Page:Titus Andronicus (1926) Yale.djvu/18

4 

Tit. Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!

Lo! as the bark, that hath discharg'd her fraught,

Returns with precious lading to the bay

From whence at first she weigh'd her anchorage,

Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs,

To re-salute his country with his tears,

Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.

Thou great defender of this Capitol,

Stand gracious to the rites that we intend!

Romans, of five-and-twenty valiant sons,

Half of the number that King Priam had,

Behold the poor remains, alive, and dead!

These that survive, let Rome reward with love;

These that I bring unto their latest home,

With burial among their ancestors.

Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword.

Titus, unkind and careless of thine own,

Why suffer'st thou thy sons, unburied yet,

To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?

Make way to lay them by their brethren.

There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,

And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars!

 70 weeds: garments

71 fraught: freight

73 anchorage: anchor

77 great defender: Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom the Capitol was sacred

