And worse than Progne I will be reveng'd: To make this banquet; which I wish may prove 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, 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: AAR. Some devil whisper curses in mine ear, 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, SAT. What, hath the firmament more suns than Luc. What boots it thee, to call thyself a sun? parle1; These quarrels must be quietly debated. The feast is ready, which the careful Titus For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome: SAT. Marcus, we will. [Hautboys sound. The Company sit down at 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: "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. And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor, were. My lord the emperor, resolve me this; To slay his daughter with his own right hand?, 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; [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 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, [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 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, 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, The story of that baleful burning night, 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. As this speech proceeds in an uniform tenor with the foregoing, the whole (as Mr. Steevens has observed,) probably belongs to Marcus. MALONE. |