Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (8 page)

TITUS
    The hunt is
up
¹
, the morn is bright and grey,

The fields are fragrant and the woods are green:

Uncouple
here, and let us make a
bay
³

And wake the emperor and his lovely bride,

And rouse the prince, and ring a
hunter’s peal,
⁵

That all the court may echo with the noise.

Sons, let it be your
charge
⁷
, as it is ours,

To attend the emperor’s person carefully:

I have been troubled in my sleep this night,

But dawning day new comfort hath inspired.

Many good morrows to your majesty:

Madam, to you as many and as good.

I promised your grace a hunter’s peal.

SATURNINUS
    And you have rung it
lustily
¹⁴
, my lords,

Somewhat too early for new-married ladies.

BASSIANUS
    Lavinia,
how
¹⁶
say you?

LAVINIA
    I say, no:

I have been broad awake two hours and more.

SATURNINUS
    Come on then, horse and chariots let us have,

And to our sport.— Madam, now shall ye see

Our Roman hunting.

MARCUS
    I have dogs, my lord,

Will rouse the proudest panther in the
chase
²³

And climb the highest
promontory
²⁴
top.

TITUS
    And I have horse will follow where the game

Makes way and runs like swallows o’er the plain.

DEMETRIUS
    Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound,

But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.

AARON
    He that had wit would think that I had none,

To bury so much gold under a tree

And never after to
inherit
³
it.

Let him that thinks of me so abjectly

Know that this gold must
coin
⁵
a stratagem

Which, cunningly effected, will
beget
⁶

A very excellent piece of villainy:

And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest

That have their
alms out of the empress’ chest.
⁹

TAMORA
    My lovely Aaron,
wherefore
¹⁰
look’st thou sad

When everything doth make a gleeful
boast?
¹¹

The birds chant melody on every bush,

The snake lies rollèd in the cheerful sun,

The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind

And make a chequered shadow on the ground:

Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,

And whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,

Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns

As if a double hunt were heard at once,

Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise,

And after
conflict
²¹
such as was supposed

The
wand’ring prince and Dido
²²
once enjoyed,

When with a
happy
²³
storm they were surprised

And curtained with a
counsel-keeping
²⁴
cave,

We may, each wreathèd in the other’s arms,

Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber,

Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds

Be unto us as is a nurse’s song

Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.

AARON
    Madam, though
Venus
³⁰
govern your desires,

Saturn
is
dominator
³¹
over mine:

What signifies my
deadly-standing
³²
eye,

My silence and my cloudy melancholy,

My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls

Even as an adder when she doth unroll

To do some fatal execution?

No, madam, these are no
venereal
³⁷
signs:

Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,

Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.

Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,

Which never
hopes
⁴¹
more heaven than rests in thee,

This is the day of doom for Bassianus:

His
Philomel
⁴³
must lose her tongue today,

Thy sons make pillage of her chastity

And wash their hands in Bassianus’ blood.

See’st thou this letter?
Take it up
⁴⁶
, I pray thee,

And give the king this fatal-plotted scroll.

Now question me no more: we are espied.

Here comes a
parcel
of our
hopeful
⁴⁹
booty,

Which dreads not yet their lives’ destruction.

TAMORA
    Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!

AARON
    No more, great empress: Bassianus comes.

Be
cross
⁵³
with him, and I’ll go fetch thy sons

To back thy quarrels, whatsoe’er they be. [Exit]

BASSIANUS
    Whom have we here? Rome’s royal emperess,

Unfurnished of her well-beseeming troop?
⁵⁶

Or is it
Dian
,
habited
⁵⁷
like her,

Who hath abandonèd her holy groves

To see the
general
⁵⁹
hunting in this forest?

TAMORA
    
Saucy
controller
⁶⁰
of our private steps,

Had I the power that some say Dian had,

Thy temples should be planted
presently
⁶²

With horns, as was
Actaeon’s
⁶³
, and the hounds

Should
drive
⁶⁴
upon thy new-transformèd limbs,

Unmannerly intruder as thou art.

LAVINIA
    
Under your patience
,
gentle
⁶⁶
emperess,

’Tis thought you have a goodly gift in
horning,
⁶⁷

And to be
doubted
⁶⁸
that your Moor and you

Are singled forth
to try
experiments:
⁶⁹

Jove
⁷⁰
shield your husband from his hounds today —

’Tis pity they should take him for a stag.

BASSIANUS
    Believe me, queen, your
swarth
Cimmerian
⁷²

Doth make your honour of his body’s hue,

Spotted, detested and abominable.

Why are you
sequestered
from all your
train,
⁷⁵

Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed,

And wandered hither to an obscure plot,

Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,

If foul desire had not conducted you?

LAVINIA
    And being intercepted in your sport,

Great reason
that my noble lord be
rated
⁸¹

For sauciness.— I pray you let us hence,

And let her
joy
⁸³
her raven-coloured love:

This valley fits the purpose
passing
⁸⁴
well.

BASSIANUS
    The king my brother shall have note of this.

LAVINIA
    Ay, for these
slips
have made him
noted
⁸⁶
long:

Good king, to be so mightily abused.

TAMORA
    Why, I have patience to endure all this.

DEMETRIUS
    How now, dear sovereign and our gracious mother,

Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?

TAMORA
    Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?

These two have
’ticed
⁹²
me hither to this place:

A barren detested vale you see it is.

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,

O’ercome
with moss and
baleful
⁹⁵
mistletoe:

Here never shines the sun, here nothing breeds

Unless the nightly owl or
fatal
raven.
⁹⁷

And when they showed me this abhorrèd pit,

They told me here at dead time of the night,

A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,

Ten thousand swelling
toads
, as many
urchins,
¹⁰¹

Would make such fearful and confusèd cries

As any mortal body hearing it

Should
straight
fall mad, or else die
suddenly.
¹⁰⁴

No sooner had they told this hellish tale,

But straight they told me they would bind me here

Unto the body of a
dismal
¹⁰⁷
yew

And leave me to this miserable death.

And then they called me foul adulteress,

Lascivious
Goth
¹¹⁰
, and all the bitterest terms

That ever ear did hear to such effect:

And had you not by wondrous fortune come,

This vengeance on me had they executed.

Revenge it as you love your mother’s life,

Or be ye not henceforth called my children.

DEMETRIUS
    This is a witness that I am thy son.

CHIRON
    And this for me, struck home to show my strength.

LAVINIA
    Ay, come,
Semiramis
¹¹⁸
, nay, barbarous Tamora,

For no name fits thy nature but thy own.

TAMORA
    Give me thy
poniard
¹²⁰
: you shall know, my boys

Your mother’s hand shall right your mother’s wrong.

DEMETRIUS
    Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her:

First
thrash
¹²³
the corn, then after burn the straw.

This
minion
stood upon
¹²⁴
her chastity,

Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,

And with that
painted
¹²⁶
hope braves your mightiness.

And shall she carry this unto her grave?

CHIRON
    
An if
¹²⁸
she do, I would I were an eunuch.

Drag hence her husband to some secret hole

And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.

TAMORA
    But when ye have the
honey
¹³¹
we desire,

Let not this wasp
outlive
¹³²
, us both to sting.

CHIRON
    I
warrant
¹³³
you, madam, we will make that sure.—

Come, mistress, now
perforce
¹³⁴
we will enjoy

That
nice-preservèd honesty
¹³⁵
of yours.

LAVINIA
    O Tamora, thou bear’st a woman’s face—

TAMORA
    I will not hear her speak, away with her!

LAVINIA
    Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.

DEMETRIUS
    Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory

To see her tears, but be your heart to them

As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.

LAVINIA
    When did the tiger’s young ones teach the
dam?
¹⁴²

O, do not
learn
¹⁴³
her wrath: she taught it thee.

The milk thou suck’st from her did turn to marble:

Even at thy teat thou hadst thy
tyranny.
¹⁴⁵

Yet every mother breeds not
sons alike:
¹⁴⁶
—

Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.

CHIRON
    What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?

LAVINIA
    ’Tis true, the
raven
doth not hatch a
lark.
¹⁴⁹

Yet have I heard — O, could I find
it
¹⁵⁰
now! —

The lion moved with pity did endure

To have his princely
paws
¹⁵²
pared all away.

Some say that ravens foster
forlorn
¹⁵³
children

The whilst their own
birds
¹⁵⁴
famish in their nests:

O, be to me though thy hard heart say no,

Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!
¹⁵⁶

TAMORA
    I know not what
it
¹⁵⁷
means.— Away with her!

LAVINIA
    O, let me teach thee for my father’s sake,

That gave thee life when well he might have slain thee.

Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.

TAMORA
    Hadst thou in person ne’er offended me,

Even for his sake am I pitiless.

Remember, boys, I poured forth tears in vain

To save your brother from the sacrifice,

But fierce Andronicus would not relent.

Therefore away with her and
use
¹⁶⁶
her as you will:

The worse to her, the better loved of me.