Lo, as the bark, that hath discharg'd her fraught,3
Returns with precious lading to the bay,
From whence at firft fhe weigh'd her anchorage,
Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs,
To re-falute his country with his tears;
Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.-
Thou great defender of this Capitol,4
Stand gracious to the rights that we intend !---
Romans, of five and twenty valiant fons,
Half of the number that king Priam had,
Behold the poor remains, alive, and dead!
Thefe, that furvive, let Rome reward with love;
Thefe, that I bring unto their latest home,
With burial amongst their ancestors:

Here Goths have given me leave to fheath my fword.

Titus, unkind, and careless of thine own,
Why fuffer'ft thou thy fons, unburied yet,
To hover on the dreadful fhore of Styx ?5-
Make way to lay them by their brethren.

[The Tomb is opened.
There greet in filence, as the dead are wont,
And fleep in peace, flain in your country's wars!
O facred receptacle of my joys,

Or that they were in mourning for their emperor who was just dead. STEEVENS.

3

her fraught,] Old copies-his fraught. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE.

his fraught,] As in the other old copies noted by Mr. Malone. It will be proper here to obferve, that the edition of 1600 is not paged. TODD.

4 Thou great defender of this Capitol,] Jupiter, to whom the Capitol was facred. JOHNSON.

5 To hover on the dreadful Shore of Styx ?] Here we have one of the numerous claffical notions that are scattered with a pedantick profufion through this piece. MALONE.

Sweet cell of virtue and nobility,

How many fons of mine haft thou in ftore,

That thou wilt never render to me more?

Luc. Give us the proudeft prifoner of the Goths, That we may hew his limbs, and, on a pile, Ad manes fratrum facrifice his flesh,

6

Before this earthly prison of their bones;
That fo the fhadows be not unappeas'd,
Nor we disturb'd with prodigies on earth."

TIT. I give him you; the nobleft that survives, The eldest fon of this diftreffed queen.

TAM. Stay, Roman brethren ;-Gracious con-
queror,

Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed,
A mother's tears in paffion for her fon:
And, if thy fons were ever dear to thee,
O, think my fon to be as dear to me.
Sufficeth not, that we are brought to Rome,
To beautify thy triumphs, and return,
Captive to thee, and to thy Roman yoke;
But muft my fons be flaughter'd in the streets,
For valiant doings in their country's cause?
O! if to fight for king and common weal
Were piety in thine, it is in these.

Andronicus, ftain not thy tomb with blood:
Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?
Draw near them then in being merciful:8

6

earthly prifon] Edit. 1600:-" earthy prifon."

TODD.

7 Nor we difturb'd with prodigies on earth.] It was fuppofed by the ancients, that the ghofts of unburied people appeared to their friends and relations, to folicit the rites of funeral.

8 Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?

STEEVENS.

Draw near them then in being merciful:] "Homines enim

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge;.
Thrice-noble Titus, fpare my firft-born fon.

TIT. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me. These are their brethren, whom you Goths beheld Alive, and dead; and for their brethren flain, Religiously they ask a facrifice :

To this your fon is mark'd; and die he muft,
To appease their groaning fhadows that are gone.
Luc. Away with him! and make a fire straight;
And with our fwords, upon a pile of wood,
Let's hew his limbs, till they be clean confum'd.
[Exeunt LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, and
MUTIUS, with ALARBUS.

TAM. O cruel, irreligious piety!

CHI. Was ever Scythia half fo barbarous ? DEM. Oppofe not Scythia to ambitious Rome. Alarbus goes to reft; and we furvive

To tremble under Titus' threatening look.
Then, madam, ftand refolv'd; but hope withal,
The felf-fame gods, that arm'd the queen of Troy

ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam falutem hominibus dando." Cicero pro Ligario.

Mr. Whalley infers the learning of Shakspeare from this pasfage: but our prefent author, whoever he was, might have found a tranflation of it in feveral places, provided he was not acquainted with the original. STEEVENS.

The fame fentiment is in Edward III. 1596:

"kings approach the neareft unto God,
"By giving life and safety unto men."

Reed.

9 Patient yourself, &c.] This verb is used by other dramatick writers. So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

"Patient yourself, we cannot help it now."

Again, in King Edward I. 1599:

"Patient your highness, 'tis but mother's love."

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. XII. ch. lxxv: "Her, weeping ripe, he laughing, bids to patient her awhile." STEEvens.

With opportunity of fharp revenge
Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent,'
May favour Tamora, the queen of Goths,
(When Goths were Goths, and Tamora was queen,)
To quit the bloody wrongs upon her foes.

Re-enter LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, and MyTIUS, with their Swords bloody.

Luc. See, lord and father, how we have per-
form'd

Our Roman rites: Alarbus' limbs are lopp'd,
And entrails feed the facrificing fire,

Whofe finoke, like incenfe, doth perfume the sky.

The felf-fame gods, that arm'd the queen of Troy

With opportunity of Sharp revenge

Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent, &c.] I read, against the authority of all the copies :

in her tent,

i. e. in the tent where the and the other Trojan captive women were kept for thither Hecuba by a wile had decoyed Polymneftor, in order to perpetrate her revenge. This we may learn from Euripides's Hecuba; the only author, that I can at prefent remember, from whom our writer muft have gleaned this circumftance. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald fhould firft have proved to us that our author understood Greek, or else that this play of Euripides had been tranflated. In the mean time, because neither of these particulars are verified, we may as well fuppofe he took it from the oldftory-book of the Trojan War, or the old translation of Ovid. See Metam. XIII. The writer of the play, whoever he was, might have been misled by the paffage in Ovid: "vadit ad artificem," and therefore took it for granted that fhe found him in his tent. STEEVENS.

I have no doubt that the writer of this play had read Euripides in the original: Mr. Steevens juftly obferves in a fubfequent note near the end of this fcene, that there is " a plain allufion to the Ajax of Sophocles, of which no tranflation was extant in the time of Shakspeare." MALONE.

Remaineth nought, but to inter our brethren,
And with loud 'larums welcome them to Rome.
TIT. Let it be fo, and let Andronicus
Make this his lateft farewell to their fouls.

[Trumpets founded, and the Coffins laid in the
Tomb.

In peace and honour reft you here, my fons;
Rome's readieft champions, repofe you here,
Secure from worldly chances and mishaps!
Here lurks no treafon, here no envy fwells,
Here grow no damned grudges; here, are no ftorms,
No noife, but filence and eternal fleep:

Enter LAVINIA.

In peace and honour reft you here, my fons!

LAV. In peace and honour live lord Titus long; noble lord and father, live in fame!

My
Lo! at this tomb my tributary tears

I render, for my brethren's obfequies;
And at thy feet I kneel with tears of joy
Shed on the earth, for thy return to Rome :
O, bless me here with thy victorious hand,
Whofe fortunes Rome's beft citizens applaud.

10

TIT. Kind Rome, that haft thus lovingly re-
ferv'd

The cordial of mine age to glad my heart!-
Lavinia, live; outlive thy father's days,

·repose you here,] Old copies, redundantly in respect both to fenfe and metre:

repofe you here in reft. STEEVENS.

The fame redundancy in the edition 1600, as noted in other copies by Mr. Steevens. TODD.