Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word: Is he sure bound? look, that you bind them fast.

Re-enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with LAVINIA; she bearing a Bason, and he a Knife.

Tit. Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound;

Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;
But let them hear what fearful words I utter.-
O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!

Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud;

This goodly summer with your winter mix'd.
You kill'd her husband; and, for that vile fault,
Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death:
My hand cut off, and made a merry jest:

Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that, more dear

Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Inhuman traitors, you constrain'd and forc'd.
What would you say, if I should let you speak?
Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats;
Whilst that Lavinia 'tween her stumps doth hold
The bason, that receives your guilty blood.
You know, your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad,--
Hark, villains; I will grind your bones to dust,
And with your blood and it, I'll make a paste;
And of the paste a coffin3 I will rear,

And make two pasties of your shameful heads;
And bid that strumpet, your unhallow'd dam,
Like to the earth, swallow her own increase4.

A coffin is the term for the crust of a raised pie.

Psalm

4 i. e. her own produce. The earth's increase is the produce of the earth. Then shall the earth bring forth her increase. Ixvii. 6. So in The Tempest, Act iv. Sc. 1:

Earth's increase and foison plenty.'

This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
For worse than Philomel you us'd my daughter,
And worse than Progne I will be reveng'd:
And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,
[He cuts their Throats.
Receive the blood: and, when that they are dead,
Let me go grind their bones to powder small,
And with this hateful liquor temper it;

And in that paste let their vile heads be bak'd.
Come, come, be every one officious

To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaur's feast.
So, now bring them in, for I will play the cook,
And see them ready 'gainst their mother comes.
[Exeunt, bearing the dead Bodies.

SCENE III.

The same. A Pavilion, with Tables, &c.

Enter Lucius, MARCUS, and Goths, with AARON, Prisoner.

Luc. Uncle Marcus, since 'tis my father's mind, That I repair to Rome, I am content.

1 Goth. And ours, with thine1, befall what fortune will.

Luc. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor, This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil; Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him, Till he be brought unto the empress' face, For testimony of her foul proceedings: And see the ambush of our friends be strong: I fear, the emperor means no good to us.

Aar. Some devil whisper curses in mine ear,

And our content runs parallel with thine, be the consequence of our coming to Rome what it may.'

And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth
The venomous malice of my swelling heart?
Luc. Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!--
Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.—

[Exeunt Goths, with AARON. Flourish. The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.

Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with Tribunes, Senators, and Others.

Sat. What, hath the firmament more suns than one? Luc. What boots it thee, to call thyself a sun? Mar. Rome's emperor, and nephew, break2 the parle ;

These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready, which the careful Titus

Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome: Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places. Sat. Marcus, we will.

[Hautboys sound.
at Table.

The Company sit down

Enter Tirus, dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA, veiled, Young LUCIUS, and Others. TITUS places the Dishes on the Table.

Tit. Welcome, my gracious lord: welcome, dread

queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor, "Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.

Sat. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus? Tit. Because I would be sure to have all well, To entertain your highness and your empress. Tam. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus. Tit. An if your highness knew my heart, you were. My lord the emperor resolve me this;

i. e. begin the parley. We yet say, he breaks his mind.

Was it well done of rash Virginius,

To slay his daughter with his own right hand, Because she was enforc'd, stain'd, and deflour'd3? Sat. It was, Andronicus.

Tit. Your reason, mighty lord!

Sat. Because the girl should not survive her shame, And by her presence still renew his sorrows. Tit. A reason mighty, strong, and effectual; A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant, For me, most wretched to perform the like:Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;

[He kills LAVINIA. And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die! Sat. What hast thou done, unnatural, and unkind? Tit. Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woful as Virginius was:

And have a thousand times more cause than he
To do this outrage;-and it is now done.

Sat. What, was she ravish'd? tell, who did the deed. Tit. Will't please you eat? will't please your highness feed?

Tam. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus? Tit. Not I; 'twas Chiron, and Demetrius: They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue, And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong. Sat. Go, fetch them hither to us presently. Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that pie; Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred4. 'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point. [Killing TAMORA.

3 Rowe may have availed himself of this passage in The Fair Penitent, where Sciolto asks Calista :

'Hast thou not heard what brave Virginius did? With his own hand he slew his only daughter,' &c. Titus Andronicus (as Steevens observes) is incorrect in his statement of this occurrence, for Virginia died unviolated. Mr. Boswell seems to think this qualified by his saying that he had more cause to slay his daughter than Virginius.

4 The additions made by Ravenscroft to this scene are much of a piece with it :

Sat. Die, frantick 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. [Kills 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, O, let me teach you how to knit again This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf, These broken limbs again into one body.

Sen. Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself; And she, whom mighty kingdoms court'sy to, Like a forlorn and desperate castaway, Do shameful execution on herself. But if my frosty signs and chaps of age, Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome's dear friend; [To LUCIUS.] as erst our ancestor,

When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To lovesick Dido's sad attending ear,

The story of that baleful burning night,

When subtle Greeks surpris'd King Priam's Troy;
Tell us, what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in,
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.-
My heart is not compact of flint, nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
And break my very utterance; even i'the time

Thus cramm'd, thou'rt bravely fatten'd up for hell, And thus to Pluto I do serve thee up.' [Stabs the Empress. And then A curtain drawn discovers the heads and hands of Demetrius and Chiron hanging up against the wall; their bodies in chairs in bloody linen.'