Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/467

Rh And to the august features of my wife Dare lift again their vulgar eyes. O'erawed By fear of punishment must they be taught To yield obedience to their prince's nod. But here I see the man whose loyalty Has made him captain of my royal guards. [Enter Prefect.] Prefect: The people's rage by slaughter of a few, Who most resistance made is overcome. Nero: Is that enough? Was that my word to thee "Is overcome?" Where then is my revenge? Prefect: The guilty leaders of the mob are dead. Nero: Nay, but the mob itself, which dared to assail My house with flames, to dictate laws to me, To drag my noble wife from off my bed, And with unhallowed hands and angry threats To affront her majesty—are they unscathed? Prefect: Shall angry grief decide their punishment? Nero: It shall—whose fame no future age shall dim. Prefect: Which neither wrath nor fear shall moderate? Nero: She first shall feel my wrath who merits it. Prefect: Tell whom thou mean'st. My hand shall spare her not. Nero: My wrath demands my guilty sister's death. Prefect: Benumbing horror holds me in its grasp. Nero: Wilt not obey my word? Prefect: Why question that? Nero: Because thou spar'st my foe Prefect: A woman, foe? Nero: If she be criminal. Prefect: But what her crime? Nero: The people's rage. Prefect: But who can check their rage? Nero: The one who fanned its flame. Prefect: But who that one? Nero: A woman she, to whom an evil heart Hath nature given, a soul to fraud inclined. Prefect: But not the power to act. Nero: That she may be