Sol. By all description, this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this? Timon is dead, who hath out-stretch'd his span: I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax; [Exit. Before the Walls of Athens. Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades, with his powers. Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush 3, 1 Sen. Noble and young, When thy first griefs were but a meer conceit, 2 Sen. So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble message, and by promis'd means; We were not all unkind, nor all deserve 30 The common stroke of war. 35 1 Sen. These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands, from whom For private faults in them. 2 Sen. Nor are they living, Who were the motives that you first went out; 40 Hath broke their hearts". March, noble lord, 45 By decimation, and å tithed death, If thy revenges hunger for that food, Which nature loaths) take thou the destin'd tenth; 1 Sen. All have not offended; For those that were, it is not square', to take, On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands, 50Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage: Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin, Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall 1 Dr. Warburton observes, that dear, in the language of that time, signified dread, and is so used by Shakspeare in numberless places.-Mr. Steevens says, that dear may in this instance signify immediate; and that it is an enforcing epithet with not always a distinct meaning. 2 Arms across. 3A bird is flush when his feathers are grown, and he can leave the nest.-Flush means mature. 4 The marrow was supposed to be the original of strength.-The image is from a camel kneeling to take up his load, who rises immediately when he finds he has as much laid on as he can bear. • Their refers to rages. The meaning is, "Shame in excess (i.e. extremity of shame) that they wanted cunning (i. e. that they were not wise enough not to banish you) hath broke their hearts." ? i, e. not regular, not equitable. With Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile, Than hew to't with thy sword. 1 Sen. Set but thy foot Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope; So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, 2 Sen. Throw thy glove, Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress, Shall make their harbour in our town, 'till we Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports': Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atone your fears With my more noble meaning,-not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedy'd by your public laws At heaviest answer. Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken. Enter a Soldier. Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead; Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea; And, on his grave-stone, this insculpture; which 5 With wax I brought away, whose soft impression Interpreteth for my poor ignorance. 10 [Alcibiades reads the epitaph.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait. 15 These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhor'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow 2, and those our droplets which From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit 20 Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave.-On:--Faults forgiven.-Dead Is noble Timon; of whose memory Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city, And I will use the olive with my sword: 25 Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other's leach 3- Our brain's flow is our tears. [Exeunt. 'i. e. physician. TITUS SCENE I. A C T I. Before the Capitol, in Rome. Enter the Tribuneș and Senators aloft, as in the Se- JOBLE patricians, patrons of my right, arms; And, countrymen, my loving followers, Bas. Romans,-friends, followers, favourers of 5 10 If ever Bassianus, Cæsar's son, And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice. Ambitiously for rule and empery! Know, that the people of Rome, for whom we 15 A special party, have, by common voice, 'Mr. Theobald says, This is one of those plays which he always thought, with the better judges, ought not to be acknowledged in the list of Shakspeare's genuine pieces. Dr. Johnson observes, That all the editors and critics agree with Mr. Theobald in supposing this play spurious, and that he sees" no reason for differing from them: for the colour of the style is wholly different from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular versification, and artificial closes, not always inelegant, yet seldom pleasing. The barbarity of the spectacles, and the general massacre, which are here exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonson, that they were not only borne, but praised." Mr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens are also of the same opinion with Dr. Johnson. A noble 1 A nobler man, a braver warrior, And now at last, laden with honour's spoils, Bas. Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy Sat. Friends, that have been thus forward in I thank you all, and here dismiss you all; Bas. Tribunes! and me, a poor competitor. SCENE II. Lo, as the bark, that hath discharg'd her fraught, 20 [They open the tomb. 25 How many sons of mine hast thou in store, Luc. Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths, 135 Tit. I give him you; the noblest that survives, A mother's tears in passion for her son: Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood; Capt. Romans, make way; The good AndroPatron of virtue, Rome's best champion, [nicus, Successful in the battles that he fights, With honour and with fortune is return'd, From where he circumscribed with his sword, And brought to yoke, the enemies of Rome. Sound drums and trumpets, and then enter Mutius and Marcus; after them, two men bearing 455 coffin covered with black; then Quintus and Lucius. After them, Titus Andronicus; and then Tamora, the queen of the Goths, Alarbus, Chiron, and Demetrius, with Aaron the Moor, prisoners; Soldiers, and other Attendants. They 60 set down the coffin, and Titus speaks. Tit. Hail! Rome, victoriousinthymourningweeds. Jupiter, to whom the Capitol was sacred. 2 Thrice-noble Titus, spare my first-born son. Tit. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me. To this, your son is mark'd: and die he must, This It was supposed by the ancients, that the ghosts of unburied people appeared to their friends and relations, to solicit the rites of funeral. verb is used by other dramatic writers. Tam. |