_Agr._ For that I’d stay. I would give up all else To stand by you: ay, and be happy so. _Ner._ And so it shall be. Have thy private fortune, Remain in Rome. _Agr._ But can you trust me, Nero? 990 _Ner._ Nay, I will never more suspect thee. Kiss me. _Agr._ O, now you are good and kind. Tell me, who was it Did me this wrong? _Ner._ It was Domitia told me. She spied on thee. _Agr._ My sister! ha! you know not The grudge between us? _Ner._ Yes, I know of that. _Agr._ And not suspect her slander? Did she also Commit Britannicus? _Ner._ She cast all blame On thee. _Agr._ I feared she might have wronged the boy. _Ner._ Is he, then, innocent? _Agr._ I went so far In sounding him as even to risk my credit. 1000 Let not unjust suspicion add a weight To the just blame we bear. You must protect him. Promise me that. _Ner._ I will ask Seneca. _Agr._ Forgive, at least, his foolish indiscretion. He begged me make his peace. Now have I made it? _Ner._ I’ll think no more of that. _Agr._ My dearest son, The joy of a good action will be yours As well as mine. O, I am happy now— Indeed, most happy now. _Ner._ Come then, dear mother. [_Exeunt._ ACT · III SCENE · 1 _The same. SENECA._ _SENECA._ Burrus was right. The more I think of it, The time has come that one or both must go; So the more dangerous first, then are we quit At once of all our mischief and disgrace. 1013 ’Tis past belief that she who plunged in crime To enthrone her son should now plot to dethrone him. There is no bridle for a wicked woman. Men may despise the venerable path Of virtue, and refuse the wholesome laws Of plain philosophy, but still they lean Towards reason, even in their wickedness. 1020 There’s an accountable consistency Found in their actions; but if once a woman Throw off, as men soon do, the first restraints Of credulous childhood; if her nature lack Tenderness, modesty, and that respect To self which sees in self a thing to guard From passion and caprice, and in the pleasure Of fitness finds a law,—if she lack that Or overpass it,—there’s no further bound: All things are mixed together; virtue, crime, 1030 Wisdom and folly. For they have a spirit Of infinite wrong genius. Rule, I say, Such women if you can; rule them with iron. _Enter Nero._ _NERO._ Good-morrow, Seneca. Thou comest in time; I need thy counsel. _Sen._ I am here to give it.