And give the king this fatal-plotted scroll :-
Now question me no more, we are espied;
Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction.

TAM. Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than

life !

:

AAR. No more, great empress, Baffianus comes : Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy fons To back thy quarrels, whatsoe'er they be.

Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA.

[Exit.

Bas. Who have we here? Rome's royal emperess,
Unfurnish'd of her well-beseeming troop?
Or is it Dian, habited like her;
Who hath abandoned her holy groves,
To fee the general hunting in this foreft ?

TAM. Saucy controller of our private steps!"
Had I the power, that, fome say, Dian had,
Thy temples should be planted presently
With horns, as was Acteon's; and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,&
Unmannerly intruder as thou art!

of her] Old copies of our. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

The edition 1600, reads exactly thus:

7

MALONE

Vnfurnisht of her well befeeming troop? TODD. - our private steps!] Edition 1600:-my private steps. TODD.

* Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,] Mr. Heath suspects that the poet wrote:

Should thrive upon thy new-transformed limbs,as the former is an expreffion that suggests no image to the fancy. But drive, I think, may stand, with this meaning: the hounds Should pafs with impetuous hasłe, &c. So, in Hamlet :

"Pyrrhus at Priam drives," &c

i. e. flies with impetuofity at him. STEEVENS.

Lav. Under your patience, gentle emperess, 'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning; And to be doubted, that your Moor and you Are fingled forth to try experiments : Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day! 'Tis pity, they should take him for a stag.

Bas. Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian
Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
Spotted, detested, and abominable.
Why are you sequester'd from all your train ?
Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed,
And wander'd hither to an obfcure plot,
Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,1
If foul defire had not conducted you?

Lav. And, being intercepted in your sport,
Great reason that my noble lord be rated
For fauciness.-I pray you, let us hence,
And let her 'joy her raven-colour'd love;
This valley fits the purpose passing well.

Bas. The king, my brother, shall have note of

this.2

The old copies have upon his new-transformed limbs. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

It is said in a note by Mr. Malone, that the old copies read, " upon his new-transformed limbs," and that Mr. Rowe made the emendation-thy. The edition of 1600 reads precisely thus : Should driue vpon thy new transformed limbes. TODD.

9 - swarth Cimmerian - Swarth is black. The Moor is called Cimmerian, from the affinity of blackness to darkness.

JOHNSON.

-swarth Cimmerian-] Edition 1600:-fwartie Cymerion. TODD.

I

Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,] Edition 1600 reads :
Accompanied but with a barbarous Moore. TODD.

2- have note of this,] Old copies-notice. STEEVENS. Thus also the 4to. 1600. TODD.

Lar. Ay, for these slips have made him noted

long :3

Good king! to be so mightily abus'd!

TAM. Why have I patience to endure all this?

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.

DEM. How now, dear fovereign, and our gracious mother,

Why doth your highness look so pale and wan ?

TAM. Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place, A barren detefted vale, you see, it is : The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, O'ercome with moss, and baleful misletoe. Here never fhines the fun ;5 here nothing breeds, Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven. And, when they show'd me this abhorred pit, They told me, here, at dead time of the night, A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,

:

3

- made him noted long :) He had yet been married but one night. JOHNSON.

The true reading may be made her, i. e. Tamora.

STEEVENS.

4 A barren detested vale, As the versification of this play is by no means inharmonious, I am willing to suppose the author

wrote:

A bare detested vale,-. STEEVENS.

$ Here never shines the fun; &c.] Mr. Rowe feems to have thought on this passage in his Jane Shore:

"This is the house where the fun never dawns,
"The bird of night fits screaming o'er its roof,
"Grim spectres sweep along the horrid gloom,

"And nought is heard but wailings and lamentings."

STEEVENS.

Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make fuch fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body, hearing it,
Should ftraight fall mad, or else die suddenly.?
No fooner had they told this hellish tale,

But straight they told me, they would bind me

here

Unto the body of a dismal yew;
And leave me to this miferable death.

And then they call'd me, foul adulteress,
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
That ever ear did hear to fuch effect.
And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
This vengeance on me had they executed :
Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,
Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.
DEM. This is a witness that I am thy fon.

[Stabs BASSIANUS.

CHI. And this for me, struck home to show my [Stabbing him likewife.

strength.

Lav. Ay come, Semiramis, -nay, barbarous Ta

mora!

6 urchins,] i. e. hedgehogs. See Vol. IV. p. 38, п. 3.

STEEVENS.

Should ftraight fall mad, or else die suddenly.] This is faid in fabulous physiology, of those that hear the groan of the mandrake torn up. JOHNSON.

The fame thought and almost the same expressions occur in Romeo and Juliet. STEEVENS.

• Ay come, Semiramis,] The propriety of this address will be best understood from the following passage in P. Holland's tranflation of the 8th Book of Pliny's Nat. Hist. ch. 42: "Queen Semiramis loved a great horse that she had, so farre forth, that she was content he thould doe his kind with her." The incontinence of this lady has been already alluded to in the Induction to the Taming of a Shrew, scene the second. STEEVENS.

For no name fits thy nature but thy own!

TAM. Give me thy poniard; you shall know, my

boys,

Your mother's hand shall right your mother's

wrong.

DEM. Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her; First, thrash the corn, then after burn the straw : This minion stood upon her chastity, Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,

And with that painted hope braves your mighti

nefs :9

And shall she carry this unto her grave ?

CHI. An if she do, I would I were an eunuch. Drag hence her husband to some secret hole, And make his dead trunk pillow to our luft.

TAM. But when you have the honey you defire,1 Let not this wasp outlive, us both to fting.

CHI. I warrant you, madam; we will make that

fure.

Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy.
That nice-preserved honesty of yours.

Lav. O Tamora! thou bear'st a woman's face,-
TAM. I will not hear her speak; away with her.

And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:] Painted hope is only specious hope, or ground of confidence more plausible than folid. JOHNSON.

The ruggedness of this line perfuades me that the word-hope is an interpolation, the sense being complete without it : And with that painted, braves your mightiness. So, in King Richard III: "Poor painted queen," &c. Painted with is, speciously coloured with. STEEVENS.

-you defire,] Old copies-we defire, Corrected in the

second folio. MALONE.

The edit. 1600, reads, with the other old copies-we defire.

TODD.