_Octavia:_ That may not be. Long since, our ill-starred house Has groaned beneath the heavy wrath of heaven. That wrath at first my hapless mother felt, Whom Venus cursed with lust insatiate; For she, with heedless, impious passion fired, 260 Unmindful of her absent lord, of us, Her guiltless children, and the law's restraints, In open day another husband wed. To that fell couch avenging Fury came With streaming locks and serpents intertwined, And quenched those stolen wedding fires in blood. For with destructive rage, on murder bent, 265 She fired the prince's heart; and at his word, Ah, woe is me, my ill-starred mother fell, And, dying, doomed me to perpetual grief. For after her in quick succession came Her husband and her son; and this our house, Already falling, was to ruin plunged. _Nurse:_ Forbear with pious tears to renew thy grief, 270 And do not so disturb thy father's shade, Who for his rage has bitterly atoned. * * * * * _Chorus_ [_sympathetic with_ Octavia]: False prove the rumor that of late To our ears has come! May its vaunted threats Fall fruitless out and of no avail! 275 May no new wife invade the bed Of our royal prince; may Octavia, born Of the Claudian race, maintain her right And bear us a son, the pledge of peace, In which the joyful world shall rest, 280 And Rome preserve her glorious name. Most mighty Juno holds the lot By fate assigned--her brother's mate; But this our Juno, sister, wife Of our august prince, why is she driven 285 From her father's court? Of what avail Her faith, her father deified, Her love and spotless chastity? We, too, of our former master's fame Have been unmindful, and his child At the hest of cringing[56] fear betrayed. 290 Not so of old: then Rome could boast Of manly virtue, martial blood. There lived a race of heroes then Who curbed the power of haughty kings And drove them forth from Rome; and thee, O maiden, slain by thy father's hand, 295 Lest thou shouldst in slavery's bonds be held, And lest foul lust its victorious will Should work on thee, did well avenge. Thee, too, a bloody war avenged, O chaste Lucretia; for thou, 300 By the lust of an impious tyrant stained, With wretched hand didst seek to cleanse Those stains by thy innocent blood. Then Tullia with her guilty lord, Base Tarquin, dared an impious deed, Whose penalty they paid; for she 305 Over the limbs of her murdered sire, A heartless child, drove cruel wheels, And left his corpse unburied there. Such deeds of dire impiety Our age has known, our eyes have seen,