And the whom mighty kingdoms curtly to,
Like a forlorn and defperate caft away,
Do shameful execution on herself.

Mar. But if my frofty figns and chaps of age,
Grave witneffes of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome's dear friend, as erft our ancestor,
[To Lucius.
When with his folemn tongue he did discourse
To love-fick Dido's fad attending ear,
The story of that baleful burning night,

When fubtile Geeeks furpriz'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 in the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiferation.

Here is a captain, let him tell the tale,

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak. Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you, That curfed Chiron and Demetrius

;

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother,
And they it were that ravifhed our sister
For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded,
Our father's tears defpis'd, and basely cozen'd
Of that true hand, that fought Rome's quarrel out,
And fent her enemies into the grave.

Laftly myself unkindly banished,

The gates fhut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome's enemies ;
Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears,
And op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend;
And I am turn'd forth, be it known to you,

That

That have preferv'd her welfare in my blood,
And from her bofom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my advent'rous body.
Alas!-you know, I am no vaunter, I;
My scars can witnefs, dumb although they are,
That my report is juft, and full of truth.
But, foft, methinks, I do digrefs too much,
Citing my worthless praise: oh, pardon me,
For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
Mar. Now is my tongue to fpeak: behold this
child,

Of this was Tamora delivered,

The iffue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of these woes;
The villain is alive in Titus' houfe,

And as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge, what caufe had Titus to revenge
These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.
Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Ro
mans?

Have we done aught amifs? fhew us wherein,
And from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronicus,

We'll hand in hand all headlong caft us down,
And on the ragged ftones beat out our brains,
And make a mutual closure of our house.
Speak, Romans, fpeak; and, if you fay, we fhall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

Em. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,
Lucius our emperor, for, well I know,

The common voice do cry, it fhall be fo.

Mar. Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor !
Go, go, into old Titus' forrowful house,
And hither hale that mifbelieving Moor,

To be adjudg'd fome direful flaughtering death;

As

As punishment for his moft wicked life,
Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern fo,
To heal Rome's harm, and drive away her woe!
But, gentle people, give me aim a while,
For nature puts me to a heavy task:

Stand all aloof; but, uncle, draw you near,
To fhed obfequious tears upon this trunk;
Oh, take this warm kifs on thy pale cold lips,

[Kifles Titus. Thefe forrowful drops upon thy blood-ftain'd face; The last true duties of thy noble fon.

Mar. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kifs for kifs, Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips; O, were the fum of these that I fhould pay Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us

To melt in showers; thy grandfire lov'd thee well;
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee afleep, his loving breaft thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet and agreeing with thy infancy;

In that refpect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet fome finall drops from thy tender fpring,
Because kind nature doth require it fo;

Friends fhould affociate friends, in grief and woe.
Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.
Boy. O grandfire, grandfire! even with all my heart,
'Would I were dead, fo you did live again,
O lord, I cannot fpeak to him for weeping-
My tears will choak me, if I ope my mouth.

Enter Romans with Aaron.

Rom. You fad Andronici, have done with woes : Give fentence on this execrable wretch.

That

2

That hath been breeder of thefe dire events.

Luc. Set him breast deep in earth, and famifh him,
There let him ftand and rave and cry for food
If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom.
Some stay to see him fastned in the earth.

Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb!
I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
I fhould repent the evil I have done :
Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very foul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,
And give him burial in his father's grave.
My father and Lavinia fhall forthwith
Be closed in our houfhold's monument:
As for that heinous tygrefs Tamora,

No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds,
No mournful bell fhall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beafts and birds of prey;
Her life was beaft-like, and devoid of pity;
And, being fo, fhall have like want of pity.
See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
From whom our heavy haps had their beginning;
Then, afterwards, we'll order well the state;
That like events may ne'er it ruinate. [Exeunt omnes.

TITUS ANDRONICUS.] This is one of thofe plays which I have always thought, with the better judges, ought not to be acknowleged in the list of Shakespeare's genuine pieces. And, perhaps, I may give a proof to ftrengthen this opinion, that may put the matter out of queftion. Ben Jonfon, in the introduction to his Bartholomew-Fair, which made its first appearance in the year 1614, couples Jeronymo and Andronicus together in reputation, and speaks of them as plays then of twenty-five or thirty years standing. Confequently Andronicus must have been on the ftage before Shakespeare left Warwickshire, to come and refide in London and I never heard it fo much as intimated, that he had

turned

turned his genius to ftage-writing before he affociated with the players, and became one of their body. However, that he afterwards introduced it a-new on the stage, with the addition of his own masterly touches, is inconteftible, and thence, I prefume, grew his title to it. The diction in general, where he has not taken the pains to raise it, is even beneath that of the Three Parts of Henry VI. The story we are to suppose merely fictitious. Andronicus is a fur-name of pure Greek derivation. Tamora is neither mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, nor any body else that I can find. Nor had Rome, in the time of her emperors, any wars with the Goths that I know of, not till after the tranflation of the empire, I mean to Byzantium, and yet the fcene of our play is laid at Rome, and Saturninus is elected to the empire at the capitol. THEOBALD.

All the editors and critics agree with Mr. Theobald in suppofing this play spurious. I fee no reafon for differing from them; for the colour of the ftile is wholly different from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular verfification, and artificial clofes, not always inelegant, yet feldom pleafing. The barbarity of the fpectacles, and the general maffacre, which are here exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonfon, that they were not only borne, but praised. That Shakespeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares it incorteftible, I fee no reason for believing.

The testimony produced at the beginning of this play, by which it is afcribed to Shakespeare, is by no means equal to the argument against its authenticity, arifing from the total difference of conduct, language, and fentiments, by which it ftands apart from all the reft. Meeres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page, which, though in our time it be fufficient, was then of no great authority; for all the plays which were rejected by the first collectors of Shakespeare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected by the critical editors, had Shakespeare's name on the title, as we muft fuppofe, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet no gazettes, nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary intelligence, could ufurp at pleasure any celebrated name. had Shakespeare any intereft in detecting the imposture, as none of his fame or profit was produced by the prefs.

Nor

The chronology of this play does not prove it not to be Shakespeare's. If it had been written twenty-five years, in 1614, it might have been written when Shakespeare was twentyfive years old. When he left Warwickshire I know not, but at the age of twenty-five it was rather too late to fly for deer-ftealing.

Ravenscroft, who in the reign of Charles II. revifed, this play, and restored it to the ftage, tells us, in his preface, from a theatrical tradition, I fuppofe, which in his time might be of fufficient

authority,