Titus Page #10

but to torment you

with my bitter tongue!

Sirs, stop his mouth!

Let him speak no more!

My lord, there's

a messenger from Rome.

Welcome, Aemelius.

What news from Rome?

Lord Lucius,

and you princes of the Goths,

the Roman emperor

greets you all by me and,

for he understands

you are in arms,

craves a parley

at your father's house.

Willing you to demand

your hostages,

and they shall be

immediately delivered.

What says our general?

Aemelius, let the emperor

give his pledges unto my father...

and my uncle Marcus,

and we will come.

Who doth molest

my contemplation?

Is it your trick

to make me ope the door...

that so my sad decrees

may fly away...

and all my study be

to no effect?

Huh?

You are deceived,

for what I mean to do,

see here in bloody lines

I have set down.

And what is written

shall be executed.

Titus,

I am come to talk with thee.

No. Not a word.

If thou didst know me,

thou wouldst talk with me.

I am not mad.

I know thee well enough...

for our proud empress

mighty Tamora.

Is not thy coming

for my other hand?

Know, thou sad man,

I am not Tamora.

She is thy enemy

and I thy friend.

I am Revenge, sent

from the infernal kingdom,

accompanied by Rape

and Murder here-

To ease the gnawing vulture

of thy mind...

by working wreakful

vengeance on thy foes.

Come down and welcome me

to this world's light.

Confer with me on murder

and on death.

Art thou Revenge,

and art thou sent to me...

to be a torment

to mine enemies?

I am. Therefore come down...

and welcome me

and my ministers.

Good lord!

How like the empress' sons

they are,

and you the empress!

But we worldly men have

miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.

Oh, sweet Revenge,

now do I come to thee.

And if one arm's embracement

will content thee,

I will embrace thee in it

by and by!

This closing

with him fits his lunacy.

Whate'er I forge to feed

his brainsick fits,

do you uphold and maintain

in your speeches,

for now he firmly

takes me for Revenge.

And... being credulous

in this mad thought-

I'll make him send

for his son Lucius.

Shh! Shh!

See? Here he comes.

And I must ply my theme.

Long have I been forlorn,

and all for thee.

Welcome, dread fury,

to my woeful house.

Rapine and Murder,

you are welcome too.

How like the empress

and her sons you are.

Well are you fitted,

had you but a Moor.

Could not all hell

afford you such a devil?

What wouldst thou

have us do, Andronicus?

Show me a murderer,

and I'll deal with him.

Show me a villain

that hath done a rape,

and I am sent

to be revenged on him.

Look round about

the wicked streets of Rome.

When thou findst a man

that's like thyself,

good Murder, stab him.

He's a murderer.

Hmm?

Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap

to find another that is like to thee,

good Rapine, stab him!

He's a ravisher.

Go thou with them,

and in the emperor's court,

there is a queen

attended by a Moor.

Well mayst thou know her

by thy own proportion,

for up and down

she doth resemble thee.

I pray thee, do on them

some violent death.

They have been violent

to me and mine.

Well hast thou lessoned us.

This shall we do.

But... would it please thee,

good Andronicus,

to send for Lucius,

thy thrice valiant son,

and bid him come

and banquet at thy house?

I will bring in

the empress and her sons,

the emperor himself,

and all thy foes.

And at thy mercy-

Oh.

Shall they stoop and kneel,

and on them shalt thou

ease thy angry heart.

What says Andronicus

to this device?

Marcus, my brother?

'Tis sad Titus calls.

Go, gentle Marcus,

to thy nephew Lucius.

Thou shalt inquire him

out among the Goths.

Bid him repair to me

and bring with him...

some of the chiefest

princes of the Goths.

Tell him the emperor and the

empress, too, feast at my house,

and he shall feast with them.

This do thou for my love,

and so let him, as he regards

his aged father's life.

This will I do

and soon return again.

Now will I hence

about thy business...

and take my ministers

along with me.

Nay, nay-

Let Rape and Murder

stay with me,

or else I'll call my brother

back again...

and cleave to no revenge

but Lucius.

What say you, boys?

Will you abide with him...

whiles I go tell

my lord the emperor...

how I have governed

our determined jest?

Madam, depart at pleasure.

Leave us here.

Farewell, Andronicus.

Revenge now goes

to lay a complot...

to betray thy foes.

I know thou dost,

and, sweet Revenge, farewell.

Tell us, old man,

how shall we be employed?

Tut. I have work

well enough for you.

Come hither,

Publius, Caius, Valentin!

What is your will?

Know you these two?

The empress' sons, I take them-

Chiron and Demetrius.

Fie, Publius, fie!

Thou art too much deceived.

The one is Murder.

Rape is the other's name.

And therefore bind them,

gentle Publius.

Caius and Valentin,

lay hands on them.

Villains, forbear!

We are thy empress' sons!

And therefore do

we what we are commanded.

Come. Come, Lavinia.

Look.

Thy foes are bound.

Now let them hear

what fearful words I utter.

O villains

Chiron and Demetrius.

Here stands the spring

whom you have stained with mud-

this goodly summer

with your winter mixed.

You killed her husband,

and for that vile fault...

two of her brothers

were condemned to death,

my hand cut off

and made a merry jest.

Both her sweet hands,

her tongue,

and that more dear

than hands or tongue-

her spotless chastity-

inhuman traitors,

you constrained and forced.

What would you say

if I should let you speak?

Villains, for shame,

you could not beg for grace.

Hark, wretches,

how I mean to martyr you.

This one hand yet is left

to cut your throats,

whilst that Lavinia between

her stumps doth hold...

the basin that receives

your guilty blood.

You know your mother means

to feast with me...

and calls herself Revenge

and thinks me mad.

Hark, villains.

I shall grind your bones to dust,

and with your blood and it

I'll make a paste.

And of the paste

a coffin I will rear...

and make two pastries

of your shameful heads,

and bid that strumpet

your unhallowed dam,

like to the earth,

swallow her own increase.

This is the feast

that I have bid her to...

and this the banquet

she shall surfeit on.

And now prepare your throats.

Lavinia, come.

Receive the blood.

Come. Come, be everyone officious

to make this banquet...

which I wish may prove...

more stern and bloody

than the centaur's feast.

So...

now cut them down,

for I shall play the cook...

and see them ready

'gainst their mother comes.

The feast is ready, which the careful

Titus hath ordained to an honorable end-

for peace, for love, for league,

and good to Rome.

Please you, therefore,

draw nigh...

and take your places.

Marcus, we will.

Welcome, my gracious lord.

Welcome, dread queen.

Welcome, ye warlike Goths.

Welcome, Lucius.

And welcome, all.

Although the cheer be poor,

'twill fill your stomachs.

Please you eat of it.

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