_Thr._ Who said flatter? Stay: Impatience cannot help. The case is thus. 50 Since Burrus died, Nero hath broken loose:— Seneca’s leading-string hath snapped in the midst Without a strain:—in greed of absolute power His will cast off restraint; in the possession His tottering reason doth the like. His lust, His cruelty, his effeminate, blundering passion For art and brutal vice are but the brag Of a hideous nature, which will force the bounds Of human action, till the shames of Rome Shame shameless Rome to wipe away her shame. That is a balance which I cannot poise, How much shame Rome will bear; but when I hear The whispers of revolt, and now one name And now another cast out like a fly To fish opinion, I give little heed, For these two reasons; first, there’s not a man Among the chiefs of faction of such mark As to make change secure: the second, this, That lacking such a leader there’s no party That can command opinion. Nero’s fall, When he shall fall, will be in a flooding wave Of common judgment. What the extravagance Of crime is weak to move, some unforeseen And trifling circumstance may on a sudden 75 Deliver; and the force that none can raise None shall control. Await the rising tide, It will not need us. _Pr._ Some, sir, cannot wait. I came to tell thee how I had given my name To a conspiracy. _Thr._ The gods forbid! With whom? _Pr._ I may not name their names. _Thr._ Nay, nay: But who is the pretender? _Pr._ Seneca. _Thr._ Seneca! Seneca! Hath he consented? _Pr._ We are such, sir, as can win him. _Thr._ Why, I know you; The senatorial patriots. There’ll be Lucan, Cassius and Lateranus, Fænius Rufus, Flavus, perhaps Vestinus.... _Pr._ Who they be Will presently be seen. _Thr._ O, I am in time To stay you yet. This plot is merely mischief, Seneca’s death. _Pr._ Not if ’tis Nero’s death. _Thr._ Think, man! If first ye go to Seneca, Ere ye slay Nero, he will not consent: Never, be sure. And if ye first slay Nero, Seneca’s nowhere. Others will spring up, Piso, and all the Augustan family, Plautus, Silanus.... _Pr._ But if Seneca Consent.... _Thr_. What! to that crime? _Pr._ He hath consented To like before.