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,

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 here
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.

DEMET. This is a witness that I am thy son. CHI. And this for me, struck home to show my strength.

[They stab BASSIANUS, who dies. LAV. Ay, come, Semiramis,-nay, barbarous Tamora!

For no name fits thy nature but thy own. TAM. Give me thy poniard ;-you shall know, my boys,

Your mother's hand shall right your mother's

Yet have I 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'st thou in person ne'er offended me, Even for his sake am I 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 't is 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

DEMET. Away! for thou hast stay'd us here | too long.

LAV. No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!

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

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

This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him. [Exeunt CHIRON and DEMETRIUS, the former dragging off LAVINIA, and the latter the body of BASSIANUS.

TAM. Farewell, my sons; see that you make her sure:-

Ne'er let my heart know merry cheer indeed,
Till all the Andronici be made away.
Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor,
And let my spleenful sons this trull deflour. [Exit.

611

SCENE IV.-The same.

Enter AARON, with QUINTUS and MARTIUS.

AARON. Come on, my lords, the better foot before:

Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit
Where I espied the panther fast asleep.

QUINT. My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes. MART. And mine, I promise you; were 't not for shame,

Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile. [Falls into the pit.

QUINT. What, art thou fallen ?-What subtle

hole is this, Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing briers, Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood,

RR 2

As fresh as morning's dew distill'd on flowers?
A very fatal place it seems to me,-
Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?
MART. O, brother, with the dismall'st object
hurt,*

That ever eye with sight made heart lament! AARON. [Aside.] Now will I fetch the king to find them here,

That he thereby may givet a likely guess, How these were they that made away his brother. [Exit.

MART. Why dost not comfort me and help me

out

From this unhallow'd and blood-stained hole? QUINT. I am surprised with an uncouth" fear; A chilling sweat o'erruns my trembling joints; My heart suspects more than my eye can see.

MART. To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,
Aaron and thou look down into this den,
And see a fearful sight of blood and death.
QUINT. Aaron is gone, and my compassionate
heart

Will not permit mine eyes once to behold
The thing whereat it trembles by surmise:
O, tell me how it is; for ne'er till now
Was I a child, to fear I know not what.

MART. Lord Bassianus lies embrued here,
All on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb,
In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.
QUINT. If it be dark, how dost thou know 't is
he?

MART. Upon his bloody finger he doth wear A precious ring, that lightens all the hole; (2) Which, like a taper in some monument, Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy ‡ cheeks, And shows the ragged entrails of the pit: So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus, When he by night lay bath'd in maiden blood. O, brother, help me with thy fainting hand,— If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath,— Out of this fell-devouring receptacle, As hateful as Cocytus' § misty mouth.

QUINT. Reach me thy hand, that I may help

thee out;

Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,
I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb
Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave.
I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink.
MART. Nor I no strength to climb without thy
help.

QUINT. Thy hand once more; I will not loose again,

Till thou art here aloft, or I below:

Thou canst not come to me,-I come to thee.

(*) First folio omits, hurt. (1) First folio, earthly.

Enter SATURNINUS and AARON.

SAT. Along with me:-I'll see what hole is here,

And what he is that now is leap'd into it.—
Say, who art thou that lately didst descend
Into this gaping hollow of the earth?

MART. The unhappy son of old Andronicus;
Brought hither in a most unlucky hour,
To find thy brother Bassianus dead.

SAT. My brother dead! I know thou dost but jest:

He and his lady both are at the lodge, Upon the north side of this pleasant chase; 'Tis not an hour since I left him there.

MART. We know not where you left him all alive,

But out, alas! here have we found him dead.

Enter TAMORA, ANDRONICUS, and Lucius.

TAM. Where is my lord the king?

SAT. Here, Tamora; though griev'd with killing grief.

TAM. Where is thy brother Bassianus ? SAT. Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound;

Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.

TAM. Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,
[Giving a letter.

The complot of this timeless tragedy;
And wonder greatly that man's face can fold
In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.

SAT. [Reads.]

An if we miss to meet him handsomely,—
Sweet huntsman, Bassianus 't is we mean,
Do thou so much as dig the grave for him;
Thou know'st our meaning. Look for thy reward
Among the nettles at the elder-tree,

Which overshades the mouth of that same pit,
Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.
Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.

O, Tamora, was ever heard the like? This is the pit, and this the elder-tree: Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out, That should have murder'd Bassianus here. AARON. My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold. [Showing it. SAT. [TO TITUS.] Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody kind,

Have here bereft my brother of his life.

[Falls in.

(+) First folio, have.

(§) First folio, Ocitus.

Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison;
There let them bide until we have devis'd
Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.
TAM. What, are they in this pit? O, wondrous
thing!

How easily murder is discovered!

TIT. High emperor, upon my feeble knee, I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed, That this fell fault of my accursed sons,Accursed, if the fault* be prov'd in them—

SAT. If it be prov'd! you see it is apparent.— Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you? TAM. Andronicus himself did take it up. TIT. I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail; For, by my father's reverend tomb, I vow They shall be ready at your highness' will, To answer their suspicion with their lives.

SAT. Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow

Enter MARCUS, from hunting.

MARC. Who is this, my niece,—that flies

away so fast?—

Cousin, a word; where is your husband ?—
If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!
If I do wake, some planet strike me down,
That I may slumber in eternal sleep!—
Speak, gentle niece,-what stern ungentle hands
Have lopp'd and hew'd, and made thy body bare
Of her two branches,-those sweet ornaments,
Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep
in,

And might not gain so great a happiness
As have thy love? Why dost not speak to me?-
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath.
But sure some Tereus hath defloured thee,
And, lest thou shouldst detect him,† cut thy
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, 't is 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, §
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,
And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,
He would not, then, have touch'd them for his life!
Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony
Which that sweet tongue hath made,b
He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep,
As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet.
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 ;
What will whole months of tears thy father's eyes?
Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee:
O, could our mourning ease thy misery!

(*) Old text, halfe. Corrected by Theobald, (t) Old text, them. Corrected by Rowe. (1) Old text, their. Corrected by Hanmer. (§) First folio adds, withall.

[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,

For these, tribunes,-] The metrical deficiency in this line is supplied in the second folio by a repetition of the word "these,"

"For these, these tribunes," &c.

Malone thought It more likely some epithet of respect was given to the tribunes, and accordingly he printed,

Whose souls are not corrupted, as 't is thought.
For two-and-twenty sons I never wept,
Because they died in honour's lofty bed.
For these, tribunes," in the dust I write

[Casting himself down.
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 blush.

[Exeunt Senators, Tribunes, and 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;

(*) Old text, ruines. Corrected by Hanmer. "For these, good tribunes," &c.

But query,

"For these, 0, tribunes," &c.?