Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed, 8 TIT. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me. These are their brethren, whom you Goths beheld Alive, and dead; and for their brethren slain, Religiously they ask a sacrifice : To this your son is mark'd; and die he must, To appease their groaning shadows that are gone. 8 Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? 66 Homines enim ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando." Cicero pro Ligario. Mr. Whalley infers the learning of Shakspeare from this passage: but our present author, whoever he was, might have found a translation of it in several places, provided he was not acquainted with the original. STEEVENS. The same sentiment is in Edward III. 1596: 66 66 kings approach the nearest unto God, By giving life and safety unto men." REED. 9 PATIENT yourself, &c.] This verb is used by other dramatick writers. So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: "Patient yourself, we cannot help it now." Again, in King Edward I. 1599: "Patient your highness, 'tis but mother's love." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, b. xii. ch. lxxv.: Her, weeping ripe, he laughing, bids to patient her awhile.” STEEVENS. Luc. Away, with him! and make a fire straight; And with our swords, upon a pile of wood, Let's hew his limbs, till they be clean consum'd. [Exeunt LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, and MUTIUS, with ALARBUS. TAM. O cruel, irreligious piety! CHI. Was ever Scythia half so barbarous ? To tremble under Titus' threatening look. Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent', (When Goths were Goths, and Tamora was queen,) To quit the bloody wrongs upon her foes. 1 The self-same gods, that arm'd the queen of Troy With opportunity of sharp revenge Upon the Thracian tyrant in HIS tent, &c.] I read, against the authority of all the copies : in her tent ་་ i. e. in the tent where she and the other Trojan captive women were kept for thither Hecuba by a wile had decoyed Polymnestor, in order to perpetrate her revenge. This we may learn from Euripides's Hecuba; the only author, that I can at present remember, from whom our writer must have gleaned this circumstance. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald should first have proved to us that our author understood Greek, or else that this play of Euripides had been translated. In the mean time, because neither of these particulars are verified, we may as well suppose he took it from the old storybook of the Trojan War, or the old translation of Ovid. See Metam. xiii. The writer of the play, whoever he was, might have been misled by the passage in Ovid, "vadit ad artificem," and therefore took it for granted that she found him in his tent. STEEVENS. I have no doubt that the writer of this play had read Euripides in the original. Mr. Steevens justly observes in a subsequent note near the end of this scene, that there is "a plain allusion to the Ajax of Sophocles, of which no translation was extant in the time of Shakspeare." MALONE. Re-enter LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, and MUTIUS, with their Swords bloody. Luc. See, lord and father, how we have perform'd Our Roman rites: Alarbus' limbs are lopp'd, Whose smoke, like incense, doth perfume the sky. 66 In [Trumpets sounded, and the Coffins laid in the Tomb. peace and honour rest you here, my sons; "Rome's readiest champions, repose you here in rest 2, "Secure from worldly chances and mishaps! "Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells, "Here grow no damned grudges; here, are no storms, "No noise, but silence and eternal sleep : Enter LAVINIA. In peace and honour rest you here, my sons! 2- repose you here,] Old copies, redundantly in respect both to sense and metre: 66 repose you here in rest.” STEEVENS. The same redundancy in the edition 1600, as noted in other copies by Mr. Steevens. TODD. Whose fortunes Rome's best citizens applaud. TIT. Kind Rome, that hast thus lovingly reserv'd The cordial of mine age to glad my heart!- And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise! Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS, SATURNINUS, BasSIANUS, and Others. MAR. Long live lord Titus, my beloved brother, Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome! TIT. Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus. MAR. And welcome, nephews, from successful wars, You that survive, and you that sleep in fame. 3 AND fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise!] This absurd wish is made sense of, by changing and into in. WARBURTON. To "live in fame's date" is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expression. To "outlive an eternal date" is, though not philosophical, yet poetical sense. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her praise longer than fame. JOHNSON. 4 That hath aspir'd to Solon's happiness,] The maxim of Solon here alluded to is, that no man can be pronounced to be happy before his death: ultima semper Expectanda dies homini; dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo, supremaque funera, debet. Ovid. MALONE. This palliament of white and spotless hue; And help to set a head on headless Rome. SAT. Proud and ambitious tribune, canst thou tell? TIT. Patience, prince Saturnine". SAT. Romans, do me right;Patricians, draw your swords, and sheath them not Till Saturninus be Rome's emperor :Andronicus, 'would thou wert shipp'd to hell, Rather than rob me of the people's hearts. Luc. Proud Saturnine, interrupter of the good That noble-minded Titus means to thee! 5- DON this robe,] i. e. do on this robe, put it on. So, in Hamlet: "Then up he rose, and do'nd his clothes." STEevens. 6 Titus, thou shalt OBTAIN and ASK the empery.] Here is rather too much of the ὕστερον πρότερον. STEEVENS. 7 Patience, prince SATURNINE.] Edition 1600"Patience, prince Saturninus." Todd. |