University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE FIRST.

Octavia.
Oct.
Behold, already is the people hush'd:
All tumult ceases; and a silence reigns,
As fall the shades of night, like that of death.
Here I'm commanded to expect my fate:
So Nero will'd.—While I thus weep alone,
What is he doing? In disgraceful revels
Is he already ushering in the night?
Feels he in safety then? So quickly? Fully? ...
And lives he in security! But, prompt
To fear, and prompt to banish fear, he yields
No credit to a distant danger: Ah!
May such an error not to him prove fatal!—
Now midst the obscene, and inebriate revels
Of an intemperate table, he prepares,
There is no doubt, an agonizing death
For me. Thus did I see my brother slain
Amid nocturnal orgies; character'd,
In bloody symbols, at the nightly banquet,
Was Agrippina's fate: the trembling limbs
Of all his family, are now become
The holocaust most savoury to his sense;
The sacrificial requisite to illustrate,
And give a poignance to his festal triumphs.
But the time passes; and no one approaches ...
And I know nothing ... can e'en Seneca
With all the rest abandon me? Perchance
He breathes no more ... Oh heaven! ... and he alone
Pitied my sufferings ... Nero perhaps on him
Has wreak'd his fury ... But, oh joy! He comes.