Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/468

450 Without the power to act, that present fear May break her strength, let punishment at once, Too long delayed, crush out her guilty life. Have done at once with arguments and prayers, And do my royal bidding: let her sail To some far distant shore and there be slain, That thus at last my fears may be at rest. [Exeunt.] Chorus [attached to Octavia]: Oh, dire and deadly has the people's love To many proved, which fills their swelling sails With favoring breeze, and bears them out to sea; But soon its vigor languishes and dies, And leaves them to the mercy of the deep. The wretched mother of the Gracchi wept Her murdered sons, who, though of noble blood, Far famed for eloquence and piety, Stout-hearted, learnéd in defense of law, Were brought to ruin by the people's love And popular renown. And Livius, thee To equal fate did fickle fortune give, Who found no safety in thy lictors' rods, No refuge in thy home. But grief forbids To tell more instances. This hapless girl, To whom but now the citizens decreed The restoration of her fatherland, Her home, her brother's couch, is dragged away In tears and misery to punishment, With citizens consenting to her death! Oh, blesséd poverty, content to hide Beneath the refuge of a lowly roof! For lofty homes, to fame and fortune known, By storms are blasted and by fate o'erthrown! [Enter Octavia in the custody of the palace guards, who are dragging her roughly out into the street.] Octavia: Oh, whither do ye hurry me? What fate Has that vile tyrant or his queen ordained? Does she, subdued and softened by my woes, Grant me to live in exile? Or, if not, If she intends to crown my sufferings