Enter Tírus, like a Cook, placing the meat on the table, and LAVINIA with a veil over her face, young LUCIUS, and others

TIT. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor,
'T will fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.
SAT. Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?
TIT. Because I would be sure to have all well,
To entertain your highness and your empress.
TAM. We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.
TIT. An if your highness knew my heart, you were.
My lord the emperor, resolve me this:

Was it well done of rash Virginius

To slay his daughter with his own right hand,
Because she was enforced, stain'd, and deflower'd?
SAT. It was, Andronicus.

TIT. Your reason, mighty lord?

SAT. Because the girl should not survive her shame, And by her presence still renew his sorrows. TIT. A reason mighty, strong and effectual, A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant, For me, most wretched, to perform the like.

38 Because she was

deflower'd] The writer seems to be confusing the story of Lucretia with that of Virginia, who was not violated according to the story, but was slain by her father, Virginius, in order to preserve her from the dishonour which the decemvir Appius Claudius threatened.

41 Because the girl

shame] See note on line 38.

44 lively warrant] warrant from real life. Cf. III, i, 105, supra: "thy lively body."

30

40

Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,
And with thy shame thy father's sorrow die!

[Kills Lavinia.

SAT. What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind? TIT. Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woful as Virginius was,

And have a thousand times more cause than he
To do this outrage, and it now is done.

SAT. What, was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed.
TIT. Will't please you eat? will't please your high-

ness feed?

TAM. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
TIT. Not I; 't was Chiron and Demetrius:

They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue;
And they, 't was they, that did her all this wrong.
SAT. Go fetch them hither to us presently.

50

TIT. Why, there they are both, baked in that pie; 60 Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

'Tis true, 't is true; witness my knife's sharp point.

[Kills Tamora.

SAT. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!

[Kills Titus.

LUC. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed! [Kills Saturninus. A great tumult. Lucius,

Marcus, and others go up into the balcony.

66 (stage direction) kills... the balcony] Thus the Cambridge editors. For "the balcony" cf. supra, I, i, 1 (stage direction) and note; see also V, ii, 8, 69, and 80, and V, iii, 145, infra.

MARC. You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome, By uproars sever'd, as a flight of fowl

Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body;
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
And she whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself.
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,

[To Lucius] Speak, Rome's dear friend: as erst our

ancestor,

When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear

The story of that baleful burning night,

When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam's Troy;
Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,

Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.

71 mutual] common.

73-76 Lest.. on herself] These lines are given in the Quarto to a "Roman Lord" and in the Folios to a "Goth." Capell's rearrangement of the text is followed here. Lest is Capell's correction of the original reading Let.

77 chaps] furrows.

80 our ancestor] Eneas. Cf. Virgil's Eneid, ii, passim. See also II, iii, 22, supra, and Marlowe and Nashe's tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage, II, i, 121 seq.

86 the fatal engine] the Trojan horse.

70

80

My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
But floods of tears will drown my oratory,

And break my utterance, even in the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiseration.

Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it were that ravished our sister:

For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded,
Our father's tears despised, and basely cozen'd
Of that true hand that fought Rome's quarrel out,
And sent her enemies unto the grave.
Lastly, myself unkindly banished,

The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome's enemies;

Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears,

And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.
I am the turned forth, be it known to you,

93 Lending your kind] Thus the Second Quarto and all later editions. The First Quarto (1594) reads And force you to.

94 Here is a captain] Thus all the editions save the First Quarto, which reads Her's Romes young captaine.

95 Your hearts will throb] Thus all the editions save the First Quarto, which reads While I stand by.

96 noble] Thus all the editions save the First Quarto, which reads gratious. 97 Demetrius] Thus all the editions save the First Quarto, which reads

the damn'd Demetrius.

109 the turned forth] the castaway.

90

100

That have preserved her welfare in my blood,
And from her bosom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my adventurous body.
Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I;

My scars can witness, dumb although they are,
That my report is just and full of truth.
But, soft! methinks I do digress too much,
Citing my worthless praise: O, pardon me;

For when no friends are by, men praise themselves. MARC. Now is my turn to speak. Behold the child: [Pointing to the Child in the arms of an Attendant.

Of this was Tamora delivered;

The issue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of these woes:
The villain is alive in Titus' house,

And as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?
Have we done aught amiss, show us wherein,

And, from the place where you behold us now,

The

poor remainder of Andronici

Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down,
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,

124 And] Thus the early editions. Theobald substituted Damn'd. 130 now] Thus the Second Quarto and all later editions. The First Quarto (1594) reads pleading.

132 cast us down] Thus the Second Quarto and all later editions. The First Quarto (1594) reads hurle our selues.

133 ragged] rough, rugged.

110

120

130