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  • Title: Titus Andronicus (Quarto 1, 1594)

  • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Titus Andronicus (Quarto 1, 1594)

    of Titus Andronicus.
    1759.1Aron. Villaine I haue done thy mother.
    1760Deme. And therein hellish dog thou hast vndone her,
    Woe to her chaunce, and damde her loathed choice,
    Accurst the offspring of so foule a fiend.
    Chi. It shall not liue,
    Aron. It shall not die.
    1765Nurse. Aron it must, the mother wils it so.
    Aron. What must it Nurse? then let no man but I,
    Doe execution on my flesh and blood.
    Demet. Ile broach the tadpole on my Rapiers point,
    Nurse giue it me, my sword shall soone dispatch it.
    1770Aron. Sooner this sword shall plow thy bowels vp,
    Stay murtherous villaines will you kill your brother?
    Now by the burning tapors of the skie,
    That shone so brightly when this boy was got,
    He dies vpon my Semitars sharpe point,
    1775That touches this my first borne sonne and heire:
    I tell you yonglings, not Enceladus,
    With all his threatning band of Typhons broode,
    Nor great Alciades, nor the God of warre,
    Shall ceaze this pray out of his fathers hands:
    1780What, what, yee sanguine shallow harted boies,
    Yee whitelimde walles, yee ale-house painted signes,
    Cole-blacke is better than another hue,
    In that it scornes to beare another hue:
    For all the water in the Ocean,
    1785Can neuer turne the swans blacke legs to white,
    Although shee laue them howrely in the flood:
    Tell the Empresse from mee I am of age
    To keepe mine owne, excuse it how shee can.
    Demetrius. Wilt thou betray thy Noble Mistris thus.
    1790Aron. My Mistris is my Mistris, this my selfe,
    The vigour, and the picture of my youth:
    This before all the world doe I preferre,
    This mauger all the world will I keepe safe,
    G3 Or