The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (book suggestions TXT) 📖

turbulent surge shall cover. Thither come, And let my gravestone be your oracle.

Lips, let sour words go by and language end: What is amiss, plague and infection mend!

Graves only be men’s works and death their gain!

Sun, hide thy beams. Timon hath done his reign.

Exit TIMON into his cave FIRST SENATOR. His discontents are unremovably Coupled to nature.

SECOND SENATOR. Our hope in him is dead. Let us return And strain what other means is left unto us In our dear peril.

FIRST SENATOR. It requires swift foot. Exeunt

SCENE II.

Before the walls of Athens

 

Enter two other SENATORS with a MESSENGER

 

FIRST SENATOR. Thou hast painfully discover’d; are his files As full as thy report?

MESSENGER. I have spoke the least.

Besides, his expedition promises

Present approach.

SECOND SENATOR. We stand much hazard if they bring not Timon.

MESSENGER. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend, Whom, though in general part we were oppos’d, Yet our old love had a particular force, And made us speak like friends. This man was riding From Alcibiades to Timon’s cave

With letters of entreaty, which imported His fellowship i’ th’ cause against your city, In part for his sake mov’d.

 

Enter the other SENATORS, from TIMON

 

FIRST SENATOR. Here come our brothers.

THIRD SENATOR. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.

The enemies’ drum is heard, and fearful scouring Doth choke the air with dust. In, and prepare.

Ours is the fall, I fear; our foes the snare. Exeunt

SCENE III.

The TIMON’s cave, and a rude tomb seen

 

Enter a SOLDIER in the woods, seeking TIMON

 

SOLDIER. By all description this should be the place.

Who’s here? Speak, ho! No answer? What is this?

Timon is dead, who hath outstretch’d his span.

Some beast rear’d this; here does not live a man.

Dead, sure; and this his grave. What’s on this tomb I cannot read; the character I’ll take with wax.

Our captain hath in every figure skill, An ag’d interpreter, though young in days; Before proud Athens he’s set down by this, Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. Exit

SCENE IV.

Before the walls of Athens

 

Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES with his powers before Athens ALCIBIADES. Sound to this coward and lascivious 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 The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such As slept within the shadow of your power, Have wander’d with our travers’d arms, and breath’d Our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush, When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong, Cries of itself ‘No more!’ Now breathless wrong Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, And pursy insolence shall break his wind With fear and horrid flight.

FIRST SENATOR. Noble and young,

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear, We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm, To wipe out our ingratitude with loves Above their quantity.

SECOND SENATOR. So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city’s love

By humble message and by promis’d means.

We were not all unkind, nor all deserve The common stroke of war.

FIRST SENATOR. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands from whom You have receiv’d your griefs; nor are they such That these great tow’rs, trophies, and schools, should fall For private faults in them.

SECOND SENATOR. Nor are they living

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

By decimation and a tithed death—

If thy revenges hunger for that food

Which nature loathes-take thou the destin’d tenth, And by the hazard of the spotted die

Let die the spotted.

FIRST SENATOR. All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square to take, On those that are, revenge: crimes, like lands, 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 bluster of thy wrath, must fall With those that have offended. Like a shepherd Approach the fold and cull th’ infected forth, But kill not all together.

SECOND SENATOR. What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile Than hew to’t with thy sword.

FIRST SENATOR. Set but thy foot

Against our rampir’d gates and they shall ope, So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before To say thou’t enter friendly.

SECOND SENATOR. Throw thy glove,

Or any token of thine honour else,

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress And not as our confusion, all thy powers Shall make their harbour in our town till we Have seal’d thy full desire.

ALCIBIADES. Then there’s my glove;

Descend, and open your uncharged ports.

Those enemies of Timon’s and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more. And, to atone your fears With my more noble meaning, not a man Shall pass his quarter or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city’s bounds, But shall be render’d to your public laws At heaviest answer.

BOTH. ‘Tis most nobly spoken.

ALCIBIADES. Descend, and keep your words.

[The SENATORS descend and open the gates]

 

Enter a SOLDIER as a Messenger SOLDIER. My noble General, Timon is dead; Entomb’d upon the very hem o’ th’ sea; And on his gravestone this insculpture, which With wax I brought away, whose soft impression Interprets for my poor ignorance.

 

ALCIBIADES reads the Epitaph ‘Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft; Seek not my name. A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left!

Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate.

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.’

These well express in thee thy latter spirits.

Though thou abhorr’dst in us our human griefs, Scorn’dst our brain’s flow, and those our droplets which From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead Is noble Timon, of whose memory

Hereafter more. Bring me into your city, And I will use the olive, with my sword; Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each Prescribe to other, as each other’s leech.

Let our drums strike. Exeunt THE END

 

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1594

 

THE TRAGEDY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS

 

by William Shakespeare

 

Dramatis Personae

 

SATURNINUS, son to the late Emperor of Rome, afterwards Emperor BASSIANUS, brother to Saturninus

TITUS ANDRONICUS, a noble Roman

MARCUS ANDRONICUS, Tribune of the People, and brother to Titus Sons to Titus Andronicus:

LUCIUS

QUINTUS

MARTIUS

MUTIUS

 

YOUNG LUCIUS, a boy, son to Lucius

PUBLIUS, son to Marcus Andronicus

 

Kinsmen to Titus:

SEMPRONIUS

CAIUS

VALENTINE

 

AEMILIUS, a noble Roman

 

Sons to Tamora:

ALARBUS

DEMETRIUS

CHIRON

 

AARON, a Moor, beloved by Tamora

A CAPTAIN

A MESSENGER

A CLOWN

 

TAMORA, Queen of the Goths

LAVINIA, daughter to Titus Andronicus

A NURSE, and a black CHILD

 

Romans and Goths, Senators, Tribunes, Officers, Soldiers, and Attendants

 

<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS

PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE

WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE

DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS

PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED

COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY

SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>

 

SCENE:

Rome and the neighbourhood ACT 1. SCENE I.

Rome. Before the Capitol

 

Flourish. Enter the TRIBUNES and SENATORS aloft; and then enter below SATURNINUS and his followers at one door, and BASSIANUS and his followers at the other, with drums and trumpets

 

SATURNINUS. Noble patricians, patrons of my right, Defend the justice of my cause with arms; And, countrymen, my loving followers, Plead my successive title with your swords.

I am his first born son that was the last That ware the imperial diadem of Rome; Then let my father’s honours live in me, Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.

BASSIANUS. Romans, friends, followers, favourers of my right, If ever Bassianus, Caesar’s son,

Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome, Keep then this passage to the Capitol; And suffer not dishonour to approach

The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate, To justice, continence, and nobility; But let desert in pure election shine; And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice.

 

Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS aloft, with the crown MARCUS. Princes, that strive by factions and by friends Ambitiously for rule and empery,

Know that the people of Rome, for whom we stand A special party, have by common voice In election for the Roman empery

Chosen Andronicus, surnamed Pius

For many good and great deserts to Rome.

A nobler man, a braver warrior,

Lives not this day within the city walls.

He by the Senate is accited home,

From weary wars against the barbarous Goths, That with his sons, a terror to our foes, Hath yok’d a nation strong, train’d up in arms.

Ten years are spent since first he undertook This cause of Rome, and chastised with arms Our enemies’ pride; five times he hath return’d Bleeding to Rome, bearing his valiant sons In coffins from the field; and at this day To the monument of that Andronici

Done sacrifice of expiation,

And slain the noblest prisoner of the Goths.

And now at last, laden with honour’s spoils, Returns the good Andronicus to Rome,

Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms.

Let us entreat, by honour of his name Whom worthily you would have now succeed, And in the Capitol and Senate’s right, Whom you pretend to honour and adore, That you withdraw you and abate your strength, Dismiss your followers, and, as suitors should, Plead your deserts in peace and humbleness.

SATURNINUS. How fair the Tribune speaks to calm my thoughts.

BASSIANUS. Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy In thy uprightness and integrity,

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

Exeunt the soldiers of BASSIANUS

SATURNINUS. Friends, that have been thus forward in my right, I thank you all and here dismiss you all, And to the love and favour of my country Commit myself, my person, and the cause.

Exeunt the soldiers of SATURNINUS

Rome, be as just and gracious unto me As I am confident and kind to thee.

Open the gates and let me in.

BASSIANUS. Tribunes, and me, a poor competitor.

[Flourish. They go up into the Senate House]

 

Enter a CAPTAIN

 

CAPTAIN. Romans, make way. The good Andronicus, Patron of virtue, Rome’s best champion, Successful in the battles that he fights, With honour and with fortune is return’d From where he circumscribed with his sword And brought to yoke the enemies of Rome.

 

Sound drums and trumpets, and then enter MARTIUS