earth we tread on false, the heaven
A merest mist, a vapour. Yet her face
Is as the face of a child uplifted, pure;
But plead with lightning rather than those eyes,
Or earthquake rather than that gentle bosom
Rising and falling near thy heart. Her voice
Comes running on the ear as a rivulet;
Yet if you hearken, you shall hear behind
The breaking of a sea whose waves are souls
That break upon a human-crying beach.
Ever she smileth, yet hath never smiled,
And in her lovely laughter is no joy.
Yet hath none fairer strayed into the world,
Or wandered in more witchery through the air,
Since she who drew the dreaming keels of Greece
After her over the Ionian foam.

BURRUS. Better an Emperor fooled than Rome undone!

ACTE. Though all unite to drive him to his doom,
Yet I will not forsake him till he die.

[_Exit_ ACTE.

[_Meanwhile there is an uneasy movement among the_ GIRLS, _as
at the approach of something sinister_. TIGELLINUS _enters,
gasping._

TIGELLINUS. [_Looking after_ ACTE.] She is a Christian!

BURRUS. Tigellinus!

TIGELLINUS. I
Come from the theatre. For three hours have sat
In the first bench, and feared to wink or cough.
The Emperor sang, and had for audience
The flower of Rome. In torment did we sit,
Nobles and consuls, captains, senators,
Bursting to laugh and aching but to smile.
Higher and higher rose the Emperor's voice,
But no man ventured to relax his lips.
And all around were those who peered or crept,
Inspecting each man's face, noting his look.
To sigh was treason and to laugh was death,
And yet none dared be absent: how were you
Excused?

BURRUS. I pleaded the old wound.

SENECA. And I
Reception of the Parthian and the Briton.

TIGELLINUS. I
Say not so much against his moody freaks,
But to be called from bed to hear him sing--
O, I must have my sleep at night--well, well--
To graver things. Still the conspiracy
Of Agrippina swells: she aims to make
Her son a toy, a puppet, while she pulls
Unseen the secret strings of policy.

SENECA. Is't not enough to bear upon her back
Stripped continents? To clasp about her throat
A civilisation in a sapphire, or
That kingdoms gleam and glow upon her brow.
Now doth she overstar us like the night
In splendour. Now she rises on our eyes
Dawning in gold; or like the blaze of noon