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diff --git a/old/55294-0.txt b/old/55294-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e671850..0000000 --- a/old/55294-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8997 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poetical Works of Robert Bridges (Volume 3), by -Robert Bridges - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Poetical Works of Robert Bridges (Volume 3) - -Author: Robert Bridges - -Release Date: August 7, 2017 [EBook #55294] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETICAL WORKS--ROBERT BRIDGES, VOL 3 *** - - - - -Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Les Galloway and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - POETICAL WORKS - - of - - ROBERT BRIDGES - - Volume III - - [Colophon] - - London Smith, Elder & Co 15 Waterloo Place 1898 - - - - - OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY - - - - - _POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BRIDGES_ - - - _VOLUME THE THIRD CONTAINING_ - - -_THE FIRST PART OF NERO_ _p._ 1 - -_ACHILLES IN SCYROS_ 179 - -_NOTES_ 261 - - - - -LIST OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS - - -_THE FIRST PART OF NERO._ - -1. _NERO. An historical Tragedy of the first part of the reign of the -emperor Nero. Published by Ewd. Bumpus. London, 1885. 4to._ - - -_ACHILLES IN SCYROS._ - -1. _ACHILLES IN SCYROS. A drama in a mixed manner. Published by Ewd. -Bumpus. London, 1890. 4to._ - -2. _ACHILLES IN SCYROS._ _Uniform with_ Shorter Poems (I). _George Bell -& Sons, 1892._ - - - - -THE FIRST PART OF THE HISTORY OF NERO - - -A HISTORICAL TRAGEDY - - - - -DRAMATIS PERSONÆ - - - _NERO_. - - _BRITANNICUS_ _stepson to Agrippina_. - - _BURRUS_ _praetorian prefect_. - - _SENECA_ _tutor to Nero_. - - _LUCAN, the poet, nephew to Seneca_ } - _OTHO_ } } _friends of Nero_. - _PETRONIUS_} _gentlemen of Rome_ } - - _PALLAS_ _master of the imperial household_. - - _TIGELLINUS_ _successor to Pallas_. - - _THRASEA, a Stoic_ } _honest senators_. - _PRISCUS_ } - - _ANICETUS_ _an admiral_. - - _PARIS_ _a player, favourite of Nero_. - - _SELEUCUS_ _an astrologer_. - - _Messengers, Servants, &c._ - - _AGRIPPINA AUGUSTA_ _mother to Nero_. - - _OCTAVIA_ _wife to Nero, sister to Britannicus_. - - _POPPÆA_ _wife to Otho, loved of Nero_. - - _DOMITIA_ _sister-in-law to Agrippina_. - - _FULVIA_ _attendant on Agrippina_. - - _Maids, &c._ - - -_Scene. The first four acts are laid in ROME; the fifth is at BAIÆ._ - - - - - NERO - - - - - ACT · I - - - SCENE · 1 - -_On the Palatine. THRASEA & PRISCUS._ - - -_THRASEA._ - -IF you ask my advice then, it is silence. You are -yet new to the senate, and must learn to give -your opinion with least offence. - -_PRISCUS._ - -Can you mean this? - - _Thr._ Yes—it is my serious advice. - - _Pr._ Now, unless it were the silence of Brutus ... - - _Thr._ Hush, hush! Were this repeated, there is no -greater peril than that word of yours. - - _Pr._ But to you I know I may speak freely. - - _Thr._ What know you of me? 10 - - _Pr._ I know Thrasea is brave, and resents his country’s -wrongs; that he has insight to see that liberty -was never more outraged than now. - - _Thr._ Believe me, sir, this tale of things being at their -worst is common to all times. Your judgment has gone -astray upon a contempt for Cæsar’s follies, or a hatred -of his mother’s crimes. Measure Nero but by what he -has already done, and you may even find cause for -congratulation. 19 - - _Pr._ We shall be ruled like the Britons by a Queen. - - _Thr._ O nay. It is not possible that Nero will suffer -Agrippina’s ambition to take such a place. ’Tis already -a quarrel between them, and Seneca declares for him. - - _Pr._ Then, I ask you, may there not be found in this -quarrel an opportunity to bring in Britannicus? Now -he is of age, he can no longer be held disqualified. - - _Thr._ There is no question of qualification or of -claim. 28 - - _Pr._ How so? The late emperor Claudius in his will -mentioned Britannicus for his successor, as being his -own son.... - - _Thr._ May be. But then, sir, his empress made away -with both him and his will; and the Roman people chose -for Cæsar the son of the murderess, rather than the heir -of the idiot they were glad to be rid of. Since which -day Nero is as truly our Cæsar as Britannicus could -ever have been. Those who swore to Nero will remain -by him; as ’tis well they should, else were no stability. - - _Pr._ Shall we then do nothing? 39 - - _Thr._ You take things by the wrong handle. Let us -make the best of what we have. Our Cæsar is the pupil -of a philosopher and guided in everything by his -master’s counsels. - - _Pr._ You are very tolerant and hopeful. - - _Thr._ Try and be so too, and I shall wish to see -more of you. If you will visit my house, you will indeed -be most welcome and may find congenial company. -Only no more of Brutus. - - _Pr._ Thank you for your kindness, if it is an earnest -of your confidence—On another occasion... 50 - - _Thr._ O we will find many. (_Shouts heard._) What is -that? (_More shouts._) It must be Cæsar: he is coming -this way. Be not seen talking with me: go you that -way: I will remain. Farewell. - - _Pr._ Farewell, Thrasea. [_Exit._ - - _Thr._ Young blood, hot blood and true: - Yet is his energetic patriotism - Useless,—nay, like a weapon out of date, - Looks not to be a warlike weapon more. - I think in me it had been truer wisdom, 60 - Knowing the forces of this drowning time, - To have said outright—Good, honest Priscus, - Be good no longer, let thine honesty - Rot, it can stead thee nothing; there’s no man - Will be the better for it; there’s no field - Where thou canst exercise it, not a place - In all the world where in secure possession - Thou mayst retire with it: cast it away; - For ’tis a burden far beyond thy freight. - If thou wilt swim at all, swim with the times, 70 - An empty bottom on a shallow tide: - Be that thy seamanship—No; I am bold to say - Our virtue hath the topmost vaunt of honour; - Seeing we are true to it in spite of shame, - When its incompetence before the world - Gives it the lie; nor can the fawning curs, - That bask in Cæsar’s sunshine, when they mock us, - Dream that we wish them other than they are. - I give them joy. See here is folly’s king, - The hare-brained boy to whom injurious fortune 80 - Has given the throne and grandeur of the world: - Now if I bow my head ’tis in thy game, - Ridiculous fate; and my soul laughs at thee. - - [_Retires aside._ - - _Enter Nero, Otho, Lucan, Tigellinus, and Paris._ - - _NERO._ - - This is the place: enlarge it on this side - To take in all the hill. That house of Rufus - That blocks the way must down, and all the piles - On the south slope. Now say, is’t fine or no? - - _LUCAN._ - - Magnificent. - - _OTHO._ - - It shows the mind of Cæsar. - - _TIGELLINUS._ - - Splendid. - - _Ner._ At least the best: we still regret - A better than the best; and I can see 90 - These possibilities. Think if the hill - Were raised some hundred feet, till it o’ertopped - The Capitol—eh! lords. And so ’twere best; - But still ’twill pass for good. - - _Luc._ ’Twill be a palace - For site and size the first in all the world. - - _Ner._ To kill the Jews’ brag of Jerusalem? - - _Oth._ I think it. - - _Ner._ You, my friends, who know my scheme, - May mete and judge my general scope in this, - A sample of my temper coined and uttered 99 - For the world’s model, that all men’s endeavours - May rise with mine to have all things at best, - Not only for myself but for the world; - Riches and joy and heart’s content for all. - It may be done, and who should do it but I? - See now my years at best, my youth and strength - With form and gifts agreeing, and my power,.... - Know’st thou my power?—Oh! Otho, I tell thee - The Cæsars which have been have never known - What ’tis to be full Cæsar. Dost thou think? - There’s nothing good on earth but may be won 110 - With power and money; and I have them both; - Ay, and the will. - - _Oth._ Much may be done, no doubt. - - _Ner._ Much! Why there’s nothing, man, may not be done. - The curse of life is of our own devising, - Born of man’s ignorance and selfishness. - He wounds his happiness against a cage - Of his own make, and only waits the word - For one to set his door open,—and look, - Having his liberty is he not glad - As heaven’s birds are?—Now when fate’s ordinance - Sends him a liberator, ay, and one 121 - Not to cajole or preach, but, will or nill, - Who’ll force him forth and crush up his old cage, - With all who would hang back and skulk therein, - How shall he not be happy? - - _Luc._ This shall be - The world’s last crown, by man with utmost power - Endowed to drive him to the good he shuns. - - _Ner._ Ay. Be all human hopes summed up in mine - And reach their goal. I say there shall be peace, - There shall be plenty, pleasure, and content: 130 - The god on earth shall work the good whereof - The folly of man hath baulked the gods in heaven: - And good that men desire shall be as common - As ills they now repine at. When I say - There shall be justice, see, even at my word - Injustice is no more. - - _PARIS._ - - The house of Rufus, - Standing on justice there, will mar thy palace. - - _Ner._ Fool. Why, I say to Rufus—I am Cæsar, - And need thy house.—Says he—It cost my sire - Ten million sesterces.—A trifle that, 140 - Say I, and give him twenty: and down it goes. - Is not this more than justice? - - _Par._ Ay, ’tis power. - - _Ner._ Thou quibbling meddler, learn this point of wit, - To keep thy sphere; answer in that: last night - Sang I divinely? Wert thou envious - When I put on the lion’s skin, and did - The choice of Hercules? - - _Par._ Most mighty Cæsar, - I wished that I had asses ears to hear; - Mine are not long enough. - - _Ner._ Plague on thy jesting. - See static virtue stalks with folded arm 150 - To set thee down. [_Thrasea comes forward._ - - _Thr._ Hail, Cæsar! - - _Ner._ Thy opinion, - Thrasea, come, thy opinion. What dost thou think - If I extend my palace to take in - The hill whereon we stand? - - _Thr._ The plan no doubt - Is worthy of the site, and for the site, - Why, ’tis the darling spot of Rome. - - _Ner._ Well said. - Stay. I would ask my fellow senator - Wherefore he left the house three days ago - Without his voice or vote. - - _Thr._ I judged the time 159 - Unmeet to speak; and, for my vote, the senate - Was of one mind: a vote was of no count. - - _Ner._ Thou show’dst a sense against us in not voting. - - _Thr._ That must thou look for, Cæsar, in the senate. - - _Ner._ Well, I would have thee speak. We are not full - Without thy voice: nay more, such conduct makes - The senate but a name; for times have been - When silence was well justified by fear. - Now we court criticism, ay, and look ill - On those that grudge their approbation. 169 - - _Thr._ Cæsar commands my service and my praise; - I shall not lack. - - _Ner._ We look for much from thee. - - _Thr._ Long live your majesty. [_Exit._ - - _Ner._ There’s something good - In that man, Otho; spite of his dry mien - And Stoic fashion. - - _Oth._ Nay, I like him not. - He’s hardly flesh and blood. Old Seneca - Is stiff and prosy enough; but if you pinch him, - You find he yields, shows softness here and there. - This man is merely stone, foursquare by rule. - - _Ner._ Do you despise divine philosophy? - - _Oth._ Well, as I take it, all philosophy 180 - Is questionable guessing, but the sense - A man grows up with bears the stamp of nature. - - _Ner._ How mean you that? - - _Oth._ At best this fine-spun system - Is but a part of man’s experience - Drawn out to contradiction of the rest. - ’Tis a fool’s wisdom. - - _Luc._ ’Tis a form of pleasure. - - _Oth._ True. Though there be no theory of life - That’s worth a button, yet the search for one - Seems to content some men better than life. - - _Ner._ Call him not fool, Otho! - - _Oth._ Unless I wrong him, - I speak as well of him as he of me. 191 - Or if he say nothing, his guarded manner - Covers, be sure, a more unkind contempt. - - _Par._ (_apeing Thr._). That must thou look for, Cæsar, in the - senate. - - _Tig._ Ha! ha! Excellent! - - _Ner._ Paris would make a senator. - - _Oth._ Well, give me life. - - _Ner._ Ay, that is wisdom. Live. - Enjoy the hour; which minds me, for to-night - I have time well disposed: we sup with Actè; - She will inaugurate the new pavilion, - And after, there are masks and clubs provided. 200 - Thou’lt join us, eh! - - _Oth._ With all my heart. - - _Ner._ (_to Tig. and Luc._). And you. - And you. And, Paris, see Petronius comes, - And Anicetus. Hence, and bid them now. - - [_Exit Paris._ - - Good news for them I think; pleasure in store. - We’ll make a merry night. Now tell me, Otho, - You’re a good judge, have you ever seen a woman - Fit to compare with Actè? - - _Oth._ I say no. - - _Ner._ I mean not, man, for what our grandsires praised, - Who knew no better; I mean the perfect art 209 - Which makes each moment feverous. - - _Oth._ I know none. - - _Ner._ ’Tis spoke as if thy judgment or thy envy - Grudged me the word. - - _Oth._ Nay, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ O, I know - Thou’rt a good husband, thy good wife commands thee. - - _Oth._ Say, my good fortune, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ Now if thy boast - Be true as it is rare, thy lady’s presence - Would add much spirit to our gaieties. - I have never seen Poppæa, say that to-night - Thou bring her. - - _Oth._ In this thing, for friendship’s sake, - Hold me excused. - - _Ner._ Nay, no constraint; thy wish - Is all in all. Wrong me not; I would not have, 220 - And least to thee, my pleasures a command; - But my commands are pleasures. Let us go. - - [_Exeunt._ - - -SCENE · 2 - -_A room in the palace. Enter OCTAVIA and BRITANNICUS._ - - _BRITANNICUS._ - - Why art thou weeping, dearest? Has Nero been - Again unkind? - - _OCTAVIA._ - - Most unkind. - - _Br._ Weep not so. - Octavia, weep not so. - Count but my tears as thine, so shall my pity - Comfort thy wrongs. Nay, wert thou not my sister, - How must I feel to see so base a rival - Honoured before thyself in Cæsar’s palace! - Why even his mother could not grant him that 230 - Unmoved, but wept with rage: while he himself, - I saw, was touched with shame. - - _Oct._ Hush, hush! nay, ’tis not that; - I mind not that: at least they tell me now - I must not mind; and since he never loved me - It matters little. ’Tis not that at all. - - _Br._ Then something fresh; what more? - - _Oct._ I scarce dare tell. - What hast thou said or done, Britannicus, - That so could anger him? - - _Br._ Ah! is’t with me then - He is angry? Dost thou weep for me? - - _Oct._ For both. - - _Br._ Now tell me all, sister. - - _Oct._ O, ’tis the worst. 240 - Here as I sat this morning strode he in, - More fired with rage than ever I have seen him, - More like his wicked mother, when her fury - Has made me tremble. All he said I heard not, - But this, that I, his wife, had turned against him - To plot with thee, and led thee on to boast - That being of age thou wert the rightful heir, - And more: what is his meaning? - - _Br._ ’Tis his spite - To seek my fault in thee. - - _Oct._ Nay, that were nothing. - Brother, I fear thou wilt be sent from Rome. 250 - He dare not face the truth. He cannot brook - Thy title: thou must go, ay, thou wilt go - And leave me in my prison. - - _Br._ ’Twas last night - I vexed him suddenly in his cups, but thought - ’Twould be as soon forgotten. - - _Oct._ Say, how was it? - - _Br_. It was the feast of Saturn,—and as it chanced - (Or rather, I should say, ’twas so arranged - To please him, at his own desire) he drew - The lot of king of the feast, and when the company - Were drunk he used his silly privilege 260 - To have me be their fool. - - _Oct._ Didst thou rebuke him? - - _Br._ It happened thus. When all the guests in turn - Had answered to their forfeit, as his humour - Prescribed to each, he turned on me, and bade me - Show them a tragic scene, foreseeing how - The incongruence of time and place, the audience - Of drunken sots would turn my best to worst, - And smother passion in a sea of laughter. - But, for the wine I had been constrained to taste - Had mounted to my head, I felt at heart 270 - A force to wither up their sottish jeers, - And ere I knew my purpose I was sitting - Upright upon the couch, and with full passion - Singing the old Greek song thou saidst so well - Suited our fortunes. - - _Oct._ O, would I had been there! - They could not laugh at thee. - - _Br._ They did not laugh. - The sadness and the sweetness of the music, - After their low hoarse songs, startled to sense - Their sodden, maudlin brains: they listened all - To the end, and then with daunted appetite 280 - Sat in constraint and silence. - - _Oct._ Oh! well done! - And what said Nero? - - _Br._ He but smiled until - The tale tells how the poor child disinherited - Was put to death by his usurping brother; - Then his eye sank; and last, when Paris rose - At the end and praised my acting, he grew wild, - And said the feast was o’er, and bade us go. - - _Oct._ Alas! ’twas done too well. - - _Br._ I mind it not: - I wear no mask: and manifold occasion - Will oft surprise our closest guard, provoking 290 - Unbidden motions that betray the heart: - ’Twere vain to seek to quell them: they are like our shadows, - Which, if the sun shine forth, appear and show - Our form and figure. Such haps cannot be helped. - - _Enter Agrippina and attendants._ - - _ATTENDANT._ - - The Augusta, your royal mother. - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - Good day, my son. - - _Br._ Good morrow, mother. - - _Agr._ Octavia still here! Child, why, know you not - ’Tis long past noon, and Dionysius - Waits in the library? Begone, begone! - What! crying? Here’s a picture to recover 300 - A husband’s favour!—Fulvia, attend my daughter - Into my tiring-room, and treat her eyes - To hide these scalded rings: and then, Octavia, - Go to the library, talk thy full hour; - Thy Greek is shameful. The rest go. - - [_Exeunt Octavia and attendants._ - - My son, - I’d speak with thee. - - _Br._ My mother’s pleasure? - - _Agr._ Thou art my pleasure, child. - Fear me no more. I can be kinder to thee - Than ever I have been to my own true son. 309 - - _Br._ I thank your majesty. - - _Agr._ Nay, now ’tis spoilt. - Best call me mother. Thou hast need of me. - I have heard all; what happed last night at supper. - Thou hast offended Cæsar. - - _Br._ He does wrong - To use the freedom of the feast to insult me, - And then resent my freedom in repelling - His right-aimed insult. - - _Agr._ True; the liberty - Should cover it: but in thy veins there runs - That which outcries thy speech; which, wert thou dumb, - Would speak thee guilty, and being tongued proclaims - Thy needful sentence. ’Twas done bitterly. 320 - I know thy song. Dost thou believe, Britannicus, - That I could give the tale another ending?— - —Suppose, I say, I read it in some book - Writ differently: how that the proud usurper, - Owing all to his mother—dost thou follow me?— - How, when he came to power, instead of sharing - With her who had toiled for him, and in her love - Had parted from all praise, looking to reap - In him the fuller recompense of glory, - How he, when time came he should make return, - Denied her even the common duty owed 331 - By son to mother, set her will aside, - Laughed at her, added to her shames, reproached her, - Mocked her with presents taken openly - Out of her treasures,—as to say outright, - All now is mine, thou hast no claim at all; - See what I choose to give, thank me for these— - Held her as nothing, hated her, brought in - His strumpet to her chamber,—that was the sum— - And she then, when she saw her love derided, 340 - I say, repented, came to the boy she had wronged.... - - _Br._ I know, I know. - - _Agr._ Then, if thou knowest, say; - What said he, when she told him she would turn - Her love on him, would set him in the place - Whence she had thrust him out? What said he? - - _Br._ Nothing. - - _Agr._ Nothing! - - _Br._ Nay, I remember he said thus: - Wronged have I been by all, and none can right me; - All hath been false to me save sorrow only; - Justice and truth forsworn: There is no word 349 - That I dare speak; yet if thou stoop to insult me - My tongue will show my wrongs are not forgotten. - - _Agr._ My dearest boy, believe me. - - _Br._ The last time - Thou call’dst me thus ’twas when my father died. - I thought then ’twas in kindness, afterwards - I found the meaning. - - _Agr._ Yea, I confess I wronged thee; - That is my meaning now: had I not wronged thee, - My speech would have no sense at all: ’tis this - I come to urge: in this thou must believe me. - Canst thou not see, had I no pity in me, - No true remorseful pangs, yet still my wrongs 360 - Would move me thus? Though thou trust not my love, - Read in these tears of anger and despair - The depth of my set purpose, my revenge. - - _Br._ I partly do believe thee. - - _Agr._ Believe me wholly, - And my revenge is thine. - - _Br._ Nay, think not so. - There’s blood in thy revenge; I’ll none of it. - What are my private wrongs to Rome? If Cæsar - Stablish the empire, where’s the citizen - Will take exception that he hath wronged his brother? - Since were I Cæsar I would vail my rights 370 - To theirs, I still will act as I were Cæsar. - - _Agr._ O could’st thou see this offer as thy last - And only safety thou would’st not refuse me. - - _Br._ I rather hope to be forgiven the thing - I never thought, than win by doing it. - - _Agr._ Thou wilt not join with me? - - _Br._ There’s nought to join, - Save to thy will to right me I might join - A hope of justice, to vain will vain hope. - - _Agr._ Think for thy sister, boy. She cannot long - Be Cæsar’s wife. Then, were her brother Cæsar, - She might be matched with any excellence. 381 - Octavia’s happiness lies on thy word. - - _Br._ Octavia, dear Octavia—Now if thou’rt true - There is a way. This matter’s full presentment - Hath not been strange to me, though I have barred the thought - And held no purpose in it; there’s one way: - Those that have wronged can right. If thou would’st speak - With Burrus, he is plain and honourable, - And if he think there’s gain in the exchange, - And his heart goes with it, he has the guards,—my name, 390 - The sense of right, the promise of a largess, - Will win them to a man. The senate follows: - In a day, an hour, without a drop of blood - My wrongs are righted. Wilt thou speak with Burrus? - - _Agr._ I dare not. - - _Br._ Then do nothing. Or if thou canst, - Assure thy son that from my helpless state - And suffering spirit he has nought to fear. - - _Agr._ Nay, thou wert right: and though ’tis difficult, - I’ll speak with Burrus. ’Tis a most bold stroke, - But I can dare it. Good Burrus owes me much. [_Exit._ - - _Br._ Strange, strange indeed. I have heard it said that murder 401 - Falls on itself: that in the guilty breast - The implacable crime ploughs up with rooting tusk - The bleeding strings of nature: and in this woman - Of no remorse hath fated vengeance stirred - Her heart to hate her son. O, I did wrong - Yielding a little. Yet, since Burrus loves me, - That he should rule my fate is my best safety. - For her, if she’s my foe, he may work on her.— - These days have brought much change and food for fear. 410 - - - - - ACT · II - - - SCENE · I - -_A room in Seneca’s house, SENECA and BURRUS._ - - _SENECA._ - - The Armenian papers came through me last evening; - I sent them on at once. - - _BURRUS (refusing a seat)._ - - Nay, thank ye, Seneca: - I have been two hours in the saddle. - - _Sen._ ’Tis a matter - Of heavy import. - - _Bur._ I demanded audience. - - _Sen._ Well? - - _Bur._ All is settled. - - _Sen._ And who has the commission - To undertake the Parthian? - - _Bur._ Corbulo. - - _Sen._ ’Tis good. I like the choice. And what said Nero? - - _Bur._ He told me well and wisely what to do, - When I had shown him all that must be done. - - _Sen._ I wish his judgment were as tractable 420 - With me. Took he your word? - - _Bur._ The affair went pat. - What luck for Corbulo! - - _Sen._ Pray sit, good Burrus, - And let us talk: my thought is most at ease - When I am sitting. - - _Bur._ I pray you then be seated. - - _Sen._ (_sitting_). Burrus, my difficulties day by day - Increase. The cares of empire are as nothing - To managing an emperor. - - _Bur._ Why, what’s the matter? - - _Sen._ Give but attention to me. - - _Bur._ I attend. - - _Sen._ Do so most carefully: ’tis not a business - That may be brushed aside. - - _Bur._ I am all attention. 430 - - _Sen._ Nero has broken with Britannicus: - Heard you of that? - - _Bur._ Heard of it? I was there. - - _Sen._ Well, that has brought to head the jealous difference - ’Twixt Cæsar and his mother. Since he first, - At our advice, as was most fit, denied her - A place in power, she has striven to force a title - Out of her power for mischief: this you have seen: - But now to hear how she hath edged her practice; - She overskins her old accustomed hate - Of young Britannicus, speaks kindly of him, 440 - Hints of his right; nay, even hath dared upbraid - Cæsar with usurpation. This was matched - With words from him, which she no sooner heard - Than in her rage disordered flew she hither - To win me to her part; when seeing that I - Stood firm, she fled in furious passion, saying - That I should learn what temper she was of. - - _Bur._ I would that all the gods and goddesses - Might burn them up to cinders. - - _Sen._ Peace, I say. - Cannot you sit? I need your best advice. 450 - - _Bur._ Except the lad.—Advice concerning what? - - _Sen_. Why this new phase of court affairs. See you, - - [_Takes a paper._ - - ’Twas my just counterpoise of warring forces - Ensured stability. Here Agrippina, - Saved from her own ambition in the splendour - Of her son’s estate, serves in his interest - To guard Britannicus, whom else he had feared. - The boy, in favour of his sister’s title, - Sinks his own right. Then Nero’s youthful passions, - Growing to hatred of Octavia’s bed, 460 - Are stayed at equilibrium, as my judgment - And knowledge of the world enables me; - And all goes well, when an important factor, - The empress, rounds, and plays me false to her motive, - As here assumed, and vitiates with that flaw - The nice adjustment of each several item.— - I go to expound you this; you scarce attend, - Or answer with an oath. - - _Bur._ A pious prayer - To extricate you from a world of trouble. - - _Sen._ O, I can do it, Burrus, trust to me. 470 - I place them all as chessmen, and I find - Delight in difficulty: but ’tis hard, - When one has chosen, strengthened a position, - To change the value of a piece. I think - Much of your judgment, and I ask you now - What you would do. I must decide to-day. - - _Bur._ Why must? - - _Sen._ As if you knew not. - - _Bur._ If your art - Be to adapt yourself to every change.... - - _Sen._ You know ’tis not. I say, should Nero now - Banish his mother? - - _Bur._ Hark ye, Seneca, 480 - If you remember, I foresaw this trouble. - I know no remedy, nor is’t my office - To arrange the affairs of the palace, gods be praised. - But this is clear to me, that our three friends - Will never live together: what I urge - Is, separate them: if you cannot that, - We must not stick in balance when they break. - Whene’er that happens, our pre-eminent duty - Lies in our oath to Cæsar, and our second 489 - May be his mother’s pleasure, to whose schemes - We owe our place. [_Knocking heard._ - - _Sen._ Who’s there? come in. - - _Enter Servant._ - - _SERVANT._ - - The Augusta - Has come in private, and desires an audience. - - _Sen._ Again, you see, the Augusta. - - _Bur._ Eh! I’ll be off. - - _Sen._ One moment, pray. (_To Servt._) Beg her be - pleased to enter. [_Exit Servt._ - - Burrus, I adjure you not to go, your presence - May moderate her passion: or, if not, - ’Twere best you saw it. - - _Bur._ Well, all’s one to me. - - _Enter Agrippina._ - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - Be not surprised that I so soon return: - I have repented. Ha! the general here! - Thou seest me, Burrus, on a woman’s errand. 500 - Nay, no apology; thou hast o’erheard - My merit, not my fault. - - _Bur._ I thank your majesty. - I will withdraw. - - _Agr._ Nay, I desire thee stay. - I came not here to find thee; but thy presence - Mends my intention. Let us hold a council. - ’Tis not the first time our triumvirate, - Secretly gathered in the nick of time, - Hath preordained the changes which should fall - Upon the earth like fate. To-day’s decree, - If we combine, will be as big with action 510 - As any we have uttered. - - _Bur._ I fear I stand - In ignorance of the question. - - _Sen._ I will explain. - - _Agr._ Listen to me. We three who here are met - Stand in such place, that, if we but unite, - There’s none can say us nay. I do not ask - Who raised thee, Burrus, or thee, Seneca, - To where ye are: nay, if I asked you that - I’d look for no more answer than if asking - What two and two make; ’tis self-evident, - Unquestioned; it was I; and if you owe 520 - Allegiance to another, ’tis to one - Whom I made more than I made you; ay, one - Who has nothing but what was mine, and is mine: - His body mine, his life and being mine, - His power, his place, his honour mine, my son, - My Nero, who, when my husband late deceased, - The honest Claudius, passed to join the gods, - Was raised and set by me under your guidance, - To share with me the empire of the world. - Now what it may be that hath warped his heart 530 - Is from the matter: enough that so it is. - I might blame one of you, sure not myself, - Who have ever held in love and kindness towards him - The same intention; nay, and from my kindness - I swerve not now, though for a wholesome end - I mask that kindness in severity. - There’s but this choice, I must withdraw my favour, - Or suffer my disgrace: ay, and for you, - Burrus and Seneca, be sure, the same. - If I fall, ye will fall. Therefore being one 540 - In interest with me, I look to find you ready - To stand by me in any scheme of action - Which may preserve our station, while we may. - - _Sen._ Your majesty says well. We have hitherto - All held one purpose, and if now we are foiled - Or thwarted, none is thwarted more than I. - And since it is my pride, in the high place - Whereto your judgment called me, to exceed - The measure which might justify your choice, - I shall not fail. In these new difficulties 550 - I would make no display of fresh resource; - Full means there will be, yet what means it is - I am not ripe to say. - - _Agr._ What say’st thou, Burrus? - The matter Seneca avoids is this: - Shall I be driven to exile, or will ye - Join with me to forbid it? - - _Bur._ Hath your majesty, - In urging opposition, any scheme - That might give life to policy? - - _Agr._ Ay, something. - I would protect Britannicus: his claim - And popularity being pressed, must drive 560 - Nero upon my side. - - _Bur._ Such act were merely - The boy’s destruction, were’t not done in earnest - And backed by force. - - _Agr._ Then, since the case demands - All earnestness, and since we lack not force..... - - _Bur._ Between your son’s rule and your stepson’s claim - There lies no middle way. - - _Agr._ I never held - That a stout purpose chose a middle way. - - _Sen._ What, what! Consider, madam, what you urge - Is to dethrone your son. - - _Agr._ I am desperate. - - _Sen._ Indeed, indeed! 570 - - _Agr._ What say’st thou, Burrus? Hast thou not a hope - The rightful heir might prove the better Cæsar? - - _Bur._ Were this in earnest, yet my oath to Cæsar - Forbids me even to think the thing you say. - - _Agr._ Thy oath to him! Rather to me ’twas sworn; - Who raised thee up to swear, and made the Cæsar - For thee to swear to? I can dispense your oaths: - Or rather, since they were unjustly sworn, - Justice dispenses them. ’Twould be a deed - Truer than oaths to break the oaths ye swore. 580 - - _Bur._ Justice is still against you. ’Twas unjust - To burn the will of Claudius; ’twas unjust - To hide Britannicus, and to bring forth - Your own son in his place: these things were wrongs, - And these old wrongs would you redub with new. - For when upon your wrongs Rome set her seal, - Her choice made right of wrong, and we that swore, - Swore not to Nero or Britannicus, - But unto Rome and to her chosen Cæsar. 589 - - _Agr._ Nay, Seneca, I think, will scarce say thus. - - _Sen._ Burrus is right; and were he wrong, your scheme - But complicates the mischief. - - _Agr._ Then ye desert me? - - _Sen._ Nay, nay, in other ways I may do much. - I may win Nero back. - - _Agr._ The thought is folly; - We fight against him. - - _Sen._ Oh! ’tis open treason. - - _Agr._ Eh! Why, I think my son’s ingratitude - Is nought to this; he had the right to expect - My favours: but for you, whom I chose out - And set above the rest because I chose, - Made you my friends because I chose, for you 600 - There is no excuse. Had ye no motive, yet - To see a woman in distress like mine, - Wronged by her son, and injured as no woman - Has ever been, should rouse a manly spirit, - Ay, make a coward burn to do me right. - But ye stand there aloof, and not a word. - O good Seneca, - Rememberest thou thy days in Corsica? - The stoic letters of thine exile, writ - With Naso’s pang, and that exuberant page 610 - To me, at the first tidings of recall. - I have it still, the letter, superscribed - _Your most devoted slave._ Was not that felt? - Had’st thou not cause? Now is the opportunity - Of my distress, now I stand to lose all, - All that those hard times strove for, all they won. - The faith thou owest me, still may make all mine; - Wilt thou deny it me? - - _Sen._ Alas, good lady! - - _Agr._ Alas! - Is this the vein? Think you I come to hear - Your lamentations? Ah! ye dare, I see, 620 - Pity me while ye wrong me: but the truth - Ye dare not say. Ye dare not say, Lo, we, - Raised by your clemency, sworn to your service, - Seeing your fair wind is changed, and there’s no hope - Left to your following, do as all knaves do, - Leave you to perish. Ah, all’s lost, all’s lost! [_Weeps._ - - _Bur._ (_to Sen._). Business attending me at home, I go. [_Going._ - - _Agr._ Thou goest! Then go, thou wooden counterfeit. - Nay, I’ll be with thee yet. (_Exit Bur._) Pooh! let him go, - An ugly, one-armed, upstart, sneaking knave: 630 - A title seeker, a subservient villain. - And thou, - Philosopher! come, teach me thy philosophy. - Tell me how I may be a dauntless Stoic - And a most pitiful ass. Show me thy method - Of magnanimity and self-denial, - Which makes of slaves the richest men in Rome. - Philosopher! Ay, thou that teachest youth - Dishonesty, and coinest honied speeches - To gloss iniquity, sand without lime. 640 - Out, out upon thee! - Thou miserable, painful, hackney-themed - Botcher of tragedies, that deem’st thyself - A new Euripides, a second Cato: - A pedant rather, pander and murderer. - I’ll let Rome know how pumpkin Claudius died; - I’ll not be ashamed to say, ’twas I that spiced - His fatal mushroom. Honest Seneca - Stood by and smiled. True, true! I’ll be true yet; - I’ll right Britannicus. I’ll tell the soldiers 650 - What they should look for. Hear’st thou not their shouts? - Seneca to the Tiber! the philosopher, - The murderer to the Tiber! Fulvia, Fulvia!— - Fulvia, I go. Come, I will leave; lead on. [_Exit._ - - _Sen._ And I to train the cub of such a dam! [_Exit._ - - - SCENE · 2 - - _Room in Domitia’s house. Enter DOMITIA - and SELEUCUS._ - - _DOMITIA._ - - ’Tis a most shrewd surmise, but nothing more; - I cannot listen to it. Though I hate - My sister, and would take some risk to crush her, - Yet must I set my foot on surer ground. - My better engine is Poppæa’s dream, 660 - Of which thou’st told me: I can build on that. - Thou should’st be there, I think, to-night. - - _SELEUCUS._ - - Ay, madam. - I go at once. - - _Dom._ Speak nothing waveringly. - - _Sel._ Nay, madam. - - _Dom._ ’Tis her fate to marry Cæsar. - - _Sel._ My art needs no instruction. - - _Dom._ It must be so. - - _Sel._ It is so, madam. - - _Dom._ See, thy prophecy - Is that which should determine it. Go now. [_To door._ - Her purse will satisfy thee well. - - _Sel._ Yet once - Ere I be gone, madam, I’ll make a stand - To win thy credit. 670 - - _Dom._ Thou must show me cause. - Thou say’st the Augusta plots against her son, - Supports Britannicus, tampers with Burrus. - How know’st thou this? - - _Sel._ Why should I lie? - - _Dom._ I think - There may be some who make it worth thy while. - - _Sel._ I would not meddle in this thing for money. - - _Dom._ Why tell me then at all? - - _Sel._ To win thy help. - - _Dom._ To what? - - _Sel._ To save the prince. - - _Dom._ If thou’rt in earnest, - Where is thy confidence? Assure me first, - At least, of what thou say’st. Whence know’st thou this? 680 - - _Sel._ Fulvia, thy sister’s maid, rewards my love - With many trifles: what she overhears - I piece together. - - _Dom._ What of this was heard, - And how much pieced? - - _Sel._ The Augusta sent all out, - And spake long time in private with the prince. - What passed I guess from this; that ere she left, - Being risen to go, as Fulvia at the door - Stood just without, she heard her voice most plainly - Angrily entreating, saying, that though he doubted, - Yet she would still with him regain her power: 690 - If he held off yet he so far was right, - As that ’twas best to speak with Burrus first. - - _Dom._ And has she since seen Burrus? - - _Sel._ I think she hath. - He lately came from Seneca’s, and there - The Augusta must have met with him. - - _Dom._ What passed? - - _Sel._ I know not yet. Fulvia will know and tell me. - - _Dom._ But can’st thou trust her? - - _Sel._ Ay, she hath no purpose. - Whate’er she hears is mine. - - _Dom._ Then make this thine. - Her tampering with Britannicus is nought: - But if she speak with Burrus, there is matter 700 - That I can work on. Ay, if that should be— - Make sure of that, and bring me word at once. - To-night thou hast thy business; go and do it. - Poppæa marries Cæsar. - - _Sel._ Madam, I go. [_Exit._ - - _Dom._ Now, my good sister, if this tale is true, - Thy fortune turns: I trample on thee now. - Ay, if she have spoke with Burrus, then one word - To Nero, and she is doomed. Patience and time - Bring us all opportunities: we need - But watch and wait. The way I least expected 710 - She runs within the reach of my revenge. [_Exit._ - - - SCENE · 3 - - _Room in Otho’s house. Enter POPPÆA._ - - _POPPÆA._ - - My dream was strange: but why of all strange dreams - Stands forth this dream, to say it hath a meaning? - There lies the mystery: the dream were nothing. - ’Tis such a dream as I have prayed to dream. - ’Tis such a dream as an astrologer - Must love to interpret. Nay, there’s but one way - Seleucus can explain it. - - _Enter Seleucus._ - - I looked for thee - An hour ago: thou’rt late. - - _SELEUCUS._ - - The seasons, lady, 720 - Of divination are determinate - By stars and special omens: ’tis our skill - To observe their presage. The hour is favourable. - Thy dream ... - - _Pop._ Is’t good? - - _Sel._ Beyond thy hope. - - _Pop._ Then tell it. - - _Sel._ Two thousand sesterces.... - - _Pop._ I have it here. - See! I was ready for thee. [_Gives him a purse._ - - _Sel._ I thank thee, lady. - - _Pop._ Now for thy message. - - _Sel._ I have sought out thy dream - By every means our art.... - - _Pop._ Mind not the means. - - _Sel._ There is one interpretation clear throughout.... - - _Pop._ And that? 730 - - _Sel._ Thou shalt be wife unto two Cæsars. - - _Pop._ Two! Now be Isis praised. Two! O, Seleucus, - Thou’rt an astrologer. Two! this is life, - Seleucus; this is life as well as fortune. - What are the names? - - _Sel._ There ends my message, lady. - - _Pop._ ’Tis good so far, but stays unkindly. Search, - I must know more. Above all things, the affair - Is secret. (_Knocking heard._) I will send my servant to thee. - Thou must be gone: our business will not suffer - My husband stumbling on thee here. This way. - - [_Exit Seleucus, being put out._ - - My dream was true: my hopes and schemes inspired - Of heaven; yet this is far beyond them all. 741 - Wife to two Cæsars; maybe, mother of Cæsars. - - [_Noise at door._ - - To sit upon their rare, successive thrones, - A manifold Augusta! Here’s my husband. - What would he say? Two Cæsars, ay, two Cæsars! - - [_Laughing heard without._ - - _Enter Otho._ - - _OTHO._ - - Good evening, love. - - _Pop._ Who laughed with thee without? - - _Oth._ Lucan. He walked with me from Cæsar’s supper. - - _Pop._ Was Cæsar riotous? - - _Oth._ Beyond all bounds. - - _Pop._ See what you husbands are. You go abroad - For pleasure, and when met among yourselves 750 - Push all to excess, and never think how patiently - Your wives must mope at home, and wait your coming. - And when you do return, up to the door - You bring your merriment; but at the door - ’Tis left, and in you come, in solemn glumness, - To vent the sour reaction of your revels - Upon your housekeeper. - - _Oth._ Enough, Poppæa; - I would be cheered. - - _Pop._ Then I will cheer thee, love. - But what’s the matter? - - _Oth._ Listen. Thou hast reproached me - With going forth alone. What else could be? 760 - Would’st thou consent to sit there at my side, - Where I, a man, am oft ashamed to sit? - Would’st thou, could’st thou be one among the women - Of Cæsar’s fancy? - - _Pop._ I spake not seriously. - - _Oth._ See, but I do. I tell thee, love, this night - Thou wert invited. - - _Pop._ I! - - _Oth._ He would have pressed it. - - _Pop._ Who would have pressed it? - - _Oth._ Cæsar. - - _Pop._ What dost thou say? - - (_Aside._) He treads on prophecy. - - _Oth._ Knowing thy mind, - And mine, I begged him for our friendship’s sake - Urge me no further. - - _Pop._ Thou did’st well, and he? 770 - - _Oth._ Again to-night he asked for thee. ’Twas this - Which made me sad and thoughtful. - - _Pop._ Why be sad? - - _Oth._ The meaning, love, the meaning: thou must guess it. - - _Pop._ The very reason, Otho, which thou urgest - Against my going, is in truth the reason - Why such as I should go. As Cæsar’s friend, - Thou would’st do well to save him from the slough - He daily sinks in. - - _Oth._ Nay, but such a stake - For such a flimsy hope. - - _Pop._ I see a hope - In the invitation. Otho, let us see 780 - What may be done among his friends. - - _Oth._ Poppæa, - ’Tis generously thought, but ’tis a thing - Must not be thought. Trust to my judgment, love. - ’Tis Cæsar’s love of power that threats us here; - He would have nought held from him. Thee I hold, - And most because I know thou would’st be mine. - - _Pop._ Then thou must trust me, Otho. - - _Oth._ And so I do. - - _Pop._ Why, I were well his match. Let us go in. - - [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 4 - - _Room in the Palace. Enter AGRIPPINA and - PALLAS._ - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - Pallas, thy date is out: thou art dismissed; - Thou goest from the court: yet what thou takest 790 - May soften thy regrets. Thy shiny days - Were not misspent, and thou may’st live like Cæsar. - Farewell, we still are friends: the debt I owe - I shall remember: ’twas thy power that first - Gave root to mine: for thee, I think my favours - Were once thy pleasure. If those days are gone, - We can look time in the face; we have not wasted - The days that flew: ’tis now with what remain - Still to be careful. Friends and firm allies. - - _Pal._ Ay, firm as ever. - - _Agr._ Nay, though thou goest first, - That is not much: even that I cannot save thee 801 - Is sign that I am fallen ere thou could’st fall: - A deeper, deadlier fall, unless indeed - My wit can save me still. - - _Pal._ Alas, dear queen, - Fear makes this parting sad. But if there’s hope, - ’Tis this, to gain thy son. - - _Agr._ Ay, till our schemes be ripe; - And even though Seneca betray me,—and that - Is sure,—I fear not him. I know my son - Better than he, and I shall win him yet. - My plan is now to seem resigned to all: 810 - I will pretend my purpose is to leave him, - And fly from Rome to voluntary exile. - ’Twill work upon his fear and duty both, - To cut himself quite off from me, and all - That goes with me. He will entreat me stay; - And if I stay— - - _Pal._ Ay, if this storm go by, - The turns of time may offer us reprisals. - At present use all means to gain thy son. - - _Agr._ I shall. Farewell. - - _Pal._ Be bold. The gods protect you. - Farewell. 820 - - _Agr._ Farewell. [_Exeunt severally._ - - _Enter Tigellinus and Paris._ - - _TIGELLINUS._ - - Look from the window: thou wilt see ’tis true; - He takes all with him. - - _PARIS._ - - Nay, if this is all. - - _Tig._ This much were all: and yet this caravan - Is but the least of six; His monstrous Grace - Brings up the rear. - - _Par._ ’Tis nobly done of Cæsar. - - _Tig._ ’Tis noble, say you, that the thief go quit - With all his plunder from the house he plundered? - - _Par._ Hark how the weasel can upbraid the fox! - Good Tigellinus, there’s no need to grudge - Pallas his scrapings; the sea is full of fish: 830 - Rather thou should’st rejoice because thou seest - Thy probable hap. Pray that as many mules, - Litters and bags and bales, women and slaves - May comfort thee. - - _Enter Nero with Domitia._ - - _NERO._ - - Paris, what do you here? - - _Par._ I comfort Tigellinus on the fate - Of his predecessor. - - Ner._ (_at window_). Gods! see what a train - _Drags out the very bowels of the palace. - No wonder my good mother’s man resigns - With resignation. - - _Tig._ Ha! ha! - - _Ner._ I seek the Augusta. - She late was here; go find her; say I wait her. 840 - - [_Exeunt Tigellinus and Paris._ - - _DOMITIA._ - - Through my discovery, Nero, thy good fortune - Lifts thee a corner of the veil whereunder - Thy mother plots. Be not thou now deceived - To further trust. She is bent upon thy ruin. - - _Ner._ Though it be true she urged Britannicus - Even in those words, we lack the surety yet - She spoke them in good faith. - - _Dom._ O, there’s no doubt. - - _Ner._ My mother is very deep, and often looks - Far from her meaning. She will use this way - To worm a confidence. 850 - - _Dom._ She did not then. - - Ner. Yet must the boy have thought so, for you said - That what she urged he took not all in kindness. - - _Dom._ He bade her speak with Burrus. - - _Ner._ The villainous brat! - - _Dom._ Drive not the fault on him. Did Burrus waver, - Nothing could save thee. And it seems thy mother - Had hope to win him. She comes; now be thou firm. - I will be gone. _[Exit._ - - _Ner._ (_solus_). Now she cannot deceive me. - - _Enter Agrippina._ - - _Agr._ My son, thy mother comes at thy command. - - _Ner._ O excellent mother! - - _Agr._ What would’st thou with me, son? - I come to hear, and yet I scarce am fit 860 - For banter or abuse. I am ill to-day. - - _Ner._ No wonder; ’tis you do too much. ’Twere better - You spared yourself. Go rest; my business - Will not cure headaches. - - _Agr._ Speak whate’er it be. - - _Ner._ Nay, if you’re ill— - - _Agr._ My sickness will not pass. - To-morrow I shall leave thee; that last grief - Will soon engulph the rest: speak while thou may’st. - - _Ner._ What’s this! leave me to-morrow? - - _Agr._ I would spare thee - That worst disgrace of sending me away. - I go of myself. 870 - - _Ner._ What now? - - _Agr._ ’Tis well resolved. - I have been foolish; ’twas a mother’s fault, - A tender fault: forget it, and hereafter - Know my love better. If my presence bred - Dislike, thy kinder mind may yet return - When I am gone. - - _Ner._ Why, what has happed, I pray? - - _Agr._ Nothing. I have only come to see my error. - I thought, ’twas I that gave him all.... - - _Ner._ Tut! tut! - ’Tis the old story told a thousand times. - - _Agr._ Ay, and forgot as oft. Thy constant wrongs, - I think, have dug my grave. Dost thou remember - What answer once I made the sorcerer 881 - Who prophesied thy fortune? Thy son, he said, - Shall reign, and kill his mother. Let him kill me, - So that he reign, I cried. He spake the truth, - But ’tis by grief thou slay’st me. - - _Ner._ That old rubbish - Were best forgotten. - - _Agr._ Indeed, I had forgot it: - But yesternight I dreamed it all again; - A frightful dream: plain as I see thee now - Stood’st thou before me thus, with angry words - - [_She acts._ - - Mocking, until I wept for shame; but thou 890 - Did’st only laugh the more. Then ran I to thee, - And bared my breast, and cried, Kill me, O son! - And thou fastened’st thy snaky eyes upon me, - So that I could not see what thy hand did. - But, oh! I knew. I heard thy weapon grate - Leaving the scabbard, and a fiery pang - Pierced through my heart. Ah! - - _Ner._ (_aside_). Heavens, is she mad?— - Mother, good mother, mother! 899 - - _Agr._ ’Twas nothing. Nay, where am I? I was come - To hear thy speech. What is’t thou hast to say? - - _Ner._ (_aside_). If this were trickery? Let the fact try.— - ’Twas this: what speech you held the other morning - With young Britannicus. - - _Agr._ (_aside_). Ah! knows he that?— - Thy spies are most alert. This time, at least, - I praise their zeal: though thou art slow to thank me - For my kind service done to thee and him. - - _Ner._ Whether is it kinder, say you, to him to urge him - To embrace the desperate plot, of which already - He stood suspected, or more kind to me 910 - To water this rebellion with the tears - Of your insidious passion? - - _Agr._ Your man’s a fool: I heard - Your quarrel, and took pains to sound the boy. - - _Ner._ Next you saw Burrus. - - _Agr._ Well, and what said he? - - _Ner._ Nay, that’s for you to tell. - - _Agr._ ’Twas this: Britannicus - Most truly said that nought could help his claim, - Except the guards and Burrus: at which word - I flew to Burrus, offered him the bait; - And when he showed the scruple of his oath, - Three words from me confirmed him. 920 - - _Ner._ If this were true! - - _Agr._ How much you need me, Nero, will be plain - When I am gone. Who has deceived you now? - Who works this madness in you, to conceive - That your disaster could be gain to me? - Have you believed what angry words I spoke - Were born of purpose, that my threats against you - Were aught but passion? You count not the tears, - The bitter, secret tears, for every pang - Your wrongs have wrought in me; and bitterer far, - The sharp remorse for each retaliation 930 - Of speech provoked in anger. Let it end; - ’Tis best I go. - - _Ner._ See! if you had gone before - We had never quarrelled; now there’s nought to lose - By going, ’tis a quarrel that you go. - - _Agr._ No quarrel, nay. ’Tis only this: I thought - That in your love I held perpetual office. - ’Tis not so. Now my time is out: I go - As Pallas goes. - - _Ner._ The sleek, extortionate Pallas, - Dost thou defend the despicable Pallas? - - _Agr._ I would be kind to friends; none will stand by you, 940 - If you cast off those to whom most you owe. - ’Twas first through him I came to seize the power - That made you Cæsar. Look! you have lost a friend. - Be wiser when I am gone. - - _Ner._ I have good friends, - Burrus and Seneca: I trust them both. - - _Agr._ Cannot you read the cause why still they urge you - To cast me off? - - _Ner._ ’Tis the disgrace they feel - To see the empire managed by a woman. - - _Agr._ ’Tis the constraint they feel in all their actions - Being overruled by me. Do you not see 950 - They are my ministers, and you are ruled - By them in all they counsel? Rid of me, - They rule the world. Think you, when they have cast - What was above them underneath their feet, - They will have care to exalt what was below? - - _Ner._ They both are honest men; you chose them well. - - _Agr._ You are too trustful, Nero. As you love - Your life, I say, be jealous of these men; - These men that now would rule thee but to take - The empire from thy hands. They may speak ill 960 - Of me,—believe that if thou list,—but oh! - If once they seem to encroach, delay not then; - Hear no excuse nor explanation; strike, - Kill them, I say, before they murder thee. - - _Ner._ But, mother, Seneca loves me. - - _Agr._ As a master - Will love a pupil while he takes instruction. - He’ll love you while you let him reign. Alas! - I scarce dare leave you to him. You are too kind; - Will shrink to use the sword as it is needful - For one who rules to wield. - - _Ner._ You cannot think 970 - These men would serve me so. - - _Agr._ What is my purpose? - My life’s one object, my supreme ambition? - Was’t not to raise thee where thou art, and now - Is’t not to keep thee there? - - _Ner._ So once I thought. - - _Agr._ O think it yet. Look! there is none can love you, - Nero, as I must love you; there’s not one - Can guard you as I can. Have I not proved - My power? While I am by you, it is yours. - - _Ner._ Stay then. - - _Agr._ O that it might be! - - _Ner._ Thou shalt not go. - Resign thy outward power; be in all else 980 - As heretofore. Forget what I suspected. - Be still my mother. - - _Agr._ Alas! - - _Ner._ Yea, I will have it. - - _Agr._ It cannot be. - - _Ner._ Why not? - - _Agr._ Seneca, my son, - Will not permit it. - - _Ner._ Who is Seneca - To say me nay? - - _Agr._ Unless you join with me - He will o’errule you. - - _Ner._ He shall not o’errule me. - - _Agr._ For that I’d stay. I would give up all else - To stand by you: ay, and be happy so. - - _Ner._ And so it shall be. Have thy private fortune, - Remain in Rome. - - _Agr._ But can you trust me, Nero? 990 - - _Ner._ Nay, I will never more suspect thee. Kiss me. - - _Agr._ O, now you are good and kind. Tell me, who was it - Did me this wrong? - - _Ner._ It was Domitia told me. - She spied on thee. - - _Agr._ My sister! ha! you know not - The grudge between us? - - _Ner._ Yes, I know of that. - - _Agr._ And not suspect her slander? Did she also - Commit Britannicus? - - _Ner._ She cast all blame - On thee. - - _Agr._ I feared she might have wronged the boy. - - _Ner._ Is he, then, innocent? - - _Agr._ I went so far - In sounding him as even to risk my credit. 1000 - Let not unjust suspicion add a weight - To the just blame we bear. You must protect him. - Promise me that. - - _Ner._ I will ask Seneca. - - _Agr._ Forgive, at least, his foolish indiscretion. - He begged me make his peace. Now have I made it? - - _Ner._ I’ll think no more of that. - - _Agr._ My dearest son, - The joy of a good action will be yours - As well as mine. O, I am happy now— - Indeed, most happy now. - - _Ner._ Come then, dear mother. - - [_Exeunt._ - - - - - ACT · III - - - SCENE · 1 - -_The same. SENECA._ - - _SENECA._ - - Burrus was right. The more I think of it, - The time has come that one or both must go; - So the more dangerous first, then are we quit - At once of all our mischief and disgrace. 1013 - ’Tis past belief that she who plunged in crime - To enthrone her son should now plot to dethrone him. - There is no bridle for a wicked woman. - Men may despise the venerable path - Of virtue, and refuse the wholesome laws - Of plain philosophy, but still they lean - Towards reason, even in their wickedness. 1020 - There’s an accountable consistency - Found in their actions; but if once a woman - Throw off, as men soon do, the first restraints - Of credulous childhood; if her nature lack - Tenderness, modesty, and that respect - To self which sees in self a thing to guard - From passion and caprice, and in the pleasure - Of fitness finds a law,—if she lack that - Or overpass it,—there’s no further bound: - All things are mixed together; virtue, crime, 1030 - Wisdom and folly. For they have a spirit - Of infinite wrong genius. Rule, I say, - Such women if you can; rule them with iron. - - _Enter Nero._ - - _NERO._ - - Good-morrow, Seneca. Thou comest in time; - I need thy counsel. - - _Sen._ I am here to give it. - - _Ner._ Then tell me: Where I have been lately threatened, - Am I in danger? I will use thy judgment. - Is’t needful for my safety to remove - Britannicus? - - _Sen._ I have well considered all. - You must dismiss your mother. 1040 - - _Ner._ Not so, Seneca. - She now resigns all power and sign of empire, - And is content to live in quiet, retired - With few attendants and contracted state. - - _Sen._ She offered terms? - - _Ner._ See, since she now concedes - All reasonable claims, my duty towards her - Patches our quarrel. - - _Sen._ Whence this newborn trust? - - _Ner._ She must remain. What of Britannicus? - - _Sen._ He need not trouble you. - - _Ner._ So said my mother. - I had thought differently, and even had made - Full preparation for his going hence. 1050 - Would’st thou too bid me think there is no danger? - - _Sen._ None, if your mother goes. - - _Ner._ But nay, she stays. - - _Sen._ That makes him dangerous. - - _Ner._ Thy reason, Seneca? - - _Sen._ I well can guess, Nero, your mother’s vein - With you in private: but ’twould much divert - Your inclination from it, could you know - Her latest way with me. - - _Ner._ What hath she said? - - _Sen._ Will you now think she hath urged Burrus and me - To set our honoured oaths and firm allegiance - To you aside, as being unjustly sworn; 1060 - To undo all she has done, and bring Britannicus - Back to the people as Rome’s rightful heir? - - _Ner._ I knew this, Seneca; and if ’twere meant, - Where lies the danger? - - _Sen._ True; but then she vows - Plainly that, rather than resign her power, - She will make known her crimes, nor spare herself, - If in the implication of her ruin - She may involve us too. Know you of that? - - _Ner._ She could not mean it. - - _Sen._ Certainly ’twas in passion - Spoken, and fury: but ’tis such a thing 1070 - As might be done in passion. - - _Ner._ And what says Burrus? - - _Sen._ He too would urge, as I, the Augusta’s exile. - - _Ner._ Yet must she stay. - - _Sen._ Nay, Nero, she must go. - - _Ner._ I bade thee, Seneca, to counsel me: - Call’st thou this counsel? ’Tis in the exigence - Of such affairs that their necessity - Precludes the true decision: this thou’st taught me: - And that the man of counsel is but he - Who handles best the circumstance, most gently - Resolves the knot, not cuts it. In this difficulty - Is there no course? 1081 - - _Sen._ I go not back from this; - If both remain there’s none. - - _Ner._ Is my life threatened? - - _Sen._ Ay. - - _Ner._ Then Britannicus must go, and shall go, - As first I purposed. - - _Sen._ Whither will you send him? - - _Ner._ Far out of hearing of his claim. ’Tis not - A trifling matter. - - _Sen._ See now to the other extreme - How you o’erleap the mean from wrong to wrong! - - _Ner._ Such wrongs the title of my power condones. - Shall I at the outset of a world-wide policy - Stick at a household scruple, and for fear 1090 - To do a private wrong forfeit the power - Which makes me Cæsar? See my glory trip - At a little ill because I will not level - My safety with the welfare of the world? - - _Sen._ But what you must not, that you cannot do. - - _Ner._ Rather what Cæsar must do, that he may. - Rome understands not empire yet: we learned - Something of Herod. - - _Sen._ O the injustice, Nero! - The wrong! How! Will you sooner spill a life - So innocent, your creditor in kindness, 1100 - Than do disgrace to another, one so guilty - As to deserve, sinking all exigency, - The fearful penalty you now misplace? - Think twice. - - _Ner._ Why, if I think of it again, - Is not thy error fourfold more than mine? - This need is granted to all tyrannies, - To slay pretenders, ay, and most of all - Those of the family: but for a mother, - The very Persian or the unrivalled Jew - Would shrink from her dishonour. 1110 - - _Sen._ (_aside_). What to say? - Being out of kinship ’twere the lesser blot— - Yet there’s his innocence. Necessity - Cannot suborn morality so far - As such confusion,—nor the alternative - May yet be shunned,—and when the best is wrong... - - _Ner._ What thinkest thou? - - _Sen._ Wait: it shall be my office - To find some better means. - - _Ner._ ’Twill be thine office - To show in such a speech as I may make - After his death, that, howsoe’er he died,— - Which you shall know no more than shall my hearers,— - ’Twas for the general good. 1121 - - _Sen._ Be counselled, Nero. - This is not my advice. - - _Ner._ Thou offerest none - Which can be taken. - - _Sen._ See, I have brought your speech - Touching the Parthian war. - - _Ner._ ’Tis long. - - _Sen._ The matter - Being very weighty, ’twill be looked for from you - To say thus much: but if it seem too long, - ’Tis so composed that with these brackets here, - Skipped as you list, the speech is any length. - - _Ner._ I thank thee. I shall need that other speech. - - _Sen._ I pray you may not need it. My advice 1130 - Is wait. - - _Ner._ Is it? Stay—Seneca, dost thou think - My mother was in earnest when she urged - Treason on thee and Burrus? And dost thou think - She fooled me in saying that she made proposal - To Burrus but to sound his honesty? - - _Sen._ Eh! with that tale she took you? - - _Ner._ Is’t not true? - - _Sen._ That true! - - _Ner._ She was in earnest though in passion? - Answer me. - - _Sen._ Ay, she was. - - _Ner._ I pray thee leave me. - I shall not wait. [_Exit Seneca._ - I stand alone. Such officers as share 1140 - The functions of tyrannic government - Cannot be looked to for a policy - Of personal security; they lack - The motive that abates the fear of crime. - Britannicus must go, and ’tis my hand - Must aim his death. I have a medicine - Which he must drink for me, to save my life. - To-night shall do it. But for my other enemy, - My mother, who with such dissimulation - Won me, spite of foreknowledge of her deeds, 1150 - And judgment of her purpose—Ha! indeed; - Seneca’s laughing-stock! Now, what I do - Will much surprise her. If it kill her hope - And prove my temper towards her, ’twill be well. - - [_Exit._ - - - SCENE · 2 - - _Room in Domitia’s house. Enter DOMITIA - and PARIS._ - - _DOMITIA._ - - Come hither, Paris! - Thou art my freedman. - - _PARIS._ - - Ay, madam. - - _Dom._ Hitherto - Thou hast served me well. - - _Par._ Ay, madam. - - _Dom._ Would’st thou now - Retrieve thy purchase money? - - _Par._ Dost thou say - Thou wilt restore me that for any service - I can perform? - - _Dom._ I do. - - _Par._ But name the deed. 1160 - - _Dom._ Dost thou remember Crispus Passienus? - - _Par._ Could I forget thy honoured husband, madam, - That was my master? - - _Dom._ Paris, thou hast a wife, - And thy wife hath a sister.. - - _Par._ Ay. - - _Dom._ How think’st thou - Thy wife would love her sister, if that sister - Supplanted her with thee, sowed seeds of hate, - Contrived divorce, and when thou wert divorced - Should marry thee herself? - - _Par._ Madam, I know - Thy wrong, and share thy hate. - - _Dom._ That was not all. - - _Par._ Not all? - - _Dom._ Nay, listen, Paris: if I forget 1170 - My kinship in my hatred, I have cause. - I loved him, and have now no thought in life - But to avenge his murder. - - _Par._ Why! can’st thou think?... - - _Dom._ Think! do I think? I cannot speak of it. - If ’tis suspicion, be it so—and yet... - Well, thou hast seen my heart—even were my sister - Kind I should not forgive: but seeing she works - Against me still to drive me from the court, - I put my strength with Cæsar, to disbarrass - The palace of this plague. Say wilt thou aid me? 1180 - - _Par._ The favour Cæsar shows me binds me, lady, - To have no thought but his; and if his mother - Misses his love, ’tis not made up by mine. - - _Dom._ I’d have thee on my side whate’er I do. - I have now contrived a scheme which hangs on thee - To bring it home. - - _Par._ I will do anything - That will not touch my life. - - _Dom._ She is hard to catch. - Late, when she plotted with Britannicus, - Though ’twas as clear as day, when brought to question - She quite out-faced us all. - - _Enter Servant._ - - _SERVANT._ - - Madam, Seleucus 1190 - The astrologer would speak with you. - - _Dom._ Admit him. [_Exit Servt._ - Paris, I’ll tell thee later of my plans. - Meanwhile keep close with Nero: let me hear - Aught he lets fall that might advance our matter: - Seleucus’ visit is a part of it; - I’ll speak with him alone. - - _Par._ Madam, I go. [_Exit._ - - _Enter Seleucus._ - - _Dom._ How now, Seleucus? Foiled! - - _SELEUCUS._ - - I warned you, lady, - How impotent and vain an arm hath truth - Unhelped by art. - - _Dom._ Thou did’st but well, and now - I shall lean more on thee. Hast thou persuaded 1200 - Poppæa of her fortune? - - _Sel._ Ay, my lady, - I promised her two Cæsars. - - _Dom._ Two! how two? - - _Sel._ A secret that of art; our divination - Hath many such. The gods are favourable. - - _Dom._ Talk not to me of gods. One was enough; - Yet the other matters not. Two Cæsars indeed! - Most favourable gods!—See, here I give you - Two hundred sesterces: but for that sum - Require another service. - - _Sel._ I thank you, madam. - - _Dom._ Locusta hath been seen with Nero. - - _Sel._ Ah, 1210 - How knew you that? - - _Dom._ Attend to what I say. - I fear ’tis for Britannicus: the Empress, - Ridding herself, cannot have quitted him. - If ’tis his death is aimed at—and ’tis for thee - To probe and reach the truth—then if ’tis possible - Thou must prevent it. Go, give him a message, - He must not sup with Cæsar if he is bid. - Find you the probabilities, and lay - The warning where is need. - - _Sel._ ’Twere a good office, lady. - - _Dom._ Go quickly then. If thou do well in this, - I will reward thee well. 1221 - - _Sel._ I will deserve it. [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 3 - - _The room in Otho’s house. Enter POPPÆA - and MAID._ - - _MAID._ - - Madam, the litter waits. - - _POPPÆA._ - - Give me my mirror, miss. - Why, see how slovenly thou’st done my hair; - ’Tis out already. - - _Maid._ With your pardon, madam, - ’Tis very well. Nay, ’tis as firm as a rock. - You look your best to-night. - - _Pop._ Where is the flower - I gave thee? - - _Maid._ Here, my lady. - - _Pop._ Put it in. - There, there. Ay, that will do. Now where’s my cloak? [_Exit Maid._ - - _Enter Otho._ - - _OTHO._ - - So then you are going? - - _Pop._ Yes, I go alone, 1230 - Since you will not come with me. - - _Oth._ You are always free - To have your way; but when your wish is mine, - It is twice yours. This time you know ’tis not: - And were I used to set constraint upon you, - Could it be said Otho e’er crossed his wife - With a command, it should be now: I’d say - This I forbid. - - _Pop._ And why? - - _Oth._ I entreat you, dearest. - - _Pop._ I am pledged to go. - - _Oth._ Go not. - - _Pop._ There’s now no choice. - - _Oth._ A light excuse would serve: a sudden sickness, - A cold, a headache. Do not go. - - _Pop._ Why, look! 1240 - If you are not jealous, Otho! jealous, jealous. - You see not straight. - - _Oth._ I see you smile on Cæsar. - - _Pop._ And think you, then, I must have turned my love - Where I have smiled? that I would play you false - For the pleasure of it? - - _Oth._ Why then sup with Cæsar? - - _Pop._ A trifle hangs upon him I would wear,— - The world. - - _Oth._ So dazzled by the imperial splendour! - Think: to be Cæsar’s mistress for a year - Is not to rule the world. - - _Pop._ I will be Cæsar’s wife. - - _Oth._ Ah! look you then so high? 1250 - - _Pop._ Who shall be called my rival? - - _Oth._ Cæsar’s wife. - - _Pop._ She hinders not. - - _Oth._ Oh, thou would’st never dare it, - Did’st thou not love him. - - _Pop._ What should I not dare? - - _Oth._ Hast thou considered well the ambiguous style - Thou goest to take, and yet determined? - - _Pop._ Ay. - - _Oth._ ’Tis death, ’tis death. I speak now but for thee: - Not for myself. The cup Octavia drinks - To quit thy place thou too wilt come to taste. - - _Pop._ That is my risk. The sport were tame without it: - The game can boast a sting. 1260 - - _Oth._ Weigh well the danger: - Think of it thus; to live on a caprice - Whose jealousy is death; where for the reason - One seems to love thee will be ten to hate thee; - Where not to be beforehand with a treachery - Is to be victim. - - _Pop._ I can steer my way. - - _Oth._ And for this desperate venture wilt cast off - My love, our love? - - _Pop._ What is love? - - _Oth._ Art thou Poppæa? - Wer’t any else but thou that questioned thus, - My answer then were ready: I should say - Ask of Poppæa, ’tis the thing she knows; 1270 - Ask Otho’s wife what love is, she can tell. - And thou to ask! as if ’twere some strange matter - Wide of experience, and to ask of me - Who won thee for my teacher! - - _Pop._ ’Tis true the impeachment - I make of love is that he hath exhausted - His treasure rather than denied us aught. - - _Oth._ Exhausted love! how mean you? - - _Pop._ See! I am made - Of other stuff and passions besides love. - You cannot wish that all my life should move - Pent in this narrow circle, day by day 1280 - Keeping the pretty game up which I learned - When I was green: that I should ne’er do else - Than this one thing, and that so constantly - That even the habit and the practice of it - Are scarce employment; that I should grow grey, - And see the wide and seasonable field - Of life’s exertion and excitement fallow - With this one weed of love? - - _Oth._ A weed, you say! - - _Pop._ I have other motions in me. I’ve an itch - Men call ambition, and I see a prize 1290 - Looks worth the having. - - _Oth._ ’Tis not worth the having. - - _Pop._ Why, what were I to thee, could’st thou be Cæsar? - - _Oth._ Even all thou art; I have no itch to rule - Merely to see that game played out, and cry - At the end—what is ambition? - - _Pop._ It hath no end. - - _Oth._ ’Tis plain love hath an end. - - _Pop._ Nay, as I love thee, - I still shall love thee. Only, Otho.... - - _Oth._ What? - - _Pop._ I thought your eye was open to perceive - The grandeur of my scheme. - - _Oth._ Thou wert mistaken. - - _Pop._ Upon what falls to-night, let us decide. 1300 - I have no secrets from you: if I prosper, - Desert me if you will, but blame me not: - For dared I combat Cæsar’s inclination - There were as much to lose. The thing I do - Will be your safety. - - _Oth._ Rather would I die, - Ay, rather far that thou should’st die than do - This baseness willingly. - - _Pop._ Nay, speak not so. - I shall do nothing base. - - _Oth._ Thou must succeed. - Only before thou goest I’ll kiss thee once. [_Kisses Pop._ - Otho’s last kiss. Farewell. 1310 - - _Pop._ Good night. I go. - Lesbia, my cloak! I shall have news ere morn. [_Exit._ - - _Oth._ Gone! With a grace - As firm, as pleasant, gay and self-possessed - As that with which she hath come a thousand times - To meet me, kiss me, and call me hers, she goes - To change her husband .. gone! and not a sign - To show that leaving me was losing aught! - Fool that I was! To the soul I knew her vain, - Self-seeking, light, petulant at the breath - Of contradiction, and yet I trusted. What, 1320 - Asks she, is love. Ay, what? I love my dog; - He is devoted beyond reason, pitiful - In his dependence; he will scarce reproach me - With some short wondering sorrow, if I strike him— - I love my horse; he bears me willingly, - Answering spiritedly; with all his strength - Generous and gentle. But woman, if man love her,— - Seeing she is less devoted than the hound, - Less noble than the horse,—’tis that we deem, - That being human she can gauge the worth 1330 - Of our intensity, and in kind somewhat - Repay it: ’tis a delusion; spite of shew, - She hath not in her heart that which her eyes - Fondly declare. There is no passion possible - Which beauty can interpret or soft speech - Express, which was not mine; ay, by that title - O’er and o’er; yet I think no dog in Rome - Would leave the meanest slave that fed him once, - As hath this woman left the man that loved her. - - [_Knocking._ - - _Enter Lucan and Petronius._ - - _LUCAN._ - - Ha! here he is. We have come to fetch you, Otho. - - _Oth._ I do not go to-night. 1341 - - _PETRONIUS._ - - Not go! What is’t, man?—ill? - - _Oth._ My wife has gone, therefore I do not go:— - You see the matter, maybe have foreseen it; - I was too blind. Spare me your condolence; - I do not wish even sympathy. You know - I loved her, but ’tis over. Let me give you - Such knowledge as I wish my friends to have, - Else might they mistake somewhat. See! she is gone - To-night against my wish: ’tis nothing more: 1350 - But this will lead to much. I let my house; - Sell you my wine, Petronius, if you wish it, - And take—I shall not want for interest— - The Lusitanian proconsulate. - - _Luc._ You go from Rome? - - _Oth._ I do. - - _Petr._ Break not with Cæsar. - - _Oth._ I’ll take employment. - - _Petr._ Jove! I think you’re wise, - Otho; you’re wise. I’ve half a mind myself - To give my friends the slip. But as it is, - Well .. come, I’ll take the wine; what is your price? - - _Oth._ The price I gave. 1360 - - _Petr._ A bargain. I shall send for it. - - _Luc._ (_to Otho_). Otho, I will not go. Although thy wrong - Cannot be stayed, yet would I rather die - Than sit and smile on it. - - _Oth._ I thank thee, Lucan. - I’d ask thee rather look upon the matter - As on a thing of course: I think it is. - Go, take no note of it. - - _Luc._ If ’tis thy wish. - - _Oth._ It is. Good night. - - _Luc. and Petr._ Good night. [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 4 - - _A room in the Palace. Enter AGRIPPINA._ - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - Thus must it be then. I must be cast out, - Turned from the palace, lodged in a private house, - Retired, reduced, forgotten, like any relic 1370 - Of barbarous royalty, caged out of reach - Of good or ill; my state just so much show - As has no meaning. Now may some god of mischief - Dare set me in the roll of puny spirits. - Ah!—Hath this my seal, seemeth it? O may my foes - Be fooled so far to think that guile will stay - First in catastrophe. Nay, if I crouch, - ’Tis but to plant a foot whence I may bound - With braver spring.—I am clear; the right’s my hope. - Right against blood hath still been honourable. 1380 - Men love the name of Brutus. The first Brutus - Slew his own son; the last his Cæsar. Ha! - ’Tis madness; nay, that’s not my thought, not that. - ’Twould fright the world that there should be a woman - Who could slay Cæsar and son in one. Nay, nay, - That lies beyond all fate. Yet, short of that,— - O blood, thou sacrament and bond of nature, - Look to the strain: summon thy best allies, - Thy yearnings and thy shudderings, thy terrors - And dreams of dread; marshal the myriad fingers - Of scorn and hate: else, O thy rottenness 1391 - Will out. Indeed I think thou’rt a weak thing, - Bred of opinion; when I would have trusted thee, - Hath not that other rivet of thy chain - Snapped at the mutual end? Thy boasted anchor - Drags on the bottom, and my ship drifts on - To the rocks, to the rocks: missing that hold, the sense - Is dizzy with madness; ay, and whither I go - Is hidden; nor aught I know, save that the future, - Whate’er it be, I shall do much to make. 1400 - - _Enter Britannicus._ - - Ah! ah! ’tis thee. - Speak softly, for these walls have ears. - - _BRITANNICUS._ - - Thou thinkest - That Cæsar watches me. - - _Agr._ To-day thy spies - Are mine, but must not hear. - - _Br._ Hast thou seen Burrus? - - _Agr._ He is thine enemy: no hope from him. - - _Br._ I would not have this spoken of as my hope. - - _Agr._ True, boy. I mentioned not thy name, and Nero, - Being now persuaded thou art innocent, - Forgives thee. Let the risk I ran for thee - Be earnest of more good. 1410 - - _Br._ I thank thee for it. - - _Agr._ ’Tis nothing, this. Thou yet shalt reign. - - _Br._ I pray thee - Draw me not into thy deep-plotted schemes - That rush on guilt. If I have hope or wish, - ’Tis but to live till the divorce be writ - ’Twixt Cæsar and my sister: that is not long - To wait; and then her exile, which must follow, - If I may share, I think some days of peace - May be in store for both. That is my hope, - Not Rome, nor empire, but some tranquil spot - Where innocence may dwell, and be allowed 1420 - To be its own protection. - - _Agr._ Are you that fool? - - _Br._ I would none doubted it. - - _Agr._ Can it be possible - That thou, who in thy veins hast the best blood - Of Rome, should’st own so beggarly a spirit, - And being the heir of all the world should’st wish - Only to hide thy claim, so thou may’st live - The life which broken-hearted slaves, and men - Diseased and aged scarce prize? - - _Br._ I hear, I hear, - And am not shamed. - - _Agr._ Nay, then I have more to say. - - _Br._ I too might say somewhat. Is it not strange, - Thou being a lady, should’st possess a heart 1431 - So fond of wrong, and blood, and wrathful deeds? - - _Agr._ Ah, ah! Thou thinkest that thou know’st me rightly, - And yet would’st dare to taunt me, and to thwart - My stablished purpose? Child, I say, remember - The deeds thou castest in my teeth, and think - Whether it were not much better now at last - To side with me, and take the help I proffer. - I have sworn to set thee on the throne; think twice - Ere thou oppose my will. - - _Br._ Did’st thou not say 1440 - Thou had’st persuaded Nero of my innocence? - - _Agr._ Say I was wrong. - - _Br._ Nay, thou wert right in that, - Wrong now returning on disclaimed ambition. - - _Agr._ Art thou content to see thyself deposed, - Thy sister thus dishonoured.... - - _Br._ Say no more. - - _Agr._ Consider! - - _Br._ Nay, I’ll not consider. - - _Agr._ Now - This once again I bid thee, child, consider. - Doubt not my power. - - _Br._ No more. I will not join thee. - - _Agr._ Then hear me, child. Whether thou join or not, - Whether thou wilt be Cæsar, or refusest, 1450 - Thou shalt be Cæsar. If thou wilt not plot, - It shall be plotted for thee: in my hands - I hold thy life, and guard it but for this, - To make thee Cæsar. Ay, and if thou shrinkest - When the day comes, I’ll have a doll made like thee; - My men shall carry it about, and style it - Britannicus, and shout to it as to Cæsar. - I say thou shalt be Cæsar, think it o’er. - Dare not refuse me: ’tis not yet too late; - To-morrow I will speak with thee again. 1460 - Now to thy better thought. [_Exit._ - - _Br._ O murderess! - And for this last turn must I thank my folly, - That partly trusted her. Now would to heaven, - If live I must, that I might change my lot - With any man soe’er, though he be chosen - And picked for misery. Surely there’s none - In all the empire can show cause to stand - And weigh his woe with mine. Find me the man, - If such there be, that hath an only sister - ’Spoused to a murderer and adulterer, 1470 - Who hates her virtue, since it shames pretext - To cast her off: or, if such man be found, - Hath he for mother one that slew his father, - And threats him with like death? or if all this - Be matched in one, hath he no remedy? - Is his speech treason? Is his silence treason? - Is he quite friendless, helpless? - Forbidden to budge a foot from the dread focus - Of crime and anguish? ’Mongst his lesser wrongs - Hath he this brag, that he hath been robbed, as I, - Of the empire of the world? O happy hinds, 1481 - Who toil under clear skies, and for complaint - Discuss long hours, low wages, meagre food, - Hard beds and scanty covering: ye who trail - A pike in German swamps, or shield your heads - On Asian sands, I’d welcome all your griefs - So I might taste the common nameless joys - Which ye light-heartedly so lightly prize, - And know not what a text for happiness - Lies in a thoughtless laugh: what long, impassable, - Unmeasured gulfs of joy sunder it off 1491 - From my heart-stifling woe. - - _Enter Octavia._ - - Thou art welcome, sister. - - _OCTAVIA._ - - Brother, a request you must grant. - - _Br._ Anything, - Dearest, to thee. - - _Oct._ Sup not to-night with Cæsar. - - _Br._ I must. Yet what’s thy reason? Thou art moved - Strangely beyond the matter. - - _Oct._ Read this paper. - - _Br._ (_reads_). _Britannicus, sup not to-day with Cæsar._ - How came you by it? - - _Oct._ ’Tis from Fulvia, - The maid that loves Seleucus; whence ’tis his. - - _Br._ Most like; I know the turbaned mountebank - Keeps an old kindness for me. Yet nay, nay— 1500 - If this should now be found—nay, he’s too shrewd - To put himself in writing. - - _Oct._ He might dare - With Fulvia. - - _Br._ Nay. I cannot think ’tis his. - And were it, what’s his credit? I do not trust - These fellows far. They trade in mystery, - And love to thicken water,—and if there be - A plot to poison me, to-day’s occasion - Offers no easier vantage than to-morrow’s. - My safety lies elsewhere. - - _Oct._ O do not go. - - _Br._ Fear not, Octavia, I am very careful, 1510 - And eat but sparingly of any dish, - Nor aught but what goes round. To stay away - Might show suspicion, and could serve no end. - - _Oct._ Brother, be warned, go not to-night; to-morrow - We may learn more. I beg... - - _Br._ Nay, urge me not, - Since with this warning I am doubly safe. - - _Oct._ Oh, I dread Nero’s anger; ’tis most certain - That ill will come of it. - - _Br._ Nay, fear him not. - Let us go sup. I will use all precaution, 1519 - Thou may’st be sure, since for thy sake I do it: - And while thou livest I shall have both reason - And wish to live. Have care, too, for thyself; - I think thy peril is no less than mine. [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 5 - - _Supper-room in the Palace. All are reclined at two - tables, thus_: - - _Agrippina_, _Nero_, _Poppæa_.| _A gentm._, _Octavia_, _A lady_. - _Tigellinus_, _A gentm._ | _Britannicus_, _Paris_. - _A lady_, _Domitia._ | - _Petronius_, _Lucan._ | - - _Waiters, tasters, etc. Some are talking._ - - - _NERO._ - - I will propose a question to the table: - Which of the arts is greatest? Lucan, these sausages - Are something new: try them. - - _POPPÆA._ - - You question, Cæsar, - Which of the arts is greatest? I would answer - The one which Cæsar honours. - - _TIGELLINUS._ - - But if Cæsar - Should honour more than one? - - _PETRONIUS._ - - The sausages 1529 - Are good enough. As for the arts, here’s Lucan - Can speak for poetry. - - _Ner._ If any man - Could prove one art beyond contention first, - I would reward him excellently. With me - To know the best and follow it are one: - Success being easy in all, my difficulty - Lies in distraction: show me then the best, - I’ll perfect that. - - _Pop._ What! Cæsar give up singing? - - _Ner._ For better things. - - _Tig._ Which be the arts? - - _Petr._ (_to servants_). Here, vermin, - This wine’s half-way to vinegar. - - _Ner._ Who will name - The arts? There’s sculpture, painting, poetry, 1540 - Singing.. - - _PARIS._ - - And acting. - - _Ner._ Well, what more? - - _Tig._ Horse-racing. - - _Pop._ (_across_). Ruling I think’s an art. - - _AGRIPPINA_ (_across_). - - And making love. - - _Ner._ ’Tis of the fine arts we would speak. - (_To servants_) Ho! fellows, - Pour out the wine! Ah, here’s a lovely mullet. - Has this been tasted? - - _TASTER._ - - Ay, Cæsar. ’Tis stuffed with truffles. - - _Ner_. A mullet stuffed with truffles. Now, Poppæa, - Will not this please? - - _Pop._ I thank you.—(_aside_) Prithee, bid - Lucan to speak for poetry. - - _BRITANNICUS_ (_to servant_). - - Nay, the mullet. - - _Ner._ Lucan, what say you for your art? - - _LUCAN._ - - I claim - The first place for it, and I say ’tis proved 1550 - Nobler than any plastic art in this; - It needs not tools nor gross material, - And hath twin doors to the mind, both eye and ear. - Nay, even of drama Aristotle held, - Though a good play must act well, that ’tis perfect - Without the stage: which shows that poetry - Stains not her excellence by being kind - To those encumbrances, which, in my judgment, - Are pushed to fetter fancy.—Then hath our art - Such strong and universal mastery 1560 - O’er heart and mind, that here ’tis only music - Competes, and she is second far in scope, - Directness, and distinction. - - _Ner._ You think that? - - _Luc._ Ay, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ Do you! you who have ever been - More gracious to my voice than to my pen! - Am I a better singer then than poet, - Think you? - - _Luc._ Nay, Cæsar; but.... - - _Ner._ Ha! then you are envious. - You would not have me write because, forsooth, - You write yourself. Now, by the god, I swear - Thou shalt not publish nor recite a verse 1570 - Within my empire till I give thee leave. - One man to keep the muses to himself! - Monstrous! - - _Pop._ And serve him right. - - _Luc._ (_aside_). Monstrous indeed! - - _Ner._ (_to servants_). Heat me some wine. - Come, lords, ye drink not. Eh! what have we here? - - _Servant._ Cherubim, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ What is Cherubim? - - _Petr._ The gods of the Jews. - - _Ner._ Hoo! let us eat their gods. - They are much like pheasants. - - _Servt._ ’Tis a pheasant, Cæsar, - And stuffed with woodcock. - - _Petr._ Cæsar, there’s one art - Has not been mentioned; though I think at table - It should not be passed o’er. 1581 - - _Ner._ What art is that? - - _Petr._ I shall contend it is the first of all. - - _Ner._ Name it. - - _Petr._ It hath no name. It scarce exists. - I think the goddess never walked the earth. - - _Par._ Ranks she with poetry? - - _Petr._ I avouch above. - - _Par._ Cæsar, if this be proved, thou must rescind - Thy poet’s sentence. - - _Ner._ Let him prove it first. - - _Petr._ I see in other arts some wit or fancy - Extrinsical to nature. I can find - No ground of need in any, save maybe 1590 - In architecture,—which ranks not so well - As to be mentioned by you.—Now, if I - Show you an art whose matter every day - Is life’s necessity, which gives more scope - To skill than any other, which delights - Among the senses one which the other arts - Wholly neglect, would you not say this art - Hath the first claim? See, I could live without - The joys of harmony, colour, or form, - But without this it were impossible 1600 - To outlast the week. - - _Par._ Oh! Cookery. - - _Several._ Cookery, cookery! - - _Petr._ There’s the mistake I gird at. None of you - But thinks this art I speak of, which includes - Pleasures of entertainment, ease and elegance, - The mind’s best recreation, the satisfaction - Of the body’s nearest needs, the preservation - Of health, and with all this, the gratifying - Of that one sense, which above all the senses - Is subtle, difficult, discerning, ticklish, - And most importunate,—that this great art 1610 - Is a cook’s province. - - _Ner._ True, Petronius, true; - There’s room for bettering these things. - - _Petr._ Why, wine— - Just think of wine. A hundred vintages - Lie in my cellar; by my taste I tell - Each one; are eye or ear so delicate? - - _Par._ Here’s half a case already. - - _Petr._ Then again, - Look on this side. You bid your friends to supper: - That is a promise; and hath all your life - An hour more suitable for skilful kindness? 1619 - They come perturbed, fatigued, hungry and thirsty; - Nature exhausts them for you, drains them empty - To take all kinds of pleasure; their grated nerves - Ask music, their wearied limbs soft cushioned couches, - Their harassed mind wise cheerful conversation, - Their body’s appetites fawn at the word - Of food and wine: and yet we see these things, - Which should be studied, ordered, suited, measured, - All jumbled in confusion, till a feast, - Instead of relaxation and renewal, - Becomes, I say, for body and for mind 1630 - The worst discomfort and the stiffest trial - That life can show. - - _Par._ Bravo! bravo! - - _Ner._ For one, - I am converted. Thou shalt be henceforth - Arbiter of my table. - - _Br._ (_to servt._) ’Tis boiling hot; - Taste it. - - _Ner._ (_to Petron._) Accept you the office? - - _Petr._ This would make me - A Cæsar above Cæsar. - - _Ner._ In the province - Of imperial æsthetics. - - _Servt. to Brit._ Pardon, your highness, - I will add water to it: ’tis yet unmixed. - - [_They pour in the poison._ - - _Petr._ ’Twill be a tyranny. For look, I hold - Man’s stomach is not to be trifled with. 1640 - Not only should your table give delight - Even to the ravishment of every palate, - But since the end and final cause of food - Is not to breed diseases in the flesh, - Nor heat the spirits more than they can bear, - But rather to build up and comfort health, - I’d order first that there be served at table - Nothing but what is wholesome. - - _Br._ (_after drinking nubile Petr. speaks_). Ah! - - [_Falls back._ - - _Oct._ The wine, the wine! - - _Br._ Ah! [_Dies._ - - _Oct._ He is dead. O dead! O dead! 1650 - - _Lucan, Petronius and Paris go to Britannicus. - Domitia follows.—All rising._ - - _Agr._ What is this? - - _Ner._ He hath a fit. - - _Petr._ He doth not breathe. - - _Oct._ (_has come round to front_). Alas, alas! my brother; he is - dead. - - _Ner._ Nay, sit you down; look not aghast, I say. - He hath the falling sickness, and will oft - Faint on a sudden, as ye see. He lies - An hour as dead, and then awakes again - With nought amiss. Best take him out in quiet. - (_To servants._) Carry him from the room. - - _Luc._ Lift you his feet, Petronius. - We two will take him. - - _Ner._ Let him be, I say. 1660 - His servants will attend him. Return to table: - We cannot spare you. - - _Par._ (_to Oct._) Honoured lady, be hopeful: - For hath your noble brother e’er been taken - Like this, he may recover. - - _Oct._ (_to Par._) Never— - Never! O never! he is dead! I knew it! [_Going._ - - _Ner._ (_to Oct._) Heh, sit you down. What could you do, I pray? - He will come round. - - _Oct._ Oh! I will follow him. - - [_Exit with servants who are carrying Brit._ - - _Petr._ (_to Par._) How happened it? - - _Par._ (_to Petr._) He drank a draught of wine - Fresh mixed, and then fell back just as you saw. - What think you? - - _Petr._ (_to Par._) Think you ’twas aught? 1670 - - _Par._ (_to Luc._) What think you? - - _Luc._ Impossible. - - _Dom._ (_aside_). He is poisoned. Yet my sister - Was nothing privy to it. She is pale. - - _Ner._ Come, sit you down, aunt: come, Petronius, - Lucan, be seated. Let not the horrid sight - Unwhet your appetites. - - _Petr._ (_to Luc._) That was no fit. [_To Par._ - He is dead. What if ’twere poison? Where’s the drink? - - _Par._ ’Twas hurried out. - - _Luc._ O God! - - _Ner._ (_to servts._) Serve out the wine. - We all must need a bumper; ’tis most natural. - I have known the mere revulsion to provoke - In a strong man a seizure similar 1680 - To that which frighted him. - - _Par._ (_aside_). ’Twould not amaze me, - Had he such drink to cheer him. [_All refuse drink._ - - _Pop._ (_to Nero_). I will not drink. - - _Ner._ From my cup. - - _Pop._ Well, from thine. [_Drinks._ - - _Luc._ (_aside_). He is self-betrayed. - - _Ner._ Where were we? - - _Petr._ At the point where Cæsar made me - Arbiter of his table. I shall ask - To inaugurate my office. - - _Ner._ Do so, Petronius. - - _Petr._ Then know you are all dismissed. Let all go home, - And for the prince’s safety offer up [_All rise._ - What vows ye may unto the gods. Myself, - I set the example, and go first. Come, Lucan. [_Going._ - - _Ner._ Eh! eh! yet thus ’tis best. Good night, Petronius, 1691 - Thou hast spoken well; may the gods hear thy prayers. - I wish you all good night. - - _In disorder of going curtain falls._ - - - - - ACT · IV - - - SCENE · 1 - -_The same. A public place. THRASEA and PRISCUS meeting._ - - _PRISCUS._ - - I was coming to your house. - - _THRASEA._ - - ’Tis well we meet. - How went it in the senate? - - _Pr._ As you said. - A message read from Nero. - - _Thr._ Seneca? - - _Pr._ No doubt. - - _Thr._ And in what terms touched he the murder? - - _Pr._ With double tongue, as being an ill which none, - And Cæsar least, could have desired; and yet - A good none should lament. - - _Thr._ He is very prompt. 1700 - What glozing for the hasty burial? - - _Pr._ The speech was thus; that ’twas the better custom - Of simple times to shun all vain parade: - That private grief was mocked by frigid pomp, - And public business and quiet thereby - Idly disturbed;—_Then for myself_, it ran, - _To have lost the aid and comfort of a brother - Demands your sympathy. Of your goodwill - I make no doubt; the more that my misfortune - Throws me upon it, seeing that all my hopes 1710 - Now anchor wholly on the commonwealth. - Wherefore to you, my lords, and to the people, - I look so much the more for maintenance - And favour, since I now am left alone - Of all my family, to bear the cares - Your empire throws upon me._ - - _Thr._ This was well. - - _Pr._ Then were there gifts decreed to all his friends. - - _Thr._ Hush-money. Did none murmur? - - _Pr._ There were none - So much as frowned. - - _Thr._ See, Lucan! let us speak with him. - - _Enter Lucan._ - - If now he be not shaken, I mistake 1720 - His temper. - - _LUCAN._ - - Good day, Thrasea. - - _Thr._ A dull morning. - - _Luc._ Comest thou from the house? - - _Thr._ Nay, more’s the pity. - There was a distribution, as I hear, - To friends of order. Say, how didst thou fare? - - _Luc._ In many things, Thrasea, I hold not with thee, - Nor will pretend that I can see in virtue - A self-sufficiency invulnerable - Against the crime of others. I believe - The world is wronged, and burn to avenge the wrong. - But, as an honest man, I take thy hand. 1730 - - _Thr._ I looked for this, Lucan, and take thy hand. - Frivolity and crime are most unworthy - Of thy companionship. - - _Luc._ My uncle’s hope - Tainted my judgment. I have been blind, and wronged thee. - - _Thr._ Where I am misconceived I blame myself. - - _Luc._ Hear me abjure. - - _Thr._ Spare words. There’s no more fear - Thou wilt be duped. Cæsar, in slaying his brother, - Has doffed the mask. - - _Luc._ The heart of Rome must swell - To put the monster down. - - _Thr._ We have our part: - But in the sorry tragedy he makes 1740 - We can be but spectators. On his stage - There’s nought but folly. Come thou home with me: - I’ll show thee how we may regard this play, - Take note of all the actors, and watch the end. - - [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 2 - - _The room in Domitia’s house, Enter DOMITIA and - PARIS._ - - _DOMITIA._ - - ’Twas a most shameful deed; we take upon us - A just revenge. - - _PARIS._ - - But ’tis the general thought - That Nero killed his brother; that his mother - Had no hand in it, rather would have saved him. - - _Dom._ ’Twas her intrigues determined him, and they - Who egg on others are the real movers. 1750 - Now will he hate her more a thousand-fold - For driving him to crime. She will not ’scape: - Our plot will stand. - - _Par._ Is it thy scheme to push - Silana’s accusation? - - _Dom._ Ay, ’tis that. - We shall accuse the Augusta of intent - To marry Plautus, to assert his claim, - And thus assail the throne. - - _Par._ How wilt thou broach it? - - _Dom._ We have fixed to-night. Cæsar will dine at home, - And with convenient company. ’Tis agreed - When he’s well drunk, you enter, announce the plot - As freshly hatched, and so unmask the affair 1761 - That he shall be persuaded. - - _Par._ How glibly, madam, - Speech can glide o’er the hitch; I must feel flattered - That just in the awkward place I am shovelled in - To carry it through, who have no heart in the matter. - - _Dom._ No heart! had you no ear then to my promise? - - _Par._ ’Tis little for the risk. But what of Burrus? - - _Dom._ Seeing that without his name the plot were weak, - And that to avouch his treason would discredit it, - We say he is suspected. - - _Par._ ’Twill not stand. 1770 - We lack confederates. - - _Dom._ You forget Poppæa. - I have sent for her to try her. If I mistake not, - ’Tis she that knocks. Get you behind the door, - And watch what passes. There! [_Paris hides._ - - _Enter Poppæa._ - - Now this is kind. - - _POPPÆA._ - - I am bounden, lady, to wait on Cæsar’s aunt. - - _Dom._ I count the days, Poppæa, when you yourself - Will call me aunt: and in that happy hope - I’ll stand thy friend. - - _Pop._ I shall have full need, madam, - Of all good offices. - - _Dom._ Maybe: my sister - Is an unscrupulous enemy. Beware! 1780 - She stole from me a husband, and will now - Keep you from winning one. - - _Pop._ She doth not hide - Her disapproval of my love to Cæsar, - And thus appears my foe; but in truth, madam, - Half of my heart sides with her, and the fear - Lest the full passion which I bear your nephew - May shame his rank, conquers my love so far - That oft I doubt if I have a heart to bear - The honour I have dreamed of, or a love - Worthy of him, since it so much can fear. 1790 - - _Dom._ Tut, tut! if you’re the woman that I think - You’re just what I would wish his wife to be. - Wronged in his marriage, he since hath wronged himself: - Octavia is a ninny, but his low - And last intrigues have scandalized the court: - Our family is hurt. You are his equal - In wit and manners, and can hold your place; - Nor in opposing you is it his good - His mother weighs: rather it suits her schemes - To have his wife a fool. ’Tis not unknown 1800 - What lately she had dared to keep her place, - But that Britannicus’ so sudden death - Blasted her plots: now in her constant project - Your marriage threatens her. - - _Pop._ The more I see - It blackens more. May I dare ask you, madam, - To tell your sister that I willingly - Retire, if she prevail upon her son - Quite to forget his love and put me by? - - _Dom._ Which side to take? that must you first determine; - ’Tis Cæsar or his mother. I supposed 1810 - ’Twas him you loved, not her. Now should I tell you - That she is deeply pledged to take his life, - And seize the empire... - - _Pop._ Oh! what wicked crimes! - Impossible! - - _Dom._ But if I prove it to you? - - _Pop._ I could not hear it. - - _Dom._ Nay, but if ’tis true, - Side you with us who hinder it, or her - Who pushes it? - - _Pop._ O madam, ’tis incredible. - - _Dom._ Ay, and to-night, as Nero sits at supper, - When Paris brings the news he’ll not believe it. - But then a word from you might turn the scale, 1820 - And rouse his better judgment. - - _Pop._ The very thought - That her destruction were my safety, madam, - Would hold my tongue. Indeed you have wronged me much, - Telling me this. - - _Dom._ Why, such things you will hear. - - _Pop._ Nay, let me go. - - _Dom._ Ay, go, but think upon it. - - _Pop._ Farewell. [_Exit._ - - _Dom._ (_sola_). Was I mistaken? - - _Par._ (_re-entering_). My mind is changed. - - _Dom._ How now! what say you? - - _Par._ Madam, the plot will stand. - - _Dom._ Did you hear all? - - _Par._ And saw. - - _Dom._ All that compunction... - - _Par._ Ay, be sure of it. - Why she and I could carry anything. 1830 - She’s a born actress: we must keep good friends - With her. - - _Dom._ Then this is well; go learn your part. - - [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 3 - - _At the tomb of Britannicus, Enter OCTAVIA and - ATTENDANTS._ - - _OCTAVIA._ - - Hang there, sweet roses, while your blooms are wet, - Hang there and weep unblamed; ay, weep one hour, - While yet your tender, fleshly hues remember - His fair young prime; then wither, droop, and die, - And with your changèd tissues paint my grief. - Nay, let those old wreaths lie, the shrivelled petals - Speak feelingly of sorrow; strew them down - About the steps: we mock death being trim. 1840 - Now here another. Ah! see, set it you: - I cannot reach. Have you not thought these roses - Weave a fit emblem—how they wait for noon - That comes to kill their promise, and the crown - Is but a mock one? - - _ATTENDANT._ - - ’Tis a good custom, lady, - To honour thus the tombs of those we love. - - _Oct._ Custom! Is this a custom? Then I think - I wrong my sorrow in such common shows. - - _Att._ Nay, it doth ease affliction to be busy; - And grief, that cannot reckon with a mystery, 1850 - Is comforted by trifles. - - _Oct._ Why, thou’rt wrong; - It brings no comfort. - - _Att._ And ’tis kindly done - To hide the fresh-cut stone. Death is hard featured - In a new-built tomb. - - _Oct._ O, hold thy peace! I see - Thou canst not be my comforter. Alas, - I blame thee not. But yet, whate’er be said, - Think not our gracious deed finds its account - In the honour done: the wreaths I bring were woven - More for myself; the tears I shed, I shed - The more abundantly that they are crimes 1860 - In the sight of him that slew him. - - _Att._ Speak not so, - Lady; thou’rt o’er-distraught. - - _Oct._ What would’st thou have me? - Knowing my sorrow thou should’st rather wonder, - And think it well that I speak sense at all. - - _Att._ Let not such passion kill thy courage, lady; - The greatest die. There stands the tomb of Julius, - Whose mighty march was no less foully stayed - At noon of power: there is Augustus’ tomb, - Wherein so many lie... - - _Oct._ Why, what are they - To me? Is’t not my brother that is dead? 1870 - Whose life was mine, as needful to my day - As is the sun; as natural, old a want - To very life as is the bathing air - That my blood battens on. Take these away - And give him back; it then were likelier - I should not gasp, fret, pale, nor starve, nor pine. - He is gone! O miserably, suddenly, - For ever; alas! alas!—See, who comes hither? - - _Att._ ’Tis Agrippina, lady; and she carries - Wreaths such as ours. 1880 - - _Oct._ Let us begone in haste. - - _Att._ Alas! she hath seen us, lady: ’tis too late. - - _Oct._ I’ll but salute her. I pray you all keep back, - Nor speak with her attendants. - - _Enter Agrippina, Fulvia, and Attendants._ - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - My dearest daughter, - I have longed for this embrace. Where else but here - Beside this sacred tomb should we have met? - I should have been much with thee in thy sorrow, - But am forbidden the palace. - - _Oct._ I must thank thee - Doing this grace to my unhappy brother. - The gods grant thee kind messages. Farewell. - - _Agr._ Nay, go not thus. See how I hang these garlands. - - _Oct._ Not there, nay, not on mine; not there! thy grief 1891 - Must own a lower place; mix not its show - With mine. He was my brother. - - _Agr._ Thou art right. - Set them here, Fulvia. If my heart is wronged, - ’Tis done unwittingly; thou canst not know. - - _Oct._ I leave thee. - - _Agr._ Grant one word. - - _Oct._ Would’st thou be kind - ’Twill be but one. - - _Agr._ ’Tis this then: I am kind. - In sum ’twas this I came to say. - - _Oct._ If hither - Thou didst but come to seek me, know I had chosen - The hour to be alone. - - _Agr._ My dearest child, 1900 - My injured child! See, I would have thee trust - My friendship. ’Twas my constant, loving wish - To right thy brother’s wrongs, and now my heart - Is wholly turned on thee. - - _Oct._ Think not of me. - Am I not past all help? nor do I crave - The help that leads to death. - - _Agr._ O never dream - That I had hand in that accursèd deed. - The terror of it rather hath possessed - My purpose with the justice of revenge. 1909 - - _Oct._ I cannot thank thee, and from thy messengers - Have gathered all. There’s nought to say. Farewell. - - _Agr._ Thou dost not know Poppæa marries Cæsar. - - _Oct._ Ay. - - _Agr._ Thou consentest? - - _Oct._ Say, would my refusal - Or my consent be counted? - - _Agr._ It shall not be. - - _Oct._ It matters not. - - _Agr._ Thou lookest for divorce? - - _Oct._ Can I remain his wife who killed my brother? - - _Agr._ Thou art the last branch of the house of Claudius, - And if thou wilt forget the hurt now done thee, - May’st yet retrieve thy blood; but being too proud, - Wilt more dishonour what thou seemest to honour. - If now thou’rt brave, and wilt join hands with me... - - _Oct._ O never, never! was it not that hand - That.... O my brother, with thy trait’rous foe - Make peace, and at thy tomb! Ask clemency - Of him that murdered thee! O never.— - Thou most dear shade, who wast too mild and kind, - If death seal not thy spiritual sense - To my loud sorrow, hear me! O thou my joy, - By whom the bitterness of life, my lot - Of horror, was quite sweetened,—cruelly, 1930 - Most cruelly slain. Ay, I will all forget - When he who wrought this thing can bring again - Out of thy cold unmotionable ashes - The well-compacted body and grace of life. - Ay, if he make one smile of thine, although - It last no time, I will forget: but else, - I say, the thing he hath done, since so ’tis done - That he cannot undo it, he must o’er-do - Ere I forget. - - _Agr._ I will be yet thy friend— - - [_Exit Oct. with Attendants._ - - There comes no help from her. Maybe her grief - Is yet too fresh. Come, Fulvia, let us go. 1941 - She would not speak with me. Now on all hands - Thou seest I am set aside, and count for nought. - Yet not for this am I a whit discouraged; - I shall rise yet. Am I not Agrippina? [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 4 - - _A room in the Palace. Enter through a door from the - supper-room NERO and POPPÆA._ - - _NERO._ - - Now ere they follow, Poppæa, ease my heart, - And tell me thy request. - - _POPPÆA._ - - Thou’lt grant it me? - - _Ner._ Whate’er it be, if thou wilt come to Baiæ. - - _Pop._ I’ll have it without bargain or not at all. - - _Ner._ I grant it: ask. 1950 - - _Pop._ ’Tis that you give my husband - The post in Lusitania which he begs. - - _Ner._ ’Tis his. Would he were there. - - _Pop._ My thanks. - - _Ner._ I prithee - Call him not husband. - - _Pop._ Ah, now I pierce this veil - Of generosity: why, when he goes - I must go with him. - - _Ner._ Eh! if that’s the case - I grant not his commission. - - _Pop._ ’Tis a promise. - - _Ner._ I had a promise once. - - _Pop._ That was conditioned. - - _Ner._ And what condition have I not fulfilled? - - _Pop._ Heavens! is’t forgotten? - - _Ner._ Say, what have I lacked in? - - _Pop._ Or did I dream ’twas promised me? ’Twas this; 1960 - Marriage. - - _Ner._ By Juno, I will marry thee. - But come to Baiæ. - - _Pop._ Nay; thine oath is vain - Upon the point of honour. There are things - Idle and ceremonial, and that count - In love as nought, but which alone can make - Divorce from Otho honourable, nay, - To me, I say, possible. Till the day - Octavia is divorced I am Otho’s wife, - Ay, and am well content to be: he loves me, - And lacks in nothing that a gentlema. 1970 - And lover should observe. I sometimes think - That you mistake... - - _Ner._ Ah! - - _Pop._ But to mistake in that! - Seem to forget! I fly. - - _Ner._ O most impatient! - I have yet no pretext. - - _Pop._ Nay, nor ever will. - Besides, your mother rules: she would not suffer it. - I have no desire to taste her dishes. - - _Ner._ Hush! - They come. - - _Enter through the door Petronius, Tigellinus and - Anicetus._ - - Where be the others? - - _TIGELLINUS._ - - They have taken - Cæsar’s gracious permission, and gone home. - ’Tis late. - - _Ner._ Why, who art thou to say ’tis late? - Be seated, be seated. I’ll tell thee, Anicetus, 1980 - More of my scheme anon; but for the present - We keep Minerva’s feast at Baiæ; thither - Must thou convey the court. Combine high pomp - With masterly dispatch; our games shall reach - The limit of invention, and ourselves - Take part. To thee I say, come not behind. - - _ANICETUS._ - - Grant me the means to be great Cæsar’s herald, - I’ll make a wonder that shall fetch the nymphs - From their blue depths in ravishment to see - His ships upon the waters. 1990 - - _Ner._ I shall be liberal, - And give thee full instruction. (_To Pop._) Think, my love, - What could be pleasanter, now spring is come, - Than to confide our vexed and careful spirits - To nature’s flush; to leave our memories - With the din and smoke of Rome, and force a pageant - Upon the lazy mirror of the bay,— - One to make Venus jealous, and confound - The richness of the season. Thou dost not guess - What I can do. Say, would’st thou miss the seeing - Of my magnificence? 2000 - - _Enter Paris._ - - _Pop._ See, here is Paris. - - _Ner._ He comes to make us merry. The gods defend us! - He has seen a ghost. - - _Pop._ He has something to deliver. - - _Ner._ Patience! I know his mood: he will be tragic; - And you shall see the severe and tearful muse - Outstride her dignity, and fall along. - (_To Paris_) Begin! - - _PARIS._ - - Most mighty and most honoured Cæsar, - I cannot speak for shame. - - _Petr._ Why, man, thou’st spoken. - - _Ner._ He opens well. - - _Petr._ Like the nurse in Seneca’s tragedy. - - _Par._ The tale I bring, my lords, is little suited - To make your sport. - - _Petr._ No? - - _Ner._ This is excellent. 2011 - - _Pop._ I think he is in earnest. - - _Ner._ ’Tis his art. - - _Par._ I am a messenger now, and no actor, - Sent by your royal aunt Domitia - To unmask a thing, which, though the gods be praised - That in discovery have wrought prevention, - Is yet a damnèd plot.... - - _Ner._ (_rising_). A plot, a plot! [_All rise._ - Stand off; stand off! a plot, thou say’st? a plot? - - _Pop._ (_aside to Nero_). Pray heaven this prove not now - some fresh contrivance - Of the empress. 2020 - - _Ner._ Stand all aside. Art thou in earnest? - - _Par._ Pardon me, Cæsar. Did this plot concern - Less than thy life... - - _Ner._ My life! by all the gods, - Speak but his name who dares. - - _Par._ Will Cæsar’s ear - Grant me indulgence? - - _Ner._ Speak, fool, or thou diest. - - _Par._ The matter is disclosed by certain freedmen - Engaged by the empress. - - _Ner._ Ah! - - _Pop._ (_to Nero_). Said I not so? - - _Ner._ Be this proved, ’tis the last. - - _Pop._ (_to Nero_). Ay, till the next. - - _Ner._ Paris, as thou would’st live another moment, - Speak now but truth. - - _Par._ (_shows a paper_). See here the evidence. - If Cæsar read this, ’twill give certain colour 2030 - To worst suspicion. Here are writ the names. - - _Ner._ Read me the names. - - _Par._ Rubellius Plautus. - - _Ner._ Ha! - Enough. I know ’tis true the villain’s blood - Hath from Augustus equal claim with mine. - Who else? - - _Par._ Balbillus and Arruntius Stella, - With Fænius Rufus, and your royal mother, - And some who ’scape the crime disclosing it. - - _Ner._ I’ll have their lives to-night. - - _Tig._ I pray now, Cæsar, - Grant me this order. - - _Anic._ Or me. - - _Ner._ Nay, who are ye? - Go, Tigellinus, fetch me Burrus hither. 2040 - - _Par._ I have his name set down with the conspiracy. - - _Ner._ Burrus? - - _Par._ ’Tis question of him, nothing certain. - - _Ner._ Escort him here unarmed; I’ll speak with him. - - _Tig._ Cæsar, I go. [_Exit._ - - _Ner._ Give me thy paper, sirrah. - - What have we here? [_Reads._ - - _Petr._ (_to Servt._) Call me my servant there. - - _Anic._ Wilt thou go? - - _Petr._ Ay, ’tis sadly out of place, - This business at this time. Look, Anicetus, - Thou’rt new to Cæsar’s suppers; let me tell thee - There’s ever something wrong. See how he takes it! - Mad, mad! 2050 - - _Ner._ (_aside_). I see. Plautus. This hits my life: - Britannicus being dead, that hope cut off, - She looks to Plautus’ claim: and I to be - Poisoned or what appears not: yet I doubt not - Poisoned. ’Tis found in time. Now ’tis plain war; - The strongest wins. Poison! ’Tis life for life. - Nay, maybe already I have swallowed down - Some death-steeped morsel; ay, this very night - Have tasted of it, and the subtle drug - Runs in my veins concocting: my spirit sickens, - I faint and tremble. What is it? - - _Anic._ (_advancing_). Cæsar, a word. 2060 - - _Ner._ What would’st thou say? - - _Anic._ (_to Ner._) ’Tis I can do this thing. - None that be here lack will: I have the means. - ’Twere easy, would you give me the command. - - _Ner._ What would be easy? - - _Anic._ Why, this thing that hangs, - Which you for Rome so wisely, and for you - Rome and your friends have wished. If but your foe - Step on a ship of mine, I’ll beg my death - If it touch land again. We go to Baiæ, - And there upon the hazard of the sea - May this disorder sleep. - - _Enter Burrus with Tigellinus._ - - _Ner._ (_to Anic._) I thank thy zeal; 2070 - - There is no need; give way.—Burrus, thou’rt called - Upon a stern occasion. Is’t not death - To any man or woman whosoe’er - That plots to murder Cæsar? - - _BURRUS._ - - Death deserved. - - _Ner._ Here be the names of some who thus offend. - Thine is amongst them: of thine honesty - I am too well persuaded to demand - More proof than this, that thou do execute - All these conspirators to-night. - - _Bur._ —Cæsar - Is not mistaken in me. Let me see 2080 - The names. [_Takes paper and reads._ - - _Par._ (_aside_). Now may Jove blast the general’s wits, - Else we be lost. - - _Petr._ (_to Anic._) Take my advice. (_going_). - - _Anic._ (_to Petr._) Nay, nay, - I’ll see it out. [_Exit Petronius._ - - _Bur._ (_aside_). What’s this? Why, ’tis mere nonsense.— - What evidence hath Cæsar of this plot? - - _Ner._ Confession of the traitors. Paris brings it - Fresh from Domitia. - - _Bur._ Now, with your permission, - I’ll question Paris. - - _Ner._ Question! why, is’t not plain? - Question is treasonous; and thou to question, - Whose name the black suspicion pricks! wilt thou - Question?—who hast the deepest cause of all 2090 - For sure conviction? Is’t not horrible - That I, to whose security the empire - Looks for stability, should most of all - Live an uneasy and precarious life, - And find no remedy because my ministers, - Who should be over-zealous to protect me - Even from imagined danger, shut their eyes - And ears to plots and perils which I hear - My slaves and women prate of? - - _Bur._ Cæsar, the matter - Demands inquiry. That you have been much wronged - Is clear: by whom is doubtful. Let me pray 2101 - You save your judgment from reproach of haste, - And hear what I advise. - - _Ner._ Speak; I will hear. - Speak. - - _Bur._ First dismiss the company: ’tis ill - To have had this audience. - - _Ner._ Friends, you are all dismissed. - Begone without a word: this business presses. - - _Pop._ (_to Nero_). Have some one with you, Nero; are you advised? - Keep a guard while you can. - - _Ner._ (_to Pop._) Nay, have no fear. - - _Pop._ I would not trust him. Did not Paris say - His name was with the rest? - - _Ner._ (_to Pop._) Be not afraid.— 2110 - Good night, my lords. (_To Bur._) Shall Paris stay? - - _Bur._ No, none. - - _Ner._ Paris, await without; the rest go home. - - [_Anic. Tig. and Par. go out: Poppæa tarries._ - - _Pop._ (_to Nero_). Oh, do not trust this man! - - _Ner._ (_to Pop._) He’s not my enemy. - - _Pop._ I fear to leave thee with him. - - _Ner._ Have no fear. - - _Pop._ Could he not kill thee? - - _Ner._ Nay, nay. - - _Pop._ Oh, he will. - Alas! alas! Oh! oh! [_Faints._ - - _Ner._ Why, thou must go. - - [_Exit Nero carrying out Poppæa._ - - _Bur._ (_solus_). Be hanged! the fool’s gone too. - - _Re-enter Nero._ - - _Ner._ Now, Burrus, now. - Art thou my friend? - - _Bur._ —We are alone, and while - There’s none to hear, you must excuse a soldier - If he speak plainly, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ Indeed, Burrus, 2120 - Thou art my only friend; speak as a friend. - - _Bur._ I have heard it said the German warriors, - Meet o’er their cups, and, hot with wine, resolve - Matters of state; but ere they put in act - Their midnight policy, they meet again - In morning hours to see if sober sense - Approve what frenzied zeal inspired. The custom - Has been applauded. Chance has given to you - The one half of the method: use the other. - - _Ner._ I am not drunk. 2130 - - _Bur._ Such wandering judgment, Cæsar, - Asks such excuse. - - _Ner._ My judgment wanders not. - I am cool. My face is flushed?... - - _Bur._ How will this look - If, sitting here at table, at a breath - Of hearsay you commit to instant death - Your mother and four noble citizens, - With others of less note? - - _Ner._ Choose I the time? - Shall the conspirators be pardoned then - ’Cause Cæsar sups? or say Cæsar must fast - And touch no wine, lest when his blood be warm - Some treasonous practice creep into his ears, 2140 - And they who would befriend conspiracy - May point suspicion on his judgment! Now - Is a good hour for treason; Cæsar sups, - And must not credit it. - - _Bur._ I do not blame - Your feast. - - _Ner._ No more then: let it be to-night. - - _Bur._ What! on a charge unproven? - - _Ner._ Thou may’st prove it. - - _Bur._ See, you acquit me; why not then the rest? - - _Ner._ Acquit my mother! would’st thou persuade me, Burrus, - She can be acquitted? - - _Bur._ Of the deeds she has done - She is guilty; for this action charged against her, - It is not hers. - - _Ner._ Oh, more, much more is hers 2151 - Than thou dost dream. The crime men charge on me, - My brother’s death, Burrus, indeed, I swear, - Though thou believe me not, yet if my part - In that were separate and weighed ’gainst hers ... - I would not tell thee... Oh, I had been happy had I - But heard thee then. - - _Bur._ Your peace even now as much - Hangs on good counsel. You are hot: be guided, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ Nay, now thou’rt changed, thou’rt wrong: thou goest round - To the other side. If thou would’st give the advice - I need, I’d take it gladly. Listen, Burrus: 2161 - I have another secret; if I tell thee - Thou may’st befriend me. I will tell thee. Hark! - ’Tis this: I fear my mother; I cannot sound - Her heartlessness; my terror shames the shows - And feeble efforts of my trust and love. - I have read her eyes— - Oh, there’s no tenderness, no pious scruple - Writ in my favour there; nothing but hate. - To think that I am her son but whets to fierceness - Her fury, and her hellish plots are laid 2171 - More recklessly and safely that she deems - I am not knit of that obdurate nerve - To sear the tender place of natural love. - I would not do it, Burrus, though I fear her - And hate her, as I must; but let it end - Ere it be worse. I pray thee do it, Burrus. - - _Bur._ The cause of fear is magnified by terror: - The present circumstance were amply met - By Agrippina’s exile, which I urge, 2180 - As ever, now. But let such sentence rest - On proven crime. - - _Ner._ Oh, thus were ne’er an end. - Done, we stand clear. - - _Bur._ Thus done, ’twere a foul crime: - And if you have found remorse in what before - Was schemed in fear and haste, consider, Cæsar, - If you would thank me for subserviency - Did I obey; for your sake I refuse. - - _Ner._ Eh! - - _Bur._ I refuse. - - _Ner._ I have other friends. - - _Bur._ So be it. - Take my demission. But remember, Cæsar, - That he who fills my place, handles the power 2190 - That holds you up; he that hath strength to help - May find the will to hurt you. - - _Ner._ I meant not that. - I trust thee, Burrus: I’ll be guided by thee. - What wilt thou do? - - _Bur._ The wisest course is thus: - To-morrow Seneca and I will go - With chosen witnesses to Agrippina, - And lay the charge. If she draw quit of it, - Well; but if not, I promise that her place - Shall not win favour of me. - - _Ner._ Dost thou promise? - - _Bur._ I promise that. - - _Ner._ And if there be a doubt, 2200 - Thou’lt wrest it to my side? - - _Bur._ I promise that. - - _Ner._ ’Tis death. - - _Bur._ Ay, death. - - _Ner._ If that be thy last word - I am free. I would I had more such friends as thou. - But bring it not back; take all my power. Thou saidst - I had no cause for fear? - - _Bur._ What should you fear? - - _Ner._ I think thou’rt right. - - _Bur._ Now, Cæsar, I will leave you. - Your spirits are much moved. - - _Ner._ Indeed I swear - I am not moved. There was no need to blame - My supper, Burrus. - - _Bur._ Nay, I blamed it not. - - _Ner._ I am not sensible to wine as others. 2210 - Of all I meet there’s none, no, not the best, - Can eat and drink as I. There’s something, Burrus, - In that. I think if I, who rule the world, - Could not enjoy my wine, that were a blemish - Which scorn might hit. - - _Bur._ I never blamed your supper. - - _Ner._ Hadst thou been there, thou would’st have praised it well. - I have learned much lately in these things. Petronius, - Ay, he’s the man—I’m blessed in this Petronius. - Thou know’st him? - - _Bur._ Ay, and would not keep his hours. - ’Tis late, to bed. - - _Ner._ Well, Burrus, I’ll to bed. 2220 - But thou must sup with me. I’d gladly have thee - One of our party. I shall tell Petronius. - - _Bur._ Cæsar, good night. - - _Ner._ By heaven, I had forgot; - Where did I leave Poppæa? I remember. - Good night, Burrus, good night. [_Exit._ - - _Bur._ Now may brave Bacchus - Reclaim the field; for me, I’ll gather up - This quenched brand, and be off. What must men think - Of Cæsar, who would fetch him with such trash? - The Augusta marry Plautus! Master Paris - For this will need his wit to save his skin. [_Exit._ - - - SCENE · 5 - - _A small room in Agrippina’s house. Enter AGRIPPINA - and FULVIA._ - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - My days are weary, Fulvia. Know you not 2231 - Some art to make time fly? another month - Of prison and neglect would kill me quite. - - _FULVIA._ - - Is’t not the change more than the solitude - Vexes your majesty? - - _Agr._ Nay, I was never made - For isolation, and even by my friends - I am utterly forsaken. - - _Ful._ Junia Silana - Was very constant, tho’ we have not seen her - Now for four days. - - _Agr._ Bah! she’s my foe. I wronged her - That way a woman ne’er forgives. ’Twas I 2240 - Broke off her match with Sextius, you remember. - - _Ful._ Your true friends dare not come: they stand aloof, - Watching the time to do you service, madam. - - _Agr._ You speak of Pallas: there’s none else. - - _Ful._ The lot - Of late befallen your majesty is such - As all our sex have borne, who have not raised - Nor much demeaned themselves beyond the rest. - - _Agr._ True; but ’twas never mine; I made escape. - They that would lock us up in idleness, - Shut us from all affairs, treat us as dolls 2250 - Appointed for their pleasure; these but make it - The easier for a woman with a will - To have her way. Life lacks machinery - To thwart us. Had I been a man, methinks - I had done as well, but never with the means - I have used. Nay, nay, ’tis easy for a woman, - Be she but quick and brave, to have her will. - - _Enter Servant, who speaks to Fulvia, and she to - Agrippina._ - - Burrus and Seneca you say! Admit them. - Fulvia, here’s one apiece: make your own choice; - I’ve none, and can be generous. Pray come in. 2260 - - _Enter Burrus and Seneca with two others._ - - Come in, my lords, come in. You are very welcome. - Look, Fulvia, now if Mercury have not heard - Our prayers and sent us noble visitors! - Pray you be seated. Alas, in this poor house - I fear I cannot show you the reception - You and your gallant followers deserve. - ’Tis not what thou’rt accustomed to at home, - Seneca, I know: pardon it. Thou lookest cold. - Come near the fire: pray heaven this bitter weather - May not have touched thy chest. A Gallic winter! - I can remember no such fall of snow 2271 - In March these twenty years; but looking back, - I find one noted in my journal then. - How goes your health, my lords? - - _SENECA._ - - Well, thank you, madam. - - _Agr._ I am very glad: your visit is well meant; - It cheers me much. - - _BURRUS._ - - The truth is, madam, we come - At Nero’s order. - - _Agr._ Ha! then I strike you off [_Rising._ - My list of friends again. I thought as much; - I wondered how you dared me this affront - In my last poor retreat, here where I sit 2280 - Alone and friendless, in the worst disgrace - Woman can suffer;—ay, and caused by you. - But learn that, if nought else, this house is mine; - If ’tis so small that it can welcome little, - It can exclude the more. At Cæsar’s order - Ye have forgot your manners, now at mine - Resume them. Ye have done his hest, begone! - Begone! - - _Sen._ I pray you, madam, hear the message; - We may not leave without delivering it. - Burrus will speak it. - - _Agr._ Oh—Burrus speak it. 2290 - If Burrus speak, the affair is mighty black. - There’s none like him to break an ugly business. - - [_Sitting._ - - Hey! Well, we have nought to do, so let us hear - The last of the court. Octavia’s divorce? - - _Sen._ Believe me, lady, I feel much aggrieved - In all that hurts you here. - - _Agr._ Stranger than fiction. - Now what’s the matter? - - _Bur._ There has been information - To Cæsar of plots against his life, the which - The informers charge on you. This the chief item, - That you have entered with Rubellius Plautus 2300 - Into conspiracy to set him up - In Nero’s place, and to dethrone your son. - I come with Seneca and these witnesses - To hear the answer, which your majesty - No doubt hath very ready, and accordingly - To acquit you of the charge. - - _Agr._ —Excellent! - Now, Seneca, ’s thy turn; or will these gentlemen? - Fulvia, we have depositions to be made: - Fetch pens and paper; all shall be in order. - - _Sen._ Madam, remember on what past occasions - Cæsar hath shown suspicion, and believe, 2311 - Whate’er your innocency, there is cause - To make it clear. - - _Agr._ Thy prudence, Seneca, - Is vanity, not kindness; spare it, pray. - Here is your paper, gentlemen: I’ll give you - Matter for Cæsar’s reading. Tell me first - Who’s my accuser? - - _Bur._ There are two—the first - Junia Silana, the other is your sister - Domitia: they bring forth as evidence - The informers, certain freedmen, Atimetus, 2320 - Iturius, and Calvisius, who affirm - That you have lately been on terms with Plautus, - Stirring him up to make an enterprise - Against the state; that you, by marrying him - (Who by the mother’s side may claim a line - As rightly from Augustus as doth Nero), - Might reinstate yourself, dethrone your son, - And bring disaster to the commonwealth. - That is the charge, of which we are come to hear - The refutation, not to press the count. 2330 - - _Agr._ Pah! You’re a brace of idiots, if ye think - This needs refuting. Who’s Silana, pray, - That if she speak, the very bonds of nature - And heaven must be repealed to give her credit, - Saying a mother plots to kill her son? - I marvel not that she, being childless, dares - Avouch such madness, never having known - How near the affections of all mothers are, - Nor that a mother cannot shift her love - Like an adulteress;—nay, nor do I wonder 2340 - That she should find among her freedmen those, - Who, having in luxury spent all their substance, - Will for the promise of the old lady’s purse - Sustain the accusation: but that for this - I should be seriously held suspect - Of the infamy of parricide, or Cæsar - Of giving ear to it, this I marvel at. - As for Domitia, I would thank my sister - Even for her jealousy, were but the strife 2349 - One of good will and kindness towards my Nero. - But now she wastes her time with her man Paris, - Composing as ’twere fables for the stage. - Let her go back to Baiæ and her fishpools; - They kept her trifling spirit well employed, - When by my efforts Nero’s first adoption, - Proconsular authority, consulate, - And other steps to empire were procured. - Are ye now answered?— - Or is there any can be brought to show - That I have practised with the city cohorts, 2360 - Corrupted the loyalty of the provinces, - Solicited the freedmen to rebellion? - Or to what purpose think ye? Had Britannicus - Been Cæsar, then I grant I might have lived; - But if ’tis Plautus, or whoever else - Should get the power, how should I lack accusers - To charge me, not with words escaped in passion, - But deeds and crimes—crimes—ay, Seneca, crimes, - Of which I could not hope to be acquitted - Save as a mother by her son? And ye 2370 - Think I shall here defend myself to you! - Send Cæsar to me. By the gods I swear - I’ll be revenged on all who have had a hand - In this most cowardly and senseless plot. - I wait him here: tell him that to none other - Will I resolve this matter. - - _Bur._ Be content - To say so much in form, that our report - Suffice for your acquittal. - - _Agr._ I bid you go. - - _Bur._ Cæsar shall hear your message. - - _Sen._ Madam, we go. - - _Agr._ Ay, go, good fellows; though ye have roused my passion, 2380 - Your coming here hath cheered me wondrously. - Nay, if ye have ever such another matter, - Bring it again; be not abashed, but come; - Or send your wives, and those two gentlemen, - Whose names I know not. My lords, your humble servant. - - [_Exeunt Burrus and Seneca and two Gentlemen._ - - Plautus! now is it possible I was wrong - Not to have thought of Plautus? No, I laugh, - ’Tis merely laughable. At forty-five - To marry a pretender; and Plautus too! - He would not have me. Fulvia, do you think 2390 - That Plautus wants to marry me? Ha! ha! - Is it my beauty, think you, or my virtue, - Or my good fortune tempts the stoic? Oh, - Domitia, oh, you are dull. I cannot fear - This plot. We shall retire with more than honour. - ’Twas strange, I think, that Pallas was not struck; - His name escaped. - - _Ful._ There is ample reason, madam. - They say that in his house he holds such caution - As not to speak before his slaves. His orders - Are given by nod and sign, or if there’s need 2400 - He writes: there’s none can say they have heard him speak. - - _Agr._ May good come of it. ’Twould be hard indeed - If they should exile Plautus for a fear - Lest I should marry him. That were a fate - Of irony. Why, give the man his choice - Of marrying me and exile, would he not - Fly to the pole? Poor Plautus! marry Plautus! - - _Both._ Ha! ha! ha! he! he! - - _Enter Nero. Agrippina is seated._ - - _NERO._ - - I find you merry, mother; the gods be praised - That you deny the impeachment. - - _Agr._ Really, Nero, - Burrus’ memory is getting very short - If he said I denied it. I did not. - - _Ner._ You did not? - - _Agr._ Nay, I’d not be at the pains. - - _Ner._ Called you me hither? - - _Agr._ Ay, you seem misled. - I guess who ’tis. But let that pass. I hoped - I might advise you privately; I knew - You would not wish it known. Now, was I wrong? - - _Ner._ Do you deny what is affirmed against you? - - _Agr._ No, son: for if you wished to take my life, - Why should I rob you of this grand pretence? 2420 - Yet since you cannot, and the charge itself - But moves my laughter, as you overheard, - My only wish is you should now retire - With dignity, and act as Cæsar ought. - - _Ner._ (_aside_). This then is added to my shames. - - _Agr._ What say you? - Fulvia, await without. [_Exit Fulvia._] Who brought this to thee? - - _Ner._ Paris. - - _Agr._ The player! when? - - _Ner._ Last night at supper. - - _Agr._ Tell me, didst thou believe it? is it possible? - Thou didst! Whence gottest thou thy wits I wonder; - Certain they are not mine, no, nor thy father’s: - I think they came of Claudius by adoption. 2431 - Dost thou believe it still? - - _Ner._ Whate’er I have done - Was on advice. - - _Agr._ A pious caution truly. - Is this thy trust? Yet, yet I must forgive thee. - See, I was angered. Nay, ’twas not thy judgment: - I know who leads. But for these foolish women - I sentence exile. - - _Ner._ Sentence whom to exile? - - _Agr._ The two devisers. Yet I think my sister - Is harmless; but the other, that Silana— - - _Ner._ Silana must be banished? 2440 - - _Agr._ Judge her, Nero, - When thou hast heard. She and thy aunt Domitia - Have been the two who, in my sad retirement, - Have visited me most. Day after day - They have made a show of kindness, finding joy - In my disgrace, to view it; and have but left me - To try this trick. - - _Ner._ (_aside_). ’Tis plain I have been fooled. - - _Agr._ For those that brought the tale, thou knowest that they - Must taste the penalties they sought to inflict; - That thou must know; but ’tis not all. The acquittal - Of those accused will not be full without 2450 - Some honour shown them. Best among the names - Stand Fænius Rufus and Arruntius Stella, - Who may have city posts: gentle Balbillus, - Who has long deserved it, must be paid at last - With a proconsulate. For myself, thou knowest - I have taken all disgrace so patiently - That I expect some boon, though yet I fear - To ask; but when I have seen my slandered friends - Honoured, I’ll write it thee. - - _Ner._ I shall be quick - To punish and to make amends. ’Tis just 2460 - Towards Burrus, I should tell you from the first - He took your part. - - _Agr._ What could he else? Now, Nero, - I have done: go home, and there resolve the matter - With common sense; take Burrus into counsel - As to what penalties and what promotions - Shall be distributed. Before the people - Remember that some feeling must be shown, - And anger for effronteries attempted - Against your majesty. Now go, the affair - Has somewhat tired me.—Nay, touch me not; farewell. 2470 - - _Ner._ I see you are right; farewell. - - _Agr._ I have more advice, - Which I will write to thee. [_Exit Nero._ - Excellent this—I have not had my way - Thus for a long long while: ay, now is my time - To strike. I’ll venture with a letter to him - And claim my boon, that he dismiss Poppæa. - There’s much to say on that which may seem aimed - More at his good than mine; and if she have plunged - In this false step, his vanity being touched 2479 - May shake his liking. I will do it at once. [_Exit._ - - - SCENE · 6 - - _A room in the Palace. Enter NERO and POPPÆA._ - - _NERO._ - - All for thy sake was planned, and now my pleasure - In scheming thine is fled; for what is Baiæ, - And what Minerva’s feast, blue skies and seas, - Or games, or mirth, or wine, or the soft season, - If thou deny me? Prithee say thou’lt come. - - _POPPÆA._ - - Nay, I’ll not go. - - _Ner._ Thou wilt not? - - _Pop._ Nay, I cannot. - - _Ner._ Cannot to Cæsar? - - _Pop._ Prove me then thou’rt Cæsar, - And not a ward. - - _Ner._ A ward! - - _Pop._ I said a ward. - May I not see thee vexed? ’Tis what men whisper, - Who dare not vex thee. Well, thy mother’s child, - So much that at her beck thou forfeitest 2491 - Empire and liberty. - - _Ner._ Wouldst thou enrage me! - What dost thou mean, Poppæa? - - _Pop._ Deny not that: - If ’tis not that hinders our marriage, then - The case, I fear, blackens. I, who can smile - At that, must weep another cause. I’ll think - Thou’rt tired of me. - - _Ner._ Now by what sign? - - _Pop._ Maybe - Thou hast seen a better beauty, and repented - The promise given to me. - - _Ner._ O treason, treason! - - _Pop._ Thinkest my blood unworthy of alliance 2500 - With thine—tho’, truth, my ancestors have triumphed. - - _Ner._ Who dares that lie shall bleed. - - _Pop._ Or that our bed - Is not like to be blest. - - _Ner._ The fruitful gods - With all their oracles avert the omen. - - _Pop._ Or that I urge my marriage for advancement; - And thou, doubting my love, pressest denial - To proof of faith. - - _Ner._ Ay, that is it; thou’st hit it. - - _Pop._ Or that I, once thy wife, would cross thy mother, - Divulge her crimes, the hate the senate bear her, - And last, though that’s well known, how she hates thee. - - _Ner._ Speak of this once for all, then let the jest - Be dead. - - _Pop._ Nay, ’tis no jest, for Agrippina 2512 - Will never love a daughter who loves thee. - Restore me to my husband. I were happier - In any place, howe’er remote from Rome, - Where thy disgrace and wrongs can but be spoken, - Not seen and felt as here. See why I go. - - _Ner._ Poppæa, since I have never hid from thee - My quarrel with my mother, thou mayst know - It draws to end. - - _Pop._ Oh, is’t the turn for kindness? 2520 - Hath she been kind again? Why, ’tis deception. - When her plot failed she cast it off, and now - Exults: ’tis her fresh confidence seems kind. - - _Ner._ ’Twas not her plot. Or else I’d rather think - She put the snare to catch my foolish aunt, - Who blindly took the bait. - - _Pop._ Then she pretended - Treason, that she might better hurt her sister: - And yet can win thy trust! - - _Ner._ Nay, heaven forbid; - I trust her not. - - _Pop._ She hates me. - - _Ner._ Nay, her kinship - Is jealous for Octavia; but... - - _Pop._ Ah, true! 2530 - To kill one’s husband, plot against one’s son, - Should leave unsatisfied some tender feelings - To spend upon a step-child. Why, she knows - Those arts which manage you would not gull me, - A woman not her child. Her whole design - Is bent to thwart our marriage; and she will. - I know it. - - _Ner._ I swear that were this proved against her, - Came it to a question ’twixt herself and thee, - Which to take, which to lose, then not a moment - Would I delay: the blow I have often sworn 2540 - To strike should fall. - - _Enter Messenger._ - - _MESSENGER._ - - A letter from the Augusta. [_Exit._ - - _Pop._ Now, as she loves me, this is mine. - - _Ner._ Not so. - - _Pop._ Then as thou lovest me. - - _Ner._ Well. - - _Pop._ (_reading_). Ho! ho! ho! ho! - Now shines the sun at noon. - - _Ner._ What is’t? - - _Pop._ I read? - - _Ner._ Read then. - - _Pop._ (_reads_). _To her dearest son. Ha! ha! ha! - When last we met thou wilt remember to have confessed - some shame for wrong done to me. The wrong I forgive, - but eagerly seize on thy sorrow to ask of thee, in regard - for thine own happiness, this only favour. ’Tis my earnest - prayer and advice that thou dismiss Poppæa._ 2551 - - _Ner._ Ha! writes she so? - - _Pop._ Attend, the reasons follow. - (_Reading._) _Beware of her: nor think that I grudge thee - the happiness which thou now findest in her. Marriage - with her can lead only to thy misery. I know her well._ - Now hear my character. - - _Ner._ Give me the letter. - - _Pop._ _She is vain, deceitful, self-seeking, and, being by - nature cold, hath the art to assume the mask of passion; - and ’neath the show of virtue designedly conceals her - wickedness and mischief. She loves thee no better than - she loves Otho._ 2561 - - _Ner._ Give me the letter. - - _Pop._ Nay, one sentence more. - _Believe a woman sees further than a man, since to her eyes - beauty is no veil._ - She grants me beauty then. [_Gives letter to Nero._ - - _Ner._ (_reading_). ’Tis so, ’tis so. Ye gods! and thou - wert right. - Poppæa, this is the end. Come not to Baiæ. - Wait my return. - - _Pop._ What’s now to do, I pray? - - _Ner._ Ask not: when I return I shall be free. - We will be married. - - _Pop._ Will you banish her? 2570 - - _Ner._ Ask nothing. - - _Pop._ From her exile still her plottings - Will reach to Rome. - - _Ner._ Not so, for she shall go - Whence nothing reaches Rome. - - _Pop._ Oh, now I fear - I have said too much; let not my love o’ercome thee. - Maybe she meant not this. - - _Ner._ Thou meddle not! - - _Pop._ Oh, but at least no crimes, Nero, no crimes! - Promise me that; rather I’ll fly to-night. - - _Ner._ Poppæa, in earnest of the happy day - When thou wilt be my wife, I bid thee now - Depart. 2580 - - _Pop._ (_kissing him_). Husband, I go. [_Exit._ - - _Ner._ What ho! what ho! - - _Enter a Servant._ - - Is Anicetus in the palace? - - _SERVANT._ - - Ay, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ Go, bid him hither straight. [_Exit Servant._ - It shall be done. - Ay, now it shall be done. Let me consider; - I must be cool, lest I be foiled once more. - Where lies my hindrance? not in her; she has twice - Deceived me and escaped: now in my turn - I steal her weapon, and can use it better, - Having been plain before. Then Seneca... - He shall not know, so are his scruples quiet. - For mine, they are hushed already; but ’twere best - Recount the terms which reason can oppose 2591 - To too rebellious nature: first there’s my motive, - Huge as the earth; liberty, happiness, - Empire: that cannot slide, I fear not that. - Then there’s the ground of justice; Claudius’ death, - O’er which the executive too long hath slept - In Cæsar’s piety: the sentence now - O’ertakes the murderess with a double score, - Since she by her conspiracy contrived - Britannicus should die ... ay, for his death 2600 - The heavy penalty hangs o’er some head; - Now let it fall on hers,—so I am quit. - All this condemns her, long-expected justice - Cries, and occasion hurries on the hand. - Ay, ay, I am clear. Poppæa being my stake, - I cannot shrink nor swerve. What was’t she wrote? - Why here is more. [_Reads._ - _Be with me in this matter, - But if thou should’st refuse, we are worse foes._ - She dares the threat. - - _Enter Anicetus._ - - _ANICETUS._ - - Cæsar hath summoned me. - - _Ner._ Good Anicetus, tell me, is there none 2610 - Greater than Cæsar? - - _Anic._ Nay, Cæsar, there is none. - - _Ner._ But were there one to whom it might be said - Cæsar owed life and fortune—dost thou take me? - - _Anic._ Cæsar would say the Augusta. - - _Ner._ Nay, thou’rt dull: - ’Twas thee I meant. - - _Anic._ Me, Cæsar! - - _Ner._ Dost remember - Boasting to me that thou hadst sailor means - To do a certain thing? - - _Anic._ Ay. - - _Ner._ Do it now. - I’ll owe thee life and fortune. Canst thou be trusted? - - _Anic._ My love for Cæsar follows hand in hand - With his command in this. - - _Ner._ Then do it, I say; 2620 - No words, no explanation. Agrippina - Will come to Baiæ: there have thou thy ship. - - _Anic._ I will have one at Bauli, one at Baiæ: - If she take either it shall serve the turn. - - _Ner._ Go now contrive thy means; let nothing ’scape thee - To me or any other: when ’tis done - Hold thy head high. - - _Anic._ Cæsar, I go to do it. [_Exit._ - - _Ner._ Now comes my part: ay, though it vex my soul - To stoop; tho’ this be Cæsar’s greatest wrong, - That he must patch his faultless power with guile, - And having all command, miss of his will 2631 - But for a subterfuge .... yet for this once - I’ll do it—’tis little; but to write a letter, - Feign to discard Poppæa, as mistrusting - Her love and character; and from that vantage - I surely win my mother to come forth - And join the court at Baiæ—she will come. - - - - - ACT · V - - - SCENE · 1 - - _Baiæ. A room in Agrippina’s villa; the back gives out - on the sea, where a galley is seen moored to quay of - villa. AGRIPPINA and FULVIA._ - - _AGRIPPINA._ - - Is not this charming, Fulvia? what a day! - I feel I have never breathed spring air before. - And how the people cheered! it did me good. 2640 - Here’s my old seat. The villa’s looking well. - Could but Domitia see us now! How smoothly - Her little plot went off! My first suspicions, - Fulvia, I am sure were wrong: this invitation - Was most well meant; and see the tenderness - Has even called up my tears. You cannot know - What fond associations make this house - A home indeed. I wish I had not refused - To take the yacht at Bauli: ’twas an error, - Over-precaution. - - _FULVIA._ - - Madam, I but told you 2650 - The very words Seleucus.... [_A noise without._ - - _Agr._ What is that noise? - - _Ful._ ’Tis Cæsar coming with a company. - - _Agr._ Oh, I will see. (_Looking forth._) And there is - Seneca - And Burrus. There’s much meaning in this visit. - How grand he looks with all his lords about him! - There never was a Cæsar like him: others - Have been but Cæsars; he’s an emperor, - And wears the full magnificence of state - In beardless boyhood.—Fulvia, I do love splendour. - To be so young and rule the world! 2660 - - _Enter Nero, Seneca, and Burrus._ - - Now, welcome, - Welcome, my son! - - _NERO._ - - Welcome to Baiæ, mother. - We are come the first day of the feast to pay you - The season’s compliments. - - _Agr._ A prompt return. - What pleasure ’tis, Nero, I cannot say. - Welcome, my lords. - - _SENECA._ - - My loving service, lady. - - _Ner._ Crossed you the bay from Bauli? - - _Agr._ Nay, you’ll laugh; - ’Twas foolish; but I wished the folk to see - My joy and reconcilement, and in the thought - To please so many friends I kept my litter. - - _Ner._ You’ll all sup with us? 2670 - - _Agr._ I look for nothing better. - - _Ner._ Whom will you bring? - - _Agr._ I have no one with me here - But Polla Acerronia. - - _Ner._ And where is she? - - _Agr._ She took the yacht, and so arrived before us, - But has not left it: like the child she is, - The new toy quite distracts her: she is there. - - _Ner._ Row you this afternoon upon the bay? - - _Agr._ I had thought of it; and now, if you would come - That were a double pleasure. - - _Ner._ I am sorry, I must go - Order to-morrow’s games. - - _Agr._ Your lords mayhap - Will join me. I can take them to your villa. 2680 - - _Sen._ I’ll gladly come: the dust the crowd treads up - Has filled my throat and set me coughing shrewdly. - - _Ner._ Nay, I shall want you both. - - _Agr._ Some other time - I hope, my lords. - - _BURRUS._ - - I thank your majesty. - - _Ner._ Farewell till supper. - - _Agr._ Why! so short a visit! - - _Ner._ We shall meet soon. - - _Agr._ Well, I will sail alone - With Polla; ’tis her wish. Escort me, Nero? - - _Ner._ Ay. - - _Agr._ For the sake of that I’ll go at once. - I love the sea. - - [_Exeunt Nero with Agr. and Fulv. down the quay, - where they are still seen._ - - _Sen._ Burrus, what say you now! - Has not the thing I looked for come to pass? 2690 - - _Bur._ There’s as you say a most astounding change; - Can you explain it? - - _Sen._ Well, you see it, Burrus. - - _Bur._ How came it all about? - - _Sen._ See now how tenderly - They both embrace. - - _Bur._ Who would have thought it? - - _Sen._ I; - I should have thought it: and I point to this - To justify my words those many times - Our speech has come to difference. - - _Re-enter Nero. Fulvia goes into house._ - - _Ner._ Now, lords, - I go. - - _Bur. and Sen._ We follow, Cæsar. - - _Ner._ I have changed my mind; - I want you not. [_Going._ - - _Bur._ Will Cæsar name the hour - When we shall wait on him? 2700 - - _Ner._ Why, come at once. - I cannot tell what hour I may not want you. - Attend me at my villa. [_Exit._ - - _Bur._ Of a sudden - He is changed again. - - _Sen._ You see how easily - He is overcome with kindness. Would you know - The noble sacrifice he has made? - - _Bur._ What’s that? - - _Sen._ Why, he has renounced Poppæa. - - _Bur._ Nay! - - _Sen._ Ay. - - _Bur._ Who told you? - - _Sen._ I saw the letter. - - _Bur._ How! Poppæa shows it? - - _Sen._ ’Twas writ his mother. - - _Bur._ Then he has deceived her. - - _Sen._ Can you think that? - - _Bur._ The letter makes all plain. - Why did he write it? - - _Sen._ Why? - - _Bur._ Well, well. - - _Sen._ Oh, Burrus, 2710 - I have every cause for hope; and here to-day - The meeting in this house more than assures me - He must redeem the promise of his youth. - ’Twas in this very room, ten years ago, - I first saw Nero—Ay, ’tis now ten years— - I was arrived from Corsica at Rome, - And there found summons to attend the Augusta - At Baiæ: hither in all haste I came. - The yearnings and the miseries of exile - Would make a mean deliverer seem a god, 2720 - And my return drave me half mad with joy. - I entered: in that chair sat Agrippina, - My kind deliverer, my friend, the empress. - Time had not marred her beauty, and as she spake - Impatience flushed her cheek—she shared my joy. - I knelt in tears there, nor ashamed of tears, - Though at her side I was aware was standing - A boy of some twelve years; whom, when I rose, - She then presented as her son, and bade me - Take him for pupil. As I saw him then 2730 - In fullest grace of boyhood, apt in all - Boys should be manly in, and gifted further - Than boys are wont with insight, and the touch - Of human sympathy and learned taste, - Proficient in some arts and dull in none, - But coy withal and generous, ’twas no wonder - If ere that evening passed I had admitted - The schemes his mother had laid, which in short time - Were brought to pass. - - _Bur._ ’Twas a black day. - - _Sen._ And yet, - Burrus, if after you had seen how kindly 2740 - He took instruction, how he came to love me, - You would not wonder—nay, I can remember - Claudius himself was shamed if his Britannicus, - Being younger but by some two years, were by - Where Nero was: and had I been the father - I might have wished, I think, to have done as he, - And called the best my son. - - _Bur._ He killed Britannicus. - - _Sen._ Burrus, if as it seems you quite distrust him, - Why hold you still the office which establishes - His power? - - _Bur._ Because it is an office, Seneca, 2750 - The top of my profession: yet, by the gods, - Find you a better man, and I’ll be gone. - But, as a soldier, I’ll not see the guards - Commanded by some brute like Tigellinus. - - _Sen._ Nay, be not angry. - - _Bur._ Would not you be angry - Thus to be questioned? - - _Sen._ Nay, indeed, by habit - I question oft myself. - - _Bur._ Then, for one question - I’ll be appeased. I know you, Seneca, - For a man of many parts, a scholar, poet, - Lawyer, and politician, what you will; 2760 - A courtier too besides, a man of business, - A money-maker; in short, a man of the world, - That like a ship lifting to every wave, - Heeling to every blast, makes good her way - And leaves no track. Now what I ask is this: - How ride so lightly with the times, and yet - Be the unbending stoic, the philosopher, - The rock, I say, that planted in the deep - Moves not a hair, but sees the buffeting breakers - Boil and withdraw? Which is the matter, Seneca? - Nay, ’tis a pertinent and friendly question— 2771 - I’ll take your answer as we go along. - - [_Exeunt Burrus and Seneca._ - - _Re-enter Fulvia._ - - _Ful._ Of all delights I think that liberty - Is the prime element: nothing is pleasant - Joined with a must. Why, even this journey hither - That has so cheered my mistress, all the talk - Of sky and fields and trees, tired me to death. - I’m sick of servitude, with ’time for this’ - And ’time for that’: I’d give my ears for freedom; - - [_She sits in Agrippina’s chair._ - - To have my servants, and say—Prithee, Fulvia, - What is o’clock?—Fetch me the little kerchief - I left upon my bed—Come, Fulvia, quick; 2782 - I want you—Fulvia, go, order my litter— - Fulvia, be gone; we’ve business—Fulvia, stay, - Amuse me for a while.—I would to heaven - I were in Rome again! (_Shouts heard._) Hey, what a noise! - Cheering my lady! here’s a change indeed. - Well, I shan’t lose by that. Gods, how they cheer! - She might have taken me with her. I know well - I shan’t see the outside of these villa walls 2790 - Till bound for home. And here no visitors, - At least for me. Cheer on, my lads! and yet - If I should get the chance I’d like to see - These famous Neapolitans: I’m told - They’re wondrous saucy, and ingenious singers. - What’s that? a boat! my lady! gracious heavens! - - [_A boat rows up to quay._ - - My lady, O my lady, what’s the matter? - - _Enter Agrippina up from the quay, clothes dripping; the - boat remains._ - - _Agr._ An accident, and I am escaped by swimming: - Yet thou must know, Fulvia, ’twas a contrivance - To take my life—the kindness was all hollow— - A dastardly contrivance: ’twas the ship 2801 - Seleucus spoke of. Look, I am hurt in the shoulder, - Yet ’tis not much. - - _Ful._ Alack, alack, my lady! - - _Agr._ I am cold and faint. I must at once go shift - These dripping habits. When I am rested somewhat - Thou shalt hear all: meanwhile, call in the sailors - Who rowed me hither: get from them whate’er - They saw or know, and promise a reward - Worthy of my deliverance. [_Going._ - - _Ful._ Praised be the gods, - My lady, that thou’rt safe. - - _ Agr._ (_turning_). Polla is killed. [_Exit._ - - _Ful._ What, Polla! Killed! she said killed. Polla killed!2811 - Ho! fellows, come within, nay, come within. - - _Sailors enter._ - - _SAILOR._ - - We are not fit, my lady. By thy leave, - We are poor fishermen. - - _Ful._ Come, fellows, come. - Which is the captain? - - _Sail._ Me, so please thee, lady. - - _Ful._ Ye have brought the empress safe, and for that service - Shall have a good reward. But, tell me now, - How came she in your boat? - - _Sail._ ’Twas thus, my lady. - It being the feast, we smartened up the boat - And pulled her close along the shore, to find 2820 - A party of landsmen, such as love to visit - Misenum, or be rowed across the bay - To Pausilypum, lady, and Virgil’s villa. - When, as we lay, the Augusta’s galley passed, - Not half a cable’s length, and then we cheered, - And after took no note of her, till Gripus, - He cries, Look! see the galley. And there she was - Laid on her beam-ends in the offing. Ho! - We cried, and gave the alarm, and led the chase - To reach her first: when presently she righted, 2830 - Steadied, and trimmed her oars, and drew away. - While we were wondering and talking of it - I spied a something floating, and again - Putting about, saw ’twas a swimmer’s head. - Four other boats with ours made for it too; - But we gave way with a will and held our own, - And coming alongside, found ’twas the Augusta. - I reached her out an oar, and I and my mate - Lifted her in handsomely. Then she bad us - Straight row her hither. She’s a most brave lady, - Ay, and can swim. 2841 - - _Ful._ Know you no more? - - _Sail._ No, lady. - We looked, but saw naught else, not even a spar. - The Augusta told us there was none but she. - - _Ful._ What was the reason why the galley heeled? - - _Sail._ I cannot tell. - - _Ful._ What could it be? - - _Sail._ D’ye see, - My lady, ’tis the Admiral’s boat, this galley. - It’s not for me.... - - _Ful._ There’s not a breath of wind. - - _Sail._ The mischief was aboard. - - _Ful._ You know no more? - - _Sail._ Nothing, my lady. - - _Ful._ Then begone; to-morrow - Come for your recompense. I know not yet 2850 - The Augusta’s pleasure. - - _The Sailors._ Thank thee, thank thee, my lady. - - [_Exeunt Sailors._ - - _Ful._ ’Tis plain the men know nothing. - - _Sailor_ (_returning_). Please thee, lady, - If not too bold, we’ll ask thee if the Augusta - Has taken harm from being so long in the water. - - _Ful._ Thank you, my men. I pray she’s none the worse. - - _Sail._ ’Tis bitter cold, indeed. But I can tell - She’s of good stuff; ay, and can swim. - - _Ful._ Be sure - You are fortunate to have done her this good service. - - _Sail._ I make my humble duties. [_Exit._ - - _Ful._ Alas, alas! - What can this mystery mean? I die to hear. 2860 - I must now go attend her; ah! here she comes. - - _Enter Agrippina._ - - _Agr._ Fetch me some wine and a warm coverlet; - The fur one from my bed. - - _Ful._ Ay, madam, quickly. [_Exit._ - - _Agr._ I have no friend here but her and the few servants - Upon the place: ’tis plotted well indeed - To catch me thus alone: Mistress Poppæa - Is seen in this. Yet being escaped, I think - I yet will prove her match. - - _Re-enter Fulvia._ - - Ah, thank you, so. - - _Ful._ Are you recovered, madam, from the shock? - - _Agr._ I am warm again. I think too that my hurt - Is very little: but I am somewhat shaken. 2871 - - _Ful._ What is it that hath happed? The sailors knew - Nothing but that they found you. - - _Agr._ Did they see - Nothing? - - _Ful._ They saw the galley lurch, and say - The Admiral must know. - - _Agr._ ’Tis likely enough - ’Twas his contrivance. Now I’ll tell thee all, - Fulvia, and thou must help me all thou canst - When thou hast heard: indeed I tell thee partly - To clear my judgment.—We had rowed about a mile, - Polla and I, and sat upon the poop, 2880 - Taking our pleasure, when, all on a sudden, - Darkness; the awning fell, with such a crash - As took away my spirits, and Polla and I - Were thrown down from our couches by the weight - Of falling cloth and spars: one heavy beam - Grazed my left shoulder, and we lay crushed down - Upon the deck. Then I heard Polla laugh, - Finding we were not hurt, and she crept forth - Forward, beneath the curtains; the oars stopped: - I heard a rush of feet, and presently 2890 - Came Polla’s voice, ’Hold, slay me not, ye villains, - I am Agrippina.’ Then, ’Ah me, I am slain!’ - And one long deathly groan. This, when I heard, - Taught me my part, and towards the other side, - Crawling, I came to the window o’er the stern, - Where lay my only escape; and silently, - Feet foremost, I crept out, and by the ladder - Slipped down without a sound into the sea. - The galley still held way, and in few strokes - I saw that I was left and unperceived; 2900 - And so swam on until the fishermen - Hailed me by name, and took me in their boat. - - _Ful._ Who can have laid this plot to kill you, madam? - - _Agr._ ’Tis Nero, Fulvia, he who seemed but late - So kind and dutiful: ’twas all hollowness, - Part of the plot, to bring me here alone, - Away from friends: ay, and perceive this too, - To lay my death to charge of an accident, - And hide, maybe, even my dead body, drowned - And lost in the depths of the sea. Now, being alone, - I shall need thee to aid me. - - _Ful._ Dearest madam, 2911 - What can I do? - - _Agr._ Thou must be faithful to me - Whatever happens. Hearken, I said ’twas Nero - Had done this: ’tis not so; my real enemy, - The mover, is Poppæa. I blame not Nero: - I bade him to discard her: he was driven - To choose between us: she hath carried it. - But being escaped, and she not here, I yet - Can right myself with him. ’Tis not too late; - Nay, I can amply trust those broad affections, 2920 - Which ’twixt a mother and her son remain - At bottom, spite of all. Ay, they remain. - The common knowledge of this guilty attempt - Will clear the way: and when I show the path, - He will be glad to escape. I have writ a letter, - Which, if he read, will work. ’Tis pure submission. - Remember, we must ever speak of this - But as an accident. Here is the letter; - Send Agerinus with it straight to Cæsar; - Of all my servants he’s the one must bear it: 2930 - Nero has known him from a child, will trust him; - Nay, he hath rid so oft upon his shoulders - That he is half a brother, half a father. - Send him at once: I have bidden him await: - He should be here. - - _Ful._ Alas, this is a day - Of sorrow indeed. I pray Minerva guard - Her feast from ill. [_Exit with letter._ - - _Agr._ Indeed I have little fear, - If he but read. Yet now, after this warning, - I must beware. ’Tis plain the people love me; 2939 - They cheered me so. My escape will add to favour. - - _Ful._ (_re-entering_). He waited at the gate, and with full speed - Runs with the letter. - - _Agr._ Come; one business - Must now be not neglected; there’s poor Polla. - Bring pens and ink and wax: we will seal up - All her effects, and make an inventory - In proper form, and do whate’er we may - While we have time. Let us go see to it. [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE · 2 - - _A room in Nero’s villa. A table with papers. Enter - NERO, SENECA, BURRUS, and TIGELLINUS._ - - - _NERO._ - - We have an hour: sit down, my lords, we’ll hold - A privy council. I have in my mind a matter - Touching the subsidies. - - _BURRUS._ - - The day is good 2950 - For market matters, ’tis Minerva’s peace: - The sword is sheathed. - - _Ner._ (_to Servants_). Set light upon the table. - - _SENECA._ - - To talk of subsidies hurts no man’s conscience. - What is the business, Cæsar? - - _Ner._ I am vexed - By the complaints against the imperial household - In the gathering of tolls.—Here in these papers - Are weighty charges ’gainst Pomponius - Silvanus, and Sulpicius Camerinus: - Read them at leisure. But I ask you first - Whether there be not cause for discontent 2960 - In present management? - - _Sen._ ’Tis a deep evil. - But never was the empire better governed; - Nor is there more extortion now, I think, - Than ever was. - - _Ner._ And were there no extortion? - - _Sen._ Nay, while you farm the taxes there will be - Extortion still. - - _Ner._ You all think that, my lords? - - _Sen._ Ay, ay. - - _Ner._ And so say I. You have my grounds. - Now hear my scheme, by which for once and all - I rid the empire of this blot. ’Tis this. - I will have no more tolls or tallages, 2970 - Customs or duties levied: nay, not one - Through all the empire. I will make this present - To the human race: I say, their old vexation - And burden shall away. - - _TIGELLINUS._ - - Magnificent. - - _Sen._ ’Tis generously meant, most generously. - But is it possible? - - _Ner._ Why not? - - _Sen._ The treasury, - Eased of this sum, must fill the deficit - By other means. If you cut off the customs, - You must increase the tributes, rates, and rents. - If one shoe pinches, ’tis no remedy 2980 - To stuff both feet in the other. - - _Ner._ But my scheme - Has precedent; there was no tallage taken - Throughout all Italy for some six years - Ere Julius. - - _Sen._ Ay, but he restored the customs - As needful. - - _Ner._ Whence they seemed the price of empire. - - _Sen._ Unjustly. In the times of greatest liberty - Consuls and tribunes have ordained new customs, - Which yet remain. - - _Tig._ I praise the scheme. - - _Ner._ (_to Bur._) And you? - - _Bur._ Where look you then for revenue? - - _Ner._ The rents, - We’ll have the rents. The land.... 2990 - - _Enter Messenger with Officer of the Guard._ - - Why, who is this? - Whence come you, man? - - _MESSENGER._ - - Cæsar, from Anicetus. - He asks great Cæsar’s pardon ere I tell. - - _Ner._ Thou’rt free to speak. - - _Mess._ There has an accident - Befallen the Augusta’s yacht. - - _Ner._ Hey! what was that? - - _Mess._ At a lurch of the ship the awning fell and dragged - The Augusta overboard. - - _Ner._ Speak, man, speak on. - - _Mess._ We thought her drowned. - - _Ner._ Ha! - - _Mess._ But by the grace of the gods - She is escaped. - - _Ner._ Escaped! - - _Mess._ She swam to shore unharmed. - - _Ner._ Thou wretch, - And comest thou here in thy master’s place 2999 - To bate mine anger? Forth and send him hither. - Fly, or I kill thee. - - _Mess._ Pardon, great Cæsar, pardon. - The Admiral follows and will straight be here. - - [_Runs out._ - - _Ner._ (_aside_). Escaped! after such boast, escaped! I am lost.— - To have done this thing had tried me; to have attempted it - And failed is ruin. - - _Sen._ (_aside from Nero_). What is this? - - _Bur._ (_to Sen._) ’Tis clear - Cæsar knows what: and her escape not being - His pleasure tells us that ’twas not his purpose. - - _Sen._ (_aloud_). Alas, alas! - - _Ner._ What friend there cries Alas? - Who now stands by me? who will aid me now? - - _Tig._ If Cæsar make his will but known... - - _Ner._ Thou dullard! - I need the brains of them that know my will. 3011 - Now is no time for parley. Seneca, - Speak what thou thinkest. - - _Sen._ Cæsar, I am so much grieved that... - - _Ner._ What’s thy pain - To mine? Speak, man! - - _Sen._ Alas, what shall I say? - - _Ner._ How hast thou guessed this thing without a word, - And yet hast not foreseen it? - - _Sen._ Oh, is’t then true? - The letter false; the Augusta hither brought - But to be drowned! - - _Ner._ See if ye know it not. - - _Sen._ Let her escape belie thy guilty purpose. 3020 - - _Ner._ Why, nay, the failure damns a thousand-fold - More than her death—I am henceforth the man - Who would have killed his mother, and could not. - - _Sen._ Alas, alas! - - _Ner._ Hast thou no word but that? - Thou that hast ever warned me, ay, and gone - So far upon this path that thou hast sought - To dull the natural feeling which so long - Held off my hand, hast argued ’gainst repugnance, - Crying, ’tis she that is the guilty one, 3029 - The dangerous one, there is no peace with her: - And now the day the thing thou hast foreseen, - Ay, and hast led me to, is done, thou’rt silent. - Hast thou no word?—Thou that wast ever ready, - Hast thou no word?—What strikes thee on a sudden - Dumb? Be my counsellor now that I need thee. - Speak now! Why, thou dost weep! surely thou weepest! - Burrus, what sayest thou? - - _Bur._ This mischief, Cæsar, - Being thus arisen is the Augusta’s death. - Though I bewail the occasion, yet I say - ’Twere most untimely justice to endanger 3040 - The public peace for her whose life hath been - So long the shame of justice. Since the sentence - We know is just, and that necessity - O’errides the common forms, the less delay - The better. Let her die. - - _Ner._ I thank thee, Burrus. - How were this best performed? - - _Tig._ Now, if none speak, - I’ll say that Burrus, being the advocate - Of what is planned, and as pretorian prefect - Possessed of means, is fittest for the work. - - _Bur._ Look not on me, Seneca, as if to say 3050 - ’Tis well; as if ’twere thy thought that my office - Covered this deed. I pardon Tigellinus, - That, unacquainted with a soldier’s honour, - He thinks it passable in time of peace, - Entering in private houses there to slay - Defenceless citizens. But that the guards - Would thus lay hands on one that bears the name - Of Agrippina, that they could forget - Their loved Germanicus, who would think this? - To such a deed they would not follow me, 3060 - Far less another; and if Cæsar now - Look for it from me, lo, I here throw down - My prefecture to any man soe’er - Who durst with this condition take it up. - - _Ner._ Nay, Burrus, I’ll not ask thee that. Thou’rt right. - And yet, if thou could’st do it— See here the man. - - _Enter Anicetus in haste, Paris following._ - - Thou hast been my ruin! - - _ANICETUS._ - - Pardon, Cæsar, pardon. - I am strangely foiled. Give me one hour, and yet - I’ll make amends. - - _Ner._ If thou canst make amends, - Come hither, speak with me. [_They go aside to front._ - - _Bur._ Is the thing known? - - _PARIS._ - - Ay ay. - - _Ner._ (_to Anic._) What canst thou do? - - _Ani._ I have set a guard 3071 - Around her villa, fearing lest the people - Should force their way within, or she escape. - Give me the word and I will slay her there. - - _Ner._ Fool, I can give no word. Think when ’tis done, - If I should punish thee less for that deed - Than for thy late misdoing. What is this? - - _Enter Officer of the Guard. Petronius follows._ - - _OFFICER._ - - The Augusta, Cæsar, sends a freedman hither, - One Agerinus, with a letter. - - _Ner._ (_to Anic._) Now - What to do? - - _Ani._ Bid him enter: when he comes 3080 - I am prepared. Lend me thy dagger, friend (_to Tig._). - - [_Takes Tigellinus’ dagger._ - - _Enter Agerinus, who runs to Cæsar._ - - _AGERINUS._ - - Lo, Cæsar, I am sent... - - _Ani._ Ha! where’s thy hand? - Ay, as I thought, a dagger well concealed - Under his cloak. - - _Age._ Indeed, indeed, good sir, - I have no dagger. - - _Ani._ How no dagger? See! - Had I not caught thee! Ho! the guard, the guard! - Take him to prison till he can be questioned. - - _Age._ You do force treason on me. Cæsar! Cæsar! - - [_He is borne off by Guards._ - - _Ani._ This villain having come, as he confessed, - From the empress armed, will Cæsar leave the enquiry - Now in my hands? - - _Ner._ I do. - - _Ani._ With me who will! 3091 - - _Tig._ I follow, lead the way. - - [_Exeunt Anicetus and Tigellinus. Paris follows - them. Exit Nero within doors._ - - _PETRONIUS._ - - What will they go to do? - - _Bur._ ’Tis thus: the Admiral - Has gone to kill the Augusta. - - _Petr._ Gods forbid! - His orders? - - _Bur._ Humph! - - _Petr._ Why, men, what thing ye do! - He is shamed for ever. - - _Bur._ Ay, and were’t not done - Were shamed no less. - - _Sen._ Alas! ’tis true, ’tis true. - And thou wert right, Burrus; but dost thou well - Permitting this? - - _Bur._ I see ’tis necessary, - And am not shamed to say I think the thing 3100 - Itself is good. As for the motives, Seneca, - Ay, and the manner of it, to defend them - I shall not meddle. - - _Petr._ (_to Sen._) And thou wilt take thy share? - - _Sen._ ’Tis not my counsel. - - _Petr._ ’Twill be held as thine, - And rightly, seeing that thou let it not. - I could have stayed it. - - _Bur._ Nay, be not so sure. - And if thou could’st have let it, could’st thou too - Prevent the consequences? - - _Petr._ But remember, - She is his mother. Oh, I thought him better. - Is it too late now think you, if I ran... 3110 - - _Bur._ They are there by now. Believe ’tis for the best. - If she should live but till to-morrow morn, - ’Tis civil war. Consider what a party - Would stir upon the tale of Claudius’ death, - Or to revenge Britannicus. I say - There’s nought to gain. - - _Petr._ Why, ’tis his mother, Burrus, - His mother. I’ll be sworn he had not dared - Thus to commit himself had I been by. - He that should be a model to the world, - The mirror of good manners, to offend 3120 - Thus against taste! - - _Bur._ If ’twere no worse... - - _Petr._ Why, see, - There are a hundred subtle ways by which, - Had Cæsar done the thing, he had not been blamed. - This vulgar butchery displays to all - The motive, which so hurts your sense of right - That ye neglect the manner. Why, I say, - A just attention to the circumstance - Would hide the doing; but thus done, the doing - Proclaims the deed. And is’t not plain that ye - Must share the guilt? Seneca, look for that. 3130 - - _Sen._ ’Tis very well for you, Petronius, - To take upon yourself the criticism - And ordering of appearances, and say - ’If aught goes ill, blame me.’ You lay your hand - On any object you mislike, remove it, - Replace it as you will, can please yourself: - Nay, you can blame their taste who are not pleased. - But he who deals with men, and seeks to mould - A character to that high rule of right - Which so few can attain, he works, I say, 3140 - With different matter, nor can he be blamed - By any measure of his ill success. - His best endeavours are like little dams - Built ’gainst the ocean, on a sinking shore. - Nature asserts her force—and the wise man - Blames not himself for his defeat. For me, - Much as my soul is grieved, ay, and my pride - Wounded—tho’ yet, I thank philosophy, - I can be glad for that,—my hopes—for this - I mourn—my hopes blasted; yet, hear me say, - I take unto myself no self-reproach, 3151 - Nay, not a tittle of the part of mischief - A vulgar mind might credit to my score. - I have done my best, and that’s the utmost good - A man can do; and if a better man - Had in my place done more, ’tis perverse Fortune - That placed me ill. Thus far I argue with you, - Who look on me askance, and think my heart - Is tainted; as if I would in such case - Do such thing, as—poison my brother at table, - Contrive to kill my mother: ’Tis so far 3161 - From possible, that to my ears the words - Carry no sense: nay, and I think such crimes - May seem more horrible to other men, - Whose passions make them fear them, than to me - Who cannot think them mine. As for the rest, - I stand with you, and never from this hour - Shall mix with Cæsar more with any hope - Of good. Indeed I have hoped too long, and yet - The end has come too soon. 3170 - - _Re-enter Anicetus, Tigellinus, and Paris._ - - _Tig._ ’Tis done, ’tis done. - - _Ani._ Where is Cæsar? - - _Bur._ Within. - - [_Anicetus and Tigellinus hurry within._ - - _Petr._ Paris, is it true? - - _Par._ The Augusta lives no longer, - Most brutally and miserably slain: - Yet died she bravely. - - _Petr._ And why wentest thou - To soil thy hand? - - _Par._ I went not to take part: - But Fortune holding nature’s ruffians up, - I took their pattern. - - _Sen._ Say, who did the deed? - - _Par._ I’ll tell thee what I saw. As forth we went, - The coward Tigellinus, pale as death, - In needless haste foremost where was no danger, - Hurried us on so fast, that thro’ the street 3181 - We scarce kept pace, but when he reached the wall - Of the garden, and saw there the soldiers placed - By Anicetus, knowing not their purpose, - He shrank behind. These men being bidden seized - The servants; then we entered, and with us - Came the centurion. Within the room - Sat Agrippina with a single maid, - Who seeing the Admiral’s sword fled past us out: - At which the Augusta called to her, ’Dost thou, - Fulvia, desert me too?’ Then to the Admiral 3191 - She spoke. ’If here thou comest to enquire - From Cæsar of my health, know I am well, - Recovered from my shock, and little hurt. - But if, as your men’s looks would mean, ye are come - Deeming that Cæsar wills that I should suffer - The like I late escaped, know you mistake. - ’Twas not of his contrivance, and my foe - In this is his.’ None answered, and awhile - Was such delay as makes the indivisible 3200 - And smallest point of time various and broad; - For Agrippina, when she saw her lie - Fail of its aim, ventured no more, as knowing - There was no wiser plea; but let her eyes - Indifferently wander round her foes, - Counting their strength. Then looked I to have seen - Her spring, for her cheek swelled, and ’neath her robe - Her foot moved; ay, and had she been but armed, - One would have fallen. But if she had the thought - She set it by, choosing to take her death 3210 - With dignity. Then Anicetus raised - His sword, and I fled out beyond the door - To see no more. First Tigellinus’ voice, - ’To death, thou wretch!’ then blows, but not a groan; - Only she showed her spirit to the last, - And made some choice of death, offering her body, - ’That bare the monster,’ crying with that curse, - ’Strike here, strike here!’ - - _Sen._ Alas, poor lady, - Was that the end of thy unscrupulous, 3219 - Towering ambition? Thou didst win indeed - The best and worst of Fortune. - - _Bur._ Give her her due, - Such courage as deserved the best, such crimes - As make her death seem gentler than deserved. - - _Enter Nero between Anicetus and Tigellinus._ - - _Ner._ My lords, ’tis done. Nay, look not grieved. There’s none - Suffers as much as I; all share the good. - And think not that to keep the world at peace - I grudge this sacrifice: the general care - I set before my own, and therefore bid - There be no public mourning, nay, to-morrow - We shall attend the spectacles and games, 3230 - Appear as usual before the people: - Ay, and I partly look, my lords, to you - That I be well received. Good night to all! - - - - - ACHILLES IN SCYROS - - - - -DRAMATIS PERSONÆ - - _THETIS_ _Mother of Achilles_. - _ACHILLES_ _disguised as PYRRHA_. - _LYCOMEDES_ _King of Scyros_. - _ULYSSES_ _Prince of Ithaca_. - _DIOMEDE_ _compassion of Ulysses_. - _ABAS_ _servant to Ulysses_. - _DEIDAMIA_ _daughter of Lycomedes_. - _CHORUS of SCYRIAN MAIDENS._ - -_The scene is on the Island of Scyros, in the gardens of the palace._ - -_Thetis prologises._ - - - - - ACHILLES - - - _THETIS._ - - The deep recesses of this rocky isle, - That far from undersea riseth to crown - Its flowery head above the circling waves, - A home for men with groves and gardens green, - I chose not ill to be the hiding-place - Of my loved son. Alas, I could not take him - To live in my blue caverns, where the nymphs - Own me for queen: and hateful is the earth - To me, and all remembrance, since that morn, - When, in the train of May wandering too far, 10 - I trafficked with my shells and pearls to buy - Her fragrant roses and fresh lilies white. - Accurst the day and thou, ah, wretched Peleus, - Who forcedst me to learn the fears that women - Have for their mortal offspring: who but I, - Thetis, Poseidon’s daughter, who alone - But I of all the immortals have known this, - To bear and love a son in human kind? - And yet not wholly ill is the constraint, - Nor do I pity mortals to be born 20 - Heirs of desire and death, and the rich thought - Denied to easy pleasure in the days - That neither bring nor take; tho’ more to me - Embittered with foreknowledge of a doom - Threatened by fate, and labour how to avert. - For to me, questioning the high decrees - By which the sweetly tyrannous stars allot - Their lives and deaths to men, answer was given - That for my son Achilles there was ruled - One of two things, and neither good; the better 30 - A long and easy life, the worse a death - Untimely-glorious, which should set his name - First of the Greeks;—for so must seem to me - Better and worse, so even an earthly mother - Had for him chosen, tho’ for the right he died, - And conquered all the gods that succour Troy.— - But when I, thinking he must share my fear, - Showed him the choice, he made a mortal plunge - For glorious death, and would have straight gone forth - To seek it; but in tenderness for me,— 40 - Whom without shame he honours, and in this - My love repays,—he to my tears consented - To hide him from his fate; and here he dwells - Disguised among the maidens like a maiden;— - For so his beauty and youth permit,—to serve - The daughter of the king of this fair isle, - Who calls him Pyrrha for his golden hair, - And knowing not prefers him o’er the rest. - But I with frequent visitings assure me - That he obeys; and,—for I have the power 50 - To change my semblance,—I will sometimes run - In likeness of a young and timorous fawn - Before the maiden train, that give me chase - Far in the woods, till he outstrip them all; - Then turn I quick at bay with loved surprise, - And bid him hail: or like a snake I glide - Under the flowers, where they sit at play, - And showing suddenly my gleaming eyes, - All fly but he, and we may speak alone. - Thus oft my love will lead me, but to-day 60 - More special need hath brought: for on the seas - I met at dawn a royal ship of Greece - Slow stemming toward this isle. What that might bode, - And who might sail thereon, I guessed; and taking - A dolphin’s shape, that thro’ the heavy waters - Tumbles in sport, around the labouring prow - I gambolled, till her idle crew stood by - To watch me from the wooden battlements. - And surely among them there full soon I saw, - Even as I feared, the man I feared, agaze 70 - With hypocrite eyes, the prince of Ithaca, - That searcheth for Achilles: of all the Greeks - Whom most I dread, for his own endless wiles, - And for Athena’s aid. Him when I saw, - Lest I should be too late, I hither sped - To warn my son, and here shall meet him soon,— - Tho’ yet he hath not come,—for on these lawns - The damsels of the court are wont to play, - And he with them. Hark! see! even now. Nay, nay. - Alas! who cometh thus? Ah, by that gait 80 - Crouching along, it is my persecutor, - Ulysses. Woe is me! I must fly hence. - Tho’ he should know me not, I fear to face him, - My hated foe, alert, invincible - Of will, full of self-love and mortal guile. [_Exit._ - - _Enter Ulysses from the bushes, followed by Diomede, who - wears a Lion’s skin._ - - _DIOMEDE._ - - We have made the circuit of the hill, and here - Into the gardens are come round again. - What now? - - _ULYSSES._ - - Hush thou! Look there! Some one hath seen us. - He flies. - - _Dio._ I see not. - - _Ul._ Where the myrtle tops - Stir each in turn. He goeth toward the shore. 90 - I must see him that seeth me. Bide thou. - - [_Exit among the bushes._ - - _Dio._ Were I a dog, now, I might learn. Heigh ho! - Two hours and more we have wandered on this mountain, - Round and round, up and down, and round again, - Gardens, and lawns, meadows, and groves, and walks, - Thickets, and woods, the windings of the glades, - I have them all by rote. Each petty rill - We have tracked by rocky steps and paths about, - And peeped into its dank and mossy caves. - What sort of game should this Achilles be, 100 - That we should seek him thus? Ah! back so soon? - What sport? - - _Ul._ (_re-entering_). Well hit. ’Twas but a milk-white doe, - Some petted plaything of the young princess, - That fled our stranger steps. - - _Dio._ And whither now - Turn we to seek Achilles? - - _Ul._ Hark, Diomede: - My plot is laid and ready for thine ears. - Thou madest offer of thine aid; be patient, - And hear me. - - _Dio._ I will hearken. - - _Ul._ First, thou knowest - How since the day the Danaan kings took oath - To avenge the wrong done by the Trojan Paris 110 - Against his host, the Spartan Menelaus, - One oracle hath thwarted us, which said - Our purpose should not prosper with the gods - Unless Achilles the young son of Thetis - Should lead our armies. - - _Dio._ Certainly, so far - I am with you. - - _Ul._ Next, when he was sought in vain, - Men looked to me; ay, and to me it fell - To learn that he was lurking in this isle - Of Scyros, in the court of Lycomedes. 119 - The king denied the charge, adding in challenge, - That I might come and make what search I pleased; - Now mark... - - _Dio_. I listen, but thou tellest nothing. - Why search we not the court if he be there, - Instead of this old hill? - - _Ul._ ’Tis that I come to. - King Lycomedes hath been one of those - Who have held their arms aloof from our alliance, - On the main plea of this Achilles’ absence. - What if he play the game here for his friends, - And hide the lad lest they be forced to fight? - - _Dio._ That well might be. And if the king would hide him, 130 - Thy hope would hit upon him thus at hazard? - - _Ul._ Call me not fool. Attend and hear my plot: - Nor marvel, Diomede, to learn that he, - Whom the high gods name champion of the Greeks, - Lurks in the habit of a girl disguised - Amid the maidens of this island court. - - _Dio._ That were too strange. How guess you that? - - _Ul._ My spies, - Who have searched the isle, say there’s no youth thereon, - Having Achilles’ age of sixteen years, - But is well known of native parentage. 140 - Now Thetis’ son must be of wondrous beauty, - That could not scape inquiry; we therefore look - For what is hid, and not to be disguised - Save as I guess. - - _Dio._ If this be so, thy purpose - Is darker still. - - _Ul._ I lead thee by the steps - I came myself to take, slowly and surely... - And next this, that ’twere dull to ask the king - To help to find the thing he goes to hide: - Therefore the search must be without his knowledge. - ’Twas thus I sent up Abas to the court, 150 - Idly to engage him in preliminaries, - The while I work; my only hope being this, - To come myself to parley with the maidens; - Which to procure I brought with me aboard - A pedlar’s gear, and with such gawds and trinkets - As tickle girlish fancies, I shall steal - Upon them at their play; my hoary beard - And rags will set them at their ease; and while - They come about me, and turn o’er my pack, - I spy. If then Achilles be among them, 160 - The lad’s indifference soon will mark him out; - When, watching my occasion, I’ll exhibit - Something that should provoke his eye and tongue. - If he betray himself, thou being at hand.... - - _Dio._ Why, ’tis a dirty trick. - - _Ul._ Not if it wins. - - _Dio._ Fie! fie! - In rags and a white beard? - - _Ul._ No better way. - - _Dio._ The better way were not to lose the hour - Hearkening to oracles, while our good ships - Rot, and our men grow stale. Why, you may see - Imperial Agamemnon in the eyes 171 - Of all his armament walk daily forth - To take fresh note of sparrows and of snakes: - And if he spy an eagle, ’twill make talk - For twenty days. Would you have oracles, - Give me the whipping of the priests. Zeus help me! - If half the chiefs knew but their minds as I, - There’d be no parleying. I’ll to war alone - And with my eighty ships do what I may - ’Gainst gods and men. Ay, and the greater odds - The better fighting. - - _Ul._ Now ’tis thou that talkest. 181 - - _Dio._ Tell me then why we are prowling on this hill. - - _Ul._ Excellent reasons. First that when I come - I may know how to come, and where to hide - From them I would not meet: and thereto this, - That if Achilles fly, he should not take us - At too great disadvantage: thou mayst head him, - Knowing the ground about, while I pursue. - He must not scape. But hark, ’tis time the plot - Were put to proof; already it must be noon; 190 - And I hear steps and voices. Let us return - To the ship. If they that come be those we seek, ... - Hark, and ’tis they,—we can look back upon them. - I’ll be amongst them soon. - - _Dio._ ’Tis a girl’s game. - - [_Exeunt into the bushes._ - - _Enter Deidamia, Achilles as Pyrrha, with the chorus of - maidens._ - - _DEIDAMIA_ (_without_). - - Follow me, follow. I lead the race. [_Enters._ - - _CHORUS._ - - Follow, we follow, we give thee chase. [_Entering._ - - _Deid._ Follow me, follow. - - _Ch._ We come, we come. - - _Deid._ Here is my home; - I choose this tree: this is the ground 200 - Where we will make our play. Stand all around, - And let us beg the dwellers in this glade - To bear us company. Be not afraid, - (I will begin) sweet birds, whose flowery songs - Sprinkle with joy the budding boughs above, - The airy city where your light folk throngs, - Each with his special exquisite of love,— - Red-throat and white-throat, finch and golden-crest, - Deep-murmuring pigeon, and soft-cooing dove,— - Unto his mate addrest, that close in nest 210 - Sits on the dun and dappled eggs all day. - Come red-throat, white-throat, finch and golden-crest, - Let not our merry play drive you away. - - _Ch._ And ye brown squirrels, up the rugged bark - That fly, and leap from bending spray to spray, - And bite the luscious shoots, if I should mark, - Slip not behind the trunks, nor hide away.— - Ye earthy moles, that burrowing in the dark - Your glossy velvet coats so much abuse;— 219 - Ye watchful dormice, and small skipping shrews, - Stay not from foraging; dive not from sight.— - Come moles and mice, squirrels and skipping shrews, - Come all, come forth, and join in our delight. - - _Deid._ Enough. Now while the Dryads of the hill - Interpret to the creatures our good will, - Listen, and I will tell you a new game - That we can play together.—As hither I came, - I marked that in the hazel copse below, - Where we so oft have hidden and loved to go - To hear the night-bird, or to take unseen 230 - Our noontide walks beneath the tangled screen, - The woodcutter hath been with cruel blade, - And of the tasselled plumes his strewage made: - And by the mossy moots the covert shorn - Now lieth low in swathe like autumn corn. - These ere he lop and into bundles bind, - Let us go choose the fairest we may find, - And of their feathered orphan saplings weave - A bowery dome, until the birds believe - We build a nest, and are come here to dwell. 240 - Hie forth, ye Scyrian maids; do as I tell: - And having built our bower amid the green, - We will choose one among us for a queen, - And be the Amazons, whose maiden clan - By broad Thermodon dwells, apart from man; - Who rule themselves, from his dominion free, - And do all things he doth, better than he. - First, Amazons, your queen: to choose her now: - Who shall she be? - - _Ch._ Thyself, thou. Who but thou? - Deidamia. - - _Deid._ Where then were the play, 250 - If I should still command, and ye obey? - - _Ch._ Choose thou for all. - - _Deid._ Nor will I name her, lest - Ye say my favour sets one o’er the rest. - - _Ch._ Thy choice is ours. - - _Deid._ If then I gave my voice - For Pyrrha? - - _Ch._ Pyrrha, Pyrrha is our choice. - Hail, Pyrrha, hail! Queen of the Amazons! - - _Deid._ (_To Ach._). To thee I abdicate my place, and give - My wreath for crown. Long, my queen, mayst thou live! - Now, fellow-subjects, hie we off at once. - - _ACHILLES._ - - Stay, stay! Is this the privilege of the throne? 260 - Am I preferred but to be left alone? - No guard, no counsellor, no company! - Deidamia, stay! - - _Deid._ Thy word must be - My law, O queen: I will abide. But ye - Forth quickly, as I said; ye know the place. - - _Ch._ Follow me, follow: I lead the race. - Follow, we follow, we give thee chase. - Follow me, follow. - We come, we come. [_Exeunt Chor._ - - _Ach._ I could not bear that thou shouldst strain thy hands270 - Dragging those branches up the sunny hill; - Nor for a thousand honours thou shouldst do me, - Making me here thy queen, would I consent - To lose thy company, even for an hour. - See, while the maids warm in their busy play, - We may enjoy in quiet the sweet air, - And thro’ the quivering golden green look up - To the deep sky, and have high thoughts as idle - And bright, as are the small white clouds becalmed - In disappointed voyage to the noon: 280 - There is no better pastime. - - _Deid._ I will sit with thee - In idleness, while idleness can please. - - _Ach._ It is not idleness to steep the soul - In nature’s beauty: rather every day - We are idle letting beauteous things go by - Unheld, or scarce perceived. We cannot dream - Too deeply, nor o’erprize the mood of love, - When it comes on us strongly, and the hour - Is ripe for thought. - - _Deid._ I have a thought, a dream; - If thou canst keep it secret. - - _Ach._ I am thy slave. 290 - - _Deid._ Suppose—’tis more than that, yet I’ll but say - Suppose—we played this game of Amazons - In earnest. What an isle this Scyros were; - Rich and wellplanted, and its rocky coast - Easy of defence: the women now upon it - Could hold it. Nay, I have often thought it out: - The king my sire is threescore years and more, - And hath no heir: suppose that when he dies,— - The gods defer it long, but when he dies, - If thou and I should plan to seize this isle, 300 - Drive out the men, and rule it for our own ... - Wouldst thou work with me, Pyrrha, the thing could be. - Why shouldst thou smile? I do not say that I - Would rate my strength with men; but on the farms - Women are thicker sinewed; and in thee - I see what all might be. I am sure for speed - No man could match thee, and thou hast an arm - To tug an oar or hurl the heaviest spear, - Or wrestle with the best. Why dost thou smile? - - _Ach._ When thou art queen, I’ll be thy general. - - _Deid._ That was my thought. What dost thou think? - - _Ach._ I think - That Fate hath marked me for a general. 312 - - _Deid._ Nay, but I jest not. - - _Ach._ Then shall I forecast - And weigh impediments against thee? as men - Will in like case, who think no scheme mature - Till counsel hath forestalled all obstacles. - - _Deid._ If thou canst think of any. - - _Ach._ First is this, - Whence shall we get our subjects when our isle - Is peopled but by women? - - _Deid._ Fairly asked, - Had I not thought of it. We shall import them 320 - From other isles. Girl children everywhere - Are held of small account: these we will buy, - Bartering for them our fruits and tapestries, - And chiefly from the country whence thou comest; - For there I think the women must be taller - And stronger than with us. - - _Ach._ And who will act - Persuader to the maidens of the isle - To banish all their lovers? - - _Deid._ O Pyrrha, shame! - Man’s love is nothing; what knowst thou of it - To magnify its folly? ’Tis a mischief 330 - To thwart our good: therefore I banish it. - A woman’s love may be as much to woman - As a man’s love can be. ’Tis reasonable - This, and no dream. ’Tis my experience. - When I am with thee, Pyrrha, I want nothing. - No woman sitting by her silly lover - Could take such pleasure from his flatteries - As I from thy speech. When thou lookest on me - I am all joy; and if ’tis so with thee, - Why need we argue? Tell me, when I am with thee - Dost thou lack aught, or wish I were a man? 341 - - _Ach._ In truth nay, but... - - _Deid._ A wretched but: I know - What that would say; this thing cannot be done - Because ’twas never done. But that’s with me - The reason why it should be done. - - _Ach._ I see. - Yet novelty hath no wear. Remember too - We must grow old. The spirit of such adventure - Tires as the body ages. - - _Deid._ For that I think - I make the best provision. Nay, I have seen - Full many an old dame left in last neglect, 350 - Whose keen gray eye, peaked face, and silver hair - Were god-like set beneath a helm of brass. - - _Ach._ Here be the maids: ask them their mind at once. - - _Deid._ Nay, for the world no word. - - _Enter Chorus, with flowers._ - - Why run they breathlessly in merry fear? - What have ye seen? What now? - - _Ch._ The king. Fly, fly! - - _Ach._ Why should we fly the king? - - _Ch._ A man is with him, and they come this way. - - _Deid._ Who is it? - - _Ch._ Nay, we know not. - - _Deid._ What hath happed? - - _Ch._ We went forth as ye bade, and all together - Ran down the hill, the straightest way we might, - Into the copse, and lo! ’twas as thou saidst; 362 - The hazels are all felled, but on the ground, - That ’neath the straight trunks of the airy trees - Lies in the spotted sunlight, are upsprung - Countless anemones, white, red, and blue, - In the bright glade. Forgetting why we came, - We fell to gathering these. I chose the blue, - As ye may see, loving blue blossoms best, - That are content with heaven. - - _2nd Speaker._ And I the red, 370 - Love’s passionate colour; and the love in these - Is mixed with heavenly to a royal purple. - - _3rd._ And I the white: whose praise I will not tell, - Lest it should blush. - - _4th._ And I have mixed together - The red and white. - - _5th._ And I the red and blue. - - _6th._ And I the blue and white. - - _Deid._ Well, but the matter. - What happened next, tell me? - - _Ch._ (_1st._) Still at this game, - Like to a hungry herd that stops and feeds, - Snatching what tempts it on, we made advance - To the entrance of the combe; and then one cried, - Look up! Look there! And from the open brow, - Whence we looked down upon the sea, we saw 382 - A great war-ship in the harbour: and one said, - She comes from Athens; and another, nay, - Her build is Rhodian: when as there we gazed, - Counting her ports, and wondering of her name,— - We heard men’s voices and beheld the king - Mounting the hill-side, with a stranger clad - In short Greek robes. Then ran we back to thee, - Ere we were seen, in haste; that we may hide, 390 - And not be called within to attend the guests. - - _Deid._ So did ye well, whoe’er it be, and best - If ’tis the prince of Melos, as I fear: - Who late my father said would come to woo me: - But he must find me first. [_Going._ - - _Ach._ I’ll be thine eyes - And take his measure. Let me lurk behind, - I’ll learn his height, the colour of his beard, - And bring thee word. - - _Deid._ I pray, no beards for me. - Those that love beards remain. The rest with me. - Follow me, follow: I lead the race. [_Exit._ - - _Ch._ Follow, we follow. We give thee chase— - Follow me, follow— 402 - —We come, we come. [_Exeunt Chor._ - - _Ach._ I wish I had had Apollo for my sire; - Or that old Cheiron, when he taught me arms, - Hunting the beasts on bushy Pelion, - Had led and trained me rather, as well he knew, - In that fair park of fancy and delight, - Where but the Graces and the Muses come. - For he could sing: and oft took down at eve 410 - From the high pillar of his rocky cave - The lyre or pipe, and whiled the darksome hours. - Which would I had learned, to touch the stops and strings, - Nor only harked thereto: for nought he sang, - Whether of gods or men, of peace or war, - Had any theme of sweetness to compare - With my new world, here, where I am king, and rule - The sweetest thing in nature. Had I skill - To give translation to my joy, I think - I could make music that should charm the world. - O Deidamia, thou Queen of my heart, 421 - I would enchant thee and thine isle. Alas! - How wilt thou learn thou art mine? How can I tell - And with the word not lose thee? Now this suitor - Threats my betrayal... He comes. I’ll watch. Yet not - With jealous eyes, but heedful of my fate. - - [_Hides in bushes._ - - _Enter Lycomedes and Abas._ - - _LYCOMEDES._ - - ’Tis folly and impertinence. I say it - With due respect unto the prince, thy master, - Who am as much his elder as the king - His father is. He ne’er would so have wronged me,— - The mild and good Laertes.—In this isle 431 - Think’st thou ’twere possible a man should hide, - And I not know it? - - _ABAS._ - - My Lord Ulysses, sire, - Bade me assure your majesty he came - More with the purpose to acquit your honour,— - Which suffers greatly in the common tongue,— - Than with a hope to find what he pretends - He comes to seek. - - _Lyc._ Why should he come at all? - - _Ab._ Taking your invitation in the sense - That I have spoken... - - _Lyc._ Thinks he, if I chose 440 - To hide the man in Scyros, that a stranger - From Ithaca could find him? - - _Ab._ Nay... - - _Lyc._ It follows - Your search can never quit my honesty, - Where I am held accomplice; but no less - Must put a slight upon my wits, implying - Me the deceived. - - _Ab._ Your invitation, sire, - Covers that charge. - - _Lyc._ My invitation, sir, - Was but my seal of full denial, a challenge - For honour’s eye, not to be taken up. - Your master hath slipped in manners: yet fear not - But I will meet and treat him as his birth 451 - And name require. Speak we no more of this. - What think’st thou of our isle? - - _Ab._ The famed Ægean - Hath not a finer jewel on her breast. - - _Lyc._ Come, come! you overpraise us: there’s no need. - We Scyrians are contented.—Now we are climbed - Above the town to the east; and you may see - The western seaboard, and our other port. - The island narrows here to twenty stades, - Cut like a wasp; the shoulder where we stand 460 - Is its best natured spot: It falls to the sun, - And at this time of the year takes not too much. - - _Ab._ ’Tis strange how in all points the lie of the land - Is like our Ithaca, but better clothed. - - _Lyc._ And larger, is’t not? - - _Ab._ Past comparison.— - - _Lyc._ What navy bring ye to the war? - - _Ab._ Ah, sire! - We have no ships to boast of—with our own - Zakynthus, Cephallenia, and the rest, - Joining their numbers, raise but ten or twelve. - - _Lyc._ And these your prince commands? 470 - - _Ab._ Such as they be. - - _Lyc._ Tidings come slowly to us here. I pray you - Tell me the latest of your preparations. - The thing must drag: there was some talk awhile - Of coldness ’twixt the chiefs: ’twould be no wonder. - They that combine upon one private grudge - May split upon another. - - _Ab._ Still their zeal - Increases: ’tis as fire spread from a spark. - - _Lyc._ A spark? well—Menelaus. At this time - What numbers hath he drawn, and whence? - - _Ab._ The ships - Number above a thousand: a tenth of these 480 - Are sent by Corinth, Sicyon and Mycenæ; - Sixty are Spartan, and king Agamemnon - Provides as many as these all told together. - Then from Ægina, Epidaurus, Argos, - And Tiryns Diomede brings eighty: Nestor - Ninety from Pylos; from Bœotia - Come eighty; Phocis and Phthiotis each - Send forty; Athens fifty; and Eubœa - Forty; from Salamis Ajax brings twelve; - Oilean Ajax with the Locrians 490 - Forty more; from our neighbours in the west, - Dulichium and Ætolia, eighty sail; - Again as many from hundred-citied Crete - Under the king Idomeneus, and nine - From Rhodes: All these, with others that escape - My hasty summing, lie drawn up at Aulis. - ’Tis such a sight as, I am bold to say, - If but your majesty could see it, would move you - To make a part of the splendour. - - _Lyc._ Nay, I have seen them. - - _Ab._ Your majesty hath been at Aulis? - - _Lyc._ Nay, 500 - Nor yet at Aulis: but the tale thou tellest - Coming unto my ears a month ago, - Some of my lords and I one idle morn - Crossed to Eubœa,—’tis a pleasure trip, - On a clear day scarce out of sight of home— - We landed ’neath Œchalia by noon, - And, crossing o’er the isle on mules, were lodged - That night at Chalcis. The next day at dawn - I played the spy. ’Twas such a breathless morning - When all the sound and motion of the sea 510 - Is short and sullen, like a dreaming beast: - Or as ’twere mixed of heavier elements - Than the bright water, that obeys the wind. - Hiring a fishing-boat we bade the sailors - Row us to Aulis; when midway the straits, - The morning mist lifted, and lo, a sight - Unpicturable.—High upon our left - Where we supposed was nothing, suddenly - A tall and shadowy figure loomed: then two, - And three, and four, and more towering above us: - But whether poised upon the leaden sea 521 - They stood, or floated in the misty air, - That baffling our best vision held entangled - The silver of the half-awakened sun, - Or whether near or far, we could not tell, - Nor what: at first I thought them rocks, but ere - That error could be told, they were upon us - Bearing down swiftly athwart our course; and all - Saw ’twas a fleet of ships, not three or four - Now, but unnumber’d: like a floating city, 530 - If such could be, with walls and battlements - Spread on the wondering water: and now the sun - Broke thro’ the haze, and from the shields outhung - Blazed back his dazzling beams, and round their prows - On the divided water played; as still - They rode the tide in silence, all their oars - Stretched out aloft, as are the balanced wings - Of storm-fowl, which returned from battling flight - Across the sea, steady their aching plumes - And skim along the shuddering cliffs at ease: 540 - So came they gliding on the sullen plain, - Out of the dark, in silent state, by force - Yet unexpended of their nightlong speed. - Those were the Cretan ships, who when they saw us - Hailed for a pilot, and of our native sailors - Took one aboard, and dipping all their oars - Passed on, and we with them, into the bay. - Then from all round, where the dark hulls were moored - Against the shore, and from the tents above - A shout of joy went up, re-echoing 550 - From point to point; and we too cheered and caught - The zeal of that great gathering.—Where man is met - The gods will come; or shall I say man’s spirit - Hath operative faculties to mix - And make his gods at will? Howe’er that be, - Soon a swift galley shot out from the rest - To meet the comers. That was Agamemnon’s, - They told me; and I doubt not he was in it, - And gave his welcome to Idomeneus, - And took him to his tent. On such a day 560 - Our little boat rowed where we would unmarked: - We were but Chalcian pilots. So I saw - Whate’er I wished to see, and came away - Across the strait that night, and the next day - Was home by sundown. - - _Ab._ All this could you see - Without the wish to join? - - _Lyc._ I say not that; - For wish I did that I was young again. - Then, sir, I would have left whate’er I had, - My kingdom to another, for the pride, - Of high place in such war; now I am old. 570 - - _Ab._ But older men than thou have joined us, sire. - War needs experience. - - _Lyc._ Concerning war - I am divided in opinion, Abas: - But lean to think it hath a wholesome root - Supportive to our earthly habit. I see - The noblest beasts will love to fight, and man - Is body as well as spirit: his mind that’s set - In judgment o’er those twain must oft admit - The grosser part hath a preponderant claim. - But I regret this, and my discontent 580 - Puts me this question, Shall man never come - To a better state with his desire? What think you? - What if our race yet young should with the time - Throw off the baser passions, as I find - Myself by age affected? I know not... - I have a little statue in my house, - Which, if you look on’t long, begets belief - Of absolute perfectionment; the artist - Should have been present when man’s clay was mixed. - Prometheus, or whoever ’twas that made us, 590 - Had his head turned with natural history: - All excellent contrivance, but betraying - Commonness and complexity. Well! well! - No need of my philosophies in Scyros— - War must have motive, and the men I rule - Are simple and contented with their lot. - None in my land would wish an atom changed: - Were even Achilles here ’twould be no wonder - If he had caught our temper. - - _Ab._ All men witness - To thy good rule, O king: but in the wars 600 - Fame may be won. - - _Lyc._ Nor do I ask for fame. - Come that to whom it will; to Agamemnon, - To Ajax or Ulysses or Achilles. - - _Ab._ To Achilles no: ’tis not in the gods’ grace - To succour pigritude. To him, a lad, - The prize of honour above all the Greeks - Was offered: by the poor effeminacy - With which he hath rejected it, he is judged - Meanest of all. But since we cannot win - Without him, we must have him. Little glory 610 - To him, except to be Fate’s dullest tool. - - _Lyc._ Maybe. Now come we on. I had thought to find - My daughter and her train. I’ll take thee round - Another way to the palace: thither no doubt - She is now returned. [_Exeunt._ - - _Enter Achilles from the bushes._ - - _Ach._ Villain, I thank the gods that sent thee hither. - But thou wast near thy death. Walk off secure, - Not knowing that I heard. _Effeminate! - The meanest of the Greeks!_ were he the best, - I’d slay him in this garment. Yet he is but 620 - A tongue to troll opinion of me, a slave, - Fetcher and carrier of others’ tales, and doth - The drudgery honestly; for that I’ll thank him - And profit by his slander. Ay, so I’ll do— - Now in good time—I’ll get me a man’s dress - And meet them here, ere they suspect me:—or, stay! - I can outwit them better. I’ll take a boat, - Cross o’er to Aulis, like good Lycomede, - This very night, and there to Agamemnon - Declare myself; and men shall never know 630 - How I was hid, nor whence I came. - - _Enter Thetis._ - - _Th._ My son! - - _Ach._ My goddess mother, welcome! yet I am shamed - That thou shouldst find me thus. - - _Th._ How art thou shamed? - - _Ach._ This dress. O thou canst help me: thou art ready - At every need. And here hath been a man - Who, thinking not I heard, spake to the king - Of thy Achilles with such scorn, that I - Should have leaped forth upon him in my rage, - And strangled him, but that he seemed to be - Another’s servant. 640 - - _Th._ Then thou hast seen them, son? - - _Ach._ Who are they? - - _Th._ Those I came to warn thee of; - Ulysses and his friends. Knowst thou ’tis they - Are come unto the isle to seek thee? - - _Ach._ Ay. - But thou art ready to outwit their wile. - As thou didst bring me hither on that night - When all thy nymphs, assembling ’neath the moon - Upon the Achæan shore, bore me away - Across the sea, even so to Aulis now - Convey me secretly, and set me there, - Ere men know whence I come. - - _Th._ What hear I, son? 650 - To Aulis? to thy foes? - - _Ach._ A thousand ships - Moored idle in the bay wait but for me: - And round the shore the captains of the Greeks - Impatient in their tents but call for me. - Be they my foes to speak or wish me ill, - ’Tis only that I come not. I must go. - - _Th._ There let them tarry till the sea-worm bore - Their ships to rottenness; or, sail they forth, - Let them be butchered by the sword of Hector, - Ere thou be snared to serve their empty pride. 660 - - _Ach._ But louder than their need my honour calls: - Hast thou no thought of this in all thy love? - - _Th._ Who then is honoured more or more desired - Than thou art now? but they, if once they had thee, - Would slight thee, and pretend they were the men. - - _Ach._ But those are honoured best that hear their praise. - - _Th._ Is not high Zeus himself, holding aloof, - Worshipped the more? Let the world say of thee, - When these have perished, that they went their way - Because the son of Thetis would not aid them. 670 - - _Ach._ But if ’twere said because he feared to die? - - _Th._ Fearst thou reproach of fear that fearst not death? - - _Ach._ I fear not, but by proof would shun reproach. - - _Th._ Men, son, are what they are; and thou art brave. - ’Tis asked of poor and questionable spirits - To prove their worth. - - _Ach._ I prove myself a coward. - - _Th._ How! when it needed heavenly prayers and tears, - The force of duty and a goddess’ will - To keep thee back from death! when all the joys - That I have set about thee, and a love 680 - More beautiful than Helen’s cannot hold thee! - - _Ach._ Fate, that from men hideth her pitiless face, - Offered to me this kindness, that my will - Should be of force in predetermined deeds: - Allowing me to take which life I would - Of two incomparable lots; I ever - Leaned one way, the other thou; and still at heart - I hold to my first choice. - - _Th._ O child of man, - Though child of mine, wouldst thou know wisdom’s way, - Learn it of me. If I had said to thee 690 - Thou being a mortal shouldst love death and darkness; - For in the brief date of thy heedless term - ’Tis vain to strive with evil: and since the end - Cometh the same, and at the latest cometh - So soon, that there’s no difference to be told - ’Twixt early and late, ’tis wisdom to despair: - Then would thy tongue have boldly answered me, - And said, Man hath his life; that it must end - Condemns it not for nought. Are rivers salt - Because they travel to the bitter sea? 700 - Is the day dark because the gorgeous west - Must fade in gloom, when the ungazeable sun - Is fallen beneath the waves? Or hath the spring - No charm in her pavilions, are her floors - Not starred, for that we see her birth is slow - Of niggard winter, and her blossoms smirched - By summer’s tyranny? Hadst thou said this, - And that Earth’s changeful pride, the life of man, - Is exquisite in such a quality - To make the high gods envious could they guess: - Then had I found no answer: but when I 711 - Told thee of joy, and set thee in the midst, - That thou shouldst argue with me that ’tis best - To die at once, and for an empty name - Pass to the trivial shades; then must I fear - I have as thankless and unwise a son, - As disobedient.—Yet when first I taught thee - Thou gav’st me promise to be wise. - - _Ach._ But never - Wilt thou then free me from my promise given? - - _Th._ Not to thy hurt. 720 - - _Ach._ See now what shame I bear! - - _Th._ Why make so much of shame? If thou despise - The pleasure of the earth, why not the shame? - - _Ach._ I wrong, too, this old king. - - _Th._ His daughter more, - If thou desert her. - - _Ach._ But ’twould hurt her less - To lose me now than know me when disgraced. - - _Th._ I plead not in her name, nor charge thee, son, - With loving her in my contempt. A dream - Of mortal fancy or honour may becloud - Thy mind awhile, but ne’er canst thou forget - Thy bond to me; the care that never left thee 730 - Till thou wert out of hand; the love that dared - To send thee from my sight when thou wast able, - And to strange lands; my secret visitings - There, and revisitings; the dreams I sent thee, - Warnings of ill, and ecstasies of pride; - The thousand miracles I wrought to save thee, - And guard thee to thy prime;—and now men say - Thou art the first of the Greeks: their homaged kings - The gods condemn to death if thou withhold 739 - Thy single arm. Why so? What hast thou done? - Where have men seen thee? Hast thou ruled like Nestor? - Conquered like Agamemnon, fought like Ajax? - What is thy prowess, what thy skill but this, - That thou art son of Thetis? Disobey not, - Nor question now my bidding. Must I kneel, - Embrace thy knees, or melt before thy face - In supplicating tears? O if thy birth - Did cost the tenderest tears that god e’er shed, - Make not those bitter drops to have flowed in vain. - Whate’er fate portion thee my joy is this— 750 - That thou dost love me. Dost thou cease to love, - I am most miserable. - - _Ach._ O fear not that, - Mother and goddess! Pardon me, weep not. - Let all men curse me, be my name abhorred, - Rather than thou be grieved. ’Twas anger moved me: - I will forget this, and obey thee. Say - What I must do, how best avoid these men: - And how refuse their call if I be found. - - _Th._ Kiss me, my son. By the gods’ life, I love thee: - My grief is to deny thee. But there’s need 760 - Of counsel, for the day is critical - And glides apace. And first if they should find thee, - Then ’tis thy fate to go: I cannot stay thee. - And since to bear thee hence were sure betrayal, - I urge thee to be true to thy disguise. - And better to escape thy foes, learn now - Whom most to dread. Of all the Argives shun - Ulysses; come not near him in the halls; - And should he speak to thee, answer no word. - Him thou wilt know by his preëminence: 770 - In person he is beardless yet, and smooth - Of face and tongue, alluring, gentle in voice - But sturdy of body, and ’neath his helm his locks - O’er a wide brow and restless eye curl forth - In ruddy brown; nor less for his attire - Notable is he, wearing the best of all, - His linen broidered, and broad jewels to hold - A robe of gray and purple. - - _Ach._ He shall not spy me. - But if by any warning from the gods - He know and call to me, how then to escape 780 - The shame of this Ionian skirt? - - _Th._ That chance - I can provide for, and shall give thee now - A magic garment fitting to thy body, - Which worn beneath thy robe will seem as weft - Of linen thread, but if it meet the light - ’Twill be a gilded armour, and serve well - In proof as show. Come, I will set it on thee. - - [_Exeunt._ - - _Enter Deidamia and Chorus._ - - _Deid._ The ground is clear, we have deceived them mightily, - Running around. - - _Ch._ Where is our queen? - - (_2_) Not here. - - _Deid._ I’ll call her. Pyrrha!—Call all together. - - _Ch._ Pyrrha! - - _Deid._ She will come presently.—Did ye not mark - How resonant this glade is? that our voices 792 - Neither return nor fly, but stay about us? - It is the trunks of the trees that cage the sound; - As in an open temple, where the pillars - Enrich the music. In my father’s hall - The echo of each note burdens the next. - ’Twould be well done to cut a theatre - Deep in some wooded dale. Till Pyrrha come, - Alexia, sing thou here. - - _Ch._ What shall I sing? 800 - - _Deid._ There is a Lydian chant I call to mind - In honour of music-makers: it beginneth - With praise of the soft spring, and heavenly love— - ’Twill suit our mood, if thou remember it. - - _Chorus._ - - The earth loveth the spring, - Nor of her coming despaireth, - Withheld by nightly sting, - Snow, and icy fling, - The snarl of the North: - But nevertheless she prepareth 810 - And setteth in order her nurselings to bring them forth, - The jewels of her delight, - What shall be blue, what yellow or white; - What softest above the rest, - The primrose, that loveth best - Woodland skirts and the copses shorn. - - - 2. - - And on the day of relenting she suddenly weareth - Her budding crowns. O then, in the early morn, - Is any song that compareth - With the gaiety of birds, that thrill the gladdened air - In inexhaustible chorus 821 - To awake the sons of the soil - With music more than in brilliant halls sonorous - (—It cannot compare—) - Is fed to the ears of kings - From the reeds and hirèd strings? - For love maketh them glad; - And if a soul be sad, - Or a heart oracle dumb, - Here may it taste the promise of joy to come. 830 - - - 3. - - For the Earth knoweth the love which made her, - The omnipotent one desire, - Which burns at her heart like fire, - And hath in gladness arrayed her. - And man with the Maker shareth, - Him also to rival throughout the lands, - To make a work with his hands - And have his children adore it: - The Creator smileth on him who is wise and dareth - In understanding with pride: 840 - For God, where’er he hath builded, dwelleth wide,— - And he careth,— - To set a task to the smallest atom, - The law-abiding grains, - That hearken each and rejoice: - For he guideth the world as a horse with reins; - It obeyeth his voice, - And lo! he hath set a beautiful end before it: - - - 4. - - Whereto it leapeth and striveth continually, - And pitieth nought, nor spareth: 850 - The mother’s wail for her children slain, - The stain of disease, - The darts of pain, - The waste of the fruits of trees, - The slaughter of cattle, - Unbrotherly lust, the war - Of hunger, blood, and the yells of battle, - It heedeth no more - Than a carver regardeth the wood that he cutteth away: - The grainèd shavings fall at his feet, 860 - But that which his tool hath spared shall stand - For men to praise the work of his hand; - For he cutteth so far, and there it lay, - And his work is complete. - - - 5. - - But I will praise ’mong men the masters of mind - In music and song, - Who follow the love of God to bless their kind: - And I pray they find - A marriage of mirth— - And a life long 870 - With the gaiety of the Earth. - - _Ch._ There stands an old man down beneath the bank, - Gazing, and beckoning to us. - - _Deid._ He is a stranger, - That burdened with some package to the palace - Hath missed his way about, and fears to intrude. - Go some and show him. [_Some run out._ - Meanwhile what do we? - We have no sport when Pyrrha is away. - Our game is broken. Come, a thought, a thought! - Hath none a thought? - - _Ch._ We have never built the bower. - - _Deid._ Ye idled gathering flowers. Now ’tis too late. - - _Ch._ Let us play ball. - - _Deid._ The sun is still so high. 881 - I shall go feed my doves. - - (_Re-enter one of Chorus._) - - _Ch._ The old man saith - That he is a pedlar, and hath wares to sell - If he may show them. Shall he come? - - _Deid._ Now Hermes, - The father of device and jugglery, - Be thanked for this; ’tis he hath sent him.—Call him. - His tales may be good hearing, tho’ his pack - Repay not search. But be advised: beware, - Lest he bear off more than he bring: these fellows - Have fingers to unclasp a brooch or pin 890 - While the eye winks that watches. There was one - Who as he ran a race would steal the shoes - Of any that ran with him. The prince of all - Was merry Autolycus. - - _Enter, with those who had gone out, Ulysses as a pedlar._ - - Good day, old man. - Come, let us see thy wares. - - _Ul._ I have no breath left, - Wherewith to thank you, ladies; the little hill - Has ta’en it from me. - - _Deid._ Rest awhile, and tell us - Whence thou art come. - - _Ul._ In a Greek ship this morn. - I pray you, that I lack not courtesy, - Art thou the princess of this isle? - - _Deid._ I am. 900 - - _Ul._ My true and humble service to your highness. - - _Deid._ In turn say who art thou, and whence thy ship. - - _Ul._ Fair, honoured daughter of a famous king, - I have no story worthy of thine ear, - Being but a poor artificer of Smyrna, - Where many years I wrought, and ye shall see - Not without skill, in silver and in gold. - But happiness hath wrecked me, and I say - ’Tis ill to marry young; for from that joy - I gat a son, who as the time went on, 910 - Grew to be old and gray and wise as I; - And bettering much the art which I had taught him - Longed to be master in my place, for which - He grew unkind, and his sons hated me: - And when one day he wished me dead, I feared - Lest I should kill myself; and so that night - I made me up a pack of little things - He should not grieve for, and took ship for Greece. - There have I trafficked, lady, a year and more, - And kept myself alive hawking small ware 920 - From place to place, and on occasion found - A market for my jewels, and be come here - Making the round of the isles in any ship - That chances: and this last I came aboard - At Andros, where I was: but whence she hailed - I have even forgot. May it please thee see my wares? - - _Deid._ Thy tale is very sad. I am sorry for thee. - Why would thy son, being as thou sayst so skilled, - Not ply his trade apart? - - _Ul._ My house in Smyrna - Was head of all the goldsmiths: ’twas for that, 930 - Lady, he envied me. See now my wares. - - _Deid._ What beauteous work! I’m glad thou’rt come. I’ll buy - A trinket for myself, and let my maids - Choose each what she may fancy. Hear ye, girls? - I’ll make a gift to each. - - _Ch._ O thanks.—To all?— - And may we choose? - - _Deid._ Yes. - - _Ch._ Anything we please? - - _Deid._ Why, that is choosing. - - _Ch._ O we thank thee. - - _Ul._ Now - I see, princess, thou’rt of a bounteous blood, - To make all round thee happy. - - _Deid._ What is this brooch? - - _Ul._ If for thyself thou fancy a brooch, I’ll show thee - The best jewel in my box, and not be shamed 941 - To say I have no better. - - _Ch._ See, oh, see! - What lovely things!—A rare old man! - - _Ul._ Here ’tis. - What thinkest thou? - - _Deid._ Is’t not a ruby? - - _Ul._ And fine! - - _Deid._ I think thy son will have missed this. - - _Ul._ Nay, lady: - I had it of a sailor, who, poor fool, - Knew not its worth; and thou mayst buy it of me - For half its value. - - _Deid._ May I take these two - To view them nearly? - - _Ul._ All take as ye will. - Ye do me honour, ladies. - - _Deid._ Hear ye, girls, 950 - Make each her choice. I will o’erlook your taste - When all is done. - - _Ul._ Come, buy my wares: come buy. - Come, come buy; I’ve wares for all, - Were ye each and all princesses. - Clasps and brooches, large and small, - Handy for holding your flowing dresses. - - _Ch._ What is this little box for? - - _Ul._ Open it. - - _Ch._ What is this vial? - - _Ul._ Smell it. Buy, come buy! - Charms for lovers, charms to break, - Charms to bind them to you wholly. 960 - Medicines fit for every ache, - Fever and fanciful melancholy. - - _Ch._ O smell this scent.—Here be fine pins.—See this! - - _Ul._ (_aside_). I spy none here to match my notion yet. - - _Ch._ I have found amber beads.—What is it is tied - In little packets? - - _Ul._ Toilet secrets those, - Perfumes, and rare cosmetics ’gainst decay. - - _Deid._ (_to one apart_). Alexia, see. I will buy this for Pyrrha. - ’Tis pity she is not here. What thinkest thou of it? - He said it was his best. This other one 970 - I’ll give to thee if thou find nothing better. - Go see. I will seek Pyrrha. [_Exit._ - - _Ul._ Buy, come buy! - Tassels, fringes, silken strings, - Girdles, ties, and Asian pockets, - Armlets, necklaces and rings, - Images, amulets, lovers’ lockets. - - _Ch._ Pray, what are these, good man? - - _Ul._ Of soft doe-skin - These gilded thongs are made for dancers’ wear, - To tie their sandals. - - _Ch._ And is this a pin, - This golden grasshopper? - - _Ul._ Ay, for the hair. 980 - The Athenian ladies use nought else. See here - This little cup. - - _Ch._ Didst thou make that? - - _Ul._ Nay, ladies. - - _Ch._ Show us some work of thine which thou didst make - Thy very self. - - _Ul._ See then this silver snake. - Fear not. Come near and mark him well: my trade is, - Or was, I should say, in such nice devices. - ’Twill coil and curl, uncoil, dart and recoil. [_Showing._ - - _The Chorus crowd about him, when enter unperceived - by him Achilles and Deidamia._ - - _Deid._ Come, come, there never hath been one like him here. - Hark! see the girls: they crowd and chatter round - As greedily as birds being fed. I bade them choose - Each one a present, but I took the best, 991 - This ruby brooch. Look at it: ’tis for thee. - Let me now put it on thee. I’ll unclasp - Thy robe and set it in the place of the other. - - _Ach._ Nay, Deidamia, unfasten not my robe! - - _Deid._ Why, ’twould not matter if he looked this way. - - _Ach._ Nay, prithee.— - - _Deid._ Well, thou must take my gift. - - _Ach._ Then must I give thee somewhat in return. - - _Deid._ But ’tis my will to-day to give to all. - - _Ach._ Then let me take my choice, some smaller thing. 1000 - - _Deid._ Come then ere all is ransacked. - - _Ach._ (_aside_). I scarce escaped - The uncovering of my magic coat.—[_They go to Ulysses._ - - _Ul._ Come buy, - Needles for your broideries rare, - Dainty bodkins silver-hafted. - Pins to fix your plaited hair, - Ivory-headed and golden-shafted. - - _Ach._ What hast thou in thy pack for me, old man? - - _Ul._ There’s nought but trifles left me, lady, now, - As dice and dolls; the very dregs of the box. - - _Deid._ Athenian owls. And who’s this red-baked lady - Clothed in a net? - - _Ul._ Princess, ’tis Britomartis, 1011 - The Cretan goddess worshipped at Ægina. - - _Deid._ This little serpent too? - - _Ul._ Nothing to thee: - But the Erechtheidæ use to fasten such - About their children’s necks. Nay, not a babe - Is born but they must don him one of these, - Or ever he be swaddled or have suck. - - _Deid._ This blinking pygmy here, with a man’s body - And a dog’s head, squatting upon a button... - What’s he? - - _Ul._ ’Tis an Egyptian charm, to ban 1020 - The evil spirits bred of Nilus’ slime. - - _Deid._ And this? - - _Ul._ That. See, ’tis a Medusa, lady, - Cut in an oyster-shell, with flaming snakes. - - _Deid._ These are all nothings. Thou must have the brooch. - See, now ’tis thine; thou hast it. (_Pins it upon Achilles’ robe._) - (_To Ul._) What is its price? - (_To Ach._) Nay, be content. - - _Ul._ To thee I’ll sell it, lady, - For a tenfold weight of gold. - - _Ach._ Oh! ’tis too much. - Spend not such store on me. And for the ruby, - ’Tis dark and small. - - _Ul._ The purple is its merit: - Were it three times the size and half the tint, 1030 - ’Twere of slight cost. - - _Ach._ So might I like it better. - And that—what’s that, which thou dost put aside? - Is that a toy? - - _Ul._ Nay, lady; that is no toy. - ’Tis a sharp sword. But I will show it thee - For its strange quality: the which methinks - Might pass for magic, were’t not that an Arian, - Late come to Sardis, knows the art to make it. - Tho’ wrought of iron, look ye, ’tis blue as flint, - And if I bend it, it springs back like a bow: - ’Tis sharper too than flint; but the edge is straight, - And will not chip. Nay, touch it not; have care! - - _Ach._ Pray, let me see it, and take it in my hand. - - [_Takes it and comes to front._ - - _Ul._ (_aside_). This should be he. - - _Ach._ (_aside_). My arm writhes at the touch. - - _Ul._ There is a hunter, with his game, a lion, - Inlaid upon it: and on the other side 1045 - Two men that fight to death. - - _Ach._ ’Tis light in the hand. - - _Deid._ (_to Ach._). Canst thou imagine any use for this? - - _Ach._ (_to Deid._). Not when thy father dies? - - _Ul._ Ladies, have care. - For if the sword should wound you, I were blamed. - - _Ach._ Why, thinkest thou ’tis only bearded men - Can wield a sword? The queen of the Amazons - Could teach thee something maugre thy white hair. - - _Ul._ (_aside_). The game hath run into the snare; - He is mine. - - _Ach._ See, Deidamia, here’s my choice; buy this - If thou wilt give me something; thou dost like 1055 - The ruby; if thou wilt let me give thee that, - Thou in return buy me this little sword. - - _Deid._ Such presents are ill-omened, and ’tis said - Will shrewdly cut in twain the love they pledge. - - _Ach._ But we may make a bond of this divider. - - _Deid._ Wilt thou in earnest take it for thy choice? - - _Ach._ If thou wert late in earnest, thou couldst do - No better than arm all thy girls with these. - The weapon wins the battle, and I think - With such advantage women might be feared. - (_To Ul._) Old man, I like thy blade; and I will have it. - I see ’twould thrust well: tell me if ’tis mettle - To give a stroke. Suppose I were thy foe, - And standing o’er thee thus to cut thee down - Should choose to cleave thy pate. Would this sword do it? 1070 - - _Ul._ (_aside_). He knows me! - - [_Pulling off his beard and head-dress and leaping up._ - - Achilles! - - _Deid. and Ch._ Help! help! treachery! - - [_They fly._ - - _Diomede comes out of bushes where he stands unseen - by Achilles._ - - _Ach._ Beardless—and smooth of face as tongue: - In voice - Gentle, but sturdy of body: ruddy locks, - And restless eye .. Ulysses! - - _Ul._ Thou hast it. - - _Ach._ I knew that thou wert here, but looked to meet thee1075 - Without disguises, as an honest man. - - _Ul._ Thou needest a mirror, lady, for thyself. - - _Ach._ (_suddenly casts off his long robe and appears in - shining armour, still holding the sword_). - - Behold!.... Be thou my mirror! - - _Ul._ If I be not, - ’Tis shame to thee, the cause of my disguise. - - _Ach._ I own thee not. I knew thee for a prince, - But seeing thee so vilely disfigured... - - _Ul._ Stay! 1081 - We both have used disguise: I call for judgment - Upon the motive. Mine I donned for valour, - And care for thy renown; thine was for fear. - - _Ach._ Fear! By the gods: take up thy beard again, - And thy mock dotage shield thee. - - _Ul._ Nay, Achilles; - If I spake wrong I will recall the word. - - _Ach._ Thou didst unutterably lie. Recall it. - - _Ul._ Wilt thou then sail to Aulis in my ship? - - _Ach._ I can sail thither and not sail with thee. - - _Ul._ But wilt thou come? - - _Ach._ I answer not to thee - Because thou questionest me: but since I know - What will be, and hear thee in ignorance - Slander fair names, I tell thee that Achilles - Will come to Aulis. - - _Ul._ Wherefore now so long 1095 - Hast thou denied thyself to thy renown? - - _Ach._ Thou saidst for fear; nor hast recalled the word. - - _Ul._ ’Twas first thy taunt which drew my mind from me: - But, if it wrong thee, I recall the word. - - _Ach._ I think thou hast judged me by thyself, Ulysses. - When thou wast summoned to the war,—who wert - Not free to choose as I, but bound by oath - To Menelaus to help him,—what didst thou? - Why thou didst feign; and looking for disguise - Thy wit persuaded thee that they who knew thee - Would never deem that thou wouldst willingly - Make mock of that: so thou didst put on madness, - Babbling and scrabbling even before thy friends: - And hadst been slavering on thy native rocks - Unto this day, had not one fellow there 1110 - Lightly unravelled thee, and in the furrow, - Which thou with dumb delusion, morn and eve, - Didst plough in the sea sand (that was thy trick), - He placed thy new-born babe. That thou brok’st down - Then in thine acting, that thou drav’st not on - The share thro’ thine own flesh, is the best praise - I have to give thee. - - _Ul._ Distinguish! if I feigned, - ’Twas that I had a child and wife, whose ties - Of tenderness I am not ashamed to own. - - _Ach._ I say thou wentest not unto this war 1120 - But by compulsion, thou, that chargest me - With fear. ’Tis thou that art the stay-at-home, - Not I; my heart was ever for the war, - And ’gainst my will I have been withheld: that thou - Mistakest in this my duty for my leaning, - Is more impeachment of thy boasted wits, - Than was thy empty husbandry. Are not - The Argive chiefs more subject, one and all, - To this reproach of fear? Why need they me - A boy of sixteen years to lead them on? 1130 - Did they lack ships or men, what are my people - In number? who am I in strength? what rank - Have I in Hellas? Where’s the burly Ajax? - Where is the son of Herakles? and Nestor - The aged? Teucer and Idomeneus? - Menestheus, Menelaus? and not least - Where’s Diomede? - - _Dio._ (_coming forward_). By chance he’s here. - - _Ach._ Ah! now - I hear a soldier’s voice. Brave Diomede, - I give thee welcome, tho’ thou comest behind. - - _Dio._ Hail, son of Thetis, champion of the Greeks! - - _Ach._ Anon, anon. What dost thou here? Wert thou 1141 - Sat in an ambush or arrived by chance, - As thou didst say? - - _Dio._ By heaven I cannot tell. - I serve Ulysses, and he serves the gods: - If thou’rt displeased with them, gibe not at me. - - _Ach._ I see the plan—The pedlar here in front, - The lion behind. And so ye thought to seize me. - - _Ul._ Have we not done it? - - _Ach._ Nay. - - _Ul._ Thou canst not scape. - - _Ach._ I give that back to thee. - - _Ul._ What wilt thou now? - - _Ach._ Diomede and I have swords: thou mayst stand by 1150 - Until ’tis time thou show me how to escape. - I’ll drive you to your ship. - - _Ul._ (_aside to Dio._). - Answer him not. He cannot leave the isle: - When the king learns of our discovery - He must deliver him up. Let’s to the palace. - - _Dio._ (_to Ul._). Nay, I must speak— - - _Ul._ Thou wilt but anger him. - He will yield better if we cross him not. - - _Dio._ (_to Ach._). Brave son of Thetis, I’d not yield - to thee - In any trial of strength, tho’ thou be clad - In heavenly armour; but I came not here 1160 - To fight, and least with thee: put up thy sword. - And since I heard thee say thou wilt to Aulis, - Our mission is accomplished, nought remains - But to renounce our acting, and atone - For what we have ventured. First I speak thee free - To follow thine own way. Unless the king - Or other here be in thy secrecy, - None know but we, nor shall know: be it thy will, - My lips are sealed, and in whatever else - Thou wilt command me, I shall be glad to obey. - - _Ach._ Thank thee, good Diomede. What saith Ulysses? 1171 - - _Ul._ I’ll do whate’er will knit thee to our cause. - (_Aside._) Yet shall men hear I found thee. - - _Ach._ Return then to your ship; and when Ulysses - Is there restored proceed ye to the court. - But what in the surprise and consequence - Of my discovery to the king, as well - As to some others may arise, I know not; - Nor can instruct your good behaviours further. - Time grants me but short counsel for myself. 1180 - - _Ul._ We too should study how to meet the king. - - _Ach._ Stay yet, Ulysses. Thou hast parted here - With goods appraised to them that meant to buy. - I have a full purse with me. Be content, - Take it. I’d give as much for the little sword. - Now let me do this favour to the ladies. - - _Ul._ (_taking_). ’Tis fit, and fairly done. I did not think - To go off robbed. The sword is worth the gold. - We part in honest dealing. Fare thee well. 1189 - - _Dio._ (_aside_). Thrashed like a witless cur! - (_To Ach._) Farewell, Achilles. - An hour hence we will meet thee at the palace. - - [_Exeunt Ul. and Dio._ - - _Ach._ In spite of warning taken in a silly trap, - By the common plotter! Thus to be known Achilles— - To have my wish forced on me against my will - Hath rudely cleared my sight. Where lies the gain? - The dancing ship on which I sailed is wrecked - On an unlovely shore, and I must climb - Out of the wreck upon a loveless shore, - Saving what best I love. ’Tis so. I see - I shall command these men, and in their service - Find little solace. I have a harder task 1201 - Than chieftainship, and how to wear my arms - With as much nature as yon girlish robe: - To pass from that to this without reproach - Of honour, and beneath my breastplate keep - With the high generalship of all the Greeks - My tenderest love. ’Tis now to unmask that, - And hold uninjured. I’ll make no excuse - To the old king but my necessity, - And boldly appease him. Here by chance he comes. - - _Enter hurriedly Lycomedes and Abas._ - - _Lyc._ Was it not here, they said? 1211 - An insolent ruffian: Let me come across him! - By heav’n, still here! And armed from head to foot! - (_To Ach._) Young man,—as now thou’lt not deny to be— - Thou’st done—ay, tho’ thou seem of princely make— - Dishonour and offence to me the king - In venturing here to parley with the princess - In mock disguise, for whatsoever cause, - Strangely put on and suddenly cast off, - I am amazed to think. I bid thee tell me 1220 - What was thy purpose hither. - - _Ach._ O honoured king, - Tho’ I came here disguised I am not he - Thou thinkest. - - _Lyc._ Nay I think not who thou art. - All wonders that I have seen are lost in thee. - - _Ach._ Thou takest me for Ulysses. - - _Lyc._ Nay, not I. - - _Ach._ I am Achilles, sire, the son of Thetis. - - _Lyc._ Achilles! Ah! Thou sayst at least a name - That fits thy starlike presence, my rebuke - Not knowing who thou wert. But now I see thee - I need no witness, and forget my wonder 1230 - Wherefore the Argives tarry on the shore - And the gods speak thy praise. Welcome then hither, - Achilles, son of Thetis; welcome hither! - And be I first to honour thee, who was - Most blamèd in thine absence. - - _Ach._ Gracious sire, - Thy welcome is all kingly, if it bear - Forgiveness of offence. - - _Lyc._ To speak of that, - Another might have wronged me, but not thou. - Tho’ much I crave to learn both how and why 1239 - Thou camest hither. Was’t in the Argive ship? - - _Ach._ Nay, king, I came not in the Argive ship: - Nor am I that false trespasser thou seekest. - - _Lyc._ Whether then hast thou mounted from the deep, - Where the sea nymphs till now have loved and held thee - From men’s desire; or whether from the sky - Hath some god wrapt thee in a morning cloud, - And laid thee with the sunlight on this isle, - Where they that seek should find thee? - - _Ach._ A god it was - Brought me, but not to-day: seven times the moon - Hath lost her lamp with loitering, since the night - She shone upon my passage; and so long 1251 - I have served thee in disguise, and won thy love. - - _Lyc._ So long hast thou been here! And I unknowing - Have pledged my kingly oath—The gods forbid— - - _Ach._ Yet was I here because a goddess bade. - - _Lyc._ Have I then ever seen thee? - - _Ach._ Every hour - Thou hast seen me, and sheltered me beneath thy roof. - But since thou knewest me not, thy royal word - Was hurt not by denial. - - _Lyc._ Who wert thou? Say. - - _Ach._ I was called Pyrrha. 1260 - - _Lyc._ O shame. - - _Ach._ Yet hearken, sire! - - _Lyc._ Wast thou the close attendant of my daughter, - Her favoured comrade, and she held it hid - ’Neath a familiar countenance before me, - So false unto her modesty and me? - Alas! alas! - - _Ach._ O sire, she hath known me but as thou, and loved - Not knowing whom. - - _Lyc._ Thou sayst she hath not known? - - _Ach._ For ’twas a goddess framed me this disguise. - - _Lyc._ And never guessed? - - _Ach._ Nay, sire. Nor blame the goddess - Whom I obeyed: nor where I have done no wrong, - Make my necessity a crime against thee. 1271 - - _Lyc._ Can I believe? - - _Ach._ ’Tis true I have loved her, sire: - And by strange wooing if I have won her love, - And now in the discovery can but offer - A soldier’s lot,—she is free to choose: but thee - First I implore, be gracious to my suit, - Nor scorn me for thy son. - - _Lyc._ My son! Achilles! - This day shall be the feast-day of my year, - Tho’ I be made to all men a rebuke - For being thy shelter, when I swore to all 1280 - Thou wert not here. Now I rejoice thou wert. - Come to my palace as thyself: be now - My guest in earnest: we will seal at once - This happy contract. - - _Ach._ Let me first be known - Unto the princess and bespeak her will. - - _Lyc._ She is thine, I say she is thine. Stay yet; that pedlar, - Was he Ulysses? - - _Ach._ So he stole upon us; - And when I bought this sword he marked me out. - - _Lyc._ I cannot brook his mastery in deceit. - Where is he now? - - _Ach._ I sent him to the ship, 1290 - To find a fit apparel for thy sight. - - _Lyc._ Would I had caught him in his mean disguise! - - _Ach._ So mayst thou yet. Come with me the short way - And we will intercept him. - - _Lyc._ Abas, follow. - Thou too hast played a part I cannot like. - - _Ab._ My liege, I have but unwittingly obeyed. - I have no higher trust. - - _Lyc._ Now obey me. [_Exeunt._ - - _Enter Deidamia and Chorus._ - - _Deid._ Pyrrha, where art thou, Pyrrha? - - _Ch._ She turned not back.— - They are not here.—She would not fly.— - - _Deid._ Pyrrha, Pyrrha! 1300 - - _Ch._ She hath driven the ugly pedlar and his pack - Home to his ship—would we had all been by! - Would we had joined the chase! - - _Deid._ He was no pedlar: I could see his face - When he pulled off his beard. - - _Ch._ There as she stood, - Waving the sword, I feared - To see a mortal stroke— - He hath fled into the wood— - Had he no sword too, did none spy, 1310 - Beneath his ragged cloke? - - _Deid._ Alas, alas! - - _Ch._ What hast thou found? - - _Deid._ Woe, woe! alas, alas! - Pyrrha’s robe torn, and trampled on the ground. - See! see! O misery! - - _Ch._ ’Tis hers—’tis true—we see. - - _Deid._ Misery, misery! help who can. - - _Ch._ I have no help to give.— - I have no word to say. 1320 - - _Deid._ Gods! do I live - To see this woe? The man - Like some wild beast hath dragged her body away, - And left her robe. Ah, see the gift she spurned, - My ruby jewel to my hand returned; - When forcing my accord - She chose the fatal sword. - The fool hath quite mistook her play. - - _Ch._ He will have harmed her, if she be not slain. - Ah, Pyrrha, Pyrrha! 1330 - Why ran we away? - - _Deid._ Why stand we here? - To the rescue: follow me. - - _Ch._ Whither—our cries are vain. - Maybe she lieth now close by - And hears but cannot make reply. - ’Tis told how men have bound - The mouths of them they bore away, - Lest by their cry - They should be found.— 1340 - Spread our company into the woods around, - And shouting as we go keep within hail.— - Or banding in parties search the paths about: - If many together shout - The sound is of more avail. - Once more, together call her name once more. - (_Calling._) Pyrrha—Pyrrha! - - _Thetis_ (_within_). Ha! - - _Deid._ An answer. Heard ye not? - - _Ch._ ’Twas but the nymph, that from her hidden grot - Mocks men with the repeated syllables 1350 - Of their own voice, and nothing tells. - Such sound the answer bore. - - _Deid._ Nay, nay. - Hark, for if ’twere but echo as ye say - ’Twill answer if I call again. - (_Calls._) Pyrrha, come! Pyrrha, come! - - _Thetis_ (_within_). I come, I come. - - _Deid._ Heard ye not then? - - _Ch._ I heard the selfsame sound. - - _Deid._ ’Twas Pyrrha. Why she is found. - I know her voice. I hear her footing stir. 1360 - - _Ch._ True, some one comes. - - _Deid._ ’Tis she. - - _Enter Thetis._ - - Pyrrha! O joy. - - _Th._ Why call ye her? - - _Deid._ Pyrrha! Nay. - And yet so like. Alas, beseech thee, lady - Or goddess, for I think that such thou art, - Who answering from the wood our sorrowing call - Now to our sight appearest,—hast thou regard - For her, whom thou so much resemblest, speak - And tell us of thy pity if yet she lives 1368 - Safe and unhurt, whom we have lost and mourn. - - _Th._ ’Tis vain to weep her, as ’twere vain to seek. - Whom think ye that ye have lost? - - _Deid._ Pyrrha, my Pyrrha. - As late we all fled frighted by a man, - Who stole on us disguised, she stayed behind: - For when we were got safe, she was not with us. - So we returned to seek her; but alas! - Our fear is turned to terror. Lady, see! - This is her garment trampled on the ground. - - _Th._ And so ye have found her. There was never more - Of her ye have callèd Pyrrha than that robe. - The golden-headed maiden, the enchantress, 1380 - And laughter-loving idol of your hearts - Had in your empty thought her only being. - When ye have played with her, chosen her for queen, - And leader of your games, or when ye have sat - Rapt by the music of her voice, that sang - Heroic songs and histories of the gods, - Or at brisk morn, or long-delaying eve, - Have paced the shores of sunlight hand in hand, - ’Twas but a robe ye held: ye were deceived; - There was no Pyrrha. 1390 - - _Ch._ What strange speech is this? - Was there no Pyrrha? What shall we believe! - - _Deid._ Lady, thy speech troubles mine ear in vain. - - _Th._ ’Tis then thine ear is vain; and not my speech. - - _Deid._ My ears and eyes and hands have I believed, - But not thy words. A moment since I held her. - What wilt thou say? - - _Th._ That eyes and hands and ears - Deceived thy trust, but now thou hearest truth. - - _Deid._ Have we then dreamed, deluded by a shade - Fashioned of air or cloud, and as it seems - Made in thy likeness, or hath some god chosen - To dwell awhile with us in privity 1401 - And mutual share of all our petty deeds? - Say what thy dark words hint and who thou art. - - _Th._ I Thetis am, daughter of that old god, - Whose wisdom buried in the deep hath made - The unfathomed water solemn, and I rule - The ocean-nymphs, who for their pastime play - In the blue glooms, and darting here and there - Checquer the dark and widespread melancholy - With everlasting laughter and bright smiles. 1410 - Of me thou hast heard, and of my son Achilles, - By prescient fame renowned first of the Greeks: - He is on this island: for ’twas here I set him - To hide him from his foes, and he was safe - Till thou betray’dst him—for unwittingly - That hast thou done to-day. The seeming pedlar, - To whom thou leddest Pyrrha, was Ulysses, - Who spied to find Achilles, and thro’ thee - Found him, alas! Thy Pyrrha was Achilles. - - _Chorus._ - - O daughter of Nereus old, 1420 - Queen of the nymphs that swim - By day in gleams of gold, - By night in the silver dim, - Forgive in pity, we pray, - Forgive the ill we have done. - Why didst thou hide this thing from us? - For if we had known thy son - We had guarded him well to-day, - Nor ever betrayed him thus. - - For though we may not ride 1430 - Thy tall sea-horses nor play - In the rainbow-tinted spray, - Nor dive down under the tide - To the secret caves of the main, - Among thy laughing train; - Yet had we served thee well as they, - Had we thy secret shared: - Nor ever had lost from garden and hall - Pyrrha the golden-haired, - Pyrrha beloved of all. 1440 - - _Th._ (_to Deid._). Dost thou say nought? - - _Deid._ Alas, alas! my Pyrrha. - - _Th._ Art thou lamenting still to have lost thy maid? - - _Deid._ I need no tongue to cry my shame; and yet - Thy mockery doth not grieve me like my loss. - - _Th._ I came not here to mock thee, and forbid - Thy grief, that doth dishonour to my son. - - _Deid._ Nay, nay, that word is mine: speak it no more. - - _Th._ Weepest thou at comfort? Is deceit so dear - To mortals, that to know good cannot match - The joy of a delusion whatsoe’er? 1450 - - _Deid._ What joy was mine shame must forbid to tell. - - _Th._ Gods count it shame to be deceived: but men - Are shamed not by delusion of the gods. - - _Deid._ Then ye know nothing or do not respect. - - _Th._ Why what is this thou makest? the more ye have loved - The more have ye delighted, and the joy - I never grudged thee; tho’ there was not one - In all my company of sea-born nymphs, - Who did not daily pray me, with white arms - Raised in the blue, to let her guard my son. 1460 - And for his birthright he might well have taken - The service of their sportive train, and lived - On some fair desert isle away from men - Like a young god in worship and gay love. - But since he is mortal, for his mortal mate - I chose out thee; to whom now were he lost, - I would not blame thy well-deservèd tears: - But lo, I am come to give thee joy, to call - Thee daughter, and prepare thee for the sight - Of such a lover, as no lady yet 1470 - Hath sat to await in chamber or in bower - On any wallèd hill or isle of Greece; - Nor yet in Asian cities, whose dark queens - Look from the latticed casements over seas - Of hanging gardens; nor doth all the world - Hold a memorial; not where Ægypt mirrors - The great smile of her kings and sunsmit fanes - In timeless silence: none hath been like him; - And all the giant stones, which men have piled - Upon the illustrious dead, shall crumble and join - The desert dust, ere his high dirging Muse 1481 - Be dispossessèd of the throne of song. - Await him here. While I thy willing maids - Will lead apart, that they may learn what share - To take in thy rejoicing. Follow me! - - _Ch._ Come, come—we follow—we obey thee gladly— - We long to learn, goddess, what thou canst teach. - - [_Exeunt Th. and Chor._ - - _Deid._ Rejoice, she bids me. Ah me, tho’ all heaven spake, - I should weep bitterly. My tears, my shame - Will never leave me. Never now, nevermore 1490 - Can I find credit of grace, nor as a rock - Stand ’twixt my maids and evil; even not deserving - My father’s smile. Why honour we the gods, - Who reck not of our honour? How hath she, - Self-styled a goddess, mocked me, not respecting - Maidenly modesty; but in the path - Of grace, wherein I thought to walk enstated - High as my rank without reproach, she hath set - A snare for every step; that day by day, - From morn to night, I might do nothing well; 1500 - But by most innocent seeming be betrayed - To what most wounds a shamefast life, yielding - To a man’s unfeignèd feigning; nay nor stayed - Until I had given,—alas, how oft!— - My cheek to his lips, my body to his arms; - And thinking him a maid as I myself, - Have loved, kissed, and embraced him as a maid. - O wretched, not to have seen what was so plain! - Here on this bank no later than this morn - Was I beguiled. There is no cure, no cure. 1510 - I’ll close my eyes for ever, nor see again - The things I have seen, nor be what I have been. - - [_Covers her face weeping._ - - _Enter Achilles._ - - _Ach._ The voices that were here have ceased. Ah, there! - Not gone. ’Tis she, and by my cast-off robe - Sitting alone. I must speak comfort to her, - Whoe’er I seem. O Deidamia, see! - Pyrrha is found. Weep not for her. I tell thee - Thy Pyrrha is safe. Despair not. Nay, look up. - Dost thou not know my voice? ’Tis I myself. 1519 - Look up, I am Pyrrha.—Ah, now what prayer or plea - Made on my knees can aid me—If thou knowst all - And wilt not look on me? Yet if thou hearest - Thou wilt forgive. Nay, if thou lovedst me not, - Or if I had wronged thee, thou wouldst scorn me now. - Thou dost not look. I am not changed. I loved thee - As like a maiden as I knew: if more - Was that a fault? Now as I am Achilles - Revealed to-day to lead the Greeks to Troy, - I count that nothing and bow down to thee - Who hast made me fear,— 1530 - Let me unveil thy eyes: tho’ thou wouldst hide me, - Hide not thyself from me. If gentle force - Should show me that ’tis love that thou wouldst hide ... - And love I see. Look on me. - - _Deid._ (_embracing_). Ah Pyrrha, Pyrrha! - - _Ach._ Thou dost forgive. - - _Deid._ I never dreamed the truth. - - _Ach._ And wilt not now look on me! - - _Deid._ I dare not look. - - _Ach._ What dost thou fear? A monster! I am not changed - Save but my dress, and that an Amazon - Might wear. - - _Deid._ O, I see all. - - _Ach._ But who hath told thee? - - _Deid._ There came one here much like thee when we called,1540 - Who said she was a goddess and thy mother. - - _Ach._ ’Twas she that hid me in my strange disguise, - Fearing the oracle. - - _Deid._ She praised thee well, - And said that thou wouldst come... - - _Ach._ What didst thou fear, - Hiding thine eyes? - - _Deid._ I cannot speak the name. - Be Pyrrha still. - - _Ach._ Be that my name with thee. - Yet hath thy father called me son Achilles. - - _Deid._ He knows? - - _Ach._ There’s nought to hide: but let us hence. - He is coming hither, and with him my foe. - Let them not find us thus, and thee in tears. 1550 - - [_Exeunt._ - - _Enter Lycomedes, Ulysses, Diomede, and Abas._ - - _Lyc._ It may be so, or it may not be so: - You have done me an honest service ’gainst your will, - And must not wrest it to a false conclusion. - I bid you be my guests, and with your presence - Honour the marriage, which ye have brought about. - Ye need not tarry long. - - _Ul._ Each hour is long - Which holds the Argive ships chained to the shore. - This is no time for marriage. - - _Lyc._ There’s time for all; - A time for wooing and a time for warring: - And such a feast of joy as offers now 1560 - Ye shall not often see. Scyros shall show you - What memory may delight in ’twixt the frays - Of bloody battle. - - _Dio._ I am not made for feasts. - I join the cry to arms. But make your bridal - To-night, and I’ll abide it. - - _Lyc._ I’ll have’t to-night. - So shall Achilles’ finding and his wedding - Be on one day. And hark! there’s music tells me - That others guess my mind. - - _Enter Chorus with Ach. and Deid. following._ - - _Chorus._ - - Now the glorious sun is sunk in the west, - And night with shadowy step advances: 1570 - As we,—to the newly betrothed our song addrest, - With musical verse and dances, - In the order of them who established rites of old - For maidens to sing this song,— - Pray the gifts of heaven to gifts of gold, - Joy and a life long. - - _Ach._ Good king and father, see thy daughter come - To hear thee call me son. - - _Lyc._ Son if I call thee, - I understand not yet, and scarce believe 1579 - The wonders of this day. And thou, my daughter, - Ever my pride and prayer, hast far outrun - My hope of thy good fortune. Blessed be ye both: - The gods have made your marriage; let the feast - Be solemnized to-night; our good guests here - Whose zeal hath caused our joy, I have bid to share it. - - _Chorus._ - - We live well-ruled by an honoured king, - Beloved of the gods, in a happy isle; - Where merry winds of the gay sea bring - No foe to our shore, and the heavens smile - On a peaceful folk secure from fear, 1590 - Who gather the fruits of the earth at will, - And hymn their thanks to the gods, and rear - Their laughing babes unmindful of ill. - And ever we keep a feast of delight, - The betrothal of hearts, when spirits unite, - Creating an offspring of joy, a treasure - Unknown to the bad, for whom - The gods foredoom - The glitter of pleasure, - And a dark tomb. 1600 - - Blessèd therefore O newly betrothed are ye, - Tho’ happy to-day ye be, - Your happier times ye yet shall see. - We make our prayer to the gods. - - The sun shall prosper the seasons’ yield - With fuller crops for the wains to bear, - And feed our flocks in fold and field - With wholesome water and sweetest air. - Plenty shall empty her golden horn, - And grace shall dwell on the brows of youth, - And love shall come as the joy of morn, 1611 - To waken the eyes of pride and truth. - - Blessèd therefore thy happy folk are we. - Tho’ happy to-day we be, - Our happier times are yet to see. - We render praise to the gods; - - But chiefest of all in the highest height - To Love that sitteth in timeless might, - That tameth evil, and sorrow ceaseth. - And now we wish you again, 1620 - Again and again, - His joy that encreaseth, - And a long reign. - - _Ach._ Stay, stay! and thou, good king, and all here, hear me. - I would be measured by my best desire, - And that’s for peace and love, and the delights - Your song hath augured: but to all men fate - Apportions a mixed lot, and ’twas for me - Foreshown that peace and honour lay apart, - Wherever pleasure: and to-day’s event 1630 - Questions your hope. I was for this revealed, - To lead the Argive battle against Troy: - Thither I go; whence to return or not - Is out of sight, but yet my marriage-making - Enters with better promise on my life - Thus hand in hand with glorious enterprise. - After some days among you I must away, - Tho’ ’tis not far. - - _Ul._ Well said! So art thou bound. - - _Dio._ The war that hung so long will now begin. - - _Lye._ I ask one month, Achilles: grant one moon: - They that could wait so long may longer wait. 1641 - - _Chorus._ - - - 1. - - Go not, go not, Achilles; is all in vain? - Is this the fulfilment of long delight, - The promise of favouring heaven, - The praise of our song, - The choice of Thetis for thee, - Thy merry disguise, - And happy betrothal? - We pray thee, O we beseech thee, all, - Son of Thetis, we counsel well, 1650 - Do not thy bride this wrong. - - - 2. - - For if to-day thou goest, thou wilt go far, - Alas, from us thy comrades away, - To a camp of revengeful men, - The accursed war - By warning fate forbidden, - To angry disdain, - A death unworthy. - We pray thee, O we beseech thee, all, - Son of Peleus, we counsel well, 1660 - This doom the oracle told. - - _Lyc._ What said the oracle? - - _Ach._ It darkly boded - That glory should be death. - - _Lyc._ And so may be: - Nay, very like. Yet men who would live well, - Weigh not these riddles, but unfold their life - From day to day. Do thou as seemeth best, - Nor fear mysterious warnings of the powers. - But, if my voice can reckon with thee at all, - I’ll tell thee what myself I have grown to think: - That the best life is oft inglorious. 1670 - Since the perfecting of ourselves, which seems - Our noblest task, may closelier be pursued - Away from camps and cities and the mart - Of men, where fame, as it is called, is won, - By strife, ambition, competition, fashion, - Ay, and the prattle of wit, the deadliest foe - To sober holiness, which, as I think, - Loves quiet homes, where nature laps us round - With musical silence and the happy sights - That never fret; and day by day the spirit 1680 - Pastures in liberty, with a wide range - Of peaceful meditation, undisturbed. - All which can Scyros offer if thou wilt.— - - _Ul._ This speech is idle, thou art bound to me. - - _Ach._ I hear you all: and lest it should be said - I once was harsh and heedless, where such wrong - Were worse than cowardice, I now recall - Whate’er I have said. I will not forth to Troy: - I will abide in Scyros, and o’erlook - The farms and vineyards, and be lessoned well 1690 - In government of arts, and spend my life - In love and ease, and whatsoever else - Our good king here hath praised—I will do this - If my bride bid me. Let her choose for me; - Her word shall rule me. If she set our pleasure - Above my honour, I will call that duty, - And make it honourable, and so do well. - But, as I know her, if she bid me go - Where fate and danger call, then I will go, - And so do better: and very sure it is, 1700 - Pleasure is not for him who pleasure serves. - - _Deid._ Achilles, son of Thetis! As I love thee, - I say, go forth to Troy. - - _Ach._ Praised be the Gods, - Who have made my long desire my love’s command! - - _Ch._ Alas! We have no further plea. Alas! - Her ever-venturous spirit forecasts no ill. - - _Lyc._ Go, win thy fame, my son; I would not stay thee. - Thou art a soldier born. But circumstance - Demands delay, which thou wilt grant. - - _Ach._ And thus - To-night may be the feast. To-morrow morn 1710 - Do thou, Ulysses, sail to Aulis, there - Prepare them for my coming. If, Diomede, - Thou wilt to Achaia to collect my men, - The time thou usest I can fitly spend, - And for some days banish the thought of war. - - _Dio._ I will go for thee, prince. - - _Lyc._ ’Tis settled so. - Stand we no longer here: night falls apace. - Come to the palace, we will end this day, - As it deserves, never to be forgot. - - - - -NOTES - - -THE FIRST PART OF NERO - - -This play was not intended for the stage, as the rest of my plays are. -It was written as an exercise in dramatic qualities other than scenic; -and had its publication been contemplated, I should have been more -careful not to deserve censure in one or two places: these however -I have not thought it worth while to erase or correct. Owing to its -inordinate length I have found it necessary, so that the volumes of -this series might be of uniform size, to couple with it the shortest of -the other plays. Hence - - -ACHILLES IN SCYROS - -is here out of order. Instead of standing second it should come fifth, -that is after _The Christian Captives_. The following note is taken -from the first edition. - -_Note to_ Achilles in Scyros.—After I had begun this play I came by -chance on _Calderon’s_ play on the same subject, _El Monstruo de los -Jardines_. The monster is _Achilles_; the gardens the same. Excepting -an expression or two I found nothing that it suited me to use, and -I should not have recorded the circumstance, if it were not that -_Calderon’s_ play seemed to me to contain strong evidence that he had -read _The Tempest_. This observation cannot be new, but I have never -met with it; so I offer it to my readers, thinking it will interest -them as it did me. - -_El Monstruo de los Jardines_ opens with a storm at sea, and shipwreck -of royal persons, similar as it is inferior to _Shakespeare’s_ (but -compare also the Devil’s shipwreck in the second act of _El magicio -prodigioso_, which may be read in _Shelley’s_ translation). _Stephano_ -has his counterpart, - -_Un cofrade de Baco, que ha salido, Por no hacerle traicion, del mar á -nado Pues el no beber agua le ha escapado,_ - -and the whole play is then on a supposed desert island, which turns -out to be strangely peopled. There is the monster _Achilles_, who in -many respects remembers _Caliban_, and is even addressed as _Señor -monstruo_: ’_Monsieur Monster_.’ There is _Thetis_, who is to her -nymphs as _Prospero_ to his spirits; with musical enchantments, and -voices in the air, and even a _fantastico bajél_. _Calderon_ has -moreover hit upon the same device of imitative fancy as tempted -_Dryden_ in like sad case, and pictured a man who had never seen a -woman. The island is wandered on by the prince and his suite, and one -of them says of it _Republica es entera_, &c. A curious reader might -find more than I have here noticed: but _Calderon_ is as far from -sympathy with _Shakespeare_, as he is from the Greek story, with his -drums and trumpets and _El gran Sofí_. - -There is a passage in my _Achilles_ (_l. 518 and foll._) which is -copied from _Calderon_: but this is after _Muley’s_ well-known speech -in the _Principe Constante_ (see note to _The Christian Captives_); -which is quoted in most books on _Calderon_. In my short play, which -runs on without change of scene or necessary pause, I have had the -act and scene divisions indicated by greater and lesser spaces in the -printing.[A] - -R. B., 1890. - -[A] Not followed in this edition. 1901. - - - * * * * * - - -Transcriber’s Notes - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. All other -spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. - -Italics are represented thus _italic_. - -Line 1374/5 of The First Part of Nero “Now may some god of mischief -Dare set me in the roll of puny spirits.” Roll could be a misprint for -role but has not been changed. - -The varied ellipses remain unchanged. - -The titles have various decorative borders. These have not been shown. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Poetical Works of Robert Bridges -(Volume 3), by Robert Bridges - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETICAL WORKS--ROBERT BRIDGES, VOL 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 55294-0.txt or 55294-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/2/9/55294/ - -Produced by Larry B. 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