Page images
PDF
EPUB

That curfed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it were that ravished our fifter:

For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father's tears defpis'd; and bafely cozen'd'
Of that true hand, that fought Rome's quarrel out,
And fent her enemies unto the grave.

Laftly, myfelf unkindly banished,

The gates thut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome's enemies;
Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears,
And op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend:
And I am the turn'd-forth, be it known to you,
That have preferv'd her welfare in my blood;
And from her bofom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my advent'rous body.
Alas! you know, I am no vaunter, I;
My fears can witnefs, dumb although they are,
That my report is juft, and full of truth.
But, foft, methinks, I do digrefs too much,
Citing my worthlefs praise: O, pardon me;

For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
Mar. Now is my turn to fpeak; Behold this child,
[pointing to the child in the arms of an attendant.
Of this was Tamora delivered;

The iffue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of thefe woes;

The villain is alive in Titus' house,

Damn'd as he is, to witness this is true.

Now judge, what caufe 3 had Titus to revenge

I-and bafely cozen'd-] i. e. and be bafely cozened. MALONE. 2 Damn'd as be is,] The old copies read-And as he is. The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald. The fame expreffion (as he obferved,) is ufed in Othello:

"O thou foul thief, where haft thou ftow'd my daughter?
"Damn'd as thou art, thou haft inchanted her."

In the play before us the fame epithet is again applied to Aaron:

"See juftice done on Aaren, that damn'd Moor." MALONE. 3-what caufe-] Old Copies-what courfe. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE.

Thefe

These wrongs, unspeakable, paft patience,

Or more than any living man could bear.

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?
Have we done aught amifs? Shew us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici

Will, hand in hand, all headlong caft us down*,
And on the ragged ftones beat forth our brains,
And make a mutual clofure of our houfe.

Speak, Romans, fpeak: and, if you fay, we fhall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

Emil. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,

Lucius our emperor; for, well I know,

The common voice do cry, it shall be fo.

Rom. [Several peak.] Lucius, all hails; Rome's royal emperor !

LUCIUS, &c. defcend.

Mar. Go, go into old Titus' for owful houfe ;

And hither hale that mifbelieving Moor,

[to an attendant.

To be adjudg'd fome direful flaughtering death,
As punishment for his moft wicked life.

Rom. [Several Speak.] Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans; May I govern fo, To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe! But, gentle people, give me aim a while,

For nature puts me to a heavy task ;—

Stand all aloof;-but, uncle, draw you near,
To fhed obfequious tears upon this trunk :-

O, take this warm kifs on thy pale cold lips, [kisses Titus.

4 The poor remainder of Andronici

Will-caft us down-] i. e. We the poor remainder, &c. will caft us down. MALONE.

5 Rom. Lucius all bail, &c.] This line here, and the fame words below, are given in the old copy by miftake to Marcus. It is manifeft, as Mr. Steevens has obferved, that they both belong to the furrounding concourfe of Romans, who with one voice hail Lucius as their emperor. MALONE.

Thefe

Thefe forrowful drops upon thy blood-ftain'd face",
The laft true duties of thy noble fon!

Mar. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips :
O, were the fum of these that I fhould pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us To melt in fhowers: Thy grandfire lov'd thee well: Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,

Sung thee afleep, his loving breaft thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet, and agreeing with thine infancy;
In that refpect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet fome fmall drops from thy tender fpring,
Because kind nature doth require it fo:

Friends fhould affociate friends in grief and woe :
Bid him farewel; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Boy. O grandfire, grandfire! even with all my heart
'Would I were dead, fo you did live again !—
O lord, I cannot fpeak to him for weeping;
My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.

Enter Attendants, with AARON.

1. Rom. You fad Andronici, have done with woes; Give fentence on this execrable wretch,

That hath been breeder of thefe dire events.

Luc. Set him breaft-deep in earth, and famish him; There let him ftand, and rave and cry for food:

If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
Some stay, to fee him fasten'd in the earth 7.

Aar, O, why fhould wrath be mute, and fury dumb? I am no baby, I, that, with bafe prayers,

6-tby blood-ftain'd face,] The old copies have-thy blood-flain face. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE.

7 to fee bim faften'd in the earth.] That justice and cookery may go hand in hand to the conclufion of this play, in Ravenscroft's alteration of it, Aaron is at once rack'd and roasted on the stage. STEEVENS. I should

I should repent the evils I have done ;
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very foul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence, And give him burial in his father's grave: My father, and Lavinia, fhall forthwith Be closed in our houfhold's monument. As for that heinous tyger, Tamora, No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds, No mournful bell fhall ring her burial; But throw her forth to beafts, and birds of prey: Her life was beaft-like, and devoid of pity; And, being fo, shall have like want of pity. See juftice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor, By whom our heavy haps had their beginning: Then, afterwards, to order well the ftate ; That like events may ne'er it ruinate 9.

[Exeunt.

Then, afterwards, to order, &c.] Then will we apply ourselves to regulate the state. MALONE.

9 This is one of thofe plays which I have always thought, with the better judges, ought not to be acknowledged in the lift of Shakspeare's genuine pieces. And, perhaps, I may give a proof to ftrengthen this opinion, that may put the matter out of question. Ben Jonfon, in the introduction to his Bartholomew Fair, which made its first appearance in the year 1614, couples Jeronymo and Andronicus together in reputation, and fpeaks of them as plays then of twenty-five or thirty years ftanding. Confequently Andronicus must have been on the ftage before Shakspeare left Warwickshire, to come and refide in London: and I never heard it fo much as intimated, that he had turned his genius to ftage-writing before he affociated with the players, and became one of their body. However, that he afterwards introduced it a-new on the ftage, with the addition of his own masterly touches, is incontestable, and thence, I prefume, grew his title to it. The diction in general, where he has not taken the pains to raise it, is even beneath that of the Three Parts of Henry VI. The ftory we are to fuppofe merely fictitious. Andronicus is a fur-name of pure Greek derivation. Tamora is neither mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, nor any body else that I can find. Nor had Rome, in the time of her emperors any wars with the Goths that I know of: nor till after the tranflation of the empire, I mean to Byzantium. And yet the scene of our play is laid at Rome, and Saturninus is elected to the empire at the capitol.

THEOBALD.

All

All the editors and criticks agree with Mr. Theobald in fuppofing this play fpurious. I fee no reafon for differing from them; for the colour of the ftile is wholly diff rent from that of the other plays, and there is an attempt at regular verfification, and artificial clofes, not always inelegant, yet feldom pleafing. The barbarity of the spectacles, and the general maflacre, which are here exhibited, can fcarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonson, that they were not only borne, but praifed. That Shakspeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares it inconteftable, I see no reason for believing. The testimony produced at the beginning of this play, by which it is afcribed to Shakspeare, is by no means equal to the argument against its authenticity, ar fing from the total difference of conduct, language, and fentiments, by which it ftands apart from all the reft. Meres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page, which, though in our time it be fufficient, was then of no great authority; for all the plays which were reje&ed by the first collectors of Shakspreare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected by the critical editors, had Shakspeare's name on the title, as we muft fuppofe, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet no gazettes, nor advertisments, nor any means of circulating literary intelligence, could ufurp at pleafure any celebrated name. Nor had Shakspeare any intereft in detecting the impofture, as none of his fame or profit was produced by the prefs.

The chronology of this play does not prove it not to be Shakspeare's. If it had been written twenty-five years, in 1614, it might have been written when Shakspeare was twenty five years old. When he left Warwickshire I know not, but at the age of twenty-five it was rather too late to fly for deer-ftealing.

Ravenscroft, who in the reign of Charles II. revifed this play, and reftored it to the ftage, tells us, in his preface, from a theatrical tradition, I fuppofe, which in his time might be of fufficient authority, that this play was touched in different parts by Shakspeare, but written by fome other poet. I do not find Shakspeare's touches very difcernible. JOHNSON.

There is every reason to believe, that Shakspeare was not the author of this play. I have already faid enough upon the fubject.

Mr. Upton declares peremptorily, that it ought to be flung out of the lift of our author's works: yet Mr. Warner, with all his laudable zeal for the memory of his school-fellow, when it may feem to ferve his purpose, difables his friend's judgment !

Indeed, a new argument has been produced; it must have been written by Shakspeare, becaufe at that time, other people wrote in the fame manner!

It is fcarcely worth observing, that the original publisher had nothing to do with the reft of Shakspeare's works. Dr. Johnfon obferves

The original owner of the copy was John Danter, who likewife printed the first edition of Romeo and Juliet in 1597, and is introduced as a character in the Return from Parnaffus, &c. 1606. STEEVENS.

the

« PreviousContinue »