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Titus Andronicus: Act IV, Scene 1

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Titus Andronicus
Act IV, Scene 1

Rome. Titus’ garden.

  1. Enter Lucius’ Son, and Lavinia running after him, and the
  2. boy flies from her, with his books under his arm. Enter
  3. Titus and Marcus.

Young Lucius

1 - 4
  1. Help, grandsire, help! My aunt Lavinia
  2. Follows me every where, I know not why.
  3. Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.
  4. Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.

Marcus

5
  1. Stand by me, Lucius, do not fear thine aunt.

Titus

6
  1. She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.

Young Lucius

7
  1. Ay, when my father was in Rome she did.

Marcus

8
  1. What means my niece Lavinia by these signs?

Titus

9
  1. Fear her not, Lucius, somewhat doth she mean.

Marcus

10 - 15
  1. See, Lucius, see, how much she makes of thee;
  2. Somewhither would she have thee go with her.
  3. Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care
  4. Read to her sons than she hath read to thee
  5. Sweet poetry and Tully’s Orator.
  6. Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus?

Young Lucius

16 - 28
  1. My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess,
  2. Unless some fit or frenzy do possess her;
  3. For I have heard my grandsire say full oft,
  4. Extremity of griefs would make men mad;
  5. And I have read that Hecuba of Troy
  6. Ran mad for sorrow. That made me to fear,
  7. Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt
  8. Loves me as dear as e’er my mother did,
  9. And would not, but in fury, fright my youth,
  10. Which made me down to throw my books, and fly—
  11. Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt,
  12. And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go,
  13. I will most willingly attend your ladyship.

Marcus

29
  1. Lucius, I will.
  1. Lavinia turns over with her stumps the books which Lucius
  2. has let fall.

Titus

30 - 37
  1. How now, Lavinia? Marcus, what means this?
  2. Some book there is that she desires to see.
  3. Which is it, girl, of these?—Open them, boy.—
  4. But thou art deeper read, and better skill’d;
  5. Come and take choice of all my library,
  6. And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens
  7. Reveal the damn’d contriver of this deed.
  8. Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus?

Marcus

38 - 40
  1. I think she means that there were more than one
  2. Confederate in the fact; ay, more there was;
  3. Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.

Titus

41
  1. Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?

Young Lucius

42 - 43
  1. Grandsire, ’tis Ovid’s Metamorphosis,
  2. My mother gave it me.

Marcus

44 - 45
  1.                       For love of her that’s gone,
  2. Perhaps, she cull’d it from among the rest.

Titus

46 - 50
  1. Soft, so busily she turns the leaves! Help her.
  2. What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read?
  3. This is the tragic tale of Philomel,
  4. And treats of Tereus’ treason and his rape—
  5. And rape, I fear, was root of thy annoy.

Marcus

51
  1. See, brother, see, note how she cotes the leaves.

Titus

52 - 59
  1. Lavinia, wert thou thus surpris’d, sweet girl?
  2. Ravish’d and wrong’d as Philomela was,
  3. Forc’d in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods?
  4. See, see!
  5. Ay, such a place there is where we did hunt
  6. (O had we never, never hunted there!),
  7. Pattern’d by that the poet here describes,
  8. By nature made for murders and for rapes.

Marcus

60 - 61
  1. O why should nature build so foul a den,
  2. Unless the gods delight in tragedies?

Titus

62 - 65
  1. Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none but friends,
  2. What Roman lord it was durst do the deed;
  3. Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst,
  4. That left the camp to sin in Lucrece’ bed?

Marcus

66 - 78
  1. Sit down, sweet niece; brother, sit down by me.
  2. Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,
  3. Inspire me, that I may this treason find!
  4. My lord, look here; look here, Lavinia.
  5. He writes his name with his staff, and guides it with feet
  6. and mouth.
  7. This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst,
  8. This after me. I have writ my name,
  9. Without the help of any hand at all.
  10. Curs’d be that heart that forc’d us to this shift!
  11. Write thou, good niece, and here display at last
  12. What God will have discovered for revenge.
  13. Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,
  14. That we may know the traitors and the truth!
  15. She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her
  16. stumps, and writes.
  17. O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?
Child alarmed at his aunt Lavinia

Child alarmed at his aunt Lavinia

B. Reading, Thomas Kirk, 1799

Titus

79
  1. “Stuprum—Chiron—Demetrius.”

Marcus

80 - 81
  1. What, what, the lustful sons of Tamora
  2. Performers of this heinous, bloody deed?

Titus

82 - 83
  1. Magni Dominator poli,
  2. Tam lentus audis scelera? Tam lentus vides?

Marcus

84 - 95
  1. O, calm thee, gentle lord, although I know
  2. There is enough written upon this earth
  3. To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts,
  4. And arm the minds of infants to exclaims.
  5. My lord, kneel down with me, Lavinia, kneel,
  6. And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector’s hope,
  7. And swear with me, as with the woeful fere
  8. And father of that chaste dishonored dame,
  9. Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece’ rape,
  10. That we will prosecute by good advice
  11. Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,
  12. And see their blood or die with this reproach.

Titus

96 - 107
  1. ’Tis sure enough, and you knew how,
  2. But if you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware,
  3. The dam will wake and if she wind ye once,
  4. She’s with the lion deeply still in league,
  5. And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back,
  6. And when he sleeps will she do what she list.
  7. You are a young huntsman, Marcus, let alone;
  8. And come, I will go get a leaf of brass,
  9. And with a gad of steel will write these words,
  10. And lay it by. The angry northen wind
  11. Will blow these sands like Sibyl’s leaves abroad,
  12. And where’s our lesson then? Boy, what say you?

Young Lucius

108 - 110
  1. I say, my lord, that if I were a man,
  2. Their mother’s bedchamber should not be safe
  3. For these base bondmen to the yoke of Rome.

Marcus

111 - 112
  1. Ay, that’s my boy! Thy father hath full oft
  2. For his ungrateful country done the like.

Young Lucius

113
  1. And, uncle, so will I, and if I live.

Titus

114 - 118
  1. Come go with me into mine armory;
  2. Lucius, I’ll fit thee, and withal my boy
  3. Shall carry from me to the Empress’ sons
  4. Presents that I intend to send them both.
  5. Come, come, thou’lt do my message, wilt thou not?

Young Lucius

119
  1. Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.

Titus

120 - 123
  1. No, boy, not so, I’ll teach thee another course.
  2. Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house,
  3. Lucius and I’ll go brave it at the court.
  4. Ay, marry, will we, sir, and we’ll be waited on.
  1. Exeunt Titus, Lavinia, and Boy.

Marcus

124 - 130
  1. O heavens, can you hear a good man groan
  2. And not relent, or not compassion him?
  3. Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy,
  4. That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart
  5. Than foemen’s marks upon his batt’red shield,
  6. But yet so just that he will not revenge.
  7. Revenge the heavens for old Andronicus!
  1. Exit.
The Henry Irving Shakespeare

O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?

From: The Henry Irving Shakespeare

Henry, Sir Irving; Gordon Browne; 1888

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