This do thou for my love; and fo let him,
As he regards his aged father's life.

Mar. This will 1 do, and foon return again.

[Exit.

Tam. Now will I hence about thy business,
And take my minifters along with me.
Tit. Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with
Or elfe I'll call my brother back again,

And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.

Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats;
Whilft that Lavinia 'twixt her stumps doth hold
The bafon, that receives your guilty blood.

You know, your mother means to fealt with me,
[me; And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad,
Hark, villains; I will grind your bones to duft,
And with your blood and it I'll make a paste;
And of the paste a coffin will I rear,

Tam. [to ber fons.] What fay you, boys? will And make two pasties of your shameful heads;

you abide with him,
Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor,
How I have govern'd our determin'd jeft ?
Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,
And tarry with him 'till I come again.

[mad;
Tit. I know them all, though they suppote me
And will o'er-reach them in their own devices,
A pair of curfed heli-hounds, and their dam.

And bid that itrumpet, your unhallow'd dam,
Like to the earth, fwallow her own increate.
This is the feast that I have bid her to,
And this the banquet she shall furfeit on;
For worfe than Philomel you us'd my daughter,
And worse than Progne I will be reveng'd :
And now prepare your throats.-Lavinia, come,
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;

[Afide. Dem. Madam, depart at pleafure, leave us here. Tam. Farewel, Andronicus: Revenge now goes And in that pafte let their vile heads be bak'd. To lay a complot to betray thy foes. [Exit Tamora. Come, come, be every one officious Tit. I know, thou doft; and, fweet Revenge, To make this banquet; which I with might prove [ploy'd? More stern and bloody than the Centaur's feaft. [He cuts their throats. So, now bring them in, for I will play the cook, And fee them ready 'gainft their mother comes. Exeunt.

farewel.
Chi. Tell us, old man, how shall we be em-
Tit. Tut, I have work enough for you to do.
Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine!
Enter Publius, and Servants.

[Exit Titas.

Chi. Villains, for bear; we are the empereís' fons.
Pub. And therefore do we what we are com-
manded.-

Stop close their mouths, let them not fpeak a word:
Is he fure bound? look, that you bind them fart.
Re-enter Titas Andronicus with a knife, and Lavinia
with a bason,

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!
[mud;
Here stands the spring whom you have ftain'd with
This goodly fummer with your winter mix'd.
You kill'd her husband; and, for that vile fault,
Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death:
My hand cut off, and made a merry jeft: [dear
Both her tweet hands, her tongue, and that, more
Than hands or tongue, her fpotless chaftity,
Inhuman traitors, you conftrain'd and forc'd.
What would you fay, if I thould let you speak ?
Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.

[will.

Goth. And ours with thine, befall what fortune
Lum. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous
This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil; [Moor,
Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him,
'Till he be brought unto the emperor's face,
For teftimony of these foul proceedings:
And fee the ambush of our friends be strong;
I fear the emperor means no good to us

Aar. Some devil whifper curfes in mine ear,
And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth
The venomous malice of my fwelling heart!

Luc. Away, inhuman dog | unhallow'd flave!-
[Exeunt Goths, with Aaron.
Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.- [Flourish.
The trumpets thew the emperor is at hand.
Sound trumpets. Enter Saturninus and Tamora, with
Tribunes and others.

Sat. What, hath the firmament more funs than
one?

Luc. What boots it thee to call thyself a fun?
Mar. Rome's emperor, and nephew, break the
parle 2;

These quarrels must be quietly debated.
The feaft is ready, which the careful Titus
Hath ordain'd to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome
Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your
places.

Sat. Marcus, we will.

I A coffin is the term of art for the cavity of a raised pye. he breaks his mind.

[Hautboys.

2 i. e. begin the parley. We yet fay,

Iii 3

A table

A table brought in. Enter Titus, like a cook, placing the meat on the table, and Lavinia, with a veil over ber face.

Tit. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen;

Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor, 'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it.

Sat. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus? Tit. Because I would be fure to have all well, To entertain your highness, and your emperess. Tam. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus. Tit. An if your highness knew my heart, you

were.

My lord the emperor, refolve me this;
Was it well done of rash Virginius,

To flay his daughter with his own right hand,
Because she was enforc'd, stain'd, and deflower'd?
Sat. It was, Andronicus.

Tit. Your reason, mighty lord?
[shame,
Sat. Because the girl should not furvive her
And by her prefence still renew his forrows.

Tit. A reaton mighty, strong, and effectual;
A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant,
For me most wretched to perform the like :-
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy thame with thee;
And, with thy shame, thy father's forrow die!
[He kills ber.

Sat. What haft thou done, unnatural, and un-
[me blind.

kind?

Tit. Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made
I am as woeful as Virginius was :

And have a thousand times more cause than he
To do this outrage; and it is now done.

deed.

Sat. What, was the ravished? tell who did the
[highness feed?
Tit. Will't please you eat? will't please your
Tam. Why haft thou flain thine only daughter

thus?

Tit. Not 1; 'twas Chiron, and Demetrius:
They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue,
And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.
Sat. Go fetch them hither to us presently.
Tit. Why, there they are both, baked in that

pye;

Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that the herfelf hath bred.
'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point.
[He flabs Tamara.

Sat. Die, frantick wretch, for this accurfed deed.
[He flabs Titus.

Luc. Can the fon's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed. [Lucius ftabs Saturninus.

Mar. You fad-fac'd men, people and fons of
Rome,
By uproar fever'd, like a flight of fowl
Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gufts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body.

Goth. Let Rome herself be bane unto herself;
And the, whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to,
Like a forlorn and defperate cast-away,

Do shameful execution on herself.

Mar. But if my frofty signs and chaps of age,.
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,-
Speak, Rome's dear friend; as erft our ancestor,
[To Lucint
When with his folemn tongue he did ditcourse,
To love-fick Dido's sad attending ear,
The story of that baleful burning night,
When fubtle Greeks surpriz'd king Priam's Troy;
Tell us, what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in,
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.-
My heart is not compact of flint, nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,

But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
And break my very utterance; even in the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiferation:
Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;
Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him fpeak.
Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That curfed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it was, that ravished our fifter:

For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father's tears despis'd; and bafely cozen'd
Of that true hand, that fought Rome's quarrel out,
And fent her enemies unto the grave.
Lastly, myself unkindly banished,
The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome's enemies;
Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears,
And op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend:
And I am the turn'd-forth, be it known to you,
That have preserv'd her welfare in my blood;
And from her bosom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my advent'rous body.
Alas! you know, I am no vaunter, I;
My fears can witness, dumb although they are,
That my report is juft, and full of truth.
But, soft, methinks, I do digress too much,
Citing my worthless praife: O, pardon me;
For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.

Mar. Now is my turn to fpeak; Behold this

AGAMEMNON,

ACHILLES,

AJAX,

MENELAUS,

Greeks.

ULYSSES,
NESTOR,

DIOMEDES,

PATROCLUS,

THERSITES,

Greeks.

HELEN, Wife to Menelaus.

ANDROMACHE, Wife to Hector.

CASSANDRA, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.

CRESSIDA, Daughter to Calchas.

ALEXANDER, Creffida's Servant.

Boy, Page to Troilus.

Servant to Diomed.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other Attendant

SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it.

And Antenoridas) with massy ftaples,
And corresponsive and fulfilling 3 bolts,
Sperrs 4 up the fons of Troy.
Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits,
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard:-And bither am I come
A prologue arm'd, but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but fuited
In like conditions as our argument,

To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps d'er the vauns 5 and firftlings of those broils,
'Ginning in the middle; starting thence away
To what may be digefted in a play.

Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are;
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

1 Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the story of Troilus and Cressida was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard; but Dryden goes yet further. He declares it to have been written in Latin verse, and that Chaucer tranflated it. Lollius was a historiographer of Urbino in Italy. Shakspeare received the greatest part of his materials for the structure of this play from the Troy Boke of Lydgate, printed in 1513. Lydgate was not much more than a tranflator of Guido of Columpna, who was of Messina in Sicily, and wrote his History of Troy in Latin, after Dictys Cretenfis, and Dares Phrygius, in 1287. On these, as Mr. Warton obferves, he engrafted many new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction easily admitted; at the fame time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic ftories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. 2 i. e, proud, difdainful. 3 To fulfill in this place means to fill till there be no room for more. 4 To Sperre, or spar, from the old Teutonic word speren, fignifies to shut up, defend by bars, &c. 5 i. e. the avant, what went before. word anciently signified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior.