Rome. Before TITUS’ House. | |
| |
Enter TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON, disguised. | |
| Tam. Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment, | |
| I will encounter with Andronicus, | 4 |
| And say I am Revenge, sent from below | |
| To join with him and right his heinous wrongs. | |
| Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps, | |
| To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge; | 8 |
| Tell him, Revenge is come to join with him, | |
| And work confusion on his enemies. [They knock. | |
| |
Enter TITUS, above. | |
| Tit. Who doth molest my contemplation? | 12 |
| Is it your trick to make me ope the door, | |
| That so my sad decrees may fly away, | |
| And all my study be to no effect? | |
| You are deceiv’d; for what I mean to do, | 16 |
| See here, in bloody lines I have set down; | |
| And what is written shall be executed. | |
| Tam. Titus, I am come to talk with thee. | |
| Tit. No, not a word; how can I grace my talk, | 20 |
| Wanting a hand to give it action? | |
| Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more. | |
| Tam. If thou didst know me, thou wouldst talk with me. | |
| Tit. I am not mad; I know thee well enough: | 24 |
| Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines; | |
| Witness these trenches made by grief and care; | |
| Witness the tiring day and heavy night; | |
| Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well | 28 |
| For our proud empress, mighty Tamora. | |
| Is not thy coming for my other hand? | |
| Tam. Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora; | |
| She is thy enemy, and I thy friend: | 32 |
| I am Revenge, sent from the infernal kingdom, | |
| To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind, | |
| By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes. | |
| Come down, and welcome me to this world’s light; | 36 |
| Confer with me of murder and of death. | |
| There’s not a hollow cave or lurking-place, | |
| No vast obscurity or misty vale, | |
| Where bloody murder or detested rape | 40 |
| Can couch for fear, but I will find them out; | |
| And in their ears tell them my dreadful name, | |
| Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake. | |
| Tit. Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me, | 44 |
| To be a torment to mine enemies? | |
| Tam. I am; therefore come down, and welcome me. | |
| Tit. Do me some service ere I come to thee. | |
| Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands; | 48 |
| Now give some surance that thou art Revenge: | |
| Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels, | |
| And then I’ll come and be thy waggoner, | |
| And whirl along with thee about the globe. | 52 |
| Provide two proper palfreys, black as jet, | |
| To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away, | |
| And find out murderers in their guilty caves: | |
| And when thy car is loaden with their heads, | 56 |
| I will dismount, and by the waggon-wheel | |
| Trot like a servile footman all day long, | |
| Even from Hyperion’s rising in the east | |
| Until his very downfall in the sea: | 60 |
| And day by day I’ll do this heavy task, | |
| So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there. | |
| Tam. These are my ministers, and come with me. | |
| Tit. Are these thy ministers? what are they call’d? | 64 |
| Tam. Rapine and Murder; therefore called so, | |
| ’Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men. | |
| Tit. Good Lord, how like the empress’ sons they are, | |
| And you the empress! but we worldly men | 68 |
| Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes. | |
| O sweet Revenge! now do I come to thee; | |
| And, if one arm’s embracement will content thee, | |
| I will embrace thee in it by and by. [Exit above. | 72 |
| Tam. This closing with him fits his lunacy. | |
| Whate’er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits, | |
| Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches, | |
| For now he firmly takes me for Revenge; | 76 |
| And, being credulous in this mad thought, | |
| I’ll make him send for Lucius his son; | |
| And, whilst I at a banquet hold him sure, | |
| I’ll find some cunning practice out of hand | 80 |
| To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths, | |
| Or, at the least, make them his enemies. | |
| See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme. | |
| |
Enter TITUS. | 84 |
| Tit. Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee: | |
| Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful house: | |
| Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too. | |
| How like the empress and her sons you are! | 88 |
| Well are you fitted had you but a Moor: | |
| Could not all hell afford you such a devil? | |
| For well I wot the empress never wags | |
| But in her company there is a Moor; | 92 |
| And would you represent our queen aright, | |
| It were convenient you had such a devil. | |
| But welcome as you are. What shall we do? | |
| Tam. What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus? | 96 |
| Dem. Show me a murderer, I’ll deal with him. | |
| Chi. Show me a villain that hath done a rape, | |
| And I am sent to be reveng’d on him. | |
| Tam. Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong, | 100 |
| And I will be revenged on them all. | |
| Tit. Look round about the wicked streets of Rome, | |
| And when thou find’st a man that’s like thyself, | |
| Good Murder, stab him; he’s a murderer. | 104 |
| Go thou with him; and when it is thy hap | |
| To find another that is like to thee, | |
| Good Rapine, stab him; he’s a ravisher. | |
| Go thou with them; and in the emperor’s court | 108 |
| There is a queen attended by a Moor; | |
| Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion, | |
| For up and down she doth resemble thee: | |
| I pray thee, do on them some violent death; | 112 |
| They have been violent to me and mine. | |
| Tam. Well hast thou lesson’d us; this shall we do. | |
| But would it please thee, good Andronicus, | |
| To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son, | 116 |
| Who leads towards Rome a band of war-like Goths, | |
| And bid him come and banquet at thy house: | |
| When he is here, even at thy solemn feast, | |
| I will bring in the empress and her sons, | 120 |
| The emperor himself, and all thy foes, | |
| And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel, | |
| And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart. | |
| What says Andronicus to this device? | 124 |
| Tit. Marcus, my brother! ’tis sad Titus calls. | |
| |
Enter MARCUS. | |
| Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius; | |
| Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths: | 128 |
| Bid him repair to me, and bring with him | |
| Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths; | |
| Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are: | |
| Tell him, the emperor and the empress too | 132 |
| Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them. | |
| This do thou for my love; and so let him, | |
| As he regards his aged father’s life. | |
| Mar. This will I do, and soon return again. [Exit. | 136 |
| Tam. Now will I hence about thy business, | |
| And take my ministers along with me. | |
| Tit. Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me; | |
| Or else I’ll call my brother back again, | 140 |
| And cleave to no revenge but Lucius. | |
| Tam. [Aside to her sons.] What say you, boys? will you abide with him, | |
| Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor | |
| How I have govern’d our determin’d jest? | 144 |
| Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair, | |
| And tarry with him till I turn again. | |
| Tit. [Aside.] I know them all, though they suppose me mad; | |
| And will o’er-reach them in their own devices; | 148 |
| A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam. | |
| Dem. [Aside to TAMORA.] Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here. | |
| Tam. Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes | |
| To lay a complot to betray thy foes. [Exit TAMORA. | 152 |
| Tit. I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell. | |
| Chi. Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ’d? | |
| Tit. Tut! I have work enough for you to do. | |
| Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine! | 156 |
| |
Enter PUBLIUS and Others. | |
| Pub. What is your will? | |
| Tit. Know you these two? | |
| Pub. The empress’ sons, | 160 |
| I take them, Chiron and Demetrius. | |
| Tit. Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceiv’d; | |
| The one is Murder, Rape is the other’s name; | |
| And therefore bind them, gentle Publius; | 164 |
| Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them; | |
| Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour, | |
| And now I find it: therefore bind them sure, | |
| And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry. [Exit. PUBLIUS, &c., seize CHIRON and DEMETRIUS. | 168 |
| Chi. Villains, forbear! we are the empress’ sons. | |
| Pub. And therefore do we what we are commanded. | |
| Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word. | |
| Is he sure bound? look that you bind them fast. | 172 |
| |
Re-enter TITUS, with LAVINIA; she bearing a basin, and he a knife. | |
| Tit. Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound. | |
| Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me, | |
| But let them hear what fearful words I utter. | 176 |
| O villains, Chiron and Demetrius! | |
| Here stands the spring whom you have stain’d with mud, | |
| This goodly summer with your winter mix’d. | |
| You kill’d her husband, and for that vile fault | 180 |
| Two of her brothers were condemn’d to death, | |
| My hand cut off and made a merry jest: | |
| Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear | |
| Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity, | 184 |
| In human traitors, you constrain’d and forc’d. | |
| What would you say if I should let you speak? | |
| Villains! for shame you could not beg for grace. | |
| Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you. | 188 |
| This one hand yet is left to cut your throats, | |
| Whilst that Lavinia’ tween her stumps doth hold | |
| The basin that receives your guilty blood. | |
| You know your mother means to feast with me, | 192 |
| And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad. | |
| Hark! villains, I will grind your bones to dust, | |
| And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste; | |
| And of the paste a coffin I will rear, | 196 |
| And make two pasties of your shameful heads; | |
| And bid that strumpet, your unhallow’d dam, | |
| Like to the earth swallow her own increase. | |
| This is the feast that I have bid her to, | 200 |
| And this the banquet she shall surfeit on; | |
| For worse than Philomel you us’d my daughter, | |
| And worse than Procne I will be reveng’d. | |
| And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come. [He cuts their throats. | 204 |
| 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. | 208 |
| 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, | 212 |
| And see them ready’ gainst their mother comes. [Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies. | |
