Cousin, a word; Where is your husband?- If I do wake, some planet strike me down, Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands And might not gain so great a happiness, As half thy love? Why dost not speak to me?— Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind, 1 If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake me!] If this be a dream, I would give all my possessions to be delivered from it by waking. JOHNSON. 2 -lest thou should'st detect him, &c.] Old copies-detect them. The same mistake has happened in many other old plays. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. Tereus having ravished Philomela, his wife's sister, cut out her tongue, to prevent a discovery. MALONE. 3-three issuing spouts,] Old copies-their issuing &c. Corrected by Sir Thomas Hanmer. STEEVENS. Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd, He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep, 4 hast thou met withal,] The word withal, is wanting in edition 1600. TODD. 5 -Thracian poet's-] Orpheus. STEEVENS. ACT III. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter Senators, Tribunes, and Officers of Justice, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the Place of Execution; TITUS going before, pleading. TIT. Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay! For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought! O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain, For these, these, tribunes,] The latter these was added for the sake of the metre, by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. That shall distil from these two ancient urns,7 Enter LUCIUS, with his Sword drawn. 8 O, reverend tribunes! gentle aged men!" Luc. O, noble father, you lament in vain; The tribunes hear you not, no man is by, And you recount your sorrows to a stone. TIT. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead: Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you. Luc. My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak. TIT. Why, 'tis no matter, man: if they did hear, They would not mark me; or, if they did mark," 7 -two ancient urns,] Oxford editor.-Vulg. two ancient ruins. JOHNSON. Edition 1600,-ruines, as in other old copies. ' 0, reverend tribunes! gentle aged men!] All bootless to them, they'd not pity me. Therefore &c.] The edition 1600, thus: or if they did marke, TODD. Edition 1600: Topp. They would not pitty me, yet pleade I must, Therefore &c. This I conceive to be the right reading. TODD. All bootless to them, they'd not pity me. A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones: 1 A stone is silent, and offendeth not; And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death. But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn? Luc. To rescue my two brothers from their death: For which attempt, the judges have pronounc'd My everlasting doom of banishment. TIT. O happy man! they have befriended thee. Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive, That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers? Tigers must prey; and Rome affords no prey, But me and mine: How happy art thou then, From these devourers to be banished? But who comes with our brother Marcus here? Enter MARCUS and LAVINIA. MAR. Titus, prepare thy noble eyes to weep; Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break ; I bring consuming sorrow to thine age. A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones:] The author, we may suppose, originally wrote: Stone's soft as wat, &c. STEEVENS. |