Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (15 page)

Say,
wall-eyed
⁴⁴
slave, whither wouldst thou convey

This growing image of thy fiend-like face?

Why dost not speak? What, deaf? Not a word?

A halter, soldiers! Hang him on this tree,

And by his side his fruit of bastardy.

AARON
    Touch not the boy, he is of royal blood.

LUCIUS
    Too like the
sire
⁵⁰
for ever being good.

First hang the child, that he may see it
sprawl:
⁵¹

A sight to vex the father’s soul
withal.
⁵²

Get me a ladder.

AARON
    Lucius, save the child,

And bear it from me to the emperess.

If thou do this, I’ll show thee wondrous things

That highly may advantage thee to hear.

If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,

I’ll speak no more but ‘Vengeance rot you all!’

LUCIUS
    Say on, an if it please me which thou speak’st,

Thy child shall live and I will see it nourished.

AARON
    An if it please thee? Why, assure thee, Lucius,

’Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak,

For I must talk of murders, rapes and massacres,

Acts of black night, abominable deeds,

Complots
of
mischief
⁶⁶
, treason, villainies

Ruthful to hear yet piteously performed:
⁶⁷

And this shall all be buried by my death

Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.

LUCIUS
    Tell on thy mind, I say thy child shall live.

AARON
    Swear that he shall and then I will begin.

LUCIUS
    Who should I swear by? Thou believest no god:

That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?

AARON
    What if I do not? — As indeed I do not —

Yet
for
⁷⁵
I know thou art religious

And hast a thing within thee called conscience,

With twenty
popish
⁷⁷
tricks and ceremonies

Which I have seen thee careful to observe:

Therefore I urge thy oath, for that I know

An idiot holds his
bauble
⁸⁰
for a god

And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,

To that I’ll urge him: therefore thou shalt vow

By that same god, what god soe’er it be,

That thou ador’st and hast in reverence,

To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up,

Or else I will
discover
⁸⁶
nought to thee.

LUCIUS
    Even by my god I swear to thee I will.

AARON
    First know thou I begot him on the empress.

LUCIUS
    O most insatiate,
luxurious
⁸⁹
woman!

AARON
    Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity

To
⁹¹
that which thou shalt hear of me anon.

’Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus,

They cut thy sister’s tongue and ravished her

And cut her hands off and
trimmed
⁹⁴
her as thou saw’st.

LUCIUS
    O detestable villain! Call’st thou that trimming?

AARON
    Why, she was
washed and cut and trimmed
⁹⁶
, and ’twas

Trim
⁹⁷
sport for them that had the doing of it.

LUCIUS
    O barbarous, beastly villains, like thyself!

AARON
    Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them.

That
codding
¹⁰⁰
spirit had they from their mother,

As sure a card as ever won the set:
¹⁰¹

That
bloody
¹⁰²
mind, I think, they learned of me,

As true a
dog as ever fought at head.
¹⁰³

Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.

I
trained
¹⁰⁵
thy brethren to that guileful hole

Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay:

I wrote the letter that thy father found,

And hid the gold within the letter mentioned,

Confederate
¹⁰⁹
with the queen and her two sons:

And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue

Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?

I played the
cheater
¹¹²
for thy father’s hand,

And when I had it, drew myself apart

And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:

I
pried me
¹¹⁵
through the crevice of a wall

When for his hand he had his two sons’ heads,

Beheld his tears and laughed so heartily

That both mine eyes were rainy like to his.

And when I told the empress of this sport,

She swoonèd almost at my pleasing tale

And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.

A GOTH
    What, canst thou say all this and never blush?

AARON
    Ay, like a black dog,
as the saying is.
¹²³

LUCIUS
    Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON
    Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.

Even now I curse the day — and yet I think

Few come within the compass of my curse —

Wherein I did not some notorious ill,

As kill a man or else devise his death,

Ravish a maid or plot the way to do it,

Accuse some innocent and
forswear myself,
¹³¹

Set deadly enmity between two friends,

Make poor men’s cattle break their necks,

Set fire on barns and haystacks in the night

And bid the owners quench them with their tears.

Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves

And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,

Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,

And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,

Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,

‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’

Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things

As willingly as one would kill a fly,

And nothing grieves me heartily indeed

But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

LUCIUS
    Bring down the devil, for he must not die

So sweet a death as hanging
presently.
¹⁴⁷

AARON
    If there be devils, would I were a devil,

To live and burn in everlasting fire,

So I might have your company in hell,

But to torment you with my bitter tongue.

LUCIUS
    Sirs, stop his mouth and let him speak no more.

A GOTH
    My lord, there is a messenger from Rome

Desires to be admitted to your presence.

LUCIUS
    Let him come near.

Welcome, Emillius what’s the news from Rome?

EMILLIUS
    Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,

The Roman emperor greets you all by me,

And
for
¹⁵⁹
he understands you are in arms,

He craves a parley at your father’s house,

Willing you to demand
your hostages,
¹⁶¹

And they shall be immediately delivered.

A GOTH
    What says our general?

LUCIUS
    Emillius, let the emperor give his pledges

Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

And we will come. March away.

TAMORA
    Thus, in this strange and
sad habiliment,
¹

I will encounter with Andronicus

And say I am Revenge, sent from below

To join with him and right his heinous wrongs:

Knock at his study, where they say he
keeps,
⁵

To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge:

Tell
⁷
him Revenge is come to join with him

And work
confusion
⁸
on his enemies.

TITUS
    Who doth molest my contemplation?

Is it your trick to make me
ope
¹⁰
the door,

That so my
sad decrees
¹¹
may fly away

And all my study be to no effect?

You are deceived, for what I mean to do

See here in
bloody lines
¹⁴
I have set down,

And what is written shall be
executed.
¹⁵

TAMORA
    Titus, I am come to talk with thee.

TITUS
    No, not a word. How can I
grace
¹⁷
my talk,

Wanting a hand to give it action?
¹⁸

Thou hast the
odds of
¹⁹
me, therefore no more.

TAMORA
    If thou didst know me, thou would’st talk with me.

TITUS
    I am not mad, I know thee well enough:

Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines,

Witness these
trenches
²³
made by grief and care,

Witness the tiring day and
heavy
²⁴
night,

Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well

For our proud empress, mighty Tamora.

Is not thy coming for my other hand?

TAMORA
    Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora:

She is thy enemy and I thy friend.

I am Revenge, sent from th’infernal kingdom

To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind

By working
wreakful
³²
vengeance on thy foes.

Come down and welcome me to this world’s light,

Confer with me of murder and of death:

There’s not a hollow cave or lurking place,

No vast obscurity or misty vale

Where bloody murder or detested rape

Can
couch
³⁸
for fear, but I will find them out,

And in their ears tell them my
dreadful
³⁹
name,

Revenge, which makes the foul offenders quake.

TITUS
    Art thou Revenge? And art thou sent to me

To be a torment to mine enemies?

TAMORA
    I am: therefore come down and welcome me.

TITUS
    Do me some service ere I come to thee.

Lo by thy side where Rape and Murder stands:

Now give some
surance
⁴⁶
that thou art Revenge:

Stab them or tear them on thy chariot-wheels,

And then I’ll come and be thy wagoner,

And whirl along with thee about the
globes,
⁴⁹

Provide thee two
proper palfreys
⁵⁰
, as black as jet,

To
hale
⁵¹
thy vengeful wagon swift away,

And find out
murder
⁵²
in their guilty caves.

And when thy
car
⁵³
is loaden with their heads,

I will dismount and by the wagon wheel

Trot like a servile footman all day long,

Even from
Hyperion’s
⁵⁶
rising in the east

Until his very
downfall
⁵⁷
in the sea.

And day by day I’ll do this heavy task,

So
thou destroy
Rapine
⁵⁹
and Murder there.

TAMORA
    These are my ministers, and come with me.

TITUS
    Are these thy ministers? What are they called?

TAMORA
    Rape and Murder, therefore callèd so,

Cause they take vengeance
of
⁶³
such kind of men.

TITUS
    Good Lord, how like the empress’ sons they are,

And you the empress! But we
worldly
⁶⁵
men

Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.

O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee,

And if one arm’s embracement will content thee,

I will embrace thee in it by and by.

TAMORA
    This
closing
⁷⁰
with him fits his lunacy:

Whate’er I
forge
⁷¹
to feed his brainsick fits,

Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,

For now he firmly takes me for Revenge,

And, being credulous in this mad thought,

I’ll make him send for Lucius his son,

And whilst I at a banquet hold him
sure,
⁷⁶

I’ll find some cunning
practice
out of hand
⁷⁷

To scatter and disperse the
giddy
⁷⁸
Goths,

Or at the least make them his enemies.

See, here he comes, and I must
ply my theme.
⁸⁰