Aar. Ay, just!-a verse in Horace ;-right, you

have it.

Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! Here's no sound jest!1 the old man hath found their guilt;

And sends the weapons wrapped about

with lines,

That wound, beyond their feeling, to the

quick.

Aside.

But were our witty empress well afoot,
She would applaud Andronicus' conceit.
But let her rest in her unrest awhile.-
And now, young lords, was't not a happy star
Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,
Captives, to be advanced to this height?
It did me good, before the palace-gate,
To brave the tribune in his brother's hearing.
Dem. But me more good, to see so great a lord
Basely insinuate, and send us gifts.

Aar. Had he not reason, lord Demetrius?
Did you not use his daughter very friendly?

Dem. I would we had a thousand Roman dames

At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.

Chi. A charitable wish, and full of love.

Aar. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. Chi. And that would she for twenty thousand more. Dem. Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods For our beloved mother in her pains.

Aar. Pray to the devils; the gods have given us o'er. [Aside. Flourish. Dem. Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus ? Chi. Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son. Dem. Soft; who comes here?

Enter a Nurse, with a black-a-moor Child in her arms.

Nur.

Good morrow, lords;

O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

1 This mode of expression was common formerly. So in King Henry

IV. Part I.:-"Here's no fine villany!"

Aar. Well, more, or less, or ne'er a whit at all, Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?

Nur. O gentle Aaron, we are all undone ! Now help, or woe betide thee evermore !

Aar. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?

Nur. O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye, Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace; She is delivered, lords, she is delivered.

Aar. To whom?

Nur.

Aar.

I mean, she's brought to bed.

Well, God

Give her good rest! What hath he sent her?

Nur.

A devil. Aar. Why, then she's the devil's dam; a joyful

issue.

Nur. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue. Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime. The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point. Aar. Out, out, you whore! is black so base a hue? Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure. Dem. Villain, what hast thou done?

Aar.

Canst not undo.

Chi.

Done! that which thou

Thou hast undone our mother.

Aar. Villain, I have done thy mother.

Dem. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone. Woe to her chance, and damned her loathed choice! Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend!

Chi. It shall not live.

Aar.

It shall not die.

Nur. Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so. Aar. What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I Do execution on my flesh and blood.

Dem. I'll broach1 the tadpole on my rapier's point; Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon despatch it.

1 In Lust's Dominion, by Marlowe, a play in its style bearing a near resemblance to Titus Andronicus, Eleazar, the Moor, a character of

Aar. Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up, [Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws. Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother? Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,

That shone so brightly when this boy was got,
He dies upon my cimeter's sharp point,
That touches this my first-born son and heir!
I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,'
With all his threatening band of Typhon's brood,
Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,

Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands.
What, what; ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!
Ye white-limed walls! ye alehouse painted signs!
Coal black is better than another hue,

In that it scorns to bear another hue;
For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn a swan's black legs to white,
Although she lave them hourly in the flood.
Tell the emperess from me, I am of

age

To keep mine own; excuse it how she can.

Dem. Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus ? Aar. My mistress is my mistress; this, myself; The vigor, and the picture of my youth. This, before all the world, do I prefer; This, maugre all the world, will I keep safe, Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. Dem. By this our mother is forever shamed. Chi. Rome will despise her for this foul escape." Nur. The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.

Chi. I blush to think upon this ignomy.3

unmingled ferocity, like Aaron, and, like him, the paramour of a royal mistress, exclaims:

66

Run, and with a voice

Erected high as mine, say thus, thus threaten

To Roderigo and the Cardinal,

Seek no queens here; I'll broach them, if they do,
Upon my falchion's point."

1 A giant, the son of Titan and Terra.

2 i. e. this foul, illegitimate child. So in King John:

-

Aar. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears;
Fie, treacherous hue! that will betray with blushing
The close enacts and counsels of the heart!
Here's a young lad framed of another leer.1
Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father;
As who should say, Old lad, I am thine own.
He is your brother, lords; sensibly fed
Of that self-blood that first gave life to you;
And, from that womb, where you imprisoned were,
He is enfranchised and come to light.

Nay, he's your brother by the surer side,
Although my seal be stamped in his face.

Nur. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress ?
Dem. Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,
And we will all subscribe to thy advice;
Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.

Aar. Then sit we down, and let us all consult.
My son and I will have the wind of you;
Keep there. Now talk at pleasure of

your safety. [They sit on the ground. Dem. How many women saw this child of his? Aar. Why, so, brave lords. When we all join in

league,

I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,
The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
But, say again, how many saw the child?

Nur. Cornelia the midwife, and myself,
And no one else, but the delivered empress.

Aar. The emperess, the midwife, and yourself. Two may keep counsel, when the third's away; Go to the empress; tell her, this I said ;

[Stabbing her. Weke, weke !-So cries a pig, prepared to the spit. Dem. What mean'st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst

thou this?

Aar. O lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy. Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours?

1 Complexion.

A long-tongued, babbling gossip? No, lords, no.
And now be it known to you my full intent.
Not far, one Muliteus lives,' my countryman;
His wife but yesternight was brought to bed;
His child is like to her, fair as you are.
Go pack 2 with him, and give the mother gold,
And tell them both the circumstance of all;
And how by this their child shall be advanced,
And be received for the emperor's heir,
And substituted in the place of mine,
To calm this tempest whirling in the court;
And let the emperor dandle him for his own.
Hark ye, lords, ye see, that I have given her physic,
[Pointing to the Nurse.
And you must needs bestow her funeral;
The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.
This done, see that you take no longer days,
But send the midwife presently to me.

The midwife, and the nurse, well made away,
Then let the ladies tattle what they please.
Chi. Aaron, I see, thou wilt not trust the air
With secrets.

Dem.

For this care of Tamora,

Herself, and hers, are highly bound to thee.

[Exeunt DEM. and CHI., bearing off the Nurse. Aar. Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies; There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,

And secretly to greet the empress' friends.

Come on, you thick-lipped slave, I'll bear you hence; For it is you that puts us to our shifts.

I'll make you feed on berries, and on roots,

And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,
And cabin in a cave; and bring you up

To be a warrior, and command a camp.

[Exit.

1 The word lives, which is wanting in the old copies, was supplied by Rowe. Steevens thinks Muliteus a corruption for "Muly lives." 2 To pack is to contrive insidiously.