The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 68
PUBLIUS
And therefore do we what we are commanded.
Publius, Caius, and Valentine bind and gag Chiron
and Demetrius
Stop close their mouths. Let them not speak a word.
Is he sure bound? Look that you bind them fast.
Enter Titus Andronicus with a knife, and Lavinia
with a basin
TITUS
Come, come, Lavinia. Look, thy foes are bound.
Sirs, stop their mouths. Let them not speak to me,
But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
Here stands the spring whom you have stained with
mud,
This goodly summer with your winter mixed.
You killed her husband, and for that vile fault
Two of her brothers were condemned to death,
My hand cut off and made a merry jest,
Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more
dear
Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Inhuman traitors, you constrained and forced.
What would you say if I should let you speak?
Villains, for shame. You could not beg for grace.
Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whiles that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
You know your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad.
Hark, villains, I will grind your bones to dust,
And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste,
And of the paste a coffin I will rear,
And make two pasties of your shameful heads,
And bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam,
Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,
And worse than Progne I will be revenged.
And now, prepare your throats. Lavinia, come.
Receive the blood, and when that they are dead
Let me go grind their bones to powder small,
And with this hateful liquor temper it,
And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.
Come, come, be everyone officious
To make this banquet, which I wish may prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.
He cuts their throats
So, now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook
And see them ready against their mother comes.
Exeunt carrying the bodies
5.3 Enter Lucius, Marcus, and the Goths, with Aaron, prisoner, ⌈and an attendant with his child⌉
LUCIUS
Uncle Marcus, since ’tis my father’s mind
That I repair to Rome, I am content.
A GOTH
And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.
LUCIUS
Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,
This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil.
Let him receive no sust’nance, fetter him
Till he be brought unto the Empress’ face
For testimony of her foul proceedings,
And see the ambush of our friends be strong.
I fear the Emperor means no good to us.
AARON
Some devil whisper curses in my ear
And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth
The venomous malice of my swelling heart.
LUCIUS
Away, inhuman dog, unhallowed slave!
Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.
⌈Exeunt Goths with Aaron and his child⌉
Flourish
The trumpets show the Emperor is at hand.
Enter Saturninus the Emperor, and Tamora the
Empress, with Aemilius, Tribunes, Senators, and
others
SATURNINUS
What, hath the firmament more suns than one?
LUCIUS
What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?
MARCUS
Rome’s emperor and nephew, break the parle.
These quarrels must be quietly debated.
The feast is ready which the careful Titus
Hath ordained to an honourable end,
For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome.
Please you therefore draw nigh, and take your places.
SATURNINUS Marchs, we will.
⌈Hautboys. A table brought in.⌉ They sit.
Enter Titus like a cook, placing the dishes, and
Lavinia with a veil over her face; ⌈young Lucius,
and others⌉
TITUS
Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread Queen;
Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
And welcome, all. Although the cheer be poor,
‘Twill fill your stomachs. Please you, eat of it.
SATURNINUS
Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?
TITUS
Because I would be sure to have all well
To entertain your highness and your Empress.
TAMORA
We are beholden to you, good Andronicus.
TITUS
An if your highness knew my heart, you were.
My lord the Emperor, resolve me this:
Was it well done of rash Virginius
To slay his daughter with his own right hand
Because she was enforced, stained, and deflowered?
SATURNINUS
It was, Andronicus.
TITUS
Your reason, mighty lord?
SATURNINUS
Because the girl should not survive her shame,
And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
TITUS
A reason mighty, strong, effectual;
A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant
For me, most wretched, to perform the like.
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,
And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die.
⌈He kills her⌉
SATURNINUS
What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?
TITUS
Killed her for whom my tears have made me blind.
I am as woeful as Virginius was,
And have a thousand times more cause than he
To do this outrage, and it now is done.
SATURNINUS
What, was she ravished? Tell who did the deed.
TITUS
Will’t please you eat? Will’t please your highness feed?
TAMORA
Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
TITUS
Not I, ‘twas Chiron and Demetrius.
They ravished her, and cut away her tongue,
And they, ’twas they, that did her all this wrong.
SATURNINUS
Go, fetch them hither to us presently.
TITUS ⌈revealing the heads⌉
Why, there they are, both baked in this pie,
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
‘Tis true, ’tis true, witness my knife’s sharp point.
He stabs the Empress
SATURNINUS
Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed.
He kills Titus
LUCIUS
Can the son’s eye behold his father bleed?
There’s meed for meed, death for a deadly deed.
He kills Saturninus. Confusion follows.
⌈Enter Goths. Lucius, Marcus and others go aloft⌉
MARCUS
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproars severed, as a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body.
A ROMAN LORD
Let Rome herself be bane unto herself,
And she whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words.
(To Lucius) Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our
ancestor
When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To lovesick Dido’s sad-attending ear
The story of that baleful-burning night
When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy.
Tell us what Sinon hath bewitched our ears,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
My heart is not compact of flint nor steel,
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
But floods of tears will drown my oratory
And break my utt’rance even in the time
When it should move ye to attend me most,
And force you to commiseration.
Here’s Rome’s young captain. Let him tell the tale,
While I stand by and weep to hear him speak.
LUCIUS
Then, gracious auditory, be it known to you
That Chiron and the damned Demetrius
Were they that murdered our Emperor’s brother,
And they it were that ravished our sister.
For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded,
Our father’s tears despised, and basely cozened
Of that true hand that fought Rome’s quarrel out
And sent her enemies unto the grave.
Lastly myself, unkindly banished,
The gates shut on me, and turned weeping out
To beg relief among Rome’s enemies,
Who drowned their enmity in my true tears
And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.
I am the turned-forth, be it known to you,
That have preserved her welfare in my blood,
And from her bosom took the enemy’s point,
Sheathing the steel in my advent’rous body.
Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I.
My scars can witness, dumb although they are,
That my report is just and full of truth.
But soft, methinks I do digress too much,
Citing my worthless praise. O, pardon me,
For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
MARCUS
Now is my turn to speak. Behold the child.
Of this was Tamora delivered,
The issue of an irreligious Moor,
Chief architect and plotter of these woes.
The villain is alive in Titus’ house,
And as he is to witness, this is true.
Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
These wrongs unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.
Now have you heard the truth. What say you,
Romans?
Have we done aught amiss, show us wherein,
And from the place where you behold us pleading
The poor remainder of Andronici
Will hand in hand all headlong hurl ourselves
And on the ragged stones beat forth our souls
And make a mutual closure of our house.
Speak, Romans, speak, and if you say we shall;
Lo, hand in hand Lucius and I will fall.
AEMILIUS
Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,
Lucius, our emperor—for well I know
The common voice do cry it shall be so.
ROMANS
Lucius, all hail, Rome’s royal emperor!
MARCUS (to attendants)
Go, go into old Titus’ sorrowful house
And hither hale that misbelieving Moor
To be adjudged some direful slaught’ring death
As punishment for his most wicked life. Exeunt some
⌈Lucius, Marcus, and the others come down⌉
⌈ROMANS⌉
Lucius, all hail, Rome’s gracious governor!
LUCIUS
Thanks, gentle Romans. May I govern so
To heal Rome’s harms and wipe away her woe.
But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,
For nature puts me to a heavy task.
Stand all aloof, but, uncle, draw you near
To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.
(Kissing Titus) O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold
lips,
These sorrowful drops upon thy bloodstained face,
The last true duties of thy noble son.
MARCUS (kissing Titus)
Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips.
O, were the sum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them.
LUCIUS (to young Lucius)
Come hither, boy, come, come, and learn of us
To melt in showers. Thy grandsire loved thee well.
Many a time he danced thee on his knee,
Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow.
Many a story hath he told to thee,
And bid thee bear his pretty tales in mind,
And talk of them when he was dead and gone.
MARCUS
How many thousand times hath these poor lips,
When they were living, warmed themselves on thine!
O now, sweet boy, give them their latest kiss.
Bid him farewell. Commit him to the grave.
Do them that kindness, and take leave of them.
YOUNG LUCIUS (kissing Titus)
O grandsire, grandsire, ev’n with all my heart
Would I were dead, so you did live again.
O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping.
My tears will choke me if I ope my mouth.
Enter some with Aaron
A ROMAN
You sad Andronici, have done with woes.
Give sentence on this execrable wretch
That hath been breeder of these dire events.
LUCIUS
Set him breast-deep in earth and famish him.
There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food.
If anyone relieves or pities him,
For the offence he dies. This is our doom.
Some stay to see him fastened in the earth.
AARON
Ah, why should wrath be mute and fury dumb?
I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
I should repent the evils I have done.
Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
Would I perform if I might have my will.
If one good deed in all my life I did
I do repent it from my very soul.
LUCIUS
Some loving friends convey the Emperor hence,
And give him burial in his father’s grave.
My father and Lavinia shall forthwith
Be closed in our household’s monument.
As for that ravenous tiger, Tamora,
No funeral rite nor man in mourning weed,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beasts and birds to prey.
Her life was beastly and devoid of pity,
And being dead, let birds on her take pity.
Exeunt with the bodies
ADDITIONAL PASSAGES
A. AFTER 1.1.35
The following passage, found in the First Quarto f
ollowing a comma after ‘field’ but not included in the Second or Third Quartos or the Folio, conflicts with the subsequent action and presumably should have been deleted. (In the second line, Q1 reads ’of that’ for ‘of the’.)
and at this day
To the monument of the Andronici
Done sacrifice of expiation,
And slain the noblest prisoner of the Goths.
B. AFTER 1.1.283
The following passage found in the quartos and the Folio is difficult to reconcile with the apparent need for Saturninus and his party to leave the stage at 275.1-2 before entering ‘above’ at 294.2-4. It is omitted from our text in the belief that Shakespeare intended it to be deleted after adding the episode of Mutius’ killing to his original draft, and that the printers of Q1 included it by accident.
⌈TITUS⌉
Treason, my lord! Lavinia is surprised.
SATURNINUS
Surprised, by whom?
BASSIANUS
By him that justly may
Bear his betrothed from all the world away.
C. AFTER 4.3.93
The following lines, found in the early texts, appear to be a draft of the subsequent six lines.
MARCUS (to Titus) Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for your oration, and let him deliver the pigeons to the Emperor from you.
TITUS (to the Clown) Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the Emperor with a grace?
CLOWN Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.
RICHARD III
IN narrative sequence, Richard III follows directly after Richard Duke of York, and that play’s closing scenes, in which Richard of Gloucester expresses his ambitions for the crown, suggest that Shakespeare had a sequel in mind. But he seems to have gone back to tell the beginning of the story of Henry VI’s reign before covering the events from Henry VI’s death (in 1471) to the Battle of Bosworth (1485). We have no record of the first performance of Richard III (probably in late 1592 or early 1593, outside London); it was printed in 1597, with five reprints before its inclusion in the 1623 Folio.
The principal source of information about Richard III available to Shakespeare was Sir Thomas More’s History of King Richard III as incorporated in chronicle histories by Edward Hall (1542) and Raphael Holinshed (1577, revised in 1587), both of which Shakespeare seems to have used. His artistic influences include the tragedies of the Roman dramatist Seneca (who was born about 4 BC and died in AD 65), with their ghosts, their rhetorical style, their prominent choruses, and their indirect, highly formal presentation of violent events. (Except for the stabbing of Clarence (1.4) there is no on-stage violence in Richard III until the final battle scenes.)