Enter ÆMILIUS.

Guth. My lord, there is a messenger from Rome, Desires to be admitted to your presence.

Luc. Let him come near.
Welcome, Æmilius, what's the news from Rome?

Æmil. 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 ; 160
Willing you to demand your hostages,
And they shall be immediately deliver'd.
Goth. What says our general ?

Luc. Æmilius, let the emperor give his pledges
Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,
And we will come. March away.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Titus's Palace in Rome. Enter TAMORA, CHIRON,

and DEMETRIUS, disguised.

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. 170 Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps, To šuminate strange plots of dire revenge;

Tell

Tell him, Revenge is come to join with him, "And work confusion on his enemies.

[They knock, and Titus opens his Study Door, Tit. Who doth molest my contemplation? 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.

Tit. No; not a word : How can I grace my talk, Wanting a hand to give it that accord ? 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 ; Witness these trenches, made by grief and care; Witness the tiring day, and heavy night; 199 Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well For our proud emperess, 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 ain Revenge; sent from the infernal kingdom, To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind. By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes. Lome down, and welcome me to this world's light; fontes with me of murder and of death :

There's

200

There's not a hollow cave, nor 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.

Tit. Do me some service, ere I come to thee, 210
Lo, by thy 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 two proper palfries, black as jet,
To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
And find out murderers in their guilty caves :
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 callid?

Tam. Rapine, and Murder : therefore called so,
'Cause they take vengeance on such kind of men.

220

Tit. Good lord, how like the emperess' sons they are !

230 And you, the emperess ! 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 Titus 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, 240 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 woeful house ;Rapine, and Murder, you are welcome too :How like the emperess and her sons you are ! 250 Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor :Could not all hell afford you such a devil ?For, well I wot, the emperess 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 wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?
Dem. Shew me a murderer, I'll deal with him.

Chi. Shew me a villain, that hath done a rape, 263 And I am sent to be reveng'd on him. Tam. Shew 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, stab 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, staħ ħim; he is a ravisher.--Go thou with them; and in the emperor's court 270 There is a queen, attended by a Moor; Well may'st tlrou 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 Gothis, And bid him come and banquet at thy house : 280 When he is here, even at thy solemn feast, I will bring in the emperess and her sons, The emperor himself, and all thy foes;

And