Complete Plays, The Read Online Free PDF

’tis we mean —Do thou so much as dig the grave for him:Thou know’st our meaning. Look for thy rewardAmong the nettles at the elder-treeWhich overshades the mouth of that same pitWhere we decreed to bury Bassianus.Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.’O Tamora! was ever heard the like?This is the pit, and this the elder-tree.Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman outThat should have murdered Bassianus here.
    Aaron
    My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.
    Saturninus
    [To Titus]   Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody kind,Have here bereft my brother of his life.Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:There let them bide until we have devisedSome never-heard-of torturing pain for them.
    Tamora
    What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!How easily murder is discovered!
    Titus Andronicus
    High emperor, upon my feeble kneeI beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,That this fell fault of my accursed sons,Accursed if the fault be proved in them,—
    Saturninus
    If it be proved! you see it is apparent.Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?
    Tamora
    Andronicus himself did take it up.
    Titus Andronicus
    I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail;For, by my father’s reverend tomb, I vowThey shall be ready at your highness’ willTo answer their suspicion with their lives.
    Saturninus
    Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me.Some bring the murder’d body, some the murderers:Let them not speak a word; the guilt is plain;For, by my soul, were there worse end than death,That end upon them should be executed.
    Tamora
    Andronicus, I will entreat the king;Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough.
    Titus Andronicus
    Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.
    Exeunt

S CENE IV. A NOTHER PART OF THE FOREST .
    Enter Demetrius and Chiron with Lavinia, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out
    Demetrius
    So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak,Who ’twas that cut thy tongue and ravish’d thee.
    Chiron
    Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.
    Demetrius
    See, how with signs and tokens she can scrowl.
    Chiron
    Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.
    Demetrius
    She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;And so let’s leave her to her silent walks.
    Chiron
    An ’twere my case, I should go hang myself.
    Demetrius
    If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.
    Exeunt Demetrius and Chiron
    Enter Marcus
    Marcus
    Who is this? my niece, that flies away so fast!Cousin, a word; where is your husband?If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!If I do wake, some planet strike me down,That I may slumber in eternal sleep!Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle handsHave lopp’d and hew’d and made thy body bareOf her two branches, those sweet ornaments,Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,And might not gain so great a happinessAs have thy love? Why dost not speak to me?Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,Like to a bubbling fountain stirr’d with wind,Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,Coming and going with thy honey breath.But, sure, some Tereus hath deflowered thee,And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.Ah, now thou turn’st away thy face for shame!And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood,As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan’s faceBlushing to be encountered with a cloud.Shall I speak for thee? shall I say ’tis so?O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,That I might rail at him, to ease my mind!Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp’d,Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,And in a tedious sampler sew’d her mind:But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,That could have better sew’d than Philomel.O, had the monster seen those lily handsTremble, like aspen-leaves, upon a lute,And make the silken