Act IV · Scene III
The same. A public place.
Hover a speech to translate it — or press play to hear it performed.
Enter TITUS, bearing arrows with letters at the ends of them; with him, MARCUS, Young LUCIUS, PUBLIUS, SEMPRONIUS, CAIUS, and other Gentlemen, with bows
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Come, Marcus; come, kinsmen; this is the way.Sir boy, now let me see your archery;Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.Terras Astraea reliquit:Be you remember'd, Marcus, she's gone, she's fled.Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shallGo sound the ocean, and cast your nets;Happily you may catch her in the sea;Yet there's as little justice as at land:No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;'Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade,And pierce the inmost centre 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 sorrows in ungrateful Rome.Ah, Rome! Well, well; I made thee miserableWhat time I threw the people's suffragesOn 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 unsearch'd:This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence;And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
O Publius, is not this a heavy case,To see thy noble uncle thus distract?
PUBLIUS
Therefore, my lord, it highly us concernsBy day and night to attend him carefully,And feed his humour kindly as we may,Till time beget some careful remedy.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.Join with the Goths; and with revengeful warTake wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Publius, how now! how now, my masters!What, have you met with her?
PUBLIUS
No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,So that perforce you must needs stay a time.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
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 weNo big-boned men framed of the Cyclops' size;But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear:And, sith there's no justice in earth nor hell,We will solicit heaven and move the godsTo send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus;
He gives them the arrows
TITUS ANDRONICUS
'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, not to Saturnine;You were as good to shoot against the wind.To it, boy! Marcus, loose when I bid.Of my word, I have written to effect;There's not a god left unsolicited.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:We will afflict the emperor in his pride.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Now, masters, draw.
They shoot
TITUS ANDRONICUS
O, well said, Lucius!Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon;Your letter is with Jupiter by this.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Ha, ha!Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,The Bull, being gall'd, gave Aries such a knockThat down fell both the Ram's horns in the court;And who should find them but the empress' villain?She laugh'd, and told the Moor he should not chooseBut give them to his master for a present.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Why, there it goes: God give his lordship joy!
Enter a Clown, with a basket, and two pigeons in it
TITUS ANDRONICUS
News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter?
Clown
O, the gibbet-maker! he says that he hath takenthem down again, for the man must not be hanged tillthe next week.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?
Clown
Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with himin all my life.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?
Clown
Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Why, didst thou not come from heaven?
Clown
From heaven! alas, sir, I never came there Godforbid I should be so bold to press to heaven in myyoung days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to thetribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawlbetwixt my uncle and one of the emperial's men.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve foryour oration; and let him deliver the pigeons tothe emperor from you.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperorwith a grace?
Clown
Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Sirrah, come hither: make no more ado,But give your pigeons to the emperor:By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.Hold, hold; meanwhile here's money for thy charges.Give me pen and ink. Sirrah, can you with a gracedeliver a supplication?
Clown
Ay, sir.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Then here is a supplication for you. And when youcome to him, at the first approach you must kneel,then kiss his foot, then deliver up your pigeons, andthen look for your reward. I'll be at hand, sir; seeyou do it bravely.
Clown
I warrant you, sir, let me alone.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Sirrah, hast thou a knife? come, let me see it.Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration;For thou hast made it like an humble suppliant.And when thou hast given it the emperor,Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.
Clown
God be with you, sir; I will.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Come, Marcus, let us go. Publius, follow me.
Exeunt