Read Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
To the child
Sweet
blowse
74
, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.
DEMETRIUS
Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON
That which thou canst not undo.
CHIRON
Thou hast undone our mother.
AARON
Villain, I have
done
78
thy mother.
DEMETRIUS
And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.
Woe to her
chance
80
, and damned her loathèd choice,
Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend.
CHIRON
It shall not live.
AARON
It shall not die.
NURSE
Aaron, it must: the mother wills it so.
AARON
What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I
Do execution on my flesh and blood.
DEMETRIUS
I’ll
broach
87
the tadpole on my rapier’s point.
Nurse, give it me: my sword shall soon dispatch it.
Draws his sword and takes the child
AARON
Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.
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,
92
He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point
That touches this my first-born son and heir.
I tell you, younglings, not
Enceladus
95
With all his threat’ning band of
Typhon’s
96
brood,
Nor great
Alcides
, nor the
god of war,
97
Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.
What, what, ye
sanguine
99
, shallow-hearted boys!
Ye
white-limed
walls, ye
ale-house painted
100
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 the swan’s black legs to white,
Although she
lave
them hourly in the
flood.
105
Tell the empress from me, I am of age
To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.
DEMETRIUS
Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?
AARON
My mistress is my mistress,
this
109
myself,
The vigour and the picture of my youth:
This before all the world do I prefer,
This
maugre
112
all the world will I keep safe,
Or some of you shall
smoke
113
for it in Rome.
DEMETRIUS
By this our mother is forever shamed.
CHIRON
Rome will despise her for this foul
escape.
115
NURSE
The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.
CHIRON
I blush to think upon this
ignomy.
117
AARON
Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears:
Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
The
close enacts
120
and counsels of the heart.
Here’s a young lad
framed
of another
leer:
121
Look how the black
slave
122
smiles upon the father,
As who should say
123
‘Old lad, I am thine own.’
He is your brother, lords,
sensibly
124
fed
Of that
self-blood
125
that first gave life to you,
And from that womb where you imprisoned were
He is
enfranchisèd
127
and come to light.
Nay, he is your brother by
the surer
128
side,
Although my seal be stampèd in his face.
NURSE
Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?
DEMETRIUS
Advise thee
131
, Aaron, what is to be done,
And we will all subscribe to thy advice.
Save thou the child,
so
133
we may all be safe.
AARON
Then sit we down, and let us all consult.
My son and I will
have the wind of
135
you.
They sit
Keep there: now talk at pleasure of your safety.
To the Nurse
DEMETRIUS
How many women saw this child of his?
AARON
Why, so, brave lords, when we join in league
I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor,
The
chafèd
140
boar, the mountain lioness,
The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.—
To the Nurse
But say again, how many saw the child?
NURSE
Cornelia the midwife and myself,
And none else but the delivered empress.
AARON
The empress, the midwife, and yourself:
Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.
Go to the empress, tell her this I said.
He kills her
Weke, weke!
148
So cries a pig preparèd to th’spit.
They all stand up
DEMETRIUS
What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?
AARON
O Lord, sir, ’tis a deed of
policy:
150
Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,
A
long-tongued
152
babbling gossip? No, lords, no:
And now be it known to you my full intent.
Not far, one Muly lives, my countryman:
His wife but yesternight was brought to bed:
His child is
like to her
156
, fair as you are.
Go
pack
157
with him, and give the mother gold,
And tell them both the
circumstance
158
of all,
And how by this their child shall be advanced,
And be receivèd 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 I have given her
physic,
164
And you must needs
bestow
165
her funeral:
The fields are near and you are gallant
grooms.
166
This done, see that you take no longer
days,
167
But send the midwife
presently
168
to me.
The midwife and the nurse well made away,
Then let the ladies tattle what they please.
CHIRON
Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air
With secrets.
DEMETRIUS
For this care of Tamora,
Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.
Exeunt
[
Demetrius and Chiron with the body
]
AARON
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:
179
I’ll make you feed on berries and on roots,
And feed on
curds and whey
, and
suck
181
the goat,
And
cabin
182
in a cave, and bring you up
To be a warrior and command a camp.
Exit
running scene 8
Enter Titus, Old Marcus, Young Lucius and other Gentlemen
[
Publius, Sempronius, Caius
]
with bows and Titus bears the arrows with letters on the end of them
TITUS
Come, Marcus, come, kinsmen: this is the way.
Sir Boy, let me see your archery.
Look ye
draw home
enough, and
’tis there straight.
3
Terras Astraea reliquit:
be you remembered,
4
Marcus, she’s gone, she’s fled.— Sirs, take you to your tools.
You,
cousins
, shall go
sound
6
the ocean,
And cast your nets:
Haply
8
you may find her in the sea,
Yet
there’s
9
as little justice as at land.
No, Publius and Sempronius, you must do it,
’Tis you must dig with
mattock
11
and with spade,
And pierce the inmost centre of the earth.
Then, when you come to
Pluto’s region,
13
I pray you deliver him this petition.
Tell him, it is for justice and for aid,
And that it comes from old Andronicus,
Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.—
Ah, Rome! Well, well, I made thee miserable
What time
I threw the people’s
suffrages
19
On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.—
Go, get you gone, and pray be careful all,
And leave you not a
man-of-war
22
unsearched:
This wicked emperor may have shipped
her
23
hence,
And, kinsmen, then we may go
pipe for
24
justice.
MARCUS
O Publius, is not this a
heavy case,
25
To see thy noble uncle thus
distract?
26
PUBLIUS
Therefore, my lords, it highly us concerns
By day and night t’attend him
carefully
28
And
feed his humour
29
kindly as we may,
Till time beget some
careful
30
remedy.
MARCUS
Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.
Join with the Goths
32
and with revengeful war
Take
wreak
33
on Rome for this ingratitude,
And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.
TITUS
Publius, how now? How now, my masters?
What, have you met with
her?
36
PUBLIUS
No, my good lord, but Pluto sends you word
If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall.
Marry,
for
39
Justice, she is so employed,
He thinks with Jove in heaven or somewhere else,
So that
perforce
you must needs
stay
41
a time.
TITUS
He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.
I’ll dive into the
burning lake
43
below
And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.
Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we,
No big-boned men framed of the
Cyclops
46
’ size,
But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,
Yet
wrung
48
with wrongs more than our backs can bear.
And
sith
49
there’s no justice in earth nor hell,
We will solicit heaven and
move
50
the gods
To send down Justice
for to
51
wreak our wrongs.
Come, to this
gear
52
. You are a good archer, Marcus:
He gives them the arrows
‘Ad Jovem’
, that’s for you: here,
‘Ad Apollinem’:
53
‘Ad Martem’
, that’s for myself:
Here, boy, to Pallas: here, to Mercury:
To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine.
You were as good to shoot against the wind.
57
To it, boy! Marcus,
loose
58
when I bid.
Of
59
my word, I have written to effect:
There’s not a god left unsolicited.
MARCUS
Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:
We will afflict the emperor in his pride.
TITUS
Now, masters, draw.
They draw and shoot
O, well
said,
64
Lucius.
Good boy, in
Virgo
’s lap.
Give it Pallas.
65
MARCUS
My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon:
Your letter is with Jupiter by this.
TITUS
Ha, ha!
Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?
See, see, thou hast shot off one of
Taurus
70
’ horns.
MARCUS
This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,
The bull, being
galled
, gave
Aries
72
such a knock
That down fell both the ram’s
horns
73
in the court,
And who should find them but the empress’
villain!
74
She laughed and told the Moor he should not choose
But give them to his master for a present.
TITUS
Why,
there it goes:
77
God give his lordship joy!