2ND MAIDEN. All Rome is gathered in the theatre
To hear the Emperor sing.
5TH MAIDEN. O, I should sleep
On such a noon, in such a throng.
1ST MAIDEN. That sleep
Would have no wakening, if your eyes but closed
While Caesar sang.
4TH MAIDEN. To-night there is a feast.
Have you remembered?
3RD MAIDEN. Yes, the dancing girls
From Egypt are arrived.
1ST MAIDEN. We are to strew
Down from the ceiling flowers upon the guests.
[They recline in various attitudes about the seats and pillars.
Enter SENECA and BURRUS
BURRUS. Ah, Seneca, five years since Nero climbed
The throne; and in this very chamber, now
So changed, this odour—pah! This was the place,
Grim, bare, for military virtues apt.
SENECA. And he how changed! The boy who dreamed so high
Of mightiest empire and unmeasured peace,
All I had taught him lost; by flattery sapped,
Jewelled and clothed as from the Orient,
He sings and struts with dancers and buffoons.