Tit. Agree between you; I will spare my hand. Luc. Then I'll go fetch an axe. Mar. But I will use the axe. [Exeunt Lucius and MARCUS. Tit. Come hither, Aaron; I'll deceive them both; Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine. Aar. If that be call'd deceit, I will be honest, And that you'll say, ere half an hour can pass. [Aside. [He cuts off Tirus's Hand. Enter LUCIUS and MARCUS. Tit. Now, stay your strife; what shall be, is de spatch'd. hand: Good Aaron, give his majesty my If any power pities wretched tears, To that I call:-What, wilt thou kneel with me? To LAVINIA. Do then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers; Or with our sighs we'll breathe the welkin dim, And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds, When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow? If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, Enter a Messenger, with Two Heads and a Hand. Mar. Now let hot Ætna cool in Sicily, [Exit. To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal, But sorrow flouted at is double death. Luc. Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound, And yet detested life not shrink thereat! Mar. Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless, As frozen water to a starved snake. Tit. When will this fearful slumber have an end? Mar. Now, farewell, flattery: Die, Andronicus; Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons' heads; Thy warlike hand; thy mangled daughter here; Thy other banish'd son, with this dear sight Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I, Even like a stony image, cold and numb. Ah! now no more will I control thy griefs: Rent off thy silver hair, thy other hand Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight The closing up of our most wretched eyes! Now is a time to storm; why art thou still? Tit. Ha, ha, ha! Mar. Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour. Tit. Why, I have not another tear to shed: And would usurp upon my watry eyes, Even in their throats that have committed them. That I may turn me to each one of you, And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs. The vow is made.-Come, brother, take a head; And in this hand the other will I bear: Lavinia, thou shalt be employed in these things; [Exeunt TITUS, MARCUS, and LAVINIA. O, 'would thou wert as thou 'tofore hast been! If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs; SCENE II. [Exit. A Room in Titus's House. A Banquet set out. Enter TITUS, MARCUS, LAVINIA, and young LuCIUS, a Boy. Tit. So, so; now sit: and look, you eat no more Than will preserve just so much strength in us As will revenge these bitter woes of ours. Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot; Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands And cannot passionate our tenfold grief With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine And when my heart, all mad with misery, Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs! [To LAVINIA. When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating, Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still. Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans; Or get some little knife between thy teeth, And just against thy heart make thou a hole; That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall, May run into that sink, and soaking in, Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears. Mar. Fye, brother, fye! teach her not thus to lay Such violent hands upon her tender life. Tit. How now! has sorrow made thee dote al ready? Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I. How Troy was burnt, and he made miserable? If Marcus did not name the word of hands!- She says, she drinks no other drink but tears, 8 brewing. upon hercheeks: mesh'd upon her cheeks:] A very coarse allusion to |