Tam. What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing! How easily murder is discovered! Tit. High emperor, upon my feeble knee I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed, That this fell fault of my accursed sons, Accursed, if the fault be proved in them, Sat. If it be proved! you see it is apparent. Tit. I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail; To answer their suspicion with their lives. Sat. Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me. 290 Some bring the murder'd body, some the murderers: 300 Tam. Andronicus, I will entreat the king: SCENE IV. Another part of the forest. Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON with LAVINIA, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out. Dem. So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak, Who 'twas that cut thy tongue and ravish'd thee. 305. Fear not, fear not for. Chi. Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so, An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe. Dem. See, how with signs and tokens she can scrowl. Chi. Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands. Dem. She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash ; And so let's leave her to her silent walks. Chi. An 'twere my case, I should go hang myself. Dem. If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord. [Exeunt Demetrius and Chiron. 10 Enter MARCUS. Mar. Who is this? my niece, that flies away so fast! Cousin, a word; where is your husband? If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me! If I do wake, some planet strike me down, Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands And might not gain so great a happiness As have thy love? Why dost not speak to me? Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind, 5. scrowl; (doubtful word: probably) scrawl, write vaguely and wildly in the air. Qq read 'scrowle'; Ff' scowl(e).' 6. sweet, perfumed. 20 Coming and going with thy honey breath. But, sure, some Tereus hath deflowered thee, And make the silken strings delight to kiss them, Which that sweet tongue hath made, He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep 26. Tereus, the husband of Procne, violated her sister Philomela, and then cut her tongue out. 27. detect, betray. 38, 39. Philomela, after losing 30 40 50 her tongue, made her sister Procne aware of her husband's crime by working a representation of it in a sampler. 51. the Thracian poet, Orpheus. Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee: [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. Rome. A street. Enter Judges, Senators and Tribunes, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the place of execution; TITUS going before, pleading. Tit. Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent [Lieth down; the Judges, etc. pass by For these, tribunes, in the dust I write 7. aged wrinkles, wrinkles of age. ΙΟ 17. urns, Hanmer's emendation for Qq Ff 'ruins.' Than youthful April shall with all his showers: Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn. Luc. O noble father, you lament in vain : Tit. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead. Tit. Why, 'tis no matter, man: if they did hear, Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones; Who, though they cannot answer my distress, Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes, When I do weep, they humbly at my feet 36. And bootless unto them. Q1 marks a period after these words, and is followed by Delius. Dyce supplies since 20 30 40 I complain,'. Camb. edd. mark the loss of some words. This, though not absolutely necessary, is most probable. |