Enter Aaron, Chiron, and Demetrius at one door, and at
the other door young Lucius and another, with a bundle
of weapons and verses writ upon them.CHIRON Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius. He hath some message to deliver us.AARON Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.YOUNG LUCIUS My lords, with all the humbleness I may,5 I greet your Honors from Andronicus— ⌜Aside.⌝ And pray the Roman gods confound you both.DEMETRIUS Gramercy, lovely Lucius. What’s the news?YOUNG LUCIUS, ⌜aside⌝ That you are both deciphered, that’s the news, For villains marked with rape.—May it please you,10 My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me The goodliest weapons of his armory To gratify your honorable youth, The hope of Rome; for so he bid me say, And so I do, and with his gifts present15 Your Lordships, ⌜that,⌝ whenever you have need, You may be armèd and appointed well, And so I leave you both—(⌜aside⌝) like bloody villains.He exits, ⌜with Attendant.⌝DEMETRIUS What’s here? A scroll, and written round about.
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Let’s see:⌜He reads:⌝ 20 “Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,
Non eget Mauri iaculis, nec arcu.”CHIRON O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well. I read it in the grammar long ago.AARON Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.25 ⌜Aside.⌝ Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! Here’s no sound jest. The old man hath found their guilt And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.30 But were our witty empress well afoot, She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit. But let her rest in her unrest awhile.— And now, young lords, was ’t not a happy star Led us to Rome, strangers, and, more than so,35 Captives, to be advancèd to this height? It did me good before the palace gate To brave the tribune in his brother’s hearing.DEMETRIUS But me more good to see so great a lord Basely insinuate and send us gifts.AARON 40 Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius? Did you not use his daughter very friendly?DEMETRIUS I would we had a thousand Roman dames At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.CHIRON A charitable wish, and full of love!AARON 45 Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.CHIRON And that would she, for twenty thousand more.
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DEMETRIUS Come, let us go and pray to all the gods For our belovèd mother in her pains.AARON, ⌜aside⌝ Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.Trumpets sound ⌜offstage.⌝DEMETRIUS 50 Why do the Emperor’s trumpets flourish thus?CHIRON Belike for joy the Emperor hath a son.DEMETRIUS Soft, who comes here?Enter Nurse, with a blackamoor child ⌜in her arms.⌝NURSE Good morrow, lords. O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?AARON 55 Well, more or less, or ne’er a whit at all, Here Aaron is. And what with Aaron now?NURSE O, gentle Aaron, we are all undone! Now help, or woe betide thee evermore.AARON Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!60 What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms?NURSE O, that which I would hide from heaven’s eye, Our empress’ shame and stately Rome’s disgrace. She is delivered, lords, she is delivered.AARON To whom?NURSE 65I mean, she is brought abed.AARON Well, God give her good rest. What hath he sent her?NURSE A devil.AARON Why, then she is the devil’s dam. A joyful issue!
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NURSE A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue!70 Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad Amongst the fair-faced breeders of our clime. The Empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point.AARON Zounds, you whore, is black so base a hue?75 ⌜To the baby.⌝ Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.DEMETRIUS Villain, what hast thou done?AARON That which thou canst not undo.CHIRON Thou hast undone our mother.AARON 80Villain, I have done thy mother.DEMETRIUS And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her. Woe to her chance, and damned her loathèd choice! Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend!CHIRON It shall not live.AARON 85It shall not die.NURSE Aaron, it must. The mother wills it so.AARON What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I Do execution on my flesh and blood.DEMETRIUS I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point.90 Nurse, give it me. My sword shall soon dispatch it.AARON, ⌜taking the baby⌝ Sooner this sword shall plow thy bowels up! 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,95 He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point That touches this my firstborn son and heir. I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus
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With all his threat’ning band of Typhon’s brood, Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war100 Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands. What, what, you sanguine, shallow-hearted boys, You white-limed walls, you alehouse painted signs! Coal-black is better than another hue In that it scorns to bear another hue;105 For all the water in the ocean Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white, Although she lave them hourly in the flood. Tell the Empress from me, I am of age To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.DEMETRIUS 110 Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?AARON My mistress is my mistress, this myself, The vigor and the picture of my youth. This before all the world do I prefer; This maugre all the world will I keep safe,115 Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.DEMETRIUS By this our mother is forever shamed.CHIRON Rome will despise her for this foul escape.NURSE The Emperor in his rage will doom her death.CHIRON I blush to think upon this ignomy.AARON 120 Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears. Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing The close enacts and counsels of thy heart. Here’s a young lad framed of another leer. Look how the black slave smiles upon the father,125 As who should say “Old lad, I am thine own.”
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He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed Of that self blood that first gave life to you, And from ⌜that⌝ womb where you imprisoned were He is enfranchisèd and come to light.130 Nay, he is your brother by the surer side, Although my seal be stampèd in his face.NURSE Aaron, what shall I say unto the Empress?DEMETRIUS Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done, And we will all subscribe to thy advice.135 Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.AARON Then sit we down, and let us all consult. My son and I will have the wind of you. Keep there. Now talk at pleasure of your safety.DEMETRIUS, ⌜to the Nurse⌝ How many women saw this child of his?AARON 140 Why, so, brave lords! When we join in league, I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor, The chafèd boar, the mountain lioness, The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms. ⌜To the Nurse.⌝ But say again, how many saw the145 child?NURSE Cornelia the midwife and myself, And no one else but the delivered Empress.AARON The Empress, the midwife, and yourself. Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.150 Go to the Empress; tell her this I said.He kills her. “Wheak, wheak”! So cries a pig preparèd to the spit.DEMETRIUS What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?
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AARON O Lord, sir, ’tis a deed of policy. Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,155 A long-tongued babbling gossip? No, lords, no. And now be it known to you my full intent: Not far one Muliteus my countryman His wife but yesternight was brought to bed. His child is like to her, fair as you are.160 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 advanced And be receivèd for the Emperor’s heir, And substituted in the place of mine,165 To calm this tempest whirling in the court; And let the Emperor dandle him for his own. Hark you, lords, you see I have given her physic,⌜indicating the Nurse⌝ And you must needs bestow her funeral. The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.170 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.CHIRON Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air175 With secrets.DEMETRIUS For this care of Tamora, Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.⌜Demetrius and Chiron⌝ exit,
⌜carrying the Nurse’s body.⌝AARON Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies, There to dispose this treasure in mine arms180 And secretly to greet the Empress’ friends.— Come on, you thick-lipped slave, I’ll bear you hence,
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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,185 And cabin in a cave, and bring you up To be a warrior and command a camp.He exits ⌜with the baby.⌝
Titus Andronicus
