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The Same. A Room in the Palace. | |
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Enter, from one side, AARON, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON; from the other young LUCIUS, and an Attendant, with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them. | |
| Chi. Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius; | |
| He hath some message to deliver us. | |
| Aar. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather. | 5 |
| Boy. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, | |
| I greet your honours from Andronicus; | |
| [Aside.] And pray the Roman gods, confound you both! | |
| Dem. Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what’s the news? | |
| Boy. [Aside.] That you are both decipher’d, that’s the news, | 10 |
| For villains mark’d with rape. [Aloud.] May it please you, | |
| My grandsire, well advis’d, hath sent by me | |
| The goodliest weapons of his armoury, | |
| To gratify your honourable youth, | |
| The hope of Rome, for so he bade me say; | 15 |
| And so I do, and with his gifts present | |
| Your lordships, that whenever you have need, | |
| You may be armed and appointed well. | |
| And so I leave you both: [Aside.] like bloody villains. [Exeunt Boy and Attendant. | |
| Dem. What’s here? A scroll; and written round about? | 20 |
| Let’s see:— | |
| [Reads.] ‘Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus, | |
| Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu. | |
| Chi. O! ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well: | |
| I read it in the grammar long ago. | 25 |
| Aar. Ay just, a verse in Horace; right, you have it. | |
| [Aside.] Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! | |
| Here’s no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt | |
| And sends them weapons wrapp’d about with lines, | |
| That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick; | 30 |
| But were our witty empress well afoot, | |
| She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit: | |
| But let her rest in her unrest awhile. | |
| [To them.] And now, young lords, was ’t not a happy star | |
| Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so, | 35 |
| Captives, to be advanced to this height? | |
| It did me good before the palace gate | |
| To brave the tribune in his brother’s hearing. | |
| Dem. But me more good, to see so great a lord | |
| Basely insinuate and send us gifts. | 40 |
| Aar. Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius? | |
| Did you not use his daughter very friendly? | |
| Dem. I would we had a thousand Roman dames | |
| At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust. | |
| Chi. A charitable wish and full of love. | 45 |
| Aar. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. | |
| Chi. And that would she for twenty thousand more. | |
| Dem. Come, let us go and pray to all the gods | |
| For our beloved mother in her pains. | |
| Aar. [Aside.] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over. [Trumpets sound. | 50 |
| Dem. Why do the emperor’s trumpets flourish thus? | |
| Chi. Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son. | |
| Dem. Soft! who comes here? | |
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Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child. | |
| Nur. Good morrow, lords. O! tell me, did you see | 55 |
| Aaron the Moor? | |
| Aar. Well, more or less, or ne’er a whit at all, | |
| Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now? | |
| Nur. O gentle Aaron! we are all undone. | |
| Now help, or woe betide thee evermore! | 60 |
| Aar. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! | |
| What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms? | |
| Nur. O! that which I would hide from heaven’s eye, | |
| Our empress’ shame, and stately Rome’s disgrace! | |
| She is deliver’d, lords, she is deliver’d. | 65 |
| Aar. To whom? | |
| Nur. I mean, she’s brought a-bed. | |
| Aar. Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her? | |
| Nur. A devil. | |
| Aar. Why, then she’s the devil’s dam: a joyful issue. | 70 |
| Nur. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue. | |
| Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad | |
| Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime. | |
| The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, | |
| And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point. | 75 |
| Aar. ’Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue? | |
| Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure. | |
| Dem. Villain, what hast thou done? | |
| Aar. That which thou canst not undo. | |
| Chi. Thou hast undone our mother. | 80 |
| Aar. Villain, I have done thy mother. | |
| Dem. And therein, hellish dog; thou hast undone. | |
| Woe to her chance, and damn’d her loathed choice! | |
| Accurs’d the offspring of so foul a fiend! | |
| Chi. It shall not live. | 85 |
| Aar. It shall not die. | |
| Nur. Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so. | |
| Aar. What! must it, nurse? then let no man but I | |
| Do execution on my flesh and blood. | |
| Dem. I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point: | 90 |
| Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it. | |
| Aar. Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up. [Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws. | |
| Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother? | |
| Now, by the burning tapers of the sky, | |
| That shone so brightly when this boy was got, | 95 |
| He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point | |
| That touches this my first-born son and heir. | |
| I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus, | |
| With all his threatening band of Typhon’s brood, | |
| Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war, | 100 |
| Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands. | |
| What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys! | |
| Ye white-lim’d walls! ye alehouse painted signs! | |
| Coal-black is better than another hue, | |
| In that it scorns to bear another hue; | 105 |
| For all the water in the ocean | |
| Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white, | |
| Although she lave them hourly in the flood. | |
| Tell the empress from me, I am of age | |
| To keep mine own, excuse it how she can. | 110 |
| Dem. Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus? | |
| Aar. My mistress is my mistress; this myself; | |
| The vigour, and the picture of my youth: | |
| This before all the world do I prefer; | |
| This maugre all the world will I keep safe, | 115 |
| Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. | |
| Dem. By this our mother is for ever sham’d. | |
| Chi. Rome will despise her for this foul escape. | |
| Nur. The emperor in his rage will doom her death. | |
| Chi. I blush to think upon this ignomy. | 120 |
| Aar. Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears. | |
| Fie, treacherous hue! that will betray with blushing | |
| The close enacts and counsels of the heart: | |
| Here’s a young lad fram’d of another leer: | |
| Look how the black slave smiles upon the father, | 125 |
| As who should say, ‘Old lad, I am thine own.’ | |
| He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed | |
| Of that self blood that first gave life to you; | |
| And from that womb where you imprison’d were | |
| He is enfranchised and come to light: | 130 |
| Nay, he is your brother by the surer side, | |
| Although my seal be stamped in his face. | |
| Nur. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress? | |
| Dem. Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done, | |
| And we will all subscribe to thy advice: | 135 |
| Save thou the child, so we may all be safe. | |
| Aar. Then sit we down, and let us all consult, | |
| My son and I will have the wind of you: | |
| Keep there; now talk at pleasure of your safety. [They sit. | |
| Dem. How many women saw this child of his? | 140 |
| Aar. Why, so, brave lords! when we join in league, | |
| I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor, | |
| The chafed boar, the mountain lioness, | |
| The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms. | |
| But say, again, how many saw the child? | 145 |
| Nur. Cornelia the midwife, and myself, | |
| And no one else but the deliver’d empress. | |
| Aar. The empress, the midwife, and yourself: | |
| Two may keep counsel when the third’s away. | |
| Go to the empress; tell her this I said: [Stabbing her. | 150 |
| ‘Weke, weke!’ | |
| So cries a pig prepared to the spit. | |
| Dem. What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this? | |
| Aar. O lord, sir, ’tis a deed of policy: | |
| Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours, | 155 |
| A long-tongu’d babbling gossip? no, lords, no. | |
| And now be it known to you my full intent. | |
| Not far, one Muli lives, my countryman; | |
| His wife but yesternight was brought to bed. | |
| His child is like to her, fair as you are: | 160 |
| Go pack with him, and give the mother gold, | |
| And tell them both the circumstance of all, | |
| And how by this their child shall be advanc’d, | |
| And be received for the emperor’s heir, | |
| And substituted in the place of mine, | 165 |
| To calm this tempest whirling in the court; | |
| And let the emperor dandle him for his own. | |
| Hark ye, lords; you see, I have given her physic, [Pointing to the Nurse. | |
| And you must needs bestow her funeral; | |
| The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms. | 170 |
| This done, see that you take no longer days, | |
| But send the midwife presently to me. | |
| The midwife and the nurse well made away, | |
| Then let the ladies tattle what they please. | |
| Chi. Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air | 175 |
| With secrets. | |
| Dem. For this care of Tamora, | |
| Herself and hers are highly bound to thee. [Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, bearing off the Nurse’s body. | |
| Aar. Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies; | |
| There to dispose this treasure in mine arms, | 180 |
| And secretly to greet the empress’ friends. | |
| Come on, you thick-lipp’d slave, I’ll bear you hence; | |
| For it is you that puts us to our shifts: | |
| I’ll make you feed on berries and on roots, | |
| And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat, | 185 |
| And cabin in a cave, and bring you up | |
| To be a warrior, and command a camp. [Exit with the Child. | |
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