Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

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.
Come, come, be every one officious

To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaurs' feast.
So, now bring them in, for I will play the cook,
And see them ready 'gainst their mother comes.
[Exeunt, bearing the dead Bodies.

SCENE III.

The Same. A Pavilion, with Tables, &c.

Enter LUCIUS, MARCUS, and Goths, with AARON, Prisoner.

Luc. Uncle Marcus, since 'tis my father's mind, That I repair to Rome, I am content.

1 GOTH. And ours, with thines, befall what fortune will.

Luc. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous

Moor,

This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;

Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him,
Till he be brought unto the empress' face",

8 And ours, with THINE,] And our content runs parallel with thine, be the consequence of our coming to Rome what it may.

MALONE.

› 9 the EMPRESS' face,] The quarto has-emperours; the For the emendation I am answerable.

folio-emperous.

MALONE.

Mr. Malone says, the quarto of 1611 has-empcrours; and that

For testimony of her foul proceedings:

And see the ambush of our friends be strong:
I fear the emperor means no good to us.

AAR. 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. Flourish. The trumpets show, the emperor is at hand.

Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with Tribunes,
Senators, and Others.

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

Luc. What boots it thee, to call thyself a sun?
MAR. Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the

parle1;

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 Tirus, dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA, veiled,

young LUCIUS, and Others.

Dishes on the Table.

TITUS places the

TIT. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome,

dread queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius ;

he is answerable for the emendation-empress. The quarto of 1600 reads exactly thus:

[ocr errors]

"Te [i]ll he be brought vnto the Empresse face." TODD break the parle ;] That is, begin the parley. We yet say, he breaks his mind. JOHNSON.

[ocr errors]

And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor,
"Twill 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.
TAM. 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?
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 LAVINIA. And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die! SAT. What hast thou done, unnatural and un

kind?

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

I am as woful as Virginius was:

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

2 Was it well done of rash Virginius,

To slay his daughter with his own right hand, &c.] Mr. Rowe might have availed himself of this passage in The Fair Penitent, where Sciolto asks Calista:

"Hast thou not heard what brave Virginius did?

"With his own hand he slew his only daughter," &c.

Titus Andronicus, however, is incorrect in his statement of this occurrence, for Virginia died unviolated. STEEVEens.

And therefore he says that he had "more cause" than Virginius. Boswell.

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?

TIT. Not I; twas Chiron, and Demetrius : They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue, And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong. SAT. Go, fetch them hither to us presently. TIT. Why, there they are both, baked in that pye;

Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred3. "Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point. [Killing TAMORA.

SAT. Die, frantick wretch, for this accursed deed. [Killing 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 in confusion disperse. MARCUS, Lucius, and their Partisans, ascend the Steps before TITUS's House.

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

By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl

Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,

3 Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.] The additions made by Ravenscroft to this scene, are so much of a piece with it, that I cannot resist the temptation of showing the reader how he continues the speech before us:

"Thus cramm'd, thou'rt bravely fatten'd up for hell,
"And thus to Pluto I do serve thee up.

[ocr errors]

[Stabs the emperess."

And then" A curtain drawn discovers the heads and hands of Demetrius and Chiron hanging up against the wall; their bodies in chairs in bloody linen." STEEVENS.

O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body.

SEN. Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself *; And she, whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to, Like a forlorn and desperate cast-away,

Do shameful execution on herself.

But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
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 surpriz'd king Priam's Troy;

4 Sen. LEST Rome, &c.] This speech and the next, in the quarto 1611, are given to a Roman lord. In the folio they both belong to the Goth. I know not why they are separated. I believe the whole belongs to Marcus; who, when Lucius has gone through such a part of the narrative as concerns his own exile, claims his turn to speak again, and recommend Lucius to the empire. STEEVENS.

I have followed the quarto, where the words Roman lord, [i. e. Senator,] are prefixed to this speech. The copy, however, reads-" Let Rome," &c. which I have no doubt was an error of the press for Lest. The editor of the folio finding the sentiment as exhibited in the quarto, in consequence of this error, not proper in the mouth of a Roman, for Roman lord substituted Goth. In correcting the errors of the quartos, the editor of the folio appears often to have only looked on the surface, and to have consequently made several injudicious emendations beside the present.

Mr. Capell, I find, has made the same emendation.

66

The error here corrected has likewise happened in the quarto copies of Hamlet, Act I. Sc. II. : let my extent to the players should more appear like entertainment than yours: -instead of" Lest my extent," &c.

[ocr errors]

As this speech proceeds in an uniform tenor with the foregoing, the whole (as Mr. Steevens has observed,) probably belongs to Marcus. MALONE.

« AnteriorContinuar »