Sat. Friends, that have been thus forward in my right, I thank you all, and here difmifs you all, Open the gates and let me in. Baf. Tribunes! And me, a poor competitor. [They go up into the fenate-bouse. SCENE II. Enter a Captain. Cap. Romans, make way. The good Andronicus, Patron of virtue. Rome's beft champion, Successful in the battles that he fights, With honour and with fortune is return'd, Sound drums and trumpets, and then enter Mutius and Marcus: after them, two men bearing a coffin cover'd with black; then Quintus and Lucius. After them, Titus Andronicus; and then Tamora, the queen of Goths, Alarbus, Chiron, and Demetrius, with Aaron the Moor, prifoners; foldiers, and other attendants. They fet down the coffin, and Titus Speaks. Tit. Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds! Lo, as the bark, that hath difcharg'd her freight, Returns 2 Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!] I fufpect that the poet wrote, -in my mourning weeds! i. e. Titus would fay; Thou, Rome, art victorious, tho' I am a Returns with precious lading to the bay, my fword: [They open the tomb. -There greet in filence, as the dead were wont, And fleep in peace, flain in your country's wars. -O facred receptacle of my joys, Sweet cell of virtue and nobility, How many fons of mine haft thou in ftore, That thou wilt never render to me more? Luc. Give us the proudeft prifoner of the Goths, That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile, Ad manes fratrum facrifice his flesh, Before this earthly prifon of their bones; a mourner for thofe fons which I have loft in obtaining that victory. WARBURTON. Thy is as well as my. We may fuppofe the Romans in a grateful ceremony, meeting the dead fous of Andronicus with mourning habits. JOHNSON. Or that they were in mourning for their emperor who was just dead. STEEVENS. 3 Thou great defender of this Capitel,] Jupiter, to whom the Capitol was facred. JOHNSON. That so the shadows be not unappeas'd, Tam Stay, Roman brethren, gracious conqueror, Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed, A mother's tears in paffion for her fon; Tit. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me. These are their brethren, whom you Goths behold Alive and dead, and for their brethren flain Religiously they ask a facrifice; To this your fon is mark'd, and die he muft, and Lucius, with Alarbus. Tam. O cruel, irreligious piety! Chi. Was ever Scythia half fo barbarous ? Dem. Oppofe not Scythia to ambitious Rome. Alarbus goes to reft, and we furvive To To tremble under Titus' threatening looks. Upon the Thracian tyrant in her tent, May favour Tamora, the queen of Goths, Enter Mutius, Marcus, Quintus, and Lucius. Luc. See, lord and father, how we have perform'd Whose smoke, like incenfe, doth perfume the sky. [Then found trumpets, and lay the coffins in the tomb. In peace and honour reft you here, my fons, Rome's readieft champions, repose you here, The felf-fame Gods, that arm'd the queen of Troy Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent, &c.] I read, against the authority of all the copies, : in her tent. i. e. in the tent where the and the other Trojan captive women were kept for thither Hecuba by a wile had decoyed Polymneftor, in order to perpetrate her revenge. This we may learn from Euripides's Hecuba; the only author, that I can at prefent remember, from whom our writer must have gleaned this circumstance THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald fhould first have proved to us that our author understood Greek, or elfe that this play of Euripides had been tranflated. In the mean time, becaufe neither of thefe particulars are verified, we may as well fuppofe he took it from the old story-book of the Trojan War. STEEVENS. Secure Secure from worldly chances and mishaps : Enter Lavinia. In peace and honour reft you here my fons! And fame's eternal date for virtue's praife! Tit. Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus. ར 5 And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praife!] This abfurd with is made fenfe of, by changing and into in. WARBURTON. To live in fam's date is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expreffion. To outlive an eternal date, is, though not philofophical, yet poetical fenfe. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her Fraife longer than fame. JOHNSON. Whofe |