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And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise !3

Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS, SATURNINUS, BASSIANUS, and Others.

MAR. Long live lord Titus, my beloved brother, Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome!

TIT. Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus.

MAR. And welcome, nephews, from fuccessful

wars,

You that furvive, and you that fleep in fame.
Fair lords, your fortunes are alike in all,
That in your country's fervice drew your fwords:
But fafer triumph is this funeral pomp,
That hath afpir❜d to Solon's happiness,+
And triumphs over chance, in honour's bed.-
Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome,
Whose friend in juftice thou haft ever been,
Send thee by me, their tribune, and their truft,
This palliament of white and spotless hue;

3 And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praife!] This abfurd with is made fenfe of, by changing and into in.

WARBURTON.

To live in fame's date is, if an allowable, yet a harsh expreffion.

To outlive an eternal date is, though not philofophical, yet poetical fenfe. He wishes that her life may be longer than his, and her praise longer than fame. JOHNSON.

4 That hath afpir'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:

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ultima femper

Expectanda dies homini; dicique beatus

"Ante obitum nemo, fupremaque funera, debet." Ovid.

MALONE.

And name thee in election for the empire,
With these our late-deceased emperor's fons:
Be candidatus then, and put it on,

And help to fet a head on headless Rome.

TIT. A better head her glorious body fits, Than his, that shakes for age and feebleness: What! fhould I don this robe,5 and trouble you? Be chofen with proclamations to-day; To-morrow, yield up rule, refign my life, And fet abroad new bufinefs for you all? Rome, I have been thy foldier forty years, And buried one and twenty valiant fons, Knighted in field, flain manfully in arms, In right and fervice of their noble country: Give me a staff of honour for mine age, But not a scepter to control the world: Upright he held it, lords, that held it laft.

MAR. Titus, thou fhalt obtain and afk the em

pery.6

SAT. Proud and ambitious tribune, canft thou

tell?

TIT. Patience, prince Saturnine.?

SAT.

Romans, do me right;Patricians, draw your fwords, and sheath them not Till Saturninus be Rome's emperor :Andronicus, 'would thou wert fhipp'd to hell, Rather than rob me of the people's hearts.

- don this robe,] i, e, do on this robe, put it on. So, in Hamlet:

"Then up he rose, and don'd his clothes." STEEVENS. • Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery.] Here is rather too much of the ύστερον πρότερον. STEVENS.

1 Patience, prince Saturnine.] Edition 1600,Patience, prince Saturninus. TODD.

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 themfelves.

BAS. Andronicus, I do not flatter thee,
But honour thee, and will do till I die;
My faction if thou ftrengthen with thy friends,
I will moft 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 fuffrages;

Will you bestow them friendly on Andronicus?
TRIB. To gratify the good Andronicus,
And gratulate his fafe return to Rome,
The people will accept whom he admits.

TIT. Tribunes, I thank you: and this fuit I make,
That you create your emperor's eldest fon,
Lord Saturnine; whofe 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 fay,-Long live our emperor!

MAR. With voices and applaufe of every fort, Patricians, and plebeians, we create

Lord Saturninus, Rome's great emperor ; And fay,Long live our emperor Saturnine! [Along Flourish.

SAT. Titus Andronicus, for thy favours done

3thy friends,] Old copies-friend. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE.

Edition 1600, friend, as in other old copies noted by Mr. Malone. ToDd.

To us in our election this day,

I give thee thanks in part of thy deferts,
And will with deeds requite thy gentleness:
And, for an onfet, Titus, to advance
Thy name, and honourable family,
Lavinia will I make my emperefs,

Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart,
And in the facred 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 fight of Rome, to Saturnine,-
King and commander of our common-weal,
The wide world's emperor,-do I confecrate
My fword, my chariot, and my prisoners;
Presents well worthy Rome's imperial lord:1
Receive them then, the tribute that I owe,
Mine honour's enfigns humbled at thy feet.

SAT. Thanks, noble Titus, father of my life!
How proud I am of thee, and of thy gifts,
Rome fhall record; and, when I do forget
The least of these unfpeakable deferts,
Romans, forget your fealty to me.

TIT. Now, madam, are you prifoner to an empe

ror;

[To TAMORA. To him, that for your honour and your state, Will ufe you nobly, and your followers.

SAT. A goodly lady, truft me; of the hue

9 Pantheon] The quarto, 1611, and the first folioPathan; the fecond folio-Pantheon. STEEVens.

Edition 1600-Pathan, as in other copies noted by Mr. Stee yens. TODD.

imperial lord:] Edition 1600:
imperious lord. TODD.

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'ft not to be made a fcorn in Rome:
Princely fhall be thy ufage every way.

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

LAV. Not I, my lord; fith true nobility
Warrants these words in princely courtesy.

SAT. Thanks, fweet Lavinia.-Romans, let us go: Ransomeless here we fet our prifoners free: Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum, BAS. Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is [Seizing LAVINIA.

mine.

TIT. How, fir? Are you in earneft then, my lord? BAS. Ay, noble Titus; and refolv'd withal, To do myfelf this reafon and this right.

[The Emperor courts TAMORA in dumb show. MAR. Suum cuique is our Roman justice: This prince in justice seizeth but his own. Luc. And that he will, and fhall, if Lucius live,

2 Lav. Not I, my lord ;] It was pity to part a couple who seem to have correfponded in difpofition fo exactly as Saturninus and Lavinia. Saturninus, who has juft promised to efpoufe her, already wishes he were to choose again; and the who was engaged to Baffianus (whom the afterwards marries) expreffes no reluctance when her father gives her to Saturninus. Her fubfequent raillery to Tamora is of fo coarse a nature, that if her tongue had been all the was condemned to lofe, perhaps the author (whoever he was) might have escaped cenfure on the fcore of poetick juftice. STEEVENS.

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