No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.
180
DEMETRIUS [to Lavinia]
Away, for thou hast stayed us here too long.
LAVINIA
No grace? No womanhood? Ah, beastly creature,
The blot and enemy to our general name,
Confusion fall –
CHIRON Nay then, I’ll stop your mouth.
[Grabs her, covering her mouth.]
[to Demetrius] Bring thou her husband:
185
This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him.
Demetrius throws Bassianus’ body into the pit,
he and Chiron then exeunt, dragging Lavinia.
TAMORA
Farewell, my sons; see that you make her sure.
Ne’er let my heart know merry cheer indeed
Till all the Andronici be made away.
Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor,
190
And let my spleenful sons this trull deflower. Exit.
Enter AARON with two of Titus’ sons, QUINTUS and MARTIUS.
AARON Come on, my lords, the better foot before.
Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit
Where I espied the panther fast asleep.
QUINTUS My sight is very dull, whate’er it bodes.
195
MARTIUS
And mine, I promise you; were it not for shame,
Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.
[Falls into the pit.]
QUINTUS
What, art thou fallen? What subtle hole is this,
Whose mouth is covered with rude-growing briers
Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood
200
As fresh as morning dew distilled on flowers?
A very fatal place it seems to me.
Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?
MARTIUS [from below]
O brother, with the dismall’st object hurt
That ever eye with sight made heart lament.
205
AARON [aside]
Now will I fetch the king to find them here,
That he thereby may have a likely guess
How these were they that made away his brother. Exit.
MARTIUS [from below]
Why dost not comfort me and help me out
From this unhallowed and bloodstained hole?
210
QUINTUS I am surprised with an uncouth fear;
A chilling sweat o’erruns my trembling joints;
My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.
MARTIUS [from below]
To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,
Aaron and thou look down into this den,
215
And see a fearful sight of blood and death.
QUINTUS Aaron is gone and my compassionate heart
Will not permit mine eyes once to behold
The thing whereat it trembles by surmise.
O tell me who it is, for ne’er till now
220
Was I a child to fear I know not what.
MARTIUS [from below]
Lord Bassianus lies berayed in blood
All on a heap, like to a slaughtered lamb,
In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.
QUINTUS If it be dark, how dost thou know ’tis he?
225
MARTIUS [from below]
Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
A precious ring that lightens all this hole,
Which like a taper in some monument
Doth shine upon the dead man’s earthy cheeks
And shows the ragged entrails of this pit.
230
So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus
When he by night lay bathed in maiden blood.
O brother, help me with thy fainting hand –
If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath –
Out of this fell devouring receptacle,
235
As hateful as Cocytus’ misty mouth.
QUINTUS [Reaches into pit.]
Reach me thy hand that I may help thee out
Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,
I may be plucked into the swallowing womb
Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus’ grave.
240
I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink –
MARTIUS [from below]
Nor I no strength to climb without thy help.
QUINTUS Thy hand once more; I will not loose again
Till thou art here aloft or I below.
Thou canst not come to me – I come to thee.
245
[Falls into the pit.]
Enter the Emperor and AARON the Moor, with attendants.
SATURNINUS Along with me! I’ll see what hole is here
And what he is that now is leapt into it.
[Speaks into the pit.]
Say, who art thou that lately didst descend
Into this gaping hollow of the earth?
MARTIUS [from below]
The unhappy sons of old Andronicus,
250
Brought hither in a most unlucky hour
To find thy brother Bassianus dead.
SATURNINUS
My brother dead? I know thou dost but jest;
He and his lady both are at the lodge
Upon the north side of this pleasant chase.
255
’Tis not an hour since I left them there.
MARTIUS [from below]
We know not where you left them all alive,
But, out alas, here have we found him dead.
Enter TAMORA, TITUS ANDRONICUS and LUCIUS.
TAMORA Where is my lord the king?
SATURNINUS
Here, Tamora, though gride with killing grief.
260
TAMORA Where is thy brother Bassianus?
SATURNINUS
Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound:
Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.
TAMORA Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,
The complot of this timeless tragedy,
265
And wonder greatly that man’s face can fold
In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.
[She giveth Saturnine a letter.]
SATURNINUS [Reads.]
And if we miss to meet him handsomely,
Sweet huntsman – Bassianus ’tis we mean –
Do thou so much as dig the grave for him.
270
Thou know’st our meaning. Look for thy reward
Among the nettles at the elder tree
Which overshades the mouth of that same pit
Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.
Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.
275
O Tamora, was ever heard the like?
This is the pit and this the elder tree.
Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out
That should have murdered Bassianus here.
AARON [finding the money-bag]
My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.
280
SATURNINUS [to Titus]
Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody kind,
Have here bereft my brother of his life.
Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison.
There let them bide until we have devised
Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.
285
TAMORA What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!
How easily murder is discovered.
[Attendants pull Quintus, Martius and
Bassianus’ body from the pit.]
TITUS [kneeling] High emperor, upon my feeble knee
I beg this boon with tears not lightly shed:
That this fell fault of my accursed sons,
290
Accursed if the fault be proved
in them –
SATURNINUS If it be proved? You see it is apparent.
Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?
TAMORA Andronicus himself did take it up.
TITUS I did, my lord, yet let me be their bail,
295
For by my fathers’ reverend tomb I vow
They shall be ready at your highness’ will
To answer their suspicion with their lives.
SATURNINUS
Thou shalt not bail them. See thou follow me.
Some bring the murdered body, some the murderers.
300
Let them not speak a word: the guilt is plain;
For, by my soul, were there worse end than death
That end upon them should be executed.
TAMORA Andronicus, I will entreat the king;
Fear not thy sons, they shall do well enough.
305
TITUS [rising]
Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.
Exeunt, some taking the body, some guarding the prisoners.
2.3 [2.4] Enter the Empress’ Sons with LAVINIA, her hands cut off and her tongue cut out, and ravished.
DEMETRIUS So, now go tell, and if thy tongue can speak,
Who ’twas that cut thy tongue and ravished thee.
CHIRON Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,
And if thy stumps will let thee, play the scribe.
DEMETRIUS
See how with signs and tokens she can scrawl.
5
CHIRON Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.
DEMETRIUS
She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash,
And so let’s leave her to her silent walks.
CHIRON And ’twere my cause, I should go hang myself.
DEMETRIUS
If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.
10
Exeunt Chiron and Demetrius.
Wind horns. Enter MARCUS from hunting.
Lavinia runs away.
MARCUS Who is this – my niece that flies away so fast?
Cousin, a word. Where is your husband?
[Lavinia turns.]
If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me;
If I do wake, some planet strike me down
That I may slumber an eternal sleep.
15
Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands
Hath lopped and hewed and made thy body bare
Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments
Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in
And might not gain so great a happiness
20
As half thy love. Why dost not speak to me?
[Lavinia opens her mouth.]
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirred with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath.
25
But sure some Tereus hath deflowered thee
And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.
Ah, now thou turn’st away thy face for shame,
And notwithstanding all this loss of blood,
As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,
30
Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan’s face,
Blushing to be encountered with a cloud.
Shall I speak for thee? Shall I say ’tis so?
O that I knew thy heart, and knew the beast,
That I might rail at him to ease my mind!
35
Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopped,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.
Fair Philomela, why she but lost her tongue,
And in a tedious sampler sewed her mind;
But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee.
40
A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,
And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,
That could have better sewed than Philomel.
O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble like aspen leaves upon a lute
45
And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,
He would not then have touched them for his life.
Or had he heard the heavenly harmony
Which that sweet tongue hath made,
He would have dropped his knife and fell asleep,
50
As Cerberus at the Thracian poet’s feet.
Come, let us go and make thy father blind,
For such a sight will blind a father’s eye.
One hour’s storm will drown the fragrant meads:
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 497
