And have a thousand times more cause than he Sat. What! was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed. Tit. Will't please you eat? will't please your high ness feed? Tam. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus? They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue, Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that pie; Whereof their mother daintily hath fed, Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred. 'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point. [Killing TAMORA. Sat. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed. [Killing TITUS. Luc. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed. [Killing SATURNINUS. A great Tumult. The People in confusion disperse. MARCUS, LUCIUS, and their Partisans, ascend the Steps before TITUS's House. Mar. You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of Rome, By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts, This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf, These broken limbs again into one body. Roman Lord. Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself"; To do this outrage ;—and it is now done.] This line is wanting in the folio: both the quartos contain it. 5 Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself ;] Modern editors have sometimes given the four first lines of this speech to a Senator, and the rest of the speech to Marcus. The two quartos assign the whole to a Roman Lord," but the folio gives it to a "Goth," in whose mouth it is very inappropriate. We follow the distribution of the two oldest authorities, correcting Let of the quartos and And she, whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to, When subtle Greeks surpris'd king Priam's Troy. But floods of tears will drown my oratory, And break my very utterance, even i' the time Here is a captain, let him tell the tale; Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak. Were they that murdered our emperor's brother; For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded, Lastly, myself unkindly banished, The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out, folios to "Lest," as the sense obviously requires, and as it stands altered by Southern, in his copy of the fourth folio, the property of Mr. Holgate. • THEN, noble auditory,] So the two quartos: the folio reads, erroneously, "This noble auditory." Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears, My scars can witness, dumb although they are, Citing my worthless praise. O! pardon me; The issue of an irreligious Moor, Chief architect and plotter of these woes. And, as he is, to witness this is true. Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans? And from the place where you behold us now, The poor remainder of Andronici Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down, Emil. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome, 7 I am THE turn'd-forth,] The folio omits "the," found in both quartos. 8 AND, as he is,] Theobald altered this to "Damn'd as he is," but unnecessarily, and in the face of all the old copies, which contain the words of our text. In the next line, "what course" is properly corrected to "what cause" in the folio, 1685. The common voice do cry, it shall be so. Mar. Lucius, all hail'! Rome's royal emperor.— LUCIUS, &c. descend. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house, [To an Attendant. And hither hale that misbelieving Moor, Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern so, [Kisses TITUS. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face2, The last true duties of thy noble son! Mar. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss, Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips : • Lucius, all hail!] There is no sufficient reason for taking this line and the repetition of it below from the tribune, Marcus, who proclaims Lucius on behalf of the people. It has been usual in modern editions (Mr. Knight's is an exception) to give it to the general body of Romans, but the old copies are uniformly like our text. We are to suppose the auditory to confirm Marcus by their shouts and other demonstrations. 1 — GIVE ME AIM awhile,] The usual meaning of “to give aim,” as Gifford has shown in his Massinger, vol. ii. p. 27, is to direct; but here the expression seems to be intended in the sense of "give me leave awhile." In a note (p. 57) to the recent reprint of Armin's "Nest of Ninnies," for the Shakespeare Society, an oversight is committed, when it is said that the phrases, " to cry aim," and " to give aim," seem to have been synonymous of old. "To cry aim meant to encourage, and "to give aim" to direct, though that does not appear to be its meaning in the passage in the text. It is possible that "give me aim" was a misprint for "give me room;" and Lucius afterwards tells those who surrounded him to "stand all aloof." In " King John," Vol. iv. p. 24, we have had "to cry aim" in the sense of to encourage. 2 thy blood-STAIN'D face,] All the old copies read blood slaine, an easy misprint for "blood-stain'd;" but the error was not corrected until the third folio. Malone, by mistake, says the fourth. O! were the sum of these that I should pay them. Luc. Come hither, boy: come, come, and learn of us To melt in showers. Thy grandsire lov'd thee well; Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee, Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow; Meet and agreeing with thine infancy : In that respect, then, like a loving child, Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring, Friends should associate friends in grief and woe. Enter Attendants, with AARON. 1 Rom. You sad Andronici, have done with woes. Give sentence on this execrable wretch, That hath been breeder of these dire events. Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him; There let him stand, and rave and cry for food: If any one relieves, or pities him, For the offence he dies. This is our doom: Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth. Aar. O! why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb? I am no baby, I, that with base prayers I should repent the evils I have done. 3 DO HIM that kindness, and take leave of HIM.] The quartos, in both instances in this line, read them for "him." The folio, 1623, gives it correctly. |