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