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Titus Andronicus: Act III, Scene 1

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Titus Andronicus
Act III, Scene 1

Scene 1

Rome. A street.

  1. Enter the Judges and Senators and Tribunes, with Titus’ two
  2. sons Martius and Quintus bound, passing on the stage to the
  3. place of execution, and Titus going before, pleading.

Titus

1 - 26
  1. Hear me, grave fathers! Noble tribunes, stay!
  2. For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
  3. In dangerous wars whilst you securely slept;
  4. For all my blood in Rome’s great quarrel shed,
  5. For all the frosty nights that I have watch’d,
  6. And for these bitter tears which now you see
  7. Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks,
  8. Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
  9. Whose souls is not corrupted as ’tis thought.
  10. For two and twenty sons I never wept,
  11. Because they died in honor’s lofty bed.
  12. Andronicus lieth down.
  13. The Judges, etc. pass by him and exeunt with the prisoners.
  14. For these, tribunes, in the dust I write
  15. My heart’s deep languor, and my soul’s sad tears:
  16. Let my tears staunch the earth’s dry appetite,
  17. My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame and blush.
  18. O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,
  19. That shall distill from these two ancient urns,
  20. Than youthful April shall with all his show’rs.
  21. In summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still,
  22. In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow,
  23. And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,
  24. So thou refuse to drink my dear sons’ blood.
  25. Enter Lucius with his weapon drawn.
  26. O reverent tribunes! O gentle, aged men!
  27. Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death,
  28. And let me say (that never wept before)
  29. My tears are now prevailing orators.

Lucius

27 - 29
  1. O noble father, you lament in vain:
  2. The tribunes hear you not, no man is by,
  3. And you recount your sorrows to a stone.

Titus

30 - 31
  1. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
  2. Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you—

Lucius

32
  1. My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.

Titus

33 - 48
  1. Why, ’tis no matter, man: if they did hear,
  2. They would not mark me; if they did mark,
  3. They would not pity me; yet plead I must,
  4. And bootless unto them.
  5. Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones,
  6. Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
  7. Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
  8. For that they will not intercept my tale.
  9. When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
  10. Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me,
  11. And were they but attired in grave weeds,
  12. Rome could afford no tribunes like to these.
  13. A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones;
  14. A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
  15. And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
  16. Rises.
  17. But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?

Lucius

49 - 51
  1. To rescue my two brothers from their death,
  2. For which attempt the judges have pronounc’d
  3. My everlasting doom of banishment.

Titus

52 - 58
  1. O happy man, they have befriended thee!
  2. Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
  3. That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
  4. Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
  5. But me and mine. How happy art thou then,
  6. From these devourers to be banished!
  7. But who comes with our brother Marcus here?
  1. Enter Marcus with Lavinia.

Marcus

59 - 61
  1. Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep,
  2. Or if not so, thy noble heart to break:
  3. I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.

Titus

62
  1. Will it consume me? Let me see it then.

Marcus

63
  1. This was thy daughter.

Titus

64
  1.                        Why, Marcus, so she is.

Lucius

65
  1. Ay me, this object kills me!

Titus

66 - 81
  1. Faint-hearted boy, arise and look upon her.
  2. Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand
  3. Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight?
  4. What fool hath added water to the sea?
  5. Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?
  6. My grief was at the height before thou cam’st,
  7. And now like Nilus it disdaineth bounds.
  8. Give me a sword, I’ll chop off my hands too,
  9. For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;
  10. And they have nurs’d this woe, in feeding life;
  11. In bootless prayer have they been held up,
  12. And they have serv’d me to effectless use.
  13. Now all the service I require of them
  14. Is that the one will help to cut the other.
  15. ’Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands,
  16. For hands to do Rome service is but vain.

He cuts off Titus’ hand

Hubert François Gravelot, printmaker; 1740

Lucius

82
  1. Speak, gentle sister, who hath mart’red thee?

Marcus

83 - 87
  1. O, that delightful engine of her thoughts,
  2. That blabb’d them with such pleasing eloquence,
  3. Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage,
  4. Where like a sweet melodious bird it sung
  5. Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear!

Lucius

88
  1. O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed?

Marcus

89 - 91
  1. O, thus I found her straying in the park,
  2. Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer
  3. That hath receiv’d some unrecuring wound.

Titus

92 - 114
  1. It was my dear, and he that wounded her
  2. Hath hurt me more than had he kill’d me dead:
  3. For now I stand as one upon a rock,
  4. Environ’d with a wilderness of sea,
  5. Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,
  6. Expecting ever when some envious surge
  7. Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.
  8. This way to death my wretched sons are gone,
  9. Here stands my other son, a banish’d man,
  10. And here my brother, weeping at my woes;
  11. But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn
  12. Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.
  13. Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,
  14. It would have madded me; what shall I do
  15. Now I behold thy lively body so?
  16. Thou hast no hands to wipe away thy tears,
  17. Nor tongue to tell me who hath mart’red thee.
  18. Thy husband he is dead, and for his death
  19. Thy brothers are condemn’d, and dead by this.
  20. Look, Marcus! Ah, son Lucius, look on her!
  21. When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears
  22. Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew
  23. Upon a gath’red lily almost withered.

Marcus

115 - 116
  1. Perchance she weeps because they kill’d her husband,
  2. Perchance because she knows them innocent.

Titus

117 - 136
  1. If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful,
  2. Because the law hath ta’en revenge on them.
  3. No, no, they would not do so foul a deed;
  4. Witness the sorrow that their sister makes.
  5. Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips,
  6. Or make some sign how I may do thee ease.
  7. Shall thy good uncle, and thy brother Lucius,
  8. And thou, and I, sit round about some fountain,
  9. Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks,
  10. How they are stain’d like meadows yet not dry,
  11. With miry slime left on them by a flood?
  12. And in the fountain shall we gaze so long
  13. Till the fresh taste be taken from that clearness,
  14. And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears?
  15. Or shall we cut away our hands like thine?
  16. Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows
  17. Pass the remainder of our hateful days?
  18. What shall we do? Let us that have our tongues
  19. Plot some device of further misery,
  20. To make us wonder’d at in time to come.

Lucius

137 - 138
  1. Sweet father, cease your tears, for at your grief
  2. See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps.

Marcus

139
  1. Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes.

Titus

140 - 142
  1. Ah, Marcus, Marcus! Brother, well I wot,
  2. Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine,
  3. For thou, poor man, hast drown’d it with thine own.

Lucius

143
  1. Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks.

Titus

144 - 150
  1. Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs.
  2. Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say
  3. That to her brother which I said to thee:
  4. His napkin, with his true tears all bewet,
  5. Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks.
  6. O, what a sympathy of woe is this,
  7. As far from help as limbo is from bliss!
  1. Enter Aaron the Moor alone.

Aaron

151 - 157
  1. Titus Andronicus, my lord the Emperor
  2. Sends thee this word—that, if thou love thy sons,
  3. Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,
  4. Or any one of you, chop off your hand
  5. And send it to the King; he for the same
  6. Will send thee hither both thy sons alive,
  7. And that shall be the ransom for their fault.

Titus

158 - 162
  1. O gracious Emperor! O gentle Aaron!
  2. Did ever raven sing so like a lark
  3. That gives sweet tidings of the sun’s uprise?
  4. With all my heart I’ll send the Emperor my hand.
  5. Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?

Byam Shaw, 1901

Lucius

163 - 167
  1. Stay, father, for that noble hand of thine,
  2. That hath thrown down so many enemies,
  3. Shall not be sent. My hand will serve the turn.
  4. My youth can better spare my blood than you,
  5. And therefore mine shall save my brothers’ lives.

Marcus

168 - 174
  1. Which of your hands hath not defended Rome,
  2. And rear’d aloft the bloody battle-axe,
  3. Writing destruction on the enemy’s castle?
  4. O, none of both but are of high desert.
  5. My hand hath been but idle, let it serve
  6. To ransom my two nephews from their death;
  7. Then have I kept it to a worthy end.

Aaron

175 - 176
  1. Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along,
  2. For fear they die before their pardon come.

Marcus

177
  1. My hand shall go.

Lucius

178
  1.                   By heaven, it shall not go!

Titus

179 - 180
  1. Sirs, strive no more: such with’red herbs as these
  2. Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine.

Lucius

181 - 182
  1. Sweet rather, if I shall be thought thy son,
  2. Let me redeem my brothers both from death.

Marcus

183 - 184
  1. And for our father’s sake, and mother’s care,
  2. Now let me show a brother’s love to thee.

Titus

185
  1. Agree between you, I will spare my hand.

Lucius

186
  1. Then I’ll go fetch an axe.

Marcus

187
  1. But I will use the axe.
  1. Exeunt Lucius and Marcus.

Titus

188 - 189
  1. Come hither, Aaron. I’ll deceive them both;
  2. Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine.

Aaron

190 - 193
  1. Aside.
  2. If that be call’d deceit, I will be honest,
  3. And never whilst I live deceive men so;
  4. But I’ll deceive you in another sort,
  5. And that you’ll say ere half an hour pass.
  1. He cuts off Titus’ hand.
  1. Enter Lucius and Marcus again.

Titus

194 - 201
  1. Now stay your strife, what shall be is dispatch’d.
  2. Good Aaron, give his Majesty my hand.
  3. Tell him it was a hand that warded him
  4. From thousand dangers, bid him bury it:
  5. More hath it merited, that let it have.
  6. As for my sons, say I account of them
  7. As jewels purchas’d at an easy price,
  8. And yet dear too, because I bought mine own.

Aaron

202 - 207
  1. I go, Andronicus, and for thy hand
  2. Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.
  3. Aside.
  4. Their heads, I mean. O how this villainy
  5. Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!
  6. Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace,
  7. Aaron will have his soul black like his face.
  1. Exit.

Titus

208 - 216
  1. O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven,
  2. And bow this feeble ruin to the earth;
  3. If any power pities wretched tears,
  4. To that I call!
  5. To Lavinia.
  6.                 What, wouldst thou kneel with me?
  7. Do then, dear heart, for heaven shall hear our prayers,
  8. Or with our sighs we’ll breathe the welkin dim,
  9. And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds
  10. When they do hug him in their melting bosoms.

Marcus

217 - 218
  1. O brother, speak with possibility,
  2. And do not break into these deep extremes.

Titus

219 - 220
  1. Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?
  2. Then be my passions bottomless with them!

Marcus

221
  1. But yet let reason govern thy lament.

Titus

222 - 236
  1. If there were reason for these miseries,
  2. Then into limits could I bind my woes:
  3. When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow?
  4. If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
  5. Threat’ning the welkin with his big-swoll’n face?
  6. And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
  7. I am the sea; hark how her sighs doth blow!
  8. She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
  9. Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
  10. Then must my earth with her continual tears
  11. Become a deluge, overflow’d and drown’d:
  12. For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,
  13. But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
  14. Then give me leave, for losers will have leave
  15. To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.
  1. Enter a Messenger, with two heads and a hand.

Messenger

237 - 243
  1. Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid
  2. For that good hand thou sent’st the Emperor.
  3. Here are the heads of thy two noble sons,
  4. And here’s thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back—
  5. Thy grief their sports! Thy resolution mock’d!
  6. That woe is me to think upon thy woes,
  7. More than remembrance of my father’s death.
  1. Exit.
Ira Aldridge as Aaron

Ira Aldridge as Aaron

The London Printing and Publishing Company, circa 1852

Marcus

244 - 248
  1. Now let hot Aetna cool in Sicily,
  2. And be my heart an ever-burning hell!
  3. These miseries are more than may be borne.
  4. To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal,
  5. But sorrow flouted at is double death.

Lucius

249 - 252
  1. Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound,
  2. And yet detested life not shrink thereat!
  3. That ever death should let life bear his name,
  4. Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!
  1. Lavinia kisses Titus.

Marcus

253 - 254
  1. Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless
  2. As frozen water to a starved snake.

Titus

255
  1. When will this fearful slumber have an end?

Marcus

256 - 266
  1. Now farewell, flatt’ry; die, Andronicus.
  2. Thou dost not slumber; see thy two sons’ heads,
  3. Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here,
  4. Thy other banish’d son with this dear sight
  5. Struck pale and bloodless, and thy brother, I,
  6. Even like a stony image, cold and numb.
  7. Ah, now no more will I control thy griefs.
  8. Rent off thy silver hair, thy other hand
  9. Gnawing with thy teeth, and be this dismal sight
  10. The closing up of our most wretched eyes.
  11. Now is a time to storm, why art thou still?

Titus

267
  1. Ha, ha, ha!

Marcus

268
  1. Why dost thou laugh? It fits not with this hour.

Titus

269 - 290
  1. Why, I have not another tear to shed.
  2. Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,
  3. And would usurp upon my wat’ry eyes,
  4. And make them blind with tributary tears;
  5. Then which way shall I find Revenge’s cave?
  6. For these two heads do seem to speak to me,
  7. And threat me I shall never come to bliss
  8. Till all these mischiefs be return’d again,
  9. Even in their throats that hath committed them.
  10. Come let me see what task I have to do.
  11. You heavy people, circle me about,
  12. That I may turn me to each one of you,
  13. And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs.
  14. The vow is made. Come, brother, take a head,
  15. And in this hand the other will I bear;
  16. And, Lavinia, thou shalt be employ’d;
  17. Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.
  18. As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight;
  19. Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay.
  20. Hie to the Goths and raise an army there,
  21. And if ye love me, as I think you do,
  22. Let’s kiss and part, for we have much to do.
  1. Exeunt. Manet Lucius.

Lucius

291 - 303
  1. Farewell, Andronicus, my noble father,
  2. The woefull’st man that ever liv’d in Rome.
  3. Farewell, proud Rome, till Lucius come again;
  4. He loves his pledges dearer than his life.
  5. Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister,
  6. O would thou wert as thou tofore hast been!
  7. But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives
  8. But in oblivion and hateful griefs.
  9. If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs,
  10. And make proud Saturnine and his emperess
  11. Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.
  12. Now will I to the Goths and raise a pow’r,
  13. To be reveng’d on Rome and Saturnine.
  1. Exit Lucius.
Tarquinius-Superbus

Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen

Tarquinius-Superbus

Guillaume Rouille, 1553

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