The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus

1 Enter the Judges and Senators, with Titus’ two sons Quintus and Martius
2 bound, passing on the stage to the place of execution, and Titus going
3 before, pleading.
4 TITUS.
5 Hear me, grave fathers; noble tribunes, stay!
6 For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
7 In dangerous wars whilst you securely slept;
8 For all my blood in Rome’s great quarrel shed,
9 For all the frosty nights that I have watched,
10 And for these bitter tears, which now you see
11 Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks,
12 Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
13 Whose souls are not corrupted as ’tis thought.
14 For two and twenty sons I never wept,
15 Because they died in honour’s lofty bed.
16 [_Andronicus lieth down, and the Judges pass by him._]
17 [_Exeunt with the prisoners as Titus continues speaking._]
18 For these, tribunes, in the dust I write
19 My heart’s deep languor and my soul’s sad tears.
20 Let my tears staunch the earth’s dry appetite;
21 My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame and blush.
22 O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain
23 That shall distil from these two ancient urns,
24 Than youthful April shall with all his showers.
25 In summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still;
26 In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow,
27 And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
28 So thou refuse to drink my dear sons’ blood.
29 Enter Lucius with his weapon drawn.
30 O reverend tribunes! O gentle aged men!
31 Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
32 And let me say, that never wept before,
33 My tears are now prevailing orators.
34 LUCIUS.
35 O noble father, you lament in vain.
36 The tribunes hear you not, no man is by;
37 And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
38 TITUS.
39 Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
40 Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you—
41 LUCIUS.
42 My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
43 TITUS.
44 Why, ’tis no matter, man. If they did hear,
45 They would not mark me; if they did mark,
46 They would not pity me, yet plead I must,
47 And bootless unto them.
48 Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones,
49 Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
50 Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
51 For that they will not intercept my tale.
52 When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
53 Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;
54 And were they but attired in grave weeds,
55 Rome could afford no tribunes like to these.
56 A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones;
57 A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
58 And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
59 But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?
60 LUCIUS.
61 To rescue my two brothers from their death;
62 For which attempt the judges have pronounced
63 My everlasting doom of banishment.
64 TITUS.
65 O happy man, they have befriended thee.
66 Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
67 That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
68 Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
69 But me and mine. How happy art thou then,
70 From these devourers to be banished!
71 But who comes with our brother Marcus here?
72 Enter Marcus with Lavinia.
73 MARCUS.
74 Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep;
75 Or if not so, thy noble heart to break.
76 I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.
77 TITUS.
78 Will it consume me? Let me see it then.
79 MARCUS.
80 This was thy daughter.
81 TITUS.
82 Why, Marcus, so she is.
83 LUCIUS.
84 Ay me, this object kills me!
85 TITUS.
86 Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her.
87 Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand
88 Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight?
89 What fool hath added water to the sea,
90 Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?
91 My grief was at the height before thou cam’st,
92 And now like Nilus it disdaineth bounds.
93 Give me a sword, I’ll chop off my hands too;
94 For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;
95 And they have nursed this woe in feeding life;
96 In bootless prayer have they been held up,
97 And they have served me to effectless use.
98 Now all the service I require of them
99 Is that the one will help to cut the other.
100 ’Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands,
101 For hands to do Rome service is but vain.
102 LUCIUS.
103 Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyred thee?
104 MARCUS.
105 O, that delightful engine of her thoughts,
106 That blabbed them with such pleasing eloquence,
107 Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage,
108 Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung
109 Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear.
110 LUCIUS.
111 O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed?
112 MARCUS.
113 O, thus I found her straying in the park,
114 Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer
115 That hath received some unrecuring wound.
116 TITUS.
117 It was my dear, and he that wounded her
118 Hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead.
119 For now I stand as one upon a rock,
120 Environed with a wilderness of sea,
121 Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,
122 Expecting ever when some envious surge
123 Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.
124 This way to death my wretched sons are gone;
125 Here stands my other son, a banished man,
126 And here my brother, weeping at my woes.
127 But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn
128 Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.
129 Had I but seen thy picture in this plight
130 It would have madded me. What shall I do
131 Now I behold thy lively body so?
132 Thou hast no hands to wipe away thy tears,
133 Nor tongue to tell me who hath martyred thee.
134 Thy husband he is dead, and for his death
135 Thy brothers are condemned, and dead by this.
136 Look, Marcus! Ah, son Lucius, look on her!
137 When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears
138 Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew
139 Upon a gathered lily almost withered.
140 MARCUS.
141 Perchance she weeps because they killed her husband;
142 Perchance because she knows them innocent.
143 TITUS.
144 If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful,
145 Because the law hath ta’en revenge on them.
146 No, no, they would not do so foul a deed;
147 Witness the sorrow that their sister makes.
148 Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips,
149 Or make some sign how I may do thee ease.
150 Shall thy good uncle, and thy brother Lucius,
151 And thou, and I, sit round about some fountain,
152 Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks
153 How they are stained, like meadows yet not dry,
154 With miry slime left on them by a flood?
155 And in the fountain shall we gaze so long
156 Till the fresh taste be taken from that clearness,
157 And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears?
158 Or shall we cut away our hands like thine?
159 Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows
160 Pass the remainder of our hateful days?
161 What shall we do? Let us that have our tongues
162 Plot some device of further misery,
163 To make us wondered at in time to come.
164 LUCIUS.
165 Sweet father, cease your tears; for at your grief
166 See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps.
167 MARCUS.
168 Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes.
169 TITUS.
170 Ah, Marcus, Marcus! Brother, well I wot
171 Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine,
172 For thou, poor man, hast drowned it with thine own.
173 LUCIUS.
174 Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks.
175 TITUS.
176 Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs.
177 Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say
178 That to her brother which I said to thee.
179 His napkin, with his true tears all bewet,
180 Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks.
181 O, what a sympathy of woe is this,
182 As far from help as limbo is from bliss.
183 Enter Aaron the Moor, alone.
184 AARON.
185 Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor
186 Sends thee this word, that, if thou love thy sons,
187 Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,
188 Or any one of you, chop off your hand
189 And send it to the king; he for the same
190 Will send thee hither both thy sons alive,
191 And that shall be the ransom for their fault.
192 TITUS.
193 O gracious emperor! O gentle Aaron!
194 Did ever raven sing so like a lark
195 That gives sweet tidings of the sun’s uprise?
196 With all my heart I’ll send the emperor my hand.
197 Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?
198 LUCIUS.
199 Stay, father, for that noble hand of thine,
200 That hath thrown down so many enemies,
201 Shall not be sent. My hand will serve the turn.
202 My youth can better spare my blood than you;
203 And therefore mine shall save my brothers’ lives.
204 MARCUS.
205 Which of your hands hath not defended Rome,
206 And reared aloft the bloody battle-axe,
207 Writing destruction on the enemy’s castle?
208 O, none of both but are of high desert.
209 My hand hath been but idle; let it serve
210 To ransom my two nephews from their death;
211 Then have I kept it to a worthy end.
212 AARON.
213 Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along,
214 For fear they die before their pardon come.
215 MARCUS.
216 My hand shall go.
217 LUCIUS.
218 By heaven, it shall not go!
219 TITUS.
220 Sirs, strive no more. Such withered herbs as these
221 Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine.
222 LUCIUS.
223 Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son,
224 Let me redeem my brothers both from death.
225 MARCUS.
226 And for our father’s sake and mother’s care,
227 Now let me show a brother’s love to thee.
228 TITUS.
229 Agree between you; I will spare my hand.
230 LUCIUS.
231 Then I’ll go fetch an axe.
232 MARCUS.
233 But I will use the axe.
234 [_Exeunt Lucius and Marcus._]
235 TITUS.
236 Come hither, Aaron; I’ll deceive them both.
237 Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine.
238 AARON.
239 [_Aside_.] If that be called deceit, I will be honest,
240 And never whilst I live deceive men so.
241 But I’ll deceive you in another sort,
242 And that you’ll say ere half an hour pass.
243 [_He cuts off Titus’s hand._]
244 Enter Lucius and Marcus again.
245 TITUS.
246 Now stay your strife. What shall be is dispatched.
247 Good Aaron, give his majesty my hand.
248 Tell him it was a hand that warded him
249 From thousand dangers, bid him bury it;
250 More hath it merited, that let it have.
251 As for my sons, say I account of them
252 As jewels purchased at an easy price;
253 And yet dear too, because I bought mine own.
254 AARON.
255 I go, Andronicus; and for thy hand
256 Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.
257 [_Aside_.] Their heads, I mean. O, how this villainy
258 Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!
259 Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace,
260 Aaron will have his soul black like his face.
261 [_Exit._]
262 TITUS.
263 O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven,
264 And bow this feeble ruin to the earth.
265 If any power pities wretched tears,
266 To that I call! [_To Lavinia_.] What, wouldst thou kneel with me?
267 Do, then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers,
268 Or with our sighs we’ll breathe the welkin dim,
269 And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds
270 When they do hug him in their melting bosoms.
271 MARCUS.
272 O brother, speak with possibility,
273 And do not break into these deep extremes.
274 TITUS.
275 Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?
276 Then be my passions bottomless with them.
277 MARCUS.
278 But yet let reason govern thy lament.
279 TITUS.
280 If there were reason for these miseries,
281 Then into limits could I bind my woes.
282 When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow?
283 If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
284 Threatening the welkin with his big-swol’n face?
285 And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
286 I am the sea. Hark how her sighs doth flow!
287 She is the weeping welkin, I the earth.
288 Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
289 Then must my earth with her continual tears
290 Become a deluge, overflowed and drowned;
291 For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,
292 But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
293 Then give me leave, for losers will have leave
294 To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.
295 Enter a Messenger with two heads and a hand.
296 MESSENGER.
297 Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid
298 For that good hand thou sent’st the emperor.
299 Here are the heads of thy two noble sons,
300 And here’s thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back.
301 Thy grief their sports, thy resolution mocked;
302 That woe is me to think upon thy woes,
303 More than remembrance of my father’s death.
304 [_Exit._]
305 MARCUS.
306 Now let hot Etna cool in Sicily,
307 And be my heart an ever-burning hell!
308 These miseries are more than may be borne.
309 To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal,
310 But sorrow flouted at is double death.
311 LUCIUS.
312 Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound,
313 And yet detested life not shrink thereat!
314 That ever death should let life bear his name,
315 Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!
316 [_Lavinia kisses Titus._]
317 MARCUS.
318 Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless
319 As frozen water to a starved snake.
320 TITUS.
321 When will this fearful slumber have an end?
322 MARCUS.
323 Now farewell, flattery; die, Andronicus;
324 Thou dost not slumber. See thy two sons’ heads,
325 Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here;
326 Thy other banished son with this dear sight
327 Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,
328 Even like a stony image, cold and numb.
329 Ah, now no more will I control thy griefs.
330 Rent off thy silver hair, thy other hand
331 Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight
332 The closing up of our most wretched eyes.
333 Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?
334 TITUS.
335 Ha, ha, ha!
336 MARCUS.
337 Why dost thou laugh? It fits not with this hour.
338 TITUS.
339 Why, I have not another tear to shed.
340 Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,
341 And would usurp upon my watery eyes,
342 And make them blind with tributary tears.
343 Then which way shall I find Revenge’s cave?
344 For these two heads do seem to speak to me,
345 And threat me I shall never come to bliss
346 Till all these mischiefs be returned again
347 Even in their throats that have committed them.
348 Come, let me see what task I have to do.
349 You heavy people, circle me about,
350 That I may turn me to each one of you,
351 And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs.
352 The vow is made. Come, brother, take a head;
353 And in this hand the other will I bear.
354 And, Lavinia, thou shalt be employed in these arms.
355 Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.
356 As for thee, boy, go, get thee from my sight;
357 Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay.
358 Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there.
359 And if you love me, as I think you do,
360 Let’s kiss and part, for we have much to do.
361 [_Exeunt Titus, Marcus and Lavinia._]
362 LUCIUS.
363 Farewell, Andronicus, my noble father,
364 The woefull’st man that ever lived in Rome.
365 Farewell, proud Rome, till Lucius come again;
366 He loves his pledges dearer than his life.
367 Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;
368 O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been!
369 But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives
370 But in oblivion and hateful griefs.
371 If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs,
372 And make proud Saturnine and his empress
373 Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.
374 Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power
375 To be revenged on Rome and Saturnine.
376 [_Exit._]