O, none of both but are of high desert: Aar. Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along, Luc. By heaven, it shall not go! Tit. Sirs, strive no more: such wither'd herbs as these Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine. Luc. Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son, Let me redeem my brothers both from death. Marc. And, for our father's sake and mother's care, Now let me show a brother's love to thee. Marc. But I will use the ax. spare my hand. 182 [Exeunt Lucius and Marcus. Tit. Come hither, Aaron; I'll deceive them both: Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine. Aar. [Aside] If that be call'd deceit, I will be honest, And never, whilst I live, deceive men so: 190 [Cuts off Titus's hand. Re-enter Lucius and Marcus. Tit. Now stay your strife: what shall be is dis patch'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. Aar. I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand 201 Look by and by to have thy sons with thee. Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it! [Exit. To that I call! [To Lav.] What, would thou kneel with me? 210 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. Marc. O brother, speak with possibilities, And do not break into these deep extremes. Tit. Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom? Then be my passions bottomless with them. Marc. But yet let reason govern thy lament. Tit. If there were reason for these miseries, 220 210. “would”; so Qq.; Ff. read "wilt"; Capell conj. “wou't.”—I. G. Then into limits could I bind my woes: When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow? If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, Threatening the welkin with his big-swoln face? And wilt thou have a reason for this coil? I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow! She is the weeping welkin, I the earth: Then must my sea be moved with her sighs; Then must my earth with her continual tears Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd: 230 For why my bowels cannot hide her woes, But like a drunkard must I vomit them. Then give me leave; for losers will have leave To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues. Enter a Messenger, with two heads and a hand. Mess. 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. 240 [Exit. Marc. Now let hot Ætna cool in Sicily, But sorrow flouted at is double death. 296. “blow”; the reading of Ff. 2, 3, 4; F. 1, Qq., “flow.”—I G. Luc. 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!. 250 [Lavinia kisses Titus. Marc. Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless As frozen water to a starved snake. Tit. When will this fearful slumber have an end? Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons' heads, The closing up of our most wretched eyes: Tit. Ha, ha, ha! Marc. Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour. Tit. Why, I have not another tear to shed: Besides, this sorrow in an enemy, And would usurp upon my watery eyes, Till all these mischiefs be return'd again As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight; O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been But in oblivion and hateful griefs. 282-283. "employ'd in these things," etc.; so Ff.; Qq., "imployde in these Armes"; perhaps, as the Cambridge editors suggest, the original MS. had as follows: "And thou, Lavinia, shalt be imployd, Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth,” the Quarto reading being due to a correction of "teeth" to "armes"; the latter being taken by the printer as belonging to the previous line.-I. G. 292. "leaves"; Rowe's emendation of Qq., Ff., "loues.”—I. G. |