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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    Not Peer Reviewed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)

    The most Lamentable Tragedie

    1865 Enter Titus, olde Marcus, young Lucius, and other gen-
    tlemen with bowes, and Titus beares the arrowes with letters
    on the ends of them.

    Titus. Come Marcus, come, kinsemen this is the way,
    Sir boy let me see your Archerie,
    1870Looke yee draw home inough and tis there straight,
    Terras Astrea reliquit, be you remembred Marcus,
    Shees gone, shees fled, sirs take you to your tooles,
    You Cosens shall goe sound the Ocean,
    And cast your nets, happilie you may catch her in the sea,
    1875Yet ther's as little iustice as at land:
    No Publius and Sempronius, you must doe it,
    Tis you must dig with mattocke and with spade,
    And pierce the inmost Center of the earth,
    Then when you come to Plutoes Region,
    1880I pray you deliuer him this petition,
    Tell him it is for iustice and for aide,
    And that it comes from olde Andronicus
    Shaken with sorrowes in vngratefull Rome.
    Ah Rome, well, well, I made thee miserable,
    1885What time I threw the peoples suffrages
    On him that thus doth tyrrannize ore mee.
    Goe get you gone, and pray be carefull all,
    And leaue you not a man of warre vnsearcht,
    This wicked Emperour may haue shipt her hence,
    1890And kinsemen then we may goe pipe for iustice.
    Marcus. O Publius, is not this a heauie case
    To see thy Noble Vnkle thus distract?
    Publius. Therefore my Lords it highly vs concernes,
    By daie and night t'attend him carefullie:
    1895And feede his humour kindly as we may,
    Till time beget some carefull remedie.
    Marcus. Kinsmen his sorrowes are past remedie
    But