As jewels purchas'd at an easy price; 200 Aar. I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand, Look by and by to have thy sons with thee :Their heads, I mean.-O, how this villainy [Aside Doth fat me with the very thought of it! Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace, Aaron will have his soul black like his face. [Exit. Tit. O hear! I lift this one hand up to heaven, And bow this feeble ruin to the earth: If any power pities wretched tears, To that I call:-What, wilt thou kneel with me? 210 220 And do not break into these deep extremes. Then Then must my sea be moved with her sighs; 230 Enter a Messenger, bringing in 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 mock'd: That woe is me to think upon thy woes, More than remembrance of my father's death. Mar. Now let hot Ætna cool in Sicily, 240 [Exit. And be my heart an ever-burning hell! 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! 250 [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? Now is a time to storm, why art thou still? 260 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 watry eyes, And make them blind with tributary tears; And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs. 270 281 Lavinia, Lavinia, thou shalt be employed in these things; Manet LUCIUS. [Exeunt. Luc. Farewel, Andronicus, my noble father; O, 'would thou wert as thou 'tofore hast been! If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs; 290 300 [Exit LUCIUS, SCENE SCENE II. An Apartment in TITUS's House. A Banquet. 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 ten-fold grief With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine And when my heart, all mad with misery, Then thus I thump it down. Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs! 310 [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. 320 Mar. Fye, brother, fye! teach her not thus to lay Such violent hands upon her tender life. |