AGRIPPINA. Not the seas shall stop me now,
Raging on all the shores of all the world.
Witness if easily my son did reign,
I am bloody from head to foot for sake of him,
And for my cub am I incarnadined.
[Murmur.
I'll go, but if I fall, Rome too shall fall:
I'll shake this empire till it reel and crash
On that ungrateful head; and if I fall,
The builded world shall tumble down in thunder.
[Murmur.
Ah!
[Seeing BRITANNICUS.] To my arms, boy! [Snatches him to her side.] Tremble now and shake! Here is the true heir to the imperial throne, Deposed by me, but now by me restored.
[Uproar.
I'll to the Praetorians!
[Clamour.
To the camp!
And there upon the one side they shall see
Britannicus the child of Claudius,
And me the daughter of Germanicus;
And on the other side a harp-player,
A withered pedant, and a maimèd sergeant,
Disputing for the diadem of the earth.
Come, Caesar, away to the Praetorians!