So that perforce you must needs stay a time.

Tit. He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.
I'll dive into the burning lake below,

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.—
Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we;

No big-bon❜d men, fram'd of the Cyclop's size,
But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back;

Yet wrung
with wrongs, more than our backs can bear:
And, sith no justice is in earth nor hell',

We will solicit heaven, and move the gods

To send down justice for to wreak our wrongs.

Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus.

[He gives them the arrows.

Ad Jovem, that's for you:-here, ad Apollinem :·
Ad Martem, that's for myself:-

Here, boy, to Pallas:-here, to Mercury:

To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine;

You were as good to shoot against the wind.

To it, boy:-Marcus, loose, when I bid.

Of my word, I have written to effect;

There's not a god left unsolicited.

Mar. Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court: We will afflict the emperor in his pride.

Tit. Now, masters, draw. [They shoot.] Oh, well said, Lucius'!

Good boy, in Virgo's lap: give it Pallas.

Mar. My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon': Your letter is with Jupiter by this.

Tit. Ha! Publius, Publius, what hast thou done? See, see! thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns.

7 And sith no justice is in earth nor hell,] Such is the line in the corr. fo. 1632, and we feel assured that it must be right, instead of the old lame reading"And, sith there's no justice in earth nor hell.”

Although this correction is made, the whole of this part of the scene is struck out, as well as a previous large portion: they were probably not acted when the old annotator on the folio, 1632, may have seen the tragedy. The lines excluded seem in no way to advance the plot.

TO SATURN, Caius, not to Saturnine;] So Rowe corrected the line, which in the original runs, "To Saturnine, to Caius, not to Saturnine." Caius seems to be the name of the kinsman Andronicus addresses.

Oh, well SAID, Lucius!] Another of the many instances in which "well said " means "well done."

1 My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon:] This expression seems to have been proverbial: in the corr. fo. 1632 "aim" is put in the past tense aim'd, and perhaps rightly, with reference to the arrow Marcus had discharged.

VOL. V.

F

Mar. This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,
The bull, being gall'd, gave Aries such a knock
That down fell both the ram's horns in the court;
And who should find them but the empress' villain.
She laugh'd, and told the Moor, he should not choose
But give them to his master for a present.

Tit. Why, there it goes: God give his lordship joy 2.

Enter the Clown, with a basket and two pigeons.

News! news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.-
Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?

Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter ?

Clo. Ho! the gibbet-maker? he says, that he hath taken them down again, for the man must not be hanged till the next week.

Tit. But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?

Clo. Alas, sir! I know not Jupiter: I never drank with him in all my life.

Tit. Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?

Clo. Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.

Tit. Why, didst thou not come from heaven?

Clo. From heaven? alas, sir! I never came there. God forbid, I should be so bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to the tribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawl betwixt my uncle and one of the emperial's men.

Mar. Why, sir, that is as fit as can be, to serve for your oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to the emperor from

you.

Tit. Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor with a grace?

Clo. Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.
Tit. Sirrah, come hither. Make no more ado,

But give your pigeons to the emperor :

By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.

Hold, hold:-mean while, here's money for thy charges.Give me pen and ink.—

Sirrah, can you with a grace deliver a supplication?

2 Why, there it goes: God give HIS lordship joy.] The 4to, 1600, has "his lordship" the 4to, 1611, and the folio, "your lordship."

3 the tribunal plebs,]

"I suppose (observes Steevens) the Clown means to say, Plebeian tribune; i. e. Tribune of the people." Sir T. Hanmer conjectured more happily that he meant tribunus plebis.

Clo. Ay, sir.

Tit. Then here is a supplication for you. And when you come to him, at the first approach, you must kneel; then kiss his foot; then deliver up your pigeons, and then look for your reward. I'll be at hand, sir; see you do it bravely.

Clo. I warrant you, sir; let me alone.

Tit. Sirrah, hast thou a knife?

Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration,

Come, let me see it.

For thou hast made it like an humble suppliant.-
And when thou hast given it to the emperor,
Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.
Clo. God be with you, sir: I will.

Tit. Come, Marcus, let us go.-Publius, follow me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Same. Before the Palace.

Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, Lords and others: SATURNINUS with the arrows in his hand that TITUS shot.

Sat. Why, lords, what wrongs are these!
An emperor of Rome thus overborne,

Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent
Of equal justice, us'd in such contempt ?

Was ever seen

My lords, you know, the mightful gods no less',
(However these disturbers of our peace

Buz in the people's ears) there nought hath pass'd,
But even with law', against the wilful sons

Of old Andronicus. And what an if

His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits,

My lords, you know, the mightful gods NO LESS,] The imperfect line in the early impressions is this—

My lords, you know the mightful gods,"

which Rowe amended by inserting as do before "the mightful gods;" but the corr. fo. 1632 contains the line as we have given it, and as we are persuaded it ought to remain.

But even with law,] So all the old copies, though Steevens asserts that the first folio has "Even with the law," and that it was corrected in the second folio. Malone printed "Even with the law," unsupported by any of the ancient authorities, perhaps, taking Steevens's word.

Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks",
His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness ?
And now he writes to heaven for his redress:
See, here's to Jove, and this to Mercury;
This to Apollo; this to the god of war;
Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!
What's this but libelling against the senate',
And blazoning our injustice every where?
A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?
As who would say, in Rome no justice were.
But if I live, his feigned ecstacies
Shall be no shelter to these outrages;
But he and his shall know, that justice lives
In Saturninus' health; whom, if she sleep",
He'll so awake, as she in fury shall
Cut off the proud'st conspirator that lives.

Tam. My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,
Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,
Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus' age,
Th' effects of sorrow for his valiant sons,

Whose loss hath pierc'd him deep, and scarr'd his heart;
And rather comfort his distressed plight,

Than prosecute the meanest, or the best,

For these contempts. [Aside.]. Why, thus it shall become
High-witted Tamora to gloze with all:

But, Titus, I have touch'd thee to the quick;
Thy life-blood out. If Aaron now be wise,
Then is all safe, the anchor's in the port.-

Enter Clown.

How now, good fellow! wouldst thou speak with us?

• Shall we be thus afflicted in his WREAKS,] i. e. In his revenges, which may be right, and which we do not alter; but the word in the corr. fo. 1632 is freaks, which is not inappropriately followed by "his fits, his frenzy," &c. We may here notice a slight omission in our best dictionaries, which have no such sense of "freak," or freke, as fellow or man: Skelton uses it in his "Bouge of Court:"— "By Cryste, quoth Favell, Drede is a soleyne freke,'

i. e. Dread is a sullen fellow, but Richardson treats it as if freke meant whim or caprice. In the Coventry Miracle-plays, as printed by the Shakespeare Society in 1841, p. 30, we have this line :

"I falle downe here, a fowle freke."

7 What's this but libelling against the SENATE,] corr. fo. 1632, but with doubtful fitness.

66

Against the state" says the

- whom, if SHE sleep,] He in the old copies; but altered by Rowe, both

8 here and in the next line.

Clo. Yes, forsooth, an your mistresship be emperial ". Tam. Empress I am, but yonder sits the emperor. Clo. 'Tis he.-God, and saint Stephen, give you good den. I have brought you a letter, and a couple of pigeons here. [SATURNINUS reads the letter.

Sat. Go, take him away, and hang him presently.

Clo. How much money must I have?

Tam. Come, sirrah; you must be hang'd.

Clo. Hang'd! By'r lady, then I have brought up a neck

to a fair end.

Sat. Despiteful and intolerable wrongs!

Shall I endure this monstrous villainy?

[Exit guarded.

I know from whence this same device proceeds.
May this be borne ?—as if his traitorous sons,
That died by law for murder of our brother,
Have by my means been butcher'd wrongfully.—
Go, drag the villain hither by the hair:
Nor age, nor honour, shall shape privilege'.—
For this proud mock, I'll be thy slaughter-man;
Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great,
In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.

Enter EMILIUS 2.

What news with thee, Æmilius ?

Emil. Arm, my lords! Rome never had more cause. The Goths have gather'd head, and with a power

Of high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,

They hither march amain, under conduct

9an your MISTRESSHIP be emperial.] It is mistership in the folios, but no doubt an error, from mister or mistress having formerly been denoted by a capital M, which the printer here mistook. The next speech by the Clown is thus represented in rhyme in the corr. fo. 1632, and perhaps it so stood in the MS. :

"God and saint Stephen

Give you good even.

I have brought you a letter

And a couple of pigeons for want of better."

Lower down the same character, introduced for the sake of exciting laughter, goes out to execution with a couplet:

"Hang'd! By'r lady then, friend,

I have brought my neck to a fair end."

We notice these changes for the information of the reader, but it is needless to introduce them into the text.

1 - shall SHAPE privilege.] The corr. fo. 1632 substitutes have for "shape," reasonably, but not necessarily.

2 Enter Æmilius.] In the old copies he is called "Nuntius Æmilius."