Nero.

Good-morrow, Seneca. Thou comest in time; I need thy counsel.

Sen. I am here to give it.

Ner. Then tell me: Where I have been lately threatened, Am I in danger? I will use thy judgment. Is’t needful for my safety to remove Britannicus?

Sen. I have well considered all. You must dismiss your mother.

Ner. Not so, Seneca. She now resigns all power and sign of empire, And is content to live in quiet, retired With few attendants and contracted state.

Sen. She offered terms?

Ner. See, since she now concedes All reasonable claims, my duty towards her Patches our quarrel.

Sen. Whence this newborn trust?

Ner. She must remain. What of Britannicus?

Sen. He need not trouble you.

Ner. So said my mother. I had thought differently, and even had made Full preparation for his going hence. Would’st thou too bid me think there is no danger?

Sen. None, if your mother goes.

Ner. But nay, she stays.

Sen. That makes him dangerous.

Ner. Thy reason, Seneca?

Sen. I well can guess, Nero, your mother’s vein With you in private: but ’twould much divert Your inclination from it, could you know Her latest way with me.

Ner. What hath she said?

Sen. Will you now think she hath urged Burrus and me To set our honoured oaths and firm allegiance To you aside, as being unjustly sworn; To undo all she has done, and bring Britannicus Back to the people as Rome’s rightful heir?

Ner. I knew this, Seneca; and if ’twere meant, Where lies the danger?

Sen. True; but then she vows Plainly that, rather than resign her power, She will make known her crimes, nor spare herself, If in the implication of her ruin She may involve us too. Know you of that?

Ner. She could not mean it.

Sen. Certainly ’twas in passion Spoken, and fury: but ’tis such a thing As might be done in passion.

Ner. And what says Burrus?

Sen. He too would urge, as I, the Augusta’s exile.

Ner. Yet must she stay.

Sen. Nay, Nero, she must go.

Ner. I bade thee, Seneca, to counsel me: Call’st thou this counsel? ’Tis in the exigence Of such affairs that their necessity Precludes the true decision: this thou’st taught me: And that the man of counsel is but he Who handles best the circumstance, most gently Resolves the knot, not cuts it. In this difficulty Is there no course?

Sen. I go not back from this; If both remain there’s none.

Ner. Is my life threatened?

Sen. Ay.

Ner. Then Britannicus must go, and shall go, As first I purposed.

Sen. Whither will you send him?

Ner. Far out of hearing of his claim. ’Tis not A trifling matter.

Sen. See now to the other extreme How you o’erleap the mean from wrong to wrong!

Ner. Such wrongs the title of my power condones. Shall I at the outset of a world-wide policy Stick at a household scruple, and for fear To do a private wrong forfeit the power Which makes me Cæsar? See my glory trip At a little ill because I will not level My safety with the welfare of the world?

Sen. But what you must not, that you cannot do.

Ner. Rather what Cæsar must do, that he may. Rome understands not empire yet: we learned Something of Herod.

Sen. O the injustice, Nero! The wrong! How! Will you sooner spill a life So innocent, your creditor in kindness, Than do disgrace to another, one so guilty As to deserve, sinking all exigency, The fearful penalty you now misplace? Think twice.

Ner. Why, if I think of it again, Is not thy error fourfold more than mine? This need is granted to all tyrannies, To slay pretenders, ay, and most of all Those of the family: but for a mother, The very Persian or the unrivalled Jew Would shrink from her dishonour.

Sen. (aside). What to say? Being out of kinship ’twere the lesser blot— Yet there’s his innocence. Necessity Cannot suborn morality so far As such confusion,—nor the alternative May yet be shunned,—and when the best is wrong...

Ner. What thinkest thou?

Sen. Wait: it shall be my office To find some better means.

Ner. ’Twill be thine office To show in such a speech as I may make After his death, that, howsoe’er he died,— Which you shall know no more than shall my hearers,— ’Twas for the general good.

Sen. Be counselled, Nero. This is not my advice.

Ner. Thou offerest none Which can be taken.

Sen. See, I have brought your speech Touching the Parthian war.

Ner. ’Tis long.

Sen. The matter Being very weighty, ’twill be looked for from you To say thus much: but if it seem too long, ’Tis so composed that with these brackets here, Skipped as you list, the speech is any length.

Ner. I thank thee. I shall need that other speech.

Sen. I pray you may not need it. My advice Is wait.

Ner. Is it? Stay—Seneca, dost thou think My mother was in earnest when she urged Treason on thee and Burrus? And dost thou think She fooled me in saying that she made proposal To Burrus but to sound his honesty?

Sen. Eh! with that tale she took you?

Ner. Is’t not true?

Sen. That true!

Ner. She was in earnest though in passion? Answer me.

Sen. Ay, she was.

Ner. I pray thee leave me. I shall not wait. [Exit Seneca. I stand alone. Such officers as share The functions of tyrannic government Cannot be looked to for a policy Of personal security; they lack The motive that abates the fear of crime. Britannicus must go, and ’tis my hand Must aim his death. I have a medicine Which he must drink for me, to save my life. To-night shall do it. But for my other enemy, My mother, who with such dissimulation Won me, spite of foreknowledge of her deeds, And judgment of her purpose—Ha! indeed; Seneca’s laughing-stock! Now, what I do Will much surprise her. If it kill her hope And prove my temper towards her, ’twill be well.

[Exit.