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.9

Aar. Madam, though Venus govern your desires,
Saturn is dominator over mine :'

What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
My silence, and my cloudy melancholy?
My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls,
Even as an adder, when she doth unroll
To do some fatal execution?

No, madam, these are no venereal signs;
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hark, Tamora,-the empress of my soul,

Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,-
This is the day of doom for Bassianus ;
His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day :
Thy sons make pillage of her chastity,
And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.

Seest thou this letter? take it up I pray thee,
And give the king this fatal-plotted scroll:
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 sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!
Aar. No more, great empress, Bassianus comes :
Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy sons

To back thy quarrels, whatsoe'er they be.

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,

[8] Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary, says, it is observable that nurses call sleep by by: lullaby is therefore lull to sleep.' But to lull originally signified to sleep. To compose to sleep by a pleasing sound is a secondary sense retained after its primitive import became obsolete. The verbs to loll and lollop evidently spring from the same root. And by meant house; go to by, is go to house or cradle. The compliment at parting, good by, is good house; may your house prosper; and Selby, the archbishop of York's palace, is great house. So that lullaby “implies literally sleep in house, i. e. WHITE.

the cradle.

[9] There is much poetical beauty in this speech of Tamora. It appears to me to be the only one in the play that is in the style of Shakespeare. MASON.

[1] The meaning of this may be illustrated by the astronomical description of Saturn, by Greene, 1585: "The star of Saturn is especially cooling, and somewhat drie," &c. Again, in the Sea Voyage, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

"the sullen Saturn had predominance

At your nativity, a malignant planet ""

COLLINS.

To see the general hunting in this forest?
Tam. Saucy controller of our private steps!
Had I the power, that, some say, 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 emperess,
'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;
And to be doubted, that your Moor and you
Are singled forth to try experiments :

Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day! 'Tis pity, they should take him for a stag.

Bas. Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian'
Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
Spotted, detested, and abominable.

Why are you sequester'd from all your train?
Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed,
And wander'd hither to an obscure plot,
Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,
If foul desire had not conducted you?

Lav, And, being intercepted in your sport,
Great reason that my noble lord be rated
For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence,
And let her 'joy her raven-colour'd love;
This valley fits the purpose passing well.

Bas. The king, my brother, shall have note of this. Lav. Ay, for these slips have made him noted long: Good king! to be so mightily abus'd!

Tam. Why have I patience to endure all this?

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.

Dem. How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother, Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?

Tam. Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place,

A barren detested vale, you see, it is :

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss, and baleful mistletoe.
Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.

And, when they show'd me this abhorred pit,

[2] Swarth is black. The Moor is called Cimmerian, from the affinity of blackness to darkness.

JOHNSON.

They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make such fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body, hearing it,

Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.*
No sooner had they told this hellish tale,

But straight they told me, they would bind me here
Unto the body of a dismal yew;

And leave me to this miserable death.

And then they call'd me, foul adulteress,
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
That ever ear did hear to such effect.
And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,
This vengeance on me had they executed :
Revenge it, as you love your mother's life,
Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.
Dem. This is a witness that I am thy son.
[Stabs BAS.
Chi. And this for me, struck home to show my strength.
[Stabbing him likewise.
Lav. Ay come, Semiramis,-nay, barbarous Tamora!
For no name fits thy nature but thy own!
Tam. Give me thy poniard; you shall know, my boys,
Your mother's hand shall right your mother's wrong.

Dem. Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her
First, thrash the corn, then after burn the straw ;
This minion stood upon her chastity,
Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,

And with that painted hope braves your mightiness ;*
And shall she carry this unto her grave?

Chi. An if she do, I would I were an eunuch,

Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,

And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.

Tam. But when you have the honey you desire,

Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.

Chi. I warrant you, madam; we will make that sure.Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy

That nice-preserved honesty of yours,

Lav. O Tamora! thou bear'st a woman's face,

Tam. I will not hear her speak; away with her.

[4] This is said in fabulous physiology, of those that hear the groan of the mandrake torn up.

JOHNSON.

[5] Painted hope is only specious hope, or ground of confidence more plausible than solid.

JOHNSON.

Lav. Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.
Dem. Listen, fair madam: Let it be your glory
To see her tears; but be your heart to them,
As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.

Lav. When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam ? O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee:

The milk, thou suck'st from her, did turn to marble;
Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.-

Yet every mother breeds not sons alike;
Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.

[To CHIRON. Chi. What wouldst thou have me prove myself a

bastard?

Lav. 'Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark: Yet I have heard, (O could I find it now!)

The lion mov'd with pity, did endure

To have his princely paws par'd all away.
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:
O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!

Tam. I know not what it means; away with her.
Lav. O, let me teach thee: for my father's sake,
That gave thee life, when well he might have slain thee,
Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.

Tam. Had thou in person ne'er offended me,
Even for his sake am I pitiless :-
Remember, boys, I pour'd forth tears in vain,
To save your brother from the sacrifice;
But fierce Andronicus would not relent:
Therefore away with her, and use her as you
The worse to her, the better lov'd of me.

Lav. O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen,
And with thine own hands kill me in this place :
For 'tis not life, that I have begg'd so long;
Poor I was slain, when Bassianus died.

will;

let me go.

Tam. What begg'st thou then? fond woman,
Lav. 'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more,
That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:

O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,
And tumble me into some loathsome pit;

Where never man's eye may behold my body:
Do this, and be a charitable murderer.

Tam. So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:
No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.

Dem. Away, for thou hast staid us here too long. Lav. No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature! The blot and enemy to our general name !

Confusion fall

husband;

Chi. Nay, then I'll stop your mouth :--Bring thou her [Dragging off Lavinia. This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him. [Exeunt. Tam. Farewell, my sons: see, that you make her sure: Ne'er let my heart know merry cheer indeed, Till all the Andronici be made away. Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor, And let my spleenful sons this trull deflour.

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

The same.

Enter AARON, with QUINTUS and MARTIUS.

Aar. Come on, my lords; the better foot before : Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit,

Where I espy'd the panther fast asleep.

Quin. My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes.

Mart. And mine, I promise you; wer't not for shame,

Well could I leave our sport to sleep a while.

[MARTIUS falls into the pit.
Quin. What art thou fallen? What subtle hole is this,
Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing briars ;
Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood,
As fresh as morning's dew distill'd on flowers?
A very fatal place it seems to me :-

Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?
Mart. O, brother, with the dismallest object
That ever eye, with sight, made heart lament.

Aar. [Asi.] Now will I fetch the king to find them here; That he thereby may give a likely guess,

How these were they that made away his brother. [Exit.
Mart. Why dost not comfort me, and help me out
From this unhallow'd and blood-stained hole?
Quin. I am surprized with an uncouth fear:
A chilling sweat o'er-runs my trembling joints;
My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.
Mart. To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,
Aaron and thou look down into this den,
And see a fearful sight of blood and death.

Quin. Aaron is gone; and my compassionate heart
Will not permit mine eyes once to behold