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Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 3

Chapter 4: SCENE · 1
By Robert Bridges
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About This Book

This volume gathers dramatic and lyric pieces, led by a historical tragedy set in the opening years of an imperial reign and accompanied by a classical drama reworking a legendary island episode. The tragedy stages tense exchanges in palace and senate among a self-made ruler, his philosophical advisers, senators, courtiers, and family, examining the collision of ambition, moral counsel, and public spectacle. The companion drama portrays a disguised heroic youth among women, blending theatrical dialogue with lyric interludes to explore identity and disguise. Editorial notes and annotations supplement the poems, clarifying sources, theatrical intention, and linguistic choices.
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.

10Thr. What know you of me?

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.

28Thr. There is no question of qualification or of claim.

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.

39Pr. Shall we then do nothing?

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.