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London Smith, Elder & Co 15 Waterloo Place 1898
OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
1. _NERO. An historical Tragedy of the first part of the reign of the emperor Nero. Published by Ewd. Bumpus. London, 1885. 4to._
1. _ACHILLES IN SCYROS. A drama in a mixed manner. Published by Ewd. Bumpus. London, 1890. 4to._
2. _ACHILLES IN SCYROS._ _Uniform with_ Shorter Poems (I). _George Bell & Sons, 1892._
_LUCAN, the poet, nephew to Seneca_ } _OTHO_ } } _friends of Nero_. _PETRONIUS_} _gentlemen of Rome_ }
_PALLAS_ _master of the imperial household_.
_THRASEA, a Stoic_ } _honest senators_. _PRISCUS_ }
_OCTAVIA_ _wife to Nero, sister to Britannicus_.
_Scene. The first four acts are laid in ROME; the fifth is at BAIÆ._
IF you ask my advice then, it is silence. You are yet new to the senate, and must learn to give your opinion with least offence.
_Pr._ Now, unless it were the silence of Brutus ...
_Thr._ Hush, hush! Were this repeated, there is no greater peril than that word of yours.
_Pr._ But to you I know I may speak freely.
_Pr._ I know Thrasea is brave, and resents his country’s wrongs; that he has insight to see that liberty was never more outraged than now.
_Thr._ Believe me, sir, this tale of things being at their worst is common to all times. Your judgment has gone astray upon a contempt for Cæsar’s follies, or a hatred of his mother’s crimes. Measure Nero but by what he has already done, and you may even find cause for congratulation. 19
_Pr._ We shall be ruled like the Britons by a Queen.
_Thr._ O nay. It is not possible that Nero will suffer Agrippina’s ambition to take such a place. ’Tis already a quarrel between them, and Seneca declares for him.
_Pr._ Then, I ask you, may there not be found in this quarrel an opportunity to bring in Britannicus? Now he is of age, he can no longer be held disqualified.
_Thr._ There is no question of qualification or of claim. 28
_Pr._ How so? The late emperor Claudius in his will mentioned Britannicus for his successor, as being his own son....