AGRIPPINA. --sitting where great Julius but aspired To sit, and died in the aspiring: see, This mime--my son is he? And did I then Have one mad moment with a street musician?
AGRIPPINA. This son now sends me forth, Yet it was I, his mother, set him there.
And, ah! if it were known at what a price, Witness, you shades of the Silani!
AGRIPPINA. And witness Messalina on vain knees!
And witness Claudius with the envenomed cup.
AGRIPPINA. Not the seas shall stop me now, Raging on all the shores of all the world. Witness if easily my son did reign, I am bloody from head to foot for sake of him, And for my cub am I incarnadined.
I'll go, but if I fall, Rome too shall fall: I'll shake this empire till it reel and crash On that ungrateful head; and if I fall, The builded world shall tumble down in thunder.
[_Seeing_ BRITANNICUS.] To my arms, boy! [_Snatches him to her side._] Tremble now and shake! Here is the true heir to the imperial throne, Deposed by me, but now by me restored.
To the camp! And there upon the one side they shall see Britannicus the child of Claudius, And me the daughter of Germanicus; And on the other side a harp-player, A withered pedant, and a maimèd sergeant, Disputing for the diadem of the earth. Come, Caesar, away to the Praetorians!
[_Exit_ AGRIPPINA _leading_ BRITANNICUS, _followed by_ COURT _in great excitement, all but_ BURRUS _and_ SENECA, TIGELLINUS _and_ NERO--_a blank pause_.
TIGELLINUS. Already can I hear The roar of the Praetorians and their march, This time to crown another. Burrus, you Command them.
BURRUS. They would tear me into pieces, As hounds a master entering in on them Unrecognised, if Agrippina once Hallooed to them the name 'Germanicus.'
TIGELLINUS. Surely Britannicus must be our aim: He gone, what threat, what counter-move hath she? Removing him, we take the sting from her; Then let her buzz at will.
SENECA. Even as an eagle snatches up a babe, So Agrippina caught him up and flew.
[NERO _has been sitting with his back to them, suddenly rises._
NERO. [_To_ ANICETUS.] Go thou fast And intercept my mother on her way, And say thou thus: 'Nero thy son repents His former ire and cancels the decree For Antium; and prays thou may'st return To supper, as a sign of amity, And bring with thee the prince Britannicus.'