Graves only be men's works; and death, their gain!
Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.

[Exit Timon.

1 Sen. His difcontents are unremoveably Coupled to nature.

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead : let us return, And strain what other means is left unto us

In our dear peril.

1 Sen. It requires swift foot.

SCENE

The Walls of Athens.

[Excunt.

IV.

Enter two other Senators, with a Meffinger.

1 Sen. Thou haft painfully discovered; are his As full as thy report?

Mef. I have spoke the least : Befides, his expedition promifes Prefent approach.

SCENE VI.

Before the Walls of Athens.

Trumpets found. Enter Alcibiades, with his powers.
Alc. Sound to this coward and lafcivious town
Our terrible approach.

Sound a parley. The Senators appear upon the walls.
'Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
10 The fcope of juftice; 'till now, myself, and fuch
As flept within the shadow of your power,
Have wander'd with our traverft arms 2, and
breath'd

Our fufferance vainly: Now the time is flush 3,
[files 15 When crouching marrow 4, in the bearer strong,
Cries of itself, No more:' now breathless wrong
Shall fit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And purfy infolence shall break his wind,
With fear, and horrid flight.

[Timon.

2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not
Mef. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend;-20
Who, though in general part we were oppos'd,
Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us fpeak like friends :---this man was
riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,
With letters of entreaty, which imported
His fellowship i' the cause against your city,
In part for his fake mov'd.

1 Sen. Noble and young,

When thy first griefs were but a meer conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause to fear,
We fent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitudes with loves
25 Above their 5 quantity.

2 Sen. So did we woo
Transformed Timon to our city's love,
By humble meffage, and by promis'd means;
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
30 The common stroke of war.

35

1 Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom
You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such,
That thefe great towers, trophies, and schools
should fall
For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,

Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excefs
40 Hath broke their hearts 6. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:

45

By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Which nature loaths) take thou the destin'd tenth ;
And by the hazard of the spotted die,
Let die the fpotted.

1 Sen. All have not offended;

For thofe that were, it is not fquare 7, to take, On thofe that are, revenges: crimes, like lands, 50 Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage: Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin, Which, in the blufter of thy wrath, must fall

4 The mar

* Dr. Warburton obferves, that dear, in the language of that time, fignified dread, and is so used by Shakspeare in numberlefs places. Mr. Steevens fays, that dear may in this inftance fignify immediate and that it is an enforcing epithet with not always a distinct meaning. 2 Arms across. 3 A bird is flush when his feathers are grown, and he can leave the neft. Flush means mature. row was fuppofed to be the original of ftrength. The image is from a camel kneeling to take up his load, who rifes immediately when he finds he has as much laid on as he can bear. rages. The meaning is, "Shame in excefs (i. e. extremity of shame) that they wanted cunning (i. c. that they were not wife enough not to banish you) hath broke their hearts." regular, not equitable.

5 Their refers to

7 i. e. not

With

2 Our brain's flow is our tears.

SCENE I.

Before the Capitol in Rome.

ACT I.

If ever Baffianus, Cæfar's fon,
Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,
Keep then this paffage to the Capitol;
And suffer not dishonour to approach

The imperial feat, to virtue confecrate,
To juftice, continence, and nobility;
But let defert in pure election shine;
And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice.
Enter Marcus Andronicus aloft, with the Crown.
Mar. Princes, that strive by factions, and by
friends,

Ambitiously for rule and empery!

Know, that the people of Rome, for whom we

ftand,

15 A fpecial party, have, by common voice,
In election for the Roman empery,
Chofen Andronicus, furnamed Pius
For many good and great deferts to Rome;

Mr. Theobald fays, This is one of thofe plays which he always thought, with the better judges, ought not to be acknowledged in the lift of Shakspear's genuine pieces. Dr. Johnfon obferves, That all the editors and critics agree with Mr. Theobald in fuppofing this play fpurious, and that he fees "no reafon for differing from them; for the colour of the ftile is wholly different from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular verfification, and artificial clofes, not always inelegant, yet feldom pleafing. The barbarity of the spectacles, and the general maffacre, which are here exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonfon, that they were not only borne, but praised," Mr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens are alfo of the fame opinion with Dr, Johnson.

A nobler

A nobler man, a braver warrior,
Liyes not this day within the city walls:
He by the fenate is accited home,

From weary wars against the barbarous Goths;
That, with his fons, a terror to our foes,
Hath yok'd a nation strong, train'd up in arms.
Ten years are spent, fince first he undertook
This caufe of Rome, and chastised with arms
Our enemies' pride: Five times he hath return'd
Bleeding to Rome, bearing his valiant fons
In coffins from the field;

And now at last, laden with honour's spoils,
Returns the good Andronicus to Rome,
Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms.
Let us intreat,-By honour of his name,
Whom, worthily, you would have now fucceed,
And in the Capitol and fenate's right,
Whom you pretend to honour and adore,—
That you withdraw you, and abate your strength;
Difmifs your followers, and, as fuitors should,
Plead your deferts in peace and humbleness.
Sat. How fair the tribune fpeaks to calm my
thoughts!

Baf. Marcus Andronicus, fo I do affy
In thy uprightness and integrity,

And so I love and honour thee, and thine,
Thy noble brother Titus, and his fons,
And her, to whom our thoughts are humbled all
Gracious Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament,
That I will here difmifs my loving friends;
And to my fortunes, and the people's favour,
Commit my cause in ballance to be weigh'd.

[Exeunt Soldiers.

[nicus,

Lo, as the bark, that hath discharg'd her fraught,
Returns with precious lading to the bay,

From whence at firft the weigh'd her anchorage,
Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs,
5 To re-falute his country with his tears;
Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.
Thou great defender of this Capitol',
Stand gracious to the rites that we intend !—
Romans, of five and twenty valiant fons,
10 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 among their ancestors:

[sword.

15 Here Goths have given me leave to fheath my
Titus, unkind, and careless of thine own,
Why fuffer'ft thou thy fons, unbury'd yet,
To hover on the dreadful fhore of Styx?-
Make way to lay them by their brethren.
[They open the tomb.
There greet in filence, as the dead were wont,
And fleep in peace, flain in your country's wars!
O facred receptacle of my joys,
Sweet cell of virtue and nobility,

20

35

Tit. I give him you; the nobleft that survives,
The eldest fon of this diftreffed queen. [queror,
Tam. Stay, Roman brethren,-Gracious con-
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.
40 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 slaughter'd in the streets,
For valiant doings in their country's caufe!
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:
50 Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge;
Thrice-noble Titus, fpare my first-born son.

45

Tit. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me.
These are their brethren, whom you Goths behold
Alive, and dead; and for their brethren slain,
55 Religiously they afk a facrifice:

Capt. Romans, make way; The good AndroPatron of virtue, Rome's best champion, Successful in the battles that he fights, With honour and with fortune is return'd, From where he circumfcribed with his sword, And brought to yoke, the enemies of Rome. Sound drums and trumpets, and then enter Mutius and Marcus; after them, two men bearing coffin covered with black; then Quintus and Lucius. To this your fon is mark'd: and die he must, After them, Titus Andronicus; and then Tamora, To appeafe their groaning shadows that are gone. the queen of the Goths, Alarbus, Chiron, and DeLuc. Away with him! and make a fire straight; metrius, with Aaron the Moor, prisoners; Soldiers, And with our fwords, upon a pile of wood, and other attendants. They fet down the coffin, 60 Let's hew his limbs, 'till they be clean confum'd. and Titus fpeaks.

a

Tit.Hai!! Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds.

Jupiter, to whom the Capitol was facred.

[Exeunt Mutius, Marcus, Quintus, and Lucius, with Alarbus.

2 It was fuppofed by the ancients, that the ghosts 3 This verb

of unburied people appeared to their friends and relations, to folicit the rites of funeral. is ufed by other dramatic writers.

Tam.