Tam.
Thus in these strange and sad habiliments
I will encounter with Andronicus,
And say, I am Revenge sent from below,
To join with him, and right his heinous wrongs:
Knock at the 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, and Titus appears above.

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?
You are deceiv'd, for what I mean to do,
See here in bloody lines I have set down;
And what is written, shall be executed.

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

Tit.
No not a word: how can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it that accord?
Thou hast the odds of me, therefore no more.

Tam.
If thou didst know me, thou would'st talk with me.

Tit.
I am not mad, I know thee well enough;
Witness this wretched stump,
Witness the crimson lines,
Witness these trenches, made by grief and care,
Witness the tyring 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?

Tam.
Know thou, sad man, I am not Tamora;
She is thy enemy, and I thy friend;
I am Revenge, sent from th' infernal kingdom,
To ease the gnawing vultur of thy mind,
By working wreakful vengeance on thy 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 Murther 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 offenders quake.

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

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

Tit.
Do me some service, ere I come to thee:
Lo by thy side where Rape and Murder stands;
Now give some surance 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:
Provide two proper palfries black as jet,
To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
And find out murders in their guilty caves.
And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
I will dismount, and by thy waggon wheel
Trot like a servile foot-man all day long;
Even from Hyperion's rising in the east,
Until his very downfal 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 they thy ministers; what are they call'd?

Tam.
Rapine and Murder; therefore called so,
'Cause they take vengeance on 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 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 Titus from above.

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 speech,
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 play my theam.

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