Aar. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather. Boy. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, I greet your honours from Andronicus ;— And pray the Roman gods, confound you both. [Aside. Dem. Gramercy, lovely Lucius: What's the news? Boy. That you are both decypher'd, that's the news, For villains mark'd with rape. [Asi.] May it please you, My grandsire, well-advis'd, hath sent by me The goodliest weapons of his armoury, To gratify your honourable youth, The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say; Your lordships, that whenever you have need, And so I leave you both, [Aside] like bloody villains. [Ex. Boy and Attendant. Dem. What's here? A scroll; and written round about? Let's see; Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus, Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec acru. Chi. O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well : I read it in the grammar long ago. 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! the old man hath found their guilt; And sends the weapons wrapp'd about with lines, Aar. Had he not reason, lord Demetrius ? At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust. [4] Gramercy; i. e. grand merci; great thanks. STEEVENS. Aside. Aar. Here acks but your mother for to say amen. Aur. Pray to the devils; the gods have given us o'er. Enter a Nurse, with a Black-a-Moor Child in her arms. O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor? Aar. Well, more, or less, or ne'er a whit at all, Aar. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep? Nur. O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye, Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace ;She is deliver'd, lords, she is deliver❜d. Aar. To whom? Give her good rest! What hath he sent her? Nur. A devil. Aar. Why, then she is 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, Aar. Out, out, you whore! is black so base a hue ?— Aar. Done! that which thoù Canst not undo. Chi. 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 damn'd her loathed choice! Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend! Chi. It shall not live. 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 broach the tadpole on my rapier's point, That shone so brightly when this boy was got, With all his threat'ning band of Typhon's brood, Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands. In that it scorns to bear another hue : Can never turn a swan's black legs to white, 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 vigour, 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 sham'd. 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." Aar. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears: Fye, treacherous hue! that will betray with blushing The close enacts and counsels of the heart! Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer: 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; [5] A broach is a spit. I'll spit the tadpole. JOHNSON. [6] Ignomy for ignominy. MALONE. And, from that womb, where you imprison'd were, Nur. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress ? Aar. Then sit we down, and let us all consult. [Stabbing her. -Weke, weke !—so cries a pig, prepar'd to the spit. Aar. O, lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy: Hark ye, lords: ye see, that I have given her physic, [Pointing to the Nurse. [7] Pack, here seems to have the meaning of make a bargain. Or it may mean, as in the phrase of modern gamesters, to act collusively. "And mighty dukes pack knaves for half a crown." POPE. nd you must needs bestow her funeral ; The midwife, and the nurse, well made away, Dem. For this care of Tamora, Herself, and hers, are highly bound to thee. [Exeunt DEM. and Cн1. 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-lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence; For it is you that put us to our shifts : I'll make you feed on berries, and on roots, And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat, To be a warrior, and command a camp. The same. SCENE III. [Exit. A Public Place. Enter TITUS, bearing arrows, with letters at the ends of them; with him MARCUS, young Lucius, and other Gentlemen, with bows. Tit. Come, Marcus, come ;-Kinsmen, this is the way · Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight: Be you remembered, Marcus, she's gone, she's fled. Yet there's as little justice as at land :— 20 |