Titus Andronicus
Act V.
Scene i. Plains near Rome.
- Enter Lucius with an army of Goths, with drum and colours
- Lucius: Approved warriors, and my faithful friends,
- I have received letters from great Rome,
- Which signify what hate they bear their emperor
- And how desirous of our sight they are.
- Therefore, great lords, be, as your titles witness,
- Imperious and impatient of your wrongs,
- And wherein Rome hath done you any scath,
- Let him make treble satisfaction.
- First Goth: Brave slip, sprung from the great Andronicus,
- Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort;
- Whose high exploits and honourable deeds
- Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt,
- Be bold in us: we'll follow where thou lead'st,
- Like stinging bees in hottest summer's day
- Led by their master to the flowered fields,
- And be avenged on cursed Tamora.
- All the Goths: And as he saith, so say we all with him.
- Lucius: I humbly thank him, and I thank you all.
- But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth?
- Enter a Goth, leading Aaron with his Child in his arms
- Second Goth: Renowned Lucius, from our troops I stray'd
- To gaze upon a ruinous monastery;
- And, as I earnestly did fix mine eye
- Upon the wasted building, suddenly
- I heard a child cry underneath a wall.
- I made unto the noise; when soon I heard
- The crying babe controll'd with this discourse:
- 'Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dam!
- Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,
- Had nature lent thee but thy mother's look,
- Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor:
- But where the bull and cow are both milk-white,
- They never do beget a coal-black calf.
- Peace, villain, peace!'—even thus he rates
- the babe,—
- 'For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth;
- Who, when he knows thou art the empress' babe,
- Will hold thee dearly for thy mother's sake.'
- With this, my weapon drawn, I rush'd upon him,
- Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither,
- To use as you think needful of the man.
- Lucius: O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil
- That robb'd Andronicus of his good hand;
- This is the pearl that pleased your empress' eye,
- And here's the base fruit of his burning lust.
- Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey
- This growing image of thy fiend-like face?
- Why dost not speak? what, deaf? not a word?
- A halter, soldiers! hang him on this tree.
- And by his side his fruit of bastardy.
- Aaron: Touch not the boy; he is of royal blood.
- Lucius: Too like the sire for ever being good.
- First hang the child, that he may see it sprawl;
- A sight to vex the father's soul withal.
- Get me a ladder.
- A ladder brought, which Aaron is made to ascend
- Aaron: Lucius, save the child,
- And bear it from me to the empress.
- If thou do this, I'll show thee wondrous things,
- That highly may advantage thee to hear:
- If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,
- I'll speak no more but 'Vengeance rot you all!'
- Lucius: Say on: an if it please me which thou speak'st
- Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourish'd.
- Aaron: An if it please thee! why, assure thee, Lucius,
- 'Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;
- For I must talk of murders, rapes and massacres,
- Acts of black night, abominable deeds,
- Complots of mischief, treason, villanies
- Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd:
- And this shall all be buried by my death,
- Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.
- Lucius: Tell on thy mind; I say thy child shall live.
- Aaron: Swear that he shall, and then I will begin.
- Lucius: Who should I swear by? thou believest no god:
- That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
- Aaron: What if I do not? as, indeed, I do not;
- Yet, for I know thou art religious
- And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
- With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies,
- Which I have seen thee careful to observe,
- Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know
- An idiot holds his bauble for a god
- And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,
- To that I'll urge him: therefore thou shalt vow
- By that same god, what god soe'er it be,
- That thou adorest and hast in reverence,
- To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up;
- Or else I will discover nought to thee.
- Lucius: Even by my god I swear to thee I will.
- Aaron: First know thou, I begot him on the empress.
- Lucius: O most insatiate and luxurious woman!
- Aaron: Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
- To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
- 'Twas her two sons that murder'd Bassianus;
- They cut thy sister's tongue and ravish'd her
- And cut her hands and trimm'd her as thou saw'st.
- Lucius: O detestable villain! call'st thou that trimming?
- Aaron: Why, she was wash'd and cut and trimm'd, and 'twas
- Trim sport for them that had the doing of it.
- Lucius: O barbarous, beastly villains, like thyself!
- Aaron: Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them:
- That codding spirit had they from their mother,
- As sure a card as ever won the set;
- That bloody mind, I think, they learn'd of me,
- As true a dog as ever fought at head.
- Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.
- I train'd thy brethren to that guileful hole
- Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay:
- I wrote the letter that thy father found
- And hid the gold within the letter mention'd,
- Confederate with the queen and her two sons:
- And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue,
- Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?
- I play'd the cheater for thy father's hand,
- And, when I had it, drew myself apart
- And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:
- I pry'd me through the crevice of a wall
- When, for his hand, he had his two sons' heads;
- Beheld his tears, and laugh'd so heartily,
- That both mine eyes were rainy like to his :
- And when I told the empress of this sport,
- She swooned almost at my pleasing tale,
- And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.
- First Goth: What, canst thou say all this, and never blush?
- Aaron: Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.
- Lucius: Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?
- Aaron: Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
- Even now I curse the day—and yet, I think,
- Few come within the compass of my curse,—
- Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
- As kill a man, or else devise his death,
- Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
- Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
- Set deadly enmity between two friends,
- Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
- Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
- And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
- Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
- And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
- Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
- And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
- Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
- 'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
- Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
- As willingly as one would kill a fly,
- And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
- But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
- Lucius: Bring down the devil; for he must not die
- So sweet a death as hanging presently.
- Aaron: If there be devils, would I were a devil,
- To live and burn in everlasting fire,
- So I might have your company in hell,
- But to torment you with my bitter tongue!
- Lucius: Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.
- Enter a Goth
- Third Goth: My lord, there is a messenger from Rome
- Desires to be admitted to your presence.
- Lucius: Let him come near.
- Enter Aemilius
- Welcome, Aemilius what's the news from Rome?
- Aemilius: Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,
- The Roman emperor greets you all by me;
- And, for he understands you are in arms,
- He craves a parley at your father's house,
- Willing you to demand your hostages,
- And they shall be immediately deliver'd.
- First Goth: What says our general?
- Lucius: Aemilius, let the emperor give his pledges
- Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,
- And we will come. March away.
- Exeunt
Scene ii. Rome. Before Titus's house.
- Enter Tamora, Demetrius, and Chiron, disguised
- Tamora: Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,
- I will encounter with Andronicus,
- And say I am Revenge, sent from below
- To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
- Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,
- To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;
- Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,
- And work confusion on his enemies.
- They knock
- Enter Titus, above
- Titus Andronicus: Who doth molest my contemplation?
- Is it your trick to make me ope the door,
- That so my sad decrees may fly away,
- And all my study be to no effect?
- You are deceived: for what I mean to do
- See here in bloody lines I have set down;
- And what is written shall be executed.
- Tamora: Titus, I am come to talk with thee.
- Titus Andronicus: No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,
- Wanting a hand to give it action?
- Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.
- Tamora: If thou didst know me, thou wouldest talk with me.
- Titus Andronicus: I am not mad; I know thee well enough:
- Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines;
- Witness these trenches made by grief and care,
- Witness the tiring day and heavy night;
- Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well
- For our proud empress, mighty Tamora:
- Is not thy coming for my other hand?
- Tamora: Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora;
- She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:
- I am Revenge: sent from the infernal kingdom,
- To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,
- By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
- Come down, and welcome me to this world's light;
- Confer with me of murder and of death:
- There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
- No vast obscurity or misty vale,
- Where bloody murder or detested rape
- Can couch for fear, but I will find them out;
- And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,
- Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.
- Titus Andronicus: Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me,
- To be a torment to mine enemies?
- Tamora: I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.
- Titus Andronicus: Do me some service, ere I come to thee.
- Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands;
- Now give me some surance that thou art Revenge,
- Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels;
- And then I'll come and be thy waggoner,
- And whirl along with thee about the globe.
- Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet,
- To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
- And find out murderers in their guilty caves:
- And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
- I will dismount, and by the waggon-wheel
- Trot, like a servile footman, all day long,
- Even from Hyperion's rising in the east
- Until his very downfall in the sea:
- And day by day I'll do this heavy task,
- So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.
- Tamora: These are my ministers, and come with me.
- Titus Andronicus: Are these thy ministers? what are they call'd?
- Tamora: Rapine and Murder; therefore called so,
- Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.
- Titus Andronicus: Good Lord, how like the empress' sons they are!
- And you, the empress! but we worldly men
- Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.
- O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee;
- And, if one arm's embracement will content thee,
- I will embrace thee in it by and by.
- Exit above
- Tamora: This closing with him fits his lunacy
- Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits,
- Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,
- For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;
- And, being credulous in this mad thought,
- I'll make him send for Lucius his son;
- And, whilst I at a banquet hold him sure,
- I'll find some cunning practise out of hand,
- To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,
- Or, at the least, make them his enemies.
- See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.
- Enter Titus below
- Titus Andronicus: Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:
- Welcome, dread Fury, to my woful house:
- Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.
- How like the empress and her sons you are!
- Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor:
- Could not all hell afford you such a devil?
- For well I wot the empress never wags
- But in her company there is a Moor;
- And, would you represent our queen aright,
- It were convenient you had such a devil:
- But welcome, as you are. What shall we do?
- Tamora: What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?
- Demetrius: Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.
- Chiron: Show me a villain that hath done a rape,
- And I am sent to be revenged on him.
- Tamora: Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,
- And I will be revenged on them all.
- Titus Andronicus: Look round about the wicked streets of Rome;
- And when thou find'st a man that's like thyself.
- Good Murder, stab him; he's a murderer.
- Go thou with him; and when it is thy hap
- To find another that is like to thee,
- Good Rapine, stab him; he's a ravisher.
- Go thou with them; and in the emperor's court
- There is a queen, attended by a Moor;
- Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion,
- for up and down she doth resemble thee:
- I pray thee, do on them some violent death;
- They have been violent to me and mine.
- Tamora: Well hast thou lesson'd us; this shall we do.
- But would it please thee, good Andronicus,
- To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,
- Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,
- And bid him come and banquet at thy house;
- When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,
- I will bring in the empress and her sons,
- The emperor himself and all thy foes;
- And at thy mercy shalt they stoop and kneel,
- And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
- What says Andronicus to this device?
- Titus Andronicus: Marcus, my brother! 'tis sad Titus calls.
- Enter Marcus
- Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius;
- Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths:
- Bid him repair to me, and bring with him
- Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths;
- Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are:
- Tell him the emperor and the empress too
- Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.
- This do thou for my love; and so let him,
- As he regards his aged father's life.
- Marcus Andronicus: This will I do, and soon return again.
- Exit
- Tamora: Now will I hence about thy business,
- And take my ministers along with me.
- Titus Andronicus: Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me;
- Or else I'll call my brother back again,
- And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.
- Tamora: [Aside to her sons] What say you, boys? will you
- bide with him,
- Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor
- How I have govern'd our determined jest?
- Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,
- And tarry with him till I turn again.
- Titus Andronicus: [Aside] I know them all, though they suppose me mad,
- And will o'erreach them in their own devices:
- A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam!
- Demetrius: Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.
- Tamora: Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes
- To lay a complot to betray thy foes.
- Titus Andronicus: I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell.
- Exit Tamora
- Chiron: Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd?
- Titus Andronicus: Tut, I have work enough for you to do.
- Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine!
- Enter Publius and others
- Publius: What is your will?
- Titus Andronicus: Know you these two?
- Publius: The empress' sons, I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.
- Titus Andronicus: Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceived;
- The one is Murder, Rape is the other's name;
- And therefore bind them, gentle Publius.
- Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.
- Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,
- And now I find it; therefore bind them sure,
- And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry.
- Exit
- Publius, &c. lay hold on Chiron and Demetrius
- Chiron: Villains, forbear! we are the empress' sons.
- Publius: And therefore do we what we are commanded.
- Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.
- Is he sure bound? look that you bind them fast.
- [Re-enter Titus, with Lavinia; he bearing a knife,
- and she a basin]
- Titus Andronicus: Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.
- Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;
- But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
- O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
- Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud,
- This goodly summer with your winter mix'd.
- You kill'd her husband, and for that vile fault
- Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death,
- My hand cut off and made a merry jest;
- Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear
- Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
- Inhuman traitors, you constrain'd and forced.
- What would you say, if I should let you speak?
- Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
- Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.
- 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 revenged:
- 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 baked.
- Come, come, be every one officious
- To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
- More stern and bloody than the Centaurs' feast.
- So, now bring them in, for I'll play the cook,
- And see them ready 'gainst their mother comes.
- Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies
Scene iii. Court of Titus's house. A banquet set out.
- Enter Lucius, Marcus, and Goths, with Aaron prisoner
- Lucius: Uncle Marcus, since it is my father's mind
- That I repair to Rome, I am content.
- First Goth: And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.
- Lucius: Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,
- 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!
- Lucius: Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!
- Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.
- Exeunt Goths, with Aaron. Flourish within
- The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.
- [Enter Saturninus and Tamora, with Aemilius,
- Tribunes, Senators, and others]
- Saturninus: What, hath the firmament more suns than one?
- Lucius: What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?
- Marcus Andronicus: Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the parle;
- These quarrels must be quietly debated.
- The feast is ready, which the careful Titus
- Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,
- For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome:
- Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places.
- Saturninus: Marcus, we will.
- Hautboys sound. The Company sit down at table
- Enter Titus dressed like a Cook, Lavinia veiled, Young Lucius, and others. Titus places the dishes on the table
- Titus Andronicus: Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;
- Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
- And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor,
- 'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.
- Saturninus: Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?
- Titus Andronicus: Because I would be sure to have all well,
- To entertain your highness and your empress.
- Tamora: We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.
- Titus Andronicus: 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 enforced, stain'd, and deflower'd?
- Saturninus: It was, Andronicus.
- Titus Andronicus: Your reason, mighty lord?
- Saturninus: Because the girl should not survive her shame,
- And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
- Titus Andronicus: 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;
- Kills Lavinia
- And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!
- Saturninus: What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?
- Titus Andronicus: Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.
- I am as woful as Virginius was,
- And have a thousand times more cause than he
- To do this outrage: and it now is done.
- Saturninus: What, was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed.
- Titus Andronicus: Will't please you eat? will't please your
- highness feed?
- Tamora: Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
- Titus Andronicus: Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius:
- They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue;
- And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.
- Saturninus: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
- Titus Andronicus: 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
- Saturninus: Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!
- Kills Titus
- Lucius: Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?
- There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!
- [Kills Saturninus. A great tumult. Lucius, Marcus,
- and others go up into the balcony]
- Marcus Andronicus: You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
- By uproar 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,
- Grave witnesses of true experience,
- Cannot induce you to attend my words,
- To Lucius
- Speak, Rome's dear friend, 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 surprised 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 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.
- Lucius: Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
- That cursed Chiron and Demetrius
- Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
- And they it were that ravished our sister:
- For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
- Our father's tears despised, 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 oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.
- I am the turned forth, be it known to you,
- That have preserved 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.
- Marcus Andronicus: 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,
- And as he is, to witness this is true.
- Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
- 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.
- Aemilius: 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.
- All: Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor!
- Marcus Andronicus: Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house,
- To Attendants
- And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,
- To be adjudged some direful slaughtering death,
- As punishment for his most wicked life.
- Exeunt Attendants
- Lucius, Marcus, and the others descend
- All: Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!
- Lucius: 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,
- Kissing Titus
- These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face,
- The last true duties of thy noble son!
- Marcus Andronicus: Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
- Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips:
- O were the sum of these that I should pay
- Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!
- Lucius: Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
- To melt in showers: thy grandsire loved thee well:
- Many a time he danced 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.
- Young Lucius: 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
- Aemilius: You sad Andronici, have done with woes:
- Give sentence on this execrable wretch,
- That hath been breeder of these dire events.
- Lucius: 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?
- 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.
- Lucius: Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,
- 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 m mourning 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.
- Exeunt
- --oOo-- -