ACT II
ACT II, SCENE I. Rome. Before the Palace.
[Enter AARON]
DEMETRIUS:
- Chiron, thy years want wit, thy wit wants edge,
- And manners, to intrude where I am graced;
- And may, for aught thou know'st, affected be.
CHIRON:
- Demetrius, thou dost over-ween in all;
- And so in this, to bear me down with braves.
- 'Tis not the difference of a year or two
- Makes me less gracious or thee more fortunate:
- I am as able and as fit as thou
- To serve, and to deserve my mistress' grace;
- And that my sword upon thee shall approve,
- And plead my passions for Lavinia's love.
AARON:
-
[Aside]
- Clubs, clubs! these lovers will not keep
- the peace.
DEMETRIUS:
- Why, boy, although our mother, unadvised,
- Gave you a dancing-rapier by your side,
- Are you so desperate grown, to threat your friends?
- Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath
- Till you know better how to handle it.
CHIRON:
- Meanwhile, sir, with the little skill I have,
- Full well shalt thou perceive how much I dare.
DEMETRIUS:
- Ay, boy, grow ye so brave?
-
[They draw]
AARON:
-
[Coming forward]
- Why, how now, lords!
- So near the emperor's palace dare you draw,
- And maintain such a quarrel openly?
- Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge:
- I would not for a million of gold
- The cause were known to them it most concerns;
- Nor would your noble mother for much more
- Be so dishonour'd in the court of Rome.
- For shame, put up.
DEMETRIUS:
- Not I, till I have sheathed
- My rapier in his bosom and withal
- Thrust these reproachful speeches down his throat
- That he hath breathed in my dishonour here.
CHIRON:
- For that I am prepared and full resolved.
- Foul-spoken coward, that thunder'st with thy tongue,
- And with thy weapon nothing darest perform!
AARON:
- Away, I say!
- Now, by the gods that warlike Goths adore,
- This petty brabble will undo us all.
- Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous
- It is to jet upon a prince's right?
- What, is Lavinia then become so loose,
- Or Bassianus so degenerate,
- That for her love such quarrels may be broach'd
- Without controlment, justice, or revenge?
- Young lords, beware! and should the empress know
- This discord's ground, the music would not please.
CHIRON:
- I care not, I, knew she and all the world:
- I love Lavinia more than all the world.
DEMETRIUS:
- Youngling, learn thou to make some meaner choice:
- Lavinia is thine elder brother's hope.
AARON:
- Why, are ye mad? or know ye not, in Rome
- How furious and impatient they be,
- And cannot brook competitors in love?
- I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths
- By this device.
CHIRON:
- Aaron, a thousand deaths
- Would I propose to achieve her whom I love.
AARON:
- To achieve her! how?
DEMETRIUS:
- Why makest thou it so strange?
- She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;
- She is a woman, therefore may be won;
- She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.
- What, man! more water glideth by the mill
- Than wots the miller of; and easy it is
- Of a cut loaf to steal a shive, we know:
- Though Bassianus be the emperor's brother.
- Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge.
AARON:
-
[Aside]
- Ay, and as good as Saturninus may.
DEMETRIUS:
- Then why should he despair that knows to court it
- With words, fair looks and liberality?
- What, hast not thou full often struck a doe,
- And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose?
AARON:
- Why, then, it seems, some certain snatch or so
- Would serve your turns.
CHIRON:
- Ay, so the turn were served.
DEMETRIUS:
- Aaron, thou hast hit it.
AARON:
- Would you had hit it too!
- Then should not we be tired with this ado.
- Why, hark ye, hark ye! and are you such fools
- To square for this? would it offend you, then
- That both should speed?
DEMETRIUS:
- Nor me, so I were one.
AARON:
- For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar:
- 'Tis policy and stratagem must do
- That you affect; and so must you resolve,
- That what you cannot as you would achieve,
- You must perforce accomplish as you may.
- Take this of me: Lucrece was not more chaste
- Than this Lavinia, Bassianus' love.
- A speedier course than lingering languishment
- Must we pursue, and I have found the path.
- My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand;
- There will the lovely Roman ladies troop:
- The forest walks are wide and spacious;
- And many unfrequented plots there are
- Fitted by kind for rape and villany:
- Single you thither then this dainty doe,
- And strike her home by force, if not by words:
- This way, or not at all, stand you in hope.
- Come, come, our empress, with her sacred wit
- To villany and vengeance consecrate,
- Will we acquaint with all that we intend;
- And she shall file our engines with advice,
- That will not suffer you to square yourselves,
- But to your wishes' height advance you both.
- The emperor's court is like the house of Fame,
- The palace full of tongues, of eyes, and ears:
- The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull;
- There speak, and strike, brave boys, and take
- your turns;
- There serve your lusts, shadow'd from heaven's eye,
- And revel in Lavinia's treasury.
CHIRON:
- Thy counsel, lad, smells of no cowardice,
DEMETRIUS:
- Sit fas aut nefas, till I find the stream
- To cool this heat, a charm to calm these fits.
- Per Styga, per manes vehor.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE II. A forest near Rome. Horns and cry of hounds heard.
[Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with Hunters, & c.,
MARCUS ANDRONICUS, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey,
- The fields are fragrant and the woods are green:
- Uncouple here and let us make a bay
- And wake the emperor and his lovely bride
- And rouse the prince and ring a hunter's peal,
- That all the court may echo with the noise.
- Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours,
- To attend the emperor's person carefully:
- I have been troubled in my sleep this night,
- But dawning day new comfort hath inspired.
-
[A cry of hounds and horns, winded in a peal.]
-
[Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, BASSIANUS, LAVINIA,
DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, and Attendants]
- Many good morrows to your majesty;
- Madam, to you as many and as good:
- I promised your grace a hunter's peal.
SATURNINUS:
- And you have rung it lustily, my lord;
- Somewhat too early for new-married ladies.
BASSIANUS:
- Lavinia, how say you?
LAVINIA:
- I say, no;
- I have been broad awake two hours and more.
SATURNINUS:
- Come on, then; horse and chariots let us have,
- And to our sport.
-
[To TAMORA]
- Madam, now shall ye see
- Our Roman hunting.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- I have dogs, my lord,
- Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase,
- And climb the highest promontory top.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- And I have horse will follow where the game
- Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain.
DEMETRIUS:
- Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound,
- But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE III. A lonely part of the forest.
[Enter AARON, with a bag of gold]
AARON:
- He that had wit would think that I had none,
- To bury so much gold under a tree,
- And never after to inherit it.
- Let him that thinks of me so abjectly
- Know that this gold must coin a stratagem,
- Which, cunningly effected, will beget
- A very excellent piece of villany:
- And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest
-
[Hides the gold]
- That have their alms out of the empress' chest.
-
[Enter TAMORA]
TAMORA:
- My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad,
- When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?
- The birds chant melody on every bush,
- The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,
- The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
- And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground:
- Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,
- And, whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
- Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,
- As if a double hunt were heard at once,
- Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise;
- And, after conflict such as was supposed
- The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd,
- When with a happy storm they were surprised
- And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave,
- We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
- Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;
- Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds
- Be unto us as is a nurse's song
- Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.
AARON:
- Madam, though Venus govern your desires,
- Saturn is dominator over mine:
- What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
- My silence and my cloudy melancholy,
- My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls
- Even as an adder when she doth unroll
- To do some fatal execution?
- No, madam, these are no venereal signs:
- Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
- Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
- Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,
- Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,
- This is the day of doom for Bassianus:
- His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,
- Thy sons make pillage of her chastity
- And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.
- Seest thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,
- And give the king this fatal plotted scroll.
- Now question me no more; we are espied;
- Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
- Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction.
TAMORA:
- Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!
BASSIANUS:
- Who have we here? Rome's royal empress,
- Unfurnish'd of her well-beseeming troop?
- Or is it Dian, habited like her,
- Who hath abandoned her holy groves
- To see the general hunting in this forest?
TAMORA:
- Saucy controller of our private steps!
- Had I the power that some say Dian had,
- Thy temples should be planted presently
- With horns, as was Actaeon's; and the hounds
- Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,
- Unmannerly intruder as thou art!
LAVINIA:
- Under your patience, gentle empress,
- 'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;
- And to be doubted that your Moor and you
- Are singled forth to try experiments:
- Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day!
- 'Tis pity they should take him for a stag.
BASSIANUS:
- Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian
- Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
- Spotted, detested, and abominable.
- Why are you sequester'd from all your train,
- Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed.
- And wander'd hither to an obscure plot,
- Accompanied but with a barbarous Moor,
- If foul desire had not conducted you?
LAVINIA:
- And, being intercepted in your sport,
- Great reason that my noble lord be rated
- For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence,
- And let her joy her raven-colour'd love;
- This valley fits the purpose passing well.
BASSIANUS:
- The king my brother shall have note of this.
LAVINIA:
- Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:
- Good king, to be so mightily abused!
DEMETRIUS:
- How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother!
- Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?
TAMORA:
- Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?
- These two have 'ticed me hither to this place:
- A barren detested vale, you see it is;
- The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
- O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:
- Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
- Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven:
- And when they show'd me this abhorred pit,
- They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
- A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
- Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
- Would make such fearful and confused cries
- As any mortal body hearing it
- Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
- No sooner had they told this hellish tale,
- But straight they told me they would bind me here
- Unto the body of a dismal yew,
- And leave me to this miserable death:
- And then they call'd me foul adulteress,
- Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
- That ever ear did hear to such effect:
- And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
- This vengeance on me had they executed.
- Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,
- Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.
DEMETRIUS:
- This is a witness that I am thy son.
-
[Stabs BASSIANUS]
LAVINIA:
- Ay, come, Semiramis, nay, barbarous Tamora,
- For no name fits thy nature but thy own!
TAMORA:
- Give me thy poniard; you shall know, my boys
- Your mother's hand shall right your mother's wrong.
DEMETRIUS:
- Stay, madam; here is more belongs to her;
- First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw:
- This minion stood upon her chastity,
- Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,
- And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:
- And shall she carry this unto her grave?
CHIRON:
- An if she do, I would I were an eunuch.
- Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,
- And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.
TAMORA:
- But when ye have the honey ye desire,
- Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.
CHIRON:
- I warrant you, madam, we wil l make that sure.
- Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy
- That nice-preserved honesty of yours.
LAVINIA:
- O Tamora! thou bear'st a woman's face,--
TAMORA:
- I will not hear her speak; away with her!
LAVINIA:
- Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.
DEMETRIUS:
- Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory
- To see her tears; but be your heart to them
- As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.
LAVINIA:
- When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam?
- O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;
- The milk thou suck'dst from her did turn to marble;
- Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.
- Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:
-
[To CHIRON]
- Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.
CHIRON:
- What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?
LAVINIA:
- 'Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:
- Yet have I heard,--O, could I find it now!--
- The lion moved with pity did endure
- To have his princely paws pared all away:
- Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
- The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:
- O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
- Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!
TAMORA:
- I know not what it means; away with her!
LAVINIA:
- O, let me teach thee! for my father's sake,
- That gave thee life, when well he might have
- slain thee,
- Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.
TAMORA:
- Hadst thou in person ne'er offended me,
- Even for his sake am I pitiless.
- Remember, boys, I pour'd forth tears in vain,
- To save your brother from the sacrifice;
- But fierce Andronicus would not relent;
- Therefore, away with her, and use her as you will,
- The worse to her, the better loved of me.
LAVINIA:
- O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen,
- And with thine own hands kill me in this place!
- For 'tis not life that I have begg'd so long;
- Poor I was slain when Bassianus died.
TAMORA:
- What begg'st thou, then? fond woman, let me go.
LAVINIA:
- 'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more
- That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:
- O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,
- And tumble me into some loathsome pit,
- Where never man's eye may behold my body:
- Do this, and be a charitable murderer.
TAMORA:
- So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:
- No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.
DEMETRIUS:
- Away! for thou hast stay'd us here too long.
LAVINIA:
- No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!
- The blot and enemy to our general name!
- Confusion fall--
AARON:
- Come on, my lords, the better foot before:
- Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit
- Where I espied the panther fast asleep.
QUINTUS:
- My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes.
MARTIUS:
- And mine, I promise you; were't not for shame,
- Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.
-
[Falls into the pit]
QUINTUS:
- What art thou fall'n? What subtle hole is this,
- Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing briers,
- Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood
- As fresh as morning dew distill'd on flowers?
- A very fatal place it seems to me.
- Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?
MARTIUS:
- O brother, with the dismall'st object hurt
- That ever eye with sight made heart lament!
AARON:
-
[Aside]
- Now will I fetch the king to find them here,
- That he thereby may give a likely guess
- How these were they that made away his brother.
-
[Exit]
MARTIUS:
- Why dost not comfort me, and help me out
- From this unhallowed and blood-stained hole?
QUINTUS:
- I am surprised with an uncouth fear;
- A chilling sweat o'er-runs my trembling joints:
- My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.
MARTIUS:
- To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,
- Aaron and thou look down into this den,
- And see a fearful sight of blood and death.
QUINTUS:
- Aaron is gone; and my compassionate heart
- Will not permit mine eyes once to behold
- The thing whereat it trembles by surmise;
- O, tell me how it is; for ne'er till now
- Was I a child to fear I know not what.
MARTIUS:
- Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here,
- All on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb,
- In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.
QUINTUS:
- If it be dark, how dost thou know 'tis he?
MARTIUS:
- Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
- A precious ring, that lightens all the hole,
- Which, like a taper in some monument,
- Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,
- And shows the ragged entrails of the pit:
- So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus
- When he by night lay bathed in maiden blood.
- O brother, help me with thy fainting hand--
- If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath--
- Out of this fell devouring receptacle,
- As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth.
QUINTUS:
- Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out;
- Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,
- I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb
- Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave.
- I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink.
MARTIUS:
- Nor I no strength to climb without thy help.
SATURNINUS:
- Along with me: I'll see what hole is here,
- And what he is that now is leap'd into it.
- Say who art thou that lately didst descend
- Into this gaping hollow of the earth?
MARTIUS:
- The unhappy son of old Andronicus:
- Brought hither in a most unlucky hour,
- To find thy brother Bassianus dead.
SATURNINUS:
- My brother dead! I know thou dost but jest:
- He and his lady both are at the lodge
- Upon the north side of this pleasant chase;
- 'Tis not an hour since I left him there.
TAMORA:
- Where is my lord the king?
SATURNINUS:
- Here, Tamora, though grieved with killing grief.
TAMORA:
- Where is thy brother Bassianus?
SATURNINUS:
- Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound:
- Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.
SATURNINUS:
-
[Reads]
- 'An if we miss to meet him handsomely--
- Sweet huntsman, Bassianus 'tis we mean--
- Do thou so much as dig the grave for him:
- Thou know'st our meaning. Look for thy reward
- Among the nettles at the elder-tree
- Which overshades the mouth of that same pit
- Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.
- Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.'
- O Tamora! was ever heard the like?
- This is the pit, and this the elder-tree.
- Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out
- That should have murdered Bassianus here.
AARON:
- My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.
SATURNINUS:
-
[To TITUS]
- Two of thy whelps, fell curs of
- bloody kind,
- Have here bereft my brother of his life.
- Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:
- There let them bide until we have devised
- Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.
TAMORA:
- What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!
- How easily murder is discovered!
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- High emperor, upon my feeble knee
- I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,
- That this fell fault of my accursed sons,
- Accursed if the fault be proved in them,--
SATURNINUS:
- If it be proved! you see it is apparent.
- Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?
TAMORA:
- Andronicus himself did take it up.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail;
- For, by my father's reverend tomb, I vow
- They shall be ready at your highness' will
- To answer their suspicion with their lives.
SATURNINUS:
- Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me.
- Some bring the murder'd body, some the murderers:
- Let them not speak a word; the guilt is plain;
- For, by my soul, were there worse end than death,
- That end upon them should be executed.
TAMORA:
- Andronicus, I will entreat the king;
- Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE IV. Another part of the forest.
[Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON with LAVINIA, ravished;
her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out]
DEMETRIUS:
- So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak,
- Who 'twas that cut thy tongue and ravish'd thee.
CHIRON:
- Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,
- An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.
DEMETRIUS:
- See, how with signs and tokens she can scrowl.
CHIRON:
- Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.
DEMETRIUS:
- She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;
- And so let's leave her to her silent walks.
CHIRON:
- An 'twere my case, I should go hang myself.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Who is this? my niece, that flies away so fast!
- Cousin, a word; where is your husband?
- If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!
- If I do wake, some planet strike me down,
- That I may slumber in eternal sleep!
- Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands
- Have lopp'd and hew'd and made thy body bare
- Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments,
- Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,
- And might not gain so great a happiness
- As have thy love? Why dost not speak to me?
- Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
- Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,
- Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
- Coming and going with thy honey breath.
- But, sure, some Tereus hath deflowered thee,
- And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.
- Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame!
- And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood,
- As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,
- Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan's face
- Blushing to be encountered with a cloud.
- Shall I speak for thee? shall I say 'tis so?
- O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,
- That I might rail at him, to ease my mind!
- Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,
- Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.
- Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,
- And in a tedious sampler sew'd her mind:
- But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;
- A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,
- And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,
- That could have better sew'd than Philomel.
- O, had the monster seen those lily hands
- Tremble, like aspen-leaves, upon a lute,
- And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,
- He would not then have touch'd them for his life!
- Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony
- Which that sweet tongue hath made,
- He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep
- As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet.
- Come, let us go, and make thy father blind;
- For such a sight will blind a father's eye:
- One hour's storm will drown the fragrant meads;
- What will whole months of tears thy father's eyes?
- Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee
- O, could our mourning ease thy misery!
-
[Exeunt]
ACT III
ACT III, SCENE I. Rome. A street.
[Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound,
passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before, pleading]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!
- For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
- In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;
- For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;
- For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;
- And for these bitter tears, which now you see
- Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
- Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
- Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought.
- For two and twenty sons I never wept,
- Because they died in honour's lofty bed.
-
[Lieth down; the Judges, & c., pass by him, and Exeunt]
- For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write
- My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears:
- Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite;
- My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush.
- O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
- That shall distil from these two ancient urns,
- Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
- In summer's drought I'll drop upon thee still;
- In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow
- And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
- So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.
-
[Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn]
- O reverend tribunes! O gentle, aged men!
- Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
- And let me say, that never wept before,
- My tears are now prevailing orators.
LUCIUS:
- O noble father, you lament in vain:
- The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;
- And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
- Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you,--
LUCIUS:
- My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,
- They would not mark me, or if they did mark,
- They would not pity me, yet plead I must;
- Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
- Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
- Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
- For that they will not intercept my tale:
- When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
- Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
- And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
- Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
- A stone is soft as wax,--tribunes more hard than stones;
- A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
- And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
-
[Rises]
- But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn?
LUCIUS:
- To rescue my two brothers from their death:
- For which attempt the judges have pronounced
- My everlasting doom of banishment.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep;
- Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break:
- I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Will it consume me? let me see it, then.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- This was thy daughter.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why, Marcus, so she is.
LUCIUS:
- Ay me, this object kills me!
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her.
- Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand
- Hath made thee handless in thy father's sight?
- What fool hath added water to the sea,
- Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?
- My grief was at the height before thou camest,
- And now like Nilus, it disdaineth bounds.
- Give me a sword, I'll chop off my hands too;
- For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;
- And they have nursed this woe, in feeding life;
- In bootless prayer have they been held up,
- And they have served me to effectless use:
- Now all the service I require of them
- Is that the one will help to cut the other.
- 'Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands;
- For hands, to do Rome service, are but vain.
LUCIUS:
- Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr'd thee?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, that delightful engine of her thoughts
- That blabb'd them with such pleasing eloquence,
- Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage,
- Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung
- Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear!
LUCIUS:
- O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, thus I found her, straying in the park,
- Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer
- That hath received some unrecuring wound.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- It was my deer; and he that wounded her
- Hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead:
- For now I stand as one upon a rock
- Environed with a wilderness of sea,
- Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,
- Expecting ever when some envious surge
- Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.
- This way to death my wretched sons are gone;
- Here stands my other son, a banished man,
- And here my brother, weeping at my woes.
- But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn,
- Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.
- Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,
- It would have madded me: what shall I do
- Now I behold thy lively body so?
- Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears:
- Nor tongue, to tell me who hath martyr'd thee:
- Thy husband he is dead: and for his death
- Thy brothers are condemn'd, and dead by this.
- Look, Marcus! ah, son Lucius, look on her!
- When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears
- Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew
- Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Perchance she weeps because they kill'd her husband;
- Perchance because she knows them innocent.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful
- Because the law hath ta'en revenge on them.
- No, no, they would not do so foul a deed;
- Witness the sorrow that their sister makes.
- Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips.
- Or make some sign how I may do thee ease:
- Shall thy good uncle, and thy brother Lucius,
- And thou, and I, sit round about some fountain,
- Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks
- How they are stain'd, as meadows, yet not dry,
- With miry slime left on them by a flood?
- And in the fountain shall we gaze so long
- Till the fresh taste be taken from that clearness,
- And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears?
- Or shall we cut away our hands, like thine?
- Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows
- Pass the remainder of our hateful days?
- What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues,
- Plot some deuce of further misery,
- To make us wonder'd at in time to come.
LUCIUS:
- Sweet father, cease your tears; for, at your grief,
- See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Ah, Marcus, Marcus! brother, well I wot
- Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine,
- For thou, poor man, hast drown'd it with thine own.
LUCIUS:
- Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs:
- Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say
- That to her brother which I said to thee:
- His napkin, with his true tears all bewet,
- Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks.
- O, what a sympathy of woe is this,
- As far from help as Limbo is from bliss!
-
[Enter AARON]
AARON:
- Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor
- Sends thee this word,--that, if thou love thy sons,
- Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,
- Or any one of you, chop off your hand,
- And send it to the king: he for the same
- Will send thee hither both thy sons alive;
- And that shall be the ransom for their fault.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- O gracious emperor! O gentle Aaron!
- Did ever raven sing so like a lark,
- That gives sweet tidings of the sun's uprise?
- With all my heart, I'll send the emperor My hand:
- Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?
LUCIUS:
- Stay, father! for that noble hand of thine,
- That hath thrown down so many enemies,
- Shall not be sent: my hand will serve the turn:
- My youth can better spare my blood than you;
- And therefore mine shall save my brothers' lives.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Which of your hands hath not defended Rome,
- And rear'd aloft the bloody battle-axe,
- Writing destruction on the enemy's castle?
- O, none of both but are of high desert:
- My hand hath been but idle; let it serve
- To ransom my two nephews from their death;
- Then have I kept it to a worthy end.
AARON:
- Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along,
- For fear they die before their pardon come.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- My hand shall go.
LUCIUS:
- By heaven, it shall not go!
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Sirs, strive no more: such wither'd herbs as these
- Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine.
LUCIUS:
- Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son,
- Let me redeem my brothers both from death.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- And, for our father's sake and mother's care,
- Now let me show a brother's love to thee.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Agree between you; I will spare my hand.
LUCIUS:
- Then I'll go fetch an axe.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Come hither, Aaron; I'll deceive them both:
- Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Now stay your strife: what shall be is dispatch'd.
- Good Aaron, give his majesty my hand:
- Tell him it was a hand that warded him
- From thousand dangers; bid him bury it
- More hath it merited; that let it have.
- As for my sons, say I account of them
- As jewels purchased at an easy price;
- And yet dear too, because I bought mine own.
AARON:
- I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand
- Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.
-
[Aside]
- Their heads, I mean. O, how this villany
- Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!
- Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace.
- Aaron will have his soul black like his face.
-
[Exit]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven,
- And bow this feeble ruin to the earth:
- If any power pities wretched tears,
- To that I call!
-
[To LAVINIA]
- What, wilt thou kneel with me?
- Do, then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers;
- Or with our sighs we'll breathe the welkin dim,
- And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds
- When they do hug him in their melting bosoms.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O brother, speak with possibilities,
- And do not break into these deep extremes.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?
- Then be my passions bottomless with them.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- But yet let reason govern thy lament.
Messenger:
- Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid
- For that good hand thou sent'st the emperor.
- Here are the heads of thy two noble sons;
- And here's thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back;
- Thy griefs their sports, thy resolution mock'd;
- That woe is me to think upon thy woes
- More than remembrance of my father's death.
-
[Exit]
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Now let hot AEtna cool in Sicily,
- And be my heart an ever-burning hell!
- These miseries are more than may be borne.
- To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal;
- But sorrow flouted at is double death.
LUCIUS:
- Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound,
- And yet detested life not shrink thereat!
- That ever death should let life bear his name,
- Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!
-
[LAVINIA kisses TITUS]
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless
- As frozen water to a starved snake.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- When will this fearful slumber have an end?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Now, farewell, flattery: die, Andronicus;
- Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons' heads,
- Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here:
- Thy other banish'd son, with this dear sight
- Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,
- Even like a stony image, cold and numb.
- Ah, now no more will I control thy griefs:
- Rend off thy silver hair, thy other hand
- Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight
- The closing up of our most wretched eyes;
- Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Ha, ha, ha!
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.
LUCIUS:
- Farewell Andronicus, my noble father,
- The wofull'st man that ever lived in Rome:
- Farewell, proud Rome; till Lucius come again,
- He leaves his pledges dearer than his life:
- Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;
- O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been!
- But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives
- But in oblivion and hateful griefs.
- If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs;
- And make proud Saturnine and his empress
- Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.
- Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power,
- To be revenged on Rome and Saturnine.
-
[Exit]
ACT III, SCENE II. A room in Titus's house. A banquet set out.
[Enter TITUS, MARCUS ANDRONICUS, LAVINIA and Young LUCIUS, a boy]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- So, so; now sit: and look you eat no more
- Than will preserve just so much strength in us
- As will revenge these bitter woes of ours.
- Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot:
- Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands,
- And cannot passionate our tenfold grief
- With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine
- Is left to tyrannize upon my breast;
- Who, when my heart, all mad with misery,
- Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh,
- Then thus I thump it down.
-
[To LAVINIA]
- Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs!
- When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating,
- Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still.
- Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans;
- Or get some little knife between thy teeth,
- And just against thy heart make thou a hole;
- That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall
- May run into that sink, and soaking in
- Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Fie, brother, fie! teach her not thus to lay
- Such violent hands upon her tender life.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- How now! has sorrow made thee dote already?
- Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.
- What violent hands can she lay on her life?
- Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands;
- To bid AEneas tell the tale twice o'er,
- How Troy was burnt and he made miserable?
- O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands,
- Lest we remember still that we have none.
- Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk,
- As if we should forget we had no hands,
- If Marcus did not name the word of hands!
- Come, let's fall to; and, gentle girl, eat this:
- Here is no drink! Hark, Marcus, what she says;
- I can interpret all her martyr'd signs;
- She says she drinks no other drink but tears,
- Brew'd with her sorrow, mesh'd upon her cheeks:
- Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought;
- In thy dumb action will I be as perfect
- As begging hermits in their holy prayers:
- Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,
- Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,
- But I of these will wrest an alphabet
- And by still practise learn to know thy meaning.
Young LUCIUS:
- Good grandsire, leave these bitter deep laments:
- Make my aunt merry with some pleasing tale.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Alas, the tender boy, in passion moved,
- Doth weep to see his grandsire's heaviness.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- At that that I have kill'd, my lord; a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Out on thee, murderer! thou kill'st my heart;
- Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny:
- A deed of death done on the innocent
- Becomes not Titus' brother: get thee gone:
- I see thou art not for my company.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- But how, if that fly had a father and mother?
- How would he hang his slender gilded wings,
- And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
- Poor harmless fly,
- That, with his pretty buzzing melody,
- Came here to make us merry! and thou hast
- kill'd him.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Pardon me, sir; it was a black ill-favor'd fly,
- Like to the empress' Moor; therefore I kill'd him.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, O, O,
- Then pardon me for reprehending thee,
- For thou hast done a charitable deed.
- Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;
- Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor
- Come hither purposely to poison me.--
- There's for thyself, and that's for Tamora.
- Ah, sirrah!
- Yet, I think, we are not brought so low,
- But that between us we can kill a fly
- That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him,
- He takes false shadows for true substances.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Come, take away. Lavinia, go with me:
- I'll to thy closet; and go read with thee
- Sad stories chanced in the times of old.
- Come, boy, and go with me: thy sight is young,
- And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV
ACT IV, SCENE I. Rome. Titus's garden.
[Enter young LUCIUS, and LAVINIA running after him,
and the boy flies from her, with books under his arm.
Then enter TITUS and MARCUS ANDRONICUS]
Young LUCIUS:
- Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia
- Follows me every where, I know not why:
- Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.
- Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine aunt.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.
Young LUCIUS:
- Ay, when my father was in Rome she did.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- What means my niece Lavinia by these signs?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Fear her not, Lucius: somewhat doth she mean:
- See, Lucius, see how much she makes of thee:
- Somewhither would she have thee go with her.
- Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care
- Read to her sons than she hath read to thee
- Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus?
Young LUCIUS:
- My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess,
- Unless some fit or frenzy do possess her:
- For I have heard my grandsire say full oft,
- Extremity of griefs would make men mad;
- And I have read that Hecuba of Troy
- Ran mad through sorrow: that made me to fear;
- Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt
- Loves me as dear as e'er my mother did,
- And would not, but in fury, fright my youth:
- Which made me down to throw my books, and fly--
- Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt:
- And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go,
- I will most willingly attend your ladyship.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- How now, Lavinia! Marcus, what means this?
- Some book there is that she desires to see.
- Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy.
- But thou art deeper read, and better skill'd
- Come, and take choice of all my library,
- And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens
- Reveal the damn'd contriver of this deed.
- Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- I think she means that there was more than one
- Confederate in the fact: ay, more there was;
- Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?
Young LUCIUS:
- Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses;
- My mother gave it me.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- For love of her that's gone,
- Perhaps she cull'd it from among the rest.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Soft! see how busily she turns the leaves!
-
[Helping her]
- What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read?
- This is the tragic tale of Philomel,
- And treats of Tereus' treason and his rape:
- And rape, I fear, was root of thine annoy.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- See, brother, see; note how she quotes the leaves.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl,
- Ravish'd and wrong'd, as Philomela was,
- Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? See, see!
- Ay, such a place there is, where we did hunt--
- O, had we never, never hunted there!--
- Pattern'd by that the poet here describes,
- By nature made for murders and for rapes.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, why should nature build so foul a den,
- Unless the gods delight in tragedies?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none
- but friends,
- What Roman lord it was durst do the deed:
- Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst,
- That left the camp to sin in Lucrece' bed?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Sit down, sweet niece: brother, sit down by me.
- Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,
- Inspire me, that I may this treason find!
- My lord, look here: look here, Lavinia:
- This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst
- This after me, when I have writ my name
- Without the help of any hand at all.
-
[He writes his name with his staff, and guides it with feet and mouth]
- Cursed be that heart that forced us to this shift!
- Write thou good niece; and here display, at last,
- What God will have discover'd for revenge;
- Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,
- That we may know the traitors and the truth!
-
[She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her stumps, and writes]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?
- 'Stuprum. Chiron. Demetrius.'
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- What, what! the lustful sons of Tamora
- Performers of this heinous, bloody deed?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Magni Dominator poli,
- Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O, calm thee, gentle lord; although I know
- There is enough written upon this earth
- To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts
- And arm the minds of infants to exclaims.
- My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel;
- And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector's hope;
- And swear with me, as, with the woful fere
- And father of that chaste dishonour'd dame,
- Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece' rape,
- That we will prosecute by good advice
- Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,
- And see their blood, or die with this reproach.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- 'Tis sure enough, an you knew how.
- But if you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware:
- The dam will wake; and, if she wind you once,
- She's with the lion deeply still in league,
- And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back,
- And when he sleeps will she do what she list.
- You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let it alone;
- And, come, I will go get a leaf of brass,
- And with a gad of steel will write these words,
- And lay it by: the angry northern wind
- Will blow these sands, like Sibyl's leaves, abroad,
- And where's your lesson, then? Boy, what say you?
Young LUCIUS:
- I say, my lord, that if I were a man,
- Their mother's bed-chamber should not be safe
- For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Ay, that's my boy! thy father hath full oft
- For his ungrateful country done the like.
Young LUCIUS:
- And, uncle, so will I, an if I live.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Come, go with me into mine armoury;
- Lucius, I'll fit thee; and withal, my boy,
- Shalt carry from me to the empress' sons
- Presents that I intend to send them both:
- Come, come; thou'lt do thy message, wilt thou not?
Young LUCIUS:
- Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O heavens, can you hear a good man groan,
- And not relent, or not compassion him?
- Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,
- That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart
- Than foemen's marks upon his batter'd shield;
- But yet so just that he will not revenge.
- Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus!
-
[Exit]
ACT IV, SCENE II. The same. A room in the palace.
[Enter, from one side, AARON, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON;
from the other side, Young LUCIUS, and an Attendant,
with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them]
CHIRON:
- Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius;
- He hath some message to deliver us.
AARON:
- Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.
Young LUCIUS:
- My lords, with all the humbleness I may,
- I greet your honours from Andronicus.
-
[Aside]
- And pray the Roman gods confound you both!
DEMETRIUS:
- Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what's the news?
DEMETRIUS:
- What's here? A scroll; and written round about?
- Let's see;
-
[Reads]
- 'Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,
- Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.'
CHIRON:
- O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well:
- I read it in the grammar long ago.
AARON:
- Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.
-
[Aside]
- Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!
- Here's no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;
- And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines,
- That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.
- But were our witty empress well afoot,
- She would applaud Andronicus' conceit:
- But let her rest in her unrest awhile.
- And now, young lords, was't not a happy star
- Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,
- Captives, to be advanced to this height?
- It did me good, before the palace gate
- To brave the tribune in his brother's hearing.
DEMETRIUS:
- But me more good, to see so great a lord
- Basely insinuate and send us gifts.
AARON:
- Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?
- Did you not use his daughter very friendly?
DEMETRIUS:
- I would we had a thousand Roman dames
- At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.
CHIRON:
- A charitable wish and full of love.
AARON:
- Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.
CHIRON:
- And that would she for twenty thousand more.
DEMETRIUS:
- Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods
- For our beloved mother in her pains.
AARON:
-
[Aside]
- Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.
-
[Trumpets sound within]
DEMETRIUS:
- Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?
CHIRON:
- Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.
Nurse:
- Good morr ow, lords:
- O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?
AARON:
- Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all,
- Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?
Nurse:
- O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!
- Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!
AARON:
- Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!
- What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?
Nurse:
- O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye,
- Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace!
- She is deliver'd, lords; she is deliver'd.
Nurse:
- I mean, she is brought a-bed.
AARON:
- Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?
AARON:
- Why, then she is the devil's dam; a joyful issue.
Nurse:
- A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue:
- Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad
- Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:
- The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
- And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.
AARON:
- 'Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?
- Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.
DEMETRIUS:
- Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON:
- That which thou canst not undo.
CHIRON:
- Thou hast undone our mother.
AARON:
- Villain, I have done thy mother.
DEMETRIUS:
- And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.
- Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice!
- Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend!
CHIRON:
- It shall not live.
Nurse:
- Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.
AARON:
- What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I
- Do execution on my flesh and blood.
DEMETRIUS:
- I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point:
- Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it.
DEMETRIUS:
- Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?
AARON:
- My mistress is my mistress; this myself,
- The vigour and the picture of my youth:
- This before all the world do I prefer;
- This maugre all the world will I keep safe,
- Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.
DEMETRIUS:
- By this our mother is forever shamed.
CHIRON:
- Rome will despise her for this foul escape.
Nurse:
- The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.
CHIRON:
- I blush to think upon this ignomy.
AARON:
- Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears:
- Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
- The close enacts and counsels of the heart!
- Here's a young lad framed of another leer:
- Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father,
- As who should say 'Old lad, I am thine own.'
- He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed
- Of that self-blood that first gave life to you,
- And from that womb where you imprison'd were
- He is enfranchised and come to light:
- Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,
- Although my seal be stamped in his face.
Nurse:
- Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?
DEMETRIUS:
- Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,
- And we will all subscribe to thy advice:
- Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.
AARON:
- Then sit we down, and let us all consult.
- My son and I will have the wind of you:
- Keep there: now talk at pleasure of your safety.
-
[They sit]
DEMETRIUS:
- How many women saw this child of his?
AARON:
- Why, so, brave lords! when we join in league,
- I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor,
- The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
- The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
- But say, again; how many saw the child?
Nurse:
- Cornelia the midwife and myself;
- And no one else but the deliver'd empress.
AARON:
- The empress, the midwife, and yourself:
- Two may keep counsel when the third's away:
- Go to the empress, tell her this I said.
-
[He kills the nurse]
- Weke, weke! so cries a pig prepared to the spit.
DEMETRIUS:
- What mean'st thou, Aaron? wherefore didst thou this?
AARON:
- O Lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy:
- Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,
- A long-tongued babbling gossip? no, lords, no:
- And now be it known to you my full intent.
- Not far, one Muli lives, my countryman;
- His wife but yesternight was brought to bed;
- His child is like to her, fair as you are:
- Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,
- And tell them both the circumstance of all;
- And how by this their child shall be advanced,
- And be received for the emperor's heir,
- And substituted in the place of mine,
- To calm this tempest whirling in the court;
- And let the emperor dandle him for his own.
- Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given her physic,
-
[Pointing to the nurse]
- And you must needs bestow her funeral;
- The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms:
- This done, see that you take no longer days,
- But send the midwife presently to me.
- The midwife and the nurse well made away,
- Then let the ladies tattle what they please.
CHIRON:
- Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air
- With secrets.
AARON:
- Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies;
- There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,
- And secretly to greet the empress' friends.
- Come on, you thick lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence;
- For it is you that puts us to our shifts:
- I'll make you feed on berries and on roots,
- And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,
- And cabin in a cave, and bring you up
- To be a warrior, and command a camp.
-
[Exit]
ACT IV, SCENE III. The same. A public place.
[Enter TITUS, bearing arrows with letters at the ends of them;
with him, MARCUS ANDRONICUS, Young LUCIUS, PUBLIUS, SEMPRONIUS, CAIUS,
and other Gentlemen, with bows]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Come, Marcus; come, kinsmen; this is the way.
- Sir boy, now let me see your archery;
- Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.
- Terras Astraea reliquit:
- Be you remember'd, Marcus, she's gone, she's fled.
- Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall
- Go sound the ocean, and cast your nets;
- Happily you may catch her in the sea;
- Yet there's as little justice as at land:
- No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;
- 'Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade,
- And pierce the inmost centre of the earth:
- Then, when you come to Pluto's region,
- I pray you, deliver him this petition;
- Tell him, it is for justice and for aid,
- And that it comes from old Andronicus,
- Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.
- Ah, Rome! Well, well; I made thee miserable
- What time I threw the people's suffrages
- On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me.
- Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,
- And leave you not a man-of-war unsearch'd:
- This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence;
- And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- O Publius, is not this a heavy case,
- To see thy noble uncle thus distract?
PUBLIUS:
- Therefore, my lord, it highly us concerns
- By day and night to attend him carefully,
- And feed his humour kindly as we may,
- Till time beget some careful remedy.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.
- Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war
- Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,
- And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Publius, how now! how now, my masters!
- What, have you met with her?
PUBLIUS:
- No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,
- If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:
- Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,
- He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,
- So that perforce you must needs stay a time.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:
- We will afflict the emperor in his pride.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Now, masters, draw.
-
[They shoot]
- O, well said, Lucius!
- Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon;
- Your letter is with Jupiter by this.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Ha, ha!
- Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?
- See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,
- The Bull, being gall'd, gave Aries such a knock
- That down fell both the Ram's horns in the court;
- And who should find them but the empress' villain?
- She laugh'd, and told the Moor he should not choose
- But give them to his master for a present.
CLOWN:
- O, the gibbet-maker! he says that he hath taken
- them down again, for the man must not be hanged till
- the next week.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?
CLOWN:
- Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him
- in all my life.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?
CLOWN:
- Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why, didst thou not come from heaven?
CLOWN:
- From heaven! alas, sir, I never came there God
- forbid I should be so bold to press to heaven in my
- young days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to the
- tribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawl
- betwixt my uncle and one of the emperial's men.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for
- your oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to
- the emperor from you.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor
- with a grace?
CLOWN:
- Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Sirrah, come hither: make no more ado,
- But give your pigeons to the emperor:
- By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.
- Hold, hold; meanwhile here's money for thy charges.
- Give me pen and ink. Sirrah, can you with a grace
- deliver a supplication?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Then here is a supplication for you. And when you
- come to him, at the first approach you must kneel,
- then kiss his foot, then deliver up your pigeons, and
- then look for your reward. I'll be at hand, sir; see
- you do it bravely.
CLOWN:
- I warrant you, sir, let me alone.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Sirrah, hast thou a knife? come, let me see it.
- Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration;
- For thou hast made it like an humble suppliant.
- And when thou hast given it the emperor,
- Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.
CLOWN:
- God be with you, sir; I will.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Come, Marcus, let us go. Publius, follow me.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV, SCENE IV. The same. Before the palace.
[Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, Lords, and others;
SATURNINUS with the arrows in his hand that TITUS shot]
SATURNINUS:
- Why, lords, what wrongs are these! was ever seen
- An emperor in Rome thus overborne,
- Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent
- Of egal justice, used in such contempt?
- My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods,
- However these disturbers of our peace
- Buz in the people's ears, there nought hath pass'd,
- But even with law, against the willful sons
- Of old Andronicus. And what an if
- His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits,
- Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,
- His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?
- And now he writes to heaven for his redress:
- See, here's to Jove, and this to Mercury;
- This to Apollo; this to the god of war;
- Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!
- What's this but libelling against the senate,
- And blazoning our injustice every where?
- A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?
- As who would say, in Rome no justice were.
- But if I live, his feigned ecstasies
- Shall be no shelter to these outrages:
- But he and his shall know that justice lives
- In Saturninus' health, whom, if she sleep,
- He'll so awake as she in fury shall
- Cut off the proud'st conspirator that lives.
TAMORA:
- My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,
- Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,
- Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus' age,
- The effects of sorrow for his valiant sons,
- Whose loss hath pierced him deep and scarr'd his heart;
- And rather comfort his distressed plight
- Than prosecute the meanest or the best
- For these contempts.
-
[Aside]
- Why, thus it shall become
- High-witted Tamora to gloze with all:
- But, Titus, I have touched thee to the quick,
- Thy life-blood out: if Aaron now be wise,
- Then is all safe, the anchor's in the port.
-
[Enter Clown]
- How now, good fellow! wouldst thou speak with us?
CLOWN:
- Yea, forsooth, an your mistership be emperial.
TAMORA:
- Empress I am, but yonder sits the emperor.
SATURNINUS:
- Go, take him away, and hang him presently.
CLOWN:
- How much money must I have?
TAMORA:
- Come, sirrah, you must be hanged.
CLOWN:
- Hanged! by'r lady, then I have brought up a neck to
- a fair end.
-
[Exit, guarded]
SATURNINUS:
- Despiteful and intolerable wrongs!
- Shall I endure this monstrous villany?
- I know from whence this same device proceeds:
- May this be borne?--as if his traitorous sons,
- That died by law for murder of our brother,
- Have by my means been butcher'd wrongfully!
- Go, drag the villain hither by the hair;
- Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege:
- For this proud mock I'll be thy slaughterman;
- Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great,
- In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.
-
[Enter AEMILIUS]
- What news with thee, AEmilius?
AEMILIUS:
- Arm, arm, my lord;--Rome never had more cause.
- The Goths have gather'd head; and with a power
- high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,
- They hither march amain, under conduct
- Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;
- Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do
- As much as ever Coriolanus did.
SATURNINUS:
- Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?
- These tidings nip me, and I hang the head
- As flowers with frost or grass beat down with storms:
- Ay, now begin our sorrows to approach:
- 'Tis he the common people love so much;
- Myself hath often over-heard them say,
- When I have walked like a private man,
- That Lucius' banishment was wrongfully,
- And they have wish'd that Lucius were their emperor.
TAMORA:
- Why should you fear? is not your city strong?
SATURNINUS:
- Ay, but the citizens favor Lucius,
- And will revolt from me to succor him.
TAMORA:
- King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name.
- Is the sun dimm'd, that gnats do fly in it?
- The eagle suffers little birds to sing,
- And is not careful what they mean thereby,
- Knowing that with the shadow of his wings
- He can at pleasure stint their melody:
- Even so mayst thou the giddy men of Rome.
- Then cheer thy spirit : for know, thou emperor,
- I will enchant the old Andronicus
- With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,
- Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep,
- When as the one is wounded with the bait,
- The other rotted with delicious feed.
SATURNINUS:
- But he will not entreat his son for us.
TAMORA:
- If Tamora entreat him, then he will:
- For I can smooth and fill his aged ear
- With golden promises; that, were his heart
- Almost impregnable, his old ears deaf,
- Yet should both ear and heart obey my tongue.
-
[To AEmilius]
- Go thou before, be our ambassador:
- Say that the emperor requests a parley
- Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting
- Even at his father's house, the old Andronicus.
SATURNINUS:
- AEmilius, do this message honourably:
- And if he stand on hostage for his safety,
- Bid him demand what pledge will please him best.
AEMILIUS:
- Your bidding shall I do effectually.
-
[Exit]
TAMORA:
- Now will I to that old Andronicus;
- And temper him with all the art I have,
- To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.
- And now, sweet emperor, be blithe again,
- And bury all thy fear in my devices.
SATURNINUS:
- Then go successantly, and plead to him.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT V
ACT V, SCENE I. Plains near Rome.
[Enter LUCIUS with an army of Goths, with drum and colours]
LUCIUS:
- Approved warriors, and my faithful friends,
- I have received letters from great Rome,
- Which signify what hate they bear their emperor
- And how desirous of our sight they are.
- Therefore, great lords, be, as your titles witness,
- Imperious and impatient of your wrongs,
- And wherein Rome hath done you any scath,
- Let him make treble satisfaction.
First Goth:
- Brave slip, sprung from the great Andronicus,
- Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort;
- Whose high exploits and honourable deeds
- Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt,
- Be bold in us: we'll follow where thou lead'st,
- Like stinging bees in hottest summer's day
- Led by their master to the flowered fields,
- And be avenged on cursed Tamora.
All the Goths:
- And as he saith, so say we all with him.
Second Goth:
- Renowned Lucius, from our troops I stray'd
- To gaze upon a ruinous monastery;
- And, as I earnestly did fix mine eye
- Upon the wasted building, suddenly
- I heard a child cry underneath a wall.
- I made unto the noise; when soon I heard
- The crying babe controll'd with this discourse:
- 'Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dam!
- Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,
- Had nature lent thee but thy mother's look,
- Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor:
- But where the bull and cow are both milk-white,
- They never do beget a coal-black calf.
- Peace, villain, peace!'--even thus he rates
- the babe,--
- 'For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth;
- Who, when he knows thou art the empress' babe,
- Will hold thee dearly for thy mother's sake.'
- With this, my weapon drawn, I rush'd upon him,
- Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither,
- To use as you think needful of the man.
LUCIUS:
- O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil
- That robb'd Andronicus of his good hand;
- This is the pearl that pleased your empress' eye,
- And here's the base fruit of his burning lust.
- Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey
- This growing image of thy fiend-like face?
- Why dost not speak? what, deaf? not a word?
- A halter, soldiers! hang him on this tree.
- And by his side his fruit of bastardy.
AARON:
- Touch not the boy; he is of royal blood.
AARON:
- Lucius, save the child,
- And bear it from me to the empress.
- If thou do this, I'll show thee wondrous things,
- That highly may advantage thee to hear:
- If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,
- I'll speak no more but 'Vengeance rot you all!'
LUCIUS:
- Say on: an if it please me which thou speak'st
- Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourish'd.
AARON:
- An if it please thee! why, assure thee, Lucius,
- 'Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;
- For I must talk of murders, rapes and massacres,
- Acts of black night, abominable deeds,
- Complots of mischief, treason, villanies
- Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd:
- And this shall all be buried by my death,
- Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.
LUCIUS:
- Tell on thy mind; I say thy child shall live.
AARON:
- Swear that he shall, and then I will begin.
LUCIUS:
- Who should I swear by? thou believest no god:
- That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
AARON:
- What if I do not? as, indeed, I do not;
- Yet, for I know thou art religious
- And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
- With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies,
- Which I have seen thee careful to observe,
- Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know
- An idiot holds his bauble for a god
- And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,
- To that I'll urge him: therefore thou shalt vow
- By that same god, what god soe'er it be,
- That thou adorest and hast in reverence,
- To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up;
- Or else I will discover nought to thee.
LUCIUS:
- Even by my god I swear to thee I will.
AARON:
- First know thou, I begot him on the empress.
LUCIUS:
- O most insatiate and luxurious woman!
AARON:
- Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
- To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
- 'Twas her two sons that murder'd Bassianus;
- They cut thy sister's tongue and ravish'd her
- And cut her hands and trimm'd her as thou saw'st.
LUCIUS:
- O detestable villain! call'st thou that trimming?
AARON:
- Why, she was wash'd and cut and trimm'd, and 'twas
- Trim sport for them that had the doing of it.
LUCIUS:
- O barbarous, beastly villains, like thyself!
AARON:
- Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them:
- That codding spirit had they from their mother,
- As sure a card as ever won the set;
- That bloody mind, I think, they learn'd of me,
- As true a dog as ever fought at head.
- Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.
- I train'd thy brethren to that guileful hole
- Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay:
- I wrote the letter that thy father found
- And hid the gold within the letter mention'd,
- Confederate with the queen and her two sons:
- And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue,
- Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?
- I play'd the cheater for thy father's hand,
- And, when I had it, drew myself apart
- And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:
- I pry'd me through the crevice of a wall
- When, for his hand, he had his two sons' heads;
- Beheld his tears, and laugh'd so heartily,
- That both mine eyes were rainy like to his :
- And when I told the empress of this sport,
- She swooned almost at my pleasing tale,
- And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.
First Goth:
- What, canst thou say all this, and never blush?
AARON:
- Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.
LUCIUS:
- Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?
AARON:
- Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
- Even now I curse the day--and yet, I think,
- Few come within the compass of my curse,--
- Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
- As kill a man, or else devise his death,
- Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
- Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
- Set deadly enmity between two friends,
- Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
- Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
- And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
- Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
- And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
- Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
- And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
- Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
- 'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
- Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
- As willingly as one would kill a fly,
- And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
- But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
LUCIUS:
- Bring down the devil; for he must not die
- So sweet a death as hanging presently.
AARON:
- If there be devils, would I were a devil,
- To live and burn in everlasting fire,
- So I might have your company in hell,
- But to torment you with my bitter tongue!
LUCIUS:
- Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.
-
[Enter a Goth]
Third Goth:
- My lord, there is a messenger from Rome
- Desires to be admitted to your presence.
LUCIUS:
- Let him come near.
-
[Enter AEMILIUS]
- Welcome, AEmilius what's the news from Rome?
AEMILIUS:
- Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,
- The Roman emperor greets you all by me;
- And, for he understands you are in arms,
- He craves a parley at your father's house,
- Willing you to demand your hostages,
- And they shall be immediately deliver'd.
First Goth:
- What says our general?
LUCIUS:
- AEmilius, let the emperor give his pledges
- Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,
- And we will come. March away.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT V, SCENE II. Rome. Before TITUS's house.
[Enter TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON, disguised]
TAMORA:
- Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,
- I will encounter with Andronicus,
- And say I am Revenge, sent from below
- To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
- Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,
- To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;
- Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,
- And work confusion on his enemies.
-
[They knock]
-
[Enter TITUS, above]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Who doth molest my contemplation?
- Is it your trick to make me ope the door,
- That so my sad decrees may fly away,
- And all my study be to no effect?
- You are deceived: for what I mean to do
- See here in bloody lines I have set down;
- And what is written shall be executed.
TAMORA:
- Titus, I am come to talk with thee.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,
- Wanting a hand to give it action?
- Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.
TAMORA:
- If thou didst know me, thou wouldest talk with me.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- I am not mad; I know thee well enough:
- Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines;
- Witness these trenches made by grief and care,
- Witness the tiring day and heavy night;
- Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well
- For our proud empress, mighty Tamora:
- Is not thy coming for my other hand?
TAMORA:
- Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora;
- She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:
- I am Revenge: sent from the infernal kingdom,
- To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,
- By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
- Come down, and welcome me to this world's light;
- Confer with me of murder and of death:
- There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
- No vast obscurity or misty vale,
- Where bloody murder or detested rape
- Can couch for fear, but I will find them out;
- And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,
- Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me,
- To be a torment to mine enemies?
TAMORA:
- I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Do me some service, ere I come to thee.
- Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands;
- Now give me some surance that thou art Revenge,
- Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels;
- And then I'll come and be thy waggoner,
- And whirl along with thee about the globe.
- Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet,
- To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
- And find out murderers in their guilty caves:
- And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
- I will dismount, and by the waggon-wheel
- Trot, like a servile footman, all day long,
- Even from Hyperion's rising in the east
- Until his very downfall in the sea:
- And day by day I'll do this heavy task,
- So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.
TAMORA:
- These are my ministers, and come with me.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Are these thy ministers? what are they call'd?
TAMORA:
- Rapine and Murder; therefore called so,
- Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Good Lord, how like the empress' sons they are!
- And you, the empress! but we worldly men
- Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.
- O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee;
- And, if one arm's embracement will content thee,
- I will embrace thee in it by and by.
-
[Exit above]
TAMORA:
- This closing with him fits his lunacy
- Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits,
- Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,
- For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;
- And, being credulous in this mad thought,
- I'll make him send for Lucius his son;
- And, whilst I at a banquet hold him sure,
- I'll find some cunning practise out of hand,
- To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,
- Or, at the least, make them his enemies.
- See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.
-
[Enter TITUS below]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:
- Welcome, dread Fury, to my woful house:
- Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.
- How like the empress and her sons you are!
- Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor:
- Could not all hell afford you such a devil?
- For well I wot the empress never wags
- But in her company there is a Moor;
- And, would you represent our queen aright,
- It were convenient you had such a devil:
- But welcome, as you are. What shall we do?
TAMORA:
- What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?
DEMETRIUS:
- Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.
CHIRON:
- Show me a villain that hath done a rape,
- And I am sent to be revenged on him.
TAMORA:
- Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,
- And I will be revenged on them all.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Look round about the wicked streets of Rome;
- And when thou find'st a man that's like thyself.
- Good Murder, stab him; he's a murderer.
- Go thou with him; and when it is thy hap
- To find another that is like to thee,
- Good Rapine, stab him; he's a ravisher.
- Go thou with them; and in the emperor's court
- There is a queen, attended by a Moor;
- Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion,
- for up and down she doth resemble thee:
- I pray thee, do on them some violent death;
- They have been violent to me and mine.
TAMORA:
- Well hast thou lesson'd us; this shall we do.
- But would it please thee, good Andronicus,
- To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,
- Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,
- And bid him come and banquet at thy house;
- When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,
- I will bring in the empress and her sons,
- The emperor himself and all thy foes;
- And at thy mercy shalt they stoop and kneel,
- And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
- What says Andronicus to this device?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- This will I do, and soon return again.
-
[Exit]
TAMORA:
- Now will I hence about thy business,
- And take my ministers along with me.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me;
- Or else I'll call my brother back again,
- And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.
TAMORA:
-
[Aside to her sons]
- What say you, boys? will you
- bide with him,
- Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor
- How I have govern'd our determined jest?
- Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,
- And tarry with him till I turn again.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
-
[Aside]
- I know them all, though they suppose me mad,
- And will o'erreach them in their own devices:
- A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam!
DEMETRIUS:
- Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.
TAMORA:
- Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes
- To lay a complot to betray thy foes.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell.
-
[Exit TAMORA]
CHIRON:
- Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd?
PUBLIUS:
- What is your will?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Know you these two?
PUBLIUS:
- The empress' sons, I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.
CHIRON:
- Villains, forbear! we are the empress' sons.
ACT V, SCENE III. Court of TITUS's house. A banquet set out.
[Enter LUCIUS, MARCUS ANDRONICUS, and Goths, with AARON prisoner]
LUCIUS:
- Uncle Marcus, since it is my father's mind
- That I repair to Rome, I am content.
First Goth:
- And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.
LUCIUS:
- Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,
- This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;
- Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him
- Till he be brought unto the empress' face,
- For testimony of her foul proceedings:
- And see the ambush of our friends be strong;
- I fear the emperor means no good to us.
AARON:
- Some devil whisper curses in mine ear,
- And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth
- The venomous malice of my swelling heart!
LUCIUS:
- Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!
- Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.
-
[Exeunt Goths, with AARON. Flourish within]
- The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.
-
[Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with AEMILIUS, Tribunes, Senators, and others]
SATURNINUS:
- What, hath the firmament more suns than one?
LUCIUS:
- What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the parle;
- These quarrels must be quietly debated.
- The feast is ready, which the careful Titus
- Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,
- For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome:
- Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places.
SATURNINUS:
- Marcus, we will.
- Hautboys sound. The Company sit down at table
-
[Enter TITUS dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA veiled, Young LUCIUS, and others.
TITUS places the dishes on the table]
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;
- Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
- And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor,
- 'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.
SATURNINUS:
- Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Because I would be sure to have all well,
- To entertain your highness and your empress.
TAMORA:
- We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- An if your highness knew my heart, you were.
- My lord the emperor, resolve me this:
- Was it well done of rash Virginius
- To slay his daughter with his own right hand,
- Because she was enforced, stain'd, and deflower'd?
SATURNINUS:
- It was, Andronicus.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Your reason, mighty lord?
SATURNINUS:
- Because the girl should not survive her shame,
- And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- A reason mighty, strong, and effectual;
- A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant,
- For me, most wretched, to perform the like.
- Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;
-
[Kills LAVINIA]
- And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!
SATURNINUS:
- What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.
- I am as woful as Virginius was,
- And have a thousand times more cause than he
- To do this outrage: and it now is done.
SATURNINUS:
- What, was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Will't please you eat? will't please your
- highness feed?
TAMORA:
- Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius:
- They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue;
- And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.
SATURNINUS:
- Go fetch them hither to us presently.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
- Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;
- Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
- Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
- 'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point.
-
[Kills TAMORA]
SATURNINUS:
- Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!
-
[Kills TITUS]
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
- By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl
- Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
- O, let me teach you how to knit again
- This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
- These broken limbs again into one body;
- Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
- And she whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to,
- Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
- Do shameful execution on herself.
- But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
- Grave witnesses of true experience,
- Cannot induce you to attend my words,
-
[To LUCIUS]
- Speak, Rome's dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
- When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
- To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear
- The story of that baleful burning night
- When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam's Troy,
- Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,
- Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
- That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
- My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;
- Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
- But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
- And break my utterance, even in the time
- When it should move you to attend me most,
- Lending your kind commiseration.
- Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;
- Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
LUCIUS:
- Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
- That cursed Chiron and Demetrius
- Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
- And they it were that ravished our sister:
- For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
- Our father's tears despised, and basely cozen'd
- Of that true hand that fought Rome's quarrel out,
- And sent her enemies unto the grave.
- Lastly, myself unkindly banished,
- The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
- To beg relief among Rome's enemies:
- Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears.
- And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.
- I am the turned forth, be it known to you,
- That have preserved her welfare in my blood;
- And from her bosom took the enemy's point,
- Sheathing the steel in my adventurous body.
- Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I;
- My scars can witness, dumb although they are,
- That my report is just and full of truth.
- But, soft! methinks I do digress too much,
- Citing my worthless praise: O, pardon me;
- For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
AEMILIUS:
- Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
- And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,
- Lucius our emperor; for well I know
- The common voice do cry it shall be so.
All:
- Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor!
All:
- Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!
LUCIUS:
- Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern so,
- To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe!
- But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,
- For nature puts me to a heavy task:
- Stand all aloof: but, uncle, draw you near,
- To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.
- O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,
-
[Kissing TITUS]
- These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face,
- The last true duties of thy noble son!
MARCUS ANDRONICUS:
- Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
- Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips:
- O were the sum of these that I should pay
- Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!
LUCIUS:
- Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
- To melt in showers: thy grandsire loved thee well:
- Many a time he danced thee on his knee,
- Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow:
- Many a matter hath he told to thee,
- Meet and agreeing with thine infancy;
- In that respect, then, like a loving child,
- Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
- Because kind nature doth require it so:
- Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:
- Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
- Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.
AEMILIUS:
- You sad Andronici, have done with woes:
- Give sentence on this execrable wretch,
- That hath been breeder of these dire events.
LUCIUS:
- Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;
- There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food;
- If any one relieves or pities him,
- For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
- Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth.
AARON:
- O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?
- I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
- I should repent the evils I have done:
- Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
- Would I perform, if I might have my will;
- If one good deed in all my life I did,
- I do repent it from my very soul.
LUCIUS:
- Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,
- And give him burial in his father's grave:
- My father and Lavinia shall forthwith
- Be closed in our household's monument.
- As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,
- No funeral rite, nor man m mourning weeds,
- No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
- But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:
- Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
- And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
- See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
- By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
- Then, afterwards, to order well the state,
- That like events may ne'er it ruinate.
-
[Exeunt]