READ STUDY GUIDE: Act IV, Scenes i and ii |
|
Act IV, Scene ii:
Rome. A Room in the Palace.
Rome. A Room in the Palace.
| [Enter AARON, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, at one door; at another door, YOUNG LUCIUS and an Attendant, with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them.] |
| CHIRON : |
| Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius; |
| He hath some message to deliver us. |
| AARON : |
| Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather. |
| YOUNG LUCIUS : |
| My lords, with all the humbleness I may, |
| I greet your honours from Andronicus,— |
| [Aside.] And pray the Roman gods confound you both! |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what's the news? |
| YOUNG LUCIUS : |
| [Aside] That you are both decipher'd, that's the news, |
| For villains mark'd with rape.—May it please you, |
| My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me |
| The goodliest weapons of his armoury |
| To gratify your honourable youth, |
| The hope of Rome; for so he bid me say; |
| And so I do, and with his gifts present |
| Your lordships, that, whenever you have need, |
| You may be armed and appointed well: |
| And so I leave you both—[aside]like bloody villains. |
| [Exeunt YOUNG LUCIUS and Attendant.] |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| What's here? A scroll; and written round about? |
| Let's see: |
| [Reads.] 'Integer vitae, scelerisque purus, |
| Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.' |
| CHIRON : |
| O, 'tis a verse in Horace, I know it well: |
| I read it in the grammar long ago. |
| AARON : |
| Ay, just,—a verse in Horace;—right, you have it.— |
| [Aside] Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! |
| Here's no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt; |
| And sends them weapons wrapp'd about with lines, |
| That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick. |
| But were our witty empress well afoot, |
| She would applaud Andronicus' conceit. |
| But let her rest in her unrest awhile.— |
| And now, young lords, was't not a happy star |
| Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so, |
| Captives, to be advanced to this height? |
| It did me good before the palace gate |
| To brave the tribune in his brother's hearing. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| But me more good to see so great a lord |
| Basely insinuate and send us gifts. |
| AARON : |
| Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius? |
| Did you not use his daughter very friendly? |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| I would we had a thousand Roman dames |
| At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust. |
| CHIRON : |
| A charitable wish, and full of love. |
| AARON : |
| Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. |
| CHIRON : |
| And that would she for twenty thousand more. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods |
| For our beloved mother in her pains. |
| AARON : |
| [Aside.] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over. |
| [Flourish within.] |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus? |
| CHIRON : |
| Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Soft! who comes here? |
| [Enter a NURSE, with a blackamoor CHILD in her arms.] |
| NURSE : |
| Good morrow, lords: |
| O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor? |
| AARON : |
| Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all, |
| Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now? |
| NURSE : |
| O gentle Aaron, we are all undone! |
| Now help, or woe betide thee evermore! |
| AARON : |
| Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! |
| What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms? |
| NURSE : |
| O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye, |
| Our empress' shame and stately Rome's disgrace!— |
| She is deliver'd, lords,—she is deliver'd. |
| AARON : |
| To whom? |
| NURSE : |
| I mean, she's brought a-bed. |
| AARON : |
| Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her? |
| NURSE : |
| A devil. |
| AARON : |
| Why, then she is the devil's dam; a joyful issue. |
| NURSE : |
| A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue: |
| Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad |
| Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime: |
| The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, |
| And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point. |
| AARON : |
| Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?— |
| Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom sure. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Villain, what hast thou done? |
| AARON : |
| That which thou canst not undo. |
| CHIRON : |
| Thou hast undone our mother. |
| AARON : |
| Villain, I have done thy mother. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone. |
| Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice! |
| Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend! |
| CHIRON : |
| It shall not live. |
| AARON : |
| It shall not die. |
| NURSE : |
| Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so. |
| AARON : |
| What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I |
| Do execution on my flesh and blood. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point:— |
| Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon despatch it. |
| AARON : |
| Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up. |
| [Takes the CHILD from the NURSE, and draws.] |
| Stay, murderous villains, will you kill your brother? |
| Now, by the burning tapers of the sky, |
| That shone so brightly when this boy was got, |
| He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point |
| That touches this my first-born son and heir! |
| I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus, |
| With all his threatening band of Typhon's brood, |
| Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war, |
| Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands. |
| What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys! |
| Ye white-lim'd walls! ye alehouse-painted signs! |
| Coal-black is better than another hue, |
| In that it scorns to bear another hue; |
| For all the water in the ocean |
| Can never turn the swan's black legs to white, |
| Although she lave them hourly in the flood. |
| Tell the empress from me I am of age |
| To keep mine own,—excuse it how she can. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus? |
| AARON : |
| My mistress is my mistress: this my self,— |
| The vigour and the picture of my youth: |
| This before all the world do I prefer; |
| This maugre all the world will I keep safe, |
| Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| By this our mother is for ever sham'd. |
| CHIRON : |
| Rome will despise her for this foul escape. |
| NURSE : |
| The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death. |
| CHIRON : |
| I blush to think upon this ignomy. |
| AARON : |
| Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears: |
| Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing |
| The close enacts and counsels of thy heart! |
| Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer: |
| Look how the black slave smiles upon the father, |
| As who should say 'Old lad, I am thine own.' |
| He is your brother, lords; sensibly fed |
| Of that self-blood that first gave life to you; |
| And from your womb where you imprison'd were |
| He is enfranchised and come to light: |
| Nay, he is your brother by the surer side, |
| Although my seal be stamped in his face. |
| NURSE : |
| Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress? |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done, |
| And we will all subscribe to thy advice: |
| Save thou the child, so we may all be safe. |
| AARON : |
| Then sit we down and let us all consult. |
| My son and I will have the wind of you: |
| Keep there: now talk at pleasure of your safety. |
| [They sit.] |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| How many women saw this child of his? |
| AARON : |
| Why, so, brave lords! when we join in league |
| I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor, |
| The chafed boar, the mountain lioness, |
| The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.— |
| But say, again, how many saw the child? |
| NURSE : |
| Cornelia the midwife and myself; |
| And no one else but the deliver'd empress. |
| AARON : |
| The empress, the midwife, and yourself: |
| Two may keep counsel when the third's away: |
| Go to the empress, tell her this I said:— |
| [Stabs her, and she dies.] |
| Weke, weke!—so cries a pig prepar'd to the spit. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| What mean'st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this? |
| AARON : |
| O Lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy: |
| Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,— |
| A long-tongu'd babbling gossip? no, lords, no: |
| And now be it known to you my full intent. |
| Not far, one Muliteus lives, my countryman; |
| His wife but yesternight was brought to bed; |
| His child is like to her, fair as you are: |
| Go pack with him, and give the mother gold, |
| And tell them both the circumstance of all; |
| And how by this their child shall be advanc'd, |
| And be received for the emperor's heir, |
| And substituted in the place of mine, |
| To calm this tempest whirling in the court; |
| And let the emperor dandle him for his own. |
| Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given her physic. |
| [Pointing to the NURSE.] |
| And you must needs bestow her funeral; |
| The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms: |
| This done, see that you take no longer days, |
| But send the midwife presently to me. |
| The midwife and the nurse well made away, |
| Then let the ladies tattle what they please. |
| CHIRON : |
| Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air |
| With secrets. |
| DEMETRIUS : |
| For this care of Tamora, |
| Herself and hers are highly bound to thee. |
| [Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, bearing off the dead NURSE.] |
| AARON : |
| Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies; |
| There to dispose this treasure in mine arms, |
| And secretly to greet the empress' friends.— |
| Come on, you thick-lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence; |
| For it is you that puts us to our shifts: |
| I'll make you feed on berries and on roots, |
| And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat, |
| And cabin in a cave, and bring you up |
| To be a warrior and command a camp. |
| [Exit.] |
|
|
||||
|
