1    He that had wit would think that I had none,
2    To bury so much gold under a tree,
3    And never after to inherit it.
4    Let him that thinks of me so abjectly
5    Know that this gold must coin a stratagem,
6    Which, cunningly effected, will beget
7    A very excellent piece of villany:
8    And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest
Hides the gold
9    That have their alms out of the empress' chest.

10   My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad,
11   When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?
12   The birds chant melody on every bush,
13   The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,
14   The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
15   And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground:
16   Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,
17   And, whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
18   Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,
19   As if a double hunt were heard at once,
20   Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise;
21   And, after conflict such as was supposed
22   The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd,
23   When with a happy storm they were surprised
24   And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave,
25   We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
26   Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;
27   Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds
28   Be unto us as is a nurse's song
29   Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.

30   Madam, though Venus govern your desires,
31   Saturn is dominator over mine:
32   What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
33   My silence and my cloudy melancholy,
34   My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls
35   Even as an adder when she doth unroll
36   To do some fatal execution?
37   No, madam, these are no venereal signs:
38   Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
39   Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
40   Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,
41   Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,
42   This is the day of doom for Bassianus:
43   His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,
44   Thy sons make pillage of her chastity
45   And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.
46   Seest thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,
47   And give the king this fatal plotted scroll.
48   Now question me no more; we are espied;
49   Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
50   Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction.

51   Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!

52   No more, great empress; Bassianus comes:
53   Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy sons
54   To back thy quarrels, whatsoe'er they be.

55   Who have we here? Rome's royal empress,
56   Unfurnish'd of her well-beseeming troop?
57   Or is it Dian, habited like her,
58   Who hath abandoned her holy groves
59   To see the general hunting in this forest?

60   Saucy controller of our private steps!
61   Had I the power that some say Dian had,
62   Thy temples should be planted presently
63   With horns, as was Actaeon's; and the hounds
64   Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,
65   Unmannerly intruder as thou art!

66   Under your patience, gentle empress,
67   'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;
68   And to be doubted that your Moor and you
69   Are singled forth to try experiments:
70   Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day!
71   'Tis pity they should take him for a stag.

72   Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian
73   Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
74   Spotted, detested, and abominable.
75   Why are you sequester'd from all your train,
76   Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed.
77   And wander'd hither to an obscure plot,
78   Accompanied but with a barbarous Moor,
79   If foul desire had not conducted you?

80   And, being intercepted in your sport,
81   Great reason that my noble lord be rated
82   For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence,
83   And let her joy her raven-colour'd love;
84   This valley fits the purpose passing well.

85   The king my brother shall have note of this.

86   Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:
87   Good king, to be so mightily abused!

88   Why have I patience to endure all this?

89   How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother!
90   Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?

91   Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?
92   These two have 'ticed me hither to this place:
93   A barren detested vale, you see it is;
94   The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
95   O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:
96   Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
97   Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven:
98   And when they show'd me this abhorred pit,
99   They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
100  A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
101  Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
102  Would make such fearful and confused cries
103  As any mortal body hearing it
104  Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
105  No sooner had they told this hellish tale,
106  But straight they told me they would bind me here
107  Unto the body of a dismal yew,
108  And leave me to this miserable death:
109  And then they call'd me foul adulteress,
110  Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
111  That ever ear did hear to such effect:
112  And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
113  This vengeance on me had they executed.
114  Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,
115  Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.

116  This is a witness that I am thy son.

117  And this for me, struck home to show my strength.

118  Ay, come, Semiramis, nay, barbarous Tamora,
119  For no name fits thy nature but thy own!

120  Give me thy poniard; you shall know, my boys
121  Your mother's hand shall right your mother's wrong.

122  Stay, madam; here is more belongs to her;
123  First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw:
124  This minion stood upon her chastity,
125  Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,
126  And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:
127  And shall she carry this unto her grave?

128  An if she do, I would I were an eunuch.
129  Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,
130  And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.

131  But when ye have the honey ye desire,
132  Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.

133  I warrant you, madam, we will make that sure.
134  Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy
135  That nice-preserved honesty of yours.

136  O Tamora! thou bear'st a woman's face,--

137  I will not hear her speak; away with her!

138  Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.

139  Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory
140  To see her tears; but be your heart to them
141  As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.

142  When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam?
143  O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;
144  The milk thou suck'dst from her did turn to marble;
145  Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.
146  Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:
To CHIRON
147  Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.

148  What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?

149  'Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:
150  Yet have I heard,--O, could I find it now!--
151  The lion moved with pity did endure
152  To have his princely paws pared all away:
153  Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
154  The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:
155  O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
156  Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!

157  I know not what it means; away with her!

158  O, let me teach thee! for my father's sake,
159  That gave thee life, when well he might have
160  slain thee,
161  Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.

162  Hadst thou in person ne'er offended me,
163  Even for his sake am I pitiless.
164  Remember, boys, I pour'd forth tears in vain,
165  To save your brother from the sacrifice;
166  But fierce Andronicus would not relent;
167  Therefore, away with her, and use her as you will,
168  The worse to her, the better loved of me.

169  O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen,
170  And with thine own hands kill me in this place!
171  For 'tis not life that I have begg'd so long;
172  Poor I was slain when Bassianus died.

173  What begg'st thou, then? fond woman, let me go.

174  'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more
175  That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:
176  O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,
177  And tumble me into some loathsome pit,
178  Where never man's eye may behold my body:
179  Do this, and be a charitable murderer.

180  So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:
181  No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.

182  Away! for thou hast stay'd us here too long.

183  No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!
184  The blot and enemy to our general name!
185  Confusion fall--

186  Nay, then I'll stop your mouth. Bring thou her husband:
187  This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him.

188  Farewell, my sons: see that you make her sure.
189  Ne'er let my heart know merry cheer indeed,
190  Till all the Andronici be made away.
191  Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor,
192  And let my spleenful sons this trull deflow'r.

193  Come on, my lords, the better foot before:
194  Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit
195  Where I espied the panther fast asleep.

196  My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes.

197  And mine, I promise you; were't not for shame,
198  Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.

199  What art thou fall'n? What subtle hole is this,
200  Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing briers,
201  Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood
202  As fresh as morning dew distill'd on flowers?
203  A very fatal place it seems to me.
204  Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?

205  O brother, with the dismall'st object hurt
206  That ever eye with sight made heart lament!

Aside
207   Now will I fetch the king to find them here,
208  That he thereby may give a likely guess
209  How these were they that made away his brother.

210  Why dost not comfort me, and help me out
211  From this unhallowed and blood-stained hole?

212  I am surprised with an uncouth fear;
213  A chilling sweat o'er-runs my trembling joints:
214  My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.

215  To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,
216  Aaron and thou look down into this den,
217  And see a fearful sight of blood and death.

218  Aaron is gone; and my compassionate heart
219  Will not permit mine eyes once to behold
220  The thing whereat it trembles by surmise;
221  O, tell me how it is; for ne'er till now
222  Was I a child to fear I know not what.

223  Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here,
224  All on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb,
225  In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.

226  If it be dark, how dost thou know 'tis he?

227  Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
228  A precious ring, that lightens all the hole,
229  Which, like a taper in some monument,
230  Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,
231  And shows the ragged entrails of the pit:
232  So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus
233  When he by night lay bathed in maiden blood.
234  O brother, help me with thy fainting hand--
235  If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath--
236  Out of this fell devouring receptacle,
237  As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth.

238  Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out;
239  Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,
240  I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb
241  Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave.
242  I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink.

243  Nor I no strength to climb without thy help.

244  Thy hand once more; I will not loose again,
245  Till thou art here aloft, or I below:
246  Thou canst not come to me: I come to thee.

247  Along with me: I'll see what hole is here,
248  And what he is that now is leap'd into it.
249  Say who art thou that lately didst descend
250  Into this gaping hollow of the earth?

251  The unhappy son of old Andronicus:
252  Brought hither in a most unlucky hour,
253  To find thy brother Bassianus dead.

254  My brother dead! I know thou dost but jest:
255  He and his lady both are at the lodge
256  Upon the north side of this pleasant chase;
257  'Tis not an hour since I left him there.

258  We know not where you left him all alive;
259  But, out, alas! here have we found him dead.

260  Where is my lord the king?

261  Here, Tamora, though grieved with killing grief.

262  Where is thy brother Bassianus?

263  Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound:
264  Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.

265  Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,
266  The complot of this timeless tragedy;
267  And wonder greatly that man's face can fold
268  In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.

Reads
269   'An if we miss to meet him handsomely--
270  Sweet huntsman, Bassianus 'tis we mean--
271  Do thou so much as dig the grave for him:
272  Thou know'st our meaning. Look for thy reward
273  Among the nettles at the elder-tree
274  Which overshades the mouth of that same pit
275  Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.
276  Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.'
277  O Tamora! was ever heard the like?
278  This is the pit, and this the elder-tree.
279  Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out
280  That should have murdered Bassianus here.

281  My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.

To TITUS
282   Two of thy whelps, fell curs of
283  bloody kind,
284  Have here bereft my brother of his life.
285  Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:
286  There let them bide until we have devised
287  Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.

288  What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!
289  How easily murder is discovered!

290  High emperor, upon my feeble knee
291  I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,
292  That this fell fault of my accursed sons,
293  Accursed if the fault be proved in them,--

294  If it be proved! you see it is apparent.
295  Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?

296  Andronicus himself did take it up.

297  I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail;
298  For, by my father's reverend tomb, I vow
299  They shall be ready at your highness' will
300  To answer their suspicion with their lives.

301  Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me.
302  Some bring the murder'd body, some the murderers:
303  Let them not speak a word; the guilt is plain;
304  For, by my soul, were there worse end than death,
305  That end upon them should be executed.

306  Andronicus, I will entreat the king;
307  Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough.

308  Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.