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And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow!
She is the weeping welkin, I the earth.

Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
Then must my earth with her continual tears
Become a deluge, overflowed and drowned.
For why? my bowels cannot hide her woes,
But like a drunkard must I vomit them.

Then give me leave; for losers will have leave
To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.

Enter a Messenger, with two heads and a hand.
Mess. Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid
For that good hand thou sent'st the emperor.
Here are the heads of thy two noble sons;
And here's thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back ;
Thy griefs their sports, thy resolution mocked;
That woe is me to think upon thy woes,

More than remembrance of my father's death. [Exit. Mar. Now let hot Ætna cool in Sicily,

And be my heart an ever-burning hell!

These miseries are more than may be borne!

To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal, But sorrow flouted at, is double death.

Luc. Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound, And yet detested life not shrink thereat!

That ever death should let life bear his name,

Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!
[LAVINIA kisses him.
Mar. Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless,
As frozen water to a starved snake.

Tit. When will this fearful slumber have an end?
Mar. Now, farewell, flattery. Die, Andronicus;
Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons' heads;
Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here;
Thy other banished son, with this dear sight
Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,
Even like a stony image, cold and numb.
Ah! now no more will I control thy griefs;

Rent off thy silver hair, thy other hand

Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight
The closing up of our most wretched eyes!

Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?
Tit. Ha, ha, ha!

Mar. Why dost thou laugh? It fits not with this hour.
Tit. Why, I have not another tear to shed.
Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,

And would usurp upon my watery eyes,
And make them blind with tributary tears;
Then which way shall I find revenge's cave?
For these two heads do seem to speak to me ;
And threat me, I shall never come to bliss,
Till all these mischiefs be returned again,
Even in their throats that have committed them.
Come, let me see what task I have to do.—
You heavy people, circle me about;
That I may turn me to each one of you,
And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs.
The vow is made.-Come, brother, take a head;
And in this hand the other will I bear.

Lavinia, thou shalt be employed in these things;
Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.
As for thee, boy, go, get thee from my sight;
Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay.
Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there;
And, if you love me, as I think you do,
Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do.

Exeunt TITUS, MARCUS, and LAVINIA.
Luc. Farewell, Andronicus, my noble father ;
The wofull'st man that ever lived in Rome!
Farewell, proud Rome! Till Lucius come again,
He leaves his pledges dearer than his life.
Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;

O, 'would thou wert as thou 'tofore hast been !
But now nor Lucius, nor Lavinia lives,
But in oblivion, and hateful griefs.
If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs,
And make proud Saturninus and his empress
Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.

Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power,
To be revenged on Rome and Saturnine.

[Exit.

SCENE II.1 A Room in Titus's House. A banquet

set out.

Enter TITUS, MARCUS, LAVINIA, and young Lucius, a Boy.

Tit. So, so; now sit; and look, you eat no more Than will preserve just so much strength in us As will revenge these bitter woes of ours. Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot; Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands, And cannot passionate our tenfold grief

3

2

With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine
Is left to tyrannize upon my breast;

And when my heart, all mad with misery,
Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh,
Then thus I thump it down.-

Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs!

[TO LAVINIA. When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating, Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still. Wound it with sighing, girl; kill it with groans; Or get some little knife between thy teeth, And just against thy heart make thou a hole; That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall, May run into that sink, and, soaking in, Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears. Mar. Fie, brother, fie! teach her not thus to lay Such violent hands upon her tender life.

Tit. How now! has sorrow made thee dote already?

1 This scene is wanting in the quarto copies of 1600 and 1611, but found in the folio of 1623.

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Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.
What violent hands can she lay on her life?
Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands;
To bid Æneas tell the tale twice o'er,

How Troy was burnt, and he made miserable ?
O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands;
Lest we remember still, that we have none.-
Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk!
As if we should forget we had no hands,

If Marcus did not name the word of hands!-
Come, let's fall to; and, gentle girl, eat this;—
Here is no drink! Hark, Marcus, what she says;-
I can interpret all her martyred signs ;—
She says she drinks no other drink but tears,
Brewed with her sorrows, meshed' upon her cheeks.
Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought;
In thy dumb action will I be as perfect

As begging hermits in their holy prayers;
Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,
Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,
But I, of these, will wrest an alphabet,

And, by still practice, learn to know thy meaning.
Boy. Good grandsire, leave these bitter, deep la-
ments;

Make my aunt merry with some pleasing tale.
Mar. Alas, the tender boy, in passion moved,
Doth weep to see his grandsire's heaviness.

Tit. Peace, tender sapling; thou art made of tears, And tears will quickly melt thy life away.

[MARCUS strikes the dish with a knife. What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife? Mar. At that that I have killed, my lord; a fly. Tit. Out on thee, murderer! thou kill'st my heart; Mine eyes are cloyed with view of tyranny.

A deed of death, done on the innocent,

Becomes not Titus' brother.

I

Get thee gone;

see, thou art not for my company.
Mar. Alas, my lord, I have but killed a fly.

1 A very coarse allusion to brewing.

Tit. But how, if that fly had a father and mother?1 How would he hang his slender, gilded wings, And buzz lamenting doings in the air!

Poor, harmless fly!

That, with his pretty buzzing melody,

Came here to make us merry; and thou hast killed him.
Mar. Pardon me, sir; 'twas a black, ill-favored fly,
Like to the empress' Moor; therefore I killed him.
Tit. 0, 0, 0,

Then pardon me for reprehending thee,
For thou hast done a charitable deed.
Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;
Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor,
Come hither purposely to poison me.-
There's for thyself, and that's for Tamora.—
Ah, sirrah! 2

Yet I do think we are not brought so low,
But that, between us, we can kill a fly,
That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor.

Mar. Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him, He takes false shadows for true substances.

Tit. Come, take away.-Lavinia, go with me.

I'll to thy closet; and go read with thee
Sad stories, chanced in the times of old.-

Come, boy, and go with me; thy sight is young,
And thou shalt read, when mine begins to dazzle.

[Exeunt.

1 Steevens conjectures that the words " and mother" should be omitted. Ritson proposes to read the line thus:

:

"But! How if that fly had a father, brother ?"

2 This was formerly not a disrespectful expression.

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