Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Aaron, Chiron, and Demetrius at one door, and at
the other door young Lucius and another, 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 Honors from Andronicus— 5
Aside. And pray the Roman gods confound you both. DEMETRIUS
Gramercy, lovely Lucius. What’s the news? YOUNG LUCIUS, aside
That you are both deciphered, that’s the news,
For villains marked with rape.—May it please you,
My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me 10
The goodliest weapons of his armory
To gratify your honorable 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, 15
You may be armèd and appointed well,
And so I leave you both—(aside) like bloody villains. He exits, with Attendant. DEMETRIUS
What’s here? A scroll, and written round about.
Let’s see:
He reads: “Integer vitae, scelerisque purus, 20
Non eget Mauri iaculis, nec arcu.” | Young Lucius arrives at the door of the emperor's palace with gifts. Titus has sent Chiron and Demetrius the best weapons from his arsenal, along with a note (written in Latin) that says something like: "The man who is pure of life and free from crime needs not the arrows or the bows of the Moor." This, by the way, is a quote from Horace's Odes (I.xxii, 1-2). |
CHIRON
O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well.
I read it in the grammar long ago. | Chiron is all "Hey, I know that line. I read Horace in school." |
AARON
Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.
Aside. Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! 25
Here’s no sound jest. The old man hath found their
guilt
And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines
That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.
But were our witty empress well afoot, 30
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 advancèd to this height? 35
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? 40
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. 45 CHIRON
And that would she, for twenty thousand more. DEMETRIUS
Come, let us go and pray to all the gods
For our belovèd mother in her pains. AARON, aside
Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over. | Aaron is the only one who gets Titus's little joke, and he says as much. |
Trumpets sound offstage. DEMETRIUS
Why do the Emperor’s trumpets flourish thus? 50 CHIRON
Belike for joy the Emperor hath a son. DEMETRIUS Soft, who comes here? | Trumpets announce the birth of the emperor's son. |
Enter 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, 55
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? 60 NURSE
O, that which I would hide from heaven’s eye,
Our empress’ shame and stately Rome’s disgrace.
She is delivered, lords, she is delivered. AARON To whom? NURSE I mean, she is brought abed. 65 AARON
Well, God give her good rest. What hath he sent her? NURSE A devil. | A nurse enters the room with a baby. She declares that everyone's in trouble now because the little bundle of joy is actually a "devil." Unlike its mother and her husband the emperor, the baby's very dark-skinned. |
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 70
Amongst the fair-faced breeders of our clime.
The Empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point. | Aaron is the only person happy about this news. The nurse suggests that Aaron kill the baby. |
AARON
Zounds, you whore, is black so base a hue?
To the baby. Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous 75
blossom, sure. | Aaron proceeds to make fun of the nurse's ruddy complexion. |
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. 80 DEMETRIUS
And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her.
Woe to her chance, and damned her loathèd choice!
Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend! CHIRON It shall not live. AARON It shall not die. 85 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. | Chiron says that Aaron has "undone" his mother, and Aaron promptly retorts that, no, he's actually "done" Chiron's mother, which is why she just gave birth to a baby with skin as dark as his. |
DEMETRIUS
I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point.
Nurse, give it me. My sword shall soon dispatch it. 90 AARON, taking the baby
Sooner this sword shall plow thy bowels up!
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 95
That touches this my firstborn son and heir.
I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus
With all his threat’ning band of Typhon’s brood,
Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war
Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands. 100
What, what, you sanguine, shallow-hearted boys,
You white-limed walls, you 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 105
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? 110 AARON
My mistress is my mistress, this myself,
The vigor 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. 115 | Demetrius threatens to stab the little "tadpole," and Aaron, who has suddenly become a protective father, threatens to stab someone in the guts if they mess with his kid. |
DEMETRIUS
By this our mother is forever shamed. 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. 120
Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
The close enacts and counsels of thy heart.
Here’s a young lad framed of another leer.
Look how the black slave smiles upon the father,
As who should say “Old lad, I am thine own.” 125
He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed
Of that self blood that first gave life to you,
And from that womb where you imprisoned were
He is enfranchisèd and come to light.
Nay, he is your brother by the surer side, 130
Although my seal be stampèd 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. 135 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. | Demetrius, Chiron, and the nurse worry that Tamora is going to be in serious trouble when the emperor sees the baby. |
DEMETRIUS, to the Nurse
How many women saw this child of his? AARON
Why, so, brave lords! When we join in league, 140
I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,
The chafèd boar, the mountain lioness,
The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
To the Nurse. But say again, how many saw the
child? 145 NURSE
Cornelia the midwife and myself,
And no one else but the delivered 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. 150 | They learn that the nurse and a midwife named Cornelia are the only people who know about the baby (besides Tamora and present company). |
He kills her. “Wheak, wheak”! So cries a pig preparèd to the spit. DEMETRIUS
What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this? | Aaron kills the nurse. |
AARON
O Lord, sir, ’tis a deed of policy.
Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,
A long-tongued babbling gossip? No, lords, no. 155
And now be it known to you my full intent:
Not far one Muliteus 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, 160
And tell them both the circumstance of all,
And how by this their child shall be advanced
And be receivèd for the Emperor’s heir,
And substituted in the place of mine,
To calm this tempest whirling in the court; 165
And let the Emperor dandle him for his own.
Hark you, lords, you see I have given her physic, indicating 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, 170
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. 175 DEMETRIUS For this care of Tamora,
Herself and hers are highly bound to thee. Demetrius and Chiron exit,
carrying the Nurse’s body. | Aaron orders Chiron and Demetrius to take a bunch of money to a couple that lives in the country. They've just given birth to a baby with a light complexion. Aaron wants to buy it and pass it off as the child of Saturninus and Tamora. He reasons that the couple will agree, because who wouldn't want their kid to be raised as an heir to the Roman empery? |
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.— 180
Come on, you thick-lipped 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 185
To be a warrior and command a camp. He exits with the baby. | Aaron takes his baby to a cave, where he plans to feed the child goat's milk and berries and raise it to be a great warrior. |