_Pop._ That is my risk. The sport were tame without it: The game can boast a sting. 1260 _Oth._ Weigh well the danger: Think of it thus; to live on a caprice Whose jealousy is death; where for the reason One seems to love thee will be ten to hate thee; Where not to be beforehand with a treachery Is to be victim. _Pop._ I can steer my way. _Oth._ And for this desperate venture wilt cast off My love, our love? _Pop._ What is love? _Oth._ Art thou Poppæa? Wer’t any else but thou that questioned thus, My answer then were ready: I should say Ask of Poppæa, ’tis the thing she knows; 1270 Ask Otho’s wife what love is, she can tell. And thou to ask! as if ’twere some strange matter Wide of experience, and to ask of me Who won thee for my teacher! _Pop._ ’Tis true the impeachment I make of love is that he hath exhausted His treasure rather than denied us aught. _Oth._ Exhausted love! how mean you? _Pop._ See! I am made Of other stuff and passions besides love. You cannot wish that all my life should move Pent in this narrow circle, day by day 1280 Keeping the pretty game up which I learned When I was green: that I should ne’er do else Than this one thing, and that so constantly That even the habit and the practice of it Are scarce employment; that I should grow grey, And see the wide and seasonable field Of life’s exertion and excitement fallow With this one weed of love? _Oth._ A weed, you say! _Pop._ I have other motions in me. I’ve an itch Men call ambition, and I see a prize 1290 Looks worth the having. _Oth._ ’Tis not worth the having. _Pop._ Why, what were I to thee, could’st thou be Cæsar? _Oth._ Even all thou art; I have no itch to rule Merely to see that game played out, and cry At the end—what is ambition? _Pop._ It hath no end. _Oth._ ’Tis plain love hath an end. _Pop._ Nay, as I love thee, I still shall love thee. Only, Otho.... _Oth._ What? _Pop._ I thought your eye was open to perceive The grandeur of my scheme. _Oth._ Thou wert mistaken. _Pop._ Upon what falls to-night, let us decide. 1300 I have no secrets from you: if I prosper, Desert me if you will, but blame me not: For dared I combat Cæsar’s inclination There were as much to lose. The thing I do Will be your safety.