Back to main page
Titus Andronicus - Act 5, scene 2
Cite
Download Titus Andronicus
Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
- PDF Download as PDF
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers
- HTML Download as HTML
- TXT Download as TXT
- XML Download as XML
- TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis) Download as TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis)
Navigate this work
Titus Andronicus - Act 5, scene 2Act 5, scene 2
⌜Scene 2⌝
Synopsis:
Tamora, disguised as Revenge, tells Titus she has come to his aid, and that if he will invite Lucius to a feast, she will bring Tamora and Saturninus so that Titus can avenge himself on them. When she leaves, Titus insists that her companions, “Rape” and “Murder” (Chiron and Demetrius in disguise), remain with him until her return. He then cuts their throats and collects the blood, which he will mix with their ground bones into pastry for a pie to be served to Tamora.
Enter Tamora and her two sons, disguised.TAMORA
2157 Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment
2158 I will encounter with Andronicus
2159 And say I am Revenge, sent from below
2160 To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
2161 5 Knock at his study, where they say he keeps
2162 To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge.
2163 Tell him Revenge is come to join with him
2164 And work confusion on his enemies.
They knock, and Titus (⌜above⌝) opens his study door.
TITUS
2165 Who doth molest my contemplation?
2166 10 Is it your trick to make me ope the door,
2167 That so my sad decrees may fly away
2168 And all my study be to no effect?
2169 You are deceived, for what I mean to do,
2170 See here, in bloody lines I have set down,
2171 15 And what is written shall be executed.
TAMORA
2172 Titus, I am come to talk with thee.
TITUS
2173 No, not a word. How can I grace my talk,
2174 Wanting a hand to give ⟨it action?⟩
2175 Thou hast the odds of me; therefore, no more.
TAMORA
2176 20 If thou didst know me, thou wouldst talk with me.
p.
179
TITUS 2177 I am not mad. I know thee well enough.
2178 Witness this wretched stump; witness these crimson
2179 lines;
2180 Witness these trenches made by grief and care;
2181 25 Witness the tiring day and heavy night;
2182 Witness all sorrow that I know thee well
2183 For our proud empress, mighty Tamora.
2184 Is not thy coming for my other hand?
TAMORA
2185 Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora.
2186 30 She is thy enemy, and I thy friend.
2187 I am Revenge, sent from th’ infernal kingdom
2188 To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind
2189 By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
2190 Come down and welcome me to this world’s light.
2191 35 Confer with me of murder and of death.
2192 There’s not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
2193 No vast obscurity or misty vale
2194 Where bloody murder or detested rape
2195 Can couch for fear but I will find them out,
2196 40 And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,
2197 Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.
TITUS
2198 Art thou Revenge? And art thou sent to me
2199 To be a torment to mine enemies?
TAMORA
2200 I am. Therefore come down and welcome me.
TITUS
2201 45 Do me some service ere I come to thee.
2202 Lo, by thy side, where Rape and Murder stands,
2203 Now give some surance that thou art Revenge:
2204 Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot wheels,
2205 And then I’ll come and be thy wagoner,
2206 50 And whirl along with thee about the ⌜globe,⌝
2207 Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet,
2208 To hale thy vengeful wagon swift away,
p.
181
2209
And find out ⌜murderers⌝ in their guilty ⌜caves.⌝2210 And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
2211 55 I will dismount and by thy wagon wheel
2212 Trot like a servile footman all day long,
2213 Even from ⌜Hyperion’s⌝ rising in the east
2214 Until his very downfall in the sea.
2215 And day by day I’ll do this heavy task,
2216 60 So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.
TAMORA
2217 These are my ministers and come with me.
TITUS
2218 Are ⌜they⌝ thy ministers? What are they called?
TAMORA
2219 Rape and Murder; therefore callèd so
2220 ’Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.
TITUS
2221 65 Good Lord, how like the Empress’ sons they are,
2222 And you the Empress! But we ⌜worldly⌝ men
2223 Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.
2224 O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee,
2225 And if one arm’s embracement will content thee,
2226 70 I will embrace thee in it by and by.
⌜He exits above.⌝
TAMORA
2227 This closing with him fits his lunacy.
2228 Whate’er I forge to feed his brainsick humors,
2229 Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,
2230 For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;
2231 75 And, being credulous in this mad thought,
2232 I’ll make him send for Lucius his son;
2233 And whilst I at a banquet hold him sure,
2234 I’ll find some cunning practice out of hand
2235 To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,
2236 80 Or, at the least, make them his enemies.
2237 See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme.
p.
183
⌜Enter Titus.⌝TITUS
2238 Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee.
2239 Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful house.—
2240 Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.
2241 85 How like the Empress and her sons you are!
2242 Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor.
2243 Could not all hell afford you such a devil?
2244 For well I wot the Empress never wags
2245 But in her company there is a Moor;
2246 90 And, would you represent our queen aright,
2247 It were convenient you had such a devil.
2248 But welcome as you are. What shall we do?
TAMORA
2249 What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus?
DEMETRIUS
2250 Show me a murderer; I’ll deal with him.
CHIRON
2251 95 Show me a villain that hath done a rape,
2252 And I am sent to be revenged on him.
TAMORA
2253 Show me a thousand that hath done thee wrong,
2254 And I will be revengèd on them all.
TITUS, ⌜to Demetrius⌝
2255 Look round about the wicked streets of Rome,
2256 100 And when thou findst a man that’s like thyself,
2257 Good Murder, stab him; he’s a murderer.
2258 ⌜To Chiron.⌝ Go thou with him, and when it is thy
2259 hap
2260 To find another that is like to thee,
2261 105 Good Rapine, stab him; he is a ravisher.
2262 ⌜To Tamora.⌝ Go thou with them; and in the
2263 Emperor’s court
2264 There is a queen attended by a Moor.
2265 Well shalt thou know her by thine own proportion,
p.
185
2266
110 For up and down she doth resemble thee.2267 I pray thee, do on them some violent death.
2268 They have been violent to me and mine.
TAMORA
2269 Well hast thou lessoned us; this shall we do.
2270 But would it please thee, good Andronicus,
2271 115 To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,
2272 Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,
2273 And bid him come and banquet at thy house?
2274 When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,
2275 I will bring in the Empress and her sons,
2276 120 The Emperor himself, and all thy foes,
2277 And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel,
2278 And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.
2279 What says Andronicus to this device?
TITUS, (⌜calling⌝)
2280 Marcus, my brother, ’tis sad Titus calls.
Enter Marcus.
2281 125 Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius.
2282 Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths.
2283 Bid him repair to me and bring with him
2284 Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths.
2285 Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are.
2286 130 Tell him the Emperor and the Empress too
2287 Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them.
2288 This do thou for my love, and so let him,
2289 As he regards his agèd father’s life.
MARCUS
2290 This will I do, and soon return again.⌜Marcus exits.⌝
TAMORA
2291 135 Now will I hence about thy business
2292 And take my ministers along with me.
TITUS
2293 Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me,
2294 Or else I’ll call my brother back again
2295 And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.
p.
187
TAMORA, ⌜aside to Chiron and Demetrius⌝ 2296 140 What say you, boys? Will you abide with him
2297 Whiles I go tell my lord the Emperor
2298 How I have governed our determined jest?
2299 Yield to his humor, smooth and speak him fair,
2300 And tarry with him till I turn again.
TITUS, ⌜aside⌝
2301 145 I knew them all, though they supposed me mad,
2302 And will o’erreach them in their own devices—
2303 A pair of cursèd hellhounds and their dam!
DEMETRIUS, ⌜aside to Tamora⌝
2304 Madam, depart at pleasure. Leave us here.
TAMORA
2305 Farewell, Andronicus. Revenge now goes
2306 150 To lay a complot to betray thy foes.
TITUS
2307 I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell.
⌜Tamora exits.⌝
CHIRON
2308 Tell us, old man, how shall we be employed?
TITUS
2309 Tut, I have work enough for you to do.—
2310 Publius, come hither; Caius, and Valentine.
⌜Publius, Caius, and Valentine enter.⌝
PUBLIUS 2311 155What is your will?
TITUS 2312 Know you these two?
PUBLIUS
2313 The Empress’ sons, I take them—Chiron, Demetrius.
TITUS
2314 Fie, Publius, fie, thou art too much deceived.
2315 The one is Murder, and Rape is the other’s name;
2316 160 And therefore bind them, gentle Publius.
2317 Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.
p.
189
2318
Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,2319 And now I find it. Therefore bind them sure,
2320 And stop their mouths if they begin to cry.
⌜Titus exits.⌝
CHIRON
2321 165 Villains, forbear! We are the Empress’ sons.
PUBLIUS
2322 And therefore do we what we are commanded.—
2323 Stop close their mouths; let them not speak a word.
2324 Is he sure bound? Look that you bind them fast.
Enter Titus Andronicus with a knife, and Lavinia
with a basin.
TITUS
2325 Come, come, Lavinia. Look, thy foes are bound.—
2326 170 Sirs, stop their mouths. Let them not speak to me,
2327 But let them hear what fearful words I utter.—
2328 O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
2329 Here stands the spring whom you have stained with
2330 mud,
2331 175 This goodly summer with your winter mixed.
2332 You killed her husband, and for that vile fault
2333 Two of her brothers were condemned to death,
2334 My hand cut off and made a merry jest,
2335 Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear
2336 180 Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
2337 Inhuman traitors, you constrained and forced.
2338 What would you say if I should let you speak?
2339 Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
2340 Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you.
2341 185 This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
2342 Whiles that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold
2343 The basin that receives your guilty blood.
2344 You know your mother means to feast with me,
2345 And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad.
2346 190 Hark, villains, I will grind your bones to dust,
p.
191
2347
And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste,2348 And of the paste a coffin I will rear,
2349 And make two pasties of your shameful heads,
2350 And bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam,
2351 195 Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
2352 This is the feast that I have bid her to,
2353 And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
2354 For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,
2355 And worse than Procne I will be revenged.
2356 200 And now prepare your throats.—Lavinia, come,
2357 Receive the blood.He cuts their throats.
2358 And when that they are dead,
2359 Let me go grind their bones to powder small,
2360 And with this hateful liquor temper it,
2361 205 And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.
2362 Come, come, be everyone officious
2363 To make this banquet, which I wish may prove
2364 More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.
2365 So. Now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook
2366 210 And see them ready against their mother comes.
They exit, ⌜carrying the dead bodies.⌝