BY' VR wnti (Nrmyiy ^-tv 'BY PI^JM, '({OSS if TV ^■2i'?77/. Htlor Cornell University Library PR 4000.A9T5 Tiberius, a drama; with introd.by W.IM. Ro 3 1924 013 205 038 S^ Cornell University WB Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013205038 Only 250 copies have been printed of this edition. This is No. . P..Q. TIBERIUS By the same Author. THB AUSIRAUANB : A Social Bketcli. 10s. 6d. XHB NBW EGYPT: A Social Sketch. Ss. London: T. FISHER UNWIN. ^■/l^. ^ J^^'f^^t^t^ TIBERIUS : A DRAMA BY FRANCIS ADAMS iriTH INTRODUCTION Br W. M. ROSSETTI LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1894 ^.a\«\Tiv TO HARRY BEARDOE ADAMS, ONLY BROTHER— TRUEST CRITIC— DEAREST FRIEND, WHO DIED AT STRAOBROKE ISLAND, MORETON BAY, QUEENSLAND, I3TH SEPT. 1892. Pf^Aat he thought was my best — my strongest and most sincere, — this I give to him now, with all the un- speakable memories of our childhood, ^ youth, and early manhood— to him whose strength was in his sincerity, and whose sincerity was sweeter to me than all strength. atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale ! Helouan, Egypt, New Year, 1893. Up in the pallid and changeless blue The intolerable sun Blazes and burns. For leagues and leagues, Brown and billowless, the sea of grass Stretches away. Not a sound, not a movement anywhere ! Even the fiery locust is mute : Even the tireless circling kite Perches and sits on the withered bough : Even the magpies, gathered together Among the bottle- tree's shady leaves, Gurgle no more. Along the streaming horizon line The haze-smoke flickers. The mirage trees Baseless stand beneath the hills That hem round the north, all dim and blue. Not a sound, not a movement anywhere ! Rise once more, O passionate shapes. Haunters of my mind those seven long years : Rise in the lonely place where alone I lie Under the lovely withered oleander In this forlorn and desolate garden ! Here where the long grass chokes the vines, Where the strangling weeds oppress the faint flowers. Where the creepers clutch and kill the fruit trees, Where the jessamined arbours like a ruined house Are pierced with the sun-shafts — Rise, proud piteous terrible Face, Startling ghost of my brooding boyhood, Man and Lover, Emperor and Scotirge, Speak to me once again — Touch my brain as you did when I knew you first — Wring my heart till it feels yours beat ! . . . I dream I see them 1 All the shadowy Figures Form and dissolve, while others, others Take their places — Eyes I have looked into, lips I have kissed, Gaze and murmur and fade away. JiMBOOR, Queensland Downs. New Year, 1889. Introduction. PRANCIS ADAMS, as some readers of this Jbook will be aware, committed suicide in September last, before quite completing his thirtieth year ; thus attaining just the same span of age as Shelley did. He was of a consumptive constitution ; had gone on from bad to worse, suffered much, and knew there was no hope for him — only the prospect of still severer sufferings. His younger brother (to whom the drama of Tiberius is dedicated in a few touching words) had lately died, also of con- sumption, after enduring cruel pains from his inexorable disease. This, as I have understood, was one potent consideration in prompting the elder brother to linger no more, but take the matter into his own hands. He was not in the least mad, but determined and deliberate, lo Introduction. although the British coroner's jury, with their usual lax indulgence, combined of good-nature and inability to place themselves in the suicide's point of view, brought in the accustomed verdict of "temporary insanity." There was no insanity ; if any there had been, it was not temporary, but spread over the morbid bodily conditions of several years, and the fully pondered train of thought arising out of thosis conditions. Of Mr. Adams personally I knew very little. It may have been towards the middle of 1888 that he sent me by post from Australia the Australian edition of his So7igs of the Army x)f the Night, with an inscription showing that he had paid attention to some of my writings, and was in sympathy with their tone upon certain points. Such a message from a man of whom I had never heard was a surprise to me, and a pleasant surprise. I at once read the book, and was genuinely astonished at its intensity and fierceness of tone, its depth of amotion, and its splendid instantaneousness of poetic perception, suggestion, and expression — Introduction. ii an instantaneousness as of lightning at twilight, revealing at one moment every corner and cranny of the scene, and at the next moment plunging all into a more sombre obscurity than before : the inarticulate things of passion and of poetry hurtled upon the mind through the articulate. Though far from blind to the excesses of opinion and of feeling in the volume, or to its defects as well as excesses of diction, I thought it one of the most remarkable and moving of recent poetic pro- ductions, and I wrote at once to the author to say -as much. We then exchanged one or two further letters, and I looked through his earlier book named Poetical Works. When he came to London in September 1890, 1 saw him once, and regretted that it should be only once. I found him to be a young man of engaging and beautiful presence, and some appearance (though not at that date very marked) of delicate con- stitution ; of amiable refined manners, and of mild, though certainly very self-resolved, tone in conversation. I had hoped to see a good deal of him, but his early departure from 12 Introduction. London — to which, so far as I am aware, he never returned — prevented this. He soon after- wards sent to me the MS. of his Tiberius, which I read, and returned to him with some observa- tions. Having now, since Mr. Adams's death, been invited to write a few words by way of intro- duction to the Tiberius, I readily assent. I am informed by Mr. J. W. Longsdon, the intimate friend to whom Mr. Adams confided the MS. of this play, that the author " quite recognised that, in order to ensure acceptance, Mr. Longs- don might be obliged to make considerable alterations." The same power has now been entrusted to me, and I have used it so far as I conceived to be really requisite. This I do with the less hesitation because I am also informed that in 1889, when there had been some idea of asking me to attend to an English edition of the Songs of the Army of the Night, Mr. Adams, writing to Mr. Longsdon and mentioning my name, said, "I would trust implicitly to his judgment in any repressions." However, that edition came out Introduction. 13 without my exercising any leading control over it, whether by means of " repressions " or other- wise. I am not closely acquainted with the details of Adams's career, but I know that he saw much in many countries ; felt much and intensely ; suffered (even if we leave out of count his chronic and tormenting ill-health) much and intensely. The Songs of the Army of the Night are the record of his extreme opinions — which might with equal truth be called his extreme sentiments — in social, political, and religious matters ; and, whatever may be the deduction which we make from them on the ground of over-vehemence in the estimate of things, and tameless fury of utterance, they are a momentous record, and will be increasingly recognised as such. They touch us too nearly at the present day to be regarded with either dispassionate calmness or indulgent allowance, but their time will assuredly come, and must in some quarters have come already. No doubt fierce sympathy and the response of hungry and shattered or outlawed hearts has greeted them 14 Introduction. here and there ; and, looking along the per- spective of years, the Songs will be found to have dwarfed many of the pleasant proprieties and well-accepted sleeknesses of our days and hours. The deliberately planned and executed drama of Tiberius is, of course, a very different sort of production from the rapid outpouring of lyrical rage, the clench of fierce hand to hand, the cry of flaming spirit to spirit, which we discern in the Songs oj the Army of the Night; and yet the essential and innermost core of it is by no means unrelated to these. The same abhorrence of dull oppression, of stolid self-indulgence sanctioned by usage, of egotistic self-applause drowning the call of human fellowship, speaks out as loudly in the antique drama as in the contemporary lyrics. But it is not on the man and emperor Tiberius that Adams, who might herein have followed the lead of Tacitus and many other historians, fastens these anti-social offences ; he fastens them, on the contrary, on the Roman aristocracy, and regards Tiberius as the destined and conscious avenger of the mis- Introduction. 15 deeds. Tiberius, according to his dramatist,- accepts power and administers government with the express purpose of rooting out the tyrant aristocrats in the interest of the suffering popu- lations, and is so far a public benefactor, though a ruthless sovereign. He labours to effect from above an upheaval of social forces, such as the " Army of the Night " are now, as by a clarion- cry, incited to battle for from below. That the general drift of recent historical investigation has been to take a much less dark and indignant view of the character of Tiberius than of old is a fact sufficiently well known. I am not aware, however, that Adams had been fore- stalled in the precise point of view which he adopts — that of a rooted hatred of Tiberius against the magnates, based on a strong sense of their public and private wickedness, and of the danger hence arising to the state, and the damage inflicted on those classes most needing imperial protection. Tiberius is generally ad- mitted to be one of the most problematic characters in history — to some of us, one of the most fascinating. He comes down to us i6 Introduction. from Tacitus, a colossal figure of a truly portentous kind ; either portrayed accurately, or, if this is not the case, then created magnificently. Suetonius, in his inferior but still very vivid and emphatic way, tells the same tale. Not only, however, in the interest of truth and equity, but as an exercise of independent intellectual perception, it is per- fectly open to any thinking man at the present day to part company with Tacitus and Sue- tonius, and to set forth to us a very different sort of Tiberius. Adams has done this, and I for one feel grateful to him for the enterprising spirit in which he has worked. I have endeavoured to learn what may have been the sources from which Mr. Adams derived his conception of Tiberius, but in this I have not succeeded. Mr. Longsdon, whom I con- sulted, informs me that the conception had certainly been already formed before 1884, though the play had probably not by that time been written, nor perhaps even begun. The proem-verses refer to "seven long years" preceding New Year 1889 ; thus amply con- Introduction. 17 firming, or even going beyond, Mr. Longs- don's estimate. " Adams," says this gentleman, " never cared to talk of a thing he was writing or going to- write. He said the story, once told even in conversation, lost its. interest to him, and he wrote afterwards with less vigour. He was a classical man, with a leaning to scholar- ship, and an exceedingly patient and careful student." He regarded this drama as his best work from a literary point of view, and in his later days he only cared about this and the Songs of the Army of the Nighty and thought they would live. He looked upon the Tiberius as a play not unsuited for the stage, and was fain to think that the principal personage would be well adapted for Mr. Irving — and indeed I am not sure but that he had in some way or other brought the matter under the considera- tion of that distinguished tragedian. That Mr. Irving might make a great deal out of the rdle of Tiberius is clear enough ; but in other respects Mr. Adams may have been somewhat too sanguine in these opinions, not allowing sufficient weight to two considerations which. B 1 8 Introduction. make Tiberius a very difficult play to be put on the stage, — namely, the great lapse of years which its action covers, and the large element in it of mere dialogue, apart from striking action on the boards or strong scenic situation. Not, indeed, that the play is destitute of scenic situation, and in dramatic situation it has some truly powerful points. As to the lapse of time, some readers may perhaps like to be reminded that no less than forty-seven years pass between Act I. and Act V. In Act I., the divorce of Vipsania, the date is 1 1 B.C., the age of Tiberius 31 ; in Act II., closing with the return from Rhodes, i a.d., age 43 ; in Act III., the death of Augustus, 14 A.D., age SS ; in Act IV., the fall of Sejanus, 31 a.d., age 72 ; in Act V., the death of Tiberius, 37 a.d., age 78. Minor references throughout the play are constantly historical, and also most of the minor personages — not, I think, that of Electra : she appears to be an invention, and one of which Adams might reasonably be proud. I find the character of Tiberius in this play to be decidedly interesting, although as a his- Introduction. 19 torical portrait it is, of course, disputable in a high degree. He begins as a successful and indefatigable general returned home to domestic life ; the firmest prop of the world-wide Roman state, finding home still sweeter than command and glory. He is in the fullest sense a great public man and a virtuous private man. By order of Augustus he is summoned to abandon his dearest domestic tie, and to contract a new marriage of the most distasteful kind, for pur- poses of state. He ponders, and, in the public interest alone and for the greatness of Rome, he assents. He even goes beyond the conception of Rome at her grandest : he hopes to aid in " the last creation, Man." We find him next degraded by an intolerable union to an intoler- able woman, incapable for the present of further struggle, throwing up all public life and retiring to Rhodes, yet still resolved to be the true servant of the Roman world when the time shall come. In Rhodes he lives the life of a retired, much-cogitating philosopher, still hankering after some joy in domestic life and love. In the dialogue here between Tiberius and the 20 Introduction. soothsayer Thrasyllus there is something which, reminds us in a remote way-^certainly without the faintest touch of imitation — of the dialogue betiseen Paracelsus and Aprile, in Browning's drama of ParacelsuSi Attaining to empire, Tiberius devotes himself to the public weal by general beneficence, mingled with a purpose of quenchless severity to the " insolence of office,"' the luxurious and oppressive magnates. Con-, fiding his policy to his minister Sejanus for practical development, he is betrayed by his ambitious subordinate, whom at last he unmasks and delivers over to condign punishment. Finally, in extreme old age, everything palls upon him — power, the exercise of will, the rule of right, the standard of justice, the life- time's work — and, in combating tyranny, he has himself become a tyrant, reckless of the means,, if still not unconscious of a purpose tenaciously- conceived, unflinchingly upheld. Mr. Adams's vindication of Tiberius proceeds in the main (as I have already suggested) on grounds different from those of others. The apologists generally have aimed at showing that,. Introduction. 2 1 upon close and well-advised investigation, the severities of the emperor were by no means so numerous or so rigid as the reader of Tacitus is led to suppose. Adams works on a different principle. He says substantially : " Tiberius was severe, and he meant to be severe : but why ? For the necessary and laudable purpose of extirpating a 'generation of vipers.' " Most of the secondary characters are also imagined with vigour and presented with skill : but among these I could hardly include Sejanus, who appears to be the weakest personage in the drama ; the tangled web of treachery and crimi- nality being woven by the greed of power upon a character which appears to be originally senti- mental, impressible, and well-meaning, rather than anything else. Chserea is an arch -traitor of a still more offensive sort, but consistent enough in his meanness. Augustus is a sufficiently imposing figure ; Thrasyllus and Artaxerxes well-sustained ; Caligula (which may or may not be historically correct) a buffoon and a craven, with a touch of penetration, and full of 22 Introduction. all wicked machinations. Julia is delineated with extreme force, not stopping short at coarseness ; and the winsome Greek slave-girl Electra, who runs to seed as a cynical and wilful voluptuary, is invented with steady insight and firm literary and poetic touch. I must spare a word also to the proem-lines written by Adams in Australia, in a sort of dithyrambic prose-verse : they seem to me super-excellent of their kind, unsurpassed by anything of the same class. The mention of Caligula tempts me to make a momentary digression, for the purpose of calling attention to a very noble drama in which that emperor is the principal' figure — I mean The Sentence^ by Mrs. Augusta Webster, published some few years ago by T. Fisher Unwin. This tragedy does not seem to have excited so much notice as might have been expected, but may perhaps some day be recognised as about the greatest single performance of any British poetess. Mrs. Webster views Caligula from a standpoint quite diflFerent from that of Adams : in fact, she con- templates her youthful emperor with something Introduction. 23 of the same mournful and heart-stirred sympathy with which Adams regards his elderly and aged emperor. Caligula, in The Sentence^ is animated by a boundless passion for doing the right — he would be an embodied earthly Providence ; but the seeds of madness are in him, and he strikes tremendous and terrific blows in dusk and dark. The action of the tragedy is (unlike Adams's) concentrated and tight-knit, and the work might be capable of making a very great impression on the^ stage, were our time less fatally alienated than it is from the poetic drama. In Tiberius the weakest act, in point of writing, seems to be the fourth, occupied with the conspiracy of Sejanus, and its discovery and punishment. Yet, as regards scenic situation, this is the strongest of all, and the most suitable for acting purposes. It may deserve remark that, in the original draft of the drama, the " Secretary in White," who takes a leading part in exhibiting the details of the conspiracy, was Tiberius himself in a temporary disguise, which at the right moment he throws off. This was certainly an incident of some dramatic force 24 Introduction. and opportunity ; but Adams must have felt that it verged overmuch on melodrama, and he altered the scene into its present more sober form. I need hardly point out that Adams's version of the fall of Sejanus is not, in detail, historically true. Some incidents, such as that of Macro suddenly superseding Sejanus as com- mander of the Praetorian Guards, are accurate ; but all about Tiberius appearing personally on the scene is a playwright's fiction — perhaps a permissible one. Yet the real fact wa^not a jot less dramatic : Sejanus presenting himself in the Senate in full confidence of ever-increasing honours, greeted with cringeing adulation, denounced for arrest by the written order of Tiberius, then at once hooted and execrated, and hurried off to summary execution. The alterations which I have thought it per- missible to make in this play are really few ; something like eighty lines have been retrenched. They belong chiefly to the parts of Julia and Sejanus. In Adams's text some of Julia's utterances seemed so excessively violent and disagreeable as to be well omitted : the reader Introduction. 25 will not, I fancy, opine that what she is still allowed to say is at all below the due mark of unsavouriness. Sejanus had been made to indulge in a lengthy passage of sentiment regarding his deceased wife : its essence still remains, curtailed in dimension. Caligula, it will be perceived, indulges in some puns, far from being of the best : I have cut out one or two others. Apart from this matter of retrench- ment, I have applied myself, here and there, to keeping the verses more accurate in scansion than they used to be — for this is a point as to which Adams seemed to allow himself more than a profitable amount of latitude or of laxity. The reader may, however, rely upon it that the whole of what I have done is a trifle, and that the play remains, to all practical intents and purposes, the same identical play which Adams wrote. To alter it in any serious degree would have been an act of presumption on my part, and one which I must disclaim, whether in principle or in fact. " Spoiled by power " seems to be the ruling idea in the drama of Tiberius. Tiberius himself 26 Introduction. is certainly spoiled to some extent, though I do not understand that Mr. Adams intended, even in the final actj to represent him as bereft of some sense of public duty and justifiable policy. He dies with the words " Rome, Rome ! " upon his lips. Augustus is in fuller degree exempted from the ban : the author of the Songs of the Army of the Night was not likely to regard his imperium with entire sympathy, but nothing in the play indicates disapproval of its general scope and aim. Julia is spoiled by power in one way ; Caligula, by the hope or expectation of power, in another ; Sejanus and Electra, not to speak of Chasrea and Macro, each in their several ways. This is one of the lessons stamped on the front of imperial Rome, and from of old legible to all men. ''Spoiled by power." It is an awful doom, and an awful subject for ttagic drama. Adams has treated it with breadth and force, with deep human sympathy, with due dignity and unstinted realism, and with a large measure of poetic strength and handling. There is brain in his purpose and life-blood in his work, and the Introduction. 27 noble army of dramatists may, in virtue of this posthumous tragedy, enrol him in their ranks. W. M. ROSSETTI. London, Marck 1894. TIBERIUS. DRAMATIS PERSON/E. Augustus scribonia Julia I. GAIUS CiESAR Lucius C-esar Julia II. Agrippina Agrippa postumus LiVIA Tiberius ViPSANIA Drusus II. Drusus I. Antonia . German icusi LiVILLA J Caligula Sejanus Aelia Ch^reaI Macro i Thrasyllus Artaxerxes Matho . Electra A Secretary. Priests, Priestesses, Jlis divorced wife, Their daughter. Julia's children. (Wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius and Drusus I. by a former marriage. His wife. Their son. Brother to Tiberius, His wife. Their children. Son of Gert/ianicus and Agrippina. Minister of Tiberius. His daughter. Officers in the Pretorian Guards. A soothsayer. A eunuch, attendant on Tiberius. A coppersmith, A Greek slave. Soldiers, Slaves, People. ACT I. Rome. A room in Tiberius' house. Morning. ViPSANiA {at the window). Tiberius ! . . . husband ! . . . husband ! [Enter Tiberius. Tiberius. Didst thou call ? Well, what is there to see ? ViPSANiA {in his arm). First there is . . . Tiberius. Thou? ViPSANIA. Yes, I. Is that enough, or want'st thou more ? Tiberius. Enough, and more — more than enough, sweet wife ! ViPSANIA. But wilt thou say so when I tell thee what I saw right up the street ? I think thou lov'st him 32 Tiberius. More than thou lov'st me, or my Drusus either, Thy Drusus ? No ? Thou dost not love thy brother More than myself who sat and spun at home While you two won such glory at the wars ? I am not all of ice, as his wife is. Lady Antonia, nor is Drusus (mine) Like her Germanicus, but we both think Livilla is more like my child than hers — She has such pretty curls and such white skin ! . . . And now I'll say, since thou behav'st so well. Just how I felt when Drusus came with thee Out of the hall to find me yesterday. Well, I felt jealous, and that is the truth ! You never put your arm round me like that ! Tiberius. Never ? ViPSANIA. No, wicked, never ! — never before. . . . \He kisses her. Tiberius. It may be, dear, that all lies in that word. That one short word "before." Now I look back, Tiberius. 33 And think on our past life, and all I did, And all I did not, that might make it happy For thee, I seem a sinner, and I ask Humbly forgiveness. It is ill, I know. To have been so strange to thee so loeg. I dreamed : I did thee wrong in dreaming. Never think That I was cold with a deliberate aim. I was not, thou believ'st it ? All my youth (If ever I was young) was with my masters. My books, and the great statecraft that they kept (As great Augustus bade them) for my portion. If I had any love, or knew of it. It was for him, my brother, this brave Drusus, The hero and the glory of our house ! We married. Thou wert patient, quiet, sweet : So quiet and so patient that thy sweetness. Sweet wife, grew round me unobserved, as vines Twine round the elms, and the green garland- leaves Bore vintage of the purple fruit of love. Ere I awakened. This, my gentle home With thee and with our boy, clasped me all round, c 34 Tiberius. Until the sap-blood of the two ran one. And yet I never knew it till I Idst it. ViPSANIA. That is very pretty, just like poetry ! But they are coming ; they're gone in now — Dnisus, Antonia and Livilla and Germanicus. Tiberius. Was I blind and deaf, with senses all awry ? Not quite, since I awakened there at last. Slowly I grew to see How well I loved thee and the lad and here. Our home with all it held. Thou'lt surely smile If I should tell thee how, for long, I dared not To speak of this to Drusus, and at last Broke to him, and for hours at nights we two Would sit and talk of our loved ones in Rome, The happiest hours of those devouring days When victory crowned us ! . . . ViPSANIA. Hush, here they come ! No, let me go, Tiberius I I am all tumbled and my hair put out ! Tiberius. Kiss me again, then ! Tiberius. 35 ViPSANIA. O now let me go ! \_He kisses her. I am quite ashamed ! {Enter Drusus I., Antonia, Germanicus and LrviLLA. Welcome, lady Antonia and good brother. Tiberius. Why, kiss her, Drusus ! Perhaps she'll kiss thee better Than she will me. ViPSANIA. Tiberius ! What a husband ! Antonia is not plagued so ! {Enter Drusus II. Well, dear children ! Here comes cousin Drusus at the very moment ! Tiberius {to Drusus L). Look at the lads. Drusus I. Li villa must be kissed. Or there'll be crying for it. ViPSANIA {to Drusus II.). Kiss her, Drusus. Antonia, will you come within ? 36 Tiberius. Drusus I. Augustus Is close behind us with Livia and Julia. Germanicus (^ Drusus II.). Dost thou kiss girls ? Drusus II. Why, yes, if they are pretty. Germanicus. Didst thou go to the shows ? Drusus II. I went outside, But father would not let me see the fights. Didst thou go ? Germanicus. No. My father does not wish it. Livilla. Now, Drusus, wilt thou take me, please, inside. And show me thy three birds, and play with me ? Drusus II. Wilt thou come too, Germanicus ? Germanicus. Yes, I come. [Germanicus, Drusus II., and Livilla go out. Tiberius. 37 ViPSANIA. Why are the men both laughing so ? Tiberius, Augustus with thy mother and with Julia And her two sons, Antonia says, are come To visit us, and are only just behind. Tiberius. So Drusus tells me. ViPSANIA. What was't made thee laugh so ? Tiberius. The children. Didst thou hear Livilla there ? — " Now, Drusus, wilt thou take me, please, inside. And show me thy three birds, and play with me." And straight he takes her hand and leads her in, Germanicus following like a Greek tragedian. ViPSANIA. She's a sweet child ! Antonia. I fear a forward child. That soon knows those who love her overwell. And asks the most of them. ViPSANIA. Hush, here they are ! 38 Tiberius. \_Enter Augustus, Livia, Julia I., Gaius and Lucius CiESAR. Welcome, sire. Augustus. Ah, you, Tiberius ? Tiberius. Welcome, sire. Welcome, dear mother. Augustus. Julia. Julia. Yes, father. Vipsania {to Antonia). What beautiful, bold boys ! Antonia {to Vipsania). Bolder, I think, Than beautiful, even as their mother is. Augustus. Julia, this is our twin-helmed glorious Mars, Or one of them. Ah, Drusus ? Here's the other ! The women now all run to look on you, And we, unwarlike seniors, shut our eyes And blink abashed like candles light-eclipsed. Tiberius. 39 LiVIA. Thou dost belie our sex. Although at night We watch, perchance, some star peerless and bright. By daytime there's the sun, and he alone Can blind us. Augustus {to Antonia). Would you think, lady, that we Were an old married couple ? What a wife To make such pretty speeches — such years after I My dear, beware yet how thou talkest so. Here is thy Zeno Drusus ; he who holds The Republic brooks no ruler, no sole sun To wheel above it, lord of light and heat. Is it not so, Cypriote ? Drusus. Sire, we take What the great gods shall give us, and therewith Shall strive to do our duty. Augustus. Nobly said ! And were all togaed shorn aristocrats Like to our Drusus, Rome and Italy Were Saturn's land again. 4° Tiberius. LiviA {io Vipsania). Take us within. [LiviA and ViPSANiA go out Julia (to Antonia). Indeed I think this heat and dust are frightful. I hate the city. We shall go to Baise To-morrow. When do you go to the country ? Antonia. Not yet awhile, my lady Julia. My husband has aifairs here with his clients, And other matters. Julia. Oh ! — Excuse me yawning. I'm yawning dreadfully to-day — quite sleepy. Antonia. They have gone in. Julia. Have they ? Gaius and Lucius, Come in with us. Antonia (to Drusus I.). Come, they would be alone. The Emperor Would speak with him. [Antonia and Drusus I. go out. Tiberius. 41 Julia (ai the curtains). Well, my Gaius ? Well, My Lucius ? What say ye to this fine house ? Gaius. They are all fools here. Lucius. A poor sort of place. I think it's rather fusty. Julia {laughing). Oh, you rude boys ! " Not yet awhile, my lady Jul — i — a ! " {going) [Julia I., Gaius and Lucius go out. Augustus. Tiberius. Tiberius. Sire. Augustus. I think you know I — love you : Yea, I'll say love ; for hope and trust's affection Mount to the word the amorous women use. Indeed I let you see so, six years gone, In Gaul with me, and I, I do not change. . . . I like your silence, yet I'd bid you tell me You do believe this. 42 Tiberius. Tiberius. That I am trusted, sire, I knew, and that you hold me kindly, I knew, And I was glad and proud. Augustus. There, there, that's well ! We leave these things, save as they touch our state. Tiberius, I have but one child. Your mother, The partner of some cares, the soother of all, Is childless : this hath been so. Tell me, friend, What think you of the lads ? Tiberius. They're noble lads. Augustus. Gaius and Lucius, noble lads, you say ? And your own boy, and Drusus' boy and girl — We are well found in young. If I were gone. The man to rear and mould those noble lads Is he I have such hope and trust of. Tiberius. I? Augustus. You. Yea, and how all this bears final fruit Tiberius. 43 Is this — that, if they grow not as they should Who follow in such tracks as Julius threw, And (I will say) such as Augustus leaves, — Or, if they die, — who is it that should hold The helm of the great world-ship but Tibe- rius ? . . . I praise your silence still. There is no need Of words before the face of what's to do Other than yea or nay. I think I know That, were the hour of such a choice to come As lay betwixt the unworthiness of sons And worthiness of one who is but a friend, Tiberius would not fail us. Ponder this, All its full meaning, at another time. Break speech now to say yea. For there is more. Speak. Tiberius. I am silent, not before your words, Sire, and the heavy charge you'd lay on me : Not, I would say, because I cannot see What is their meaning, even to the full, But . . . Augustus. Speak again. Augustus bids you speak. 44 Tiberius. Tiberius. It is too great a charge for me, too high, Too far above the haunts of kindly men Among the peaks of pure and parching light. I felt it as we stood there that fair morn On the Dalmatian hills, Drusus and I, Cold though the sun was blazing, clear though air The camp lay swathed in mist. Sire, I will take The guardian's place to Gaius and to Lucius, If they should ever need it. I trust not. My father with brave Lucius and fierce Fulvia, — My father cleaved to your great foe Antonius, Yet was he proud to give his sons to you. And they you know forget not how that pride Found gratitude and glory in your actions. Our hands and heads and hearts are yours for ever ! Augustus. So be it. But, look you, they're but lads, and lads That have a mother that was surely changed At birth or in her cradle with Antonia. Antonia is my daughter ; Julia his. Tiberius. 45 How from the fond fool that Scribonia was Came forth this pantheress ? Three days ago I saw Maecenas. Well, 'Twas pity that it went 50 'twixt us twain, For he is passing from us, wise Maecenas ! I've spoken with him. Both our minds are one. There is a single foot can follow on Where we have followed Julius. It may be That Gaius (he's the better of the two) Shall take his shape as you shall mould. If not, Why, he must go ! I leave all that to him Whom I now call my son, my. grandsons' father. . . . Look not so strangely. We will try all things To make our Gaius worthy. The first need For such a trial is the tamer. .You Shall tame our pantheress. . . . Do you under- stand ? You look but strangely. Tiberius. Tame her ? Marry her ? . . . Vipsania. . . . Augustus. Hah, Vipsania ? It cannot be ■ You hold by her ? 46 Tiberius. Tiberius. Stop, stop, you kill me, sire ! Augustus. I cannot think this is Tiberius here That reels and stammers. Tiberius. No, I cannot do it ! She, Julia, Julia, she ? No, never, never ! . . . Sire, let me speak. I could not shame myself To be the scoff of Rome. Augustus. Who speaks of scoffs ? I say she shall be tamed, with iron rods If she will have it so, with rods red-hot. I've told her, and she knows it too, she knows it ! I'll brook no more. Tiberius. Vipsania — Augustus. Do not give me That foolish name ! You've learned my pifrpose. Here — Here is your mother. \_Re-enter Livia. Tiberius. 47 . LiVIA. My son ! Tiberius ! Tiberius. Mother ? LiVIA. What troubles you ? It is too much, Too great a burthen for its suddenness ? I judged our own Tiberius braver, stronger Than such a face as this. Augustus iyoith a gesture to Livia). We go within. \He goes out. LiVIA. This is the greatest day of both our lives. Look up ! Thou tremblest ? Nay, I say, look up! The Empress wills it. . . . Ah, my son, forgive me ! I had not spoken so but for thy face That seemed a palsied madman's. Stare not so : Thou almost frightenest me. T)ie whole wide world Lies at our feet to take it up and pluck it And wield as a sceptre. 48 Tiberius. Tiberius. Mother . . . LiVIA. Well? Speak ; I will listen, listen and — obey. Tiberius. Follow him. Leave me here alone awhile : Then come, and I will tell thee what I'll do. I'll tell thee by a sign. Bring them all in, And let Augustus know — let only him. If I shall come and speak to Julia, And take her hand, and say good-day to her — (For they must go, you all must go on this : Tell Drusus and Antonia), then . . . then . . , LiVLA. Yes? Tiberius. I'll do it. But, if to Vipsania And take her hand, be sure not all the earth Shall stay me from my purpose — to be — gone ! LiVIA. Begone ? Where wouldst thou go ? Tiberius {with a gesture). I . . . Woman, woman, Tiberius. 49 That will suiEce. Go in and leave me now. [LiviA goes out. 0, here before mine eyes Fate's Gordian knot, And her Sphinx-beast behind it, ravenous, Breathes on my face. To think — to make my thought The sword to cut what I may not unravel, How can I, who yet must ? Life, life and time, . . . O youth, O dreams that end in this mad hour ! All the great past arrays itself like ghosts Of two death-armies grappling to the fray That earth has yet to see. Here, here alone, Utterly naked and forlorn of all, A pigmy in the clash of terrible powers That raise him to the cheek of the great sun Or whelm him in the ocean-depths, I stand And make my choice. Once chosen, 'tis for ever ! 1, who am I that I should spurn content ? I, what am I that I should choose renown ? To me what glory outshines happiness ? . To me what life's reward compares with that Of the great deed done and the world made free ? Perchance that? happiness may sour and sear ? D 50 Tiberius. Perchance that deed in doing may be marred ? There is no chance of both, with joy of both And grief of both, but grief and joy of one. . . . Sever, O clouds ! Rise up, and let the sun Break in on me. Give me more air and light ! I see a hundred puny men rise up, And babbling voices, eyes that cannot guess The huge perspective Julius gazes on. Hands weaker than the seas and lands he held A cup within his palms and brooded o'er. Then, look, Augustus comes, and from the mists Clears it here, there, there, here, and sheds a, beam Of mild and equal radiance over all. Romans rise up wherever Roman blood Has bred the seed of soldier-citizens. A nation's lost ; a race is merged in what Is Empire and the last creation — Man ! The peace, the great peace, laps a world as great> And over it, raising all men to be Men, more than Romans, look, the Emperor ! Gods that are men, this is a deed so great That but to spend the heart, the soul, the mind In its attempt lifts up a man to God ! Tiberius. 51 And I am bidden take it, humbly, bravely, I, even I. I take it ! I renounce All that shall stand between that deed and me ! [^Re-enter Augustus, Livia, Julia, Gaius, Lucius, Drusus I., Antonia, Vipsania, Drusus II., Germanicus and Livilla. Tiberius goes slowly towards Julia. Livia. And, as thou say'st, my Julia, these garments Are fitter for the winter than such heat As this last month's has been. But ah, I fear Our Roman women dress too richly now ; Extravagance is but immodesty In peacock covering. The old times were best. Julia I. O, it's the horrid colours that they wear — The sight of their great piles of purple blankets Striped on to them like packages on mules. Did Cleopatra ever dress like that ? LrviA. Dear child, thou must not speak this way to us. It shocks us. We are simple Roman ladies. JULLA I. O, Cleopatra ? That is true. She shocked 52 Tiberius. Your father, Antonia. So they say, at least. Gaius. Marcus Antonius was like Alexander. He was a soldier. I shall be like him, And I shall conquer Persia. Julia I. Then, young cockerel, Thou must take heed of shocking Cleopatras. Lucius. What will they do ? A woman can't do much. Gaius. rm not afraid of women shocking me ! Tiberius. Lady, fair Julia, a happy day ! \_He takes her hand. Julia I. Why, the man gave me quite a fright ! Good- day. His hand's like clammy steel. Good-day, then, ladies. VjPSANIA. Good-day, lady. [Julia, Gaius and Lucius go out. LiviA {p Tiberius). That was well done, my son. Tiberius. 53 Augustus (to Drusus I.). Well, you will come, then, soon ? (to-morrow morning, If it will suit), and we will talk of it. Come to the supper : come whene'er you please ; You're heartily welcome always. Drusus I. I thank you, sire. I will not fail to see you To-morrow morning. [Augustus and Livia go out. ViPSANIA. Well, the Emperor Was very pleasant, I think ; he paid me such — Such pretty compliments ! — and thee too, Antonia. He can be very gracious when he wishes. Like all the men ! Antonia. He has, in desperate days Of ruin and revenge, alone been nobly Moderate and great, and so we honour him. Drusus I. My wife, thou speakest as my very soul ! 54 Tiberius. LiVILLA. I do not like Gaius and Lucius, nor Does Drusus, nor Germanicus. We think They are very rude. They never spoke to us. Tiberius. Gaius and Lucius never spoke to thee ? ViPSANIA. My dear, thou hast frighted her with thy wild laugh ! O, poor Livilla ! There, there, do not cry ! Kiss me. Tiberius. Our weakness is our worst contempt. Antonia [to Drusus I.). What ails Tiberius ? Drusus I. I cannot tell thee. But in the room my mother whispered me That we should follow them at once away. I think Augustus spoke to him some matter Of anxious moment. Take the children, go. Antonia {to Germanicus). Come . . . Come, Livilla. Farewell, then, Vip- sania. Tiberius. 55 (To Tiberius.) Brother, farewell. Tiberius. Farewell, sister, farewell. Drusus I. (to Tiberius). I will be with thee in the afternoon. Tiberius. Farewell. Yes, yes, in the afternoon. Farewell I [Drusus I., Antonia, Germanicus, Livilla and Drusus II. go out. ViPSANiA (at the window). I cannot think that Julia chose her colours So very nicely as she thinks she does ! I am sure she dresses more like some fi-eedwoman. Tiberius. Vipsania. Yes. Vipsania. Tiberius. I pray thee do not fear. Give me thy hand. I pray thee do not fear. . . . Vipsania, at this place our pathways sever. No man that lives can change it. We must part. Vipsania. Must part, Tiberius ? S6 Tiberius. Tiberius. That was the word. Let then, our steps fall quickly. Simply, plainly, Thou art my wife no more, and I no more Thy husband. 'Tis no sin, no fault, no jot Of aught undone or done by thee brings this. On thee no shadow of dishonour falls. Mistrust I never had. I thought — I think Vipsania patient, loving, pure and true. ViPSANIA. What have I done ? Tiberius. O by the gods, I say Nothing ! I ask, I do beseech of thee To hold it in this way. Fate is too strong. Listen. I am the Emperor!s elect To mould and guide his grandsons to his place. And, should they die, I, I am he who must fulfil the deeds Of Julius and Augustus. For this end He wills — Fate wills — ^Rome and the whole world will I marry Julia. Oh, oh ! Tiberius. 57 ViPSANIA. Marry Julia ? Julia ? Tiberius. Thou shudderest at it ? Why, I say It is not J who marry her — Tiberius That marries Julia. Were that so, just so, I'd kill her. O Vipsania, we who live Here on this peak, where power's sunrise and set Flash on us last and first, while down below, From out the shadow and the spreading light, The people hold us gods, — an icy air Of cold compulsion leads us on our lives, Play-actors, puppets of our parts ordained From long ago. And though it rive our hearts, Thus must we speak, thus much, no more, no less, Or face the hisses that the coward wins From those his soul despises. Drusus II. [within). Mother, mother ! Vipsania. Drusus, my Drusus ! 58 Tiberius. Tiberius {approaching her). Stay ; — stay, and remember. Think you. Your father was Agrippa, he Who swayed the Actium storm of war : who gave The wife he loved, to take Marcellus' place And raise up to Augustus very seed Of that divinest stock which thrones the world : Yea, and (the fitting crown of this and him) Who held the seeming death-struck Emperor's ring, Elect to that great task that is a god's ! Drusus II. (Tuithin). Mother ! lEe-enter Drusus II. ViPSANIA. Julia, my father's wife, and now my husband's — Tiberius. Remember . . . Well, my boy, why stand'st thou thus Looking from her to me, from me to her? (Seated.) Come to thy father. Drusus, that is thy mother. She's leaving us, for she must go away. Tiberius. 59 Drusus II. Why must she leave us, father? Where's she going ? Where art thou going, mother ? Tiberius. Look at me, Drusus, Right in the eyes. Thy mother leaves us now, This very hour, and will not say good-bye. Because we must be brave, we must be Romans. Drusus II. But is it Roman not to say good-bye ? Tiberius {pith a gesture to Vipsania). Ay, very Roman — of the modern stamp (hold- ing Drusus II.'s head in his hands'). My lad, I think thou'lt be a brave lad always. Not like thy father, who's a sorry coward. [VipgANiA goes out. Drusus II. Why, thou art crying, father ? Why, thine eyes Are full of tears. Tiberius. Tears ? - No, Drusus, but rheum. But think, boy, of the amphitheatre. How in the arena men sword it to death. 6o Tiberius. Or the Pursuer sees the trident up To stab him through the meshes. Thou must go And see the shows on the ides. Both of us Will go with the Emperor. Drusus II. O that's grand, that's grand ! And shall I see them fight ? Tiberius. Ay, ay. Drusus II. And shall I Put down my thumb as all the street-men do ? Tiberius. Or turn it up, if he have foughten well. Drusus II. Yes, if he's foughten well : but not, if not. But mine aunt Julia always turns hers down ; I heard her say so. Where is mother gone ? Tiberius. Thy mother's gone away. Thy mother now Is Julia. Gaius and Lucius are thy brothers. Drusus II. Father, I'd go to mother now, I think, But thou art paining so. Tiberius. 6i Tiberius. To Julia ? Mother ? I am ashamed. Our breed has lost its bones. Go to her, Drusus, go and say good-bye. Drusus II. And shall I say good-bye for thee, too, father ? I'd say it like a Roman. Shall I, father ? Tiberius. For me too, for me too. Drusus II. Thou art very sad {going). But I will show thee how my new top goes When I come back. {Returns.) So kiss me, father dear. Tiberius (Drusus II. going). Go, go thou also. [Drusus II. goes out. I must be alone. Alone through all the years till weary death Closes these heavy lids, and I can sleep. And wake no more. Now, courage, courage ! pride, I never called thee yet who call thee now. Farewell, the love of woman ! Farewell, all 62 Tiberius. The sweet sure peace wherein dwelt heavenly faith. Farewell, dear home and gentle sanctities And pure content, and heart — and soul— loosed speech, And that true self I nevermore shall know ! Alone, alone, for ever and ever alone ! 63 ACT II. Scene I. Rome. A room in Tiberius' new house. After- noon. ScRiBONiA, Julia I., Julia II., Agrippina, and Postumus. SCRIBONIA. Julia. JULLA I. Well, what ? SCRIBONIA. Thou art sad to-day, my child. What ails thee ? Julia I. Ails me ? Ailing, I suppose. Or this wet weather. It should rain at nights. SCRIBONIA. Why dost thou gaze so at the children there ? Julla I. There are two more. I reckon up the pain These five have cost me, and not one of them ^4 Tiberius. A jot of pleasure since. They should not live. In Carthage they had sacrifices of them. SCRIBONIA. My child, and yet I loved thee, and I love. Julia I. I cantiot tell you why. You ne'er desired me, — And ached to bruise your lips with kissing mine. I never gave you aught. I never loved you. My father never loved you. O these dull days ! He's a poor fool. SCRIBONIA. My child thou dost not know him. Julia I. " My child, my child ? " Well, Julia, who's thy father ? SCRIBONIA. Hush, hush, dear : let the children be. JULLA I. And Drusus, Where's Drusus? He must tell us who's his father . . . Who is my father ? No, I'll not believe That grey old snake's my father — not Augustus— \Repulses Julia II. Tiberius. 65 Agrippina. Mother is ill to-day. Julia. II. I hate her, I hate her. Agrippina. She is our mother, And we should love her. Julia II. When I am a woman, I'll tell her that I always hated her. She never gives me sweets or anything. POSTUMUS. Sister, what doth thou thay ? Julia II. What do I thay ? But if thou listen to us, I will pinch thee Up in the room. . . . Julia I. I wonder why I talk ? I am quite weary of you. I have known you So many years. SCRIBONIA. Yea, I it was that bore thee ; Nourished thee at these breasts : for day and night E 66 Tiberius. Wept when they took thee from me : blessed them then When I might see and hold thee : straight forgot All my great wrongs, when of his clemency Thy father would permit me to be with thee. Julia T. It is your folly. Women all have such. There is no use in motherhood, /think. SCRIBONIA. To Scipio also did I bear two children, And loved them ; yea, but not as I loved thee. Julia I. He's a poor fool, too, this Tiberius, My husband ! Could he not be the greatest man in Rome ? Agrippa never was so great as he ; For now he both has the " tribunal power " And is called Imperator. And yet when My father's dead, this pedagogue-in-chief Will rear my whelps up to the rulership ! Why could he not rule as the Prince himself ? These Neros, only fit for school-masters ! Tiberius. 67 scribonia. Nero is " brave," and at Metaurus stream Rome knew the name was equal to the men. Julia I. No ; Drusus would not have me. Why ? " Because — Because he loved and honoured " that white block, His wife, and that black-browed blockheadj his brother. My husband ! SCRIBONIA. O no, no ! Thou ne'er did'st that. Julia I. And now he's dead, and my Tiberius blubbered, Or would have blubbered, but I was by to see. He loved that mincing, heifer wife of his. He had a pretty smile when I informed him She'd married Gallus. Gallus ! Any one Who had a house for babies and the rest Could marry her ! Scribonia. Antonia loved her husband, One of two peerless brothers, fellows in arms, Rome's Dioscuri, and Vipsania did. 68 Tiberius. And were it so with thee, my wayward child, Thou wouldst be happier. Julia I. That is idle talk ! One is not happy with these politic men ; One but endures them. He's so great he thinks, He'd not offend his cast-off shoes. He apes Julius, — ^yes, he, with his big goggle eyes That see, like a cat's, in the dark. Why, Julius, He was a man, and (or the women told lies) He knew what kissing meant. So, here he comes. My politic, puling, Dioscurus husband ! l&iter Tiberius. Tiberius. Good-morrow, ladies. SCRIBONIA. And to thee, Tiberius. Tiberius {to Scribonia). Take out the children. Julia I. Take thyself with them, And we'll say thanks. Your warriorship has come To play at Agamemnon, and that's stale. Tiberius. 69 Tiberius {to Scribonia). Take out the children. Scribonia. Children, come. Julia II. / won't. Agrippina. Yes, Julia, come. Julia II. I won't, I won't ! I'll bite thee, if thou touchest me. [Scribonia, Agrippina, atid Posthumus go out Julia II. I wt'll stop, if I want. Tiberius. Julia, go out. Julia II. Eugh, eugh ! He'll throttle me, mother. Eugh, eugh ! Tiberius. Go out. [Julia II. goes out. Julia I. 'Tis something fine to fright a child 1 70 Tiberius. That is the way you win your triumphs, you know. Go a procession with a trousered ape, To stick him up for another trousered ape. And come back conqueror of Armenia ! You've victories to be proud of. You a soldier ? A copying clerk ! Tiberius. I have a few words for you, If you will listen to me. Julia I. I always listen ; You're so amusing. But do not blush and stammer. It makes me think of our marriage night. Tiberius. "What— what I have to say is very simple. Here I hold some letters. Julia I. Mine. And did you steal them ? Tiberius. The man you sent them to has blazoned them Around all Rome. Tiberius. 7 1 Julia I. Most men do that. Why, Gallus . . . No hurry with your remarks. I am just ripe To say all sorts of pleasant things to you. You are amusing. Truly you cannot figure How odd you look ! Tiberius. What I have come to tell you Is this. We part forthwith. Not one more night The same roof covers us. \Enter Livia behind. Julia I. I feel quite faint. Will you, please, hand that phial there to me ? No, in the niche there. Thank you. You ob- served ? Tiberius. I shall leave Rome at evening. Artaxerxes Has the full power to treat with you and make What best arrangement pleases you. JULLA I. Ah ?— Well, I wish you a good voyage. Going again To Germany ? 72 Tiberius. Tiberius. These letters — Julia I. I suppose They are Julius Antonius' ? Julius always had The wretchedest taste. Tiberius. These letters I may use As proof to the Emperor, should he hinder me. Julia I. A slave is listening there behind the curtains. No, it's your mother ! Please, mother, come in. Thou'lt get those aches again in thy legs with the draughts. Thou'rt very careless. LiVIA. Shameless and abandoned — Tiberius. Mother, be calmer. In the flinging of filth. He does best who goes another way. The storm is nigh the turn when at the worst. These things are ending now. LiVIA. It is Augustus ! \_Enier Augustus. Tiberius. 75 Tiberius. Mother, thou'lt leave me to speak. . . . Augustus. What means this, son t Tiberius. It's meaning, sire, is clear. I ask your leave For quitting Rome. My name here is the scarecrow The very brothels jeer at. It is too much ? Never again one roof for her and me. My plaint is not alone for common wrongs, The mixture of my shame with the infamy Of such as Julius, the ancient master-usher Of a hundred rank debauches, but that she, My wife, has fouled the very public places, Revelling a mimic Egyptian wanton there Before the greasy leers of the gutter slaves. Augustus. Julia, is this true ? Julia I. Father, that man Is a tailor, and eats leeks. Phcebe, my woman, Can never scent the room enough when he's gone I have to keep the windows open wide When he sits by me. He sleeps in his clothes. 74 Tiberius. LiVIA. Vicious ! Julia I. Who vicious ? I, my mother, I ? O sanctified ex-spouse. . . . LiVIA. Thou loUest there, Insolent creature with thy laughing lips, To lash me with thy foul and venomous tongue To fury. I could — strike thee ! . . . Tiberius. Dear mother, calm ! Let not mine own white words Make thine red-hot. Sire, all I say I know, And, proof of it, here for your eyes to see. I do demand you let me part from her Now and irrevocably, at once, for ever ! Augustus. Julia. Julia I. Father ? Augustus. Are these things he says True? Tiberius. 75 Tiberius. Sire, and would you doubt me that I lie ? Were you another man than what you are — LiVIA. Hush, my son, hush, Augustus must be just. Even as the great gods are. Augustus. I asked thee, daughter. Were these things true ? Julia I. What things ? Augustus. The offence, it seems, He charges on thee is unfaithfulness With Julius Antonius, him who is alive And fouling Rome only because thy prayers And promises kept him from the hangman. Answer, Answer me. Julia I. He has proofs — my letters — he says. Augustus. This public revel ? . . . 76 Tiberius. Julia I. My husband keeps a pack of private jackals. His eunuch Artaxerxes, that is one, Or the star-gazer whom he brought us back From his Armenian triumph — Dra — , Thrasyllus, I think his name is. Any of them will swear All that he wants. That is their use to him. Augustus. Rise and go forth. Julia I. Father ? Augustus. Rise and go forth. I say begone. Julia I. Strike me ! I'm not afraid. Augustus. Out, out ! [Julia I. goes out. And Livia, you too, go this way, Leave us. Fear nothing. Go, my dear, go, go. We ^hall be better. I will speak with thee Presently. Thanks, dear. [Livia goes out. ... If all these things are thus, why, my Ti- berius, Have left them silently corrode so long ? Tiberius. 77 That is not wise ; it ruffles calmer thoughts. What say you — ha ? Tiberius. I am unhinged — undone ! I can no more. I must get hence and know The balm of quiet nature, and purity Of simple lives. I pine, T hunger and thirst Foi; thought, for peace. Mine eyes are dizzy and dim — It is not days and weeks, not months, but years, But years and ages that my void soul craves. Void ? It is dead. My body perishes too. . . . I stood by Drusus, by my brother's side, And held his hand, and saw the wide world lose him And all that made its emptiness seem dear. Sire, I have striven too much and borne too much. I pray you let me go — release me ! Augustus. Go? Where would you go ? Tiberius. To Rhodes. It is all planned. 78 Tiberius. Years past I marked the place for my repose. Let naught be changed of what you hope of me. What I have chosen as great, greater than hfe, I choose again to-day. But let me go, If you would have me do it. Let me go ! No little strip of a half-foreign sky Where the familiar blue grows pale and stale, Utterly vigourless with its jaded air. But league-long draughts of strange deliciousness, Deep draughts of rest, deep draughts of rest, and then Again the red blood proudly pulsing on Through the full veins, and heart and soul and all Mine own once more ! Augustus. You talk hexameters. Gentle Vergilius pleaded so to me With lovely lips like a woman's. He was weakish Here, and his stomach followed on his head. Poor lad, and so perforce we let him keep With his kids and lambs and pretty manuscripts. I did not know you were a poet, my friend, Though, I remember now, you elegised Julius. Tiberius. 79 Tiberius. A flame of the burnt-out candle ! All is ready^ Sire, for my parting hence to-night. I know You will not keep your worn-out servant back. Augustus. You must not go. Tiberius. I beg you to say yes ! Augustus. I will not have you go 1 Tiberius. I cannot stay ! Augustus. You flout me ? To let me go. Tiberius. Sire, I simply ask your leave Augustus. I will not give my leave. You make too much of this. What is a woman ? Tiberius. You do distrust me, it would seem ? Augustus. I do. •So Tiberius. Tiberius. Then it were useless to keep me ! I must go ! What you would have me do I will do yet, As I have promised. Trust me, for you can. Augustus. You'd go against my wish. Tiberius. I thank you, sire. Augustus. There is my hand, a most unwilling hand. Speak with your mother first. I think this weak. Tiberius. I go, but I return, sire. Trust in that. Augustus. That is because I must. Write much, and oft. Tiberius. You shall not want for news of all I do. Augustus. You leave me to my burthen all alone. Tiberius. Ill help is worse than no help. Sire, farewell ! . Augustus. Parewell. Tiberius. 8i Tiberius {goings returns). Augustus Must ne'er believe Tiberius does not love him, As well as honour and revere. Augustus. I trust you ! Farewell, my friend. Go and return. I trust you. [Tiberius going. SCENE II. Rhodes. By the shore. The sea-temple of Aphro- dite in the distance. Late afternoon. Ti- berius, Thrasyllus. Tiberius. {Cymbals^ pipes ^ and flutes within^ The music turns this way. Thrasyllus. One of the processions Up to the Temple of Aphrodite yonder. Tiberius. Stand back and let them pass. This country worship 82 Tiberius. Comes nearer to the gods than the vain pomp Our sceptic cities give us. Think you not so ? Thrasyllus. Nearer to the devils, to the blind brute souls That He in plants and animals and stones. Tiberius.. Ay, and in fragrant flowers and ferns and streams. And this bright sea and beauteous earth of ours. Thrasyllus. Yet you would have me leave all this, and go To struggle with the insane lust of Rome ? Tiberius. Ay, ay, but there are other things, my friend. [^Enter Priests, Priestesses, and People singing. Priests. Down from the blue depths pi heaven she fell, The unborn babe from above. Priestesses. Up from the blue depths of sea she came. The goddess of life and love. Tiberius. 83 Priests. And the light, Hke a fragrant altar-flame, Was round her on the sea's soft swell. Priestesses. And the breezes sang their sweetest spell, And the earth was glad of her as she came — Together. Aphrodite ! All. Aphrodite, Aphrodite, Aphrodite ! [^They pass. Tiberius. We were too close. The cymbals dinned mine ears. And flutes and pipes have made my blood run thin. So you'll not come ? Thrasyllus. I have no quest in Rome. Tiberius. Yet Rome has consolations and delights. There knowledge gathers to a splendid sun And art and beauty swim, a sister moon. Around this navel of the wondrous world. 84 Tiberius. Your friend, who goes now with a youth re- newed To radiate power's concentric light and wield Her flashing bolts, might he not serve life's cause The better that you stood beside him there ? Thrasyllus. No, no, my track lies yonder from that orb. Eastward and eastward wandering, till I find The tree of death hard by the pools of peace. I count no sun or moon so good as that. Tiberius. Is that the goal ? And I, too, in such time When youth had sobered of the joys there are With strength and beauty, I in those dusk lands Have stood and questioned of dead stony gods. Yea, and above me shone heaven's myriad lights, And they seemed dead as well. Yet I divined Something beyond those emptied tenements, A shade that flitted vainly, one last strain Of jubilant music, one evanished flash, And the great eyes of dead Semiranris ! Thrasyllus. Something there was, the last out-lingered relic Tiberius. 85 Of high and holy souls that once had more ; But there the relic, elsewhere now we seek Their living models. Tiberius. Seek, and do we find ? Thrasyllus. We find, and seeking's over, and rest at last ! Tiberius. Why, is that so ? And you, are you not proud To have the answer that our manhood ques- tioned And years maturer passed as idle game For the delicate soul ? Are you not therefore proud ? Thrasyllus. You smile at me. TiBERHjS. Nay, but you should be proud, I'd think myself a god, if I knew what The gods know, and the gods, it seems, are proud, At least they hold their tongues, and that is pride. Thrasyllus. Yes, we know all, and in that all is peace. 86 Tiberius. These men obscurely dreamed it. Yet such knowledge Brings but serenity and love, not pride. Tiberius. There is no answer there. Thrasyllus. There is none, then ! We come — go whence we came, and that is good. There is one life for all and many shapes. Life is but restless effort till we know, Eddies of tides before the full flood pours On to his purpose. This thing that we fear, Death, is the one true life. In the wild hours Come pauses when we know this and are God. Tiberius (^pointing). I'll build a causeway there, /i