And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
Let not your forrow die, though I am dead.
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things,
As willingly as one would kill a fly;

And nothing grieves me heartily indeed,3
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

Luc. Bring down the devil;4 for he muft not die So fweet a death, as hanging presently.

AAR. If there be devils, 'would I were a devil, To live and burn in everlafting fire;

So I might have your company in hell,

But to torment you with my bitter tongue!

Luc. Sirs, ftop his mouth, and let him speak no

more.

Enter a Goth.

GOTH. My lord, there is a meffenger from Rome, Defires to be admitted to your presence.

Luc. Let him come near.

Enter EMILIUS.

Welcome, Æmilius, what's the news from Rome?

3 And nothing grieves me &c.] Marlowe has been supposed to be the author of this play, and whoever will read the converfation between Barabas and Ithimore in the Jew of Malta, A& II. and compare it with these fentiments of Aaron in the present scene, will perceive much reason for the opinion.

REED.

4 Bring down the devil,] It appears from these words, that the audience were entertained with part of the apparatus of an execution, and that Aaron was mounted on a ladder, as ready to be turned off.

STEEVENS.

EMIL. Lord Lucius, and you princes of the

Goths,

The Roman emperor greets you all by me :
And, for he understands you are in arms,
He craves a parley at your father's house,
Willing you to demand your hoftages,
And they shall be immediately deliver❜d.
1 GOTH. What fays our general?

Luc. Æmilius, let the emperor give his pledges Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

And we will come.-March 5 away.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II,

Rome. Before Titus's House.

Enter TAMORA, CHIRON, and DEMETRIUS, difguis'd.

TAM. Thus, in this ftrange and fad habiliment, I will encounter with Andronicus;

And fay, I am Revenge, fent from below,
To join with him, and right his heinous wrongs,
Knock at his study, where, they fay, he keeps,
To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;
Tell him, Revenge is come to join with him,
And work confufion on his enemies.

[They knock.

5

March- Perhaps this is a mere ftage-direction

which has crept into the text. STEEVENS.

Enter TITUS, above.

TIT. Who doth moleft my contemplation
Is it your trick, to make me ope the door;
That fo my fad decrees may fly away,
And all my study be to no effect?

You are deceiv'd: for what I mean to do,
See here, in bloody lines I have fet down';
And what is written fhall be executed.

TAM. Titus, I am come to talk with thee."
Tir. No; not a word: How can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it action ??

Thou haft the odds of me, therefore no more.

TAM. If thou did't know me, thou would'st talk with me.

TIT. I am not mad; I know thee well enough; Witness this wretched ftump, these crimson lines; Witness these trenches, made by grief and care; Witness the tiring day, and heavy night; Witness all forrow, that I know thee well For our proud emprefs, mighty Tamora: Is not thy coming for my other hand?

TAM. Know thou, fad man, I am not Tamora ; She is thy enemy, and I thy friend :

I am Revenge; fent from the infernal kingdom,

• Titus, &c.] Perhaps this imperfect line was originally completed thus:

i

Titus, I am come talk with thee awhile. STEVENS. action ?] Thus the folio. The quarto, perhaps unintelligibly, that accord. STEEVENS.

8ftump, thefe crimfon lines;] The old copies derange the metre by reading, with useless repetition :

-Stump, witness thefe crimson lines :—

STEEVENS.

To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,
By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
Come down, and welcome me to this world's light;
Confer with me of murder and of death:
There's not a hollow cave, or lurking-place,
No vaft obfcurity, or mifty vale,

Where bloody murder, or detefted rape,
Can couch for fear, but I will find them out;
And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,
Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.

TIT. Art thou Revenge? and art thou fent to me, To be a torment to mine enemies?

TAM. I am; therefore come down, and welcome

me.

TIT. Do me fome fervice, ere I come to thee. Lo, by thy fide where Rape, and Murder, stands; Now give fome 'furance that thou art Revenge, Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot wheels; And then I'll come, and be thy waggoner, And whirl along with thee about the globes. Provide thee proper palfries, black as jet,9 To hale thy vengeful waggon fwift away, And find out murderers in their guilty caves :' And, when thy car is loaden with their heads, I will difmount, and by the waggon wheel Trot, like a fervile footman, all day long;

• Provide thee proper palfries, black as jet,] The old copies, poorly, and with difregard of metre, read:

Provide thee two proper palfries, as black as jet,The second folio indeed omits the useless and redundant-as, STEEVENS.

And find out murderers &c.] The old copies read-murder and cares. The former emendation was made by Mr. Steevens; the latter by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

Even from Hyperion's rifing in the east,
Until his very downfal in the fea.

And day by day I'll do this heavy task,
So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.3

TAM. These are my minifters, and come with me.
TIT. Are they thy minifters? what are they
call'd?

TAM. Rapine, and Murder; therefore called fo, 'Cause they take vengeance of fuch kind of men. TIT. Good lord, how like the emprefs' fons they are!

And you, the empress! But we worldly men
Have miferable, mad, mistaking eyes.

O fweet Revenge, now do I come to thee:
And, if one arm's embracement will content thee,
I will embrace thee in it by and by.

[Exit TITUS, from above.
TAM. This clofing with him fits his lunacy :-
Whate'er I forge, to feed his brain-fick fits,
Do you uphold and maintain in your fpeeches.
For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;
And, being credulous in this mad thought,

Hyperion's-] The folio reads-Epton's; the quartos, 1600 and 1611-Epeon's; and fo Ravenscroft. STEEVENS. The correction was made in the fecond folio.

of

MALONE.

3 So thou deftroy Rapine and Murder there.] I do not know any inftance that can be brought to prove that rape and rapine were ever used as fynonymous terms. The word rapine has always been employed for a less fatal kind of plunder, and means the violent act of deprivation of any good, the honour here álluded to being always excepted.

I have indeed fince difcovered that Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. V. 116, b. ufes ravine in the fame fense: "For if thou be of fuche covine,

"To get of love by ravyne

Thy love," &c. STEEVENS.

Are they] Thus the fecond folio. The firft, contemning grammar,-Are them. STEEVENS.