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

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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5.1 ⌈Flourish.⌉ Enter Lucius with an army of Goths, with drummers and soldiers

LUCIUS

Approved warriors and my faithful friends,

I have received letters from great Rome

Which signifies what hate they bear their emperor

And how desirous of our sight they are.

Therefore, great lords, be as your titles witness,

Imperious, and impatient of your wrongs,

And wherein Rome hath done you any scath

Let him make treble satisfaction.

A GOTH

Brave slip sprung from the great Andronicus,

Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort,

Whose high exploits and honourable deeds

Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt,

Be bold in us. We’ll follow where thou lead’st,

Like stinging bees in hottest summer’s day

Led by their master to the flowered fields,

And be avenged on cursed Tamora.

GOTHS

And as he saith, so say we all with him.

LUCIUS

I humbly thank him, and I thank you all.

But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth?

Enter a Goth, leading of Aaron with his child in his

arms

GOTH

Renowned Lucius, from our troops I strayed

To gaze upon a ruinous monastery,

And as I earnestly did fix mine eye

Upon the wasted building, suddenly

I heard a child cry underneath a wall.

I made unto the noise, when soon I heard

The crying babe controlled with this discourse:

‘Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dam!

Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,

Had nature lent thee but thy mother’s look,

Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor.

But where the bull and cow are both milk-white

They never do beget a coal-black calf.

Peace, villain, peace!’—even thus he rates the babe—

‘For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth

Who, when he knows thou art the Empress’ babe,

Will hold thee dearly for thy mother’s sake.’

With this, my weapon drawn, I rushed upon him,

Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither

To use as you think needful of the man.

LUCIUS

O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil

That robbed Andronicus of his good hand.

This is the pearl that pleased your Empress’ eye,

And here’s the base fruit of her burning lust.

(To Aaron) Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou

convey

This growing image of thy fiendlike face?

Why dost not speak? What, deaf? What, not a word?

A halter, soldiers! Hang him on this tree,

And by his side his fruit of bastardy.

AARON

Touch not the boy; he is of royal blood.

LUCIUS

Too like the sire for ever being good.

First hang the child, that he may see it sprawl—

A sight to vex the father’s soul withal.

Get me a ladder.

⌈A Goth brings a ladder which Aaron climbs⌉

AARON

Lucius, save the child,

And bear it from me to the Empress.

If thou do this, I’ll show thee wondrous things

That highly may advantage thee to hear.

If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,

I’ll speak no more but ‘Vengeance rot you all!’

LUCIUS

Say on, and if it please me which thou speak’st

Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourished.

AARON

And if it please thee? Why, assure thee, Lucius,

’Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;

For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres,

Acts of black night, abominable deeds,

Complots of mischief, treason, villainies

Ruthful to hear yet piteously performed,

And this shall all be buried in my death

Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.

LUCIUS

Tell on thy mind. I say thy child shall live.

AARON

Swear that he shall, and then I will begin.

LUCIUS

Who should I swear by? Thou believest no god.

That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?

AARON

What if I do not?—as indeed I do not—

Yet for I know thou art religious

And hast a thing within thee called conscience,

With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies

Which I have seen thee careful to observe,

Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know

An idiot holds his bauble for a god,

And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,

To that I’ll urge him, therefore thou shalt vow

By that same god, what god soe’er it be,

That thou adorest and hast in reverence,

To save my boy, to nurse and bring him up,

Or else I will discover naught to thee.

LUCIUS

Even by my god I swear to thee I will.

AARON

First know thou I begot him on the Empress.

LUCIIJS

O most insatiate and luxurious woman!

AARON

Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity

To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.

’Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus.

They cut thy sister’s tongue, and ravished her,

And cut her hands, and trimmed her as thou sawest.

LUCIUS

O detestable villain! Call’st thou that trimming?

AARON

Why, she was washed and cut and trimmed, and ’twas

Trim sport for them which had the doing of it.

LUCIUS

O barbarous beastly villains, like thyself!

AARON

Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them.

That codding spirit had they from their mother,

As sure a card as ever won the set.

That bloody mind I think they learned of me,

As true a dog as ever fought at head.

Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.

I trained thy brethren to that guileful hole

Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay.

I wrote the letter that thy father found,

And hid the gold within that letter mentioned,

Confederate with the Queen and her two sons;

And what not done that thou hast cause to rue

Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?

I played the cheater for thy father’s hand,

And when I had it drew myself apart,

And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter.

I pried me through the crevice of a wall

When for his hand he had his two sons’ heads,

Beheld his tears, and laughed so heartily

That both mine eyes were rainy like to his;

And when I told the Empress of this sport

She swoonèd almost at my pleasing tale,

And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.

A GOTH

What, canst thou say all this and never blush?

AARON

Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.

LUCIUS

Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON

Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.

Even now I curse the day—and yet I think

Few come within the compass of my curse—

Wherein I did not some notorious ill,

As kill a man, or else devise his death;

Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;

Accuse some innocent and forswear myself;

Set deadly enmity between two friends;

Make poor men’s cattle break their necks;

Set fire on barns and haystacks in the night,

And bid the owners quench them with their tears.

Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves

And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,

Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,

And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,

Have with my knife carved in Roman letters

‘Let not your sorrow die though I am dead.’

But I have done a thousand dreadful things

As willingly as one would kill a fly,

And nothing grieves me heartily indeed

But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

LUCIUS

Bring down the devil, for he must not die

So sweet a death as hanging presently.

Goths bring Aaron down the ladder

AARON

If there be devils, would I were a devil,

To live and burn in everlasting fire,

So I might have your company in hell

But to torment you with my bitter tongue.

LUCIUS

Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.

Goths gag Aaron.

Enter Aemilius

A GOTH

My lord, there is a messenger from Rome

Desires to be admitted to your presence.

LUCIUS Let him come near.

Welcome, Aemilius. What’s the news from Rome?

AEMILIUS

Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,

The Roman Emperor greets you all by me,

And for he understands you are in arms,

He craves a parley at your father’s house,

Willing you to demand your hostages,

And they shall be immediately delivered.

A GOTH What says our general?

LUCIUS

Aemilius, let the Emperor give his pledges

Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

And we will come. Away!

⌈Flourish.⌉ Exeunt ⌈marching⌉

5.2 Enter Tamora and Chiron and Demetrius, her two sons, disguised

TAMORA

Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,

I will encounter with Andronicus

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.

Tell him Revenge is come to join with him

And work confusion on his enemies.

They knock, and Titus ⌈aloft⌉ opens his study door

TITUS

Who doth molest my contemplation?

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 deceived; for what I mean to do,

See here, in bloody lines I have set down,

And what is written shall be executed.

TAMORA

Titus, I am come to talk with thee.

TITUS

No, not a word. How can I grace my talk,

Wanting a hand to give it action?

Thou hast the odds of me, therefore no more.

TAMORA

If thou didst know me thou wouldst talk with me.

TITUS

I am not mad, I know thee well enough;

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

For our proud empress, mighty Tamora.

Is not thy coming for my other hand?

TAMORA

Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora.

She is thy enemy, and I thy friend.

I am Revenge, sent from th’nfernal 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.

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

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.

TITUS

Art thou Revenge, and art thou sent to me

To be a torment to mine enemies?

TAMORA

I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.

TITUS

Do me some service ere I come to thee.

Lo by thy side where Rape and Murder stands.

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 wagoner,

And whirl along with thee about the globe,

Provide two proper palfreys, black as jet,

To hale thy vengeful wagon swift away

And find out murderers in their guilty caves.

And when thy car is loaden with their heads

I will dismount, and by thy wagon wheel

Trot like a servile footman all day long,

Even from Hyperion’s rising in the east

Until his very downfall in the sea;

And day by day I’ll do this heavy task,

So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.

TAMORA

These are my ministers, and come with me.

TITUS

Are they thy ministers? What are they called?

TAMORA

Rape and Murder, therefore called so

‘Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.

TITUS

Good Lord, how like the Empress’ sons they are,

And you the Empress! But we worldly men

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 ⌈aloft⌉

TAMORA

This closing with him fits his lunacy.

Whate’er I forge to feed his brainsick humours

Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,

For now he firmly takes me for Revenge,

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

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, below

TITUS

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!

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,

And would you represent our Queen aright

It were convenient you had such a devil.

But welcome as you are. What shall we do?

TAMORA

What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?

DEMETRIUS

Show me a murderer, I’ll deal with him.

CHIRON

Show me a villain that hath done a rape,

And I am sent to be revenged on him.

TAMORA

Show me a thousand that hath done thee wrong,

And I will be revenged on them all.

TITUS (to Demetrius)

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.

(To Chiron) Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap

To find another that is like to thee,

Good Rapine, stab him; he is a ravisher.

(To Tamora) Go thou with them, and in the Emperor’s

court

There is a queen attended by a Moor.

Well shalt thou know her by thine own proportion,

For up and down she doth resemble thee.

I pray thee, do on them some violent death;

They have been violent to me and mine.

TAMORA

Well hast thou lessoned us. This shall we do;

But would it please thee, good Andronicus,

To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,

Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike 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,

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?

TITUS

Marcus, my brother! ’Tis sad Titus calls.

Enter Marcus

Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius.

Thou shalt enquire him out among the Goths.

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

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.

MARCUS

This will I do, and soon return again. Exit

TAMORA

Now will I hence about thy business,

And take my ministers along with me.

TITUS

Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me,

Or else I’ll call my brother back again,

And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.

TAMORA (aside to her sons)

What say you, boys, will you abide with him

Whiles I go tell my lord the Emperor

How I have governed our determined jest?

Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,

And tarry with him till I turn again.

TITUS (aside)

I knew them all, though they supposed me mad,

And will o’erreach them in their own devices—

A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam.

DEMETRIUS

Madam, depart at pleasure. Leave us here.

TAMORA

Farewell, Andronicus. Revenge now goes

To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

TITUS

I know thou dost, and sweet Revenge, farewell.

Exit Tamora

CHIRON

Tell us, old man, how shall we be employed?

TITUS

Tut, I have work enough for you to do.

Publius, come hither; Caius and Valentine.

Enter Publius, Caius, and Valentine

PUBLIUS

What is your will?

TITUS

Know you these two?

PUBLIUS

The Empress’ sons I take them—Chiron, Demetrius.

TITUS

Fie, Publius, fie! Thou art too much deceived.

The one is Murder, and Rape is the other’s name.

And therefore bind them, gentle Publius;

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

CHIRON

Villains, forbear! We are the Empress’ sons.

PUBLIUS

And therefore do we what we are commanded.

Publius, Caius, and Valentine bind and gag Chiron

and Demetrius

Stop close their mouths. Let them not speak a word.

Is he sure bound? Look that you bind them fast.

Enter Titus Andronicus with a knife, and Lavinia

with a basin

TITUS

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.

O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!

Here stands the spring whom you have stained with

mud,

This goodly summer with your winter mixed.

You killed her husband, and for that vile fault

Two of her brothers were condemned 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,

Inhuman traitors, you constrained and forced.

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.

This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,

Whiles that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold

The basin that receives your guilty blood.

You know your mother means to feast with me,

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,

And make two pasties of your shameful heads,

And bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam,

Like to the earth swallow her own increase.

This is the feast that I have bid her to,

And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;

For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,

And worse than Progne I will be revenged.

And now, prepare your throats. Lavinia, come.

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 baked.

Come, come, be everyone officious

To make this banquet, which I wish may prove

More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.

He cuts their throats

So, now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook

And see them ready against their mother comes.

Exeunt carrying the bodies

5.3 Enter Lucius, Marcus, and the Goths, with Aaron, prisoner, ⌈and an attendant with his child⌉

LUCIUS

Uncle Marcus, since ’tis my father’s mind

That I repair to Rome, I am content.

A GOTH

And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.

LUCIUS

Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,

This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil.

Let him receive no sust’nance, fetter him

Till he be brought unto the Empress’ face

For testimony of her foul proceedings,

And see the ambush of our friends be strong.

I fear the Emperor means no good to us.

AARON

Some devil whisper curses in my ear

And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth

The venomous malice of my swelling heart.

LUCIUS

Away, inhuman dog, unhallowed slave!

Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.

⌈Exeunt Goths with Aaron and his child⌉

Flourish

The trumpets show the Emperor is at hand.

Enter Saturninus the Emperor, and Tamora the

Empress, with Aemilius, Tribunes, Senators, and

others

SATURNINUS

What, hath the firmament more suns than one?

LUCIUS

What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?

MARCUS

Rome’s emperor and nephew, break the parle.

These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready which the careful Titus

Hath ordained to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome.

Please you therefore draw nigh, and take your places.

SATURNINUS Marchs, we will.

⌈Hautboys. A table brought in.⌉ They sit.

Enter Titus like a cook, placing the dishes, and

Lavinia with a veil over her face; ⌈young Lucius,

and others⌉

TITUS

Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread Queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;

And welcome, all. Although the cheer be poor,

‘Twill fill your stomachs. Please you, eat of it.

SATURNINUS

Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?

TITUS

Because I would be sure to have all well

To entertain your highness and your Empress.

TAMORA

We are beholden to you, good Andronicus.

TITUS

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 enforced, stained, and deflowered?

SATURNINUS

It was, Andronicus.

TITUS

Your reason, mighty lord?

SATURNINUS

Because the girl should not survive her shame,

And by her presence still renew his sorrows.

TITUS

A reason mighty, strong, effectual;

A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant

For me, most wretched, to perform the like.

Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,

And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die.

⌈He kills her⌉

SATURNINUS

What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?

TITUS

Killed her for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woeful as Virginius was,

And have a thousand times more cause than he

To do this outrage, and it now is done.

SATURNINUS

What, was she ravished? Tell who did the deed.

TITUS

Will’t please you eat? Will’t please your highness feed?

TAMORA

Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?

TITUS

Not I, ‘twas Chiron and Demetrius.

They ravished her, and cut away her tongue,

And they, ’twas they, that did her all this wrong.

SATURNINUS

Go, fetch them hither to us presently.

TITUS ⌈revealing the heads⌉

Why, there they are, both baked in this pie,

Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

‘Tis true, ’tis true, witness my knife’s sharp point.

He stabs the Empress

SATURNINUS

Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed.

He kills Titus

LUCIUS

Can the son’s eye behold his father bleed?

There’s meed for meed, death for a deadly deed.

He kills Saturninus. Confusion follows.

⌈Enter Goths. Lucius, Marcus and others go aloft⌉

MARCUS

You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,

By uproars severed, as a flight of fowl

Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,

O, let me teach you how to knit again

This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,

These broken limbs again into one body.

A ROMAN LORD

Let Rome herself be bane unto herself,

And she whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to,

Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,

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.

(To Lucius) Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our

ancestor

When with his solemn tongue he did discourse

To lovesick Dido’s sad-attending ear

The story of that baleful-burning night

When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy.

Tell us what Sinon hath bewitched our ears,

Or who hath brought the fatal engine in

That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.

My heart is not compact of flint nor steel,

Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,

But floods of tears will drown my oratory

And break my utt’rance even in the time

When it should move ye to attend me most,

And force you to commiseration.

Here’s Rome’s young captain. Let him tell the tale,

While I stand by and weep to hear him speak.

LUCIUS

Then, gracious auditory, be it known to you

That Chiron and the damned Demetrius

Were they that murdered our Emperor’s brother,

And they it were that ravished our sister.

For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded,

Our father’s tears despised, and basely cozened

Of that true hand that fought Rome’s quarrel out

And sent her enemies unto the grave.

Lastly myself, unkindly banished,

The gates shut on me, and turned weeping out

To beg relief among Rome’s enemies,

Who drowned their enmity in my true tears

And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.

I am the turned-forth, be it known to you,

That have preserved her welfare in my blood,

And from her bosom took the enemy’s point,

Sheathing the steel in my advent’rous body.

Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I.

My scars can witness, dumb although they are,

That my report is just and full of truth.

But soft, methinks I do digress too much,

Citing my worthless praise. O, pardon me,

For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.

MARCUS

Now is my turn to speak. Behold the child.

Of this was Tamora delivered,

The issue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of these woes.

The villain is alive in Titus’ house,

And as he is to witness, this is true.

Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge

These wrongs unspeakable, past patience,

Or more than any living man could bear.

Now have you heard the truth. What say you,

Romans?

Have we done aught amiss, show us wherein,

And from the place where you behold us pleading

The poor remainder of Andronici

Will hand in hand all headlong hurl ourselves

And on the ragged stones beat forth our souls

And make a mutual closure of our house.

Speak, Romans, speak, and if you say we shall;

Lo, hand in hand Lucius and I will fall.

AEMILIUS

Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,

And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,

Lucius, our emperor—for well I know

The common voice do cry it shall be so.

ROMANS

Lucius, all hail, Rome’s royal emperor!

MARCUS (to attendants)

Go, go into old Titus’ sorrowful house

And hither hale that misbelieving Moor

To be adjudged some direful slaught’ring death

As punishment for his most wicked life. Exeunt some

⌈Lucius, Marcus, and the others come down⌉

⌈ROMANS⌉

Lucius, all hail, Rome’s gracious governor!

LUCIUS

Thanks, gentle Romans. May I govern so

To heal Rome’s harms and wipe away her woe.

But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,

For nature puts me to a heavy task.

Stand all aloof, but, uncle, draw you near

To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.

(Kissing Titus) O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold

lips,

These sorrowful drops upon thy bloodstained face,

The last true duties of thy noble son.

MARCUS (kissing Titus)

Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,

Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips.

O, were the sum of these that I should pay

Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them.

LUCIUS (to young Lucius)

Come hither, boy, come, come, and learn of us

To melt in showers. Thy grandsire loved thee well.

Many a time he danced thee on his knee,

Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow.

Many a story hath he told to thee,

And bid thee bear his pretty tales in mind,

And talk of them when he was dead and gone.

MARCUS

How many thousand times hath these poor lips,

When they were living, warmed themselves on thine!

O now, sweet boy, give them their latest kiss.

Bid him farewell. Commit him to the grave.

Do them that kindness, and take leave of them.

YOUNG LUCIUS (kissing Titus)

O grandsire, grandsire, ev’n with all my heart

Would I were dead, so you did live again.

O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping.

My tears will choke me if I ope my mouth.

Enter some with Aaron

A ROMAN

You sad Andronici, have done with woes.

Give sentence on this execrable wretch

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

LUCIUS

Set him breast-deep in earth and famish him.

There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food.

If anyone relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom.

Some stay to see him fastened in the earth.

AARON

Ah, why should wrath be mute and fury dumb?

I am no baby, I, that with base prayers

I should repent the evils I have done.

Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did

Would I perform if I might have my will.

If one good deed in all my life I did

I do repent it from my very soul.

LUCIUS

Some loving friends convey the Emperor hence,

And give him burial in his father’s grave.

My father and Lavinia shall forthwith

Be closed in our household’s monument.

As for that ravenous tiger, Tamora,

No funeral rite nor man in mourning weed,

No mournful bell shall ring her burial;

But throw her forth to beasts and birds to prey.

Her life was beastly and devoid of pity,

And being dead, let birds on her take pity.

Exeunt with the bodies

ADDITIONAL PASSAGES

A. AFTER 1.1.35

The following passage, found in the First Quarto following a comma after ‘field’ but not included in the Second or Third Quartos or the Folio, conflicts with the subsequent action and presumably should have been deleted. (In the second line, Q1 reads ’of that’ for ‘of the’.)

and at this day

To the monument of the Andronici

Done sacrifice of expiation,

And slain the noblest prisoner of the Goths.

B. AFTER 1.1.283

The following passage found in the quartos and the Folio is difficult to reconcile with the apparent need for Saturninus and his party to leave the stage at 275.1-2 before entering ‘above’ at 294.2-4. It is omitted from our text in the belief that Shakespeare intended it to be deleted after adding the episode of Mutius’ killing to his original draft, and that the printers of Q1 included it by accident.

⌈TITUS⌉

Treason, my lord! Lavinia is surprised.

SATURNINUS

Surprised, by whom?

BASSIANUS

By him that justly may

Bear his betrothed from all the world away.

C. AFTER 4.3.93

The following lines, found in the early texts, appear to be a draft of the subsequent six lines.

MARCUS (to Titus) Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for your oration, and let him deliver the pigeons to the Emperor from you.

TITUS (to the Clown) Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the Emperor with a grace?

CLOWN Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.