ACT · II
SCENE · I
A room in Seneca’s house, SENECA and BURRUS.
SENECA.
The Armenian papers came through me last evening;
I sent them on at once.
BURRUS (refusing a seat).
Nay, thank ye, Seneca:
I have been two hours in the saddle.
Sen.’Tis a matter
Of heavy import.
Bur.I demanded audience.
Sen. Well?
Bur. All is settled.
Sen.And who has the commission
To undertake the Parthian?
Bur.Corbulo.
Sen. ’Tis good. I like the choice. And what said Nero?
Bur. He told me well and wisely what to do,
When I had shown him all that must be done.
420
Sen. I wish his judgment were as tractable
With me. Took he your word?
Bur.The affair went pat.
What luck for Corbulo!
Sen.Pray sit, good Burrus,
And let us talk: my thought is most at ease
When I am sitting.
Bur.I pray you then be seated.
Sen. (sitting). Burrus, my difficulties day by day
Increase. The cares of empire are as nothing
To managing an emperor.
Bur.Why, what’s the matter?
Sen. Give but attention to me.
Bur.I attend.
Sen. Do so most carefully: ’tis not a business
That may be brushed aside.
Bur.I am all attention.430
Sen. Nero has broken with Britannicus:
Heard you of that?
Bur.Heard of it? I was there.
Sen. Well, that has brought to head the jealous difference
’Twixt Cæsar and his mother. Since he first,
At our advice, as was most fit, denied her
A place in power, she has striven to force a title
Out of her power for mischief: this you have seen:
But now to hear how she hath edged her practice;
She overskins her old accustomed hate
Of young Britannicus, speaks kindly of him,
Hints of his right; nay, even hath dared upbraid
Cæsar with usurpation. This was matched
With words from him, which she no sooner heard
Than in her rage disordered flew she hither
To win me to her part; when seeing that I
Stood firm, she fled in furious passion, saying
That I should learn what temper she was of.
Bur. I would that all the gods and goddesses
Might burn them up to cinders.
Sen.Peace, I say.
Cannot you sit? I need your best advice.
Bur. Except the lad.—Advice concerning what?
Sen. Why this new phase of court affairs. See you,
[Takes a paper.
’Twas my just counterpoise of warring forces
Ensured stability. Here Agrippina,
Saved from her own ambition in the splendour
Of her son’s estate, serves in his interest
To guard Britannicus, whom else he had feared.
The boy, in favour of his sister’s title,
Sinks his own right. Then Nero’s youthful passions,
Growing to hatred of Octavia’s bed,
Are stayed at equilibrium, as my judgment
And knowledge of the world enables me;
And all goes well, when an important factor,
The empress, rounds, and plays me false to her motive,
As here assumed, and vitiates with that flaw
The nice adjustment of each several item.—
I go to expound you this; you scarce attend,
Or answer with an oath.
Bur.A pious prayer
To extricate you from a world of trouble.
470
Sen. O, I can do it, Burrus, trust to me.
I place them all as chessmen, and I find
Delight in difficulty: but ’tis hard,
When one has chosen, strengthened a position,
To change the value of a piece. I think
Much of your judgment, and I ask you now
What you would do. I must decide to-day.
Bur. Why must?
Sen.As if you knew not.
Bur.If your art
Be to adapt yourself to every change ....
Sen. You know ’tis not. I say, should Nero now
Banish his mother?
Bur.Hark ye, Seneca,480
If you remember, I foresaw this trouble.
I know no remedy, nor is’t my office
To arrange the affairs of the palace, gods be praised.
But this is clear to me, that our three friends
Will never live together: what I urge
Is, separate them: if you cannot that,
We must not stick in balance when they break.
Whene’er that happens, our pre-eminent duty
Lies in our oath to Cæsar, and our second
May be his mother’s pleasure, to whose schemes
We owe our place.[Knocking heard.
Sen.Who’s there? come in.
Enter Servant.
SERVANT.
The Augusta
Has come in private, and desires an audience.
Sen. Again, you see, the Augusta.
Bur.Eh! I’ll be off.
Sen. One moment, pray. (To Servt.) Beg her be
pleased to enter.[Exit Servt.
Burrus, I adjure you not to go, your presence
May moderate her passion: or, if not,
’Twere best you saw it.
Bur.Well, all’s one to me.
Enter Agrippina.
AGRIPPINA.
Be not surprised that I so soon return:
I have repented. Ha! the general here!
Thou seest me, Burrus, on a woman’s errand.
Nay, no apology; thou hast o’erheard
My merit, not my fault.
Bur.I thank your majesty.
I will withdraw.
Agr.Nay, I desire thee stay.
I came not here to find thee; but thy presence
Mends my intention. Let us hold a council.
’Tis not the first time our triumvirate,
Secretly gathered in the nick of time,
Hath preordained the changes which should fall
Upon the earth like fate. To-day’s decree,
If we combine, will be as big with action
As any we have uttered.
Bur.I fear I stand
In ignorance of the question.
Sen.I will explain.
Agr. Listen to me. We three who here are met
Stand in such place, that, if we but unite,
There’s none can say us nay. I do not ask
Who raised thee, Burrus, or thee, Seneca,
To where ye are: nay, if I asked you that
I’d look for no more answer than if asking
What two and two make; ’tis self-evident,
Unquestioned; it was I; and if you owe
Allegiance to another, ’tis to one
Whom I made more than I made you; ay, one
Who has nothing but what was mine, and is mine:
His body mine, his life and being mine,
His power, his place, his honour mine, my son,
My Nero, who, when my husband late deceased,
The honest Claudius, passed to join the gods,
Was raised and set by me under your guidance,
To share with me the empire of the world.
Now what it may be that hath warped his heart
Is from the matter: enough that so it is.
I might blame one of you, sure not myself,
Who have ever held in love and kindness towards him
The same intention; nay, and from my kindness
I swerve not now, though for a wholesome end
I mask that kindness in severity.
There’s but this choice, I must withdraw my favour,
Or suffer my disgrace: ay, and for you,
Burrus and Seneca, be sure, the same.
If I fall, ye will fall. Therefore being one
In interest with me, I look to find you ready
To stand by me in any scheme of action
Which may preserve our station, while we may.
Sen. Your majesty says well. We have hitherto
All held one purpose, and if now we are foiled
Or thwarted, none is thwarted more than I.
And since it is my pride, in the high place
Whereto your judgment called me, to exceed
The measure which might justify your choice,
I shall not fail. In these new difficulties
I would make no display of fresh resource;
Full means there will be, yet what means it is
I am not ripe to say.
Agr.What say’st thou, Burrus?
The matter Seneca avoids is this:
Shall I be driven to exile, or will ye
Join with me to forbid it?
Bur.Hath your majesty,
In urging opposition, any scheme
That might give life to policy?
Agr.Ay, something.
I would protect Britannicus: his claim
And popularity being pressed, must drive
Nero upon my side.
Bur.Such act were merely
The boy’s destruction, were’t not done in earnest
And backed by force.
Agr.Then, since the case demands
All earnestness, and since we lack not force .....
Bur. Between your son’s rule and your stepson’s claim
There lies no middle way.
Agr.I never held
That a stout purpose chose a middle way.
Sen. What, what! Consider, madam, what you urge
Is to dethrone your son.
Agr.I am desperate.
Sen. Indeed, indeed!570
Agr. What say’st thou, Burrus? Hast thou not a hope
The rightful heir might prove the better Cæsar?
Bur. Were this in earnest, yet my oath to Cæsar
Forbids me even to think the thing you say.
Agr. Thy oath to him! Rather to me ’twas sworn;
Who raised thee up to swear, and made the Cæsar
For thee to swear to? I can dispense your oaths:
Or rather, since they were unjustly sworn,
Justice dispenses them. ’Twould be a deed
Truer than oaths to break the oaths ye swore.
Bur. Justice is still against you. ’Twas unjust
To burn the will of Claudius; ’twas unjust
To hide Britannicus, and to bring forth
Your own son in his place: these things were wrongs,
And these old wrongs would you redub with new.
For when upon your wrongs Rome set her seal,
Her choice made right of wrong, and we that swore,
Swore not to Nero or Britannicus,
But unto Rome and to her chosen Cæsar.
Agr. Nay, Seneca, I think, will scarce say thus.
Sen. Burrus is right; and were he wrong, your scheme
But complicates the mischief.
Agr.Then ye desert me?
Sen. Nay, nay, in other ways I may do much.
I may win Nero back.
Agr.The thought is folly;
We fight against him.
Sen.Oh! ’tis open treason.
Agr. Eh! Why, I think my son’s ingratitude
Is nought to this; he had the right to expect
My favours: but for you, whom I chose out
And set above the rest because I chose,
Made you my friends because I chose, for you
There is no excuse. Had ye no motive, yet
To see a woman in distress like mine,
Wronged by her son, and injured as no woman
Has ever been, should rouse a manly spirit,
Ay, make a coward burn to do me right.
But ye stand there aloof, and not a word.
O good Seneca,
Rememberest thou thy days in Corsica?
The stoic letters of thine exile, writ
With Naso’s pang, and that exuberant page
To me, at the first tidings of recall.
I have it still, the letter, superscribed
Your most devoted slave. Was not that felt?
Had’st thou not cause? Now is the opportunity
Of my distress, now I stand to lose all,
All that those hard times strove for, all they won.
The faith thou owest me, still may make all mine;
Wilt thou deny it me?
Sen.Alas, good lady!
Agr.Alas!
Is this the vein? Think you I come to hear
Your lamentations? Ah! ye dare, I see,
Pity me while ye wrong me: but the truth
Ye dare not say. Ye dare not say, Lo, we,
Raised by your clemency, sworn to your service,
Seeing your fair wind is changed, and there’s no hope
Left to your following, do as all knaves do,
Leave you to perish. Ah, all’s lost, all’s lost