Nur.
Good-morrow, lords:
O tell me, did you see 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 wo betide thee evermore.

Aar.
Why what a caterwalling 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.

Aar.
To whom?

Nur.
I mean, she is brought to bed.

Aar.
Well, God give her good rest.
What hath he sent her?

Nur.
A devil.

Aar.
Why then she is the devil's dam: a joyful issue.

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.

Aar.
Out you 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.

Dem.
And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone—
Wo to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice,
Accurs'd the off-spring of so foul a fiend.

Chi.
It shall not live.

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:
Nurse, give it me, my sword shall soon dispatch it.

Aar.
Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.
Stay, murtherous villians, will you kill your brother?
Now by the burning tapers of the sky,
That shone so brightly when this boy was got,
He dies upon my cymitar's sharp point,
That touches this my first-born son and heir.
I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus
With all his threatning band of Typhon's brood,
Nor great Alcides, nor the God of war,
Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands;
What, what, ye sanguine shallow-hearted boys,

Ye white limb'd walls, ye alehouse painted signs,
Coal-black is better than another hue,
In that it scorns to bear another hue:
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.

Dem.
Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?

Aar.
My mistress is my mistress; this, my self;
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,
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 ignominy.

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;
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 infranchised and come to light:
Nay, he's 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:

Save thou the child, so we may be all 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 on the ground.

Dem.
How many women saw this child of his?

Aar.
Why so, brave lords, when we all 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?

Nur.
Cornelia the midwife, and my self.
And no one else but the deliver'd Empress.

Aar.
The Empress, the midwife, and your self—
Two may keep counsel, when the third's away:
Go to the Empress, tell her, this I said— [He kills her.
Week, week; so cries a pig prepar'd to th' 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?
A long-tongu'd babling gossip? no, lords, no.
And now be it known to you my full intent:
Not far, one Muliteus lives, my country-man,
His wife but yesternight was brought to bed,
His child is like to her, fair as you are:
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 Emp'ror's heir,
And substituted in the place of mine,
To calm this tempest whirling in the court;
And let the Emperor dandle him for his own.
Hark ye, lords, ye see I have given her physick,

And you must needs bestow her funeral;
The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms:
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 with secrets.

Dem.
For this care of Tamora,
Her self and hers are highly bound to thee. [Exeunt.

Aar.
Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies,
There to dispose this treasure in my arms,
And secretly to greet the Empress' friends.
Come on, you thick-lip'd slave, I 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,
And cabin in a cave, and bring you up
To be a warrior, and command a camp. [Exit.

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