Nimph. Why, what can you ith' government mislike,
Unlesse it grieve you that the world's in peace
Or that our armes conquer without blood?
Hath not his power with forraine visitations
And strangers honour more acknowlldg'd bin
Then any was afore him? Hath not hee
Dispos'd of frontier kingdomes with successe?
Given away Crownes, whom he set up availing?
The rivall seat of the Arsacidae,
That thought their brightnesse equall unto ours,
Is't crown'd by him, by him doth raigne?
If we have any warre it's beyond Rhene
And Euphrates, and such whose different chances
Have rather serv'd for pleasure and discourse
Then troubled us. At home the Citie hath
Increast in wealth, with building bin adorn'd,
The arts have flourisht and the Muses sung;
And that his Iustice and well tempered raigne
Have the best Iudges pleas'd, the powers divine,
Their blessings and so long prosperitie
Of th'Empire under him enough declare.
Scevin. You freed the State from warres abroad, but 'twas
To spoile at home more safely and divert
The Parthian enmitie on us; and yet
The glory rather and the spoyles of warre
Have wanting bin, the losse and charge we have.
Your peace is full of cruelty and wrong;
Lawes taught to speake to present purposes;
Wealth and faire houses dangerous faults become;
Much blood ith' Citie and no common deaths,
But Gentlemen and Consulary houses.
On Caesars owne house looke: hath that bin free?
Hath he not shed the blood he calls divine?
Hath not that neerenes which should love beget
Always on him bin cause of hate and feare?
Vertue and power suspected and kept downe?
They, whose great ancestors this Empire made,
Distrusted in the government thereof?
A happy state where Decius is a traytor,
Narcissus true! nor onley wast unsafe
T'offend the Prince; his freed men worse were feard,
Whose wrongs with such insulting pride were heard
That even the faultie it made innocent
If we complain'd that was it selfe a crime,
I, though it were to Caesars benefit:
Our writings pry'd into, falce guiltines
Thinking each taxing pointed out it selfe;
Our private whisperings listned after; nay,
Our thoughts were forced out of us and punisht;
And had it bin in you to have taken away
Our understanding as you did our speech,
You would have made us thought this honest too.
Nimph. Can malice narrow eyes See anything yet more it can traduce?
Scevin. His long continued taxes I forbeare,
In which he chiefely showed him to be Prince;
His robbing Alters,[75] sale of Holy things,
The Antique Goblets of adored rust
And sacred gifts of kings and people sold.
Nor was the spoile more odious than the use
They were imployd on; spent on shame and lust,
Which still have bin so endless in their change
And made us know a divers servitude.
But that he hath bin suffered so long
And prospered, as you say; for that to thee,
O Heaven, I turne my selfe and cry, "No God
Hath care of us." Yet have we our revenge,
As much as Earth may be reveng'd on Heaven:
Their divine honour Nero shall usurpe,
And prayers and feasts and adoration have
As well as Iupiter.
Nimph. Away, blaspheming tongue, Be ever silent for thy bitternesse.
[Exeunt.
(SCENE 5.)
Enter Nero, Poppaea, Tigellinus, Flavius, Neophilus, Epaphroditus, and a yong man.
Nero. What could cause thee, Forgetfull of my benefits and thy oath, To seeke my life?
Flav. Nero, I hated thee:
Nor was there any of thy souldiers
More faithful, while thou faith deserv'dst, then I.
Together did I leave to be a subject,
And thou a Prince. Caesar was now become
A Player on the Stage, a Waggoner,
A burner of our houses and of us,
A Paracide of Wife and Mother.[76]