ANICETUS. Yonder the barge with lights and fluttering flags.
The canopy whereunder Agrippina
Will sit is heavily weighted: at a sign
A bolt withdrawn will launch it on her head.
Enter NERO
NERO. I cannot do it: if she goes, she goes.
I cannot say farewell, and kiss her lips,
Ere I commit her body to the deep.
TIGELLINUS. All hangs upon the fervour of farewell,
The kiss, the soft word, and the hand detained,
All hangs on it; go back.
NERO. 'Tis difficult.
[NERO turns. Enter AGRIPPINA.
Come out into the cool a moment, mother.
AGRIPPINA. This seemeth like to old days come again,
Evenings of Antium with a rising moon.
[Stroking his hair.
My boy, my boy, again! Look in my eyes.
So as a babe would you look up at me
After a night of tossing, half-awake,
Blinking against the dawn, and pull my head
Down to you, till I lost you in my hair.
Do you remember many a night so thick
With stars as this—you would not go to bed,
But still would paddle in the warm ocean
Spraying it with small hands into the skies.