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A table brought in. Enter Titus, like a cook, plac-Do shameful execution on herself. ing the meat on the table, and Lavinia, with a veil Mar. But if my frosty figns and chaps of age,

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

Tit. Your reafon, mighty lord?
[shame,
Sat. Because the girl thould not furvive her
And by her presence still renew his forrows.

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

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 athousand times more cause than he
To do this outrage ;--and it is now done.

Sat. What, was the ravished? tell who did the
deed.
[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 stabs Tamora,

Sat. Die, frantick wretch, for this accurfed deed. [He stabs 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 sever'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 caft-away,

Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,-
Speak, Rome's dear friend; as erst our ancestor,
[To Lucist.
When with his folemn tongue he did discourse,
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 sent 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 scars can witness, dumb although they are,
That my report is just, and full of truth.
But, foft, methinks, I do digress too much,
Citing my worthlefs praise: O, pardon me;
For when no friends are by, men praise themfeires.

Mar. Now is my turn to speak; Behold th

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Have we done aught amiss? Shew us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici
Will, hand in hand, all headlong caft us down,
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
And make a mutual closure of our houfe.
Speak, Romans, speak: and if you fay we shall
Lo hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall,

Am. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome, 'Would I were dead, so you did live again!

And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,
Lucius our emperor; for, well I know,
The common voice do cry, it shall be fo.
Mar. Lucius, all hail: Rome's royal emperor!

Go, go into old Titas' forrowful house;
And hither hale that mifbelieving Moor,
To be adjudg'd fome direful flaughtering death,
As punishment for his most wicked life,
Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans; May I govern fo,
To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe!
Bat, gentle people, give me aim a while,-
For nature puts me to a heavy task ;-

Stand all aloof ;-but, uncle, draw you near,
To shed obfequious tears upon this trunk :-
O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,

[Kiffes Titus. These forrowful drops upon thy blood-ftain'd face, The laft true duties of thy noble fon!

Mar. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips:
O, were the fum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn

of us

To melt in showers: Thy grandfire lov'd thee well:
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee afleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,
Meet, and agreeing with thine infancy;
In that respect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet fome small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it fo:
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe :
Bid him farewel; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him. [heart
Boy. O grandfire, grandfire! even with all my

O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping;
My tears will choak me, if I ope my mouth.
Enter Romans, with Aaron.

Rom. You fad Andronici, have done with woes;
Give sentence on this execrable wretch,
That hath been breeder of these dire events.

Luc. Set him breaft-deep in earth, and famish
him;

There let him ftand, and rave and cry for food :
If any one relieves or pities him,
For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
Some stay to fee him faften'd in the earth.

Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury
dumb ?

I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers,
I should repent the evils I have done;
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will:
If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very foul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor
hence,

And give him burial in his father's grave;
My father, and Lavinia, shall forthwith
Be closed in our houfhold's monument.
As for that heinous tyger, Tamora,

No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beafts, and birds of prey :
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
And, being fo, shall have like want of pity.
See juftice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
From whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state;
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

[Exeunt omnes.

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From isles of

L

Greece

N Troy, there lies the scene.
The princes orgillous2, their high blood chafd,

Have to the port of Athens fent their ships
Fraught with the minifters and instruments
Of cruel war: Sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia: and their vow is made
To ransack Troy; within whose strong immures
The raviff'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,

With wanton Paris fleeps; And that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come;

And the deep-drawing barks do there difgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: Now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's fix-gated city
(Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Troyan,

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And Antenoridas) with mally staples,
And correfponfive and fulfilling 3 bolts,
Sperrs & up the fons of Troy.
Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits,
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on bazard:-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 bebolders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt & and firstlings of those broils,
'Ginning in the middle; ftarting 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.

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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 verfe, and that Chaucer tranflated it. Lollius was a hiftoriographer 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 mauy 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, disdainful. 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 1. e. the avant, what went before. word anciently fignified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior.

This

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance;
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-leis as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd ?

Pan. I fpeak no more than truth. Troi. Thou doft not speak so much. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in 't. Let her be as she is: if the be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands 4. Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

Troi. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?

Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore the's Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the not fo fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, leavening.

Troi. Still have I tarry'd.

Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word-hereafter the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

Troi. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth leffer blench 2 at sufferance than I do. At Priam's royal table do I fit;

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,So, traitor!-when she comes !-When is the thence ?

Pan. Well, the look'd yester-night 'fairer than ever I saw her look; or any woman else.

Troi. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, As wedged with a figh, would rive in twain; Left Hector or my father should perceive me, I have (as when the fun doth light a storm) Bury'd this sigh in wrinkle of a fmile: But forrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden sadness.

Pan. An her hair were not fomewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her, -But I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did, I will not difpraise your fifter Cassandra's wit: but

Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus !When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, Reply not in how many fathoms deep They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad In Creffid's love: Thou answer'st, She is fair; Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice Handleft in thy discourse:-O that her hand! In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure The cygnet's down is harth, and spirit of fenfe 3 Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st

me,

As true thou tell'st me, when I say, -I love her;
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,
Thou lay'it in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

the would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is ou Sunday. But what care 1? I care not, an fre were a black-a-mpor; 'tis all one to me.

Troi. Say I, she is not fair ?

Pan. I do not care whether you do or ne. She's a fool, to ftay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her, the next time I fes her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter.

Troi. Pandarus,-
Pan. Not I.

Troi. Sweet Pandarus,

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me, I wi leave all as I found it, and there an end.

[Exit Pandara. [Sound alarum. Troi. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude founds!

Fools on both fides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too starv'd a subject for my fword.
But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me!
I cannot come to Creffid, but by Pandar;
And he's as techy to be woo'd to woo,
As she is stubborn-chaste against all fuit.
Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Creffid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium, and where the refides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourself, the merchant; and this failing Pandar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
[Alarum.] Enter Æneas.

Ane. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore
not afield?
[Sorth

Troi. Because not there; This woman's anfwer For womanish it is to be from thence.

What news, Æneas, from the field to-day?

Ane. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
Troi. By whom, Æneas ?

Ane. Troilus, by Menelaus.

Troi. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to foorm Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Alar

Ane. Hark! what good sport is out of towa to-day!

Fonder for more childish. 2 To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. 3 The meaning is, In comparison with Crefsid's hand, the spirit of sense, the utmost degree, the most exquifite power of fenfibility, which implies a foft hand, since the sense of touching refides chiefly in the fingers, is harជុំ as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman.

She may make the best of a bad bargain.

4 Mr. Steevens thinks this phrafe means

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