■■■■' m 
 
HMa^s bs IRobert Bri&ges. 
 
 Jt0. biij. Jtem flart % 
 
 WitJi general title etc. for whole volume. Price of 
 this number is three shillings, f^^j 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES. EIGHT PLAYS. 
 NERO, PARTS I. & II. PALICIO. ULYS 
 SES. CAPTIVES. ACHILLES. HUMOURS. 
 FEAST OF BACCHUS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dedication ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... iii 
 
 lYERO. The first part. History of tJic first five years of Nerds reign: 
 
 with the murder of Britaunicus, to the death of Agrippina ... I 
 
 PALICIO. A romantic drama in five acts, in the Elizabethan manner 37 
 
 THE RETURN OF UL YSSES. A drama in five acts, in a mixed 
 
 manner ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 71 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES. A tragedy in five acts, in a 
 
 mixed manner, without change of scene ... ... ... ... 1 o 1 
 
 ACHILLES IN SCYROS. A drama in five acts, in a mixed 
 
 manner, without change of scene ... ... ... ... ... 127 
 
 THE HUMOURS OF THE COURT. A comedy in three acts, in 
 
 the Spanish manner ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 147 
 
 THE FEA S T OF BA CCHUS. A comedy in five acts, in the Latin 
 
 manner, without change of scene ... ... ... ... ... 183 
 
 A T ERO. The second part in five acts: comprising the conspiracy of 
 
 Piso to the death of Seneca, in the Elizabethan manner ... ... 231 
 
 NOTES and ADVERTISEMENTS 263 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 With the completion of the volume, I dedicate these plays in memory 
 of old friendships. The first to THOMAS BARLOW, M.D. 
 etc., London. — The second, Palicio, to my cousin WILLIAM 
 BRIDGES, D.C.L. etc., Oxford.— Ulysses to C. HUBERT H. 
 PARRY, Mus. Doc. Oxford, etc.— The Captives to the Right Rev. 
 the Lord Bishop of PETERBOROUGH.— The play of Achilles to 
 SAMUEL GEE, M.D. etc., London. — The Humours of the Court 
 to the Rev. WILLIAM SAN DAY, D.D. etc., Oxford.— The 
 Feast to the Rev. C. H. DANIEL, Fellow of Worcester College, 
 Oxford.— and the second part of Nero to ANDREW LANG. 
 
NERO 
 
 
 PART 2. 
 
 
 FROM THE DEATH OF BURRUS TO 
 
 THE 
 
 DEATH OF SENECA. COMPRISING 
 
 THE 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF PISO. 
 
 
 A • L • 
 
 
 A M I C O 
 
 
 A M A N T E R 
 
 
 R- B- 
 
 
 V 
 
 Published by George Bell & Sons, Covent Garden, 
 
 
 and J. and E. Bumpus, Lim., Holborn Bars. 
 
 
DRAMATIS PERSON /E. 
 As in first part. 
 
 LUCAN ... 
 
 PETRONIUS 
 
 TIGELLINUS 
 
 THRASEA 
 
 PRISCUS 
 
 GRIPUS ... 
 
 POPPjEA 
 
 NERO 
 SENECA 
 
 , a poet, nephew to Seneca. 
 . a gentleman of Rome.. 
 
 prcetorian prefect {successor to 
 
 a stoic senator. Burnt s). 
 
 a young stoic, lover of Fannia. 
 
 a Neapolitan boatman. 
 
 7ioiv wife to Nero. 
 
 New Characters in this part. 
 
 CLITUS 
 
 PISO 
 
 N A TALIS .. 
 SCEVINUS, .. 
 SENECIO, .., 
 QUINT1AN,... 
 PROCULUS 
 LATERANUS 
 RUFUS ... 
 FLA VUS, 
 ASPER, 
 VA TINIUS 
 CASSIUS 
 
 ACTE ... 
 EPICHARIS 
 
 FANNIA 
 
 PAULLINA 
 
 Officers, Attendants, 
 
 a Christian, brother of Epicharis. 
 
 a nobleman. 
 
 confidential follower of Piso. 
 
 a rich lord \ 
 
 an upstart gentleman > courtiers. 
 
 a court poet ; 
 
 Admiral (successor to A nice t us). 
 
 Consul elect. 
 
 shared prefecture witJt Tigellinus. 
 
 a tribune > , 
 
 ( under Run is. 
 a centurion ... ) 
 
 Nero's fool {successor to Paris). 
 
 a guardsman, distinguished by his size. 
 
 Nerds early mistress. 
 
 daughter of a tavern-keeper at Naples. 
 
 TJirascds daughter, marries Priscus. 
 
 zuife to Seneca. 
 
 Sailors, Soldiers, Citize?is, etc. 
 

 THE SECOND PART OF NERO 
 
 ACT I 
 
 Ro7)ie. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 (As prologue.] 
 
 ThrasecCs house. 
 Priscus. 
 
 Thrasca and 
 
 THRASEA. 
 
 HAT is it, Priscus, that hath led thee now 
 To pledge my ear to closer secrecy 
 Than what thy loving trust always com- 
 mands ? 
 PR. 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, liath stilled to a fire 
 That comforts my old age. Even as thy body 
 Hath filled to firmness, and its gait grown stately, 
 So is thy mind, which ripened 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'tnotso? 
 
 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 thee. 
 Nay, while she lives I go not from the world ; 
 Death sucks me not, though on his iron ladder - 5 
 
 My years descend : she will be Thiasea 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 wilt 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 wouldst thou, sir, 
 For ten years bind me down in slavery 
 To flatter a tyrant ? 
 
 THR. Who said flatter? Stay: 5n 
 
 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 no man 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 ? 
 
 80474.0 
 
^34 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 Act I. i, i. 
 
 PR. Seneca. 
 
 THR. Seine;,'. Seneca! Hath he consented? 
 
 J'R. We at* such, sir, as can win him. 
 
 77/ A'. Why, I know you ; 
 
 The senatorial patriots. Ther'll he Lucan, 
 Cassius and Lateranus, Fsenius Ruins, 
 Flavus, perhaps Vestinus . . . 
 
 PR. Who they he 
 
 Will presently be seen. 
 
 THR. (), 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. 
 
 I'll R. Well, but the wrongs he hath done 
 His pride alloys, or in pretensed retirement 
 Repudiates ; and, could he feel his guilt, 10 " 
 
 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 Biitannicus ; 
 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 show how I intended he should rule ! ' 
 This were a Roman but not Seneca. 
 
 PR. We look not for it of 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. 
 
 PR. Then, if Seneca 125 
 
 Refuse, I pledge myself to take no part 
 In any plot against the emperor 
 For five years. 
 
 'THR. Come within, Fannia is thine. 
 
 [Excttnl. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 Naples. A Marine tavern, the open court of 
 it, with fountain at centre, ana 7 low 
 colonnade around. On the left at a 
 table some Mariners are drinking and 
 playing with dice. Oft the right are 
 Officers sitting apart and drinking: To- 
 wards the front PR OCUL US {the 
 Admiral) and SENECIO. EPI- 
 CHAKIS is serving the Officers. , 
 
 SE°- I do beg of you, my lord ! 
 
 PRO. 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°- I do pray you, my lord admiral, take me on 
 board your galley for to-night ; only for to-night. 
 
 PRO. We are under Caesar's orders to sail for the 
 Adriatic, sir ; else 1 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. 
 
 EP. '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°- Thank you, my lord, but I . . (a rumbling 
 heard.) Oh ! oh ! there it is again. 
 
 EP. (to Senccio). '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? 
 
 EP. That would not be me, my lord. We rode 
 out worse shakings last year. 1G0 
 
 PRO. Come, I'll have thee come. Should Caesar 
 hear of it, I can take care of myself. (They talk. ) 
 
 (Mariners to each other.") 
 
 1st Mar. He was a-actingof Niobby. 
 
 2nd. Niobe, who was Niobe ? 
 
 yd. A first-rate, went down with all hands off 
 Andros, the year of Claudius' death. 
 
 1st. True, male ; 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 : ami that's just where 
 it is. Everybody is somebody else, and nothing's as 
 it should he. 
 
 2nd. That's right : he were dressed out like a 
 woman. 
 
 \st. Did ye not see him, nodding to the music, and 
 throwing his hands about ? then he gets red in the 
 
Act I. 2.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 135 
 
 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 ! 
 
 Mar. (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 ? 
 
 1st Off. Frightened by the earthquake, sir ? I do 
 not blame you. 
 
 SEo. When the gods shake your city, as a 
 terrier does a rat. 
 
 15/ Off. But how should the sea cure you ? 'Tis 
 their common plaything. 
 
 PRO. Indeed, sir, you would learn what hearings 
 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 ! - <n 
 
 SE°- 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°- There 'tis again ! Oh ! oh ! 
 
 (A great crash heard.) 
 
 Mar. Belay there ! 
 
 SE°- 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. 
 
 15/ Off. (to t/ieu). We're safe here as anywhere, 
 lads; if you keep an eye to the mainwalls. It's all 
 plasterwork aloft. 
 
 Enter CLITUS. 
 
 CLI. Epicharis ! Art thou here, Epicharis ? ~ 5 
 
 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 Alar. 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. 
 
 GRI. 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 stain- foremost in a 
 cloud of dust. - 3 " 
 
 CLI. (to Epic). Come, come, Epicharis, I pray 
 thee ! 
 
 SE°- Is this the gods, or is it not the gods ? 
 (drinks) 
 
 PRO. That was the crash. 
 
 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. 
 
 15/ Off. Emperor and all. 
 
 SE°- 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. Would'st thou be buried alive? 
 
 EP. There is my old bed-ridden mother, my lord ; 
 I'll not leave her. - 7i 
 
 PRO. Well, stick to your ship, like a true girl. 
 You, Calvus, pay the charges and follow. 
 
 SE°- Who's afraid now, my lord ! Is it not the 
 gods ? 
 
 PRO. They take much pains to frighten us, sir. 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 SE°- And me, with a wife and family. I care 
 not. 
 
 15/ 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°- Two ; I have drunk two. 
 
 15/ Off. Here's for him. 
 
 SE°- (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. 
 
2$6 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. [Act I. 2, 3. 
 
 EP. He doth not, sir. 
 SEP- Nor I either : not much. 
 1st Off. Good-night, lass : may we meet again ! 
 EP. No fear. {Exit 1st Off. -with the others. 
 
 [Seneeio remains, and Clitus, ivho stands aloof.) 
 
 EP. [to Seneeio). Follow thou, follow them. 30 " 
 SE 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 Cresar, and I know not what. 
 SE°- I can, I shall yet. 
 EP. Begone, see you, begone. 
 SE°- Look what I had brought thee, [showing a 
 book. ) 
 
 EP. A book I do believe. 
 SE°- Purple edges and gold knops. 
 EP. Seneca on morals, I suppose. 
 SE°- No. 'lis Lucan's book. This can bring thee 
 to Caesar. This little book hath great treasons in it. 
 EP. Treason ! ha ! and I to inform, to show it 
 to Caesar? 
 
 SEP- 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° m '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°- Only from a friend. 
 
 EP. I'll save thy friends from thee, and first 
 myself. Begone ! begone ! 3 - J 
 
 SE°- Thou wilt come to Rome, Epicharis? 
 EP. [thrusting him out). Begone! 
 
 [Exit Seneeio. 
 [to C/itus). Now, brother. 
 
 CLP. 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 ? 
 
 CL1. From thy sin. 
 
 If the Judge find thee here, thou'rt lost. 
 
 EP. Dear Clitus, 
 
 What judge? 
 
 CLL 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 Putcoli : 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 
 Divide us ? I saved, and thou lost, for ever ! 3al 
 
 That endless life of glory I dread, with thee 
 Not there, not there ! 
 
 EP. Is't to our uncle's house 
 
 You go ? 
 
 CLL. 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 ? 
 
 CLL Ah ! thou wilt never come ; thou'rt lost, 
 lost, lost. {Exit. 
 
 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, 
 And quickly too. To-morrow I'll to Rome. {Exit. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 A passage or ante-room in Seneca's house in 
 Rome. Enter SENECA with papers 
 in his hand. 
 
 SEN. [calling). Paullina !— *» 
 
 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 ! 
 PAU. [within). I hear thee : I come. [Enters.) 
 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 
 Made of my letters to Lucilius. 3M 
 
 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 : 
 
Act I. 3, 4.] The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 m 
 
 'Twill outlast the decayed light-heartedness 
 Of Horace : 'tis more suitable besides 
 For plain intelligence, and it should sweeten 
 The world. 
 
 PAU. You know I love it, but I fear 
 You work too hard. How is your health to-day ? 
 
 SEN. A little headach 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. 
 
 PA U. Why, you eat nothing : 
 
 You should take more, not less. Trust me to give you 
 Just the right thing. 
 
 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. 
 
 PAU. How will you use my gift? 410 
 
 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 IV. 
 
 Room hi Seneca's house. Enter Seneca 
 reading. 
 
 SEN. Father, and god of gods, almighty, eternal, 
 
 Invoked by many navies, 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: 
 That honoured by thee we return thee honour ... 44( 
 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 L UCAN, PAVSCUS, LA PER ANUS and 
 FLA VUS. 
 
 LUC. My dear uncle, good morning. 
 
 LA T. 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. 
 
 LA T. That's a month hence. I care not, Seneca, 
 If I shall live to sacrifice my ox. 4 ' ,u 
 
 SEN. Most ominous words ! 
 
 LA T. 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. ) * 
 
 What would you with me now ? 
 
 LA T. We are come as friends. 
 
 SEN. No need to tell me this. 
 
 L UC. But yet there is, 
 
 Uncle ; thy friends decrease. 
 
 SEN. That may well be. 
 
 'Tis what old age must look for. I have my books. 
 
 FLA. I never saw so many books before. 
 
 SEX. And all my good tried friends. 
 
 LUC. Uncle! 
 
 SEN. Eh ! 
 
 L UC. They say 
 
 Poppaia 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 art 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 
 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. 48 "' 
 
 FLA VUS 
 LATERANUS 
 
 LUCAN 
 
 SENECA 
 
 PRISCUS 
 
2 3 8 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act I. 4. 
 
 SEN. Enough ! enough ! 
 LUC. Why this, sir, is B tale 
 
 Would damn a tragedy for the overdoing 
 Of the inhumanities. 
 
 SEN. Ay, and I think, 
 
 Nephew, it gains not by thy rhetoric. 
 
 LA T. 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. 
 
 LA T. That's a fact. 
 
 We come, my lord, to bid thee join thy hand 
 With them that look to thee. There's Faenius Rufus, 
 That's now in Burrus' place, another Burrus. 
 
 SEN. Another Burrus ! Fifty Rufuses 
 Would make no part of Burrus. Why ! I am grieved 
 More for his goodness, when I think of him, 6U " 
 
 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 ? 
 
 LA T. 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 ! 
 
 LA T. 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. 
 
 LA T. Agreed ! 
 
 'Tis a philosopher we have chosen, sir. 53n 
 
 LUC. Speak not to us of kings and emperors, uncle; 
 We restore 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 ? 
 
 Sir, 'tis no dream. 
 Who then ? 
 {advancing). Hail, Cresar, hail ! 
 
 Why, man, what's this ? 
 We choose thee Ca;sar. 
 
 We crown thee. 
 
 Hail, great Ccesar ! 
 Me ! madmen, me ! Caesar ! me ! I am 
 
 LAT. 
 SEN. 
 FLA. 
 SEN. 
 FLA. 
 LUC. 
 LAT. 
 SEN. 
 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. 
 L UC. 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. 
 
 SEN Patience, nephew. 55 ° 
 
 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. 
 
 FL.A. 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. 
 
 PR. 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 bloody purples of a murdered Csesar, 
 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. 
 The state requires thee : there is none but thou. hn 
 SEN. My word is No, I will not. 
 LUC. Thou wilt not? 
 
 Wilt not 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, 
 
Act I. 4.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 2 39 
 
 That 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, itshall come 
 
 If God's will count for aught. 
 
 PR. My lord, consider. 
 
 This is the hour to set you right for ever. 
 '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 Caesar? 'Tis a stingless taunt. 
 
 LA T. 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 Caesar? 
 
 SEN. No, sir : I will not. 
 
 FLA. Thou wilt not change thy books for 
 provinces? 
 
 SEN. No, sir. 
 
 LA T. Dost thou refuse ? 
 
 L UC. Oh, uncle, uncle ! 
 
 FLA. My lord, allow me. 
 
 L UC. 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 
 Of our suspicious conference. I go. (moving.) 
 
 SEN. The ill is done. 
 
 FLA. One word. Nero must die ; 
 
 And whosoe'er but thou steps in his place 610 
 
 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. 
 
 LA T. {going). Sir, I shall trust you. 
 
 SEN. Indeed fear not. Now, for my safety and 
 yours, 
 Leave me, I pray. Farewell ! 
 
 All. (going). Farewell ! [Exeunt. 
 
 SEN. Nay, can it be ? Fools ! can it be they cried 
 Seneca, Caesar ? My hand is trembling, my sense 
 Swimming: 'tis true : my mortal stroke, and dealt me 
 By would-be friends. The way that least I expected, 
 When I least looked for it — yea — thuscometh 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 ? 63 " 
 
 — 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 PAULLLNA excitedly. 
 
 PAU. 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. 
 
 PA U. 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. 
 
 PA U. A conspiracy ! 
 
 SEN. To murder Nero. 
 
 PAU. Indeed I wonder not. 
 
 SE.V. 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. 
 
 PA U. 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 Caesar's hands, 
 And stripped to naked, harmless poverty 
 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 1, 
 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. ,i7u 
 
 END OF ACT I. 
 
240 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act II. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 A room in the palace, with large windows at 
 back, and doors right and left. The scene 
 remains unchanged throughout the act. 
 
 SENECIO, SCEVINUS and QUINTIAN. 
 
 SCE. 'Tis abominable, sir. What's your net loss? 
 
 SE°- I ask you, Quintian, as a man of culture and 
 erudition, what do you make of it? 
 
 QU. You admit that Crcsar was not drunk ? 
 
 SE°- Had he been drunk, he had had some 
 excuse. 'Twas past midnight when he burst in, 
 tinned us all out of bed, and ordered the house to 
 be pulled down ; and I a married man. I have a 
 wife and daughters. 
 
 SCE. Married! well, I never knew .that. So 
 your house is pulled down. 681 
 
 SE°- And half the street, for that matter. 
 
 QU. 'Twas done to stay the fire: 'twas well 
 done. 
 
 S£ a But we were reckoning our danger past : 
 and 'twas so situated, that if he wished to protect his 
 palace he had choice of some four streets : and he 
 chooses mine, and begins with me, my house, Senecio's 
 house ; Senecio his sworn comrade. I have played 
 housebreaker and looker-on to him these eight years, 
 and helped to save his life a score of times from 
 injured husbands and common fellows . . . 
 
 SCE. You do not stand with him as you did. 
 
 SE°- Nay, nor you. 
 
 QU. And he hath made verses on me, which he 
 will recite in all company when I am present. 
 
 SEP" 'Tis that long-nosed cad Vatinius. who hath 
 undermined me. 
 
 SCE. And all of us. We are put down by a 
 coarse pig. 70U 
 
 QU. He hath no true wit, no true humour. 
 
 SCE. The commoner a man is now, the better 
 will he like him. 
 
 S£°- It used not to be so : he was once 'thick 
 with me. 
 
 SCE. He hath sunk to depths. 
 
 QU. With his acting and singing. 
 
 S£°- I believe 'twas he set fire to the city. I 
 would the earthquake had swallowed him ! 
 
 QU. Well, I'll not be civil to his buffoon any 
 longer. 
 
 SE°- A gentleman must draw the line somewhere. 
 
 SCE. Hark, then ! Shall we unite in some plan 
 of lordly revenge ? 
 
 SE°- I care not ; I'd as lief run him through and 
 have done with it. 
 
 SCE. Are you in earnest ? Mean you what you 
 say? Would you join the patriots? 
 
 SE°- I care not. 
 
 QU. Could we not raise a quarrel between Tigel- 
 linus and Vatinius ? 
 
 SCE. Poison the brutes both. 
 
 SE°- All three of 'em, damn 'em ! 
 
 QU Hush thou ! here they come. 
 
 Enter NERO, TIGELLINUS and VA TINIUS. 
 
 NER. Ha ! Here's my Quintian ! 
 The pale Parnassian reptile, that hath ne'er, 
 
 Moistened his leathery tongue in Hippocrene . . . 
 Nay, laugh not so immoderately, I fear 
 Your sides may split. 
 
 TIG. O no, thou god of the world, 
 
 Thou hast practised them too well. 
 
 QU. And I, your majesty, 
 
 Am proud to move your jovial lips to smile. 
 
 VA T. We all believe it, while thy writhing grin 
 Makes us such sport. 
 
 QU. {aside). Curse on this ugly brute ! 
 
 NER. Mind him not, Quintian ; we are in good 
 spirits. 
 We have worked all night like firemen, and saved 
 
 the palace 
 If not the city. Ha ! Senecio, tell us, 
 How stands it with thy house? 
 
 SE°- Permit me, sire, 
 
 To thank you for the imperial favour shown 
 To my poor dwelling. 
 
 NER. Thank Vatinius : 
 
 'Twas his idea. 
 
 SE°- Then, sir, I thank thee humbly,— 7W 
 
 {aside) Till I can kill thee. 
 
 VA T. The emperor and I 
 
 Are glad to serve you ; we are very free 
 To all the race. 
 
 NER. 'Tis true :— Senecio, 
 Thou wilt remember well the merry nights, 
 When I and thou and Otho inaugurated 
 My reign with freaks of license : since that time 
 What steps we have made ! I laugh when I recall 
 Those timorous revellings in the dark, and how 
 'Twas deemed a scandal Ciesar should be seen 
 Horseracing. What misgivings when I first 
 Opened my circus on the Vatican ! 
 Put what applause ! ! Then I saw Rome was with me, 
 Nor ever have doubted since : in other games 
 Outrunning popularity, till now, 
 —My thanks to Tigellinus— there's scarce one 
 Of all the noblest houses that can brag 
 It hath not sent some actor to the stage, 
 Or wrestler to the theatre : and I crowned 
 My triumph in Naples, when ye saw, ye heard, 
 Ye applauded.— Would it be believed that when 
 I came to the throne I might not, in my palace, 
 Sing my own song at supper? 
 
 SE°- Glorious Cresar, 
 
 The Gods deny you nothing. 
 
 TIG. Thyself a god, 
 
 By destiny their peer. 
 
 VA T. Perfect Apollo ! 
 
 In music equal, and in medicine 
 poison). 
 
 TIG. {hastily). 
 success 
 Attests thy wisdom. 
 
 NER. Well, and isn't it sense 
 
 To seek for happiness the natural way ? 
 Not by the notions of philosophers, 
 Who fashion theoretic right and wrong 
 From books ; or if they judge mankind at all, 
 Judge by themselves, who are unlike the rest, 
 Scarce human. 'Tis soundest principle 
 To follow nature ; and what nature is 
 I well perceive. I judge all by myself: 
 The appetites are universal gifts : 
 
 {acts taking 
 Above all gods in this, that full 
 
Act II.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 24.1 
 
 Caesar will never stoop to flatter Caesar 
 By such pretence of difference, nor withold 
 From others what himself loves. I believe 
 That no man in the world worth calling man 
 Is what philosophers term pure and good ; — 
 Nor woman either. All would gratify 
 The strong desires of nature, and all shall 
 While I am emperor. 
 
 TIG. Blessed be the god, 
 
 Who first named thee for rule. 
 
 SCE. We all admire. 
 
 NEK. Is it not sense ? 
 
 I'IG. 'Tis common-sense. 
 
 VA T. I wonder 
 
 None ever thought of it before. 
 
 NEK. Tut ! fool ; 
 
 That is the greatness : 'tis the common thing 
 For man to beat about. True genius 
 Is but simplicity : all great inventions 
 Seem first devices. 
 
 TIG. 'Tis a revolution. 
 
 NEK. Just so : in ethics as in politics. 
 I let the world wag as it will ; and if 
 The world mistake its will, then I am Caesar 
 To wag it. 
 
 VAT. Here's a flaw, good wag ; you judge 
 The appetites of all men by your own : 
 The standard is too high. 
 
 NEK. We'll see to that ; 
 
 By one experiment I'll strangle doubt. 
 This is my plan. I mean to hold a fete, 
 Say at Agrippa's pool : — the folk will need 
 Some such diversion when the fire is o'er : — 
 Thither I'll draw all Rome, with novel shows, 
 Sea fights and monsters ; round about the water, 
 Along the bank, I shall have wine-booths set, 
 Brilliant with luxury and enticement, wine 
 Gratis ; and to all comers night and day 
 They shall stand open. Now I'll have these booths 
 Kept by the Roman ladies : — that's my plan. 
 They shall have license, everything permitted 
 But interference. We will watch our Trojans, 
 How they conduct themselves. 
 
 VAT. This is simplicity. 
 
 NEK. {aside to Tig:). And mark the disaffected. 
 
 TIG. (aside). Here's a trap 
 
 To catch allbut the vermin. 
 
 SCE. A grand invention. 
 
 NEK. The details, my good master, are for you : 
 Our three friends here may help. 
 
 SCE., SE°- and QU. {bowing). Our humble 
 thanks. 
 
 Enter a servant. 
 
 NEK. {to servant). What is it ? 
 
 Serv. Seneca is in attendance, sire. 
 
 TIG. {to Ner.). Send the old man home to his wife. 
 
 A r EK. What can he come for? 
 
 VA T. Is't not the hour for lessons ? 
 
 NEK. Now what say you 
 
 To have him in, and make him of your council 
 For the ordering of the fete? (To serv.) Go^show 
 him here. [Exit servant. 
 
 TIG. (aside to Nero). Jest not with this man, 
 Caesar ; Thrasea and he 
 
 Are your worst enemies. 
 
 NEK. Mighty enemies ! 
 
 TIG. If there were no pretenders. 
 
 NEK. What do you mean ? 
 
 TIG. (apart with Nero). My only pleasure is thy 
 service, Caesar : 
 If 'tis thy will that Tigellinus die, 
 I'll be thy sacrifice and welcome death. 
 The mob shall tear me, as they tore Sejanus, 
 And tread my mangled corpse on Tiber's steps : 
 But pardon Nature's shudderings, they come 
 At sound of these men's names. 
 
 NEK. Why, know you not S30 
 
 I am reconciled with Thrasea, since I put 
 His motion to the senate? While he lets me 
 Go my way, he goes his. 
 
 TIG. And Seneca? 
 
 NEK. Pooh ! 
 
 TIG. Caesar said well these men were not to fear, 
 If there were no pretenders. 
 
 NEK. What pretenders ? 
 
 TIG. Sylla and Plautus are the first to name. 
 
 NEK. Both are retired from Rome. 
 
 TIG. And whither, Caesar? 
 
 Mark you that Sylla is retired to Gaul, 
 Fire to the tinderbox : those doughty legions 
 Forget not how they crossed the Rubicon. 
 And where is Plautus? close by Corbulo, 
 Whose army is a creature of discipline, 
 To serve him as his fingers . . . 
 
 NEK. Corbulo, now ! my prince of generals, 
 Rome's trusty dexter arm. 
 
 TIG. Trust not that giant ! 
 
 Nature packed not his mighty body full 
 Of intrepidity for nought. I well 
 Remember when I sat by him at supper, 
 The day he took his baton ; how his triumph 
 Was undisguised : and when Caesar was mentioned — 
 You happed to have won a horse-race . . . 
 
 NEK. And what said he ? 
 
 TIG. No word, else had I told it ; he but hemmed : 
 But the couch shook. In his big iron chest 
 A thunder rumbled, such as Jove might make 
 If he found Juno faithless. 
 
 NEK. Ha, ha, ha ! 
 
 He'll crunch us, think you, master? But this Sylla 
 Is poor as a rat : and Plautus, if he is wealthy, 
 Lives moderately. 
 
 TIG. Poor men are poor in scruples : 
 
 And rich men that live moderately, be sure, 
 Hide some rich purpose. 
 
 NEK. Had these men a purpose, BB0 
 
 It would be bruited. 
 
 TIG. It is bruited. 
 
 NEK. Ha r 
 
 That's so ? 
 
 TIG. 'Tis also hoped that, being a pair, 
 The one may fight the other and both be slain. 
 
 NEK. That is a trouble we can spare them, 
 master : 
 That were a pity. — I thank you, Tigellinus : — 
 Take you the order for their deaths ; but mind, 
 Secretly, secretly. Here's Seneca. 
 
242 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act II. 
 
 Enter SENECA. (SCE., SE°- and QU. still 
 stand aside.) 
 
 TIG. (aside). Two of my foes wiped out ; now, 
 Mister Seneca, 
 I take you next. 
 
 NER. Good Seneca, what wouldst thou? 
 
 SEN. Csesar, I ask 
 
 A private interview. 
 
 NEE. 'Tis private here : 
 
 This is my privy-council. 
 
 VA T. Rome's triumvirate. 
 
 I la, ha ! we rule the world ! (Tableau.) 
 
 (gesturing). Come, trust thy secret 
 In Ca;sar's ear, my lord. 
 
 SE°- (Aside to See.). Let us make up 
 To Seneca by going out. 
 
 SEN. As Cresar wills. 
 
 SCE. (to Nero). Ca*sar,'s august permission ! 
 
 We are not stoics. 
 
 NER. I understand you, sir : 
 
 You may withdraw. 
 
 SCE., SE°- and QU. Our humble thanks. 
 [Exeunt, bowing separately to Nero and Seneca. 
 
 NER. Now we are private. 
 
 SEN. If your majesty 
 
 Will lend me attention, I will put my business 
 Shortly. 
 
 NER. I shall not interrupt. 
 
 VA T. Nor I ; 880 
 
 Unless I snore, (sits.) 
 
 SEN. 'Tis fourteen years, Caesar, since I. was first 
 Chosen your guide ; and for eight years and more 
 You have governed the empire not without my aid. 
 Through all which time your kindness hath heaped 
 
 on me 
 So many dignities and so much wealth, 
 That nothing wants to my felicity 
 Save some curtailment of it. — I can allege 
 Precedents for my conduct : the divine Augustus, 
 Who was your great-great-grandfather, permitted 
 Marcus Agrippa to withdraw himself 
 To Mitylene and a private life : 
 Maecenas too he let abide in Rome, 
 As in a foreign country, at his ease ; — 
 Whereof the one had served in all his wars, 
 The other toiled at home ; and each grown rich 
 With presents answerable to their high deserts. 
 As for myself, what I have done to merit 
 Your prodigal favour, — being but a student, 
 A teacher, a philosopher, — I say not: 900 
 
 But being enriched, it comforteth my mind 
 'Twas not for me to strive against your gifts. 
 Both of us, sire, have filled our measure, you 
 In giving all a prince should give a friend, 
 I taking what a friend might from a prince. 
 
 But now, sire, in my journey of life grown old, 
 The business of my riches burdens me. 
 And 'tis by envy augmented ; which if you 
 Be set above the sting of, yet 'tis known 
 What curse to peace it is. Wherefore I pray, 
 Let me retire. I crave your helping hand 
 To ease me of my wealth : that I restore 
 Whence first I had it, to yourself : receive it, 
 I pray you, as your own. You, in your flower, 
 
 May serve your generation, and permit 
 
 Your old friends to betake themselves to rest. 
 
 'Twill be your praise, sire, to have enriched such men 
 
 As could live happy in a mean estate. 
 
 TIG. (half aside). There's something behind this. 
 
 NER. (to Tig.). Silence, I bid ! 
 
 (to Sen.). If, Seneca, I am able out of hand 
 To meet thy long premeditated speech 
 With equal answer, that I owe to thee, 
 And thine instruction. — First thou didst allege 
 Maecenas and Agrippa : but from them 
 Divine Augustus took not back their wealth ; 
 Which if they won in danger, yet I doubt not 
 Thy weapons and thy hand would not have wanted 
 Had I had need of them. But what I needed 
 That gavest thou ; such reason and good counsel 
 As shall abide with me while my life lasteth. U3 ° 
 
 Those goods material, which thou hadst of me, 
 Are liable to perish ; and I am shamed 
 That thou, who art the first in my affection, 
 Art not first also in wealth : — nay, there be slaves 
 Own more than thou : — and for thine age, I know 
 Thou'rt lusty for thy years, and able well 
 To enjoy thy wealth and its commodities. 
 
 Keep thy rewards still, and still do us service : 
 If slipperiness of youth be overprone 
 To what it should not, thou mayst draw us back ; 
 And our unseemly and unruly zeal 
 Temper with kind advice. Harked I to thee, 
 'Tis not thy moderation we should hear of, 
 Nay, nor thy ease, shouldst thou forsake our service : 
 Rather my covetousness and thy fear 
 Would be in all men's mouths. 'Twould ill beseem 
 Such a philosopher as thou, at cost 
 Of thy friend's infamy to win thy comfort. 
 
 TIG. Hear, hear ! 'Tis well said, Caesar ! 
 
 VA T. Admirable ! 
 
 But somewhat senecal. 
 
 NER. Embrace me, Seneca. M " 
 
 Let us be friends. 
 
 VAT. Ye T gods ! I shall be jealous. 
 
 Me too, my lord. 
 
 SEN. If, Cresar, in this embrace 
 
 Power kissed philosophy, 'twere well with both. 
 
 NER. I have my own philosophy to kiss ; 
 Be thou content with thine. 
 
 SEN. Nay, the wise man 
 
 Is so convinced of truth, he seeks to impart it. 
 
 NER. I would impart my wisdom unto thee. 
 
 (A messenger enters and speaks to Tigellinus, who 
 goes out with him.) 
 
 SEN. Alas ! all schools alike spue out your 
 doctrines, 
 Zeno or Epicurus. 
 
 NER. That is because 
 
 You all agree to teach what none believes, 
 That pain and misery and death are nothing, 
 But goodness all-sufficient. Tell me, Seneca, 
 Can a good man be happy on the rack ? 
 
 VA T. Not if the rack be good. 
 
 SEN. Such questions, Caesar, 
 
 Have their fit time and place. I came to offer 
 My wealth and counsel both ; you refuse both, 
 And let your fool mock me. — Knows he not whom 
 111 manners hurt, that thus he wounds his master? 
 
Act II.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 243 
 
 NER. And better have no manners than be made, 
 As thou, of manners only. Thou affectest i,7 ° 
 
 Insensibility ; thy pompous maxims 
 Of wordy wisdom thou wouldst pass for strong 
 Because they are harsh, generous because inflated. 
 Thy rhetoric is like a mouldy cake ; 
 I have eaten to loathing of it : I would no more. 
 
 SEN. Look for no more. That speech delivers 
 you. 
 Whether my words are false and empty bubbles 
 There's nought to show, but 'twill appear the day 
 When life must answer for it : — The condition, 
 Caesar, I accept, and do not fear the judgment. 
 
 [Bcrws to Nero and exit. 
 
 Re-enter TIGELLINUS excitedly. 
 
 TIG. My house is burning, Caesar ! 
 
 NER. Well ! if it be ? 
 
 By all the gods, vex me not now. 
 
 TIG. My house ! 
 
 NER. And what's thy house, curse it ? when half 
 the city 
 Was burned to the ground, wert thou not cool ? why now 
 Fume for thy house ? 
 
 TIG. Caesar, the Vatican ! 
 
 NER. The Vatican ! 
 
 TIG. You may see it from the windows. 
 
 NER. {going to window). Then Rome will all be 
 burned. 
 
 TIG. {aside). And by thy foes. 
 
 When the wind was in the south, they fired the south : 
 Now it hath changed, they fire the north. 
 
 NER. (returning). 'Tis true. 
 
 I can do no more : it must burn. 
 
 TIG. What, sire, »° 
 
 To tell the captains ? May they use discretion 
 To pull down ? 
 
 NER. Bid them change the wind, man : bid them 
 Snow from the south. Wood must burn ; when 'tis 
 
 burnt, 
 I will rebuild in stone. Go : tell them that ! 
 Go, sir ! Stay : hark ! Have supper laid to-night 
 On the palace roof, music beneath, and ladders 
 Outside for the attendance. [Exit Tig. and Fat. 
 
 If Rome must burn, 
 Well, let me see it. [Goes to window.) 
 
 Enter POPP/EA. 
 
 POP. Ah, Nero, Nero ! Rome will all be burned. 
 Canst thou do nought ? 
 
 NER. Nothing. Come watch it with me. 
 
 What are my spectacles to this? The gods 
 Burn at my feet the capital of the world, 
 'Tis done for me to look on. 
 
 POP. Hast thou a heart ? 
 
 NER. There is no mischief, love, I am not a 
 match for. 
 Rome is a second Troy, but when Troy burned 
 None built it up ; but I will rebuild Rome : 
 Its name shall be Neropolis. 
 
 POP. Vain thou art ! 
 
 NER. Eh ! wouldst thou have it called Poppae- 
 polis ? 
 
 POP. I would not jest to think of all the misery, 
 These homeless thousands . . . 
 
 NER. Seneca hath taught me lnl " 
 
 The good man cannot suffer, and the bad 
 Deserves ill-fortune. 
 
 POP. Woe to me ! alas, 
 
 That e'er I loved thee ! one day too shall I 
 Taste of thy scorn. 
 
 NER. Nay, love ; thy will's my law. 
 
 Tell me what I shall do. 
 
 POP. If thou didst love me 
 
 Thou wouldst not suffer Acte in the palace. 
 
 NER. Acte ! what's she to do with it now ? and 
 yet 
 If that's thy sorrow, she shall go to-day. 
 Send the witch hither. 
 
 POP. And never to return. 
 
 NER. Send her at once. I promised thee. 
 
 [Exit Poppcra. 
 See how 
 'Tis private pleasure that she seeks, nought else : 
 And Seneca the same. That's the true fire, 
 That burns unquenchable in all human hearts. 
 Let it rage, and consume the rotten timbers 
 Of old convention, the dry mouldering houses 
 Of sad philosophy, that in their stead 
 I may build up the free and ample structure 
 Of modern wisdom. Ay, and let Rome burn. 
 Blow, wind, and fan the flames till all's consumed ; 
 That out of full destruction may arise 1 " 3 " 
 
 The perfect city of my reconstruction, 
 Beautiful, incombustible, Neronic, 
 Good out of ill : or rather there's no ill : 
 'Tis good's condition, cradle : 'tis good itself. 
 
 But now for Acte, my Acte : poor little Acte ! 
 That bearest all so patiently ; the insult 
 And domineering scorn, which this fine lady, 
 Whom for her beauty I have made my empress, 
 Pours on thy head ! Thou shah have full protection : 
 I cannot give it here, but I can send thee 
 To those who hate thy rival, and for that 
 Will cherish thee. Thy rival ! rob me of thee ! 
 Why, there's no clown in my subservient world, 
 No drudge of lot the vilest, but may smile 
 Secure in tyranny of one fair province, 
 Where young love first campaigned, the tender trust 
 Of a devoted woman : and shall Caesar 
 Throw up this allmen's joy ? nay, here the heart 
 
 rules : 
 Who aims at thee wounds me. 
 
 Re-enter POPPsEA with A CTE. 
 I thank thee, love; now leave us. Hither, Acte! l05ft 
 
 {Poppica goes out, and is seen to hide where she ran be 
 seen by the audience, and can overhear.) 
 
 ACT. Caesar sent for me. 
 
 NER. My sweetest, dearest girl : my only pleasure. 
 I have ill news for thee. 
 
 ACT. Nought can seem ill 
 
 Told me by Nero. 
 
 NER. Acte, thy noble Caesar 
 
 Is sometimes sad. 
 
 ACT. Ah, 'tis the fire : thou'rt sorry 
 
 For thy poor folk. Would I bad strength to cheer 
 
 thee, 
 If thou didst send for this. 
 
244 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act III. i, 
 
 NER. No : but to sec thee 
 
 Doth comfort me. It comforts me to tell thee 
 I am not happy. 
 
 ACT. Let the happiness 
 
 Which thy love gives :ne, turn to thee again. 10fio 
 
 NER. Acte, I think, I know, Acte, that thou 
 Art the only one in the world that truly loves me. 
 
 ACT. I wish it were no crime to wish I were. 
 Yet I would have all love thee, since I know 
 None can as I. 
 
 NER. And none hath loved so long : 
 Thou wert my first delight. 
 
 ACT. Did Caesar send 
 
 To tell me this bad news? 
 
 NER. Nay, but I love to tell it : 
 
 Now for the bad. Hark : thou must leave the palace : 
 Poppsea is jealous, and the day draws near 
 When she and I must solemnize our nuptials : 
 Rome needs an heir. 
 
 ACT. I am not jealous of her, 
 
 If Caesar love me ; for I know that Caesar 
 Cannot be bound like other men. 
 
 NER. 'Tis true : 
 
 And I can send thee too where they will love thee ; 
 To Silia's house ; thou wilt be happier there. 
 
 ACT. 1 think so. 
 
 NER. This is not dismissal. 
 
 ACT. Nay. 
 
 NER. 'Tis needful for thy sake. 
 
 ACT. I know that Nero 
 
 Will not love Acte less, when she is away 
 From his dislikes. 
 
 NER. Ah, pretty sweet, thou know'st 
 
 My secretest heart. Come, I will write a letter inR0 
 For thee to take to Silia. Come ! (The fire brightens.) 
 
 ACT. (turning). O, Nero, 
 
 The fire, the fire ! I am frightened. 
 
 NER. Hide thine eyes 
 
 And think not of it. 
 
 ACT. Nay, but I can hear it, 
 And smell the smoke. 
 
 NER. It shall not hurt thee, darling : 
 
 And Silia's house lies down beyond the Tiber, 
 Far from the flames. Come, sweetest, thou shalt sit 
 Beside me while I write the letter. Come ! 
 I treasure thee 'bove all I have. Fear not ! 
 
 [Exeunt Nero and Acte. Poppeea comes out from 
 where she was hid. The fire rages. 
 
 POP. Accursed wretch ! I knew it : she is thy wife, 
 And I thy harlot. Yet I can dissemble — 
 I can dissemble too — I, sanctified 
 By long devotion to the Queen of heaven, 
 Shelter too well thy godless head. I live 
 To reign when thou art dead. Vain, hideous fool ! 
 Whose heart not murder scathes nor fire can scare, 
 Proof by self-evil against all outer evil : 
 There is one mischief that thou'rt not a match for, 
 The hate of thy bed-fellow. I shall be avenged. 
 
 END OF ACT II. 
 
 ( There is at the end of this act such a tableau of fire 
 as the stage machinery will allow of The fire 
 is first seen thro 1 the windows when Tigellinus 
 sends Nero to the window at line 986. At Acte's 
 speech, "Nero, the fire!" it is very bright: and 
 its climax is during Pofiptra's last speech. ) 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 A burned street in Home : flight. 
 
 THRASEA. 
 
 In these burned streets I wander like a ghost : 
 
 Rome is no more : O see, my memoried Rome, uo ° 
 
 My senatorial city is burned and gone ! 
 
 The city of Camillus, whose abrupt 
 
 And tortuous streets my ancestors have threaded, 
 
 Here going about a tower of Servius, 
 
 Here an Etruscan temple of carved wood, 
 
 Here by some patriot tribune's gabled home : 
 
 All gone, as the free spirit that made it, gone : 
 
 And I like this old beam, in vain escaped 
 
 The burning, shall be cast out, nor find place 
 
 In the new Rome that Caesar promises, 
 
 O'erlaid with perfected monotony, 
 
 The textbook ornaments of shallow taste, 
 
 Imperial gewgaws. — What poet was it said 
 
 That Desolation was a beautiful thing? 
 
 What parricidal spirit ? To cut down 
 
 And burn the gnarl'd trunk of a thousand years, 
 
 And plant the trifling shoot of one gay summer 
 
 Rootless in the ground. (Cries heard.) What noise 
 
 is this? 
 Some wretched Christian, that in blind revenge 
 The maddened people sacrifice. 
 
 Enter the mob carrying off CL1TUS — EPI- 
 CHARIS following. 
 
 Mob. Burn him ! To the Vatican ! to the Vati- 
 can ! Burn him ! 
 
 EP. Pity, pity, pity, sirs ! He is guiltless, 
 indeed he is guiltless. He is my brother. 
 
 THR. Stay, ye mad fools ! To what detestable, 
 Forbidden crime of hellish witchcraft haste ye ! 
 
 Mob. Here's another. He's a Christian. Seize 
 him ! 
 
 THR. Hands off, fools ! I am Thrasea. 
 
 Mob. Thrasea ! uao 
 
 THR. Are ye Romans ? 
 
 Citizen. 'Tis Nero's order. 
 
 EP. (kneeling to Thrasea). O sir, save thou my 
 brother. 
 
 Cit. If thou wert Thrasea, man, thou wouldst not 
 hinder us from punishing them that fired the city. 
 
 Mob. On! on! 
 
 Another Cit. Nay, nor let any Christian woman 
 touch thee. 
 
 Mob. To the Vatican ! on ! (going. ) 
 
 THR. Fools, I am Thrasea, and I bid you stay. 
 
 Mob. Burn him, burn him ! [Exeunt mob, etc. 
 
 THR. Stay ! Are ye men ? 
 
 EP. O sir, 'tis my brother, my brother Clitus ; 
 save him ! 
 
 'THR. What can I do ? Alas, (calls) stay ! stay ! 
 (to Ep.) Thou seest. [Exeunt running. 
 
 Enter LATE RAN US and FLAVUS. 
 
 LAT. This is the only way. The Fabian street 
 Is blocked with red-hot aslus. 
 
 FLA. Where's this Nalalis? 
 
Act III. i, 2.] The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 245 
 
 LA T. He should be here ; we must wait for him. 
 
 FLA. You trust him, sir? 
 
 LA T. Yes. 
 
 FLA. And Piso ? 
 
 LAT. Certainly. 
 
 FLA. It is hard, sir, for a man like me, to trust 
 a man like Piso. I yield to the choice of my betters, 
 and the vote of the majority. I would not split the 
 party. Yet I wish we had persuaded Seneca ! 
 
 LA T. So do I, and it cost him a pang to refuse. 
 'Twas only Thrasea's opinion that overweighted him. 
 
 FLA. Priscus ruined us. 
 
 LA T. There's no choice for us now ; and I doubt 
 not we can make Piso emperor. He hath a wider 
 following than Seneca. But when we have set him 
 up, 'twill be in the power of any to pull him down. 
 
 FLA. And then Seneca : why not Seneca then ? 
 
 LA T. Hush ! who comes ? 
 
 FLA. "f is Rufus. 
 
 Enter RUFUS. 
 
 RUF. Good evening, gentlemen ; go you to 
 Petronius'? 1170 
 
 FLA. We do, general. 
 
 LA T. We wait for Natalis. 
 
 RUF. Flavus, I'm glad of thee ; hast thou heard 
 of any new adherents ? 
 
 FLA. Too many, general : and not the least some 
 of Caesar's bosom friends. 
 
 RUF. Who are they? 
 
 FLA. There's Scevinus, hot as fire, who drags 
 with him Senecio and Quintian, with one or two more 
 filibustering fellows. 
 
 RUF. The household contingent should help us 
 when we come to close quarters. 
 
 FLA. If they are to be trusted. 
 
 RUF. If a man cannot be trusted to hate Nero 
 for a week or ten days, there's little to reckon on in 
 this world. 
 
 LA T. Here is Natalis. 
 
 Enter NAT ALLS. 
 
 NAT. All's well. Piso is at Petronius'. 
 
 RUF. Hath he consented to head our party? 
 
 NAT. Yes, believe me. But you will find him 
 cautious and delicate in speaking of it. 
 
 FLA. If he speak not, how shall we trust him ? 
 He may turn on us. 
 
 NAT. My life for yours; my assurance; what 
 oath you will . . . 
 
 RUF. We know, Natalis, -thou art a man of 
 honour, 
 One that would not deceive us, wert thou not 
 As heartily with us as I know thou art. 
 
 NA T. I am much hurt that Flavus questions Piso. 
 
 RUF. He knows not, sir, the perfect intimacy 
 'Twixt Piso and thee. For my part, I should think 
 Piso unreliable, if I should find him ia)1 
 
 Hasty and indiscreet in such a matter. 
 
 FLA. 1 use but the same caution. 
 
 NA T. I do not blame you : 
 
 But be assured he is won. — My part is done. 
 Go you and prosper. Farewell, sirs. (going) 
 
 All. Farewell. [Exit Natalis. 
 
 RUF. 'Tis good, now let us to Petronius'. 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 The previous scene withdraws, showing a 
 s upper-room in the house of PETRO- 
 NIUS. Slaves removing the last of the 
 feast. PETRONIUS, PISO, I UCAN, 
 SCEVINUS, SENECIO, and QUIN- 
 TIAN Three places are empty. 
 
 PETRONIUS. 
 
 {To Piso.) That's the last dish, my lord: a little 
 banquet 
 Of fruit remains, and, best of all my supper, 
 Three jars of Otho's wine. 
 
 PIS. I la! merry Otho, 
 
 Become a man of affairs. Drink we to him 
 And Lusitania. 
 
 LUC. (rising excitedly). A toast with Otho's name ! 
 Republican integrity ! 
 
 PET. What a fuss, 
 
 Lucan, you make, because a gentleman 
 Is honest. What else could you expect of Otho? 
 
 SE°- When, too, there's nought worth stealing in 
 his province. 
 
 PIS. (to Petr.). You, sir, would underrate high 
 qualities, 
 Being proved in them yourself. Bithynia 
 Praises you still, though Rome forgets your zeal 
 In the grace of your retirement. Will you never 
 Mix in affairs again? 
 
 PET. Nothing could tempt me. mo 
 
 The very thought of travelling wearies me, 
 And the occupation of the mind in matters 
 That any clerk is fit for. — Yet I praise 
 The world and all its fret : its vanity, 
 Advertisement, vulgarity and dirt 
 Are precious for one thing ; they make retirement 
 Positive joy. Blest are the gods who sit 
 On changeless seats. I think they framed the world 
 That they might look upon it and rejoice 
 They lived not in it : that's its use to me. 
 
 LUC. True, as Rome says, Petronius, thou art 
 steeped 
 In gross epicurism. 
 
 PET. Bravo, stoic ! 
 
 I may be what men say : yet very few 
 Are what they show the world : there's a screw-twist 
 In every mind. It is the sensuous man 
 Follows asceticism : the passionate man 
 Who is practised in reserve. Why Know thyself, 
 Unless to hide thyself? Look at the houses 
 Of our philosophers : the epicurean, 
 Who holds the happiness of life depends 1 - 41 ' 
 
 On small accessories, lives in discomfort : 
 The stoic, he who says all outward matters 
 Concern him not a pin, orders his home 
 With scrupulous care ; however nice your taste, 
 There's not a better host. 
 
 QU. You'd tell us then 
 
 You set no store by elegance and culture. 
 
 PET. Eh ! I' may be an exception, sir : and yet 
 I'd have you think I most love elegance 
 Where 'tis most rare and out of reach of the world. 
 
246 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. [Act III. 2. 
 
 I'd not without reserve praise Lucan's style uao 
 
 In poetry. 
 
 SCE. Nor his matter. 
 
 SE°- Yes, his matter, 
 
 Where he laments the fall of the republic; 
 " lutt if the fates could find no other way 
 " For Cesar to succeed . . . what was't he said? 
 
 QU. "All crimes and horrors toe with joy regard, 
 11 Since tlwu, Nero, art our great reward,' 
 
 {Laughter. ) 
 
 LUC. Let that be read with what I have written 
 since. 
 What thinkest thou, Senecio, of the days 
 When thou wert Nero's darling? If what thou didst 
 Be as well condoned by what thou goest to do, 
 As what I wrote shall be by what I write, 
 Thou'lt be a hero. 
 
 SCE. Hear, hear ! 
 
 PE T. {who has motioned the slaves out). Really, sirs, 
 You grow obscure. 
 
 PIS. Explain. 
 
 SCE. Ay, speak your mind. 
 
 LUC. I ask then, is Senecio still content 
 To share in Nero's deeds? 
 
 SE°- Nay, I abjure them. 
 
 LUC. {coming to him). Patriot, I take thy hand ! 
 
 SCE. And I. 
 
 QU. And I. 
 
 LUC. Ye too abjure the bloody tyrant's guilt? 
 Would ye see Rome free, let us make an oath 
 By black Styx, and invoke the gods of crime ! 
 
 PET. Hey-dav! here's tinsel! — Let me refill 
 your cup, 1 "' u 
 
 Piso ; the gold mellows this ruby juice, 
 As music comforts poetry, and the eye 
 Assists the palate {pouring). 
 
 LUC. Is't not true, Petronius, 
 
 Thou dost hate Nero too? Thou hast held aloof 
 From all his crimes. Thou sippest an exile's wine, 
 Thou laughest and art comfortable : ah ! man, 
 Stop well thine ears with luxury, lest thou hear 
 The shrieks in Caesar's garden, where men burn 
 To light his revels up. 
 
 SE°- Ay, burned alive, 
 
 Because he saith they burned the city, — and he 
 Did it himself: would he were burned. 
 
 QU. I heard him 
 
 Whisper to Tigellinus, "I had liefer 
 'Twere all burnt than a little ; help it, master ! " 
 And so it was. — 
 
 PET. I have come to see the purpose of this 
 supper. 
 ( To Piso.) The company, my lord, was gathered here 
 Py Famius Rufus : he and other two 
 Have disappointed me . . . My lord, I see 
 My house was chosen for security. 
 I'll take it as a compliment : you are welcome 
 To all but my attention. Ha ! I think 
 Here be the others.— {Letting in RUFUS, LATER- 
 ANUS and FLA VUS. ) Welcome, my lords ! 
 
 RUF. I fear we are late, Petronius. 
 
 PE T. Make excuse 
 
 To my most honoured guest. {They bow to Piso.) 
 
 PIS. Ye are come in time 
 
 To share the best of wine. 
 
 PE T. Pray serve yourselves : 
 
 I go to close the door 'gainst listeners. 
 
 RUF. {to Luc). Ye have broached the business? 
 
 L UC. {to Ruf. ). Yes. {Motioning. ) 
 
 RUF. Nay, I'll sit here, 
 
 And fill my cup. {Sitting.) 
 
 PIS. And you too, sirs, be seated. 
 
 RUF. {pouring). I saw a sight as I came here: 
 the mob 
 Dragging some wretched Christian to be burned. 130 ° 
 And all the while his sister ran beside, 
 With her vain anguish heightening their fury : 
 And he ! . . believe me, I never saw a man 
 In all my life look better pleased. — I quaff 
 To Piso. 
 
 All {toasting). Piso ! Piso ! 
 
 RUF. And what saith 
 
 Calpurnius Piso? 
 
 PIS. How, general ? 
 
 R UF. You consent ? 
 
 PIS. Consent to what ? 
 
 LUC. Speak, Rufus. 
 
 LA T. Let the general 
 
 Make our proposals to his lordship. 
 
 All. Hear, hear ! {Petronius returns.) 
 
 RUF. My lords and gentlemen, since I am chosen 
 To expound the common thought ... It sprang at 
 
 first, 
 I think, of the earthquake : seeing Caesar's life 
 So near extinguished, as it was, at Naples ; 
 It came into our minds that no provision 
 Was made for the succession ; which neglect, 
 In case of accident, might cause disturbance, 
 And saddle us with an upstart. We agreed 
 To choose our Caesar ; but, to shield ourselves, 
 Would sound him privately. 
 
 PIS. My noble friends, 
 
 Ye are justified by circumstance : I share 
 Your fears, and was acquainted with your purpose. 
 But, ere I stand committed to your party, 
 What are their names? Have you them writ? 
 
 LUC. No, no. 
 
 We write no names. 
 
 ITS. Who be they ? 
 
 RUF. You see us here. 
 
 There are besides, my tribunes Statius Proximus 
 And Granius Silvanus : my centurions 
 Scaurus and Paullus. There's Sulpitius Asper, 
 And Julius Tugerinus, Martius Festus, 
 Proculus, a whole list, — Munatius Gratus, 
 Vulcatius Avaricus . . . 
 
 PIS. And the consul 
 
 Vestinus ? 
 
 RUF. Nay. 
 
 PIS. Thrasea and Priscus ? 
 
 RUF. No. 133n 
 
 PIS. We lack the senatorials then : perhaps 
 Seneca is with us ? 
 
 RUF. Nay, nor he, my lord. 
 
 PIS. You mentioned Proculus : doth Proculus 
 Bring all the navy? 
 
 RUF. Nay, our Proculus 
 
 Is not Volusius. 
 
 PIS. Nor the navy either ! 
 
 SE° I know the Admiral, my lord : let me 
 Sound him, if he hangs back. 
 
Act III. 2, 3.] The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 247 
 
 No hangers-back. 
 Your name, my lord, when we may mention 
 
 FLA. 
 RUF. 
 
 it, 
 Is all-sufficient. 
 
 PIS. I give not my name 
 
 Till Nero is dead. 
 
 FLA. That will be soon. 
 
 SCE. Three days. 
 
 PIS. Indeed! how know you? 
 
 SCE. Here I show you a sword 
 
 I have whetted for the deed. 
 
 FLA. Eh, sir! and who 
 
 Named thee? 
 
 SCE. Myself to Capitolian Jove 
 Offered myself and weapon. 
 
 FLA. And what, I pray, 
 
 Said Jupiter? 
 
 PET. Peace, peace ! Here in my house 
 
 Let me be chairman. 
 
 I'll ask Scevinus first to state his plan. 
 
 FLA. Yes, state it, sir. 
 
 SCE. I would set fire to his house, 
 
 And stab him as he hurried to and fro. 
 
 PET. Enough of fire. The palace is already 
 Half-burned, and what remains of it is prospectively 
 Piso's. — Now, Subrius Flavus, what's your scheme? 
 
 FLA. I'd kill him when he is singing on the 
 stage, 
 In face of all the people, a sacrifice 
 To his Greek Apollo. 
 
 PET. Not ill thought of, sir ; 
 
 But who's to do it? — Well, Senecio? 
 
 SE°- Why fix the time or place? Let all here 
 swear 
 That the first one of us who can approach him 
 Shall stab him to the heart. 
 
 RUF. Yes, and be killed for it. 
 
 'Tis rare that Caesar goes unguarded now. 1;5fi0 
 
 LUC. You bid us sacrifice our lives, but I 
 Would gaze, like Cassius, on my glorious deed. 
 
 PET. Then, Lucan, have you a plan? 
 
 LUC. I should propose 
 
 To leave the deed to Rufus : he commands 
 The needful force. 
 
 PET. Well, Rufus? 
 
 RUF. 'Tis not easy, 
 
 As Lucan thinks : and if he escape our swords, 
 'Tis death to us all. There is but one way free 
 Of personal risk. — If Piso would invite him 
 To an entertainment at his house at Naples, 
 We might be sure of him. 
 
 PIS. {rising). What ! Good Heavens, General ! 
 Take you me for a Jew ? An entertainment ! 
 My house ! 
 
 PET. Hear, hear ! 
 
 PIS. . Rufus, and all my friends, 
 
 Hear me. While Nero lives, my life's in danger : 
 Yet will I never move to take him off. 
 If you shall choose to do it, or if he die, 
 I'll be your Caesar : there's no more to say. 
 I leave you to consult, {cooing) 
 
 PET. Not in my house. 
 
 As chairman I adjourn the meeting : nay, 
 I have done more than my duty. 
 
 LUC. And why, Petronius, 
 
 Wilt thou not join us ? 
 
 PET. Rather, I beg you each, 13s(> 
 
 Whoever may be Caesar, to remember 
 My innocence, and leave me to myself. 
 
 PIS. Why for your very virtue I shall need yon. 
 
 PET. Indeed, my lord, you know me not : my 
 habits 
 Are incompatible with business. 
 Ye have eaten with me now, but, late as 'tis, 
 Your supper is my breakfast ; and while you 
 Go to your beds, I shall begin my day : 
 Like an old lion . . . 
 
 L UC. Or like an owl. 
 
 PET. Well, sparrow, 
 
 Or like an owl, that makes his day of night, 
 And when men stir hies to his barn ; so I : 
 And by this trick of time shut myself off 
 From half the curse of life. You little think 
 What charm the witching night hath for her lovers : 
 How her solemnity doth deepen thought, 
 And bring again the lost hellenic Muse 
 To sing from heaven : or on moonlit swards 
 Of fancy shadows in transfigured scene 
 The history of man. — Thus, like a god, 
 I dwell ; and take the early morning cries 14 "" 
 
 For calls to sleep ; and from divinity 
 Fall to forgetfulness, while bustling day 
 Ravages life ; and know no more of it,- — 
 Your riot and din, the plots and crimes of Rome, — 
 Than doth a diver in Arabian seas, 
 Plunging for pearls beneath the lonely blue : 
 But o'er my slumbering head soft airs of dreamland 
 Rock their wild honey-blooms, till the shy stars 
 Once more are venturing forth, and I awake. 
 Is not that something? 
 
 PIS. Ha, ha ! Well, good-night ! 
 
 I mean good-morning. Yet ere we depart 
 I'll take each by the hand, — you, sir, and you, — 
 And let it be an earnest of my favour 
 In time to come : I shall remember all. 
 Consult meanwhile with Rufus : I shall see him, 
 And shall myself make ready. 
 
 PET. The slaves, my lord, 
 
 Are sent away : I'll show you to the street : 
 Come : you shall see me undo the doors, and say 
 I care well for my safety. Pray keep silence. 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 The next morning : a room in Lucan 's house. 
 Enter a servant. 
 
 Serr. Scarce an hour after sunrise, and two ladies 
 for my master already. This it is to be a poet. One 
 gives ••no name ; the other is Thrasea's daughter, 
 Priscus' young wife. I am to take her first : though 
 the other looks the more pressing. (Goes to side, and 
 returns ushering FANNIA. ) If my lady will kindly- 
 wait here a moment. 
 
 FAN. Is your master not up ? 
 
 Serv. He was late last night, my lady : and is 
 now breakfasting. 
 
 FAN. Will he not see me? ,48 ° 
 
 .9(77'. Yes, my lady. [Exit. 
 
 FAN. It is then as we feared : Lucan was there. 
 He is one of the conspiracy of Piso, 
 
248 
 
 The Second Part of N 
 
 [Act III. 3. 
 
 And lie was at Petronius' house last night: 
 1 come loo late. 
 
 Enter LUC AN, hurriedly. 
 
 Fannia, good-morning ! 
 
 Good-morning, cousin ! 
 
 What brings you here so early? 
 
 Ah ! if I am not too late ! My husband 
 
 / I \\ 
 
 FAX. 
 
 LUC. 
 
 FAN. 
 sent me 
 To save thy life. 
 
 1. 1 \ '. [excitedly). What's this ? 
 
 FAN. These were his words, 
 
 ' Bid him, by all we love and hold in common, 
 'Withdraw from the conspiracy.' 
 
 LUC. (aside). 'Tis nothing. 
 
 {to Fan. ). I thank thee. Take this answer to the 
 
 message, 
 ' I bid him, by the love we hold in common, 
 'Join the conspiracy.' 
 
 FAN. Judge, my dear cousin, 
 
 By them that hold aloof how ill 'tis plotted. 
 
 L UC. Then rather win the hearts that hold aloof, 
 Than tamper with the movers. 
 
 FAN. Sir, my husband .... 
 
 LUC. Thou hast the fairest star in heaven to 
 guide thee. 
 
 FAN. Let him guide thee. 
 
 LUC. I must not hear thee, cousin. 
 
 Write down my name 'mong the tyrannicides. H5 " 
 I know I have thy prayers ; and to say truth, 
 I need them : 'tis an anxious time : indeed 
 While we talk here, a secret messenger 
 Awaits me : the suspense distracts me. Excuse 
 
 me ! , 
 Farewell ! 
 FAN 
 L UC. 
 
 I must . . . 
 
 Ah, Lucan, Lucan ! 
 Give 
 My thanks and love to Friscus. 
 
 FAN. Alas ! Farewell. 
 
 May the gods aid thee ! [Exit. 
 
 L UC. In sleep or action is my mind at ease : 
 Betwixt the two, each moment is a world 
 Of scared imaginations. Better suffer 
 One worst at once, than all the thousand tortures 
 The making mind invents. Who is this woman, 
 That I should dread her message with more fear 
 Than I would grant to death ? 
 
 Enter EPLCHARLS. 
 
 Come in ! Ah, lady, I fear there's something ill? 
 Com'st thou from . . . say, bringst thou a secret 
 
 message ? 
 What is't? Ay, sit and speak. 
 
 EP. (sitting). Art thou the poet Lucan ? 
 
 LUC. lam. 
 
 EP. 'Tis well. 
 
 I bring this book, (giving. ) 
 
 LUC. I la ! a passport : from whose hand? 
 
 E P. A courtier t,'ave it me in lieu of money. 
 
 LUC. (aside). The copy I gave to Quintian.- 
 
 Was it Quintian ? 
 
 EP. No, sir. Ask not his name. 
 
 L UC. Tell me thy message ; 
 
 f h if this book is all, what is thy price? 
 
 EP. Sir, I was told this book, if given to Nero, 
 Would be thy death. 'Tis writ by thee? 1475 
 
 L UC. | It is. 
 
 EP. Then thou dost hate him. 
 
 LUC. (aside). What should this lead to? 
 
 Thy manner frights me, lady, not thy matter. 
 Who art thou, pale and breathless as the grave, 
 That comest thus ? 
 
 EP. My name is Epicharis. 
 
 Three days ago, sir, when this book was given me, 
 I thought to bring it back to thee, from whom 
 No doubt 'twas stolen, and win gold for my silence. 
 To-day I ask not money ; but much more 
 I'll ask, if by this chance I have found in Rome 
 The man to avenge me. 
 
 LUC. Avenge thee? What is thy wrong? 
 
 Tremble not so. 
 
 EP. Wilt thou ? Art thou the man? 
 
 Dost thou hate Nero ? 
 
 LUC. Pray, lady, be still. 
 
 EP. Sir, canst thou help me? 
 LUC. If thou art wronged by Nero, 
 
 Lady, I can and will help thee. 
 ^ EP. And thou 
 
 Thyself too art in danger. 
 
 LUC. In greater danger 
 
 Than thou surmisest. 
 
 EL\ If all wait their turn, 
 
 Who shall be left to avenge ? 
 
 L UC. I do not wait. 
 
 Let me beseech thee, lady, master this passion, 
 And tell thy grief. 
 
 EP. My grief? nay, that's past telling : 
 
 There are no words for that. Yet fear not, sir ; 
 I can be quiet while I tell my story. 
 
 LUC. Be comforted to know thou tellest to one 
 Thy sworn ally, before thou sayst a word. 
 To his strong mortal anger add thy cause. 
 
 EP. I shall, sir ; I can. All womanly soft 
 feeling ls,, ° 
 
 I have driven for ever from me ; and I have sworn 
 A pact with tears, that I will shed not one 
 Till I be avenged. 
 
 LUC. Trust me ; and tell thy wrong. 
 
 EP. I live at Naples, sir; my mother keeps 
 The tavern where the sailors most resort. 
 My father died five years ago, and then 
 It happened that my brother, my only brother, — 
 Whose generous nature blamed the life of gain 
 That there we led, — left us, and was ere-long 
 Inveigled by the Christian sect. It happened 
 He met their leader Paulus, — whom 'twas said 
 Burrus protected, — for he came by Naples, 
 And there my brother heard him, and had after 
 Strange visions, and believed the end of the world 
 Was near, and Christ would come to reign in Rome, 
 And other doctrines taught by Paul ; and lately, 
 Three days ago, he saw Paul in a dream, 
 Who beckoned him to Rome. Hither he came, 
 And I soon after him, being full of fear, 
 Knowing the ill-odour of his sect, and him 
 Inclined to boast it ; and so I came. The Christians 
 Were seized last night, and my poor brother, sir, 
 Though unknown, unsuspected and unchallenged, 
 Gave himself up. Now all is over. 
 
 Z UC. Thou meanest . . . 
 
 EP. I could not stay him. I saw him taken. 
 One Thrasea, 15 '- >!i 
 
Act IV. i.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 249 
 
 A senator, whose voice seemed powerful with them, 
 Joined his commands with my poor prayers in vain : 
 'Twas Nero's order. 
 
 LUC. Was he burned? 
 
 EP. Ye gods, 
 
 If there be any gods ; if there be Christ, 
 Or Zeus, or Jove, or who you will, look down, 
 Avenge ! 
 
 L UC. Thou shalt be avenged. 
 EP. I know not, sir, 
 
 Where I have been, nor how my brother suffered : 
 He had no fear ; he welcomed death : and yet, — 
 Ah ! what I saw ! were it assured a dream, 
 I would not live after that dream ; the memory 
 Would make a horror of joy. I pray to die, 
 Die and forget ; but first live and avenge him : 
 I will do that : help me or show me how. 
 
 LUC. Can thy just hate teach thy tongue silence, 
 
 lady? 
 EP. Fear not my tongue : fear nothing : were I 
 not brave, 
 Should I be alive? should I be here ? 
 
 LUC. My secret, 
 
 That I shall tell thee, is my life. I am one 
 Of a conspiracy to rid the world 
 Of this black monster. 
 
 EP. Thou art ? thou art ? Thou tellst me 
 
 That I may join ? Alas, that I am a woman. 
 
 LUC. Prove now thy mastery of thyself by 
 reasoning 
 In sober terms, 
 EP. I can. 
 
 LUC. (shoii'ing the book). Who gave thee this? 
 EP. Senecio. 
 
 LUC. Ha ! Senecio ! can it be . . . 
 
 EP. Thou mayst not think it, sir, seeing me 
 to-day : 
 But yesterday thou wouldst have well believed 
 I might have lovers. 
 
 LUC. ... At Naples, at this tavern, 155r ' 
 
 Hast thou acquaintance with the Admiral ? 
 EP. I know him well. 
 
 LUC. How doth he stand towards Cassar? 
 
 EP. He hates him. 
 
 LUC. Yes, but would he join our party ? 
 
 We have no means to sound him : this Senecio 
 Has taken it on himself. I did not trust him ; 
 Now I suspect him. 
 EP. You would win the navy ? 
 
 LUC. 'Tisthat. 
 
 EP. I could approach him. 
 
 L UC. I think thou mayst. 
 
 Ride with me here to-day ; for ere we talk 
 Thou must have food and sleep. I shall speak with 
 
 thee 
 More confidently then : thou art now o'erstrained. 
 EP. I shall not sleep. 
 LUC. To the distracted heart, 
 
 To whom this life is hell, nature hath given 
 A perfect boon, the numbing poppy -juice : 
 Soothed by its gracious power thou wilt sleep well. 
 My mother shall attend thee : she knows all. 
 
 END OF ACT III. 
 
 always 
 
 1568 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 The tavern at Naples, (as at I. 2). 
 
 GRIPUS, MARINERS ami SENECIO. 
 
 GRI. I say weather permitting : 
 weather permitting. 
 
 1st Mar. There was no weather permitting in it. 
 I heard the Admiral say he had his orders to sail for 
 the Adriatic, and the ships at Formise were to join 
 him here last night. 
 
 GRI. Weather permitting. 
 
 1st M. No : no weather permitting. If it had 
 been weather permitting, would they have put out in 
 the teeth of a sou'-wester ? that's what I look at. 
 
 2nd M. No sailor would have done it ; least of all 
 Regulus. 
 
 GRI. Then 'twas Caesar's fault not to have said 
 weather permitting. 
 
 3rd M. Eight firstrates : the pick of the fleet. 
 
 1st M. Nay, seven, mate. The Ulysses is put in 
 for repairs. 
 
 SE°- What is it you talk of, fellows? 
 
 1st M. Why, where have you been, sir? Half 
 the fleet's ashore off Misenum. 
 
 SE°- Wrecked? 
 
 GRI. Ay, that they be. 
 
 Enter EPICHARIS. 
 
 EP. Is it true, Gripus? Is the squadron lost? 
 
 GRI. True enough. 
 
 EP. Was the Admiral with them ? 
 
 1st M. Regulus : 'twas Regulus at Formia:, lady. 
 
 EP. Not Proculus? 
 
 \st M. Nay, he's with his ships in the bay. 
 
 EP. And the crews ? 
 
 2nd M. Ther'll not be many stand up, when they 
 come ashore. 
 
 EP. Poor fellows ! And whose fault was this ? 
 
 GRI. Cresar's, I say, lady : and none else. 
 
 SE°- Epicharis, see, I am returned. 
 
 EP. Well, I see you, sir. Have you been to 
 Rome and back so soon ? 
 
 SE°- Yes, my house is pulled down. But I saw 
 the Christians burned. 
 
 EP. Hark, sir ; I have news for you. {takes him 
 aside and speaks with him.) 
 
 Enter PROCULUS. 
 
 PRO. What ! a dozen of you fellows here ! Up 
 with you ! be sharp, and off to the point. See if you 
 can't be of some use. You may save a life or two 
 yet. 
 
 Mar. We have no orders, my lord. 
 
 PRO. Where do you expect to find your orders ? 
 Go and help your mates. You may get into a scrape 
 yourselves some day. 
 
 Mar. Very willing, my lord ; so we be sent. 
 {All drain their cups standing.) 
 
 PRO. Come, leave your possets. 
 
 Mar. Ay, ay, my lord. [Exeunt Mariners. 
 
 PRO. Epicharis, wine ! 
 
 EP. Gauran, my lord ? 
 
 PRO. Yes. —And you, sir, I think are the gentle- 
 
2^0 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act IV. i. 
 
 man that begged to go aboard the licet to get clear of 
 the earthquake. What did I tell you? 
 
 SEP- You did not tell me, my lord, that Caesar 
 ordered you to be shipwrecked. {Epicharis serves 
 /Vft -with wine.) 
 
 /'A'O. Well, 'twas his doing : I'll bear no blame 
 of it. Three days ago it was Caesar's intention to go 
 to Greece ; we must therefore be ready to meet him 
 at Brundisium. Never had more stringent orders. 
 Now he has forgot all about it, and gone to Rome : 
 and I have lost a third of the fleet for nothing. May 
 all the gods . . . 1M0 
 
 EP. The fire took him to Rome. 
 
 SE°- The Romans, my lord, can never spare him 
 long : their bread depends on him. 
 
 PRO. Can't that old shrimper Tigellinus feed 'em 
 on sprats ? 
 
 SE°- Hi, hi • 
 
 PRO. Well, sir ! 
 
 SE°- I shan't tell. 
 
 EP. The wine will soothe you, my lord. {Re- 
 filling his cup, she signs to Senecio, who goes out. ) 
 
 PRO. Thank you, lass. 
 
 EP. Did Caesar give the order himself? 
 
 PRO. Don't talk to me. Ha, that fellow's gone, 
 is he ? He is not one to blab ? 
 
 EP. How should I know, my lord ? 
 
 PRO. What's his name? 
 
 EP. Senecio. 
 
 PRO. Senecio, yes, of course : one of Nero's 
 intimates : and I called Tigellinus an old shrimper : 
 'twould cost me my life if he heard it. 
 
 EP. No man is safe. 165 ° 
 
 PRO. Nor woman either, Epicharis : guard your 
 tongue. 
 
 EP. I am a Greek, my lord. 
 
 PRO. What's that to serve thee ? 
 
 EP. Nothing truly ; and yet 
 
 I have no share in Rome's reproach ; I laugh 
 Rather to see my country's conquerors 
 Themselves enslaved. I have no pride in Caesar : 
 Let him be a madman, one day burn his city, 
 The next day wreck his fleet, — poison his brother,- — 
 Murder his mother, — behead his wife, — I care not. 
 Let all his courtiers be curs, and he 
 Sing in the theatre ... In Greece a tyrant 
 Had little heart for singing ; nay, at night 
 He slept not, thinking what undaunted spirits 
 Were lying wide-awake for torturing shame 
 Till they could kill him. 
 
 PRO. By Jove, thou hast a tongue ! 
 
 EP. And they that like it not may cut it out. 
 
 PRO. Drink with me, lass {offers his cup). 
 
 EP. I would I were a Roman 
 
 But for one day. 
 
 PRO. I love thee for thy spirit. 
 
 EP. Thou lov'st to hear the words thou dar'st not 
 say. 
 
 PRO. Well, give me more. 
 
 EP. Greek as I am, my lord, 
 
 And woman, were I now as near to Caesar 
 As I am to you, I'd stab him to the heart. 
 
 PRO. I would not stay thee. 
 
 PIP. But thou wouldst not do it. 
 
 PRO. Bah ! thou'rt a Greek to brag what thou 
 wouldst do : 1( ' :; ' 
 
 I am a Roman, and would do the thing 
 Before I spake it. 
 
 EP. Yet mightst never do it. 
 
 PRO. Thou knowst me not. 
 
 EP. Then none knows thee, my lord. 
 
 Were there a plot among the brave in Rome, 
 Which they should fear to break to thee, and say 
 We know him not, we cannot risk to sound him, 
 A woman might ; then should they send a woman, 
 Some woman that thou lov'st, to learn thy mind, 
 What wouldst thou say ? 
 
 PRO. Then were it time to speak. 
 
 EP. The brave in Rome have plotted : I am the 
 woman — 
 Their messenger. 
 
 PRO. What! a conspiracy? 
 
 'Gainst Cesar's life? 
 
 EP. They bid thee bring the navy. 
 
 PRO. Art thou in earnest ? 
 
 EP. I am a Greek, my lord ; 
 
 And risk my life for Roman liberty. 
 
 PRO. What are their names? 
 
 EP. The best in Rome. 
 
 PRO. Who are they? 
 
 EP. In time I'll tell their names. 
 
 PRO. And what the plot ? 
 
 EP. In three days Caesar will be slain : 'tis asked 
 Of thee that thou wilt bring thy ships to Ostia, 
 And seize the granaries till Rome is ours. 
 
 PRO. What are their names ? 
 
 EP. With fair security 
 
 I will tell all. 
 
 PRO. And what security 
 For me ? 
 
 EP. Enough, my lord, even in this risk 
 To well content thee. 
 
 PRO. Tell me the chief names. 
 
 EP. When I have won thee. 
 
 PRO. Thou hast won me 
 
 EP. In good time all. 
 
 PRO. What would they have me do ? 
 
 EP. First bring the officers whose names are here 
 
 {giving a paper) 
 To meet me here to-night. Then I shall see 
 Who is to trust. 
 
 PRO. {reading the paper). Give me the names of 
 those 
 Who sent thee. 
 
 EP. In good time. 
 
 PRO. I would not harm thee. 
 
 EP. Thou canst not. 
 
 PRO. See, Epicharis, I'll help thee 
 
 Gut of this mischief. Give me up the names, 
 And thou shalt be informer. 
 
 EP. Ah, Proculus, 
 
 Play not that part ; thou that so oft in secret 
 Hast cursed the tyrant to me ; now play not 
 That part ; it cannot serve thee : be true, Proculus, 
 To the nobleness within thee, that hast not only 
 A heart sufficient, but in face and figure 
 Lookest the hero : thou that mightest stand 
 For a statue of Brutus, and outdo the man 
 As nature made him : Be thou from this day 
 Named with the noblest ; Proculus the brave, 
 Who turned the tide 'gainst- Nero, and delivered 
 Romans from shame and slavery ; — or wilt thou 
 
 tell, 
 iroo 
 
Act IV. i, 3.] The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 »5« 
 
 Be Proculus the futile ; Proculus, 
 
 Who aided first infamous Anicetus 
 
 To murder Agrippina, and then perceiving 
 
 Remorseful Caesar cast out his gross tool, 
 
 Sought to win favour of the parricide, — 
 
 And vainly tried to stay the avenger's hands,— 
 
 And sold a trustful woman whom he had loved, 178B 
 
 On the eve of liberty? 
 
 PRO. That day's not come. 
 
 Look to thyself, and I will win thy safety. 
 To-night thou wilt set forth with me to Rome : 
 In two days I shall bring thee before Caesar. 
 Then, if thou tell these names, thou wilt go free, 
 And mayst be rich. Thou canst not 'scape : be ready 
 In one hour hence. [Exit. 
 
 EP. Ah, wretched Roman slave, 
 
 Thy paltry spirit hath baulked me : go thy way : 
 Thou knowest nought : thou'rt in my power ; thou 
 
 too, 
 If I could turn aside, shouldst bleed for Clitus : 
 He hated thee, condemned thee, and thou deservest. 
 But what care I for thee ? what is't to me 
 That Piso be set up on Nero's throne? 
 Only make void that throne, only tear out 
 That monster from the world. As for thee, Proculus, 
 I know thee and can outwit thee : I have my tale 
 Ready, and false Senecio for my witness. 
 Where is Senecio ? — 1 have yet an hour. [Exit, 
 
 SCENE II. 
 A street in Rome. 
 
 Enter SCEVLNUS, followed by N A TALIS and 
 LA TERANUS. 
 
 SCE. No more, sirs : let me go. This sword 
 shall do it. 
 I am sworn. 
 
 LAT. Stay, stay, sir ! stay ! be more discreet. 
 
 SCE. I know there's not a man among you all 
 Durst risk his life but I. I have made my will : 
 I have set my house in order. Caesar dies, 
 Dies by this hand to-day. 
 
 NA T. For heaven's sake, stay, sir ! 
 
 Have patience. Piso is unprepared. 
 
 LA P. Scevinus, 1750 
 
 Thou art bound to abide by and respect the voice 
 Of the party. — We do not choose thee. — 
 
 SCE. Whom choose ye ? 
 
 LAT. No scheme is ready as yet. The matter 
 needs 
 More judgment than thou usest. 
 
 NA T. And more caution. 
 
 SCE. Caution and judgment are for cowards. By 
 God 
 I have sworn. 'Tis by this hand Caesar shall die. 
 
 NAT. (to Lat.). We must prevent him. 
 
 LA T. (to Nat. ). Shall we seize him ? 
 
 SCE. My lords, 
 
 I thank you for your counsel. Go now to Piso, 
 And make him ready : I shall to the palace 
 To screen my purpose in some usual conduct. 
 To-night all will be over. — Fare-you-vvell. [Exit. 
 
 LAT. Come after him, Natalis : we must make 
 A show of yielding, and delude him gently 
 By mock convincement ; else he'll ruin all. [Exeunt. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 A room in the palace. NERO and 
 POPP^EA meeting. 
 
 NER. Empress ! the emperor of the world salutes 
 thee, 
 Bows to thee. 
 
 POP. And embraceth ? 
 
 NER. And embraceth. — 
 
 Didst thou sleep well in thy new chamber? 
 
 POP. I did. 
 
 NER. How doth it please? 
 
 POP. 'Tis fine. It hath no fault, 
 
 Save that it lies so far from thine. 
 
 NER. In that 
 
 See how I trust thee. 
 
 POP. I shall need my litter 
 
 In this new palace : 'tis a morning's journey 
 From end to end. What distances ! 
 
 NER. Yes, space : 
 
 Grandeur in space : we cannot emulate 
 Starry distinctions and ethereal peace ; 
 Mortal conditions hamper us . . . yet I'll teach 177a 
 The world what may be done ; and my new Rome 
 Shall stand for a type : the streets all laid out broad, 
 Straight and intelligible ; and all the houses 
 Of fireproof stone from Alba and Gabii. 
 In four years 'twill be finished. 
 
 POP. Four whole years 
 
 Of rubbish-heaps and hammering? 
 
 NER. Come see 
 
 The plans in the library. 
 
 POP. Would you believe 
 
 The plans of architects can cheer a woman ? 
 
 NER. If thou wert happy thou wouldst love to sec 
 All that I do, and for my sake admire. 
 I wish that thou wert happier. Think, Poppaea, 
 What cause thou hast, being for thy peerless beauty 
 Chosen the world's Augusta. I could wish 
 Thou didst smile oftener. 
 
 POP. Well, consider, love, 
 
 I have cause for care. 
 
 NER. I wish that thou couldst sing : 
 
 Music can cheer. Dost thou remember once, 
 W r hen thou wast fearful in a thunderstorm, 
 How I diverted thee with sprightly music? 
 Then I should love if, when I came to see thee, 
 I heard thy voice afar, and in thy chamber .... 
 
 ( VA TINIUS interrupts, entering noisily. ) 
 
 Who's there ? ( Vatinius gives a note to Nero. ) 
 (reads) ' Proculus the admiral is come from Naples 
 ' With secret tidings ; he hath a lady with him ! ' 
 (to Fat.) Let him in, or his tidings, or his lady, 
 Whichever is most secret — or all three. [Exit Vat. 
 (to Popptra, toko is going.) Thou needst not go, love. 
 
 POP. Why ! if 'tis a lady. 
 
 NER. Pooh ! 'tis some state affair. 
 
 POP. I hate affairs. [Exit. 
 
 NER. Marriage ruins a woman : and how quickly ! 
 And I to lead the ape-dance, who am sworn 
 To rid the world of this and all its plagues ! 
 
-D~ 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. [Act IV. 3, 4. 
 
 Enhr T1GELLINUS with PROCULUS ami 
 EPIC PI A APS ; VA TINIUS following 
 
 NEK. Good-day, Lord Proculus ; what brings 
 you here? 
 
 PRO. Forgive the intrusion, Caesar. 
 
 NER. The lady's looks 
 
 Are ample excuse. You ask leave to be married? 
 
 PRO. Nay, Cesar ; I accuse her. 
 
 NER. Bravo! divorce? 
 
 TIG. (aside to Nero). His story is urgent. 
 
 NER. What is it ? 
 
 EP. Mighty Ccesar, 
 
 This is a charge 'gainst me : a foolish charge 
 Not worth your ear. I have a witness with me 
 Would make short matter of it, might he enter. 
 
 NER. By all means. Why, sir, did you keep 
 him back ? 
 His name? 
 
 EP. Senecio. 
 
 NER. Good. We know him, lady. 
 Vatinius, fetch him in. (Exit Vat.) What is the 
 charge ? 
 
 PRO. This woman, sire .... 
 
 NER. (interrupting). What is thy name, fair 
 lady? 
 
 EP. Epicharis, your majesty. 
 
 PRO. This lady 
 
 Was known to me at Naples. 
 
 NER. I understand : 
 
 Spare your excuses. 
 
 PRO. At a tavern. 
 
 NER. Ho ! 
 
 You sailors ! ( Vat. re-enters with Senecio.) 
 (Po Epicharis.) See, your witness, lady, is come. 
 
 PRO. She took occasion of her intimacy 
 To draw me into a plot 'gainst Caesar's life. 
 
 NER. Ha ! 
 
 PRO. Entrusted by conspirators at Rome 
 Three days ago to tamper with me. 
 
 NER. By heaven ! 
 
 And thou dost laugh ? (to Epic.) 
 
 EP. Will Caesar hear the end ? 
 
 NER. (to Pro.). Give me the names at once. 
 
 PRO. I know no names, 
 
 Caesar ; she would not tell. 
 
 NER. No names ? and whom 
 
 Wert thou then to conspire with ? 
 
 PRO. She would tell 
 
 Nothing of her confederates, unless 183 " 
 
 I brought together certain officers, 
 Whose loyalty I know suspicious. 
 
 NER. Dost thou? By God, 
 
 I'll have their names. 
 
 PRO. I was to sail to Rome, 
 
 And seize the granaries. 
 
 NER. Enough. Now, madam ; 
 
 What dost thou answer? 
 
 EP. If Caesar need an answer 
 
 To a charge so empty, 'tis enough to say 
 I have never been in Rome. 
 
 NER. 'Tis not enough. 
 
 Didst thou speak to the Admiral in the sense 
 I le avers ? 
 
 EP. I humbly crave great Caesar's pardon 
 Eor jesting with his name. 
 
 NER. Thou didst ? and why ? 
 
 EP. Here is my witness ; Lord Senecio 
 Will say my story is true. Holding with him 
 Some talk of Proculus, I laid a wager 
 That I could make the Admiral believe 
 Anything, no matter how ridiculous : 
 And this we hit on. Then straight he comes in, 
 And if I went too far, 'twas in my fear 
 To lose my money. 
 
 NER. Is this so, Senecio? 
 
 SEP' 'Twas so, sire ; I backed the Admiral, and 
 
 lost. 
 NER. (to P/oc). You sailors are so clumsy. You 
 
 are a fool. 
 PRO. Sire ! on my. life 'twas true. Twas not a 
 jest : 
 She would outface me. 
 
 VA P. As Octavia did 
 
 That old sea-mutton Anicetus. 
 TIG. Hish ! 
 
 NER. First, sir, 
 
 Send me these same suspicious officers. 
 Meanwhile for her, — thy rank may win thy tale 
 So much respect, — she goes not free. ( 'Po Tigdl.) 
 
 Good master, 
 Keep her in custody. 
 
 EP. (aside to Proculus). Hear me ! I warn thee. 
 Join, or be first to die ! 
 
 PRO. Now, Caesar, again 
 She invites me to conspire. 
 
 NER. Come, man ; she mocks thee : 
 
 She hath won the privilege. (To Tig.) Take her 
 away ; 186 ° 
 
 But treat her well. You follow me : I go 
 To judge the cases argued yesterday. 
 No folly, Proculus, like being in earnest, 
 When others are all jesting. 
 
 [Exeunt. Tigellinus with Epicharis : Proculus 
 and Vatinius with Nero. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 A room in Piso 's house. 
 
 Enter PISO with NA TALIS. 
 
 PIS. (at door). Show them in here, Natalis ; I 
 must see them. [Exit A T at. 
 
 'Tis dangerous : Rufus should know better. Five, 
 Five of them here together ! 'tis enough 
 To damn an innocent : mere information 
 By any vagabond. Why should they come ? 
 
 Re-enter NATALIS with RUFUS, LATER- 
 ANUS, LUC AN, FLAVUSandASPER. 
 
 Come in, my lords ; come in. 
 
 All. Good-day, Lord Piso. 
 
 PIS. Your purpose, gentlemen? Ye would not 
 come 
 In such a dangerous body to my house 
 Without great cause. 
 
 RUF. 'Tis urgency, r my lord. 
 
 We have met to-day, and voted with one voice 
 Immediate action. That madman Scevinus 
 Hath taken the whole affair upon himself, 
 And full of mystery walks at large, parading 
 
Act IV. 4, 5.] The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 25. 
 
 His self-importance ; wearing on his face 
 
 The secret of our lives. You must come forward, 
 
 Or we are lost. 
 
 PIS. I shall not move. 
 
 RUF. My lord ! 18S0 
 
 My lord ! my lord ! (A servant has been speaking 
 tvith Natalis at the door. ) 
 
 NA T. [to Piso). Here is another come. 
 
 PIS. Bring him in.— (to Ruf.) Nay, Rufus, I 
 shall not move. [Exit Nat. 
 
 Why should you come to me ? I made no promise 
 But this, when Nero is dead, to be your Caesar. 
 
 ASP. The men, my lord, whose hands you 
 grasped in faith 
 Need your support. A Caesar we must have ; 
 Stand by us or withdraw. 
 
 PIS. May I ask the name 
 
 Of the last speaker? 
 
 ASP. Asper, my lord. 
 
 PIS. By heaven ! 
 
 Asper thou art. 
 
 Re-enter NATALIS with SENECIO. 
 
 NA T. Betrayal ! betrayal ! 
 
 SE°- (excitedly). My lords, we are betrayed. 
 
 All. Betrayed ! 
 
 PIS. Scevinus is it ? 
 
 SE°- No. Proculus, 
 
 The Admiral. He hath brought to Nero a woman 
 From Naples, who was sent to gain him over. 
 
 L UC. (aside). Epicharis failed me ! 
 
 PIS. A woman too ! 
 
 RUF. What names hath she betrayed ? 
 
 SE°- No names at all. 
 
 She outfaced the Admiral with a lie, and I 
 Swore it was true. 
 
 PIS. Hath she not mentioned me ? 
 
 SE°- No, my lord, none. 
 
 LUC. (aside). Well done ! 
 
 PIS. May be then she knows nothing. 
 
 SE°- Ay, she knows : 
 
 She told me. 
 
 LUC. You? 
 
 SE°- Yes ; me, sir. 
 
 PIS. What is her name ? 
 
 SE°- Epicharis. 
 
 RUF. Who is Epicharis? 
 
 PIS. Ay, who is she? how came she in the plot"? 
 
 SE°- Lucan perhaps may know. 
 
 LUC. I have heard the name, 
 
 And mentioned with my uncle, the physician. 
 If that is what Senecio means, 'tis nought. 
 
 FLA. Where is she ? let us see her. 
 
 SE°- Tigellinus 
 
 Hath her in custody. 
 
 RUF. She will be questioned. 
 
 FLA. We must not wait. 
 
 PIS. Who, now, is guilty of this? 
 
 I have other evidence too that your secret 
 Has been ill-kept, gentlemen.— When I sent 
 A messenger to Seneca this morning, 
 He was refused admission. — Seneca knows. 
 
 LA T. My lords, we are all in danger : there's no 
 time 
 To investigate. Act, — act ere we be lost ! 
 
 RUF. But how to act ? 
 
 LAP. The plan I have always urged : 
 Remember, sirs, how Julius fell. To-morrow 
 Are the Circensian games ; Nero will come : 
 I, under the pretence of some request 
 Will kneel to him, as Cimber knelt to Caesar ; 
 And as I beg my boon I'll drag him down, 
 If one of you will slay him. 
 
 FLA. That will I. 
 
 ASP. And I. 
 
 SE°- Or Lord Scevinus. 
 
 RUF. Better, sir, 
 
 Do without him. And I still hold my plan 
 The best, that Caesar should be asked to supper : 1925 
 Then nought were risked. Once more I pray Lord 
 
 Piso 
 To save unneeded bloodshed. 
 
 PIS. I could not do it : 
 
 Nor were it wise, in face of the great pity 
 Such treachery would stir. 
 
 ASP. And the delay : 
 
 To-morrow is late. 
 
 RUF. Then Lateranus hath it : 
 We adopt his disposition. You, my lord, 
 Must be by dawn to-morrow in Ceres' temple 
 Clad in imperial purple : I with my guards 
 Will keep the doors ; and when the deed is done 
 Will bring you forth, and lead you through the city, 
 Proclaiming you with shouts. 
 
 PIS. Well, let it be so. 
 
 I give consent. Let nothing stop you now : 
 But each man learn his part and act it bravely. 
 Your lives are forfeit. Secresy and despatch — 
 And now depart. 
 
 RUF. Be you in Ceres' temple. 
 
 PIS. I understand. I shall await you there. 
 Action, Rufus, is now your only hope ; 
 Let nothing stop you. Fail me not. 
 
 RUF. Nay, trust" me. 
 
 LA T. Bravo, Lord Piso. 
 
 FLA. and ASP. Hail, great Caesar ! 
 
 PIS. Hush ! 
 
 Depart your different ways : be no more seen 
 Than cannot be avoided. I see none 
 Until to-morrow. 
 
 All (going). To-morrow ! to-morrow ! [Exeunt. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 A room in the palace. Enter NERO and 
 TIGELLINUS with a drawn sword (r.). 
 
 NER. Fury and Hell ! Murder me, would he ! 
 A plot, 
 A damnable hellish plot ! Stab me ! by Cod, 
 Arrest him and fetch him hither. 
 
 TIG. Bethink you, Caesar, 
 
 Now of Epicharis. 
 
 NER. Ah, true, by heaven ! 
 
 The impudent drab : she knew it all. Send straight 
 To the prison, and have her questioned. Rack and 
 
 fire : 
 Torture truth from her. 
 
 TIG. I will. Whist ! Caesar, I see 
 
 The man himself. 
 
^54 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act IV. 5. 
 
 NER. Come out ! he may be armed. 
 
 We'll close the doors upon him and shut him in, 
 Till we have got assistance. [Exeunt hastily (l.). 
 
 Enter SCE VINUS and Q UINTIAN ( R. ). 
 
 SCE. How the sun shines to-day, Quintian! 
 Great Phcebus, 
 The Python-slayer, smiles upon my deed. 
 
 QU. Hush ! walls have ears. 
 
 SCE. When the gods favour a man, 
 
 They set his mind at ease : he disregards 
 Your fearful chances. Think you, Quintian, 
 'Tis the April air intoxicates me so, 
 And floats my head with birdlike confidence ? 
 Is it the April morning air? Ah, no ; 
 'Tis the air of the eve of liberty. — Is that 
 Not poetry, good fellow? 
 
 QU. Well, they say 
 
 Occasion makes a poet of any man. 
 
 SCE. It pleases me to walk about the palace, 
 And count the columns : with my eye I measure 
 The carven friezes and gold roofs, and say 
 All this is thine, Scevinus : stretch but forth 
 Thy hand and take it from its master : give it 
 Back to the world. These busts, Hellenic statues, 
 I All these are thine, Scevinus ! Let us go 1975 
 
 To the western court, where we may gaze on Rome. 
 
 QU. Ay, if you will. 
 
 SCE. All this is thine, Scevinus ! 
 
 Open the door ! 
 
 QU. 'Tis closed. 
 
 SCE. (trying it). Shut fast ! 'Tis strange. 
 I never knew this door shut up before. 
 
 QU. We can go back the same way we came in, 
 And round by the north corridor. 
 
 SCE. We will. ( Going hurriedly back to first door. ) 
 By God, 'tis closed too : fast. We are locked in. 
 
 QU. What can it mean ? 
 
 SCE. (going again to the second door). They both 
 are fast. 
 
 QU. I hear 
 
 Footsteps without. 
 
 SCE. Here, here ! my dagger : take it. 
 
 QU. Nay, curse thee, I'll not have it. 
 
 S^E- t They will search me. 
 
 QU. Throw it out of the window. 
 
 SCE. (throzving). So ! 
 
 c/^r r> /- They are coming. 
 
 SCE. By God, Quintian, I forgot. It was the 
 dagger 
 That should have pierced my heart, if I was taken. 
 QU. Brave it out. I know nothing. 
 
 Enter NERO and TIGELLINUS preceded 
 
 by guards (l.). 
 NER. Ha ! Quintian too, my feathery Quintian 
 (to Tig.) What of him, master ? 
 7/G - i (t° Ner. ). Send him out. 
 
 NER. Begone, sir : 
 
 And thank thy littleness. 
 
 OK I am Caesar's slave. [Exit. 
 
 NER. Now, sir, we have thee ; we know all : 
 go down, 
 Fall on thy knees (See. kneels). Confess, and tell me 
 
 first 
 Why in the temple of Capitoline Jove 
 Thou didst present and dedicate a sword. 
 
 TIG. This sword, sir, sharpened too, and tem- 
 pered freshly. 
 
 SCE. Most mighty Caesar, I know not on oath 
 Why I am treated thus. What of this sword ? 
 
 NER. Is it not thine? 
 
 SCE. ^ Pray let me see it near. 2000 
 
 TIG. I'd like to put it, sir, where thou couldst feel 
 More than thou saw'st of it. Dost see it now? 
 
 SCE. 'Tis mine. O sacred heirloom of my house, 
 Left to my father by my grandfather . . . 
 
 NER. Invoke not thy curst ancestors to me. 
 
 SCE. It hath been stolen from me : some slave, 
 Caesar, 
 Knowing the store I set by it, hath purloined it. 
 
 TIG. One of those thieves whom thou three days 
 ago 
 Didst liberate,— when thou mad'st thy will— ? We 
 
 know. 
 Why didst thou that ? 
 
 SCE. It is the time of year 
 
 I fix my household, and reward my servants. 
 And for my will, it is my habit oft 
 To change the disposition of my goods, 
 As they change, and my friends. 
 
 NER. Thou hast changed thy friends, 
 
 Say'st thou, of late ! As for thy change of will, 
 Thy little damned will, the estate of felons 
 Passes to Ccesar at their execution. 
 
 TIG. And why, sir, shouldst thou lay up in thy house 
 A store of bandages, styptics and drugs 
 Good for fresh wounds ? 
 
 SCE. 1 did not : I pray you, Caesar, 
 
 Who hath informed against me ? 
 
 NER. Question me, 
 
 Wilt thou ? 
 
 TIG. He hath been seen, sire, with Natalis. 
 
 SCE. Never, I know him not. 
 
 NER. Get up, sir.— Take him 
 
 To torture, till he tell. 
 
 SCE. Caesar, I pray 
 
 Have me not tortured. I am innocent. 2025 
 
 NER. Villain, I'll have thee drawn out limb from 
 limb ; 
 And thou shalt taste at leisure from this sword 
 What stabbing is. Take him away. 
 
 SCE. Nay, Caesar, 
 
 Have me not tortured. I am innocent. 
 
 TIG. Take him off, guards. 
 
 SCE. Indeed I am innocent. 
 
 Caesar, Oh Caesar ! [Exeunt guards carrying off 
 Scevinus. 
 
 TIG. The informer Milichus, Scevinus' slave, 
 Saith he was with Natalis, Piso's man : 
 Shall I seize Piso? 
 
 NER. Not yet, no, I am safe 
 
 Here in the palace. Have the city guarded, 
 And go first to the prison : look thyself 
 To the torture of Epicharis : from her 
 Learn all, and bring it to me here. A woman 
 Is delicately nerved : use thy full art 
 Most exquisitely. 
 
 TIG. She hath confessed by this : 
 
 I sent at once. 
 
 NER. Return then soon. 
 
 TIG. I shall. [Exit. 
 
 A r ER. A plot ! and this contemptible Scevinus 
 
Act V. i.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 *55 
 
 I could almost forgive ; that woman never. 
 
 She fooled me to my face, laughed as she fooled me ; 
 
 A common woman ! Caesar ! me ! on the eve 
 
 Of being the ridicule of history : 
 
 My wisdom a mockery, — my insight, — to the end of 
 
 time 
 Schoolboys to laugh at turning of my page, 
 The favourite tale to spice their dreary task. 
 Nero ! and I who, when my very mother, 
 She who upraised me, dared to plot against me, 
 Scrupled not, I, for my world-reaching schemes 
 And absolute power, I scrupled not to hide 
 Sonship in Caesardom : yes, and for that 
 Have oped my soulgates to the powers of hell, 
 And daily face spectres of horror, ghostly 
 Environments, the blue upbraiding lips 
 Of shadowy forms, that kiss in mockery, 
 And poison peace upon the paths of sleep. 
 
 To have borne in vain the murderer's scaring plague, 
 To be by a common woman — killed : I doubt not, 
 Had but occasion served, she would have done it. 
 Have laughed to do it, laughed on when 'twas done. 
 Ah ! by that lately-laughing, cherruping mouth 
 Shall all her damned conspirators be snared : 
 Yes, and a thousand times shall she scream truth, 
 Ere I will hear ; a thousand times shriek forth 
 The names of those her shrieks shall shriek to hell, 
 Ere she go after them. {Enter Tigellinus.) What, 
 
 Tigellinus ! 
 What saith Epicharis ? 
 TIG. Nothing. 
 
 NER. Nothing ? 
 
 TIG. Nothing. 
 
 Caesar will never get a word from her. 
 NER. Thou hast not killed her, fool ? 
 TIG. Nay, Caesar : but no corpse 
 
 Keeps better silence. 
 
 NER. Where's thy art, man ? Use 
 
 Rack, redhot pincers, the slow fire . . . 
 
 TIG. Not all together make her give a sound. 
 NER. Persist. 
 
 TIG. They do ; but 'tis beyond our power 
 
 To match the first pangs ; and they moved her not. 
 I came to say we had forgot Senecio. 
 NER. True : take him. 
 TIG. And to torture ? 
 
 NER. Rack him well. 
 
 But make this woman speak. Use better art. 208 ° 
 TIG. I found the torturers sitting round their task : 
 Their zest had cooled. Without a cry or scream 
 'Tis a dull sport. 
 
 NER. She is a Christian, then. 
 
 TIG. The Christians never plot : I think in that, 
 Csesar, you wrong them. 
 
 NER. I ? Thou know'st them little : 
 
 They are the time's worst plague. I do not care 
 If they burned Rome or no : were they all burned 
 'Twould richly compensate the world. Hark, friend ! 
 The people might be masters ; what they lack 
 This Christ provides. Were I to prophesy, 
 I'd say that should their cursed doctrines spread, 
 They would one day drown all, learning and beauty, 
 Wisdom and rule and art. For that I hate them, 
 And love to destroy them. I AM their anti-christ. 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 A strong room in the palace dungeon. TIG- 
 ELLIN US seated at a table centre. 
 NATALIS scared, and with his hands 
 bound behind him, stands R. before two 
 guards. 
 
 TIG. (to guards). Leave him. — [Exeunt guards. 
 Natalis, thou hast had a taste of the rack ? 
 
 NA T. (kneels). Mercy, my lord ; have mercy on 
 me, I pray thee : 
 I will tell all, and better without torture. 
 
 TIG. So far I have had mercy, sir : I have shown 
 thee 
 In this Epicharis what thou mayst look for, 21U0 
 
 Should I lack mercy. Canst thou too be silent ? 
 
 NAT. Nay, my lord, nay. My lord, I am not 
 brave. 
 Knowing I cannot suffer, I will speak truth 
 Without the torture. 
 
 TIG. Truth, fool ! what is that ? 
 
 I haggle not with thee for thine own tale : 
 That cannot serve thee. I require of thee 
 Such answers as best please me. 
 
 NA T. I will confess. 
 
 TIG. Thou hast betrayed thy master Piso ; now 
 Tell me, was Seneca in this conspiracy ? 
 
 NA T. No, my lord. 
 
 TIG. (calling). Guards ! 
 
 NAT. I swear he was not. (Enter guards.) 
 
 TIG. Guards ! 
 
 Take him to torture. 
 
 NA T. Oh, my lord, have pity ! 
 
 Ask me not this. 
 
 TIG. I'll ask thee nothing else 
 
 While thou art parting with thy skin. Once more : 
 Was Seneca in this conspiracy ? 
 
 NA T. He was. 
 
 TIG. Just as I thought ; stick tight to that ; 
 
 Else, by great Jupiter, the things thou hast seen 
 Are nothing. — Take him off and send in the other. 
 
 [Exeunt guards with Natalis. 
 Now I am rid of Seneca, this method 
 Is easy and short. The foolish rich Scevinus 
 May serve me another way. 
 
 Enter two guards with SCE VINUS, whose 
 hands are pound before him. 
 (To guards.) Leave him. — (Exeunt guards.) Sce- 
 vinus, 
 Csesar hath ordered thee the rack. 
 
 SCE. (kneels). My lord, 
 
 Have pity upon me I beg. I turn informer : 
 I will betray it all : I withold nothing. 
 
 TIG. Thou hast seen the torture of Epicharis . . . 
 
 SCE. O, my dear lord, not that ! mercy ! 2,:a 
 
 TIG. Since she 
 
 Hath baulked my inquisitors, I have promised them 
 Some noisy victim to restore their credit. 
 
 SCE. Not me, not me ! 
 
 TIG. And why not thee ? I think thee 
 
 A likely fellow. 
 
256 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. [Act V. 2, 3. 
 
 SCE. My lord, I am too tender. 
 The least prick of my finger, or if the wine 
 I drink be overheated, 'tis enough 
 To put me in a frenzy : I should die 
 At first stretch of the rack. 
 
 TIG. Pooh ! man : they'd keep thee 
 
 Alive for a week. — 
 
 SCE. O spare me, good Tigcllinus ! 
 
 Spare me, I prav, kind Tigellinus, spare me ! 
 
 TIG. Shall 1 ? and if I do, what is it worth ? 
 Hast thou two thousand sestets? 
 
 SCE. Oh, my lord, 
 
 I have not the tenth of it. 
 
 TIG. (calling). Guards ! 
 
 SCE. I swear I have not. [Enter guards. ) 
 
 TIG. Get up, that is the price. — Guards, take him 
 off.— 
 I'll make good use of thee. 
 
 SCE. " Sir, I might find it. 
 
 TIG. (motioning guards bach). Hark, thou canst 
 raise the money, and mayst write 
 From prison to thy friends : and if 'tis paid 
 To me to-night, I will respect thy wish. — 
 Guards, take this prisoner to the outer cell ; 
 Let him there write what missives he desires, 
 And see they be delivered in the city. 
 
 [Exeunt severally. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 A room in the house of Piso. 
 Enter FLA VUS and TISO, meeting. 
 
 FLA. My lord, I come from Rufus. 
 
 PIS. Give thy message. 
 
 FLA. Natalis and Scevinus both are taken. 
 All must be known ; and your complicity 
 The first : meanwhile Rufus is unsuspected ; 2I50 
 
 Cassar hath summoned him to sit as judge 
 In trial of the accused this afternoon. 
 He has therefore this last hope, but only this, 
 That you with all your friends proceed at once 
 To the fort of the guard : he will proclaim you there, 
 Relying on the people, who well know 
 Your prudence, and may passively accept 
 The revolution as a thing accomplished, 
 Seeing you countenance it, and have your title 
 Supported by the guards. 
 
 PIS. Calls he this hope ? 
 
 'Tis the forlorn hope. 
 
 FLA. Desperation, my lord, 
 
 Is not despair. I venture it with gladness. 
 
 PIS. So do not I. I am no doubt betrayed 
 Already and watched. 
 
 FLA. Rufus may still be clear : 
 
 The informers will not name him \\ hile the guards 
 Remain their last resource. 
 
 PIS. Did him act cmickly, 
 
 And for himself. 
 
 FLA. My lord, he looks to you. 
 
 Unless you appear we cannot gain the people. 
 Consider how we have all trusted our lives 
 To your concerted action : now stand forth 
 And help us as you can. 
 
 PIS. Stay, man ; consider 
 
 How I have trusted my life to your action ; 
 
 And what ye have done with it : my stake in this 
 
 Compares no more with thine than does my prize 
 
 In the success with thine : I should be Caesar, 
 
 Thou Flavus still : so if we fail, I suffer 
 
 In like degree, my family dishonoured, 
 
 My rich estates confiscate, my innocent, 
 
 Honest dependants, whom I count by thousands, 
 
 All plunged in misery : to them my duties 
 
 Forbid this reckless hazard. — Return to Rufus, 
 
 And say so much. I utter no reproach 
 
 'Gainst thee nor any other ; I forgive 
 
 What reproach thou didst hint. I know thou'rt brave ; 
 
 Thou hast wished well, and I with thee ; but now 
 
 Our ill-built ship founders. I am your captain ; 
 
 My word is each man for himself : my part 
 
 I shall act no less bravely, that I see 
 
 All goes to the bottom. 
 
 FLA. Defer, my lord, to the last. 
 
 I'll save you if I may. I will go armed 
 To the trial. 
 
 PIS. Act for thyself ; think not of me. 
 Now bear my word to Rufus. Go this way. 
 
 [Exit, shouting Flavus out. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 The previous scene withdraws mid discovers 
 an open court of the palace disposed for 
 the trial, the seats in a half circle. Nerd's 
 at centre, back, the seat for the judge at 
 left front : the raised platform for the 
 accused at right front. Guards behind 
 Nero, a?id lining the half-circle. 
 
 Enter L UCAN, FLA VUS and ASPER, left. They 
 stand talking under cover of judge's seat. Guards 
 and most of audience are assembled. 
 
 LUC. Rufus will do his best : trust we to Rufus 
 To minimise the matter ; 'tis his interest. 
 
 FLA. If Crcsar come unguarded, I will kill him. 
 
 ASP. I will stand by thee. Is Lateranus here ? 
 
 L UC. He said he should not come. I pray you 
 both 
 Wait : let us first see who is betrayed. 
 
 FLA. Go thou, 
 
 And wait thy death. (Lucan goes to his place.) 
 
 ASP. Ret us die bravely, Flavus ; 
 
 'Tis all we can. (Coming forward to centre.) 
 
 FLA. We will. Ah, see ! he is guarded. 2 '- >0 " 
 
 Enter R. NERO, TIGELLINUS and RUFUS; 
 preceded by guards, ivho thrust Flavus and Asper 
 back, making passage for Cccsar. 
 
 NER. (at centre). Here is our court. I love the 
 open air : 
 It savours more of justice, heavenly justice ; 
 And while we sit, we breathe. Rufus, ascend. 
 
 (Shcncing judge's seat. ) 
 Crcsar is plaintiff, and in his own cause 
 Might bear a bias : so I make thee judge. 
 My counsel, Tigellinus, sit by me. ( They sit.) 
 
 FLA. (to Asp.). I'll not despair. I'll keep my 
 dagger ready. 
 Be near him if I rush. (Aspcr lakes a scat on Rufus' 
 proper left.) 
 
Act V. 3.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 157 
 
 NER. Is it in order, Rufus, 
 
 That I speak first ? 
 
 RUF. 'Twere well for form's sake, Caesar, 
 
 To state the purpose of this court, and read 
 The names of those denounced. Where are the 
 informers? 
 NER. Bring in the prisoners. — As for this court, 
 general, 
 'Tis called to inquire upon a matter known 
 To most here : they that know it not may gather it 
 As we proceed ; I will premise thus far : — 
 You will hear certain citizens confess 
 That they, with others whom they name, were joined 
 In a conspiracy to murder another, 
 And him your chiefest citizen, myself. 
 Rome at the first had kings, and being returned 
 To an autocratic rule, in the exigency 
 Of wide dominion, I, her king, her Caesar, 
 Her praetor, tribune, consul, typify 
 The general weal : who aims at my life, aims 
 At Rome and all. Therefore, though Caesar needs 
 No sanction to his sentence, he invites 
 The public ear unto the public wrong, 
 That all, before the guilty are arrested, 
 May hear the evidence, and self-impeachment 
 Of the two chief informers. There they are ; - :3 ° 
 
 Natalis and Scevinus. — {They have been brought in 
 guarded during Nero's speech, and now stand 
 up. Rt. ) 
 As plaintiff I shall watch the case, as Caesar 
 I watch the judge. Proceed ! 
 
 TIG. Scevinus. 
 
 SCE. Here, sir. 
 
 TIG. Thou in this writing hast confessed the truth 
 Of all the several charges brought against thee 
 By thy slave Milichus. 
 
 SCE. I have, my lord. 
 
 TIG. 'Tis true there was a plot 'gainst Caesar's 
 life, 
 And thou the instrument ? 
 
 SCE. My lord, 'tis true : 
 
 I crave great Caesar's mercy. 
 
 TIG. In hope of that, 
 
 And moved by late contrition, thou hast revealed 
 The names of thy confederates. 
 
 SCE. I have. 
 
 RUF. Will Caesar let me scan the information? 
 
 NER. No need. Take each in turn. 
 
 TIG. (to Scev. ). I ask thee, therefore, 
 
 Now to confirm this paper in open court. 
 Who was the head of this conspiracy ? 
 The man who thought to sit in Caesar's place, 
 When ye had murdered Caesar? 
 
 SCE. Calpurnius Piso. 
 
 TIG. Stand forth, Natalis. 
 
 NA T. Here, my lord. 
 
 TIG. Art thou 
 
 Of Piso's household? 
 
 NAT. I am, my lord. 
 
 TIG. Then thou 
 
 Shouldst know : was Piso head of this conspiracy? 
 
 NAT. He was, my lord. 
 
 NER. Judgment !— 
 
 RUF. Arrest Calpurnius Piso on this charge. 
 
 NER. (to Tig.). Send and arrest him. (Tig. 
 speaks to those behind.) 
 
 ^ FLA. (to Ritf.). Let me by thee, Rufus ! — 
 
 Send me to Caesar with some paper, Rufus ! — 
 Now I may reach him. — to save Piso, Rufus ! — 
 
 RUF. (to Flav., thrusting him back). Be still ! 
 
 TIG. (looking up). Order ! who speaks ? 
 
 NER. whispers to Tigellinus, who sets two guards 
 before Nero's seat. 
 
 RUF. (to Flav.). See, fool ; he hath smelt thee. 
 
 TIG. I'll ask Natalis further if he knew 
 Of any other chief man in the state 
 Cognisant of this plot, or joined therein. 
 
 NAT. Calpurnius Piso was the chief, my lord. 
 
 TIG. No other ? and I have here thy writing ! 
 
 FLA. (aside to Rufus). Now, 
 
 General, thy turn is come. 
 
 RUF. (to Natalis). Speak, sir ! 
 
 NA T. I pray, 
 
 Rufus, to urge not this : nay, from my heart 
 I say . . . 
 
 TIG. 'Tis written here. 
 
 RUF. This witness, Caesar, 
 
 I do not trust. 
 
 TIG. Carry Natalis out 
 To torture. 
 
 NAT. I will speak. 
 
 TIG. Then name, sir, name ! 
 
 NA T. Seneca. 
 
 RUF. Seneca ! 
 
 TIG. Yes, Seneca. 
 
 Let Seneca be arrested. Judge, what sayst thou? 
 
 RUF. Let Seneca be arrested. 
 
 FLA. (to Ruf). Villain thou art ! 
 
 NER. (to Tigell. who has 'whispered to him). Leave 
 Seneca to me. ,J,J7 " 
 
 TIG. These are the heads. Now will I read 
 three names : 
 Tell me, Scevinus, if I read aright : 
 Quintian, Senecio, Lucan. 
 
 SCE. I denounce them. 
 
 NER. Three hypocritical and fawning curs, 
 The lap-dogs of the palace. Where are they ? 
 
 TIG. They are here, Caesar. — Quintian, stand 
 forth. 
 
 QU. Here, 
 
 My lord. 
 
 TIG. Dost thou confess? 
 
 QU. I give Scevinus 
 
 The lie direct. 
 
 NER. We found thee in his company, 
 The hour of his arrest. 
 
 QU. Caesar, I knew 
 
 Of nothing 'gainst thy life. 'Tis true that oft 
 I have spoken against Vatinius ; were he Caesar, 
 I should be guilty : but yourself have loved 
 To prick me to it ; and so, may be, my tongue 
 Hath given Scevinus undeserved occasion 
 To think me of his party. 
 
 NER. Rufus, judge ! 
 
 R UF. I look for evidence. 
 
 TIG. Dost thou? — Then, Quintian, 
 
 To save thy life wilt thou inform ? 
 
 QU. I will. 
 
 TIG. Then was not Lucan with you ? 
 
 QU. He was. 
 
 NER. O Quintian, 
 
 Quintian ! if I forgave thee for thy treason, 
 
77/e Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act V. 3. 
 
 I could not for thy folly. Arrest him. 
 
 RUF. Arrest Quint ian. 
 
 The next ? 
 
 TIG. Senecio, General, hath confessed. 
 His evidence we will take later. Where is 
 Lucan ? 
 
 LUC. I am here, my lord, ready to answer. 
 
 RUF. Then let us hear thine answer. 
 
 LUC. I deny 
 
 The charge of treason : but so far confess 
 My intimacy with the accused, that oft 
 My zeal for senatorial forms hath led me 
 To listen to them, when the words that passed 
 Might tell against me : and if I was betrayed 
 By antiquarian taste, to trust these men 230(l 
 
 Against advice and warning . . . 
 
 NER. Ah ! thou sayest 
 
 Against advice. Who warned thee? 
 
 LUC. Caesar, I said . . . 
 
 NER. Sir, I will know who warned thee of this 
 plot, 
 And warned not me. 
 
 LUC. Sire, I meant not so much. 
 
 TIG. We heard thee. 
 
 L UC. I make appeal to Rufus, whether 
 
 I must betray the innocent. 
 
 NER. If thou look 
 
 For thine own pardon. 
 
 TIG. We can make thee speak. 
 
 RUF. Tell us, sir, who these wondrous patriots 
 were, 
 Who set thy private safety above Caesar's. 
 
 LUC. If Caesar bids me speak, I may hide 
 nothing. 
 I will confess it was my mother, Atilia, 
 Who warned me against these men. Punish not her 
 For not betraying her son. 
 
 NER. Nay, sir, but thee 
 
 Who in this bungle of prevarication 
 Betrayest thine own mother. Judge ! 
 
 RUF. Arrest him. 
 
 LUC. I am arrested, Caesar,"not condemned. 
 
 NER. Thou'lt see. Stand by !— (to Tigell.) 
 Another woman ! why 
 Comes not Epicharis ? 
 
 TIG. I know no cause 
 
 For the delay. I'll send again. 
 
 NER. Do so. 
 
 (to Scevitius.) Go on, sir : who is next? 
 
 SCE. Plautius Lateranus. 
 
 NER. Plautius Lateranus ! Have more care 
 Whom thou accusest. This is one bounden to me 
 By special favours : from disgrace I raised him 
 To sit among the senate, and now he is chosen 
 Consul. 
 
 TIG. Dost thou denounce him ? 
 
 SCE. I do, my lord. ^ 
 
 NER. Whom then can Caesar trust? Judge, 
 Rufus, judge ! 
 
 TIG. Judge ! 
 
 RUF. Let him be arrested. 
 
 NER. Send to his house. 
 
 Enter an Officer. 
 
 Off. Caesar, being sent to arrest Calpurnius Piso, 
 We found him dead. 
 
 RUF. Dead ! how ? 
 
 NER. Is Piso dead ? 
 
 FLA. (to Rufus). See how thou hast ruined all ! 
 
 RUF. (to Flavus). Speak not to me ! 
 
 Off. He died by his own hand as we arrived. 
 I viewed the body. 
 
 TIG. He must have killed himself 
 
 To escape the confiscation. 
 
 NER. Bah ! he hath robbed 
 
 The treasury. 
 
 TIG. We shall have pickings yet. 
 
 RUF. Caesar, the untimely suicide of the accused 
 Confirms the charge against him in so far 
 As he hath declined to meet it. But the trial 
 Falls to the ground : we lose both the defence 
 And the chief witness. 
 
 NER. Not so. My chief object 
 
 Remains, and my chief witness. — (to Tig.) Where 
 is Epicharis ? 
 
 TIG. I see a litter passing 'neath the trees. 
 
 NER. Meet them, and bring her in. — 
 
 [Exit Tigei 'Units. 
 I now produce a woman in the court. 
 Her name Epicharis : she lives at Naples, 
 And there was used by the conspirators 
 To tamper with the navy : the Admiral 
 Arrested her ; but she, being charged before me, 
 Turned off suspicion with a specious tale, 
 Which I more readily believed, because 
 I hate informers, nor will lightly think '■ W5 ° 
 
 Evil of anyone. Senecio 
 Confirmed her story, but hath since confessed 
 He knew it false : himself, as he affirms, 
 Was not in Piso's confidence, this woman 
 Knew all. Now Piso towards Senecio 
 Trusted too much in trusting but a little, 
 Trusting Epicharis much he trusted well : 
 For in the extreme of torture she hath not flinched, 
 Nor given a sound : but seeing her silence now 
 Confuted by so many tongues, she hath yielded, 
 And promised to speak truth. See, here she is. 
 During this speech Epicharis has been borne in on 
 the litter, and is set down at the centre of the 
 stage. 
 Her speech shall now unmask what traitorous faces 
 Still screen their villany. 
 
 RUF. A woman, Caesar ; 
 
 And in the pangs of torture, and fear of death ! 
 What evidence is this ? 
 
 NER. What would ye object ? 
 
 RUF. Shall Romans have their free lives played 
 with thus? 
 
 NER. What puts thee in fear ? Silence ! — 
 Epicharis, 
 I bid thee now speak truth before the court. 
 Piso is dead. Thou seest thy comrades taken. 
 Truth may not save thy life : yet speak the truth 
 As thy last hope. Let no man interrupt her. 
 
 EP. (speaks from the litter). Cresar, I thank thee 
 that in all my torture 
 Thou hast spared my tongue to tell thee truth at last: 
 That I am admitted where my free confession 
 May reach the public ear, nay not denied 2375 
 
 Thine own ear, and for that I thank thee most ; 
 And for my torture I thank thee too : 'tis proved 
 I speak not lightly, and must be well believed. 
 
Act V. 3, 4.] The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 2-59 
 
 Thou bidst me, mighty Caesar, tell thee truth : 
 Weak is my tongue to tell the mighty truths 
 Caesar dare hear, and none hath dared to tell : 
 And I die . . . hearken quickly. Of all thou seest 
 There is not one whom thou canst trust : all hate 
 
 thee . . 
 Yet needst thou not, great Caesar, fear them much ; 
 For all are cowards : nay, there is not among them 
 One brave enough to kill thee. And yet again, 
 Great Caesar, I counsel thee to fear them too ; 
 For all the world 'gainst one will have their way. 
 
 I know thou fear'st. Then who is most thy foe ? 
 Whom first to kill ? That I can tell thee, Ca-sar : 
 For none of all thou seest, or ever saw'st, 
 Or wilt see again, nay, not thy murdered mother, 
 Thy poisoned brother, thy beheaded wife, 
 Whose bloody ghosts watch on the banks of hell 
 To mark thy doom, none hateth thee as I, 
 Defieth thee as I, curseth thee as I. 
 
 emperor of the world, thine hour is come. 
 Within thy cankered soul dwell side by side 
 Remorse and vanity to drive thee mad : 
 
 The grecian furies hound thee, the christian devils 
 Dispute for thee. Fly to thy dunghill, Caesar ; 24m 
 Where thou must perish. 
 
 NER. Will none there stop her mouth ? 
 
 EP. Plague-spotted, abhorred for ever— by all — 
 
 accurst — 
 ASP. Let no man interrupt her ! 
 NEK. Who spoke? Arrest him. — 
 
 Epicharis'' last -words are spoken as the soldiers 
 surround her. She struggles on the litter 
 violently, and falls back dead. Other guards 
 arrest As per. 
 Who art thou, sir? thy name? 
 ASP. My name is Aspe:\ 
 
 1 am centurion under Rufus. 
 NER. Rufus, 
 
 Know'st thou thy man ? 
 
 RUF. I grieve, sire, it is true : 
 
 He is one of my centurions. 
 
 NER. Question him. 
 
 TIG. {who is standing by Epicharis, to Nero). 
 Epicharis is dead. 
 
 NER. Ye have killed her, fools ? 
 
 Hath she got quit ? 
 
 TIG. 'Twas her own doing, Caesar : 
 
 She meshed her neck among the cords, and so 
 Hath reft her of what little life remained. 
 
 NER. Remove her to the prison, and let 
 physicians 
 Attend her at once. 
 
 TIG. She is dead. ( They carry Epicharis out. ) 
 
 NER. Rufus, proceed 
 
 With thy centurion. 
 
 ASP. If all hate thee, Caesar, 
 
 How wilt thou bid that hater question this? 
 
 RUF. What, fellow? 
 
 ASP. Thou that sittest there to judge, 
 
 And shouldst stand here, wilt thou dare question me ? 
 
 RUF. I, fellow ? 
 
 NER. Ha ! Rufus, thou turnest pale. 
 
 RUF. With anger I turn pale, that in your presence 
 A traitor should defame me. 
 
 NER. Be cool, sir : 
 
 Thou wast suspected, now accused thou art. 
 
 Thou hast but one appeal : In thy worst case 
 'Tis to thy friends, {pointing to accused.) 
 
 RUF. Call not those men my friends. 
 
 NER. I'll see. Speak, traitors all ; was Rufus 
 with you? M25 
 
 LUC, SCE, and others. He was. He is guilty. 
 NER. Arrest the judge. 
 
 RUF. Who dares? 
 
 What officer of mine dares raise his hand 
 Against his general? 
 
 CASS. That will I, my lord ; 
 
 Knowing that thou deservest more than all. 
 
 RUF. Help! help! — (To Flavus.) Now, man, 
 
 strike now or never. 
 FLA. Hush ! 
 
 I am the last. (Rufus is seized after a struggle.) 
 
 A r ER. (stepping doiun). Now will I mount myself 
 
 the judge's seat. 
 FLA. rushes fonvard to stab Nero. 
 A r ER. Ha! Murder! (Tigellinus, 'who has 
 watched Flavus, intercepts him. Flavus is seized. ) 
 TIG. Clear the court ! 
 
 77ie inner line of guards faces outwards, and all 
 present except the prisoners are driven from centre 
 into the wings, and the court begins to clear. 
 NER. (to Flavtls, who is held before him). Who 
 
 art thou, sir? 
 FLA. A tribune and an honest soldier, Caesar ; 
 And none more faithful, while you well deserved. 
 But I began to hate you from the day 
 You killed your mother, and debased yourself, 
 Performing to the people : and I am freed 
 From all my oaths, by all the gods in heaven, 
 With all the world ; and sworn with half the world 
 To kill thee or be killed. 
 
 NER. Fool ! I shall kill thee, 
 
 With thy half world, and rule the other half. 
 
 ( The curtain falls, or scene shuts across.) 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 A room in the palace. 
 
 Enter TIGELLINUS. 
 
 TIG. Rufus, my rival, is condemned to die : 
 The city troops are mine : I am secure : 
 Caesar I hold by flattery, Rome by force. 
 Sophronius Tigellinus of Agrigentum ! 
 Of Agrigentum, — well done ! be content. 
 Thou hast the second place in all the world, 
 And rulest the first ; while of thine envious foes, 
 Sulla, Plautus and Piso, all three are dead : - 15 " 
 
 A few remain : but on the Spaniard Seneca 
 Shall the Sicilian eagle swoop to-night, 
 As on a flying hare. Poppaea, in this 
 My keen ally, hunts with me eagerly. 
 
 Enter NERO and POPP.EA. 
 
 Hail, mighty Caesar! fairest Avigusta, hail ! 
 
 (They salute.) 
 
 The assassin hath not hurt thy spirits ? 
 
 NER. Fear not, 
 
 I have dined. 
 
 TIG. Dined well, I pray the gods. 
 
260 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 [Act V. 4. 
 
 NER. Superbly.— 
 
 We sent to speak with thee of Seneca, 
 What should be done. 
 
 TIG. What hath been done already? 
 
 NER. I lark, I will tell thee. I sent a letter to 
 him, 
 Pressing the information of Natalis ; — 
 " Why if thou knewest of this plot — I said — 
 "Didst not thou warn me? And if thou knewest 
 
 not, 
 " What was thy reason why thou didst refuse 
 " Audience to Piso, alleging that such meetings 
 " Were good for neither ; adding also, I hold 
 " Thy life needful to mine " ? Now I await 
 His answer. 
 
 TIG. The tribune is returned. 
 
 NER. Impossible ; 
 
 Seneca is in Campania. 
 
 TIG. Nay, your majesty ; 
 
 He is in the suburbs : he returned to-day, 
 Trusting his wit before his innocence. 
 
 NER. Go, fetch the tribune in. [Exit Tigcllinus. 
 
 POP. Why dally thus? 
 
 NER. I dally not : I go the shortest way 
 To find if he be guilty. 
 
 POP. Stick you at that? 
 
 NER. Romans are free. There is no man can 
 be touched " i - 5 
 
 On an unproven charge. 
 
 POP. Are you not Caesar? 
 
 NRR, Caesar administers the law, while it 
 Can minister to him. 
 
 Re-enter TIGELLINUS. 
 
 TIG. Here is his answer written. 
 
 NER. Read it us, Tigellinus. 
 
 TIG. If I can . . . 
 
 The letters are so pinched and shaky ... it needs 
 The scholarship oi Caesar. 
 
 NER. Give it me. 
 
 [Reads.) "To Caesar, Lucius Annneus Seneca 
 "Greeting . . . In answer to thy message ; first 
 " 'Tis true that once Natalis came to me 
 " From Piso, and begged that I would visit him : 
 "And I excused myself on plea of sickness, 
 "And need of quiet : As to the words imputed, 
 " However I may prize thy safety, Caesar, 
 " I have no cause to set a private person's 
 " Above my own ; nor do I stoop to flattery, 
 " As well thou knowest ; nor to such shallow arts 
 " As would hide treason in a salutation." 
 
 'PIG. Is that the sum ? 
 
 NER. 'Tis all. He is not guilty. 
 
 TIG. Not guilty ! 
 
 NER. Nay. 
 
 POP. Why he confesses it. 
 
 NER. I know the man : his mind is here at ease. 
 The style is pithy and careless. When he has aught 
 To excuse he is wordy. 
 
 TIG. He was wordy enough 
 
 In the matter of Agrippina, true. 
 
 NER. Well, sir ! 
 
 POP. And in the matter of Britannicus. 
 
 NER. Why raise these matters now ? 25nn 
 
 TIG. These are the matters 
 
 That Seneca harps on : while he lives they live. 
 
 POP. These are the deeds Fpicharis charged 
 against thee. 
 
 TIG. This was the root of Flavus' hate. 
 
 POP. 'Tis this 
 
 The people mean, who whisper when I pass, 
 ' Octavia, Octavia.' 
 
 TIG. And he now persuades 
 
 Half Rome 'twas not himself who did these things, 
 But thou . . . which thou, permitting him to live, 
 Indorsest with thy name ; dost set, I say, 
 The imperial warrant on the black account : 
 As orphans sign away their patrimony 
 To scheming uncles ; as unwitting pupils 
 To crafty tutors fall a prey. 
 
 NER. One lesson 
 
 He taught me perfectly, that is to hate him. 
 
 POP. Thy hate and love go by half measures, 
 Nero. 
 
 TIG. 'Tvvere pretty, Caesar, wert thou a private 
 person, 
 To play the philosopher upon the man 
 Who led thee astray — albeit to sacrifice 
 Thy wife and friend, — if he who saved thy life 
 May style himself thy friend . . . 
 
 NER. Yes, friend ; thou savedst 
 
 My life to-day. 
 
 TIG. And yet saved not. if thou 
 Wilt throw it straight away, and with thy saviour's. 
 
 NER. Stay, I am resolved : I will not vex you 
 further : 
 I yield. I know there is no man in the world, 
 Nor ever was, but hath his flaw : In some 
 'Tis a foul blot, that in the eye of nature 2525 
 
 Stands out unpardonable and unredeemed 
 By all the school of virtues, howsoe'er 
 They dance in grace around it : In another 
 'Tis like a beauty-mark, a starry mole 
 Which on a virgin's body but sets o.ff 
 The dazzling flesh, that else were self-extinguished 
 In its own fairness. — -Vet by these flecks and flaws, 
 Whate'er they be, 'tis fated that men fall : 
 And thus may I, nay must ; unless in time 
 I heed good warning, for my fault is gross. 
 I am over generous ; yes ; ye say it ; I know it. 
 That is my flaw. It is because my schemes 
 Are wider than his own, that Seneca hates me : 
 Because the world hath tasted more of freedom 
 Under my rule than under any Caesar 
 Who went before — and that can no man question — 
 It is for this my throne hath more been envied, 
 And by more plots and treacheries besieged, 
 Than ever others were : and when I saw 
 (.My safety and the people's good being one) 
 I must make holocaust of private feelings 
 To that which helped the whole, then 'twas for that 
 The bungling crowd condemned me, and where I 
 
 looked 
 For gratitude to be my consolation, 
 I met reproach. 'Twas Seneca, ye say, 25o ° 
 
 Who did those things. 'Tis true those deeds were his 
 In reason and connivance ; but in the act, 
 Doing and suffering they were mine, and are. 
 Yet now, if he withdraw his countenance, 
 Condemn, wear vulgar horror on his face, 
 And turn men's hearts against me, what could move 
 My anger more if I were vain or cruel ? 
 
Act V. 5.] 
 
 The Second Part of Nero. 
 
 261 
 
 No. Have your will. — and if I hinder not, 
 He cannot blame me ; since I do but play 
 Seneca to your Cresar. 
 
 TIG. I thank thee, sire. 
 
 He dies to night ; or shall we wait to have him 
 Compose the palliation ? 
 
 NER. Jest not ; 'tis done. [Exit Tig. 
 
 POP. You have talked too long, Nero ; come in 
 and rest. 
 
 NEK. He was my tutor once, and once I loved 
 him. 
 
 POP. You might have done it with a nod. 
 
 NEK. lie is old : 
 
 I rob him not of much. The end of life 
 Is tedious, I believe. Come back, Popprea ; 
 And while we are in our prime, let us be merry 
 And thank the gods. [Exeunt. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 (As epilogue.) 
 
 Scene withdraws and show's Seneca's garden in the 
 suburbs : a table set out under a tree. 
 
 Enter SENECA, THRASEA, and PRISCUS. 
 SEN. This way : I have bid them set a table, 
 Thrasea, 
 Under my favourite tree. Here let us sit, 
 And watch the April sunset ; the mild air 
 Permits this summer pleasure. 
 
 THR. I long doubted 
 
 Whether to come upon an invitation 
 Written before these troubles. 25,D 
 
 SEN. You did well 
 
 Not to desert me. Fannia too shall comfort 
 My grieved Paullina. — Here is the best wine 
 Of all my vineyards : drink to my long journey : — 
 Put first remember solemnly our friends 
 Who have already died to-day : I pour 
 This cup to them, and specially must name 
 My nephew Lucan. 
 
 THR. 'Tis an ancient custom. 
 
 SEN. {offering to Thrasea). And should be kept. 
 
 THR. {taking and sprinkling). I'll name the 
 
 gentle Piso. 
 PR. {taking from Thrasea). This to Epicharis. 
 
 (Sprinkling. ) 
 THR. Well spoken, son. 
 
 No better wish than that we all may die 
 Pravely as she. 
 
 SEN. So be it! Now let us sit. (They sit.) 
 And I between (sitting). I would so spend this hour, 
 That ye shall not forget it in after-days, 
 When ye think of me. 'Tis the last time, friends, 
 That ye will sup with me. 
 
 PR. Nay, say not so : 
 
 I trust you have escaped. 
 
 SEN. Look on yon sun : 
 
 An hour hence he will set ; and now he sinks 
 Smiling eternal promises. Ye both 
 Shall see him rise, but I— I shall not see it. 
 This tree shall hang its branches, and another 
 May sit and comfort his poetic sadness, 
 As I have done, only not I : I only 
 Not here . . . not there, where I have been : all 
 things 
 
 Have hitherto existed with me, henceforth 
 All will exist without me. 
 
 PR. Have more hope. 26 "° 
 
 SEN. Nay, it is so ; what else could Csesar 
 
 mean? 
 THR. Your answer may convince him. 
 SEN. Nay, good Thrasea ; 
 
 These be the last hours of my life : I'd say 
 To you, my friends, what I have most at heart. 
 And first rejoice with me that I depart 
 With all my senses perfect, not as some 
 Tortured by pain and praying for release ; 
 Nor like a man, who walking in the dark, 
 Comes to a brink upright, and steppeth over 
 Unhesitatingly, because he knows not. 
 Nor is my term much shortened, I shall die 
 Like aged Socrates, and with his hope 
 That the spirit doth not perish ; — I mean not 
 A senseless immortality of fame : 
 That I shall have, but more I'll have ; I dream 
 Of life in which I may be Seneca again, 
 Seneca still. 
 
 THR. Now if thou couldst convince us, 
 Seneca, of that, 'twere worthy thy last hour. 
 Teach me to picture what thou thinkst to see, 
 That land betwixt oblivion and regret ; 
 Where is't? how is it? 
 
 SEN. It lies not in the scope 
 
 Of demonstration, Thrasea ; but my heart 
 Pears witness to it : the best that I could say 
 Is in my books. What all mankind desires, 
 The mind requires ; what it requires believes : 26J5 
 And that is truthf I hold that one God made us, 
 And at our death receives our spirits kindly : 
 We shall meet elsewhere those whom we leave here. 
 PR. This will not comfort Romans : Nero again, 
 And Tigellinus . . . 
 
 SEN. Why may there not be 
 
 Distinction, Priscus, as old fables tell ; 
 Rewards for good, and punishments for ill ? 
 The myths are gross and brutal, but philosophy 
 Finds reason in religion. 
 
 THR. Then the vulgar, 
 
 'Gainst whom you have waged your philosophic war, 
 Hold the last truth. 
 
 SEN. The sanction of all truth 
 
 Lies in our common nature. A religion 
 Pased on the truth of what all men desire 
 Must carry all before it. 
 
 THR. Put you said 
 
 Philosophy found reason in religion. 
 What is your ground ? 
 
 SEN. My first is this, that else 
 
 All were unjust. It needs a second life 
 To set this even. 
 
 'THR. You have not found in life 
 
 Its own reward ? 
 
 SEN. Nay, I have not. 
 
 'THR. I know not 
 
 If 'tis not sadder, this profound impeachment 
 Of God's whole constitution as we see it, 
 Than the belief that death's our end of all. 
 To live in conscious harmony with nature 
 May satisfy our being ; but religion 
 Looks like the poetry which childhood makes iKa 
 To cloke its empty terrors, or bedizen 
 
262 
 
 The Second Part of Aero. 
 
 [Act V. 5. 
 
 Its painted idols : such is my persuasion. 
 
 PR. And mine. 
 
 SEN. Ah, Priscus, thou art young. I once 
 
 Looked forward into life with a proud heart, 
 Nor saw the exigency and irony 
 Of all-subduing Fate. Consider, Priscus, 
 Whether your father's virtue or Nero's crimes 
 Have found their recompense. 
 
 PR. If Thrasea's heart 
 
 Is comforted by virtue, sir, and Nero 
 Made wretched by his crime . . . 
 
 SEN. Then put it thus : 
 
 If any were to make a tragedy 
 Of these events, how would it pass or please, 
 If Nero lived on at the end unpunished, 
 Triumphing still o'er good ? 
 
 THR. Yes, Seneca : 
 
 But see you make not now your god of the stage 
 The God of Nature. Our true tragedy 
 Is just this outward riddle, and the god 
 That mends all, comes not in pat at his'cue 
 On a machine, but liveth in our hearts 
 Resolving evil faster than it falls, 
 As the sun melts the snow. 
 
 SEN. 'Tis not enough, 
 
 Thrasea, 'tis not enough : there must be more. 
 
 ****** 
 Hear you a tramping ? That is Caesar's men : 
 They will surround the garden. Come aside. 
 
 ( Comes to front with Thrasea. ) 
 Stand by me, Thrasea, to the last. I would not 2ti7s 
 Slur the last act of life. Be thou my witness 
 Of word and deed. 
 
 Enter PA ULLINA with FANNIA, who goes to 
 PRISCUS. 
 
 PAU. O Seneca, they are come"; 
 
 They are come again. 
 
 SEN. Dear wife, remember, and help me. — 
 
 See, friends, the sun is almost set ; 'tis time 
 We went within. 
 
 PAU. Alas! {weeping.) 
 
 SEN. (to Paullina). Thy tears distract me, 
 And shame us both. 
 
 Enter a Centurion. 
 
 Cent. Annaeus Seneca ! 
 
 SEN. Well, sir : thy message ? Art not thou 
 Silvanus, 
 That stoodst with Rufus and with Subrius Flavus ? 
 How hast thou wriggled out? 
 
 Cent. I am Silvanus, 
 
 And bring thee Ccesar's bidding. 
 
 SEN Is it death ? 
 
 Cent. 'Tis death. 
 
 PAU. Shame on thee. 
 
 SEN. Hush, wife : be brave. — A man 
 
 Need not be shamed, sirs, that his wife bewail him. 
 (To Paullina.) Go thou, Paullina, fetch my will. 
 
 Cent. Stay, madam : 
 
 'Tis not allowed. 
 
 SEN. This is unkind : my wealth 
 Was Caesar's gift : but now he takes from me 
 More than he ever gave, my life : 'tis mean 
 To grudge me my last freedom, the little use 
 I'd make of his old favours. I but wished 
 To leave mementoes to three loving friends, 
 Who have supped with me to-night. — In lieu thereof 
 The example of my constancy shall be 
 More lively undelayed by gentle speeches 
 And farewell gifts. Come with me, all is ready. 
 
 Cent. I await thee. 
 
 SEN. Farewell, friends ! Farewell, Paullina ! 
 
 PA U. Not to me here. 
 
 SEN. Yes, we must part : the day 
 
 Is not much hastened. See how skeleton-like 
 Already the hand, with which I go to shear 
 The filmy threads of life. 
 
 PA U. But I will die 
 
 With thee. 
 
 SEN. Be still. Let not thy heart rebel. 
 Now is the hour of proof. 
 
 PA U. If 'twere God's will. 
 
 SEN. ' All is God's will : and as we lived together 
 In love, so now we part. 
 
 PA U. Why should we part ? 
 
 What thou doest I will do : I fear not death. 
 I'll hold my little candle by thy sun . . . 
 
 SEN. It may not be. Use thy high courage rather 
 To live. Yes, live in peace : live long. 
 
 PAU. With thee 
 
 Murdered ! Alas ! 
 
 SEN. Give me thy last embrace. 
 
 PAU. Was not my faith then true? Are we not 
 one? 
 
 SEN. Yes, yes : we are one. 
 
 PA U. Then now forbid me not 
 
 To die with thee. 
 
 FAN. Do not this thing, madam ! 
 
 PA U. Nay, hold me not ! 
 
 SEN. Paullina, dost thou make 
 
 This desperate choice truly with all thy heart ? 
 
 PAU. With all my heart. 
 
 SEN. Thou dost? Dear wife, I thought 
 
 Csesar could part us : now I can forgive him. — 
 To you, my friends, farewell ! Thrasea, farewell ! 
 Priscus, farewell ! Fannia, farewell ! — Paullina, 
 
 (taking her hand) 
 Since thou canst dare, we will go hand in hand 
 To learn the mighty secret ; we will set forth 
 Together unto the place where all have gone. 2 "- 4 
 
 THE END. 
 
The Second Part of Nero. 263 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE I. ON ENCLITICS, ETC. 
 
 In the fifth chapter of the Life of Johnson, the following story is given by B o swell : ' His schoolfellow and 
 friend, Ur. Taylor, told me a pleasant anecdote of Johnson's triumphing over his pupil, David Garrick. When 
 that great actor had played some little time at Goodman's Fields, Johnson and Taylor went to see him 
 perform, and afterwards passed the evening at a tavern with him and old Giffard. Johnson, who was ever 
 depreciating stage-players, after censuring some mistakes in emphasis, which Garrick had committed in the 
 course of that night's acting, said, "The players, Sir, have got a kind of rant, with which they run on, 
 without any regard either to accent or emphasis." Both Garrick and Giffard were offended at this sarcasm, 
 and endeavoured to refute it ; upon which Johnson rejoined, " Well now, I'll give you something to speak, 
 with which you are little acquainted, and then we shall see how just my observation is. That shall be the 
 criterion. Let me hear you repeat the ninth commandment." Thou shall not bear false witness against thy 
 neighbour. Both tried at it, said Dr. Taylor, and both mistook the emphasis, which should be upon not 
 and false witness. Johnson put them right, and enjoyed his victory with glee.' Johnson was of course wrong, 
 and Garrick right, at least if he accented the shalt in the usual way. 
 
 A friend of mine once told me that when he was a boy at St. Paul's school it fell to his lot to recite the passage 
 in Shakespeare's "Julius Czesar," xvhere Brutus and Cassius quarrel ; and in the following lines 
 
 CASS. I am a soldier, I, , 
 
 Older in practice, abler than yourself 
 
 To make conditions. 
 BRU. Go to ; you are not, Casnius. 
 
 CASS. I am. 
 BRU. I say you are not. 
 
 when he stressed them correctly, as here shown, he was censured and told to say Go to ; you are not, Cassius. 
 Hmvever on the day of performance he lost his presence of mind, and did it right. 
 
 These two illustrations of pedantry refusing to conform to idiom will explain the occasion of many of the 
 accents, with which I have thought it necessary to disfigure my text ; for a good number of them will be found 
 to be common enclitics. The rest are all put as guides to the dramatic rhythm, and many of them to ensure the 
 usual pronunciation of words in verses the rhythm of which depends on it, but which I found some readers 
 stumble at, so that they would rather mispronounce the word than accept the intended rhythm. 
 
 To pass to another subject, there is a story told of a lady fallen into poor circumstances, who determined to 
 support herself by the making and selling of mttffins : but when she got out into the streets with her basket, her 
 heroism forsook her, so that she had not the courage to cry her wares. "Muffins, muffins," she said in an 
 inaudible voice, and "I hope to heaven no one will hear me !" Now I have some hope that my readers will 
 never credit me with such fiitility, but I have thought it belter that the advertisement of my books, which has 
 hitherto always appeared on the wrapper of my plays, should be printed this time on a leaf of the book itself, so 
 that it may be bound up with it, and serve me, with this statement, for an abiding evidence agaitist the writers 
 for the press, who repeatedly assert that my published -works are witheld from the market. I feel that my 
 recent mention of the ninth commandment is altogether unfortunate in their regard : but the collusion of my 
 remarks was unforeseen. 
 
 NOTE II. ON PALICIO. 
 
 Since the publication of PALICIO, unexpected light has been thrown on the married history of Palicio and 
 Margaret. It would seem that they had a son, who was probably named after his maternal uncle, the chief 
 fusticiary: for in March 1891 a halfwitted Sicilian, named Manuel I'alizzi, or Palicio, was among the Italians 
 who ivere executed by the mob in New Orleans, for being concerned in Ike murder of the head of the police. 
 Though the mental condition of this unfortunate felhnv was such as to make his responsibility questionable, yet 
 his connection with the Mafia society, and with their motives and crimes, points, as unmistakeably as his name, 
 to his ancestor in my play, terribly degraded though he was in body as in mind. It is possible that some of our 
 
264 The fSecoJid Part of Nero. 
 
 fanatical anarchists may be similarly the prey of a depraved atavism, and be impelled by a fermentation of the 
 sour dregs of an old puritanic heroism. I hope that the family is now extinct. The late Professor Freeman in 
 the introduction to his History of Sicily, contributed to the literature of my play, by giving a careful and full 
 account of what I assumed to be the origin of the family name. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 By the same author, in this series, price 2s. 6d. each. 
 No. 1. NERO. The first part. 
 This play is out of print at present, but will be reprinted as soon as the sale of the last three plays may 
 afford. 
 
 No. 2. PALICIO. 
 ,, 3. RETURN OF ULYSSES. 
 ,, 4. CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES. 
 ,, 5. ACHILLES IN SCYROS. 
 „ 6. HUMOURS OF THE COURT. 
 „ 7. FEAST OF BACCHUS. 
 The above are published by GEORGE BELL and SONS, and by EDWARD BUMPUS, London. 
 Also by GEORGE BELL and SONS, 
 SHORTER POEMS. 3rd Ed : 4s. nett. 
 EDEN, an Oratorio. Paper wrapper, 2s. nett. 
 Also at the CLARENDON PRESS, 
 MILTON'S PROSODY. 
 An account of Milton's rules of blank verse in Paradise Lost, and of the metrical structure of Samson 
 Agonistes : with Appendices. A few copies of the large paper^edition of this may be had, price 8s. 6d. 
 ACHILLES IN SCYROS is also printed uniform 
 with EDEN and the SHORTER POEMS. 
 Mr. DANIEL'S black-letter edition of the shorter poems, in five books, the fifth book being new matter, 
 may be had for twenty-five shillings the set of five books, on application to the Rev. C. H. Daniel, Worcester 
 House, Oxford. A few copies only remain. Mr. Daniel's books may be often obtained in London of Messrs. 
 Elkin Mathews and John Lane in Vigo Street : and my name appears in their catalogue : but they are not the 
 1 publishers ' of these, nor of any of my books : nor am I responsible for the statements concerning my books 
 in booksellers' catalogues, nor for the correctness of the press in American editions. 
 
 Other books which are now out of print will be republished as soon as possible. Bk.JV. of shorter poems 
 i* already in the press. R. B. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 JAN 22 1934 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 JUN 4 inq7 yj 
 
 
 uu ' i 130/ U 
 
 
 -, _. 
 
 
 
 
 M ~11957 
 
 
 '&d/ 
 
 
 
 
 ^PArr'fiflnM 
 
 
 l t- njji uuuifi 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 AHI ^ tPWfi 
 
 
 * ' r&Emt 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 LD 21-100to-7,'33 
 
 m 
 Mi 
 
804740 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY