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And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.
Aar. Zounds', ye whore! is black so base a hue ?-
Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.
Dem. Villain, what hast thou done?
Aar. That which thou canst not undo.
Chi. Thou hast undone our mother.
Aar. Villain, I have done thy mother.

Dem. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.
Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice!
Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend!

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Nur. Aaron, it must: the mother wills it so.
Aar. What! must it, nurse? then let no man but I
Do execution on my flesh and blood.

Dem. I'll broach the tadpole' on my rapier's point.
Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it.
Aar. Sooner this sword shall plow thy bowels up.

[Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws. Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother? Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,

That shone so brightly when this boy was got,

He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point,

That touches this my first-born son and heir.

I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,

With all his threatening band of Typhon's brood,
Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,

Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands.
What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!
Ye white-lim'd walls! ye alehouse painted signs!
Coal-black is better than another hue,

In that it scorns to bear another hue;
For all the water in the ocean

1 Zounds,] So both the 4tos: the folio, 1623, reads "Out," &c.

2 I'll broach the tadpole] The same word "broach" being used in "Lust's Dominion," Boswell quoted the passage where it occurs as Marlowe's. In 1821, when the Variorum Shakespeare was printed, it was not known that "Lust's Dominion" was not by Marlowe, but the fact was proved in 1825, and has since been repeatedly stated. Nevertheless, Mr. Singer, extracting Boswell's note as if it were his own, inadvertently makes himself responsible for Boswell's blunder : what seemed true in 1821 is well known to be untrue in 1857. We have pointed out the same mistake more than once before.

3 Ye WHITE-LIM'D walls!] The old copies all read white-limb'd; but no doubt, as Steevens suggests, we ought to read "white-lim'd."

Can never turn the swan's black legs to white,
Although she lave them hourly in the flood.
Tell the
from
empress
me, I am of age
To keep mine own; excuse it how she can.

4

Dem. Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?
Aar. My mistress is my mistress; this, myself;
The vigour, and the picture of my youth:

This, before all the world, do I prefer ;
This, maugre all the world, will I keep safe,
Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.
Dem. By this our mother is for ever shamed.
Chi. Rome will despise her for this foul escape.
Nur. The emperor in his rage will doom her death.
Chi. I blush to think upon this ignomy'.

Aar. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears.
Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
The close enacts and counsels of the heart!

Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer.
Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father,
As who should say, "Old lad, I am thine own."
He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed

Of that self-blood that first gave life to you;
And, from that womb', where you imprison'd were,
He is enfranchised and come to light:

Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,
Although my seal be stamped in his face.

Nur. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress
Dem. Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,
And we will all subscribe to thy advice:
Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.

Aar. Then sit we down, and let us all consult.

My son and I will have the wind of you:

?

4 I am of age] "I am a man" in the corr. fo. 1632, making the line rhyme with the next. No doubt the couplet was formerly so written and spoken; but possibly Shakespeare altered it, when rhyme went somewhat out of fashion, and we adhere to the printed copies.

5 - this IGNOMY.] The 4tos. read "ignomy;" the folios, ignominie, to the destruction of the verse. We have already had "ignomy" used for ignominy in " Henry IV., Part I.," A. v. sc. 4, Vol. iii, p. 416, and in "Troilus and Cressida," A. v. sc. 11, Vol. iv. p. 595. See also "Measure for Measure," A. ii. sc. 4.

6- fram'd of another LEER.] i. e. Of another skin or complexion. See “As You Like It," A. iv. sc. 1, Vol. ii. p. 410. It is spelt in various ways, leer, lere, leyre, leire, and leere, but the meaning is always the same.

7 And, from THAT womb,] The earliest 4to, that of 1600, alone reads “your womb."

Keep there; now talk at pleasure of your safety.

[They sit.

Dem. How many women saw this child of his ?
Aar. Why, so, brave lords: when we join in league,
I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,
The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.-
But say again, how many saw the child?
Nur. Cornelia the midwife, and myself;
And no one else, but the deliver'd empress.

Aar. The empress, the midwife, and yourself:
Two may keep counsel, when the third's away.
Go to the empress; tell her, this I said.-

[Stabbing her: she screams. Weke, weke !-so cries a pig prepared to the spit.

Dem. What mean'st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou

this?

Aar. Oh lord! sir, 'tis a deed of policy.
Shall she live to betray this guilt of our's,
A long-tongu'd babbling gossip? no, lords, no.
And now be it known to you my full intent.
Not far hence Muli lives, my countryman;
His wife but yesternight was brought to bed.
His child is like to her, fair as you are:

Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,
And tell them both the circumstance of all;
And how by this their child shall be advanc'd,
And be received for the emperor's heir,
And substituted in the place of mine,
To calm this tempest whirling in the court,
And let the emperor dandle him for his own.
Hark ye, lords; ye see, I have given her physic.

[Pointing to the Nurse.

And you must needs bestow her funeral;
The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.

8 Not far HENCE MULI LIVES,] The old copies read "Not far one Muliteus," and the modern text has usually been "Not far one Muli lives;" but our version is that of the corr. fo. 1632, and seems preferable. Steevens guessed at "Muli lives" for Muliteus. The true text may have been "Not far on Muli lives," &c., but we give what is supported by the best authority we can procure.

9 GO PACK with him,] Pope understands "pack" as make a bargain; and Steevens says that to "pack" is to contrive insidiously. Shakespeare, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. iv. sc. 2, uses "pack" as synonymous with "conspiracy;" and in "The Taming of the Shrew," A. v. sc. 1, Vol. ii. p. 519, Gremio exclaims, "Here's packing with a witness, to deceive us all."

This done, see that you take no longer days',
But send the midwife presently to me:
The midwife, and the nurse, well made away,
Then, let the ladies tattle what they please 2.
Chi. Aaron, I see, thou wilt not trust the air
With secrets.
Dem.

For this care of Tamora,
Herself and her's are highly bound to thee.

[Exeunt DEM. and CHI. bearing off the Nurse. Aar. Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies; There to dispose this treasure in mine arms, And secretly to greet the empress' friends.Come on, you thick-lipp'd slave; I'll bear you hence, For it is you that puts us to our shifts:

I'll make you feed on berries and on roots,

And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,

And cabin in a cave; and bring you up

To be a warrior, and command a camp. [Exit with the Child.

SCENE III.

The Same. A public Place.

Enter TITUS, bearing arrows, with letters on the ends of them; with him MARCUS, PUBLIUS, young LUCIUS', and other Gentlemen, with bows.

Tit. Come, Marcus, come.-Kinsmen, this is the way.

This done, see that you take no longer days,] The corr. fo. 1632 gives what were perhaps the words in the time of the old corrector, “make no long delays;" but "take no longer days seems to have been the language of the poet, and of his period, and we make no change.

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2 - tattle what they please.] Here again an apparently obvious rhyme is supplied by the old annotator on the fo. 1632 in the words, "Then let the ladies tattle what they may."

3 And feed on curds and whey,] So the 4tos. and folios; but in the corr. fo. 1632 thrive is substituted for "feed." As this change may have been merely an exercise of taste, to avoid the repetition of "feed" in two consecutive lines, we do not disturb the received text.

♦ — with him Marcus, PUBLIUS, young Lucius, &c.] It is singular that in all ancient and modern copies (as far as we have been able to examine the latter) the name of Publius has been omitted in the introduction to this scene. It might again have escaped our notice, as it did in our former edition, had not our attention been drawn to the circumstance by Mr. W. W. Williams of Tiverton.

5

Sir boy, now let me see your archery:

Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.
Terras Astræa reliquit :

Be you remember'd Marcus, she's gone, she's fled.
Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall
Go sound the ocean, and cast your nets;
Happily you may catch her in the sea",
Yet there's as little justice as at land.—
No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;
'Tis you must dig with mattock, and with spade,
And pierce the inmost centre of the earth :
Then, when you come to Pluto's region,
I pray you, deliver him this petition;
Tell him, it is for justice, and for aid,
And that it comes from old Andronicus,
Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.-
Ah, Rome!-Well, well; I made thee miserable,
What time I threw the people's suffrages
On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me.-
Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,
And leave you not a man of war unsearch'd:
This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence,
And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.
Mar. Oh, Publius! is not this a heavy case,
To see thy noble uncle thus distract?

Pub. Therefore, my lord, it highly us concerns,
By day and night t' attend him carefully;
And feed his humour kindly as we may,

Till time beget some careful remedy.

Mar. Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.

Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war

Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,

And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.

Tit. Publius, how now! how now, my masters! What,

Have you met with her?

Pub. No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,

If you will have revenge from hell, you shall.

Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,

He thinks with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,

5 - NOW] This necessary syllable, wanting in the 4tos. and in the first folio, is supplied by the second.

6 Happily you may CATCH her in the sea,] So the 4to, 1600: that of 1611 and the folio substitute find for "catch."

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