_Thr._ Suppose then I tell thee.
I know thy sickness, and I hold the cure.
_Pr._ Nay, sir: I rank among the incurables.
_Thr._ Bravo! that is well said. I have watched thee, Priscus,
All the six years I have known thee—’tis six years:
I have seen thine eye grow steadier, and thy smile
Softer and kinder, and thy speech, which once
Crackled in flame and smoke, hath stilled to a fire
That comforts my old age. Even as thy body
Hath statelier motion, so is’t with thy mind,
Which ripen’d manners clothe in rich reserve.
_Pr._ What wilt thou say?
_Thr._ Hearken! ’tis some days since
I have noted thy disturbance and rejoiced.
’Tis ill with them, who quake not at the touch
Of the world’s Creator. Thou hast come to tell me
Thou lov’st my daughter.
_Pr._ Ah, sir!
_Thr._ Is’t not so?
_Pr._ Her name is the oath whereby I seal all truth.
_Thr._ And well: thou’rt worthy of her; in saying which
I mean thy praise, for she is worthy of thée.
Nay, while she lives I go not from the world;
Death sucks me not, though on his iron ladder
My years descend: she will be Thrasea still, 25
Without his struggles. Let me acquaint thee, son,
With one condition which I have thought to make,
Ere I commit her to thy trust.
_Pr._ Good Thrasea,
I know not how to thank thee; but, forgive me,
My secret was not this.
_Thr._ Not this?
_Pr._ Nay, sir.
Of late I have passed my life half in a dungeon,
Half in the garden, where thou bidst me forth
To bask in my love’s joy: which in my duty
I had spoken of to thee openly, but all
Hath come so quickly: now, a happier way,
I meet thy favour unsolicited.
Let nothing vex this hour; I long to hear
Thy one requirement, which my full consent
Leaps to embrace unheard, that thou mayst join
Fannia and me.
_Thr._ ’Tis but a form. I ask
A promise of thee, Priscus, that thou wílt not
For ten years join any conspiracy
Against the Emperor.
_Pr._ Why?
_Thr._ For Fannia’s sake,
Lest Nero kill thee: and for thy sake too.
_Pr._ And why ten years?
_Thr._ Ten years is a fair term.
Thou wilt be old in prudence then.
_Pr._ Such prudence
Let me die ere I learn. How would’st thou, sir,
For ten years bind me down in slavery
To flatter a tyrant?
_Thr._ Who said flatter? Stay:
Impatience cannot help. The case is thus. 50
Since Burrus died, Nero hath broken loose:—
Seneca’s leading-string hath snapped in the midst
Without a strain:—in greed of absolute power
His will cast off restraint; in the possession
His tottering reason doth the like. His lust,
His cruelty, his effeminate, blundering passion
For art and brutal vice are but the brag
Of a hideous nature, which will force the bounds
Of human action, till the shames of Rome
Shame shameless Rome to wipe away her shame.
That is a balance which I cannot poise,
How much shame Rome will bear; but when I hear
The whispers of revolt, and now one name
And now another cast out like a fly
To fish opinion, I give little heed,
For these two reasons; first, there’s not a man
Among the chiefs of faction of such mark
As to make change secure: the second, this,
That lacking such a leader there’s no party
That can command opinion. Nero’s fall,
When he shall fall, will be in a flooding wave
Of common judgment. What the extravagance
Of crime is weak to move, some unforeseen
And trifling circumstance may on a sudden 75
Deliver; and the force that none can raise
None shall control. Await the rising tide,
It will not need us.
_Pr._ Some, sir, cannot wait.
I came to tell thee how I had given my name
To a conspiracy.
_Thr._ The gods forbid!
With whom?
_Pr._ I may not name their names.
_Thr._ Nay, nay:
But who is the pretender?
_Pr._ Seneca.
_Thr._ Seneca! Seneca! Hath he consented?
_Pr._ We are such, sir, as can win him.
_Thr._ Why, I know you;
The senatorial patriots. There’ll be Lucan,
Cassius and Lateranus, Fænius Rufus,
Flavus, perhaps Vestinus....
_Pr._ Who they be
Will presently be seen.
_Thr._ O, I am in time
To stay you yet. This plot is merely mischief,
Seneca’s death.
_Pr._ Not if ’tis Nero’s death.
_Thr._ Think, man! If first ye go to Seneca,
Ere ye slay Nero, he will not consent:
Never, be sure. And if ye first slay Nero,
Seneca’s nowhere. Others will spring up,
Piso, and all the Augustan family,
Plautus, Silanus....
_Pr._ But if Seneca
Consent....
_Thr_. What! to that crime?
_Pr._ He hath consented
To like before.
_Thr._ Well, but the wrongs he hath done
His pride alloys, or in pretensed retirement
Repudiates; ánd, could he feel his guilt, 100
That were remorse, whose sick and painful palsy
Cannot raise hand to strike. Think you that he,
Who laughed at Claudius’ death; who let be slain
His old friend and protectress Agrippina;
Who glozed the murder of Britannicus;
Who hid his protest when Octavia fell;
That he will turn about and say, ‘Such things
I did for Nero, and the good of Rome:
Now, since he sings at Naples on the stage,
I do repent me, and will kill my pupil;
Will take myself the power I made for him,
And shew how I intended he should rule!’
This were a Roman but not Seneca.
_Pr._ We look not fór it óf him.
_Thr._ ’Tis all one.
Seneca! the millionaire!
_Pr._ If he consent,
We restore the republic.
_Thr._ The Republic!
The Decii and Camilli will you bring us?
That kingly yeoman, frugal Curius?
Can you restore the brave considerate Gracchi,
And Cato’s stern unconquerable soul?...
O nay: but Seneca the imperialist!——
Priscus, if Seneca refuse, thou’lt make
A promise for ten years?
_Pr._ With that reserve;
And wilt thou not say five years?
_Thr._ I’ll say five,
If thou wilt promise.
_Pr._ Then, if Seneca 125
Refuse, I pledge myself to take no part
In any plot against the emperor
For five years.
_Thr._ Come within, Fannia is thine. [_Exeunt._