_Ner._ Then tell me: Where I have been lately threatened, Am I in danger? I will use thy judgment. Is’t needful for my safety to remove Britannicus? _Sen._ I have well considered all. You must dismiss your mother. 1040 _Ner._ Not so, Seneca. She now resigns all power and sign of empire, And is content to live in quiet, retired With few attendants and contracted state. _Sen._ She offered terms? _Ner._ See, since she now concedes All reasonable claims, my duty towards her Patches our quarrel. _Sen._ Whence this newborn trust? _Ner._ She must remain. What of Britannicus? _Sen._ He need not trouble you. _Ner._ So said my mother. I had thought differently, and even had made Full preparation for his going hence. 1050 Would’st thou too bid me think there is no danger? _Sen._ None, if your mother goes. _Ner._ But nay, she stays. _Sen._ That makes him dangerous. _Ner._ Thy reason, Seneca? _Sen._ I well can guess, Nero, your mother’s vein With you in private: but ’twould much divert Your inclination from it, could you know Her latest way with me. _Ner._ What hath she said? _Sen._ Will you now think she hath urged Burrus and me To set our honoured oaths and firm allegiance To you aside, as being unjustly sworn; 1060 To undo all she has done, and bring Britannicus Back to the people as Rome’s rightful heir? _Ner._ I knew this, Seneca; and if ’twere meant, Where lies the danger? _Sen._ True; but then she vows Plainly that, rather than resign her power, She will make known her crimes, nor spare herself, If in the implication of her ruin She may involve us too. Know you of that? _Ner._ She could not mean it. _Sen._ Certainly ’twas in passion Spoken, and fury: but ’tis such a thing 1070 As might be done in passion. _Ner._ And what says Burrus? _Sen._ He too would urge, as I, the Augusta’s exile. _Ner._ Yet must she stay. _Sen._ Nay, Nero, she must go. _Ner._ I bade thee, Seneca, to counsel me: Call’st thou this counsel? ’Tis in the exigence Of such affairs that their necessity Precludes the true decision: this thou’st taught me: And that the man of counsel is but he Who handles best the circumstance, most gently Resolves the knot, not cuts it. In this difficulty Is there no course? 1081 _Sen._ I go not back from this; If both remain there’s none.