Nero monologue (Act 1) — Nero

O, all the earth to-night into these hands Committed! I bow down beneath the load, Empurpled in a lone omnipotence. My softest whisper thunders in the sky, And in my frown the temples sway and reel, And the utmost isles are anguished. I but raise An eyelid, and a continent shall cower; My finger makes the city a solitude, The murmuring metropolis a silence, And kingdoms pine in my dispeopling nod. I can dispearl the sea, a province wear Upon my little finger; all the winds Are busy blowing odours in mine eyes, And I am wrapt in glory by the sun, And I am lit by splendours of the moon, And diadem'd by glittering midnight. O wine of the world, the odour and gold of it! There is no thirst which I may not assuage; There is no hunger which I may not sate; Nought is forbidden me under heaven! [_With a cry._] I shall go mad! I shall go mad!