Falls on my list'ning ears. Slow steps of age,
Why haste ye not within her chamber there?
[Starts to enter the chamber, but is met by Octavia coming forth.]
Octavia: Within thy bosom let me weep, dear nurse,
Thou ever trusty witness of my grief.75
Nurse: What day shall free thee from thy woes, poor child?
Octavia: The day that sends me to the Stygian shades.
Nurse: May heaven keep such dark omens far away!80
Octavia: 'Tis not thy prayers, but fate that shapes my life.
Nurse: But God will bring thy life to better days.