470
Sen. O, I can do it, Burrus, trust to me.
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
489Lies in our oath to Cæsar, and our second
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!
500Thou seest me, Burrus, on a woman’s errand.
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,
510If we combine, will be as big with action
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,
520Unquestioned; it was I; and if you owe
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.
530Now what it may be that hath warped his heart
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.
540If I fall, ye will fall. Therefore being one
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,
550I shall not fail. In these new difficulties
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
560And popularity being pressed, must drive
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 .....
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
580Truer than oaths to break the oaths ye swore.
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,
589But unto Rome and to her chosen Cæsar.
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,
600Made you my friends because I chose, for you
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
610With Naso’s pang, and that exuberant page
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
620Your lamentations? Ah! ye dare, I see,
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,
630An ugly, one-armed, upstart, sneaking knave:
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
640To gloss iniquity, sand without lime.
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;
650I’ll right Britannicus. I’ll tell the soldiers
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.
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.
660My better engine is Poppæa’s dream,
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
670To win thy credit.
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,
680At least, of what thou say’st. Whence know’st thou this?
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,
690Yet she would still with him regain her power:
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:
700But if she speak with Burrus, there is matter
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
710But watch and wait. The way I least expected
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
741Of heaven; yet this is far beyond them all.
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
750For pleasure, and when met among yourselves
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
760With going forth alone. What else could be?
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.
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
780In the invitation. Otho, let us see
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.
SCENE · 4
Room in the Palace. Enter AGRIPPINA and PALLAS.
AGRIPPINA.
Pallas, thy date is out: thou art dismissed;
790Thou goest from the court: yet what thou takest
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,
801That is not much: even that I cannot save thee
Is sign that I am fallen ere thou could’st fall:
A deeper, deadlier fall, unless indeed
My wit can save me still.
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.
810My plan is now to seem resigned to all:
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.
820Farewell.
Agr.Farewell.[Exeunt severally.
Enter Tigellinus and Paris.
TIGELLINUS.
Look from the window: thou wilt see ’tis true;
He takes all with him.
PARIS.
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
830Pallas his scrapings; the sea is full of fish:
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.
840She late was here; go find her; say I wait her.
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
850To worm a confidence.
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.
Ner. O excellent mother!
Agr.What would’st thou with me, son?
860I come to hear, and yet I scarce am fit
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.
870I go of myself.
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?
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
881What answer once I made the sorcerer
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.
890
Mocking, until I wept for shame; but thou
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!
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
910He stood suspected, or more kind to me
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,
920Three words from me confirmed him.
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,
930The sharp remorse for each retaliation
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?
940
Agr. I would be kind to friends; none will stand by you,
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
950Being overruled by me. Do you not see
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
960The empire from thy hands. They may speak ill
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 think970
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.
980Resign thy outward power; be in all else
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?
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
1000In sounding him as even to risk my credit.
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.