Aar. Why then, it seems, some certain snatch, Then should not we be tir'd with this ado. Why, hark ye, hark ye,--And are you such fools, To square 9 for this? Would it offend you then That both should speed? Chi. Dem. So I were one. I'faith, not me. Nor me, Aar. For shame, be friends; and join for that you jar. 'Tis policy and stratagem must do That A speedier course than lingering languishment of Shakspeare's early performances, because the stratagems of the profession traditionally given to his youth seems here to have been fresh in the writer's mind. But when we consider how common allusions to sports of the field are in all the writers of that age, there seems to be no real ground for the conclusion. 9 Quarrel. VOL. IX. 10 By nature. R 12 Come, come, our empress, with her sacred11 wit, There serve your lust, shadow'd from heaven's eye, Chi. Thy counsel, lad, smells 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 13. SCENE II1. [Exeunt. A Forest near Rome. A Lodge seen at a distance. Horns, and cry of Hounds heard. Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with Hunters, &c. MARCUS, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS. Tit. The hunt is up, the morn is bright and gray, 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, 11 Sacred here signifies accursed; a Latinism. 12 The allusion is to the operation of the file, which, by giving smoothness, facilitates the motion of the parts of an engine or piece of machinery. 13 These scraps of Latin are taken, though not exactly, from some of Seneca's tragedies. The division of this play into acts, which was first made in the folio of 1623, is improper. There is here an interval of action, and here the second act ought to have begun.'-JOHNSON. That all the court may echo with the noise. Horns wind a Peal. Enter SATURNINUS, TAMO- Tit. Many good morrows to your majesty ;- Sat. And you have rung it lustily, my lords, Lav. I say, no; Sat. Come on then, horse and chariots let us have, [To TAMORA. Mar. I have dogs, my lord, Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase, And climb the highest promontory top. Tit. And I have horse will follow where the game Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. Dem. Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound, But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A desert Part of the Forest. Enter AARON, with a Bag of Gold. Aar. He, that had wit, would think that I had none, To bury so much gold under a tree, And never after to inherit1 it. 1i. e. possess. See vol. i. p. 152, note 9. Let him, that thinks of me so abjectly, A very excellent piece of villany; And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest, [Hides the Gold. That have their alms out of the empress' chest2. Enter TAMORA. Tam. My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad3, When every thing doth make a gleeful boast? The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind, Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber; Whiles hounds, and horns, and sweet melodious birds, Be unto us, as is a nurse's song Of lullaby, to bring her babe asleep. 2 This is obscure. It seems to mean only, that they who are to come at this gold of the empress are to suffer by it. JOHNSON. 3 Malone remarks that there is much poetical beauty in this speech of Tamora; he thinks it the only part of the play which resembles the style of Shakspeare. Aar. Madam, though Venus govern your desires, Saturn is dominator over mine: What signifies my deadly standing eye, No, madam, these are no venereal signs; Aar. No more, great empress, Bassianus comes: Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA. [Exit. Bas. Who have we here? Rome's royal emperess, Unfurnish'd of her well beseeming troop? Or is it Dian, habited like her; Who hath abandoned her holy groves, 4 See Ovid's Metamorphoses, book vi. 5 i. e. a part. |