The Lamentable and Tragicall History of Titus Andronicus, with the fall of his five and twenty sons in the wars of [...]he Goaths, with the ravishment of his daughter Lavinia by the Empresse [...]wo sons, through the means of a bloody Moor, taken by the swor [...] of Titus in the war, with his revenge upon them for their cruell an in humane act.
To the tune of Fortune my Foe.
YOu noble minds and fomous martial wights
That in defence of Native Country fights:
Give ere to me that ten years fought for Rome,
Yet reapt disgrace at my returning home.
In Rome I liv'd in fame full thrée score years,
My name beloved was of all my Péers:
And five and twenty valiant sons I had,
Whose forward vertues maid their father glad.
For when Romes foes their warlike forces felt,
Against them still my sons and I were sent:
Against [...]he Goaths full ten yoars weary war
We spent, receiving many a bloody scar.
Iust two and twenty of my sons were slain,
Before I did return to Rome again:
Of five and twenty so is I brought but thrée,
Alsoe the stately Towers of Rome to sée.
when wars were done, I conquest home did bring
And did present my prisoners to the King:
The quéen of Goths her sons and eke a More,
Who did such murders like was none before.
The Emperour did make the Quéen his wife,
Which bred in Rome debate and deadly strife:
The Moor with her two sons did grow so proud,
That none like them in Rome was then allowd.
The Moor so pleas'd the now made Empress eye
That she consented with him secretly:
For to abuse her husbands marriage bed,
And so in time a Blackamore she bred.
when she whose thoughts to murder was inc [...]in'd
Consented with the Moor with bloody mind:
Against my self my kind and all my friends,
In cruell sort to bring them to their ends.
So when in age I thought to live in peace,
Both woe and grief began then to increase:
Amongst my Sons I had one daughter bright,
Which joy'd and pleased best my aged sight.
My Lavinia was betrothed then
To Cesars son, a young and noble man:
Who in a hunting by the Emperours wife,
And her two sons bereaved was of life,
He being slain was cast in cruell wise,
Into a darksome den from light of skies,
The cruell Moor did come that way as then,
With my thrée sons, who fell into that den.
The Moor then fetcht the Emperour with spéed,
For to accuse them of that murdrous déed:
And when my sons within the den were found,
In wrongfull prison they were cast and bound.
BVt now behold that wounded most my mind
The Empre [...] two sons of Tygers kind:
My daughter ravished without remorce,
And took a way her honour quite perforce.
When they had tasted of so swéet a flower,
Fearing so swéet should quickly turn to sower:
They cut her tongue whereby sho could not tell,
How that dishonor unto her befell.
Then both her hands they basely cut off quite,
Whereby their wickness she could not write:
Nor with néedle on her Sampler sow,
The bloody workers of her dismall woe.
My brother Marcus found her in the wood,
St [...]n [...]ing the grassy ground with purple blood:
That trickled from her stumps & handless arms,
No tongue at all she had to tell her harms.
But when I saw her in that wofull case,
With tears of blood I wet my aged face:
For my Lavinia I lamented more,
Then for my two and twenty sons before.
When as I saw she could not writ nor speak,
With grief my aged heart began to break:
We spred a heap of sand upon the ground,
Whereby these bloody tyrants we out found.
For with a staffe without the help of hand,
She writ these words upon a plot of sand:
The lustfull sons of the proud Emperesse,
Are doers of this hatefull wickednesse.
I tore the milk white hairs from off my head,
I curst the hour wherein I first was bred:
I wisht the hand that fought for Countries fame
In cradle rockt has first béen strucken lame.
The Moor delighting still in villany,
Did say to set my sons from prison frée:
I shou [...]d unto the King my right hand give,
And then my thrée imprisoned sons should live.
The Moor I caus'd to strike it off with spéed,
Whereat I grieved not to sée it bléed:
But for my sons would willingly impart,
And for their randsome send my bléeding heart.
But as my life did linger then in vain,
They sent to me my bootlesse hand again:
And there withall the heads of my thrée sons,
Which fild my dying heart with fresher groans.
Then past relief I up and down did go,
And with my tears writ in the dust my wo,
I shot my arrow towards heaven high,
And for revenge to hell did sometimes cry.
The Empresse thinking then that I was mad,
Like Furies she and both her sons were glad:
So nam'd revenge, and rape and murder they,
To undermine and know what I would say.
I fed their foolish veins a little space,
Vntill my friends and I did fired a space:
Where both her sons unto a post were bound,
Where just revenge in cruell sort was found.
I cut their throats my daughter held the pan
Betwixt her stumps, wherein the blood did ran:
And then I ground their bones to powder small,
And made a paste for Pies straight there withall.
Then with their flesh I made two mighty Pies,
And at a banquet serv'd in stately wise:
Before the Empresse set this loathsome meat,
So of her sons own flesh she well did eat.
My self bereav'd my daughter then of life,
The Empresse then I slew with bloody knife:
And stab'd the Emperour immediately,
And then my self, and so did Titus dye.
Then this revenge against the Moor was sound,
Alive they set him half into the ground:
Whereas he stood untill such time he starv'd.
And so God find all murderers may be serv'd.