Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!
Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace,
Aaron will have his soul black like his face. [Exit.

TIT. O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven, And bow this feeble ruin to the earth: 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 they do hug him in their melting bosoms.

MAR. O! brother, speak with possibilities," And do not break into these deep extremes.

TIT. Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom? Then be my passions bottomless with them.

MAR. But yet let reason govern thy lament.

TIT. If there were reason for these miseries, Then into limits could I bind my woes: When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'er

flow?

If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
Threat'ning the welkin with his big-swoln face?
And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow!*
She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
Then must my earth with her continual tears

3 --- with possibilities,] Edition 1600 reads with possibi litie. TODD.

4

do blow!] Old copies do flow. Corrected in the second folio. MALONE.

Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd:
For why? my bowels cannot hide her woes,
But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
Then give me leave; for losers will have leave
To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.

Enter a Messenger, with Two Heads and a Hand.

MESS. Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid For that good hand thou sent'st the emperor. Here are the heads of thy two noble sons; And here's thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back; Thy griefs their sports, thy resolution mock'd: That woe is me to think upon thy woes, More than remembrance of my father's death. [Exit.

MAR. Now let hot Etna cool in Sicily, And be my heart an ever-burning hell! These miseries are more than may be borne! 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! That ever death should let life bear his name, Where life hath no more interest but to breathe! [LAVINIA kisses him.

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;

501

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: Besides, this sorrow is an enemy, And would usurp upon my watry eyes, And make them blind with tributary tears; Then which way shall I find revenge's cave? For these two heads do seem to speak to me; And threat me, I shall never come to bliss, Till all these mischiefs be return'd again, Even in their throats that have committed them. Come, let me see what task I have to do.You heavy people, circle me about; 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;"

6

thy griefs:] The old copies-my griefs. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

Thy griefs &c.] Edition 1600:-my griefs. TODD.

7 Lavinia, thou shalt be employed in these things;] Thus the folio, 1623. The quarto, 1611, thus:

And Lavinia thou shalt be employed in these arms. Perhaps we ought to read:

Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.

bi

As for thee, boy, go, get thee from my sight;
Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay:
Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there:
And, if you love me, as I think you do,
Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do.
[Exeunt TITUS, MARCUS, and LAVINIA.
LUC. Farewell, Andronicus, my noble father;
The woeful'st man that ever liv'd in Rome!
Farewell, proud Rome! till Lucius come again,
He leaves his pledges dearer than his life.
Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;

O, 'would thou wert as thou 'tofore hast been!
But now nor Lucius, nor Lavinia lives,
But in oblivion, and hateful griefs.

If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs;
And make proud Saturninus and his empress
Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.
Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power,
To be reveng'd on Rome and Saturnine. [Exit.

Lavinia,

Thou too shalt be employed in these things;

STEEVENS.

The folio also reads-And Lavinia; the rest as above. The compositor probably caught the word-And from the preceding line. MALONE.

And Lavinia &c.] So in edit. 1600. TODD.

He leaves &c.] Old copies-He loves. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

The edition 1600 reads with other old copies. TODD.

Saturninus-] Edition 1600--Saturnine. TODD.

9

SCENE II.1

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; 2
Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands
And cannot passionate3 our tenfold grief
With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine
Is left to tyrannize upon my breast;

And when my heart, all mad with misery,
Beats in this hollow prison of
Then thus I thump it down.-

my flesh,

1 Scene II.] This scene, which does not contribute any thing to the action, yet seems to have the same author with the rest, is omitted in the quarto of 1611, but found in the folio of 1623.

JOHNSON.

Scene II. is also wanting in edition 1600. TODD.

• Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot;] So, in The Tempest:

sitting

"His arms in this sad knot." MALONE.

And cannot passionate &c.] This obsolete verb is likewise found in Spenser:

"Great pleasure mix'd with pitiful regard,
"That godly king and queen did passionate."

STEEVENS.

And when &c.] Old copies-Who when-. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.