And bid the owners quench them with their tears.

Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves

And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,

Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,

And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,

Have with my knife carved in Roman letters

‘Let not your sorrow die though I am dead.’

But I have done a thousand dreadful things

As willingly as one would kill a fly,

And nothing grieves me heartily indeed

But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

LUCIUS

Bring down the devil, for he must not die

So sweet a death as hanging presently.

Goths bring Aaron down the ladder

AARON

If there be devils, would I were a devil,

To live and burn in everlasting fire,

So I might have your company in hell

But to torment you with my bitter tongue.

LUCIUS

Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.

Goths gag Aaron.

Enter Aemilius

A GOTH

My lord, there is a messenger from Rome

Desires to be admitted to your presence.

LUCIUS Let him come near.

Welcome, Aemilius. What’s the news from Rome?

AEMILIUS

Lord Lucius, and you princes of the Goths,

The Roman Emperor greets you all by me,

And for he understands you are in arms,

He craves a parley at your father’s house,

Willing you to demand your hostages,

And they shall be immediately delivered.

A GOTH What says our general?

LUCIUS

Aemilius, let the Emperor give his pledges

Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

And we will come. Away!

⌈Flourish.⌉ Exeunt ⌈marching⌉

5.2 Enter Tamora and Chiron and Demetrius, her two sons, disguised

TAMORA

Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,

I will encounter with Andronicus

And say I am Revenge, sent from below

To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.

Knock at his study, where they say he keeps

To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge.

Tell him Revenge is come to join with him

And work confusion on his enemies.

They knock, and Titus ⌈aloft⌉ opens his study door

TITUS

Who doth molest my contemplation?

Is it your trick to make me ope the door,

That so my sad decrees may fly away

And all my study be to no effect?

You are deceived; for what I mean to do,

See here, in bloody lines I have set down,

And what is written shall be executed.

TAMORA

Titus, I am come to talk with thee.

TITUS

No, not a word. How can I grace my talk,

Wanting a hand to give it action?

Thou hast the odds of me, therefore no more.

TAMORA

If thou didst know me thou wouldst talk with me.

TITUS

I am not mad, I know thee well enough;

Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson

lines,

Witness these trenches made by grief and care,

Witness the tiring day and heavy night,

Witness all sorrow that I know thee well

For our proud empress, mighty Tamora.

Is not thy coming for my other hand?

TAMORA

Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora.

She is thy enemy, and I thy friend.

I am Revenge, sent from th’nfernal 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 wagoner,

And whirl along with thee about the globe,

Provide two proper palfreys, black as jet,

To hale thy vengeful wagon 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 wagon 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 called?

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,