Nimph. Such beauties to inioy were happinesse
And a reward sufficient in itselfe,
Although no other end or hopes were aim'd at;
But I have other: tis not Poppeas armes
Nor the short pleasures of a wanton bed
That can extinguish mine aspiring thirst
To Neroes Crowne. By her love I must climbe,
Her bed is but a step unto his Throne.
Already wise men laugh at him and hate him;
The people, though his Mynstrelsie doth please them,
They feare his cruelty, hate his exactions,
Which his need still must force him to encrease;
The multitude, which cannot one thing long
Like or dislike, being cloy'd with vanitie
Will hate their own delights; though wisedome doe not
Even wearinesse at length will give them eyes.
Thus I, by Neroes and Poppeas favour
Rais'd to the envious height of second place,
May gaine the first. Hate must strike Nero downe,
Love make Nimphidius way unto a Crowne.
[Exit.
(SCENE 4.)
Enter Seneca, Scevinus, Lucan and Flavius.
Scevin. His first beginning was his Fathers death;
His brothers poysoning and wives bloudy end
Came next; his mothers murther clos'd up all.
Yet hitherto he was but wicked, when
The guilt of greater evills tooke away the shame
Of lesser, and did headlong thrust him forth
To be the scorne and laughter to the world.
Then first an Emperour came upon the stage
And sung to please Carmen and Candle-sellers,
And learnt to act, to daunce, to be a Fencer,
And in despight o'the Maiestie of Princes
He fell to wrastling and was soyl'd with dust
And tumbled on the earth with servile hands.
Seneca. He sometimes trayned was in better studies
And had a child-hood promis'd other hopes:
High fortunes like stronge wines do trie their vessels.
Was not the Race and Theatre bigge enough
To have inclos'd thy follies heere at home?
O could not Rome and Italie containe
Thy shame, but thou must crosse the seas to shewe it?
Scevin. And make them that had wont to see our Consuls,
With conquering Eagles waving in the field,
Instead of that behold an Emperor dauncing,
Playing oth' stage and what else but to name
Were infamie.
Lucan. O Mummius, O Flaminius,
You whom your vertues have not made more famous
Than Neros vices, you went ore to Greece
But t'other warres, and brought home other conquests;
You Corinth and Micaena overthrew,
And Perseus selfe, the great Achilles race,
Orecame; having Minervas stayned Temples
And your slayne Ancestors of Troy reveng'd.
Seneca. They strove with Kings and Kinglike adversaries, Were even in their Enemies made happie; The Macedonian Courage tryed of old And the new greatnesse of the Syrian power: But he for Phillip and Antiochus Hath found more easie enemies to deale with— Terpnus,[8] Pammenes,[9] and a rout of Fidlers.
Scevin. Why, all the begging Mynstrills by the way
He tooke along with him and forc'd to strive
That he might overcome, Imagining
Himselfe Immortall by such victories.