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LINE 4.

cession.

ANNOTATIONS

ON

TITUS ANDRONICUS.

ACT I. SCENE I.

-my successive title-] i. e. my title to the sucMALONE.

ACT I. SCENE II.

Line 74. Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!] We may suppose the Romans in a grateful ceremony, meeting the dead sons of Andronicus with mournful habits. JOHNSON.

Or that they were in mourning for their emperor who was just dead.

STEEVENS. Line 82. Thou great defender of this Capitol,] Jupiter, to whom the Capitol was sacred. JOHNSON. Line 176. And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise !] To live in fame's date is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expression.

To outlive an eternal date is, though not philosophical, yet poetical sense. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her praise longer than fame. JOHNSON. Line 188. That hath aspir'd to Solon's happiness,] The maxim

of Solon here alluded to is, that no man can be pronounced to be happy before his death.

Line 200.

·334.

MALONE.

-don this robe,] i. e. do on this robe, put it on.

STEEVENS.

changing piece-] Spoken of Lavinia. Piece

was then, as it is now, used personally as a word of contempt.

JOHNSON.

Line 339. To ruffle in the commonwealth of Rome.] To ruffle meant, to be noisy, disorderly, turbulent. A ruffler was a boisterous swaggerer.

Line 369. I am not bid-] i, e. invited.

416. The Greeks, upon advice, did bury Ajax

That slew himself; and wise Laertes' son

MALONE.

MALONE.

Did graciously plead for his funeral.] This passage alone would sufficiently convince me, that the play before us was the work of one who was conversant with the Greek tragedies in their original language. We have here a plain allusion to the Ajax of Sophocles, of which no translation was extant in the time of Shakspeare. In that piece, Agamemnon consents at last to allow Ajax the rites of sepulture, and Ulysses is the pleader, whose arguments prevail in favour of his remains, STEEVENS.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Line 1. In the quarto, the direction is, Manet Auron, and he is before made to enter with Tamora, though he says nothing. This scene ought to continue the first act. JOHNSON.

Line 10. Upon her wit-] We should read-Upon her will. WARBURTON.

I think wit, for which she is eminent in the drama, is right.

JOHNSON.

Line 59. Not I; till I have sheath'd &c.] This speech, which has been all along given to Demetrius, as the next to Chiron, were both given to the wrong speaker; for it was Demetrius that had thrown out the reproachful speeches on the other.

WARBURTON. Line 115. To square for this?] To square is to quarrel. So, in A Midsummer's-Night's Dream:

-they never meet,

"But they do square.”

STEEVENS.

by kind-] That is, by nature, which is the JOHNSON.

Line 134. old signification of kind.

Line 141. -file our engines with advice,] i. e. remove all impediments from our designs by advice. The allusion is to the operation of the file, which, by conferring smoothness, facilitates the motion of the wheels which compose an engine or piece of machinery. STEEVENS.

Line 154. Per Styga, &c.] These scraps of Latin are, I believe, taken, though not exactly, from some of Seneca's tragedies. STEEVENS.

ACT II. SCENE II.

Scene II.] The division of this play into Acts, which was first made by the editors in 1623, is improper. There is here an interval of action, and here the second Act ought to have begun. JOHNSON.

Line 155. —the morn is bright and grey,] i. e. bright and yet not red, which was a sign of storms and rain, but gray, which foretold fair weather. WARBURTON.

ACT II. SCENE IȚI.

Line 193. for their unrest,] Unrest, for disquict, is a word frequently used by the old writers. STEEVENS.

Line 194. That have their alms &c.] 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.

Line 252. Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,] Mr. Heath suspects that the poet wrote

Should thrive upon thy new-transformed limbs,—

as the former is an expression that suggests no image to the fancy. But drive, I think, may stand, with this meaning: the hounds should pass with impetuous haste, &c. So, in Hamlet:

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Moor is called Cimmerian, from the affinity of blackness to dark

ness.

JOHNSON.

Line 274. -made him noted long :] He had yet been married but one night.

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JOHNSON.

-294. Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.] This is said in fabulous physiology, of those that hear the groan of the mandrake torn up. JOHNSON. Line 321. And with that painted hope braces your mightiness:] Painted hope is only specious hope, or ground of confidence more plausible than solid. JOHNSON.

ACT II. SCENE IV.

Line 440. A precious ring,] There is supposed to be a gem called a carbuncle, which emits not reflected but native light. Mr. Boyle believes the reality of its existence.

JOHNSON.

Line 482.

-timeless-] means untimely.

ACT II. SCENE V.

Line 549. If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake me!] If this be a dream, I would give all my possessions to be delivered from it by waking. JOHNSON.

Line 565. lest thou should'st detect him, &c.] Tereus having ravished Philomela, his wife's sister, cut out her tongue, to prevent a discovery.

ACT III. SCENE I.

MALONE.

Line 73,in thy father's sight?] We should read-spight?

78.

WARBURTON. I'll chop off my hands too;] Perhaps we should -or chop off &c.

read : It is not easy to discover how Titus, when he had chopped off one of his hands, would have been able to have chopped off the other. STEEVENS.

Line 89. 0, that delightful engine of her thoughts,] This piece furnishes scarce any resemblances to Shakspeare's works; this one expression, however, is found in his Venus and Adonis :

"Once more the engine of her thoughts began."

MAL.

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