The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  And as I earnestly did fix mine eye

  Upon the wasted building, suddenly

  I heard a child cry underneath a wall.

  I made unto the noise, when soon I heard

  The crying babe controlled with this discourse:

  ‘Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dam!

  Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,

  Had nature lent thee but thy mother’s look,

  Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor.

  But where the bull and cow are both milk-white

  They never do beget a coal-black calf.

  Peace, villain, peace!’—even thus he rates the babe—

  ‘For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth

  Who, when he knows thou art the Empress’ babe,

  Will hold thee dearly for thy mother’s sake.’

  With this, my weapon drawn, I rushed upon him,

  Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither

  To use as you think needful of the man.

  LUCIUS

  O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil

  That robbed Andronicus of his good hand.

  This is the pearl that pleased your Empress’ eye,

  And here’s the base fruit of her burning lust.

  (To Aaron) Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou

  convey

  This growing image of thy fiendlike face?

  Why dost not speak? What, deaf? What, not a word?

  A halter, soldiers! Hang him on this tree,

  And by his side his fruit of bastardy.

  AARON

  Touch not the boy; he is of royal blood.

  LUCIUS

  Too like the sire for ever being good.

  First hang the child, that he may see it sprawl—

  A sight to vex the father’s soul withal.

  Get me a ladder.

  ⌈A Goth brings a ladder which Aaron climbs⌉

  AARON

  Lucius, save the child,

  And bear it from me to the Empress.

  If thou do this, I’ll show thee wondrous things

  That highly may advantage thee to hear.

  If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,

  I’ll speak no more but ‘Vengeance rot you all!’

  LUCIUS

  Say on, and if it please me which thou speak’st

  Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourished.

  AARON

  And if it please thee? Why, assure thee, Lucius,

  ’Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;

  For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres,

  Acts of black night, abominable deeds,

  Complots of mischief, treason, villainies

  Ruthful to hear yet piteously performed,

  And this shall all be buried in my death

  Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.

  LUCIUS

  Tell on thy mind. I say thy child shall live.

  AARON

  Swear that he shall, and then I will begin.

  LUCIUS

  Who should I swear by? Thou believest no god.

  That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?

  AARON

  What if I do not?—as indeed I do not—

  Yet for I know thou art religious

  And hast a thing within thee called conscience,

  With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies

  Which I have seen thee careful to observe,

  Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know

  An idiot holds his bauble for a god,

  And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,

  To that I’ll urge him, therefore thou shalt vow

  By that same god, what god soe’er it be,

  That thou adorest and hast in reverence,

  To save my boy, to nurse and bring him up,

  Or else I will discover naught to thee.

  LUCIUS

  Even by my god I swear to thee I will.

  AARON

  First know thou I begot him on the Empress.

  LUCIIJS

  O most insatiate and luxurious woman!

  AARON

  Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity

  To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.

  ’Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus.

  They cut thy sister’s tongue, and ravished her,

  And cut her hands, and trimmed her as thou sawest.

  LUCIUS

  O detestable villain! Call’st thou that trimming?

  AARON

  Why, she was washed and cut and trimmed, and ’twas

  Trim sport for them which had the doing of it.

  LUCIUS

  O barbarous beastly villains, like thyself!

  AARON

  Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them.

  That codding spirit had they from their mother,

  As sure a card as ever won the set.

  That bloody mind I think they learned of me,

  As true a dog as ever fought at head.

  Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.

  I trained thy brethren to that guileful hole

  Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay.

  I wrote the letter that thy father found,

  And hid the gold within that letter mentioned,

  Confederate with the Queen and her two sons;

  And what not done that thou hast cause to rue

  Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?

  I played the cheater for thy father’s hand,

  And when I had it drew myself apart,

  And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter.

  I pried me through the crevice of a wall

  When for his hand he had his two sons’ heads,

  Beheld his tears, and laughed so heartily

  That both mine eyes were rainy like to his;

  And when I told the Empress of this sport

  She swoonèd almost at my pleasing tale,

  And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.

  A GOTH

  What, canst thou say all this and never blush?

  AARON

  Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.

  LUCIUS

  Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

  AARON

  Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.

  Even now I curse the day—and yet I think

  Few come within the compass of my curse—

  Wherein I did not some notorious ill,

  As kill a man, or else devise his death;

  Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;

  Accuse some innocent and forswear myself;

  Set deadly enmity between two friends;

  Make poor men’s cattle break their necks;

  Set fire on barns and haystacks in the night,

  And bid the owners quench them with their tears.

  Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves

  And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,

  Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,

  And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,

  Have with my knife carved in Roman letters

  ‘Let not your sorrow die though I am dead.’

  But I have done a thousand dreadful things

  As willingly as one would kill a fly,

  And nothing grieves me heartily indeed

  But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

  LUCIUS

  Bring down the devil, for he must not die

  So sweet a death as hanging presently.

  Goths bring Aaron down the ladder

  AARON

  If there be devils, would I were a devil,

  To live and burn in everlasting fire,

  So I might have your company in hell

  But to torment you with my bitter tongue.

  LUCIUS

  Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.


  Goths gag Aaron.

  Enter Aemilius

  A GOTH

  My lord, there is a messenger from Rome

  Desires to be admitted to your presence.

  LUCIUS Let him come near.

  Welcome, Aemilius. What’s the news from Rome?

  AEMILIUS

  Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,

  The Roman Emperor greets you all by me,

  And for he understands you are in arms,

  He craves a parley at your father’s house,

  Willing you to demand your hostages,

  And they shall be immediately delivered.

  A GOTH What says our general?

  LUCIUS

  Aemilius, let the Emperor give his pledges

  Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

  And we will come. Away!

  ⌈Flourish.⌉ Exeunt ⌈marching⌉

  5.2 Enter Tamora and Chiron and Demetrius, her two sons, disguised

  TAMORA

  Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,

  I will encounter with Andronicus

  And say I am Revenge, sent from below

  To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.

  Knock at his study, where they say he keeps

  To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge.

  Tell him Revenge is come to join with him

  And work confusion on his enemies.

  They knock, and Titus ⌈aloft⌉ opens his study door

  TITUS

  Who doth molest my contemplation?

  Is it your trick to make me ope the door,

  That so my sad decrees may fly away

  And all my study be to no effect?

  You are deceived; for what I mean to do,

  See here, in bloody lines I have set down,

  And what is written shall be executed.

  TAMORA

  Titus, I am come to talk with thee.

  TITUS

  No, not a word. How can I grace my talk,

  Wanting a hand to give it action?

  Thou hast the odds of me, therefore no more.

  TAMORA

  If thou didst know me thou wouldst talk with me.

  TITUS

  I am not mad, I know thee well enough;

  Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson

  lines,

  Witness these trenches made by grief and care,

  Witness the tiring day and heavy night,

  Witness all sorrow that I know thee well

  For our proud empress, mighty Tamora.

  Is not thy coming for my other hand?

  TAMORA

  Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora.

  She is thy enemy, and I thy friend.

  I am Revenge, sent from th’nfernal kingdom

  To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind

  By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.

  Come down, and welcome me to this world’s light.

  Confer with me of murder and of death.

  There’s not a hollow cave or lurking-place,

  No vast obscurity or misty vale

  Where bloody murder or detested rape

  Can couch for fear, but I will find them out,

  And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,

  Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.

  TITUS

  Art thou Revenge, and art thou sent to me

  To be a torment to mine enemies?

  TAMORA

  I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.

  TITUS

  Do me some service ere I come to thee.

  Lo by thy side where Rape and Murder stands.

  Now give some surance that thou art Revenge,

  Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot wheels,

  And then I’ll come and be thy wagoner,

  And whirl along with thee about the globe,

  Provide two proper palfreys, black as jet,

  To hale thy vengeful wagon swift away

  And find out murderers in their guilty caves.

  And when thy car is loaden with their heads

  I will dismount, and by thy wagon wheel

  Trot like a servile footman all day long,

  Even from Hyperion’s rising in the east

  Until his very downfall in the sea;

  And day by day I’ll do this heavy task,

  So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.

  TAMORA

  These are my ministers, and come with me.

  TITUS

  Are they thy ministers? What are they called?

  TAMORA

  Rape and Murder, therefore called so

  ‘Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.

  TITUS

  Good Lord, how like the Empress’ sons they are,

  And you the Empress! But we worldly men

  Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.

  O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee,

  And if one arm’s embracement will content thee,

  I will embrace thee in it by and by. Exit ⌈aloft⌉

  TAMORA

  This closing with him fits his lunacy.

  Whate’er I forge to feed his brainsick humours

  Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,

  For now he firmly takes me for Revenge,

  And being credulous in this mad thought

  I’ll make him send for Lucius his son,

  And whilst I at a banquet hold him sure

  I’ll find some cunning practice out of hand

  To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,

  Or at the least make them his enemies.

  See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.

  Enter Titus, below

  TITUS

  Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee.

  Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful house.

  Rapine and Murder, you are welcome, too.

  How like the Empress and her sons you are!

  Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor.

  Could not all hell afford you such a devil?—

  For well I wot the Empress never wags

  But in her company there is a Moor,

  And would you represent our Queen aright

  It were convenient you had such a devil.

  But welcome as you are. What shall we do?

  TAMORA

  What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?

  DEMETRIUS

  Show me a murderer, I’ll deal with him.

  CHIRON

  Show me a villain that hath done a rape,

  And I am sent to be revenged on him.

  TAMORA

  Show me a thousand that hath done thee wrong,

  And I will be revenged on them all.

  TITUS (to Demetrius)

  Look round about the wicked streets of Rome,

  And when thou find’st a man that’s like thyself,

  Good Murder, stab him; he’s a murderer.

  (To Chiron) Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap

  To find another that is like to thee,

  Good Rapine, stab him; he is a ravisher.

  (To Tamora) Go thou with them, and in the Emperor’s

  court

  There is a queen attended by a Moor.

  Well shalt thou know her by thine own proportion,

  For up and down she doth resemble thee.

  I pray thee, do on them some violent death;

  They have been violent to me and mine.

  TAMORA

  Well hast thou lessoned us. This shall we do;

  But would it please thee, good Andronicus,

  To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,

  Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,

  And bid him come and banquet at thy house—

  When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,

  I will bring in the Empress and her sons,

  The Emperor himself, and all thy foes,

  And at th
y mercy shall they stoop and kneel,

  And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.

  What says Andronicus to this device?

  TITUS

  Marcus, my brother! ’Tis sad Titus calls.

  Enter Marcus

  Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius.

  Thou shalt enquire him out among the Goths.

  Bid him repair to me, and bring with him

  Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths.

  Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are.

  Tell him the Emperor and the Empress too

  Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.

  This do thou for my love, and so let him,

  As he regards his aged father’s life.

  MARCUS

  This will I do, and soon return again. Exit

  TAMORA

  Now will I hence about thy business,

  And take my ministers along with me.

  TITUS

  Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me,

  Or else I’ll call my brother back again,

  And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.

  TAMORA (aside to her sons)

  What say you, boys, will you abide with him

  Whiles I go tell my lord the Emperor

  How I have governed our determined jest?

  Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,

  And tarry with him till I turn again.

  TITUS (aside)

  I knew them all, though they supposed me mad,

  And will o’erreach them in their own devices—

  A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam.

  DEMETRIUS

  Madam, depart at pleasure. Leave us here.

  TAMORA

  Farewell, Andronicus. Revenge now goes

  To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

  TITUS

  I know thou dost, and sweet Revenge, farewell.

  Exit Tamora

  CHIRON

  Tell us, old man, how shall we be employed?

  TITUS

  Tut, I have work enough for you to do.

  Publius, come hither; Caius and Valentine.

  Enter Publius, Caius, and Valentine

  PUBLIUS

  What is your will?

  TITUS

  Know you these two?

  PUBLIUS

  The Empress’ sons I take them—Chiron, Demetrius.

  TITUS

  Fie, Publius, fie! Thou art too much deceived.

  The one is Murder, and 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

  CHIRON

  Villains, forbear! We are the Empress’ sons.