Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/468

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Without the power to act, that present fear
May break her strength, let punishment at once,
Too long delayed, crush out her guilty life.
Have done at once with arguments and prayers,
And do my royal bidding: let her sail
To some far distant shore and there be slain,875
That thus at last my fears may be at rest.
[Exeunt.]
Chorus [attached to Octavia]: Oh, dire and deadly has the people's love
To many proved, which fills their swelling sails
With favoring breeze, and bears them out to sea;
But soon its vigor languishes and dies,880
And leaves them to the mercy of the deep.
The wretched mother of the Gracchi wept
Her murdered sons, who, though of noble blood,
Far famed for eloquence and piety,885
Stout-hearted, learnéd in defense of law,
Were brought to ruin by the people's love
And popular renown. And Livius, thee
To equal fate did fickle fortune give,
Who found no safety in thy lictors' rods,
No refuge in thy home. But grief forbids
To tell more instances. This hapless girl,890
To whom but now the citizens decreed
The restoration of her fatherland,
Her home, her brother's couch, is dragged away
In tears and misery to punishment,
With citizens consenting to her death!895
Oh, blesséd poverty, content to hide
Beneath the refuge of a lowly roof!
For lofty homes, to fame and fortune known,
By storms are blasted and by fate o'erthrown!
[Enter Octavia in the custody of the palace guards, who are dragging her
roughly out into the street.]
Octavia: Oh, whither do ye hurry me? What fate
Has that vile tyrant or his queen ordained?900
Does she, subdued and softened by my woes,
Grant me to live in exile? Or, if not,
If she intends to crown my sufferings