Page:Titus Andronicus (1926) Yale.djvu/48

34

Quin. I am surprised with an uncouth fear;

A chilling sweat o'erruns my trembling joints:

My heart suspects more than mine eye can see.

Mart. To prove thou hast a true-divining heart,

Aaron and thou look down into this den,

And see a fearful sight of blood and death.

Quin. Aaron is gone; and my compassionate heart

Will not permit mine eyes once to behold

The thing whereat it trembles by surmise.

O tell me how it is! for ne'er till now

Was I a child, to fear I know not what.

Mart. Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here,

All on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb,

In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.

Quin. If it be dark, how dost thou know 'tis he?

Mart. Upon his bloody finger he doth wear

A precious ring, that lightens all the hole,

Which, like a taper in some monument,

Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,

And shows the ragged entrails of the pit:

So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus

When he by night lay bath'd in maiden blood.

O brother! help me with thy fainting hand—

If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath—

Out of this fell devouring receptacle,

As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth.

Quin. Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out;

Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good

I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb

Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave.

I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink.

 211 uncouth: strange, horrible

222 embrewed: soaked in blood

223 on a heap: in a heap

227 A precious ring; cf. n.

231 Pyramus; cf. n.

236 Cocytus: the river of lamentation in Hades

