in Octavia (Seneca's Ninth Tragedy) — Nuce, Thomas, trans.; Pseudo-Seneca
Metadata
Play
Octavia (Seneca's Ninth Tragedy)
Author
Nuce, Thomas, trans.; Pseudo-Seneca
Year (catalogued)
1566
First performance
1566
Decade
1560s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Closet Translation
Speech prefix(es)
Prefectus. | Prae. | Praef.
Words
161
Characters
913
Typicality
0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11917
BritDrama no.
425
Cluster
Cluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
I nill protract your noble graces hest: But to their camps to go am ready pressed. The captain guides of treason paid their hire, By desperate death of bloody sword in fight. The rout which sought with flaming fire to light, Our royal Palace great, who would assign Their Prince what he should do: and pull in fine Our mate from us dissolving wedlock bands: Whose hardy slanderous tongue's, & wicked hands, His princely grace reproachfully withstands, From endue revenge, are they dysmissed free? Shall subjects pain, by grief assigned been? Declare whose death your mood does most require Let not my hand be stayed from your desire. Those words through all my limbs, hath stiffness spread, Oppressed with grisly fear: On faith why do you lay So great a fault? Deserves a woman to be termed so? Is any man So sure, that his accuse of treason can? Those mad unwieldy wights Who order could? No creature as I think.
Plot summary
Plot — Octavia (Seneca's Ninth Tragedy)
PLOT With her mother executed, her father murdered, and her brother poisoned, Octavia is in a perilous state. Her husband, the Emperor Nero, has had his mother Agrippina murdered; after she survived an orchestrated shipwreck, a soldier was sent to kill her more directly. Now he has got Poppaea. Octavia is timid, pregnant and wants a divorce in order to marry Poppaea and legitimate her bastard. Octavia wants to take revenge on him for her brother’s death, but her nurse advises her to become pregnant herself and produce an heir who will restore the dynasty. Recalled from exile to serve at court, Seneca laments the fortune which has put him in harm’s way. He tries to encourage Nero to rule virtuously, but Nero finds his advice tiresome and plans to expedite his marriage to Poppaea. Agrippina’s ghost curses the nuptial and predicts Nero’s death. Poppaea’s wedding night is disturbed by a nightmare in which the ghost showed her a vision of her first husband’s death at Nero’s hands. The Roman people revolt in support of Octavia, invade the palace, and destroy images of Poppaea. After putting down the rebellion, Nero orders Octavia into exile, and makes arrangements for her to be murdered on arrival. Octavia leaves Rome, knowing she is going to her death.