Priscus.

I fear to tell.

Thr. Suppose then I tell thee. I know thy sickness, and I hold the cure.

Pr. Nay, sir: I rank among the incurables.

Thr. Bravo! that is well said. I have watched thee, Priscus, All the six years I have known thee—’tis six years: I have seen thine eye grow steadier, and thy smile Softer and kinder, and thy speech, which once Crackled in flame and smoke, hath stilled to a fire That comforts my old age. Even as thy body Hath statelier motion, so is’t with thy mind, Which ripen’d manners clothe in rich reserve.

Pr. What wilt thou say?

Thr. Hearken! ’tis some days since I have noted thy disturbance and rejoiced. ’Tis ill with them, who quake not at the touch Of the world’s Creator. Thou hast come to tell me Thou lov’st my daughter.

Pr. Ah, sir!

Thr. Is’t not so?

Pr. Her name is the oath whereby I seal all truth.

Thr. And well: thou’rt worthy of her; in saying which I mean thy praise, for she is worthy of thée. Nay, while she lives I go not from the world; Death sucks me not, though on his iron ladder My years descend: she will be Thrasea still, Without his struggles. Let me acquaint thee, son, With one condition which I have thought to make, Ere I commit her to thy trust.

Pr. Good Thrasea, I know not how to thank thee; but, forgive me, My secret was not this.

Thr. Not this?

Pr. Nay, sir. Of late I have passed my life half in a dungeon, Half in the garden, where thou bidst me forth To bask in my love’s joy: which in my duty I had spoken of to thee openly, but all Hath come so quickly: now, a happier way, I meet thy favour unsolicited. Let nothing vex this hour; I long to hear Thy one requirement, which my full consent Leaps to embrace unheard, that thou mayst join Fannia and me.

Thr. ’Tis but a form. I ask A promise of thee, Priscus, that thou wílt not For ten years join any conspiracy Against the Emperor.

Pr. Why?

Thr. For Fannia’s sake, Lest Nero kill thee: and for thy sake too.

Pr. And why ten years?

Thr. Ten years is a fair term. Thou wilt be old in prudence then.

Pr. Such prudence Let me die ere I learn. How would’st thou, sir, For ten years bind me down in slavery To flatter a tyrant?

Thr. Who said flatter? Stay: Impatience cannot help. The case is thus. Since Burrus died, Nero hath broken loose:— Seneca’s leading-string hath snapped in the midst Without a strain:—in greed of absolute power His will cast off restraint; in the possession His tottering reason doth the like. His lust, His cruelty, his effeminate, blundering passion For art and brutal vice are but the brag Of a hideous nature, which will force the bounds Of human action, till the shames of Rome Shame shameless Rome to wipe away her shame. That is a balance which I cannot poise, How much shame Rome will bear; but when I hear The whispers of revolt, and now one name And now another cast out like a fly To fish opinion, I give little heed, For these two reasons; first, there’s not a man Among the chiefs of faction of such mark As to make change secure: the second, this, That lacking such a leader there’s no party That can command opinion. Nero’s fall, When he shall fall, will be in a flooding wave Of common judgment. What the extravagance Of crime is weak to move, some unforeseen And trifling circumstance may on a sudden Deliver; and the force that none can raise None shall control. Await the rising tide, It will not need us.

Pr. Some, sir, cannot wait. I came to tell thee how I had given my name To a conspiracy.

Thr. The gods forbid! With whom?

Pr. I may not name their names.

Thr. Nay, nay: But who is the pretender?

Pr. Seneca.

Thr. Seneca! Seneca! Hath he consented?

Pr. We are such, sir, as can win him.

Thr. Why, I know you; The senatorial patriots. There’ll be Lucan, Cassius and Lateranus, Fænius Rufus, Flavus, perhaps Vestinus....

Pr. Who they be Will presently be seen.

Thr. O, I am in time To stay you yet. This plot is merely mischief, Seneca’s death.

Pr. Not if ’tis Nero’s death.

Thr. Think, man! If first ye go to Seneca, Ere ye slay Nero, he will not consent: Never, be sure. And if ye first slay Nero, Seneca’s nowhere. Others will spring up, Piso, and all the Augustan family, Plautus, Silanus....

Pr. But if Seneca Consent....

Thr. What! to that crime?

Pr. He hath consented To like before.

Thr. Well, but the wrongs he hath done His pride alloys, or in pretensed retirement Repudiates; ánd, could he feel his guilt, That were remorse, whose sick and painful palsy Cannot raise hand to strike. Think you that he, Who laughed at Claudius’ death; who let be slain His old friend and protectress Agrippina; Who glozed the murder of Britannicus; Who hid his protest when Octavia fell; That he will turn about and say, ‘Such things I did for Nero, and the good of Rome: Now, since he sings at Naples on the stage, I do repent me, and will kill my pupil; Will take myself the power I made for him, And shew how I intended he should rule!’ This were a Roman but not Seneca.

Pr. We look not fór it óf him.

Thr. ’Tis all one. Seneca! the millionaire!

Pr. If he consent, We restore the republic.

Thr. The Republic! The Decii and Camilli will you bring us? That kingly yeoman, frugal Curius? Can you restore the brave considerate Gracchi, And Cato’s stern unconquerable soul?... O nay: but Seneca the imperialist!—— Priscus, if Seneca refuse, thou’lt make A promise for ten years?

Pr. With that reserve; And wilt thou not say five years?

Thr. I’ll say five, If thou wilt promise.

Pr. Then, if Seneca Refuse, I pledge myself to take no part In any plot against the emperor For five years.

Thr. Come within, Fannia is thine. [Exeunt.