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This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whilst 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 unhallow'd 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 reveng'd.
And now prepare your throats.-Lavinia, come,
[He cuts their throats.
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 bak'd.

(*) The first folio omits, own.

a a coffin-] The crust of a raised pie was of old called the

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This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;
Let him receive no sustenance, 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 mine ear, And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth The venomous malice of my swelling heart! Luc. Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave !Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in. [Exeunt Goths, with AARON. without.

Flourish

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Enter TITUS, dressed like a cook, LAVINIA, with a veil over her face, YOUNG LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes on the table.

TIT. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; And welcome, all! Although the cheer be poor, 'T will fill your stomachs, please you eat of it.

SAT. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus? TIT. Because I would be sure to have all well, To entertain your highness and your empress.

SAT. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus. TIT. 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 enforc'd, stain'd, and deflour'd?

aand it is now done.] A line not found in the folio. bthine only daughter thus?] The reading of the 4to. 1600; later editions omitting, "thus."

c Lest Rome, &c.] This line, beginning, "Let Rome," &c. in

SAT. It was, Andronicus.

TIT. Your reason, mighty lord?

SAT. Because the girl should not survive her shame,

And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
TIT. A reason mighty, strong, and effectual;
A pattern-precedent, and lively warrant,
For me, most wretched, to perform the like:—
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;
[He kills LAVINIA.
And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!
SAT. What hast thou done, unnatural and un-
kind?

TIT. Kill'd 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 is now done."

SAT. What, was she ravish'd? tell, who did the deed?

TIT. Will 't please you eat?-will't please your highness feed?

TAM. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus ?b

TIT. Not I; 't was Chiron and Demetrius : They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue; And they, 't was they, that did her all this wrong. SAT. Go fetch them hither to us presently. TIT. Why, there they are, both baked in that 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! [Kills TAMORA. SAT. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed! [Kills TITUS.

Luc. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed! [Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult. The People disperse in terror. LUCIUS,

MARCUS, and their Partisans ascend the steps of Titus's House.

MARC. You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of

Rome,

By uproars sever'd, like a flight of fowl
Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body;
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself;
And she whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself.
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,

the old copies, has the prefix, "Roman Lord," in the quartos, and in the folio, "Goth." Steevens observes that, as the speech proceeds in a uniform tenor, the whole probably belongs to Marcus, and to him in its entirety we assign it.

Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,-
Speak, Rome's dear friend, [To LUCIUS.] as erst

our ancestor,

When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear
The story of that baleful-burning night,
When subtle Greeks surpris'd king Priam's Troy,-
Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch'd 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 very utterance, even in the time
When it should move you to attend me most.
Lending your kind* commiseration,
Here is a captain, let him tell the tale,
Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Luc. Then,† noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius
Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it was that ravished our sister:

For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father's tears despis'd, and basely cozen'd
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 turn'd weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome's enemies;
Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears,
And op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend:
And I am the turn'd-forth, be it known to you,
That have preserv'd her welfare in my blood,
And from her bosom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my adventurous 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.
MARC. Now is my turn to speak: behold this
child,-

[Pointing to the Child in the arms of an
Attendant.

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,
Damn'd as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause‡ had Titus to revenge

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These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.
Now you have heard the truth, what say you,
Romans?

Have we done aught amiss,-show us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici

Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down,
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
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!

EMIL. 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 !
MARC. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house,
And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,
To be adjudg'd some direful-slaughtering death,
As punishment for his most wicked life.

[To Attendants, who go into the house. ROMANS. Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. 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.O, take this warm kiss on thy pale-cold lips, [Kisses TITUS. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd* face, The last true duties of thy noble son!

pay,

MARC. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips:
O, were the sum of these that I should
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!
Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn
of us

To melt in showers. Thy grandsire lov'd thee well:
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,
Meet and agreeing with thine infancy;
In that respect, then, like a loving child,
Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so:
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

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Boy. O, grandsire, grandsire! even 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.

Re-enter Attendants, with AARON.

1 ROMAN. You sad Andronici, have done with

woes:

Give sentence on this execrable wretch,
That hath been breeder of these dire events.
Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish
him;

There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food:
If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom.
Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth.
AARON. O, why should wrath be mute, and
fury dumb?

a No mournful bell-] Query, "No solemn bell," &c.?

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.
Luc. Some loving friends convey the
hence,

emperor

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 heinous tiger, Tamora,
No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity,
And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state,
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.(1) [Exeunt.

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ILLUSTRATIVE COMMENTS.

ACT II.

(1) SCENE III.—

Be unto us as is a nurse's song

Of lullaby, to bring her babe asleep.] Douce, in his "Illustrations of Shakspeare," has an interesting note on the burden lullaby.

"It would be a hopeless task to trace the origin of the northern verb to lull, which means to sing gently; but it is evidently connected with the Greek λαλέω, loquor, or Aάλλn, the sound made by the beach at sea. Thus much is certain, that the Roman nurses used the word lalla to quiet their children, and that they feigned a deity called Lallus, whom they invoked on that occasion; the lullaby or tune itself was called by the same name. As lallare meant to sing lalla, to lull might in like manner denote the singing of the nurse's lullaby to induce the child to sleep. Thus in an ancient carol composed in the fifteenth century, and preserved among the Sloane MSS. No. 2593:

"che song a slepe wt her lullynge
here dere sone our savyoure.'

"In another old ballad, printed by Mr. Ritson in his Ancient Songs, p. 198, the burden is lully, lully, lullaby, lullyby, sweete baby,' &c.; from which it seems probable that lullaby is only a comparatively modern contraction of lully baby, the first word being the legitimate offspring of the Roman lalla. In another of these pieces, still more ancient, and printed in the same collection, we have ‘lullay, lullow, lully, bewy, lulla baw baw.'

"The Welsh appear to have been famous for their lullaby songs. Jones, in his Arte and science of preserving bodie and soule, 1579, 4to., says :-The best nurses, but especially the trim and skilfull Welch women, doe use to sing some preaty sonets, wherwith their copious tong is plentifully stoared of divers pretie tunes and pleasaunt ditties, that the children disquieted might be brought to reste but translated never so well, they want their grace in Englishe, for lacke of proper words: so that I will omit them, as I wishe they would theyr lascivious Dymes, wanton Lullies, and amorous Englins.'

"Mr. White, in reviewing his opinion of the etymology of good-by, will perhaps incline to think it a contraction, when properly written good b'ye, of God be with you, and not may your house prosper!"

"To add to the stock of our old lullaby songs, two are here subjoined. The first is from a pageant of The slaughter of the innocents, acted at Coventry in the reign of Henry the Eighth, by the taylors and shearers of that city, and most obligingly communicated by Mr. Sharpe. The other is from the curious volume of songs mentioned before in p. 262. Both exhibit the simplicity of ancient manners :

"Lully, lulla, thou littell tine childe,

By by lully lullay,

Lully lullay thou littell tyne child,

By by lully lullay.

"O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This pore yongling, for whom we do singe
By by lully lullay.

"Herod the king, in his raging,

Chargid he hath this day;

His men of might, in his owne sight,
All yonge children to slay.

"That wo is me, pore child for thee, And ever morne and say;

For thi parting, nether say nor sing,
By by lully lullay.'

"By by lullaby
Rockyd I my chyld

In a dre late as I lay

Me thought I hard a maydyn say
And spak thes wordys mylde,
My lytil sone with the I play
And ever she song by lullay
Thus rockyd she hyr chyld
By by lullabi,

Rockid I my child by by.

Then merveld I ryght sore of thys
A mayde to have a chyld I wys,
By by lullay.

Thus rockyd she her chyld

By by lullaby, rockyd I my chyld.'

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(2) SCENE IV.--A precious ring, that lightens all the hole.] The gem supposed to possess a property of emitting native light was called a carbuncle, and is frequently mentioned in early books; thus, in " The Gesta Romanorum," b. vi. :-"He further beheld and saw a carbuncle in the hall that lighted all the house." So also in Lydgate's "Description of King Priam's Palace," L. II. :—

"And for most chefe all derkeness to confound,
A carbuncle was set as kyng of stones all,
To recomforte and gladden all the hall.
And to enlumine in the blacke night
With the freshnes of his ruddy light."

And so Drayton, in "The Muses' Elysium:

"Is that admired mighty stone,
The carbuncle that's named;
Which from it such a flaming light
And radiancy ejecteth,

That in the very darkest night
The eye to it directeth."

But the best illustration of the passage we have met with occurs in a letter from Boyle, containing "Observations on a Diamond that shines in the dark: "-" Though Vortomannus was not an eye-witness of what he relates, that the King of Pegu had a true Carbuncle of that bigness and splendour, that it shined very gloriously in the dark; and though Garcias ab Horto, the Indian Vice-Roy's physician, speaks of another carbuncle only on the report of one that he discoursed with; yet as we are not sure that these men that gave themselves out to be eye-witnesses, speak true, yet they may have done so for aught we know to the contrary. . . . . I must not omit that some virtuosi questioning me the other day at Whitehall, and meeting amongst them an ingenious Dutch gentleman whose father was long embassador for the Netherlands in England, I learned of him that he is acquainted with a person who was admiral of the Dutch in the East Indies, and who assured this gentleman Monsieur Boreel, that at his return from thence, he brought back with him into Holland a stone which though it looked but like a pale dull diamond, yet it was a real carbuncle; and did without rubbing shine so much, that when the admiral had occasion to open a chest which he kept under deck in a dark place where it was forbidden to bring candles for fear of mischances, as soon as he opened the trunk, the stone would by its native light shine so as to illustrate a great part of it."-Boyle's Works, Vol. II. p. 82.

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