And tell them both the circumstance of all;
And how by this their child shall be advanc'd,
And be received for the emperor'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, that I3 have given her physick,
[Pointing to the Nurse.
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 ladics tattle what they please.
Chi. Aaron, I see, thou wilt not trust the air
with secrets.

Dem.

For this care of Tamora, Herself, and hers, are highly bound to thee.

[Exeunt DEM. and CHI. bearing off the Nurse. Aar. Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies; There to dispose this treasure in mine arms, And secretly to greet the empress' friends.

Come on, you thick-lipp'd slave, I 'll 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.

To pack is to contrive insidiously. So, in King Lear: snuffs and packings of the dukes.” Steevens. TO PACK a jury, is an expression still used; though the prac tice, I trust, is obsolete. Henley.

3

that I- That omitted in edition 1600. Todd.

And feed] This verb having occurred in the line immediately preceding, Sir T. Hanmer, with great probability, reads : And feast on curds &c. Steevens.

SCENE III.

The same. A publick Place.

Enter TITUS, bearing Arrows, with Letters at the ends of them; with him MARCUS, young Lucius, and other Gentlemen, with Bows.

Tit. Come, Marcus, come;-Kinsmen, this is the

way:

Sir boy, now5 let me see your archery;

Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight:
Terras Astræa reliquit:

Be

you

remember'd, Marcus, she 's gone, she 's fled.
Sir, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall
Go sound the ocean, and cast your nets;
Happily you may find her in the sea;6

Yet there 's as little justice as at land:—
No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;
'Tis you must dig with mattock, and with spade,
And pierce the inmost centre of the earth:
Then, when you come to Pluto's region,
I pray you, deliver him this petition:
Tell him, it is for justice, and for aid;
And that it comes from old Andronicus,
Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.—
Ah, Rome!-Well, well; I made thee miserable,
What time I threw the people's suffrages
On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me.--
Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,
And leave you not a man of war unsearch'd;
This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence,
And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.
Mar. O, Publius, is not this a heavy case,

To see thy noble uncle thus distract?

Pub. Therefore, my lord, it highly us concerns, By day and night to attend him carefully;

And feed his humour kindly as we may,

Till time beget some careful remedy.

Mar. Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.

5

now

-] This syllable, which is necessary to the metre, but wanting in the first folio, is supplied by the second. Steevens. 5 find her in the sea.] Catch her &c. the better reading, I think. Todd.

VOL. XVII.

H

Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war
Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,
And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.

Tit. Publius, how now? how now, my masters? What, Have you met with her?

Pub. No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word
If you will have revenge from hell, you shall:
Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,

He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,
So that perforce you must needs stay a time.

Tit. He doth me wrong, to feed me with delays.
I'll dive into the burning lake below,

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.---
Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we;
No big-bon❜d men, fram'd of the Cyclops' size:
But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back;

Yet wrung with wrongs,7 more than our backs can bear:
And, sith there is no justice in earth nor hell,
We will solicit heaven; and move the gods,
To send down justice for to wreak our wrongs:
Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus.
[He gives them the Arrows.
Ad Jovem, that 's for you:-Here, ad Apollinem :—
Ad Martem, that 's for myself;—

Here, boy, to Pallas :--Here, to Mercury:

To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine,-

7 Yet wrung with wrongs,] To wring a horse is to press or strain his back.

So, in Hamlet:

Johnson.

"Our withers are unwrung." Steevens.

8 to wreak - i. e. revenge. So, in p. 77:
"Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks ?"
Again, in Chapman's version of the fifth Iliad:
and justice might enforce
"The wreake he took on Troy." Steevens.

9 To Saturn, Caius, &c.] Old copies:

Steevens.

of

To Saturnine, to Caius, not to Saturnine. For Caius Mr. Rowe substituted--Calus. Saturnine was corrected by Mr. Rowe. To was inadvertently repeated by the compositor. Caius appears to have been one the kinsmen of Titus. Publius and Sempronius have been al ready mentioned. Publius and Caius, are again introduced in Act V, sc. in:

"Tit. Publius, come hither; Caius and Valentine."

You were as good to shoot against the wind.--
To it, boy. Marcus, loose when I bid:

O' my word, I have written to effect;
There's not a god left unsolicited.

Mar. Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:1 We will afflict the emperor in his pride.

Tit. Now, masters, draw. [They shoot.] O, well said, Lucius!

Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas.

Mar. My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon ;2 Your letter is with Jupiter by this.

Tit. Ha! Publius, Publius, what hast thou done! See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns.

Mar. This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot, The bull being gall'd, gave Aries such a knock That down fell both the ram's horns in the court; And who should find them but the empress' villain? She laugh'd, and told the Moor, he should not choose But give them to his master for a present.

Tit. Why, there it goes: God give your lordship3 joy.

The modern editors read--To Saturn, to Calum, &c. Malone. I have always read--Calus, i. e. the Roman deity of that Steevens.

name.

1

shoot all your shafts into the court:] In the ancient ballad of Titus Andronicus's Complaint, is the following passage: "Then past reliefe I upp and downe did goe,

"And with my tears wrote in the dust my woe:
"I shot my arrowes towards heaven hie,

"And for revenge to hell did often crye."

On this Dr. Percy has the following observation; " If the ballad was written before the play, I should suppose this to be only a metaphorical expression, taken from the Psalms: "They shoot out their arrows, even bitter words." Psalm lxiv, 3." Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I, p. 228, third edition. Steevens

2 I aim a mile beyond the moon;] To "cast beyond the moon," is an expression used in Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606. Again, in Mother Bombie, 1594: "Risio hath gone beyond himself in casting beyond the moon.” Again, in A Woman kill'd with Kindness, 1617:

I talk of things impossible,

"And cast beyond the moon." Steevens.

I aim a mile beyond the moon;] Thus the quarto and folio. Mr. Rowe for aim substituted am, which has been adopted by all the modern editors. Malone.

3

your lordship —] Edition 1600:-his lordship. Todą.

Enter a Clown, with a Basket and Two Pigeons. News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come. Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?

Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter?

Clo. Ho! the gibbet-maker? he says, that he hath taken them down again, for the man must not be hanged till the next week.

Tit. But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?

Clo. Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him in all my life.4

Tit. Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?

Clo. Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.
Tit. Why, didst thou not come from heaven?

Clo. From heaven? alas, sir, I never came there: God forbid, I should be so bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to the tribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawl betwixt my uncle and one of the emperial's men.

Mar. Why, sir, that is as fit as can be, to serve for your oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to the emperor from you.

Tit. Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor with a grace?

Clo. Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my

life.

Tit. Sirrah, come hither; make no more ado,

But give your pigeons to the emperor:

By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.

Hold, hold;—mean while, here's money for thy charges. Give me a pen and ink.

Sirrah, can you with a grace deliver a supplication?

4

Clo. Ay, sir.

Tit. Then here is a supplication for you.

And when

I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him in all my life.] Perhaps, in this instance also, the Clown was designed to blunder, by saying, (as does the Dairy-maid in a modern farce) Jew Peter, instead of Jupiter. Steevens.

5

the tribunal plebs,] I suppose the Clown means to say, Plebeian tribune, i. e. tribune of the people; for none could fill this office but such as were descended from Plebeian ancestors.

Steevens.

Sir T. Hanmer supposes that he means-tribunus plebis.

Malone.