And all my study be to no effect?

You are deceiv'd; for what I mean to do
See here in bloody lines I have set down;
And what is written shall be executed.

TAM. Titus, I am come to talk with thee."
TIT. 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. TAM. If thou didst know me, thou wouldst taik with me.

TIT. 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?

TAM. 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 cease 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 offenders quake.
TIT. Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to

me

To be a torment to mine enemies?

TAM. I am therefore come down, and welcome

me.

TIT. Do me some service, ere I come to thee. Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands! Now give 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 globes; 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. TAM. These are my ministers, and come with

TIT. Are they thy ministers? what are they

call'd?

TAM. Rapine and Murder; therefore called so, 'Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men. TIT. 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.
TAM. 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 practice 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.

TIT. Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee: Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful 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? TAM. What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?

DEMET. Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.

CHI. Show me a villain that hath done a rape, And I am sent to be reveng'd on him.

TAM. Show me a thousand, that have done thee

c Are they thy ministers?] A correction of the second folio; the previous copies having, "Are them," &c.

There is a queen attended by a Moor;
Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion,
For and down she doth resemble thee.

I

up

a

pray thee, do on them some violent death: They have been violent to me and mine.

TAM. 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
and her sons,
empress
The emperor himself, and all thy foes,
And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel,
And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
What says Andronicus to this device?

TIT. 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.

MARC. This will I do, and soon return again.

[Exit.

TAM. Now will I hence about thy business, And take my ministers along with me.

TIT. 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.

TIT. I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell. [Exit TAMORA. CHI. Tell us, old man, how shall we be em

ploy'd?

TIT. Tut, I have work enough for you to do.Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine!

Enter PUBLIUS and others.

PUB. What is your will? TIT.

PUB. The empress' sons,

Know you these two?

I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.
TIT. Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much
deceiv'd,-

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.

CHI. Villains, forbear! we are the empress' sons. PUB. 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.

will you abide with him,

Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor,

How I have govern'd our determin'd jest?
Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,
And tarry with him till I turn again.

TIT. [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.
DEMET. Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us.
here.

TAM. Farewell, Andronicus; Revenge now goes To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

aup and down-] That is, thoroughly, exactly, altogether ; see note (b), p. 13, Vol. I.

What say you, boys? will you abide with him,-] The early copies have, will you bide with him," but the self-evident correction, "abide," though attributed by Mr. Collier to his annotator

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 forc❜d. 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.

as a novelty, is found in most editions of the last century.

c I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.] The conjunction, omitted

in the old copies, was first restored by Theobald.

d And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry.] A line not printed in the folio, 1623.

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 reveng'd.
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 bak'd.

(*) The first folio omits, own.

a- a coffin-] The crust of a raised pie was of old called the

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!

Luc. Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!— Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in. [Exeunt Goths, with AARON. without.

Flourish

The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.

Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with EMILIUS, Tribunes, Senators, and others.

SAT. What, hath the firmament more suns than one?

Luc. What boots it thee to call thyself a sun? MARC. 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.

SAT. Marcus, we will.

[Hautboys sound. The company sit down at table.

Enter TITUS, dressed like a cook, LAVINIA, with a veil over her face, YOUNG LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes on the table.

TIT. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; And welcome, all! Although the cheer be poor, 'T will fill your stomachs, please you eat of it.

SAT. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus? TIT. Because I would be sure to have all well, To entertain your highness and your empress.

SAT. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus. TIT. 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 enforc'd, stain'd, and deflour'd?

a and it is now done.] A line not found in the folio. bthine only daughter thus?] The reading of the 4to. 1600; later editions omitting, "thus."

e Lest Rome, &c.] This line, beginning, "Let Rome," &c. in

SAT. It was, Andronicus.

TIT. Your reason, mighty lord?

SAT. Because the girl should not survive her shame,

And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
TIT. 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;

[He kills LAVINŢA, And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die! SAT. What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?

TIT. Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woeful as Virginius was,

And have a thousand times more cause than he To do this outrage;-and it is now done."

SAT. What, was she ravish'd? tell, who did the deed?

TIT. Will 't please you eat?-will't please your highness feed?

TAM. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus ?b

TIT. Not I; 't was Chiron and Demetrius : They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue; And they, 't was they, that did her all this wrong. SAT. Go fetch them hither to us presently. TIT. 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,

SAT. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!

[Kills TITUS Luc. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed! [Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult. The People disperse in terror. Lucius,

MARCUS, and their Partisans ascend the steps of Titus's House.

MARC. You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of

Rome,

By uproars 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,

the old copies, has the prefix, "Roman Lord," in the quartos, and in the folio, "Goth." Steevens observes that, as the speech proceeds in a uniform tenor, the whole probably belongs to Marcus, and to him in its entirety we assign it.

Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,—
Speak, Rome's dear friend, [To LuCIUS.] 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 surpris'd 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 very 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.
Luc. Then,† noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it was that ravished our sister:

For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father's tears despis'd, 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 op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend:
And I am the turn'd-forth, be it known to you,
That have preserv'd 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.
MARC. Now is my turn to speak: behold this
child,-

[Pointing to the Child in the arms of an
Attendant.

Of this was Tamora delivered;
The issue of an irreligious Moor,
Chief architect and plotter of these woes.
The villain is alive in Titus' house,
Damn'd' as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause‡ had Titus to revenge

(*) First folio inserts, hand. (+) First folio, This.
(1) Old text, course.

a And I am the turn'd-forth, &c.] So the quartos; the folio has,"And I am turned forth," &c.

b Damn'd as he is, &c.] Theobald's emendation; the old text having, "And as he is."

These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.
Now you have heard the truth, what say you,
Romans?

Have we done aught amiss,-show us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici

| Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down,
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
And make a mutual closure of our house..
Speak, Romans, speak! and if you say we shall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall!
EMIL. 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 !
ROMANS. Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor !
MARC. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house,
And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,
To be adjudg'd some direful-slaughtering death,
As punishment for his most wicked life.

[To Attendants, who go into the house. ROMANS. Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. 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, [Kisses TITUS. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain’d* face, The last true duties of thy noble son!

MARC. 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!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us

To melt in showers. Thy grandsire lov'd thee well:
Many a time he danc'd 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.

(*) Old text, bloud-slaine.

C ROMANS. Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor!] This and the subsequent line,

"Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!" are in the old copies ascribed to Marcus; but surely in error.