Madam, to you as many and as good.
I promised your Grace a hunter's peal.

Sat. And you have rung it luftily, my Lords,
Somewhat too early for new-married Ladies.
Baf. Lavinia, how fay you?

Lav. 1 fay no:

I have been broad awake two hours and more.

Sat. Come on then, horfe and chariots let us have, And to our sport: Madam, now ye shall fee Our Roman hunting.

Mar. I have dogs, my Lord,

Will rouze the proudeft Panther in the chase,
And climb the highest promontory-top.

Tit. And I have horfe will follow, where the game Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. Dem. Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horfe nor

hound;

But hope to pluck a dainty Doe to ground.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a defart part of the Foreft.

Enter AARON alone.

Aar. He that had wit, would think that I had

none,

To bury fo much gold under a tree,

And never after to inherit it.

Let him, that thinks of me fo abjectly,
Know that this gold must coin a ftratagem,
Which, cunningly effected, will beget
A very excellent piece of villainy;

And fo repofe, fweet gold, for their unrest
That have their alms out of the Emprefs' cheft.

Enter TAMORA.

Tam. My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'ft thou fad, When every thing doth make a gleeful boaft?

The birds chaunt melody on every bush,
The fake lyes rolled in the chearful fun,
The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind,
And make a chequered fhadow on the ground:
Under their sweet shade, Aaron let us fit,
And whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying fhrilly to the well-tuned horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once,
Let us fit down and mark their yelling noise:
And after conflict, fuch as was fuppofed
The wandering Prince and Dido once enjoyed,
When with a happy ftorm they were surprised,
And curtained with a counfel-keeping cave;
We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
(Our paftimes done) poffefs a golden flumber;
Whilft hounds and horns, and fweet melodious birds
Be unto us as is a nurfe's fong

Of lullaby, to bring her babe afleep.

Aar. Madam, though Venus govern your defires, Saturn is dominator over mine:

What fignifies my deadly-ftanding eye,
My filence, and my cloudy melancholy,
My fleece of woolly hair, that now uncurls,
Even as an adder when the doth unroul
To do fome fatal execution?

No, Madam, thefe are no venereal figns;
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand;
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hark, Tamora, (the Emprefs of my foul,
Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee}
This is the day of doom for Baffianus;
His Philomel must lose her tongue to day;
Thy fons make pillage of her chastity,
And wash their hands in Baffianus' blood.
Seeft thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,
And give the King this fatal-plotted fcroul;

Now queftion me no more, we are espied;
Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
Which dread not yet their lives deftruction.

Tam. Ah, my fweet Moor, fweeter to me than life!
Aar. No more, great Emprefs, Baffianus comes;
Be crofs with him, and I'll go fetch thy fons
To back thy quarrels, whatfoe'er they be, [Exit.
Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA.

Baf. Whom have we here? Rome's royal Emprefs,
Unfurnished of her well-befeeming troops?
Or is it Dian, habited like her,

Who hath abandoned her holy groves,
To fee the general hunting in this forest?
Tam. Saucy controuler of our private steps,
Had I the power that, fome fay, Dian had,
Thy temples fhould be planted presently
With horns, as was Acteon's; and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,
Unmannerly intruder as thou art!

Lav. Under your patience, gentle Emprefs,
'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning:
And to be doubted, that your Moor and you
Are fingled forth to try experiments:

Jove fhield your husband from his hounds to-day! 'Tis pity they fhould take him for a stag.

Baf. Believe me, Queen, your fwarth Cimmerian Doth make your honour of his body's hue, Spotted, detefted, and abominable.

Why are you fequeftered from all your train?
Difimounted from your fnow-white goodly fteed,
And wandered hither to an obfcure plot,
Accompanied with a barbarous Moor,
If foul defire had not conducted you?

Lav. And being intercepted in your sport,.
Great reafon that my noble Lord be rated

For faucinefs.-I pray you, let us hence,
And let her 'joy her raven-coloured love;
This valley fits the purpose paffing well.

Baf. The King my brother shall have note of this. Lav. Ay, for thefe flips have made him noted long. Good King, to be fo mightily abused!

Tam. Why have I patience to endure all this?

Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS.

Dem. How now, dear Sovereign and our gracious mother,

Why does your Highnefs look fo pale and wan?
Tam. Have I not reafon, think you, to look pale?
These two have 'ticed me hither to this place,
A barren and detefted vale you fee it is.
The trees, tho' fummer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with mofs, and baleful mifsleto.
Here never fhines the fun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.
And when they fhewed me this abhorred pit,
They told me, here at dead time of the night,
A thoufand fiends, a thousand hiffing fnakes,
Ten thoufand fwelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make such fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body hearing it,

Should ftrait fall mad, or elfe die fuddenly.
No fooner had they told this hellish tale,

But ftraight they told me, they would bind me here,
Unto the body of a difinal yew;

And leave me to this miferable death:

And then they called me foul adultress,
Lafcivious Goth, and all the bittereft terms
That ever ear did hear to fuch effect.

And had you not by wondrous fortune come,
This vengeance on ine had they executed:

Revenge it, as you love your mother's life;
Or be ye not from henceforth call'd my children.
Dem. This is a witnefs that I am thy fon.

ftrength.

[Stabs Baf. Chi. And this for me, ftruck home to fhew my [Stabbing him likewife. Lav. I come, Semiramis ;-nay, barbarous Tamora; (12)

For no name fits thy nature but thy own.

Tam. Give me thy poniard; you fhall know, my boys,

Your mother's hand fhall right your mother's wrong. Dem. Stay, Madam, here is more belongs to her; First, thrash the corn, then after burn the straw; This minion ftood upon her chastity,

Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,

And with that painted cope the braves your migh tinefs; (13)

And shall she carry this unto her grave?

(12) I come, Semiramis, nay barbarous Tamora.]

By an inaccuracy of the pointing, the editors have all along made nonfenfe of this paffage. But the Poet's meaning is this; Lavinia, feeing her husband ftabbed by the Queen's two fons, expects and invites the Queen to ferve her in the fame kind, and put an end to her miferies.

(13) And with that painted hope she traves your mightiness.] Lavinia, fay they, stands on her chastity, her nuptial vow, and matrimonial faith; and upon the merit of fuch qualifications braves the Queen. But in what fenfe can thefe things be called a painted hope? What image or idea does this expreffion give? The ingenious Mr Warburton furnished me with the emendation I have inferted in the text, --And with that painted cope,i. e. this gay covering: a figure very pretty and common among the poets. So we fay, cloathed with virtue: as of other qualities we fay, they are used as a cloak. Then, painted is a very proper epithet to cope, it being a fplendid ecclefiaftical vestment of various colours. Befides, painted may be here ironically intended; to infinuate, this virtue was only pretended in Lavinia.