a

-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 enforc'd, stain'd, and deflour'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 :
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;

[He kills LAVINIA. And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die !

Sat. What hast thou done, unnatural, and unkind ?

Tit. Kill’d her, for whom my tears have made me blind. I am as wofal as Virginius was : And have a thousand times more cause than he To do this outrage ;-and it is now done.

Sat. What, was she ravish'd ? tell, who did the deed. Tit. Will't please you eat ? will't please your highness

feed ? Tam. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus ?

Tit. Not I; 'twas Chiron, and Demetrius :
They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue,
And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.

Sat. Ğo, fetch them hither to us presently.
Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that pye;
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
"Tis true, 'tis true ; witness my knife's sharp point.

(Killing TAMORA. Sat. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed.

[Killing 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.

The People in confusion disperse. Marcus, Lucius, and their Partizans ascend the steps before Titus's house. Mar. You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of Rome, By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts, 0, let me teach you how to knit again This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,

These broken limbs again into one body.

Sen. Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself ;
And she, whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate cast-away,
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,
Speak, Rome's dear friend ; [To Lucius.] as erst our an-

cestor,
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 surpriz'd 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.-
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 very utterance ; even i'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 despis’d ; 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 op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend :
And I am the turn'd-forth, be it known to you,
That have preserv'd her welfare in my blood;
And from her bosom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my advent'rous body.
Alas! you know, I am nò 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 : 0, pardon me ;
For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
Mar. Now is my turn to speak ; Behold this 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,
Damn'd as he is, to witness this is true,
Now judge, what cause had Titus to reyenge
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,
And make a mutual closure of our house.
Speak, Romans, speak; and, if you say, we shall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucjus and I will fall.

Æmil. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,
Lucius our emperor; for, well I know,
The common voice do cry, it shall be so.
Rom. [Several speak.] Lucius, all hail ; Rome's royal
emperor!

Lucius, &c. descend.
Mar. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house ;

[To an Attendant.
And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,
To be adjudg'd some direful slaughtering death,
As punishment for his most wicked life.
Rom. [Several speak.] Lucius, all hail ; Rome's gra-

.
cious governor!
Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans ; May I govern so,
To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe!
But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,-
For nature puts me to a heavy task ;-
Stand all aloof;--but, uncle, draw you near,
To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk :-

0, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,

[Kisses Titus. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face, The last true duties of thy noble son !

Mar. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips :
O, were the sum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
To melt in showers, Thy grandsire lov'd thee well :
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,
Meet, and agreeing with thine infancy;
In that respect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so :
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe :
Bid him farewell ; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Boy. O grandsire, grandsire ! even with all my heart
'Would I were dead, so you did live again!
O lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping ;
My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth,

Enter Attendants, with AARON.
1 Rom. You sad Andronici; have done with woes ;
Give sentence on this execrable wretch,
That hath been breeder of these dire events.

Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him ; There let him stand, and rave and

cry

for food :
If any one relieves or pities him,
For the offence he dies. This is our doom ;
Some stay, to see him fasten'd in the earth.

Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb ?
I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers,
I should repent the evils I have done ;
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence, And give him burial in his father's grave : My father, and Lavinia, shall forthwith Be closed in our household's monument.

As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,
No funeral rite, nor man in mounful weeds,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial ;
But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey :
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity ;
And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See justice done to Aaron, that damn’d Moor,
By whom our heavy haps had their beginning :
Then, afterwards, to order well the state ;
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

Exeunt. 8 This is one of those plays which I have always thought with the better judges, ought not to be acknowledged in the list of Shakespeare's genuine pieces. And, perhaps, I may give a proof to strengthen this opinion, that may put the matter out of question. Ben Jonson, in the Introduction to his Bartholomew-Fair, which made its first appearance in the year 1614, couples Jeronymo and Andronicus together in reputation, and speaks of them as plays then twenty-five or thirty years standing. Consequently Andronicus must have been on the stage before Shakespeare left Warwickshire to come and reside in London; and I never beard it so much as intimated, that he had turned his genius to stage-writiug before he associated with the players, and became one of their body. However, that he afterwards introduced it anew on the stage, witb the addition of his own masterly touches, is incontestible, and thence, I presume, grew his title to it. The diction in general, where be has not taken the pains to raise it, is even beneath that of the Three Parts of Henry VI. The story we are to suppose merely fictitious. Andronicus is a sur-name of pure Greek derivation. Tamora is neither mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, nor any body else that I can find. Nor had Rome, in the time of her emperors, any war with the Goths that I know of: not till after the translation of the empire, I mean to Byzantium. And yet the scene of our play is laid at Rome, and Saturninus is elected to the empire at the Capitol.

THEOBALD. All the editors and critics agree with Mr. Theobald in supposing this play spurious. I see no reason for differing from them; for the colour of the stile iş wholly different from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular versification, and artificial closes, not always inelegant, yet seldom pleasing. The barbarity of the spectacles, and the general massacre, which are here exhibited, casa scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonson, that they were not only borbe but praised. That Shakespeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares incontestible, I see no reason for believing.

The testimony, by which it is ascribed to Shakespeare, is by no means equal to the argument against its authenticity, arising from the total difference of conduct, language, and sentiments, by which it stands apart from all the rest. Meres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page, which, though in our time it be sufficient, was then of no great authority ; for all the plays which were rejected by the first collectors of Shakespeare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected by the critical editors, bad Shakespeare's name on the title, as we must suppose, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet no gazettes, nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary intelligence, could usurp at pleasure any celebrated name. Nor had Shakespeare any interest in detecting the imposture, as none of his fame or profit was produced by the press.

Ravenscroft, who in the reign of James II. revised this play, and restored it to the stage, tells us, in his preface, from a theatrical tradition, I suppose, which in his time might be of sufficient authority, that this play was touched in different parts by Bhakespeare, but written by some other poet. 'I do not find Shakespeare's touches very discernible. JOHNSON.

I agree with such of the commentators as think that Shakespeare had no hand in this abominable tragedy; and consider the correctness with which it is printed, as a kind of collateral proof that he had not. The genuine works of Shakespeare bave been handed down to us in a more depraved state than those of any other contemporary writer ; which was partly owing to the obscurity of his band writing, which

appears to have been scarcely legible, and partly to his total neglect of them when committed to the press. And it is not to be supposed, that he should have taken more pains about the publication of this horrid performance, than he did in that of his noblest productions. M. MASON.

END OF VOL. VIII,

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