Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/449

Rh Octavia: That may not be. Long since, our ill-starred house Has groaned beneath the heavy wrath of heaven. That wrath at first my hapless mother felt, Whom Venus cursed with lust insatiate; For she, with heedless, impious passion fired, Unmindful of her absent lord, of us, Her guiltless children, and the law's restraints, In open day another husband wed. To that fell couch avenging Fury came With streaming locks and serpents intertwined, And quenched those stolen wedding fires in blood. For with destructive rage, on murder bent, She fired the prince's heart; and at his word, Ah, woe is me, my ill-starred mother fell, And, dying, doomed me to perpetual grief. For after her in quick succession came Her husband and her son; and this our house, Already falling, was to ruin plunged. Nurse: Forbear with pious tears to renew thy grief, And do not so disturb thy father's shade, Who for his rage has bitterly atoned.

Chorus [sympathetic with Octavia]: False prove the rumor that of late To our ears has come! May its vaunted threats Fall fruitless out and of no avail! May no new wife invade the bed Of our royal prince; may Octavia, born Of the Claudian race, maintain her right And bear us a son, the pledge of peace, In which the joyful world shall rest, And Rome preserve her glorious name. Most mighty Juno holds the lot By fate assigned—her brother's mate; But this our Juno, sister, wife Of our august prince, why is she driven From her father's court? Of what avail Her faith, her father deified, Her love and spotless chastity? We, too, of our former master's fame