_Ner._ Is my life threatened? _Sen._ Ay. _Ner._ Then Britannicus must go, and shall go, As first I purposed. _Sen._ Whither will you send him? _Ner._ Far out of hearing of his claim. ’Tis not A trifling matter. _Sen._ See now to the other extreme How you o’erleap the mean from wrong to wrong! _Ner._ Such wrongs the title of my power condones. Shall I at the outset of a world-wide policy Stick at a household scruple, and for fear 1090 To do a private wrong forfeit the power Which makes me Cæsar? See my glory trip At a little ill because I will not level My safety with the welfare of the world? _Sen._ But what you must not, that you cannot do. _Ner._ Rather what Cæsar must do, that he may. Rome understands not empire yet: we learned Something of Herod. _Sen._ O the injustice, Nero! The wrong! How! Will you sooner spill a life So innocent, your creditor in kindness, 1100 Than do disgrace to another, one so guilty As to deserve, sinking all exigency, The fearful penalty you now misplace? Think twice. _Ner._ Why, if I think of it again, Is not thy error fourfold more than mine? This need is granted to all tyrannies, To slay pretenders, ay, and most of all Those of the family: but for a mother, The very Persian or the unrivalled Jew Would shrink from her dishonour. 1110 _Sen._ (_aside_). What to say? Being out of kinship ’twere the lesser blot— Yet there’s his innocence. Necessity Cannot suborn morality so far As such confusion,—nor the alternative May yet be shunned,—and when the best is wrong... _Ner._ What thinkest thou? _Sen._ Wait: it shall be my office To find some better means. _Ner._ ’Twill be thine office To show in such a speech as I may make After his death, that, howsoe’er he died,— Which you shall know no more than shall my hearers,— ’Twas for the general good. 1121 _Sen._ Be counselled, Nero. This is not my advice. _Ner._ Thou offerest none Which can be taken. _Sen._ See, I have brought your speech Touching the Parthian war. _Ner._ ’Tis long. _Sen._ The matter Being very weighty, ’twill be looked for from you To say thus much: but if it seem too long, ’Tis so composed that with these brackets here, Skipped as you list, the speech is any length. _Ner._ I thank thee. I shall need that other speech. _Sen._ I pray you may not need it. My advice 1130 Is wait.