"Shall be mine,"
Said Simon, finishing her arrested speech.
He undertook at venture in the dark;
But to gain time, and to secure access,
His present errand, to the emperor,
He added, with demure and downcast look:
"The ground beneath us now is treacherous;
I could with greater freedom utter all
That might be needful in such case as this,
To other ear than thine, O empress fair,
Or any woman's. Let me, pray thee, see
The emperor. Thou shalt be well satisfied,
I pledge me, with the issue when it comes."
So Simon won him clear for then, and went—
His way made easy by Poppæa's part;
Yet not as with her privity, much less
As with her favor openly displayed—
To his wished waiting on the emperor.
"Thou art a go-between, I understand,"
Abruptly and ambiguously said
The emperor to Simon. Simon winced
A little, he so little wont to wince.
What did it mean? Had Nero overheard
Through some eavesdropper what had just now passed
Between him and Poppæa? Was he vexed?
Himself at least was inly vexed to hear
The opprobrious name of 'go-between' applied,
Where he had hoped for honor as a mage
And wielder of weird supernatural power.
He wavered, and found nothing to reply.
"Thou art modest," Nero said, with irony;
"But I have heard thy fame, thou needst not blush,
Pallas has told me how as go-between
Thou servedst his brother Felix in the East,
Finding for him a really royal spouse.
I hope thy go-between officiousness
Ended with bringing the devoted pair
Together? Nothing after had to do
With the late parting of the same by death?"
Simon was stumbled at such raillery,
Uneasily uncertain what it meant.
He writhed and wriggled on his feet; but deemed
The emperor best were pleased to have his will
Of banter, unreplied to—banter felt
As far too formidable for right zest,
Proceeding from a prince, and such a prince!
"Wilt ply again thy skill of go-between,
And faithfully, for me?" the emperor said.
A question fairly asked, which must be met:
Could it concern—Poppæa? In such case,
The office of the 'go-between'—as pleased
This jocular young ruler of mankind
To name him ignominiously—might take
A dignity almost imperial on;
Simon would frame reply comportably:
"If the august will of his majesty,
The emperor of the world, should condescend
To make one most unworthy of the grace
In any wise elect ambassador
To serve the imperial pleasure at what court
Soever of such beauty as were fit
To be assumed for partner of his throne—
Why, Simon could but pledge his loyalty,
And trust his wonted fortune might not fail."
"Thou takest thy pander's part full seriously,"
The emperor, bantering still, but curious, said:
"Perhaps our grave ambassador of love
Might, from his pregnant wit, even nominate
The court of beauty where befitting were
The majesty of empire should pay suit.
The Roman state impersonate in me
Gives ear."
Played with in such ambiguous wise
Simon was much perplexed to choose his way.
He flung himself on rumor, and replied:
"The Roman state, embodied in thyself
Most worthily, most worthily has made
Its choice already; mine to serve that choice."
"Thou art an oracle; who knows so much,
Should needs know more," the emperor teasing said.
"Advise me, thou who knowest so easily
What my choice is, how I may win my choice.
Consider that the emperor of the world
Is after all the veriest slave in Rome;
The rascal people lord it over him.
I have no trouble with the senators,
They follow like whipped spaniels at my heels—
The reverend 'conscript fathers,' to be sure!
But the great Roman people is a spell
I am afraid of; I must please the mob,
Who will not let me marry as I would;
The many-headed monster mob of Rome."
The emperor gave his peevish humor vent,
Contemptuously regardless of who heard.
But Simon was alert and caught his cue.
"The tyrant mob may easily be fooled,"
He said with politic suggestion deep;
"Fooled rightly, they will clamor, not against,
But for, the emperor's wish." "Open thy thought,
Said Nero; "be an oracle indeed—
For wisdom; for equivocation, not."
"What the imperial wish is," Simon said,
"It were impiety in me to guess.
But grant it were a prince's natural wish
To change a barren or a faithless spouse
For one more suited to his princely mind,
Ways might be found to make his realm agree."
"Suppose the case, then; how wouldst thou proceed?"
So, as if only idly, Nero asked.
"Let me suppose a case of faithlessness,"
Simon, with study of the emperor's face,
Adventured; "that is the more simple sort,
More likely, or at least of easier proof.
The offended prince reluctantly succumbs
To testimony—whereof the supply
Will manifestly equal the demand"—
This with both look and tone sententious said—
"He makes his loving people confidant
Of his misfortune—which is also theirs—
And with one voice they generously cry,
'Put her away, and wed a worthy mate.'"
The emperor listening sank into a muse,
Which Simon as of happy omen took.
Nero was deeper than the sorcerer guessed;
His muse had really, as that worthy framed
His speech to have it, of Octavia been
And of Poppæa in Octavia's room;
But for his present prurient whim the young
Imperial profligate was fain to make
Misdeem the Jewish pander otherwise.
As if Drusilla, not Poppæa, had,
Unnamed between them, been that worthier one
Of whom the sorcerer darkly all the time
Had hinted, and whom he himself the while
Had understood him tacitly to mean,
Nero now said, rousing from reverie—
Ejaculation like soliloquy:
"Worthy to be the consort of a king!
Perhaps well widowed—for some nobler fate
Hers by the right of beauty and of wit—
Drusilla, thy good mistress, that born queen!
Tell her this from the emperor, and ask
When she will let the emperor himself
Pay her his personal homage at her court;
Some night it needs must be, and in disguise—
To fool the prying people as thou saidst.
Prove thou thy prowess as ambassador,
And bring me speedy word of thy success."
The emperor let the sorcerer retire.