But to your wishes' height advance you both.
The emperor's court is like the house of fame,
The palace full of tongues, of eyes, of ears:
The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull;
There speak, and strike, brave boys, and take your turns:
There serve your luft, fhadow'd from heaven's eye,
And revel in Lavinia's treasury.
CHI. Thy counfel, lad, fmells of no cowardice.
DEM. Sit fas aut nefas, till I find the stream
To cool this heat, a charm to calm these fits,
Per Styga, per manes vehor.
SCENE II. A Foreft near Rome. A Lodge feen at a dif-
tance. Horns, and cry of bounds, heard.
Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with Hunters, &c. MARCUS,
LUCIUS, QUINTUS and MARTIUS.
TIT. The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey,
The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green :
Uncouple here, and let us make a bay,
And wake the emperor and his lovely bride,
And rouse the prince; and ring a hunter's peal,
That all the court may echo with the noise.
Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours,
To tend the emperor's perfon carefully:
I have been troubled in my sleep this night,
But dawning day new comfort hath inspir❜d.
Horns wind a peal. Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, Bas-
SIANUS, LAVINIA, CHIRON, DEMETRIUS, and At-
tendants.
TIT. Many good morrows to your majesty ;—
Madam, to you as many and as good!—
I promised your grace a hunter's peal.
SAT. And you have rung it luftily, my lords,
Somewhat too early for new-married ladies.
BAS. Lavinia, how fay you?
I have been broad awake two hours and more.
SAT. Come on then, horfe and chariots let us have, And to our sport :-Madam, now shall ye fee Our Roman hunting.
MAR. I have dogs, my lord,
Will roufe the proudeft panther in the chase,
And climb the highest promontory top.
TIT. And I have horfe will follow where the game
Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain.
DEM. Chiron, we hunt no, we, with horse nor hound,
But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.
SCENE III. A defert part of the Foreft.
Enter AARON, with a bag of gold.
AAR. He, that had wit, would think that I had none,
To bury fo much gold under a tree,
And never after to inherit it.
Let him, that thinks of me fo abjectly,
Know, that this gold muft coin a ftratagem;
Which, cunningly effected, will beget
A very excellent piece of villainy :
And fo repofe, fweet gold, for their unreft, [Hides the gold. That have their alms out of the emprefs' cheft.
TAM. My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou fad, When every thing doth make a gleeful boast? The birds chaunt melody on every bush; The fnake lies rolled in the cheerful fun; The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind, And make a checquer'd fhadow on the ground:
Under their fweet fhade, Aaron, let us fit,
And whilft the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying fhrilly to the well-tun'd horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once,—
Let us fit down, and mark their yelling noise:
And after conflict, fuch as was fuppos'd
The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd,
When with a happy ftorm they were furpriz'd,
And curtain'd with a counfel-keeping cave,-
We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
Our paftimes done, poffefs a golden flumber;
Whiles hounds, and horns, and fweet melodious birds,
Be unto us, as is a nurfe's fong
Of lullaby, to bring her babe asleep.
AAR. Madam, though Venus govern your defires, Saturn is dominator over mine:
What fignifies my deadly-ftanding eye,
My filence, and my cloudy melancholy?
My fleece of woolly hair that now uncuris,
Even as an adder, when the doth unroll
To do fome fatal execution?
No, madam, these are no venereal figns;
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hark, Tamora,-the empress of my foul,
Which never hopes more heaven than refts in thee,—
This is the day of doom for Baffianus ;
His Philomel muft lofe her tongue to-day :
Thy fons make pillage of her chastity,
And wash their hands in Baffianus' blood.
Seeft thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,
And give the king this fatal-plotted fcroll:-
Now question me no more, we are espied;
Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction.
TAM. Ah, my fweet moor, fweeter to me than life! AAR. No more, great emprefs, Baffianus comes: Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy fons To back thy quarrels, whatfoe'er they be.
Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA.
BAS. Who have we here? Rome's royal emperefs, Unfurnish'd of her well-befeeming troop?
Or is it Dian, habited like her;
Who hath abandoned her holy groves,
To fee the general hunting in this forest?
TAM. Saucy controller of our private steps!
Had I the power, that, fome fay, Dian had,
Thy temples should be planted presently
With horns, as was Acteon's; and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,
Unmannerly intruder as thou art!
LAV. Under your patience, gentle emperefs,
'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;
And to be doubted, that your Moor and you
Are fingled forth to try experiments:
Jove fhield your husband from his hounds to-day!
'Tis pity, they should take him for a stag.
BAS. Believe me, queen, your fwarth Cimmerian
Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
Spotted, detefted, and abominable.
Why are you féquefter'd from all
Difmounted from your fnow-white goodly steed,
And wander'd hither to an obfcure plot,
Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,
If foul defire had not conducted you?
Lav. And, being intercepted in your sport,
VOL. V.
Great reason that my noble lord be rated
For faucinefs. I pray you, let us hence,
And let her 'joy her raven-colour'd love;
This valley fits the purpose paffing well.
BAS. The king, my brother, fhall have note of this. LAV. Ay, for these flips have made him noted long; Good king! to be fo mightily abus'd!
TAM. Why have I patience to endure all this?
Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.
DEM. How now, dear fovereign, and our gracious mo-
Why doth your highness look fo pale and wan? [ther,
TAM. Have I not reafon, think you, to look pale?
These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place,
A barren detefted vale, you fee, it is:
The trees, though fummer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with mofs, and baleful misletoe.
Here never shines the fun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.
And, when they fhowed me this abhorred pit,
They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
A thousand fiends, a thousand hiffing fnakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make fuch fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body, hearing it,
Should straight fall mad, or elfe die fuddenly.
No fooner had they told this hellish tale,
But ftraight they told me, they would bind me here
Unto the body of a dismal yew;
And leave me to this miferable death.
And then they call'd me, foul adulteress,
Lafcivious Goth, and all the bittereft terms
That ever ear did hear to fuch effect.
And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
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