Page:Titus Andronicus (1926) Yale.djvu/94

80

Is it your trick to make me ope the door,

That so my sad decrees may fly away,

And all my study be to no effect?

You are deceiv'd; for what I mean to do,

See here, in bloody lines I have set down;

And what is written shall be executed.

Tam. Titus, I am come to talk with thee.

Tit. No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,

Wanting a hand to give it action?

Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.

Tam. If thou didst know me, thou wouldst talk with me.

Tit. I am not mad; I know thee well enough:

Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines;

Witness these trenches made by grief and care;

Witness the tiring day and heavy night;

Witness al] sorrow, that I know thee well

For our proud empress, mighty Tamora.

Is not thy coming for my other hand?

Tam. Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora;

She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:

I am Revenge, sent from th' infernal kingdom,

To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,

By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.

Come down, and welcome me to this world's light;

Confer with me of murder and of death.

There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place,

No vast obscurity or misty vale,

Where bloody murther or detested rape

Can couch for fear, but I will find them out;

And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,

 11 sad decrees: serious resolutions

32 wreakful: wrathful

36 obscurity: obscure place

