Otho.

Good evening, love.

Pop. Who laughed with thee without?

Oth. Lucan. He walked with me from Cæsar’s supper.

Pop. Was Cæsar riotous?

Oth. Beyond all bounds.

Pop. See what you husbands are. You go abroad For pleasure, and when met among yourselves Push all to excess, and never think how patiently Your wives must mope at home, and wait your coming. And when you do return, up to the door You bring your merriment; but at the door ’Tis left, and in you come, in solemn glumness, To vent the sour reaction of your revels Upon your housekeeper.

Oth. Enough, Poppæa; I would be cheered.

Pop. Then I will cheer thee, love. But what’s the matter?

Oth. Listen. Thou hast reproached me With going forth alone. What else could be? Would’st thou consent to sit there at my side, Where I, a man, am oft ashamed to sit? Would’st thou, could’st thou be one among the women Of Cæsar’s fancy?

Pop. I spake not seriously.

Oth. See, but I do. I tell thee, love, this night Thou wert invited.

Pop. I!

Oth. He would have pressed it.

Pop. Who would have pressed it?

Oth. Cæsar.

Pop. What dost thou say?

(Aside.) He treads on prophecy.

Oth. Knowing thy mind, And mine, I begged him for our friendship’s sake Urge me no further.

Pop. Thou did’st well, and he?

Oth. Again to-night he asked for thee. ’Twas this Which made me sad and thoughtful.

Pop. Why be sad?

Oth. The meaning, love, the meaning: thou must guess it.

Pop. The very reason, Otho, which thou urgest Against my going, is in truth the reason Why such as I should go. As Cæsar’s friend, Thou would’st do well to save him from the slough He daily sinks in.

Oth. Nay, but such a stake For such a flimsy hope.

Pop. I see a hope In the invitation. Otho, let us see What may be done among his friends.

Oth. Poppæa, ’Tis generously thought, but ’tis a thing Must not be thought. Trust to my judgment, love. ’Tis Cæsar’s love of power that threats us here; He would have nought held from him. Thee I hold, And most because I know thou would’st be mine.

Pop. Then thou must trust me, Otho.

Oth. And so I do.

Pop. Why, I were well his match. Let us go in.

[Exeunt.