_On the Palatine. THRASEA & PRISCUS._
_THRASEA._
IF you ask my advice then, it is silence. You are
yet new to the senate, and must learn to give
your opinion with least offence.
_PRISCUS._
Can you mean this?
_Thr._ Yes—it is my serious advice.
_Pr._ Now, unless it were the silence of Brutus ...
_Thr._ Hush, hush! Were this repeated, there is no
greater peril than that word of yours.
_Pr._ But to you I know I may speak freely.
_Thr._ What know you of me? 10
_Pr._ I know Thrasea is brave, and resents his country’s
wrongs; that he has insight to see that liberty
was never more outraged than now.
_Thr._ Believe me, sir, this tale of things being at their
worst is common to all times. Your judgment has gone
astray upon a contempt for Cæsar’s follies, or a hatred
of his mother’s crimes. Measure Nero but by what he
has already done, and you may even find cause for
congratulation. 19
_Pr._ We shall be ruled like the Britons by a Queen.
_Thr._ O nay. It is not possible that Nero will suffer
Agrippina’s ambition to take such a place. ’Tis already
a quarrel between them, and Seneca declares for him.
_Pr._ Then, I ask you, may there not be found in this
quarrel an opportunity to bring in Britannicus? Now
he is of age, he can no longer be held disqualified.
_Thr._ There is no question of qualification or of
claim. 28
_Pr._ How so? The late emperor Claudius in his will
mentioned Britannicus for his successor, as being his
own son....
_Thr._ May be. But then, sir, his empress made away
with both him and his will; and the Roman people chose
for Cæsar the son of the murderess, rather than the heir
of the idiot they were glad to be rid of. Since which
day Nero is as truly our Cæsar as Britannicus could
ever have been. Those who swore to Nero will remain
by him; as ’tis well they should, else were no stability.
_Pr._ Shall we then do nothing? 39
_Thr._ You take things by the wrong handle. Let us
make the best of what we have. Our Cæsar is the pupil
of a philosopher and guided in everything by his
master’s counsels.
_Pr._ You are very tolerant and hopeful.
_Thr._ Try and be so too, and I shall wish to see
more of you. If you will visit my house, you will indeed
be most welcome and may find congenial company.
Only no more of Brutus.
_Pr._ Thank you for your kindness, if it is an earnest
of your confidence—On another occasion... 50
_Thr._ O we will find many. (_Shouts heard._) What is
that? (_More shouts._) It must be Cæsar: he is coming
this way. Be not seen talking with me: go you that
way: I will remain. Farewell.
_Pr._ Farewell, Thrasea. [_Exit._
_Thr._ Young blood, hot blood and true:
Yet is his energetic patriotism
Useless,—nay, like a weapon out of date,
Looks not to be a warlike weapon more.
I think in me it had been truer wisdom, 60
Knowing the forces of this drowning time,
To have said outright—Good, honest Priscus,
Be good no longer, let thine honesty
Rot, it can stead thee nothing; there’s no man
Will be the better for it; there’s no field
Where thou canst exercise it, not a place
In all the world where in secure possession
Thou mayst retire with it: cast it away;
For ’tis a burden far beyond thy freight.
If thou wilt swim at all, swim with the times, 70
An empty bottom on a shallow tide:
Be that thy seamanship—No; I am bold to say
Our virtue hath the topmost vaunt of honour;
Seeing we are true to it in spite of shame,
When its incompetence before the world
Gives it the lie; nor can the fawning curs,
That bask in Cæsar’s sunshine, when they mock us,
Dream that we wish them other than they are.
I give them joy. See here is folly’s king,
The hare-brained boy to whom injurious fortune 80
Has given the throne and grandeur of the world:
Now if I bow my head ’tis in thy game,
Ridiculous fate; and my soul laughs at thee.
[_Retires aside._
_Enter Nero, Otho, Lucan, Tigellinus, and Paris._
_NERO._
This is the place: enlarge it on this side
To take in all the hill. That house of Rufus
That blocks the way must down, and all the piles
On the south slope. Now say, is’t fine or no?
_LUCAN._
Magnificent.
_OTHO._
It shows the mind of Cæsar.
_TIGELLINUS._
Splendid.
_Ner._ At least the best: we still regret
A better than the best; and I can see 90
These possibilities. Think if the hill
Were raised some hundred feet, till it o’ertopped
The Capitol—eh! lords. And so ’twere best;
But still ’twill pass for good.
_Luc._ ’Twill be a palace
For site and size the first in all the world.
_Ner._ To kill the Jews’ brag of Jerusalem?
_Oth._ I think it.
_Ner._ You, my friends, who know my scheme,
May mete and judge my general scope in this,
A sample of my temper coined and uttered 99
For the world’s model, that all men’s endeavours
May rise with mine to have all things at best,
Not only for myself but for the world;
Riches and joy and heart’s content for all.
It may be done, and who should do it but I?
See now my years at best, my youth and strength
With form and gifts agreeing, and my power,....
Know’st thou my power?—Oh! Otho, I tell thee
The Cæsars which have been have never known
What ’tis to be full Cæsar. Dost thou think?
There’s nothing good on earth but may be won 110
With power and money; and I have them both;
Ay, and the will.
_Oth._ Much may be done, no doubt.
_Ner._ Much! Why there’s nothing, man, may not be done.
The curse of life is of our own devising,
Born of man’s ignorance and selfishness.
He wounds his happiness against a cage
Of his own make, and only waits the word
For one to set his door open,—and look,
Having his liberty is he not glad
As heaven’s birds are?—Now when fate’s ordinance
Sends him a liberator, ay, and one 121
Not to cajole or preach, but, will or nill,
Who’ll force him forth and crush up his old cage,
With all who would hang back and skulk therein,
How shall he not be happy?
_Luc._ This shall be
The world’s last crown, by man with utmost power
Endowed to drive him to the good he shuns.
_Ner._ Ay. Be all human hopes summed up in mine
And reach their goal. I say there shall be peace,
There shall be plenty, pleasure, and content: 130
The god on earth shall work the good whereof
The folly of man hath baulked the gods in heaven:
And good that men desire shall be as common
As ills they now repine at. When I say
There shall be justice, see, even at my word
Injustice is no more.
_PARIS._
The house of Rufus,
Standing on justice there, will mar thy palace.
_Ner._ Fool. Why, I say to Rufus—I am Cæsar,
And need thy house.—Says he—It cost my sire
Ten million sesterces.—A trifle that, 140
Say I, and give him twenty: and down it goes.
Is not this more than justice?
_Par._ Ay, ’tis power.
_Ner._ Thou quibbling meddler, learn this point of wit,
To keep thy sphere; answer in that: last night
Sang I divinely? Wert thou envious
When I put on the lion’s skin, and did
The choice of Hercules?
_Par._ Most mighty Cæsar,
I wished that I had asses ears to hear;
Mine are not long enough.
_Ner._ Plague on thy jesting.
See static virtue stalks with folded arm 150
To set thee down. [_Thrasea comes forward._
_Thr._ Hail, Cæsar!
_Ner._ Thy opinion,
Thrasea, come, thy opinion. What dost thou think
If I extend my palace to take in
The hill whereon we stand?
_Thr._ The plan no doubt
Is worthy of the site, and for the site,
Why, ’tis the darling spot of Rome.
_Ner._ Well said.
Stay. I would ask my fellow senator
Wherefore he left the house three days ago
Without his voice or vote.
_Thr._ I judged the time 159
Unmeet to speak; and, for my vote, the senate
Was of one mind: a vote was of no count.
_Ner._ Thou show’dst a sense against us in not voting.
_Thr._ That must thou look for, Cæsar, in the senate.
_Ner._ Well, I would have thee speak. We are not full
Without thy voice: nay more, such conduct makes
The senate but a name; for times have been
When silence was well justified by fear.
Now we court criticism, ay, and look ill
On those that grudge their approbation. 169
_Thr._ Cæsar commands my service and my praise;
I shall not lack.
_Ner._ We look for much from thee.
_Thr._ Long live your majesty. [_Exit._
_Ner._ There’s something good
In that man, Otho; spite of his dry mien
And Stoic fashion.
_Oth._ Nay, I like him not.
He’s hardly flesh and blood. Old Seneca
Is stiff and prosy enough; but if you pinch him,
You find he yields, shows softness here and there.
This man is merely stone, foursquare by rule.
_Ner._ Do you despise divine philosophy?
_Oth._ Well, as I take it, all philosophy 180
Is questionable guessing, but the sense
A man grows up with bears the stamp of nature.
_Ner._ How mean you that?
_Oth._ At best this fine-spun system
Is but a part of man’s experience
Drawn out to contradiction of the rest.
’Tis a fool’s wisdom.
_Luc._ ’Tis a form of pleasure.
_Oth._ True. Though there be no theory of life
That’s worth a button, yet the search for one
Seems to content some men better than life.
_Ner._ Call him not fool, Otho!
_Oth._ Unless I wrong him,
I speak as well of him as he of me. 191
Or if he say nothing, his guarded manner
Covers, be sure, a more unkind contempt.
_Par._ (_apeing Thr._). That must thou look for, Cæsar, in the
senate.
_Tig._ Ha! ha! Excellent!
_Ner._ Paris would make a senator.
_Oth._ Well, give me life.
_Ner._ Ay, that is wisdom. Live.
Enjoy the hour; which minds me, for to-night
I have time well disposed: we sup with Actè;
She will inaugurate the new pavilion,
And after, there are masks and clubs provided. 200
Thou’lt join us, eh!
_Oth._ With all my heart.
_Ner._ (_to Tig. and Luc._). And you.
And you. And, Paris, see Petronius comes,
And Anicetus. Hence, and bid them now.
[_Exit Paris._
Good news for them I think; pleasure in store.
We’ll make a merry night. Now tell me, Otho,
You’re a good judge, have you ever seen a woman
Fit to compare with Actè?
_Oth._ I say no.
_Ner._ I mean not, man, for what our grandsires praised,
Who knew no better; I mean the perfect art 209
Which makes each moment feverous.
_Oth._ I know none.
_Ner._ ’Tis spoke as if thy judgment or thy envy
Grudged me the word.
_Oth._ Nay, Cæsar.
_Ner._ O, I know
Thou’rt a good husband, thy good wife commands thee.
_Oth._ Say, my good fortune, Cæsar.
_Ner._ Now if thy boast
Be true as it is rare, thy lady’s presence
Would add much spirit to our gaieties.
I have never seen Poppæa, say that to-night
Thou bring her.
_Oth._ In this thing, for friendship’s sake,
Hold me excused.
_Ner._ Nay, no constraint; thy wish
Is all in all. Wrong me not; I would not have, 220
And least to thee, my pleasures a command;
But my commands are pleasures. Let us go.
[_Exeunt._