Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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4.1 Enter Lucius’ son and Lavinia running after him, and the boy flies from her with his books under his arm. Enter Titus and Marcus

YOUNG LUCIUS

Help, grandsire, help! My aunt Lavinia

Follows me everywhere, I know not why.

Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.

Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.

⌈He drops his books⌉

MARCUS

Stand by me, Lucius. Do not fear thine aunt.

TITUS

She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.

YOUNG LUCIUS

Ay, when my father was in Rome she did.

MARCUS

What means my niece Lavinia by these signs?

TITUS

Fear her not, Lucius; somewhat doth she mean. ⌈MARCUS⌉

See, Lucius, see how much she makes of thee.

Somewhither would she have thee go with her.

Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care

Read to her sons than she hath read to thee

Sweet poetry and Tully’s Orator.

Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus?

YOUNG LUCIUS

My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess,

Unless some fit or frenzy do possess her;

For I have heard my grandsire say full oft

Extremity of griefs would make men mad,

And I have read that Hecuba of Troy

Ran mad for sorrow. That made me to fear,

Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt

Loves me as dear as e’er my mother did,

And would not but in fury fright my youth,

Which made me down to throw my books and fly,

Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt;

And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go

I will most willingly attend your ladyship.

MARCUS

Lucius, I will.

Lavinia turns the books over with her stumps

TITUS

How now, Lavinia? Marcus, what means this?

Some book there is that she desires to see.

Which is it, girl, of these?-Open them, boy.

(To Lavinia) But thou art deeper read and better skilled.

Come and take choice of all my library,

And so beguile thy sorrow till the heavens

Reveal the damned contriver of this deed.—

Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus?

MARCUS

I think she means that there were more than one

Confederate in the fact. Ay, more there was,

Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.

TITUS

Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?

YOUNG LUCIUS

Grandsire, ’tis Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

My mother gave it me.

MARCUS

For love of her that’s gone,

Perhaps, she culled it from among the rest.

TITUS

Soft, so busily she turns the leaves.

Help her. What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read?

This is the tragic tale of Philomel,

And treats of Tereus’ treason and his rape,

And rape, I fear, was root of thy annoy.

MARCUS

See, brother, see. Note how she quotes the leaves.

TITUS

Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl,

Ravished and wronged as Philomela was,

Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods?

See, see. Ay, such a place there is where we did

hunt—

O, had we never, never hunted there!—

Patterned by that the poet here describes,

By nature made for murders and for rapes.

MARCUS

O, why should nature build so foul a den,

Unless the gods delight in tragedies?

TITUS

Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none but friends,

What Roman lord it was durst do the deed.

Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst,

That left the camp to sin in Lucrece’ bed?

MARCUS

Sit down, sweet niece. Brother, sit down by me.

They sit

Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury

Inspire me, that I may this treason find.

My lord, look here. Look here, Lavinia.

This sandy plot is plain. Guide if thou canst

This after me.

He writes his name with his staff, and guides it

with feet and mouth

I here have writ my name

Without the help of any hand at all.

Cursed be that heart that forced us to this shift!

Write thou, good niece, and here display at last

What God will have discovered for revenge.

Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,

That we may know the traitors and the truth.

She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with

her stumps, and writes

O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?

⌈TITUS⌉ ‘Stuprum—Chiron—Demetrius.’

MARCUS

What, what!—The lustful sons of Tamora

Performers of this heinous bloody deed?

TITUS

Magni dominator poli,

Tam lentus audis scelera, tam lentus vides?

MARCUS

O, calm thee, gentle lord, although I know

There is enough written upon this earth

To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts,

And arm the minds of infants to exclaims.

My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel;

And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector’s hope,

All kneel

And swear with me—as, with the woeful fere

And father of that chaste dishonoured dame

Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece’ rape—

That we will prosecute by good advice

Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,

And see their blood, or die with this reproach.

They rise

TITUS

’Tis sure enough an you knew how,

But if you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware.

The dam will wake, and if she wind ye once

She’s with the lion deeply still in league,

And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back,

And when he sleeps will she do what she list.

You are a young huntsman, Marcus. Let alone,

And come, I will go get a leaf of brass

And with a gad of steel will write these words,

And lay it by. The angry northern wind

Will blow these sands like Sibyl’s leaves abroad,

And where’s our lesson then? Boy, what say you?

YOUNG LUCIUS

I say, my lord, that if I were a man

Their mother’s bedchamber should not be safe

For these base bondmen to the yoke of Rome.

MARCUS

Ay, that’s my boy! Thy father hath full oft

For his ungrateful country done the like.

YOUNG LUCIUS

And, uncle, so will I, an if I live.

TITUS

Come go with me into mine armoury.

Lucius, I’ll fit thee; and withal, my boy,

Shall carry from me to the Empress’ sons

Presents that I intend to send them both.

Come, come, thou’lt do my message, wilt thou not?

YOUNG LUCIUS

Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.

TITUS

No, boy, not so. I’ll teach thee another course.

Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house.

Lucius and I’ll go brave it at the court.

Ay, marry, will we, sir, and we’ll be waited on.

Exeunt all but Marcus

MARCUS

O heavens, can you hear a good man groan

And not relent, or not compassion him?

Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,

That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart

Than foemen’s marks upon his battered shield,

But yet so just that he will not revenge.

Revenge the heavens for old Andronicus! Exit

4.2 Enter Aaron, Chiron, and Demetrius at one door, and at the other door young Lucius and another with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them

CHIRON

Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius.

He hath some message to deliver us.

AARON

Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.

YOUNG LUCIUS

My lords, with all the humbleness I may

I greet your honours from Andronicus

(Aside) And pray the Roman gods confound you both.

DEMETRIUS

Gramercy, lovely Lucius. What’s the news?

YOUNG LUCIUS (aside)

That you are both deciphered, that’s the news,

For villains marked with rape. (Aloud) May it please

you,

My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me

The goodliest weapons of his armoury

To gratify your honourable youth,

The hope of Rome, for so he bid me say;

His attendant gives the weapons

And so I do, and with his gifts present

Your lordships that, whenever you have need,

You may be armed and appointed well;

And so I leave you both (aside) like bloody villains.

Exit with attendant

DEMETRIUS

What’s here—a scroll, and written round about?

Let’s see.

‘Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,

Non eget Mauri iaculis, nec arcu.’

CHIRON

O, ’tis a verse in Horace, I know it well.

I read it in the grammar long ago.

AARON

Ay, just, a verse in Horace; right, you have it.

(Aside) Now what a thing it is to be an ass!

Here’s no sound jest. The old man hath found their

guilt,

And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines

That wound beyond their feeling to the quick.

But were our witty Empress well afoot

She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit.

But let her rest in her unrest a while.

(To Chiron and Demetrius)

And now, young lords, was’t not a happy star

Led us to Rome, strangers and, more than so,

Captives, to be advanced to this height?

It did me good before the palace gate

To brave the Tribune in his brother’s hearing.

DEMETRIUS

But me more good to see so great a lord

Basely insinuate and send us gifts.

AARON

Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?

Did you not use his daughter very friendly?

DEMETRIUS

I would we had a thousand Roman dames

At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.

CHIRON

A charitable wish, and full of love.

AARON

Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.

CHIRON

And that would she, for twenty thousand more.

DEMETRIUS

Come, let us go and pray to all the gods

For our beloved mother in her pains.

AARON

Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.

Trumpets sound

DEMETRIUS

Why do the Emperor’s trumpets flourish thus?

CHIRON

Belike for joy the Emperor hath a son.

DEMETRIUS

Soft, who comes here?

Enter Nurse with a blackamoor child

NURSE

Good morrow, lords.

O tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

AARON

Well, more or less, or ne’er a whit at all,

Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?

NURSE

O gentle Aaron, we are all undone.

Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!

AARON

Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!

What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms?

NURSE

O, that which I would hide from heaven’s eye,

Our Empress’ shame and stately Rome’s disgrace.

She is delivered, lords, she is delivered.

AARON

To whom?

NURSE

I mean she is brought abed.

AARON

Well, God give her good rest. What hath he sent her?

NURSE

A devil.

AARON

Why then, she is the devil’s dam.

A joyful issue!

NURSE

A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue.

Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad

Amongst the fair-faced breeders of our clime.

The Empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,

And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point.

AARON

Zounds, ye whore, is black so base a hue?

Sweet blowze, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.

DEMETRIUS

Villain, what hast thou done?

AARON

That which thou canst not undo.

CHIRON

Thou hast undone our mother. AARON

Villain, I have done thy mother.

DEMETRIUS

And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her.

Woe to her chance, and damned her loathed choice,

Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend.

CHIRON

It shall not live.

AARON

It shall not die.

NURSE

Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.

AARON

What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I

Do execution on my flesh and blood.

DEMETRIUS

I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point.

Nurse, give it me. My sword shall soon dispatch it.

AARON

Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.

He takes the child and draws his sword

Stay, murderous villains, will you kill your brother?

Now, by the burning tapers of the sky

That shone so brightly when this boy was got,

He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point

That touches this, my first-born son and heir.

I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus

With all his threat’ning band of Typhon’s brood,

Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war

Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.

What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys,

Ye whitelimed walls, ye alehouse painted signs,

Coal-black is better than another hue

In that it scorns to bear another hue;

For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,

Although she lave them hourly in the flood.

Tell the Empress from me I am of age

To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.

DEMETRIUS

Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?

AARON

My mistress is my mistress, this myself,

The figure and the picture of my youth.

This before all the world do I prefer;

This maugre all the world will I keep safe,

Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. no

DEMETRIUS

By this our mother is for ever shamed.

CHIRON

Rome will despise her for this foul escape.

NURSE

The Emperor in his rage will doom her death.

CHIRON

I blush to think upon this ignomy.

AARON

Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears.

Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing

The close enacts and counsels of thy heart.

Here’s a young lad framed of another leer.

Look how the black slave smiles upon the father,

As who should say ‘Old lad, I am thine own.’

He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed

Of that self blood that first gave life to you,

And from that womb where you imprisoned were

He is enfranchised and come to light.

Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,

Although my seal be stamped in his face.

NURSE

Aaron, what shall I say unto the Empress?

DEMETRIUS

Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,

And we will all subscribe to thy advice.

Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.

AARON

Then sit we down, and let us all consult.

My son and I will have the wind of you.

Keep there; now talk at pleasure of your safety.

They sit

DEMETRIUS (to the Nurse)

How many women saw this child of his?

AARON

Why, so, brave lords, when we do join in league

I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,

The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,

The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.

(To the Nurse) But say again, how many saw the

child?

NURSE

Cornelia the midwife, and myself,

And no one else but the delivered Empress.

AARON

The Empress, the midwife, and yourself.

Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.

Go to the Empress, tell her this I said.

He kills her

‘Wheak, wheak’—so cries a pig prepared to the spit.

DEMETRIUS

What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?

AARON

OLord, sir, ’tis a deed of policy.

Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours—

A long-tongued, babbling gossip? No, lords, no.

And now be it known to you my full intent.

Not far, one Muliteus my countryman

His wife but yesternight was brought to bed.

His child is like to her, fair as you are.

Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,

And tell them both the circumstance of all,

And how by this their child shall be advanced

And be received for the Emperor’s heir,

And substituted in the place of mine,

To calm this tempest whirling in the court;

And let the Emperor dandle him for his own.

Hark ye, lords, you see I have given her physic,

And you must needs bestow her funeral.

The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.

This done, see that you take no longer days,

But send the midwife presently to me.

The midwife and the nurse well made away,

Then let the ladies tattle what they please.

CHIRON

Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air

With secrets.

DEMETRIUS

For this care of Tamora,

Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.

Exeunt Chiron and Demetrius with the Nurse’s body

AARON

Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies,

There to dispose this treasure in mine arms

And secretly to greet the Empress’ friends.

Come on, you thick-lipped slave, I’ll bear you hence,

For it is you that puts us to our shifts.

I’ll make you feed on berries and on roots,

And fat on curds and whey, and suck the goat,

And cabin in a cave, and bring you up

To be a warrior and command a camp.

Exit with the child

4.3 Enter Titus, old Marcus, his son Publius, young Lucius, and other gentlemen (Sempronius, Caius) with bows; and Titus bears the arrows with letters on the ends of them

TITUS

Come, Marcus, come; kinsmen, this is the way.

Sir boy, let me see your archery.

Look ye draw home enough, and ‘tis there straight.

Terras Astraea reliquit.

Be you remembered, Marcus: she’s gone, she’s fled.

Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall

Go sound the ocean and cast your nets.

Happily you may catch her in the sea;

Yet there’s as little justice as at land.

No, Publius and Sempronius, you must do it.

’Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade

And pierce the inmost centre of the earth.

Then, when you come to Pluto’s region,

I pray you deliver him this petition.

Tell him it is for justice and for aid,

And that it comes from old Andronicus,

Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.

Ah, Rome! Well, well, I made thee miserable

What time I threw the people’s suffrages

On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.

Go, get you gone, and pray be careful all,

And leave you not a man-of-war unsearched.

This wicked Emperor may have shipped her hence,

And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.

MARCUS

O, Publius, is not this a heavy case,

To see thy noble uncle thus distraught?

PUBLIUS

Therefore, my lords, it highly us concerns

By day and night t’attend him carefully

And feed his humour kindly as we may,

Till time beget some careful remedy.

MARCUS

Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy,

But ⌈ ⌉

Join with the Goths, and with revengeful war

Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,

And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.

TITUS

Publius, how now? How now, my masters?

What, have you met with her?

PUBLIUS

No, my good lord, but Pluto sends you word

If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall.

Marry, for Justice, she is now employed,

He thinks, with Jove, in heaven or somewhere else,

So that perforce you must needs stay a time.

TITUS

He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.

I’ll dive into the burning lake below

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.

Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we,

No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops’ size,

But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,

Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can

bear;

And sith there’s no justice in earth nor hell,

We will solicit heaven and move the gods

To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.

Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus.

He gives them the arrows

‘Ad Iovem’, that’s for you. Here, ’ad Apollinem’.

‘Ad Martem’, that’s for myself. 55

Here, boy, ‘to Pallas’. Here ‘to Mercury’.

‘To Saturn’, Caius—not ‘to Saturnine’)

You were as good to shoot against the wind.

To it, boy! Marcus, loose when I bid.

Of my word, I have written to effect.

There’s not a god left unsolicited.

MARCUS

Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court.

We will afflict the Emperor in his pride.

TITUS

Now, masters, draw.

They shoot

O, well said, Lucius!

Good boy, in Virgo’s lap ! Give it Pallas.

MARCUS

My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon.

Your letter is with Jupiter by this.

TITUS

Ha, ha! Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?

See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus’ horns.

MARCUS

This was the sport, my lord. When Publius shot,

The Bull, being galled, gave Aries such a knock

That down fell both the Ram’s horns in the court,

And who should find them but the Empress’ villain!

She laughed, and told the Moor he should not choose

But give them to his master for a present.

TITUS

Why, there it goes. God give his lordship joy.

Enter the Clown with a basket and two pigeons in it

News, news from heaven; Marcus, the post is come.

Sirrah, what tidings? Have you any letters?

Shall I have justice? What says Jupiter?

CLOWN Ho, the gibbet-maker? He says that he hath taken them down again, for the man must not be hanged till the next week.

TITUS

But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?

CLOWN Alas, sir, I know not ‘Jupiter’. I never drank with him in all my life.

TITUS

Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?

CLOWN Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.

TITUS Why, didst thou not come from heaven?

CLOWN From heaven? Alas, sir, I never came there. God forbid I should be so bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to the tribunal plebs to take up a matter of brawl betwixt my uncle and one of the Emperal’s men.

TITUS

Sirrah, come hither. Make no more ado,

But give your pigeons to the Emperor.

By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.

Hold, hold—(giving money) meanwhile, here’s money

for thy charges.

Give me pen and ink. Sirrah, can you with a grace

Deliver up a supplication?

CLOWN Ay, sir.

TITUS (writing and giving the Clown a paper) Then here is a supplication for you, and when you come to him, at the first approach you must kneel, then kiss his foot, then deliver up your pigeons, and then look for your reward. I’ll be at hand, sir; see you do it bravely. CLOWN I warrant you, sir. Let me alone.

TITUS

Sirrah, hast thou a knife? Come, let me see it.

Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration,

For thou hast made it like an humble suppliant.

And when thou hast given it to the Emperor,

Knock at my door and tell me what he says.

CLOWN God be with you, sir. I will. Exit

TITUS

Come, Marcus, let us go. Publius, follow me. Exeunt

4.4 Enter Saturninus, the Emperor, and Tamora, the Empress, and Chiron and Demetrius, her two sons, and others. The Emperor brings the arrows in his hand that Titus shot at him

SATURNINUS

Why, lords, what wrongs are these! Was ever seen

An emperor in Rome thus overborne,

Troubled, confronted thus, and for the extent

Of egall justice used in such contempt?

My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods,

However these disturbers of our peace

Buzz in the people’s ears, there naught hath passed

But even with law against the wilful sons

Of old Andronicus. And what an if

His sorrows have so overwhelmed his wits?

Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,

His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?

And now he writes to heaven for his redress.

See, here’s ‘to Jove’ and this ‘to Mercury’,

This ‘to Apollo’, this ‘to the god of war’—

Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!

What’s this but libelling against the Senate

And blazoning our unjustice everywhere?

A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?—

As who would say, in Rome no justice were.

But, if I live, his feigned ecstasies

Shall be no shelter to these outrages,

But he and his shall know that justice lives

In Saturninus’ health, whom if he sleep

He’ll so awake as he in fury shall

Cut off the proud’st conspirator that lives.

TAMORA

My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,

Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,

Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus’ age,

Th’effects of sorrow for his valiant sons

Whose loss hath pierced him deep and scarred his

heart;

And rather comfort his distressed plight

Than prosecute the meanest or the best

For these contempts. (Aside) Why, thus it shall become

High-witted Tamora to gloze with all.

But, Titus, I have touched thee to the quick.

Thy life blood out if Aaron now be wise,

Then is all safe, the anchor in the port.

Enter Clown

How now, good fellow, wouldst thou speak with us?

CLOWN Yea, forsooth, an your mistress-ship be Emperial.

TAMORA Empress I am, but yonder sits the Emperor.

CLOWN ’Tis he. God and Saint Stephen give you good-e’ en. I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here.

Saturninus reads the letter

SATURNINUS (to an attendant)

Go, take him away, and hang him presently.

CLOWN How much money must I have?

TAMORA Come, sirrah, you must be hanged.

CLOWN Hanged, by’ Lady? Then I have brought up a neck to a fair end. Exit ⌈with attendant⌉

SATURNINUS

Despiteful and intolerable wrongs!

Shall I endure this monstrous villainy?

I know from whence this same device proceeds.

May this be borne?-As if his traitorous sons,

That died by law for murder of our brother,

Have by my means been butchered wrongfully!

Go, drag the villain hither by the hair.

Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege.

For this proud mock I’ll be thy slaughterman,

Sly frantic wretch, that holp’st to make me great

In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.

Enter Aemilius, a messenger

SATURNINUS

What news with thee, Aemilius?

AEMILIUS

Arm, my lords! Rome never had more cause.

The Goths have gathered head, and with a power

Of high-resolvèd men bent to the spoil

They hither march amain under conduct

Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus,

Who threats in course of this revenge to do

As much as ever Coriolanus did.

SATURNINUS

Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?

These tidings nip me, and I hang the head,

As flowers with frost, or grass beat down with storms.

Ay, now begins our sorrows to approach.

’Tis he the common people love so much.

Myself hath often heard them say,

When I have walked like a private man,

That Lucius’ banishment was wrongfully,

And they have wished that Lucius were their emperor.

TAMORA

Why should you fear? Is not your city strong?

SATURNINUS

Ay, but the citizens favour Lucius,

And will revolt from me to succour him.

TAMORA

King, be thy thoughts imperious like thy name.

Is the sun dimmed, that gnats do fly in it?

The eagle suffers little birds to sing,

And is not careful what they mean thereby,

Knowing that with the shadow of his wings

He can at pleasure stint their melody.

Even so mayst thou the giddy men of Rome.

Then cheer thy spirit; for know thou, Emperor,

I will enchant the old Andronicus

With words more sweet and yet more dangerous

Than baits to fish or honey-stalks to sheep

Whenas the one is wounded with the bait,

The other rotted with delicious feed.

SATURNINUS

But he will not entreat his son for us.

TAMORA

If Tamora entreat him, then he will,

For I can smooth and fill his aged ears

With golden promises that, were his heart

Almost impregnable, his old ears deaf,

Yet should both ear and heart obey my tongue.

(To Aemilius) Go thou before to be our ambassador.

Say that the Emperor requests a parley

Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting

Even at his father’s house, the old Andronicus.

SATURNINUS

Aemilius, do this message honourably,

And if he stand on hostage for his safety,

Bid him demand what pledge will please him best.

AEMILIUS

Your bidding shall I do effectually. Exit

TAMORA

Now will I to that old Andronicus,

And temper him with all the art I have

To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.

And now, sweet Emperor, be blithe again,

And bury all thy fear in my devices.

SATURNINUS

Then go incessantly, and plead to him.

Exeunt severally