And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise !3 Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS, SATURNINUS, BASSIANUS, and Others. MAR. Long live lord Titus, my beloved brother, Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome! TIT. Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus. MAR. And welcome, nephews, from fuccessful wars, You that furvive, and you that fleep in fame. 3 And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praife!] This abfurd with is made fenfe of, by changing and into in. WARBURTON. To live in fame's date is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expreffion. To outlive an eternal date is, though not philofophical, yet poetical fenfe. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her praise longer than fame. JOHNSON. 4 That hath afpir'd to Solon's happiness,] The maxim of Solon here alluded to is, that no man can be pronounced to be happy before his death: ultima femper Expectanda dies homini; dicique beatus "Ante obitum nemo, fupremaque funera, debet." Ovid. MALONE. And name thee in election for the empire, And help to fet a head on headless Rome. TIT. A better head her glorious body fits, Than his, that shakes for age and feebleness: What! fhould I don this robe,5 and trouble you? Be chofen with proclamations to-day; To-morrow, yield up rule, refign my life, And fet abroad new bufinefs for you all? Rome, I have been thy foldier forty years, And buried one and twenty valiant fons, Knighted in field, flain manfully in arms, In right and fervice of their noble country: Give me a staff of honour for mine age, But not a scepter to control the world: Upright he held it, lords, that held it laft. MAR. Titus, thou fhalt obtain and afk the em pery.6 SAT. Proud and ambitious tribune, canft thou tell? TIT. Patience, prince Saturnine.? SAT. Romans, do me right;Patricians, draw your fwords, and sheath them not Till Saturninus be Rome's emperor :Andronicus, 'would thou wert fhipp'd to hell, Rather than rob me of the people's hearts. - don this robe,] i, e, do on this robe, put it on. So, in Hamlet: "Then up he rose, and don'd his clothes." STEEVENS. • Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery.] Here is rather too much of the ύστερον πρότερον. STEVENS. 1 Patience, prince Saturnine.] Edition 1600,Patience, prince Saturninus. TODD. Luc. Proud Saturnine, interrupter of the good That noble-minded Titus means to thee! TIT. Content thee, prince; I will restore to thee The people's hearts, and wean them from themfelves. BAS. Andronicus, I do not flatter thee, TIT. People of Rome, and people's tribunes here, I ask your voices, and your fuffrages; Will you bestow them friendly on Andronicus? TIT. Tribunes, I thank you: and this fuit I make, Crown him, and fay,-Long live our emperor! MAR. With voices and applaufe of every fort, Patricians, and plebeians, we create Lord Saturninus, Rome's great emperor ; And fay,Long live our emperor Saturnine! [Along Flourish. SAT. Titus Andronicus, for thy favours done 3thy friends,] Old copies-friend. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE. Edition 1600, friend, as in other old copies noted by Mr. Malone. ToDd. To us in our election this day, I give thee thanks in part of thy deferts, Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart, SAT. Thanks, noble Titus, father of my life! TIT. Now, madam, are you prifoner to an empe ror; [To TAMORA. To him, that for your honour and your state, Will ufe you nobly, and your followers. SAT. A goodly lady, truft me; of the hue 9 Pantheon] The quarto, 1611, and the first folioPathan; the fecond folio-Pantheon. STEEVens. Edition 1600-Pathan, as in other copies noted by Mr. Stee yens. TODD. imperial lord:] Edition 1600: That I would choose, were I to choose anew.- Thou com'ft not to be made a fcorn in Rome: Reft on my word, and let not difcontent LAV. Not I, my lord; fith true nobility SAT. Thanks, fweet Lavinia.-Romans, let us go: Ransomeless here we fet our prifoners free: Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum, BAS. Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is [Seizing LAVINIA. mine. TIT. How, fir? Are you in earneft then, my lord? BAS. Ay, noble Titus; and refolv'd withal, To do myfelf this reafon and this right. [The Emperor courts TAMORA in dumb show. MAR. Suum cuique is our Roman justice: This prince in justice seizeth but his own. Luc. And that he will, and fhall, if Lucius live, 2 Lav. Not I, my lord ;] It was pity to part a couple who seem to have correfponded in difpofition fo exactly as Saturninus and Lavinia. Saturninus, who has juft promised to efpoufe her, already wishes he were to choose again; and the who was engaged to Baffianus (whom the afterwards marries) expreffes no reluctance when her father gives her to Saturninus. Her fubfequent raillery to Tamora is of fo coarse a nature, that if her tongue had been all the was condemned to lofe, perhaps the author (whoever he was) might have escaped cenfure on the fcore of poetick juftice. STEEVENS. |