That in your country's service drew your swords:
But safer triumph is this funeral pomp,
That hath aspir'd to Solon's happiness,
And triumphs over chance, in honour's bed.-----
Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome,
Whose friend in justice thou hast ever been,
Send thee by me, their tribune, and their trust,
This palliament of white and spotless hue;
And name thee in election for the empire,
With these our late-deceased emperor's sons:
Be candidatus then, and put it on,

And help to set a head on headless Rome.
Tit. A better head her glorious body fits,
Than his, that shakes for age and feebleness:
What! should I don this robe, and trouble you?
Be chosen with proclamations to-day;

ac

To-morrow, yield up rule, resign my life,
And set"abroad"new business for you all? abroach
Rome, I have been thy soldier forty years,
And led my country's strength successfully;
And buried one and twenty valiant sons,
Knighted in field, slain manfully in arms,
In right and service of their noble country:
Give me a staff of honour for mine age,
But not a sceptre to control the world:
Upright he held it, lords, that held it last.

Mar. Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery. 6
Sat. Proud and ambitious tribune, canst thou tell?-
Tit. Patience, prince Saturnine.?

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
Till Saturninus be Rome's emperor:-
Andronicus, 'would thou wert shipp'd to hell,
Rather than rob me of the people's hearts.

Luc. Proud Saturnine, interrupter of the good
That noble-minded Titus means to thee!

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;
My faction if thou strengthen with thy friends,
I will most thankful be: and thanks, to men

Of noble minds, is honourable meed.

Tit. People of Rome, and people's tribunes here,
I ask your voices, and your suffrages;

Will you bestow them friendly on Andronicus?
Trib. To gratify the good Andronicus,

And gratulate his safe return to Rome,
The people will accept whom he admits.

Tit. Tribunes, I thank you: and this suit I make,
That you create your emperor's eldest son,
Lord Saturnine; whose virtues will, I hope,
Reflect on Rome, as Titan's rays on earth,
And ripen justice in this common-weal:
Then if you will elect by my advice,
Crown him, and say,-Long live our emperor!
Mar. With voices and applause of every sort,
Patricians, and plebeians, we create
Lord Saturninus, Rome's great emperor;
And say,-Long live our emperor Saturnine!

[A long Flourish.

Sat. Titus Andronicus, for thy favours done
To us in our election this day,

I give thee thanks in part of thy deserts,
And will with deeds requite thy gentleness:
And, for an onset, Titus, to advance

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,
And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse:

Tell me, Andronicus, doth this motion please thee?
Tit. It doth, my worthy lord; and, in this match,
I hold me highly honour'd of your grace:
And here, in sight of Rome, to Saturnine,—
King and commander of our common-weal,
The wide world's emperor,-do I consecrate
My sword, my chariot, and my prisoners;
Presents well worthy Rome's imperial lord :1
Receive them then, the tribute that I owe,
Mine honour's ensigns humbled at thy feet.
Sat. Thanks, noble Titus, father of my life!
How proud I am of thee, and of thy gifts,
Rome shall record; and, when I do forget
The least of these unspeakable deserts,
Romans, forget your fealty to me.

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:
Princely shall be thy usage every way.

Rest on my word, and let not discontent
Daunt all your hopes; Madam, he comforts you,
Can make you greater than the queen of Goths.—
Lavinia, you are not displeas'd with this?

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.
Luc. And that he will, and shall, if Lucius live.
Tit. Traitors, avaunt! Where is the emperor's guard?
Treason, my lord; Lavinia is surpriz'd.

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.
Mut. My lord, you pass not here.

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
In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son.
Tit. Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;
My sons would never so dishonour me:
Traitor, restore Lavinia to the emperor.

Luc. Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife,
That is another's lawful promis'd love.

[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,
Not her, nor thee, nor any of thy stock:

I'll trust, by leisure, him that mocks me once;
Thee never, nor thy traitorous haughty sons,
Confederates all thus to dishonour me.

Was there none else in Rome to make a stale of,4
But Saturnine? Full well, Andronicus,

Agree these deeds with that proud brag of thine,
That said'st, I begg'd the empire at thy hands.

Tit. O monstrous! what reproachful words are these?
Sat. But go thy ways; go, give that changing pieces
To him that flourish'd for her with his sword:
A valiant son-in-law thou shalt enjoy ;

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;
"Pheasant and partridge into jelly turn'd,
"Grated with gold."

Again, in the old play of King Leir, 1605:

when did you see Cordella last,
Steevens..

"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.