Agrippina, a Tragedy

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		E			Agrippina, a Tragedy
					Dramatis Personae.
					Agrippina, the Empress mother.
					Nero, the Emperor.
					Poppaea, believed to be in love with Otho.
					Otho, a young man of quality, in love with Poppaea.
					Seneca, the Emperor's preceptor.
					Anicetus, Captain of the Guards.
					Demetrius, the Cynic, friend to Seneca.
					Aceronia, Confidant to Agrippina.
					Scene, the Emperor's villa at Baiae
					[The Argument]
					The drama opens with the indignation of Agrippina, at receiving
					her son's orders from Anicetus to remove from Baiae, and to
					have her guard taken from her. At this time Otho having
					conveyed Poppaea from the house of her husband Rufus Crispinus,
					brings her to Baiae, where he means to conceal her among the
					croud; or, if his fraud is discovered, to have recourse to the
					Emperor's authority; but, knowing the lawless temper of Nero, he
					determines not to have recourse to that expedient, but on the
					utmost necessity. In the meantime he commits her to the care of
					Anicetus, whom he takes to be his friend, and in whose age he
					thinks he may safely confide. Nero is not yet come to Baiae:
					but Seneca, whom he sends before him, informs Agrippina of the
					accusation concerning Rubellius Plancus, and desires her to
					clear herself, which she does briefly; but demands to see her
					son, who, on his arrival, acquits her of all suspicion, and
					restores her to her honours. In the meanwhile Anicetus, to
					whose care Poppaea had been entrusted by Otho, contrives the
					following plot to ruin Agrippina: He betrays his trust to Otho,
					and brings Nero, as it were by chance, to the sight of the
					beautiful Poppaea; the Emperor is immediately struck with her
					charms, and she, by a feigned resistance, increases his passion;
					tho', in reality, she is from the first dazzled with the
					prospect of empire, and forgets Otho: She therefore joins with
					Anicetus in his design of ruining Agrippina, soon perceiving
					that it will be for her interest. Otho hearing that the Emperor
					had seen Poppaea, is much enraged; but not knowing that this
					interview was obtained thro' the treachery of Anicetus, is
					readily persuaded by him to see Agrippina in secret, and
					acquaint her with his fears that her son Nero would marry
					Poppaea. Agrippina, to support her own power, and to wean the
					Emperor from the love of Poppaea, gives Otho encouragement, and
					promises to support him. Anicetus secretly introduces Nero to
					hear their discourse; who resolves immediately on his mother's
					death, and, by Anicetus's means, to destroy her by drowning. A
					solemn feast, in honour of their reconciliation, is to be made;
					after which she being to go by sea to Bauli, the ship is so
					contrived as to sink or crush her; she escapes by accident, and
					returns to Baiae. In this interval Otho has an interview with
					Poppaea; and being duped a second time by Anicetus and her,
					determines to fly with her into Greece, by means of a vessel
					which is to be furnished by Anicetus; but he, pretending to
					remove Poppaea on board in the night, conveys her to Nero's
					apartment: She there encourages and determines Nero to banish
					Otho, and finish the horrid deed he had attempted on his
					mother. Anicetus undertakes to execute his resolves; and, under
					pretence of a plot upon the Emperor's life, is sent with a
					guard to murder Agrippina, who is still at Baiae in imminent
					fear, and irresolute how to conduct herself. The account of her
					death, and the Emperor's horrour and fruitless remorse,
					finishes the drama.
					ACT I.   Scene I.
					Agrippina, Aceronia
					AGRIPPINA
				1	'Tis well, begone! your errand is performed.
					[Speaks as to Anicetus entering.
				2	The message needs no comment. Tell your master,
				3	His mother shall obey him. Say you saw her
				4	Yielding due reverence to his high command:
				5	Alone, unguarded and without a lictor
				6	As fits the daughter of Germanicus.
				7	Say, she retired to Antium; there to tend
				8	Her household cares, a woman's best employment.
				9	What if you add, how she turned pale and trembled:
				10	You think, you spied a tear stand in her eye,
				11	And would have dropped, but that her pride restrained it?
				12	(Go! you can paint it well) 'twill profit you,
				13	And please the stripling. Yet 'twould dash his joy
				14	To hear the spirit of Britannicus
				15	Yet walks on earth: at least there are who know
				16	Without a spell to raise, and bid it fire
				17	A thousand haughty hearts, unused to shake
				18	When a boy frowns, nor to be lured with smiles
				19	To taste of hollow kindness, or partake
				20	His hospitable board: they are aware
				21	Of the unpledged bowl, they love not Aconite.
					ACERONIA
				22	He's gone; and much I hope these walls alone
				23	And the mute air are privy to your passion.
				24	Forgive your servant's fears, who sees the danger
				25	Which fierce resentment cannot fail to raise
				26	In haughty youth and irritated power.
					AGRIPPINA
				27	And dost thou talk to me, to me, of danger,
				28	Of haughty youth and irritated power,
				29	To her that gave it being, her that armed
				30	This painted Jove, and taught his novice hand
				31	To aim the forked bolt; while he stood trembling,
				32	Scared at the sound and dazzled with its brightness?
				33	'Tis like, thou hast forgot, when yet a stranger
				34	To adoration, to the grateful steam
		E		35	Of flattery's incense and obsequious vows
				36	From voluntary realms, a puny boy,
				37	Decked with no other lustre than the blood
		E		38	Of Agrippina's race, he lived unknown
				39	To fame or fortune; haply eyed at distance
				40	Some edileship, ambitious of the power
				41	To judge of weights and measures; scarcely dared
		E		42	On expectation's strongest wing to soar
				43	High as the consulate, that empty shade
				44	Of long-forgotten liberty: when I
				45	Oped his young eye to bear the blaze of greatness;
				46	Showed him where empire towered, and bade him strike
				47	The noble quarry. Gods! then was the time
				48	To shrink from danger; fear might then have worn
				49	The mask of prudence; but a heart like mine,
				50	A heart that glows with the pure Julian fire,
				51	If bright ambition from her craggy seat
				52	Display the radiant prize, will mount undaunted,
				53	Gain the rough heights, and grasp the dangerous honour.
					ACERONIA
				54	Through various life I have pursued your steps,
				55	Have seen your soul, and wondered at its daring:
				56	Hence rise my fears. Nor am I yet to learn
				57	How vast the debt of gratitude which Nero
				58	To such a mother owes; the world you gave him
				59	Suffices not to pay the obligation.
				60	I well remember too (for I was present)
				61	When in a secret and dead hour of night,
				62	Due sacrifice performed with barbarous rites
				63	Of muttered charms and solemn invocation,
				64	You bade the Magi call the dreadful powers
				65	That read futurity, to know the fate
				66	Impending o'er your son: their answer was,
				67	If the son reign, the mother perishes.
				68	Perish (you cried) the mother! reign the son!
				69	He reigns, the rest is heaven's; who oft has bade,
				70	Even when its will seemed wrote in lines of blood,
				71	The unthought event disclose a whiter meaning.
				72	Think too how oft in weak and sickly minds
				73	The sweets of kindness lavishly indulged
				74	Rankle to gall; and benefits too great
				75	To be repaid, sit heavy on the soul,
				76	As unrequited wrongs. The willing homage
				77	Of prostrate Rome, the senate's joint applause,
				78	The riches of the earth, the train of pleasures
				79	That wait on youth and arbitrary sway:
				80	These were your gift, and with them you bestowed
				81	The very power he has to be ungrateful.
					AGRIPPINA
				82	Thus ever grave and undisturbed reflection
		E		83	Pours its cool dictates in the madding ear
				84	Of rage, and thinks to quench the fire it feels not.
				85	Sayest thou I must be cautious, must be silent,
				86	And tremble at the phantom I have raised?
				87	Carry to him thy timid counsels. He
				88	Perchance may heed 'em: tell him too, that one
				89	Who had such liberal power to give, may still
				90	With equal power resume that gift, and raise
				91	A tempest that shall shake her own creation
				92	To its original atoms - tell me! say,
				93	This mighty emperor, this dreaded hero,
		E		94	Has he beheld the glittering front of war?
				95	Knows his soft ear the trumpet's thrilling voice,
				96	And outcry of the battle? Have his limbs
				97	Sweat under iron harness? Is he not
		E		98	The silken son of dalliance, nursed in ease
				99	And pleasure's flowery lap? Rubellius lives,
				100	And Sylla has his friends, though schooled by fear
				101	To bow the supple knee, and court the times
				102	With shows of fair obeisance; and a call
				103	Like mine might serve belike to wake pretensions
				104	Drowsier than theirs, who boast the genuine blood
				105	Of our imperial house. [Cannot my nod]
				106	Rouse [up] eight hardy legions, wont to stem
				107	With stubborn nerves the tide, and face the rigour
				108	Of bleak Germania's snows[?] Four, not less brave,
				109	That in Armenia quell the Parthian force
				110	Under the warlike Corbulo, by [me]
				111	Marked for their leader: these, by ties confirmed
		E		112	Of old respect and gratitude, are [mine].
				113	Surely the Masians too, and those of Egypt,
				114	Have not forgot [my] sire: the eye of Rome
				115	And the Praetorian camp have long revered,
				116	With customed awe, the daughter, sister, wife,
				117	And mother of their Caesars. Ha! by Juno,
				118	It bears a noble semblance. On this base
				119	My great revenge shall rise; or say we sound
				120	The trump of liberty; there will not want,
				121	Even in the servile senate, ears to own
		E		122	Her spirit-stirring voice; Soranus there,
				123	And Cassius; Veto too, and Thrasea,
				124	Minds of the antique cast, rough, stubborn souls,
				125	That struggle with the yoke. How shall the spark
				126	Unquenchable, that glows within their breasts,
				127	Blaze into freedom, when the idle herd
				128	(Slaves from the womb, created but to stare
				129	And bellow in the Circus) yet will start,
				130	And shake 'em at the name of liberty,
				131	Stung by a senseless word, a vain tradition,
				132	As there were magic in it? Wrinkled beldams
				133	Teach it their grandchildren, as somewhat rare
				134	That anciently appeared, but when, extends
				135	Beyond their chronicle - oh! 'tis a cause
				136	To arm the hand of childhood, and rebrace
				137	The slackened sinews of time-wearied age.
				138	Yes, we may meet, ungrateful boy, we may!
				139	Again the buried Genius of old Rome
				140	Shall from the dust uprear his reverend head,
				141	Roused by the shout of millions: there before
				142	His high tribunal thou and I appear.
				143	Let majesty sit on thy awful brow
				144	And lighten from thy eye: around thee call
		E		145	The gilded swarm that wantons in the sunshine
				146	Of thy full favour; Seneca be there
		E		147	In gorgeous phrase of laboured eloquence
				148	To dress thy plea, and Burrhus strengthen it
				149	With his plain soldier's oath and honest seeming.
				150	Against thee, liberty and Agrippina:
				151	The world, the prize; and fair befall the victors.
		E		152	But soft! why do I waste the fruitless hours
				153	In threats unexecuted? Haste thee, fly
				154	These hated walls that seem to mock my shame,
				155	And cast me forth in duty to their lord.
				156	My thought aches at him; not the basilisk
				157	More deadly to the sight than is to me
				158	The cool injurious eye of frozen kindness.
				159	I will not meet its poison. Let him feel
				160	Before he sees me. Yes, I will be gone,
				161	But not to Antium - all shall be confessed,
				162	Whate'er the frivolous tongue of giddy fame
				163	Has spread among the crowd; things that but whispered
		E		164	Have arched the hearer's brow and riveted
				165	His eyes in fearful ecstasy: no matter
				166	What, so it be strange, and dreadful[,]- sorceries,
				167	Assassinations, poisonings; the deeper
				168	My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude.
				169	And you, ye manes of ambition's victims,
				170	Enshrined Claudius, with the pitied ghosts
				171	Of the Syllani, doomed to early death
				172	(Ye unavailing horrors, fruitless crimes!),
				173	If from the realms of night my voice ye hear,
				174	In lieu of penitence and vain remorse,
				175	Accept my vengeance. Though by me ye bled,
				176	He was the cause. My love, my fears for him,
				177	Dried the soft springs of pity in my heart,
				178	And froze them up with deadly cruelty.
				179	Yet if your injured shades demand my fate,
				180	If murder cries for murder, blood for blood,
				181	Let me not fall alone; but crush his pride,
				182	And sink the traitor in his mother's ruin. Exeunt.
					Scene II.
					Otho, Poppaea
					OTHO
				183	Thus far we're safe. Thanks to the rosy queen
				184	Of amorous thefts: and had her wanton son
				185	Lent us his wings, we could not have beguiled
		E		186	With more elusive speed the dazzled sight
				187	Of wakeful jealousy. Be gay securely;
				188	Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the timorous cloud
				189	That hangs on thy clear brow. So Helen looked,
				190	So her white neck reclined, so was she borne
				191	By the young Trojan to his gilded bark
				192	With fond reluctance, yielding modesty,
				193	And oft reverted eye, as if she knew not
				194	Whether she feared or wished to be pursued.

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• [BrJ_1891] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891.
• [ToD_1922] Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].