Lavinia, come :-Marcus, look to my house; Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we'll be waited on. [Exeunt Tirus, LAVINIA, and Boy. MAR. 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, 5 SCENE II. The Same. A Room in the Palace. Enter AARON, CHIRON, and DEMETRIUS, at one Door; at another Door, young Lucius, and an Attendant, with a Bundle of Weapons, and Verses writ upon them. CHI. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius; He hath some message to deliver to us. AAR. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather. Bor. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, I greet your honours from Andronicus ; And pray the Roman gods, confound you both. s Revenge THE heavens-] We should read: 66 Revenge thee, heavens." WARBURTON. It should be: 66 Revenge, ye heavens -." [Aside. Ye was by the transcriber taken for y, the. JOHNSON. I believe the old reading is right, and signifies-' may the heavens revenge,' &c. STEEVENS. I believe we should read: DEM. Gramercy, lovely Lucius: What's the news? Boy. That you are both decipher'd, that's the news, For villains mark'd with rape. [Aside.] May it please you, My grandsire, well-advis'd, hath sent by me The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say; Your lordships, that whenever you have need, And so I leave you both, [Aside.] like bloody villains. [Exeunt Boy and Attendant. DEM. What's here? A scroll; and written round about? Let's see; Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus, Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu. CHI. O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well: I read it in the grammar long ago. AAR. Ay, just!-a verse in Horace ;-right, you have it. Now, what a thing it is to be an ass ! Here's no sound jest?! the old man hath found their guilt: 8 And sends the weapons wrapp'd about with lines, Aside. 6 Gramercy,] i. e. grand merci, great thanks. STEEVENS. 7 Here's no SOUND jest!] Thus the old copies. This mode of expression was common formerly; so, in King Henry IV. Part I.: "Here's no fine villainy! "-We yet talk of giving a sound drubbing. Mr. Theobald, however, and the modern editors, read"Here's no fond jest." MALOne. The old reading is undoubtedly the true one. So, in King Richard III. : "Good Catesby, go, effect this business soundly." See also Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Sc. V. STEEVENS. THE weapons-] Edit. 1600-them weapons. TODD. That wound, beyond their feeling, to the But were our witty empress well a-foot, Aside. And now, young lords, was't not a happy star AAR. Had he not reason, lord Demetrius ? DEM. I would, we had a thousand Roman dames At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust. CHI. A charitable wish, and full of love. AAR. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. CHI. And that would she for twenty thousand more. DEM. Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods For our beloved mother in her pains. AAR. Pray to the devils; the gods have given us [Aside. Flourish. o'er. DEM. Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus ? CHI. Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son. Enter a Nurse, with a Black-a-moor Child in her Nur. Arms. Good morrow, lords: O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor. AAR. Well, more, or less, or ne'er a whit at all, Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now? NUR. O gentle Aaron, we are all undone ! Now help, or woe betide thee evermore! AAR. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep? What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms? NUR. 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. AAR. To whom? Nur. AAR. I mean she's brought to bed. Well, God Give her good rest! What hath he sent her? NUR. A devil. AAR. Why, then she's the devil's dam; a joyful issue. NUR. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue: Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure. 9 Out, OUT,] The second interjection, which is wanting in the old copies, I have inserted for the sake of metre. STEEVENS. "Out, out, you whore!" The edition 1600 reads: 86 Zounds, you whore." TODD. This proves that Mr. Steevens's insertion of the second out was erroneous. MALONE. I DONE! that which thou-] Done! which is wanting in the old copies, was very properly added, for the sake of measure, by Mr. Capell. STEEVENS. 2 Done! that which thou Canst not undo.] The edition 1600 reads: "Dem. Villaine what hast thou done? "Aar. That which thou canst not vndoe." TODD. AAR. Villain, I have done thy mother*. DEM. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone. Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice! Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend! CHI. It shall not live. AAR. It shall not die 5. NUR. Aaron, it must: the mother wills it so. AAR. What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I, Do execution on my flesh and blood. 6 DEM. I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point, Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon despatch it. 3 Thou hast undone-] Edition 1600 reads: "Thou hast undone her." TODD. 4 Villain, I have DONE thy mother.] To do is here used obscenely. So, in Taylor the Water Poet's character of a Prostitute: "She's facile fieri; (quickly wonne,) "Or, const'ring truly, easy to be done." COLLINS. 5 It shall not die.] We may suppose that the measure here was originally perfect, and stood thus: 66 say, it shall not die." STEEVENs. 6 I'll BROACH the tadpole-] A broach is a spit. tadpole.' JOHNSON. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "I'll broach thee on my steel." 'I'll spit the Again, in Greene's Pleasant Discovery of the Cosenage of Colliers, 1592: " - with that she caught a spit in her hand, and swore if he offered to stirre, she should therewith broach him." COLLINS. So also, in Lust's Dominion, by Marlowe, a play, in its style, bearing, I think, a near resemblance to Titus Andronicus, Eleazar, the Moor, a character of unmingled ferocity, like Aaron, and, like him, the paramour of a royal mistress, exclaims: 66 Run, and with a voice "Erected high as mine, say thus, thus threaten "Seek no queens here, I'll broach them, if they do, 'Upon my falchion's point." Boswell. |