The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus

1 Enter Titus, old Marcus, his son Publius, Young Lucius, and other
2 gentlemen with bows, and Titus bears the arrows with letters on the
3 ends of them.
4 TITUS.
5 Come, Marcus, come. Kinsmen, this is the way.
6 Sir boy, let me see your archery.
7 Look ye draw home enough, and ’tis there straight.
8 _Terras Astraea reliquit._
9 Be you remembered, Marcus, she’s gone, she’s fled.
10 Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall
11 Go sound the ocean and cast your nets;
12 Happily you may catch her in the sea;
13 Yet there’s as little justice as at land.
14 No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;
15 ’Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade,
16 And pierce the inmost centre of the earth.
17 Then, when you come to Pluto’s region,
18 I pray you, deliver him this petition;
19 Tell him it is for justice and for aid,
20 And that it comes from old Andronicus,
21 Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.
22 Ah, Rome! Well, well, I made thee miserable
23 What time I threw the people’s suffrages
24 On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.
25 Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,
26 And leave you not a man-of-war unsearched.
27 This wicked emperor may have shipped her hence;
28 And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.
29 MARCUS.
30 O Publius, is not this a heavy case,
31 To see thy noble uncle thus distract?
32 PUBLIUS.
33 Therefore, my lords, it highly us concerns
34 By day and night to attend him carefully,
35 And feed his humour kindly as we may,
36 Till time beget some careful remedy.
37 MARCUS.
38 Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy,
39 But . . . .
40 Join with the Goths, and with revengeful war
41 Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,
42 And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.
43 TITUS.
44 Publius, how now? How now, my masters?
45 What, have you met with her?
46 PUBLIUS.
47 No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,
48 If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall.
49 Marry, for Justice, she is so employed,
50 He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,
51 So that perforce you must needs stay a time.
52 TITUS.
53 He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.
54 I’ll dive into the burning lake below,
55 And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.
56 Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we,
57 No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops’ size;
58 But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,
59 Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear;
60 And sith there’s no justice in earth nor hell,
61 We will solicit heaven and move the gods
62 To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.
63 Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus.
64 [_He gives them the arrows._]
65 “_Ad Jovem,_” that’s for you; here, “_Ad Apollinem_”;
66 “_Ad Martem,_” that’s for myself;
67 Here, boy, “to Pallas”; here, “to Mercury”;
68 “To Saturn,” Caius, not to Saturnine;
69 You were as good to shoot against the wind.
70 To it, boy.—Marcus, loose when I bid.—
71 Of my word, I have written to effect;
72 There’s not a god left unsolicited.
73 MARCUS.
74 Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court.
75 We will afflict the emperor in his pride.
76 TITUS.
77 Now, masters, draw. [_They shoot_.] O, well said, Lucius!
78 Good boy, in Virgo’s lap! Give it Pallas.
79 MARCUS.
80 My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon.
81 Your letter is with Jupiter by this.
82 TITUS.
83 Ha! ha! Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?
84 See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus’ horns.
85 MARCUS.
86 This was the sport, my lord; when Publius shot,
87 The Bull, being galled, gave Aries such a knock
88 That down fell both the Ram’s horns in the court;
89 And who should find them but the empress’ villain?
90 She laughed, and told the Moor he should not choose
91 But give them to his master for a present.
92 TITUS.
93 Why, there it goes. God give his lordship joy!
94 Enter the Clown with a basket and two pigeons in it.
95 News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.
96 Sirrah, what tidings? Have you any letters?
97 Shall I have justice? What says Jupiter?
98 CLOWN.
99 Ho, the gibbet-maker? He says that he hath taken them down again, for
100 the man must not be hanged till the next week.
101 TITUS.
102 But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?
103 CLOWN.
104 Alas, sir, I know not Jubiter; I never drank with him in all my life.
105 TITUS.
106 Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?
107 CLOWN.
108 Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.
109 TITUS.
110 Why, didst thou not come from heaven?
111 CLOWN.
112 From heaven? Alas, sir, I never came there. God forbid I should be so
113 bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am going with my
114 pigeons to the tribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawl betwixt my
115 uncle and one of the emperal’s men.
116 MARCUS.
117 Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for your oration; and let
118 him deliver the pigeons to the emperor from you.
119 TITUS.
120 Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor with a grace?
121 CLOWN.
122 Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.
123 TITUS.
124 Sirrah, come hither. Make no more ado,
125 But give your pigeons to the emperor.
126 By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.
127 Hold, hold; meanwhile here’s money for thy charges.
128 Give me pen and ink.
129 Sirrah, can you with a grace deliver up a supplication?
130 CLOWN.
131 Ay, sir.
132 TITUS.
133 Then here is a supplication for you. And when you come to him, at the
134 first approach you must kneel; then kiss his foot; then deliver up your
135 pigeons; and then look for your reward. I’ll be at hand, sir; see you
136 do it bravely.
137 CLOWN.
138 I warrant you, sir; let me alone.
139 TITUS.
140 Sirrah, hast thou a knife? Come let me see it.
141 Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration;
142 For thou hast made it like a humble suppliant.
143 And when thou hast given it to the emperor,
144 Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.
145 CLOWN.
146 God be with you, sir; I will.
147 [_Exit._]
148 TITUS.
149 Come, Marcus, let us go. Publius, follow me.
150 [_Exeunt._]