Imatges de pàgina
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As punishment for his moft wicked life,
Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern fo,
To heal Rome's harm, and drive away her woe!
But, gentle people, give me aim a while,
For nature puts me to a heavy task:

Stand all aloof; but, uncle, draw you near,
To fhed obfequious tears upon this trunk ;
Oh, take this warm kifs on thy pale cold lips,
[Kiffes Titus.
These forrowful drops upon thy blood-ftain'd face;
The last true duties of thy noble fon.

Mar. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips;
O, were the fum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us

To melt in fhowers; thy grandfire lov'd thee well;
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee afleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet and agreeing with thy infancy;

In that refpect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet fome fmall drops from thy tender fpring,
Because kind nature doth require it fo;

Friends fhould affociate friends, in grief and woe.
Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.
Boy. O grandfire, grandfire! even with all my heart,
Would I were dead, fo you did live again,-
O lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping-
My tears will choak me, if I ope my mouth.

Enter Romans with Aaron.

Rom. You fad Andronici, have done with woes: Give sentence on this execrable wretch.

That

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

Luc. Set him breast deep in earth, and famish him,
There let him ftand 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 faftned in the earth.

Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb! I am no baby, I, that with base

prayers I fhould repent the evil I have done :

Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very foul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,
And give him burial in his father's grave.
My father and Lavinia fhall forthwith
Be closed in our houfhold's monument:
As for that heinous tygrefs Tamora,

No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds,
No mournful bell fhall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beafts and birds of prey;
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See juftice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
From whom our heavy haps had their beginning;
Then, afterwards, we'll order well the ftate;
That like events may ne'er it ruinate. [Exeunt omnes.

TITUS ANDRONICUS.] This is one of thofe plays which I have always thought, with the better judges, ought not to be acknowleged in the lift of Shakespeare's genuine pieces. And, perhaps, I may give a proof to ftrengthen this opinion, that may put the matter out of queftion. Ben Jonfon, in the introduction to his Bartholomew-Fair, which made its firft appearance in the year 1614, couples Jeronymo and Andronicus together in reputation, and speaks of them as plays then of twenty-five or thirty years standing. Confequently Andronicus muft have been on the ftage before Shakespeare left Warwickshire, to come and refide in London and I never heard it so much as intimated, that he had

turned

turned his genius to ftage-writing before he affociated with the players, and became one of their body. However, that he afterwards introduced it a-new on the stage, with the addition of his own masterly touches, is inconteftible, and thence, I prefume, grew his title to it. The diction in general, where he has not taken the pains to raise it, is even beneath that of the Three Parts of Henry VI. The ftory we are to fuppofe merely fictitious, Andronicus is a fur-name of pure Greek derivation. Tamora is neither mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, nor any body elfe that I can find. Nor had Rome, in the time of her emperors, any wars with the Goths that I know of, not till after the tranflation of the empire, I mean to Byzantium, and yet the scene of our play is laid at Rome, and Saturninus is elected to the empire at the capitol. THEOBALD.

All the editors and critics agree with Mr. Theobald in fuppofing this play fpurious. I fee no reason for differing from them; for the colour of the ftile is wholly different from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular verfification, and artificial clofes, not always inelegant, yet feldom pleafing. The barbarity of the fpectacles, and the general maffacre, which are here exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonfon, that they were not only borne, but praised. That Shakespeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares it inconteftible, I fee no reason for believing.

The teftimony produced at the beginning of this play, by which it is afcribed to Shakespeare, is by no means equal to the argument against its authenticity, arifing from the total difference of conduct, language, and fentiments, by which it stands apart from all the rest. Meeres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page, which, though in our time it be fufficient, was then of no great authority; for all the plays which were rejected by the first collectors of Shakespeare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected by the critical editors, had Shakespeare's name on the title, as we muft fuppofe, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet no gazettes, nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary intelligence, could ufurp at pleasure any celebrated name. Nor had Shakespeare any intereft in detecting the imposture, as none of his fame or profit was produced by the prefs.

The chronology of this play does not prove it not to be Shakespeare's. If it had been written twenty-five years, in 1614, it might have been written when Shakespeare was twentyfive years old. When he left Warwickshire I know not, but at the age of twenty-five it was rather too late to fly for deer-ftealing.

Ravenscroft, who in the reign of Charles II. revifed this play, and reftored it to the ftage, tells us, in his preface, from a theatrical tradition, I suppose, which in his time might be of fufficient

authority,

authority, that this play was touched in different parts by Shakefpeare, but written by fome other poet. I do not find Shakespeare's touches difcernible.

very

JOHNSON.

It may not be amifs to remark, that this tragedy, which (fetting afide the feebleness of compofition) would be regarded as too bloody on the modern ftage, appears to have been highly relished in 1686, when it was revived with alterations by Ravenscroft. Inftead of diminishing any of its horrors, he feized every opportunity of making large additions of them, infomuch that when Tamora ftabs her child, the Moor utters the following lines:

She has out-done me, evʼn in mine own art,

Out-done me in murder

Give it me'll eat it.

-kill'd ber vwn child.

STREVENS.

END OF VOLUME THE EIGHTH,

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