ACT III SCENE I

Titus Andronicus

ACT III SCENE I	Rome. A street.
[ Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before, pleading ]
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay!
	For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
	In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept;
	For all my blood in Rome’s great quarrel shed;
	For all the frosty nights that I have watch’d;	5
	And for these bitter tears, which now you see
	Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
	Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
	Whose souls are not corrupted as ’tis thought.
	For two and twenty sons I never wept,	10
	Because they died in honour’s lofty bed.
[Lieth down; the Judges, &c., pass by him, and Exeunt]
	For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write
	My heart’s deep languor and my soul’s sad tears:
	Let my tears stanch the earth’s dry appetite;
	My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame and blush.	15
	O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
	That shall distil from these two ancient urns,
	Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
	In summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still;
	In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow	20
	And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
	So thou refuse to drink my dear sons’ blood.
[Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn]
	O reverend tribunes! O gentle, aged men!
	Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death;
	And let me say, that never wept before,	25
	My tears are now prevailing orators.
LUCIUS	O noble father, you lament in vain:
	The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;
	And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.	30
	Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you,–
LUCIUS	My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,
	They would not mark me, or if they did mark,
	They would not pity me, yet plead I must;	35
	And bootless unto them.
	Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
	Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
	Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
	For that they will not intercept my tale:	40
	When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
	Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
	And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
	Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
	A stone is soft as wax,–tribunes more hard than stones;	45
	A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
	And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
[Rises]
	But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?
LUCIUS	To rescue my two brothers from their death:
	For which attempt the judges have pronounced	50
	My everlasting doom of banishment.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	O happy man! they have befriended thee.
	Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
	That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
	Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey	55
	But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,
	From these devourers to be banished!
	But who comes with our brother Marcus here?
[Enter MARCUS and LAVINIA]
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep;
	Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break:	60
	I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Will it consume me? let me see it, then.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	This was thy daughter.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Why, Marcus, so she is.
LUCIUS	Ay me, this object kills me!	65
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her.
	Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand
	Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight?
	What fool hath added water to the sea,
	Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?	70
	My grief was at the height before thou camest,
	And now like Nilus, it disdaineth bounds.
	Give me a sword, I’ll chop off my hands too;
	For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;
	And they have nursed this woe, in feeding life;	75
	In bootless prayer have they been held up,
	And they have served me to effectless use:
	Now all the service I require of them
	Is that the one will help to cut the other.
	‘Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands;	80
	For hands, to do Rome service, are but vain.
LUCIUS	Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr’d thee?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	O, that delightful engine of her thoughts
	That blabb’d them with such pleasing eloquence,
	Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage,	85
	Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung
	Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear!
LUCIUS	O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	O, thus I found her, straying in the park,
	Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer	90
	That hath received some unrecuring wound.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	It was my deer; and he that wounded her
	Hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead:
	For now I stand as one upon a rock
	Environed with a wilderness of sea,	95
	Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,
	Expecting ever when some envious surge
	Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.
	This way to death my wretched sons are gone;
	Here stands my other son, a banished man,	100
	And here my brother, weeping at my woes.
	But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn,
	Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.
	Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,
	It would have madded me: what shall I do	105
	Now I behold thy lively body so?
	Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears:
	Nor tongue, to tell me who hath martyr’d thee:
	Thy husband he is dead: and for his death
	Thy brothers are condemn’d, and dead by this.	110
	Look, Marcus! ah, son Lucius, look on her!
	When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears
	Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew
	Upon a gather’d lily almost wither’d.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Perchance she weeps because they kill’d her husband;	115
	Perchance because she knows them innocent.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful
	Because the law hath ta’en revenge on them.
	No, no, they would not do so foul a deed;
	Witness the sorrow that their sister makes.	120
	Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips.
	Or make some sign how I may do thee ease:
	Shall thy good uncle, and thy brother Lucius,
	And thou, and I, sit round about some fountain,
	Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks	125
	How they are stain’d, as meadows, yet not dry,
	With miry slime left on them by a flood?
	And in the fountain shall we gaze so long
	Till the fresh taste be taken from that clearness,
	And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears?	130
	Or shall we cut away our hands, like thine?
	Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows
	Pass the remainder of our hateful days?
	What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues,
	Plot some deuce of further misery,	135
	To make us wonder’d at in time to come.
LUCIUS	Sweet father, cease your tears; for, at your grief,
	See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Ah, Marcus, Marcus! brother, well I wot	140
	Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine,
	For thou, poor man, hast drown’d it with thine own.
LUCIUS	Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs:
	Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say	145
	That to her brother which I said to thee:
	His napkin, with his true tears all bewet,
	Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks.
	O, what a sympathy of woe is this,
	As far from help as Limbo is from bliss!	150
[Enter AARON]
AARON	Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor
	Sends thee this word,–that, if thou love thy sons,
	Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,
	Or any one of you, chop off your hand,
	And send it to the king: he for the same	155
	Will send thee hither both thy sons alive;
	And that shall be the ransom for their fault.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	O gracious emperor! O gentle Aaron!
	Did ever raven sing so like a lark,
	That gives sweet tidings of the sun’s uprise?	160
	With all my heart, I’ll send the emperor My hand:
	Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?
LUCIUS	Stay, father! for that noble hand of thine,
	That hath thrown down so many enemies,
	Shall not be sent: my hand will serve the turn:	165
	My youth can better spare my blood than you;
	And therefore mine shall save my brothers’ lives.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Which of your hands hath not defended Rome,
	And rear’d aloft the bloody battle-axe,
	Writing destruction on the enemy’s castle?	170
	O, none of both but are of high desert:
	My hand hath been but idle; let it serve
	To ransom my two nephews from their death;
	Then have I kept it to a worthy end.
AARON	Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along,	175
	For fear they die before their pardon come.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	My hand shall go.
LUCIUS	By heaven, it shall not go!
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Sirs, strive no more: such wither’d herbs as these
	Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine.	180
LUCIUS	Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son,
	Let me redeem my brothers both from death.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	And, for our father’s sake and mother’s care,
	Now let me show a brother’s love to thee.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Agree between you; I will spare my hand.	185
LUCIUS	Then I’ll go fetch an axe.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	But I will use the axe.
[Exeunt LUCIUS and MARCUS]
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Come hither, Aaron; I’ll deceive them both:
	Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine.
AARON	[Aside] If that be call’d deceit, I will be honest,	190
	And never, whilst I live, deceive men so:
	But I’ll deceive you in another sort,
	And that you’ll say, ere half an hour pass.
[Cuts off TITUS’s hand]
[Re-enter LUCIUS and MARCUS]
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Now stay your strife: what shall be is dispatch’d.
	Good Aaron, give his majesty my hand:	195
	Tell him it was a hand that warded him
	From thousand dangers; bid him bury it
	More hath it merited; that let it have.
	As for my sons, say I account of them
	As jewels purchased at an easy price;	200
	And yet dear too, because I bought mine own.
AARON	I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand
	Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.
[Aside]
	Their heads, I mean. O, how this villany
	Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!	205
	Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace.
	Aaron will have his soul black like his face.
[Exit]
TITUS ANDRONICUS	O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven,
	And bow this feeble ruin to the earth:
	If any power pities wretched tears,	210
	To that I call!
[To LAVINIA]
	What, wilt thou kneel with me?
	Do, then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers;
	Or with our sighs we’ll breathe the welkin dim,
	And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds	215
	When they do hug him in their melting bosoms.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	O brother, speak with possibilities,
	And do not break into these deep extremes.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?
	Then be my passions bottomless with them.	220
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	But yet let reason govern thy lament.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	If there were reason for these miseries,
	Then into limits could I bind my woes:
	When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow?
	If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,	225
	Threatening the welkin with his big-swoln face?
	And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
	I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow!
	She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
	Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;	230
	Then must my earth with her continual tears
	Become a deluge, overflow’d and drown’d;
	For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,
	But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
	Then give me leave, for losers will have leave	235
	To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.
[Enter a Messenger, with two heads and a hand]
Messenger	Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid
	For that good hand thou sent’st the emperor.
	Here are the heads of thy two noble sons;
	And here’s thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back;	240
	Thy griefs their sports, thy resolution mock’d;
	That woe is me to think upon thy woes
	More than remembrance of my father’s death.
[Exit]
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Now let hot AEtna cool in Sicily,
	And be my heart an ever-burning hell!	245
	These miseries are more than may be borne.
	To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal;
	But sorrow flouted at is double death.
LUCIUS	Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound,
	And yet detested life not shrink thereat!	250
	That ever death should let life bear his name,
	Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!
[LAVINIA kisses TITUS]
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless
	As frozen water to a starved snake.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	When will this fearful slumber have an end?	255
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Now, farewell, flattery: die, Andronicus;
	Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons’ heads,
	Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here:
	Thy other banish’d son, with this dear sight
	Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,	260
	Even like a stony image, cold and numb.
	Ah, now no more will I control thy griefs:
	Rend off thy silver hair, thy other hand
	Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight
	The closing up of our most wretched eyes;	265
	Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Ha, ha, ha!
MARCUS ANDRONICUS	Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.
TITUS ANDRONICUS	Why, I have not another tear to shed:
	Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,	270
	And would usurp upon my watery eyes
	And make them blind with tributary tears:
	Then which way shall I find Revenge’s cave?
	For these two heads do seem to speak to me,
	And threat me I shall never come to bliss	275
	Till all these mischiefs be return’d again
	Even in their throats that have committed them.
	Come, let me see what task I have to do.
	You heavy people, circle me about,
	That I may turn me to each one of you,	280
	And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs.
	The vow is made. Come, brother, take a head;
	And in this hand the other I will bear.
	Lavinia, thou shalt be employ’d: these arms!
	Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.	285
	As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight;
	Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay:
	Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there:
	And, if you love me, as I think you do,
	Let’s kiss and part, for we have much to do.	290
[Exeunt TITUS, MARCUS, and LAVINIA]
LUCIUS	Farewell Andronicus, my noble father,
	The wofull’st man that ever lived in Rome:
	Farewell, proud Rome; till Lucius come again,
	He leaves his pledges dearer than his life:
	Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;	295
	O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been!
	But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives
	But in oblivion and hateful griefs.
	If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs;
	And make proud Saturnine and his empress	300
	Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.
	Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power,
	To be revenged on Rome and Saturnine.
[Exit]

Back to: Titus Andronicus, Act 3, Scene 2