_Dom._ O, there’s no doubt. _Ner._ My mother is very deep, and often looks Far from her meaning. She will use this way To worm a confidence. 850 _Dom._ She did not then. Ner. Yet must the boy have thought so, for you said That what she urged he took not all in kindness. _Dom._ He bade her speak with Burrus. _Ner._ The villainous brat! _Dom._ Drive not the fault on him. Did Burrus waver, Nothing could save thee. And it seems thy mother Had hope to win him. She comes; now be thou firm. I will be gone. _[Exit._ _Ner._ (_solus_). Now she cannot deceive me. _Enter Agrippina._ _Agr._ My son, thy mother comes at thy command. _Ner._ O excellent mother! _Agr._ What would’st thou with me, son? I come to hear, and yet I scarce am fit 860 For banter or abuse. I am ill to-day. _Ner._ No wonder; ’tis you do too much. ’Twere better You spared yourself. Go rest; my business Will not cure headaches. _Agr._ Speak whate’er it be. _Ner._ Nay, if you’re ill— _Agr._ My sickness will not pass. To-morrow I shall leave thee; that last grief Will soon engulph the rest: speak while thou may’st. _Ner._ What’s this! leave me to-morrow? _Agr._ I would spare thee That worst disgrace of sending me away. I go of myself. 870 _Ner._ What now? _Agr._ ’Tis well resolved. I have been foolish; ’twas a mother’s fault, A tender fault: forget it, and hereafter Know my love better. If my presence bred Dislike, thy kinder mind may yet return When I am gone. _Ner._ Why, what has happed, I pray? _Agr._ Nothing. I have only come to see my error. I thought, ’twas I that gave him all.... _Ner._ Tut! tut! ’Tis the old story told a thousand times. _Agr._ Ay, and forgot as oft. Thy constant wrongs, I think, have dug my grave. Dost thou remember What answer once I made the sorcerer 881 Who prophesied thy fortune? Thy son, he said, Shall reign, and kill his mother. Let him kill me, So that he reign, I cried. He spake the truth, But ’tis by grief thou slay’st me. _Ner._ That old rubbish Were best forgotten. _Agr._ Indeed, I had forgot it: But yesternight I dreamed it all again; A frightful dream: plain as I see thee now Stood’st thou before me thus, with angry words [_She acts._