Tam.
Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment ^note,
I will encounter with Andronicus,
And say I am Revenge, sent from below
To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
Knock at his ^note study, where, they say, he keeps,
To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;
Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,
And work confusion on his enemies. [They knock. Enter Titus, above. ^note

Tit.
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? ^note
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.

Tam.
Titus ^note, I am come ^note to talk with thee ^note.

Tit.
No, not a word: how can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it action? ^note

Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.

Tam.
If thou didst know me, thou wouldst talk with me ^note.

Tit.
I am not mad; I know thee well enough:
Witness this wretched stump, witness these ^note crimson lines ^note;
Witness these trenches made by grief and care;
Witness the tiring day and heavy night;
Witness all sorrow, that I know thee well
For our proud empress, mighty Tamora:
Is not thy coming for my other hand? ^note

Tam.
Know, thou sad ^note man, I am not Tamora;
She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:
I am Revenge; sent from the infernal kingdom,
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy ^note mind,
By working wreakful vengeance on thy ^note foes.
Come down and welcome me to this world's light;
Confer with me of murder and of death:
There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
No vast obscurity or misty vale,
Where bloody murder or detested rape
Can couch for fear, but I will find them out,
And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,
Revenge, which makes the foul offender ^note quake.

Tit.
Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me,
To be a torment to mine enemies? ^note

Tam.
I am; therefore come down and welcome me. ^note

Tit.
Do me some service ere I come to thee.
Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands ^note;
Now give some surance ^note that thou art Revenge,
Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels;
And then I'll come and be thy waggoner,
And whirl along with thee about the globes ^note.

Provide thee two ^note proper palfreys, black ^note as jet,
To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
And find out murderers ^note in their guilty caves ^note:
And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
I will dismount, and by the ^note waggon-wheel
Trot like a servile footman all day long,
Even from Hyperion's ^note rising in the east
Until his very downfall in the sea:
And day by day I'll do this heavy task,
So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.

Tam.
These are my ministers and come with me.

Tit.
Are these ^note thy ministers? what are they call'd?

Tam.
Rapine ^note and Murder; therefore called so,
'Cause ^note they take vengeance of ^note such kind of men.

Tit.
Good Lord, how like the empress' sons they are,
And you the empress! but we worldly men
Have miserable, mad, mistaking ^note eyes.
O 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. [Exit above. ^note

Tam.
This closing with him fits his lunacy:
Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits,
Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches ^note,
For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;
And, being credulous in this mad thought,
I'll make him send for Lucius his son;
And, whilst I at a banquet hold him sure,
I'll find some cunning practice out of hand,
To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,

Or at the least make them his enemies.
See, here he comes, and I must ply ^note my theme. Enter ^note Titus, below. ^note

Tit.
Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:
Welcome, dread Fury, to my woful 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?
For well I wot the empress never wags
But in her company there is a Moor;
And, would you represent our queen aright,
It were convenient you had such a devil:
But welcome, as you are. What shall we do?

Tam.
What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?

Dem.
Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.

Chi.
Show me a villain that hath done a rape,
And I am sent to be revenged on him.

Tam.
Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,
And I will ^note be revenged on them all.

Tit.
Look round about the wicked streets of Rome,
And when thou find'st a man that's like thyself,
Good Murder, stab him; he's a murderer.
Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap
To find another that is like to thee,
Good Rapine, stab him; he's ^note 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 thine ^note 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.

Tam.
Well hast thou lesson'd us; this shall we do.

But would it please thee, good ^note Andronicus,
To send for Lucius, thy thrice valiant son,
Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,
And bid him come and banquet at thy house;
When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,
I will bring in the empress and her sons,
The emperor himself, and all thy foes;
And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel,
And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
What says Andronicus to this device ^note?

Tit.
Marcus, my brother! 'tis sad Titus calls. Enter Marcus. ^note
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:
Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are:
Tell him the emperor and the empress too
Feast ^note 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.

Marc.
This will I do, and soon return again. [Exit. ^note

Tam.
Now will I hence about thy business,
And take my ministers along with me.

Tit.
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 ^note.

Tam. [Aside to her sons ^note]
What say you, boys? will you ^note bide ^note with him,
Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor

How I have govern'd our determined jest? ^note
Yield ^note to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,
And tarry with him till I turn ^note again.

Tit. [Aside ^note]
I know them all, though they suppose me mad;
And will o'er-reach them in their own devices ^note:
A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam ^note.

Dem.
Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.

Tam.
Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes
To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

Tit. ^note
I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell. [Exit Tamora. ^note

Chi.
Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd?

Tit.
Tut ^note, I have work enough for you to do.
Publius, come hither ^note, Caius, and Valentine! Enter Publius ^note and others.

Pub. ^note

What is your will?

Tit.

Know you ^note these two?

Pub. ^note

The empress' sons, I take them, Chiron and ^note Demetrius ^note.

Tit.
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 Valentine, lay hands on them:
Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,
And now I find it; therefore bind them sure;

And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry ^note. [Exit. ^note [Publius ^note, &c. lay hold on Chiron and Demetrius.

Chi.
Villains, forbear! we are the empress' sons.

Pub. ^note
And therefore do we what we are commanded.
Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.
Is he sure bound? ^note look that you ^note bind them fast. ^note Re-enter ^note Titus, with Lavinia; he bearing a knife, and she a basin. ^note

Tit.
Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.
Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;
But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud,
This goodly summer with your winter mix'd.
You kill'd her husband, and for that vile ^note fault
Two of her brothers were condemn'd 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 constrain'd and forced.
What would you say ^note, 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 ^note left to cut your throats,
Whilst that Lavinia 'tween ^note her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
You know your ^note mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:
Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust,

And with your blood and it I'll make a paste;
And of the paste a coffin I will ^note rear,
And make two pasties of your shameful heads;
And bid that strumpet, your unhallow'd ^note dam,
Like to the earth, swallow her own ^note increase.
This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,
And worse than Progne ^note I will be revenged:
And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come, [He ^note cuts their throats.
Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,
Let me go grind their bones to powder small,
And with this hateful liquor temper it;
And in that paste let their vile ^note heads be baked.
Come, come, be every ^note one officious
To make this banquet; which I wish may ^note prove
More stern and bloody than the Centaurs' ^note feast.
So, now bring them ^note in, for I'll ^note play the cook,
And see them ready against ^note their ^note mother comes. [Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies. ^note

^note

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