440
THE MARTYR: A DRAMA.
Enter an Officer.
OFFICER.
And craves admittance.
NERO.
Enter Pontiff.
Says that some weighty matter brings thee here:
Thou hast our leave to speak.
PONTIFF.
That eloquent, but pestilential Nazarene,
The Grecian Ethocles, whose specious words
Wrap in delusion all who listen to him,
Spreading his baleful errors o'er the world?
NERO.
He in the Amphitheatre meets his doom;
Having, I trust, no power of words to charm
The enchafed lion, or the famish'd wolf.
PONTIFF.
That this bold malefactor is enlarged.