DEMET. 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.
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.

PUB. What is your will?

TIT.

Enter PUBLIUS and others.

Know you these two?

PUB. The empress' sons, I take them, Chiron, Demetrius.
TIT. Fie, Publius, fie; thou art too much deceiv'd:
The one is Murther, 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 TAMORA.

[Exit TITUS. 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 fastb.

Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS with a knife, and LAVINIA with 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.

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 vild 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

a This line is omitted in the folio.

There is a stage-direction here—Exeunt. They perhaps go within the curtain of the secondary stage, so that the bloody scene may be veiled.

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 coffina 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 used my daughter;
. And worse than Progné I will be reveng'd.
And now prepare your throats: Lavinia, come,
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 vild 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 centaur's feast.
So; now bring them in; for I 'll play the cook,
And see them ready against their mother comes.

[He cuts their throats.

SCENE III.-Titus's House. A Pavilion.

Enter LUCIUS, MARCUS, and the Goths, with Aaron.

Luc. Uncle Marcus, since 't is my father's mind
That I repair to Rome, I am content.

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.
AARON. 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.

The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.

a Coffin-the crust of a raised pie.

[Exeunt.

[Flourish.

The folio omits own.

Empress', in the quarto of 1600. The quarto of 1611, and the folio, emperor's.

Sound trumpets. Enter SATUrninus, and TAMORA, with Tribunes and others.

SAT. What, hath the firmanent 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 ordained to an honourable end;

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome:

Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places.

SAT. Marcus, we will.

[Hautboys.

Enter TITUS, like a cook, placing the meat on the table; LAVINIA, with a veil over

her face; Young LUCIUS, and others.

TIT. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;

Welcome, ye

warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;

And welcome, all; although the cheer be poor,

'T will 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 beholding to you, good Andronicus. TIT. An 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 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,
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 woful 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 thy only daughter?

TIT. Not I; 't was Chiron and Demetrius.

Begin the parley.

[He kills her.

b This line is omitted in the folio.

They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue,

And they, 't was 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.

"T is true, 't is true, witness my knife's sharp point.
SAT. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!
Luc. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?

There's meed for meed; death for a deadly deed.

[He stabs TAMora. [He kills TITUS.

[He kills SATURNINUS. The people disperse in terror.

MARC. You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproars sever'd, like a flight of fowl
Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
Oh, let me teach you how to knit again
This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body—

ROM. LORD. Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself;
And she whom mighty kingdoms curtsy 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 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.

Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murthered our emperor's brother,
And they it was that ravished our sister:

a Lest. The originals, let.

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 amongst 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 turned 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 no 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. Oh, pardon me,

For, when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
MARC. Now is my turn to speak: behold this child;
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'da as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
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, Lucius and I will fall.
EMIL. 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.
MARC. Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor!

a Damn'd. The old copies, And.

b Cause. The earliest copies, course. The fourth folio gave the correction.

This line, and the concluding line of Marcus's speech, are given to the people-" Romans "