Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens Read Online Free PDF

Quintus
]
bound, passing on the stage to the place of execution, and Titus going before, pleading
    TITUS     Hear me, grave fathers! 1 Noble tribunes, stay!
    For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent
    In dangerous wars whilst you securely slept,
    For all my blood in Rome’s great quarrel 4 shed,
    For all the frosty nights that I have watched, 5
    And for these bitter tears which now you see
    Filling the agèd wrinkles in my cheeks,
    Be pitiful to my condemnèd sons,
    Whose souls is not corrupted as ’tis thought.
    For two and twenty sons I never wept,
    Because they died in honour’s lofty bed.
    Andronicus lieth down and the Judges pass by him
    For these, two tribunes, in the dust I write
    My heart’s deep languor 13 and my soul’s sad tears:
    Let my tears stanch 14 the earth’s dry appetite,
    My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame 15 and blush.
    Exeunt
. [
Titus remains
]
    O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain
    That shall distil from these two ancient ruins 17
    Than youthful April shall with all his showers.
    In summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still: 19
    In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow
    And keep eternal springtime on thy face,
    So 22 thou refuse to drink my dear sons’ blood.
    Enter Lucius, with his weapon drawn
    O reverend tribunes, O gentle, agèd men,
    Unbind my sons, reverse the doom 24 of death,
    And let me say, that never wept before,
    My tears are now prevailing orators. 26
    LUCIUS     O noble father, you lament in vain:
    The tribunes hear you not, no man is by,
    And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
    TITUS     Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead.
    Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you—
    LUCIUS     My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.
    TITUS     Why, tis no matter, man: if they did hear,
    They would not mark 34 me, or if they did mark,
    They would not pity me.
    Therefore I tell my sorrows bootless 36 to the stones,
    Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
    Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes
    For that they will not intercept 39 my tale:
    When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
    Receive my tears and seem to weep with me,
    And were they but attirèd in grave weeds, 42
    Rome could afford 43 no tribune like to these.
    A stone is as soft wax, tribunes more hard than stones:
    A stone is silent, and offendeth not,
    And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
    Rises
    But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?
    LUCIUS     To rescue my two brothers from their death,
    For which attempt the judges have pronounced
    My everlasting doom of banishment.
    TITUS     O happy 51 man, they have befriended thee.
    Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
    That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
    Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
    But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,
    From these devourers to be banishèd!
    But who comes with our brother Marcus here?
    Enter Marcus and Lavinia
    MARCUS     Titus, prepare thy noble eyes to weep,
    Or if not so, thy noble heart to break:
    I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.
    TITUS     Will it consume me? Let me see it then.
    MARCUS     This was thy daughter.
    TITUS     Why, Marcus, so she is.
    Falls to his knees
    LUCIUS     Ay me, this object 64 kills me.
    Lucius rises
    TITUS     Faint-hearted boy, arise and look upon her.—
    Speak, Lavinia, what accursèd hand
    Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight?
    What fool hath added water to the sea?
    Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?
    My grief was at the height before thou cam’st,
    And now like Nilus it disdaineth 71 bounds.
    Give me a sword, I’ll chop off my hands too,
    For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain:
    And they have nursed this woe, in feeding life: 74
    In bootless prayer have they been held up,
    And they have served me to effectless 76 use:
    Now all the service I require of them
    Is that the one will help to