Free Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare Page A

sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee,
    And if one arm’s embracement will content thee,
    I will embrace thee in it by and by.
    [
Exit aloft or within
]
    TAMORA     This closing 70 with him fits his lunacy:
    Whate’er I forge 71 to feed his brainsick fits,
    Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,
    For now he firmly takes me for Revenge,
    And, being credulous in this mad thought,
    I’ll make him send for Lucius his son,
    And whilst I at a banquet hold him sure, 76
    I’ll find some cunning practice out of hand 77
    To scatter and disperse the giddy 78 Goths,
    Or at the least make them his enemies.
    See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme. 80
    [
Enter Titus, on main stage
]
    TITUS     Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee.
    Welcome, dread Fury 82 , to my woeful house:
    Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.
    How like the empress and her sons you are!
    Well are you fitted 85 , had you but a Moor:
    Could not all hell afford you such a devil?
    For well I wot the empress never wags 87
    But in her company there is a Moor,
    And, would you represent our queen aright
    It were convenient 90 you had such a devil.
    But welcome as you are. What shall we do?
    TAMORA     What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?
    DEMETRIUS     Show me a murderer, I’ll deal with 93 him.
    CHIRON     Show me a villain that hath done a rape,
    And I am sent to be revenged on him.
    TAMORA     Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,
    And I’ll be revengèd on them all.
    To Demetrius
    TITUS     Look round about the wicked streets of Rome,
    And when thou find’st a man that’s like thyself,
    Good Murder, stab him: he’s a murderer.—
    To Chiron
    Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap 101
    To find another that is like to thee,
    Good Rapine, stab him: he is a ravisher.—
    To Tamora
    Go thou with them, and in the emperor’s court
    There is a queen, attended by a Moor —
    Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion, 106
    For up and down 107 she doth resemble thee —
    I pray thee do on them some violent death:
    They have been violent to me and mine.
    TAMORA     Well hast thou lessoned us: this shall we do.
    But would it please thee, good Andronicus,
    To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,
    Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,
    And bid him come and banquet at thy house?
    When he is here, even at thy solemn 115 feast,
    I will bring in the empress and her sons,
    The emperor himself and all thy foes,
    And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel,
    And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
    What says Andronicus to this device?
    Enter Marcus
    TITUS     Marcus, my brother! ’Tis sad Titus calls.
    Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius —
    Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths —
    Bid him repair 124 to me and bring with him
    Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths.
    Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are:
    Tell him the emperor and the empress too
    Feasts at my house, and he shall feast with them.
    This do thou for my love, and so let him,
    As he regards his agèd father’s life.
    MARCUS     This will I do, and soon return again.
    [
Exit
]
    TAMORA     Now will I hence about thy business,
    And take my ministers along with me.
    TITUS     Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me,
    Or else I’ll call my brother back again,
    And cleave to no revenge but Lucius. 136
    Aside to her sons
    TAMORA     What say you, boys? Will you bide with him
    Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor
    How I have governed our determined jest? 139
    Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair, 140
    And tarry with him till I turn 141 again.
    Aside
    TITUS     I know them all, though they suppose me mad,
    And will o’erreach them in their own devices:
    A pair of cursèd hell-hounds and their dam!
    DEMETRIUS     Madam, depart at pleasure, leave us here.
    TAMORA     Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes
    To lay a