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

>I am Revenge, sent from th’ infernal kingdom To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.

Come down and welcome me to this world’s light; Confer with me of murder and of death; There’s not a hollow cave or lurking-place, No vast obscurity or misty vale,

Where bloody murder or detested rape

Can couch for fear but I will find them out; And in their ears tell them my dreadful name-Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.

TITUS. Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me To be a torment to mine enemies?

TAMORA. I am; therefore come down and welcome me.

TITUS. Do me some service ere I come to thee.

Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands; Now give some surance that thou art Revenge-Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot wheels; And then I’ll come and be thy waggoner And whirl along with thee about the globes.

Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet, To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away, And find out murderers in their guilty caves; And when thy car is loaden with their heads, I will dismount, and by thy waggon wheel Trot, like a servile footman, all day long, Even from Hyperion’s rising in the east Until his very downfall in the sea.

And day by day I’ll do this heavy task, So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.

TAMORA. These are my ministers, and come with me.

TITUS. Are they thy ministers? What are they call’d?

TAMORA. Rape and Murder; therefore called so ‘Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.

TITUS. Good Lord, how like the Empress’ sons they are!

And you the Empress! But we worldly men Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.

O 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.

TAMORA. This closing with him fits his lunacy.

Whate’er I forge to feed his brainsick humours, 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, I’ll find some cunning practice out of hand To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths, Or, at the least, make them his enemies.

See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.

 

Enter TITUS, below

 

TITUS. Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee.

Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful house.

Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.

How like the Empress and her sons you are!

Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor.

Could not all hell afford you such a devil?

For well I wot the Empress never wags But in her company there is a Moor;

And, would you represent our queen aright, It were convenient 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 him.

CHIRON. Show me a villain that hath done a rape, And I am sent to be reveng’d on him.

TAMORA. Show me a thousand that hath done thee wrong, And I will be revenged on them all.

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.

Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap To find another that is like to thee, Good Rapine, stab him; he is a ravisher.

Go thou with them; and in the Emperor’s court There is a queen, attended by a Moor; Well shalt thou know her by thine own proportion, For up and down 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 lesson’d 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 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?

TITUS. Marcus, my brother! ‘Tis sad Titus calls.

 

Enter MARCUS

 

Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius; Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths.

Bid him repair 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 Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.

This do thou for my love; and so let him, As he regards his aged 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.

TAMORA. [Aside to her sons] What say you, boys? Will you abide with him,

Whiles I go tell my lord the Emperor

How I have govern’d our determin’d jest?

Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair, And tarry with him till I turn again.

TITUS. [Aside] I knew them all, though they suppos’d me mad, And will o’er reach them in their own devices, A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam.

DEMETRIUS. Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.

TAMORA. Farewell, Andronicus, Revenge now goes To lay a complot to betray thy foes.

TITUS. I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell.

Exit TAMORA CHIRON. Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ’d?

TITUS. Tut, I have work enough for you to do.

Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine.

 

Enter PUBLIUS, CAIUS, and VALENTINE

 

PUBLIUS. What is your will?

TITUS. Know you these two?

PUBLIUS. The Empress’ sons, I take them: Chiron, Demetrius.

TITUS. Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceiv’d.

The one is Murder, and Rape is the other’s name; And therefore bind them, gentle Publius-Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.

Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour, And now I find it; therefore bind them sure, And stop their mouths if they begin to cry. Exit [They lay hold on CHIRON and DEMETRIUS]

CHIRON. Villains, forbear! we are the Empress’ sons.

PUBLIUS. And therefore do we what we are commanded.

Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word.

Is he sure bound? Look that you bind them fast.

 

Re-enter TITUS ANDRONICUS

with a knife, and LAVINIA, with a basin TITUS. Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.

Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me; But let them hear what fearful words I utter.

O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!

Here stands the spring whom you have stain’d with mud; This goodly summer with your winter mix’d.

You kill’d her husband; and for that vile fault Two of her brothers were condemn’d to death, My hand cut off and made a merry jest; Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity, Inhuman traitors, you constrain’d and forc’d.

What would you say, if I should let you speak?

Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.

Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.

This one hand yet is left to cut your throats, Whiles that Lavinia ‘tween her stumps doth hold The basin that receives your guilty blood.

You know your mother means to feast with me, And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad.

Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust, And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste; And of the paste a coffin I will rear, And make two pasties of your shameful heads; And bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam, Like to the earth, swallow her own increase.

This is the feast that I have bid her to, And this the banquet she shall surfeit on; For worse than Philomel you us’d my daughter, And worse than Progne I will be reveng’d.

And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come, Receive the blood; and when that they are dead, Let me go grind their bones to powder small, And with this hateful liquor temper it; And in that paste let their vile heads be bak’d.

Come, come, be every one officious

To make this banquet, which I wish may prove More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.

[He cuts their throats]

So.

Now bring them in, for I will play the cook, And see them ready against their mother comes.

Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies

SCENE III.

The court of TITUS’ house

 

Enter Lucius, MARCUS, and the GOTHS, with AARON prisoner, and his CHILD in the arms of an attendant LUCIUS. Uncle Marcus, since ‘tis my father’s mind That I repair to Rome, I am content.

FIRST GOTH. And ours with thine, befall what fortune will.

LUCIUS. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor, This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil; Let him receive no sust’nance, fetter him, Till he be brought unto the Empress’ face For testimony of her foul proceedings.

And see the ambush of our friends be strong; I fear the Emperor means no good to us.

AARON. Some devil whisper curses in my ear, And prompt me that my tongue may utter forth The venomous malice of my swelling heart!

LUCIUS. Away, inhuman dog, unhallowed slave!

Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in.

Exeunt GOTHS with AARON. Flourish within The trumpets show the Emperor is at hand.

 

Sound trumpets. Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with AEMILIUS, TRIBUNES, SENATORS, and others SATURNINUS. What, hath the firmament more suns than one?

LUCIUS. What boots it thee to can thyself a sun?

MARCUS. Rome’s Emperor, and nephew, break the parle; These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready which the careful Titus Hath ordain’d to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome.

Please you, therefore, draw nigh and take your places.

SATURNINUS. Marcus, we will.

[A table brought in. The company sit down]

 

Trumpets sounding, enter TITUS

like a cook, placing the dishes, and LAVINIA with a veil over her face; also YOUNG LUCIUS, and others TITUS. Welcome, my 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.

SATURNINUS. Why art thou thus attir’d, Andronicus?

TITUS. Because I would be sure to have all well To entertain your Highness and your Empress.

TAMORA. We are beholding to you, good Andronicus.

TITUS. An if your Highness knew my heart, you were.

My lord the Emperor, resolve me this: Was it well done of rash Virginius

To slay his daughter with his own right hand, Because she was enforc’d, stain’d, and deflower’d?

SATURNINUS. It was, Andronicus.

TITUS. Your reason, mighty lord.

SATURNINUS. Because the girl should not survive her shame, And by her presence still renew his sorrows.

TITUS. 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; [He kills her]

And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die!

SATURNINUS. What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?

TITUS. Kill’d her for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woeful as Virginius was,

And have a thousand times more cause than he To do this outrage; and it now is done.

SATURNINUS. What, was