Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
Rome. Titus’s garden.
Young Lucius : Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia
[p]Follows me every where, I
know not why:
[p]Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.
[p]Alas,
sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.
Marcus Andronicus : Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine aunt.
Titus Andronicus : She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.
Young Lucius : Ay, when my father was in Rome she did.
Marcus Andronicus : What means my niece Lavinia by these signs?
Titus Andronicus : Fear her not, Lucius: somewhat doth she mean:
[p]See, Lucius, see how
much she makes of thee:
[p]Somewhither would she have thee go with
her.
[p]Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care
[p]Read to her sons
than she hath read to thee
[p]Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator.
Marcus Andronicus : Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus?
Young Lucius : My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess,
[p]Unless some fit or frenzy
do possess her:
[p]For I have heard my grandsire say full
oft,
[p]Extremity of griefs would make men mad;
[p]And I have read
that Hecuba of Troy
[p]Ran mad through sorrow: that made me to
fear;
[p]Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt
[p]Loves me as dear
as e'er my mother did,
[p]And would not, but in fury, fright my
youth:
[p]Which made me down to throw my books, and
fly--
[p]Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt:
[p]And, madam,
if my uncle Marcus go,
[p]I will most willingly attend your ladyship.
Marcus Andronicus : Lucius, I will.
[p][LAVINIA turns over with her stumps the books
which]
[p]LUCIUS has let fall]
Titus Andronicus : How now, Lavinia! Marcus, what means this?
[p]Some book there is that
she desires to see.
[p]Which is it, girl, of these? Open them,
boy.
[p]But thou art deeper read, and better skill'd
[p]Come, and take
choice of all my library,
[p]And so beguile thy sorrow, till the
heavens
[p]Reveal the damn'd contriver of this deed.
[p]Why lifts she
up her arms in sequence thus?
Marcus Andronicus : I think she means that there was more than one
[p]Confederate in the
fact: ay, more there was;
[p]Or else to heaven she heaves them for
revenge.
Titus Andronicus : Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?
Young Lucius : Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses;
[p]My mother gave it me.
Marcus Andronicus : For love of her that's gone,
[p]Perhaps she cull'd it from among the
rest.
Titus Andronicus : Soft! see how busily she turns the leaves!
[p][Helping her]
[p]What
would she find? Lavinia, shall I read?
[p]This is the tragic tale of
Philomel,
[p]And treats of Tereus' treason and his rape:
[p]And rape,
I fear, was root of thine annoy.
Marcus Andronicus : See, brother, see; note how she quotes the leaves.
Titus Andronicus : Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl,
[p]Ravish'd and
wrong'd, as Philomela was,
[p]Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy
woods? See, see!
[p]Ay, such a place there is, where we did
hunt--
[p]O, had we never, never hunted there!--
[p]Pattern'd by that
the poet here describes,
[p]By nature made for murders and for rapes.
Marcus Andronicus : O, why should nature build so foul a den,
[p]Unless the gods delight
in tragedies?
Titus Andronicus : Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none
[p]but friends,
[p]What
Roman lord it was durst do the deed:
[p]Or slunk not Saturnine, as
Tarquin erst,
[p]That left the camp to sin in Lucrece' bed?
Marcus Andronicus : Sit down, sweet niece: brother, sit down by me.
[p]Apollo, Pallas,
Jove, or Mercury,
[p]Inspire me, that I may this treason find!
[p]My
lord, look here: look here, Lavinia:
[p]This sandy plot is plain;
guide, if thou canst
[p]This after me, when I have writ my
name
[p]Without the help of any hand at all.
[p][He writes his name
with his staff, and guides it]
[p]with feet and mouth]
[p]Cursed be
that heart that forced us to this shift!
[p]Write thou good niece; and
here display, at last,
[p]What God will have discover'd for
revenge;
[p]Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,
[p]That
we may know the traitors and the truth!
[p][She takes the staff in her
mouth, and guides it]
[p]with her stumps, and writes]
Titus Andronicus : O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?
[p]'Stuprum. Chiron.
Demetrius.'
Marcus Andronicus : What, what! the lustful sons of Tamora
[p]Performers of this heinous,
bloody deed?
Titus Andronicus : Magni Dominator poli,
[p]Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides?
Marcus Andronicus : O, calm thee, gentle lord; although I know
[p]There is enough written
upon this earth
[p]To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts
[p]And arm
the minds of infants to exclaims.
[p]My lord, kneel down with me;
Lavinia, kneel;
[p]And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector's
hope;
[p]And swear with me, as, with the woful fere
[p]And father of
that chaste dishonour'd dame,
[p]Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece'
rape,
[p]That we will prosecute by good advice
[p]Mortal revenge upon
these traitorous Goths,
[p]And see their blood, or die with this
reproach.
Titus Andronicus : 'Tis sure enough, an you knew how.
[p]But if you hunt these
bear-whelps, then beware:
[p]The dam will wake; and, if she wind you
once,
[p]She's with the lion deeply still in league,
[p]And lulls him
whilst she playeth on her back,
[p]And when he sleeps will she do what
she list.
[p]You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let it alone;
[p]And,
come, I will go get a leaf of brass,
[p]And with a gad of steel will
write these words,
[p]And lay it by: the angry northern wind
[p]Will
blow these sands, like Sibyl's leaves, abroad,
[p]And where's your
lesson, then? Boy, what say you?
Young Lucius : I say, my lord, that if I were a man,
[p]Their mother's bed-chamber
should not be safe
[p]For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.
Marcus Andronicus : Ay, that's my boy! thy father hath full oft
[p]For his ungrateful
country done the like.
Young Lucius : And, uncle, so will I, an if I live.
Titus Andronicus : Come, go with me into mine armoury;
[p]Lucius, I'll fit thee; and
withal, my boy,
[p]Shalt carry from me to the empress'
sons
[p]Presents that I intend to send them both:
[p]Come, come;
thou'lt do thy message, wilt thou not?
Young Lucius : Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.
Titus Andronicus : No, boy, not so; I'll teach thee another course.
[p]Lavinia, come.
Marcus, look to my house:
[p]Lucius and I'll go brave it at the
court:
[p]Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we'll be waited on.
Marcus Andronicus : O heavens, can you hear a good man groan,
[p]And not relent, or not
compassion him?
[p]Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,
[p]That hath
more scars of sorrow in his heart
[p]Than foemen's marks upon his
batter'd shield;
[p]But yet so just that he will not
revenge.
[p]Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus!
Previous: Act 3 - Scene 2
Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
