NERO AND OTHER PLAYS THE MERMAID SERIES. Liii-i-al Reproductions of the Old Text, u-itli etched Fro 1 1 tispieces. The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe. Edited, with Critical Memoir and Notes by HAVELOCK KLLIS ; and containing a General Introduction to the Series by JOHN ADDINGTON SVMOKDS. The Best Plays of Thomas Otway. Introduction and Notes by the Hon. KODEX NOEL. The Complete Plays of William Congreve. Edited by Al.KX C EWALD. The Best Plays of John Ford. Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS. The Best Plays of Philip Massinger. With Critical and Biographical Essay and Notes bv ARTHUR SYMOX* 2 vots. The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood. Edited by A. \v VERITY. With Introduction by J. A. SYMOXDS. The Complete Plays of William Wycherley. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by W. C. WARD. Nero and Other Plays. Edited by H. P. HORXE, ARTHUR SYMOXS, A. W. VERITY, and H. ELLIS. The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Introduction and Notes by J. ST. LOE STRACHEY. 2 vols. The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur. With an Introduction and Notes by JOHX ADDIXGTON SYMOXDS. Tne Best Plays of Thomas Middleton. With an Intro- duction by ALGERXON CHARLES SWIXBURXE. 2 vols. The Best Plays of James Shirley. With Introduction by EDMUND GOSSE. The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker. Notes by ERXEST RHYS. The Best Plays of Ben Jonson. Vols. i. 2 & 3. Edited. with Introduction and Notes, by BRIXSI.EY NlCHOLSOX and C. H. HERFORD. The Complete Plays of Richard Steele. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by G. A. AITKEX. The Best Plays of George Chapman. Edited by WILLIAM LYOX PHELPS, Instructor of English Literature at Yale College. The Select Plays of Sir John Yanbragh. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by A. E. H. SWAIX. The Best Plays of John Dryden. Edited, with an Intro- duction and Notes, by GEORGE SAIXTSBURY. 2 vols. The Best Plays of Thomas Shadwell. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by GEORGE SAIXTSBURY. Othei \'ol*ma in Preparation. NATHANIEL FIELD. ////// Ihf /*////// in thf Diilwnfi trailer)'. THE MERMAID SERIES NERO & OTHER PLAYS EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES, HERBERT P. 1IORNE, IIAYELOCK ELLIS, ARTHUR SYMOXS, AND A. WILSON VERITY " I lie and dream of your full Mermaid wine." licaimicii LONDON T. FISHER UNW1N NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS flHHTO A C " What things have we seen Doue at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life." Master Francis Beaumont to Ben Ions, ,i. " Souls of Poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? PREFACE NERO. Edited by HERBERT r. HORNE .... THE Two ANGRY WOMEN OF ABINGTON. Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS THE PARLIAMENT OF BEES. Edited by ARTHUR SYMONS. HUMOUR OUT OF BREATH. Edited by ARTHUR SYMONS . WOMAN is A WEATHERCOCK. Edited by A. WILSON VERITY AMENDS FOR LADIES. Edited by A. WILSON VERITY . . PAGE vii 93 209 269 337 413 PREFACE. HY," said Charles Lamb in one of the notes to his Extracts from the Gar rick Plays, " why do we go on with ever-new editions of Ford and Massinger, and the thrice- reprinted selections of Dodsley ? What we want is as many volumes more as these latter consist of, filled with plays of which we know comparatively nothing." Lamb was speaking of The Two Angry Women of Abington, one of the plays contained in this volume, a volume in which we have attempted to do what he thought so desirable. It was an- nounced in the prospectus to the Mermaid Series, that a feature would be made of plays by little- known writers which, although often so admirable, are now almost inaccessible. Of the plays con- tained in the present volume, Nero, The Parliament of Bees and Humour out of Breath are given for the first time with a modernised text, and none of the plays here included have hitherto been accessible in any form but that of a limited and costly viii PREFACE. reprint. No attempt has been made in this selection to obtain unity of manner or subject. In the picturesque tragedy of the refined and scholarly poet who wrote Nero, in the homely comedy of "burly Porter," the delicate aerial music of Day, the wanton and boisterous mirth of Field, we approach the great Elizabethan stage from four widely distant points, and are enabled to appreciate something of its freedom, breadth and variety. Volumes like the present, we may hope, are storehouses of scattered treasures ; delightful things neglected only because they are scattered. H. E. F the author of The Tragedy of Ner* nothing has been handed down to us ; of the play itself only what is contained in two anonymous quartos, and in a manuscript which, excepting a few notes of parallel passages from the Classics, and very many emendations of the printed text, yields us no further light. The title-page of the earlier quarto runs thus : " THE TRAGEDY OF NERO, Newiy \Vrillen. Imprinted at London by Augustine Mati'icwcs, and John Norton, for Thomas tones and are to bee sold at the blacke Rauen in the Strand. 1624." Though the text is very corrupt, it is not, perhaps, more full of mistakes than is usual in the early editions of the dramatists. The title- page of the second quarto varies from the first as follows : "THE TRAGEDY OF NERO. Newly written. LONDON Printed by Aug. Mathewes, for Thomas lones. and are to be sold at his shoppe in Saint Dunstanes Churchyard, in Fleete-street. 1633." Many obvious mistakes in the earlier edition have here been corrected, yet for the most part it puts into worse confusion those which are not obvious. The spelling, also, throughout is more modern. On the whole the chief value of this second quarto lies in the fact that the play was sufficiently popular at that time to call forth a second edi- tion. The manuscript is contained in a folio volume of early seventeenth-century plays among the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum. It is numbered 1994, and was purchased in 1865, at Lord Charlemont's sale. The present Tragedy the twelfth of the fifteen plays in the volume, commences on leaf 245 and continues to leaf 267. Leaves 262 to 264 are misplaced and should have been inserted between leaves ii 2 4 NERO. 258 and 259. Whenever it is otherwise imperfect the reader will find it so stated in the notes. Generally when the manuscript differs from the quartos I have preferred its reading to theirs ; though not invariably? for it is by no means free from errors. Judging from the character of the manuscript, it appears to be a volume of transcripts made for stage use : if this conjecture be true, it is more than probable that the play was acted. The few notes, moreover, in the margin, mentioned above, would lead one to suppose that this transcript was made directly from the author's own copy, for they are not of the kind that a copyist would be likely to insert ; they -will be found at length in the notes to the present text. From these three original sources I have derived my text, and have only ventured on emendations when the context left no doubt of their correctness. But I must by no means omit to acknow- ledge the entirely free use I have made of the previous labours of Mr. Bullen in his " Collection of Old English Plays." Unfortunately the manuscript was not known to him until his text had past the press. Those of his notes which I have merely transcribed, will be found marked with his name. It has been suggested that the expression " Newly written," which occurs on the title-page of both the quartos, was in- tended to distinguish it from an earlier play entitled : " THE Tragedie of Claudius Tiberius Nero, Romes greatest Tyrant. Truly represented out of the purest Records of those times" which had been published in 1607. This play, we are told, was written by a " young Scholler," the son of " an Academian," " especially inward with Cornelius Tacitus." But unfortunately this suggestion is of no value, for the play treats not of the life of Nero, but of Tiberius ; and therefore by " Newly written " we must understand, not " written anew," but "recently written," that is in 1624. It would seem that Mr. Bullen had the author of this tragedy of Tiberius in his mind when he said, " I am inclined to think that the tragedy of Nero was the first and last attempt of some young student, steeped in classical learning and attracted by the strange fascination of the ' Annals,' of one who, failing to gain a hearing at first, never courted the breath of popularity again." For my part, I must confess, 1 have been unable to discover anything to warrant this NERO. 5 opinion. All that we can with certainty conjecture is that the author of Nero was a man read, not only in the classics, but also in the literature of his own country, and that he was unaccustomed to write for the stage. In one of the copies of this play in the British Museum a contemporary reader has written in a quaint seventeenth- century hand, at the end of the tragedy, the word "in- different" ; and this is precisely the conclusion that a critic of to-day would form on reading the play quickly through in order to gain some estimate of its worth as a whole. As a whole it is indifferent ; it is far, indeed, from being worth- less, yet it is in no sense a faultless play. Still, if we come to look at it in detail, and disentangle particular passages, we find in it lines more splendid than many other plays of authors not so careless can show to us. We find in it de- scriptions like this of the sacrilege of Nero, of how he robbed the altars and " The antique goblets of adored rust And sacred gifts of kings and people sold." But we of this nineteenth century are, alas ! too often con- tent to judge of a work of art by fragments, and this is quite an impossible way to judge of a work of art, no matter whether it be a piece of architecture, a picture, or a play. If we had a fine instinct for the conditions of art we should not do so, but we have not ; for we are a very remark- able people, but not an artistic people. And therefore it will be best to say plainly at once that this tragedy of Nero does not fulfil the larger unities which so stern a form of art as a drama insists upon. Yet despite this, it has for us, I think, a peculiar value in that it is sufficiently fine to be read with interest and enjoyed, and yet not sufficiently the work of a master to withhold us from the consideration of certain points that elsewhere we might be unwilling to criticise ; things which in a play hedged about by a greater name, either we should not so clearly see, or else we should not dare to call in question. For genius has something of the odour of the sanctuary, of the smell of the incense that forbids us to look too nearly into the mysteries of the Blessed Sacrament. But lest I should exceed the scope of a mere Introduction, I (> NERO. must content myself with touching upon only two of the many thoughts here suggested. And lor the first of these. It is this, that in the present play we see, as we cannot do in a play of Shakespeare's or Fletcher's where the brilliancy of their imagination blinds everything, what was common to the entire age of Elizabeth, and died only with Milton. For Marlowe, and for those who came after him, there was a new, an unexplored wealth of language. Common thoughts of common things were yet to be expressed in literary English as we now know it ; and a phrase which to us is vernacular, and a thing of everyday, fell upon their ears with the delight and surprise that now only a turn or image can give. The whole land drank of this abundant spirit and gave thanks. It touched not only those who were striving to found a literature which should endure, but through it the Clerk of the Pells was enabled to fill his Majesty's accounts with as much human interest as Francis, Lord St. Albans, mingled with the grave style of his state letters. And so from this arose the superb sense of resource and mastery which remains to us in the generous life and vigour still saturating everything they wrote. No wonder then these Elizabethans exulted in their gift, and searched all heaven and earth for that whereby they might use it. No wonder, also, that they exceeded the limit of that gift and marred its beauty by a delight in conceits, scorning the severe restraint and perfection of form which had been the chief distinction of the Classics. But to pass on. Perhaps what is now in my mind to say finally amounts to the consideration of how far it is needful that a historical drama should be satisfactory from the historical standpoint. Let us first see how our author uses history. We find him well acquainted not only with Suetonius' Life of Nero, but with Tacitus also, and Dion Cassius. In the incidents of his play he follows these writers very closely ; he is careful, also, to preserve the historical order of the events he is dramatising ; and all the considerable persons mentioned by his authorities are to be found among the characters. But we shall perhaps get more quickly to the heart of the matter in hand by noticing where he differs from the histories. The events set forth in this tragedy are, historically, scattered over a period of some 1 four years. The fires at Rome occurred some time before the death of NERO. 7 Poppsea, vvno died A.D. 65, and the revolt of Julius Vindex did not take place till A.D. 68 ; whereas, in the play, the impression received is one of quick succession. Such a divergence from history cannot but insinuate an air of in- completeness, a sense that the matter proposed has only been partially mastered. On the other hand similar diverg- ence from what actually took place, is sometimes introduced with added effect, for example in the fifth scene of the fourth act. Suetonius tells us that Nero killed Poppoea with a kick when she was in sorry health (gra-vida et aegra), because she found fault with him for returning late in the evening from driving his chariot. Instead of which, our author makes a young man participating in the conspiracy of Piso the cause of the quarrel, and so increases the interest and the incident, bringing out the wantonness of Poppaea, and the selfish cruelty of the Emperor. These, however, are inconsiderable when compared with the last act and its treatment of the history there set forth. It is by far the weakest part of the play, and almost unworthy of the previous four parts. Yet in the most inadequate passage of all, the last speech of Nero : " Oh '. Rome, farewell ! Farewell you theatres Where I so oft with popular applause In song and action " yet here, where we should have desired the finest touches and have found the weakest, has our author struck upon the most remarkable trait in the death, and perhaps, also, in the life of Nero, upon his huge, barbaric lust of art, and his intense belief in his own powers as an artist. But except for this, perhaps accidental, gleam of insight, the entire act is heavy, wanting in incident, and what is mofe serious, wanting in a sense of conclusion. How different is that description of Suetonius, of the flight of the Emperor to the villa of Phaon, some four miles out of the city. As he was, with bare feet and only a faded cloak thrown over his tunic, and holding a linen cloth before his face, Nero mounted a horse, and rode off with no more than four of his followers, amongst whom was Sporus. Suddenly he is afraid because the earth quakes, and a flash of lightning is driven down before him. He hears from a neigh- bouring camp the noise of the soldiers crying for his destruc- tion, and for the well-being of Galba. One by the way asks 8 NERO. " What news in the city of Nero ? " and another, coming out of Rome, answers, "Already they pursue him." Anon his horse starts at the smell of a dead body lying in the road ; and in the hurry of the moment he uncovers his face, and is recognised and saluted by one whom he had thrust from the Prcetorian bands. When he had come to the by-way where he should leave the high-road, quitting the horses and making his way be- tween bushes and briars, and with difficulty over a bed of rushes, though not without a cloak being spread under his feet, he reached the wall at the back of the villa. There Phaon urged him to hide himself in a cave from which sand had been dug, but he answered he would not go, still living, below ground. Whilst a secret way into the villa was being made, he plucked out the thorns sticking in his cloak, for it had been torn by the briars. At last he was admited, and creeping upon his hands and knees through a small open- ing made for him in the wall, he went into a room for slaves which was near at hand, and lay down on a bed furnished with a very small mattress, over which was thrown an old coverlet. Meanwhile, being distressed by both hunger and thirst, he refused some stale bread which had been offered him, but drank a little tepid water. Then those who were about him having besought him to escape the shameful death which was coming upon him, he ordered a small pit to be dug before his eyes, according to the measure of his body, and paved with pieces of marble if any could be found near at hand ; and water, also, and wood to be made ready for immediate use when he should be dead, weeping at everything that was done, and saying repeatedly, " How great an artist is lost in me ! " During the delay letters were brought by a post of Phaon's ; he snatched at them, and read that he had been judged an enemy to the senate, and was to be sought out that he might be punished according to the custom of their forefathers. He asked what the punishment might be, and when he learned that the neck of the naked man was put into a forked whipping-post, and his body flogged to death with rods, in a moment of terror he clutched at two daggers which he carried about with him, but having tried the point of each he put them up again, pleading that the hour when he should kill himself, was not yet come. And now he calls upon Sporus to weep and beat NERO. 9 his breast, and now he prays someone to kill himself that thereby courage might be lent him to do likewise, the while he was upbraiding his own want of resolution thus : " Dis- honourably, despicably do I live on. This does not become Nero, it does not become him ; thou oughtest to have courage in matters such as these. Up ! man, bestir thyself." And now the horsemen were approaching who had been commanded to take him alive. But. he hearing them and repeating with a trembling voice this verse out of Homer, " Methinks ahout mine ears the sound of running horses heat," drove a sword into his throat, being helped to the deed by Epaphroditus, his secretary. Here, if anywhere in the story of Nero, was a fortunate occasion for the writer of plays ; such an end to such a life should surely have proved a subject made to his hand. These then seem to me the most suggestive of the thoughts which this play of Nero calls up in us, but to follow them out here may not be ; but rather like Prospero, having summoned " some vanity of mine art " before your eyes, I am fain to dismiss all with a brief reflection. It is but this : History seeks to show us men and events as they really were ; while the end of great dramatic writing is not merely to hold the mirror up to Nature, but looking upon Nature to distinguish between what is transitory and what is abiding, what is accidental and what is essential, and so, choosing those qualities and traits of men and women which are the more lasting and precious for our warning and example, and heightening their various passions and circumstances, to mould all into a work of art. If this is so, there would seem to be between History and Dramatic writing a radical contradiction. To say that it is vain that an artist should attempt to hide this contradiction would be an absurdity ; for whatever is possible for Art, that also is lawful. Still the question remains, has any writer completely overcome what would seem to be an insuperable objection ? HERBERT P. HORNE. DRAMATIS PERSONS. NERO OESAR, Emperor. TlGELLINUS SOPHONIUS. EPAPHRODITUS, a Freedman, Secretary to NERO. NIMPHIDIUS. NEOPHILUS. LUCIUS PlSO, Chief of the Conspirators. FLAVIUS SCA-VINUS, a Senator. MILICHUS, his Freedman. SUBRIUS FLAVIUS, Tribune of a Praetorian Cohort. M. ANN^EUS LUCANUS, Poet. L. ANN/EUS SENECA, Philosopher. C. PETRONIUS ARBITER, Writer. ANTONIUS HONORATUS. ANN/EUS CORNUTUS, Philosopher. A Young Man. A Man. Friends of SENECA. Friend of GALBA. Romans. Physician, Guards, Messengers, Attendants, etc POPP/EA SABINA, Wife of NERO. ENANTHE. A Woman. SCENE Chiefly in ROME. ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I. A Gallery in the Golden House of NERO. Enter PETRONIUS ARBITER and ANTONIUS HONORATUS. ET. Tush, take the wench I showed thee now, or else some other seek. What! can your choler no way be allayed But with imperial stuff? [give ? Will you more titles T unto Caesar Ant. Great are thy fortunes, Nero, great thy power, Thy empire limited with Nature's bounds ; Upon thy ground the sun doth set and rise ; The day and night are thine, Nor can the planets, wander where they will, See that proud earth that fears not Caesar's name : Yet nothing of all this I envy thee But her, to whom the world unforced obeys, Whose eye's more worth than all it looks upon ; In whom all beauties Nature hath enclosed That through the wide earth or heaven are disposed. ' The title, I suppose, of " Cuckold." Sullen. 12 NERO. [ACT i. Pet. Indeed she steals and robs each part o' th' world With borrowed beauties to inflame thine eye ; The sea to fetch her pearl is dived into, The diamond rocks are cut to make her shine, To plume her pride the birds do naked sing ; When my Enanthe, in a homely gown Ant. Homely, i' faith ! Pet. Ay ! homely in her gown, But look upon her face and that's set out With no sale grace, no veiled shadows help. Fool, that had'st rather with false lights and dark Beguiled be than see the ware thou buyest ! POPP^EA enters royally attended, and passes over the stage in state. Ant. Great queen, whom Nature made to be her glory, Fortune got eyes and came to be thy servant Honour is proud to be thy title ! Though Thy beauties do draw up my soul, yet still So bright, so glorious is thy majesty That it beats down again my climbing thoughts. Pet. Why, true ! Another of thy blindnesses thou seest, Such one to love thou dar'st not speak unto. Give me a wench that will be easily had, Not wooed with cost, and being sent for comes ; And when I have her folded in my arms Then Cleopatra she, or Lucrece is ; I'll give her any title. Ant. Yet not so much her greatness and estate My hopes dishearten as her chastity. Pet. Chastity, fool ! a word not known in courts. Well it may lodge in mean and country homes Where poverty and labour keeps them down, Short sleeps and hands made hard with Tuscan wool : But never comes to great men's palaces SCENE I.] NERO. 13 Where ease and riches stirring thoughts beget, Provoking meats and surfeit wines inflame ; Where all their setting forth's but to be wooed, And wooed they would not be but to be won. Will one man serve Poppsea ? Nay, thou shall Make her as soon contented with an eye. Enter NIMPHIDIUS. Nim. \Aside^ Whilst Nero in the streets his pageants shows, I to his fair wife's chambers sent for am. Yon gracious stars that smiled on my birth, And thou bright star more powerful than them all, Whose favouring smiles have made me what I am, Thou shalt my God, my fate, my fortune be. [Exit. Ant. How saucily yon fellow Enters the Empress* chamber. Pet. Ay ! and her too. Antonius, knowest thou him ? Ant. What ? know the only favourite of the court ? Indeed, not many days ago thou mightest Have not unlawfully asked that question. Pet. Why is he raised ? Ant. That have I sought in him, But never piece of good desert could find He is Nimphidia's son, the freedwoman, Which baseness to shake off he nothing hath But his own pride. Pet. You remember when Gallus, Celsus, And others too, though now forgotten, were Great in Poppasa's eyes ? Ant. I do, and did interpret it in them An honourable favour they bare virtue, Or parts like virtue. Pet. The cause is one of theirs and this man's grace. I once was great in wavering smiles of court ; I fell because I knew. Since have I given My time to my own pleasures, and would now 14 NERO. [ACT i. Advise thee, too, to mean and safe delights : The thigh's as soft the sheep's back covereth As that with crimson and with gold adorned. Yet, 'cause I see that thy restrained desires Cannot their own way choose, come thou with me ; Perhaps I'll show thee means of remedy. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Street in Rome. Shouts within. Enter two Romans meeting. \st Rom. Whither so fast, man ? Whither so fast ? 2nd Rom. Whither ! but where your ears do lead you, To Nero's triumphs and the shouts you hear. ist Rom. Why? comes he crowned with Parthian over- throw And brings he Vologeses ' with him chained? 2nd Rom. Parthian overthrow? Why, he comes crowned For victories which never Roman won ; For having Greece in her own arts overthrown, In singing, dancing, horse-race, stage-playing. Never Oh, Rome had never such a prince ! isf Rom. Yet, I have heard, our ancestors were crowned For other victories. 2nd Rom. None of our ancestors were e'er like him. [ Within.'] Nero Apollo ! Nero Hercules ! " ist Rom. Hark how th' applauding shouts do cleave the air ! This idle talk will make me lose the sight. Enter 3rd Roman. yd Rom. Whither go you ? All's done i' th' Capitol, ! King of Parthia ; vide Tacitus, Ann. XII. 14 and 50. 2 Compare Dion Cassius, c, T, 20 (cd. Bckker). Bullen. SCENE II. J NERO. 15 And Nero, having there his tables hung And garlands up, is to the palace gone. Enter A,.\h. Roman. 4/// Rom. 'Twas beyond wonder ; I shall never see, Nay, I'll ne'er look to see the like of this : Eighteen hundred and eight crowns For several victories, and the place set down Where, and in what, and whom he overcame. yd ROTH. That was set down i' ;h' tables that were borne Upon the soldiers' spears. \st Rom. O made, and sometimes used for other ends ! 2nd Rom. But did he win them all with singing? yd Rom. Faith, all with singing and with stage-play- ist Rom. So many crowns got with a song ! [ U1 g- 4//r Rom. But did you mark the Greek musicians Behind his chariot, hanging down their heads, Shamed and o'ercome in their professions ? Oh, Rome was never honoured so before ! yd Rom. But what was he that rode i' th' chariot with him ? 4//i Rom. That was Diodorus, the minstrel, that he favours. yd Rom. Was there ever such a prince ! 2nd Rom. O Nero Augustus, the true Augustus ! yd Rom. Nay, had you seen him as he rode along With an Olympic crown upon his head And with a Pythian on his arm, 1 you would have thought, Looking on one, he had Apollo been, On th' other, Hercules. 2nd Rom. I have heard my father oft repeat the triumphs Which in Augustus Caesar's times were shown Upon his victory o'er the Illyrians ; But it seems it was not like to this. 1 Vide Suetonius, Vit. Nor. 25. 16 NERO. [ACT i. yd and tf/i Rom. Pish ! it could not be like this. 2nd, $rd, and tfh Rom. O Nero Apollo ! Nero Hercules ! {Exeunt 2nd, 3rd, and ^ Roman. \st Rom. Whether Augustus' triumph greater was I cannot tell ; his triumph's cause, I know, Was greater far, and far more honourable. What are we people, or our flattering voices That always shame and foolish things applaud, Having no spark of soul ; all ears and eyes, Pleased with vain shows, deluded by our senses, Still enemies to wisdom and to goodness ? \_Exit. SCENE III. A Room in the Golden House of NERO. Enter NERO, POPP^A, NLMPHIDIUS, TIGELLINUS, EPAPHRODITUS, NEOPHILUS, and others. Nero. Now, fair Poppaea^ see thy Nero shine In bright Achaia's spoils, and Rome in him. The Capitol hath other trophies seen Than it was wont ; not spoils with blood bedewed Or the unhappy obsequies * of death, But such as Caesar's cunning, not his force, Hath wrung from Greece too bragging of her art. Tig. And of this strife the glory's all your own, Your tribunes cannot share this praise with you : Here your centurions have no part at all ; Bootless your armies and your eagles were ; No navies helped to bring away this conquest. Nim. Even Fortune's self, Fortune the queen of kingdoms, That war's grim valour graceth with her deeds, Will claim no portion in this victory. 1 The MS. reads " exuvies,''' Latin, exuere, to put off. SCENE III.] NERO. IJ Nero. Not Bacchus ! drawn from Nysa down with tigers Curbing with viny reins their wilful heads, Whilst some do gape upon his ivy Thyrse, Some on the dangling grapes that crown his head, All praise his beauty and continuing youth, So struck amazed India with wonder As Nero's glories did the Greekish towns, Elis, and Pisa, and the rich Mycenae, Junonian Argos, and yet Corinth proud Of her two seas ; all which o'ercome did yield To me their praise and prizes of their, games. Pop. Yet in your Greekish journey, we did hear, Sparta and Athens, the two eyes of Greece, Neither beheld your person nor your skill ; Whether because they did afford no games, Or for their too much gravity Nero. Why, what Should I have seen in them, but in the one Hunger, black pottage, and men hot to die, Thereby to rid themselves of misery ; And what in th' other, but short capes, long beards, Much wrangling in things needless to be known, Wisdom in words, and only austere faces ? I will not be Agesilaus nor Solon. Nero was there where he might honour win, And honour hath he won, and brought from Greece Those spoils which never Roman could obtain, Spoils won by wit and trophies of his skill. Nim. What a thing he makes it to be a minstrel ! Pop. I praise your wit, my lord, that choose such safe Honours, safe spoils, won without dust or blood. Nero. What, mock ye me, Poppsea ? Pop. Nay, in good faith, my lord. I speak in earnest. I hate that heady and adventurous crew That go to lose their own to purchase but The breath of others and the common voice : 1 See Virgil, ^En. VI. 805-6. Nero. 1 8 NERO. Them that will lose their hearing for a. sound. That by death only seek to get a living, Make scars their beauty and count loss of limbs The commendation of a proper man, And so go halting to immortality ; Such fools I love worse than they do their lives. Nero. But now, Poppaea, having laid apart Our boastful spoils and ornaments of triumph, Come we like Jove from Phlegra Pop. O giantlike comparison ! Nero. When after all his fires and murthering darts, He comes to bath himself in Juno's eyes. But thou, than wrangling Juno far more fair Staining the. evening beauty of the sky, Or the day's brightness, shall make glad thy Caesar, Shalt make him proud such beauties to enjoy. {Exeunt all except NIMPHIDIUS. Nim. Such beautie.s to enjoy were happiness And a reward sufficient in itself, Although no other end were aimed at ; But I have other : 'tis not Poppaea's arms Nor the short pleasures of a wanton bed That can extinguish mine aspiring thirst To Nero's crown. By her love I must climb ; Her bed is but a step unto his throne. Already wise men laugh at him and hate him ; The people, though his minstrelsy doth please them, They fear his cruelty, hate his executions, Which his need still must force him to increase. The multitude which cannot one thing long Like or dislike, being cloyed with vanity, Will hate their own delights ; though wisdom do not, Even weariness at length will give them eyes. Thus \ by Nero's and Poppaea's favour Raised to the envious height of second place, May gain the first. Hate must strike Nero down, Love make Nimphidius' way unto a crown. {Exit. SCENE 1V.J NERO. SCENE IV. A Room in SC-EVINUS' House. Enter SENECA, SC^VINUS, Luc AN, and FLAVIUS. Sccev. His first beginning was his father's death ; His brother's poisoning and wife's bloody end Came next ; his mother's murther closed up all. Vet hitherto he was but wicked when The guilt of greater evils took away the shame Of lesser, and did headlong thrust him forth To be the scorn and laughter of the world. Then first an emperor came upon the stage And sung to please car-men and candle-sellers, And learnt to act, to dance, to be a fencer, And in despite o' the majesty of princes He fell to wrestling, and was soiled with dust, And tumbled on the earth with servile hands. Sen. He sometimes trained was in better studies, And had a childhood promised other hopes : High fortunes like strong wines do try their vessels. Was not the race and theatre big enough To have enclosed thy follies here at home ? Oh, could not Rome and Italy contain Thy shame, but'thou must cross the seas to show it? Sccev. And make them that were wont to see our consuls With conquering eagles waving in the field, Instead of that, behold an emperor dancing, Playing o' th' stage, and what else but to name Were infamy. Luc. O Mummius ! ' O Flaminius ! 2 You whom your virtues have not made more famous Than Nero's vices, you went o'er to Greece 1 Lucius Mummius, the destroyer of Corinth ; vide Vcllieus Paterculus, i. 13. 2 T. Quintius Flaminius, or Flamininus, the conqueror of Philip of Macedon, is here meant. Vide Livy, book XXXIII. ; and com- pare Cicero, Pro Murena, 14, 31, where Flamininus and Mummius are spoken of together. C 2 20 NERO. [ACT i. But t'other wars, and brought home other conquests. You Corinth and Mycenae overthrew, And Perseus' self, the great Achilles' race, O'ercame, having Minerva's stained temples And your slain ancestors of Troy revenged. Sen. They strove with kings and kinglike adversaries, Were even in their enemies made happy, The Macedonian courage tried of old And the new greatness of the Syrian power : But he, for Phillip and Antiochus, Hath found more easy enemies to deal with, Turpnus, 1 Pammenes, 2 and a rout of fiddlers. Sccev. Withal, the begging minstrels by the way He took along with him and forced to strive That he might overcome, imagining Himself immortal by such victories. Flav. The men he carried over were enough T'have put the Parthian to his second flight, Or the proud Indian taught the Roman yoke. Sccev. But they were Nero's men, like Nero armed With lutes, and harps, and pipes, and fiddle-cases, Soldiers to th' shadow trained and not the field. Flav. Therefore they brought spoils of such soldiers worthy. Luc. But to throw down the walls 3 and gates of Rome To make an entrance for an hobby-horse, To vaunt to th' people his ridiculous spoils, To come with laurel and with olives crowned For having been the worst of all the singers, Is beyond patience. Sccev. Ay, and anger too, Had you but seen him in his chariot ride, That chariot in which Augustus late His triumphs o'er so many nations showed, 1 Vide Suetonius, Vit. Ner. 20. Bullen. 2 Vide Tacitus, Ann. XVI. i^.Btillt'ii. 3 Vide Suetonius, Vit. Ner. 25, and also for the allusions in the following speech of Scsevinus. SCENE IV.] NERO. 21 And with him in the same a minstrel placed The while the people, running by his side, ' Hail thou Olympic Conqueror,' did cry, ' O hail thou Parthian ! ' and did fill the sky With shame, and voices heaven would not have heard. Sen. I saw't but turned away my eyes and ears, Angry they should be privy to such sights. Why do I stand relating of the story Which in the doing had enough to grieve me ? Tell on an end the tale, you whom it pleaseth ! Me mine own sorrow stops from further speaking : Nero, my love doth make thy fault and my grief greater. [Exit. Sccev. I do commend in Seneca this passion ; And yet methinks our country's misery Doth at our hands crave something more than tears. Luc. Pity, though't doth a kind affection show, If it end there, our weakness makes us know. Flav. Let children weep and men seek remedy. Scccv. Stoutly, and like a soldier, Flavius ! Yet to seek remedy to a prince's ill Seldom but it doth the physician kill. Flav. And if it do, Scaevinus, it shall take But a devoted soul from Flavius, Which to my country and the*gods of Rome Already sacred is and given away. Death is no stranger unto me, I have The doubtful hazard in twelve battles thrown ; My chance was life. Luc. Why do we go to fight in Brittany And end our lives under another sun, Seek causeless dangers out ? The German might Enjoy his woods and his own ales drink, Yet we walk safely in the streets of Rome : Bonduca 1 hinders not but we might live : Whom we do hurt them we call enemies, 1 Boadicea ; vide Tacitus, XIV. 31-37. 22 NERO. [ACT i And those our lords that spoil and murder us Nothing is hard to them that dare to die. Seem. This noble resolution in you, lords, Heartens me to disclose some thoughts that I The matter is of weight and dangerous. It is Luc. I see you fear us, Sc^evinus. Sccev. Nay, nay, although the thing be full of fear. Flav. Tell it to faithful ears what e'er it be. Sccev. Faith, let it go, it will but trouble us, Be hurtful to the speaker and the hearer. 1 Lite. If our long friendship or the opinion Sccev. [Aside.] Why should I fear to tell them ? Why ? Is he not a parricide, a player ? [Aloud.] Nay, Lucan, is he not thine enemy? Hate not the heavens, as well as men, to see That condemned head ? And you, O righteous gods, Whither soe'er you now are fled and will No more look down upon th' oppressed earth ; O severe anger of the highest gods ! And thou, stern power to whom the Greeks assign Scourges, and swords to punish proud men's wrongs, If you be more than names found out to awe us And that we do not vainly build you altars, Aid that just arm that's bent to execute What you should do Luc. Stay, you're carried too much away, Sccevinus. Sccev. Why, what will you say for him ? Hath 2 he not Sought to suppress your poem, to bereave That honour every tongue in duty paid it ? Nay, what can you say for him, hath he not Broached his own wife's, a chaste wife's, breast and torn With Scythian hands his mother's bowels up ? The inhospitable Caucasus is mild ; 1 Ought not this speech be spoken by Lucan, and the follovvinr now put down to Lucan, by Flavins ? 2 Vide Tacitus^ Ann. XV. afi.Bu NERO. The Moor, that in the boiling desert seeks With blood of strangers to imbrue his jaws, Upbraids the Roman now with barbai ousness. Luc. You are too earnest. I neither can, nor will I speak for him, And though he sought my learned pains to wrong, I hate him not for that, my verse shall live When Nero's body shall be thrown in Tiber, And times to come shall bless those wicked arms. 1 I love th' unnatural wounds from whence did flow Another Cirrha, a new Helicon. I hate him that he is Rome's enemy, An enemy to virtue, sits on high To shame the seat ; and in that hate my life And blood I'll mingle on the earth with yours. Flav. My deeds, Scaevinus, shall speak my conser Sc&v. 'Tis answered as I looked for, noble poet, Worthy the double laurel. Flavius, Good luck, I see, doth virtuous meanings aid, And therefore have the heavens forborne their duties To grace our swords with glorious blood of tyrants. {Exeunt. 1 The wars which Lucan celebrated. ' isH ACT THE SECOND. SCENE l.T/ie Ganlen of NERO'S Palace. Enter PETRONIUS. ET. Here waits Poppaea her Nimphidius' coming, And hath this garden and green walks chose out To bless them with more pleasures than their own. Not only arras hangings and silk beds Are guilty of the faults we blame them for : Somewhat these arbours and yon trees do know, Whilst your kind shades you to these night sports show. Night sports? Faith, they are done in open day And the sun seeth and envieth their play. Hither have I love-sick Antonius brought And thrust him on occasion so long sought ; Showed him the empress in a thicket by, Her love's approach waiting with greedy eye ; And told him, if he ever meant to prove The doubtful issue of his hopeful love, This is the place and time wherein to try it ; Women will hear the suit that will deny it. The suit's not hard that she comes for to take ; Who, hot in lust of men, doth difference make ? SCENE I.] NERO. 25 At last forth, willing, to her did he pace : Arm him, Priapus, with thy powerful mace. But see, they coming are ; how they agree Here will I harken ; shroud me, gentle tree. [Hides himself. Enter POPP^A and ANTONIUS. Ant. Seek not to grieve that heart which is thine own. In love's sweet fires let heat of rage burn out ; These brows could never yet to wrinkle learn, Nor anger out of such fair eyes look forth. Pop. You may solicit your presumptuous suits, You duty may, and shame too, lay aside, Disturb my privacy, and I forsooth Must be afeared even to be angry at you ! Ant. What shame is't to be mastered by such beauty ? Who but to serve you comes, how wants he duty ? Or if it be a shame, the shame is yours, The fault is only in your eyes, they drew me ; 'Cause you were lovely therefore did I love. Oh ! if to love you anger you so much, You should not have such cheeks nor lips to touch, You should not have your snow nor coral spied. If you but look on us in vain you chide ; We must not see your face, nor hear your speech : Now, whilst you Love forbid, you Love do teach. Pet. He doth better than I thought he would. [Aside. Pop. I will not learn my beauty's worth of you ; I know you neither are the first nor greatest Whom it hath moved : he whom the world obeys Is feared with anger of my threatening eyes. It is for you afar off to adore it, And not to reach at it with saucy hands. Fear is the love that's due to gods and princes. Pet. All this is but to edge his appetite. \Aside. Ant. Oh ! do not see thy fair in that false glass 26 AJiRO. [ACT u. Of outward difference ; look into my heart,. There shalt thou see thyself enthroned set In greater majesty than all the pomp Of Rome or Nero. Tis not the crouching awe And ceremony with which we flatter princes That can to Love's true duties be compared. Pop. Sir, let me go or I'll make known your love To them that shall requite it but with hate. Pet. [Aside.} On ! on ! Thou hast the goal, the fort is beaten : Women are won when they begin to threaten. Ant. Your nobleness doth warrant me from that, Nor need you others' help to punish me Who by your forehead am condemned or free. They that to be revenged do bend their mind Seek always recompence in that same kind The wrong was done them ; love was mine offence, In that revenge, in that seek recompence. Pop. Further to answer will still cause replies, And those as ill do please me as yourself. If you'll an answer take that's brief and true, I hate myself if I be loved of you. [Exit. Pet. What, gone ? But she will come again sure. No i It passeth clean my cunning, all my rules ; For women's wantonness there is no rule. To take her in the itching of her lust, A proper young man putting forth himself ! Why, fate ! there's fate and hidden providence In cod-piece matters. 1 Ant. O unhappy man ' What comfort have I now, Petronius r 1 Pet. Counsel yourself, I'll teach no more but learn 1 In the MS., against this passage, is written in the margin the following quotation : Fatu est in partibus illis Quas sinus abscondit. The passage is from Juvenal, IX. 32-33, and runs thus : VMa. rebuilt homines ; fatuin est et partibus illis Quas sinus abscor.dit. SCENE II.] NEfiO. 27 Ant. This comfort yet, he shall not so escape Who causeth my disgrace, Nimphidius, Whom had I here Well, for my true-heart's love, I see she hates me. And shall I love one That hates me, and bestows what I deserve Upon my rival ? No, farewell Poppaea, Farewell Poppsea and farewell all love ; Yet thus much shall it still prevail in me That I will hate Nimphidius for thee. Pet. Farewell to her, to my Enanthe welcome, Who now will to my burning kisses stoop, Now with an easy cruelty deny That which she, rather than the asker, would Have forced from her than begin 1 herself. Their loves that list upon great ladies set, I still will love the wench that I can get. \Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in the Golden House of NERO. Enter NERO, TIGELLINUS, EPAPHRODITUS, and NEOPHILUS. Nero. Tigellinus, said the villain Proculus 2 1 was thrown down in running ? Tig. My lord, he said that you were crowned for that You could not do. Nero. For that I could not do ? Why, Elis saw me do't, and do't to th' wonder Of all the judges and the lookers on ; And yet to see A villain ! Could not do't ? 1 The 4tos read "begins," the MS. "beginnes." I adopt Mr. Bullen's emendation. - Proculus has been put here, by a slip of the memory, for Plautus : see note p. 29. Tacitus in the Annals mentions two persons of the name of Proculus, Cervarius Proculus, XV. 50, and Volusius Proculus, XV. 51 and 57, but it cannot be either of these. 28 NERO. [ACT ir. Who did it better ? I warrant you he said I from my chariot fell against my will. Tig. He said, my lord, you were thrown out of it, All crushed, and maimed, and almost bruised to death. Nero. Malicious rogue ! when I fell willingly To show of purpose with what little hurt Might a good driver bear a forced fall. How say'st thou, Tigellinus ? I am sure Thou hast in driving as much skill as he. Tig. My lord, you greater cunning showed in falling Than had you sat. Nero. I know I did. I bruised in my fall ? Hurt ? I protest, I felt no grief in it. Go, Tigellinus, fetch the villain's head ; This makes me see his heart in other things. Fetch me his head ; he ne'er shall speak again ! [Exit TIGELLINUS. What do we princes differ from the dirt And baseness of the common multitude If to the scorn of each malicious tongue We subject are ? For that I had no skill, 1 Not he that his far-famed daughter set A prize to victory, and had been crowned With thirteen suitors' deaths till he at length By fate of gods and servants' treason fell, Shoulder-pieced Pelops, glorying, in his spoils, Could with more skill his coupled horses guide. Even as a barque that through the moving flood Her linen wings and the forced air do bear ; The billows foam, she smoothly cuts them through : So past my burning axle-tree along, The people follow with their eyes and voice, And now the wind doth see itself outrun And the clouds wonder to be left behind, Whilst the void air is filled with shouts and triumphs, 1 i.c'. " As for his saying that I had no skill." Bulkn. SCENE II.] NERO. 29 And Nero's name doth beat the bra/en sky ; ' Jupiter envying, loath doth hear my praise : Then their green bows and crowns of olive wreaths, The conqueror's praise, they give me as my due ; And yet this rogue saith, No, we have no skill. Enter a Servant. Serv. My lord, the stage and all the furniture Nero. I have no skill to drive a chariot ! Had he but robbed me, broke my treasury : The Red Sea's mine, mine are the Indian stones, The world's mine own ; then cannot I be robbed ? But spitefully to undermine my fame, To take away my art ! he would my life As well, no doubt, could he tell how. Re-enter TIGELLINUS, with PROCULUS' head. Neoph. My lord, Tigellinus is back come with Proculus' head. [Strikes him. Nero. I cry thee mercy, good Neophilus ; Give him five hundred sesterces for amends. Hast brought him, Tigellinus ? Tig. Here's his head, my lord. Nero. His tongue had been enough. Tig. I did as you commanded me, my lord. Nero. Thou told'st not me, though, he had such a nose ! " Now are you quiet and have quieted me : This 'tis to be commander of the world. Let them extol weak pity that do need it, Let men cry to have law and justice done And tell their griefs to heaven that hears them not : 1 From here to the end of Piso's speech, " So done it names the action," line 10, p. 35, in the next Scene, is wanting in the MS. Dion Cassius, E B. 14, reports this brutal gibe of Nero's ; Rubellius Plautus was the luckless victim. Bullen. Vide Tacitus, Ann. XIV. 57. 30 NERO. Kings must upon the people's headless corses Walk to security and ease of mind. Why, what have we to do with th' airy names That old age and philosophers found out, Of justice and ne'er certain equity? The gods revenge themselves and so will we : Where right is scant, authority's o'erthrown : We have a high prerogative above it. Slaves may do what is right, we what we please : The people will repine and think it ill, But they must bear, and praise too, what we will. Enter CoRNUTUS. 1 Neoph. My lord, Cornutus whom you sent for's come. Nero. Welcome, good Cornutus. Are all things ready for the stage, As I gave charge? Corn. They only stay your coming. Nero. Cornutus, I must act to-day Orestes. Corn. \Aside ] You have done that already, and too truly. Nero. And when our scene is done, I mean besides To read some compositions of mine own, Which, for the great opinion I myself And Rome in general of thy judgment hath, Before I publish them, I'll show them thee. Corn. My lord, my disabilities Nero. I know thy modesty : I'll only show thee now my work's beginning. Go see, Epaphroditus, Music made ready ; I will sing to-day. \Exit EPAPHRODITUS. Cornutus, I pray thee come near And let me hear thy judgment in my pains. 1 Annans Cornutus was the master of Persius and a Stoic philo- sopher and a tragic pee". The incidents of this Scene with Cornutus are very closely taken from Dion Cassius. SCENE ii.] NERO. 31 I would have thee more familiar, good Cornutus ; Nero doth prize desert, and more esteems Them that in knowledge second him, than power. Mark with what style and state my work begins. Corn. Might not my interruption offend, What's your work's name, my lord; what write you of? Nero. I mean to write the deeds of all the Romans. Corn. Of all the Romans ! a huge argument. Nero. I have not yet bethought me of a title. [ Reads. " You enthral powers which the wide fortunes doom Of empire-crowned seven-mountain-seated Rome Full blown, inspire me with Machlaean * rage That I may bellow out Rome's prentisage ; As when the Msenades do fill their drums 2 And crooked horns with Mimallonean hums And Evion do ingeminate a round, Which reparable Echo doth resound" How dost thou like our muse's pains, Cornutus ? Corn. The verses have more in them than I see : Your work, my lord, I doubt will be too long. - _ ,_ , Nero. Too long ? ^- ^ i -, Tig. Too long ? Corn. Ay, if you write the deeds of all the Romans. How many books think you t' include it in ? Nero. I think to write about four hundred books. Corn. Four hundred ! Why, my lord, they'll ne'er be read. 3 Nero. Ah? Tig. Why, he whom you esteem so much, Chrysippus, Wrote many more. 1 Machlaean, a word coined from /xa^Aos (i.e. libidinosus). Sullen. 2 This and the next three lines are imitated from Persius. i. 99-1-02. These four lines are said to be taken from a poem of Nero's called " Bacchae." The Bacchantes are called Mimallones, from Mimas, a mountain in Ionia ; Bassareus, an epithet of Bacchus, from the fox's skin in which he is represented : by the " vitulus," Pentheus is intended ; and the other images are quite as far-fetched. Persius' contempt of these verses, i. 104-106, is quite borne out by Tacitus Ann. XIV. 16, and Suetonius, Vit. Ner. 52, 3 77 'e Dion Cassius, H B. ZQ.PiiHtn. 32 NERO. [ACT n. Corn. But they were profitable to common life, And did men honesty and wisdom teach. Nero. Tigellinus ! {Exeunt NERO and TIGELLINUS. Corn. See with what earnestness he craved my judge- ment, And now he freely hath it, how it likes him. Neoph. The prince is angry, and his fall is near ; Let us begone lest we partake his ruins. {Exeunt all except CORNUTUS. Corn. What should I^do at court? I cannot lie. Why didst thou call me, Nero, from my book ? Didst thou for flattery of Cornut.us look ? No, let those purple fellows that stand by thee, That admire show and things that thou canst give, Leave to please truth and virtue, to please thee. Nero, there is nothing in thy power Cornutus Doth wish or fear. Re-enter TIGELLINUS. Tig. 'Tis Nero's pleasure that you straight depart To Gyaros, 1 and there remain confined : Thus he out of his princely clemency, Hath death, your due, turned but to banishment. Corn. ' Why, Tigellinus ? Tig. I have done : upon your peril go or stay. [Exit. Corn. And why should death, or banishment be due For speaking that which was required, my thought ? Oh, why do princes love to be deceived, And even do force abuses on themselves ? Their ears are so with pleasing speech beguiled That truth they malice, flattery truth account, And their own soul and understanding lost, Go, what they are, to seek in other men. Alas ! weak prince, how hast thou punished me To banish me fron . thee ? Oh, let me go 1 An island in the /Egrean Sea, to the east of Delos. The Romans were accustomed to send their most illustrious exiles there. Vide Tacitus, Ann. IV. 30. SCENE ill.] NERO. 33 And dwell in Taurus, dwell in Ethiope, So that I do not dwell at Rome with thee. The farther still I go from hence, I know, The farther I leave shame and vice behind. Where can I go but I shall see thee, sun ; And heaven will be as near me still as here ? Can they so far a knowing soul exile That her own roof she sees not o'er her head? [Exit. SCENE III. A Room in SCAIVINUS' House. Enter Piso, SCEVINUS, LUCAN, and FLAVIUS. Piso. Noble gentlemen, what thanks, what recom- pense Shall he give you that give to him the world ? One life to them that must so many venture, And that the worst of all, is too mean pay; Yet can I give no more. Take that, bestow it Upon your service. Luc. O Piso, that vouchsafest To grace our headless party with thy name, Whom having our conductor, we need not Have feared to go against the well tried valour Of Julius or stayedness of Augustus, Much less the shame and womanhood of Nero. When we had once given out that our pretences Were all for thee, our end to make thee prince, They thronging came to give their names, men, women, Gentlemen, people, soldiers, senators ; } The camp and city grew ashamed that Nero And Piso should be offered them together. Sccev. We seek not now as in the happy days O' th' commonwealth they did, for liberty ; 1 Vide Tacitus, Ann. XV. &.Bulle*. Nero. D 34 NERO. [ACT ii. you dear ashes, Cassius and Brutus, That was with you entombed, there let it rest. We are contented with the galling yoke If they will only leave us necks to bear it : \Ve seek no longer freedom, we seek life ; At least, not to be murdered ; let us die On enemies' swords. Shall we, whom neither The Median bow, nor Macedonian spear, Nor the fierce Gaul, nor painted Briton could Subdue, lay down our necks to tyrant's axe ? Why do we talk of virtue that obey Weakness and vice ? Piso. Have patience, good Saevinus. Luc. Weakness and servile government we hitherto Obeyed have, which, that we may no longer, We have our lives and fortunes now set up, And have our cause with Piso's credit strengthened. Flav. Which makes it doubtful whether love to him, Or Nero's hatred, hath drawn more to us. Piso. I see the good things you have of me, lords. Let's now proceed to th' purpose of our meeting : 1 pray you take your places. Let's have some paper brought. Sccev. Who's within ? Enter Mil My lord? Sccev. Some ink and paper. [Exit MILICHUS and re-enter with ink and paper. Flav. Who's that, Scaevinus ? Scav. It is my freedman, Milichus. Luc. Is he trusty ? Sccev. Ay, for as great matters as we are about. Piso. And those are great ones. Luc. I ask not that we mean to need his trust ; Gain hath great sovereignty o'er servile minds. SCENE in.] NERO. 35 Sccev. Oh, but my benefits have bound him to me. I from a bondman have his state not only Advanced to freedom, but to wealth and credit. Piso. Milichus, wait i' th' next chamber till we call. [MILICHUS retires. The thing determined on, our meeting now, 1 Is of the means and place, due circumstance As to the doing of things, 'tis required ; So done it names the action. Mil. [Aside] I wonder What makes this new resort to haunt our house ? When wonted Lucius - Fiso to come hither, Or Lucan, when so oft as now of late ? Piso. And since the field and open show of arms Dislike you, and that for the general good You mean to end all stirs in end of him ; That, as the ground, must first be thought upon. Mil. [Aside] Besides, this coming cannot be for form Or visitation ; they go aside And have long conferences by themselves. Luc. Piso, his coming to your house at Baiae :f To bathe and banquet will fit means afford, Amidst his cups to end his hated life : Let him die drunk that ne'er lived soberly. Piso. Oh, be it far that I should stain my table And gods of hospitality with blood ! Let not our cause, now innocent, be soiled With such a plot, nor Piso's name made hateful. What place can better fit our action Than his own house, that boundless envied heap Built with the spoils and blood of citizens, That hath taken up the city, left no room For Rome to stand on ? Romans, get you gone 1 i.e. " Since now we have met here, it is required that the thing to be determined on," etc. 2 Both the 4tos and the MS. read " Lucius" instead of "Caius" Vide Tacitus, Ann. XV. 48. 'See Tacitus, Ann. XV. 53- 36 NERO. [ACT n. And dwell at Veii, if that Veii too This house o'errun not. 1 Luc. But 'twill be hard to do it in his house, And harder to escape, being done. Piso. Not so : Rufus, the captain of the guard, 's with us, And divers others o' th' praetorian band Already made ; 2 many, though unacquainted With our intents, have had disgrace and wrongs Which grieve them still ; most will be glad of change, And even they that loved him best, when once They see him gone, will smile o' th' coming times, Let go things past and look to their own safety : Besides th' astonishment and fear will be So great, so sudden, that 'twill hinder them From doing anything. Mil. [Aside] No private business can concern them Their countenances are troubled and look sad, [all ; Doubt a'nd importance in their face is read. Luc. Yet still I think it were Safer t' attempt him private and alone. Flav. But 'twill not carry that opinion with it ; 'Twill seem more foul, and come from private malice. Brutus and they, to right the common cause, Did choose a public place. Sccev . Our deed is honest, why should it seek corners ? 1 Against this passage, in the margin of the MS. is written : Veias migrat. colen Si non et veias occupat ilia domus. It is misquoted from Suetonius. Peihaps it will be as well to give the context, Vit. Ner. ^9 : " Mirum, et vel pnecipue notabile inter ha;c fucrit, nihil cum patientius, quam maledicta et convincia hominum, talisse ; neque in ullos leniorem, quanr qui se dictis aut carminibus lacessissent exsti- tisse. Multa Gnece Latineque proscripta aut vulgata sunt, sicut ilia : " Roma domus fiet : Veios migrate, Quirites, Si non et Veios occupat ista domus." 2 i.e. "And he (Rufus) has already made divers others of the Praetorian band with us. " Compare Tacitus, Ann. XV. 50. SCENE in.] NERO. 37 Tis for the public done, let them behold it ; t Let me have them as witness of my truth And love of th' commonwealth. The danger's greater, So is the glory. Why should our pale counsels Tend whither fear, rather than virtue, calls them ? I do not like these cold considerings : First let our thoughts look up to what is honest, Next to what's safe. If danger may deter us, Nothing that's great or good shall e'er be done ; And when we first gave hands upon this deed, To th' common safety we our own gave up. Let no man venture on a prince's death, How bad soever, with belief to 'scape ; Despair must be our hope, fame our reward. To make the general liking to concur With others' were even to strike him in his shame, Or, as he thinks, his glory, on the stage, And so to truly make a tragedy When all the people cannot choose but clap So sweet a close ; and 'twill not Caesar be That will be slain, a Roman prince ; 'Twill be Alcmaeon or blind (Edipus. Mil. [Aside] And if it be of public matters, 'tis not Like to be talk or idle fault-finding, On which the cowardly only spend their wisdom : These are all men of action and of spirit, And dare perform what they determine on. Luc. What think you of Poppaea, Tigellinus, And th' other odious instruments of court ? Were it not best at once to rid them all ? Sccev. In Caesar's ruin Anthony was spared .. Let not our cause with needless blood be stained. One only moved, the change will not appear ; When too much license given to the sword, Though against ill, will make even good men fear. Besides, things settled, you at pleasure may By law and public judgment have them rid. 3 8 AV-.Vv'O [ACT n. Mil. \_Aside\ And if it be but talk o' th' state 'tis treason. Like it they cannot, that they cannot do ; If seek to mend it and remove the prince, That's highest treason : change his counsellors, That's alteration of the government, The common cloak that treason's muffled in : If laying force aside, to seek by suit And fair petition t' have the state reformed, That's tutoring the prince and takes away Th' one his person, this his sovereignty. Barely in private talk to show dislike Of what is done is dangerous, therefore the action Mislike you, 'cause the doer likes you not Men are not fit to live i' th' state they hate. Piso. Though we would all have that employment sought, Yet, since your worthy forwardness, Scsevinus, Prevents us and so nobly begs for danger, He this the chosen hand to do the deed ; The fortune of the empire speed your sword. Scav. Virtue and heaven speed it, O you home-born Gods of our country, Romulus and Vesta, That Tuscan Tiber and Rome's towers defend, Forbid not yet at length a happy end To former evils ; let this hand revenge The wronged world ; enough we now have suffered [Exeunt all except MILICHUS. Mil. {Coming forward}. Tush, all this long consulting's more than words, It ends not there ; they've some attempt, some plot Against the state : well, I'll observe it farther, And if I find it, make my profit of it. [Exit. ACT THE THIRD. SCENE I. A Room in the Golden House of NERO. Enter POPP^A. ,OP. I looked Nimphidius would have come e'er this. Makes he no greater haste to our embraces, Or doth the easiness abate his edge, Or seem we not as fair still as we did ? Or is he so with Nero's playing won That he before Poppgea doth prefer it ? Or doth he think to have occasion still, Still to have time to wait on our stol'n meetings ? {Enter NIMPHIDIUS. But see, his presence now doth end those doubts. What is't, Nimphidius, hath so long detained you ? Nim. Faith, lady, causes strong enough, High walls, barred doors, and guards of armed men. Pop. Were you imprisoned then, as you were going To the theatre ? Nim. Not in my going, lady. But in the theatre I was imprisoned. For after he was once upon the stage The gates were more severely looked into Than at a town besieged ; no man, no cause Was current, no, nor passant. At other sights 40 NERO. [ACT TII The strife is only to get in, but here The stir was all in getting out again. Had we not been kept to it so, I think, 'Twould ne'er have been so tedious ; though I know Twas hard to judge whether his doing of it Were more absurd than 'twas for him to do it. But when we once were forced to be spectators, Compelled to that which should have been a pleasure, We could no longer bear the tediousness ; No pain so irksome as a forced delight. Some fell down dead, or seemed at least to do so, Under that colour to be carried forth. Then death first pleasured men, the shape all fear Was put on gladly ; some climbed o'er the walls And so, by falling, caught in earnest that Which th' other did dissemble. There were women That, being not able to entreat the guard To let them pass the gates, were brought to bed Amidst the throngs of men, and made Lucina Blush to see that unwonted company. 1 Pop. If 'twere so straightly kept how gat you forth ? Nim. Faith, lady, I came pretending haste In place and countenance, told them I was sent For things by th' prince forgot about the scene, Which both my credit made them to believe, And Nero newly whispered me before. Thus did I pass the gates ; the danger, lady, I have not yet escaped. Pop. What danger mean you ? Nim. The danger of his anger when he knows How I thus shrank away ; for there stood knaves That put down in their tables all that stirred, And marked in each their cheerfulness or sadness. Pop. I warrant I'll excuse you ; but I pray Let's be a little better for your sight. 1 Compare Suetonius, Vit. Ner. 23 ; ami Tacitus. Ann. XVI s. Bulk,,. SCENE II.] NERO. 41 How did our princely husband act Orestes ? Did he not wish again his mother living ? Her death would add great life unto his part. But come, I pray ; the story of your sight. Nim. Oh, do not drive me to those hateful pains. Lady, I was too much in seeing vexed ; Let it not be redoubled in the telling. I now am well and hear, my ears set free ; Oh, be merciful, do not bring me back Unto my prison ; at least free yourself. It will not pass away, but stay the time ; Wreak out the hours in length. Oh, give me leave, As one that wearied with the toil at sea And now on wished shore hath firmed his foot ; He looks about and glads his thoughts and eyes With sight o' th' green-clothed ground and leafy trees, Of flowers that beg more than the looking on, And likes these other waters' narrow shores : So let me lay my weariness in these arms, Nothing but kisses to this mouth discourse, My thoughts be compassed in those circled eyes, Eyes on no object look but on these cheeks ; Blessed be my hands with touching such round breasts Whiter and softer than the down of swans : Let me of thee and of thy beauty's glory An endless tell, but never wearying story. SCENE II. Another Room in the Golden House