Titus Andronicus 109.html

<span id = 2237 ></span><span id = 2238 ><blockquote><i>The Tomb of the ANDRONICI appearing; the Tribunes and Senatorsaloft. Enter, below, from one side, SATURNINUS and his Followers; and,from the other side, BASSIANUS and his Followers; with drum and colours</i></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Noble patricians, patrons of my right,</a><br /><a>Defend the justice of my cause with arms,</a><br /><a>And, countrymen, my loving followers,</a><br /><a>Plead my successive title with your swords:</a><br /><a>I am his first-born son, that was the last</a><br /><a>That wore the imperial diadem of Rome;</a><br /><a>Then let my father's honours live in me,</a><br /><a>Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Romans, friends, followers, favorers of my right,</a><br /><a>If ever Bassianus, Caesar's son,</a><br /><a>Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,</a><br /><a>Keep then this passage to the Capitol</a><br /><a>And suffer not dishonour to approach</a><br /><a>The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,</a><br /><a>To justice, continence and nobility;</a><br /><a>But let desert in pure election shine,</a><br /><a>And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS, aloft, with the crown</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Princes, that strive by factions and by friends</a><br /><a>Ambitiously for rule and empery,</a><br /><a>Know that the people of Rome, for whom we stand</a><br /><a>A special party, have, by common voice,</a><br /><a>In election for the Roman empery,</a><br /><a>Chosen Andronicus, surnamed Pius</a><br /><a>For many good and great deserts to Rome:</a><br /><a>A nobler man, a braver warrior,</a><br /><a>Lives not this day within the city walls:</a><br /><a>He by the senate is accit'd home</a><br /><a>From weary wars against the barbarous Goths;</a><br /><a>That, with his sons, a terror to our foes,</a><br /><a>Hath yoked a nation strong, train'd up in arms.</a><br /><a>Ten years are spent since first he undertook</a><br /><a>This cause of Rome and chastised with arms</a><br /><a>Our enemies' pride: five times he hath return'd</a><br /><a>Bleeding to Rome, bearing his valiant sons</a><br /><a>In coffins from the field;</a><br /><a>And now at last, laden with horror's spoils,</a><br /><a>Returns the good Andronicus to Rome,</a><br /><a>Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms.</a><br /><a>Let us entreat, by honour of his name,</a><br /><a>Whom worthily you would have now succeed.</a><br /><a>And in the Capitol and senate's right,</a><br /><a>Whom you pretend to honour and adore,</a><br /><a>That you withdraw you and abate your strength;</a><br /><a>Dismiss your followers and, as suitors should,</a><br /><a>Plead your deserts in peace and humbleness.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>How fair the tribune speaks to calm my thoughts!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Marcus Andronicus, so I do ally</a><br /><a>In thy uprightness and integrity,</a><br /><a>And so I love and honour thee and thine,</a><br /><a>Thy noble brother Titus and his sons,</a><br /><a>And her to whom my thoughts are humbled all,</a><br /><a>Gracious Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament,</a><br /><a>That I will here dismiss my loving friends,</a><br /><a>And to my fortunes and the people's favor</a><br /><a>Commit my cause in balance to be weigh'd.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt the followers of BASSIANUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Friends, that have been thus forward in my right,</a><br /><a>I thank you all and here dismiss you all,</a><br /><a>And to the love and favor of my country</a><br /><a>Commit myself, my person and the cause.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt the followers of SATURNINUS</i></p><a>Rome, be as just and gracious unto me</a><br /><a>As I am confident and kind to thee.</a><br /><a>Open the gates, and let me in.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Tribunes, and me, a poor competitor.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish. SATURNINUS and BASSIANUS go up into the Capitol</i></p><p><i>Enter a Captain</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Captain</b></a><blockquote><a>Romans, make way: the good Andronicus.</a><br /><a>Patron of virtue, Rome's best champion,</a><br /><a>Successful in the battles that he fights,</a><br /><a>With honour and with fortune is return'd</a><br /><a>From where he circumscribed with his sword,</a><br /><a>And brought to yoke, the enemies of Rome.</a><br /><p><i>Drums and trumpets sounded. Enter MARTIUS and MUTIUS; After them,two Men bearing a coffin covered with black; then LUCIUS and QUINTUS.After them, TITUS ANDRONICUS; and then TAMORA, with ALARBUS, DEMETRIUS,CHIRON, AARON, and other Goths, prisoners; Soldiers and peoplefollowing. The Bearers set down the coffin, and TITUS speaks</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!</a><br /><a>Lo, as the bark, that hath discharged her fraught,</a><br /><a>Returns with precious jading to the bay</a><br /><a>From whence at first she weigh'd her anchorage,</a><br /><a>Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs,</a><br /><a>To re-salute his country with his tears,</a><br /><a>Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.</a><br /><a>Thou great defender of this Capitol,</a><br /><a>Stand gracious to the rites that we intend!</a><br /><a>Romans, of five and twenty valiant sons,</a><br /><a>Half of the number that King Priam had,</a><br /><a>Behold the poor remains, alive and dead!</a><br /><a>These that survive let Rome reward with love;</a><br /><a>These that I bring unto their latest home,</a><br /><a>With burial amongst their ancestors:</a><br /><a>Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword.</a><br /><a>Titus, unkind and careless of thine own,</a><br /><a>Why suffer'st thou thy sons, unburied yet,</a><br /><a>To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?</a><br /><a>Make way to lay them by their brethren.</a><br /><p><i>The tomb is opened</i></p><a>There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,</a><br /><a>And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars!</a><br /><a>O sacred receptacle of my joys,</a><br /><a>Sweet cell of virtue and nobility,</a><br /><a>How many sons of mine hast thou in store,</a><br /><a>That thou wilt never render to me more!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths,</a><br /><a>That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile</a><br /><a>Ad manes fratrum sacrifice his flesh,</a><br /><a>Before this earthy prison of their bones;</a><br /><a>That so the shadows be not unappeased,</a><br /><a>Nor we disturb'd with prodigies on earth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I give him you, the noblest that survives,</a><br /><a>The eldest son of this distressed queen.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, Roman brethren! Gracious conqueror,</a><br /><a>Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed,</a><br /><a>A mother's tears in passion for her son:</a><br /><a>And if thy sons were ever dear to thee,</a><br /><a>O, think my son to be as dear to me!</a><br /><a>Sufficeth not that we are brought to Rome,</a><br /><a>To beautify thy triumphs and return,</a><br /><a>Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke,</a><br /><a>But must my sons be slaughter'd in the streets,</a><br /><a>For valiant doings in their country's cause?</a><br /><a>O, if to fight for king and commonweal</a><br /><a>Were piety in thine, it is in these.</a><br /><a>Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood:</a><br /><a>Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?</a><br /><a>Draw near them then in being merciful:</a><br /><a>Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge:</a><br /><a>Thrice noble Titus, spare my first-born son.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me.</a><br /><a>These are their brethren, whom you Goths beheld</a><br /><a>Alive and dead, and for their brethren slain</a><br /><a>Religiously they ask a sacrifice:</a><br /><a>To this your son is mark'd, and die he must,</a><br /><a>To appease their groaning shadows that are gone.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Away with him! and make a fire straight;</a><br /><a>And with our swords, upon a pile of wood,</a><br /><a>Let's hew his limbs till they be clean consumed.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, and MUTIUS, with ALARBUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>O cruel, irreligious piety!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Was ever Scythia half so barbarous?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Oppose not Scythia to ambitious Rome.</a><br /><a>Alarbus goes to rest; and we survive</a><br /><a>To tremble under Titus' threatening looks.</a><br /><a>Then, madam, stand resolved, but hope withal</a><br /><a>The self-same gods that arm'd the Queen of Troy</a><br /><a>With opportunity of sharp revenge</a><br /><a>Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent,</a><br /><a>May favor Tamora, the Queen of Goths--</a><br /><a>When Goths were Goths and Tamora was queen--</a><br /><a>To quit the bloody wrongs upon her foes.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS and MUTIUS, with their swords bloody</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>See, lord and father, how we have perform'd</a><br /><a>Our Roman rites: Alarbus' limbs are lopp'd,</a><br /><a>And entrails feed the sacrificing fire,</a><br /><a>Whose smoke, like incense, doth perfume the sky.</a><br /><a>Remaineth nought, but to inter our brethren,</a><br /><a>And with loud 'larums welcome them to Rome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Let it be so; and let Andronicus</a><br /><a>Make this his latest farewell to their souls.</a><br /><p><i>Trumpets sounded, and the coffin laid in the tomb</i></p><a>In peace and honour rest you here, my sons;</a><br /><a>Rome's readiest champions, repose you here in rest,</a><br /><a>Secure from worldly chances and mishaps!</a><br /><a>Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells,</a><br /><a>Here grow no damned grudges; here are no storms,</a><br /><a>No noise, but silence and eternal sleep:</a><br /><a>In peace and honour rest you here, my sons!</a><br /><p><i>Enter LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>In peace and honour live Lord Titus long;</a><br /><a>My noble lord and father, live in fame!</a><br /><a>Lo, at this tomb my tributary tears</a><br /><a>I render, for my brethren's obsequies;</a><br /><a>And at thy feet I kneel, with tears of joy,</a><br /><a>Shed on the earth, for thy return to Rome:</a><br /><a>O, bless me here with thy victorious hand,</a><br /><a>Whose fortunes Rome's best citizens applaud!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Kind Rome, that hast thus lovingly reserved</a><br /><a>The cordial of mine age to glad my heart!</a><br /><a>Lavinia, live; outlive thy father's days,</a><br /><a>And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise!</a><br /><p><i>Enter, below, MARCUS ANDRONICUS and Tribunes; re-enter SATURNINUS and BASSIANUS, attended</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Long live Lord Titus, my beloved brother,</a><br /><a>Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And welcome, nephews, from successful wars,</a><br /><a>You that survive, and you that sleep in fame!</a><br /><a>Fair lords, your fortunes are alike in all,</a><br /><a>That in your country's service drew your swords:</a><br /><a>But safer triumph is this funeral pomp,</a><br /><a>That hath aspired to Solon's happiness</a><br /><a>And triumphs over chance in honour's bed.</a><br /><a>Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome,</a><br /><a>Whose friend in justice thou hast ever been,</a><br /><a>Send thee by me, their tribune and their trust,</a><br /><a>This palliament of white and spotless hue;</a><br /><a>And name thee in election for the empire,</a><br /><a>With these our late-deceased emperor's sons:</a><br /><a>Be candidatus then, and put it on,</a><br /><a>And help to set a head on headless Rome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>A better head her glorious body fits</a><br /><a>Than his that shakes for age and feebleness:</a><br /><a>What should I don this robe, and trouble you?</a><br /><a>Be chosen with proclamations to-day,</a><br /><a>To-morrow yield up rule, resign my life,</a><br /><a>And set abroad new business for you all?</a><br /><a>Rome, I have been thy soldier forty years,</a><br /><a>And led my country's strength successfully,</a><br /><a>And buried one and twenty valiant sons,</a><br /><a>Knighted in field, slain manfully in arms,</a><br /><a>In right and service of their noble country</a><br /><a>Give me a staff of honour for mine age,</a><br /><a>But not a sceptre to control the world:</a><br /><a>Upright he held it, lords, that held it last.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Proud and ambitious tribune, canst thou tell?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Patience, Prince Saturninus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Romans, do me right:</a><br /><a>Patricians, draw your swords: and sheathe them not</a><br /><a>Till Saturninus be Rome's emperor.</a><br /><a>Andronicus, would thou wert shipp'd to hell,</a><br /><a>Rather than rob me of the people's hearts!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Proud Saturnine, interrupter of the good</a><br /><a>That noble-minded Titus means to thee!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Content thee, prince; I will restore to thee</a><br /><a>The people's hearts, and wean them from themselves.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Andronicus, I do not flatter thee,</a><br /><a>But honour thee, and will do till I die:</a><br /><a>My faction if thou strengthen with thy friends,</a><br /><a>I will most thankful be; and thanks to men</a><br /><a>Of noble minds is honourable meed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>People of Rome, and people's tribunes here,</a><br /><a>I ask your voices and your suffrages:</a><br /><a>Will you bestow them friendly on Andronicus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Tribunes</b></a><blockquote><a>To gratify the good Andronicus,</a><br /><a>And gratulate his safe return to Rome,</a><br /><a>The people will accept whom he admits.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Tribunes, I thank you: and this suit I make,</a><br /><a>That you create your emperor's eldest son,</a><br /><a>Lord Saturnine; whose virtues will, I hope,</a><br /><a>Reflect on Rome as Titan's rays on earth,</a><br /><a>And ripen justice in this commonweal:</a><br /><a>Then, if you will elect by my advice,</a><br /><a>Crown him and say 'Long live our emperor!'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>With voices and applause of every sort,</a><br /><a>Patricians and plebeians, we create</a><br /><a>Lord Saturninus Rome's great emperor,</a><br /><a>And say 'Long live our Emperor Saturnine!'</a><br /><p><i>A long flourish till they come down</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Titus Andronicus, for thy favors done</a><br /><a>To us in our election this day,</a><br /><a>I give thee thanks in part of thy deserts,</a><br /><a>And will with deeds requite thy gentleness:</a><br /><a>And, for an onset, Titus, to advance</a><br /><a>Thy name and honourable family,</a><br /><a>Lavinia will I make my empress,</a><br /><a>Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart,</a><br /><a>And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse:</a><br /><a>Tell me, Andronicus, doth this motion please thee?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>It doth, my worthy lord; and in this match</a><br /><a>I hold me highly honour'd of your grace:</a><br /><a>And here in sight of Rome to Saturnine,</a><br /><a>King and commander of our commonweal,</a><br /><a>The wide world's emperor, do I consecrate</a><br /><a>My sword, my chariot and my prisoners;</a><br /><a>Presents well worthy Rome's imperial lord:</a><br /><a>Receive them then, the tribute that I owe,</a><br /><a>Mine honour's ensigns humbled at thy feet.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks, noble Titus, father of my life!</a><br /><a>How proud I am of thee and of thy gifts</a><br /><a>Rome shall record, and when I do forget</a><br /><a>The least of these unspeakable deserts,</a><br /><a>Romans, forget your fealty to me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[To TAMORA]  Now, madam, are you prisoner to</a><br /><a>an emperor;</a><br /><a>To him that, for your honour and your state,</a><br /><a>Will use you nobly and your followers.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>A goodly lady, trust me; of the hue</a><br /><a>That I would choose, were I to choose anew.</a><br /><a>Clear up, fair queen, that cloudy countenance:</a><br /><a>Though chance of war hath wrought this change of cheer,</a><br /><a>Thou comest not to be made a scorn in Rome:</a><br /><a>Princely shall be thy usage every way.</a><br /><a>Rest on my word, and let not discontent</a><br /><a>Daunt all your hopes: madam, he comforts you</a><br /><a>Can make you greater than the Queen of Goths.</a><br /><a>Lavinia, you are not displeased with this?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Not I, my lord; sith true nobility</a><br /><a>Warrants these words in princely courtesy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks, sweet Lavinia. Romans, let us go;</a><br /><a>Ransomless here we set our prisoners free:</a><br /><a>Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish. SATURNINUS courts TAMORA in dumb show</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is mine.</a><br /><p><i>Seizing LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>How, sir! are you in earnest then, my lord?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, noble Titus; and resolved withal</a><br /><a>To do myself this reason and this right.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>'Suum cuique' is our Roman justice:</a><br /><a>This prince in justice seizeth but his own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And that he will, and shall, if Lucius live.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Traitors, avaunt! Where is the emperor's guard?</a><br /><a>Treason, my lord! Lavinia is surprised!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Surprised! by whom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>By him that justly may</a><br /><a>Bear his betroth'd from all the world away.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt BASSIANUS and MARCUS with LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MUTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Brothers, help to convey her hence away,</a><br /><a>And with my sword I'll keep this door safe.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Follow, my lord, and I'll soon bring her back.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MUTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, you pass not here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What, villain boy!</a><br /><a>Barr'st me my way in Rome?</a><br /><p><i>Stabbing MUTIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MUTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Help, Lucius, help!</a><br /><p><i>Dies</i></p><p><i>During the fray, SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON and AARON go out and re-enter, above</i></p><p><i>Re-enter LUCIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, you are unjust, and, more than so,</a><br /><a>In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;</a><br /><a>My sons would never so dishonour me:</a><br /><a>Traitor, restore Lavinia to the emperor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife,</a><br /><a>That is another's lawful promised love.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, Titus, no; the emperor needs her not,</a><br /><a>Nor her, nor thee, nor any of thy stock:</a><br /><a>I'll trust, by leisure, him that mocks me once;</a><br /><a>Thee never, nor thy traitorous haughty sons,</a><br /><a>Confederates all thus to dishonour me.</a><br /><a>Was there none else in Rome to make a stale,</a><br /><a>But Saturnine? Full well, Andronicus,</a><br /><a>Agree these deeds with that proud brag of thine,</a><br /><a>That said'st I begg'd the empire at thy hands.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O monstrous! what reproachful words are these?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But go thy ways; go, give that changing piece</a><br /><a>To him that flourish'd for her with his sword</a><br /><a>A valiant son-in-law thou shalt enjoy;</a><br /><a>One fit to bandy with thy lawless sons,</a><br /><a>To ruffle in the commonwealth of Rome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>These words are razors to my wounded heart.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And therefore, lovely Tamora, queen of Goths,</a><br /><a>That like the stately Phoebe 'mongst her nymphs</a><br /><a>Dost overshine the gallant'st dames of Rome,</a><br /><a>If thou be pleased with this my sudden choice,</a><br /><a>Behold, I choose thee, Tamora, for my bride,</a><br /><a>And will create thee empress of Rome,</a><br /><a>Speak, Queen of Goths, dost thou applaud my choice?</a><br /><a>And here I swear by all the Roman gods,</a><br /><a>Sith priest and holy water are so near</a><br /><a>And tapers burn so bright and every thing</a><br /><a>In readiness for Hymenaeus stand,</a><br /><a>I will not re-salute the streets of Rome,</a><br /><a>Or climb my palace, till from forth this place</a><br /><a>I lead espoused my bride along with me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>And here, in sight of heaven, to Rome I swear,</a><br /><a>If Saturnine advance the Queen of Goths,</a><br /><a>She will a handmaid be to his desires,</a><br /><a>A loving nurse, a mother to his youth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ascend, fair queen, Pantheon. Lords, accompany</a><br /><a>Your noble emperor and his lovely bride,</a><br /><a>Sent by the heavens for Prince Saturnine,</a><br /><a>Whose wisdom hath her fortune conquered:</a><br /><a>There shall we consummate our spousal rites.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt all but TITUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I am not bid to wait upon this bride.</a><br /><a>Titus, when wert thou wont to walk alone,</a><br /><a>Dishonour'd thus, and challenged of wrongs?</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter MARCUS, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O Titus, see, O, see what thou hast done!</a><br /><a>In a bad quarrel slain a virtuous son.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, foolish tribune, no; no son of mine,</a><br /><a>Nor thou, nor these, confederates in the deed</a><br /><a>That hath dishonour'd all our family;</a><br /><a>Unworthy brother, and unworthy sons!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But let us give him burial, as becomes;</a><br /><a>Give Mutius burial with our brethren.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Traitors, away! he rests not in this tomb:</a><br /><a>This monument five hundred years hath stood,</a><br /><a>Which I have sumptuously re-edified:</a><br /><a>Here none but soldiers and Rome's servitors</a><br /><a>Repose in fame; none basely slain in brawls:</a><br /><a>Bury him where you can; he comes not here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, this is impiety in you:</a><br /><a>My nephew Mutius' deeds do plead for him</a><br /><a>He must be buried with his brethren.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And shall, or him we will accompany.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>'And shall!' what villain was it that spake</a><br /><a>that word?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>He that would vouch it in any place but here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What, would you bury him in my despite?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, noble Titus, but entreat of thee</a><br /><a>To pardon Mutius and to bury him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Marcus, even thou hast struck upon my crest,</a><br /><a>And, with these boys, mine honour thou hast wounded:</a><br /><a>My foes I do repute you every one;</a><br /><a>So, trouble me no more, but get you gone.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>He is not with himself; let us withdraw.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Not I, till Mutius' bones be buried.</a><br /><p><i>MARCUS and the Sons of TITUS kneel</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Brother, for in that name doth nature plead,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Father, and in that name doth nature speak,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Speak thou no more, if all the rest will speed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Renowned Titus, more than half my soul,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Dear father, soul and substance of us all,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Suffer thy brother Marcus to inter</a><br /><a>His noble nephew here in virtue's nest,</a><br /><a>That died in honour and Lavinia's cause.</a><br /><a>Thou art a Roman; be not barbarous:</a><br /><a>The Greeks upon advice did bury Ajax</a><br /><a>That slew himself; and wise Laertes' son</a><br /><a>Did graciously plead for his funerals:</a><br /><a>Let not young Mutius, then, that was thy joy</a><br /><a>Be barr'd his entrance here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Rise, Marcus, rise.</a><br /><a>The dismall'st day is this that e'er I saw,</a><br /><a>To be dishonour'd by my sons in Rome!</a><br /><a>Well, bury him, and bury me the next.</a><br /><p><i>MUTIUS is put into the tomb</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>There lie thy bones, sweet Mutius, with thy friends,</a><br /><a>Till we with trophies do adorn thy tomb.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>All</b></a><blockquote><a>[Kneeling]  No man shed tears for noble Mutius;</a><br /><a>He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, to step out of these dreary dumps,</a><br /><a>How comes it that the subtle Queen of Goths</a><br /><a>Is of a sudden thus advanced in Rome?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I know not, Marcus; but I know it is,</a><br /><a>Whether by device or no, the heavens can tell:</a><br /><a>Is she not then beholding to the man</a><br /><a>That brought her for this high good turn so far?</a><br /><a>Yes, and will nobly him remunerate.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish. Re-enter, from one side, SATURNINUS attended, TAMORA,DEMETRIUS, CHIRON and AARON; from the other, BASSIANUS, LAVINIA, andothers</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>So, Bassianus, you have play'd your prize:</a><br /><a>God give you joy, sir, of your gallant bride!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And you of yours, my lord! I say no more,</a><br /><a>Nor wish no less; and so, I take my leave.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Traitor, if Rome have law or we have power,</a><br /><a>Thou and thy faction shall repent this rape.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Rape, call you it, my lord, to seize my own,</a><br /><a>My truth-betrothed love and now my wife?</a><br /><a>But let the laws of Rome determine all;</a><br /><a>Meanwhile I am possess'd of that is mine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis good, sir: you are very short with us;</a><br /><a>But, if we live, we'll be as sharp with you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, what I have done, as best I may,</a><br /><a>Answer I must and shall do with my life.</a><br /><a>Only thus much I give your grace to know:</a><br /><a>By all the duties that I owe to Rome,</a><br /><a>This noble gentleman, Lord Titus here,</a><br /><a>Is in opinion and in honour wrong'd;</a><br /><a>That in the rescue of Lavinia</a><br /><a>With his own hand did slay his youngest son,</a><br /><a>In zeal to you and highly moved to wrath</a><br /><a>To be controll'd in that he frankly gave:</a><br /><a>Receive him, then, to favor, Saturnine,</a><br /><a>That hath express'd himself in all his deeds</a><br /><a>A father and a friend to thee and Rome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Prince Bassianus, leave to plead my deeds:</a><br /><a>'Tis thou and those that have dishonour'd me.</a><br /><a>Rome and the righteous heavens be my judge,</a><br /><a>How I have loved and honour'd Saturnine!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>My worthy lord, if ever Tamora</a><br /><a>Were gracious in those princely eyes of thine,</a><br /><a>Then hear me speak in indifferently for all;</a><br /><a>And at my suit, sweet, pardon what is past.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What, madam! be dishonour'd openly,</a><br /><a>And basely put it up without revenge?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Not so, my lord; the gods of Rome forfend</a><br /><a>I should be author to dishonour you!</a><br /><a>But on mine honour dare I undertake</a><br /><a>For good Lord Titus' innocence in all;</a><br /><a>Whose fury not dissembled speaks his griefs:</a><br /><a>Then, at my suit, look graciously on him;</a><br /><a>Lose not so noble a friend on vain suppose,</a><br /><a>Nor with sour looks afflict his gentle heart.</a><br /><p><i>Aside to SATURNINUS</i></p><a>be won at last;</a><br /><a>Dissemble all your griefs and discontents:</a><br /><a>You are but newly planted in your throne;</a><br /><a>Lest, then, the people, and patricians too,</a><br /><a>Upon a just survey, take Titus' part,</a><br /><a>And so supplant you for ingratitude,</a><br /><a>Which Rome reputes to be a heinous sin,</a><br /><a>Yield at entreats; and then let me alone:</a><br /><a>I'll find a day to massacre them all</a><br /><a>And raze their faction and their family,</a><br /><a>The cruel father and his traitorous sons,</a><br /><a>To whom I sued for my dear son's life,</a><br /><a>And make them know what 'tis to let a queen</a><br /><a>Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.</a><br /><p><i>Aloud</i></p><a>Come, come, sweet emperor; come, Andronicus;</a><br /><a>Take up this good old man, and cheer the heart</a><br /><a>That dies in tempest of thy angry frown.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Rise, Titus, rise; my empress hath prevail'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I thank your majesty, and her, my lord:</a><br /><a>These words, these looks, infuse new life in me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Titus, I am incorporate in Rome,</a><br /><a>A Roman now adopted happily,</a><br /><a>And must advise the emperor for his good.</a><br /><a>This day all quarrels die, Andronicus;</a><br /><a>And let it be mine honour, good my lord,</a><br /><a>That I have reconciled your friends and you.</a><br /><a>For you, Prince Bassianus, I have pass'd</a><br /><a>My word and promise to the emperor,</a><br /><a>That you will be more mild and tractable.</a><br /><a>And fear not lords, and you, Lavinia;</a><br /><a>By my advice, all humbled on your knees,</a><br /><a>You shall ask pardon of his majesty.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>We do, and vow to heaven and to his highness,</a><br /><a>That what we did was mildly as we might,</a><br /><a>Tendering our sister's honour and our own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>That, on mine honour, here I do protest.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Away, and talk not; trouble us no more.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, nay, sweet emperor, we must all be friends:</a><br /><a>The tribune and his nephews kneel for grace;</a><br /><a>I will not be denied: sweet heart, look back.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Marcus, for thy sake and thy brother's here,</a><br /><a>And at my lovely Tamora's entreats,</a><br /><a>I do remit these young men's heinous faults: Stand up.</a><br /><a>Lavinia, though you left me like a churl,</a><br /><a>I found a friend, and sure as death I swore</a><br /><a>I would not part a bachelor from the priest.</a><br /><a>Come, if the emperor's court can feast two brides,</a><br /><a>You are my guest, Lavinia, and your friends.</a><br /><a>This day shall be a love-day, Tamora.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>To-morrow, an it please your majesty</a><br /><a>To hunt the panther and the hart with me,</a><br /><a>With horn and hound we'll give your grace bonjour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><a>Be it so, Titus, and gramercy too.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish. Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 2239 ></span><span id = 2240 ><blockquote><i>Enter AARON</i></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top,</a><br /><a>Safe out of fortune's shot; and sits aloft,</a><br /><a>Secure of thunder's crack or lightning flash;</a><br /><a>Advanced above pale envy's threatening reach.</a><br /><a>As when the golden sun salutes the morn,</a><br /><a>And, having gilt the ocean with his beams,</a><br /><a>Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach,</a><br /><a>And overlooks the highest-peering hills;</a><br /><a>So Tamora:</a><br /><a>Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait,</a><br /><a>And virtue stoops and trembles at her frown.</a><br /><a>Then, Aaron, arm thy heart, and fit thy thoughts,</a><br /><a>To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress,</a><br /><a>And mount her pitch, whom thou in triumph long</a><br /><a>Hast prisoner held, fetter'd in amorous chains</a><br /><a>And faster bound to Aaron's charming eyes</a><br /><a>Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus.</a><br /><a>Away with slavish weeds and servile thoughts!</a><br /><a>I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold,</a><br /><a>To wait upon this new-made empress.</a><br /><a>To wait, said I? to wanton with this queen,</a><br /><a>This goddess, this Semiramis, this nymph,</a><br /><a>This siren, that will charm Rome's Saturnine,</a><br /><a>And see his shipwreck and his commonweal's.</a><br /><a>Holloa! what storm is this?</a><br /><p><i>Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, braving</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Chiron, thy years want wit, thy wit wants edge,</a><br /><a>And manners, to intrude where I am graced;</a><br /><a>And may, for aught thou know'st, affected be.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Demetrius, thou dost over-ween in all;</a><br /><a>And so in this, to bear me down with braves.</a><br /><a>'Tis not the difference of a year or two</a><br /><a>Makes me less gracious or thee more fortunate:</a><br /><a>I am as able and as fit as thou</a><br /><a>To serve, and to deserve my mistress' grace;</a><br /><a>And that my sword upon thee shall approve,</a><br /><a>And plead my passions for Lavinia's love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  Clubs, clubs! these lovers will not keep</a><br /><a>the peace.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, boy, although our mother, unadvised,</a><br /><a>Gave you a dancing-rapier by your side,</a><br /><a>Are you so desperate grown, to threat your friends?</a><br /><a>Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath</a><br /><a>Till you know better how to handle it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Meanwhile, sir, with the little skill I have,</a><br /><a>Full well shalt thou perceive how much I dare.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, boy, grow ye so brave?</a><br /><p><i>They draw</i></p></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Coming forward]  Why, how now, lords!</a><br /><a>So near the emperor's palace dare you draw,</a><br /><a>And maintain such a quarrel openly?</a><br /><a>Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge:</a><br /><a>I would not for a million of gold</a><br /><a>The cause were known to them it most concerns;</a><br /><a>Nor would your noble mother for much more</a><br /><a>Be so dishonour'd in the court of Rome.</a><br /><a>For shame, put up.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Not I, till I have sheathed</a><br /><a>My rapier in his bosom and withal</a><br /><a>Thrust these reproachful speeches down his throat</a><br /><a>That he hath breathed in my dishonour here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>For that I am prepared and full resolved.</a><br /><a>Foul-spoken coward, that thunder'st with thy tongue,</a><br /><a>And with thy weapon nothing darest perform!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Away, I say!</a><br /><a>Now, by the gods that warlike Goths adore,</a><br /><a>This petty brabble will undo us all.</a><br /><a>Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous</a><br /><a>It is to jet upon a prince's right?</a><br /><a>What, is Lavinia then become so loose,</a><br /><a>Or Bassianus so degenerate,</a><br /><a>That for her love such quarrels may be broach'd</a><br /><a>Without controlment, justice, or revenge?</a><br /><a>Young lords, beware! and should the empress know</a><br /><a>This discord's ground, the music would not please.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>I care not, I, knew she and all the world:</a><br /><a>I love Lavinia more than all the world.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Youngling, learn thou to make some meaner choice:</a><br /><a>Lavinia is thine elder brother's hope.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, are ye mad? or know ye not, in Rome</a><br /><a>How furious and impatient they be,</a><br /><a>And cannot brook competitors in love?</a><br /><a>I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths</a><br /><a>By this device.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Aaron, a thousand deaths</a><br /><a>Would I propose to achieve her whom I love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>To achieve her! how?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why makest thou it so strange?</a><br /><a>She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;</a><br /><a>She is a woman, therefore may be won;</a><br /><a>She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.</a><br /><a>What, man! more water glideth by the mill</a><br /><a>Than wots the miller of; and easy it is</a><br /><a>Of a cut loaf to steal a shive, we know:</a><br /><a>Though Bassianus be the emperor's brother.</a><br /><a>Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  Ay, and as good as Saturninus may.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Then why should he despair that knows to court it</a><br /><a>With words, fair looks and liberality?</a><br /><a>What, hast not thou full often struck a doe,</a><br /><a>And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, then, it seems, some certain snatch or so</a><br /><a>Would serve your turns.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, so the turn were served.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Aaron, thou hast hit it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Would you had hit it too!</a><br /><a>Then should not we be tired with this ado.</a><br /><a>Why, hark ye, hark ye! and are you such fools</a><br /><a>To square for this? would it offend you, then</a><br /><a>That both should speed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Faith, not me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Nor me, so I were one.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar:</a><br /><a>'Tis policy and stratagem must do</a><br /><a>That you affect; and so must you resolve,</a><br /><a>That what you cannot as you would achieve,</a><br /><a>You must perforce accomplish as you may.</a><br /><a>Take this of me: Lucrece was not more chaste</a><br /><a>Than this Lavinia, Bassianus' love.</a><br /><a>A speedier course than lingering languishment</a><br /><a>Must we pursue, and I have found the path.</a><br /><a>My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand;</a><br /><a>There will the lovely Roman ladies troop:</a><br /><a>The forest walks are wide and spacious;</a><br /><a>And many unfrequented plots there are</a><br /><a>Fitted by kind for rape and villany:</a><br /><a>Single you thither then this dainty doe,</a><br /><a>And strike her home by force, if not by words:</a><br /><a>This way, or not at all, stand you in hope.</a><br /><a>Come, come, our empress, with her sacred wit</a><br /><a>To villany and vengeance consecrate,</a><br /><a>Will we acquaint with all that we intend;</a><br /><a>And she shall file our engines with advice,</a><br /><a>That will not suffer you to square yourselves,</a><br /><a>But to your wishes' height advance you both.</a><br /><a>The emperor's court is like the house of Fame,</a><br /><a>The palace full of tongues, of eyes, and ears:</a><br /><a>The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull;</a><br /><a>There speak, and strike, brave boys, and take</a><br /><a>your turns;</a><br /><a>There serve your lusts, shadow'd from heaven's eye,</a><br /><a>And revel in Lavinia's treasury.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Thy counsel, lad, smells of no cowardice,</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sit fas aut nefas, till I find the stream</a><br /><a>To cool this heat, a charm to calm these fits.</a><br /><a>Per Styga, per manes vehor.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2241 ><blockquote><i>Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with Hunters,  &amp; c., MARCUS, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS</i></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey,</a><br /><a>The fields are fragrant and the woods are green:</a><br /><a>Uncouple here and let us make a bay</a><br /><a>And wake the emperor and his lovely bride</a><br /><a>And rouse the prince and ring a hunter's peal,</a><br /><a>That all the court may echo with the noise.</a><br /><a>Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours,</a><br /><a>To attend the emperor's person carefully:</a><br /><a>I have been troubled in my sleep this night,</a><br /><a>But dawning day new comfort hath inspired.</a><br /><p><i>A cry of hounds and horns, winded in a peal. Enter  SATURNINUS, TAMORA, BASSIANUS, LAVINIA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, and Attendants</i></p><a>Many good morrows to your majesty;</a><br /><a>Madam, to you as many and as good:</a><br /><a>I promised your grace a hunter's peal.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And you have rung it lustily, my lord;</a><br /><a>Somewhat too early for new-married ladies.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lavinia, how say you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I say, no;</a><br /><a>I have been broad awake two hours and more.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come on, then; horse and chariots let us have,</a><br /><a>And to our sport.</a><br /><p><i>To TAMORA</i></p><a>Madam, now shall ye see</a><br /><a>Our Roman hunting.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  I have dogs, my lord,</a><br /><a>Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase,</a><br /><a>And climb the highest promontory top.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And I have horse will follow where the game</a><br /><a>Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound,</a><br /><a>But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2242 ><blockquote><i>Enter AARON, with a bag of gold</i></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>He that had wit would think that I had none,</a><br /><a>To bury so much gold under a tree,</a><br /><a>And never after to inherit it.</a><br /><a>Let him that thinks of me so abjectly</a><br /><a>Know that this gold must coin a stratagem,</a><br /><a>Which, cunningly effected, will beget</a><br /><a>A very excellent piece of villany:</a><br /><a>And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest</a><br /><p><i>Hides the gold</i></p><a>That have their alms out of the empress' chest.</a><br /><p><i>Enter TAMORA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad,</a><br /><a>When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?</a><br /><a>The birds chant melody on every bush,</a><br /><a>The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,</a><br /><a>The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind</a><br /><a>And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground:</a><br /><a>Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,</a><br /><a>And, whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,</a><br /><a>Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,</a><br /><a>As if a double hunt were heard at once,</a><br /><a>Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise;</a><br /><a>And, after conflict such as was supposed</a><br /><a>The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd,</a><br /><a>When with a happy storm they were surprised</a><br /><a>And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave,</a><br /><a>We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,</a><br /><a>Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;</a><br /><a>Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds</a><br /><a>Be unto us as is a nurse's song</a><br /><a>Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Madam, though Venus govern your desires,</a><br /><a>Saturn is dominator over mine:</a><br /><a>What signifies my deadly-standing eye,</a><br /><a>My silence and my cloudy melancholy,</a><br /><a>My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls</a><br /><a>Even as an adder when she doth unroll</a><br /><a>To do some fatal execution?</a><br /><a>No, madam, these are no venereal signs:</a><br /><a>Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,</a><br /><a>Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.</a><br /><a>Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,</a><br /><a>Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,</a><br /><a>This is the day of doom for Bassianus:</a><br /><a>His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,</a><br /><a>Thy sons make pillage of her chastity</a><br /><a>And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.</a><br /><a>Seest thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,</a><br /><a>And give the king this fatal plotted scroll.</a><br /><a>Now question me no more; we are espied;</a><br /><a>Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,</a><br /><a>Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>No more, great empress; Bassianus comes:</a><br /><a>Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy sons</a><br /><a>To back thy quarrels, whatsoe'er they be.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p><p><i>Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Who have we here? Rome's royal empress,</a><br /><a>Unfurnish'd of her well-beseeming troop?</a><br /><a>Or is it Dian, habited like her,</a><br /><a>Who hath abandoned her holy groves</a><br /><a>To see the general hunting in this forest?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Saucy controller of our private steps!</a><br /><a>Had I the power that some say Dian had,</a><br /><a>Thy temples should be planted presently</a><br /><a>With horns, as was Actaeon's; and the hounds</a><br /><a>Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,</a><br /><a>Unmannerly intruder as thou art!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Under your patience, gentle empress,</a><br /><a>'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;</a><br /><a>And to be doubted that your Moor and you</a><br /><a>Are singled forth to try experiments:</a><br /><a>Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day!</a><br /><a>'Tis pity they should take him for a stag.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian</a><br /><a>Doth make your honour of his body's hue,</a><br /><a>Spotted, detested, and abominable.</a><br /><a>Why are you sequester'd from all your train,</a><br /><a>Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed.</a><br /><a>And wander'd hither to an obscure plot,</a><br /><a>Accompanied but with a barbarous Moor,</a><br /><a>If foul desire had not conducted you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>And, being intercepted in your sport,</a><br /><a>Great reason that my noble lord be rated</a><br /><a>For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence,</a><br /><a>And let her joy her raven-colour'd love;</a><br /><a>This valley fits the purpose passing well.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BASSIANUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The king my brother shall have note of this.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:</a><br /><a>Good king, to be so mightily abused!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Why have I patience to endure all this?</a><br /><p><i>Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother!</a><br /><a>Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?</a><br /><a>These two have 'ticed me hither to this place:</a><br /><a>A barren detested vale, you see it is;</a><br /><a>The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,</a><br /><a>O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:</a><br /><a>Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,</a><br /><a>Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven:</a><br /><a>And when they show'd me this abhorred pit,</a><br /><a>They told me, here, at dead time of the night,</a><br /><a>A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,</a><br /><a>Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,</a><br /><a>Would make such fearful and confused cries</a><br /><a>As any mortal body hearing it</a><br /><a>Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.</a><br /><a>No sooner had they told this hellish tale,</a><br /><a>But straight they told me they would bind me here</a><br /><a>Unto the body of a dismal yew,</a><br /><a>And leave me to this miserable death:</a><br /><a>And then they call'd me foul adulteress,</a><br /><a>Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms</a><br /><a>That ever ear did hear to such effect:</a><br /><a>And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,</a><br /><a>This vengeance on me had they executed.</a><br /><a>Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,</a><br /><a>Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This is a witness that I am thy son.</a><br /><p><i>Stabs BASSIANUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>And this for me, struck home to show my strength.</a><br /><p><i>Also stabs BASSIANUS, who dies</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, come, Semiramis, nay, barbarous Tamora,</a><br /><a>For no name fits thy nature but thy own!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Give me thy poniard; you shall know, my boys</a><br /><a>Your mother's hand shall right your mother's wrong.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, madam; here is more belongs to her;</a><br /><a>First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw:</a><br /><a>This minion stood upon her chastity,</a><br /><a>Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,</a><br /><a>And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:</a><br /><a>And shall she carry this unto her grave?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>An if she do, I would I were an eunuch.</a><br /><a>Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,</a><br /><a>And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>But when ye have the honey ye desire,</a><br /><a>Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>I warrant you, madam, we wil l make that sure.</a><br /><a>Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy</a><br /><a>That nice-preserved honesty of yours.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O Tamora! thou bear'st a woman's face,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>I will not hear her speak; away with her!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory</a><br /><a>To see her tears; but be your heart to them</a><br /><a>As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam?</a><br /><a>O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;</a><br /><a>The milk thou suck'dst from her did turn to marble;</a><br /><a>Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.</a><br /><a>Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:</a><br /><p><i>To CHIRON</i></p><a>Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:</a><br /><a>Yet have I heard,--O, could I find it now!--</a><br /><a>The lion moved with pity did endure</a><br /><a>To have his princely paws pared all away:</a><br /><a>Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,</a><br /><a>The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:</a><br /><a>O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,</a><br /><a>Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>I know not what it means; away with her!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O, let me teach thee! for my father's sake,</a><br /><a>That gave thee life, when well he might have</a><br /><a>slain thee,</a><br /><a>Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Hadst thou in person ne'er offended me,</a><br /><a>Even for his sake am I pitiless.</a><br /><a>Remember, boys, I pour'd forth tears in vain,</a><br /><a>To save your brother from the sacrifice;</a><br /><a>But fierce Andronicus would not relent;</a><br /><a>Therefore, away with her, and use her as you will,</a><br /><a>The worse to her, the better loved of me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen,</a><br /><a>And with thine own hands kill me in this place!</a><br /><a>For 'tis not life that I have begg'd so long;</a><br /><a>Poor I was slain when Bassianus died.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>What begg'st thou, then? fond woman, let me go.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more</a><br /><a>That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:</a><br /><a>O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,</a><br /><a>And tumble me into some loathsome pit,</a><br /><a>Where never man's eye may behold my body:</a><br /><a>Do this, and be a charitable murderer.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:</a><br /><a>No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Away! for thou hast stay'd us here too long.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LAVINIA</b></a><blockquote><a>No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!</a><br /><a>The blot and enemy to our general name!</a><br /><a>Confusion fall--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, then I'll stop your mouth. Bring thou her husband:</a><br /><a>This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him.</a><br /><p><i>DEMETRIUS throws the body of BASSIANUS into the  pit; then exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, dragging off LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Farewell, my sons: see that you make her sure.</a><br /><a>Ne'er let my heart know merry cheer indeed,</a><br /><a>Till all the Andronici be made away.</a><br /><a>Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor,</a><br /><a>And let my spleenful sons this trull deflow'r.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p><p><i>Re-enter AARON, with QUINTUS and MARTIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Come on, my lords, the better foot before:</a><br /><a>Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit</a><br /><a>Where I espied the panther fast asleep.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And mine, I promise you; were't not for shame,</a><br /><a>Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.</a><br /><p><i>Falls into the pit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What art thou fall'n? What subtle hole is this,</a><br /><a>Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing briers,</a><br /><a>Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood</a><br /><a>As fresh as morning dew distill'd on flowers?</a><br /><a>A very fatal place it seems to me.</a><br /><a>Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O brother, with the dismall'st object hurt</a><br /><a>That ever eye with sight made heart lament!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  Now will I fetch the king to find them here,</a><br /><a>That he thereby may give a likely guess</a><br /><a>How these were they that made away his brother.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why dost not comfort me, and help me out</a><br /><a>From this unhallowed and blood-stained hole?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I am surprised with an uncouth fear;</a><br /><a>A chilling sweat o'er-runs my trembling joints:</a><br /><a>My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,</a><br /><a>Aaron and thou look down into this den,</a><br /><a>And see a fearful sight of blood and death.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Aaron is gone; and my compassionate heart</a><br /><a>Will not permit mine eyes once to behold</a><br /><a>The thing whereat it trembles by surmise;</a><br /><a>O, tell me how it is; for ne'er till now</a><br /><a>Was I a child to fear I know not what.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here,</a><br /><a>All on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb,</a><br /><a>In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If it be dark, how dost thou know 'tis he?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Upon his bloody finger he doth wear</a><br /><a>A precious ring, that lightens all the hole,</a><br /><a>Which, like a taper in some monument,</a><br /><a>Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,</a><br /><a>And shows the ragged entrails of the pit:</a><br /><a>So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus</a><br /><a>When he by night lay bathed in maiden blood.</a><br /><a>O brother, help me with thy fainting hand--</a><br /><a>If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath--</a><br /><a>Out of this fell devouring receptacle,</a><br /><a>As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out;</a><br /><a>Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,</a><br /><a>I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb</a><br /><a>Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave.</a><br /><a>I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Nor I no strength to climb without thy help.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINTUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thy hand once more; I will not loose again,</a><br /><a>Till thou art here aloft, or I below:</a><br /><a>Thou canst not come to me: I come to thee.</a><br /><p><i>Falls in</i></p><p><i>Enter SATURNINUS with AARON</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Along with me: I'll see what hole is here,</a><br /><a>And what he is that now is leap'd into it.</a><br /><a>Say who art thou that lately didst descend</a><br /><a>Into this gaping hollow of the earth?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The unhappy son of old Andronicus:</a><br /><a>Brought hither in a most unlucky hour,</a><br /><a>To find thy brother Bassianus dead.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My brother dead! I know thou dost but jest:</a><br /><a>He and his lady both are at the lodge</a><br /><a>Upon the north side of this pleasant chase;</a><br /><a>'Tis not an hour since I left him there.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARTIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>We know not where you left him all alive;</a><br /><a>But, out, alas! here have we found him dead.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter TAMORA, with Attendants; TITUS ANDRONICUS, and Lucius</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Where is my lord the king?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Here, Tamora, though grieved with killing grief.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Where is thy brother Bassianus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound:</a><br /><a>Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,</a><br /><a>The complot of this timeless tragedy;</a><br /><a>And wonder greatly that man's face can fold</a><br /><a>In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.</a><br /><p><i>She giveth SATURNINUS a letter</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[Reads]  'An if we miss to meet him handsomely--</a><br /><a>Sweet huntsman, Bassianus 'tis we mean--</a><br /><a>Do thou so much as dig the grave for him:</a><br /><a>Thou know'st our meaning. Look for thy reward</a><br /><a>Among the nettles at the elder-tree</a><br /><a>Which overshades the mouth of that same pit</a><br /><a>Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.</a><br /><a>Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.'</a><br /><a>O Tamora! was ever heard the like?</a><br /><a>This is the pit, and this the elder-tree.</a><br /><a>Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out</a><br /><a>That should have murdered Bassianus here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[To TITUS]  Two of thy whelps, fell curs of</a><br /><a>bloody kind,</a><br /><a>Have here bereft my brother of his life.</a><br /><a>Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:</a><br /><a>There let them bide until we have devised</a><br /><a>Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!</a><br /><a>How easily murder is discovered!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>High emperor, upon my feeble knee</a><br /><a>I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,</a><br /><a>That this fell fault of my accursed sons,</a><br /><a>Accursed if the fault be proved in them,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If it be proved! you see it is apparent.</a><br /><a>Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Andronicus himself did take it up.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail;</a><br /><a>For, by my father's reverend tomb, I vow</a><br /><a>They shall be ready at your highness' will</a><br /><a>To answer their suspicion with their lives.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me.</a><br /><a>Some bring the murder'd body, some the murderers:</a><br /><a>Let them not speak a word; the guilt is plain;</a><br /><a>For, by my soul, were there worse end than death,</a><br /><a>That end upon them should be executed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Andronicus, I will entreat the king;</a><br /><a>Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2243 ><blockquote><i>Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON with LAVINIA, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out</i></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak,</a><br /><a>Who 'twas that cut thy tongue and ravish'd thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,</a><br /><a>An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>See, how with signs and tokens she can scrowl.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;</a><br /><a>And so let's leave her to her silent walks.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>An 'twere my case, I should go hang myself.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON</i></p><p><i>Enter MARCUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS</b></a><a>Who is this? my niece, that flies away so fast!</a><br /><a>Cousin, a word; where is your husband?</a><br /><a>If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!</a><br /><a>If I do wake, some planet strike me down,</a><br /><a>That I may slumber in eternal sleep!</a><br /><a>Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands</a><br /><a>Have lopp'd and hew'd and made thy body bare</a><br /><a>Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments,</a><br /><a>Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,</a><br /><a>And might not gain so great a happiness</a><br /><a>As have thy love? Why dost not speak to me?</a><br /><a>Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,</a><br /><a>Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,</a><br /><a>Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,</a><br /><a>Coming and going with thy honey breath.</a><br /><a>But, sure, some Tereus hath deflowered thee,</a><br /><a>And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.</a><br /><a>Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame!</a><br /><a>And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood,</a><br /><a>As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,</a><br /><a>Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan's face</a><br /><a>Blushing to be encountered with a cloud.</a><br /><a>Shall I speak for thee? shall I say 'tis so?</a><br /><a>O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,</a><br /><a>That I might rail at him, to ease my mind!</a><br /><a>Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,</a><br /><a>Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.</a><br /><a>Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,</a><br /><a>And in a tedious sampler sew'd her mind:</a><br /><a>But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;</a><br /><a>A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,</a><br /><a>And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,</a><br /><a>That could have better sew'd than Philomel.</a><br /><a>O, had the monster seen those lily hands</a><br /><a>Tremble, like aspen-leaves, upon a lute,</a><br /><a>And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,</a><br /><a>He would not then have touch'd them for his life!</a><br /><a>Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony</a><br /><a>Which that sweet tongue hath made,</a><br /><a>He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep</a><br /><a>As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet.</a><br /><a>Come, let us go, and make thy father blind;</a><br /><a>For such a sight will blind a father's eye:</a><br /><a>One hour's storm will drown the fragrant meads;</a><br /><a>What will whole months of tears thy father's eyes?</a><br /><a>Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee</a><br /><a>O, could our mourning ease thy misery!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 2244 ></span><span id = 2245 ><blockquote><i>Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS,bound, passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before,pleading</i></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!</a><br /><a>For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent</a><br /><a>In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;</a><br /><a>For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;</a><br /><a>For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;</a><br /><a>And for these bitter tears, which now you see</a><br /><a>Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;</a><br /><a>Be pitiful to my condemned sons,</a><br /><a>Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought.</a><br /><a>For two and twenty sons I never wept,</a><br /><a>Because they died in honour's lofty bed.</a><br /><p><i>Lieth down; the Judges,  &amp; c., pass by him, and Exeunt</i></p><a>For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write</a><br /><a>My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears:</a><br /><a>Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite;</a><br /><a>My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush.</a><br /><a>O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,</a><br /><a>That shall distil from these two ancient urns,</a><br /><a>Than youthful April shall with all his showers:</a><br /><a>In summer's drought I'll drop upon thee still;</a><br /><a>In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow</a><br /><a>And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,</a><br /><a>So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.</a><br /><p><i>Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn</i></p><a>O reverend tribunes! O gentle, aged men!</a><br /><a>Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;</a><br /><a>And let me say, that never wept before,</a><br /><a>My tears are now prevailing orators.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O noble father, you lament in vain:</a><br /><a>The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;</a><br /><a>And you recount your sorrows to a stone.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.</a><br /><a>Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,</a><br /><a>They would not mark me, or if they did mark,</a><br /><a>They would not pity me, yet plead I must;</a><br /><a>Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;</a><br /><a>Who, though they cannot answer my distress,</a><br /><a>Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,</a><br /><a>For that they will not intercept my tale:</a><br /><a>When I do weep, they humbly at my feet</a><br /><a>Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;</a><br /><a>And, were they but attired in grave weeds,</a><br /><a>Rome could afford no tribune like to these.</a><br /><a>A stone is soft as wax,--tribunes more hard than stones;</a><br /><a>A stone is silent, and offendeth not,</a><br /><a>And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.</a><br /><p><i>Rises</i></p><a>But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>To rescue my two brothers from their death:</a><br /><a>For which attempt the judges have pronounced</a><br /><a>My everlasting doom of banishment.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O happy man! they have befriended thee.</a><br /><a>Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive</a><br /><a>That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?</a><br /><a>Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey</a><br /><a>But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,</a><br /><a>From these devourers to be banished!</a><br /><a>But who comes with our brother Marcus here?</a><br /><p><i>Enter MARCUS and LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep;</a><br /><a>Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break:</a><br /><a>I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Will it consume me? let me see it, then.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This was thy daughter.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, Marcus, so she is.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay me, this object kills me!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her.</a><br /><a>Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand</a><br /><a>Hath made thee handless in thy father's sight?</a><br /><a>What fool hath added water to the sea,</a><br /><a>Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?</a><br /><a>My grief was at the height before thou camest,</a><br /><a>And now like Nilus, it disdaineth bounds.</a><br /><a>Give me a sword, I'll chop off my hands too;</a><br /><a>For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;</a><br /><a>And they have nursed this woe, in feeding life;</a><br /><a>In bootless prayer have they been held up,</a><br /><a>And they have served me to effectless use:</a><br /><a>Now all the service I require of them</a><br /><a>Is that the one will help to cut the other.</a><br /><a>'Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands;</a><br /><a>For hands, to do Rome service, are but vain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr'd thee?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, that delightful engine of her thoughts</a><br /><a>That blabb'd them with such pleasing eloquence,</a><br /><a>Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage,</a><br /><a>Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung</a><br /><a>Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, thus I found her, straying in the park,</a><br /><a>Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer</a><br /><a>That hath received some unrecuring wound.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>It was my deer; and he that wounded her</a><br /><a>Hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead:</a><br /><a>For now I stand as one upon a rock</a><br /><a>Environed with a wilderness of sea,</a><br /><a>Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,</a><br /><a>Expecting ever when some envious surge</a><br /><a>Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.</a><br /><a>This way to death my wretched sons are gone;</a><br /><a>Here stands my other son, a banished man,</a><br /><a>And here my brother, weeping at my woes.</a><br /><a>But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn,</a><br /><a>Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.</a><br /><a>Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,</a><br /><a>It would have madded me: what shall I do</a><br /><a>Now I behold thy lively body so?</a><br /><a>Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears:</a><br /><a>Nor tongue, to tell me who hath martyr'd thee:</a><br /><a>Thy husband he is dead: and for his death</a><br /><a>Thy brothers are condemn'd, and dead by this.</a><br /><a>Look, Marcus! ah, son Lucius, look on her!</a><br /><a>When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears</a><br /><a>Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew</a><br /><a>Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Perchance she weeps because they kill'd her husband;</a><br /><a>Perchance because she knows them innocent.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful</a><br /><a>Because the law hath ta'en revenge on them.</a><br /><a>No, no, they would not do so foul a deed;</a><br /><a>Witness the sorrow that their sister makes.</a><br /><a>Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips.</a><br /><a>Or make some sign how I may do thee ease:</a><br /><a>Shall thy good uncle, and thy brother Lucius,</a><br /><a>And thou, and I, sit round about some fountain,</a><br /><a>Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks</a><br /><a>How they are stain'd, as meadows, yet not dry,</a><br /><a>With miry slime left on them by a flood?</a><br /><a>And in the fountain shall we gaze so long</a><br /><a>Till the fresh taste be taken from that clearness,</a><br /><a>And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears?</a><br /><a>Or shall we cut away our hands, like thine?</a><br /><a>Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows</a><br /><a>Pass the remainder of our hateful days?</a><br /><a>What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues,</a><br /><a>Plot some deuce of further misery,</a><br /><a>To make us wonder'd at in time to come.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sweet father, cease your tears; for, at your grief,</a><br /><a>See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ah, Marcus, Marcus! brother, well I wot</a><br /><a>Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine,</a><br /><a>For thou, poor man, hast drown'd it with thine own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs:</a><br /><a>Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say</a><br /><a>That to her brother which I said to thee:</a><br /><a>His napkin, with his true tears all bewet,</a><br /><a>Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks.</a><br /><a>O, what a sympathy of woe is this,</a><br /><a>As far from help as Limbo is from bliss!</a><br /><p><i>Enter AARON</i></p></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor</a><br /><a>Sends thee this word,--that, if thou love thy sons,</a><br /><a>Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,</a><br /><a>Or any one of you, chop off your hand,</a><br /><a>And send it to the king: he for the same</a><br /><a>Will send thee hither both thy sons alive;</a><br /><a>And that shall be the ransom for their fault.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O gracious emperor! O gentle Aaron!</a><br /><a>Did ever raven sing so like a lark,</a><br /><a>That gives sweet tidings of the sun's uprise?</a><br /><a>With all my heart, I'll send the emperor My hand:</a><br /><a>Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, father! for that noble hand of thine,</a><br /><a>That hath thrown down so many enemies,</a><br /><a>Shall not be sent: my hand will serve the turn:</a><br /><a>My youth can better spare my blood than you;</a><br /><a>And therefore mine shall save my brothers' lives.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a> Which of your hands hath not defended Rome,</a><br /><a>And rear'd aloft the bloody battle-axe,</a><br /><a>Writing destruction on the enemy's castle?</a><br /><a>O, none of both but are of high desert:</a><br /><a>My hand hath been but idle; let it serve</a><br /><a>To ransom my two nephews from their death;</a><br /><a>Then have I kept it to a worthy end.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along,</a><br /><a>For fear they die before their pardon come.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My hand shall go.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  By heaven, it shall not go!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sirs, strive no more: such wither'd herbs as these</a><br /><a>Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son,</a><br /><a>Let me redeem my brothers both from death.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And, for our father's sake and mother's care,</a><br /><a>Now let me show a brother's love to thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Agree between you; I will spare my hand.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Then I'll go fetch an axe.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But I will use the axe.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt LUCIUS and MARCUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come hither, Aaron; I'll deceive them both:</a><br /><a>Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  If that be call'd deceit, I will be honest,</a><br /><a>And never, whilst I live, deceive men so:</a><br /><a>But I'll deceive you in another sort,</a><br /><a>And that you'll say, ere half an hour pass.</a><br /><p><i>Cuts off TITUS's hand</i></p><p><i>Re-enter LUCIUS and MARCUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now stay your strife: what shall be is dispatch'd.</a><br /><a>Good Aaron, give his majesty my hand:</a><br /><a>Tell him it was a hand that warded him</a><br /><a>From thousand dangers; bid him bury it</a><br /><a>More hath it merited; that let it have.</a><br /><a>As for my sons, say I account of them</a><br /><a>As jewels purchased at an easy price;</a><br /><a>And yet dear too, because I bought mine own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand</a><br /><a>Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>Their heads, I mean. O, how this villany</a><br /><a>Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!</a><br /><a>Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace.</a><br /><a>Aaron will have his soul black like his face.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven,</a><br /><a>And bow this feeble ruin to the earth:</a><br /><a>If any power pities wretched tears,</a><br /><a>To that I call!</a><br /><p><i>To LAVINIA</i></p><a>What, wilt thou kneel with me?</a><br /><a>Do, then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers;</a><br /><a>Or with our sighs we'll breathe the welkin dim,</a><br /><a>And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds</a><br /><a>When they do hug him in their melting bosoms.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O brother, speak with possibilities,</a><br /><a>And do not break into these deep extremes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?</a><br /><a>Then be my passions bottomless with them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But yet let reason govern thy lament.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If there were reason for these miseries,</a><br /><a>Then into limits could I bind my woes:</a><br /><a>When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow?</a><br /><a>If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,</a><br /><a>Threatening the welkin with his big-swoln face?</a><br /><a>And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?</a><br /><a>I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow!</a><br /><a>She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:</a><br /><a>Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;</a><br /><a>Then must my earth with her continual tears</a><br /><a>Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd;</a><br /><a>For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,</a><br /><a>But like a drunkard must I vomit them.</a><br /><a>Then give me leave, for losers will have leave</a><br /><a>To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Messenger, with two heads and a hand</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Messenger</b></a><blockquote><a>Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid</a><br /><a>For that good hand thou sent'st the emperor.</a><br /><a>Here are the heads of thy two noble sons;</a><br /><a>And here's thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back;</a><br /><a>Thy griefs their sports, thy resolution mock'd;</a><br /><a>That woe is me to think upon thy woes</a><br /><a>More than remembrance of my father's death.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now let hot AEtna cool in Sicily,</a><br /><a>And be my heart an ever-burning hell!</a><br /><a>These miseries are more than may be borne.</a><br /><a>To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal;</a><br /><a>But sorrow flouted at is double death.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound,</a><br /><a>And yet detested life not shrink thereat!</a><br /><a>That ever death should let life bear his name,</a><br /><a>Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!</a><br /><p><i>LAVINIA kisses TITUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless</a><br /><a>As frozen water to a starved snake.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>When will this fearful slumber have an end?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now, farewell, flattery: die, Andronicus;</a><br /><a>Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons' heads,</a><br /><a>Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here:</a><br /><a>Thy other banish'd son, with this dear sight</a><br /><a>Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,</a><br /><a>Even like a stony image, cold and numb.</a><br /><a>Ah, now no more will I control thy griefs:</a><br /><a>Rend off thy silver hair, thy other hand</a><br /><a>Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight</a><br /><a>The closing up of our most wretched eyes;</a><br /><a>Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ha, ha, ha!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, I have not another tear to shed:</a><br /><a>Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,</a><br /><a>And would usurp upon my watery eyes</a><br /><a>And make them blind with tributary tears:</a><br /><a>Then which way shall I find Revenge's cave?</a><br /><a>For these two heads do seem to speak to me,</a><br /><a>And threat me I shall never come to bliss</a><br /><a>Till all these mischiefs be return'd again</a><br /><a>Even in their throats that have committed them.</a><br /><a>Come, let me see what task I have to do.</a><br /><a>You heavy people, circle me about,</a><br /><a>That I may turn me to each one of you,</a><br /><a>And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs.</a><br /><a>The vow is made. Come, brother, take a head;</a><br /><a>And in this hand the other I will bear.</a><br /><a>Lavinia, thou shalt be employ'd: these arms!</a><br /><a>Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.</a><br /><a>As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight;</a><br /><a>Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay:</a><br /><a>Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there:</a><br /><a>And, if you love me, as I think you do,</a><br /><a>Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt TITUS, MARCUS, and LAVINIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Farewell Andronicus, my noble father,</a><br /><a>The wofull'st man that ever lived in Rome:</a><br /><a>Farewell, proud Rome; till Lucius come again,</a><br /><a>He leaves his pledges dearer than his life:</a><br /><a>Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;</a><br /><a>O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been!</a><br /><a>But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives</a><br /><a>But in oblivion and hateful griefs.</a><br /><a>If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs;</a><br /><a>And make proud Saturnine and his empress</a><br /><a>Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.</a><br /><a>Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power,</a><br /><a>To be revenged on Rome and Saturnine.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2246 ><blockquote><i>Enter TITUS, MARCUS, LAVINIA and Young LUCIUS, a boy</i></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>So, so; now sit: and look you eat no more</a><br /><a>Than will preserve just so much strength in us</a><br /><a>As will revenge these bitter woes of ours.</a><br /><a>Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot:</a><br /><a>Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands,</a><br /><a>And cannot passionate our tenfold grief</a><br /><a>With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine</a><br /><a>Is left to tyrannize upon my breast;</a><br /><a>Who, when my heart, all mad with misery,</a><br /><a>Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh,</a><br /><a>Then thus I thump it down.</a><br /><p><i>To LAVINIA</i></p><a>Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs!</a><br /><a>When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating,</a><br /><a>Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still.</a><br /><a>Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans;</a><br /><a>Or get some little knife between thy teeth,</a><br /><a>And just against thy heart make thou a hole;</a><br /><a>That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall</a><br /><a>May run into that sink, and soaking in</a><br /><a>Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Fie, brother, fie! teach her not thus to lay</a><br /><a>Such violent hands upon her tender life.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>How now! has sorrow made thee dote already?</a><br /><a>Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.</a><br /><a>What violent hands can she lay on her life?</a><br /><a>Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands;</a><br /><a>To bid AEneas tell the tale twice o'er,</a><br /><a>How Troy was burnt and he made miserable?</a><br /><a>O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands,</a><br /><a>Lest we remember still that we have none.</a><br /><a>Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk,</a><br /><a>As if we should forget we had no hands,</a><br /><a>If Marcus did not name the word of hands!</a><br /><a>Come, let's fall to; and, gentle girl, eat this:</a><br /><a>Here is no drink! Hark, Marcus, what she says;</a><br /><a>I can interpret all her martyr'd signs;</a><br /><a>She says she drinks no other drink but tears,</a><br /><a>Brew'd with her sorrow, mesh'd upon her cheeks:</a><br /><a>Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought;</a><br /><a>In thy dumb action will I be as perfect</a><br /><a>As begging hermits in their holy prayers:</a><br /><a>Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,</a><br /><a>Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,</a><br /><a>But I of these will wrest an alphabet</a><br /><a>And by still practise learn to know thy meaning.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Good grandsire, leave these bitter deep laments:</a><br /><a>Make my aunt merry with some pleasing tale.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, the tender boy, in passion moved,</a><br /><a>Doth weep to see his grandsire's heaviness.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Peace, tender sapling; thou art made of tears,</a><br /><a>And tears will quickly melt thy life away.</a><br /><p><i>MARCUS strikes the dish with a knife</i></p><a>What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>At that that I have kill'd, my lord; a fly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Out on thee, murderer! thou kill'st my heart;</a><br /><a>Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny:</a><br /><a>A deed of death done on the innocent</a><br /><a>Becomes not Titus' brother: get thee gone:</a><br /><a>I see thou art not for my company.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But how, if that fly had a father and mother?</a><br /><a>How would he hang his slender gilded wings,</a><br /><a>And buzz lamenting doings in the air!</a><br /><a>Poor harmless fly,</a><br /><a>That, with his pretty buzzing melody,</a><br /><a>Came here to make us merry! and thou hast</a><br /><a>kill'd him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Pardon me, sir; it was a black ill-favor'd fly,</a><br /><a>Like to the empress' Moor; therefore I kill'd him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, O, O,</a><br /><a>Then pardon me for reprehending thee,</a><br /><a>For thou hast done a charitable deed.</a><br /><a>Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;</a><br /><a>Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor</a><br /><a>Come hither purposely to poison me.--</a><br /><a>There's for thyself, and that's for Tamora.</a><br /><a>Ah, sirrah!</a><br /><a>Yet, I think, we are not brought so low,</a><br /><a>But that between us we can kill a fly</a><br /><a>That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him,</a><br /><a>He takes false shadows for true substances.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><a>Come, take away. Lavinia, go with me:</a><br /><a>I'll to thy closet; and go read with thee</a><br /><a>Sad stories chanced in the times of old.</a><br /><a>Come, boy, and go with me: thy sight is young,</a><br /><a>And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 2247 ></span><span id = 2248 ><blockquote><i>Enter young LUCIUS, and LAVINIA running after him, and the boy fliesfrom her, with books under his arm. Then enter TITUS and MARCUS</i></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia</a><br /><a>Follows me every where, I know not why:</a><br /><a>Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.</a><br /><a>Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine aunt.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, when my father was in Rome she did.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What means my niece Lavinia by these signs?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Fear her not, Lucius: somewhat doth she mean:</a><br /><a>See, Lucius, see how much she makes of thee:</a><br /><a>Somewhither would she have thee go with her.</a><br /><a>Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care</a><br /><a>Read to her sons than she hath read to thee</a><br /><a>Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess,</a><br /><a>Unless some fit or frenzy do possess her:</a><br /><a>For I have heard my grandsire say full oft,</a><br /><a>Extremity of griefs would make men mad;</a><br /><a>And I have read that Hecuba of Troy</a><br /><a>Ran mad through sorrow: that made me to fear;</a><br /><a>Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt</a><br /><a>Loves me as dear as e'er my mother did,</a><br /><a>And would not, but in fury, fright my youth:</a><br /><a>Which made me down to throw my books, and fly--</a><br /><a>Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt:</a><br /><a>And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go,</a><br /><a>I will most willingly attend your ladyship.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lucius, I will.</a><br /><p><i>LAVINIA turns over with her stumps the books which LUCIUS has let fall</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>How now, Lavinia! Marcus, what means this?</a><br /><a>Some book there is that she desires to see.</a><br /><a>Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy.</a><br /><a>But thou art deeper read, and better skill'd</a><br /><a>Come, and take choice of all my library,</a><br /><a>And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens</a><br /><a>Reveal the damn'd contriver of this deed.</a><br /><a>Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I think she means that there was more than one</a><br /><a>Confederate in the fact: ay, more there was;</a><br /><a>Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses;</a><br /><a>My mother gave it me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>For love of her that's gone,</a><br /><a>Perhaps she cull'd it from among the rest.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Soft! see how busily she turns the leaves!</a><br /><p><i>Helping her</i></p><a>What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read?</a><br /><a>This is the tragic tale of Philomel,</a><br /><a>And treats of Tereus' treason and his rape:</a><br /><a>And rape, I fear, was root of thine annoy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>See, brother, see; note how she quotes the leaves.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl,</a><br /><a>Ravish'd and wrong'd, as Philomela was,</a><br /><a>Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? See, see!</a><br /><a>Ay, such a place there is, where we did hunt--</a><br /><a>O, had we never, never hunted there!--</a><br /><a>Pattern'd by that the poet here describes,</a><br /><a>By nature made for murders and for rapes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, why should nature build so foul a den,</a><br /><a>Unless the gods delight in tragedies?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none</a><br /><a>but friends,</a><br /><a>What Roman lord it was durst do the deed:</a><br /><a>Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst,</a><br /><a>That left the camp to sin in Lucrece' bed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sit down, sweet niece: brother, sit down by me.</a><br /><a>Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,</a><br /><a>Inspire me, that I may this treason find!</a><br /><a>My lord, look here: look here, Lavinia:</a><br /><a>This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst</a><br /><a>This after me, when I have writ my name</a><br /><a>Without the help of any hand at all.</a><br /><p><i>He writes his name with his staff, and guides it with feet and mouth</i></p><a>Cursed be that heart that forced us to this shift!</a><br /><a>Write thou good niece; and here display, at last,</a><br /><a>What God will have discover'd for revenge;</a><br /><a>Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,</a><br /><a>That we may know the traitors and the truth!</a><br /><p><i>She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her stumps, and writes</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?</a><br /><a>'Stuprum. Chiron. Demetrius.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What, what! the lustful sons of Tamora</a><br /><a>Performers of this heinous, bloody deed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Magni Dominator poli,</a><br /><a>Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, calm thee, gentle lord; although I know</a><br /><a>There is enough written upon this earth</a><br /><a>To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts</a><br /><a>And arm the minds of infants to exclaims.</a><br /><a>My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel;</a><br /><a>And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector's hope;</a><br /><a>And swear with me, as, with the woful fere</a><br /><a>And father of that chaste dishonour'd dame,</a><br /><a>Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece' rape,</a><br /><a>That we will prosecute by good advice</a><br /><a>Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,</a><br /><a>And see their blood, or die with this reproach.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis sure enough, an you knew how.</a><br /><a>But if you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware:</a><br /><a>The dam will wake; and, if she wind you once,</a><br /><a>She's with the lion deeply still in league,</a><br /><a>And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back,</a><br /><a>And when he sleeps will she do what she list.</a><br /><a>You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let it alone;</a><br /><a>And, come, I will go get a leaf of brass,</a><br /><a>And with a gad of steel will write these words,</a><br /><a>And lay it by: the angry northern wind</a><br /><a>Will blow these sands, like Sibyl's leaves, abroad,</a><br /><a>And where's your lesson, then? Boy, what say you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I say, my lord, that if I were a man,</a><br /><a>Their mother's bed-chamber should not be safe</a><br /><a>For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, that's my boy! thy father hath full oft</a><br /><a>For his ungrateful country done the like.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And, uncle, so will I, an if I live.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, go with me into mine armoury;</a><br /><a>Lucius, I'll fit thee; and withal, my boy,</a><br /><a>Shalt carry from me to the empress' sons</a><br /><a>Presents that I intend to send them both:</a><br /><a>Come, come; thou'lt do thy message, wilt thou not?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, boy, not so; I'll teach thee another course.</a><br /><a>Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house:</a><br /><a>Lucius and I'll go brave it at the court:</a><br /><a>Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we'll be waited on.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt TITUS, LAVINIA, and Young LUCIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O heavens, can you hear a good man groan,</a><br /><a>And not relent, or not compassion him?</a><br /><a>Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,</a><br /><a>That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart</a><br /><a>Than foemen's marks upon his batter'd shield;</a><br /><a>But yet so just that he will not revenge.</a><br /><a>Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus!</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2249 ><blockquote><i>Enter, from one side, AARON, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON; from the otherside, Young LUCIUS, and an Attendant, with a bundle of weapons, andverses writ upon them</i></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius;</a><br /><a>He hath some message to deliver us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lords, with all the humbleness I may,</a><br /><a>I greet your honours from Andronicus.</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>And pray the Roman gods confound you both!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what's the news?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  That you are both decipher'd, that's the news,</a><br /><a>For villains mark'd with rape.--May it please you,</a><br /><a>My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me</a><br /><a>The goodliest weapons of his armoury</a><br /><a>To gratify your honourable youth,</a><br /><a>The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say;</a><br /><a>And so I do, and with his gifts present</a><br /><a>Your lordships, that, whenever you have need,</a><br /><a>You may be armed and appointed well:</a><br /><a>And so I leave you both:</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>like bloody villains.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Young LUCIUS, and Attendant</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What's here? A scroll; and written round about?</a><br /><a>Let's see;</a><br /><p><i>Reads</i></p><a>'Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,</a><br /><a>Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well:</a><br /><a>I read it in the grammar long ago.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!</a><br /><a>Here's no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;</a><br /><a>And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines,</a><br /><a>That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.</a><br /><a>But were our witty empress well afoot,</a><br /><a>She would applaud Andronicus' conceit:</a><br /><a>But let her rest in her unrest awhile.</a><br /><a>And now, young lords, was't not a happy star</a><br /><a>Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,</a><br /><a>Captives, to be advanced to this height?</a><br /><a>It did me good, before the palace gate</a><br /><a>To brave the tribune in his brother's hearing.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But me more good, to see so great a lord</a><br /><a>Basely insinuate and send us gifts.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?</a><br /><a>Did you not use his daughter very friendly?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I would we had a thousand Roman dames</a><br /><a>At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>A charitable wish and full of love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>And that would she for twenty thousand more.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods</a><br /><a>For our beloved mother in her pains.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.</a><br /><p><i>Trumpets sound within</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Soft! who comes here?</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>Good morr ow, lords:</a><br /><a>O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all,</a><br /><a>Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!</a><br /><a>Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!</a><br /><a>What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye,</a><br /><a>Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace!</a><br /><a>She is deliver'd, lords; she is deliver'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>To whom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>       I mean, she is brought a-bed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>A devil.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, then she is the devil's dam; a joyful issue.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue:</a><br /><a>Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad</a><br /><a>Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:</a><br /><a>The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,</a><br /><a>And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>'Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?</a><br /><a>Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Villain, what hast thou done?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>That which thou canst not undo.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou hast undone our mother.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Villain, I have done thy mother.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.</a><br /><a>Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice!</a><br /><a>Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>It shall not live.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>It shall not die.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I</a><br /><a>Do execution on my flesh and blood.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point:</a><br /><a>Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.</a><br /><p><i>Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws</i></p><a>Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother?</a><br /><a>Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,</a><br /><a>That shone so brightly when this boy was got,</a><br /><a>He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point</a><br /><a>That touches this my first-born son and heir!</a><br /><a>I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,</a><br /><a>With all his threatening band of Typhon's brood,</a><br /><a>Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,</a><br /><a>Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands.</a><br /><a>What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!</a><br /><a>Ye white-limed walls! ye alehouse painted signs!</a><br /><a>Coal-black is better than another hue,</a><br /><a>In that it scorns to bear another hue;</a><br /><a>For all the water in the ocean</a><br /><a>Can never turn the swan's black legs to white,</a><br /><a>Although she lave them hourly in the flood.</a><br /><a>Tell the empress from me, I am of age</a><br /><a>To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>My mistress is my mistress; this myself,</a><br /><a>The vigour and the picture of my youth:</a><br /><a>This before all the world do I prefer;</a><br /><a>This maugre all the world will I keep safe,</a><br /><a>Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>By this our mother is forever shamed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Rome will despise her for this foul escape.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>I blush to think upon this ignomy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears:</a><br /><a>Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing</a><br /><a>The close enacts and counsels of the heart!</a><br /><a>Here's a young lad framed of another leer:</a><br /><a>Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father,</a><br /><a>As who should say 'Old lad, I am thine own.'</a><br /><a>He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed</a><br /><a>Of that self-blood that first gave life to you,</a><br /><a>And from that womb where you imprison'd were</a><br /><a>He is enfranchised and come to light:</a><br /><a>Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,</a><br /><a>Although my seal be stamped in his face.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,</a><br /><a>And we will all subscribe to thy advice:</a><br /><a>Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Then sit we down, and let us all consult.</a><br /><a>My son and I will have the wind of you:</a><br /><a>Keep there: now talk at pleasure of your safety.</a><br /><p><i>They sit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>How many women saw this child of his?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, so, brave lords! when we join in league,</a><br /><a>I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor,</a><br /><a>The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,</a><br /><a>The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.</a><br /><a>But say, again; how many saw the child?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Nurse</b></a><blockquote><a>Cornelia the midwife and myself;</a><br /><a>And no one else but the deliver'd empress.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>The empress, the midwife, and yourself:</a><br /><a>Two may keep counsel when the third's away:</a><br /><a>Go to the empress, tell her this I said.</a><br /><p><i>He kills the nurse</i></p><a>Weke, weke! so cries a pig prepared to the spit.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What mean'st thou, Aaron? wherefore didst thou this?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>O Lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy:</a><br /><a>Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,</a><br /><a>A long-tongued babbling gossip? no, lords, no:</a><br /><a>And now be it known to you my full intent.</a><br /><a>Not far, one Muli lives, my countryman;</a><br /><a>His wife but yesternight was brought to bed;</a><br /><a>His child is like to her, fair as you are:</a><br /><a>Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,</a><br /><a>And tell them both the circumstance of all;</a><br /><a>And how by this their child shall be advanced,</a><br /><a>And be received for the emperor's heir,</a><br /><a>And substituted in the place of mine,</a><br /><a>To calm this tempest whirling in the court;</a><br /><a>And let the emperor dandle him for his own.</a><br /><a>Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given her physic,</a><br /><p><i>Pointing to the nurse</i></p><a>And you must needs bestow her funeral;</a><br /><a>The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms:</a><br /><a>This done, see that you take no longer days,</a><br /><a>But send the midwife presently to me.</a><br /><a>The midwife and the nurse well made away,</a><br /><a>Then let the ladies tattle what they please.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air</a><br /><a>With secrets.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  For this care of Tamora,</a><br /><a>Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON bearing off the Nurse's body</i></p></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies;</a><br /><a>There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,</a><br /><a>And secretly to greet the empress' friends.</a><br /><a>Come on, you thick lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence;</a><br /><a>For it is you that puts us to our shifts:</a><br /><a>I'll make you feed on berries and on roots,</a><br /><a>And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,</a><br /><a>And cabin in a cave, and bring you up</a><br /><a>To be a warrior, and command a camp.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2250 ><blockquote><i>Enter TITUS, bearing arrows with letters at the ends of them; withhim, MARCUS, Young LUCIUS, PUBLIUS, SEMPRONIUS, CAIUS, and otherGentlemen, with bows</i></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, Marcus; come, kinsmen; this is the way.</a><br /><a>Sir boy, now let me see your archery;</a><br /><a>Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.</a><br /><a>Terras Astraea reliquit:</a><br /><a>Be you remember'd, Marcus, she's gone, she's fled.</a><br /><a>Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall</a><br /><a>Go sound the ocean, and cast your nets;</a><br /><a>Happily you may catch her in the sea;</a><br /><a>Yet there's as little justice as at land:</a><br /><a>No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;</a><br /><a>'Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade,</a><br /><a>And pierce the inmost centre of the earth:</a><br /><a>Then, when you come to Pluto's region,</a><br /><a>I pray you, deliver him this petition;</a><br /><a>Tell him, it is for justice and for aid,</a><br /><a>And that it comes from old Andronicus,</a><br /><a>Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.</a><br /><a>Ah, Rome! Well, well; I made thee miserable</a><br /><a>What time I threw the people's suffrages</a><br /><a>On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me.</a><br /><a>Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,</a><br /><a>And leave you not a man-of-war unsearch'd:</a><br /><a>This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence;</a><br /><a>And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O Publius, is not this a heavy case,</a><br /><a>To see thy noble uncle thus distract?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUBLIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Therefore, my lord, it highly us concerns</a><br /><a>By day and night to attend him carefully,</a><br /><a>And feed his humour kindly as we may,</a><br /><a>Till time beget some careful remedy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.</a><br /><a>Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war</a><br /><a>Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,</a><br /><a>And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Publius, how now! how now, my masters!</a><br /><a>What, have you met with her?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUBLIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,</a><br /><a>If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:</a><br /><a>Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,</a><br /><a>He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,</a><br /><a>So that perforce you must needs stay a time.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.</a><br /><a>I'll dive into the burning lake below,</a><br /><a>And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.</a><br /><a>Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we</a><br /><a>No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops' size;</a><br /><a>But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,</a><br /><a>Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear:</a><br /><a>And, sith there's no justice in earth nor hell,</a><br /><a>We will solicit heaven and move the gods</a><br /><a>To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.</a><br /><a>Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus;</a><br /><p><i>He gives them the arrows</i></p><a>'Ad Jovem,' that's for you: here, 'Ad Apollinem:'</a><br /><a>'Ad Martem,' that's for myself:</a><br /><a>Here, boy, to Pallas: here, to Mercury:</a><br /><a>To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine;</a><br /><a>You were as good to shoot against the wind.</a><br /><a>To it, boy! Marcus, loose when I bid.</a><br /><a>Of my word, I have written to effect;</a><br /><a>There's not a god left unsolicited.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:</a><br /><a>We will afflict the emperor in his pride.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now, masters, draw.</a><br /><p><i>They shoot</i></p><a>O, well said, Lucius!</a><br /><a>Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon;</a><br /><a>Your letter is with Jupiter by this.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ha, ha!</a><br /><a>Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?</a><br /><a>See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,</a><br /><a>The Bull, being gall'd, gave Aries such a knock</a><br /><a>That down fell both the Ram's horns in the court;</a><br /><a>And who should find them but the empress' villain?</a><br /><a>She laugh'd, and told the Moor he should not choose</a><br /><a>But give them to his master for a present.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, there it goes: God give his lordship joy!</a><br /><p><i>Enter a Clown, with a basket, and two pigeons in it</i></p><a>News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.</a><br /><a>Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?</a><br /><a>Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>O, the gibbet-maker! he says that he hath taken</a><br /><a>them down again, for the man must not be hanged till</a><br /><a>the next week.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him</a><br /><a>in all my life.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, didst thou not come from heaven?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>From heaven! alas, sir, I never came there     God</a><br /><a>forbid I should be so bold to press to heaven in my</a><br /><a>young days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to the</a><br /><a>tribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawl</a><br /><a>betwixt my uncle and one of the emperial's men.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for</a><br /><a>your oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to</a><br /><a>the emperor from you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor</a><br /><a>with a grace?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sirrah, come hither: make no more ado,</a><br /><a>But give your pigeons to the emperor:</a><br /><a>By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.</a><br /><a>Hold, hold; meanwhile here's money for thy charges.</a><br /><a>Give me pen and ink. Sirrah, can you with a grace</a><br /><a>deliver a supplication?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, sir.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Then here is a supplication for you. And when you</a><br /><a>come to him, at the first approach you must kneel,</a><br /><a>then kiss his foot, then deliver up your pigeons, and</a><br /><a>then look for your reward. I'll be at hand, sir; see</a><br /><a>you do it bravely.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>I warrant you, sir, let me alone.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Sirrah, hast thou a knife? come, let me see it.</a><br /><a>Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration;</a><br /><a>For thou hast made it like an humble suppliant.</a><br /><a>And when thou hast given it the emperor,</a><br /><a>Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>God be with you, sir; I will.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, Marcus, let us go. Publius, follow me.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2251 ><blockquote><i>Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON,  Lords, and others; SATURNINUS with the arrows in his hand that TITUS shot</i></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, lords, what wrongs are these! was ever seen</a><br /><a>An emperor in Rome thus overborne,</a><br /><a>Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent</a><br /><a>Of egal justice, used in such contempt?</a><br /><a>My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods,</a><br /><a>However these disturbers of our peace</a><br /><a>Buz in the people's ears, there nought hath pass'd,</a><br /><a>But even with law, against the willful sons</a><br /><a>Of old Andronicus. And what an if</a><br /><a>His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits,</a><br /><a>Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,</a><br /><a>His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?</a><br /><a>And now he writes to heaven for his redress:</a><br /><a>See, here's to Jove, and this to Mercury;</a><br /><a>This to Apollo; this to the god of war;</a><br /><a>Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!</a><br /><a>What's this but libelling against the senate,</a><br /><a>And blazoning our injustice every where?</a><br /><a>A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?</a><br /><a>As who would say, in Rome no justice were.</a><br /><a>But if I live, his feigned ecstasies</a><br /><a>Shall be no shelter to these outrages:</a><br /><a>But he and his shall know that justice lives</a><br /><a>In Saturninus' health, whom, if she sleep,</a><br /><a>He'll so awake as she in fury shall</a><br /><a>Cut off the proud'st conspirator that lives.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,</a><br /><a>Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,</a><br /><a>Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus' age,</a><br /><a>The effects of sorrow for his valiant sons,</a><br /><a>Whose loss hath pierced him deep and scarr'd his heart;</a><br /><a>And rather comfort his distressed plight</a><br /><a>Than prosecute the meanest or the best</a><br /><a>For these contempts.</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>Why, thus it shall become</a><br /><a>High-witted Tamora to gloze with all:</a><br /><a>But, Titus, I have touched thee to the quick,</a><br /><a>Thy life-blood out: if Aaron now be wise,</a><br /><a>Then is all safe, the anchor's in the port.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Clown</i></p><a>How now, good fellow! wouldst thou speak with us?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Yea, forsooth, an your mistership be emperial.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Empress I am, but yonder sits the emperor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis he. God and Saint Stephen give you good den:</a><br /><a>I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here.</a><br /><p><i>SATURNINUS reads the letter</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go, take him away, and hang him presently.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>How much money must I have?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, sirrah, you must be hanged.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Hanged! by'r lady, then I have brought up a neck to</a><br /><a>a fair end.</a><br /><p><i>Exit, guarded</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Despiteful and intolerable wrongs!</a><br /><a>Shall I endure this monstrous villany?</a><br /><a>I know from whence this same device proceeds:</a><br /><a>May this be borne?--as if his traitorous sons,</a><br /><a>That died by law for murder of our brother,</a><br /><a>Have by my means been butcher'd wrongfully!</a><br /><a>Go, drag the villain hither by the hair;</a><br /><a>Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege:</a><br /><a>For this proud mock I'll be thy slaughterman;</a><br /><a>Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great,</a><br /><a>In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.</a><br /><p><i>Enter AEMILIUS</i></p><a>What news with thee, AEmilius?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AEMILIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Arm, arm, my lord;--Rome never had more cause.</a><br /><a>The Goths have gather'd head; and with a power</a><br /><a>high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,</a><br /><a>They hither march amain, under conduct</a><br /><a>Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;</a><br /><a>Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do</a><br /><a>As much as ever Coriolanus did.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?</a><br /><a>These tidings nip me, and I hang the head</a><br /><a>As flowers with frost or grass beat down with storms:</a><br /><a>Ay, now begin our sorrows to approach:</a><br /><a>'Tis he the common people love so much;</a><br /><a>Myself hath often over-heard them say,</a><br /><a>When I have walked like a private man,</a><br /><a>That Lucius' banishment was wrongfully,</a><br /><a>And they have wish'd that Lucius were their emperor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Why should you fear? is not your city strong?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, but the citizens favor Lucius,</a><br /><a>And will revolt from me to succor him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name.</a><br /><a>Is the sun dimm'd, that gnats do fly in it?</a><br /><a>The eagle suffers little birds to sing,</a><br /><a>And is not careful what they mean thereby,</a><br /><a>Knowing that with the shadow of his wings</a><br /><a>He can at pleasure stint their melody:</a><br /><a>Even so mayst thou the giddy men of Rome.</a><br /><a>Then cheer thy spirit : for know, thou emperor,</a><br /><a>I will enchant the old Andronicus</a><br /><a>With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,</a><br /><a>Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep,</a><br /><a>When as the one is wounded with the bait,</a><br /><a>The other rotted with delicious feed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But he will not entreat his son for us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>If Tamora entreat him, then he will:</a><br /><a>For I can smooth and fill his aged ear</a><br /><a>With golden promises; that, were his heart</a><br /><a>Almost impregnable, his old ears deaf,</a><br /><a>Yet should both ear and heart obey my tongue.</a><br /><p><i>To AEmilius</i></p><a>Go thou before, be our ambassador:</a><br /><a>Say that the emperor requests a parley</a><br /><a>Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting</a><br /><a>Even at his father's house, the old Andronicus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>AEmilius, do this message honourably:</a><br /><a>And if he stand on hostage for his safety,</a><br /><a>Bid him demand what pledge will please him best.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AEMILIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Your bidding shall I do effectually.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Now will I to that old Andronicus;</a><br /><a>And temper him with all the art I have,</a><br /><a>To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.</a><br /><a>And now, sweet emperor, be blithe again,</a><br /><a>And bury all thy fear in my devices.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><a>Then go successantly, and plead to him.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 2252 ></span><span id = 2253 ><blockquote><i>Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON,  Lords, and others; SATURNINUS with the arrows in his hand that TITUS shot</i></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, lords, what wrongs are these! was ever seen</a><br /><a>An emperor in Rome thus overborne,</a><br /><a>Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent</a><br /><a>Of egal justice, used in such contempt?</a><br /><a>My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods,</a><br /><a>However these disturbers of our peace</a><br /><a>Buz in the people's ears, there nought hath pass'd,</a><br /><a>But even with law, against the willful sons</a><br /><a>Of old Andronicus. And what an if</a><br /><a>His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits,</a><br /><a>Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,</a><br /><a>His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?</a><br /><a>And now he writes to heaven for his redress:</a><br /><a>See, here's to Jove, and this to Mercury;</a><br /><a>This to Apollo; this to the god of war;</a><br /><a>Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!</a><br /><a>What's this but libelling against the senate,</a><br /><a>And blazoning our injustice every where?</a><br /><a>A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?</a><br /><a>As who would say, in Rome no justice were.</a><br /><a>But if I live, his feigned ecstasies</a><br /><a>Shall be no shelter to these outrages:</a><br /><a>But he and his shall know that justice lives</a><br /><a>In Saturninus' health, whom, if she sleep,</a><br /><a>He'll so awake as she in fury shall</a><br /><a>Cut off the proud'st conspirator that lives.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,</a><br /><a>Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,</a><br /><a>Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus' age,</a><br /><a>The effects of sorrow for his valiant sons,</a><br /><a>Whose loss hath pierced him deep and scarr'd his heart;</a><br /><a>And rather comfort his distressed plight</a><br /><a>Than prosecute the meanest or the best</a><br /><a>For these contempts.</a><br /><p><i>Aside</i></p><a>Why, thus it shall become</a><br /><a>High-witted Tamora to gloze with all:</a><br /><a>But, Titus, I have touched thee to the quick,</a><br /><a>Thy life-blood out: if Aaron now be wise,</a><br /><a>Then is all safe, the anchor's in the port.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Clown</i></p><a>How now, good fellow! wouldst thou speak with us?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Yea, forsooth, an your mistership be emperial.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Empress I am, but yonder sits the emperor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis he. God and Saint Stephen give you good den:</a><br /><a>I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here.</a><br /><p><i>SATURNINUS reads the letter</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go, take him away, and hang him presently.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>How much money must I have?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, sirrah, you must be hanged.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Clown</b></a><blockquote><a>Hanged! by'r lady, then I have brought up a neck to</a><br /><a>a fair end.</a><br /><p><i>Exit, guarded</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Despiteful and intolerable wrongs!</a><br /><a>Shall I endure this monstrous villany?</a><br /><a>I know from whence this same device proceeds:</a><br /><a>May this be borne?--as if his traitorous sons,</a><br /><a>That died by law for murder of our brother,</a><br /><a>Have by my means been butcher'd wrongfully!</a><br /><a>Go, drag the villain hither by the hair;</a><br /><a>Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege:</a><br /><a>For this proud mock I'll be thy slaughterman;</a><br /><a>Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great,</a><br /><a>In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.</a><br /><p><i>Enter AEMILIUS</i></p><a>What news with thee, AEmilius?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AEMILIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Arm, arm, my lord;--Rome never had more cause.</a><br /><a>The Goths have gather'd head; and with a power</a><br /><a>high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,</a><br /><a>They hither march amain, under conduct</a><br /><a>Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;</a><br /><a>Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do</a><br /><a>As much as ever Coriolanus did.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?</a><br /><a>These tidings nip me, and I hang the head</a><br /><a>As flowers with frost or grass beat down with storms:</a><br /><a>Ay, now begin our sorrows to approach:</a><br /><a>'Tis he the common people love so much;</a><br /><a>Myself hath often over-heard them say,</a><br /><a>When I have walked like a private man,</a><br /><a>That Lucius' banishment was wrongfully,</a><br /><a>And they have wish'd that Lucius were their emperor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Why should you fear? is not your city strong?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, but the citizens favor Lucius,</a><br /><a>And will revolt from me to succor him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name.</a><br /><a>Is the sun dimm'd, that gnats do fly in it?</a><br /><a>The eagle suffers little birds to sing,</a><br /><a>And is not careful what they mean thereby,</a><br /><a>Knowing that with the shadow of his wings</a><br /><a>He can at pleasure stint their melody:</a><br /><a>Even so mayst thou the giddy men of Rome.</a><br /><a>Then cheer thy spirit : for know, thou emperor,</a><br /><a>I will enchant the old Andronicus</a><br /><a>With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,</a><br /><a>Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep,</a><br /><a>When as the one is wounded with the bait,</a><br /><a>The other rotted with delicious feed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>But he will not entreat his son for us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>If Tamora entreat him, then he will:</a><br /><a>For I can smooth and fill his aged ear</a><br /><a>With golden promises; that, were his heart</a><br /><a>Almost impregnable, his old ears deaf,</a><br /><a>Yet should both ear and heart obey my tongue.</a><br /><p><i>To AEmilius</i></p><a>Go thou before, be our ambassador:</a><br /><a>Say that the emperor requests a parley</a><br /><a>Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting</a><br /><a>Even at his father's house, the old Andronicus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>AEmilius, do this message honourably:</a><br /><a>And if he stand on hostage for his safety,</a><br /><a>Bid him demand what pledge will please him best.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AEMILIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Your bidding shall I do effectually.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Now will I to that old Andronicus;</a><br /><a>And temper him with all the art I have,</a><br /><a>To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.</a><br /><a>And now, sweet emperor, be blithe again,</a><br /><a>And bury all thy fear in my devices.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><a>Then go successantly, and plead to him.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 2254 ><blockquote><i>Enter TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON, disguised</i></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,</a><br /><a>I will encounter with Andronicus,</a><br /><a>And say I am Revenge, sent from below</a><br /><a>To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.</a><br /><a>Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,</a><br /><a>To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;</a><br /><a>Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,</a><br /><a>And work confusion on his enemies.</a><br /><p><i>They knock</i></p><p><i>Enter TITUS, above</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Who doth molest my contemplation?</a><br /><a>Is it your trick to make me ope the door,</a><br /><a>That so my sad decrees may fly away,</a><br /><a>And all my study be to no effect?</a><br /><a>You are deceived: for what I mean to do</a><br /><a>See here in bloody lines I have set down;</a><br /><a>And what is written shall be executed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Titus, I am come to talk with thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,</a><br /><a>Wanting a hand to give it action?</a><br /><a>Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>If thou didst know me, thou wouldest talk with me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I am not mad; I know thee well enough:</a><br /><a>Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines;</a><br /><a>Witness these trenches made by grief and care,</a><br /><a>Witness the tiring day and heavy night;</a><br /><a>Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well</a><br /><a>For our proud empress, mighty Tamora:</a><br /><a>Is not thy coming for my other hand?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora;</a><br /><a>She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:</a><br /><a>I am Revenge: sent from the infernal kingdom,</a><br /><a>To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,</a><br /><a>By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.</a><br /><a>Come down, and welcome me to this world's light;</a><br /><a>Confer with me of murder and of death:</a><br /><a>There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place,</a><br /><a>No vast obscurity or misty vale,</a><br /><a>Where bloody murder or detested rape</a><br /><a>Can couch for fear, but I will find them out;</a><br /><a>And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,</a><br /><a>Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me,</a><br /><a>To be a torment to mine enemies?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Do me some service, ere I come to thee.</a><br /><a>Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands;</a><br /><a>Now give me some surance that thou art Revenge,</a><br /><a>Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels;</a><br /><a>And then I'll come and be thy waggoner,</a><br /><a>And whirl along with thee about the globe.</a><br /><a>Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet,</a><br /><a>To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,</a><br /><a>And find out murderers in their guilty caves:</a><br /><a>And when thy car is loaden with their heads,</a><br /><a>I will dismount, and by the waggon-wheel</a><br /><a>Trot, like a servile footman, all day long,</a><br /><a>Even from Hyperion's rising in the east</a><br /><a>Until his very downfall in the sea:</a><br /><a>And day by day I'll do this heavy task,</a><br /><a>So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>These are my ministers, and come with me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Are these thy ministers? what are they call'd?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Rapine and Murder; therefore called so,</a><br /><a>Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Good Lord, how like the empress' sons they are!</a><br /><a>And you, the empress! but we worldly men</a><br /><a>Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.</a><br /><a>O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee;</a><br /><a>And, if one arm's embracement will content thee,</a><br /><a>I will embrace thee in it by and by.</a><br /><p><i>Exit above</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>This closing with him fits his lunacy</a><br /><a>Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits,</a><br /><a>Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,</a><br /><a>For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;</a><br /><a>And, being credulous in this mad thought,</a><br /><a>I'll make him send for Lucius his son;</a><br /><a>And, whilst I at a banquet hold him sure,</a><br /><a>I'll find some cunning practise out of hand,</a><br /><a>To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,</a><br /><a>Or, at the least, make them his enemies.</a><br /><a>See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.</a><br /><p><i>Enter TITUS below</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:</a><br /><a>Welcome, dread Fury, to my woful house:</a><br /><a>Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.</a><br /><a>How like the empress and her sons you are!</a><br /><a>Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor:</a><br /><a>Could not all hell afford you such a devil?</a><br /><a>For well I wot the empress never wags</a><br /><a>But in her company there is a Moor;</a><br /><a>And, would you represent our queen aright,</a><br /><a>It were convenient you had such a devil:</a><br /><a>But welcome, as you are. What shall we do?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Show me a villain that hath done a rape,</a><br /><a>And I am sent to be revenged on him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,</a><br /><a>And I will be revenged on them all.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Look round about the wicked streets of Rome;</a><br /><a>And when thou find'st a man that's like thyself.</a><br /><a>Good Murder, stab him; he's a murderer.</a><br /><a>Go thou with him; and when it is thy hap</a><br /><a>To find another that is like to thee,</a><br /><a>Good Rapine, stab him; he's a ravisher.</a><br /><a>Go thou with them; and in the emperor's court</a><br /><a>There is a queen, attended by a Moor;</a><br /><a>Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion,</a><br /><a>for up and down she doth resemble thee:</a><br /><a>I pray thee, do on them some violent death;</a><br /><a>They have been violent to me and mine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Well hast thou lesson'd us; this shall we do.</a><br /><a>But would it please thee, good Andronicus,</a><br /><a>To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,</a><br /><a>Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,</a><br /><a>And bid him come and banquet at thy house;</a><br /><a>When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,</a><br /><a>I will bring in the empress and her sons,</a><br /><a>The emperor himself and all thy foes;</a><br /><a>And at thy mercy shalt they stoop and kneel,</a><br /><a>And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.</a><br /><a>What says Andronicus to this device?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Marcus, my brother! 'tis sad Titus calls.</a><br /><p><i>Enter MARCUS</i></p><a>Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius;</a><br /><a>Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths:</a><br /><a>Bid him repair to me, and bring with him</a><br /><a>Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths;</a><br /><a>Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are:</a><br /><a>Tell him the emperor and the empress too</a><br /><a>Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.</a><br /><a>This do thou for my love; and so let him,</a><br /><a>As he regards his aged father's life.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This will I do, and soon return again.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Now will I hence about thy business,</a><br /><a>And take my ministers along with me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me;</a><br /><a>Or else I'll call my brother back again,</a><br /><a>And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside to her sons]  What say you, boys? will you</a><br /><a>bide with him,</a><br /><a>Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor</a><br /><a>How I have govern'd our determined jest?</a><br /><a>Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,</a><br /><a>And tarry with him till I turn again.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[Aside]  I know them all, though they suppose me mad,</a><br /><a>And will o'erreach them in their own devices:</a><br /><a>A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes</a><br /><a>To lay a complot to betray thy foes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell.</a><br /><p><i>Exit TAMORA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Tut, I have work enough for you to do.</a><br /><a>Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine!</a><br /><p><i>Enter PUBLIUS and others</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUBLIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What is your will?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Know you these two?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUBLIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The empress' sons, I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceived;</a><br /><a>The one is Murder, Rape is the other's name;</a><br /><a>And therefore bind them, gentle Publius.</a><br /><a>Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.</a><br /><a>Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,</a><br /><a>And now I find it; therefore bind them sure,</a><br /><a>And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p><p><i>PUBLIUS,  &amp; c. lay hold on CHIRON and DEMETRIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>CHIRON</b></a><blockquote><a>Villains, forbear! we are the empress' sons.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUBLIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And therefore do we what we are commanded.</a><br /><a>Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.</a><br /><a>Is he sure bound? look that you bind them fast.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter TITUS, with LAVINIA; he bearing a knife, and she a basin</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.</a><br /><a>Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;</a><br /><a>But let them hear what fearful words I utter.</a><br /><a>O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!</a><br /><a>Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud,</a><br /><a>This goodly summer with your winter mix'd.</a><br /><a>You kill'd her husband, and for that vile fault</a><br /><a>Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death,</a><br /><a>My hand cut off and made a merry jest;</a><br /><a>Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear</a><br /><a>Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,</a><br /><a>Inhuman traitors, you constrain'd and forced.</a><br /><a>What would you say, if I should let you speak?</a><br /><a>Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.</a><br /><a>Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.</a><br /><a>This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,</a><br /><a>Whilst that Lavinia 'tween her stumps doth hold</a><br /><a>The basin that receives your guilty blood.</a><br /><a>You know your mother means to feast with me,</a><br /><a>And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:</a><br /><a>Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust</a><br /><a>And with your blood and it I'll make a paste,</a><br /><a>And of the paste a coffin I will rear</a><br /><a>And make two pasties of your shameful heads,</a><br /><a>And bid that strumpet, your unhallow'd dam,</a><br /><a>Like to the earth swallow her own increase.</a><br /><a>This is the feast that I have bid her to,</a><br /><a>And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;</a><br /><a>For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,</a><br /><a>And worse than Progne I will be revenged:</a><br /><a>And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,</a><br /><p><i>He cuts their throats</i></p><a>Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,</a><br /><a>Let me go grind their bones to powder small</a><br /><a>And with this hateful liquor temper it;</a><br /><a>And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.</a><br /><a>Come, come, be every one officious</a><br /><a>To make this banquet; which I wish may prove</a><br /><a>More stern and bloody than the Centaurs' feast.</a><br /><a>So, now bring them in, for I'll play the cook,</a><br /><a>And see them ready 'gainst their mother comes.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 2255 ><blockquote><i>Enter LUCIUS, MARCUS, and Goths, with AARON prisoner</i></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Uncle Marcus, since it is my father's mind</a><br /><a>That I repair to Rome, I am content.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>First Goth</b></a><blockquote><a>And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,</a><br /><a>This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;</a><br /><a>Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him</a><br /><a>Till he be brought unto the empress' face,</a><br /><a>For testimony of her foul proceedings:</a><br /><a>And see the ambush of our friends be strong;</a><br /><a>I fear the emperor means no good to us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>Some devil whisper curses in mine ear,</a><br /><a>And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth</a><br /><a>The venomous malice of my swelling heart!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!</a><br /><a>Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Goths, with AARON. Flourish within</i></p><a>The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.</a><br /><p><i>Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with AEMILIUS, Tribunes, Senators, and others</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What, hath the firmament more suns than one?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the parle;</a><br /><a>These quarrels must be quietly debated.</a><br /><a>The feast is ready, which the careful Titus</a><br /><a>Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,</a><br /><a>For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome:</a><br /><a>Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Marcus, we will.</a><br /><p><i>Hautboys sound. The Company sit down at table</i></p><p><i>Enter TITUS dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA veiled,  Young LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes on the table</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;</a><br /><a>Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;</a><br /><a>And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor,</a><br /><a>'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Because I would be sure to have all well,</a><br /><a>To entertain your highness and your empress.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>An if your highness knew my heart, you were.</a><br /><a>My lord the emperor, resolve me this:</a><br /><a>Was it well done of rash Virginius</a><br /><a>To slay his daughter with his own right hand,</a><br /><a>Because she was enforced, stain'd, and deflower'd?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>It was, Andronicus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Your reason, mighty lord?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Because the girl should not survive her shame,</a><br /><a>And by her presence still renew his sorrows.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>A reason mighty, strong, and effectual;</a><br /><a>A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant,</a><br /><a>For me, most wretched, to perform the like.</a><br /><a>Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;</a><br /><p><i>Kills LAVINIA</i></p><a>And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.</a><br /><a>I am as woful as Virginius was,</a><br /><a>And have a thousand times more cause than he</a><br /><a>To do this outrage: and it now is done.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What, was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Will't please you eat? will't please your</a><br /><a>highness feed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TAMORA</b></a><blockquote><a>Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius:</a><br /><a>They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue;</a><br /><a>And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go fetch them hither to us presently.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;</a><br /><a>Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,</a><br /><a>Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.</a><br /><a>'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point.</a><br /><p><i>Kills TAMORA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SATURNINUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!</a><br /><p><i>Kills TITUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?</a><br /><a>There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!</a><br /><p><i>Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult. LUCIUS, MARCUS, and others go up into the balcony</i></p></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,</a><br /><a>By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl</a><br /><a>Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,</a><br /><a>O, let me teach you how to knit again</a><br /><a>This scatter'd corn  into one mutual sheaf,</a><br /><a>These broken limbs again into one body;</a><br /><a>Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,</a><br /><a>And she whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to,</a><br /><a>Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,</a><br /><a>Do shameful execution on herself.</a><br /><a>But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,</a><br /><a>Grave witnesses of true experience,</a><br /><a>Cannot induce you to attend my words,</a><br /><p><i>To LUCIUS</i></p><a>Speak, Rome's dear friend, as erst our ancestor,</a><br /><a>When with his solemn tongue he did discourse</a><br /><a>To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear</a><br /><a>The story of that baleful burning night</a><br /><a>When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam's Troy,</a><br /><a>Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,</a><br /><a>Or who hath brought the fatal engine in</a><br /><a>That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.</a><br /><a>My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;</a><br /><a>Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,</a><br /><a>But floods of tears will drown my oratory,</a><br /><a>And break my utterance, even in the time</a><br /><a>When it should move you to attend me most,</a><br /><a>Lending your kind commiseration.</a><br /><a>Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;</a><br /><a>Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,</a><br /><a>That cursed Chiron and Demetrius</a><br /><a>Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;</a><br /><a>And they it were that ravished our sister:</a><br /><a>For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;</a><br /><a>Our father's tears despised, and basely cozen'd</a><br /><a>Of that true hand that fought Rome's quarrel out,</a><br /><a>And sent her enemies unto the grave.</a><br /><a>Lastly, myself unkindly banished,</a><br /><a>The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out,</a><br /><a>To beg relief among Rome's enemies:</a><br /><a>Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears.</a><br /><a>And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.</a><br /><a>I am the turned forth, be it known to you,</a><br /><a>That have preserved her welfare in my blood;</a><br /><a>And from her bosom took the enemy's point,</a><br /><a>Sheathing the steel in my adventurous body.</a><br /><a>Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I;</a><br /><a>My scars can witness, dumb although they are,</a><br /><a>That my report is just and full of truth.</a><br /><a>But, soft! methinks I do digress too much,</a><br /><a>Citing my worthless praise: O, pardon me;</a><br /><a>For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now is my turn to speak. Behold this child:</a><br /><p><i>Pointing to the Child in the arms of an Attendant</i></p><a>Of this was Tamora delivered;</a><br /><a>The issue of an irreligious Moor,</a><br /><a>Chief architect and plotter of these woes:</a><br /><a>The villain is alive in Titus' house,</a><br /><a>And as he is, to witness this is true.</a><br /><a>Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge</a><br /><a>These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,</a><br /><a>Or more than any living man could bear.</a><br /><a>Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?</a><br /><a>Have we done aught amiss,--show us wherein,</a><br /><a>And, from the place where you behold us now,</a><br /><a>The poor remainder of Andronici</a><br /><a>Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down.</a><br /><a>And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,</a><br /><a>And make a mutual closure of our house.</a><br /><a>Speak, Romans, speak; and if you say we shall,</a><br /><a>Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AEMILIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,</a><br /><a>And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,</a><br /><a>Lucius our emperor; for well I know</a><br /><a>The common voice do cry it shall be so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>All</b></a><blockquote><a>Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house,</a><br /><p><i>To Attendants</i></p><a>And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,</a><br /><a>To be adjudged some direful slaughtering death,</a><br /><a>As punishment for his most wicked life.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Attendants</i></p><p><i>LUCIUS, MARCUS, and the others descend</i></p></blockquote><a><b>All</b></a><blockquote><a>Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern so,</a><br /><a>To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe!</a><br /><a>But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,</a><br /><a>For nature puts me to a heavy task:</a><br /><a>Stand all aloof: but, uncle, draw you near,</a><br /><a>To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.</a><br /><a>O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,</a><br /><p><i>Kissing TITUS</i></p><a>These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face,</a><br /><a>The last true duties of thy noble son!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MARCUS ANDRONICUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,</a><br /><a>Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips:</a><br /><a>O were the sum of these that I should pay</a><br /><a>Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us</a><br /><a>To melt in showers: thy grandsire loved thee well:</a><br /><a>Many a time he danced thee on his knee,</a><br /><a>Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow:</a><br /><a>Many a matter hath he told to thee,</a><br /><a>Meet and agreeing with thine infancy;</a><br /><a>In that respect, then, like a loving child,</a><br /><a>Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,</a><br /><a>Because kind nature doth require it so:</a><br /><a>Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:</a><br /><a>Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;</a><br /><a>Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Young LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart</a><br /><a>Would I were dead, so you did live again!</a><br /><a>O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping;</a><br /><a>My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter Attendants with AARON</i></p></blockquote><a><b>AEMILIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>You sad Andronici, have done with woes:</a><br /><a>Give sentence on this execrable wretch,</a><br /><a>That hath been breeder of these dire events.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;</a><br /><a>There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food;</a><br /><a>If any one relieves or pities him,</a><br /><a>For the offence he dies. This is our doom:</a><br /><a>Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>AARON</b></a><blockquote><a>O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?</a><br /><a>I am no baby, I, that with base prayers</a><br /><a>I should repent the evils I have done:</a><br /><a>Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did</a><br /><a>Would I perform, if I might have my will;</a><br /><a>If one good deed in all my life I did,</a><br /><a>I do repent it from my very soul.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LUCIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,</a><br /><a>And give him burial in his father's grave:</a><br /><a>My father and Lavinia shall forthwith</a><br /><a>Be closed in our household's monument.</a><br /><a>As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,</a><br /><a>No funeral rite, nor man m mourning weeds,</a><br /><a>No mournful bell shall ring her burial;</a><br /><a>But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:</a><br /><a>Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;</a><br /><a>And, being so, shall have like want of pity.</a><br /><a>See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,</a><br /><a>By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:</a><br /><a>Then, afterwards, to order well the state,</a><br /><a>That like events may ne'er it ruinate.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span>