and by,
A mother by her own son thrust away,
Cast out--ha, ha!--in my old age, infirm,
To totter and mumble in oblivion!

NERO. [_To_ SENECA _and_ BURRUS.] A little
violent that--did you not think so?
And yet the gesture excellent and strong!

AGRIPPINA. Romans, behold this son: the man of men;
This harp-player, this actor, this buffoon----

NERO. Peace!

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?

SENECA. Have you no shame?

AGRIPPINA. This son now sends me forth,
Yet it was I, his mother, set him there.

[_Murmur._

And, ah! if it were known at what a price,
Witness, you shades of the Silani!

SENECA. Peace!

AGRIPPINA. And witness Messalina on vain knees!

[_Murmur._

And witness Claudius with the envenomed cup.

NERO. Silence, or----

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.

[_Murmur._

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.

[_Murmur._

Ah!

[_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.

[_Uproar._

I'll to the Praetorians!

[_Clamour._

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 maimed 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_.

SENECA. Now what to do?

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