Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (16 page)

TITUS
    Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee.

Welcome, dread
Fury
⁸²
, to my woeful house:

Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.

How like the empress and her sons you are!

Well are you
fitted
⁸⁵
, had you but a Moor:

Could not all hell afford you such a devil?

For well I wot the empress never
wags
⁸⁷

But in her company there is a Moor,

And, would you represent our queen aright

It were
convenient
⁹⁰
you had such a devil.

But welcome as you are. What shall we do?

TAMORA
    What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?

DEMETRIUS
    Show me a murderer, I’ll
deal with
⁹³
him.

CHIRON
    Show me a villain that hath done a rape,

And I am sent to be revenged on him.

TAMORA
    Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,

And I’ll be revengèd on them all.

TITUS
    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
¹⁰¹

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 mayst thou know her by thy own
proportion,
¹⁰⁶

For
up and down
¹⁰⁷
she doth resemble thee —

I pray thee do on them some violent death:

They have been violent to me and mine.

TAMORA
    Well hast thou lessoned 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
¹¹⁵
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?

TITUS
    Marcus, my brother! ’Tis sad Titus calls.

Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius —

Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths —

Bid him
repair
¹²⁴
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

Feasts at my house, and he shall feast with them.

This do thou for my love, and so let him,

As he regards his agèd father’s life.

MARCUS
    This will I do, and soon return again.

TAMORA
    Now will I hence about thy business,

And take my ministers along with me.

TITUS
    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.
¹³⁶

TAMORA
    What say you, boys? Will you bide with him

Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor

How I have
governed our determined jest?
¹³⁹

Yield to his humour,
smooth and speak him fair,
¹⁴⁰

And tarry with him till I
turn
¹⁴¹
again.

TITUS
    I know them all, though they suppose me mad,

And will o’erreach them in their own devices:

A pair of cursèd hell-hounds and their dam!

DEMETRIUS
    Madam, depart at pleasure, leave us here.

TAMORA
    Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes

To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

TITUS
    I know thou dost, and, sweet Revenge, farewell.

CHIRON
    Tell us, old man, how shall we be employed?

TITUS
    Tut, I have work enough for you to do.—

Publius, come hither.— Caius and Valentine!

PUBLIUS
    What is your will?

TITUS
    Know you these two?

PUBLIUS
    The empress’ sons, I take them: Chiron, Demetrius.

TITUS
    Fie, Publius, fie, thou art too much deceived:

The one is Murder, Rape is the other’s name,

And therefore bind them, gentle Publius.

Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.

Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,

And now I find it: therefore bind them sure,

And stop their mouths, if they begin to
cry.
¹⁶¹

CHIRON
    Villains,
forbear!
¹⁶²
We are the empress’ sons.

PUBLIUS
    And
therefore
¹⁶³
do we what we are commanded.

Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.

Is he sure bound? Look that you bind them fast.

TITUS
    Come, come, Lavinia: look, thy foes are bound.

Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me,

But let them hear what fearful words I utter.

O villains, Chiron and Demetrius,

Here stands the
spring
¹⁷⁰
whom you have stained with mud,

This goodly summer with your winter mixed.

You killed her husband, and for that vile fault

Two of her brothers were condemned to death,

My hand cut off and made a merry jest,

Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear

Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,

Inhuman traitors, you constrained and forced.

What would you say if I should let you speak?

Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.

Hark, wretches, how I mean to
martyr
¹⁸⁰
you.

This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,

Whilst that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold

The basin that receives your guilty blood.

You know your mother means to feast with me,

And calls herself Revenge and thinks me mad:

Hark, villains, I will grind your bones to dust

And with your blood and it I’ll make a
paste,
¹⁸⁷

And of the paste a
coffin
¹⁸⁸
I will rear

And make two
pasties
¹⁸⁹
of your shameful heads,

And bid that
strumpet
, your
unhallowed
¹⁹⁰
dam,

Like to the earth swallow her own
increase.
¹⁹¹

This is the feast that I have bid her to,

And this the banquet she shall
surfeit
¹⁹³
on:

For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,

And worse than
Progne
¹⁹⁵
I will be revenged.

And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,

Receive the blood, and when that they are dead,

Let me go grind their bones to powder small

And with this hateful liquor
temper
¹⁹⁹
it,

And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.

Come, come, be everyone
officious
²⁰¹

To make this banquet, which I wish might prove

More stern and bloody than the
Centaurs’ feast.
²⁰³

So, now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook,

And see them ready
gainst
²⁰⁵
their mother comes.

LUCIUS
    Uncle Marcus, since ’tis my father’s mind

That I repair to Rome, I am content.

A GOTH
    And
ours with thine
³
, befall what fortune will.

LUCIUS
    Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,

This ravenous tiger, this accursèd devil:

Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him

Till he be brought unto the empress’ face

For testimony of her foul proceedings.

And see the
ambush
⁹
of our friends be strong:

I fear the emperor means no good to us.

AARON
    Some devil whisper curses in my ear,

And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth

The venomous malice of my swelling heart.

LUCIUS
    Away, inhuman dog, unhallowed slave!—

Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.

The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.

SATURNINUS
    What, hath the
firmament
¹⁷
more suns than one?

LUCIUS
    What
boots
¹⁸
it thee to call thyself a sun?

MARCUS
    Rome’s emperor, and nephew,
break the parle:
¹⁹

These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready which the
careful
²¹
Titus

Hath ordainèd to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league and good to Rome:

Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places.

SATURNINUS
    Marcus, we will.

TITUS
    Welcome, my gracious lord.— Welcome, dread queen.—

Welcome, ye warlike Goths.— Welcome, Lucius.—

And welcome, all. Although the
cheer
²⁸
be poor,

’Twill fill your stomachs. Please you eat of it.

SATURNINUS
    Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?

TITUS
    Because I would be sure to have all well

To entertain your highness and your empress.

TAMORA
    We are
beholding
³³
to you, good Andronicus.

TITUS
    An if your highness knew my heart, you were.

My lord the emperor, resolve me this:

Was it well done of rash
Virginius
³⁶

To slay his daughter with his own right hand,

Because she was enforced, stained and deflowered?

SATURNINUS
    It was, Andronicus.

TITUS
    Your reason, mighty lord?

SATURNINUS
    
Because
⁴¹
the girl should not survive her shame,

And by her presence
still
⁴²
renew his sorrows.

TITUS
    A reason mighty, strong and effectual:

A pattern, precedent and
lively
warrant
⁴⁴

For me, most wretched, to perform the like.

Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,

And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die!

SATURNINUS
    What hast done? Unnatural and
unkind!
⁴⁸

TITUS
    Killed her for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woeful as Virginius was,

And have a thousand times more cause than he

To do this
outrage
⁵²
: and it now is done.

SATURNINUS
    What, was she ravished? Tell who did the deed.

TITUS
    Will’t please you eat? Will’t please your highness feed?

TAMORA
    Why hast thou slain thine only daughter?

TITUS
    Not I, ’twas Chiron and Demetrius:

They ravished her and cut away her tongue,

And they, ’twas they, that did her all this wrong.

SATURNINUS
    Go fetch them hither to us presently.

TITUS
    Why, there they are both, bakèd in that pie,

Whereof their mother
daintily
⁶¹
hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

’Tis true, ’tis true, witness my knife’s sharp point.