The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus

1 Enter Lucius with an army of Goths, with drums and soldiers.
2 LUCIUS.
3 Approved warriors and my faithful friends,
4 I have received letters from great Rome
5 Which signifies what hate they bear their emperor
6 And how desirous of our sight they are.
7 Therefore, great lords, be, as your titles witness,
8 Imperious, and impatient of your wrongs;
9 And wherein Rome hath done you any scath,
10 Let him make treble satisfaction.
11 FIRST GOTH.
12 Brave slip, sprung from the great Andronicus,
13 Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort,
14 Whose high exploits and honourable deeds
15 Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt,
16 Be bold in us. We’ll follow where thou lead’st,
17 Like stinging bees in hottest summer’s day
18 Led by their master to the flowered fields,
19 And be avenged on cursed Tamora.
20 GOTHS.
21 And as he saith, so say we all with him.
22 LUCIUS.
23 I humbly thank him, and I thank you all.
24 But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth?
25 Enter a Goth, leading of Aaron with his Child in his arms.
26 SECOND GOTH.
27 Renowned Lucius, from our troops I strayed
28 To gaze upon a ruinous monastery;
29 And as I earnestly did fix mine eye
30 Upon the wasted building, suddenly
31 I heard a child cry underneath a wall.
32 I made unto the noise, when soon I heard
33 The crying babe controlled with this discourse:
34 “Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dame!
35 Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,
36 Had nature lent thee but thy mother’s look,
37 Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor.
38 But where the bull and cow are both milk-white,
39 They never do beget a coal-black calf.
40 Peace, villain, peace!” even thus he rates the babe,
41 “For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth,
42 Who, when he knows thou art the empress’ babe,
43 Will hold thee dearly for thy mother’s sake.”
44 With this, my weapon drawn, I rushed upon him,
45 Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither
46 To use as you think needful of the man.
47 LUCIUS.
48 O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil
49 That robbed Andronicus of his good hand;
50 This is the pearl that pleased your empress’ eye;
51 And here’s the base fruit of her burning lust.
52 Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey
53 This growing image of thy fiend-like face?
54 Why dost not speak? What, deaf? Not a word?
55 A halter, soldiers, hang him on this tree,
56 And by his side his fruit of bastardy.
57 AARON.
58 Touch not the boy, he is of royal blood.
59 LUCIUS.
60 Too like the sire for ever being good.
61 First hang the child, that he may see it sprawl,
62 A sight to vex the father’s soul withal.
63 Get me a ladder.
64 [_A ladder is brought, which Aaron is made to ascend._]
65 AARON.
66 Lucius, save the child;
67 And bear it from me to the empress.
68 If thou do this, I’ll show thee wondrous things
69 That highly may advantage thee to hear.
70 If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,
71 I’ll speak no more but “Vengeance rot you all!”
72 LUCIUS.
73 Say on, and if it please me which thou speak’st,
74 Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourished.
75 AARON.
76 And if it please thee? Why, assure thee, Lucius,
77 ’Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;
78 For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres,
79 Acts of black night, abominable deeds,
80 Complots of mischief, treason, villainies,
81 Ruthful to hear, yet piteously performed.
82 And this shall all be buried in my death,
83 Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.
84 LUCIUS.
85 Tell on thy mind; I say thy child shall live.
86 AARON.
87 Swear that he shall, and then I will begin.
88 LUCIUS.
89 Who should I swear by? Thou believ’st no god.
90 That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
91 AARON.
92 What if I do not? As indeed I do not;
93 Yet, for I know thou art religious,
94 And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
95 With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies
96 Which I have seen thee careful to observe,
97 Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know
98 An idiot holds his bauble for a god,
99 And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,
100 To that I’ll urge him. Therefore thou shalt vow
101 By that same god, what god soe’er it be
102 That thou adorest and hast in reverence,
103 To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up;
104 Or else I will discover naught to thee.
105 LUCIUS.
106 Even by my god I swear to thee I will.
107 AARON.
108 First know thou, I begot him on the empress.
109 LUCIUS.
110 O most insatiate and luxurious woman!
111 AARON.
112 Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
113 To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
114 ’Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus;
115 They cut thy sister’s tongue, and ravished her,
116 And cut her hands, and trimmed her as thou sawest.
117 LUCIUS.
118 O detestable villain, call’st thou that trimming?
119 AARON.
120 Why, she was washed, and cut, and trimmed; and ’twas
121 Trim sport for them which had the doing of it.
122 LUCIUS.
123 O barbarous beastly villains, like thyself!
124 AARON.
125 Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them.
126 That codding spirit had they from their mother,
127 As sure a card as ever won the set;
128 That bloody mind I think they learned of me,
129 As true a dog as ever fought at head.
130 Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.
131 I trained thy brethren to that guileful hole
132 Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay.
133 I wrote the letter that thy father found,
134 And hid the gold within that letter mentioned,
135 Confederate with the queen and her two sons.
136 And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue,
137 Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in’t?
138 I played the cheater for thy father’s hand,
139 And, when I had it, drew myself apart,
140 And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter.
141 I pried me through the crevice of a wall
142 When, for his hand, he had his two sons’ heads;
143 Beheld his tears, and laughed so heartily
144 That both mine eyes were rainy like to his.
145 And when I told the empress of this sport,
146 She sounded almost at my pleasing tale,
147 And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.
148 GOTH.
149 What, canst thou say all this and never blush?
150 AARON.
151 Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.
152 LUCIUS.
153 Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?
154 AARON.
155 Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
156 Even now I curse the day, and yet, I think,
157 Few come within the compass of my curse,
158 Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
159 As kill a man, or else devise his death;
160 Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
161 Accuse some innocent, and forswear myself;
162 Set deadly enmity between two friends;
163 Make poor men’s cattle break their necks;
164 Set fire on barns and haystalks in the night,
165 And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
166 Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves,
167 And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,
168 Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,
169 And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
170 Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
171 “Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.”
172 But I have done a thousand dreadful things
173 As willingly as one would kill a fly,
174 And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
175 But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
176 LUCIUS.
177 Bring down the devil, for he must not die
178 So sweet a death as hanging presently.
179 AARON.
180 If there be devils, would I were a devil,
181 To live and burn in everlasting fire,
182 So I might have your company in hell
183 But to torment you with my bitter tongue!
184 LUCIUS.
185 Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.
186 Enter Aemilius.
187 GOTH.
188 My lord, there is a messenger from Rome
189 Desires to be admitted to your presence.
190 LUCIUS.
191 Let him come near.
192 Welcome, Aemilius. What’s the news from Rome?
193 AEMILIUS.
194 Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,
195 The Roman emperor greets you all by me;
196 And, for he understands you are in arms,
197 He craves a parley at your father’s house,
198 Willing you to demand your hostages,
199 And they shall be immediately delivered.
200 FIRST GOTH.
201 What says our general?
202 LUCIUS.
203 Aemilius, let the emperor give his pledges
204 Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,
205 And we will come. March away.
206 [_Exeunt._]