Wind horns. Enter MARCUS, from hunting. Mar. Who's this?-my niece, that flies away so fast? If I do dream, 'would all my wealth would wake me! As half thy love'? Why dost not speak to me?— Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind, 66 2 AS HALF thy love?] We may strongly suspect an error from mishearing in these words: why was "half" the love of Lavinia to be specified? The corr. fo. 1632 tells us to read "As have thy love," but as half," instead of have, may have been the poet's word, we do not displace it. 3 Doth rise and fall between thy ROSED lips,] "Rosed" is altered to roseat in the corr. fo. 1632, but without necessity. Shakespeare uses "rosed " as a verb in Henry V.," A. v. sc. 2, Vol. iii. p. 639, and here it is the participle. 46 4 -- lest thou shouldst detect HIM, &c.] All the old copies "detect them." Rowe made the correction. 5 THREE issuing spouts,] Old copies, "their issuing," &c. Corrected by Sir Thomas Hanmer. • Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,] The 4to, 1600, has why before "she," to the injury of the measure. But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee: Which that sweet tongue hath made in minstrelsy', [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter Senators, Tribunes, and Officers of Justice, with MARTIUS and QUINTUS, bound, passing on to the place of Execution; TITUS going before, pleading. Tit. Hear me, grave fathers! noble tribunes, stay! Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought. 7 Which that sweet tongue hath made IN MINSTRELSY,] The two last words are derived from the corr. fo. 1632, and supply an evident hiatus in all the old impressions: "in minstrelsy" must have accidentally dropped out. Because they died in honour's lofty bed: For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write " 1 8 [Throwing himself on the ground'. My heart's deep anguish in my soul's sad tears. Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite; My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush [Exeunt Senators, Tribunes, &c., with the Prisoners. O earth! I will befriend thee with more rain, Enter LUCIUS, with his sword drawn. Oh, reverend tribunes! Oh, gentle, aged men! Luc. Oh, noble father! you lament in vain : Tit. Ah, Lucius! for thy brothers let me plead.- Luc. My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak. And bootless unto them'. 8 For these, THESE, tribunes, in the dust I write] We follow the reading of the second folio here, where these is repeated, apparently to complete the defective line, and to add to the emphasis of the appeal. Malone preferred his own emendation, and printed "good tribunes." 9 Throwing himself on the ground.] The old stage-direction is, "Andronicus lieth down, and the Judges pass by him." My heart's deep ANGUISH] The 4tos. and folios have languor for "anguish of the corr. fo. 1632. We may be sure that "anguish was the poet's word, misheard or misprinted languor: the same authority has "in my soul's sad tears." Lower down, 66 more with rain" is amended in the corr. fo. 1632 to "with more rain;" and in the next line "urns," is inserted in our text for ruins. The last agrees with Hanmer's proposal. 2 And bootless unto them.] Our text of this hemistich and of the three preceding lines is that of the 4to, 1600: the 4to, 1611, gives it thus : Therefore, I tell my sorrows to the stones; Who, though they cannot answer my distress, Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes, Rome could afford no tribune like to these. [Rising. A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones; And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death. Tit. Oh happy man! they have befriended thee. Enter MARCUS and LAVINIA. Mar. Titus, prepare thy aged eyes' to weep; Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break : I bring consuming sorrow to thine age. Tit. Will it consume me? let me see it, then. Tit. Why, Marcus, so she is. Luc. Ah me! this object kills me. Tit. Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her. 44 Why, 'tis no matter, man; if they did hear, The folio, 1623, prints it as follows: "Why, 'tis no matter, man; if they did hear, They would not mark me: Oh! if they did hear, In the next line, "Therefore, I tell my sorrows to the stones," the 4to, 1611, makes the measure redundant by inserting bootless after "sorrows," in which it is followed by the folio, 1623, and the later folios. 3thy AGED eyes] So the 4to. 1600: “noble eyes," 4to, 1611, and folios. Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand Hath made thee handless in thy father's sight? Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy? Luc. Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr'd thee? Luc. Oh! say thou for her, who hath done this deed? That hath receiv'd some unrecuring wound. Tit. It was my deer; and he that wounded her Hath hurt me more, than had he kill'd me dead: For now I stand as one upon a rock, Environ'd with a wilderness of sea; Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave, This way to death my wretched sons are gone, But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn, 4 Oh! that delightful engine of her thoughts,] In Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis" we have the following line : : "Once more the engine of her thoughts began." Sweet varied notes, enchanting EVERY EAR.] In the corr. fo. 1632 this line is made to rhyme with the preceding line, thus: "Sweet varied notes, enchanting old and young." Possibly such was the case originally, or in some copy seen or heard by the old annotator. We mention the emendation, but do not adopt it. |