Page:Titus Andronicus (1926) Yale.djvu/88

74

And wherein Rome hath done you any scath,

Let him make treble satisfaction.

[1.] Goth. Brave slip, sprung from the great Andronicus,

Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort;

Whose high exploits and honourable deeds

Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt;

Be bold in us: we'll follow where thou lead'st,

Like stinging bees in hottest summer's day

Led by their master to the flower'd fields,

And be aveng'd on cursed Tamora.

[All the Goths.] And, as he saith, so say we all with him.

Luc. I humbly thank him, and I thank you all.

But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth?

[2.] Goth. Renowned Lucius, from our troops I stray'd,

To gaze upon a ruinous monastery;

And as I earnestly did fix mine eye

Upon the wasted building, suddenly

I heard a child cry underneath a wall.

I made unto the noise; when soon I heard

The crying babe controll'd with this discourse:

'Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dam!

Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,

Had nature lent thee but thy mother's look,

Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor:

But where the bull and cow are both milk-white,

They never do beget a coal-black calf.

Peace, villain, peace!'—even thus he rates the babe—

 7 scath: harm

9 slip: scion

26 controll'd: restrained

33 rates: scolds

