To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts,

And arm the minds of infants to exclaims.

My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel;
And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector's hope;
And swear with me,-as, with the woful fere
And father of that chaste dishonour'd dame,
Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece' rape,—
That we will prosecute, by good advice,
Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,
And see their blood, or die with this reproach.

Tit. 'Tis sure enough, an you knew how.
But if you hunt (63) these bear-whelps, then beware:
The dam will wake; and, if she wind you once,
She's with the lion deeply still in league,

And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back,
And when he sleeps will she do what she list.
You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let it alone;
And, come, I will go get a leaf of brass,

And with a gad of steel will write these words,

And lay it by the angry northern wind

Will blow these sands, like Sibyl's leaves, abroad,
And where's your lesson, then?-Boy, what say you?
Boy. I say, my lord, that if I were a man,

Their mother's bed-chamber should not be safe
For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.

Marc. Ay, that's my boy! thy father hath full oft

For his ungrateful country done the like.

Boy. And, uncle, so will I, an if I live. Tit. Come, go with me into mine armory; Lucius, I'll fit thee; and withal, my boy, Shalt (6) carry from me to the empress' sons Presents that I intend to send them both:

Come, come; thou'lt do thy message, wilt thou not?

Boy. Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.
Tit. No, boy, not so; I'll teach thee another course.
Lavinia, come.-Marcus, look to my house:
Lucius and I'll go brave it at the court;

Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we'll be waited on.

[Exeunt Titus, Lavinia, and Boy.

Marc. O heavens, can you hear a good man groan, And not relent, or not compassion him?

Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,

That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart
Than foemen's marks upon his batter'd shield;
But yet so just that he will not revenge :—
Revenge, ye (65) heavens, for old Andronicus!

[Exit.

SCENE II. The same. A room in the palace.

Enter, from one side, AARON, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON; from the other side, young LUCIUS, and an Attendant, with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them.

Chi. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius;

He hath some message to deliver us.

Aar. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.
Boy. My lords, with all the humbleness I may,

I greet your honours from Andronicus,

And pray the Roman gods confound you both!

[Aside.

Dem. Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what's the news?
Boy. That you are both decipher'd, that's the news,
For villains mark'd with rape [aside].-May it please you,
My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me

The goodliest weapons of his armory

To gratify your honourable youth,

The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say;

And so I do, and with his gifts present

Your lordships, that, (66) whenever you have need,

You may be armed and appointed well :

And so I leave you both,-like bloody villains [aside].

[Exeunt Boy and Attendant.

Dem. What's here? A scroll; and written round about?

Let's see:

[Reads]

“Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus,

Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.”

Chi. O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well:

I read it in the grammar long ago.

Aar. Ay, just, a verse in Horace ;-right, you have it.—

Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!

[Aside.

Here's no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;

And sends them weapons wrapp'd about with lines,

That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.

But were our witty empress well a-foot,
She would applaud Andronicus' conceit:
But let her rest in her unrest awhile.—
And now, young lords, was't not a happy star
Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,
Captives, to be advanced to this height?
It did me good, before the palace gate
To brave the tribune in his brother's hearing.
Dem. But me more good, to see so great a lord
Basely insinuate and send us gifts.

Aar. Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?
Did you not use his daughter very friendly?

Dem. I would we had a thousand Roman dames At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.

Chi. A charitable wish and full of love.

Aar. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.
Chi. And that would she for twenty thousand more.
Dem. Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods
For our belovèd mother in her pains.

Aar. Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.
[Aside.-Flourish within.

Dem. Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus ?
Chi. Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.

Dem. Soft! who comes here?

Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms.
Nur.
Good morrow, lords:

O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

Aar. Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all, Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?

Nur. O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!

Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!

Aar. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?

Nur. O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye,

Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace!—
She is deliver'd, lords,—she is deliver'd.

Aar. To whom?

Nur.

I mean, she is brought a-bed.

Aar. Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?

Nur. A devil.

Aar. Why, then she is the devil's dam; a joyful issue. Nur. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue: Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad

Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:

The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.
Aar. Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue ?-
Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.
Dem. Villain, what hast thou done?
Aar. That which thou canst not undo.
Chi. Thou hast undone our mother.
Aar. Villain, I have done thy mother.

Dem. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.
Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice!
Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend!

Chi. It shall not live.

Aar. It shall not die.

Nur. Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.
Aar. What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I
Do execution on my flesh and blood.

Dem. I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point:Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it. Aar. Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up. [Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws.

Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother?

Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,

That shone so brightly when this boy was got,

He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point

That touches this my first-born son and heir!
I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,

With all his threatening band of Typhon's brood,

Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,

Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands.
What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!
Ye white-lim'd walls! ye alehouse painted signs!
Coal-black is better than another hue,

In that it scorns to bear another hue;
For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn the swan's black legs to white,
Although she lave them hourly in the flood.
Tell the empress from me, I am of age

To keep mine own,-excuse it how she can.

Dem. Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?
Aar. My mistress is my mistress; this, myself,—
The vigour and the picture of my youth:
This before all the world do I prefer ;
This maugre all the world will I keep safe,
Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.

Dem. By this our mother is for ever sham'd.
Chi. Rome will despise her for this foul escape.
Nur. The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.
Chi. I blush to think upon this ignomy.

Aar. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears: Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing The close enacts and counsels of the heart!

Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer:

Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father,
As who should say, "Old lad, I am thine own."

He is your brother, lords; sensibly fed

Of that self-blood that first gave life to you;
And from that womb where you imprison'd were
He is enfranchisèd and come to light:

Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,
Although my seal be stamped in his face.

Nur. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?
Dem. Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,

And we will all subscribe to thy advice:
Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.

Aar. Then sit we down, and let us all consult.

My son and I will have the wind of you: