NERO. I was: but I would not lie there for ever.
AGRIPPINA. Have I not reared you, tended you, and loved you?
NERO. Yes, but to be your puppet and your toy.
AGRIPPINA. Boy, never since I first looked on the sun
From man or woman had I insolence,
Who have sistered, wived, and mothered Emperors.
NERO. I speak no insolence—you weary me!
AGRIPPINA. Gods! you have hit on a new thing to tell me.
[Coming to him.] Does your heart beat? Are
you all ice and pose?
Has nothing gripped you—is there aught to grip
In you, pert shadow? Have you e'er shed tears?
NERO. For legendary sorrows I can weep:
With those of old time I have suffered much,
And I, for dreams, am capable of tears;
But not for woe too near me—and too loud.
AGRIPPINA. O wall of stone 'gainst which I beat in vain!
Nero, I will do much to win you back
For your own sake: and though it hurts me sore,
Your passion for Poppaea I will aid.
When did a mother yield herself to this?
NERO. When had a mother such a lust for rule
That she could even yield herself to this?
AGRIPPINA. [Clasping his knees.] Child, I
have done with scorn, with bitter words,
With taunt, with gibe. Now I ask only pity—
A little pity from flesh that I conceived,
A little mercy from the body I bore,
And touches from the baby hands I kissed.
Nothing I ask of you, only to love me,
And if not that, to bear with me a while,
Who have borne much for you: no, Nero, child,
I will not weary you, I yearn for you.
Forgive me all the deeds that I have done for you,
Forget the great love I have spent on you,
Pardon the long, long life for you endured.