So sweet a death, as hanging presently.

Aar. 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!

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

Enter a Goth.

Goth. My lord, there is a messenger from Rome,
Desires to be admitted to your presence.
Luc. Let him come near.-

Enter EMILIUS.

Welcome, Æmilius, what 's the news from Rome?
Emil. 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 deliver❜d.
1 Goth. What says our general?

Luc. Emilius, let the emperor give his pledges
Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

And we will come.-March away.

SCENE II.

Rome. Before Titus's House.

[Exeunt.

Enter TAMORA, CHIRON, and DEMETRIUS, disguis'd.
Tam. 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.

Enter TITUS, above.

[They knock.

Tit. Who doth molest my contemplation?

audience were entertained with part of the apparatus, of an execution, and that Aaron was mounted on a ladder, as ready to be turned off. Steevens.

9

March --] Perhaps this is a mere stage-direction which has crept into the text. Steevens.

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 deceiv'd: for what I mean to do,
See here, in bloody lines I have set down;
And what is written shall be executed.

Tam. Titus, I am come to talk with thee.1
Tit. 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.

Tam. If thou did'st know me, thou would'st talk with me. Tit. I am not mad; I know thee well enough: Witness this wretched stump, these crimson lines ;3 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?

Tam. Know thou, sad man, I am not Tamora ;
She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:

I am Revenge, sent from the infernal 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 offenders quake.

Tit. Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me,
To be a torment to mine enemies?

Tam. I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.

1 Titus, &c.] Perhaps this imperfect line was originally completed thus:

2

Titus, I am come to talk with thee awhile. Steevens.

action?] Thus the folio. The quarto, perhaps unintelligibly,--that accord. Steevens.

3

stump, these crimson lines;] The old copies derange the metre by reading, with useless repetition: Steevens.

stump, witness these crimson lines :

Tit. Do me some service, ere I come to thee.
Lo, by the 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 waggoner,
And whirl along with thee about the globes.
Provide thee proper palfries, black as jet,4
To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
And find out murderers in their guilty caves :5
And, when thy car is loaden with their heads,
I will dismount, and by the waggon wheel
Trot, like a servile footman, all day long;
Even from Hyperion's rising in the east,
Until his very downfal in the sea.

And day by day I'll do this heavy task,
So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.

Tam. These are my ministers, and come with me.
Tit. Are they thy ministers? what are they call'd?
Tam. Rapine, and Murder; therefore called so,
'Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.

4 Provide thee proper palfries, black as jet,] The old copies, poorly, and with disregard of metre, read:

Provide thee two proper palfries, as black as jet, The second folio indeed omits the useless and redundant-as.

Steevens

5 And find out murderers &c.] The old copies read-murder and cares. The former emendation was made by Mr. Steevens ; the latter by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

6 Hyperion's] The folio reads-Epton's; the quartos, 1600 and 1611-Epeon's; and so Ravenscroft. Steevens. The correction was made in the second folio. Malone.

7 So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.] I do not know of any instance that can be brought to prove that rape and rapine were ever used as synonymous terms. The word rapine has always been employed for a less fatal kind of plunder, and means the violent act of deprivation of any good, the honour here alluded to being always excepted.

I have indeed since discovered that Gower, De Confessione Amantis, Lib. V, fol. 116, b. uses ravine in the same sense: "For if thou be of suche covine,

"To get of love by ravyne

"Thy lust," &c. Steevens.

8 Are they] Thus the second folio. The first, contemning. grammar,-Are them. Steevens.

Tit. 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 TIT. from above.
Tam. This closing with him fits his lunacy:
Whate'er I forge, to feed his brain-sick fits,
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.

Tit. Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:
Welcome, dread fury, to my woful 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?

Tam. What would'st thou have us do, Andronicus?
Dem. Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.
Chi. Show me a villain, that have done a rape,
And I am sent to be reveng'd on him.

Tam. Show me a thousand, that have done thee wrong,

And I will be revenged on them all.

Tit. Look round about the wicked streets of Rome; And when thou find'st a man that 's like thyself, Good Murder, stáb him; he 's a murderer.-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.Go thou with them; and in the emperor's court

There is a queen, attended by a Moor;

Well may'st thou know her by thy 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.

Tam. Well hast thou lesson'd 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 thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel,
And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
What says Andronicus to this device?

Tit. Marcus, my brother!-'tis sad Titus calls.
Enter MARCUS.

Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius;
Thou shalt inquire 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.

Mar. This will I do, and soon return again.
Tam. Now will I hence about thy business,

And take my ministers along with me.

[Exit.

Tit. 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.

Tam. What say you, boys? will you abide with him, Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor,

How I have govern'd our determin'd jest?

Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair, [Aside.

And tarry with him, till I come again.

[Aside.

Tit. I know them all, though they suppose me mad; And will o'er-reach them in their own devices, A pair of cursed hell-hounds, and their dam. Dem. Madam, depart at pleasure, leave us here. Tam. Farewel, Andronicus: Revenge now goes

To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

[Exit TAM.