[Giving a letter.]
The complot of this timeless tragedy;
And wonder greatly that man’s face can fold
In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.
SATURNINUS.
[Reads] ‘An if we miss to meet him handsomely,—
Sweet huntsman, Bassianus ‘tis we mean,—
Do thou so much as dig the grave for him:
Thou know’st our meaning. Look for thy reward
Among the nettles at the elder-tree
Which overshades the mouth of that same pit
Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.
Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.’
O Tamora! was ever heard the like?—
This is the pit and this the elder-tree:—
Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out
That should have murder’d Bassianus here.
AARON.
My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.
[Showing it.]
SATURNINUS.
[To TITUS] Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody kind,
Have here bereft my brother of his life.—
Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:
There let them bide until we have devis’d
Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.
TAMORA.
What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!
How easily murder is discovered!
TITUS.
High emperor, upon my feeble knee
I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,
That this fell fault of my accursed sons,—
Accursed if the fault be prov’d in them,—
SATURNINUS.
If it be prov’d! You see it is apparent.—
Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?
TAMORA.
Andronicus himself did take it up.
TITUS.
I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail;
For, by my fathers’ reverend tomb, I vow
They shall be ready at your highness’ will
To answer their suspicion with their lives.
SATURNINUS.
Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me.—
Some bring the murder’d body, some the murderers:
Let them not speak a word,—the guilt is plain;
For, by my soul, were there worse end than death,
That end upon them should be executed.
TAMORA.
Andronicus, I will entreat the king:
Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough.
TITUS.
Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.
[Exeunt severally. Attendants bearing the body.]
SCENE IV. Another part of the Forest.
[Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, with LAVINIA, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out.]
DEMETRIUS.
So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak,
Who ‘twas that cut thy tongue and ravish’d thee.
CHIRON.
Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,
An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.
DEMETRIUS.
See how with signs and tokens she can scrowl.
CHIRON.
Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.
DEMETRIUS.
She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;
And so let’s leave her to her silent walks.
CHIRON.
An ‘twere my case, I should go hang myself.
DEMETRIUS.
If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.
[Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON.]
[Enter MARCUS.]
MARCUS.
Who is this?—my niece,—that flies away so fast?
Cousin, a word; where is your husband?—
If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!
If I do wake, some planet strike me down,
That I may slumber an eternal sleep!—
Speak, gentle niece,—what stern ungentle hands
Hath lopp’d, and hew’d, and made thy body bare
Of her two branches,—those sweet ornaments
Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,
And might not gain so great a happiness
As half thy love? Why dost not speak to me?—
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirr’d with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath.
But sure some Tereus hath deflowered thee,
And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.
