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O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,

[Kisses TITUS. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face, The last true duties of thy noble son!

Mar. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss, Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips :

O, were the sum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

530

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn

of us

To melt in showers: Thy grandsire lov'd thee

well:

Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,

Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet, and agreeing with thine infancy;

In that respect then, like a loving child,

Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so :

540 Friends should associate friends in grief and woe : Bid him farewel; commit him to the grave;

Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Boy. O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart

'Would I were dead, so you did live again!— O lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping; My tears will choak me, if I ope my mouth.

Enter

Enter Romans, with AARON.

Rom. You sad Andronici, have done with woes; Give sentence on this execrable wretch,

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

550

Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish

him;

There let him stand, and rave and cry for food:

If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom:

Some stay, to see him fasten'd in the earth.

Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?

I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers,
I should repent the evils I have done;
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will :
If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very soul.

560

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,

And give him burial in his father's grave :
My father, and Lavinia, shall forthwith
Be closed in our houshold's monument.
As for that heinous tyger, Tamora,

No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds,

No mournful bell shall ring her burial;

But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey:

Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;

571

And, being so, shall have like want of pity.

See

See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
From whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state;

That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

2

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BY

SAM. JOHNSON & GEO. STEEVENS,

AND

THE VARIOUS COMMENTATORS,

UPON

TITUS ANDRONICUS,

WRITTEN BY

WILL. SHAKSPERE.

-SIC ITUR AD ASTRA.

VIRG.

LONDON:

Printed for, and under the Direction of,

JOHN BELL, British-Library, STRAND, Bookseller to His Royal Highness the PRINCE OF WALES.

M DCC LXXXVII.

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