANNICUS, _with + other youths, lies at a side table_. SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ + TIGELLINUS _present with other members of the Court. At a sign + from_ NERO _dancing girls enter and perform a strange, wild measure, + after which the hum of conversation is resumed. Again, at a sign + from_ NERO, _odours are spurted over the guests amid cries of + delight_. + + [_At a sign from_ NERO, _flowers descend from the ceiling. At first + lilies, then of deeper and deeper colour. At last a tempest of + roses which gradually slackens._ + +NERO. Britannicus, I voice a general wish. + Sweet is it, early and thus easily + To have garnered fame: the crown is for the few, + And these are tasked to reach it ere they die. + Oftener the laurel on grey hairs is laid, + Or on the combed tresses of the dead. + + [BRITANNICUS _goes to the top of the stairs to recite, and at a + sign from_ NERO _wine is handed to him_. + +BRITANNICUS. This is too hot: some snow to cool it: so-- + [_Cold snow is put in and he drinks. He then recites._ + Beside the melancholy surge I roam-- + A sad exile, a stranger, sick for home: + A prince I was in my far native land + Who wander to and fro this alien sand: + Riches I had, and steeds, a glimmering crown; + Never had known a harshness or a frown. + Now must I limp and beg from door to door, + Wet with the storm, or in the sun footsore: + I, by a brother's cunning dispossessed, + Crave for these languid limbs a place of rest. + Pity me, robbed of all! + + [_He gives a cry and falls headlong. His limbs quiver a moment + and then are still. Meanwhile the shower of roses has slackened. + There is a dead silence, and in the silence slowly all the guests + turn and look at_ NERO, _who rises, with the emerald in his eye_. + +NERO. Lift up the prince and bear him to his room. + I do entreat that none of you will stir + Or rise perturbed: my brother, since his birth, + Was ever thus: the fit will pass from him. + Refill the cups: proceed we with the feast! + + [_There is an attempt to renew the feasting, but soon a scene of + uproar and confusion arises, and the guests leave the tables in + alarm._ + + [AGRIPPINA _alone remains unmoved, and then, as the guests have + departed in disorder, she confronts_ NERO _alone_. + +AGRIPPINA. Thou hast done this. + +NERO. Mother, I am thy son! + + + + +ACT III + + +SCENE I + +SCENE.--NERO'S _private chamber. Enter_ NERO _hastily and perturbed, +followed by_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ TIGELLINUS, _his privy-councillors_. + +BURRUS. Caesar, still glides the dead Britannicus + About the palace, and his memory + Your mother, Agrippina, uses: makes + Out of his ghost a faction for herself. + She grows a public peril; much you owe + To her, but more to Rome; from Antium + She rages disappointed to and fro. + Me for your army you hold answerable, + But can no longer if you suffer her + To lure the legions from their loyalty. + Her creatures whisper to your sentinels, + Corrupt your officers, inflame your guards. + A sullen silence on the camp is fallen, + A word, and it will roar in mutiny. + +TIGELLINUS. Everywhere steal her agents and her spies, + Gliding through temples, baths, and theatres; + Possess all angles, corners, noonday halts, + And darknesses; they flit with casual poison + Softly; the city secretly is filled + With murmurs, lifted eyebrows, and with sighs. + The mischief's in the very blood of Rome + Unless the sore that feeds it is cut out. + +NERO. Why, I myself have visited the fleet + With Anicetus: sullen droop the sails + Or flap in mutiny against the mast. + Burdened with barnacles the untarred keels + Drowse on the tide with parching decks unswabbed, + And anchors rusting on inglorious ooze. + All indolent the vast armada tilts, + A leafless resurrection of dead trees. + The sailors in a dream do go about + Or at the fo'c's'le ominously meet. + Should any foe upon the sea-line loom + They'll light with ease upon an idle prey. + And yet I felt the grandeur of stagnation + And the magnificence of idleness. + +BURRUS. She hath seduced the breast-plates and the sails. + +NERO. [_Distracted._] Here I pronounce her exile. + +TIGELLINUS. Whither then? + +ANICETUS. To Britain send her. There for Claudius + I fought; a melancholy isle, alone, + Sundered from all the world; and banned by God + With separating, cold, religious wave, + And haunted with the ghost of a dead sun + Rising as from a grave, or all in blood + Returning wounded heavily through mist. + Her rotting peoples amid forests cower, + Or mad for colour paint their bodies blue. + There in eternal drippings of the leaf + Or that dead summer of the living fly, + And by the eternal sadness of the surf, + Ambition cannot live, hope cannot breathe. + Even the fieriest spirit there will rust + Or gutter like a candle in the rain. + To Britain send her. + +TIGELLINUS. Never isle remote + On the sad water, never desert sand + In trembling flame, nor rock-built prison-house + Shall tame her: there's the danger, that she lives. + While she hath life, it is no matter where, + While she hath breath, no other dares to breathe, + Not Caesar, even! + +NERO. This breath to her I owe. + +TIGELLINUS. [_Cautiously and slowly watching_ + NERO, _as do the others_.] Caesar, there is a region of exile + Whence none hath yet returned--your pardon, sir-- + +NERO. [_Starts and turns away._] No, no, no! + I remember very clear + How gently she would wake me long ago. + +BURRUS. Then be thy mother's son still and surrender + This toy of Rome to her: she bought it you: + Now, wearied, give it back! + +NERO. Ah, patience, sir! + I cannot in one moment gird myself + To murder all these kisses, and she hath + A vastness in this narrow world so rare, + A sweep majestical about the earth-- + True, that she hath no ear for verse---- + +TIGELLINUS. For thine. + +NERO. Yet passion, fury, and ambition, these + Are primal things in our elaborate age. + Ill can we spare them. + +BURRUS. Now, 'tis you or she. + +NERO. A little time in which to fix my mind. + I go to Baiae; for I am not housed + Here as I should be: all the palace seems + To me a hovel; scarcely can I breathe. + I should be roofed with gold, and walled with gold, + Should tread on gold; and if I cast mine eyes + Over the city, they should view a scene + Of spacious avenues and breathing trees, + And buildings plunged in odorous foliage. + This is a petty city: I have thought + It might be well to raze it to the ground + And build another and an ampler Rome, + More worthy site for this imperial soul. + I'll go to Baiae, there to dream this dream. + +TIGELLINUS. Might I propose you go not all alone? + At times the answering flash from other eyes + Can aid the mightiest; and a woman's thought---- + +NERO. Yes--Yes--Poppaea! + +BURRUS. Otho will be jealous. + +TIGELLINUS. And is already dangerous; he has joined + The Agrippina faction. + +NERO. He must be + Promoted then to--Lusitania. + +TIGELLINUS. Thule were safer--still. + +NERO. Here I appoint him + Sole governor of Lusitania. + To Baiae now--Poppaea--a new Rome! + + [_Exit_ NERO. + +TIGELLINUS. He hesitates--but I will see Poppaea: + She can find means we cannot, and we thus + Can use her beauty for our policy. + + [_Exeunt_ TIGELLINUS, BURRUS, SENECA, _and_ ANICETUS. + + + +SCENE II + +SCENE.--_The tiring chamber of_ POPPAEA--_signs of luxury, implements +of a Roman lady's toilet of the period_. POPPAEA _reclining, with a +single maid_. + +POPPAEA. Myrrha, more gold upon these builded curls. + How often, child? + +MYRRHA. Mistress, forgive me. + + [_A slave has entered._ + +POPPAEA. Well? + +SLAVE. Mistress, the Emperor's minister, Tigellinus. + + [POPPAEA _signs_ MYRRHA _to go_. + + _Enter_ TIGELLINUS + +TIGELLINUS. Lady, I am loth to interrupt this toil, + But come on a secret errand. + +POPPAEA. Well, what is it? + +TIGELLINUS. Long have I watched you, and to me it seemed + You had some mighty wish within your soul + As yet unspoken? Ah, I know it well. + You would climb high, even to the very height? + +POPPAEA. [_Rising._] I would. + +TIGELLINUS. You would be--mistress of the world? + +POPPAEA. Ah! + +TIGELLINUS. And shall be: we aim at the same goal. + You from ambition, I from policy. + +POPPAEA. Speak clearer. + +TIGELLINUS. 'Tis our wish to free young Nero + From Agrippina's dangerous dominance-- + To free him of her quite. Now she too stands + In your own path. Your loveliness may work + Upon him: and we with policy the while-- + Will you make cause with us? + +POPPAEA. I understand. + You need this beauty as an added bait + To lure when policy can drive him not. + What do I gain at last? + +TIGELLINUS. The throne itself. + Octavia is a shadow: cannot stand + Between you and the world: but Agrippina, + Never will suffer you while she has breath. + +POPPAEA. I will not tempt him to a mother's murder. + +TIGELLINUS. Nor do we ask it: only that you draw + His wandering fancy from her with a sweet + Interposition of this loveliness, + Free him of her, then bind him to yourself. + +POPPAEA. I will attempt it. I will fly at it. + I go to him to Baiae this same day. + +TIGELLINUS. Remember all the earth is in thy reach. + + [_Exit_ TIGELLINUS. + + +POPPAEA _claps her hands--enter various maids_ + +POPPAEA. Lorilla, see, this henna is o'erdone. + +LORILLA. O pardon, mistress. + +POPPAEA. And you, Lalage, + My lips more brilliant. + +LALAGE. Yet---- + +POPPAEA. Remember, child, + That I walk ever veiled: what in the sun + Glares, being veiled a finer richness takes + And more provokes: how many struggling flies + This veil, the web of mine, hath struggling held + Which else were freed! + + [_Gazing at her face in mirror._ + + Ah! this left eyebrow--who? + Who painted this? + +MAID. [_Trembling._] I, madam. + +POPPAEA. You are young: + Else I would have you stripped and lashed till blood + Flew from you. + +MAID. Mercy! + +POPPAEA. Call old Lydia. + Lydia, this eyebrow--the old touch. + +LYDIA. My hands + Tremble, but I'll essay. + +POPPAEA. [_Gazing in mirror._] So--that is well. + Children, when there shall come, and come there must, + The smallest marring wrinkle on this face, + And come there must--our bodies fall like flowers, + This face shall feel the ruin of the rose-- + When time, howe'er light, shall touch this cheek, + Then quick farewell! Listen, I will not live + Less lovely, nor this cruel beauty lose, + And I perforce grow kind: I'll not survive + The deep delicious poison of a smile + Nor mortal music of the sighing bosom + That slowly overcomes the fainting brain. + It shall not dawdle downward to the grave; + I'll pass upon the instant of perfection. + No woman shall behold Poppaea fade: + And now to Baiae! + +MYRRHA. Thence the Emperor + Hath sent three messengers already. + +POPPAEA. Ah! + Blue Baiae, warm beside a sparkling sea + Where I will win young Nero--and the world! + + + _Enter_ OTHO _hastily_ + +OTHO. The Emperor hath sent three messengers + Demanding you for Baiae: yet am I + Not asked: what means this lonely summons, wife? + +POPPAEA. Can you not trust me? + +OTHO. When I gaze on you, + 'Yes'--when your voice is murmuring at my ear, + 'Yes'--but at times when I am pressed by crowds + Or yearn alone beside the breaking wave---- + +POPPAEA. Will you not trust me? Why then do I go? + Is't for myself? You know well--'tis for you; + To praise the Emperor's verses--but for you; + To applaud his feeblest gesture--but for you; + To coax from him a kingdom--but for you! + Yet are you angered. + +OTHO. 'Tis a perilous game. + Nero may ask more of your loveliness. + +POPPAEA. A woman may surrender inch by inch + Even to the edge of shame: then sudden rise + Unmelting ice. + +OTHO. Poppaea, I like it not. + +POPPAEA. All is for you. + + + _Enter an_ OFFICER _with_ ATTENDANTS + +OFFICER. Sir, from the Emperor. + Thus Caesar saith: 'Hereby do we decree + Otho, our bosom's friend, sole governor + Of Lusitania: with imperial leave + Whom to appoint, dismiss: all revenues + In his control: thither let him proceed + To-morrow ere sunset.' + +OTHO. [_Looking at_ POPPAEA, _then turning to_ OFFICER.] + I shall obey. + + [_Exit_ OFFICER _and_ OTHERS. + + Dismiss the slaves. + +POPPAEA. Otho, I swear---- + +OTHO. Dismiss them. + +POPPAEA. Myrrha, stay by me! On my knees I swear---- + +OTHO. Stand up! You knew this? + +POPPAEA. Dear, I never could---- + +OTHO. [_Taking her by the arm._] You go to Baiae into Caesar's arms. + I am--promoted--to the ends of the earth, + Anywhere, anywhere, so I be not there + To interrupt. + + [_He throws her from him--snatches his dagger._ + +POPPAEA. Kill me then if you will. + Here--here! I will not flinch, so I die true. + You'll not suspect my corpse. + +OTHO. It has been planned, + Thought out, and timed--for in his deepest plot + Our Nero has an eye for drama still. + He hath imagined that which now we act. + +POPPAEA. Kill me--I love you! Ere you strike, one kiss. + +OTHO. Ah! [_Recoiling._] + +POPPAEA. But one kiss--a kiss of olden days, + When we two were most happy: Caesar was not, + And you had laughed at him! A harp-player, + But not my man, my Otho! Think you I + Who have had these arms about me, and these lips + Burn up my own, could languish for a mime? + I am a child--I have done wrong--forgive it-- + I sighed for thy advancement--speak to me! + Now slap my hands or send me to my bed, + I am a baby in these deep affairs. + +OTHO. Go not to Baiae then: depart with me + To Lusitania; words I'll count no more, + But deeds--to Lusitania, come with me. + +POPPAEA. Is it wise to disobey--is it wise, I ask? + Set me aside, be mindful of yourself. + +OTHO. So you'll not come? + +POPPAEA. For you alone I linger. + I'll tarry but a little while behind you, + And when I come, I'll greet you full of riches. + +OTHO. I dread to leave you in your loveliness. + +POPPAEA. Then I'll not go with you. + +OTHO. You will not--Why? + +POPPAEA. Because you will not trust me. Show to me + That you can trust me, Otho; and what joy, + What satisfaction can you have to drag + Your wife behind you, from dull jealousy + Because you do not dare leave her behind + For fear--I'll not be such a wife. + +OTHO. Poppaea, + No more I'll ask you to depart with me, + I'll go alone: but this remember still-- + Gay have I been, a spendthrift and an idler, + A brilliant fly that buzzed about the bloom. + But I had that in me deep down, and still, + Of which you, you alone, possess the key, + A sullen nobleness to you disclosed + E'en then with shame: and by no other guessed. + This you well know: betray not that at least; + For even the lightest woman here is scared, + And dreads to dabble deeper in the soul. + We have no children. + +POPPAEA. [_Coming to him and putting up her face._] + Am I not child enough + Who should be woman? You shall kiss these lips + Once ere you go--so close they are to you. + +OTHO. The gods laugh out at me--but I must kiss you. + +POPPAEA. Can I not help your preparation? + +OTHO. No. + I shall not go with pomp; but as a soldier. + +POPPAEA. I think you are still angry? + +OTHO. No! Farewell, + I have brief time. + +POPPAEA. Ah! take me with you, then. + +OTHO. What! You will come? + +POPPAEA. I wish--I wish 'twere wise. + My love shall bear your litter all the way. + + [_Exit_ OTHO _hastily_. + + + _Re-enter_ MAID + +MAID. Has he gone, lady? Had I such a man + I could not let him part thus, not for Caesar. + +POPPAEA. For Caesar! No: but Caesar means the world! + For Baiae! The new gold-dust! + +MAID. Here, I have it. + +POPPAEA. Bear it yourself--entrust it to no other. + + [_Exeunt_. + + + +SCENE III + +NERO'S PRIVATE CHAMBER _in the villa at Baiae, looking directly upon +the bay. Left, doors leading into the apartments. The water laps +close up to the marble quay or terrace on which the action takes place. +Right are seen prows of galleys at their moorings. Beyond is the +curving shore of the bay, crowded with villas and temples. The scene +is of extreme southern richness and serenity. Time noon_ + +[NERO _is pacing restlessly to and fro. Enter a servant._ + +NERO. The lady Poppaea! Is she yet arrived? + +SERVANT. Sir, an hour since. + +NERO. [_Impatiently._] Then why is she not here? + + [_Exit_ SERVANT. + + An hour since: yet she lingers while I ache + With passion. She comes not, still she delays. + To fly to her? No, 'twere unworthy of me---- + And yet, and yet--Ah! I must go to her. + + + _Enter slaves bearing_ POPPAEA _on litter_ + +POPPAEA. [_Standing aloof and veiled._] + Caesar, by thee thrice summoned, I am here. + What is your will? + +NERO. To have you at my side. + +POPPAEA. Caesar, I am thy subject, and obeyed + Unwillingly. + +NERO. Unwillingly? + +POPPAEA. I come + In loyalty: what service can I render? + If none, then suffer me now to depart. + I tremble to be seen with thee alone; + No whisper yet has touched me. + +NERO. So you come, + But out of loyalty. + +POPPAEA. As fits thy subject. + +NERO. No, I am thine! + +POPPAEA. Caesar, I will not hear, + I must not if I would--that you know well. + +NERO. You come in cold obedience? + +POPPAEA. I have said so. + Yet---- + +NERO. [_Eagerly._] Well--well---- + +POPPAEA. Nero--nay, Caesar--my lord. + +NERO. Nero, I'd have you say. + +POPPAEA. That slipped from me-- + Is't treason? I know nothing of the laws. + +NERO. You come because thrice summoned? + +POPPAEA. In my mind + There lurked another reason for my coming. + +NERO. What then? + +POPPAEA. A thought that like a captive bird + I have kept warm about my heart so long + I am loth to let it fly forth to the cold. + +NERO. [_Approaching her._] Tell me this thought. + +POPPAEA. Then, Caesar, I have long + Brooded upon the music of thy verse. + It doth beset me--and, O pardon me, + If, little fool that I am, I longed to speak + But once alone with him who made it. Now, + What have I said? I will return forthwith. + +NERO. O not thy beauty moves me but thy mind! + +POPPAEA. I think I have some little ear for verse. + There is one line---- + +NERO. Yes--yes---- + +POPPAEA. Of burning Troy-- + 'O city amorous red, thou flagrant rose'---- + +NERO. A regal verse! But the arm extended thus + Toward doomed Ilium. Say on. + +POPPAEA. My eyes + Are filled with tears. + +NERO. Remove thy veil and weep. + +POPPAEA. [_Starting back._] For no man--save my husband--O my lord! + He is despatched to Lusitania. + +NERO. Know you not why? + +POPPAEA. I know not--cannot guess. + +NERO. That he might stand no more between us two. + +POPPAEA. O sir, he is my husband, and my way + Is with him wheresoe'er he go. My duty---- + +NERO. But your inclining? + +POPPAEA. That I will not say. + But Lusitania is henceforth my home. + Nero, I will speak truth: I'll not deny + There is some strange communion of the soul + 'Twixt you and me: but I'll not yield to this, + No, nor shall you compel me, Caesar: I + Will follow Otho even to banishment. + There are more sacred things in my regard + Than mutual pleasure from melodious verse. + +NERO. Nothing, when soul meets soul without alloy. + +POPPAEA. I fear you do forget I am a woman. + Dear to us before all are household cares. + +NERO. O to the average, not to thee. + +POPPAEA. Farewell! + +NERO. You shall not go thus. + +POPPAEA. Caesar, chain me here, + But in neglected duty I shall pine. + +NERO. [_Angrily striding to and fro._] Ah! + +POPPAEA. And imagine that he did not live-- + That I were free to indulge this panting soul-- + Still there are bars between us none can break. + +NERO. You mean my wife Octavia? + +POPPAEA. Well--and yet + Not she, perhaps. + +NERO. Who then? What other bars? + +POPPAEA. Your mother Agrippina. + +NERO. Still my mother! + +POPPAEA. She would not bear it: would command her son + To leave me: a younger woman has no hope + Against her. + +NERO. I am not her lackey. + +POPPAEA. No? + Ah, but her child, and born but to obey. + And yet though wiser, mightier, than myself, + You shall not find in her a listener + So still, so answerable to your mood. + And, I will say it, you'll not find in her + One who has dived so deep into your soul, + Who sees--I cannot flatter--sees that greatness + Which she too long keeps under: were I you + I would be Caesar, spite of twenty mothers, + And seem the mighty poet that I am. + I'll go. + +NERO. You madden me---- + +POPPAEA. Farewell again. + +NERO. Poppaea, go not, go not. All the east + Burns in me, and the desert fires my blood. + I parch, I pine for you. My body is sand + That thirsts. I die, I perish of this thirst, + To slake it at your lips! You madden me. + + [_He seizes her cloak and she stands revealed._ + + Goddess! What shall I give thee great enough? + I'll give thee Rome--I'll give thee this great world, + And all the builded empire as a toy. + The Mediterranean shall thy mirror be, + Thy jewels all sparkling stars of heaven. + The orb of the earth--throw it on thy lap + But for a kiss--one kiss! + +POPPAEA. But Agrippina? + +NERO. Agrippina? + +POPPAEA. No--I'll not think of it! + I'll have no violence for my sake committed. + If by some chance unlooked for she should die, + If in some far, far time she should succumb + To creeping age--then---- + +NERO. Then? + + + _Enter_ MESSENGER _hurriedly_ + +MESSENGER. Sir, urgent business-- + The State demands you. + +NERO. [_Furiously._] Pah!--the State! + +POPPAEA. O Nero! + Remember first the State--me afterward! + +NERO. Empress! + + [_He leads her out._ + + [_He returns and stands as in a dream while the_ COUNCILLORS _enter_. + +BURRUS. How long? How long, sir? + Agrippina + Is drawing to her net the dregs of Rome, + Makes mutinous the rabble and the scum. + + [NERO _makes weary gesture_. + +SENECA. And, sir, she has not scrupled to enroll + The ragged, shrieking Christians, who wash not, + The refuse of the empire, all that flows + To this main sewer of Rome she counts upon. + +TIGELLINUS. [_Stealing forward._] And, sir, if + these things move you not--a letter. + +NERO. [_Reading._] 'I, Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus, of Claudius +widow, of Nero mother, hereby do declare that though I have sat tame +under private injuries, I will not forgo my public privileges, nor +consent to be banished from high festival or ceremony. I purpose then +to be present at Baiae at Minerva's feast, together with the Emperor, +and will hold no second place. This is my ancient right and to that +right I cleave. THE AUGUSTA.' + +SENECA. This is her ultimate audacity. + +TIGELLINUS. And this our utmost opportunity. + +NERO. Sirs, seeing that the State demands this life, + Seeing that I must choose 'twixt her and Rome, + I do consent to Agrippina's death. + The State like Nature must be pitiless, + And I must ruthless be as Nature's Lord. + But I'll be no Orestes, I'll not lift + This hand against her: see you then to that! + It is enough to have conceived this deed. + The how, the when, the where, I leave to you. + +TIGELLINUS. She is delivered now into our hands, + And runs into the toils we had not set. + In Baiae no Praetorians are camped, + No populace inflamed in her cause; + A solitary woman doth she come. + Caesar, receive her graciously and well. + Smile all distrust away and speak her soft, + While we devise for her a noiseless doom. + +ANICETUS. Caesar, a sudden thought hath come to me. + A pleasure pinnace lies in Baiae Bay + Built for thyself: on this let her return + In the deep night after Minerva's feast, + Or supper given in sign of amity. + I will contrive a roof weighted with lead + Over the couch whereon she will recline. + Once in deep water at a signal given + The roof shall fall: and with a leak prepared + The ship shall sink and plunge her in the waves. + In that uncertain water what may chance? + What may not? To the elements this deed + Will be imputed, to a casual gust + Or striking squall upon the moody deep. + +NERO. Wonderful! This gives beauty to an act + Which else were ugly and of me unworthy. + So mighty is she that her proper doom + Could come but by some elemental aid. + Her splendid trouble asketh but the sea + For sepulchre: her spirit limitless + A multitudinous and roaring grave. + Here's nothing sordid, nothing vulgar. I + Consign her to the uproar whence she came. + Be the crime vast enough it seems not crime. + I, as befits me, call on great allies. + I make a compact with the elements. + And here my agents are the very winds, + The waves my servants, and the night my friend. + +BURRUS. Suppose the night be clear, with a bright moon, + A calm sea. + +NERO. On the moon I can rely. + Last night I wrote to her a glimmering verse; + She is white with a wan passion for my lips. + The moon will succour me. Depart from me-- + Trouble me not with human faces now. + + [_Exeunt_ COUNCILLORS. + + [_Meanwhile_ POPPAEA _appears behind in a gorgeous dress with + white arms extended against the curtains_. + + + +SCENE IV + +SCENE.--_The same--glittering starlight_ + +_Enter various servants bearing wine-jars and dishes from the inner +suffer-room, in procession. Then_ BURRUS, SENECA, ANICETUS, _and_ +TIGELLINUS + +BURRUS. 'Tis not man's work to witness this. I have fought + Neck-deep in blood and spared not when the fit + Was on me, but I cannot gaze on this. + Have you a heart, old man? + +TIGELLINUS. No, not in hours + Like these: the brain is all. I fear, I fear him + The last farewell--he will not bear it out! + +SENECA. How to excuse my soul, yet I am here. + Was this mere acting, or a true emotion? + +ANICETUS. A little of both, but most, I fear it, true. + +TIGELLINUS. Is all prepared and timed? No hazard left? + +ANICETUS. Yonder the barge with lights and fluttering flags. + The canopy whereunder Agrippina + Will sit is heavily weighted: at a sign + A bolt withdrawn will launch it on her head. + + + _Enter_ NERO + +NERO. I cannot do it: if she goes, she goes. + I cannot say farewell, and kiss her lips, + Ere I commit her body to the deep. + +TIGELLINUS. All hangs upon the fervour of farewell, + The kiss, the soft word, and the hand detained, + All hangs on it; go back. + +NERO. 'Tis difficult. + + [NERO _turns. Enter_ AGRIPPINA. + + Come out into the cool a moment, mother. + +AGRIPPINA. This seemeth like to old days come again, + Evenings of Antium with a rising moon. + + [_Stroking his hair_. + + My boy, my boy, again! Look in my eyes. + So as a babe would you look up at me + After a night of tossing, half-awake, + Blinking against the dawn, and pull my head + Down to you, till I lost you in my hair. + Do you remember many a night so thick + With stars as this--you would not go to bed, + But still would paddle in the warm ocean + Spraying it with small hands into the skies. + +NERO. Yes, I remember. + +AGRIPPINA. Or when you would sail + In a slight skiff under a moon like this, + Though chidden oft and oft. + +NERO. Ah! I recall it. + +AGRIPPINA. A wilful child--the sea--ever the sea-- + Your mother could not hold you from the sea. + Will you be sore if I confess a thought? + +NERO. Ah! no, mother! + +AGRIPPINA. So foolish it seems now. + Awhile I doubted whether I should come. + +NERO. Why, then? + +AGRIPPINA. Now, do not laugh at me--I say + You will not laugh at me? + +NERO. No! + +AGRIPPINA. Why--I thought + That you perhaps would kill me if I came! + Truly I did! + +NERO. I kill you! + +AGRIPPINA. 'O,' I said, + 'I have wearied him: he is weary of his mother.' + +NERO. Oh! + +AGRIPPINA. In my ears there buzzed that prophecy-- + 'Nero shall reign but he shall kill his mother.' + + [NERO _starts_. + +AGRIPPINA. Now--now--I had not told you had I not + Been above measure happy. Now no more + Wild words, no more mad words between us two, + Who all the while are aching to be friends. + O how your hands come waxen once again + Within my own: again behind your voice + The hesitating tardy bird-like word + And the sweet slur of 'r's.' O but to-night + Even grandeur palls, the splendid goal: to-night + I am a woman and am with my child. + + [_A pause and she strains him to her_. + + Beautiful night that gently bringest back + Mother to son, and callest all thy stars + To watch it. Quiet sea that bringest peace + Between us two. Hast thou not thought how still + The air is as with silent pleasure? Child, + Is not the night then more than common calm? + +NERO. A sparkling starlight and a windless deep. + +AGRIPPINA. Never until to-night did I so feel + The lure of the sea that lures me to lie down + At last after such heat. Ah, but the stars + Are falling and I feel the unseen dawn. + Son, I must go at once. Where is my maid + To wrap me? Sweet and warm now is the night + And I am glad I had prepared to go + By water, not by land. + + + _Enter_ SERVANT, _hurriedly_ + +SERVANT. O Caesar! + +NERO. Well? + +SERVANT. Thy mother's galley by a random barge + Was struck, and now is sinking fast. + +AGRIPPINA. Alas! + Now must I go by land. + +NERO. Yes, go by land. + + [TIGELLINUS _signals to_ ANICETUS. + +ANICETUS. Yonder there lies a barge with fluttering flags, + A gilded pinnace, a light pleasure-boat + Built for you with much art and well designed. + Will you return in her? Easily she + Can swing round to the landing-stage. + +AGRIPPINA. Yes--yes-- + I'll go in her--Why not? + +NERO. It was foretold---- + + + _Enter_ ACCERONIA, _who elaborately wraps_ AGRIPPINA + +AGRIPPINA. Nero, my maid a moment to enwrap me. + As the wrapping is finished. + I have slept ill of late: but I shall have + A soft and steady breeze across the bay. + I shall sleep sound. Now, Nero, now good-bye. + For ever we are friends? + +NERO. Good-bye: yet stay! + + [_During this dialogue he is continually detaining her._ + + Have I been kind, this last hour? Say. + +AGRIPPINA. Most kind. + +NERO. You have no need to go this moment--one + More moment of thee, mother. + +AGRIPPINA. You shall see me + To-morrow. Will you cross the bay to me, + Or shall I come to you? + +NERO. I'll come to you + To-morrow! Ah! to-morrow! But to-night. + Now let me have you once more in my arms. + [_Detaining her._ + Is old Cynisca with you still? + +AGRIPPINA. [_Going._] She is. + +NERO. Stay, stay, give her this ring: she nursed me. + +AGRIPPINA. Yes. + I see you have my amulet. + +NERO. O yes. + +AGRIPPINA. So bright the night you'll see me all the way + Across the shining water. + +NERO. [_Clinging to her._] O farewell! + +AGRIPPINA. [_Descends to water._] + Good-night, child! I shall see you then to-morrow. + Already it hath dawned. + +NERO. Mother, good-night. + + [_Exit_ AGRIPPINA. + +TIGELLINUS. [_To crew in barge._] + Strike up the music there, a joyous strain! + And sing, you boatmen; the Augusta comes. + + [_Sounds of joyful music are heard, and singing, as the pinnace + puts off with measured beat of oars_. + +NERO. It hath put off: she hath gone: she sitteth happy. + See, the dead woman waves her hand to me. + Now the bark turns the headland. + +ANICETUS. But will soon + Steal into sight, well out upon the bay. + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar, let none deny thou art an actor. + +NERO. [_Passionately._] Was I all actor then? + That which I feigned + I felt, and when it was my cue to kiss her, + The whole of childhood rushed into the kiss. + When it was in my part to cling about her, + I clung about her mad with memories. + The water in my eyes rose from my soul, + And flooding from the heart ran down my cheek. + Did my voice tremble? Then it trembled true + With human agony behind the art. + Gods! What a scene! + +TIGELLINUS. Listen! + +ANICETUS. She is well out, + Glassed in the bay with all her lights and flags. + Soon will a crash and cry come in our ears. + +NERO. [_Going out._] How calm the night when I would have it wild! + Aloof and bright which should have rushed to me + Hither with aid of thunder, screen of lightning! + I looked for reinforcement from the sky. + Arise, you veiling clouds; awake, you winds, + And stifle with your roaring human cries. + Not a breath upon my cheek! I gasp for air. + [_To_ OTHERS.] Do you suppose the very elements + Are conscious of the workings of this mind? + So careful not to seem to share my guilt? + Yet dark is the record of wind and wave; + This ocean that creeps fawning to our feet + Comes purring o'er a million wrecks and bones. + If the cold moon hath sinned not, she hath been privy. + She aids me not, but watches quietly. + A placid sea, still air, and bright starlight. + +ANICETUS. But Caesar, see, a gradual cloud hath spread + Over the moon; the ship's light disappears. + She is vanished. + +NERO. She is veiled from sight. + +TIGELLINUS. My eyes + Can find her not; she is enwrapped in mist. + +SENECA. A dimness and no more. + +BURRUS. And silence. + +NERO. Hush! + How wonderful this waiting and this pause. + Could one convey this in the theatre? + This deep suspense, this breathlessness? Perhaps. + The air weighs on the brain----what sound was that? + +TIGELLINUS. Nothing, sir. + +NERO. In this thrill a leaf would thunder. + + [_A pause._ + + I never noted so exactly how + The shadow of that cypress falls aslant + Upon the dark bank yonder. + +BURRUS. Would it were over! + +NERO. Feel you no shuddering pleasure in this pause? + But me this fraught expectancy allures; + The tingling stillness, for each moment now + The crash, a cry, may come, but it comes not. + +TIGELLINUS. Anicetus, have you bungled? + + [_A cry is heard far off, and a crash, then silence._ + +NERO. It is done. + I cannot look: peer seaward, one of you-- + What do you see? + +SENECA. Darkness, and veiled stars. + +NERO. Is there no shimmer of a floating robe? + Pierce through the darkness! + +BURRUS. Nothing visible. + +NERO. I seem to see her lying amid shells, + And strange sea-things come round her wondering, + Inspecting her with cold and rheumy eyes. + The water sways her helpless up and down. + +BURRUS. Caesar, you have no further need of me? + +NERO. [_Dreamily._] No, sir. + +BURRUS. Good-night, and pleasant be thy dreams. + +SENECA. Or me? + +NERO. No, no! + +SENECA. At least bear witness, sir, + I had no hand in this: but was compelled, + A loth spectator, to behold thy deed! + +ANICETUS. Caesar, you'll not forget the service done? + +NERO. Never shall I forget thee, Anicetus. + Leave me alone. + + [_Exeunt all but_ TIGELLINUS, _who creeps back again._ + +TIGELLINUS. Sole master of the world! + Caesar at last: the Emperor of the earth, + Now thou art free--to write immortal verse, + To give thy genius wing, to strike the stars. + And thou hast made this tragic sacrifice, + Slaying what is most dear, most close to thee, + To give thy being vent and utterance. + Apollo shall reward thee for this deed. + +NERO. Go to thy room, old man, and--wilt thou sleep? + +TIGELLINUS. Already I am drowsing; early then + To-morrow I will come to you. + +NERO. Good-night. + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar, good-night. + + [_Exit_ TIGELLINUS. + + [_Thunder heard._ + +NERO. Ah! thunder! thou art come + At last, too late! What catches at my heart? + I--I--her boy, her baby that was, even I + Have killed her: where I sucked there have I struck. + Mother! Mother! [_He drinks._ + The anguish of it hath taken hold of me, + And I am gripped by Nature. O, it comes + Upon me, this too natural remorse. + I faint! I flinch from the raw agony! + I cannot face this common human throe! + Ah! Ah! the crude stab of reality! + I am a son, and I have killed my mother! + Why! I am now no more than him who tills + Or reaps: and I am seized by primal pangs. + Mother! [_He drinks._ + The thunder crieth motherless. + Ah! how this sword of lightning thrusts at me! + O, all the artist in my soul is shattered, + And I am hurled into humanity, + Back to the sweat and heart-break of mankind. + I am broken upon the jagged spurs of the earth. + I can no more endure it. Mother! + + [_He drinks again, walking distractedly to and fro, not looking + seaward. But as he at last turns, slowly out from the sea appears + the figure of_ AGRIPPINA _with dripping hair, who comes slowly + towards him in silence._ + + [_He cries aloud and falls in a swoon. She comes and looks at him._ + +AGRIPPINA. Child! + + [_She stoops, removes the amulet from his arm, flings it into the + sea, and passes out in silence._ + + + +SCENE V + +SCENE.--_The same. Dawn breaking;_ NERO _discovered lying in a swoon_ + +NERO. [_Slowly._] Dawn! In the night o'er-past a lightning flash! + Ah! I remember--here my mother's ghost + Stood--on this very ground--I feel the air + Still cold from her--and here the lightning burned. + So I awake my mother's murderer. + That was her ghost that stole on me sea-marred, + Silent--the ocean falling from her hair. + + + _Enter_ TIGELLINUS + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar at last! Sole master of the world! + +NERO. O Tigellinus, in the mid of night, + The spirit of my whelmed mother stole + Hither upon me, dumb out of the deep. + Heaven gave a flash: I saw her face and fell. + +TIGELLINUS. Her spirit! Better that than she herself. + Dismiss dark fancies now--this day thou art free. + +NERO. No, but enthralled by her for ever-more. + She is my air, my ocean, and my sky. + +TIGELLINUS. The night has wrought this sickly mood on you-- + Natural--it will pass. + +NERO. Never, O never! + You flatter, you console, you would assuage, + But you are human, can forget and change. + But yonder rocky coast remembers yet. + That countenance changes not: that conscious bay + Maintains its everlasting memory. + This privy region saw, and it shall see + For ever what was done. The amulet! + Filched from me! Was it then a ghost I saw? + + + _Enter_ SEAMAN _hurriedly, followed by_ BURRUS + +SEAMAN. Caesar, my news must plead for this intrusion. + I was aboard the ship whereon the Augusta + Set sail: when the roof fell, thy mother's maid + Cried 'Save me! I am the Emperor's mother!' + Straight + Crushed under many a blow, she dropped and died. + But silently thy mother Agrippina + Slid from the ship into the water and swam + Shoreward. With white and jewelled arms she thrust + Out through the waves and lay upon the foam. + We heard her through the ripple breathing deep, + And when we heard no more, we watched her still-- + Her hair behind her blowing into gold + As she did glimmer o'er the gloomy deep; + And all the stars swam with her through the heavens, + The hurrying moon lighted her with a torch, + The sea was loth to lose her, and the shore + Yearned for her; till we lost her in the dark, + Save now and then some splendid leap of the head. + +NERO. You know not if she be alive or dead? + +SEAMAN. Caesar, rejoice--thy mother lives. + +NERO. She lives? + +SEAMAN. When I at last touched shore, I spoke with two + Night-wandering fishermen. These two, it seems, + Had borne her in their boat across the bay + To her own villa. + +NERO. [_Falling hysterically on neck of_ SEA-MAN.] + I am no murderer then! + +TIGELLINUS. Have you considered, sir, what now may urge + Thy mother, Agrippina, knowing all, + Seeing that by no chance or accident + Or sudden flurry of the ocean floor + The ship collapsed. Safe is she, but how long? + Will she not burst upon us suddenly? + Sir, she must die to-night. + +NERO. I'll not attempt + A second time that life the sea restored; + She is too vast a spirit to surprise. + Even Nature stood aloof---- + My mother shall be gloriously caged, + Imprisoned in purple and immured in gold. + In some magnificent captivity + Worthy the captive let her day decline. + + [_Shouts without: enter_ BURRUS. + +BURRUS. Caesar, great news I bring: the Armenian + Lies helpless on Tigranocerta's plain + O'erwhelmed by Corbulo, and the huge host + Dissolved. Armenia lies beneath your feet: + Rome yearns to welcome you. + +NERO. To Rome I go + Free-souled and guiltless of a mother's blood, + Resume the accustomed feast, the race, the song, + And I shall be received with public joy + And clamour of congratulating Rome. + + [_Great cheering without: exit_ NERO. + + [_A pause._ + +TIGELLINUS. Burrus, she'll strike at us whate'er the cost: + She'll slay the ministers if not the master. + +BURRUS. We are both dead unless some sudden scheme-- + + _Enter_ ANICETUS _at back_ + + [_Turning._] Here is another doomed as we ourselves. + +TIGELLINUS. Ah, Anicetus! Agrippina lives, + And she will launch her vengeance on us three, + But first on you; you first set Nero on-- + You first proposed the scheme. You on the sea + Bungled--Now on the land retrieve the error. + To you we look. + + + _Enter_ POPPAEA _from behind and stands listening_ + +ANICETUS. My error is repaired + Already. I first heard the Augusta lived, + And instantly despatched a faithful troop + To slay her at her villa o'er the bay. + +TIGELLINUS. How shall we know if they have found and slain her? + +ANICETUS. All this I have arranged and clearly planned. + If they shall find that she hath fled to Rome, + Hark for one trumpet-call across the bay: + If they have found her at the villa, then + Hark for two trumpet-calls across the bay: + If they have found her and have slain her, then + Hark for three trumpet-calls across the bay! + + [_A burst of music without, and sounds of advancing procession._ + + [_Enter soldiers and satellites, with attendants bearing a litter. + Lastly_ NERO. + +TIGELLINUS. Now as a conqueror in triumphant vein + Ride through the thundering ways of risen Rome, + Anticipating the Armenian car. + +NERO. [_Ascending litter._] + Set out for Rome! And you, accusing coasts, + Accuse no more. Guiltless I say farewell, + And with a light heart journey toward Rome + Joyous I go, for Agrippina lives. + + +[_A great triumphal shout swells up again, and to the sound of military +music_, NERO _and the procession pass off. Meanwhile_ TIGELLINUS _is +left in a listening attitude_. POPPAEA _stands breathless at back. +There is a pause. Then a trumpet-call is heard far off; a second; and +a third_. POPPAEA _rushes to_ TIGELLINUS _and clasps his hand_. + + + + +ACT IV + + +SCENE I + +SCENE.--_A tower overlooking Rome_ + + + _Enter_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ PHYSICIAN + +SENECA. How dark the future of the Empire glooms! + +BURRUS. Now the Gaul mutters: the Praetorians + Sullenly snarl. + +SENECA. The Christians privily + Conspire. + +BURRUS. The legions waver and whisper too. + +SENECA. [_To_ PHYSICIAN.] What of the Emperor? + +PHYSICIAN. Through Campania + He rushes: and distracted to and fro + Would fly now here, now there; behind each woe + He sees the angered shade of Agrippina. + Now hearing that Poppaea sinks toward death. + Hither is he fast hurrying. + +SENECA. Ah, Poppaea, + No sooner Empress made than she must die---- + +BURRUS. See: she is carried hither. + +SENECA. Here to look + Her last upon the glory of the earth. + + [_Exeunt_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ PHYSICIAN. + + [POPPAEA _enters, supported by handmaids. She takes a long look + at Rome, then is assisted down to couch._ + +POPPAEA. Give me the glass again: beautiful yet! + This face can still endure the sunset glow, + No need is there for me to sue the shadow, + Perfect out of the glory I am going. + +MYRRHA. Lady, the mood will pass: still you are young. + +POPPAEA. Why comes not Nero near me? + O he loathes + Sickness or sadness or the touch of trouble, + +MYRRHA. Nay, lady; hither he is riding fast, + In fury spurring from Campania, + And trouble upon trouble falls on him-- + Misfortune follows him like a faithful hound. + +POPPAEA. I snared him, Myrrha, once; let him flutter away! + But to relinquish the wide earth at last, + And flit a faint thing by a shadowy river, + Or yearning without blood upon the bank---- + The loneliness of death! To go to strangers-- + Into a world of whispers---- + + [_Looking at and lifting her hair._ + + And this hair + Rolling about me like a lighted sea + Which was my glory and the theme of the earth, + Look! Must this go? The grave shall have these eyes + Which were the bliss of burning Emperors. + After what time, what labour the high gods + Builded the body of this beauty up! + Now at a whim they shatter it! More light! + I'll catch the last of the sun. + + + _Enter_ SLAVE + +SLAVE. Mistress, below + The lady Acte stands and asks to see you. + +POPPAEA. Come to inspect me fading: I fear not. + Even a woman's eyes I need not shun. + Bring her. [_Exit_ SLAVE. + Now, Myrrha, watch her hungering eyes. + + + _Enter_ ACTE, _ushered by_ SLAVE + +POPPAEA. [_Vehemently._] Take Nero! I am dying. + +ACTE. Ah, not yet! + +POPPAEA. I am dying. But you shall not hold him long---- + O, do not think it. Can you queen his heart? + Can you be storm a moment, sun the next? + A month, a long day under open skies, + Would find your art exhausted, ended. I! + I was a hundred women in an hour, + And sweeter at each moment than them all. + Why, I have struck him in the face and laughed. + +ACTE. I love him: that concerns not him, nor you. + A different goal I would have sought for him, + A garment not of purple, but of peace. + +POPPAEA. Of peace! Ha, ha! + +ACTE. Vain now--I know it, vain. + But if your words are true, and death is on you, + Let us two at the least be friends at last. + +POPPAEA. I bear no rancour--and yet if I dreamed + That I was leaving you upon his bosom-- + But no: let there be peace between us two. + + [ACTE _comes and kisses her._ + + Your kiss falls kind upon my loneliness. + But, Acte, to let go of glory thus-- + For I have drunk of empire, and what cup + Afterward can you offer to these lips? + +ACTE. Of late there has been stealing on my mind + A strange hope--a new vision. + +POPPAEA. What is this? + +ACTE. Do not laugh out at me: a sect despised-- + The Christians, tell us of an after life, + A glory on the other side the grave. + If there should be a kingdom not of this world, + A spirit throne, a city of the soul! + +POPPAEA. I want no spirit kingdom after death. + The splendid sun, the purple, and the crown, + These I have known, and I am losing them. + +ACTE. Yet if the sun, the purple, and the crown + Were but the shadows of another sun, + Splendider--a more dazzling diadem? + +POPPAEA. These can I see at least, and feel, and hear. + +ACTE. Yes, with a mortal touch that falters now. + +POPPAEA. [_Sobbing._] O Acte, to be dumb, and deaf, and blind! + +ACTE. Or live again with more transcendent sense, + Hearing unchecked, and unimpeded sight. + If we who walk now, then should wing the air, + Who stammer now, then should discard the voice, + Who grope now, then should see with other sight, + And send new eyes about the universe. + +POPPAEA. O, this is madness! + +ACTE. Is it? Is it? Well-- + Yet have I heard this ragged people speak, + And they have stirred me strangely: life they scorn, + And yearn for death's tremendous liberty, + But I--I cannot speak; yet I believe + There is a new air blowing on the world, + And a new budding underneath the earth. + +POPPAEA. Ah, ah! the sun! The sun! It goeth down, + How cold it grows: the night comes down on me. + I'll have no lamp: but hold my hand in thine. + +ACTE. Sister, forget the world, it passeth. + +POPPAEA. [_Falling back._] Rome! + + + +SCENE II + +SCENE.--_The same_. SENECA, BURRUS, ACTE, _and_ PHYSICIAN + +PHYSICIAN. The Emperor comes from gazing on Poppaea. + What woe may that dead face not work on him, + After such rain of dark calamities! + +SENECA. Why hath he summoned me? + +PHYSICIAN. He knows not why. + The infatuate orgies in Campania, + Defeat, revolt, have wrought upon his mind, + Till it begins to reel--behind each woe + He sees the angered shade of Agrippina. + + [_Enter_ NERO _with tablets, murmuring to himself. He comes + to the_ COUNCILLORS, _gazes at them, and retires to parapet._ + + 'Beautiful on her bed Poppaea lay'-- + I have begun to write her epitaph. + + [_He again gazes over parapet, murmuring to himself. Then turning_ + + Ah, blow supreme! Ah, ultimate injury! + I can no longer write: my brain is barren. + My gift, my gift, thou hast left me. Let me die! + Ah! what an artist perishes in me. + + [_He again returns to parapet, gazing and murmuring, and throws + his tablets from him._ + + Dead Agrippina rages unappeased. + At night I hear the trailing of a robe, + And the slain woman pauses at my door. + O! she is mightier having drunk of death; + Now hath she haled Poppaea from my arms; + Last doth she quench the holy fire within me---- + + + _Enter_ MESSENGER + +MESSENGER. Caesar, I bring dark news: + Boadicea the British Queen is risen, + And like a fire is hissing through the isle, + Londinium and Camulodunum + In ashes lie; the loosed barbarians + In madness rage and ravish, murder and burn. + +BURRUS. Caesar, despatch. + + [_Brings_ NERO _paper._ + +NERO. Ah, this is still the deed + Of Agrippina. Listen! Did ye not hear + The rustle of a robe? [_Starting up._ + Ah! thou art come! + I--I no order gave! Then did the brine + Drop from thy hair: but now blood falls from thee; + There, where they struck thee, once did I sleep sound. + What shall I do to appease thee? Let me die + Rather than see that wonder on thy face, + And stare on me of terrible surprise. + Thou com'st upon me! + +ACTE. Ah! what ails your mind? + +NERO. She is gone! The red drops those that fell from her! + +ACTE. Lo! I am with thee! + +NERO. Thou! And who art thou? + + + _Enter in great haste an_ OFFICER, _followed by_ OTHERS + +OFFICER. Caesar, Rome burns! We cannot fight the fire + Which blazes and consumes. How it arose + None knows and none can tell. What shall we do? + +ANOTHER. It sprung in the Suburra: whether lit + By accident, dropped torch, or smouldering brand---- + +ANOTHER. Or by design---- + +ANOTHER. Caesar, the Christians, + Who hate the human race, have done this thing: + They loathe thy rule and would abolish thee, + And with thee, Rome. + +ANOTHER. They have a prophecy + That now the world is ending, and in fire + The globe shall shrivel, and this empire fall + In cinders. + +ANOTHER. And the moon be turned to blood. + +NERO. The moon be turned to blood! But that is fine! + These Christians have imaginations then! + The moon in blood, and burning universe! + Why, I myself might have conceived that scene! + + + _Enter_ OTHERS _from the opposite side_ + +OFFICER. Caesar, what shall be done? + Still spreads the fire! + A quarter of Rome in ashes lies already, + And like a blackened corpse: and screaming mothers, + Hugging their babes, dash through the fearful flames, + And old men totter gasping through the blaze + Or fall scorched to the ground. Stifled with smoke + The population from their houses reel. + Meantime the Christians, prophesying woe + And final doom upon a wicked world, + Hither and thither run, and with their dark + Forebodings madden all the minds of men. + To thee they point! To thee, the source of fire, + Who has drawn down on them celestial flame. + +NERO. Magnificent! The aim of heavenly fire! + +ANOTHER. They say the world shall crumble, and the skies + Fall, and their God come in the clouds of heaven + To judge the earth! + +ANOTHER. But we are wasting breath + Over the Christians: what now shall be done? + To thee, Caesar, to thee, we come: for thou + Alone mayst with this conflagration cope. + +NERO. Listen! Did ye not hear a wailing then? + The wailing of a woman in her grave? + Again! A wailing, and I know the voice! + + + _Enter_ OTHERS _hastily_ + +MESSENGER. Caesar, the fire has reached the Palatine! + Rome will be ashes soon. + +ANOTHER. We have fought fire + With water: matched the elements in vain, + For the fire triumphs: Caesar, what aid from thee? + + + _Enter_ ANOTHER + +MESSENGER. Caesar, the temple of Jupiter is aflame. + The shrine of Vesta next will crash to the earth. + +ANOTHER. Open the sluices of the Campus Martius. + +ANOTHER. Issue some sudden edict: give command. + +NERO. No edict will I issue, or command. + Let the fire rage. + +CHORUS. O Caesar! + +NERO. Let it rage! + +ANOTHER. Caesar, 'tis said this fire was lit by thee. + That thou wouldst burn old Rome to build a new, + A Rome more glorious issuing from the flames: + This tale hath maddened all the common folk + Who, from their smouldering homes, curse thee aloud. + +NERO. This fire is not the act of mortal mind, + But is the huge conception of a spirit + Dreaming beyond the tomb a mighty thought. + She would express herself in burning fire: + This is the awful vengeance of the dead; + This is my mother Agrippina's deed. + I will not baulk the fury of her spirit. + No! Let her glut her anger on the city, + For only Rome in ashes can appease her, + Let the fire rage and purge me of her blood! + [_The flame flashes upward._ + Rage! + Rage on! + See, see! + How beautiful! + Like a rose magnificently burning! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Rage on! + Thou art that which poets use, + Or which consumes them. + Thou art in me! + Thou dreadful womb of mighty spirits, + And crimson sepulchre of them! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Blaze! Blaze! + How it eats and eats! + How it drinks! + What hunger is like unto the hunger of fire? + What thirst is like unto the thirst of flame? + [_The flame flashes up._ + O fury superb! + O incurable lust of ruin! + O panting perdition! + O splendid devastation! + I, I, too, have felt it! + To destroy--to destroy! + To leave behind me ashes, ashes. + [_The flame flashes up._ + Rage! Rage on! + Or art thou passion, art thou desire? + Ah! terrible kiss! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Now hear it, hear it! + A hiss as from mighty serpents, + The dry, licking, wicked tongues! + Wouldst thou sting the earth to death? + What a career! + To clasp and devour and kill! + To dance over the world as a frenzied dancer + With whirling skirts of world-wide flame! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Blaze! Blaze! + Or art thou madness visible, + Insanity seizing the rolling heavens. + [_He points up._ + Thou, Thou, didst create the world + In the stars innumerably smiling. + Thou art life, thou art God, thou art I! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Mother! Mother! + This is thy deed. + Hist! Hist! can you not see her + Stealing with lighted torch? + She makes no sound, she hath a spirit's tread. + Hast thou sated thy vengeance yet? + Art thou appeased? + [_The flame flashes up._ + Be satisfied with nothing but the world, + The world alone is fuel for thee. + Mother! + [_The flame flashes up._ + And I! See what a fire I have given thee, + Rome for a funeral couch! + Had Achilles a pyre like to this + Or had Patroclus? + Had they mourners such as I give to thee, + Bereaved mothers and babes? + Now let the wailing cease from thy tomb, + Here is a mightier wail! + Now let the haunting trumpet be dumb! + +ACTE. Nero! + +NERO. Blaze! Rage! Blaze! + [_The flame flashes up more fervently._ + For now am I free of thy blood, + I have appeased and atoned, + Have atoned with cries, with crashings, and with flaming. + Thy blood is no more on my head; + I am purged, I am cleansed; + I have given thee flaming Rome for the bed of thy death! + O Agrippina! + + [_He falls in a swoon_--ACTE _runs towards him._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO*** + + +******* This file should be named 24785-8.txt or 24785-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/8/24785 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/24785-8.zip b/24785-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..884dd78 --- /dev/null +++ b/24785-8.zip diff --git a/24785.txt b/24785.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87449fc --- /dev/null +++ b/24785.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3745 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nero, by Stephen Phillips + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Nero + + +Author: Stephen Phillips + + + +Release Date: March 8, 2008 [eBook #24785] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +NERO + +by + +STEPHEN PHILLIPS + +Author of "The Sin of David" + + + + + + + +London +MacMillan and Co., Limited +New York: The MacMillan Company +1906 + +All rights reserved + +Copyright, 1906, by the MacMillan Company + + + + +CHARACTERS + + +NERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Emperor of Rome._ + +BRITANNICUS . . . . . . . . . . _Nero's Half-Brother._ + +OTHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Young Noble._ + +SENECA . . . . . . . . . . . . ) + ) +BURRUS . . . . . . . . . . . . ) + ) _Ministers of State._ +TIGELLINUS . . . . . . . . . . ) + ) +ANICETUS . . . . . . . . . . . ) + +A SEAMAN. + +PARTHIAN CHIEF. + +BRITISH CHIEF. + +XENOPHON . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Physician._ + +SLAVE TO NERO. + +AGRIPPINA . . . . . . . . . . . _Nero's Mother._ + +OCTAVIA . . . . . . . . . . . . _Sister to Britannicus._ + +POPPAEA . . . . . . . . . . . . _Wife to Otho, afterwards to Nero._ + +ACTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Captive Princess._ + +LOCUSTA . . . . . . . . . . . . _A Poisoner._ + +MYRRHA . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Maid to Poppaea._ + +HANDMAIDENS, SPIES, ETC. + + + +Five years elapse between Acts I. and II., two years between Acts III. +and IV. + + + + +ACT I + +SCENE.--_The scene is in the Great Hall in the Palace of the Caesars. +At the back are steps leading to a platform with balustrade opening on +the air, and beyond, a view of the city_. + +[_On the right of the stage is a cedarn couch on which_ CLAUDIUS _is +uneasily sleeping. On the right is a door communicating with the inner +apartments. On the left a door communicating with the outer halls_. + +[XENOPHON _is standing by the couch of_ CLAUDIUS. AGRIPPINA _is +sitting with face turned to an_ ASTROLOGER, _who stands at the top of +the steps watching the stars_. + +[LOCUSTA _is crouching beside a pillar, right. A meteor strikes across +the sky. The_ ASTROLOGER, _pointing upwards, comes down the steps +slowly_. + +ASTROLOGER. These meteors flame the dazzling doom of kings. + + [AGRIPPINA _rises apprehensively._ + +XENOPHON. Caesar is dead! + +AGRIPPINA. The drug hath found his heart. + [_To_ LOCUSTA, _who steals forward._ + Locusta, take your price and steal away! + Sound on the trumpet. Go! your part is done. + + [_Exit_ LOCUSTA. + [_Trumpet is sounded._ + + That gives the sign to the Praetorians + Upon the instant of the Emperor's death. + + [_Answering trumpets are heard._ + + Hark! trumpets answering through all the city. + Xenophon, you and I are in this death + Eternally bound. This husband have I slain + To lift unto the windy chair of the world + Nero, my son. Your silence I will buy + With endless riches; but a hint divulged---- + +XENOPHON. O Agrippina, Empress, fear not me! + +AGRIPPINA. Meantime his child, his heir, Britannicus, + Must not be seen lest he be clamoured for. + So till the sad Chaldean give the sign + Of that so yearned for, favourable hour, + When with good omens may my son succeed, + The sudden death of Claudius must be hid! + Then on the instant Nero be proclaimed + And Rome awake on an accomplished deed. + +XENOPHON. Then summon Claudius' musicians in + To play unto the dead as though he breathed. + +AGRIPPINA. Call them! A lulling music let them bring. + + [_Exit_ XENOPHON. + [_She turns to_ ASTROLOGER. + + O thou who readest all the scroll of the sky, + Stands it so sure Nero my son shall reign? + +ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign. + +AGRIPPINA. What lurks behind these words? + There is a 'but' still hovering in the stars. + +ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign. + +AGRIPPINA. The half! I'll know the rest. + +ASTROLOGER. Peer not for peril! + +AGRIPPINA. Peril! His or mine? + +ASTROLOGER. Thine then. + +AGRIPPINA. I will know all, however dark. + Finish what did so splendidly begin. + +ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign, but he shall kill his mother. + +AGRIPPINA. Kill me, but reign! + + _Enter_ SENECA + +SENECA. The trumpet summoned me, + And I am here. + +AGRIPPINA. Seneca! Speak it low! + Caesar is dead! Nero shall climb the throne. + +SENECA. I will not ask the manner of his death. + In studious ease I have protested much + Against the violent taking of a life. + But lost in action I perceive at last + That they who stand so high can falter not, + But live beyond the reaches of our blame; + That public good excuses private guile. + +AGRIPPINA. You, Xenophon and Burrus, stand with me. + + _Enter_ BURRUS, _right. He salutes the corse of_ CLAUDIUS + +BURRUS. Obedient to the trumpet-call I come. + +AGRIPPINA. Say, Burrus, quickly say, how stands our cause + With the Praetorians who unmake and make Emperors? + +BURRUS. The Praetorians are staunch, + And they are marching now upon the Palace. + +AGRIPPINA. Will they have Nero? + +BURRUS. Yes, and double pay. + There is a murmuring minority + Who toss about the name Britannicus. + These may be feared; let Nero scatter gold + There where dissension rises--it will cease. + Their signal when they shall surround the Palace, + The gleam of my unsheathed sword to the dawn. + +AGRIPPINA. Stand there until I have from him the sign, + Then let thy sword gleam upward to the dawn. + [_Turning and pointing to body of_ CLAUDIUS. + That is my work! Also, I must betroth + Nero unto the young Octavia, + And with the dead man's daughter mate my son. + This marriage sets him firmer on the throne, + And foils the party of Britannicus. + [_To_ BURRUS.] You for the army answerable stand. + [_To_ SENECA.] And, Seneca, I have entrusted Nero's mind + To you, to point an eaglet to the sun. + Nero? What does he? + +SENECA. Nero knows not yet + That Claudius is dead. Rome hath not slept, + But to the torch-lit circus all have run + To see him victor in a chariot race, + Whence he is now returning. A night race + By burning torches is his newest whim. + +AGRIPPINA. A torch-lit race! And yet why not? My child + Should climb all virgin to the throne of the earth, + Not conscious of spilt blood: and I meantime + Will sway the deep heart of the mighty world. + The peril is Britannicus: for Nero, + Careless of empire, strings but verse to verse. + How shall this dove attain the eagle cry? + +SENECA. Be not so sure of Nero's harmlessness. + +AGRIPPINA. What do you mean? + +SENECA. By me he has been taught, + And I have watched him. True, the harp, the song, + The theatre, delight this dreamer: true, + He lives but in imaginations: yet + Suppose this aesthete made omnipotent, + Feeling there is no bar he cannot break, + Knowing there is no bound he cannot pass; + Might he not then despise the written page, + A petty music, and a puny scene? + Conceive a spectacle not witnessed yet, + When he, an artist in omnipotence, + Uses for colour this red blood of ours, + Composes music out of dreadful cries, + His orchestra our human agonies, + His rhythms lamentations of the ruined, + His poet's fire not circumscribed by words, + But now translated into burning cities, + His scenes the lives of men, their deaths a drama, + His dream the desolation of mankind, + And all this pulsing world his theatre. + [_Steps heard without._ + The dead man's children startled from their sleep! + Britannicus, Octavia, wondering. + +AGRIPPINA. Till the auspicious hour he is not dead. + + +OCTAVIA _and_ BRITANNICUS _enter_ + +OCTAVIA. We could not sleep: father is very sick. + We fancied every moment that he called us. + +BRITANNICUS. And then these meteors full of coming woe---- + +OCTAVIA. So brilliant and so silent! O, I fear them. + +BRITANNICUS. Is father yet awake? We want to ask him---- + +[THEY _approach the couch_. AGRIPPINA _interposes_. + +AGRIPPINA. Do not disturb your father for this night. + +OCTAVIA. We will not speak, nor make the smallest sound + To wake him. We must kiss him ere we sleep. + +AGRIPPINA. Children, he is in need of some long rest. Go back to bed: +your father sleepeth sound. + +BRITANNICUS. I will go in to him, I will--and you + Are not our mother. By what privilege + Do you thus interpose yourself between + A father and his children? + +AGRIPPINA. Would you then + Trouble him, when to sleep is all he asks? + +OCTAVIA. Only a moment! But to see him! + +AGRIPPINA. No! + Come softly back to bed! no--no--this way! + Britannicus, with the first peer of light + You shall behold your father; but not now. + So the physician, Xenophon, enjoined me. + Now take Octavia's hand--so, both of you. + [OCTAVIA _holds her face to be kissed._ + To-night I think I will not kiss you, child. + Good-night, good-night. + +[_Exit_ OCTAVIA _and_ BRITANNICUS. + +SENECA. How often have I taught + And written, 'Children shall not be beguiled + Even for good ends.' And yet, the single lie + Must, for the general good, be spoken; yet---- + + [MUSICIANS _meanwhile have entered, and are playing dreamy + music_. AGRIPPINA _turns to_ ASTROLOGER, _holding out her + arms_. + +AGRIPPINA. How long till Rome shall greet her Emperor? + +ASTROLOGER. Behold the heavens! The moment! + + [_Exit_ ASTROLOGER. + +AGRIPPINA. Give the sign! + + [_Sounds of acclamation and cries of 'Nero.'_ BURRUS + _draws his sword_. + +BURRUS. See the Praetorians! + +SENECA. Nero returns. + + _Enter a_ HERALD _gorgeously dressed, bearing + a silver wreath_ + +MESSENGER. From Nero unto Agrippina greeting! + He comes a victor from the chariot race. + + [_Sounds of acclamation grow louder, the + crowd of_ NERO'S _friends and satellites + pours in: last comes NERO dressed as a charioteer._ + +AGRIPPINA. [_Touching_ CLAUDIUS' _body_.] + That music be a dirge: Caesar is dead. + [NERO _pauses wondering._ + Claudius is dead. Reign thou. Ave Caesar! + + [BURRUS _leads_ NERO _to back of platform, and + addresses the soldiers at back_. + +BURRUS. Caesar is dead! Behold Caesar! + + [_A great shout of_ 'NERO!' 'CAESAR!' _Meanwhile_ AGRIPPINA + _and_ SENECA _are listening close together. Discordant cries + are heard of_ 'BRITANNICUS!' _A slave or attendant on_ NERO + _scatters gold in the direction of these discordant cries, + which gradually subside, and are lost in one long shout of + 'Nero, Imperator.'_ NERO _motions for silence_. + +NERO. [_Turning to Court._] Behold this forest of uprisen spears, + Symbol of might! But I upon that might + Would not rely. You hail me Emperor-- + Then hail me as an Emperor of peace. + First, I declare divinest clemency. + No deaths have I to avenge, no wrath to bribe, + No desperate followers clamouring for spoil; + Pardon from me may beautifully fall. + Next, I bestow full liberty of speech; + I will not sway a dumb indignant earth-- + Emperor over the unuttered curse. + Were I myself the mark, I will not flinch. + Yet citizens, if freedom of the tongue + I grant, I'd wish less freedom of the feast. + Then all informers who lie life away + I'll heavily chastise; let no man think + With hinted scandal to employ mine ear. + Last, over all my earth be perfect trust, + That every tribe and people, dusk or pale, + Legions extreme and farthest provinces, + May know that this my hand which striketh down + The oppressor and the tyrant from his seat + Shall raise the afflicted and exalt the meek. + And if this burden grow too vast at times, + Then, mother, teach thy son to bear the load. + + [_Exit Court._ + +AGRIPPINA. [_Rushing to embrace him. He is vested with the purple and +laurel wreath. The body of_ CLAUDIUS _is borne off. Exit_ BURRUS. +NERO _comes down._] Nero, thou art my son! + +NERO. To rule the world. + How heavy is the sceptre of the earth! + +AGRIPPINA. [_Coming down._] Nero, upon this arm behold I clasp + This amulet. One dawn two murderers + Despatched to kill thee, stealing to thy bed + Were frightened by a snake which from beneath + Thy pillow glided. From that serpent's skin + I made this charm. Wear it, and thou shalt prosper; + But lose it, look thou for calamities. + +SENECA. [_Prepares to go also._] You will + need sleep, sir, for to-morrow's task. + +NERO. [_In terror._] I am not pale? Not heavy-eyed? + +SENECA. No! No! + +NERO. An artist, whatsoever mood he rouse + In others, should himself be ever still. + Where is a mirror? + +SENECA. Sir, one graver word. + To-morrow when you first shall sit in judgment, + And set your name unto the scroll of death---- + +NERO. [_Gazing at himself in mirror._] Ah! + Must I sign death-warrants? Then I wish + This hand had never learned to write. + +SENECA. Dear pupil! + +AGRIPPINA. Your pupil now the awful purple wears. + You tremble but to grasp the pen! But they + Who dyed it thus, feared not to grip the brand. + +NERO. [_Again looking in mirror._] It is an act to me unbeautiful. + To scatter joy, not sadness, was I born. + +AGRIPPINA. It is an act to you most necessary, + If you would sit secure where I have set you. + Now the light things of boyhood, toys of youth, + Unworthy that stern seat, you must discard. + Acte, the playmate of those careless hours, + Henceforth must be forgotten: you shall wed + A royal consort--young Octavia, + The child of Claudius, of the imperial line. + +SENECA. My peaceful counsel you will not forget. + +NERO. [_Turning to_ SENECA, _affectionately._] + Old friend, I am not like to wade in blood, + Thee at my side! I think upon the dooms + Of Julius, Caius, and Tiberius, + All Emperors--all miserably slain. + +SENECA. This dawn art thou the master of the world; + Then tremble at the task to thee assigned. + Meekly receive the purple and the wreath, + And on thy knees accept omnipotence. + Good-night, dear pupil! May my teaching lead + Thy solemn opportunity aright! + + [_Exit_ SENECA. + +NERO. You powers sustain me to endure this weight! + Mother, I shall go mad! + +AGRIPPINA. Not while this hand + Is on thy brow, and this voice in thine ear. + +NERO. To rule the world! + +AGRIPPINA. We two will rule the world. + +NERO. We two? + +AGRIPPINA. When you have need of me, then call me. + +NERO. I ever shall. I need you at this moment + More even than when my toothless gums did fumble + About thy breast in darkness of the night. + +AGRIPPINA. My dear, dear son! And + Nero, well I know + That you could never hurt or injure me. + But you will not forget who set you here-- + You will not, tell me? + +NERO. Never, mother, never! + +AGRIPPINA. Mothers for children have dared much, and more + Have suffered; but what mother hath so scarred + Her soul for the dear fruit of her body as I? + Thy birth-pang was the least of all the throes + That I for thee have suffered--a brief pain, + A little, little pain we share with creatures; + But what was this to torments of the mind, + The dark, imperial meditations, + Musing with eyes half-closed in moonless night; + The crimes--yes, crimes, the blood that has been spilt-- + Why, I have made a way for thee through ghosts. + Nero, you'll not forget? + +NERO. Ah! Never, never! + +AGRIPPINA. My son, this very night it was foretold + 'Nero shall reign, but he shall kill his mother.' + Tell me the stars have lied. + +NERO. [_Smiling._] The stars have lied. + +_Enter_ BURRUS + +BURRUS. The pass-word, sir, to-night? + +NERO. The best of mothers. + +AGRIPPINA. Kiss me; we both of us must sleep awhile. + + [_Exit_ AGRIPPINA. NERO _goes up, gazing out on the city + as the dawn comes on greyly._ + +NERO. O, all the earth to-night into these hands + Committed! I bow down beneath the load, + Empurpled in a lone omnipotence. + My softest whisper thunders in the sky, + And in my frown the temples sway and reel, + And the utmost isles are anguished. I but raise + An eyelid, and a continent shall cower; + My finger makes the city a solitude, + The murmuring metropolis a silence, + And kingdoms pine in my dispeopling nod. + I can dispearl the sea, a province wear + Upon my little finger; all the winds + Are busy blowing odours in mine eyes, + And I am wrapt in glory by the sun, + And I am lit by splendours of the moon, + And diadem'd by glittering midnight. + O wine of the world, the odour and gold of it! + There is no thirst which I may not assuage; + There is no hunger which I may not sate; + Nought is forbidden me under heaven! + [_With a cry._] I shall go mad! I shall go mad! + + [ACTE _steals in noiselessly, and waits till he turns, then + comes down to him._ + + My Acte! + +ACTE. [_Shrinking._] O, I seem so far from you, + And so beneath you now; your care henceforth + The world and nothing less. Long have you been + Nero to me, but Caesar must be now + High throned, the nations crawling at your feet. + And yet be sure that if on some far day + The throne should pass from you; if you should stand + Lonely at last; your friends all fallen away + From you; the laurel upon other brows + Set; were you dyed in blood deep as the robe + That folds you; were you dead in rags reposing, + Yet would I find you, cover up your face, + Taking the last kiss from your lips, and I + Would gently bury you within the earth. + +NERO. Ah! + +ACTE. And though none came nigh you, being dead, + Who were in life so thronged about and pressed, + One hand at least would duly pluck you flowers, + One hand at least would strew them on your grave. + Sleep now, and I will charm these eyes to close. + + [_She takes a harp, and as she plays_ NERO _drops off to sleep. + She, seeing him so, softly kisses him and noiselessly disappears. + Meanwhile_ NERO _turns uneasily in his sleep, and a procession + of dead Emperors passes_--JULIUS, _covering his face, but + withdrawing his cloak to gaze a while on_ NERO; TIBERIUS; CAIUS + _wounded_; CLAUDIUS _holding a cup_. NERO _rushes forward, + uttering a cry_. ACTE _again re-enters at the sound_. + + Nero, what ails you? Nero, how the drops + Stand on your brow! + +NERO. There, there, I seemed to see + As in procession the dead Emperors: + Julius, Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, + All bloody, and all pacing that same path. + +ACTE. [_Trying to lead him on the opposite way._] + There is another path, will you but take it. + + [NERO _is led by her a little way, then hesitates, still gazing + after the procession of Emperors. Gradually he looses_ ACTE'S + _hand, and she leaves him, gazing._ + + + + +ACT II + + +SCENE.--_The same, but signs of excessive luxury and profusion. Rich +carpets, gilded pillars, etc. As the scene opens, strange oriental +music is heard, with singing_. GIRLS _enter slowly and place wreaths +round the various statues of_ NERO, _who is depicted now as Apollo +singing, now as a charioteer_. + + [ACTE _is reclining on a couch. The time is broad + noon. A faint exotic odour pervades the palace._ + +1ST MAIDEN. O Lydia, I am drowsing, and my hands + Can scarcely wreathe the Emperor as Apollo. + +2ND MAIDEN. Ah, crown this carefully! + To-day he sings + In public; as Apollo will return + So crowned, so garbed. + +1ST MAIDEN. How is that wreath disposed? + +2ND MAIDEN. Excellent! + +3RD MAIDEN. O please tell me how to droop + These scarlet flowers. + +2ND MAIDEN. About the lyre then, thus. + +4TH MAIDEN. This bust now of the Emperor as a boy? + +1ST MAIDEN. O, covered with white flowers and birds of spring. + +5TH MAIDEN. This charioteer: with green I have dressed that. + +3RD MAIDEN. Yes, for the Emperor's colour is the green. + +1ST MAIDEN. Now all the busts are wreathed. + +2ND MAIDEN. What more to do? + +1ST MAIDEN. All is arranged. How heavy are my eyes. + +3RD MAIDEN. And this low music on my spirit hangs. + +4TH MAIDEN. And the faint odour steals upon my hair. + +1ST MAIDEN. [_Moving up and leaning out._ + See, all the city is a solitude. + +2ND MAIDEN. All Rome is gathered in the theatre + To hear the Emperor sing. + +5TH MAIDEN. O, I should sleep + On such a noon, in such a throng. + +1ST MAIDEN. That sleep + Would have no wakening, if your eyes but closed + While Caesar sang. + +4TH MAIDEN. To-night there is a feast. + Have you remembered? + +3RD MAIDEN. Yes, the dancing girls + From Egypt are arrived. + +1ST MAIDEN. We are to strew + Down from the ceiling flowers upon the guests. + + [_They recline in various attitudes about the seats and pillars._ + + +_Enter_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS + +BURRUS. Ah, Seneca, five years since Nero climbed + The throne; and in this very chamber, now + So changed, this odour--pah! This was the place, + Grim, bare, for military virtues apt. + +SENECA. And he how changed! The boy who dreamed so high + Of mightiest empire and unmeasured peace, + All I had taught him lost; by flattery sapped, + Jewelled and clothed as from the Orient, + He sings and struts with dancers and buffoons. + +ACTE. [_Starting up._] And you, when have you two dissuaded him? + Or when forbidden? Do you teach him shun + Languor or luxury? You lure him thither. + +SENECA. 'Tis true that we have not dissuaded him, + But out of high deliberate policy + Have suffered him to tread the path of folly + Rather than mischief. We have ruled the world + With wisdom these five years while he has played. + +ACTE. What of Poppaea, Otho's wife. Have you + Restrained that madness? Rather have you not + Screened it and fed it? + +SENECA. With the same design; + Better that he should vent his madness thus + In pastime to the State not perilous, + Amuse himself with her rather than Rome. + +ACTE. A woman without pity, beautiful. + She makes the earth we tread on false, the heaven + A merest mist, a vapour. Yet her face + Is as the face of a child uplifted, pure; + But plead with lightning rather than those eyes, + Or earthquake rather than that gentle bosom + Rising and falling near thy heart. Her voice + Comes running on the ear as a rivulet; + Yet if you hearken, you shall hear behind + The breaking of a sea whose waves are souls + That break upon a human-crying beach. + Ever she smileth, yet hath never smiled, + And in her lovely laughter is no joy. + Yet hath none fairer strayed into the world, + Or wandered in more witchery through the air, + Since she who drew the dreaming keels of Greece + After her over the Ionian foam. + +BURRUS. Better an Emperor fooled than Rome undone! + +ACTE. Though all unite to drive him to his doom, + Yet I will not forsake him till he die. + + [_Exit_ ACTE. + + [_Meanwhile there is an uneasy movement among the_ GIRLS, _as + at the approach of something sinister_. TIGELLINUS _enters, + gasping._ + +TIGELLINUS. [_Looking after_ ACTE.] She is a Christian! + +BURRUS. Tigellinus! + +TIGELLINUS. I + Come from the theatre. For three hours have sat + In the first bench, and feared to wink or cough. + The Emperor sang, and had for audience + The flower of Rome. In torment did we sit, + Nobles and consuls, captains, senators, + Bursting to laugh and aching but to smile. + Higher and higher rose the Emperor's voice, + But no man ventured to relax his lips. + And all around were those who peered or crept, + Inspecting each man's face, noting his look. + To sigh was treason and to laugh was death, + And yet none dared be absent: how were you + Excused? + +BURRUS. I pleaded the old wound. + +SENECA. And I + Reception of the Parthian and the Briton. + +TIGELLINUS. I + Say not so much against his moody freaks, + But to be called from bed to hear him sing-- + O, I must have my sleep at night--well, well-- + To graver things. Still the conspiracy + Of Agrippina swells: she aims to make + Her son a toy, a puppet, while she pulls + Unseen the secret strings of policy. + +SENECA. Is't not enough to bear upon her back + Stripped continents? To clasp about her throat + A civilisation in a sapphire, or + That kingdoms gleam and glow upon her brow. + Now doth she overstar us like the night + In splendour. Now she rises on our eyes + Dawning in gold; or like the blaze of noon + Taketh our breath on a sudden; or she glides + Silent, from head to foot a glimmering pearl. + But this is woman's business: 'tis not so + To listen screened to the ambassadors, + To ride abroad with Nero charioted, + Or wear her head upon the public coins. + +TIGELLINUS. And she intends this very day to hear + The Briton, seated by the Emperor's side. + Otho has joined her too. + +SENECA. But from what cause? + +TIGELLINUS. He is married. + +BURRUS. Ah, Poppaea! + +TIGELLINUS. Jealousy + Hath driven him into Agrippina's snare. + Fury at Nero's madness for his wife. + Now what if we could raise Poppaea up + As Agrippina's chief antagonist: + We match the mistress 'gainst the mother--pit + Passion 'gainst gratitude--a sudden lure + 'Gainst old ascendency, the noon of beauty + Against the evening of authority, + The luring whisper 'gainst the pleading voice, + The hand that beckons 'gainst the arm that sways, + And set a woman to defeat a woman. + To Nero I have whispered that she dotes + Upon his poems, on his rhythm hangs, + And cannot sleep for beauty of his verse. + +SENECA. This day must Nero leave his mother's lap, + And stand up as an Emperor, and alone. + + [_Trumpet._ + +BURRUS. Hark! Caesar is returning. + +[_Sounds heard of_ NERO _approaching amid cries of 'O thou Apollo!' +'Orpheus come again!' Then enter NERO with a group of satellites,_ +TIGELLINUS, OTHO, _and professional applauders and spies. His dress is +of extreme oriental richness, and profuse in jewels: his hair +elaborately curled. He carries an emerald eye-glass, and appears faint +from the exertion of singing, from which contest he has just come._ + +NERO. This languor is the penalty the gods + Exact from those whom they have gifted high. + +SENECA. [_Coming forward._] Sir, late arrived + from Parthia and Britain---- + +NERO. [_Starting up._] A draught! + [_Much hurry, zeal, and confusion among courtiers._ + This kerchief closer round my throat! + [_They tie a kerchief round his throat._ + Was I in voice to-day? The prize is won, + But I would be my own competitor + And my own rival. Was I then in voice? + +CHORUS. O Memnon struck with morning, nightingale, + Ghost-charming Orpheus, O Apollo--god! + +SATELLITE. O Caesar, I am one who speaks right out; + If it means death, yet must I speak the truth. + Thy voice was harsh. + +NERO. Was it so, friend? + +SATELLITE. Harsh and uncertain. Had it been another + Who sang, it would have ravished every ear, + But thee must I remember at thy best, + And what in others we count excellence + In thee we count a lapse, and falling off. + +NERO. There's a good fellow! + +SENECA. Caesar! + +NERO. But a moment! + +1ST SPY. [_Stealing forward._] Licinius smiled, sir, + at thy final note. + +NERO. Nothing! an artist must bear ridicule. + Were I incensed, I were ridiculous + Myself. + +1ST SPY. Shall nothing then be done? + +NERO. Nothing! + +2ND SPY. [_Stealing forward._] Sir, Labienus, in thy second song + Coughed twice. + +ANOTHER SPY. [_Cringing._] Nay, Caesar, thrice. + +2ND SPY. What punishment? + +NERO. None! Interruption must I learn to bear. + What patience must we own who would excel! + Anger I never must permit myself, + Or ruffling littleness to this great soul. + +3RD SPY. [_Creeping forward._] Sir, Titus + Cassius yawned while thou didst sing. + +4TH SPY. Nay, Caesar, worse, he slept, and must he live? + +NERO. [_Gently._] No! he must die: there is no hope in sleep. + Witness, you gods, who sent me on the earth + To be a joy to men: and witness you + Who stand around: if ever a small malice + Hath governed me: what critic have I feared? + What rival? Have I used this mighty throne + To baulk opinion or suppress dissent? + Have I not toiled for art, forsworn food, sleep, + And laboured day and night to win the crown, + Lying with weight of lead upon my chest? + Ye gods, there is no rancour in this soul. + [_Thunder._ + Silence while I am speaking. He must die, + Because he is unmindful of your gifts + And of the golden voice on me bestowed, + To me no credit; and he shall not die + Hopeless, for ere he die I'll sing to him + This night, that he may pass away in music. + How foolish will he peer amid the shades + When Orpheus asks, 'Hast thou heard Nero sing?' + If he must answer 'No!' I would not have him + Arrive ridiculous amid the dead. + +SENECA. Caesar, the Parthian and the British chiefs. + +NERO. I cannot, sirs, so suddenly return + Unto life's dreary business, or descend + Out of the real to the unreal: from that + Which is to that which is not. Leave me still. + From art to empire is too swift a drop. + +OTHO. Now what to do? Still drags the o'erlong day. + We have driven, we have eaten, we have drunk. + But all the brilliance is a burden still. + +ANICETUS. No cloud upon the noon of this despair. + O for some edge, some thrill unknown! + +LUCAN. Remorse? + + [NERO _shakes his head._ + +SENECA. Jealousy then? + +NERO. No, no--we have outlived + All passions: terror now alone is left us. + I have within me great capacities + For terror: fear, the last, the greatest passion! + +OTHO. Can one rely on death for something new? + Some other life perhaps. + +SENECA. The gods forbid! + The Power that sent us here would lead us there. + One sample is enough. + +LUCAN. Death's a dull business, + Of that one may be sure. What says the poet? + 'When I am dead, let fire devour the world.' + + [NERO _starts at these words and comes among them._ + +NERO. Nay, while I live! The sight! A burning world! + And to be dead and miss it! There's an end + Of all satiety: such fire imagine! + Born in some obscure alley of the poor, + Then leaping to embrace a splendid street, + Palaces, temples, morsels that but whet + Her appetite: the eating of huge forests: + Then with redoubled fury rushing high, + Smacking her lips over a continent, + And licking old civilisations up! + Then in tremendous battle fire and sea + Joined: and the ending of the mighty sea: + Then heaven in conflagration, stars like cinders + Falling in tempest: then the reeling poles + Crash: and the smouldering firmament subsides, + And last, this universe a single flame! + + [OTHO, _seeing the steward and musician, + who have entered, speaks._ + +OTHO. Nothing is left us but to eat and drink. + + [_Takes bill of fare which the steward passes to him._ + +NERO. The feast! + + [_Takes bill of fare from_ OTHO. + + You understand that in the perfect feast + To please the palate only is not art, + But we should minister to the eye and the ear + With colour and with music. Introduce + The embattled oysters with a melody + Of waves that wash a reef--whence do they come? + +STEWARD. From Britain, sir. + +NERO. Perhaps an angrier chord + Of island surf might be permitted then. + From Britain? Now I see thy uses, Britain. + Britain is justified: she gives us oysters, + And therefore Claudius invaded her. + Sausages upon silver gridirons? + +STEWARD. Yes. + +NERO. Dormice with poppies and milk honey? There + A slumberous music, heavy lingering chords. + Ah! slices of pomegranate underneath. + Snow--purest snow of course. + +STEWARD. 'Twas not forgot. + +NERO. Then glorying peacocks: here a sounding march, + Something triumphal--even a trifle loud. + And, ah! the mullets! You remembered them? + +STEWARD. O Caesar, yes. + +NERO. Let these be introduced + By some low dirge. And let us see them die-- + Slow-dying mullets within crystal bowls, + Dying from colour unto colour: now + Vermilion death-pangs fading into blue-- + A scarlet agony in azure ending. + There we have colour! And at last the tongues + Of nightingales--the tongues of nightingales? + O, silence with the tongues of nightingales. + + [_He dismisses_ STEWARD.] + +TIGELLINUS. Sir, grant us three a moment's audience. + + [NERO _dismisses friends and satellites with gesture._ + +SENECA. Your mother, sir, this very day intends + To hear the British chiefs in audience, + Sitting beside you. Know then that the world + Will not endure to have a woman's rule. + +BURRUS. No, nor the army. + +TIGELLINUS. And thy mother laughs + In public at thy verse. + +NERO. She has no ear. + I pity her--remember what she loses. + +TIGELLINUS. Ah, be not laughed at, sir, be it not said + Nero is tied unto his mother's robe. + Be brilliant, cruel, lustful, what you will, + But not a naughty child, rated and slapped. + Poppaea too, she will not suffer you + With her to indulge your fancy. + +SENECA. Caesar, rise! + +BURRUS. Rise--rise, and reign! + +TIGELLINUS. And be no more a doll + That dances while she pulls the string behind. + Then young Britannicus! + +NERO. O nothing! + +TIGELLINUS. Yet + He is winning on the people: he hath charm, + His voice is sweet. + +[NERO _starts._ + + Caesar, I judge it not, + But speak the common drift; and his recital, + So I am told, has for accompaniment + Gesture most eloquent. + + [NERO _is more and more roused._ + + His poems, too! + +NERO. [_Breaking the silence._] His poems! + Why, why, not a line will scan + To the true ear; and what variety, + I ask you all--what flow, or what resource + Is shown? A safe monotony of rhythm! + + [_He paces to and fro angrily._ + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar, I cannot speak to such a theme. + Merely Rome's mouthpiece. + +NERO. And his gesture, why, + 'Tis of the Orient, and gesticulation + More happily were called; never a stillness, + Never repose, but one wild whirl of arms. + +TIGELLINUS. I spoke not of fulfilment, but of promise, + The artist's dazzling future. + +NERO. A sweet voice! + Rome hath no critics! I would write a play + Lived there a single critic fit to judge it. + Whether a dancing-girl kick high enough-- + On this they can pronounce: this is their trade. + With verse upon the stage they cannot cope. + Too well they dine, too heavily, and bear + The undigested peacock to the stalls. + +TIGELLINUS. Should Agrippina on a sudden change + Her front, and clasp hands with Britannicus? + +NERO. Your words awaken in me a new thirst. + +SENECA. Sir, hear the Parthian and the British chiefs. + +NERO. [_Going to the throne._] Summon them! + + [_Exit_ SENECA. + + Think not, though my aim is art, + I cannot toy with empire easily. + The great in me does not preclude the less. + + + [_Re-enter_ SENECA _with_ PARTHIAN _and_ BRITISH AMBASSADORS, + _followed by the Court_. SENECA _brings forward the_ + PARTHIAN CHIEFS, _when_ AGRIPPINA _enters magnificently + dressed and begins to mount steps of throne_. NERO _with + courteous decision brings her down_. + + Mother, this is man's business, not for thee. + You jar the scheme of colour--mar the effect. + +PARTHIAN. Caesar, we starve: all Parthia parches: all + Our crops sun-smitten bleach upon the plains. + We ask thy aid. + +NERO. And ye shall have my aid + Even to the fullest: further, I will open + The imperial granaries for your people's wants. + +PARTHIAN. Caesar, we thank thee: and if ever thou + Shouldst need the Parthian aid, whate'er the cost, + That aid thou shalt find ready at thy side. + + [_Exit._ + +BRITISH CHIEF. Caesar, the tax that thou hast laid on us + Remit, we pray thee, else we rise in arms + And will abide thy battle. + +NERO. So! You dream + That Caesar being merciful is weak. + I who can succour, I can strike; I'll launch + The legions over sea, and I myself + Will lead them, and the eagles will unloose + Through Britain--I who sit on the world's throne + Will have no threatening from Briton, Gaul, + People or tribe inland or ocean-washed. + The terror of this purple I maintain. + You are dismissed. + + + [NERO, _spreading his hands, dismisses the Court, and comes + down to his mother_. + +NERO. Now, mother! + +AGRIPPINA. I will speak + With you alone, not compassed by these men. + + [_To_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS.] To me you owe the + height where now you stand. + Who took you, schoolmaster, from exile? Who + Unstewarded you, Burrus? If I have made, + I can unmake--Now leave me with my son. + [_To_ TIGELLINUS.] You are self-made. Gods! + I'd no hand in that! + +[_Exeunt_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ TIGELLINUS.] + + Nero, have you forgot who set you there? + +NERO. Not while I hear it twenty times a day. + +AGRIPPINA. You should not need that I remind you of it. + +NERO. A kindness harped on grows an injury. + +AGRIPPINA. Are you the babe that lay upon my breast? + +NERO. I was: but I would not lie there for ever. + +AGRIPPINA. Have I not reared you, tended you, and loved you? + +NERO. Yes, but to be your puppet and your toy. + +AGRIPPINA. Boy, never since I first looked on the sun + From man or woman had I insolence, + Who have sistered, wived, and mothered Emperors. + +NERO. I speak no insolence--you weary me! + +AGRIPPINA. Gods! you have hit on a new thing to tell me. + [_Coming to him._] Does your heart beat? Are + you all ice and pose? + Has nothing gripped you--is there aught to grip + In you, pert shadow? Have you e'er shed tears? + +NERO. For legendary sorrows I can weep: + With those of old time I have suffered much, + And I, for dreams, am capable of tears; + But not for woe too near me--and too loud. + +AGRIPPINA. O wall of stone 'gainst which I beat in vain! + Nero, I will do much to win you back + For your own sake: and though it hurts me sore, + Your passion for Poppaea I will aid. + When did a mother yield herself to this? + +NERO. When had a mother such a lust for rule + That she could even yield herself to this? + +AGRIPPINA. [_Clasping his knees._] Child, I + have done with scorn, with bitter words, + With taunt, with gibe. Now I ask only pity-- + A little pity from flesh that I conceived, + A little mercy from the body I bore, + And touches from the baby hands I kissed. + Nothing I ask of you, only to love me, + And if not that, to bear with me a while, + Who have borne much for you: no, Nero, child, + I will not weary you, I yearn for you. + Forgive me all the deeds that I have done for you, + Forget the great love I have spent on you, + Pardon the long, long life for you endured. + + [NERO _is moved and kisses her, then speaks with effort_. + +NERO. Mother, if I have seemed to be forgetful, + Or cruel even, impute it not to me + But to the State. + + [AGRIPPINA _starts._ + + 'Tis thought that neither Rome, + The provinces, nor armies, will endure + To see a woman in such eminence. + Therefore it is advised that you retire + To Antium a while, and leave Rome free. + +AGRIPPINA. [_Starting up._] Leave Rome! + Why, I would die as I did step + Outside her gates, and glide henceforth a shadow. + The blood would cease to run in my veins, my heart + Stop, and my breath subside without her walls. + All without Rome is darkness: you will not + Despatch my shadow down to Antium? + +NERO. We were remembering your toils, your age. + +AGRIPPINA. My age! Am I old then? + Look on this face, + Where am I scarred, who have steered the bark of State + As it plunged, as it rose over the waves of change? + I was renewed with salt of such a sea. + Empires and Emperors I have outlived; + A thousand loves and lusts have left no line; + Tremendous fortunes have not touched my hair, + Murder hath left my cheek as the cheek of a babe. + + [_At this moment_ BURRUS, SENECA, _and_ TIGELLINUS _return, + hearing the scene; and as_ AGRIPPINA _continues her imprecations, + the COURT return and stand in groups listening._ + +AGRIPPINA. My age! Who then accuses me of age? + Was this a flash from budding Seneca, + Or the boy Burrus' inspiration? Say? + Do I owe it to the shrivelled or the maimed? + +SENECA. Empress, it is determined you retire. + And you will better your own dignity + And his assert, if you will make this going + To seem a free inclining from yourself. + +AGRIPPINA. Bookman, shall I learn policy from you? + Be patient with me. Nero, you I ask, + Not schoolmasters or stewards I promoted. + Is it your will I go to Antium? + Speak, speak. Be not the mouthpiece of these men: + Domitius! + +NERO. Mother, 'tis my will you go. + +AGRIPPINA. Then, sir, discharge me not from your employ + Without some written commendation, + That I can tire the hair or pare the nails, + That those who were my friends may take me in! + +NERO. Lady! + +AGRIPPINA. O, lady now? Mother, no more! + +NERO. [_Pacing fiercely to and fro._] Beware + the son you bore: look lest I turn! + Chafe not too far the master of this world. + +AGRIPPINA. See the new tiger in the dancer's eye: + 'Ware of him, keepers--then, you bid me go? + [_A pause._ + Then I will go. But think not, though I go, + My spirit shall not pace the palace still. + I am too bound by guilt unto these walls. + Still shall you hear a step in dead of night; + In stillness the long rustle of my robe. + So long as stand these walls I cannot leave them. + Yet will I go: behold you, that stand by, + A mother by her own son thrust away, + Cast out--ha, ha!--in my old age, infirm, + To totter and mumble in oblivion! + +NERO. [_To_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS.] A little + violent that--did you not think so? + And yet the gesture excellent and strong! + +AGRIPPINA. Romans, behold this son: the man of men; + This harp-player, this actor, this buffoon---- + +NERO. Peace! + +AGRIPPINA. --sitting where great Julius but aspired + To sit, and died in the aspiring: see, + This mime--my son is he? And did I then + Have one mad moment with a street musician? + +SENECA. Have you no shame? + +AGRIPPINA. This son now sends me forth, + Yet it was I, his mother, set him there. + + [_Murmur._ + + And, ah! if it were known at what a price, + Witness, you shades of the Silani! + +SENECA. Peace! + +AGRIPPINA. And witness Messalina on vain knees! + + [_Murmur._ + + And witness Claudius with the envenomed cup. + +NERO. Silence, or---- + +AGRIPPINA. Not the seas shall stop me now, + Raging on all the shores of all the world. + Witness if easily my son did reign, + I am bloody from head to foot for sake of him, + And for my cub am I incarnadined. + + [_Murmur._ + + I'll go, but if I fall, Rome too shall fall: + I'll shake this empire till it reel and crash + On that ungrateful head; and if I fall, + The builded world shall tumble down in thunder. + + [_Murmur._ + + Ah! + + [_Seeing_ BRITANNICUS.] To my arms, boy! + [_Snatches him to her side._] Tremble now and shake! + Here is the true heir to the imperial throne, + Deposed by me, but now by me restored. + + [_Uproar._ + + I'll to the Praetorians! + + [_Clamour._ + + To the camp! + And there upon the one side they shall see + Britannicus the child of Claudius, + And me the daughter of Germanicus; + And on the other side a harp-player, + A withered pedant, and a maimed sergeant, + Disputing for the diadem of the earth. + Come, Caesar, away to the Praetorians! + + [_Exit_ AGRIPPINA _leading_ BRITANNICUS, _followed by_ COURT + _in great excitement, all but_ BURRUS _and_ SENECA, + TIGELLINUS _and_ NERO--_a blank pause_. + +SENECA. Now what to do? + +TIGELLINUS. Already can I hear + The roar of the Praetorians and their march, + This time to crown another. Burrus, you + Command them. + +BURRUS. They would tear me into pieces, + As hounds a master entering in on them + Unrecognised, if Agrippina once + Hallooed to them the name 'Germanicus.' + +TIGELLINUS. Surely Britannicus must be our aim: + He gone, what threat, what counter-move hath she? + Removing him, we take the sting from her; + Then let her buzz at will. + +BURRUS. But he is gone. + +SENECA. Even as an eagle snatches up a babe, + So Agrippina caught him up and flew. + +TIGELLINUS. For once my wits are lost. + +SENECA. Still, what to do? + + [NERO _has been sitting with his back to them, suddenly rises._ + +NERO. Leave this to me! + +TIGELLINUS. O Caesar! + +NERO. [_To_ ANICETUS.] Go thou fast + And intercept my mother on her way, + And say thou thus: 'Nero thy son repents + His former ire and cancels the decree + For Antium; and prays thou may'st return + To supper, as a sign of amity, + And bring with thee the prince Britannicus.' + + [ANICETUS _is going, but_ NERO _stops him_. + + And as you go, send in to me Locusta. + + [_Exit_ ANICETUS. + + I have conceived--not fully--but conceived + The death-scene of the boy Britannicus. + Leave this to me. + +TIGELLINUS. O Caesar! + +NERO. It shall be + Performed to-night at supper: get you seats; + It shall be something new and wonderful, + Done after wine, and under falling roses; + And there shall be suspense in it, and thrill: + It shall be very sudden, very silent, + And terrible in silence--I the while, + Creator and arranger of the scene, + Reclining with a jewel in my eye; + And Agrippina shall be close to me, + Aware, yet motionless: Octavia, + Though but a child, yet too discreet for tears. + This you may deem as yet a little crude, + But other details I will add ere supper. + + [SENECA _withdraws in horror, as do the others, slowly._ + +SENECA. Here's what I feared! + +TIGELLINUS. His eyes now! Yet how calm! + So steals the panther, stirring not a leaf! + + [_Exeunt slowly_ SENECA, TIGELLINUS, _and_ BURRUS. NERO + _walks to and fro, constructing the scene in pantomime + to himself_. LOCUSTA _enters down, right_. + +NERO. You are Locusta, and your trade is poison. + + [_She makes obeisance._ + + [_Uneasily._] Is poison but a trade with you, or art? + Surely to slay is the supreme of arts; + And with no ugly wound or hideous blow, + But beautifully to extinguish life. + Have you some rare drug that kills suddenly? + As I have planned it, I can have no pause-- + Death must be sudden--silent. And my guests + Must not be wearied with a pang prolonged, + And there must be no cry. That understand. + + [LOCUSTA, _grovelling at his feet_. + +LOCUSTA. O Caesar, such a drug is known to me,-- + But I will not reveal it. + +NERO. Die then. + +LOCUSTA. Die? + O, I love life, but this I'll not reveal. + +NERO. Ah, you must live--you are an artist too. + +LOCUSTA. I have a poison that is slipped in wine-- + Not nauseous to the taste. + +NERO. An artist still! + Let me have that, and suddenly. And listen-- + The cup presented to Britannicus + Must be too hot: so that he calls for snow + To cool it. In that snow the poison lurks. + + [_Exit_ LOCUSTA. + + [ANICETUS _hastily returns_. + +ANICETUS. O Caesar, the Augusta had not left + The palace; and now, o'erjoyous at thy words, + She will be present at the supper-board, + Bringing with her the prince Britannicus. + + [_Servants enter with various dishes and arrange the tables and + couches for the guests, and supper begins._ + + [_They all recline amid a low hum of conversation. Dreamy music is + heard, which might be a continuation of the music played before._ + + NERO _reclines at the head of the central table between_ AGRIPPINA + _and_ OCTAVIA. POPPAEA _is a prominent figure_. BRITANNICUS, _with + other youths, lies at a side table_. SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ + TIGELLINUS _present with other members of the Court. At a sign + from_ NERO _dancing girls enter and perform a strange, wild measure, + after which the hum of conversation is resumed. Again, at a sign + from_ NERO, _odours are spurted over the guests amid cries of + delight_. + + [_At a sign from_ NERO, _flowers descend from the ceiling. At first + lilies, then of deeper and deeper colour. At last a tempest of + roses which gradually slackens._ + +NERO. Britannicus, I voice a general wish. + Sweet is it, early and thus easily + To have garnered fame: the crown is for the few, + And these are tasked to reach it ere they die. + Oftener the laurel on grey hairs is laid, + Or on the combed tresses of the dead. + + [BRITANNICUS _goes to the top of the stairs to recite, and at a + sign from_ NERO _wine is handed to him_. + +BRITANNICUS. This is too hot: some snow to cool it: so-- + [_Cold snow is put in and he drinks. He then recites._ + Beside the melancholy surge I roam-- + A sad exile, a stranger, sick for home: + A prince I was in my far native land + Who wander to and fro this alien sand: + Riches I had, and steeds, a glimmering crown; + Never had known a harshness or a frown. + Now must I limp and beg from door to door, + Wet with the storm, or in the sun footsore: + I, by a brother's cunning dispossessed, + Crave for these languid limbs a place of rest. + Pity me, robbed of all! + + [_He gives a cry and falls headlong. His limbs quiver a moment + and then are still. Meanwhile the shower of roses has slackened. + There is a dead silence, and in the silence slowly all the guests + turn and look at_ NERO, _who rises, with the emerald in his eye_. + +NERO. Lift up the prince and bear him to his room. + I do entreat that none of you will stir + Or rise perturbed: my brother, since his birth, + Was ever thus: the fit will pass from him. + Refill the cups: proceed we with the feast! + + [_There is an attempt to renew the feasting, but soon a scene of + uproar and confusion arises, and the guests leave the tables in + alarm._ + + [AGRIPPINA _alone remains unmoved, and then, as the guests have + departed in disorder, she confronts_ NERO _alone_. + +AGRIPPINA. Thou hast done this. + +NERO. Mother, I am thy son! + + + + +ACT III + + +SCENE I + +SCENE.--NERO'S _private chamber. Enter_ NERO _hastily and perturbed, +followed by_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ TIGELLINUS, _his privy-councillors_. + +BURRUS. Caesar, still glides the dead Britannicus + About the palace, and his memory + Your mother, Agrippina, uses: makes + Out of his ghost a faction for herself. + She grows a public peril; much you owe + To her, but more to Rome; from Antium + She rages disappointed to and fro. + Me for your army you hold answerable, + But can no longer if you suffer her + To lure the legions from their loyalty. + Her creatures whisper to your sentinels, + Corrupt your officers, inflame your guards. + A sullen silence on the camp is fallen, + A word, and it will roar in mutiny. + +TIGELLINUS. Everywhere steal her agents and her spies, + Gliding through temples, baths, and theatres; + Possess all angles, corners, noonday halts, + And darknesses; they flit with casual poison + Softly; the city secretly is filled + With murmurs, lifted eyebrows, and with sighs. + The mischief's in the very blood of Rome + Unless the sore that feeds it is cut out. + +NERO. Why, I myself have visited the fleet + With Anicetus: sullen droop the sails + Or flap in mutiny against the mast. + Burdened with barnacles the untarred keels + Drowse on the tide with parching decks unswabbed, + And anchors rusting on inglorious ooze. + All indolent the vast armada tilts, + A leafless resurrection of dead trees. + The sailors in a dream do go about + Or at the fo'c's'le ominously meet. + Should any foe upon the sea-line loom + They'll light with ease upon an idle prey. + And yet I felt the grandeur of stagnation + And the magnificence of idleness. + +BURRUS. She hath seduced the breast-plates and the sails. + +NERO. [_Distracted._] Here I pronounce her exile. + +TIGELLINUS. Whither then? + +ANICETUS. To Britain send her. There for Claudius + I fought; a melancholy isle, alone, + Sundered from all the world; and banned by God + With separating, cold, religious wave, + And haunted with the ghost of a dead sun + Rising as from a grave, or all in blood + Returning wounded heavily through mist. + Her rotting peoples amid forests cower, + Or mad for colour paint their bodies blue. + There in eternal drippings of the leaf + Or that dead summer of the living fly, + And by the eternal sadness of the surf, + Ambition cannot live, hope cannot breathe. + Even the fieriest spirit there will rust + Or gutter like a candle in the rain. + To Britain send her. + +TIGELLINUS. Never isle remote + On the sad water, never desert sand + In trembling flame, nor rock-built prison-house + Shall tame her: there's the danger, that she lives. + While she hath life, it is no matter where, + While she hath breath, no other dares to breathe, + Not Caesar, even! + +NERO. This breath to her I owe. + +TIGELLINUS. [_Cautiously and slowly watching_ + NERO, _as do the others_.] Caesar, there is a region of exile + Whence none hath yet returned--your pardon, sir-- + +NERO. [_Starts and turns away._] No, no, no! + I remember very clear + How gently she would wake me long ago. + +BURRUS. Then be thy mother's son still and surrender + This toy of Rome to her: she bought it you: + Now, wearied, give it back! + +NERO. Ah, patience, sir! + I cannot in one moment gird myself + To murder all these kisses, and she hath + A vastness in this narrow world so rare, + A sweep majestical about the earth-- + True, that she hath no ear for verse---- + +TIGELLINUS. For thine. + +NERO. Yet passion, fury, and ambition, these + Are primal things in our elaborate age. + Ill can we spare them. + +BURRUS. Now, 'tis you or she. + +NERO. A little time in which to fix my mind. + I go to Baiae; for I am not housed + Here as I should be: all the palace seems + To me a hovel; scarcely can I breathe. + I should be roofed with gold, and walled with gold, + Should tread on gold; and if I cast mine eyes + Over the city, they should view a scene + Of spacious avenues and breathing trees, + And buildings plunged in odorous foliage. + This is a petty city: I have thought + It might be well to raze it to the ground + And build another and an ampler Rome, + More worthy site for this imperial soul. + I'll go to Baiae, there to dream this dream. + +TIGELLINUS. Might I propose you go not all alone? + At times the answering flash from other eyes + Can aid the mightiest; and a woman's thought---- + +NERO. Yes--Yes--Poppaea! + +BURRUS. Otho will be jealous. + +TIGELLINUS. And is already dangerous; he has joined + The Agrippina faction. + +NERO. He must be + Promoted then to--Lusitania. + +TIGELLINUS. Thule were safer--still. + +NERO. Here I appoint him + Sole governor of Lusitania. + To Baiae now--Poppaea--a new Rome! + + [_Exit_ NERO. + +TIGELLINUS. He hesitates--but I will see Poppaea: + She can find means we cannot, and we thus + Can use her beauty for our policy. + + [_Exeunt_ TIGELLINUS, BURRUS, SENECA, _and_ ANICETUS. + + + +SCENE II + +SCENE.--_The tiring chamber of_ POPPAEA--_signs of luxury, implements +of a Roman lady's toilet of the period_. POPPAEA _reclining, with a +single maid_. + +POPPAEA. Myrrha, more gold upon these builded curls. + How often, child? + +MYRRHA. Mistress, forgive me. + + [_A slave has entered._ + +POPPAEA. Well? + +SLAVE. Mistress, the Emperor's minister, Tigellinus. + + [POPPAEA _signs_ MYRRHA _to go_. + + _Enter_ TIGELLINUS + +TIGELLINUS. Lady, I am loth to interrupt this toil, + But come on a secret errand. + +POPPAEA. Well, what is it? + +TIGELLINUS. Long have I watched you, and to me it seemed + You had some mighty wish within your soul + As yet unspoken? Ah, I know it well. + You would climb high, even to the very height? + +POPPAEA. [_Rising._] I would. + +TIGELLINUS. You would be--mistress of the world? + +POPPAEA. Ah! + +TIGELLINUS. And shall be: we aim at the same goal. + You from ambition, I from policy. + +POPPAEA. Speak clearer. + +TIGELLINUS. 'Tis our wish to free young Nero + From Agrippina's dangerous dominance-- + To free him of her quite. Now she too stands + In your own path. Your loveliness may work + Upon him: and we with policy the while-- + Will you make cause with us? + +POPPAEA. I understand. + You need this beauty as an added bait + To lure when policy can drive him not. + What do I gain at last? + +TIGELLINUS. The throne itself. + Octavia is a shadow: cannot stand + Between you and the world: but Agrippina, + Never will suffer you while she has breath. + +POPPAEA. I will not tempt him to a mother's murder. + +TIGELLINUS. Nor do we ask it: only that you draw + His wandering fancy from her with a sweet + Interposition of this loveliness, + Free him of her, then bind him to yourself. + +POPPAEA. I will attempt it. I will fly at it. + I go to him to Baiae this same day. + +TIGELLINUS. Remember all the earth is in thy reach. + + [_Exit_ TIGELLINUS. + + +POPPAEA _claps her hands--enter various maids_ + +POPPAEA. Lorilla, see, this henna is o'erdone. + +LORILLA. O pardon, mistress. + +POPPAEA. And you, Lalage, + My lips more brilliant. + +LALAGE. Yet---- + +POPPAEA. Remember, child, + That I walk ever veiled: what in the sun + Glares, being veiled a finer richness takes + And more provokes: how many struggling flies + This veil, the web of mine, hath struggling held + Which else were freed! + + [_Gazing at her face in mirror._ + + Ah! this left eyebrow--who? + Who painted this? + +MAID. [_Trembling._] I, madam. + +POPPAEA. You are young: + Else I would have you stripped and lashed till blood + Flew from you. + +MAID. Mercy! + +POPPAEA. Call old Lydia. + Lydia, this eyebrow--the old touch. + +LYDIA. My hands + Tremble, but I'll essay. + +POPPAEA. [_Gazing in mirror._] So--that is well. + Children, when there shall come, and come there must, + The smallest marring wrinkle on this face, + And come there must--our bodies fall like flowers, + This face shall feel the ruin of the rose-- + When time, howe'er light, shall touch this cheek, + Then quick farewell! Listen, I will not live + Less lovely, nor this cruel beauty lose, + And I perforce grow kind: I'll not survive + The deep delicious poison of a smile + Nor mortal music of the sighing bosom + That slowly overcomes the fainting brain. + It shall not dawdle downward to the grave; + I'll pass upon the instant of perfection. + No woman shall behold Poppaea fade: + And now to Baiae! + +MYRRHA. Thence the Emperor + Hath sent three messengers already. + +POPPAEA. Ah! + Blue Baiae, warm beside a sparkling sea + Where I will win young Nero--and the world! + + + _Enter_ OTHO _hastily_ + +OTHO. The Emperor hath sent three messengers + Demanding you for Baiae: yet am I + Not asked: what means this lonely summons, wife? + +POPPAEA. Can you not trust me? + +OTHO. When I gaze on you, + 'Yes'--when your voice is murmuring at my ear, + 'Yes'--but at times when I am pressed by crowds + Or yearn alone beside the breaking wave---- + +POPPAEA. Will you not trust me? Why then do I go? + Is't for myself? You know well--'tis for you; + To praise the Emperor's verses--but for you; + To applaud his feeblest gesture--but for you; + To coax from him a kingdom--but for you! + Yet are you angered. + +OTHO. 'Tis a perilous game. + Nero may ask more of your loveliness. + +POPPAEA. A woman may surrender inch by inch + Even to the edge of shame: then sudden rise + Unmelting ice. + +OTHO. Poppaea, I like it not. + +POPPAEA. All is for you. + + + _Enter an_ OFFICER _with_ ATTENDANTS + +OFFICER. Sir, from the Emperor. + Thus Caesar saith: 'Hereby do we decree + Otho, our bosom's friend, sole governor + Of Lusitania: with imperial leave + Whom to appoint, dismiss: all revenues + In his control: thither let him proceed + To-morrow ere sunset.' + +OTHO. [_Looking at_ POPPAEA, _then turning to_ OFFICER.] + I shall obey. + + [_Exit_ OFFICER _and_ OTHERS. + + Dismiss the slaves. + +POPPAEA. Otho, I swear---- + +OTHO. Dismiss them. + +POPPAEA. Myrrha, stay by me! On my knees I swear---- + +OTHO. Stand up! You knew this? + +POPPAEA. Dear, I never could---- + +OTHO. [_Taking her by the arm._] You go to Baiae into Caesar's arms. + I am--promoted--to the ends of the earth, + Anywhere, anywhere, so I be not there + To interrupt. + + [_He throws her from him--snatches his dagger._ + +POPPAEA. Kill me then if you will. + Here--here! I will not flinch, so I die true. + You'll not suspect my corpse. + +OTHO. It has been planned, + Thought out, and timed--for in his deepest plot + Our Nero has an eye for drama still. + He hath imagined that which now we act. + +POPPAEA. Kill me--I love you! Ere you strike, one kiss. + +OTHO. Ah! [_Recoiling._] + +POPPAEA. But one kiss--a kiss of olden days, + When we two were most happy: Caesar was not, + And you had laughed at him! A harp-player, + But not my man, my Otho! Think you I + Who have had these arms about me, and these lips + Burn up my own, could languish for a mime? + I am a child--I have done wrong--forgive it-- + I sighed for thy advancement--speak to me! + Now slap my hands or send me to my bed, + I am a baby in these deep affairs. + +OTHO. Go not to Baiae then: depart with me + To Lusitania; words I'll count no more, + But deeds--to Lusitania, come with me. + +POPPAEA. Is it wise to disobey--is it wise, I ask? + Set me aside, be mindful of yourself. + +OTHO. So you'll not come? + +POPPAEA. For you alone I linger. + I'll tarry but a little while behind you, + And when I come, I'll greet you full of riches. + +OTHO. I dread to leave you in your loveliness. + +POPPAEA. Then I'll not go with you. + +OTHO. You will not--Why? + +POPPAEA. Because you will not trust me. Show to me + That you can trust me, Otho; and what joy, + What satisfaction can you have to drag + Your wife behind you, from dull jealousy + Because you do not dare leave her behind + For fear--I'll not be such a wife. + +OTHO. Poppaea, + No more I'll ask you to depart with me, + I'll go alone: but this remember still-- + Gay have I been, a spendthrift and an idler, + A brilliant fly that buzzed about the bloom. + But I had that in me deep down, and still, + Of which you, you alone, possess the key, + A sullen nobleness to you disclosed + E'en then with shame: and by no other guessed. + This you well know: betray not that at least; + For even the lightest woman here is scared, + And dreads to dabble deeper in the soul. + We have no children. + +POPPAEA. [_Coming to him and putting up her face._] + Am I not child enough + Who should be woman? You shall kiss these lips + Once ere you go--so close they are to you. + +OTHO. The gods laugh out at me--but I must kiss you. + +POPPAEA. Can I not help your preparation? + +OTHO. No. + I shall not go with pomp; but as a soldier. + +POPPAEA. I think you are still angry? + +OTHO. No! Farewell, + I have brief time. + +POPPAEA. Ah! take me with you, then. + +OTHO. What! You will come? + +POPPAEA. I wish--I wish 'twere wise. + My love shall bear your litter all the way. + + [_Exit_ OTHO _hastily_. + + + _Re-enter_ MAID + +MAID. Has he gone, lady? Had I such a man + I could not let him part thus, not for Caesar. + +POPPAEA. For Caesar! No: but Caesar means the world! + For Baiae! The new gold-dust! + +MAID. Here, I have it. + +POPPAEA. Bear it yourself--entrust it to no other. + + [_Exeunt_. + + + +SCENE III + +NERO'S PRIVATE CHAMBER _in the villa at Baiae, looking directly upon +the bay. Left, doors leading into the apartments. The water laps +close up to the marble quay or terrace on which the action takes place. +Right are seen prows of galleys at their moorings. Beyond is the +curving shore of the bay, crowded with villas and temples. The scene +is of extreme southern richness and serenity. Time noon_ + +[NERO _is pacing restlessly to and fro. Enter a servant._ + +NERO. The lady Poppaea! Is she yet arrived? + +SERVANT. Sir, an hour since. + +NERO. [_Impatiently._] Then why is she not here? + + [_Exit_ SERVANT. + + An hour since: yet she lingers while I ache + With passion. She comes not, still she delays. + To fly to her? No, 'twere unworthy of me---- + And yet, and yet--Ah! I must go to her. + + + _Enter slaves bearing_ POPPAEA _on litter_ + +POPPAEA. [_Standing aloof and veiled._] + Caesar, by thee thrice summoned, I am here. + What is your will? + +NERO. To have you at my side. + +POPPAEA. Caesar, I am thy subject, and obeyed + Unwillingly. + +NERO. Unwillingly? + +POPPAEA. I come + In loyalty: what service can I render? + If none, then suffer me now to depart. + I tremble to be seen with thee alone; + No whisper yet has touched me. + +NERO. So you come, + But out of loyalty. + +POPPAEA. As fits thy subject. + +NERO. No, I am thine! + +POPPAEA. Caesar, I will not hear, + I must not if I would--that you know well. + +NERO. You come in cold obedience? + +POPPAEA. I have said so. + Yet---- + +NERO. [_Eagerly._] Well--well---- + +POPPAEA. Nero--nay, Caesar--my lord. + +NERO. Nero, I'd have you say. + +POPPAEA. That slipped from me-- + Is't treason? I know nothing of the laws. + +NERO. You come because thrice summoned? + +POPPAEA. In my mind + There lurked another reason for my coming. + +NERO. What then? + +POPPAEA. A thought that like a captive bird + I have kept warm about my heart so long + I am loth to let it fly forth to the cold. + +NERO. [_Approaching her._] Tell me this thought. + +POPPAEA. Then, Caesar, I have long + Brooded upon the music of thy verse. + It doth beset me--and, O pardon me, + If, little fool that I am, I longed to speak + But once alone with him who made it. Now, + What have I said? I will return forthwith. + +NERO. O not thy beauty moves me but thy mind! + +POPPAEA. I think I have some little ear for verse. + There is one line---- + +NERO. Yes--yes---- + +POPPAEA. Of burning Troy-- + 'O city amorous red, thou flagrant rose'---- + +NERO. A regal verse! But the arm extended thus + Toward doomed Ilium. Say on. + +POPPAEA. My eyes + Are filled with tears. + +NERO. Remove thy veil and weep. + +POPPAEA. [_Starting back._] For no man--save my husband--O my lord! + He is despatched to Lusitania. + +NERO. Know you not why? + +POPPAEA. I know not--cannot guess. + +NERO. That he might stand no more between us two. + +POPPAEA. O sir, he is my husband, and my way + Is with him wheresoe'er he go. My duty---- + +NERO. But your inclining? + +POPPAEA. That I will not say. + But Lusitania is henceforth my home. + Nero, I will speak truth: I'll not deny + There is some strange communion of the soul + 'Twixt you and me: but I'll not yield to this, + No, nor shall you compel me, Caesar: I + Will follow Otho even to banishment. + There are more sacred things in my regard + Than mutual pleasure from melodious verse. + +NERO. Nothing, when soul meets soul without alloy. + +POPPAEA. I fear you do forget I am a woman. + Dear to us before all are household cares. + +NERO. O to the average, not to thee. + +POPPAEA. Farewell! + +NERO. You shall not go thus. + +POPPAEA. Caesar, chain me here, + But in neglected duty I shall pine. + +NERO. [_Angrily striding to and fro._] Ah! + +POPPAEA. And imagine that he did not live-- + That I were free to indulge this panting soul-- + Still there are bars between us none can break. + +NERO. You mean my wife Octavia? + +POPPAEA. Well--and yet + Not she, perhaps. + +NERO. Who then? What other bars? + +POPPAEA. Your mother Agrippina. + +NERO. Still my mother! + +POPPAEA. She would not bear it: would command her son + To leave me: a younger woman has no hope + Against her. + +NERO. I am not her lackey. + +POPPAEA. No? + Ah, but her child, and born but to obey. + And yet though wiser, mightier, than myself, + You shall not find in her a listener + So still, so answerable to your mood. + And, I will say it, you'll not find in her + One who has dived so deep into your soul, + Who sees--I cannot flatter--sees that greatness + Which she too long keeps under: were I you + I would be Caesar, spite of twenty mothers, + And seem the mighty poet that I am. + I'll go. + +NERO. You madden me---- + +POPPAEA. Farewell again. + +NERO. Poppaea, go not, go not. All the east + Burns in me, and the desert fires my blood. + I parch, I pine for you. My body is sand + That thirsts. I die, I perish of this thirst, + To slake it at your lips! You madden me. + + [_He seizes her cloak and she stands revealed._ + + Goddess! What shall I give thee great enough? + I'll give thee Rome--I'll give thee this great world, + And all the builded empire as a toy. + The Mediterranean shall thy mirror be, + Thy jewels all sparkling stars of heaven. + The orb of the earth--throw it on thy lap + But for a kiss--one kiss! + +POPPAEA. But Agrippina? + +NERO. Agrippina? + +POPPAEA. No--I'll not think of it! + I'll have no violence for my sake committed. + If by some chance unlooked for she should die, + If in some far, far time she should succumb + To creeping age--then---- + +NERO. Then? + + + _Enter_ MESSENGER _hurriedly_ + +MESSENGER. Sir, urgent business-- + The State demands you. + +NERO. [_Furiously._] Pah!--the State! + +POPPAEA. O Nero! + Remember first the State--me afterward! + +NERO. Empress! + + [_He leads her out._ + + [_He returns and stands as in a dream while the_ COUNCILLORS _enter_. + +BURRUS. How long? How long, sir? + Agrippina + Is drawing to her net the dregs of Rome, + Makes mutinous the rabble and the scum. + + [NERO _makes weary gesture_. + +SENECA. And, sir, she has not scrupled to enroll + The ragged, shrieking Christians, who wash not, + The refuse of the empire, all that flows + To this main sewer of Rome she counts upon. + +TIGELLINUS. [_Stealing forward._] And, sir, if + these things move you not--a letter. + +NERO. [_Reading._] 'I, Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus, of Claudius +widow, of Nero mother, hereby do declare that though I have sat tame +under private injuries, I will not forgo my public privileges, nor +consent to be banished from high festival or ceremony. I purpose then +to be present at Baiae at Minerva's feast, together with the Emperor, +and will hold no second place. This is my ancient right and to that +right I cleave. THE AUGUSTA.' + +SENECA. This is her ultimate audacity. + +TIGELLINUS. And this our utmost opportunity. + +NERO. Sirs, seeing that the State demands this life, + Seeing that I must choose 'twixt her and Rome, + I do consent to Agrippina's death. + The State like Nature must be pitiless, + And I must ruthless be as Nature's Lord. + But I'll be no Orestes, I'll not lift + This hand against her: see you then to that! + It is enough to have conceived this deed. + The how, the when, the where, I leave to you. + +TIGELLINUS. She is delivered now into our hands, + And runs into the toils we had not set. + In Baiae no Praetorians are camped, + No populace inflamed in her cause; + A solitary woman doth she come. + Caesar, receive her graciously and well. + Smile all distrust away and speak her soft, + While we devise for her a noiseless doom. + +ANICETUS. Caesar, a sudden thought hath come to me. + A pleasure pinnace lies in Baiae Bay + Built for thyself: on this let her return + In the deep night after Minerva's feast, + Or supper given in sign of amity. + I will contrive a roof weighted with lead + Over the couch whereon she will recline. + Once in deep water at a signal given + The roof shall fall: and with a leak prepared + The ship shall sink and plunge her in the waves. + In that uncertain water what may chance? + What may not? To the elements this deed + Will be imputed, to a casual gust + Or striking squall upon the moody deep. + +NERO. Wonderful! This gives beauty to an act + Which else were ugly and of me unworthy. + So mighty is she that her proper doom + Could come but by some elemental aid. + Her splendid trouble asketh but the sea + For sepulchre: her spirit limitless + A multitudinous and roaring grave. + Here's nothing sordid, nothing vulgar. I + Consign her to the uproar whence she came. + Be the crime vast enough it seems not crime. + I, as befits me, call on great allies. + I make a compact with the elements. + And here my agents are the very winds, + The waves my servants, and the night my friend. + +BURRUS. Suppose the night be clear, with a bright moon, + A calm sea. + +NERO. On the moon I can rely. + Last night I wrote to her a glimmering verse; + She is white with a wan passion for my lips. + The moon will succour me. Depart from me-- + Trouble me not with human faces now. + + [_Exeunt_ COUNCILLORS. + + [_Meanwhile_ POPPAEA _appears behind in a gorgeous dress with + white arms extended against the curtains_. + + + +SCENE IV + +SCENE.--_The same--glittering starlight_ + +_Enter various servants bearing wine-jars and dishes from the inner +suffer-room, in procession. Then_ BURRUS, SENECA, ANICETUS, _and_ +TIGELLINUS + +BURRUS. 'Tis not man's work to witness this. I have fought + Neck-deep in blood and spared not when the fit + Was on me, but I cannot gaze on this. + Have you a heart, old man? + +TIGELLINUS. No, not in hours + Like these: the brain is all. I fear, I fear him + The last farewell--he will not bear it out! + +SENECA. How to excuse my soul, yet I am here. + Was this mere acting, or a true emotion? + +ANICETUS. A little of both, but most, I fear it, true. + +TIGELLINUS. Is all prepared and timed? No hazard left? + +ANICETUS. Yonder the barge with lights and fluttering flags. + The canopy whereunder Agrippina + Will sit is heavily weighted: at a sign + A bolt withdrawn will launch it on her head. + + + _Enter_ NERO + +NERO. I cannot do it: if she goes, she goes. + I cannot say farewell, and kiss her lips, + Ere I commit her body to the deep. + +TIGELLINUS. All hangs upon the fervour of farewell, + The kiss, the soft word, and the hand detained, + All hangs on it; go back. + +NERO. 'Tis difficult. + + [NERO _turns. Enter_ AGRIPPINA. + + Come out into the cool a moment, mother. + +AGRIPPINA. This seemeth like to old days come again, + Evenings of Antium with a rising moon. + + [_Stroking his hair_. + + My boy, my boy, again! Look in my eyes. + So as a babe would you look up at me + After a night of tossing, half-awake, + Blinking against the dawn, and pull my head + Down to you, till I lost you in my hair. + Do you remember many a night so thick + With stars as this--you would not go to bed, + But still would paddle in the warm ocean + Spraying it with small hands into the skies. + +NERO. Yes, I remember. + +AGRIPPINA. Or when you would sail + In a slight skiff under a moon like this, + Though chidden oft and oft. + +NERO. Ah! I recall it. + +AGRIPPINA. A wilful child--the sea--ever the sea-- + Your mother could not hold you from the sea. + Will you be sore if I confess a thought? + +NERO. Ah! no, mother! + +AGRIPPINA. So foolish it seems now. + Awhile I doubted whether I should come. + +NERO. Why, then? + +AGRIPPINA. Now, do not laugh at me--I say + You will not laugh at me? + +NERO. No! + +AGRIPPINA. Why--I thought + That you perhaps would kill me if I came! + Truly I did! + +NERO. I kill you! + +AGRIPPINA. 'O,' I said, + 'I have wearied him: he is weary of his mother.' + +NERO. Oh! + +AGRIPPINA. In my ears there buzzed that prophecy-- + 'Nero shall reign but he shall kill his mother.' + + [NERO _starts_. + +AGRIPPINA. Now--now--I had not told you had I not + Been above measure happy. Now no more + Wild words, no more mad words between us two, + Who all the while are aching to be friends. + O how your hands come waxen once again + Within my own: again behind your voice + The hesitating tardy bird-like word + And the sweet slur of 'r's.' O but to-night + Even grandeur palls, the splendid goal: to-night + I am a woman and am with my child. + + [_A pause and she strains him to her_. + + Beautiful night that gently bringest back + Mother to son, and callest all thy stars + To watch it. Quiet sea that bringest peace + Between us two. Hast thou not thought how still + The air is as with silent pleasure? Child, + Is not the night then more than common calm? + +NERO. A sparkling starlight and a windless deep. + +AGRIPPINA. Never until to-night did I so feel + The lure of the sea that lures me to lie down + At last after such heat. Ah, but the stars + Are falling and I feel the unseen dawn. + Son, I must go at once. Where is my maid + To wrap me? Sweet and warm now is the night + And I am glad I had prepared to go + By water, not by land. + + + _Enter_ SERVANT, _hurriedly_ + +SERVANT. O Caesar! + +NERO. Well? + +SERVANT. Thy mother's galley by a random barge + Was struck, and now is sinking fast. + +AGRIPPINA. Alas! + Now must I go by land. + +NERO. Yes, go by land. + + [TIGELLINUS _signals to_ ANICETUS. + +ANICETUS. Yonder there lies a barge with fluttering flags, + A gilded pinnace, a light pleasure-boat + Built for you with much art and well designed. + Will you return in her? Easily she + Can swing round to the landing-stage. + +AGRIPPINA. Yes--yes-- + I'll go in her--Why not? + +NERO. It was foretold---- + + + _Enter_ ACCERONIA, _who elaborately wraps_ AGRIPPINA + +AGRIPPINA. Nero, my maid a moment to enwrap me. + As the wrapping is finished. + I have slept ill of late: but I shall have + A soft and steady breeze across the bay. + I shall sleep sound. Now, Nero, now good-bye. + For ever we are friends? + +NERO. Good-bye: yet stay! + + [_During this dialogue he is continually detaining her._ + + Have I been kind, this last hour? Say. + +AGRIPPINA. Most kind. + +NERO. You have no need to go this moment--one + More moment of thee, mother. + +AGRIPPINA. You shall see me + To-morrow. Will you cross the bay to me, + Or shall I come to you? + +NERO. I'll come to you + To-morrow! Ah! to-morrow! But to-night. + Now let me have you once more in my arms. + [_Detaining her._ + Is old Cynisca with you still? + +AGRIPPINA. [_Going._] She is. + +NERO. Stay, stay, give her this ring: she nursed me. + +AGRIPPINA. Yes. + I see you have my amulet. + +NERO. O yes. + +AGRIPPINA. So bright the night you'll see me all the way + Across the shining water. + +NERO. [_Clinging to her._] O farewell! + +AGRIPPINA. [_Descends to water._] + Good-night, child! I shall see you then to-morrow. + Already it hath dawned. + +NERO. Mother, good-night. + + [_Exit_ AGRIPPINA. + +TIGELLINUS. [_To crew in barge._] + Strike up the music there, a joyous strain! + And sing, you boatmen; the Augusta comes. + + [_Sounds of joyful music are heard, and singing, as the pinnace + puts off with measured beat of oars_. + +NERO. It hath put off: she hath gone: she sitteth happy. + See, the dead woman waves her hand to me. + Now the bark turns the headland. + +ANICETUS. But will soon + Steal into sight, well out upon the bay. + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar, let none deny thou art an actor. + +NERO. [_Passionately._] Was I all actor then? + That which I feigned + I felt, and when it was my cue to kiss her, + The whole of childhood rushed into the kiss. + When it was in my part to cling about her, + I clung about her mad with memories. + The water in my eyes rose from my soul, + And flooding from the heart ran down my cheek. + Did my voice tremble? Then it trembled true + With human agony behind the art. + Gods! What a scene! + +TIGELLINUS. Listen! + +ANICETUS. She is well out, + Glassed in the bay with all her lights and flags. + Soon will a crash and cry come in our ears. + +NERO. [_Going out._] How calm the night when I would have it wild! + Aloof and bright which should have rushed to me + Hither with aid of thunder, screen of lightning! + I looked for reinforcement from the sky. + Arise, you veiling clouds; awake, you winds, + And stifle with your roaring human cries. + Not a breath upon my cheek! I gasp for air. + [_To_ OTHERS.] Do you suppose the very elements + Are conscious of the workings of this mind? + So careful not to seem to share my guilt? + Yet dark is the record of wind and wave; + This ocean that creeps fawning to our feet + Comes purring o'er a million wrecks and bones. + If the cold moon hath sinned not, she hath been privy. + She aids me not, but watches quietly. + A placid sea, still air, and bright starlight. + +ANICETUS. But Caesar, see, a gradual cloud hath spread + Over the moon; the ship's light disappears. + She is vanished. + +NERO. She is veiled from sight. + +TIGELLINUS. My eyes + Can find her not; she is enwrapped in mist. + +SENECA. A dimness and no more. + +BURRUS. And silence. + +NERO. Hush! + How wonderful this waiting and this pause. + Could one convey this in the theatre? + This deep suspense, this breathlessness? Perhaps. + The air weighs on the brain----what sound was that? + +TIGELLINUS. Nothing, sir. + +NERO. In this thrill a leaf would thunder. + + [_A pause._ + + I never noted so exactly how + The shadow of that cypress falls aslant + Upon the dark bank yonder. + +BURRUS. Would it were over! + +NERO. Feel you no shuddering pleasure in this pause? + But me this fraught expectancy allures; + The tingling stillness, for each moment now + The crash, a cry, may come, but it comes not. + +TIGELLINUS. Anicetus, have you bungled? + + [_A cry is heard far off, and a crash, then silence._ + +NERO. It is done. + I cannot look: peer seaward, one of you-- + What do you see? + +SENECA. Darkness, and veiled stars. + +NERO. Is there no shimmer of a floating robe? + Pierce through the darkness! + +BURRUS. Nothing visible. + +NERO. I seem to see her lying amid shells, + And strange sea-things come round her wondering, + Inspecting her with cold and rheumy eyes. + The water sways her helpless up and down. + +BURRUS. Caesar, you have no further need of me? + +NERO. [_Dreamily._] No, sir. + +BURRUS. Good-night, and pleasant be thy dreams. + +SENECA. Or me? + +NERO. No, no! + +SENECA. At least bear witness, sir, + I had no hand in this: but was compelled, + A loth spectator, to behold thy deed! + +ANICETUS. Caesar, you'll not forget the service done? + +NERO. Never shall I forget thee, Anicetus. + Leave me alone. + + [_Exeunt all but_ TIGELLINUS, _who creeps back again._ + +TIGELLINUS. Sole master of the world! + Caesar at last: the Emperor of the earth, + Now thou art free--to write immortal verse, + To give thy genius wing, to strike the stars. + And thou hast made this tragic sacrifice, + Slaying what is most dear, most close to thee, + To give thy being vent and utterance. + Apollo shall reward thee for this deed. + +NERO. Go to thy room, old man, and--wilt thou sleep? + +TIGELLINUS. Already I am drowsing; early then + To-morrow I will come to you. + +NERO. Good-night. + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar, good-night. + + [_Exit_ TIGELLINUS. + + [_Thunder heard._ + +NERO. Ah! thunder! thou art come + At last, too late! What catches at my heart? + I--I--her boy, her baby that was, even I + Have killed her: where I sucked there have I struck. + Mother! Mother! [_He drinks._ + The anguish of it hath taken hold of me, + And I am gripped by Nature. O, it comes + Upon me, this too natural remorse. + I faint! I flinch from the raw agony! + I cannot face this common human throe! + Ah! Ah! the crude stab of reality! + I am a son, and I have killed my mother! + Why! I am now no more than him who tills + Or reaps: and I am seized by primal pangs. + Mother! [_He drinks._ + The thunder crieth motherless. + Ah! how this sword of lightning thrusts at me! + O, all the artist in my soul is shattered, + And I am hurled into humanity, + Back to the sweat and heart-break of mankind. + I am broken upon the jagged spurs of the earth. + I can no more endure it. Mother! + + [_He drinks again, walking distractedly to and fro, not looking + seaward. But as he at last turns, slowly out from the sea appears + the figure of_ AGRIPPINA _with dripping hair, who comes slowly + towards him in silence._ + + [_He cries aloud and falls in a swoon. She comes and looks at him._ + +AGRIPPINA. Child! + + [_She stoops, removes the amulet from his arm, flings it into the + sea, and passes out in silence._ + + + +SCENE V + +SCENE.--_The same. Dawn breaking;_ NERO _discovered lying in a swoon_ + +NERO. [_Slowly._] Dawn! In the night o'er-past a lightning flash! + Ah! I remember--here my mother's ghost + Stood--on this very ground--I feel the air + Still cold from her--and here the lightning burned. + So I awake my mother's murderer. + That was her ghost that stole on me sea-marred, + Silent--the ocean falling from her hair. + + + _Enter_ TIGELLINUS + +TIGELLINUS. Caesar at last! Sole master of the world! + +NERO. O Tigellinus, in the mid of night, + The spirit of my whelmed mother stole + Hither upon me, dumb out of the deep. + Heaven gave a flash: I saw her face and fell. + +TIGELLINUS. Her spirit! Better that than she herself. + Dismiss dark fancies now--this day thou art free. + +NERO. No, but enthralled by her for ever-more. + She is my air, my ocean, and my sky. + +TIGELLINUS. The night has wrought this sickly mood on you-- + Natural--it will pass. + +NERO. Never, O never! + You flatter, you console, you would assuage, + But you are human, can forget and change. + But yonder rocky coast remembers yet. + That countenance changes not: that conscious bay + Maintains its everlasting memory. + This privy region saw, and it shall see + For ever what was done. The amulet! + Filched from me! Was it then a ghost I saw? + + + _Enter_ SEAMAN _hurriedly, followed by_ BURRUS + +SEAMAN. Caesar, my news must plead for this intrusion. + I was aboard the ship whereon the Augusta + Set sail: when the roof fell, thy mother's maid + Cried 'Save me! I am the Emperor's mother!' + Straight + Crushed under many a blow, she dropped and died. + But silently thy mother Agrippina + Slid from the ship into the water and swam + Shoreward. With white and jewelled arms she thrust + Out through the waves and lay upon the foam. + We heard her through the ripple breathing deep, + And when we heard no more, we watched her still-- + Her hair behind her blowing into gold + As she did glimmer o'er the gloomy deep; + And all the stars swam with her through the heavens, + The hurrying moon lighted her with a torch, + The sea was loth to lose her, and the shore + Yearned for her; till we lost her in the dark, + Save now and then some splendid leap of the head. + +NERO. You know not if she be alive or dead? + +SEAMAN. Caesar, rejoice--thy mother lives. + +NERO. She lives? + +SEAMAN. When I at last touched shore, I spoke with two + Night-wandering fishermen. These two, it seems, + Had borne her in their boat across the bay + To her own villa. + +NERO. [_Falling hysterically on neck of_ SEA-MAN.] + I am no murderer then! + +TIGELLINUS. Have you considered, sir, what now may urge + Thy mother, Agrippina, knowing all, + Seeing that by no chance or accident + Or sudden flurry of the ocean floor + The ship collapsed. Safe is she, but how long? + Will she not burst upon us suddenly? + Sir, she must die to-night. + +NERO. I'll not attempt + A second time that life the sea restored; + She is too vast a spirit to surprise. + Even Nature stood aloof---- + My mother shall be gloriously caged, + Imprisoned in purple and immured in gold. + In some magnificent captivity + Worthy the captive let her day decline. + + [_Shouts without: enter_ BURRUS. + +BURRUS. Caesar, great news I bring: the Armenian + Lies helpless on Tigranocerta's plain + O'erwhelmed by Corbulo, and the huge host + Dissolved. Armenia lies beneath your feet: + Rome yearns to welcome you. + +NERO. To Rome I go + Free-souled and guiltless of a mother's blood, + Resume the accustomed feast, the race, the song, + And I shall be received with public joy + And clamour of congratulating Rome. + + [_Great cheering without: exit_ NERO. + + [_A pause._ + +TIGELLINUS. Burrus, she'll strike at us whate'er the cost: + She'll slay the ministers if not the master. + +BURRUS. We are both dead unless some sudden scheme-- + + _Enter_ ANICETUS _at back_ + + [_Turning._] Here is another doomed as we ourselves. + +TIGELLINUS. Ah, Anicetus! Agrippina lives, + And she will launch her vengeance on us three, + But first on you; you first set Nero on-- + You first proposed the scheme. You on the sea + Bungled--Now on the land retrieve the error. + To you we look. + + + _Enter_ POPPAEA _from behind and stands listening_ + +ANICETUS. My error is repaired + Already. I first heard the Augusta lived, + And instantly despatched a faithful troop + To slay her at her villa o'er the bay. + +TIGELLINUS. How shall we know if they have found and slain her? + +ANICETUS. All this I have arranged and clearly planned. + If they shall find that she hath fled to Rome, + Hark for one trumpet-call across the bay: + If they have found her at the villa, then + Hark for two trumpet-calls across the bay: + If they have found her and have slain her, then + Hark for three trumpet-calls across the bay! + + [_A burst of music without, and sounds of advancing procession._ + + [_Enter soldiers and satellites, with attendants bearing a litter. + Lastly_ NERO. + +TIGELLINUS. Now as a conqueror in triumphant vein + Ride through the thundering ways of risen Rome, + Anticipating the Armenian car. + +NERO. [_Ascending litter._] + Set out for Rome! And you, accusing coasts, + Accuse no more. Guiltless I say farewell, + And with a light heart journey toward Rome + Joyous I go, for Agrippina lives. + + +[_A great triumphal shout swells up again, and to the sound of military +music_, NERO _and the procession pass off. Meanwhile_ TIGELLINUS _is +left in a listening attitude_. POPPAEA _stands breathless at back. +There is a pause. Then a trumpet-call is heard far off; a second; and +a third_. POPPAEA _rushes to_ TIGELLINUS _and clasps his hand_. + + + + +ACT IV + + +SCENE I + +SCENE.--_A tower overlooking Rome_ + + + _Enter_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ PHYSICIAN + +SENECA. How dark the future of the Empire glooms! + +BURRUS. Now the Gaul mutters: the Praetorians + Sullenly snarl. + +SENECA. The Christians privily + Conspire. + +BURRUS. The legions waver and whisper too. + +SENECA. [_To_ PHYSICIAN.] What of the Emperor? + +PHYSICIAN. Through Campania + He rushes: and distracted to and fro + Would fly now here, now there; behind each woe + He sees the angered shade of Agrippina. + Now hearing that Poppaea sinks toward death. + Hither is he fast hurrying. + +SENECA. Ah, Poppaea, + No sooner Empress made than she must die---- + +BURRUS. See: she is carried hither. + +SENECA. Here to look + Her last upon the glory of the earth. + + [_Exeunt_ SENECA, BURRUS, _and_ PHYSICIAN. + + [POPPAEA _enters, supported by handmaids. She takes a long look + at Rome, then is assisted down to couch._ + +POPPAEA. Give me the glass again: beautiful yet! + This face can still endure the sunset glow, + No need is there for me to sue the shadow, + Perfect out of the glory I am going. + +MYRRHA. Lady, the mood will pass: still you are young. + +POPPAEA. Why comes not Nero near me? + O he loathes + Sickness or sadness or the touch of trouble, + +MYRRHA. Nay, lady; hither he is riding fast, + In fury spurring from Campania, + And trouble upon trouble falls on him-- + Misfortune follows him like a faithful hound. + +POPPAEA. I snared him, Myrrha, once; let him flutter away! + But to relinquish the wide earth at last, + And flit a faint thing by a shadowy river, + Or yearning without blood upon the bank---- + The loneliness of death! To go to strangers-- + Into a world of whispers---- + + [_Looking at and lifting her hair._ + + And this hair + Rolling about me like a lighted sea + Which was my glory and the theme of the earth, + Look! Must this go? The grave shall have these eyes + Which were the bliss of burning Emperors. + After what time, what labour the high gods + Builded the body of this beauty up! + Now at a whim they shatter it! More light! + I'll catch the last of the sun. + + + _Enter_ SLAVE + +SLAVE. Mistress, below + The lady Acte stands and asks to see you. + +POPPAEA. Come to inspect me fading: I fear not. + Even a woman's eyes I need not shun. + Bring her. [_Exit_ SLAVE. + Now, Myrrha, watch her hungering eyes. + + + _Enter_ ACTE, _ushered by_ SLAVE + +POPPAEA. [_Vehemently._] Take Nero! I am dying. + +ACTE. Ah, not yet! + +POPPAEA. I am dying. But you shall not hold him long---- + O, do not think it. Can you queen his heart? + Can you be storm a moment, sun the next? + A month, a long day under open skies, + Would find your art exhausted, ended. I! + I was a hundred women in an hour, + And sweeter at each moment than them all. + Why, I have struck him in the face and laughed. + +ACTE. I love him: that concerns not him, nor you. + A different goal I would have sought for him, + A garment not of purple, but of peace. + +POPPAEA. Of peace! Ha, ha! + +ACTE. Vain now--I know it, vain. + But if your words are true, and death is on you, + Let us two at the least be friends at last. + +POPPAEA. I bear no rancour--and yet if I dreamed + That I was leaving you upon his bosom-- + But no: let there be peace between us two. + + [ACTE _comes and kisses her._ + + Your kiss falls kind upon my loneliness. + But, Acte, to let go of glory thus-- + For I have drunk of empire, and what cup + Afterward can you offer to these lips? + +ACTE. Of late there has been stealing on my mind + A strange hope--a new vision. + +POPPAEA. What is this? + +ACTE. Do not laugh out at me: a sect despised-- + The Christians, tell us of an after life, + A glory on the other side the grave. + If there should be a kingdom not of this world, + A spirit throne, a city of the soul! + +POPPAEA. I want no spirit kingdom after death. + The splendid sun, the purple, and the crown, + These I have known, and I am losing them. + +ACTE. Yet if the sun, the purple, and the crown + Were but the shadows of another sun, + Splendider--a more dazzling diadem? + +POPPAEA. These can I see at least, and feel, and hear. + +ACTE. Yes, with a mortal touch that falters now. + +POPPAEA. [_Sobbing._] O Acte, to be dumb, and deaf, and blind! + +ACTE. Or live again with more transcendent sense, + Hearing unchecked, and unimpeded sight. + If we who walk now, then should wing the air, + Who stammer now, then should discard the voice, + Who grope now, then should see with other sight, + And send new eyes about the universe. + +POPPAEA. O, this is madness! + +ACTE. Is it? Is it? Well-- + Yet have I heard this ragged people speak, + And they have stirred me strangely: life they scorn, + And yearn for death's tremendous liberty, + But I--I cannot speak; yet I believe + There is a new air blowing on the world, + And a new budding underneath the earth. + +POPPAEA. Ah, ah! the sun! The sun! It goeth down, + How cold it grows: the night comes down on me. + I'll have no lamp: but hold my hand in thine. + +ACTE. Sister, forget the world, it passeth. + +POPPAEA. [_Falling back._] Rome! + + + +SCENE II + +SCENE.--_The same_. SENECA, BURRUS, ACTE, _and_ PHYSICIAN + +PHYSICIAN. The Emperor comes from gazing on Poppaea. + What woe may that dead face not work on him, + After such rain of dark calamities! + +SENECA. Why hath he summoned me? + +PHYSICIAN. He knows not why. + The infatuate orgies in Campania, + Defeat, revolt, have wrought upon his mind, + Till it begins to reel--behind each woe + He sees the angered shade of Agrippina. + + [_Enter_ NERO _with tablets, murmuring to himself. He comes + to the_ COUNCILLORS, _gazes at them, and retires to parapet._ + + 'Beautiful on her bed Poppaea lay'-- + I have begun to write her epitaph. + + [_He again gazes over parapet, murmuring to himself. Then turning_ + + Ah, blow supreme! Ah, ultimate injury! + I can no longer write: my brain is barren. + My gift, my gift, thou hast left me. Let me die! + Ah! what an artist perishes in me. + + [_He again returns to parapet, gazing and murmuring, and throws + his tablets from him._ + + Dead Agrippina rages unappeased. + At night I hear the trailing of a robe, + And the slain woman pauses at my door. + O! she is mightier having drunk of death; + Now hath she haled Poppaea from my arms; + Last doth she quench the holy fire within me---- + + + _Enter_ MESSENGER + +MESSENGER. Caesar, I bring dark news: + Boadicea the British Queen is risen, + And like a fire is hissing through the isle, + Londinium and Camulodunum + In ashes lie; the loosed barbarians + In madness rage and ravish, murder and burn. + +BURRUS. Caesar, despatch. + + [_Brings_ NERO _paper._ + +NERO. Ah, this is still the deed + Of Agrippina. Listen! Did ye not hear + The rustle of a robe? [_Starting up._ + Ah! thou art come! + I--I no order gave! Then did the brine + Drop from thy hair: but now blood falls from thee; + There, where they struck thee, once did I sleep sound. + What shall I do to appease thee? Let me die + Rather than see that wonder on thy face, + And stare on me of terrible surprise. + Thou com'st upon me! + +ACTE. Ah! what ails your mind? + +NERO. She is gone! The red drops those that fell from her! + +ACTE. Lo! I am with thee! + +NERO. Thou! And who art thou? + + + _Enter in great haste an_ OFFICER, _followed by_ OTHERS + +OFFICER. Caesar, Rome burns! We cannot fight the fire + Which blazes and consumes. How it arose + None knows and none can tell. What shall we do? + +ANOTHER. It sprung in the Suburra: whether lit + By accident, dropped torch, or smouldering brand---- + +ANOTHER. Or by design---- + +ANOTHER. Caesar, the Christians, + Who hate the human race, have done this thing: + They loathe thy rule and would abolish thee, + And with thee, Rome. + +ANOTHER. They have a prophecy + That now the world is ending, and in fire + The globe shall shrivel, and this empire fall + In cinders. + +ANOTHER. And the moon be turned to blood. + +NERO. The moon be turned to blood! But that is fine! + These Christians have imaginations then! + The moon in blood, and burning universe! + Why, I myself might have conceived that scene! + + + _Enter_ OTHERS _from the opposite side_ + +OFFICER. Caesar, what shall be done? + Still spreads the fire! + A quarter of Rome in ashes lies already, + And like a blackened corpse: and screaming mothers, + Hugging their babes, dash through the fearful flames, + And old men totter gasping through the blaze + Or fall scorched to the ground. Stifled with smoke + The population from their houses reel. + Meantime the Christians, prophesying woe + And final doom upon a wicked world, + Hither and thither run, and with their dark + Forebodings madden all the minds of men. + To thee they point! To thee, the source of fire, + Who has drawn down on them celestial flame. + +NERO. Magnificent! The aim of heavenly fire! + +ANOTHER. They say the world shall crumble, and the skies + Fall, and their God come in the clouds of heaven + To judge the earth! + +ANOTHER. But we are wasting breath + Over the Christians: what now shall be done? + To thee, Caesar, to thee, we come: for thou + Alone mayst with this conflagration cope. + +NERO. Listen! Did ye not hear a wailing then? + The wailing of a woman in her grave? + Again! A wailing, and I know the voice! + + + _Enter_ OTHERS _hastily_ + +MESSENGER. Caesar, the fire has reached the Palatine! + Rome will be ashes soon. + +ANOTHER. We have fought fire + With water: matched the elements in vain, + For the fire triumphs: Caesar, what aid from thee? + + + _Enter_ ANOTHER + +MESSENGER. Caesar, the temple of Jupiter is aflame. + The shrine of Vesta next will crash to the earth. + +ANOTHER. Open the sluices of the Campus Martius. + +ANOTHER. Issue some sudden edict: give command. + +NERO. No edict will I issue, or command. + Let the fire rage. + +CHORUS. O Caesar! + +NERO. Let it rage! + +ANOTHER. Caesar, 'tis said this fire was lit by thee. + That thou wouldst burn old Rome to build a new, + A Rome more glorious issuing from the flames: + This tale hath maddened all the common folk + Who, from their smouldering homes, curse thee aloud. + +NERO. This fire is not the act of mortal mind, + But is the huge conception of a spirit + Dreaming beyond the tomb a mighty thought. + She would express herself in burning fire: + This is the awful vengeance of the dead; + This is my mother Agrippina's deed. + I will not baulk the fury of her spirit. + No! Let her glut her anger on the city, + For only Rome in ashes can appease her, + Let the fire rage and purge me of her blood! + [_The flame flashes upward._ + Rage! + Rage on! + See, see! + How beautiful! + Like a rose magnificently burning! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Rage on! + Thou art that which poets use, + Or which consumes them. + Thou art in me! + Thou dreadful womb of mighty spirits, + And crimson sepulchre of them! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Blaze! Blaze! + How it eats and eats! + How it drinks! + What hunger is like unto the hunger of fire? + What thirst is like unto the thirst of flame? + [_The flame flashes up._ + O fury superb! + O incurable lust of ruin! + O panting perdition! + O splendid devastation! + I, I, too, have felt it! + To destroy--to destroy! + To leave behind me ashes, ashes. + [_The flame flashes up._ + Rage! Rage on! + Or art thou passion, art thou desire? + Ah! terrible kiss! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Now hear it, hear it! + A hiss as from mighty serpents, + The dry, licking, wicked tongues! + Wouldst thou sting the earth to death? + What a career! + To clasp and devour and kill! + To dance over the world as a frenzied dancer + With whirling skirts of world-wide flame! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Blaze! Blaze! + Or art thou madness visible, + Insanity seizing the rolling heavens. + [_He points up._ + Thou, Thou, didst create the world + In the stars innumerably smiling. + Thou art life, thou art God, thou art I! + [_The flame flashes up._ + Mother! Mother! + This is thy deed. + Hist! Hist! can you not see her + Stealing with lighted torch? + She makes no sound, she hath a spirit's tread. + Hast thou sated thy vengeance yet? + Art thou appeased? + [_The flame flashes up._ + Be satisfied with nothing but the world, + The world alone is fuel for thee. + Mother! + [_The flame flashes up._ + And I! See what a fire I have given thee, + Rome for a funeral couch! + Had Achilles a pyre like to this + Or had Patroclus? + Had they mourners such as I give to thee, + Bereaved mothers and babes? + Now let the wailing cease from thy tomb, + Here is a mightier wail! + Now let the haunting trumpet be dumb! + +ACTE. Nero! + +NERO. Blaze! Rage! Blaze! + [_The flame flashes up more fervently._ + For now am I free of thy blood, + I have appeased and atoned, + Have atoned with cries, with crashings, and with flaming. + Thy blood is no more on my head; + I am purged, I am cleansed; + I have given thee flaming Rome for the bed of thy death! + O Agrippina! + + [_He falls in a swoon_--ACTE _runs towards him._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO*** + + +******* This file should be named 24785.txt or 24785.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/8/24785 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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