Complete Plays, The by William Shakespeare Read Free Book Online Page B

windWill blow these sands, like Sibyl’s leaves, abroad,And where’s your lesson, then? Boy, what say you?
    Young Lucius
    I say, my lord, that if I were a man,Their mother’s bed-chamber should not be safeFor these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.
    Marcus Andronicus
    Ay, that’s my boy! thy father hath full oftFor his ungrateful country done the like.
    Young Lucius
    And, uncle, so will I, an if I live.
    Titus Andronicus
    Come, go with me into mine armoury;Lucius, I’ll fit thee; and withal, my boy,Shalt carry from me to the empress’ sonsPresents that I intend to send them both:Come, come; thou’lt do thy message, wilt thou not?
    Young Lucius
    Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.
    Titus Andronicus
    No, boy, not so; I’ll teach thee another course.Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house:Lucius and I’ll go brave it at the court:Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we’ll be waited on.
    Exeunt Titus, Lavinia, and Young Lucius
    Marcus Andronicus
    O heavens, can you hear a good man groan,And not relent, or not compassion him?Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,That hath more scars of sorrow in his heartThan foemen’s marks upon his batter’d shield;But yet so just that he will not revenge.Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus!
    Exit

S CENE II. T HE SAME . A ROOM IN THE PALACE .
    Enter, from one side, Aaron, Demetrius, and Chiron; from the other side, Young Lucius, and an Attendant, with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them
    Chiron
    Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius;He hath some message to deliver us.
    Aaron
    Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.
    Young Lucius
    My lords, with all the humbleness I may,I greet your honours from Andronicus.
    Aside
    And pray the Roman gods confound you both!
    Demetrius
    Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what’s the news?
    Young Lucius
    [Aside]   That you are both decipher’d, that’s the news,For villains mark’d with rape.— May it please you,My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by meThe goodliest weapons of his armouryTo gratify your honourable youth,The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say;And so I do, and with his gifts presentYour lordships, that, whenever you have need,You may be armed and appointed well:And so I leave you both:
    Aside
    like bloody villains.
    Exeunt Young Lucius, and Attendant
    Demetrius
    What’s here? A scroll; and written round about?Let’s see;
    Reads
    ‘Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.’
    Chiron
    O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well:I read it in the grammar long ago.
    Aaron
    Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.
    Aside
    Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!Here’s no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines,That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.But were our witty empress well afoot,She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit:But let her rest in her unrest awhile.And now, young lords, was’t not a happy starLed us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,Captives, to be advanced to this height?It did me good, before the palace gateTo brave the tribune in his brother’s hearing.
    Demetrius
    But me more good, to see so great a lordBasely insinuate and send us gifts.
    Aaron
    Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?Did you not use his daughter very friendly?
    Demetrius
    I would we had a thousand Roman damesAt such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.
    Chiron
    A charitable wish and full of love.
    Aaron
    Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.
    Chiron
    And that would she for twenty thousand more.
    Demetrius
    Come, let us go; and pray to all the godsFor our beloved mother in her pains.
    Aaron
    [Aside]   Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.
    Trumpets sound within
    Demetrius
    Why do the emperor’s trumpets flourish thus?
    Chiron
    Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.
    Demetrius
    Soft! who comes here?
    Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms
    Nurse
    Good morr ow, lords:O, tell me, did you see Aaron the