Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (13 page)

Sweet
blowse
⁷⁴
, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.

DEMETRIUS
    Villain, what hast thou done?

AARON
    That which thou canst not undo.

CHIRON
    Thou hast undone our mother.

AARON
    Villain, I have
done
⁷⁸
thy mother.

DEMETRIUS
    And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.

Woe to her
chance
⁸⁰
, and damned her loathèd choice,

Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend.

CHIRON
    It shall not live.

AARON
    It shall not die.

NURSE
    Aaron, it must: the mother wills it so.

AARON
    What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I

Do execution on my flesh and blood.

DEMETRIUS
    I’ll
broach
⁸⁷
the tadpole on my rapier’s point.

Nurse, give it me: my sword shall soon dispatch it.

AARON
    Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.

Stay, murderous villains! Will you kill your brother?

Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,

That shone so brightly when this boy was
got,
⁹²

He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point

That touches this my first-born son and heir.

I tell you, younglings, not
Enceladus
⁹⁵

With all his threat’ning band of
Typhon’s
⁹⁶
brood,

Nor great
Alcides
, nor the
god of war,
⁹⁷

Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.

What, what, ye
sanguine
⁹⁹
, shallow-hearted boys!

Ye
white-limed
walls, ye
ale-house painted
¹⁰⁰
signs!

Coal-black is better than another hue

In that it scorns to bear another hue,

For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,

Although she
lave
them hourly in the
flood.
¹⁰⁵

Tell the empress from me, I am of age

To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.

DEMETRIUS
    Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?

AARON
    My mistress is my mistress,
this
¹⁰⁹
myself,

The vigour and the picture of my youth:

This before all the world do I prefer,

This
maugre
¹¹²
all the world will I keep safe,

Or some of you shall
smoke
¹¹³
for it in Rome.

DEMETRIUS
    By this our mother is forever shamed.

CHIRON
    Rome will despise her for this foul
escape.
¹¹⁵

NURSE
    The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.

CHIRON
    I blush to think upon this
ignomy.
¹¹⁷

AARON
    Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears:

Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing

The
close enacts
¹²⁰
and counsels of the heart.

Here’s a young lad
framed
of another
leer:
¹²¹

Look how the black
slave
¹²²
smiles upon the father,

As who should say
¹²³
‘Old lad, I am thine own.’

He is your brother, lords,
sensibly
¹²⁴
fed

Of that
self-blood
¹²⁵
that first gave life to you,

And from that womb where you imprisoned were

He is
enfranchisèd
¹²⁷
and come to light.

Nay, he is your brother by
the surer
¹²⁸
side,

Although my seal be stampèd in his face.

NURSE
    Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?

DEMETRIUS
    
Advise thee
¹³¹
, Aaron, what is to be done,

And we will all subscribe to thy advice.

Save thou the child,
so
¹³³
we may all be safe.

AARON
    Then sit we down, and let us all consult.

My son and I will
have the wind of
¹³⁵
you.

Keep there: now talk at pleasure of your safety.

DEMETRIUS
    How many women saw this child of his?

AARON
    Why, so, brave lords, when we join in league

I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor,

The
chafèd
¹⁴⁰
boar, the mountain lioness,

The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.—

But say again, how many saw the child?

NURSE
    Cornelia the midwife and myself,

And none else but the delivered empress.

AARON
    The empress, the midwife, and yourself:

Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.

Go to the empress, tell her this I said.

Weke, weke!
¹⁴⁸
So cries a pig preparèd to th’spit.

DEMETRIUS
    What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?

AARON
    O Lord, sir, ’tis a deed of
policy:
¹⁵⁰

Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,

A
long-tongued
¹⁵²
babbling gossip? No, lords, no:

And now be it known to you my full intent.

Not far, one Muly lives, my countryman:

His wife but yesternight was brought to bed:

His child is
like to her
¹⁵⁶
, fair as you are.

Go
pack
¹⁵⁷
with him, and give the mother gold,

And tell them both the
circumstance
¹⁵⁸
of all,

And how by this their child shall be advanced,

And be receivèd for the emperor’s heir,

And substituted in the place of mine,

To calm this tempest whirling in the court,

And let the emperor dandle him for his own.

Hark ye, lords, ye see I have given her
physic,
¹⁶⁴

And you must needs
bestow
¹⁶⁵
her funeral:

The fields are near and you are gallant
grooms.
¹⁶⁶

This done, see that you take no longer
days,
¹⁶⁷

But send the midwife
presently
¹⁶⁸
to me.

The midwife and the nurse well made away,

Then let the ladies tattle what they please.

CHIRON
    Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air

With secrets.

DEMETRIUS
    For this care of Tamora,

Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.

AARON
    Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies,

There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,

And secretly to greet the empress’ friends.

Come on, you thick-lipped slave, I’ll bear you hence,

For it is you that puts us to our
shifts:
¹⁷⁹

I’ll make you feed on berries and on roots,

And feed on
curds and whey
, and
suck
¹⁸¹
the goat,

And
cabin
¹⁸²
in a cave, and bring you up

To be a warrior and command a camp.

TITUS
    Come, Marcus, come, kinsmen: this is the way.

Sir Boy, let me see your archery.

Look ye
draw home
enough, and
’tis there straight.
³

Terras Astraea reliquit:
be you remembered,
⁴

Marcus, she’s gone, she’s fled.— Sirs, take you to your tools.

You,
cousins
, shall go
sound
⁶
the ocean,

And cast your nets:

Haply
⁸
you may find her in the sea,

Yet
there’s
⁹
as little justice as at land.

No, Publius and Sempronius, you must do it,

’Tis you must dig with
mattock
¹¹
and with spade,

And pierce the inmost centre of the earth.

Then, when you come to
Pluto’s region,
¹³

I pray you deliver him this petition.

Tell him, it is for justice and for aid,

And that it comes from old Andronicus,

Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.—

Ah, Rome! Well, well, I made thee miserable

What time
I threw the people’s
suffrages
¹⁹

On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.—

Go, get you gone, and pray be careful all,

And leave you not a
man-of-war
²²
unsearched:

This wicked emperor may have shipped
her
²³
hence,

And, kinsmen, then we may go
pipe for
²⁴
justice.

MARCUS
    O Publius, is not this a
heavy case,
²⁵

To see thy noble uncle thus
distract?
²⁶

PUBLIUS
    Therefore, my lords, it highly us concerns

By day and night t’attend him
carefully
²⁸

And
feed his humour
²⁹
kindly as we may,

Till time beget some
careful
³⁰
remedy.

MARCUS
    Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.

Join with the Goths
³²
and with revengeful war

Take
wreak
³³
on Rome for this ingratitude,

And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.

TITUS
    Publius, how now? How now, my masters?

What, have you met with
her?
³⁶

PUBLIUS
    No, my good lord, but Pluto sends you word

If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall.

Marry,
for
³⁹
Justice, she is so employed,

He thinks with Jove in heaven or somewhere else,

So that
perforce
you must needs
stay
⁴¹
a time.

TITUS
    He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.

I’ll dive into the
burning lake
⁴³
below

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.

Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we,

No big-boned men framed of the
Cyclops
⁴⁶
’ size,

But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,

Yet
wrung
⁴⁸
with wrongs more than our backs can bear.

And
sith
⁴⁹
there’s no justice in earth nor hell,

We will solicit heaven and
move
⁵⁰
the gods

To send down Justice
for to
⁵¹
wreak our wrongs.

Come, to this
gear
⁵²
. You are a good archer, Marcus:

‘Ad Jovem’
, that’s for you: here,
‘Ad Apollinem’:
⁵³

‘Ad Martem’
, that’s for myself:

Here, boy, to Pallas: here, to Mercury:

To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine.

You were as good to shoot against the wind.
⁵⁷

To it, boy! Marcus,
loose
⁵⁸
when I bid.

Of
⁵⁹
my word, I have written to effect:

There’s not a god left unsolicited.

MARCUS
    Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:

We will afflict the emperor in his pride.

TITUS
    Now, masters, draw.

O, well
said,
⁶⁴
Lucius.

Good boy, in
Virgo
’s lap.
Give it Pallas.
⁶⁵

MARCUS
    My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon:

Your letter is with Jupiter by this.

TITUS
    Ha, ha!

Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?

See, see, thou hast shot off one of
Taurus
⁷⁰
’ horns.

MARCUS
    This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,

The bull, being
galled
, gave
Aries
⁷²
such a knock

That down fell both the ram’s
horns
⁷³
in the court,

And who should find them but the empress’
villain!
⁷⁴

She laughed and told the Moor he should not choose

But give them to his master for a present.

TITUS
    Why,
there it goes:
⁷⁷
God give his lordship joy!