SCENE IV

SCENE.--_The same--glittering starlight_

_Enter various servants bearing wine-jars and dishes from the inner
suffer-room, in procession. Then_ BURRUS, SENECA, ANICETUS, _and_
TIGELLINUS

BURRUS. 'Tis not man's work to witness this. I have fought
Neck-deep in blood and spared not when the fit
Was on me, but I cannot gaze on this.
Have you a heart, old man?

TIGELLINUS. No, not in hours
Like these: the brain is all. I fear, I fear him
The last farewell--he will not bear it out!

SENECA. How to excuse my soul, yet I am here.
Was this mere acting, or a true emotion?

ANICETUS. A little of both, but most, I fear it, true.

TIGELLINUS. Is all prepared and timed? No hazard left?

ANICETUS. Yonder the barge with lights and fluttering flags.
The canopy whereunder Agrippina
Will sit is heavily weighted: at a sign
A bolt withdrawn will launch it on her head.

_Enter_ NERO

NERO. I cannot do it: if she goes, she goes.
I cannot say farewell, and kiss her lips,
Ere I commit her body to the deep.

TIGELLINUS. All hangs upon the fervour of farewell,
The kiss, the soft word, and the hand detained,
All hangs on it; go back.

NERO. 'Tis difficult.

[NERO _turns. Enter_ AGRIPPINA.

Come out into the cool a moment, mother.

AGRIPPINA. This seemeth like to old days come again,
Evenings of Antium with a rising moon.

[_Stroking his hair_.

My boy, my boy, again! Look in my eyes.
So as a babe would you look up at me
After a night of tossing, half-awake,
Blinking against the dawn, and pull my head
Down to you, till I lost you in my hair.
Do you remember many a night so thick
With stars as this--you would not go to bed,
But still would paddle in the warm ocean
Spraying it with small hands into the skies.

NERO. Yes, I remember.

AGRIPPINA. Or when you would sail
In a slight skiff under a moon like this,
Though chidden oft and oft.

NERO. Ah! I recall it.

AGRIPPINA. A wilful child--the sea--ever the sea--
Your mother could not hold you from the sea.
Will you be sore if I confess a thought?

NERO. Ah! no, mother!

AGRIPPINA. So foolish it seems now.
Awhile I doubted whether I should come.

NERO. Why, then?

AGRIPPINA. Now, do not laugh at me--I say
You will not laugh at me?

NERO. No!

AGRIPPINA. Why--I thought
That you perhaps wo