"'Cause you were lovely therefore did I love:
O, if to Love you anger you so much,
You should not have such cheekes nor lips to touch:
You should not have your snow nor curral spy'd;—
If you but look on us, in vain you chide:
We must not see your Face, nor heare your speech:
Now, while you Love forbid, you Love doe teach."
I am inclined to think that the tragedy of Nero was the first and last attempt of some young student, steeped in classical learning and attracted by the strange fascination of the Annals,—of one who, failing to gain a hearing at first, never courted the breath of popularity again; just as the author of Joseph and his Brethren, when his noble poem fell still-born from the press, turned contemptuously away and preserved thenceforward an unbroken silence. It should be noticed that the 4to. of 1633 is not really a new edition; it is merely the 4to. of 1624, with a new title-page. In a copy bearing the later date I found a few unimportant differences of reading; but no student of the Elizabethan drama needs to be reminded that variae lectiones not uncommonly occur in copies of the same edition. The words "newly written" on the title-page are meant to distinguish the Tragedy of Nero from the wretched Tragedy of Claudius Tiberius Nero published in 1607.
But now I will bring my remarks to a close. It has been at once a pride and a pleasure to me to rescue this fine old play from undeserved oblivion. There is but one living poet whose genius could treat worthily the tragical story of Nero's life and death. In his three noble sonnets, "The Emperor's Progress," Mr. Swinburne shows that he has pondered the subject deeply: if ever he should give us a Tragedy of Nero, we may be sure that one more deathless contribution would be added to our dramatic literature.
Addenda and Corrigenda.
After Nero had been printed I found among the Egerton MSS. (No. 1994), in the British Museum, a transcript in a contemporary hand. The precious folio to which it belongs contains fifteen plays: of these some will be printed entire in Vols. II and III, and a full account of the other pieces will be given in an appendix to Vol. II. The transcript of Nero is not by any means so accurate as the printed copy; and sometimes we meet with the most ridiculous mistakes. For instance, on p. 82 for "Beauties sweet Scarres" the MS. gives "Starres"; on p. 19 for "Nisa" ("not Bacchus drawn from Nisa") we find "Nilus"; and in the line "Nor us, though Romane, Lais will refuse" (p. 81) the MS. pointlessly reads "Ladies will refuse." On the other hand, many of the readings are a distinct improvement, and I am glad to find some of my own emendations confirmed. But let us start ab initio:—
p. 13, l. 4. 4to. Imperiall tytles; MS. Imperial stuffe.
p. 14, l. 3. 4to. small grace; MS. sale grace.—The allusion in the following line to the notorious "dark lights" makes the MS. reading certain.—Lower down for "and other of thy blindnesses" the MS. gives "another": neither reading is intelligible.
p. 17, l. 5. MS. rightly gives "cleave the ayre."
p. 30, l. 2. "Fatu[m']st in partibus illis || Quas sinus abscondit. Petron."—added in margin of MS.
p. 31, l. 17. 4to. or bruised in my fall; MS. I bruised in my fall!