But who comes with our brother Marcus here? Mar. Titus, prepare thy noble eyes to weep; I bring consuming sorrow to thine age. Tit. Will it consume me? let me see it then. Tit. Why, Marcus, so she is. Luc. Ah me! this object kills me! Tit. Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her:— Speak, my Lavinia,1 what accursed hand Hath made thee handless in thy father's sight?2 Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy? Luc. Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr'd thee? 1 Speak, my Lavinia,] My, which is wanting in the first folio, was supplied by the second. Steevens. 2 3 in thy father's sight?] We should read-spight? Warburton. I'll chop off my hands too;] Perhaps we should read: or chop off &c. It is not easy to discover how Titus, when he had chopped off one of his hands, would have been able to have chopped off the other. Steevens. I have no doubt but the text is as the author wrote it. Let him answer for the blunder. In a subsequent line Titus supposes himself his own executioner: 4 “Now all the service I require of them" &c. Malone. O, that delightful engine of her thoughts,] This piece fur- That blab'd them with such pleasing eloquencè, Luc. O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed? Tit. It was my deer;5 and he, that wounded her, Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave, Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears; Mar. Perchance, she weeps because they kill'd her husband: Perchance, because she knows them innocent. Tit. If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful, Because the law hath ta'en revenge on them.— nishes scarce any resemblances to Shakspeare's works; this one expression, however, is found in his Venus and Adonis : "Once more the engine of her thoughts began." Malone. 5 It was my deer;] The play upon deer and dear has been used by Waller, who calls a lady's girdle "The paie that held my lovely deer." Johnson. No, no, they would not do so foul a deed; Or make some sign how I may do thee ease: What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues, To make us wonder'd at in time to come. Luc. Sweet father, cease your tears; for, at your grief, See, how my wretched sister sobs and weeps. Mar. Patience, dear niece:-good Titus, dry thine eyes. Tit. Ah, Marcus, Marcus! brother, well I wot, For thou, poor man, hast drown'd it with thine own. As far from help as limbo is from bliss ! 6 like meadows,] Old copies-in meadows. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. 7 with his true tears-] Edition 1600 reads with her true tears. Todd. 8 as limbo is from bliss.] The Limbus patrum, as it was called, is a place that the schoolmen supposed to be in the neighbourhood of hell, where the souls of the patriarchs were de tained, and those good men who died before our Saviour's resurrection. Milton gives the name of Limbe to his Paradise of Fools. Reed. Enter AARON. Aar. Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off? Luc. Stay, father; for that noble hand of thine, Shall not be sent; my hand will serve the turn: Writing destruction on the enemy's castle?9 9 Writing destruction on the enemy's castle?] Thus all the editions. But Mr. Theobald, after ridiculing the sagacity of the former editors at the expense of a great deal of aukward mirth, corrects it to casque; and this, he says, he 'll stand by: And the Oxford editor taking his security, will stand by it too. But what a slippery ground is critical confidence! Nothing could bid fairer for a right conjecture; yet 'tis all imaginary. A close helmet, which covered the whole head, was called a castle, and, I suppose, for that very reason. Don Quixote's barber, and, at least as good a critick as these editors, says (in Shelton's translation, 1612): "I know what is a helmet, and what a morrion, and what a close castle, and other things touching warfare." Lib. IV, cap. xviii. And the original, celada de encaxe, has something of the same signification. Shakspeare uses the word again in Troilus and Cressida : "Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head." Warburton. "Dr. Warburton's proof (says Mr. Heath) rests wholly on two mistakes, one of a printer, the other of his own. In Shelton's Don Quixote the word close castle is an error of the press for a close casque, which is the exact interpretation of the Spanish original, celada de encaxe; this Dr. Warburton must have seen, if he had understood Spanish as well as he pretends to do. For O, none of both but are of high desert: To ransome my two nephews from their death; Aar. Nay, come agree, whose hand shall go along, For fear they die before their pardon come. Mar. My hand shall go. Luc. By heaven, it shall not go. Tit. Sirs, strive no more; such wither'd herbs as these Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine. Luc. Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son, Let me redeem my brothers both from death. Mar. And, for our father's sake, and mother's care, Now let me show a brother's love to thee. Tit. Agree between you; I will spare my hand. the primitive caxa, from whence the word encaxe, is derived, signifies a box, or coffer; but never a castle. His other proof is taken from this passage in Troilus and Cressida : 66 and, Diomede, "Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head." Wherein Troilus doth not advise Diomede to wear a helmet on his head, for that would be poor indeed, as he always wore one in battle; but to guard his head with the most impenetrable armour, to shut it up even in a castle, if it were possible, or else his sword should reach it." After all this reasoning, however, it appears, that a castle did actually signify a close helmet. See Grose's Treatise of Ancient Armour, p. 12, from whence it appears that castle may only be a corruption of the old French word-casquetel. Thus also, in Holinshed, Vol. II, p. 815: " Then suddenlie with great noise of trumpets entered sir Thomas Knevet in a castell of cole blacke, and over the castell was written, The dolorous castell; and so he and the earle of Essex, &c. ran their courses with the kyng," &c. A remark, however, of my late friend Mr. Tyrwhitt, has taught me to suspect the validity of my quotation from Holinshed; for one of the knights in the tournament described, made his entry in a fountain, and another in a horse-litter. Sir Thomas Knevet therefore might have appeared in a building formed in imitation of a castle. Steevens. The instance quoted does not appear to me to prove what it was adduced for; wooden castles having been sometimes introduced in ancient tournaments. The passage in the text is itself much more decisive. Malone. |