_The same. SENECA._
_SENECA._
Burrus was right. The more I think of it,
The time has come that one or both must go;
So the more dangerous first, then are we quit
At once of all our mischief and disgrace. 1013
’Tis past belief that she who plunged in crime
To enthrone her son should now plot to dethrone him.
There is no bridle for a wicked woman.
Men may despise the venerable path
Of virtue, and refuse the wholesome laws
Of plain philosophy, but still they lean
Towards reason, even in their wickedness. 1020
There’s an accountable consistency
Found in their actions; but if once a woman
Throw off, as men soon do, the first restraints
Of credulous childhood; if her nature lack
Tenderness, modesty, and that respect
To self which sees in self a thing to guard
From passion and caprice, and in the pleasure
Of fitness finds a law,—if she lack that
Or overpass it,—there’s no further bound:
All things are mixed together; virtue, crime, 1030
Wisdom and folly. For they have a spirit
Of infinite wrong genius. Rule, I say,
Such women if you can; rule them with iron.
_Enter Nero._
_NERO._
Good-morrow, Seneca. Thou comest in time;
I need thy counsel.
_Sen._ I am here to give it.
_Ner._ Then tell me: Where I have been lately threatened,
Am I in danger? I will use thy judgment.
Is’t needful for my safety to remove
Britannicus?
_Sen._ I have well considered all.
You must dismiss your mother. 1040
_Ner._ Not so, Seneca.
She now resigns all power and sign of empire,
And is content to live in quiet, retired
With few attendants and contracted state.
_Sen._ She offered terms?
_Ner._ See, since she now concedes
All reasonable claims, my duty towards her
Patches our quarrel.
_Sen._ Whence this newborn trust?
_Ner._ She must remain. What of Britannicus?
_Sen._ He need not trouble you.
_Ner._ So said my mother.
I had thought differently, and even had made
Full preparation for his going hence. 1050
Would’st thou too bid me think there is no danger?
_Sen._ None, if your mother goes.
_Ner._ But nay, she stays.
_Sen._ That makes him dangerous.
_Ner._ Thy reason, Seneca?
_Sen._ I well can guess, Nero, your mother’s vein
With you in private: but ’twould much divert
Your inclination from it, could you know
Her latest way with me.
_Ner._ What hath she said?
_Sen._ Will you now think she hath urged Burrus and me
To set our honoured oaths and firm allegiance
To you aside, as being unjustly sworn; 1060
To undo all she has done, and bring Britannicus
Back to the people as Rome’s rightful heir?
_Ner._ I knew this, Seneca; and if ’twere meant,
Where lies the danger?
_Sen._ True; but then she vows
Plainly that, rather than resign her power,
She will make known her crimes, nor spare herself,
If in the implication of her ruin
She may involve us too. Know you of that?
_Ner._ She could not mean it.
_Sen._ Certainly ’twas in passion
Spoken, and fury: but ’tis such a thing 1070
As might be done in passion.
_Ner._ And what says Burrus?
_Sen._ He too would urge, as I, the Augusta’s exile.
_Ner._ Yet must she stay.
_Sen._ Nay, Nero, she must go.
_Ner._ I bade thee, Seneca, to counsel me:
Call’st thou this counsel? ’Tis in the exigence
Of such affairs that their necessity
Precludes the true decision: this thou’st taught me:
And that the man of counsel is but he
Who handles best the circumstance, most gently
Resolves the knot, not cuts it. In this difficulty
Is there no course? 1081
_Sen._ I go not back from this;
If both remain there’s none.
_Ner._ Is my life threatened?
_Sen._ Ay.
_Ner._ Then Britannicus must go, and shall go,
As first I purposed.
_Sen._ Whither will you send him?
_Ner._ Far out of hearing of his claim. ’Tis not
A trifling matter.
_Sen._ See now to the other extreme
How you o’erleap the mean from wrong to wrong!
_Ner._ Such wrongs the title of my power condones.
Shall I at the outset of a world-wide policy
Stick at a household scruple, and for fear 1090
To do a private wrong forfeit the power
Which makes me Cæsar? See my glory trip
At a little ill because I will not level
My safety with the welfare of the world?
_Sen._ But what you must not, that you cannot do.
_Ner._ Rather what Cæsar must do, that he may.
Rome understands not empire yet: we learned
Something of Herod.
_Sen._ O the injustice, Nero!
The wrong! How! Will you sooner spill a life
So innocent, your creditor in kindness, 1100
Than do disgrace to another, one so guilty
As to deserve, sinking all exigency,
The fearful penalty you now misplace?
Think twice.
_Ner._ Why, if I think of it again,
Is not thy error fourfold more than mine?
This need is granted to all tyrannies,
To slay pretenders, ay, and most of all
Those of the family: but for a mother,
The very Persian or the unrivalled Jew
Would shrink from her dishonour. 1110
_Sen._ (_aside_). What to say?
Being out of kinship ’twere the lesser blot—
Yet there’s his innocence. Necessity
Cannot suborn morality so far
As such confusion,—nor the alternative
May yet be shunned,—and when the best is wrong...
_Ner._ What thinkest thou?
_Sen._ Wait: it shall be my office
To find some better means.
_Ner._ ’Twill be thine office
To show in such a speech as I may make
After his death, that, howsoe’er he died,—
Which you shall know no more than shall my hearers,—
’Twas for the general good. 1121
_Sen._ Be counselled, Nero.
This is not my advice.
_Ner._ Thou offerest none
Which can be taken.
_Sen._ See, I have brought your speech
Touching the Parthian war.
_Ner._ ’Tis long.
_Sen._ The matter
Being very weighty, ’twill be looked for from you
To say thus much: but if it seem too long,
’Tis so composed that with these brackets here,
Skipped as you list, the speech is any length.
_Ner._ I thank thee. I shall need that other speech.
_Sen._ I pray you may not need it. My advice 1130
Is wait.
_Ner._ Is it? Stay—Seneca, dost thou think
My mother was in earnest when she urged
Treason on thee and Burrus? And dost thou think
She fooled me in saying that she made proposal
To Burrus but to sound his honesty?
_Sen._ Eh! with that tale she took you?
_Ner._ Is’t not true?
_Sen._ That true!
_Ner._ She was in earnest though in passion?
Answer me.
_Sen._ Ay, she was.
_Ner._ I pray thee leave me.
I shall not wait. [_Exit Seneca._
I stand alone. Such officers as share 1140
The functions of tyrannic government
Cannot be looked to for a policy
Of personal security; they lack
The motive that abates the fear of crime.
Britannicus must go, and ’tis my hand
Must aim his death. I have a medicine
Which he must drink for me, to save my life.
To-night shall do it. But for my other enemy,
My mother, who with such dissimulation
Won me, spite of foreknowledge of her deeds, 1150
And judgment of her purpose—Ha! indeed;
Seneca’s laughing-stock! Now, what I do
Will much surprise her. If it kill her hope
And prove my temper towards her, ’twill be well.
[_Exit._