Sat. If it be prov'd? you fee, it is apparent. Tit. I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail. Sat. Thou shalt not bail them: fee thou follow me: Some bring the murder'd body, fome the murderers. Let them not speak a word, the guilt is plain; For by my foul, were there worfe end than death, That end upon them fhould be executed. Tam. Andronicus, I will intreat the King; Fear not thy fons, they fhall do well enough. Tit. Come, Lucius, come, ftay not to talk with them. [Exeunt feverally. Enter Demetrius and Chiron, with Lavinia, ravish'd; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out. Dem. So, now go tell (an if thy tongue can speak) Who 'twas that cut thy tongue, and ravish'd thee. Chi. Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning fo; And (if thy ftumps will let thee) play the fcribe. Dem. See, how with figns and tokens fhe can fcrowle. Chi. Go home, call for fweet water, wafh thy hands. Dem. She has no tongue call, nor hands to wash; And fo let's leave her to her filent walks. Chi. If 'twere my cafe, I fhould go hang myself. Dem. If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord. [Exeunt Dem. and Chiron. Enter Marcus to Lavinia. Mar. Who's this, my niece, that flies away fo faft ? Coufin, a word; where is your husband? If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me! Speak, gentle niece, what ftern ungentle hands Of Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments, (14) As have thy love! why doft not speak to me? Like to a bubling fountain stirr'd with wind, As half thy love!] As half her love? But might they gain any part of her love? or would fhe not confent to embrace 'em fo much as with one arm? The poet had no fuch ftuff in his thoughts. My correction restores the true meaning; that tho' Princes languish'd to fleep in her arms, they could not obtain their fuit, or have her love. The very fame corruption has obtain'd in our author's tale of Cephalus and Procris: And looks, as do the trees by winter nipt, For grammar fhews, that we must likewife read here--have fript He He would not then have touch'd them for his life. Which that sweet tongue hath made; He would have dropt his knife, and fell asleep, ACT III. SCENE, a Street in Rome. [Exeunt Enter the Judges and Senators, with Marcus and Quintus bound, paffing on the ftage to the place of execution, and Titus going before, pleading. H TITUS. Ear me, grave fathers; noble tribunes, ftay, Whofe fouls are not corrupted, as 'tis thought. [Andronicus lieth down, and the Judges pafs by him. For thefe, thefe, tribunes, in the dust I write My heart's deep languor, and my foul's fad tears: my tears ftanch the earth's dry appetite, Let My fons fweet blood will make it fhame and blush: [Exe. That That fhall diftil from thefe two antient ruins, Enter Lucius with his word drawn. Oh, reverend tribunes! gentle aged men! Luc. Oh, noble father, you lament in vain; Tit. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead;Grave tribunes, once more I intreat 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, They would not pity me. Therefore I tell my forrows to the ftones, A ftone is foft as wax, tribunes more hard than ftones: And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death. But wherefore ftand'st thou with thy weapon drawn? (15) Than youthful April fhall with all her show'rs;] This is the reading of our poetical editors only; the older copies have it rightly ---with all his fhow'rs. If they had not remember'd Ovid in his Fafti, lib. IV. ver. 89. (Aprilem memorant ab aperto tempore dictum: Quem Venus injecta vindicat alma manu.) They might, at leaft, have remembred the firft rule in their Propria qua maribus, that all months and winds are mafculines. Luc. Luc. To refcue my two brothers from their death; Tit. O happy man, they have befriended thee: But who comes with our brother Marcus here? Mar. Titus, prepare thy noble eyes to weep, Tit. Will it confume me? let me fee it then. Tit. Why, Marcus, fo fhe is. Luc. Ah me! this object kills me. Tit. Faint-hearted boy, arise and look upon her Speak, my Lavinia, what accurfed hand : Hath made thee handlefs, in thy father's fpight? (16) (16) what accurfed hand Hath made thee handlefs in thy father's fight?] But tho' Lavinia apfear'd handless in her, father's prefence, fhe was not made fo in his fight. And if that be the true reading, it can at best bear but this poor meaning, what curs'd hand hath robb'd thee of thy hands, for thy father to fee thee in that condition? the flight alteration, I have given, adds a much more reasonable complaint, and aggravates the fentiment. What curfed hand hath robb'd thee of thy hands, only in defpight to thy father, only to encrease his torments? Is |