The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 497

by William Shakespeare


  No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.

  180

  DEMETRIUS [to Lavinia]

  Away, for thou hast stayed us here too long.

  LAVINIA

  No grace? No womanhood? Ah, beastly creature,

  The blot and enemy to our general name,

  Confusion fall –

  CHIRON Nay then, I’ll stop your mouth.

  [Grabs her, covering her mouth.]

  [to Demetrius] Bring thou her husband:

  185

  This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him.

  Demetrius throws Bassianus’ body into the pit,

  he and Chiron then exeunt, dragging Lavinia.

  TAMORA

  Farewell, my sons; see that you make her sure.

  Ne’er let my heart know merry cheer indeed

  Till all the Andronici be made away.

  Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor,

  190

  And let my spleenful sons this trull deflower. Exit.

  Enter AARON with two of Titus’ sons, QUINTUS and MARTIUS.

  AARON Come on, my lords, the better foot before.

  Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit

  Where I espied the panther fast asleep.

  QUINTUS My sight is very dull, whate’er it bodes.

  195

  MARTIUS

  And mine, I promise you; were it not for shame,

  Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.

  [Falls into the pit.]

  QUINTUS

  What, art thou fallen? What subtle hole is this,

  Whose mouth is covered with rude-growing briers

  Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood

  200

  As fresh as morning dew distilled on flowers?

  A very fatal place it seems to me.

  Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?

  MARTIUS [from below]

  O brother, with the dismall’st object hurt

  That ever eye with sight made heart lament.

  205

  AARON [aside]

  Now will I fetch the king to find them here,

  That he thereby may have a likely guess

  How these were they that made away his brother. Exit.

  MARTIUS [from below]

  Why dost not comfort me and help me out

  From this unhallowed and bloodstained hole?

  210

  QUINTUS I am surprised with an uncouth fear;

  A chilling sweat o’erruns my trembling joints;

  My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.

  MARTIUS [from below]

  To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,

  Aaron and thou look down into this den,

  215

  And see a fearful sight of blood and death.

  QUINTUS Aaron is gone and my compassionate heart

  Will not permit mine eyes once to behold

  The thing whereat it trembles by surmise.

  O tell me who it is, for ne’er till now

  220

  Was I a child to fear I know not what.

  MARTIUS [from below]

  Lord Bassianus lies berayed in blood

  All on a heap, like to a slaughtered lamb,

  In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.

  QUINTUS If it be dark, how dost thou know ’tis he?

  225

  MARTIUS [from below]

  Upon his bloody finger he doth wear

  A precious ring that lightens all this hole,

  Which like a taper in some monument

  Doth shine upon the dead man’s earthy cheeks

  And shows the ragged entrails of this pit.

  230

  So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus

  When he by night lay bathed in maiden blood.

  O brother, help me with thy fainting hand –

  If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath –

  Out of this fell devouring receptacle,

  235

  As hateful as Cocytus’ misty mouth.

  QUINTUS [Reaches into pit.]

  Reach me thy hand that I may help thee out

  Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,

  I may be plucked into the swallowing womb

  Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus’ grave.

  240

  I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink –

  MARTIUS [from below]

  Nor I no strength to climb without thy help.

  QUINTUS Thy hand once more; I will not loose again

  Till thou art here aloft or I below.

  Thou canst not come to me – I come to thee.

  245

  [Falls into the pit.]

  Enter the Emperor and AARON the Moor, with attendants.

  SATURNINUS Along with me! I’ll see what hole is here

  And what he is that now is leapt into it.

  [Speaks into the pit.]

  Say, who art thou that lately didst descend

  Into this gaping hollow of the earth?

  MARTIUS [from below]

  The unhappy sons of old Andronicus,

  250

  Brought hither in a most unlucky hour

  To find thy brother Bassianus dead.

  SATURNINUS

  My brother dead? I know thou dost but jest;

  He and his lady both are at the lodge

  Upon the north side of this pleasant chase.

  255

  ’Tis not an hour since I left them there.

  MARTIUS [from below]

  We know not where you left them all alive,

  But, out alas, here have we found him dead.

  Enter TAMORA, TITUS ANDRONICUS and LUCIUS.

  TAMORA Where is my lord the king?

  SATURNINUS

  Here, Tamora, though gride with killing grief.

  260

  TAMORA Where is thy brother Bassianus?

  SATURNINUS

  Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound:

  Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.

  TAMORA Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,

  The complot of this timeless tragedy,

  265

  And wonder greatly that man’s face can fold

  In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.

  [She giveth Saturnine a letter.]

  SATURNINUS [Reads.]

  And if we miss to meet him handsomely,

  Sweet huntsman – Bassianus ’tis we mean –

  Do thou so much as dig the grave for him.

  270

  Thou know’st our meaning. Look for thy reward

  Among the nettles at the elder tree

  Which overshades the mouth of that same pit

  Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.

  Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.

  275

  O Tamora, was ever heard the like?

  This is the pit and this the elder tree.

  Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out

  That should have murdered Bassianus here.

  AARON [finding the money-bag]

  My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.

  280

  SATURNINUS [to Titus]

  Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody kind,

  Have here bereft my brother of his life.

  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.

  285

  TAMORA What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!

  How easily murder is discovered.

  [Attendants pull Quintus, Martius and

  Bassianus’ body from the pit.]

  TITUS [kneeling] High emperor, upon my feeble knee

  I beg this boon with tears not lightly shed:

  That this fell fault of my accursed sons,

  290

  Accursed if the fault be proved
in them –

  SATURNINUS If it be proved? You see it is apparent.

  Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?

  TAMORA Andronicus himself did take it up.

  TITUS I did, my lord, yet let me be their bail,

  295

  For by my fathers’ reverend tomb I vow

  They shall be ready at your highness’ will

  To answer their suspicion with their lives.

  SATURNINUS

  Thou shalt not bail them. See thou follow me.

  Some bring the murdered body, some the murderers.

  300

  Let them not speak a word: the guilt is plain;

  For, by my soul, were there worse end than death

  That end upon them should be executed.

  TAMORA Andronicus, I will entreat the king;

  Fear not thy sons, they shall do well enough.

  305

  TITUS [rising]

  Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.

  Exeunt, some taking the body, some guarding the prisoners.

  2.3 [2.4] Enter the Empress’ Sons with LAVINIA, her hands cut off and her tongue cut out, and ravished.

  DEMETRIUS So, now go tell, and if thy tongue can speak,

  Who ’twas that cut thy tongue and ravished thee.

  CHIRON Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,

  And if thy stumps will let thee, play the scribe.

  DEMETRIUS

  See how with signs and tokens she can scrawl.

  5

  CHIRON Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.

  DEMETRIUS

  She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash,

  And so let’s leave her to her silent walks.

  CHIRON And ’twere my cause, I should go hang myself.

  DEMETRIUS

  If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.

  10

  Exeunt Chiron and Demetrius.

  Wind horns. Enter MARCUS from hunting.

  Lavinia runs away.

  MARCUS Who is this – my niece that flies away so fast?

  Cousin, a word. Where is your husband?

  [Lavinia turns.]

  If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me;

  If I do wake, some planet strike me down

  That I may slumber an eternal sleep.

  15

  Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands

  Hath lopped and hewed and made thy body bare

  Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments

  Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in

  And might not gain so great a happiness

  20

  As half thy love. Why dost not speak to me?

  [Lavinia opens her mouth.]

  Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,

  Like to a bubbling fountain stirred with wind,

  Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,

  Coming and going with thy honey breath.

  25

  But sure some Tereus hath deflowered thee

  And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.

  Ah, now thou turn’st away thy face for shame,

  And notwithstanding all this loss of blood,

  As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,

  30

  Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan’s face,

  Blushing to be encountered with a cloud.

  Shall I speak for thee? Shall I say ’tis so?

  O that I knew thy heart, and knew the beast,

  That I might rail at him to ease my mind!

  35

  Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopped,

  Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.

  Fair Philomela, why she but lost her tongue,

  And in a tedious sampler sewed her mind;

  But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee.

  40

  A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,

  And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,

  That could have better sewed than Philomel.

  O, had the monster seen those lily hands

  Tremble like aspen leaves upon a lute

  45

  And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,

  He would not then have touched them for his life.

  Or had he heard the heavenly harmony

  Which that sweet tongue hath made,

  He would have dropped his knife and fell asleep,

  50

  As Cerberus at the Thracian poet’s feet.

  Come, let us go and make thy father blind,

  For such a sight will blind a father’s eye.

  One hour’s storm will drown the fragrant meads:

 

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