ACT II. SCENE 1.6

The fame. Before the Palace.

Enter AARON.

AAR. Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top,
Safe out of fortune's shot; and fits aloft,
Secure of thunder's crack, or lightning's flash;
Advanc'd above pale envy's threat'ning reach.
As when the golden sun salutes the morn,
And, having gilt the ocean with his beams,
Gallops the zodiack in his glistering coach,
And overlooks the highest-peering hills;
So Tamora.-

Upon her wit' doth earthly honour wait,
And virtue stoops and trembles at her frown.
Then, Aaron, arm thy heart, and fit thy thoughts,
To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress,
And mount her pitch; whom thou in triumph

long

Haft prisoner held, fetter'd in amorous chains ;

* In the quarto, the direction is, Manet Aarón, and he is before made to enter with Tamora, though he says nothing. This scene ought to continue the first Act. JOHNSON.

In the edit. 1600, the stage-direction is " Sound trumpets, manet Moore."

TODD.

Upon her wit-) We should read-Upon her will.

WARBURTON. I think wit, for which she is eminent in the drama, is right. JOHNSON.

The wit of Tamora is again mentioned in this scene:

"Come, come, our empress with her facred wit," &c. MALONE.

And fafter bound to Aaron's charming eyes,
Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus.
Away with flavish weeds, and idle thoughts !8
I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold,
To wait upon this new-made emperess.
To wait, faid I? to wanton with this queen,
This goddess, this Semiramis; this queen,
This syren, that will charm Rome's Saturnine,
And fee his shipwreck, and his commonweal's.
Holla! what storm is this?

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS, braving.

DEM. Chiron, thy years want wit, thy, wit wants edge,

And manners, to intrude where I am grac'd;
And may, for aught thou know'st, affected be.

CHI. Demetrius, thou dost over-ween in all;
And fo in this to bear me down with braves.
'Tis not the difference of a year, or two,
Makes me less gracious, thee more fortunate:
I am as able, and as fit, as thou,

grace;

To ferve, and to deserve my mistress'
And that my fword upon thee shall approve,
And plead my paffions for Lavinia's love.

8

idle thoughts!] Edit. 1600:-Servile thoughts, the

better reading, I think. TODD.

this queen,] The compofitor probably repeated the word queen inadvertently; [fee the preceding line:] what was the poet's word, it is hardly worth while to conjecture. MALONE.

This goddess, this Semiramis;-this queen,] Mr. Malone notices the inadvertent repetition of queen, but thinks the poet's word not worth a conjecture. The edition 1600 faves the trouble, as it reads :

This goddeffe, this Semerimis, this nymph. TODD.

AAR. Clubs, clubs! these lovers will not keep

the peace.

DEM. Why, boy, although our mother, unad

vis'd,

2

Gave you a dancing-rapier by your fide,
Are you so desperate grown, to threat your friends ?
Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath,
Till you know better how to handle it.

CHI. Mean while, fir, with the little skill I have, Full well shalt thou perceive how much I dare.

DEM. Ay, boy, grow ye so brave? [They draw.

AAR.

Why, how now, lords?

So near the emperor's palace dare you draw,
And maintain fuch a quarrel openly?

Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge;

I would not for a million of gold,

The cause were known to them it most concerns :

Nor would your noble mother, for much more,

Be so dishonour'd in the court of Rome.

For shame, put up.

DEM.

Not I; till I have sheath'd 3

Clubs, clubs!] So, in King Henry VIII: " - and hit that woman, who cried out, clubs!"

This was the usual outcry for assistance, when any riot in the ftreet happened. STEEVENS.

See Vol. VIII. p. 166, n.3; and Vol. XIII. p. 35, n. 6.

2

REED.

a dancing-rapier by your side,] So, in Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier : -one of them carrying his cuttingfword of choller, the other his dancing-rapier of delight." Again, in All's well that ends well :

"no sword worn,

"But one to dance with." STEEVENS.

See Vol. VIII. p. 257, n. 2. MALONE.

3 Not I; till 1 have sheath'd &c.] This speech, which has been all along given to Demetrius, as the next to Chiron, were

My rapier in his bosom, and, withal,
Thruft these reproachful 4 speeches down his throat,
That he hath breath'd in my dishonour here.

CHI. For that I am prepar'd and full resolv'd,Foul-spoken coward! that thunder'st with thy

tongue, 5

And with thy weapon nothing dar'st perform.

AAR. Away, I say.

Now by the gods, that warlike Goths adore,
This petty brabble will undo us all.-
Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous
It is to jut upon a prince's right?
What, is Lavinia then become so loose,

Or Baffianus so degenerate,

That for her love such quarrels may be broach'd,
Without controlment, justice, or revenge ?
Young lords, beware!-an should the empress know
This difcord's ground, the musick would not please.

CHI. I care not, I, knew she and all the world; I love Lavinia more than all the world.

DEM. Youngling, learn thou to make some meaner choice:

Lavinia is thine elder brother's hope.

AAR. Why, are ye mad? or know ye not, in

Rome

How furious and impatient they be,
And cannot brook competitors in love?

both given to the wrong speaker; for it was Demetrius that had thrown out the reproachful speeches on the other.

WARBURTON.

4-these reproachful-] Edition 1600:-those reproachful.

5

TODD.

- thunder'st with thy tongue,] This phrafe appears to have been adopted from Virgil, Æneid XI. 383:

"Proinde tona eloquia folitum tibi;-. STEEVENS.

I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths

By this device.

CHI.

Aaron, a thousand deaths

Would I propose, to achieve her whom I love.

AAR. To achieve her! -How?

She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;

She is a woman, therefore may be won ;7

DEM.

Why mak'ft thou it so strange?

a thousand deaths

6

Would I propose, Whether Chiron means he would contrive a thousand deaths for others, or imagine as many cruel ones for himself, I am unable to determine. STEEVENS.

Aaron's words, to which these are an answer, seem to lead to the latter interpretation. MALONE,

7 She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;

She is a woman, therefore may be won;] These two lines occur, with very little variation, in the First Part of King Henry VI:

"She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd;
" She is a woman, therefore to be won."

This coincidence may lead one to fufpect that the author of the present play was also author of the original Henry VI. I do not, ndeed, conceive either to be the production of Shakspeare; for, though his hand is sufficiently visible in some parts of the other play, particularly in the second scene of the fourth Act, there does not appear a fingle line in this, which can have any pretenfions to that honour: and therefore the teftimony of Meres and the publication of the players muft neceffarily yield to the force of intrinfick and circumftantial evidence. It is much to be regretted that the dramatick works of our earliest tragick writers, as Greene and Peele, for instance, and " sporting Kyd,' and "Marlowe's mighty line," are not collected and published together, if it were only to enable the readers of Shakspeare to difcriminate between his style and that of which he found the stage, and has left some of his dramas, in poffeffion; and of which I confider this play, and at least four fifths of the First Part of King Henry VI. (including the whole of the first Act) the performances, no doubt, of one or other of the writers already named, as a genuine and not unfavourable specimen. Indeed, I should take Kyd to have been the author of Titus

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