That in your country's service drew your swords: And help to set a head on headless Rome. ac To-morrow, yield up rule, resign my life, Mar. Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery. 6 4 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: 5 66 ultima semper Expectanda dies homini; dicique beatus "Ante obitum nemo, supremaque funera, debet." Ovid. Hamlet: Malone. don this robe,] i. e. do on this robe, put it on. So, in "Then up he rose, and don'd his clothes. Steevens. 6 Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery.] Here is rather too much of the 'repov repov. Steevens. 7 Patience, prince Saturnine.] Edition 1600, Patience prince Saturninus. Todd. Sat. Romans, do me right ; Patricians, draw your swords, and shcathe them not Luc. Proud Saturnine, interrupter of the good Tit. Content thee, Prince; I will restore to thee The people's hearts, and wean them from themselves. Bas. Andronicus, I do not flatter thee, But honour thee, and will do till I die; Of noble minds, is honourable meed. Tit. People of Rome, and people's tribunes here, Will you bestow them friendly on Andronicus? And gratulate his safe return to Rome, Tit. Tribunes, I thank you: and this suit I make, [A long Flourish. Sat. Titus Andronicus, for thy favours done I give thee thanks in part of thy deserts, Thy name, and honourable family, 8 thy friends,] Old copies-friend. fourth folio. Malone. Corrected in the Edition 1600, friend, as in other old copies noted by Mr. Ma lone. Todd. Lavinia will I make my emperess, Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart, Tell me, Andronicus, doth this motion please thee? Tit. Now, madam, are you prisoner to an emperor; [TO TAMORA. To him, that for your honour and your state, Will use you nobly, and your followers. Sat. A goodly lady, trust me; of the hue That I would choose, were I to choose anew.Clear up, fair queen, that cloudy countenance; Though chance of war hath wrought this change of cheer, Thou com'st not to be made a scorn in Rome: Rest on my word, and let not discontent Lav. Not I, my lord; sith true nobility 9 Pantheon] The quarto, 1611, and the first folioPathan; the second folio-Pantheon. Steevens. Edition 1600-Pathan, as in other copies noted by Mr. SteeTodd. vens. 2 Lav. Not I, my lord,] It was pity to part a couple who seem to have corresponded in disposition so exactly as Saturninus and Warrants these words in princely courtesy. Sat. Thanks, sweet Lavinia.-Romans, let us go: Ransomeless here we set our prisoners free: Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum. Bas. Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is mine. [Seizing LAV. Tit. How, sir? Are you in earnest then, my lord? Bas. Ay, noble Titus; and resolv'd withal, To do myself this reason and this right. [The Emperor courts TAM. in dumb show. Mar. Suum cuique is our Roman justice: This prince in justice seizeth but his own. Sat. Surpriz'd! By whom? Bas. By him that justly may Bear his betroth'd from all the world away. [Exeunt MAR. and BAs. with Lav. Mut. Brothers, help to convey her hence away, And with my sword I'll keep this door safe. [Exeunt Luc. QUIN. and MAR Fit. Follow my lord, and I'll soon bring her back. Tit. Barr'st me my way in Rome? Mut. What, villain boy! [TIT. kills MUT. Help, Lucius, help! Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. My lord, you are unjust; and, more than so2 Luc. Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife, [Exit Lavinia. Saturninus, who has just promised to espouse her, already wishes he were to choose again; and she who was engaged to Bassianus (whom she afterwards marries) expresses no reluctance when her father gives her to Saturninus. Her sub. sequent raillery to Tamora is of so coarse a nature, that if her tongue had been all she was condemned to lose, perhaps the author (whoever he was) might have escaped censure on the score: of poetick justice. Steevens. Sat. No, Titus, no; the emperor needs her not, I'll trust, by leisure, him that mocks me once; Was there none else in Rome to make a stale of,4 Agree these deeds with that proud brag of thine, Tit. O monstrous! what reproachful words are these? One fit to bandy with thy lawless sons, To ruffle in the commonwealth of Rome.6 Tit. These words are razors to my wounded heart. 3 Not her,] Edition 1600-Nor her. Todd. 4 Was there &c.] The words, there, else, and of, are not found in the old copies. This conjectural emendation was made hy the editor of the second folio. Dele the word of, which was inserted by the editor of the se-cond folio, from ignorance of ancient phraseology. See the last Act of Cymbeline, Vol. XVI. Malone. I must excuse myself from ejecting any one of these monosyllables, being convinced that they were all inserted from an authorized copy, and by a judicious hand. 5 Steevens. changing piece-] Spoken of Lavinia. Piece was then, as it is now, used personally as a word of contempt. Johnson. So, in Britannia's Pastorals, by Brown, 1613: 66 her husband, weaken'd piece, "Must have his cullis mix'd, with ambergrease; Again, in the old play of King Leir, 1605: when did you see Cordella last, "That pretty piece? 6 To ruffie in the commonwealth of Rome.] A ruffler was a kind of cheating bully; and is so called in a statute made for the punishment of vagabonds in the 27th year of King Henry VIII. See Greene's Groundwork of Coneycatching, 1592. Hence, I suppose, this sense of the verb, to ruffie. Rufflers are likewise enumerated among other vagabonds, by Holinshed, Vol. I, p. 183. Steevens. To muffle meant, to be noisy, disorderly, turbulent. A ruffler was a boisterous swaggerer. Malone. |