Sat. Friends, that have been thus forward in my

right,
I thank you ail, and here dismiss you all,
And to the love and favour of my country
Commit myself, my person and the cause;
Rome be as just and gracious unto me,
As I am confident and kind to thee.
Open the gates and let me in.
Baf. Tribunes! And me, a poor competitor.

[They go up into the senate-bcuse.

SCENE II.

Enter a Captain. Cap. Romans, make way. The good Andronicus, Patron of virtue. Rome's best champion, Successful in the battles that he fights, With honour and with fortune is return'd, From whence he circumscribed with his sword, And brought to yoke the enemies of Rome. Sound drums and trumpets, and then enter Mutius and

Mercus: 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, tlorb!!s, Chiron, and Demetrius, with Aaron the Moor, prisoners; soldiers, and other attendants. They set down the coffin, and Titus Speaks.

Tit.- Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds! Lo, as the bark, that hath discharg'd her freight,

Returns

2 Fail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!) I suspect that the poet wrote,

-in my mourning weeds! i. e. Titus would say ; Thou, Rome, art victorious, tho I am

Returns with precious lading to the bay,
From whence at first she weigh’d her anchorage ;
Cometh Andronicus with laurel boughs,
To re-falute his country with his tears ;
Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.
—3 Thou great defender of this Capitol,
Stand gracious to the rites that we intend !
Romans, of five and twenty valiant sons,
Half of the number that king Priam had,
Behold the poor remains, alive and dead !
These, that survive, let Rome reward with love,
These, that I bring unto their latest home,
With burial among their ancestors.
Here Goths have given me leave to sheath my sword:
Titus, unkind, and careless of thine own,
Why suffer'st thou thy fons, unburied yet,
To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?
Make way to lay them by their brethren.

(They open the tomb. - There greet in filence, as the dead were wont, And Neep in peace, Nain in your country's wars. - facred receptacle of my joys, Sweet cell of virtue and nobility, How many fons of mine halt thou in store, That thou wilt never render to me more?

Luc. Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths, That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile, Ad manes fratrum facrifice his felh, Before this earthly prison of their bones;

a mourner for those fons which I have lost in obtaining that vic, tory.

WARBURTON. Thy is as well as my. We may fippose the Romans in a grateful ceremony, meeting the dead fons of Andronicus with mourning habits.

JOHNSON. Or that they were in mourning for their emperor who was just dead.

STEEVENS. 3 Tbou great defender of this Capitol,] Jupiter, to whom the Ca. pitol was facred.

JOHNSON.

That

Dd 4

That so the shadows be not unappeas'd,
Nor we difturb’d with prodigies on earth.

Tit. I give him you, the noblest that survives ;
The eldest son of this distressed queen.

Tam. Stay, Roman brethren, gracious conqueror, Victorious Titus, rue the tears I thed, A mother's tears in passion for her fon; And, if thy fons were ever dear to thee, O, think my sons to be as dear to me. Sufficeth not, that we are brought to Rome, To beautify thy triumphs and return, Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke ? But must my sons be Naughter'd in the streets, For valiant doings in their country's cause ? O! if to fight for king and common weal Were piety in thine, it is in these; Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood. Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods? Draw near them then in being merciful ; Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. Thrice-noble Titus, spare my first-born son.

Tit. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me.
These are their brethren, whom you Goths behold
Alive and dead, and for their brethren Nain
Religiously they ask a sacrifice;
To this your son is mark'd, and die he must,
To appease their groaning shadows that are gone.

Luc. Away with him, and make a fire straight.
And with our swords, upon a pile of wood,
Let's hew his limbs, till they be clean consum’d.

[Exeunt Mutius, Marcus, Quintus,

and Lucius, with Alarbus.
Tam. O cruel, irreligious piety!
Chi. Was ever Scythia half so barbarous ?
Dem. Oppose not Scythia to ambitious Rome.
Alarbus goes to rest, and we survive

Το

To tremble under Titus' threatening looks.
Then, madam, stand resolv'd; but hope withal,
* The self-fame Gods, that arm’d the queen of Troy,
With opportunity of sharp revenge
Upon the Thracian tyrant in her tent,
May favour Tamora, the queen of Goths, ,
When Goths were Goths, and Tamora was qucen,
To quit her bloody wrongs upon her foes.

Enter Mutius, Marcus, Quintus, and Lucius.
Luc. See, lord and father, how we have performn'd
Our Roman rites : Alarbus' limbs are lop'd ;
And entrails feed the facrificing fire ;
Whose smoke, like incense, doth perfume the sky.
Remaineth nought but to inter our brethren,
And with loud 'larums welcome them to Rome.

Tit. Let it be so, and let Andronicus Make this his latest farewell to their souls.

(Then found trumpets, and lay the coffins in the tomb. In peace and honour reft you here, my fons, Rome's readiest champions, repose you here,

* The self-fame Gods, that arm'd the queen of Troy
Witb opportunity of sharp revenge

Upon ipe Thracian tyrant in his tent, &c.]
I read, against the authority of all the copies,

ipe her tent. i. e. in the tent where she and the other Trojan captive women were kept: for thither Hecuba by a wile had decoyed Polymnestor, in order to perpetrate her revenge. This we may learn from Euripides's H cuba; the only author, that I can at present remember, from whom our writer must have gleaned this circumstance

THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald should first have proved to us th-tour author understood Greek, or else that this play of Euripides had been translated. In the mean time, because neither of these particulars are verified, we may as well suppose he took it from the old story-book of the Trojan War.

STEEVENS.

Secure

Secure from worldly chances and mishaps :
Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells;
Here grow no damned grudges, here no storms,
No noise, but silence and eternal sleep.

Enter Lavinia.
In peace and honour rest you here my sons !

Lav. In peace and honour live lord Titus long,
My noble lord and father, live in fame!
Lo! at this tomb my tributary tears
I render, for my brethren’s obsequies ;
And at thy feet I kneel, with tears of joy
Shed on the earth, for thy return to Rome.
O, bless me here with thy victorious hand,
Whose fortune Rome's best citizens applaud.

Tit. Kind Rome, that hast thus lovingly reserv'd
The cordial of mine age, to glad mine heart!
Lavinia, live ; out live thy father's days,
s And fame's eternal date for virtue's praise!

Mar. Long live lord Titus, my beloved brother,
Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome!

Tit. Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus,

Mar. And welcome, nephews, from successful wars,
You that survive, and you that fleep in faine.
Fair lords, your fortunes are alike in all,
That in your country's service drew your swords;
But farer triumph is this funéral pomp,
That hath aspir'd to Solon's happiness ;
And triumphs over chance, in honour's bed.
Tirus Andronicus, the people of Rome,

* And fame's eternal dote, for virtue's praise !] This absurd wih is made fense of, by changing and into in. WARBURTON.

To live in fami's date is, if an allowable, vet a harh expression. To outlicje an eternal date, is, though not philosophical, yet poetica! tense. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her piaise longer than fame.

JOHNSON.

Whose