CHI. An 'twere my case, I should go hang

myself.

DEM. If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.

[Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON.

Enter MARcus.

MAR. Who's this,-my niece, that flies away so fast?

Cousin, a word; Where is your husband ?"If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake me1!

"If I do wake, some planet strike me down,

"That I may slumber in eternal sleep!—

66

Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands "Have lopp'd, and hew'd, and made thy body bare "Of her two branches? those sweet ornaments, "Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in ;

"And might not gain so great a happiness,

"As half thy love? Why dost not speak to me?— "Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,

"Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,
"Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
"Coming and going with thy honey breath.
"But, sure, some Tereus hath defloured thee;
"And, lest thou should'st detect him, cut thy
tongue2.

Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame!
And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood,-

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

As from a conduit with three issuing spouts
Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan's face,
Blushing to be encounter'd with a cloud.
Shall I speak for thee? shall I say, 'tis so?
O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,
That I might rail at him to ease my mind!
Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.
Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,
And in a tedious sampler sew'd her mind :
But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;
A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met*,
And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,
That could have better sew'd than Philomel.
O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble, like aspen leaves, upon a lute,

And make the silken strings delight to kiss them;
He would not then have touch'd them for his life:
Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony,
Which that sweet tongue hath made,

5

He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep,
As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet.
Come, let us go, and make thy father blind:
For such a sight will blind a father's eye:
One hour's storm will drown the fragrant meads;
What will whole months of tears thy father's eyes?
Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee;
O, could our mourning ease thy misery! [Exeunt.

3 -THREE issuing spouts,] Old copies-their issuing, &c. Corrected by Sir Thomas Hanmer. STEEVENS.

4 - hast thou met WITHAL,] [So formerly printed.] The

word withal, is wanting in edition 1600. TODD.

The edition of 1600 reads as in the text. The word cousin, was omitted in the quarto 1611, which appears to have been followed by the folio, the editor of which, finding the line defective, inserted withal, by conjecture. MALONE.

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 "In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept; "For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed; "For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd; "And for these bitter tears, which now you see "Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks; "Be pitiful to my condemned sons,

"Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought! "For two and twenty sons I never wept, "Because they died in honour's lofty bed. "For these, good tribunes, in the dust I write [Throwing himself on the ground. My heart's deep languor, and my soul's sad tears. "Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite ; "My sons'sweet blood will make it shame and blush. [Exeunt Senators, Tribunes, &c. with the Prisoners.

6 For these, GOOD tribunes,] In the original copy, a word being omitted at the press, and the line consequently defective, the editor of the second folio, to supply the metre, reads:

"For these, these tribunes.”

It is much more likely that some epithet of respect was given to the tribunes, to conciliate their favour, than that the word these should be so oddly repeated. So, afterwards:

'O, reverend tribunes

For this emendation I am answerable. MALONE.

"O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
"That shall distil from these two ancient urns
"Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
"In summer's drought, I'll drop upon thee still;
"In winter, with warm tears I'll melt the snow,
"And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
"So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.

Enter Lucius, with his Sword drawn.

O, reverend tribunes! gentle-aged-menR !
Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators.

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: or if they did mark, They would not pity me, yet plead I must 9,

7 two ancient URNS,]

Oxford editor.-Vulg.

ancient ruins." JOHNSON.

Edition 1600-ruines, as in other old copies. TODD.

8 O, reverend tribunes! gentle-aged-men!] Edition 1600:

9

66

O, reverend tribunes! oh gentle aged men." TODD. or, if they did mark,

All bootless to them, they'd not pity me.

Therefore, &c.] The edition 1600 thus:

66

— or if they did marke,

"They would not pitty me, yet pleade I must,
"All bootless unto them.

66

Therefore," &c.

This I conceive to be the right reading. TODD.

The quarto 1600 reads as in the text, except that for―" All bootless," it reads-" And bootless." The editor of the folio, finding the passage corrupt in the quarto of 1611, mended it thus:

All bootless unto them.

Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they're better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these

A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones1:

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?

66

they would not mark,

"All bootless unto them, they would not pity me," &c. The original is certainly the true reading.

In the quarto 1611, an entire line—

66

They would not pity me," &c.

was omitted by the carelessness of the printer; an error which, I have no doubt, has often happened in those plays of which we have only the folio copy. MALone.

A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones:] The author, we may suppose, originally wrote:

"Stone's soft as wax," &c. STEEVENS.