And bear it from me to the Emperess.
If thou do this, I'll show thee
wondrous things
That highly may
advantage thee to hear;
If thou wilt not,
befall what may
befall,
I'll speak no more but 'Vengeance rot you all!'
LUCIUS. Say on; an if it please me which thou speak'st,
Thy child shall live, and I will see it
nourish'd.
AARON. An if it please thee! Why, assure thee, Lucius,
'Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;
For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres,
Acts of black night,
abominable deeds,
Complots of
mischief,
treason, villainies,
Ruthful to hear, yet
piteously perform'd;
And this shall all be buried in my death,
Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.
LUCIUS. Tell on thy mind; I say thy child shall live.
AARON. Swear that he shall, and then I will begin.
LUCIUS. Who should I swear by? Thou believest no god;
That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
AARON. What if I do not? as indeed I do not;
Yet, for I know thou art religious
And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies
Which I have seen thee careful to observe,
Therefore I urge thy oath. For that I know
An idiot holds his bauble for a god,
And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,
To that I'll urge him. Therefore thou shalt vow
By that same god- what god soe'er it be
That thou adorest and hast in reverence-
To save my boy, to
nourish and bring him up;
Or else I will discover
nought to thee.
LUCIUS. Even by my god I swear to thee I will.
AARON. First know thou, I begot him on the Empress.
LUCIUS. O most insatiate and
luxurious woman!
AARON. Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
'Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus;
They cut thy sister's tongue, and ravish'd her,
And cut her hands, and trimm'd her as thou sawest.
LUCIUS. O detestable villain! Call'st thou that trimming?
AARON. Why, she was wash'd, and cut, and trimm'd, and 'twas
Trim sport for them which had the doing of it.
LUCIUS. O
barbarousbeastly villains like thyself!
AARON. Indeed, I was their tutor to
instruct them.
That codding spirit had they from their mother,
As sure a card as ever won the set;
That
bloody mind, I think, they learn'd of me,
As true a dog as ever fought at head.
Well, let my deeds be
witness of my worth.
I train'd thy brethren to that guileful hole
Where the dead
corpse of Bassianus lay;
I wrote the letter that thy father found,
And hid the gold within that letter mention'd,
Confederate with the Queen and her two sons;
And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue,
Wherein I had no stroke of
mischief in it?
I play'd the cheater for thy father's hand,
And, when I had it, drew myself apart
And almost broke my heart with
extreme laughter.
I pried me through the
crevice of a wall,
When, for his hand, he had his two sons' heads;
Beheld his tears, and laugh'd so
heartilyThat both mine eyes were rainy like to his;
And when I told the Empress of this sport,
She swooned almost at my
pleasing tale,
And for my
tidings gave me twenty kisses.
GOTH. What, canst thou say all this and never blush?
AARON. Ay, like a black dog, as the
saying is.
LUCIUS. Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?
AARON. Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day- and yet, I think,
Few come within the
compass of my curse-
Wherein I did not some
notorious ill;
As kill a man, or else
devise his death;
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
Accuse some
innocent, and forswear myself;
Set
deadlyenmity between two friends;
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners
quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them
upright at their dear friends' door
Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand
dreadful things
As
willingly as one would kill a fly;
And nothing grieves me
heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
LUCIUS. Bring down the devil, for he must not die
So sweet a death as
hanging presently.
AARON. If there be devils, would I were a devil,
To live and burn in
everlasting fire,
So I might have your company in hell
But to
torment you with my bitter tongue!
LUCIUS. Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.
Enter AEMILIUS
GOTH. My lord, there is a
messenger from Rome
Desires to be admitted to your presence.
LUCIUS. Let him come near.
Welcome, Aemilius. What's the news from Rome?
AEMILIUS. Lord Lucius, and you Princes of the Goths,
The Roman Emperor greets you all by me;
And, for he understands you are in arms,
He craves a parley at your father's house,
Willing you to demand your hostages,
And they shall be immediately deliver'd.
FIRST GOTH. What says our general?
LUCIUS. Aemilius, let the Emperor give his pledges
Unto my father and my uncle Marcus.
And we will come. March away. Exeunt
SCENE II.
Rome. Before TITUS' house
Enter TAMORA,
and her two sons, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, disguised
TAMORA. Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,
I will
encounter with Andronicus,
And say I am Revenge, sent from below
To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
Knock at his study, where they say he keeps
To ruminate strange plots of dire
revenge;
Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,
And work
confusion on his enemies.
They knock and TITUS opens his study door, above
TITUS. Who doth
molest my contemplation?
Is it your trick to make me ope the door,
That so my sad decrees may fly away
And all my study be to no effect?
You are deceiv'd; for what I mean to do
See here in
bloody lines I have set down;
And what is written shall be executed.
TAMORA. Titus, I am come to talk with thee.
TITUS. No, not a word. How can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it that accord?
Thou hast the odds of me;
therefore no more.
TAMORA. If thou didst know me, thou wouldst talk with me.
TITUS. I am not mad, I know thee well enough:
Witness this
wretched stump,
witness these
crimson lines;
Witness these trenches made by grief and care;
Witness the tiring day and heavy night;
Witness all sorrow that I know thee well
For our proud Empress,
mighty Tamora.
Is not thy coming for my other hand?
TAMORA. Know thou, sad man, I am not Tamora:
She is thy enemy and I thy friend.
I am Revenge, sent from th'
infernal kingdom
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind
By
working wreakful
vengeance on thy foes.
Come down and
welcome me to this world's light;
Confer with me of murder and of death;
There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
No vast
obscurity or misty vale,
Where
bloody murder or detested rape
Can couch for fear but I will find them out;
And in their ears tell them my
dreadful name-
Revenge, which makes the foul
offender quake.
TITUS. Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me
To be a
torment to mine enemies?
TAMORA. I am;
therefore come down and
welcome me.
TITUS. Do me some service ere I come to thee.
Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands;
Now give some surance that thou art Revenge-
Stab them, or tear them on thy
chariot wheels;
And then I'll come and be thy
waggoner
And whirl along with thee about the globes.
Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet,
To hale thy vengeful
waggon swift away,
And find out murderers in their
guilty caves;
And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
I will
dismount, and by thy
waggon wheel
Trot, like a servile
footman, all day long,
Even from Hyperion's rising in the east
Until his very
downfall in the sea.
And day by day I'll do this heavy task,
So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.
TAMORA. These are my ministers, and come with me.
TITUS. Are they thy ministers? What are they call'd?
TAMORA. Rape and Murder;
therefore called so
'Cause they take
vengeance of such kind of men.
TITUS. Good Lord, how like the Empress' sons they are!
And you the Empress! But we
worldly men
Have
miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.
O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee;
And, if one arm's
embracement will content thee,
I will
embrace thee in it by and by.
TAMORA. This closing with him fits his lunacy.
Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick humours,
Do you
uphold and
maintain in your speeches,
For now he
firmly takes me for Revenge;
And, being
credulous in this mad thought,
I'll make him send for Lucius his son,
And
whilst I at a
banquet hold him sure,
I'll find some
cunning practice out of hand
To scatter and
disperse the giddy Goths,
Or, at the least, make them his enemies.
See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.
Enter TITUS, below
TITUS. Long have I been
forlorn, and all for thee.
Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful house.