Titus Andronicus.

Act. 5. Scene.3.

Published Oct.1.1800. by Vernor & Hood, Poultry,

Luc. What boots it thee, to call thyfelf a fun?

Mar. Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the parle ; These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready, which the careful Titus

Hath órdain'd to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome : Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places. Sat. Marcus, we will.

[Hautboys found. The company fit down at table.

Enter TITUS, dress'd like a cook; LAVINIA, veiled; young LUCIUS, and Others. TITUS places the dishes on the table.

Tit. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread

queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius ;
And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor,
'Twill fill your ftomachs; pleafe you eat of it.

Sa Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus ?
Tit. Because I would be fure to have all well,
To entertain your highness, and your emprefs,
Tam. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus.
Tit. An if your highnefs knew my heart, you were.
My lord the emperor, refolve me this ;

Was it well done of rafh Virginius,

To flay his daughter with his own right hand,
Because she was enforc'd, ftain'd, and deflour'd?
Sat. It was,

Andronicus.

Tit.

Your reafon, mighty lord!

Sat. Because the girl should not furvive her shame, And by her prefence ftill renew his forrows.

Tit. A reafon mighty, strong, and effectual;
A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant,
For me, most wretched, to perform the like :-
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy fhame with thee;

[He kills LAVINIA.

And, with thy fhame, thy father's forrow die!

Sat. What haft thou done, unnatural, and unkind?
Tit. Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woful as Virginius was:

And have a thousand times more caufe than he

To do this outrage;—and it is now done.

Sat. What, was the ravish'd? tell, who did the deed. Tit. Will't please you eat? will't please your highness feed?

Tam. Why haft thou flain thine only daughter thus?
Tit. Not I; 'twas Chiron, and Demetrius :

They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue,
And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.
Sat. Go, fetch them hither to us presently.
Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that pie ;
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's fharp point.

[Killing TAMORA,

Sat. Die, frantick wretch, for this accursed deed.

[Killing TITUS.

Luc. Can the fon's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed.

[Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult. The people in confufion difperfe. MARCUS, LUCIUS, and their partifans afcend the fteps before Titus's boufe.

Mar. You fad-fac'd men, people and fons of Rome, By uproar fever'd, like a flight of fowl

Scatter'd by winds and high tempeftuous gufts,

O, let

O, let me teach you how to knit again
This fcatter'd corn into one mutual theaf,
These broken limbs again into one body.

Sen. Left Rome herself be bane unto herself;
And she, whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate cast-away,

Do fhameful execution on herself.

But if my frofty figns and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome's dear friend; [To LUCIUS.] as erft our

ancestor,

When with his folemn tongue he did discourse,

To love-fick Dido's fad attending ear,

The story of that baleful burning night,

When subtle Greeks surpriz'd king Priam's Troy ;
Tell us, what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,

Or who hath brought the fatal engine in,

That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.-
My heart is not compact of flint, nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,

But floods of tears will drown my oratory,

And break my very utterance; even i'the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiseration :

Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That curfed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it were that ravished our fifter:
For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father's tears defpis'd; and bafely cozen'd
Of that true hand, that fought Rome's quarrel out,

And