Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 6

NERO P^T. II

ACT · I

SCENE · 1

(As Prologue.)

Rome. Thrasea’s house. THRASEA and PRISCUS.

THRASEA.

WHAT is it, Priscus, that hath led thee now

To pledge my ear to closer secrecy

Than what thy loving trust alway command?

PRISCUS.

I fear to tell.

Thr.Suppose then I tell thee.

I know thy sickness, and I hold the cure.

Pr. Nay, sir: I rank among the incurables.

Thr. Bravo! that is well said. I have watched thee, Priscus,

All the six years I have known thee—’tis six years:

I have seen thine eye grow steadier, and thy smile

Softer and kinder, and thy speech, which once

Crackled in flame and smoke, hath stilled to a fire

That comforts my old age. Even as thy body

Hath statelier motion, so is’t with thy mind,

Which ripen’d manners clothe in rich reserve.

Pr. What wilt thou say?

Thr.Hearken! ’tis some days since

I have noted thy disturbance and rejoiced.

’Tis ill with them, who quake not at the touch

Of the world’s Creator. Thou hast come to tell me

Thou lov’st my daughter.

Pr.Ah, sir!

Thr.Is’t not so?

Pr. Her name is the oath whereby I seal all truth.

Thr. And well: thou’rt worthy of her; in saying which

I mean thy praise, for she is worthy of thée.

Nay, while she lives I go not from the world;

Death sucks me not, though on his iron ladder

My years descend: she will be Thrasea still,

Without his struggles. Let me acquaint thee, son,

With one condition which I have thought to make,

Ere I commit her to thy trust.

Pr.Good Thrasea,

I know not how to thank thee; but, forgive me,

My secret was not this.

Thr.Not this?

Pr.Nay, sir.

Of late I have passed my life half in a dungeon,

Half in the garden, where thou bidst me forth

To bask in my love’s joy: which in my duty

I had spoken of to thee openly, but all

Hath come so quickly: now, a happier way,

I meet thy favour unsolicited.

Let nothing vex this hour; I long to hear

Thy one requirement, which my full consent

Leaps to embrace unheard, that thou mayst join

Fannia and me.

Thr.’Tis but a form. I ask

A promise of thee, Priscus, that thou wílt not

For ten years join any conspiracy

Against the Emperor.

Pr.Why?

Thr.For Fannia’s sake,

Lest Nero kill thee: and for thy sake too.

Pr. And why ten years?

Thr.Ten years is a fair term.

Thou wilt be old in prudence then.

Pr.Such prudence

Let me die ere I learn. How would’st thou, sir,

For ten years bind me down in slavery

To flatter a tyrant?

Thr.Who said flatter? Stay:

Impatience cannot help. The case is thus.

Since Burrus died, Nero hath broken loose:—

Seneca’s leading-string hath snapped in the midst

Without a strain:—in greed of absolute power

His will cast off restraint; in the possession

His tottering reason doth the like. His lust,

His cruelty, his effeminate, blundering passion

For art and brutal vice are but the brag

Of a hideous nature, which will force the bounds

Of human action, till the shames of Rome

Shame shameless Rome to wipe away her shame.

That is a balance which I cannot poise,

How much shame Rome will bear; but when I hear

The whispers of revolt, and now one name

And now another cast out like a fly

To fish opinion, I give little heed,

For these two reasons; first, there’s not a man

Among the chiefs of faction of such mark

As to make change secure: the second, this,

That lacking such a leader there’s no party

That can command opinion. Nero’s fall,

When he shall fall, will be in a flooding wave

Of common judgment. What the extravagance

Of crime is weak to move, some unforeseen

And trifling circumstance may on a sudden

Deliver; and the force that none can raise

None shall control. Await the rising tide,

It will not need us.

Pr.Some, sir, cannot wait.

I came to tell thee how I had given my name

To a conspiracy.

Thr.The gods forbid!

With whom?

Pr.I may not name their names.

Thr.Nay, nay:

But who is the pretender?

Pr.Seneca.

Thr. Seneca! Seneca! Hath he consented?

Pr. We are such, sir, as can win him.

Thr.Why, I know you;

The senatorial patriots. There’ll be Lucan,

Cassius and Lateranus, Fænius Rufus,

Flavus, perhaps Vestinus....

Pr.Who they be

Will presently be seen.

Thr.O, I am in time

To stay you yet. This plot is merely mischief,

Seneca’s death.

Pr.Not if ’tis Nero’s death.

Thr. Think, man! If first ye go to Seneca,

Ere ye slay Nero, he will not consent:

Never, be sure. And if ye first slay Nero,

Seneca’s nowhere. Others will spring up,

Piso, and all the Augustan family,

Plautus, Silanus....

Pr.But if Seneca

Consent....

Thr. What! to that crime?

Pr.He hath consented

To like before.

Thr.Well, but the wrongs he hath done

His pride alloys, or in pretensed retirement

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Repudiates; ánd, could he feel his guilt,

That were remorse, whose sick and painful palsy

Cannot raise hand to strike. Think you that he,

Who laughed at Claudius’ death; who let be slain

His old friend and protectress Agrippina;

Who glozed the murder of Britannicus;

Who hid his protest when Octavia fell;

That he will turn about and say, ‘Such things

I did for Nero, and the good of Rome:

Now, since he sings at Naples on the stage,

I do repent me, and will kill my pupil;

Will take myself the power I made for him,

And shew how I intended he should rule!’

This were a Roman but not Seneca.

Pr. We look not fór it óf him.

Thr.’Tis all one.

Seneca! the millionaire!

Pr.If he consent,

We restore the republic.

Thr.The Republic!

The Decii and Camilli will you bring us?

That kingly yeoman, frugal Curius?

Can you restore the brave considerate Gracchi,

And Cato’s stern unconquerable soul?...

O nay: but Seneca the imperialist!——

Priscus, if Seneca refuse, thou’lt make

A promise for ten years?

Pr.With that reserve;

And wilt thou not say five years?

Thr.I’ll say five,

If thou wilt promise.

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Pr.Then, if Seneca

Refuse, I pledge myself to take no part

In any plot against the emperor

For five years.

[Exeunt.

Thr.Come within, Fannia is thine.

SCENE · 2

Naples. A marine tavern, the open court of it, with fountain at centre, and low colonnade around. On the left at a table some Mariners are drinking and playing with dice. On the right are Officers sitting apart and drinking. Towards the front PROCULUS (the Admiral) and SENECIO. EPICHARIS is serving the Officers.

SENECIO.

I do beg of you, my lord!

PROCULUS.

Why so frightened, sir, at a little trembling of the soil? Had the Gods any appetite to swallow you, think you that they would trouble to provide warnings for your escape?

Se^o. I do pray you, my lord admiral, take me on board your galley for to-night; only for to-night.

Pro. We are under Cæsar’s orders to sail for the Adriatic, sir; else I might strain to make some cabin accommodation: but then that would be for the ladies. Epicharis, help this gentleman to wine; he’s nervous: some more drink, and I think he’ll be as brave as any of us.

EPICHARIS.

’Twill be at my cost, your excellence.

Pro. Nay, I’ll cover that. Come, drink, sir, and cheer your soul. That’s the only kindness I can do you.

Se^o. Thank you, my lord, but I . . . (a rumbling heard.) Oh! oh! there it is again.

Ep. (to Senecio). ’Tis safe enough in our court, sir; if you sit from the walls.

Pro. And fill for me, fair hostess. Wilt not thou come aboard my ship?

Ep. Your ship, my lord?

Pro. ’Tis against the rules of the service: but they provide not for these earthquakes.

Ep. Ha! ha! you jest, my lord.

Pro. We have no wars to occupy us: why should I not give shelter to the ladies, that fear to be ashore?

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Ep. That would not be me, my lord. We rode out worse shakings last year.

Pro. Come, I’ll have thee come. Should Cæsar hear of it, I can take care of myself.(They talk.)

(Mariners to each other.)

FIRST MARINER.

He was a-acting of Niobby.

SECOND MARINER.

Niobe, who was Niobe?

THIRD MARINER.

A first-rate, went down with all hands off Andros, the year of Claudius’ death.

1st. True, mate; that was our Niobby. But this was a Greek lady that lost all her children at a clap; bad luck with her name!

2nd. The Emperor would have made to be her, as ’twere; was it?

1st. ’Twas a tragedy, look: and that’s just where it is. Everybody is somebody else, and nothing’s as it should be.

2nd. That’s right: he were dressed out like a woman.

1st. Did ye not see him, nodding to the music, and throwing his hands about? then he gets red in the face, then he should stoop down to catch his breath, (he acts) then creening up again he should throw back his head, and ei! ei! (Screams. All laugh loudly.)

Pro. Hell and thunder! Silence there!

MARINERS (to themselves).

Why, if we mayn’t laugh in the theater, nor out of it!

Pro. (to Officers). Here’s a gentleman, who would go to sea to escape being shaken. Shall we take him a cruise?

FIRST OFFICER.

Frightened by the earthquake, sir? I do not blame you.

Se^o. When the gods shake your city, as a terrier does a rat.

1st Off. But how should the sea cure you? ’Tis their common plaything.

Pro. Indeed, sir, you would learn what heavings be. These land movements are nought. What would you say to thirty feet up and down three times a minute? with now your bows in the air and now your stern: pitched now forward, now backward, now rolled from side to side; thrust up to heaven till your brains are full of air, then sunk down till your belly squirms, inside out, outside in! 201

Se^o. Maybe, sir: but the roof will not fall on your head: the waves do not crack your walls. Your ships being constructed mainly of wood . . .

Pro. But the rocks, sir, are mainly constructed of stone, upon which if a wooden-constructed ship be driven, there’s no man that would not pay his fortune down to set one foot on the most quakeful or boggy ground ’twixt Ganges and Gades. And there be monsters, too, which, though I have never seen them, will swallow, they say, your whole ship at a gulp, as you do your wine.

(The house trembles, some jars fall: all run to centre.)

Se^o. There ’tis again! Oh! oh!

(A great crash heard.)

Mar. Belay there!

Se^o. Oh! oh! ye gods in heaven!

1st Off. Steady, my men, steady!

Mar. Ay, ay, sir.

1st Off. Order! To your seats!

Ep. Sit and drink, gentlemen. Wine shall be cheap to-day. The life in the earth will crack my jars. A few more rumbles like that will drain the cellars.

1st Off. (to men). We’re safe here as anywhere, lads; if you keep an eye to the main-walls. It’s all plasterwork aloft.

Enter Clitus.

CLITUS.

Epicharis! Art thou here, Epicharis? 225

Pro. (to Epicharis). Who is this scared fellow?

Cli. Epicharis, ’tis come: the day is come! Fly from this place!

Ep. (to Proc.). ’Tis my poor brother, sir: heed him not; he is simple.

Cli. (come to Epi.). Seest thou not, ’tis the end, the day of wrath? The earth shakes and the dead rise from their tombs.

Pro. (to 1st Off.). By Pluto, if he be not one of them!

Ep. (to Clit.). Sit down quietly, Clitus, for a minute: I can speak with you presently.

Cli. O Madness! Come from this hell: fly while thou mayst!

Mar. Ay, sit, mate, sit! be not afeard! sit with us!

Cli. Woe to you, slaves of Babylon! woe cometh To the queen that sits upon the seven hills.

1st Mar. That is Rome: the seven hills is Rome. What of Babylon?

Cli. Rome shall be burned with fire, Babylon burned, Her smoke shall curl to heaven.

Enter Gripus, out of breath.

GRIPUS.

Gone, she’s gone down!

Pro. What’s gone, man?

Gri. The theater; foundered, sir, gone clean down. I had just got well clear of her, when she gave a lurch, and plumped under starn-foremost in a cloud of dust.

Cli. (to Epic.). Come, come, Epicharis, I pray thee!

Se^o. Is this the gods, or is it not the gods? (drinks.)

Pro. That was the crash. 252

Cli. (dragging at Epic.). Thou shalt, thou must.

Ep. (freeing herself). One moment, Clitus, please!

Gri. (to Proc.). I ran to know, my lord, if you’ll have the boats.

Ep. Were any killed, Gripus? tell us.

Gri. ’Twas a wonder; all the folk had just left her, I near the last; I felt dizzy-like, and saw the street seem anyhow: then I looked at the theater, and she was full of crinks and chinks, when down she went all to pieces. A little sooner and we had been buried alive.

1st Off. Emperor and all.

Se^o. O ye gods! (drinking) I drink to thee, old dustman (to Gripus).

Pro. Off with you, my men: in five minutes I’ll be aboard. (To Epic.) Come, lass!

(Mariners go out with Gripus.)

Ep. Come where, my lord?

Pro. Why, aboard with me.

Ep. Ha ha! I thank you, but I cannot.

Pro. Wouldst thou be buried alive?

Ep. There is my old bed-ridden mother, my lord; I’ll not leave her. 275

Pro. Well, stick to your ship, like a true girl. You, Calvus, pay the charges and follow.

Se^o. Who’s afraid now, my lord! Is it not the gods?

Pro. They take much pains to frighten us, sir.

[Exit.

Se^o. And me, with a wife and family. I care not.

1st Off. (paying). Thou’lt be buried with thy jars, Epicharis.

Ep. Balmed in good wine, eh! Add me yet a denarius for lord Senecio’s drink.

Se^o. Two; I have drunk two.

1st Off. Here’s for him.

Se^o. (drinking). Your health, sir! If you wish to know the cause of all this, I can inform you. ’Tis the emperor’s cursed singing hath done it. He hath offended the gods. To call himself Apollo on the one hand, and on the other to sing in the theatre. What else could he expect? I give him his due, he cares not for the gods.

Ep. He doth not, sir.

Se^o. Nor I either: not much.

1st Off. Good-night, lass: may we meet again!

Ep. No fear.[Exit 1st Off. with the others.

(Senecio remains, and Clitus, who stands aloof.)

Ep. (to Senecio). Follow thou, follow them. 300

Se^o. They won’t have me.

Ep. Nor will I. I wonder thou durst even show thy face after all thy vain promises. Thou that wouldst bring me to Cæsar, and I know not what.

Se^o. I can, I shall yet.

Ep. Begone, see you, begone.

Se^o. Look what I had brought thee (showing a book).

Ep. A book I do believe.

Se^o. Purple edges and gold knops.

Ep. Seneca on morals, I suppose.

Se^o. No. ’Tis Lucan’s book. This can bring thee to Cæsar. This little book hath great treasons in it.

Ep. Treason! ha! and I to inform, to show it to Cæsar?

Se^o. Well, if not, think what his friends might give to recover it.

Ep. You should have sold it yourself and brought me the money.

Se^o. ’Twould be guessed whence I whizzled it.

Ep. Wretch! in what villany wouldst thou snare me? Give it me. (Takes it.) From whom didst thou steal it?

Se^o. Only from a friend.

Ep. I’ll save thy friends from thee, and first myself. Begone! begone!

Se^o. Thou wilt come to Rome, Epicharis?

Ep. (thrusting him out). Begone![Exit Senecio.
(To Clitus) Now, brother.

Cli. O sister, my sister, my Epicharis!

To hear that name defiled! In what a pit

Of sin thou livest, diest; ’mong the swine

Perishest! Ah, by God’s mercy, ’tis not too late:

Fly with me, fly!

Ep.Fly whither?

Cli.From thy sin.

If the Judge find thee here, thou’rt lost.

Ep.Dear Clitus,

What judge?

Cli.Why, He who made thee.

Ep. (aside).Alas! alas!

Cli. Be found with me, perchance I may prevail.

Ep. Where would you fly?

Cli.Last night in heavenly vision

Paul stood before me, as when three years ago

I saw him at Puteoli: one hand

Outstretched he stood and beckoned me to Rome.

Thither I go: ’tis my last call to thee:

Thou wilt not see me again until the day

When I shall hide my face for pity of thee,

And stop mine ears to hear thy anguished cry

For mercy, thy vain cry.

Ep.You go to Rome!

Cli. Think, sister: we were once so closely bound.

When we were children in what secret fondness

We linked our hands and hearts; how oft we pledged

Our innocent oaths that we would never part!

Now shall the great gulf fixed ’twixt heaven and hell

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Divide us? I saved, and thou lost, for ever!

That endless life of glory I dread, with thee

Not there, not there!

Ep.Is’t to our uncle’s house

You go?

Cli. The house of Gaius on the Tiber,

The seventh door above the Cestian bridge:

There shalt thou find immortal life.

Ep.Dear brother,

Go not to Rome: your sect is there suspected.

Stay here: or, if you will go, stay at least

Till I can come with you.

Cli.The time is short.

Tarry not: come to-night!

Ep.Nay, not to-night.

Cli. I may not stay for thee.

Ep.I cannot come.

Cli. Thou wilt not come.

Ep.How can you bid me, Clitus,

To leave our helpless mother in all this terror?

[Exit.

Cli. Ah! thou wilt never come; thou’rt lost, lost, lost.

Ep. Pure, noble heart, why should I love thee more

Now thou art mad?—I did him wrong not yielding

To his delusions. He hath none to love him

But me, and I have let him think that I desert him.

—Go with him tho’ I cannot, I will follow,

[Exit.

And quickly too. To-morrow I’ll to Rome.

SCENE · 3

A passage or ante-room in Seneca’s house in Rome.

Enter SENECA with papers in his hand.

SENECA (calling).

Paullina!—371

Thus go my mornings: now ’tis scarce two hours

To dinner. (Calling.) Paullina! Paullina!—The wretched beggars

Multiply every day. I feed half Rome

With doles. ’Tis fortunate that trading thrives.

Paullina!

PAULLINA (within).

(Enters.)

I hear thee: I come.

Sen.Ah, here thou art!

Look, love, they are bringing wine to-day from Cales,

Ninety-two jars by the invoice;—lay them down

In the new cellar. Here’s two hundredweight

Of pepper that I have bought: see that be weighed

And warehoused, for the quoted price is low.

Next, this is Alban raisins, eighteen casks:

They may go with the pepper. A ship’s arrived

At Ostia laden with black Spanish wool:

Send that to the factor. That’s all: but remember

Our bailiff from Nomentum comes this afternoon:

He is short of hands. Mind he pick sturdy fellows;

And check the ration-bills to correspond.

Now lastly, love, I want five hundred copies

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Made of my letters to Lucilius.

Bid the clerks set routine aside for this;

’Tis for the provinces. I am pleased, my love,

To think how good the work is; and ’tis new:

’Twill outlast the decayed light-heartedness

Of Horace: ’tis more suitable besides

For plain intelligence, and it should

The world.

Pau.You know I love it, but I fear

You work too hard. How is your health to-day?

Sen. A little headache only, and the old stiffness

In the back of my neck: ’tis gout. I think, Paullina,

That I should dine more frugally: to-day

Let it be roasted apples.

Pau.Why, you eat nothing:

You should take more, not less. Trust me to give you

What you should eat.

Sen.Well, I make no complaint:

Mine are small ailments, and ’tis highest health

To see thee well: what should I do without thee?

Why, all this business that thou takest upon thee

Is a man’s work, which, had I to attend to it,

Would rob me of my life: now I am free:

The day is my own.

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Pau.How will you use my gift?

Sen. I am in the vein for writing.

Pau.The muse attend thee!

Sen. See thou, I have her with me.

(Unrolls a book and goes into his library reading. Exeunt severally.)

SCENE · 4

Room in Seneca’s house. Enter SENECA reading.

SENECA.

Father, and god of gods, almighty, eternal,

Invoked by many names, nature’s one lord;

Hail! for ’tis right that all men call on thee.

For we thine offspring are.—Well said, Cleanthes!

All things and creatures are as God’s possession,

But we his children: and the will we have

To thwart his will, he ruleth to his will,

Owning the ill which he did not create

But by permission; as thou goest to show.

(Reading.) Nor is there any work on earth astir,

But by the breath of thy divinity;

Nor in the starry pole, nor in the sea,

Save what the wicked in their foolish minds

Devise: but thou dost order the disorderly,

And even unlovely things are dear to thee.

Let fools hear that, thou second Hercules!

I should not fret; nay, and I shall not fret . . .

There’s poignancy in the utterance of this Greek

That I attain not: whether it be the man

Lived nearer to his nature, or that my art

Clogs the clear hues of thought, and in a varnish

Drowns to one tone. Would I had written that!

And this too, where the bliss the poet prays for

His pregnant line is witness that he hath,

A vision and a share of that high wisdom,

Wherewith thy justice governs all things well:

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That honoured bý thee we return thee honour ...

That honoured by thee we return thee honour . . .

That’s admirable, noble: I’ll write myself

Something like that. Ay, now I feel it within me:

And while I am warm.—(A knocking at the door.)

Of course an interruption

Just as I am stirred. Come in! To mask vexation

In courtesy now.

Enter Lucan, Priscus, Lateranus and Flavus.

LUCAN.

My dear uncle, good morning.

LATERANUS and others.

Good morning, my lord.

Sen.Welcome, good nephew Lucan.

Welcome, my lords. Thee, Lateranus, first

Let me congratulate: thou’rt chosen consul

I hear.

Lat. That’s a month hence. I care not, Seneca,

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If I shall live to sacrifice my ox.

Sen. Most ominous words!

Lat.Excuse my liberty.

Luc. Liberty! nay, if thou have any of that,

Thou mayst indeed despair to live a month.

Sen. What purpose brings you, sirs? Pray you be seated.

(They sit. Priscus apart.)1

What would you with me now?

Lat.We are come as friends.

Sen. No need to tell me this.

Luc.But yet there is,

Uncle; thy friends decrease.

Sen.That may well be.

’Tis what old age must look for. I have my books.

FLAVUS.

I never saw so many books before.

Sen. And all my good tried friends.

Luc.Uncle!

Sen.Eh!

Luc.They say

Poppæa hath Octavia’s head in the palace

To play with.

Sen.’Tis a journaler’s lie.

Luc.Did Fulvia

Not pierce the tongue of Cicero dead?

Sen.Fie! fie!

Let journalers traduce their filthy souls:

Why bring ye me their scandals, when to truths,

That daily I must hear, I wish me deaf?

Luc. O sir, Rome thinks thou árt deaf: and men whisper

That creeping time devours thee sense by sense,

While thou, death’s willing prey, dost sit at home

Wreathing philosophies to hang the tomb

Of liberty, and crown the coward brows

Of icy oblivion. Sir, if this were true,

Well mightst thou wish not hear: but if thou hast not

Forgot the murder of Britannicus....

Sen. Hush, hush!

Luc. Or sweet Octavia’s wrongs....

Sen.Stay, nephew! I say.

Luc. The shame of her divorce....

Sen.None of this, prithee!

For true it is I wish I could forget.

Luc. Her transportation and imprisonment

Upon an outlawed isle; that calumny,

Dumb in her faultless presence, might dare trumpet

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Charges incredible: and last her death

By a clumsy soldier, ’gainst whose butcher’s knife

She struggled childishly, to the stony walls

Screaming in terror. O sir, let no Roman,

Who hath one hand unbound, wish he were deaf.

Sen. Enough! enough!

Luc.Why this, sir, is a tale

Would damn a tragedy for the overdoing

Of the inhumanities.

Sen.Ay, and I think,

Nephew, it gains not by thy rhetoric.

Lat. But Nero, sir, is held thy pupil, and thou

In part discredited,—nay, none but thou

Since Burrus died.

Sen.Well, well: but Burrus’ death

Hath halved my power, and left the lesser half

Helpless in isolation.

Lat.That’s a fact.

We come, my lord, to bid thee join thy hand

With them that look to thee. There’s Fænius Rufus,

That’s now in Burrus’ place, another Burrus.

Sen. Another Burrus! Fifty Rufuses

Would make no part of Burrus. Why! I am grieved

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More for his goodness, when I think of him,

Than by all Nero’s ill. My staunch friend was he,

Stern as a Roman, tender as a woman:

A simple mind, a clear head, and true heart;

Faithful, unblenched and certain of his path.

All that philosophy has ever taught me

He knew by instinct, and would hit the mark

With careless action, where my reason fumbled

And groped in the dusk. I say, if all the books

I have ever read or writ, could make one man

Like Burrus, with so natural a touch,

And such godlike directness, none would doubt

Of our philosophy.

Luc.But now he’s gone.

Sen. There’s none like Burrus.

Lat.Lo, my lord, I am one

To dare what Burrus never dared.

Sen.What’s that?

Lat. The tyrant’s death.

Sen. (rising).Ha! Now we have it!

Seal your lips and depart.—And thou too, nephew,

To seek to engage me!

Lat.First, my lord; our safety.

Sen. Alas, alas! Nay, leave me. I know nothing.

Ye heard I did but guess.

Luc.Thou didst guess right.

Sen. Ye have wronged me, gentlemen, choosing to make me

Privy to your distempered plots; but rightly

Judged that I would not sacrifice your lives

To save the monster’s. Nay: were Nero’s death

God’s will, as yours it seems, I might rejoice.

But in your scheme to whom would ye entrust

The absolute power? If Nero be pulled down,

Whom would ye bid us worship? The empire needs

A god,—or, if not that, a godlike man,

Plato’s philosopher for king.

Lat.Agreed!

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’Tis a philosopher we have chosen, sir.

Luc. Speak not to us of kings and emperors, uncle;

Wé restóre the republic.

Sen.Hey! Is’t Thrasea

Ye would make emperor?

Luc.Thrasea hath no wealth

Nor favour with the people.

Sen.Who is’t then

That leads your dream a-dance?

Lat.Sir, ’tis no dream.

Sen. Who then?

Fla. (advancing). Hail, Cæsar, hail!

Sen.Why, man, what’s this?

Fla. We choose thee Cæsar.

Luc.We crown thee.

Lat.Hail, great Cæsar!

Sen. Me! madmen, me! Cæsar! me! I am retired . . .

And—oh! no—never. Who hath chosen me?

Is this thy folly, nephew, when thou tell’st me

My friends decrease?

Luc.I said the truth: ’tis time

Thou rise and rally them. We have a party.

Sen. I have no party.

Luc.We may count for yours

All the republicans. Your oratory

Will win the senate, and your wealth the people.

Rufus is ours, and brings the guards; Vestinus,

The consul, ours; here’s Lateranus with us,

The consul designate; at Nero’s death

Corbulo and the eastern army... ’Tis no party:

’Tis all except a party.

550

Sen.Patience, nephew.

I weigh the names we count. I see . but . yet . . .

Luc. Nero once slain, ’tis needful for the hour

To name an emperor. The pillaged world,

That tasted five years of thy regence, loves thee;

While those that would restore Rome’s public rule

Will hail thy leadership.

Fla.Princeps Senatus!

Sen. Pray, how far hath this gone?

Luc.I have sounded many,

And found them eager if but thou assent.

Yet none knows that we ask thee.

PRISCUS.

Thrasea knows.

Sen. Ha! Priscus, thou hast been silent all this while:

And what said Thrasea?

Pr.In my credit, sir,

I may not tell.

Sen.Indeed! And while ye invite me

To plunge into the bowels of Hell, and wrap me

In the blóody purples of a murdered Cæsar,

Thou wouldst hide from me, for some petty scruple,

What my best friend says of it!

Pr.I should tell:—

He said you would refuse.

Sen.And he said right.

I do refuse.

All.Refuse!

Luc.Uncle, consider!

Fla. We cannot take that word, sir; ’tis not thine.

570

The state requires thee: there is none but thou.

Sen. My word is No, I will not.

Luc.Thou wilt nót?

Wilt nót throne virtue in the seat of might?

Not crown philosophy? and in thyself

Fulfil the dream of wisdom, which the world

Hath mocked at as impracticable?

Sen.Yea,

And yet shall mock. ’Tis not for me. Ye think

Because I am rich, that I despise not wealth;

Because I have been involved in courtly faction,

I loathe not crime; that what ye have seen to touch me,

Thát I would handle. Can ye thus mistake me?

And deem that I, being such an one to serve you,

Might be entrapped with flattery,—that ye style me

The one man worthy? ay, to rule the world

Ye said: Well! I shall rule it; but not so.

I make my throne here, and with these nibbed reeds

Issue my edicts to the simple-hearted,

To whom all rule shall come: Yes, it shall come

If God’s will count for aught.

Pr.My lord, consider.

This is the hour to set you right for ever.

590

’Twas of your doing Nero came to power:

Now with one word you may blot out the past.

Sen. Priscus, if thou didst think I was to blame

For all the wrongs and crimes, which by thy speech

Thou wouldst impute, wouldst thou be here to-day

To hail me Cæsar? ’Tis a stingless taunt.

Lat. Thou shalt not be reproached.

Fla.We do not blame thee.

Luc. We ask but thy consent.

Sen.Shame, nephew; shame!

Lat. Sir, you mistake: we ask not your consent

Unto the deed.

Fla.We take that on ourselves.

Lat. We ask of thee but this: Nero once slain,

Wilt thou be Cæsar?

Sen.No, sir: I will not.

Fla. Thou wilt not change thy books for provinces?

Sen. No, sir.

Lat.Dost thou refuse?

Luc.Oh, uncle, uncle!

Fla. My lord, allow me.

Luc.Hear what I would say.

Sen. I know it, nephew, afore. Now let this end.

’Tis said.

Pr. I was prepared, my lord, for this:

And we at least may spare you further danger

(Moving.)

Of our suspicious conference. I go.

Sen. The ill is done.

Fla.One word. Nero must die;

610

And whosoe’er but thou steps in his place

Must also die; for none is worthy. Come

At once, ere more be slain. This ends not here.

Sen. Thou dost say right: this ends not here: if more

Shall die, thou bearest some blame of it. Farewell!

God can bend all to good: this, which to me

Seems ill, may not be so.

Lat. (going). Sir, I shall trust you.

Sen. Indeed fear not. Now, for my safety & yours,

Leave me, I pray. Farewell!

[Exeunt.

All (going). Farewell!

Sen. Nay, can it be? Fools! can it be they cried

Seneca, Cæsar? My hand is trembling, my sense

Swimming: ’tis true: my mortal stroke, & dealt me

By would-be friends. The way that least I expected,

When I least looked for it—yea—thus cometh Death.

No hope. I am named. But ah! thou bloody tiger,

Who slewest her that bare thee, now I that trained thee

Might . . . yea, I might.—The whole world for a bait

Dangles upon the hook, and I refuse.

I would not; nay, I could not . . . What then do?

Stand firm? with my poor palsied limbs,

Stand firm? budge not a hair, as Burrus put it? 630

—So take rank in the monster’s tale of murders:

My gravity in his comedy of crime:

Suffer in my last act of serious life

His hypocritical smile, his three or four

Crocodile tears: be waved off with a smirk,

‘A sacrifice to the safety of the state’?

Oft have I thought of death, to brave his terror,

But ne’er forereckoned thus.... Why, it were better

To give life its one chance, still play the game.

That may well be: That I’ll do: all my skill

Summon to aid me: else ’tis my death,—the end:

That execrable nothing which no art

Of painful thought can reconcile....

Enter Paullina excitedly.

PAULLINA.

Seneca, Seneca!

The Circus Maximus is burned; the fire

Hath reached the embankment—Ah, they have told you?

Sen.Nay:

What didst thou say?

Pau.The fire, my lord, the fire.

The Circus is burned down, and the Velabrum

Is now a field of flame, that waves in the wind.

Rome will be burned.

Sen.A general calamity

Might turn attention from me.

Pau.My lord, you are strange.

Sen. Paullina, it matters not to me or thee

If the whole world should burn: a little while

And all is nought. There have been here this morning

The heads of a conspiracy.

Pau.A conspiracy!

Sen. To murder Nero.

Pau.Indeed I wonder not.

Sen. But who is the man, thinkst thou, whom they would take

To set up in his place; who, if they fail,

Must fall a sacrifice? Who least desires

The crown? Who least deserves the death? ’Tis he.

Pau. Not thee! ah, ah, my lord, not thee!

Sen.Take comfort,

Be brave, Paullina; check thy tears: there is hope;

There is yet a hope. I shall renounce my wealth,

Place my possessions all in Cæsar’s hands,

And stripped to naked, harmless poverty

665

Fly Rome and power for ever: such a life

I have praised and well may lead—philosophy

Graced by the rich graceth the poor, and I,

Who have sought to crown her, may be crown’d by her.

I’ll save my life’s last remnant with applause.

Weep not, there’s hope: yes, there is yet a hope.

Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 6

About This Book

ACT · I

SCENE · 1

SCENE · 2

SCENE · 3

SCENE · 4