Madam, to you as many and as good! ing I promised your grace a hunter's peal.

Sat. And you have rung it lustily, my lords, Somewhat too early for new-married ladies. Bas. Lavinia, how say you?

Lav.

I say, no;

I have been broad awake two hours and more.

Sat. Come on then, horse and chariots let us

have,

And to our sport:-Madam, now shall ye see

Our Roman hunting.

Mar.

[TO TAMORA.

I have dogs, my lord, Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase, And climb the highest promontory top.

Tit. And I have horse will follow where the game Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. Dem. Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor

hound,

But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

A desert Part of the Forest.

Enter AARON, with a Bag of Gold.

Aar. He, that had wit, would think that I had

none,

To bury so much gold under a tree,

And never after to inherit it.3

Let him, that thinks of me so abjectly,

Know, that this gold must coin a stratagem;
Which, cunningly effected, will beget

A very excellent piece of villainy:

to inherit it.] To inherit formerly signified to possess.

And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest,*

[Hides the Gold. That have their alms out of the empress' chest."

Enter TAMORA.

Tam. My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad,

When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?
The birds chaunt melody on every bush;
The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun;
The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind,
And make a checquer'd shadow on the ground:
Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,
And whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying shrilly to the weil-tun'd horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once,-
Let us sit down, and mark their yelling noise:
And-after conflict, such as was suppos'd
The wandering prince of Dido once enjoy'd,
When with a happy storm they were surpriz'd,
And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave,-
We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;
Whiles hounds, and horns, and sweet melodious
birds,

Be unto us, as is a nurse's song

Of lullaby, to bring her babe asleep."

-for their unrest,] Unrest, for disquiet, is a word frequently used by the old writers.

That have their alms, &c.] This is obscure. It seems to mean only, that they who are to come at this gold of the empress are to suffer by it.

as is a nurse's song

Of lullaby, to bring her babe asleep.] Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, says, "it is observable that the nurses call sleep by, by; lullaby is therefore lull to sleep." But to lull originally signified to sleep. To compose to sleep by a pleasing sound is a secondary sense retained after its primitive import became obsolete. The

Aar. Madam, though Venus govern your desires, Saturn is dominator over mine:

What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
My silence, and my cloudy melancholy?
My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls,
Even as an adder, when she doth unroll
To do some fatal execution?

No, madam, these are no venereal signs;
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hark, Tamora,—the empress of my soul,
Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,-
This is the day of doom for Bassianus;
His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day :
Thy sons make pillage of her chastity,
And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.
Seest thou this letter? take it up I pray thee,
And give the king this fatal-plotted scroll:-
Now question me no more, we are espied;
Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction.
Tam. Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than

life!

Aar. No more, great empress, Bassianus comes: Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy sons To back thy quarrels, whatsoe'er they be.

Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA.

[Exit.

Bas. Who have we here? Rome's royal emperess, Unfurnish'd of her well-beseeming troop? Or is it Dian, habited like her;

verbs to loll and lollop evidently spring from the same root. And by meant house; go to by is go to house or cradle. The common compliment at parting, good by is good house, may your house prosper; and Selby, the Archbishop of York's palace, is great house. So that lullaby implies literally sleep in house, i. è. thê cradle. HOLT WHITE.

Who hath abandoned her holy groves,
To see the general hunting in this forest?

Tam. Saucy controller of our private steps!
Had I the power, that, some say, Dian had,
Thy temples should be planted presently
With horns, as was Acteon's; and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,
Unmannerly intruder as thou art!

Lav. Under your patience, gentle emperess,
"Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;
And to be doubted, that your Moor and you
Are singled forth to try experiments:

Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day! "Tis pity, they should take him for a stag.

Bas. Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian Doth make your honour of his body's hue, Spotted, detested, and abominable. Why are you sequester'd from all your train? Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed, And wander'd hither to an obscure plot, Accompanied with a barbarous Moor, If foul desire had not conducted you? Lav. And, being intercepted in your sport, Great reason that my noble lord be rated For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence, And let her 'joy her raven-colour'd love; This valley fits the purpose passing well.

Bas. The king, my brother, shall have note of this.

Lav. Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:

Good king! to be so mightily abus'd!

Tam. Why have I patience to endure all this?

7 Should drive-] i. e. fly with impetuosity at him.

8

swarth Cimmerian-] Swarth is black. The Moor is called Cimmerian, from the affinity of blackness to darkness.

1

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.

Dem. How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious
mother,

Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?
Tam. Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?
These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place,
A barren detested vale, you see, it is:

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss, and baleful misletoe.

Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.
And, when they show'd me this abhorred pit,
They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make such fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body, hearing it,

Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.'
No sooner had they told this hellish tale,

But straight they told me, they would bind me here
Unto the body of a dismal yew;

And leave me to this miserable death.

And then they call'd me, foul adulteress,
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
That ever ear did hear to such effect.

And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
This vengeance on me had they executed:
Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,
Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.
Dem. This is a witness that I am thy son.
[Stabs BASSIANUS.

9 urchins,] i. e. hedgehogs.

1. Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.] This is said in fabulous physiology, of those that hear the groan of the mandrake

torn up.