But pardon me, sweet aunt:
And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go,
I will most willingly attend your ladyship.
Marcus Andronicus
Lucius, I will.
Lavinia turns over with her stumps the books which Lucius has let fall
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.
Titus Andronicus
No, boy, not so; I’ll teach thee another course.
Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house:
Lucius and I’ll go brave it at the court:
Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we’ll be waited on.
Exeunt Titus, Lavinia, and Young Lucius
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
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?
Young Lucius
[Aside] That you are both decipher’d, that’s the news,
For villains mark’d with rape.— May it please you,
My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me
The goodliest weapons of his armoury
To gratify your honourable youth,
The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say;
And so I do, and with his gifts present
Your lordships, that, whenever you have need,
You may be armed and appointed well:
And so I leave you both:
Aside
like bloody villains.
Exeunt Young Lucius, and Attendant
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.
Demetrius
Soft! who comes here?
Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms
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.
Aaron
To whom?
Nurse
I mean, she is brought a-bed.
Aaron
Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?
Nurse
A devil.
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.
Aaron
It shall not die.
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.
Aaron
Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.
Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws
Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother?
Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,
That shone so brightly when this boy was got,
He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point
That touches this my first-born son and heir!
I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,
With all his threatening band of Typhon’s brood,
Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,
Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.
What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!
Ye white-limed walls! ye alehouse painted signs!
Coal-black is better than another hue,
In that it scorns to bear another hue;
For all the water in the ocean
Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,
Although she lave them hourly in the flood.
Tell the empress from me, I am of age
To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.
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.
Demetrius
For this care of Tamora,
Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.
Exeunt Demetrius and Chiron bearing off the Nurse’s body
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
SCENE III. THE SAME. A PUBLIC PLACE.
Enter Titus, bearing arrows with letters at the ends of them; with him, Marcus, 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.
Titus Andronicus
He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.
I’ll dive into the burning lake below,
And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.
Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we
No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops’ size;
But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,
Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear:
And, sith there’s no justice in earth nor hell,
We will solicit heaven and move the gods
To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.
Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus;
He gives them the arrows
‘Ad Jovem,’ that’s for you: here, ‘Ad Apollinem:’
‘Ad Martem,’ that’s for myself:
Here, boy, to Pallas: here, to Mercury:
To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine;
You were as good to shoot against the wind.
To it, boy! Marcus, loose when I bid.
Of my word, I have written to effect;
There’s not a god left unsolicited.
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.
Titus Andronicus
Why, there it goes: God give his lordship joy!
Enter a Clown, with a basket, and two pigeons in it
News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.
Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?
Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter?
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?
Clown
Ay, sir.
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
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.
Clown
’Tis he. God and Saint Stephen give you good den:
I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here.
Saturninus reads the letter
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
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.
Lucius
I humbly thank him, and I thank you all.
But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth?
Enter a Goth, leading Aaron with his Child in his arms
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.
Lucius
Too like the sire for ever being good.
First hang the child, that he may see it sprawl;
A sight to vex the father’s soul withal.
Get me a ladder.
A ladder brought, which Aaron is made to ascend
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
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?
Titus Andronicus
Marcus, my brother! ’tis sad Titus calls.
Enter Marcus
Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius;
Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths:
Bid him repair to me, and bring with him
Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths;
Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are:
Tell him the emperor and the empress too
Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.
This do thou for my love; and so let him,
As he regards his aged father’s life.
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?
Titus Andronicus
Tut, I have work enough for you to do.
Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine!
Enter Publius and others
Publius
What is your will?
Titus Andronicus
Know you these two?
Publius
The empress’ sons, I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.
Titus Andronicus
Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceived;
The one is Murder, Rape is the other’s name;
And therefore bind them, gentle Publius.
Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.
Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,
And now I find it; therefore bind them sure,
And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry.
Exit
Publius, & c. lay hold on Chiron and Demetrius
Chiron
Villains, forbear! we are the empress’ sons.
Publius
And therefore do we what we are commanded.
Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.
Is he sure bound? look that you bind them fast.
Re-enter Titus, with Lavinia; he bearing a knife, and she a basin
Titus Andronicus
Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.
Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;
But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
Here stands the spring whom you have stain’d with mud,
This goodly summer with your winter mix’d.
You kill’d her husband, and for that vile fault
Two of her brothers were condemn’d to death,
My hand cut off and made a merry jest;
Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear
Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Inhuman traitors, you constrain’d and forced.
What would you say, if I should let you speak?
Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whilst that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
You know your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:
Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust
And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste,
And of the paste a coffin I will rear
And make two pasties of your shameful heads,
And bid that strumpet, your unhallow’d dam,
Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,
And worse than Progne I will be revenged:
And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,
He cuts their throats
Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,
Let me go grind their bones to powder small
And with this hateful liquor temper it;
And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.
Come, come, be every one officious
To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.
So, now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook,
And see them ready ’gainst their mother comes.
Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies
SCENE III. COURT OF TITUS’S HOUSE. A BANQUET SET OUT.
Enter Lucius, Marcus, 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.
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