Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (17 page)

SATURNINUS
    Die, frantic wretch, for this accursèd deed!

LUCIUS
    Can the son’s eye behold his father bleed?

There’s
meed for meed
⁶⁶
, death for a deadly deed.

MARCUS
    You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,

By uproars severed, like a flight of fowl

Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,

O, let me teach you how to knit again

This scattered corn into one
mutual
⁷¹
sheaf,

These broken limbs again into one body.

A GOTH
    Let Rome herself be
bane
⁷³
unto herself,

And she whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to,

Like a
forlorn
⁷⁵
and desperate castaway,

Do shameful execution on herself.

MARCUS
    But if my
frosty signs
and
chaps
⁷⁷
of age,

Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as
erst
our
ancestor,
⁸⁰

When with his solemn tongue he did discourse

To lovesick Dido’s sad attending ear

The story of that
baleful
⁸³
burning night

When
subtle
Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy.
⁸⁴

Tell us what
Sinon
⁸⁵
hath bewitched our ears,

Or who hath brought the fatal
engine
⁸⁶
in

That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.

My heart is not
compact
⁸⁸
of flint nor steel,

Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,

But floods of tears will drown my oratory

And break my very utterance, even in the time

When it should move you to attend me most,

Lending your kind hand commiseration.

Here is a captain, let him tell the tale:

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.

LUCIUS
    This, noble
auditory
⁹⁶
, be it known to you,

That cursèd Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murderèd our emperor’s brother,

And they it were that ravishèd our sister.

For their
fell
¹⁰⁰
faults our brothers were beheaded,

Our father’s tears despised and basely
cozened
¹⁰¹

Of that true hand that
fought Rome’s quarrel out,
¹⁰²

And sent her enemies unto the grave.

Lastly, myself
unkindly
¹⁰⁴
banishèd,

The gates shut on me, and turned weeping out,

To beg relief among Rome’s enemies,

Who drowned their enmity in my true tears

And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.

And I am turned forth, be it known to you,

That have preserved her welfare in my blood,

And from her bosom took the enemy’s point,

Sheathing the steel in my
advent’rous
¹¹²
body.

Alas, you know I am no
vaunter
¹¹³
, I:

My scars can witness, dumb although they are,

That my report is just and full of truth.

But soft, methinks I do digress too much,

Citing my worthless praise: O, pardon me,

For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.

MARCUS
    Now is my turn to speak. Behold this child:

Of this was Tamora deliverèd,

The issue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of these woes.

The villain is alive in Titus’ house,

And as he is to witness this is true,

Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge

These wrongs unspeakable, past patience,

Or more than any living man could bear.

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?

Have we done
aught
¹²⁹
amiss? Show us wherein,

And from the place where you behold us now,

The
poor remainder of Andronici
¹³¹

Will hand in hand all headlong cast us down

And on the
ragged
¹³³
stones beat forth our brains

And make a mutual closure of our house.

Speak, Romans, speak: and if you say we shall,

Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

EMILLIUS
    Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,

And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,

Lucius, our emperor, for well I know

The common voice do cry it shall be so.

MARCUS
    Lucius, all hail, Rome’s royal emperor!—

Go, go into old Titus’ sorrowful house,

And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,

To be adjudged some direful slaughtering death,

As punishment for his most wicked life.

ALL ROMANS
    Lucius, all hail, to Rome’s gracious governor!

LUCIUS
    Thanks, gentle Romans. May I govern so

To heal Rome’s harms and wipe away her woe!

But, gentle people,
give me aim
¹⁴⁹
awhile,

For nature puts me to a heavy task:

Stand all
aloof
¹⁵¹
, but, uncle, draw you near

To shed
obsequious
tears upon this
trunk
¹⁵²
.—

O, take this warm kiss on thy pale, cold lips,

These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stained face,

The last true duties of thy noble son!

MARCUS
    Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,

Thy brother Marcus
tenders
¹⁵⁷
on thy lips.

O were the sum of these that I should pay

Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them.

LUCIUS
    Come hither, boy, come, come, and learn of us

To melt in showers. Thy grandsire loved thee well:

Many a time he danced thee on his knee,

Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow:

Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet
¹⁶⁵
and agreeing with thine infancy:

In that respect, then, like a loving child

Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring

Because kind nature doth require it so.

Friends should
associate
¹⁶⁹
friends in grief and woe:

Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave,

Do him that kindness and take leave of him.

BOY
    O grandsire, grandsire, even with all my heart

Would I were dead, so you did live again.

O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping,

My tears will choke me if I ope my mouth.

A ROMAN
    You sad Andronici, have done with woes,

Give sentence on this execrable wretch

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

LUCIUS
    Set him breast-deep in earth and
famish
¹⁷⁹
him:

There let him stand and rave and cry for food.

If anyone relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our
doom:
¹⁸²

Some stay to see him fastened in the earth.

AARON
    O, why should wrath be mute and fury dumb?

I am no baby, I, that with base prayers

I should repent the evils I have done:

Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did

Would I perform, if I might have my will.

If one good deed in all my life I did

I do repent it from my very soul.

LUCIUS
    Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,

And give him burial in his father’s grave:

My father and Lavinia shall forthwith

Be closèd in our household’s monument.

As for that
heinous
¹⁹⁵
tiger, Tamora,

No funeral rite, nor man in mourning weeds,

No mournful bell shall ring her burial,

But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:

Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity,

And being so, shall have like want of pity.

{See justice done on Aaron, that damned Moor,}

{From whom our
heavy haps
²⁰²
had their beginning:}

{Then afterwards, to order well the state,}

{That like events may ne’er it ruinate.}

1.1.18 SH MARCUS
= Ed.
Not in
F
23 Pius
= Q. F =
Pious
71 freight
spelled
fraught
in
F
132 not
= Q. F = me
174 are
= Q. F = are all
214 friends
= Q. F = Friend?
223 suit
= Ed. F = sure. Q = sute
224 our
= Q. F = your
242 Pantheon
= F2. F =
Pathan
252 thy
= Q. F = my
258 you
= Q. F = your
259 your honour
= Q. F = you Honour
268 you
= Q. F = your
280
cuique
= F2. F =
cuiquam
318 Phoebe
= F2. F =
Thebe
352 hundred
spelled
hundreth
in
F
362 vouch
= Q. F = vouch’d
366 struck
spelled
stroke
in
F
382 wise
= Q.
Not in
F
392 SH MARCUS … SONS
= Ed. F =
They all kneele and say
401 SH MARCUS
= Ed.
Not in
F (
the line is only in
F,
not
Q1–3)
450 you
= Q. F = vs
454 raze
spelled
race
in
F
462 SH SATURNINUS
= Q. F =
King
.
477 SH LUCIUS
= Ed. F =
Son
487 SD
stand up
printed as part of the dialogue in
F (“haynous faults. / Stand vp:”)
489 swore
= Q. F = sware
497 SD
Flourish
placed at the beginning of the next scene in
F

2.1.4 above
= Q. F = about
22 nymph
= Q. F = Queene
26 want
= F2. F = wants
64 petty
= Q. F = pretty
66 jet
= Q. F = set
72 discord’s
= Q. F = discord
107 That … speed
= Q.
Not in
F
117 than
= Ed. F = this

2.2.18 broad
= Q.
Not in
F
26 like
= Q. F = likes

2.3.54 quarrels
= Q. F = quarrell
56 her
= Q. F = our
64 thy
= Q. F = his
85 note
= Ed. F = notice
136 woman’s
= Q. F = woman
204 hurt
= Q.
Not in
F
236 Cocytus’
= F2. F =
Ocitus
245 SD
Both
= Ed. F =
Boths
260 SH SATURNINUS
= Q. F =
King
.
gride
= Ed. F = grieu’d
268 SH SATURNINUS
= Ed.
Not in
F

2.4.5
scrawl
= Q (scrowle). F = scowle
11 SH MARCUS
= Ed.
Not in
F (
but implied in previous SD
)
27 him
= Ed. F = them
30 three
= Ed. F = their

3.1.12 two
= Ed.
Not in
F
28 you
= Q.
Not in
F
34 or
= Q2. F = oh
did mark
= Q. F = did heare
115 them
= Q. F = him
125 like
= Q. F = in
146 his true
= F4. F = hertrue
150, 174, 189 SH AARON
= Ed. F =
Moore
193 your
= Q. F = you
194 my
= Q. F = me
198 for
= Q. F = for for
226 blow
= F2. F = flow
256 hand
= Q. F = hands
257 son
= Q. F = sonnes
260 thy
= Q. F = my
261 Rend
spelled
Rent
in
F
299 like
= Q. F = likes

3.2.13 with outrageous
= F2. F = without ragious
39 complainer
= Ed. F = complaynet
52 thy knife
= F2. F = knife
53 fly=
Ed. F = Flys
54 thee
= F3. F = the
55 are
= F2.
Not in
F
72 myself
= F2. F = my selfes

4.1.9 her not
= Q. F = not
41 for
= Q. F = to
47 SD
Helps her
printed as part of the dialogue in
F (“Helpe her, what would she finde”)
65 erst
= Q. F = ersts
72 here
= Ed.
Not in
F
79 writ
= Q. F = writs
93 swore
= F3. F = sweare

4.2.8 SH BOY … news
, = Q.
Not in
F
15 that
= Ed.
Not in
F
27 them
= Q. F = the
44 your
= Q. F = you
70 fair-faced
= Q. F = fairest
78 SH

AARON … mother
= Q.
Not in
F
141 as
= Q. F = at
154 Muly lives
= Ed. F =
Muliteus

4.3.48 backs
= Q. F = backe
56 Saturn, Caius
= Ed. F =
Saturnine
, to
Caius
77 his
= Q. F = your
116 must take
= Ed. F = hast made

4.4.5 know, as know
= Q. F = know
24–25 she … she
= Ed. F = he … he
34 SD
Aside
printed at line 35 in
F
44 SD
Saturninus
= Ed. F =
He
60 SD
a Messenger
= Ed. F =
Nuntius
(
Latin for “messenger”
)
99 to be
= Q. F = to
102 Even … Andronicus
= Q.
Not in
F
112 to
= Q. F = for

5.1.9 SH FIRST GOTH
= Ed. F =
Goth
.
13 Be bold
= Q. F = behold
17 SH ALL THE GOTHS
= F2.
Not in
F
20 SH SECOND
= Ed.
Not in
F
53 Get … ladder
assigned to Aaron in
F
87 to
= Q. F = to to
120 swoonèd
spelled
sounded
in
F
127 the
= Q. F = few
156 what’s
= Q. F = what

5.2.31 thy
= Q. F = the
32 thy
= Q. F = my
52 caves
= F2. F = cares
56 Hyperion’s
= F2. F =
Eptons
61 these
= Ed. F = them
80 ply
= Q. F = play
161 And … cry
= Q.
Not in
F
165
F
mistakenly prints “Exeunt” here
191 own
= Q.
Not in
F

5.3.7 empress’
= Q. F = Emperous
10 I fear
= Q. F = If ere
52 To … done
= Q.
Not in
F
73 SH A GOTH
= F (
Goth
). Q =
Romane Lord
74 curtsy
spelled
cursie
in
F
77 SH MARCUS
= Ed. F
continues with Goth as speaker
, Q
with Romane Lord
93–97 Lending … Demetrius
= F. Q = And force you to commiseration, / Her’s Romes young Captaine let him tell the tale, / While I stand by and weepe to heare him speake. /
Lucius
. Then gratious auditorie be it knowne to you, / That
Chiron
and the damn’d
Demetrius
125 cause
= F4. F = course
130 now
= F. Q = pleading
132 cast us down
= F. Q = hurle our selues
133 brains
= F. Q = soules
146 SH ALL ROMANS=
Ed.
Not in
F
154 blood-stained
=
F3. F = bloud-slaine
164 matter
= F. Q = storie
165–69 Meet … woe
= F. Q = And bid thee bare his prettie tales in minde, / And talke of them when he was dead and gone. /
Marcus
. How manie thousand times hath these poore lips, / When they were liuing warmd themselues on thine, / Oh now sweete boy giue them their latest kisse
176 SH A ROMAN
= Q. F =
Romans
.
196 mourning
= Q. F = mournfull