Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 3
Court of TITUS’s house. A banquet set out.
Lucius : Uncle Marcus, since it is my father's mind
[p]That I repair to Rome, I
am content.
First Goth : And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.
Lucius : Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,
[p]This ravenous tiger,
this accursed devil;
[p]Let him receive no sustenance, fetter
him
[p]Till he be brought unto the empress' face,
[p]For testimony of
her foul proceedings:
[p]And see the ambush of our friends be
strong;
[p]I fear the emperor means no good to us.
Aaron : Some devil whisper curses in mine ear,
[p]And prompt me, that my
tongue may utter forth
[p]The venomous malice of my swelling heart!
Lucius : Away, inhuman dog! unhallow'd slave!
[p]Sirs, help our uncle to convey
him in.
[p][Exeunt Goths, with AARON. Flourish within]
[p]The trumpets
show the emperor is at hand.
[p][Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with
AEMILIUS,]
[p]Tribunes, Senators, and others]
Saturninus : What, hath the firmament more suns than one?
Lucius : What boots it thee to call thyself a sun?
Marcus Andronicus : Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the parle;
[p]These quarrels must be
quietly debated.
[p]The feast is ready, which the careful
Titus
[p]Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,
[p]For peace, for love,
for league, and good to Rome:
[p]Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and
take your places.
Saturninus : Marcus, we will.
[p][Hautboys sound. The Company sit down at
table]
[p][Enter TITUS dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA veiled,]
[p]Young
LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes
[p]on the table]
Titus Andronicus : Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;
[p]Welcome, ye
warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius;
[p]And welcome, all: although the
cheer be poor,
[p]'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.
Saturninus : Why art thou thus attired, Andronicus?
Titus Andronicus : Because I would be sure to have all well,
[p]To entertain your
highness and your empress.
Tamora : We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.
Titus Andronicus : An if your highness knew my heart, you were.
[p]My lord the emperor,
resolve me this:
[p]Was it well done of rash Virginius
[p]To slay his
daughter with his own right hand,
[p]Because she was enforced,
stain'd, and deflower'd?
Saturninus : It was, Andronicus.
Titus Andronicus : Your reason, mighty lord?
Saturninus : Because the girl should not survive her shame,
[p]And by her presence
still renew his sorrows.
Titus Andronicus : A reason mighty, strong, and effectual;
[p]A pattern, precedent, and
lively warrant,
[p]For me, most wretched, to perform the like.
[p]Die,
die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;
[p][Kills LAVINIA]
[p]And, with
thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!
Saturninus : What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?
Titus Andronicus : Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.
[p]I am as woful as
Virginius was,
[p]And have a thousand times more cause than he
[p]To
do this outrage: and it now is done.
Saturninus : What, was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed.
Titus Andronicus : Will't please you eat? will't please your
[p]highness feed?
Tamora : Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
Titus Andronicus : Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius:
[p]They ravish'd her, and cut away
her tongue;
[p]And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.
Saturninus : Go fetch them hither to us presently.
Titus Andronicus : Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;
[p]Whereof their mother
daintily hath fed,
[p]Eating the flesh that she herself hath
bred.
[p]'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point.
Saturninus : Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!
Lucius : Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?
[p]There's meed for meed,
death for a deadly deed!
[p][Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult. LUCIUS,
MARCUS,]
[p]and others go up into the balcony]
Marcus Andronicus : You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
[p]By uproar sever'd, like
a flight of fowl
[p]Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous
gusts,
[p]O, let me teach you how to knit again
[p]This scatter'd corn
into one mutual sheaf,
[p]These broken limbs again into one
body;
[p]Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
[p]And she whom
mighty kingdoms court'sy to,
[p]Like a forlorn and desperate
castaway,
[p]Do shameful execution on herself.
[p]But if my frosty
signs and chaps of age,
[p]Grave witnesses of true
experience,
[p]Cannot induce you to attend my words,
[p][To
LUCIUS]
[p]Speak, Rome's dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
[p]When
with his solemn tongue he did discourse
[p]To love-sick Dido's sad
attending ear
[p]The story of that baleful burning night
[p]When
subtle Greeks surprised King Priam's Troy,
[p]Tell us what Sinon hath
bewitch'd our ears,
[p]Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
[p]That
gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
[p]My heart is not compact
of flint nor steel;
[p]Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
[p]But
floods of tears will drown my oratory,
[p]And break my utterance, even
in the time
[p]When it should move you to attend me most,
[p]Lending
your kind commiseration.
[p]Here is a captain, let him tell the
tale;
[p]Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Lucius : Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
[p]That cursed Chiron and
Demetrius
[p]Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
[p]And
they it were that ravished our sister:
[p]For their fell faults our
brothers were beheaded;
[p]Our father's tears despised, and basely
cozen'd
[p]Of that true hand that fought Rome's quarrel out,
[p]And
sent her enemies unto the grave.
[p]Lastly, myself unkindly
banished,
[p]The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
[p]To beg
relief among Rome's enemies:
[p]Who drown'd their enmity in my true
tears.
[p]And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.
[p]I am the
turned forth, be it known to you,
[p]That have preserved her welfare
in my blood;
[p]And from her bosom took the enemy's
point,
[p]Sheathing the steel in my adventurous body.
[p]Alas, you
know I am no vaunter, I;
[p]My scars can witness, dumb although they
are,
[p]That my report is just and full of truth.
[p]But, soft!
methinks I do digress too much,
[p]Citing my worthless praise: O,
pardon me;
[p]For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
Marcus Andronicus : Now is my turn to speak. Behold this child:
[p][Pointing to the Child
in the arms of an Attendant]
[p]Of this was Tamora delivered;
[p]The
issue of an irreligious Moor,
[p]Chief architect and plotter of these
woes:
[p]The villain is alive in Titus' house,
[p]And as he is, to
witness this is true.
[p]Now judge what cause had Titus to
revenge
[p]These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
[p]Or more than
any living man could bear.
[p]Now you have heard the truth, what say
you, Romans?
[p]Have we done aught amiss,--show us wherein,
[p]And,
from the place where you behold us now,
[p]The poor remainder of
Andronici
[p]Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down.
[p]And on
the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
[p]And make a mutual closure
of our house.
[p]Speak, Romans, speak; and if you say we shall,
[p]Lo,
hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.
Aemilius : Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
[p]And bring our emperor gently
in thy hand,
[p]Lucius our emperor; for well I know
[p]The common
voice do cry it shall be so.
All : Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal emperor!
Marcus Andronicus : Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house,
[p][To Attendants]
[p]And
hither hale that misbelieving Moor,
[p]To be adjudged some direful
slaughtering death,
[p]As punishment for his most wicked life.
All : Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!
Lucius : Thanks, gentle Romans: may I govern so,
[p]To heal Rome's harms, and
wipe away her woe!
[p]But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,
[p]For
nature puts me to a heavy task:
[p]Stand all aloof: but, uncle, draw
you near,
[p]To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk.
[p]O, take this
warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,
[p][Kissing TITUS]
[p]These sorrowful
drops upon thy blood-stain'd face,
[p]The last true duties of thy
noble son!
Marcus Andronicus : Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
[p]Thy brother Marcus tenders
on thy lips:
[p]O were the sum of these that I should pay
[p]Countless
and infinite, yet would I pay them!
Lucius : Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
[p]To melt in showers:
thy grandsire loved thee well:
[p]Many a time he danced thee on his
knee,
[p]Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow:
[p]Many a
matter hath he told to thee,
[p]Meet and agreeing with thine
infancy;
[p]In that respect, then, like a loving child,
[p]Shed yet
some small drops from thy tender spring,
[p]Because kind nature doth
require it so:
[p]Friends should associate friends in grief and
woe:
[p]Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
[p]Do him that
kindness, and take leave of him.
Young Lucius : O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart
[p]Would I were dead,
so you did live again!
[p]O Lord, I cannot speak to him for
weeping;
[p]My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.
Aemilius : You sad Andronici, have done with woes:
[p]Give sentence on this
execrable wretch,
[p]That hath been breeder of these dire events.
Lucius : Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;
[p]There let him stand,
and rave, and cry for food;
[p]If any one relieves or pities
him,
[p]For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
[p]Some stay to see
him fasten'd in the earth.
Aaron : O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?
[p]I am no baby, I, that
with base prayers
[p]I should repent the evils I have done:
[p]Ten
thousand worse than ever yet I did
[p]Would I perform, if I might have
my will;
[p]If one good deed in all my life I did,
[p]I do repent it
from my very soul.
Lucius : Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,
[p]And give him burial
in his father's grave:
[p]My father and Lavinia shall forthwith
[p]Be
closed in our household's monument.
[p]As for that heinous tiger,
Tamora,
[p]No funeral rite, nor man m mourning weeds,
[p]No mournful
bell shall ring her burial;
[p]But throw her forth to beasts and birds
of prey:
[p]Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
[p]And, being
so, shall have like want of pity.
[p]See justice done on Aaron, that
damn'd Moor,
[p]By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
[p]Then,
afterwards, to order well the state,
[p]That like events may ne'er it
ruinate.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 3
