Uncouple here, and let us make a bay
And wake the emperor and his lovely bride,
And rouse the prince, and ring a hunter’s peal,
5
That all the court may echo with the noise.
Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours,
To attend the emperor’s person carefully.
I have been troubled in my sleep this night,
But dawning day new comfort hath inspired.
10
Here a cry of hounds, and wind horns in a peal; then enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, BASSIANUS, LAVINIA, CHIRON, DEMETRIUS and their attendants.
Many good morrows to your majesty;
Madam, to you as many and as good.
I promised your grace a hunter’s peal.
SATURNINUS And you have rung it lustily, my lords,
Somewhat too early for new-married ladies.
15
BASSIANUS Lavinia, how say you?
LAVINIA I say no:
I have been broad awake two hours and more.
SATURNINUS
Come on then, horse and chariots let us have,
And to our sport.
[to Tamora] Madam, now shall ye see
Our Roman hunting.
MARCUS I have dogs, my lord,
20
Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase
And climb the highest promontory top.
TITUS And I have horse will follow where the game
Makes way and runs like swallows o’er the plain.
DEMETRIUS [aside]
Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound,
25
But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground. Exeunt.
2.2 [2.3] Enter AARON alone, with a money-bag.
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
5
Which, cunningly effected, will beget
A very excellent piece of villainy.
And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest
That have their alms out of the empress’ chest.
[Hides the money-bag.]
Enter TAMORA alone, to the Moor.
TAMORA My lovely Aaron, wherefore look’st thou sad
10
When everything doth make a gleeful boast?
The birds chant melody on every bush,
The snakes lies rolled in the cheerful sun,
The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
And make a chequered shadow on the ground.
15
Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,
And whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns
As if a double hunt were heard at once,
Let us sit down and mark their yellowing noise;
20
And after conflict such as was supposed
The wandering prince and Dido once enjoyed,
When with a happy storm they were surprised
And curtained with a counsel-keeping cave,
We may, each wreathed in the other’s arms,
25
Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber,
Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds
Be unto us as is a nurse’s song
Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.
AARON Madam, though Venus govern your desires,
30
Saturn is dominator over mine.
What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
My silence and my cloudy melancholy,
My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls
Even as an adder when she doth unroll
35
To do some fatal execution?
No, madam, these are no venereal signs;
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hark, Tamora, the empress of my soul,
40
Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,
This is the day of doom for Bassianus,
His Philomel must lose her tongue today,
Thy sons make pillage of her chastity
And wash their hands in Bassianus’ blood.
45
Seest thou this letter? Take it up, I pray thee,
[Gives letter.]
And give the king this fatal-plotted scroll.
Now question me no more: we are espied.
Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
Which dreads not yet their lives’ destruction.
50
Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA.
TAMORA Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!
AARON No more, great empress: Bassianus comes.
Be cross with him, and I’ll go fetch thy sons
To back thy quarrels, whatsoe’er they be. Exit.
BASSIANUS Who have we here? Rome’s royal empress,
55
Unfurnished of her well-beseeming troop?
Or is it Dian, habited like her,
Who hath abandoned her holy groves
To see the general hunting in this forest?
TAMORA Saucy controller of my private steps,
60
Had I the power that some say Dian had,
Thy temples should be planted presently
With horns, as was Actaeon’s, and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,
Unmannerly intruder as thou art.
65
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 today:
70
’Tis pity they should take him for a stag.
BASSIANUS Believe me, queen, your swart Cimmerian
Doth make your honour of his body’s hue,
Spotted, detested and abominable.
Why are you sequestered from all your train,
75
Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed,
And wandered hither to an obscure plot,
Accompanied but with a barbarous Moor,
If foul desire had not conducted you?
LAVINIA And being intercepted in your sport,
80
Great reason that my noble lord be rated
For sauciness. [to Bassianus] I pray you, let us hence,
And let her joy her raven-coloured love.
This valley fits the purpose passing well.
BASSIANUS The king my brother shall have note of this.
85
LAVINIA Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:
Good king, to be so mightily abused!
TAMORA Why, I have patience to endure all this.
Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.
DEMETRIUS
How now, dear sovereign and our gracious mother,
Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?
90
TAMORA Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?
These two have ’ticed me hither to this place:
A barren detested vale you see it is;
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O’ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe;
95
Here never shines the sun, here nothing breeds
Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven.
And when they showed me this abhorred pit,
They told me here at dead time of the night
A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
100
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make such fe
arful and confused cries
As any mortal body hearing it
Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
No sooner had they told this hellish tale,
105
But straight they told me they would bind me here
Unto the body of a dismal yew
And leave me to this miserable death.
And then they called me foul adulteress,
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
110
That ever ear did hear to such effect.
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 called my children.
115
DEMETRIUS This is a witness that I am thy son.
[Stabs him.]
CHIRON
And this for me, struck home to shew my strength.
[He also stabs Bassianus, who dies.]
LAVINIA Ay, come, Semiramis, nay, barbarous Tamora,
For no name fits thy nature but thy own.
TAMORA
Give me the poniard. You shall know, my boys,
120
Your mother’s hand shall right your mother’s wrong.
DEMETRIUS Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her:
First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw.
This minion stood upon her chastity,
Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,
125
And with that quaint hope braves your mightiness.
And shall she carry this unto her grave?
CHIRON And if she do, I would I were an eunuch.
Drag hence her husband to some secret hole
And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.
130
TAMORA But when ye have the honey we desire,
Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.
CHIRON I warrant you, madam, we will make that sure.
Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy
That nice-preserved honesty of yours.
135
LAVINIA O Tamora, thou bearest a woman’s face –
TAMORA I will not hear her speak; away with her!
LAVINIA Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.
DEMETRIUS [to Tamora]
Listen, fair madam, let it be your glory
To see her tears, but be your heart to them
140
As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.
LAVINIA
When did the tiger’s young ones teach the dam?
O, do not learn her wrath: she taught it thee.
The milk thou suckst from her did turn to marble;
Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.
145
Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:
[to Chiron] Do thou entreat her show a woman’s pity.
CHIRON
What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?
LAVINIA ’Tis true, the raven doth not hatch a lark.
Yet have I heard – O, could I find it now –
150
The lion, moved with pity, did endure
To have his princely paws pared all away.
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests.
O be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
155
Nothing so kind, but something pitiful.
TAMORA I know not what it means; away with her!
LAVINIA O, let me teach thee for my father’s sake,
That gave thee life when well he might have slain thee.
Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.
160
TAMORA Hadst thou in person ne’er offended me,
Even for his sake am I pitiless.
Remember, boys, I poured forth tears in vain
To save your brother from the sacrifice,
But fierce Andronicus would not relent.
165
Therefore away with her and use her as you will:
The worse to her, the better loved of me.
LAVINIA [clinging to Tamora]
O Tamora, be called a gentle queen,
And with thine own hands kill me in this place.
For ’tis not life that I have begged so long;
170
Poor I was slain when Bassianus died.
TAMORA
What begg’st thou then, fond woman? Let me go!
LAVINIA ’Tis present death I beg, and one thing more
That womanhood denies my tongue to tell.
O, keep me from their worse-than-killing lust,
175
And tumble me into some loathsome pit
Where never man’s eye may behold my body.
Do this, and be a charitable murderer.
TAMORA So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 496