Led us to Rome, strangers and, more than so,

Captives, to be advanced to this height?

It did me good before the palace gate

To brave the Tribune in his brother’s hearing.

DEMETRIUS

But me more good to see so great a lord

Basely insinuate and send us gifts.

AARON

Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?

Did you not use his daughter very friendly?

DEMETRIUS

I would we had a thousand Roman dames

At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.

CHIRON

A charitable wish, and full of love.

AARON

Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.

CHIRON

And that would she, for twenty thousand more.

DEMETRIUS

Come, let us go and pray to all the gods

For our beloved mother in her pains.

AARON

Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.

Trumpets sound

DEMETRIUS

Why do the Emperor’s trumpets flourish thus?

CHIRON

Belike for joy the Emperor hath a son.

DEMETRIUS

Soft, who comes here?

Enter Nurse with a blackamoor child

NURSE

Good morrow, lords.

O tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

AARON

Well, more or less, or ne’er a whit at all,

Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?

NURSE

O gentle Aaron, we are all undone.

Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!

AARON

Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!

What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms?

NURSE

O, that which I would hide from heaven’s eye,

Our Empress’ shame and stately Rome’s disgrace.

She is delivered, lords, she is delivered.

AARON

To whom?

NURSE

I mean she is brought abed.

AARON

Well, God give her good rest. What hath he sent her?

NURSE

A devil.

AARON

Why then, she is the devil’s dam.

A joyful issue!

NURSE

A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue.

Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad

Amongst the fair-faced breeders of our clime.

The Empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,

And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point.

AARON

Zounds, ye whore, is black so base a hue?

Sweet blowze, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.

DEMETRIUS

Villain, what hast thou done?

AARON

That which thou canst not undo.

CHIRON

Thou hast undone our mother. AARON

Villain, I have done thy mother.

DEMETRIUS

And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her.

Woe to her chance, and damned her loathed choice,

Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend.

CHIRON

It shall not live.

AARON

It shall not die.

NURSE

Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.

AARON

What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I

Do execution on my flesh and blood.

DEMETRIUS

I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point.

Nurse, give it me. My sword shall soon dispatch it.

AARON

Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.

He takes the child and draws his sword

Stay, murderous villains, will you kill your brother?

Now, by the burning tapers of the sky

That shone so brightly when this boy was got,

He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point

That touches this, my first-born son and heir.

I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus

With all his threat’ning band of Typhon’s brood,

Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war

Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.

What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys,

Ye whitelimed walls, ye alehouse painted signs,

Coal-black is better than another hue

In that it scorns to bear another hue;

For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,

Although she lave them hourly in the flood.

Tell the Empress from me I am of age

To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.

DEMETRIUS

Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?

AARON

My mistress is my mistress, this myself,

The figure and the picture of my youth.

This before all the world do I prefer;

This maugre all the world will I keep safe,

Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. no

DEMETRIUS

By this our mother is for ever shamed.

CHIRON

Rome will despise her for this foul escape.

NURSE

The Emperor in his rage will doom her death.

CHIRON

I blush to think upon this ignomy.

AARON

Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears.

Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing

The close enacts and counsels of thy heart.

Here’s a young lad framed of another leer.

Look how the black slave smiles upon the father,

As who should say ‘Old lad, I am thine own.’

He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed

Of that self blood that first gave life to you,

And from that womb where you imprisoned were

He is enfranchised and come to light.

Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,

Although my seal be stamped in his face.

NURSE

Aaron, what shall I say unto the Empress?

DEMETRIUS

Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,

And we will all subscribe to thy advice.

Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.

AARON

Then sit we down, and let us all consult.

My son and I will have the wind of you.

Keep there; now talk at pleasure of your safety.

They sit

DEMETRIUS (to the Nurse)

How many women saw this child of his?

AARON

Why, so, brave lords, when we do join in league

I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,

The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,

The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.

(To the Nurse) But say again, how many saw the