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Nero
Excerpt from Nero
Agrippina. Seneca Speak it low Caesar is dead Nero shall climb the throne. Seneca. I will not ask the manner of his death. In studious ease I have protested much Against the violent taking of a life. But lost in action I perceive at last That they who stand so high can falter not, But live beyond the reaches of our blame That public good excuses private guile.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Agrippina. Seneca Speak it low Caesar is dead Nero shall climb the throne. Seneca. I will not ask the manner of his death. In studious ease I have protested much Against the violent taking of a life. But lost in action I perceive at last That they who stand so high can falter not, But live beyond the reaches of our blame That public good excuses private guile.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
129 pages, Paperback
First published September 7, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 23, 2011
An ordinary play about Emperor Nero
19 November 2009
Basically this is a four act play based on the life of Nero beginning with his ascension to the throne and ending with the great fire of Rome. Nothing truly amazing on the scale of Bernard Shaw, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. However, I must admit that I do prefer Shakespeare's standard of a five act play, and while it ended at the great fire, this is not the whole story of Nero, and a final act could have been added which dealt with the aftermath of the fire and his eventual downfall.
Further, it is difficult to call this play a tragedy. It does not deal with a fatal flaw (and Nero did have fatal flaws) nor does it end badly. It ends with him accepting that the great fire was punishment for his murder of his mother, though there are suggestions that he planned the fire so that he could rebuild Rome. Obviously there is still a lot of scholarly debate as to whether Nero was the cause of the fire or not, but my understanding is that while he did not start the fire, he did not act to stop it, and one of the reasons is that because he wanted to remodel Rome. There is the saying that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and it may have been more entertaining if he was actually playing a fiddle at the time.
19 November 2009
Basically this is a four act play based on the life of Nero beginning with his ascension to the throne and ending with the great fire of Rome. Nothing truly amazing on the scale of Bernard Shaw, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. However, I must admit that I do prefer Shakespeare's standard of a five act play, and while it ended at the great fire, this is not the whole story of Nero, and a final act could have been added which dealt with the aftermath of the fire and his eventual downfall.
Further, it is difficult to call this play a tragedy. It does not deal with a fatal flaw (and Nero did have fatal flaws) nor does it end badly. It ends with him accepting that the great fire was punishment for his murder of his mother, though there are suggestions that he planned the fire so that he could rebuild Rome. Obviously there is still a lot of scholarly debate as to whether Nero was the cause of the fire or not, but my understanding is that while he did not start the fire, he did not act to stop it, and one of the reasons is that because he wanted to remodel Rome. There is the saying that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and it may have been more entertaining if he was actually playing a fiddle at the time.
March 20, 2018
Play
Well written play. If you wanted to play this out with friends, great fun. I had a general understanding of the narcissistic Agrippina from reading Robert Graves and found this easy to understand unlike some of Shakespeare plays. The homicidal nut jobs that governed hasn't much changed in todays geographic.
Well written play. If you wanted to play this out with friends, great fun. I had a general understanding of the narcissistic Agrippina from reading Robert Graves and found this easy to understand unlike some of Shakespeare plays. The homicidal nut jobs that governed hasn't much changed in todays geographic.
June 5, 2019
So fucking tired of thinking I'm about to read a story only to find out I've purchased or downloaded a short book of poetry or verse or a play, this being a play about Nero, I guess. Couldn't finish it. There aren't enough straight fiction or nonfiction books written about Ancient Rome.
June 7, 2020
A four act play based on the life of the (in)famous roman the emperor Nero, that sees his life through the beginning until the event he's arguably more remembered for, the Great Fire of Rome.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews