Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your

places.

Sat. Marcus, we will.

[Hautboys.

A Table brought in. Enter TITUS, like a Cook, placing the Meat on the Table, and LAVINIA, with a Veil over her Face.

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

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor, 400 'Twill 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 emperess. Tam. 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 deflower'd?

Sat. It was, Andronicus,

Tit. Your reason, mighty lord?

411

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;
And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!

[He kills her.

Sat. What hast thou done, unnatural, and un

kind?

420

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 ravished? 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 ?

Tit. 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. Sat. Go, fetch them hither to us presently. Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that pye; Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

431

'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point. [He stabs TAMORA. Sat. Die, frantick wretch, for this accursed deed. [He stabs TITUS.

Luc. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed. LUCIUS stabs SATURNINUS.

Mar.

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

Rome,

By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl
Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,

, let me teach you how to knit again This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf, These broken limbs again into one body.

Goth. Let Rome herself be bane unto herself;
And she, whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate cast-away,
Do shameful execution on herself.

Mar. But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,—

Speak, Rome's dear friend; as erst our ancestor,

440

450

[To LUCIUS.

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 surpriz'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;

460

Your

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius

471

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 : 480
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 advent'rous 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.
Mar. Now is my turn to speak; behold this

child,

Of this was Tamora delivered;

The issue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of these woes;

491

The villain is alive in Titus' house,

And

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, Ro

mans?

Have we done aught amiss? Shew us wherein,

And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici

500

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.

510

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.

Mar. Lucius, all hail; Rome's royal emperor !
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,
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! 520 But, gentle people, give me aim a while,—

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