Tit. Give signs, sweet girl,-for here are none but friends, What Roman lord it was durst do the deed; Mar. Sit down, sweet niece;-brother, sit down by me. Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury, Inspire me, that I may this treason find!- [He writes his name with his staff, and guides Cursed be that heart, that forced us to this shift!- [She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her stumps, and writes. Tit. O, do you read, my lord, what she hath writ? Stuprum-Chiron-Demetrius. Mar. What, what!-the lustful sons of Tamora Performers of this heinous, bloody deed? Tit. Magne Dominator poli,' Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides? Mar. O, calm thee, gentle lord! although, I know, There is enough written upon this earth, To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts, And arm the minds of infants to exclaims. My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel; 1 Magne Regnator Deum, &c. is the exclamation of Hippolytus when Phædra discovers the secret of her incestuous passion, in Seneca's Tragedy. 2 Feere signifies a companion; and here, metaphorically, a husband. Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece' rape,- Will blow these sands, like Sibyl's leaves, abroad, Lucius and I'll go brave it at the court: Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we'll be waited on. [Exeunt TITUS, LAVINIA, and Boy. Mar. O Heavens, can you hear a good man groan, And not relent, or not compassion him? Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy; That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart, 1 A gad, in Anglo-Saxon, signified the point of a spear. It is here used for a similar pointed instrument. Than foemen's marks upon his battered shield; [Exit. SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter AARON, CHIRON, and DEMETRIUS, at one door; at another door, young LUCIUS, and an Attendant, with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them. Chi. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius; He hath some message to deliver to us. Aar. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather. Boy. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, I greet your honors from Andronicus ; And pray the Roman gods confound you both. [Aside. Dem. Gramercy,' lovely Lucius; what's the news? Boy. That you are both deciphered, that's the news, For villains marked with rape. [Aside.] May it please you, My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me To gratify your honorable youth, The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say; Your lordships, that whenever you have need, And so I leave you both, [Aside,] like bloody villains. [Exeunt Boy and Attendant. Dem. What's here? A scroll; and written round about? Let's see; Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus, Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu. Chi. O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well. I read it in the grammar long ago. 1 i. e. grand merci; great thanks. Aar. Ay, just!-a verse in Horace ;-right, you have it. Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! Here's no sound jest!' the old man hath found their guilt; And sends the weapons wrapped about with lines, That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick. Aside. But were our witty empress well afoot, Aar. Had he not reason, lord Demetrius? Dem. I would we had a thousand Roman dames At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust. Chi. A charitable wish, and full of love. Aar. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. Chi. And that would she for twenty thousand more. Dem. Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods For our beloved mother in her pains. o'er. Aar. Pray to the devils; the gods have given us Enter a Nurse, with a black-a-moor Child in her arms. Nur. Good morrow, lords; O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor? 1 This mode of expression was common formerly. So in King Henry IV. Part I. :-"Here's no fine villany!" Aar. Well, more, or less, or ne'er a whit at all, Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now? Nur. O gentle Aaron, we are all undone ! Now help, or woe betide thee evermore! Aar. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms? Nur. O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye, Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace; She is delivered, lords, she is delivered. Nur. A devil. Aar. Why, then she's the devil's dam; a joyful issue. Nur. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue. Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime. The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point. Aar. Out, out, you whore! is black so base a hue? Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure. Dem. Villain, what hast thou done? Aar. Canst not undo. Chi. Done! that which thou Thou hast undone our mother. Aar. Villain, I have done thy mother. Dem. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone. Woe to her chance, and damned her loathed choice! Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend! Chi. It shall not live. Aar. It shall not die. Nur. Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so. Aar. What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I Do execution on my flesh and blood. Dem. I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point; Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon despatch it. 1 In Lust's Dominion, by Marlowe, a play in its style bearing a near resemblance to Titus Andronicus, Eleazar, the Moor, a character of |