Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks; Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought! Because they died in honour's lofty bed. [Throwing himself on the Ground. My heart's deep languor, and my soul's sad tears. Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite; My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush. [Exeunt Senators, Tribunes, &c, with the Prisoners. O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain, Enter Lucius, with his Sword drawn. Luc. O, noble father, you lament in vain ; Tit. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead: Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you. Luc. My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak. Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones; The old copies read, two ancient rimes. The emendation i by Sir T. Hanmer. Yet in some sort they're better than the tribunes, And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death. Tit. O happy man! they have befriended thee. But who comes with our brother Marcus here? Mar. Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep; I bring consuming sorrow to thine age. Tit. Will it consume me? let me see it then. Tit. Why, Marcus, so she is. Luc. Ah me! this object kills me! Tit. Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her: Speak, my Lavinia, what accursed hand Hath made thee handless in thy father's sight? Now, all the service I require of them Luc. Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr'd thee? Mar. O, that delightful engine of her thoughts2, That blabb'd them with such pleasing eloquence, Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage: Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear! Luc. O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed? Mar. O, thus I found her, straying in the park, Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer, That hath received some unrecuring wound. Tit. It was my deer; and he, that wounded her, Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by ware, It would have madded me; What shall I do Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears; 2 This piece furnishes scarce any resemblances to Shakspeare's works; this one expression, however, is found in his Venus and Adonis :'Once more the engine of her thoughts began.' Stood on her cheeks; as doth the honey dew Mar. Perchance, she weeps because they kill'd her husband: Perchance, because she knows them innocent. Tit. If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful, Or make some sign how I may do thee ease: What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues, To make us wonder'd at in time to come. Luc. Sweet father, cease your tears; for, at your grief, See, how my wretched sister sobs and weeps. thine eyes. Tit. Ah, Marcus, Marcus! brother well I wot, Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine, For thou, poor man, hast drown'd it with thine own. Luc. Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks. Tit. Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs: Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say That to her brother which I said to thee; His napkin with his true tears all bewet, Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks, O, what a sympathy of woe is this! As far from help as limbo3 is from bliss! Enter AARON. Aar. Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor That gives sweet tidings of the sun's uprise? Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off? Luc. Stay, father; for that noble hand of thine, That hath thrown down so many enemies, Shall not be sent: my hand will serve the turn: My youth can better spare my blood than you: And therefore mine shall save my brothers' lives. Mar. Which of your hands hath not defended Rome, And rear'd aloft the bloody battleaxe, Writing destruction on the enemy's castle1? Aar. Nay, come agree, whose, hand shall go along, For fear they die before their pardon come. 3 The Limbus patrum, as it was called, is a place that the schoolmen supposed to be in the neighbourhood of hell, where the souls of the patriarchs were detained, and those good men who died before our Saviour's resurrection. Milton gives the name of Limbo to his Paradise of Fools. It appears from Grose on Antient Armour, that a castle was a kind of close helmet, probably so named from casquetel, old French. See vol. vii. p. 408, note 23. |