Titus Andronicus �Act I

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Act I

Titus Andronicus

Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!

Lo, as the bark, that hath discharged her fraught,

Returns with precious jading to the bay

From whence at first she weigh'd her anchorage,

Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs,

To re-salute his country with his tears,

Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.

Thou great defender of this Capitol,

Stand gracious to the rites that we intend!

Romans, of five and twenty valiant sons,

Half of the number that King Priam had,

Behold the poor remains, alive and dead!

These that survive let Rome reward with love;

These that I bring unto their latest home,

With burial amongst their ancestors:

Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword.

Titus, unkind and careless of thine own,

Why suffer'st thou thy sons, unburied yet,

To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?

Make way to lay them by their brethren.

Saturninus

Noble patricians, patrons of my right,�Defend the justice of my cause with arms,�And, countrymen, my loving followers,�Plead my successive title with your swords:�I am his first-born son, that was the last�That wore the imperial diadem of Rome;�Then let my father's honours live in me,�Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.�

Bassianus

Romans, friends, followers, favorers of my right,�If ever Bassianus, Caesar's son,�Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,�Keep then this passage to the Capitol�And suffer not dishonour to approach�The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,�To justice, continence and nobility;�But let desert in pure election shine,�And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice.�

Tamora

Stay, Roman brethren! Gracious conqueror,

Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed,

A mother's tears in passion for her son:

And if thy sons were ever dear to thee,

O, think my son to be as dear to me!

Sufficeth not that we are brought to Rome,

To beautify thy triumphs and return,

Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke,

But must my sons be slaughter'd in the streets,

For valiant doings in their country's cause?

O, if to fight for king and commonweal

Were piety in thine, it is in these.

Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood:

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?

Draw near them then in being merciful:

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge:

Thrice noble Titus, spare my first-born son.�

Titus Andronicus

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.�

Titus Andronicus

Give me a staff of honour for mine age,�But not a sceptre to control the world:�Upright he held it, lords, that held it last.�

Titus Andronicus

Content thee, prince; I will restore to thee�The people's hearts, and wean them from themselves.�

Titus Andronicus

Tribunes, I thank you: and this suit I make;�That you create your emperor's eldest son,�Lord Saturnine; whose virtues will, I hope,�Reflect on Rome as Titan's rays on earth,�Then, if you will elect by my advice,�Crown him and say 'Long live our emperor!'�

Saturninus

Titus Andronicus, for thy favors done�To us in our election this day,�I give thee thanks in part of thy desserts,�And will with deeds requite thy gentleness:�And, for an onset, Titus, to advance�Thy name and honourable family,�Lavinia will I make my empress,�Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart,�And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse:�Tell me, Andronicus, doth this motion please thee?�

Saturninus

• A goodly lady, trust me; of the hue�That I would choose, were I to choose anew.�Clear up, fair queen, that cloudy countenance:�Though chance of war hath wrought this change of cheer,�Thou comest not to be made a scorn in Rome:�Princely shall be thy usage every way.�

Saturninus

And therefore, lovely Tamora, queen of Goths,…��If thou be pleased with this my sudden choice,�Behold, I choose thee, Tamora, for my bride,�And will create thee empress of Rome,�Speak, Queen of Goths, dost thou applaud my choice?�

Titus Andronicus

Traitors, away! he rests not in this tomb:…��Here none but soldiers and Rome's servitors�Repose in fame; none basely slain in brawls:�Bury him where you can; he comes not here.�

Tamora

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• And let it be mine honour, good my lord,�That I have reconciled your friends and you.�For you, Prince Bassianus, I have pass'd�My word and promise to the emperor,�That you will be more mild and tractable.�And fear not lords, and you, Lavinia;�By my advice, all humbled on your knees,�You shall ask pardon of his majesty.�

Titus Andronicus

Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;�My sons would never so dishonour me:�Traitor, restore Lavinia to the emperor.�

Tamora

I'll find a day to massacre them all�And raze their faction and their family,�The cruel father and his traitorous sons,�To whom I sued for my dear son's life,�And make them know what 'tis to let a queen�Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.�

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Act 2

Demetrius

• Why, boy, although our mother, unadvised,�Gave you a dancing-rapier by your side,�Are you so desperate grown, to threat your friends?�Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath�Till you know better how to handle it.�

Aaron

• The forest walks are wide and spacious;�And many unfrequented plots there are�Fitted by kind for rape and villany:�Single you thither then this dainty doe,�And strike her home by force, if not by words:�This way, or not at all, stand you in hope.�

Aaron

• He that had wit would think that I had none,�To bury so much gold under a tree,�And never after to inherit it.�Let him that thinks of me so abjectly�Know that this gold must coin a stratagem,�Which, cunningly effected, will beget�A very excellent piece of villany:�

Lavinia

• Under your patience, gentle empress,�'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;�And to be doubted that your Moor and you�Are singled forth to try experiments:�Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day!�'Tis pity they should take him for a stag.�

Aaron

• Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top,�Safe out of fortune's shot; and sits aloft,�Secure of thunder's crack or lightning flash;�Advanced above pale envy's threatening reach.�As when the golden sun salutes the morn,�And, having gilt the ocean with his beams,�Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach,�And overlooks the highest-peering hills;
• So Tamora.

Tamora

• My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad,�When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?�The birds chant melody on every bush,�The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,�The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind�And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground:�Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,…
• We may, each wreathed in the other’s arms,
• Our pastimes done, posssess a golden slumber,
• While hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds
• Be unto us as is a nurse’s song
• Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep�

Tamora

• And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,�This vengeance on me had they executed.�Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,�Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.

Tamora

• But when ye have the honey ye desire,�Let not this wasp outlive us both to sting.�

Lavinia

• O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen,�And with thine own hands kill me in this place!�…And tumble me into some loathsome pit
• Where never man’s eye may behold my body.

Do this and be called a charitable murderer.�

Martius

• Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here,�All on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb,�In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.
• …Oh brother, help me�

Saturninus

• Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:�There let them bide until we have devised�Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.

Chiron

• Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,�An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.�

Marcus

• Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands�Have lopp'd and hew'd and made thy body bare�Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments,�Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,…�Why dost not speak to me?�