Have not forgot your sire: the eye of Rome,
And the Prætorian camp, have long rever'd,
With custom'd awe, the daughter, sister, wife,
And mother of their Cæsars.

AGRIP.

Ha! by Juno,

120

125

It bears a noble semblance. On this base
My great revenge shall rise; or say we sound
The trump of liberty; there will not want,
Even in the servile senate, ears to own
Her spirit-stirring voice; Soranus there,
And Cassius; Vetus too, and Thrasea,
Minds of the antique cast, rough, stubborn souls,
That struggle with the yoke. How shall the spark
Unquenchable, that glows within their breasts,
Blaze into freedom, when the idle herd
(Slaves from the womb, created but to stare,
And bellow in the Circus) yet will start,
And shake 'em at the name of liberty,
Stung by a senseless word, a vain tradition,
As there were magic in it? Wrinkled beldams
Teach it their grandchildren, as somewhat rare
That anciently appear'd, but when, extends
Beyond their chronicle-oh! 'tis a cause

V. 118.

"Et moi, qui sur le trône ai suivi mes ancêtres,
Moi, fille, femme, sœur, et mere de vos maîtres."

130

136

Britannicus, act i. sc. 2. V. 124. "The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife." Othello, act iii. sc. 3.

-"the spirit-stirring form

Of Cæsar, raptur'd with the charms of rule." Dyer. Rome. V. 147. "The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born." Bard.

To arm the hand of childhood, and rebrace
The slacken'd sinews of time-wearied age.

Yes, we may meet, ungrateful boy, we may ! Again the buried Genius of old Rome Shall from the dust uprear his reverend head, Rous'd by the shout of millions: there before His high tribunal thou and I appear.

Let majesty sit on thy awful brow,

And lighten from thy eye: around thee call The gilded swarm that wantons in the sunshine Of thy full favour; Seneca be there

In gorgeous phrase of labour'd eloquence

141

143

To dress thy plea, and Burrhus strengthen it 150 With his plain soldier's oath, and honest seeming. Against thee, liberty and Agrippina :

The world, the prize; and fair befall the victors.

155

But soft! why do I waste the fruitless hours In threats unexecuted? Haste thee, fly These hated walls that seem to mock my shame, And cast me forth in duty to their lord.

ACER. 'Tis time to go, the sun is high advanc'd, And, ere mid-day, Nero will come to Baiæ.

V. 148. "Hi rectores imperatoriæ juventæ, et pari in societate potentiæ, concordes, diversâ arte, ex æquo pollebant. Burrus militaribus curis, et severitate morum: Seneca præceptis eloquentiæ, et comitate honestâ." Taciti Annales, xiii. c. 2.

V. 149. See Senecæ Octav. v. 377.

V. 150. So in the speech of Burrhus in the Britannicus of Racine, act i. sc. 2:

"Je répondrai, madame; avec la liberté

D'un soldat, que sait mal farder la vérité.”

And again, act i. sc. 2:

"Burrhus pour le mensonge, eut toujours trop d'horreur."

K

AGRIP. My thought aches at him

basilisk

; not the

More deadly to the sight, than is to me
The cool injurious eye of frozen kindness.
I will not meet its poison. Let him feel
Before he sees me.

ACER.

160

Why then stays my sovereign,

Where he so soon may

AGRIP.

Yes, I will be gone,

165

But not to Antium - all shall be confess'd,
Whate'er the frivolous tongue of giddy fame
Has spread among the crowd; things, that but
whisper'd

Have arch'd the hearer's brow, and riveted

His eyes in fearful extasy: no matter

170

What; so't be strange and dreadful. Sorceries,
Assassinations, poisonings-the deeper
My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude.

And you, ye manes of ambition's victims,
Enshrined Claudius, with the pitied ghosts
Of the Syllani, doom'd to early death,
(Ye unavailing horrors, fruitless crimes!)

V. 169. "Whom have I hurt? has poet yet or peer
Lost the arch'd eyebrow, or Parnassian sneer?"
Pope. Prol. to the Satires, ver. 95.

"To arch the brows which on them gaz'd."

175

V. Marvell. Poems, i. 45.

V. 172. "Pour rendre sa puissance, et la vôtre odieuses, J'avoûrai les rumeurs les plus injurieuses,

Je confesserai tout, exils, assassinâts,

Poison même."

Britannicus, act iii. sc. 3.

See also Taciti Annales, lib. xiii. c. 15.

V. 176. "Prô facinus ingens! fœminæ est munus datus

If from the realms of night my voice ye hear,
In lieu of penitence, and vain remorse,
Accept my vengeance. Though by me ye bled,
He was the cause. My love, my fears for him,
Dried the soft springs of pity in my heart,
And froze them up with deadly cruelty.
Yet if your injur'd shades demand my fate,
If murder cries for murder, blood for blood,
Let me not fall alone; but crush his pride,
And sink the traitor in his mother's ruin.

185

Of amorous thefts: and had her wanton son

Lent us his wings, we could not have beguil'd 190
With more elusive speed the dazzled sight
Of wakeful jealousy. Be gay securely;
Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim❜rous cloud
That hangs on thy clear brow. So Helen look'd,
So her white neck reclin'd, so was she borne

Silanus, et cruore foedavit suo
Patrios Penates, criminis ficti reus."

195

Senecæ Octavia, ver. 148.

And see Taciti Annales, xii. c. 3, 4.

V. 195. "Obstipum caput et tereti cervice reflexum."

"Et caput inflexâ lentum cervice recumbit
Marmored."

"Niveâ cervice reclinis

Mollitur ipsa."

Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 42.

Virgilii Ciris. 449.

Manil. Astron. 5. v. 555.

This particular beauty is also given to Helen by Constantine

By the young Trojan to his gilded bark
With fond reluctance, yielding modesty,
And oft reverted eye, as if she knew not
Whether she fear'd, or wish'd to be pursued.

*

*

*

*

*

196

HYMN TO IGNORANCE.

A FRAGMENT.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 75. Supposed to be written about the year 1742, when Gray returned to Cambridge.]

HAIL, horrors, hail! ye ever gloomy bowers,
Ye gothic fanes, and antiquated towers,
Where rushy Camus' slowly winding flood
Perpetual draws his humid train of mud:

Manasses, in his "Annales," (see Meursii Opera, vol. vii. p. 390):

Δειρὴ μακρὰ καταλευκος, ὅθεν ἐμυθουργήθη

Κυκνογενῆ τὴν εὐόπτον Ἑλένην χρημάτιζειν.

And so also in the Antehomerica of Tzetzes, ed. Jacobs. p. 115 (though the passage is corrupted).

"That soft cheek springing to the marble neck,
Which bends aside in vain."

Akenside. Pl. of Imag. b. i. p. 112. ed. Park.

V. 197. See Milton. Par. L. iv. 310:

"Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,

And sweet, reluctant amorous delay."

Luke.

V. 1. "Hail, horrors, hail!" Milton. Par. L. i. 205.

V. 3. "Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum," Miltoni Eleg. i. 11. and 89. "juncosas Cami remeare paludes." Luke.