I pray thee, do on them some violent death;
They have been violent to me and mine.

Tam. Well hast thou lesson'd us; this shall we do.
But would it please thee, good Andronicus,

To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,

Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,
And bid him come and banquet at thy house;
When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,
I will bring in the empress and her sons,
The emperor himself, and all thy foes;
And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel,
And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
What says Andronicus to this device?

Tit. Marcus, my brother!-'tis sad Titus calls.

Enter MARCUS.

Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius;
Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths:
Bid him repair to me, and bring with him
Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths;
Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are:
Tell him the emperor and the empress too
Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.
This do thou for my love; and so let him
As he regards his aged father's life.

Marc. This will I do, and soon return again.
Tam. Now will I hence about thy business,

And take my ministers along with me.

Tit. Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me,

Or else I'll call my brother back again,

And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.

Tam. [aside to them.] What say you, boys? will with him,

Whiles I go tell my

lord the emperor

How I have govern'd our determin'd jest?

Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,

And tarry with him till I come again.

[Exit.

you

abide

Tit. [aside.] I know them all, though they suppose me mad,

And will o'er-reach them in their own devices,

A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam.

Dem. Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.

Tam. Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes

To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

Tit. I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell! [Exit TAMORA.

Chi. Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd?

Tit. Tut, I have work enough for you to do.Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine!

Enter PUBLIUS and others.

Pub. What is your will?

Tit. Know you these two?
Pub. The empress' sons,

I take them, Chiron and Demetrius.

Tit. Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceiv'd,-
The one is Murder, Rape is the other's name;
And therefore bind them, gentle Publius :-
Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them :-
Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,
And now I find it; therefore bind them sure;
And stop their mouths if they begin to cry.

[Exit. PUBLIUS, &c., lay hold on CHIRON and
DEMETRIUS.

Chi. Villains, forbear! we are the empress' sons.
Pub. And therefore do we what we are commanded.-
Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.
Is he sure bound? look that you bind them fast.

Re-enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with LAVINIA; he bearing a knife and she a basin.

Tit. Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me; But let them hear what fearful words I utter.

O villains, Chiron and Demetrius !

Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud; This goodly summer with your winter mix'd.

You kill'd her husband; and for that vile fault

Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death,

My hand cut off and made a merry jest;

Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that, more dear
Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Inhuman traitors, you constrain'd and forc'd.
What would you say, if I should let you speak?
Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whilst that Lavinia 'tween her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
You know your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:-
Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust,
And with your blood and it I'll make a paste;

;-

And of the paste a coffin I will rear,

And make two pasties of your shameful heads;
And bid that strumpet, your unhallow'd dam,
Like to the earth, swallow her own increase.
This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
For worse than Philomel you us'd my daughter,
And worse than Progne I will be reveng'd:
And now prepare your throats.-Lavinia, come,

[He cuts their throats.
Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,
Let me go grind their bones to powder small,
And with this hateful liquor temper it;
And in that paste let their vile heads be bak'd.
Come, come, be every one officious

To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaurs' feast.
So, now bring them in, for I will play the cook,
And see them ready 'gainst their mother comes.

[Exeunt, bearing the dead bodics.

SCENE III.-ROME. A Pavilion in TrTus's Gardens, with tables, &c.

Enter LUCIUS, MARCUS, and Goths, with AARON

prisoner.

Luc. Uncle Marcus, since 'tis my father's mind

That I repair to Rome, I am content.

1 Goth. And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.

Luc. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,

This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;

Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him,
Till he be brought unto the empress' face
For testimony of her foul proceedings:
And see the ambush of our friends be strong;
I fear the emperor means no good to us.

Aar. Some devil whisper curses in mine ear,
And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth
The venomous malice of my swelling heart!

Luc. Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.-

[Exeunt Goths with AAR. Flourish within. The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.

Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with ÆMILIUS, Tribunes,
Senators, and others.

Sat. What, hath the firmament more suns than one?
Luc. What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?

Marc. Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the parle ;
These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready, which the careful Titus
Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome:
Please you, therefore, draw nigh,
Sat. Marcus, we will.

[Hautboys sound.

and take your places.

The company sit at table.

Enter TITUS, dressed like a cook, LAVINIA, vailed, YOUNG
LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes on the table.
Tit. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;
Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
And welcome all: although the cheer be poor,
"Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.
Sat. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus?
Tit. Because I would be sure to have all well,
To entertain your highness and your empress.
Tam. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus.

Tit. And 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 enforc'd, 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:-
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;

[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 woeful 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? vill'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. Go, fetch them hither to us presently.

Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that pie,
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
'Tis true, 'tis 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 their partisans ascend the steps before TITUS'S house.

Marc. You sad-fac'd men, people and scns of Rome, By uproar sever'd, like 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,

Speak, Rome's dear friend [to LUCIUS]: 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 surpris'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 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.