The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus

1 Enter Aaron, Chiron and Demetrius at one door, and at the other door
2 Young Lucius and another, with a bundle of weapons and verses writ upon
3 them.
4 CHIRON.
5 Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius;
6 He hath some message to deliver us.
7 AARON.
8 Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.
9 YOUNG LUCIUS.
10 My lords, with all the humbleness I may,
11 I greet your honours from Andronicus;
12 [_Aside_.] And pray the Roman gods confound you both.
13 DEMETRIUS.
14 Gramercy, lovely Lucius. What’s the news?
15 YOUNG LUCIUS.
16 [_Aside_.] That you are both deciphered, that’s the news,
17 For villains marked with rape. [_Aloud_.] May it please you,
18 My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me
19 The goodliest weapons of his armoury
20 To gratify your honourable youth,
21 The hope of Rome; for so he bid me say;
22 And so I do, and with his gifts present
23 Your lordships, that, whenever you have need,
24 You may be armed and appointed well.
25 And so I leave you both, [_Aside_.] like bloody villains.
26 [_Exeunt Young Lucius and Attendant._]
27 DEMETRIUS.
28 What’s here? A scroll; and written round about?
29 Let’s see:
30 [_Reads_.] _Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,
31 Non eget Mauri iaculis, nec arcu._
32 CHIRON.
33 O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well.
34 I read it in the grammar long ago.
35 AARON.
36 Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.
37 [_Aside_.] Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!
38 Here’s no sound jest! The old man hath found their guilt,
39 And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines,
40 That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.
41 But were our witty empress well afoot,
42 She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit.
43 But let her rest in her unrest awhile.—
44 And now, young lords, was’t not a happy star
45 Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,
46 Captives, to be advanced to this height?
47 It did me good before the palace gate
48 To brave the tribune in his brother’s hearing.
49 DEMETRIUS.
50 But me more good to see so great a lord
51 Basely insinuate and send us gifts.
52 AARON.
53 Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?
54 Did you not use his daughter very friendly?
55 DEMETRIUS.
56 I would we had a thousand Roman dames
57 At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.
58 CHIRON.
59 A charitable wish, and full of love.
60 AARON.
61 Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.
62 CHIRON.
63 And that would she for twenty thousand more.
64 DEMETRIUS.
65 Come, let us go and pray to all the gods
66 For our beloved mother in her pains.
67 AARON.
68 [_Aside_.] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.
69 [_Trumpets sound._]
70 DEMETRIUS.
71 Why do the emperor’s trumpets flourish thus?
72 CHIRON.
73 Belike for joy the emperor hath a son.
74 DEMETRIUS.
75 Soft, who comes here?
76 Enter Nurse with a blackamoor Child in her arms.
77 NURSE.
78 Good morrow, lords.
79 O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?
80 AARON.
81 Well, more or less, or ne’er a whit at all,
82 Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?
83 NURSE.
84 O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!
85 Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!
86 AARON.
87 Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!
88 What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms?
89 NURSE.
90 O, that which I would hide from heaven’s eye,
91 Our empress’ shame and stately Rome’s disgrace.
92 She is delivered, lords, she is delivered.
93 AARON.
94 To whom?
95 NURSE.
96 I mean, she’s brought a-bed.
97 AARON.
98 Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?
99 NURSE.
100 A devil.
101 AARON.
102 Why, then she is the devil’s dam. A joyful issue.
103 NURSE.
104 A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue.
105 Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad
106 Amongst the fair-faced breeders of our clime.
107 The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
108 And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point.
109 AARON.
110 Zounds, ye whore, is black so base a hue?
111 Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom sure.
112 DEMETRIUS.
113 Villain, what hast thou done?
114 AARON.
115 That which thou canst not undo.
116 CHIRON.
117 Thou hast undone our mother.
118 AARON.
119 Villain, I have done thy mother.
120 DEMETRIUS.
121 And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her.
122 Woe to her chance, and damned her loathed choice!
123 Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend!
124 CHIRON.
125 It shall not live.
126 AARON.
127 It shall not die.
128 NURSE.
129 Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.
130 AARON.
131 What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I
132 Do execution on my flesh and blood.
133 DEMETRIUS.
134 I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point.
135 Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it.
136 AARON.
137 Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.
138 [_Taking the baby._]
139 Stay, murderous villains, will you kill your brother?
140 Now, by the burning tapers of the sky
141 That shone so brightly when this boy was got,
142 He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point
143 That touches this my first-born son and heir.
144 I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,
145 With all his threatening band of Typhon’s brood,
146 Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,
147 Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.
148 What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!
149 Ye white-limed walls, ye alehouse-painted signs!
150 Coal-black is better than another hue
151 In that it scorns to bear another hue;
152 For all the water in the ocean
153 Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,
154 Although she lave them hourly in the flood.
155 Tell the empress from me, I am of age
156 To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.
157 DEMETRIUS.
158 Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?
159 AARON.
160 My mistress is my mistress; this my self;
161 The vigour and the picture of my youth.
162 This before all the world do I prefer;
163 This maugre all the world will I keep safe,
164 Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.
165 DEMETRIUS.
166 By this our mother is for ever shamed.
167 CHIRON.
168 Rome will despise her for this foul escape.
169 NURSE.
170 The emperor in his rage will doom her death.
171 CHIRON.
172 I blush to think upon this ignomy.
173 AARON.
174 Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears.
175 Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
176 The close enacts and counsels of thy heart!
177 Here’s a young lad framed of another leer.
178 Look how the black slave smiles upon the father,
179 As who should say “Old lad, I am thine own.”
180 He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed
181 Of that self blood that first gave life to you;
182 And from your womb where you imprisoned were
183 He is enfranchised and come to light.
184 Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,
185 Although my seal be stamped in his face.
186 NURSE.
187 Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?
188 DEMETRIUS.
189 Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,
190 And we will all subscribe to thy advice.
191 Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.
192 AARON.
193 Then sit we down, and let us all consult.
194 My son and I will have the wind of you.
195 Keep there. Now talk at pleasure of your safety.
196 [_They sit._]
197 DEMETRIUS.
198 How many women saw this child of his?
199 AARON.
200 Why, so, brave lords! When we join in league,
201 I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,
202 The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
203 The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
204 But say again, how many saw the child?
205 NURSE.
206 Cornelia the midwife and myself,
207 And no one else but the delivered empress.
208 AARON.
209 The empress, the midwife, and yourself.
210 Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.
211 Go to the empress; tell her this I said.
212 [_He kills her._]
213 “Wheak, wheak!” So cries a pig prepared to the spit.
214 DEMETRIUS.
215 What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?
216 AARON.
217 O Lord, sir, ’tis a deed of policy.
218 Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,
219 A long-tongued babbling gossip? No, lords, no.
220 And now be it known to you my full intent.
221 Not far, one Muliteus lives, my countryman;
222 His wife but yesternight was brought to bed.
223 His child is like to her, fair as you are.
224 Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,
225 And tell them both the circumstance of all,
226 And how by this their child shall be advanced,
227 And be received for the emperor’s heir,
228 And substituted in the place of mine,
229 To calm this tempest whirling in the court;
230 And let the emperor dandle him for his own.
231 Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given her physic,
232 [_Indicating the Nurse._]
233 And you must needs bestow her funeral;
234 The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.
235 This done, see that you take no longer days,
236 But send the midwife presently to me.
237 The midwife and the nurse well made away,
238 Then let the ladies tattle what they please.
239 CHIRON.
240 Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air
241 With secrets.
242 DEMETRIUS.
243 For this care of Tamora,
244 Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.
245 [_Exeunt Demetrius and Chiron, carrying the Nurse’s body._]
246 AARON.
247 Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies,
248 There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,
249 And secretly to greet the empress’ friends.
250 Come on, you thick-lipped slave, I’ll bear you hence;
251 For it is you that puts us to our shifts.
252 I’ll make you feed on berries and on roots,
253 And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,
254 And cabin in a cave, and bring you up
255 To be a warrior and command a camp.
256 [_Exit._]