NERO, THE EMPEROR
SENECA, THE TUTOR OF NERO
PREFECT
MESSENGER
OCTAVIA, THE DIVORCED WIFE OF NERO
POPPAEA, THE MISTRESS OF NERO
NURSE OF OCTAVIA
NURSE OF POPPAEA
AGRIPPINA, MOTHER OF NERO
CHORUS
OCTAVIA, A TRAGEDY.
OCTAVIA: Already glorious Aurora[1] chases the wandering stars from the sky. Titan,[2] with radiant hair, rises and returns a clear day to the world. Come, thou[3] who art burdened by so many great misfortunes, utter once more thy sad lamentations. Surpass the kingfishers[4] and the swift nightingales, for thy fate is more grievous than theirs. O, mother, for whom I have always mourned, the first cause of my misfortunes, (if any consciousness exists in the shades) hear the sad lamentations of thy daughter. Would that Clotho[5] had broken my threads with her own aged hand before I saw thy features sprinkled with loathsome blood.[6] O, day always fatal to me, from that time thou hast been to me more hateful than the lower regions. I have endured commands, hostility, and fierce glances from my cruel stepmother.[7] That gloomy Erinys[8] has brought to my bridal room Stygian[9] fires and has destroyed thee, wretched father,[10] whom recently the whole world beyond the Ocean obeyed, before whom retreated the Britains,[11] ignorant of our leaders and their own rights. Woe to me, father, that I am overwhelmed by the treachery of thy wife, and that thou liest prostrate, and that thy conquered home and daughter obey the tyrant.
NURSE: If anyone is captivated, astonished, and stupefied by the first gleam of deceptive royalty, he will see, overthrown by a sudden attack of concealed Fortune, a recently powerful home and the progeny of Claudius who ruled the world and commanded the ocean which reluctantly received his fleets.[12] Behold, he who first placed the yoke upon the Britains[13] and covered unknown seas with such great fleets, and was safe among barbarous tribes and savage seas, perished by his wife’s crime.[14] Soon she died by the hand of her own son whose brother met death by poison. The unhappy sister and wife sorrows; restrained indignation cannot conceal the grievous affliction of a cruel husband whom she in her innocence always escapes, while the passionate husband burns with a mutual hatred. In vain my fidelity and loyalty to soothe her sorrowing mind. Pitiless grief frustrates my plans; the mind’s generous ardor cannot be subdued but gathers strength for evils. Alas, what an infamous crime our terror foresees. O, may the gods avert it.
OCTAVIA: My fortunes are comparable to no evils,[15] even if I should recall thy sorrows, Electra.[16] Thou wast permitted to mourn thy father and to avenge the crime by the vengeance of a brother whom thy loyalty rescued and thy fidelity protected.[17] Fear prevents me from lamenting my parents removed by a cruel destiny, and forbids me to weep for the death of a brother who had been my only hope and the brief solace for so many misfortunes. Now I remain in my sorrow the shadow of a great name.[18]