University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

An outer court of the prison.
Enter Pudens.
PUDENS.
'Tis hard our Christians may not hold in peace
This their last supper, but upon them comes
The city out, to stare.

[A knocking.
VOICES
(without).
Open! we're late.

PUDENS.
The noise won't make you earlier.
Enter Citizens.
Be quiet!

FOURTH CITIZEN.
Quiet! what's that?—we are come, all of us,
To enjoy ourselves.

Enter Soldiers from within.
A SOLDIER.
Not much of that, I reckon:
'Tis dull enough. Better along with us
To the gladiators—they are the boys.

[Soldiers pass out.
CITIZENS.
Come on! [They enter.
Enter Lentulus, a Slave following.


LENTULUS.
O breath! the miserable mob are here;
The air is poison'd. Hither bring that robe:
This place is no curator for the vestments.
Which way?—on with the lamp.

Enter Naso.
NASO.
You here!
Have you no fear of prison-damps and dews
For curls ambrosial?—Nay, let us be grave.
You come to look on beauty; I on strength.
Is the lady with the rest?

PUDENS.
But now she was
Apart, and with her brother.

NASO.
And the father?

LENTULUS.
Did he not die under the blow in the Forum?

PUDENS.
Nay, sir, he home return'd. 'Tis said he takes
To his daughter's child; lives with it in his arms;
Gives it its food; rocks it like any nurse,—
They scarce know if in savageness or love.
He sits with lips hard set, with brows knit close:
The child doth cry, afeard to face his eyes.
His only words have been, a fierce denial
To spare it to the mother for once more!

NASO.
And how takes this the lady—does she weep?

PUDENS.
Her eyes are like to eyes that never more
Will know a tear.

NASO.
Come, Lentulus.—What hour
To-morrow?

[To Pudens.
LENTULUS.
For the amphitheatre?

NASO.
Surely,—to see how she who has begun
Her work so bravely, ends it.

LENTULUS.
So not I:
To look on beauty, well—but not on blood;
The hands, the garments, ne'er feel pleasant after.

PUDENS.
Sirs, would you do kind service? Should you find
The citizens, and those have pass'd within,
Break up with noise or jest the Christians' peace,
You're of some standing, and might keep them down.

NASO.
Good fellow, yes.—Now, Lentulus, draw up!
Your inches and your lordly reputation
Must do their best: command a gaping quiet,—
After, perchance, to have your back a target
For blunted arrows from their wagging tongues:
For why?—you mount the wreath, they but the cap;
Unless you have preferment for the rogues,
And then,—how many Jupiters have we?

LENTULUS.
Let me consider.

NASO.
Let us pass within.

[All enter.