Titus Andronicus, Act 4 Scene 2

ACT IV. SCENE II.
Rome. The palace

Enter AARON, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, 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.
confound (archaic) To bring to ruination. (AHD)
Gramercy interj. (archaic) Used to express surprise or gratitude.
BOY 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?
decipher'd uncovered; discovered.
BOY  [Aside]  That you are both decipher'd, that's the news,
  For villains mark'd with rape.- May it please you,
  My grandsire, well advis'd, 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.'
Horace (65 BC to 8 BC), a Roman poet. Horace
grammar A book containing the morphologic, syntactic, and semantic rules for a specific language. (AHD)
CHIRON O, 'tis a verse in Horace, I know it well;
  I read it in the grammar long ago.
quick 1. Sensitive or raw exposed flesh, as under the fingernails. 2. The most personal and sensitive aspect of the emotions. 3. The living: the quick and the dead. 4. The vital core; the essence: got to the quick of the matter. (AHD)
AARON Ay, just- a verse in Horace. Right, you have it.
  [Aside]  Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!
  Here's no sound jest! The old man hath found their guilt,
  And sends them weapons wrapp'd about with lines
  That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.
  But were our witty Empress well afoot,
  She would applaud Andronicus' conceit.
  But let her rest in her unrest awhile-
  And now, young lords, was't not a happy star
  Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,
  Captives, to be advanced to this height?
  It did me good before the palace gate
  To brave the Tribune in his brother's hearing.
DEMETRIUS But me more good to see so great a lord
  Basely insinuate and send us gifts.
AARON Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius?
  Did you not use his daughter very friendly?
DEMETRIUS I would we had a thousand Roman dames
  At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.
CHIRON A charitable wish and full of love.
AARON Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.
CHIRON And that would she for twenty thousand more.
DEMETRIUS Come, let us go and pray to all the gods
  For our beloved mother in her pains.
AARON  [Aside]  Pray to the devils; the gods have given us
over.
                   [Trumpets sound]
flourish A showy or ceremonious passage, such as a fanfare. (AHD)
DEMETRIUS Why do the Emperor's trumpets flourish thus?
Belike probably; perhaps. (AHD)
CHIRON Belike, for joy the Emperor hath a son.
DEMETRIUS Soft! who comes here?
Enter NURSE, with a blackamoor CHILD
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?
betide to happen to.
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, lord; she is delivered.
AARON To whom?
NURSE I mean she is brought a-bed.
AARON Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?
NURSE A devil.
dam mother. (archaic)
issue offspring; progeny.
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-fac'd breeders of our clime;
  The Empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
  And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.
Zounds interj. 1. Used to express anger, surprise, or indignation. (AHD) (Derived from “God's Wounds”.)
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 damn'd her loathed choice!
  Accurs'd 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.
Enceladus Enceladus is one of the Giants in Greek myth. Giants have serpent-like lower limbs. Giants are children of Gaia, who was fertilized by the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. The Giants tried to overthrow the Olympian gods but they lost. Enceladus
Typhon Typhon is the final son of Gaia, with Tartarus. Typhon attempts to replace Zeus as the king of gods and men. Zeus almost lost in a battle. Typhon
Alcides the given name of Heracles. Heracles is instrumental in helping the gods to defeat the rebellion of the Giants. Heracles
god of war refers to the bloody and violent Ares.
prey one that is defenseless.
lave To wash; to bathe; as, to lave a bruise.
AARON Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.
                   [Takes the CHILD from the NURSE, and draws]
  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 threat'ning 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-lim'd 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? 
maugre prep. Archaic 1. Notwithstanding; in spite of. (AHD)
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 sham'd.
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 fram'd 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.
AARON Then sit we down and let us all consult.
  My son and I will have the wind of you:
  Keep there; now talk at pleasure of your safety.
                         [They sit]
DEMETRIUS How many women saw this child of his?
AARON Why, so, brave lords! When we join in league
  I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,
  The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
  The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
  But say, again, how many saw the child?
NURSE Cornelia the midwife and myself;
  And no one else but the delivered Empress.
AARON The Empress, the midwife, and yourself.
  Two may keep counsel when the third's away:
  Go to the Empress, tell her this I said.      [He kills her]
  Weeke weeke!
  So cries a pig prepared to the spit.
DEMETRIUS What mean'st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?
AARON O Lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy.
  Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours-
  A long-tongu'd babbling gossip? No, lords, no.
  And now be it known to you my full intent:
  Not far, one Muliteus lives, my countryman-
  His wife but yesternight was brought to bed;
  His child is like to her, fair as you are.
  Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,
  And tell them both the circumstance of all,
  And how by this their child shall be advanc'd,
  And be received for the Emperor's heir
  And substituted in the place of mine,
  To calm this tempest whirling in the court;
  And let the Emperor dandle him for his own.
  Hark ye, lords. You see I have given her physic,
                                       [Pointing to the NURSE]
  And you must needs bestow her funeral;
  The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.
  This done, see that you take no longer days,
  But send the midwife presently to me.
  The midwife and the nurse well made away,
  Then let the ladies tattle what they please.
CHIRON Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air
  With secrets.
DEMETRIUS For this care of Tamora,
  Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.
Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, bearing off the dead NURSE
AARON Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies,
  There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,
  And secretly to greet the Empress' friends.
  Come on, you thick-lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence;
  For it is you that puts us to our shifts.
  I'll make you feed on berries and on roots,
  And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,
  And cabin in a cave, and bring you up
  To be a warrior and command a camp.
Exit with the CHILD