Note 58 — LECTURE IV
Reading edition
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Nero, who put to death his mother who had poisoned her husband. This passage is surely remarkable. And so are the later words (iii. iv. 28):
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Are we to understand that at this time he really suspected her of complicity in the murder? We must remember that the Ghost had not told him she was innocent of that.