Enter MESSENGER hurriedly
MESSENGER. Sir, urgent business—
The State demands you.
NERO. [Furiously.] Pah!—the State!
POPPAEA. O Nero!
Remember first the State—me afterward!
NERO. Empress!
[He leads her out.
[He returns and stands as in a dream while the COUNCILLORS enter.
BURRUS. How long? How long, sir?
Agrippina
Is drawing to her net the dregs of Rome,
Makes mutinous the rabble and the scum.
[NERO makes weary gesture.
SENECA. And, sir, she has not scrupled to enroll
The ragged, shrieking Christians, who wash not,
The refuse of the empire, all that flows
To this main sewer of Rome she counts upon.