AAR. Why then, it seems; some certain snatch

'Would you had hit it too;3

Then should not we be tir'd with this ado.
Why, hark

hark ye, ye, And are you such fools, To square for this? That both should speed?

Would it offend you then

CHI.

I'faith, not me.

passage that Titus Andronicus was not only the work of Shakspeare, but one of his earliest performances, because the stratagems of his former profession seem to have been yet fresh in his mind. I had made the same observation in King Henry VI. before I had seen his; but when we consider how many phrases are borrowed from the sports of the field, which were more followed in our author's time than any other amusement, I do not think there is much in either his remark or my own.-Let me add, that we have here Demetrius, the son of a queen, demanding of his brother prince if he has not often been reduced to practise the common artifices of a deer-stealer :-an absurdity right worthy the rest of the piece. STEEVENS.

Demetrius surely here addresses Aaron, not his brother. MALONE.

"'Would you had hit it too;] The same pleasant allusion oc-curreth also in Love's Labour's Lost, Vol. VII. p. 83. AMNER.

To square for this?] To square is to quarrel. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:

"Again, in Drant's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567: "Let them not sing twixt act and act,

"What squareth from the rest."

But to square, which in both these instances signifies to differ, is now used only in the very opposite sense, and means to agree. STEEVENS.

AAR. For shame, be friends; and join for that you jar.

'Tis policy and stratagem must do

That you affect; and so must you resolve;
That what you cannot, as you would, achieve,
You must perforce accomplish as you may.
Take this of me, Lucrece was not more chaste
Than this Lavinia, Bassianus' love.

A speedier course than lingering languishment*
Must we pursue, and I have found the path.
My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand;
There will the lovely Roman ladies troop;
The forest walks are wide and spacious;
And many unfrequented plots there are,
Fitted by kind" for rape and villainy:
Single you thither then this dainty doe,
And strike her home by force, if not by words:
This way, or not at all, stand you in hope.
Come, come, our empress, with her sacred wit,
To villainy and vengeance consecrate,
Will we acquaint with all that we intend;

A speedier course than lingering languishment-] The old copies read:

this lingering &c.

which may mean, we must pursue by a speedier course this coy languishing dame, this piece of reluctant softness. STEEVENS. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

by kind-] That is, by nature, which is the old signification of kind. JOHNSON.

7 — with her sacred wit,] Sacred here signifies accursed; a Latinism:

66

Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, "Auri sacra fames?" Virg. Malone.

8

And she shall file our engines with advice,
That will not suffer you to square yourselves,
But to your wishes' height advance you both.
The emperor's court is like the house of fame,
The palace full of tongues, of eyes, of ears:9
The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull;
There speak, and strike, brave boys, and take
your turns:

There serve your lust, shadow'd from heaven's eye,
And revel in Lavinia's treasury.

CHI. Thy counsel, lad, smells of no cowardice. DEM. Sit fas aut nefas, till I find the stream To cool this heat,' a charm to calm these fits, Per Styga, per manes vehor.2

[Exeunt.

1

file our engines with advice,] i. e. remove all impediments from our designs by advice. The allusion is to the operation of the file, which, by conferring smoothness, facilitates the motion of the wheels which compose an engine or piece of machinery. STEEVENS.

1

of eyes, of ears:] Edit. 1600:-of eyes and eares.

till I find the stream

Todd.

To cool this heat,] Thus likewise, the festive Strumbo in the tragedy of Locrine: "-except you with the pleasant water of your secret fountain, quench the furious heat of the same."

2

AMNER.

Per Styga, &c.] These scraps of Latin are, I believe, taken, though not exactly, from some of Seneca's tragedies. STEEVENS,

SCENE II.3

A Forest near Rome. A Lodge seen at a distance. Horns, and cry of Hounds heard.

Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, with Hunters, &c. MARCUS, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS.

TIT. The hunt is up, the morn* is bright and

grey,5

The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green:

* Scene II.] The division of this play into Acts, which was first made by the editors in 1623, is improper. There is here an interval of action, and here the second Act ought to have begun. JOHNSON.

4

the morn-] Edit. 1600, erroneously reads the moon.

Todd.

the morn is bright and grey,] i. e. bright and yet not red, which was a sign of storms and rain, but gray, which foretold fair weather. Yet the Oxford editor alters gray to gay. WARBURTON.

Surely the Oxford editor is in the right; unless we reason like the Witches in Macbeth, and say:

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair.'

STEEVENS.

The old copy is, I think, right; nor did grey anciently denote any thing of an uncheerful hue. It signified blue, "of heaven's own tinct." So, in Shakspeare's 132d Sonnet:

"And truly not the morning sun of heaven

"Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,-."

Again, in King Henry VI. Part II:

it stuck upon him

as

the sun

"In the grey vault of heaven."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night—.”

Again, ibidem:

"I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye."

Uncouple here, and let us make a bay,

And wake the emperor and his lovely bride,
And rouse the prince; and ring a hunter's peal,
That all the court may echo with the noise.
Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours,
To tend the emperor's person carefully:
I have been troubled in my sleep this night,
But dawning day new comfort hath inspir'd.

Horns wind a Peal. Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, BASSIANUS, LAVINIA, CHIRON, DEMETRIUS, and Attendants.

TIT. Many good morrows to your majesty ;Madam, to you as many and as good!I promised your grace a hunter's peal.

SAT. And you have rung it lustily, my lords, Somewhat too early for new-married ladies. BAS. Lavinia, how say you?

LAV.

I say, no;

I have been broad awake two hours and more.

SAT. Come on then, horse and chariots let us

have,

And to our sport:-Madam, now shall ye see
Our Roman hunting.

MAR.

[TO TAMORA,

I have dogs, my lord,

Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase,

And climb the highest promontory top.

Again, more appositely, in Venus and Adonis, which decisively supports the reading of the old copy:

"Mine eyes are grey and bright, and quick in turning.”

MALONE.

A lady's eye of any colour may be bright; but still grey cannot mean aerial blue, nor a grey morning a bright one. Mr. Malone says grey is blue. Is a grey coat then a blue one?

STEEVENS.