As when the golden sun salutes the morn,

And, having gilt the ocean with his beams, Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach, And overlooks the highest-peering hills; So Tamora.

Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait,
And virtue stoops and trembles at her frown,
Then, Aaron, arm thy heart, and fit thy

thoughts,

To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress, And mount her pitch; whom thou in triumph long

Hast prisoner held, fetter'd in amorous chains;
And faster bound to Aaron's charming eyes,
Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus.

Away with slavish weeds, and idle thoughts!
I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold,
To wait upon this new-made emperess.
To wait, said I? to wanton with this queen,
This goddess, this Semiramis;-this queen,
This syren, that will charm Rome's Saturnine,
And see his shipwreck, and his commonweal's.
Holla! what storm is this?

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS, braving. Dem. Chiron, thy years want wit, thy wit wants edge,

And manners, to intrude where I ain grac'd; And may, for aught thou know'st, affected be. Chi. Demetrius, thou dost overween in all; And so in this to bear me down with braves. 'Tis not the difference of a year, or two, Makes me less gracious, thee more fortunate: I am as able, and as fit, as thou,

To serve, and to deserve my mistress' grace;* And that my sword upon thee shall approve, And plead my passions for Lavinia's love.

Aar. Clubs, clubs!t these lovers will not keep the peace.

Dem. Why, boy, although our mother, unadvis'd, Gave you a dancing-rapiert by your side, Are you so desperate grown, to threat your desperate friends? [sheath, Go to; have your lath glued within your Till you know better how to handle it.

Chi. Mean while, Sir, with the little skill I have,

Full well shalt thou perceive how much I dare. Dem. Ay, boy, grow ye so brave? [They draw.

Aar. Why, how now, lords?

So near the emperor's palace dare you draw,
And maintain such a quarrel openly?
Full well I wots the ground of all this grudge;
I would not for a million of gold,

[cerns:

The cause were known to them it most conNor would your noble mother, for much more, Be so dishonour'd in the court of Rome.

What, is Lavinia then become so loose, Or Bassianus so degenerate, [broach'd, That for her love such quarrels may be Without controlment, justice, or revenge? Young lords, beware!-an should the empress [please. This discord's ground, the music would not Chi. I care not, I, knew she and all the world;

know

I love Lavinia more than all the world.

Dem. Youngling, learn thou to make some meaner choice:

Lavinia is thine elder brother's hope.
Aar. Why, are ye mad? or know ye not, in
How furious and impatient they be,
[Rome
And cannot brook competitors in love?
I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths
By this device.

Chi. Aaron, a thousand deaths
Would I propose, to achieve her whom I love.
Aar. To achieve her! -How?

Dem. Why makest thou it so strange? She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; She is a woman, therefore may be won; She is Lavinia, therefore must be lov'd. What, man! more water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller of; and easy it is Of a cut loaf to steal a shive,* we know: Though Bassianus be the emperor's brother, Better than he have yet worn Vulcan's badge. Aar. Ay, and as good as Saturninus may. [Aside.

Dem. Then why should he despair, that knows to court it

With words, fair looks, and liberality?
What, hast thou not full often struck a doe,
And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose?
Aar. Why then, it seems, some certain

snatch, or so Would serve your turns.

Chi. Ay, so the turn were serv'd.
Dem. Aaron, thou hast hit it.

Aar. 'Would you had hit it too;

Then should not we be tir'd with this ado. Why, hark ye, hark ye, And are you such fools,

To squaret for this? Would it offend you then That both should speed?

Chi. I'faith, not me. Dem. Nor me,

So I were one.

Aar. For shame, be friends; and join for

that you jar.

'Tis policy and stratagem must do
That you affect; and so must you resolve;
That what you cannot, as you would, achieve,
You must perforce accomplish as you may.
Take this of me, Lucrece was not more chaste
Than this Lavinia, Bassianus' love.

A speedier course than lingering languishment
Must we pursue, and I have found the path.
There will the lovely Roman ladies troop:
My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand;
The forest walks are wide and spacious;
And many unfrequented plots there are,
Fitted by kind‡ for rape and villany:
Single you thither then this dainty doe,
And strike her home by force, if not by words:
This way, or not at all, stand you in hope.
Come, come, our empress, with her sacred
To villany and vengeance consecrate,
Will we acquaint with all that we intend;
And she shall file our engines with advice,
That will not suffer you to square yourselves,

[wit,

† By nature.

Sacred here signifies accursed; a Latinum,

Why are you sequester'd from all your train? Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed,

And wander'd hither to an obscure plot,
Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,
If foul desire had not conducted you?
Lav. And, being interrupted in your sport,
Great reason that my noble lord be rated
For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence,
And let her 'joy her raven-colour'd love;
This valley fits the purpose passing well.

Bas. The king, my brother, shall have note

the dam?

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.

Dem. How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother,

The milk, thou suck'dst from her, did turn to marble; Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.Yet every mother breeds not sons alike; Do thou entreat her show a woman's pity. [TO CHIRON. Chi. What! would'st thou have me prove myself a bastard?

Why doth your highness look so pale and wan? Tam. Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?

These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place,
A barren detested vale, you see, it is:
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss, and baleful misletoe.
Here never shines the sun; here nothing
breeds,

Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.

And, when they show'd me this abhorred pit, They told me, here, at dead time of the night, A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes, Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,*

Would make such fearful and confused cries, As any mortal body, hearing it,

[here

Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
No sooner had they told this hellish tale,
But straight they told me, they would bind me
Unto the body of a dismal yew;
And leave me to this miserable death.
And then they call'd me, foul adulteress,
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
That ever ear did hear to such effect.
And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
This vengeance on me had they executed:
Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,
Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.
Dem. This is a witness that I am thy son.
[Stabs BASSIANUS.

Chi. And this for me, struck home to show
my strength. [Stabbing him likewise.
Lav. Ay, come, Semiramis, -nay, barbarous
Tamora!

my boys,

For no name fits thy nature but thy own! Tam. Give me thy poinard; you shall know, [wrong. Your mother's hand shall right your mother's Dem. Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her; [straw: First, thrash the corn, then after burn the This minion stood upon her chastity, Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty, And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:

And shall she carry this unto her grave?

Chi. An if she do, I would I were a eunuch. Drag hence her husband to some secret hole, And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust. Tam. But when you have the honey you desire,

Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.

hogs.

Lav. 'Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:

Yet I have heard, (O could I find it now!)
The lion mov'd with pity, did endure
To have his princely paws par'd all away.
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
The whilst their own birds famish in their
nests:

O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!

Tam. I know not what it means; away with her.

Lav. O, let me teach thee: for my father's sake,

That gave thee life, when well he might have slain thee,

Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.

Tam. Had thou in person ne'er offended me, Even for his sake am 1 pitiless :Remember, boys, I pour'd forth tears in vain, To save your brother from the sacrifice; But fierce Andronicus would not relent. Therefore away with her, and use her as you will;

The worse to her, the better lov'd of me.

Lav. O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen, And with thine own hands kill me in this place: For 'tis not life, that I have begg'd so long; Poor I was slain, when Bassianus died. Tam. What begg'st thou then; fond woman, let me go.

Lav. 'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more,

That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:
O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,
And tumble me into some loathsome pit;
Where never man's eye may behold my body:
Do this, and be a charitable murderer.

Tam. So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:

No, let them satisfy their lust on thee. Dem. Away, for thou hast staid us here too long.

Lav. No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beast

ly creature!

The blot and enemy to our general name !
Confusion fall-

Chi. Nay, then I'll stop your mouth :-
Bring thou her husband;

[Dragging off LAVINIA,

them;

That end upon them should be executed.

:

Tam. Andronicus, I will entreat the king; Fear not thy sons, they shall do well enough. Tit. Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them. [Exeunt severally.

SCENE V.-The same.

Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, with LAVINIA, ravished; her Hands cut off, and her Tongue

cut out.

tongue.

Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame!
And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood, -
As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,-
Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan's face,
Blushing to be encounter'd with a cloud.
Shall I speak for thee? shall I say, 'tis so?
O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,
That I might rail at him to ease my mind!
Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.
Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,
And in a tedious sampler sew'd her mind:
But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;
A craftier Tereus hast thou met withal,
And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,
That could have better sew'd than Philomel.
O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble, like aspen leaves, upon a lute,

[life: He would not then have touch'd them for his Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony, Which that sweet tongue hath made, [asleep, He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's* fect. Come, let us go, and make thy father blind: For such a sight will blind a father's eye: One hour's storm will drown the fragrant meads; [eyes? What will whole months of tears thy father's Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee; O, could our mourning ease thy misery !

ACT III.

:

SCENE 1.- Rome. A Street.

[Exeunt.

Enter SENATORS, TRIBUNES, and Officers of Justice, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the Place of Execution: TITUS going before, pleading.

Tit. Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!

For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;
For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;
For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;
And for these bitter tears, which now you see
Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought!
For two and twenty sons I never wept,
Because they died in honour's lofty bed:
For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write
[Throwing himself on the Ground.
My heart's deep languor, and my soul's sad
tears.

Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite; My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and biush.

[Exeunt SENATORS, TRIBUNES, &c. with the Prisoners.

O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain, That shall distil from these two ancient urns, Than youthful April shall with all his showers: In summer's drought, I'll drop upon thee still; In winter, with warm tears I'll melt the snow, And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,

So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood.

Enter Lucius, with his Sword drawn.

O, reverend tribunes! gentle aged men!
Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators.

Luc. O, noble father, you lament in vain;
The tribunes hear you not, no man is by,
And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
Tit. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me
plead:

Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you. Luc. My gracious lord, no tribune hears you

speak.

Tit. Why, 'tis no matter, man: if they did hear,

They would not mark me; or if they did mark, All bootless to them, they'd not pity me. Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones; Who, though they cannot answer my distress, Yet in some sort they're better than the tri bunes,

For that they will not intercept my tale: