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Titus Andronicus: Act V, Scene 3

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Titus Andronicus
Act V, Scene 3

Court of Titus’s house.

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter Lucius, Marcus, and the Goths with Aaron prisoner, and
  2. his child in the arms of an Attendant.

Lucius

1 - 2
  1. Uncle Marcus, since ’tis my father’s mind
  2. That I repair to Rome, I am content.

First Goth

3
  1. And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.

Lucius

4 - 10
  1. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,
  2. This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;
  3. Let him receive no sust’nance; fetter him,
  4. Till he be brought unto the Empress’ face
  5. For testimony of her foul proceedings.
  6. And see the ambush of our friends be strong,
  7. I fear the Emperor means no good to us.

Aaron

11 - 13
  1. Some devil whisper curses in my ear,
  2. And prompt me that my tongue may utter forth
  3. The venomous malice of my swelling heart!

Lucius

14 - 16
  1. Away, inhuman dog, unhallowed slave!
  2. Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.
  3. Exeunt Goths with Aaron. Sound trumpets within.
  4. The trumpets show the Emperor is at hand.
  1. Enter Emperor and Empress with Aemilius, Tribunes, Senators,
  2. and others.

Saturninus

17
  1. What, hath the firmament more suns than one?

Lucius

18
  1. What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?

Marcus

19 - 24
  1. Rome’s emperor, and nephew, break the parle,
  2. These quarrels must be quietly debated.
  3. The feast is ready which the careful Titus
  4. Hath ordain’d to an honorable end,
  5. For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome.
  6. Please you, therefore, draw nigh and take your places.

Saturninus

25
  1. Marcus, we will.
  1. A table brought in. The company sit down.
  1. Trumpets sounding, enter Titus like a cook, placing the
  2. dishes, and Lavinia with a veil over her face, young Lucius,
  3. and others.

Titus

26 - 29
  1. Welcome, my lord; welcome, dread queen;
  2. Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
  3. And welcome, all. Although the cheer be poor,
  4. ’Twill fill your stomachs, please you eat of it.

Saturninus

30
  1. Why art thou thus attir’d, Andronicus?

Titus

31 - 32
  1. Because I would be sure to have all well,
  2. To entertain your Highness and your empress.

Tamora

33
  1. We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.

Titus

34 - 38
  1. And if your Highness knew my heart, you were.
  2. My Lord the Emperor, resolve me this:
  3. Was it well done of rash Virginius
  4. To slay his daughter with his own right hand,
  5. Because she was enforc’d, stain’d, and deflow’r’d?

Saturninus

39
  1. It was, Andronicus.

Titus

40
  1. Your reason, mighty lord?

Saturninus

41 - 42
  1. Because the girl should not survive her shame,
  2. And by her presence still renew his sorrows.

Titus

43 - 47
  1. A reason mighty, strong, and effectual,
  2. A pattern, president, and lively warrant
  3. For me, most wretched, to perform the like.
  4. Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,
  5. And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die!
  1. He kills her.

Saturninus

48
  1. What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?

Titus

49 - 52
  1. Kill’d her for whom my tears have made me blind.
  2. I am as woeful as Virginius was,
  3. And have a thousand times more cause than he
  4. To do this outrage, and it now is done.

Saturninus

53
  1. What, was she ravish’d? Tell who did the deed.

Titus

54
  1. Will’t please you eat? Will’t please your Highness feed?

Tamora

55
  1. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?

Titus

56 - 58
  1. Not I, ’twas Chiron and Demetrius:
  2. They ravish’d her, and cut away her tongue,
  3. And they, ’twas they, that did her all this wrong.

Saturninus

59
  1. Go fetch them hither to us presently.

Titus

60 - 63
  1. Why, there they are, both baked in this pie;
  2. Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
  3. Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
  4. ’Tis true, ’tis true, witness my knife’s sharp point.
  1. He stabs the Empress.

Saturninus

64
  1. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!
  1. Kills Titus.

Lucius

65 - 66
  1. Can the son’s eye behold his father bleed?
  2. There’s meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!
  1. Kills Saturninus. A great tumult.
  1. Exeunt Lucius, Marcus, Aemilius, and others and enter above.

Marcus

67 - 72
  1. You sad-fac’d men, people and sons of Rome,
  2. By uproars sever’d, as a flight of fowl
  3. Scatter’d by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
  4. O, let me teach you how to knit again
  5. This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
  6. These broken limbs again into one body.

Aemilius

73 - 95
  1. Let Rome herself be bane unto herself,
  2. And she whom mighty kingdoms cur’sy to,
  3. Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
  4. Do shameful execution on herself,
  5. But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
  6. Grave witnesses of true experience,
  7. Cannot induce you to attend my words.
  8. To Lucius.
  9. Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
  10. When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
  11. To love-sick Dido’s sad attending ear
  12. The story of that baleful burning night,
  13. When subtile Greeks surpris’d King Priam’s Troy.
  14. Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch’d our ears,
  15. Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
  16. That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
  17. My heart is not compact of flint nor steel,
  18. Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
  19. But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
  20. And break my utt’rance, even in the time
  21. When it should move ye to attend me most,
  22. And force you to commiseration.
  23. Here’s Rome’s young captain, let him tell the tale,
  24. While I stand by and weep to hear him speak.
Edinburgh Folio

From: Edinburgh Folio

Unknown artist, circa 1903

Lucius

96 - 118
  1. Then, gracious auditory, be it known to you
  2. That Chiron and the damn’d Demetrius
  3. Were they that murd’red our Emperor’s brother,
  4. And they it were that ravished our sister.
  5. For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded,
  6. Our father’s tears despis’d, and basely cozen’d
  7. Of that true hand that fought Rome’s quarrel out,
  8. And sent her enemies unto the grave.
  9. Lastly, myself unkindly banished,
  10. The gates shut on me, and turn’d weeping out
  11. To beg relief among Rome’s enemies,
  12. Who drown’d their enmity in my true tears,
  13. And op’d their arms to embrace me as a friend.
  14. I am the turned forth, be it known to you,
  15. That have preserv’d her welfare in my blood,
  16. And from her bosom took the enemy’s point,
  17. Sheathing the steel in my advent’rous body.
  18. Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I;
  19. My scars can witness, dumb although they are,
  20. That my report is just and full of truth.
  21. But soft, methinks I do digress too much,
  22. Citing my worthless praise. O, pardon me,
  23. For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.

Marcus

119 - 136
  1. Now is my turn to speak. Behold the child:
  2. Pointing to Aaron’s child in the arms of an Attendant.
  3. Of this was Tamora delivered,
  4. The issue of an irreligious Moor,
  5. Chief architect and plotter of these woes.
  6. The villain is alive in Titus’ house,
  7. And as he is to witness, this is true.
  8. Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
  9. These wrongs unspeakable, past patience,
  10. Or more than any living man could bear.
  11. Now have you heard the truth, what say you, Romans?
  12. Have we done aught amiss, show us wherein,
  13. And, from the place where you behold us pleading,
  14. The poor remainder of Andronici
  15. Will hand in hand all headlong hurl ourselves,
  16. And on the ragged stones beat forth our souls,
  17. And make a mutual closure of our house.
  18. Speak, Romans, speak, and if you say we shall,
  19. Lo hand in hand Lucius and I will fall.

Aemilius

137 - 140
  1. Come, come, thou reverent man of Rome,
  2. And bring our Emperor gently in thy hand,
  3. Lucius our Emperor, for well I know
  4. The common voice do cry it shall be so.

All

141
  1. Lucius, all hail, Rome’s royal Emperor!

Marcus

142 - 145
  1. To Attendants.
  2. Go, go into old Titus’ sorrowful house,
  3. And hither hale that misbelieving Moor
  4. To be adjudg’d some direful slaught’ring death,
  5. As punishment for his most wicked life.
  1. Exeunt Attendants
  1. Lucius, Marcus, Aemilius, and the others descend.

All

146
  1. Lucius, all hail, Rome’s gracious governor!

Lucius

147 - 155
  1. Thanks, gentle Romans, may I govern so,
  2. To heal Rome’s harms, and wipe away her woe!
  3. But, gentle people, give me aim a while,
  4. For nature puts me to a heavy task.
  5. Stand all aloof, but, uncle, draw you near
  6. To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.
  7. O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,
  8. Kisses Titus.
  9. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain’d face,
  10. The last true duties of thy noble son!

’Tis true, ’tis true, witness my knife’s sharp point.

John Masey Wright, circa 1800

Marcus

156 - 159
  1. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
  2. Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips.
  3. O, were the sum of these that I should pay
  4. Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Lucius

160 - 166
  1. Come hither, boy, come, come, and learn of us
  2. To melt in showers; thy grandsire lov’d thee well.
  3. Many a time he danc’d thee on his knee,
  4. Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
  5. Many a story hath he told to thee,
  6. And bid thee bear his pretty tales in mind,
  7. And talk of them when he was dead and gone.

Marcus

167 - 171
  1. How many thousand times hath these poor lips,
  2. When they were living, warm’d themselves on thine!
  3. O now, sweet boy, give them their latest kiss!
  4. Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave,
  5. Do them that kindness, and take leave of them.

Young Lucius

172 - 175
  1. O grandsire, grandsire, ev’n with all my heart
  2. Would I were dead, so you did live again!
  3. O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping,
  4. My tears will choke me if I ope my mouth.
  1. Enter Attendants with Aaron.

Aemilius

176 - 178
  1. You sad Andronici, have done with woes.
  2. Give sentence on this execrable wretch
  3. That hath been breeder of these dire events.

Lucius

179 - 183
  1. Set him breast-deep in earth and famish him,
  2. There let him stand and rave and cry for food.
  3. If any one relieves or pities him,
  4. For the offense he dies. This is our doom.
  5. Some stay to see him fast’ned in the earth.

Aaron

184 - 190
  1. Ah, why should wrath be mute and fury dumb?
  2. I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
  3. I should repent the evils I have done.
  4. Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
  5. Would I perform if I might have my will.
  6. If one good deed in all my life I did,
  7. I do repent it from my very soul.

Lucius

191 - 200
  1. Some loving friends convey the Emperor hence,
  2. And give him burial in his fathers’ grave.
  3. My father and Lavinia shall forthwith
  4. Be closed in our household’s monument.
  5. As for that ravenous tiger Tamora,
  6. No funeral rite, nor man in mourning weed,
  7. No mournful bell shall ring her burial,
  8. But throw her forth to beasts and birds to prey:
  9. Her life was beastly and devoid of pity,
  10. And being dead, let birds on her take pity.
  1. Exeunt.
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