 | Octavia |  |
SCENE THE SECOND.
Nero, Poppæa, Seneca.Ne.
Obey'st thou thus my prohibition, rebel? ...
Pop.
Ah come! ah come! and thou shalt hear ...
Ne.
Hear what?
Ere long and he shall also hear from me
The self-same arguments which I prepare
For all the people. But, oh rage! E'en yet
That execrable tumult ceases not:
Fruitless are prayers: ere long the sword shall come,
And it shall clear away an ample passage.
Poppæa, calm thy spirits: thou shalt see
Thy images to-morrow rise again
To heaven: and in the same filth, but bedaubed
With noisome, sable gore, thou shalt behold
Thy rivals dragged.
Pop.
Whate'er from this ensues,
Let Rome from thee now know that I have not
From thee exacted blood to expiate
This offered outrage; though it cost me much
To bear it. Yet the guilty people dares
Allege against me cruel views; and he,
106
Though he believe them not. Thee I attest,
Thee, my first deity, of this: thou knowest
If I from thee have ever asked for aught
Except Octavia's exile. Evermore
To see her near me, who, without desert,
My Nero first possest, afflicted me:
But, with her exile satisfied, I deem'd
That she, for her so many crimes, received,
In losing thee, an ample punishment;
A punishment which I ...
Ne.
Let Seneca,
And, with him, let the vulgar prate at will.
Soon by convincing proofs I'll shew to Rome
What this her idol is.
Sen.
Nero, take heed;
It is more easy for thee to alarm,
Than to cheat Rome: the one thou oft hast done;
The other never.
Ne.
But of thee, thou knowest,
I often have avail'd myself to cheat her;
And thou in this wert tractable ...
Sen.
I too
Was often culpable; but I abode
In Nero's court.
Ne.
Vile slave! . .
Sen.
I was, so long
As I was silent; but now the day arises
When I unloose, to words ne'er heard before,
My tongue, no longer parasitical.
'Tis true, that words will be a poor atonement
For my delinquency; but perhaps my fame
May be recovered by a lofty death.
107
I will give thee the fame thou meritest.
Sen.
While still I hear the murmurs of the people,
Which by the salutary check of fear
Soften thy fury, thou'rt constrain'd to bear me.
Meanwhile my heart exults to irritate
Thy haughty passions; and to make thee hear,
So make thee hear, the truth; that when again
Thy courage thou resumest, I shall fall
Its victim first; and if on me the blow
Of thy revenge first fall not, on Octavia,
I swear to thee, it never shall descend.
The already mutinous people I can raise,
And to more fury I can raise than ever;
I can and will fully reveal to them
Our infamous contrivances; and thus,
More than thou thinkest, to the extremest edge
Of fathomless perdition hurry thee.—
I was the counsellor of Nero once;
And mail'd my heart for him in borrow'd steel;
I, grovellingly, believed to flatter him,
Or rather feign'd belief, (alas too much!)
That circumventive arts for the lost throne
Rightfully cost Britannicus his life;
That Agrippina, since she gave to thee
The throne, was guilty; Plautius, and Silius,
Guilty in being reputed worthy of it;
And lastly feign'd that Burrhus too was guilty
From having many times preserved it for thee.
But guilty more than all the rest I deem'd,
And still I deem myself: and will proclaim it,
In life and death proclaim it openly,
To every creature that my voice can reach.
Satiate thy rage on me; thou mayest securely;
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To thee I do announce it, all her blood
Will turn, with large addition, to o'erwhelm thee.—
I've spoken; it behoved me once to speak.—
Thou wilt hereafter in reply bestow
On me—and at thy greatest leisure—death.
| Octavia | |