ACT II. SCENE 1.6 The fame. Before the Palace. Enter AARON. AAR. Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top, Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait, And mount her pitch; whom thou in triumph long Haft prifoner held, fetter'd in amorous chains; In the quarto, the direction is, Manet Aaron, and he is before made to enter with Tamora, though he says nothing. This scene ought to continue the first A&t. JOHNSON. In the edit. 1600, the stage-direction is Sound trumpets, manet Moore." TODD. Upon her wit-] We fhould read-Upon her will. WARBURTON. I think wit, for which she is eminent in the drama, is right. JOHNSON. The wit of Tamora is again mentioned in this scene: "Come, come, our emprefs with her facred wit," &c. MALONE. And fafter bound to Aaron's charming eyes, Away with flavifh weeds, and idle thoughts !8 Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS, braving. DEM. Chiron, thy years want wit, thy. wit wants edge, And manners, to intrude where I am grac'd; 8 idle thoughts !]_Edit. 1600:-servile thoughts, the better reading, I think. ToDD. 9 this queen,] The compofitor probably repeated the word queen inadvertently; [fee the preceding line:] what was the poet's word, it is hardly worth while to conjecture. MALONE. This goddess, this Semiramis ;-this queen,] Mr. Malone notices the inadvertent repetition of queen, but thinks the poet's word not worth a conjecture. The edition 1600 faves the trouble, as it reads: This goddeffe, this Semerimis, this nymph. TODD. AAR. Clubs, clubs! these lovers will not keep the peace. DEM. Why, boy, although our mother, unadvis'd, Gave you a dancing-rapier by your fide,2 Are you fo desperate grown, to threat your friends? Go to; have your lath glued within your fheath, Till you know better how to handle it. CHI. Mean while, fir, with the little fkill I have, Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge; The cause were known to them it moft concerns: For fhame, put up. DEM. Not I; till I have sheath'd3 1 Clubs, clubs !] So, in King Henry VIII: " and hit that woman, who cried out, clubs!" This was the ufual outcry for affiftance, when any riot in the ftreet happened. STEEVENS. See Vol. VIII. p. 166, n.3; and Vol. XIII. p. 35, n. 6. - REED. 2- a dancing-rapier by your fide,] So, in Greene's Quip for an Upftart Courtier : one of them carrying his cuttingfword of choller, the other his dancing-rapier of delight." Again, in All's well that ends well: "But one to dance with." STEEVENS. See Vol. VIII. p. 257, n. 2. MALONE. 3 Not I; till I have sheath'd &c.] This fpeech, which has been all along given to Demetrius, as the next to Chiron, were My rapier in his bofom, and, withal, Thrust these reproachful 4 speeches down his throat, That he hath breath'd in my dishonour here. CHI. For that I am prepar'd and full resolv'd,— Foul-fpoken coward! that thunder'ft with thy tongue,5 And with thy weapon nothing dar'ft perform. AAR. Away, I fay.— Now by the gods, that warlike Goths adore, Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous What, is Lavinia then become so loose, That for her love fuch quarrels may be broach'd, Young lords, beware!-an fhould the empress know This difcord's ground, the mufick would not please. CHI. I care not, I, knew the and all the world; I love Lavinia more than all the world. DEM. Youngling, learn thou to make fome meaner choice: Lavinia is thine elder brother's hope. AAR. Why, are ye mad? or know ye not, in Rome How furious and impatient they be, And cannot brook competitors in love? both given to the wrong speaker; for it was Demetrius that had thrown out the reproachful speeches on the other. 5 WARBURTON. thefe reproachful-] Edition 1600:-thofe reproachful. Todd. thunder'ft with thy tongue,] This phrase appears to have been adopted from Virgil, Æneid XI. 383 : "Proinde tona eloquio folitum tibi; STEEVENS. I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths CHI. Aaron, a thousand deaths Would I propose, to achieve her whom I love. DEM. Why mak'ft thou it fo ftrange? She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; 6 a thousand deaths Would I propofe,] Whether Chiron means he would contrive a thousand deaths for others, or imagine as many cruel ones for himself, I am unable to determine. STEEVENS. Aaron's words, to which these are an answer, feem to lead to the latter interpretation. MALONE. 7 She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; She is a woman, therefore may be won;] Thefe two lines occur, with very little variation, in the First Part of King Henry VI: "She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd; "She is a woman, therefore to be won." This coincidence may lead one to fufpect that the author of the prefent play was also author of the original Henry VI. I do not, indeed, conceive either to be the production of Shakspeare; for, though his hand is fufficiently visible in fome parts of the other play, particularly in the fecond fcene of the fourth Act, there does not appear a single line in this, which can have any pretenfions to that honour: and therefore the teftimony of Meres and the publication of the players muft neceffarily yield to the force of intrinfick and circumftantial evidence. It is much to be regretted that the dramatick works of our earliest tragick writers, as Greene and Peele, for inftance, and "fporting Kyd," and "Marlowe's mighty line," are not collected and published together, if it were only to enable the readers of Shakspeare to difcriminate between his ftyle and that of which he found the ftage, and has left fome of his dramas, in poffeffion; and of which I confider this play, and at least four fifths of the First Part of King Henry VI. (including the whole of the first Act) the performances, no doubt, of one or other of the writers already named, as a genuine and not unfavourable specimen. Indeed, I should take Kyd to have been the author of Titus |