The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE II. Rome. A Room in the Palace
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 honours from Andronicus; [_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. [_Aloud_.] May it please you, My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me The goodliest weapons of his armoury To gratify your honourable 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, You may be armed and appointed well. And so I leave you both, [_Aside_.] like bloody villains. [_Exeunt Young Lucius and Attendant._] DEMETRIUS. What’s here? A scroll; and written round about? Let’s see: [_Reads_.] _Integer vitae, scelerisque purus, Non eget Mauri iaculis, nec arcu._ CHIRON. O, ’tis a verse in Horace; I know it well. I read it in the grammar long ago.
DEMETRIUS. Why do the emperor’s trumpets flourish thus? CHIRON. Belike for joy the emperor hath a son. DEMETRIUS. Soft, who comes here? 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, 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? 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’s brought a-bed. AARON. Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her? NURSE. A devil. 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 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. Zounds, ye whore, is black so base a hue? Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom sure. 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. DEMETRIUS. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her. Woe to her chance, and damned her loathed choice! Accursed the offspring of so foul a fiend! CHIRON. It shall not live. AARON. It shall not die. 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. DEMETRIUS. I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point. Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it. AARON. Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up. [_Taking the baby._] 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 That touches this my first-born son and heir. I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus, With all his threatening band of Typhon’s brood, Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war, Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands. What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys! Ye white-limed walls, ye 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 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? AARON. My mistress is my mistress; this my self; The vigour 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. DEMETRIUS. By this our mother is for ever 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. 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.” He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed Of that self blood that first gave life to you; And from your womb where you imprisoned were He is enfranchised and come to light. Nay, he is your brother by the surer side, Although my seal be stamped 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.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.