And tell them both the circumftance of all;
And how by this their child fhall be advanc'd,
And be received for the emperor's heir,
And substituted in the place of mine,

To calm this tempeft whirling in the court;
And let the emperor dandle him for his own.
Hark ye, lords; ye fee, that I have given 'her
[Pointing to the Nurfe.
And you muft needs beftow her funeral;

phyfick,

The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms:
This done, fee that you take no longer days,
But fend the midwife presently to me.

The midwife, and the nurfe, well made away,
Then let the ladies tattle what they please.
CHI. Aaron, I fee, thou wilt not trust the air
With fecrets.

DEM.

For this care of Tamora,

Herself, and hers, are highly bound to thee.

[Exeunt DEM. and CHI. bearing off the Nurfe. AAR. Now to the Goths, as fwift as swallow flies;

There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,
And fecretly to greet the emprefs' friends.-
Come on, you thick-lipp'd flave, I'll bear you
hence;

of make a bargain. Or it may mean, as in the phrase of modern gamefters, to act collufively:

"And mighty dukes pack knaves for half a crown."

POPE.

To pack is to contrive infidiously. So, in King Lear : fnuffs and packings of the dukes." STEEVENS.

66

To PACK a jury, is an expreffion still used; though the practice, I truft, is obfolete. HENLEY.

8

that I-] That omitted in edition 1600. TODD.

For it is you that puts us to our fhifts:

I'll make you feed on berries, and on roots,
And feed on curds and whey, and fuck the goat,
And cabin in a cave; and bring you up
To be a warrior, and command a camp.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

The fame. A publick Place.

Enter TITUS, bearing Arrows, with Letters at the ends of them; with him MARCUS, young Lucius, and other Gentlemen, with Bows,

TIT. Come, Marcus, come ;-Kinfmen, this is the way:

Ι

Sir boy, now let me fee your archery;

Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight: Terras Aftræa reliquit :

Be

you remember'd, Marcus, fhe's gone, she's fled.
Sir, take you to your tools. You, coufins, fhall
Go found the ocean, and caft your nets;
Happily you may find her in the fea; 2

Yet there's as little juftice as at land:-
No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;
'Tis you muft dig with mattock, and with spade,

9 And feed-] This verb having occurred in the line immediately preceding, Sir T. Hanmer with great probability, reads: And feaft on curds &c. STEEVENS.

now

-] This fyllable, which is neceffary to the metre, but wanting in the firft folio, is fupplied by the fecond.

2

STEEVENS.

find her in the fea.] Catch her &c. the better reading, I think. Todd.

And pierce the inmost center of the earth:
Then, when you come to Pluto's region,
I pray you, deliver him this petition:
Tell him, it is for justice, and for aid:
And that it comes from old Andronicus,
Shaken with forrows in ungrateful Rome.-
Ah, Rome!-Well, well; I made thee miferable,
What time I threw the people's fuffrages
On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me.-
Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,
And leave you not a man of war unfearch'd;
This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence,
And, kinfmen, then we may go pipe for juftice.
MAR. O, Publius, is not this a heavy case,
To fee thy noble uncle thus diftract?

PUB. Therefore, my lord, it highly us concerns,
By day and night to attend him carefully;
And feed his humour kindly as we may,

Till time beget fome careful remedy.

.MAR. Kinfmen, his forrows are paft remedy.
Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war
Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,
And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.

TIT. Publius, how now? how now, my mafters?
What,

Have you met with her?

PUB. No, my good lord; but Pluto fends you
word

If you will have revenge from hell, you shall :
Marry, for Juftice, fhe is fo employ'd,

He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or fomewhere else,
So that perforce you must needs stay a time.

TIT. He doth me wrong, to feed me with delays.

I'll dive into the burning lake below,

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.—

Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we;
No big-bon❜d men, fram'd of the Cyclops' fize:
But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back;

Yet wrung with wrongs,3 more than our backs can bear:

And, fith there is no justice in earth nor hell,
We will folicit heaven; and move the gods,
To fend down juftice for to wreak our wrongs:
Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Mar-
cus. [He gives them the Arrows.
Ad Jovem, that's for you:-Here, ad Apollinem :-
Ad Martem, that's for myself;-

Here, boy, to Pallas:-Here, to Mercury:
To Saturn, Caius,5 not to Saturnine,—
You were as good to fhoot against the wind.-
To it, boy. Marcus, loofe when I bid:

3 Yet wrung with wrongs,] To wring a horse is to press or ftrain his back. JOHNSON.

So, in Hamlet:

"Our withers are unwrung." STEEVENS.

to wreak-] i. e. revenge. So, in p. 105: "Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks ?" Again, in Chapman's verfion of the fifth Iliad: and justice might enforce

"The wreake he took on Troy." STEEVENS. To Saturn, Caius, &c.] Old copies :

To Saturnine, to Caius, not to Saturnine.

For Caius Mr. Rowe fubftituted-Coelus. STEEVENS.

Saturnine was corrected by Mr. Rowe. To was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor. Caius appears to have been one of the kinfmen of Titus. Publius and Sempronius have been already mentioned. Publius and Caius, are again introduced in A& V. fc. ii:

"Tit. Publius, come hither; Caius and Valentine." The modern editors read-To Saturn, to Cœlum, &c.

MALONE.

I have always read-Calus, i. e. the Roman deity of that

O' my word, I have written to effect;
There's not a god left unfolicited.

MAR. Kinsmen, fhoot all your fhafts into the court :6

We will afflict the emperor in his pride.

TIT. Now, mafters, draw. [They Shoot.] O, well faid, Lucius !

Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas.

MAR. My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon ;7 Your letter is with Jupiter by this.

TIT. Ha! Publius, Publius, what haft thou done!

See, fee, thou haft shot off one of Taurus' horns. MAR. This was the fport, my lord: when Pub

lius fhot,

Shoot all your Shafts into the court:] In the ancient ballad of Titus Andronicus's Complaint, is the following paffage : "Then paft reliefe I upp and downe did goe,

"And with my tears wrote in the duft my woe:
"Ifhot my arrowes towards heaven hie,

"And for revenge to hell did often crye."

On this Dr. Percy has the following obfervation: "If the ballad was written before the play, I should suppose this to be only a metaphorical expreffion, taken from the Pfalms: "They fhoot out their arrows, even bitter words," Pfalm Ixiv. 3. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 228, third edition.

STEEVENS.

7 I aim a mile beyond the moon ;] To" caft beyond the moon," is an expreffion ufed in Hinde's Eliofto Libidinofo, 1606. Again, in Mother Bombie, 1594: "Rifio hath gone beyond himfelf in cafting beyond the moon." Again, in A Woman kill'd with Kindness, 1617:

"I talk of things impoffible,

"And caft beyond the moon." STEEVENS.

aim a mile beyond the moon :] Thus the quarto and folio. Mr. Rowe for aim fubftituted am, which has been adopted by all the modern editors. MALONE.