Titus Andronicus
ACT IV SCENE I | Rome. Titus’s garden. | |
[ Enter young LUCIUS, and LAVINIA running after him, and the boy flies from her, with books under his arm. Then enter TITUS and MARCUS ] | ||
Young LUCIUS | Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia | |
Follows me every where, I know not why: | ||
Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes. | ||
Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean. | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine aunt. | 5 |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm. | |
Young LUCIUS | Ay, when my father was in Rome she did. | |
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | What means my niece Lavinia by these signs? | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Fear her not, Lucius: somewhat doth she mean: | |
See, Lucius, see how much she makes of thee: | 10 | |
Somewhither would she have thee go with her. | ||
Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care | ||
Read to her sons than she hath read to thee | ||
Sweet poetry and Tully’s Orator. | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus? | 15 |
Young LUCIUS | My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess, | |
Unless some fit or frenzy do possess her: | ||
For I have heard my grandsire say full oft, | ||
Extremity of griefs would make men mad; | ||
And I have read that Hecuba of Troy | 20 | |
Ran mad through sorrow: that made me to fear; | ||
Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt | ||
Loves me as dear as e’er my mother did, | ||
And would not, but in fury, fright my youth: | ||
Which made me down to throw my books, and fly– | 25 | |
Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt: | ||
And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go, | ||
I will most willingly attend your ladyship. | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | Lucius, I will. | |
[ LAVINIA turns over with her stumps the books which LUCIUS has let fall ] | ||
TITUS ANDRONICUS | How now, Lavinia! Marcus, what means this? | 30 |
Some book there is that she desires to see. | ||
Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy. | ||
But thou art deeper read, and better skill’d | ||
Come, and take choice of all my library, | ||
And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens | 35 | |
Reveal the damn’d contriver of this deed. | ||
Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus? | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | I think she means that there was more than one | |
Confederate in the fact: ay, more there was; | ||
Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge. | 40 | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so? | |
Young LUCIUS | Grandsire, ’tis Ovid’s Metamorphoses; | |
My mother gave it me. | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | For love of her that’s gone, | |
Perhaps she cull’d it from among the rest. | 45 | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Soft! see how busily she turns the leaves! | |
[Helping her] | ||
What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read? | ||
This is the tragic tale of Philomel, | ||
And treats of Tereus’ treason and his rape: | ||
And rape, I fear, was root of thine annoy. | 50 | |
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | See, brother, see; note how she quotes the leaves. | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl, | |
Ravish’d and wrong’d, as Philomela was, | ||
Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? See, see! | ||
Ay, such a place there is, where we did hunt– | 55 | |
O, had we never, never hunted there!– | ||
Pattern’d by that the poet here describes, | ||
By nature made for murders and for rapes. | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | O, why should nature build so foul a den, | |
Unless the gods delight in tragedies? | 60 | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none | |
but friends, | ||
What Roman lord it was durst do the deed: | ||
Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst, | ||
That left the camp to sin in Lucrece’ bed? | 65 | |
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | Sit down, sweet niece: brother, sit down by me. | |
Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury, | ||
Inspire me, that I may this treason find! | ||
My lord, look here: look here, Lavinia: | ||
This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst | 70 | |
This after me, when I have writ my name | ||
Without the help of any hand at all. | ||
[ He writes his name with his staff, and guides it with feet and mouth ] | ||
Cursed be that heart that forced us to this shift! | ||
Write thou good niece; and here display, at last, | ||
What God will have discover’d for revenge; | 75 | |
Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain, | ||
That we may know the traitors and the truth! | ||
[ She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her stumps, and writes ] | ||
TITUS ANDRONICUS | O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ? | |
‘Stuprum. Chiron. Demetrius.’ | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | What, what! the lustful sons of Tamora | 80 |
Performers of this heinous, bloody deed? | ||
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Magni Dominator poli, | |
Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides? | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | O, calm thee, gentle lord; although I know | |
There is enough written upon this earth | 85 | |
To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts | ||
And arm the minds of infants to exclaims. | ||
My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel; | ||
And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector’s hope; | ||
And swear with me, as, with the woful fere | 90 | |
And father of that chaste dishonour’d dame, | ||
Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece’ rape, | ||
That we will prosecute by good advice | ||
Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths, | ||
And see their blood, or die with this reproach. | 95 | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | ‘Tis sure enough, an you knew how. | |
But if you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware: | ||
The dam will wake; and, if she wind you once, | ||
She’s with the lion deeply still in league, | ||
And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back, | 100 | |
And when he sleeps will she do what she list. | ||
You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let it alone; | ||
And, come, I will go get a leaf of brass, | ||
And with a gad of steel will write these words, | ||
And lay it by: the angry northern wind | 105 | |
Will blow these sands, like Sibyl’s leaves, abroad, | ||
And where’s your lesson, then? Boy, what say you? | ||
Young LUCIUS | I say, my lord, that if I were a man, | |
Their mother’s bed-chamber should not be safe | ||
For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome. | 110 | |
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | Ay, that’s my boy! thy father hath full oft | |
For his ungrateful country done the like. | ||
Young LUCIUS | And, uncle, so will I, an if I live. | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | Come, go with me into mine armoury; | |
Lucius, I’ll fit thee; and withal, my boy, | 115 | |
Shalt carry from me to the empress’ sons | ||
Presents that I intend to send them both: | ||
Come, come; thou’lt do thy message, wilt thou not? | ||
Young LUCIUS | Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire. | |
TITUS ANDRONICUS | No, boy, not so; I’ll teach thee another course. | 120 |
Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house: | ||
Lucius and I’ll go brave it at the court: | ||
Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we’ll be waited on. | ||
[Exeunt TITUS, LAVINIA, and Young LUCIUS] | ||
MARCUS ANDRONICUS | O heavens, can you hear a good man groan, | |
And not relent, or not compassion him? | 125 | |
Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy, | ||
That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart | ||
Than foemen’s marks upon his batter’d shield; | ||
But yet so just that he will not revenge. | ||
Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus! | 130 | |
[Exit] |
Back to: Titus Andronicus, Act 4, Scene 2