MARCIA
You would not sleep tonight. That’s bad. It’s very unwise.
AGRIPPINA
But I feel awake. I wish we could, this very night,
depart just as the morning stars appear.
Just listen: in the dark of night the legions stir.
Iron clanks ’gainst iron. Hear them start their march.
Jumps up, goes towards the door
I feel myself march with each darkened footfall.
The night itself is stirring, gains life and cruelty
as the mighty armies prepare to march.
MARCIA
Oh dear! I haven’t done! Come, sit here!
How your lovely curls do twist into a mop!
AGRIPPINA
I wish I could with locks run wild bestride a horse
and lead the men. Our armies choose the way
to the heart of the great Germany; our chase;
today is going to be fine.
MARCIA
You’re a woman; you’ve children.
AGRIPPINA
But he and I shall hunt! He is the tiger
and I the tiger’s dam: we hunt as one.
Gets up again
D’you know, I am not afraid of blood like women –
like other women ...
MARCIA
Do sit. Just for a moment.
AGRIPPINA [28]
Sits again; softly
I have walked across his battlefields alone
where thousands, where every yard a man lay dead
and reeking blood; and horses neighing still in fear
(it is a dreadful sight as dumb brutes scream
and stagger, drag and bite)
and wounds where life is throbbing out ...
and ... listen here ... my heart was glad and proud
that he had power, that I could be his wife!
MARCIA
This is terrible. Sometimes I fear for you.
Your thoughts must be of softer things.
I’ve done.
AGRIPPINA [Gets up]
His power, power. That is my husband’s beauty.
MARCIA
He’s like a boy: his eyes are clear and bright.
AGRIPPINA
And, hear this too: if he should win in this campaign,
then all the world lies open too
and we shall play, play like two young hounds,
and know no fear nor any need to keep silence ...
MARCIA
The men of Rome they love Germanicus
and want no other lord than only him.
AGRIPPINA
I’ll fight it, fight this fear of mine!
You know: I know this fear, it’s just as black,
it’s just as rank and dreadful as that pride
with which I tread alike on the dying and the dead.
When he is on the battlefield and I at home,
waiting scared in my tent and ask for news,
then I cringe, sit and shiver like a young girl,
and feel my shame and perish, perish dumb.
I should like to be a man – [29]
and yet his wife.
And then the other more secret fear:
something I cannot touch, can’t even give a name;
and round him, round him it settles fast ...
that fear must go ... and all must fear only him!
MARCIA
I could not do that. I know his heart so well.
AGRIPPINA
Those that lie and glare in Rome – they will!
Only the most powerful has beauty.
And I desire beauty – beauty just for him.
MARCIA
Your speech is wild and reckless, child.
Germanicus’ elderly personal physician comes on with parcels and flasks; fidgets and scratches around
Here comes the doctor.
AGRIPPINA [Laughing]
Why do you creep and creep around
as if picking herbs in your little plot?
Would you not like to gird a sword today?
DOCTOR
Ah, ah, the women talk – they seldom think.
Wait, let me reckon: it’s bloodstone against bleeding;
here is the wine with cheese and barley pap
for when he’s tired ...
Are you aware that this is war?
We’re going forth to danger, wounds and death.
Hell stone for boils that come in summer.
The strange suppuration breathed out in this land,
the fertile marshes and herbs that have no name
through which the general wades ... ah no, it’s nought:
your little veins run hot with air and misty fog ...
it’s words, words: “adventure”, “victory”,
– damp air, that often has a rancid, sour smell.
Again fidgets with his parcels [30]
AGRIPPINA
Don’t act so cross! We, women, we like doctors.
You know astrology: rather tell me now;
about the Quiet Ones and Germanicus?
DOCTOR
I have no need to look at heaven over me:
by his golden hair and his bright forehead I can see
that the Sun when he was born shone through the Scales
and near to Venus, why, his very figure,
his walk, when he comes near, these show that he
– so say the laws of the always Silent Ones
will always keep to justice and to right.
The four great body humours: blood,
and phlegm, yellow and black bile, are so
mixed in him, so balanced equally,
so by his stars were fixed, combining all,
unmoving clarity they granted him ...
AGRIPPINA
But will he be great, mighty and so happy?
DOCTOR
That’s something else. The stars don’t really speak!
They go their way. It is the blood, the humours
in every body that makes an individual
(as you call it), “happy”, “brave” – or “weak” ...
AGRIPPINA
Go play your starlight games! Go dig out herbs.
Your kind must stay a lackey! Know, know ...
you know what should have happened when it’s past:
you see “just why”, know how the pill was twisted,
but we are those that make and break, uncertainty
we forge to something new, we lead from far in front,
sword galaxies ... and no-one knows where we shall go.
Here, take this mirror, look at your own humours,
watch how they’re churned together into porridge
to coagulate to stodge! [Germanicus enters] [31]
I need no stars at all to show to me
where power and a glorious future beckons me.
GERMANICUS
You’re speaking of the stars? Aratus is all done.
Take this and look after it.
He gives the manuscript to the old physician
There’s wisdom there, but hidden deep and far,
remote – and we, we are not nearly warm at all.
There’s a rule and order to which the stars belong:
the bright, clear singly-plied necessity.
Have you been speaking of your hidden art?
DOCTOR
I wanted to explain what I believe is really so.
Prepare this and that for your campaign
AGRIPPINA
Smiling again; to the Doctor
Forgive me, please, be true to me, old friend.
I speak too soon when I get in that mood.
And go now; run!
GERMANICUS
And thanks for all your care.
The Doctor and Marcia go off.
AGRIPPINA
Are you annoyed that I put myself forward then
when the men were grimly arguing – I, a woman?
and dared to speak where you were in command tonight?
GERMANICUS
I want to keep you proud just as you are;
as women were in former days.
AGRIPPINA
I am a woman and my pride hides fear;
tonight I am all fear.
My thoughts are all of death.
You heard them shout: their clamour was of “rule”, [32]
of “Caesar”. You know how every sound grows rancid
in our climate. I see you caught up close
in the hunter’s net: myrmillo, Caius!
and the retiarius flicks it over you.
Break out of it! Or I see our deathbeds,
one long row: I see my children die:
first one and then another dies, like princes, sombre;
no-one complains or knows why he must die,
each only knows that he must either rule, or die.
GERMANICUS
I knew that it was coming – this call.
For months and months it has been stalking me.
Tonight it’s crouched to spring.
I love you dearly.
AGRIPPINA
And yet – one thing in you I cannot get to grasp.
Somewhere you’re inhuman in your heart.
Whatever way I try to reach, I only touch
this coolly gleaming thing. This quiet rest of yours
tonight – Should you not fear? Yes, this fear,
it’s good and human: keep it near your heart.
GERMANICUS
Sit here and listen.
Words sometimes come forth bloody, like a weight
from inside one, as when a child is born.
I shall attempt it.
Livia nursed a hatred for my mother.
No. Not even that.
Do you think I do not fear!
If I were to allow my fear
to thrust one black arm along the lintel of my door
and feel its way, it would rip my whole house apart
and screech along through every room. [33]
I dare not fear. I dare scarce speak of fear.
I see my children every night. I see you.
AGRIPPINA
Sit. Rest and try to find the words you seek.
The heart needs words just as it needs love.
GERMANICUS
I need to grab that power! Do I not have a need to rule!
Do you think that small!
Have I not felt action, victory, honour, power
intoxicate my senses like sweet wine
and not grown thirsty from desire
more than one day!
And yet
there are so many hair-cracks in my will.
AGRIPPINA
You need to grab and give to Rome a ruler
worthy to rule Rome.
That is the pit in which the earth
casts out its filth day by day. Its nobles come
Don’t name that name, not even here.
GERMANICUS [Tiredly]
from near and far, they seep into our midst,
they take our names.
And yet: if I dare mould!
AGRIPPINA
Goes to the tent opening and folds back the flap
Wide open is the tent. See there, the morning star.
Know this: you are my husband, we two are one.
You will decide. I’ll die here with you
Or else I shall rule,
and, humble for you alone,
rule where you rule.
Our legions all surge hence!
You need to rest. For this night was great.
Scene Four
Germany
Germanicus’ official tent
One week later
[34]
About a week later. In Germany. An old secretary from the general’s headquarters sits writing at a table in Germanicus’ official tent. A young officer enters