Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

Act 4 - Scene 2

The same. A room in the palace.

Chiron : Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius; [p]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, [p]I greet your honours from
Andronicus. [p][Aside] [p]And pray the Roman gods confound you both!

Demetrius : Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what's the news?

Young Lucius : [Aside] That you are both decipher'd, that's the news, [p]For villains
mark'd with rape.--May it please you, [p]My grandsire, well advised,
hath sent by me [p]The goodliest weapons of his armoury [p]To gratify
your honourable youth, [p]The hope of Rome; for so he bade me
say; [p]And so I do, and with his gifts present [p]Your lordships,
that, whenever you have need, [p]You may be armed and appointed
well: [p]And so I leave you both: [p][Aside] [p]like bloody villains.

Demetrius : What's here? A scroll; and written round about? [p]Let's
see; [p][Reads] [p]'Integer vitae, scelerisque purus, [p]Non eget
Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.'

Chiron : O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well: [p]I read it in the grammar
long ago.

Aaron : Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it. [p][Aside] [p]Now,
what a thing it is to be an ass! [p]Here's no sound jest! the old man
hath found their guilt; [p]And sends them weapons wrapped about with
lines, [p]That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick. [p]But were
our witty empress well afoot, [p]She would applaud Andronicus'
conceit: [p]But let her rest in her unrest awhile. [p]And now, young
lords, was't not a happy star [p]Led us to Rome, strangers, and more
than so, [p]Captives, to be advanced to this height? [p]It did me
good, before the palace gate [p]To brave the tribune in his brother's
hearing.

Demetrius : But me more good, to see so great a lord [p]Basely insinuate and send
us gifts.

Aaron : Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius? [p]Did you not use his daughter
very friendly?

Demetrius : I would we had a thousand Roman dames [p]At such a bay, by turn to
serve our lust.

Chiron : A charitable wish and full of love.

Aaron : Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.

Chiron : And that would she for twenty thousand more.

Demetrius : Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods [p]For our beloved mother in
her pains.

Aaron : [Aside] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.

Demetrius : Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?

Chiron : Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.

Demetrius : Soft! who comes here?

Nurse : Good morrow, lords: [p]O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

Aaron : Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all, [p]Here Aaron is; and what
with Aaron now?

Nurse : O gentle Aaron, we are all undone! [p]Now help, or woe betide thee
evermore!

Aaron : Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! [p]What dost thou wrap and
fumble in thine arms?

Nurse : O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye, [p]Our empress' shame,
and stately Rome's disgrace! [p]She is deliver'd, lords; she is
deliver'd.

Aaron : To whom?

Nurse : I mean, she is brought a-bed.

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.

Nurse : A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue: [p]Here is the babe, as
loathsome as a toad [p]Amongst the fairest breeders of our
clime: [p]The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, [p]And bids
thee christen it with thy dagger's point.

Aaron : 'Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue? [p]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 : Villain, I have done thy mother.

Demetrius : And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone. [p]Woe to her chance, and
damn'd her loathed choice! [p]Accursed the offspring of so foul a
fiend!

Chiron : It shall not live.

Aaron : It shall not die.

Nurse : Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.

Aaron : What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I [p]Do execution on my
flesh and blood.

Demetrius : I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point: [p]Nurse, give it me; my
sword shall soon dispatch it.

Aaron : Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up. [p][Takes the Child from
the Nurse, and draws] [p]Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your
brother? [p]Now, by the burning tapers of the sky, [p]That shone so
brightly when this boy was got, [p]He dies upon my scimitar's sharp
point [p]That touches this my first-born son and heir! [p]I tell you,
younglings, not Enceladus, [p]With all his threatening band of
Typhon's brood, [p]Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war, [p]Shall
seize this prey out of his father's hands. [p]What, what, ye sanguine,
shallow-hearted boys! [p]Ye white-limed walls! ye alehouse painted
signs! [p]Coal-black is better than another hue, [p]In that it scorns
to bear another hue; [p]For all the water in the ocean [p]Can never
turn the swan's black legs to white, [p]Although she lave them hourly
in the flood. [p]Tell the empress from me, I am of age [p]To keep mine
own, excuse it how she can.

Demetrius : Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?

Aaron : My mistress is my mistress; this myself, [p]The vigour and the picture
of my youth: [p]This before all the world do I prefer; [p]This maugre
all the world will I keep safe, [p]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 : Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears: [p]Fie, treacherous hue,
that will betray with blushing [p]The close enacts and counsels of the
heart! [p]Here's a young lad framed of another leer: [p]Look, how the
black slave smiles upon the father, [p]As who should say 'Old lad, I
am thine own.' [p]He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed [p]Of that
self-blood that first gave life to you, [p]And from that womb where
you imprison'd were [p]He is enfranchised and come to light: [p]Nay,
he is your brother by the surer side, [p]Although my seal be stamped
in his face.

Nurse : Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?

Demetrius : Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done, [p]And we will all subscribe
to thy advice: [p]Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.

Aaron : Then sit we down, and let us all consult. [p]My son and I will have
the wind of you: [p]Keep there: now talk at pleasure of your safety.

Demetrius : How many women saw this child of his?

Aaron : Why, so, brave lords! when we join in league, [p]I am a lamb: but if
you brave the Moor, [p]The chafed boar, the mountain lioness, [p]The
ocean swells not so as Aaron storms. [p]But say, again; how many saw
the child?

Nurse : Cornelia the midwife and myself; [p]And no one else but the deliver'd
empress.

Aaron : The empress, the midwife, and yourself: [p]Two may keep counsel when
the third's away: [p]Go to the empress, tell her this I said. [p][He
kills the nurse] [p]Weke, weke! so cries a pig prepared to the spit.

Demetrius : What mean'st thou, Aaron? wherefore didst thou this?

Aaron : O Lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy: [p]Shall she live to betray this
guilt of ours, [p]A long-tongued babbling gossip? no, lords,
no: [p]And now be it known to you my full intent. [p]Not far, one Muli
lives, my countryman; [p]His wife but yesternight was brought to
bed; [p]His child is like to her, fair as you are: [p]Go pack with
him, and give the mother gold, [p]And tell them both the circumstance
of all; [p]And how by this their child shall be advanced, [p]And be
received for the emperor's heir, [p]And substituted in the place of
mine, [p]To calm this tempest whirling in the court; [p]And let the
emperor dandle him for his own. [p]Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given
her physic, [p][Pointing to the nurse] [p]And you must needs bestow
her funeral; [p]The fields are near, and you are gallant
grooms: [p]This done, see that you take no longer days, [p]But send
the midwife presently to me. [p]The midwife and the nurse well made
away, [p]Then let the ladies tattle what they please.

Chiron : Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air [p]With secrets.

Demetrius : For this care of Tamora, [p]Herself and hers are highly bound to
thee. [p][Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON bearing off the] [p]Nurse's
body]

Aaron : Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies; [p]There to dispose this
treasure in mine arms, [p]And secretly to greet the empress'
friends. [p]Come on, you thick lipp'd slave, I'll bear you
hence; [p]For it is you that puts us to our shifts: [p]I'll make you
feed on berries and on roots, [p]And feed on curds and whey, and suck
the goat, [p]And cabin in a cave, and bring you up [p]To be a warrior,
and command a camp.

Previous: Act 4 - Scene 1

Next: Act 4 - Scene 3