TITUS ANDRONICUS (com notas explicativas) – Shakespeare

SCENE I. Rome. Before the Capitol.

“The Tomb of the ANDRONICI appearing; the Tribunes and Senators aloft. Enter, below, from one side, SATURNINUS¹ and his Followers; and, from the other side, BASSIANUS² and his Followers; with drum and colours”

¹ Qualquer que seja a fonte, só houve dois Saturninos historicamente importantes na história romana: um usurpador que foi morto pelas próprias tropas antes de se consumar imperador e outro usurpador de circunstâncias semelhantes, porém biografia provavelmente inventada. Shakespeare, portanto, está bastante justificado em sua escolha para o “imperador romano” da peça!

² Senador romano do século IV. Morto sob a acusação de conspirador. Ver https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batalha_de_C%C3%ADbalas.

“SATURNINUS

Noble patricians, patrons of my right,

Defend the justice of my cause with arms,

And, countrymen, my loving followers,

Plead my successive title with your swords:

I am his first-born son, that was the last

That wore the imperial diadem of Rome;

Then let my father’s honours live in me,

Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.

BASSIANUS

Romans, friends, followers, favorers of my right,

If ever Bassianus, Caesar’s son,¹

Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,

Keep then this passage to the Capitol

And suffer not dishonour to approach

The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,

To justice, continence and nobility;

But let desert in pure election shine,

And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice.

[¹ O título de César (imperator), não o nome próprio.]

Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS,¹ aloft, with the crown

[¹ Apesar do patronímico existir, todos os personagens da peça são fabulosos. Existiu apenas um Lucius, mas ele era poeta e dramaturgo, uma ‘jovem projeção ou auto-referência de Shakespeare’, se assim se quiser.]

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Princes, that strive by factions and by friends

Ambitiously for rule and empery,

Know that the people of Rome, for whom we stand

A special party, have, by common voice,

In election for the Roman empery,

Chosen Andronicus, surnamed Pius

For many good and great deserts to Rome:

A nobler man, a braver warrior,

Lives not this day within the city walls:

He by the senate is accit’d home

From weary wars against the barbarous Goths;

That, with his sons, a terror to our foes,

Hath yoked a nation strong, train’d up in arms.

Ten years are spent since first he undertook

This cause of Rome and chastised with arms

Our enemies’ pride: five times he hath return’d

Bleeding to Rome, bearing his valiant sons

In coffins from the field;

And now at last, laden with horror’s spoils,

Returns the good Andronicus to Rome,

Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms.

Let us entreat, by honour of his name,

Whom worthily you would have now succeed.

And in the Capitol and senate’s right,

Whom you pretend to honour and adore,

That you withdraw you and abate your strength;

Dismiss your followers and, as suitors should,

Plead your deserts in peace and humbleness.

SATURNINUS

How fair the tribune speaks to calm my thoughts!

BASSIANUS

Marcus Andronicus, so I do ally

In thy uprightness and integrity,

And so I love and honour thee and thine,

Thy noble brother Titus and his sons,

And her to whom my thoughts are humbled all,

Gracious Lavinia, Rome’s rich ornament,

That I will here dismiss my loving friends,

And to my fortunes and the people’s favor

Commit my cause in balance to be weigh’d.

Exeunt the followers of BASSIANUS”

“SATURNINUS

[monologando]

Rome, be as just and gracious unto me

As I am confident and kind to thee.

Open the gates, and let me in.”

“Drums and trumpets sounded. Enter MARTIUS and MUTIUS; After them, two men bearing a coffin covered with black; then LUCIUS and QUINTUS. After them, TITUS ANDRONICUS; and then TAMORA, with ALARBUS, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, AARON, and other Goths, prisoners; Soldiers and people following. The Bearers set down the coffin, and TITUS speaks”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

…

Romans, of five-and-twenty valiant sons,

Half of the number that King Priam had,¹

Behold the poor remains, alive and dead!

These that survive let Rome reward with love;

These that I bring unto their latest home,

With burial amongst their ancestors:

Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword.

Titus, unkind and careless of thine own,

Why suffer’st thou thy sons, unburied yet,

To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?

Make way to lay them by their brethren.

…

[tomb]

O sacred receptacle of my joys,

Sweet cell of virtue and nobility,

How many sons of mine hast thou in store,

That thou wilt never render to me more!

LUCIUS

Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths,

That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile

Ad manes fratrum sacrifice his flesh,

Before this earthy prison of their bones;

That so the shadows be not unappeased,

Nor we disturb’d with prodigies on earth.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

I give him you, the noblest that survives,

The eldest son of this distressed queen.

TAMORA

Stay, Roman brethren! Gracious conqueror,

Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed,

A mother’s tears in passion for her son:

And if thy sons were ever dear to thee,

O, think my son to be as dear to me!

Sufficeth not that we are brought to Rome,

To beautify thy triumphs and return,

Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke,

But must my sons be slaughter’d in the streets,

For valiant doings in their country’s cause?

O, if to fight for king and commonweal

Were piety in thine, it is in these.

Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood:

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?

Draw near them then in being merciful:

Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge:

Thrice noble Titus, spare my first-born son.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me.

These are their brethren, whom you Goths beheld

Alive and dead, and for their brethren slain

Religiously they ask a sacrifice:

To this your son is mark’d, and die he must,

To appease their groaning shadows that are gone.

[Mercy’s for the weak and meeke.]

LUCIUS

Away with him! and make a fire straight;

And with our swords, upon a pile of wood,

Let’s hew his limbs till they be clean consumed.”

¹ Seria um ancestral de Roma, no sentido em que o rei Príamo é pai de figuras mitológicas como Heitor, Páris e Cassandra, que participaram da Guerra de Tróia. Mais abaixo veremos sobre Hécuba, sua outrossim mitológica esposa.

“TAMORA

O cruel, irreligious piety!

CHIRON

Was ever Scythia half so barbarous?

DEMETRIUS

Oppose not Scythia to ambitious Rome.

Alarbus goes to rest; and we survive

To tremble under Titus’ threatening looks.

Then, madam, stand resolved, but hope withal

The self-same gods that arm’d the Queen of Troy

With opportunity of sharp revenge

Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent,

May favor Tamora, the Queen of Goths–¹

When Goths were Goths and Tamora was queen–

To quit the bloody wrongs upon her foes.”

¹ Os góticos ou godos são em si mesmos de mau agouro para o Império Romano, participando ativamente de sua dissolução histórica.

“LUCIUS

See, lord and father, how we have perform’d

Our Roman rites: Alarbus’ limbs are lopp’d,

And entrails feed the sacrificing fire,

Whose smoke, like incense, doth perfume the sky.

Remaineth nought, but to inter our brethren,

And with loud ‘larums welcome them to Rome.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Let it be so; and let Andronicus

Make this his latest farewell to their souls.

Trumpets sounded, and the coffin laid in the tomb”

“Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells,

Here grow no damned grudges; here are no storms,

No noise, but silence and eternal sleep:

In peace and honour rest you here, my sons!

Enter LAVINIA¹

LAVINIA

In peace and honour live Lord Titus long;

My noble lord and father, live in fame!

Lo, at this tomb my tributary tears

I render, for my brethren’s obsequies;

And at thy feet I kneel, with tears of joy,

Shed on the earth, for thy return to Rome:

O, bless me here with thy victorious hand,

Whose fortunes Rome’s best citizens applaud!”

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Kind Rome, that hast thus lovingly reserved

The cordial of mine age to glad my heart!

Lavinia, live; outlive thy father’s days,

And fame’s eternal date, for virtue’s praise!”

¹ Lavínia é inspirada numa figura mitológica romana. Segue a wikia: “Lavínia estava prometida como esposa a Turno, rei dos rútulos. Mas, com a chegada de Enéias ao Lácio, Latino deu sua mão ao herói troiano, pois o oráculo de seu pai Fauno dizia que ela devia casar com um estrangeiro. O rompimento da promessa conjugal desencadeou a guerra entre troianos-latinos e os rútulos de Turno. A guerra terminou com a derrota de Turno.”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Long live Lord Titus, my beloved brother,

Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome!

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Thanks, gentle tribune, noble brother Marcus.”

Shakespeare tinha uma peculiar predileção por retratar os campeões do povo em vez dos imperadores (pelo menos o fazia em mais ocasiões) quando se tratava de Roma. Note-se o quanto os trechos grifados em vermelho acima entrarão em contradição com o sucedido na peça!

“Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome,

Whose friend in justice thou hast ever been,

Send thee by me, their tribune and their trust,

This palliament of white and spotless hue;

And name thee in election for the empire,

With these our late-deceased emperor’s sons:

Be candidatus then, and put it on,

And help to set a head on headless Rome.”

“A better head her glorious body fits

Than his that shakes for age and feebleness:

What should I don this robe, and trouble you?

Be chosen with proclamations to-day,

To-morrow yield up rule, resign my life,

And set abroad new business for you all?

Rome, I have been thy soldier 40 years,

And led my country’s strength successfully,

And buried one-and-twenty valiant sons,¹

Knighted in field, slain manfully in arms,

In right and service of their noble country

Give me a staff of honour for mine age,

But not a sceptre to control the world:

Upright he held it, lords, that held it last.”

¹ O que significa que só lhe restaram 4: Mutius, Lucius, Lavinia e Quintus. Ao fim da peça, um só!

“SATURNINUS

[a Marcus]

Proud and ambitious tribune, canst thou tell?”

“SATURNINUS

Romans, do me right:

Patricians, draw your swords: and sheathe them not

Till Saturninus be Rome’s emperor.

Andronicus, would thou wert shipp’d to hell,

Rather than rob me of the people’s hearts!”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Content thee, prince; I will restore to thee

The people’s hearts, and wean them from themselves.¹

[¹ O carisma é intransferível, pelo menos quando aquele que em tese o recebe com o beneplácito do carismático original o odeia, pois a população percebe essas nuances e não perdoa a ingratidão do “mau afilhado”, ainda que leve anos para se rebelar.]

BASSIANUS

[Se eu devesse adivinhar, é o pusilânime da peça]¹

Andronicus, I do not flatter thee,

But honour thee, and will do till I die:

My faction if thou strengthen with thy friends,

I will most thankful be; and thanks to men

Of noble minds is honourable meed.”

¹ Errei e errei feio – vide além!

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Tribunes, I thank you: and this suit I make,

That you create your emperor’s eldest son,

Lord Saturnine; whose virtues will, I hope,

Reflect on Rome as Titan’s rays on earth,¹

And ripen justice in this commonweal:

Then, if you will elect by my advice,

Crown him and say ‘Long live our emperor!’

¹ Talvez um prenúncio de sua queda, como a dos Titãs na Titanomaquia.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

With voices and applause of every sort,

Patricians and plebeians, we create

Lord Saturninus Rome’s great emperor,

And say ‘Long live our Emperor Saturnine!’

A long flourish till they come down”

“And, for an onset, Titus, to advance

Thy name and honourable family,

Lavinia will I make my empress,

Rome’s royal mistress, mistress of my heart,

And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse:

Tell me, Andronicus, doth this motion please thee?”

“And here in sight of Rome to Saturnine,

King and commander of our commonweal,

The wide world’s emperor, do I consecrate

My sword, my chariot and my prisoners;

Presents well worthy Rome’s imperial lord:

Receive them then, the tribute that I owe,

Mine honour’s ensigns humbled at thy feet.”

SATURNINUS

“The least of these unspeakable deserts,

Romans, forget your fealty to me.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

[To TAMORA]

Now, madam, are you prisoner to

an emperor;

To him that, for your honour and your state,

Will use you nobly and your followers.

SATURNINUS

A goodly lady, trust me; of the hue

That I would choose, were I to choose anew.

Clear up, fair queen, that cloudy countenance:

Though chance of war hath wrought this change of cheer,

Thou comest not to be made a scorn in Rome:

Princely shall be thy usage every way.

Rest on my word, and let not discontent

Daunt all your hopes: madam, he comforts you

Can make you greater than the Queen of Goths.

Lavinia, you are not displeased with this?¹

LAVINIA

Not I, my lord; sith [since] true nobility

Warrants these words in princely courtesy.

SATURNINUS

Thanks, sweet Lavinia. Romans, let us go;

Ransomless here we set our prisoners free:

Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum.

Flourish. SATURNINUS courts TAMORA in dumb show

BASSIANUS

Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is mine.

Seizing LAVINIA

TITUS ANDRONICUS

How, sir! are you in earnest then, my lord?

BASSIANUS

Ay, noble Titus; and resolved withal

To do myself this reason and this right.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

‘Suum cuique’ is our Roman justice:

This prince in justice seizeth but his own.

LUCIUS

And that he will, and shall, if Lucius live.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Traitors, avaunt! Where is the emperor’s guard?

Treason, my lord! Lavinia is surprised!

SATURNINUS

Surprised! by whom?

BASSIANUS

By him that justly may

Bear his betroth’d from all the world away.

Exeunt BASSIANUS and MARCUS with LAVINIA”

¹ Possível insinuação de poligamia?

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Follow, my lord, and I’ll soon bring her back.

MUTIUS

My lord, you pass not here.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

What, villain boy!

Barr’st me my way in Rome?

Stabbing MUTIUS”

“LUCIUS

My lord, you are unjust, and, more than so,

In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;

My sons would never so dishonour me:

Traitor, restore Lavinia to the emperor.

LUCIUS

Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife,

That is another’s lawful promised love.

Exit”

“I’ll trust, by leisure, him that mocks me once;

Thee never, nor thy traitorous haughty sons,

Confederates all thus to dishonour me.

Was there none else in Rome to make a stale,

But Saturnine? Full well, Andronicus,

Agree these deeds with that proud brag of thine,

That said’st I begg’d the empire at thy hands.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

O monstrous! what reproachful words are these?”

“A valiant son-in-law thou shalt enjoy;

One fit to bandy with thy lawless sons,

To ruffle in the commonwealth of Rome.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

These words are razors to my wounded heart.

SATURNINUS

And therefore, lovely Tamora, queen of Goths,

That like the stately Phoebe ‘mongst her nymphs¹

Dost overshine the gallant’st dames of Rome,

If thou be pleased with this my sudden choice,

Behold, I choose thee, Tamora, for my bride,

And will create thee empress of Rome,

Speak, Queen of Goths, dost thou applaud my choice?

And here I swear by all the Roman gods,

Sith priest and holy water are so near

And tapers burn so bright and every thing

In readiness for Hymenaeus² stand,

I will not re-salute the streets of Rome,

Or climb my palace, till from forth this place

I lead espoused my bride along with me.

TAMORA

And here, in sight of heaven, to Rome I swear,

If Saturnine advance the Queen of Goths,

She will a handmaid be to his desires,

A loving nurse, a mother to his youth.”

¹ O mesmo que Artemis, deusa da lua.

² Deus grego do casamento (“a hymenaios is a genre of Greek lyric poetry that was sung during the procession of the bride to the groom’s house in which the god is addressed, in contrast to the Epithalamium, which is sung at the nuptial threshold. He is one of the winged love gods, the Erotes.”); daí, himeneu em português.

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

O Titus, see, O, see what thou hast done!

In a bad quarrel slain a virtuous son.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

No, foolish tribune, no; no son of mine,

Nor thou, nor these, confederates in the deed

That hath dishonour’d all our family;

Unworthy brother, and unworthy sons!

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

‘And shall!’ what villain was it that spake

that word?

QUINTUS

He that would vouch it in any place but here.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

What, would you bury him in my despite?

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

No, noble Titus, but entreat of thee

To pardon Mutius and to bury him.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Marcus, even thou hast struck upon my crest,

And, with these boys, mine honour thou hast wounded:

My foes I do repute you every one;

So, trouble me no more, but get you gone.

MARTIUS

He is not with himself; let us withdraw.”

“MARCUS and the Sons of TITUS kneel

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Brother, for in that name doth nature plead,–

QUINTUS

Father, and in that name doth nature speak,–

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Speak thou no more, if all the rest will speed.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Renowned Titus, more than half my soul,–

LUCIUS

Dear father, soul and substance of us all,–

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Suffer thy brother Marcus to inter

His noble nephew here in virtue’s nest,

That died in honour and Lavinia’s cause.

Thou art a Roman; be not barbarous:

The Greeks upon advice did bury Ajax

That slew himself; and wise Laertes’ son¹

Did graciously plead for his funerals:

Let not young Mutius, then, that was thy joy

Be barr’d his entrance here.”

¹ Aquiles

“The dismall’st day is this that e’er I saw,

To be dishonour’d by my sons in Rome!

Well, bury him, and bury me the next.

MUTIUS is put into the tomb”

“SATURNINUS

So, Bassianus, you have play’d your prize:

God give you joy, sir, of your gallant bride!

BASSIANUS

And you of yours, my lord! I say no more,

Nor wish no less; and so, I take my leave.”

“BASSIANUS

Rape, call you it, my lord, to seize my own,

My truth-betrothed love and now my wife?

But let the laws of Rome determine all;

Meanwhile I am possess’d of that is mine.

SATURNINUS

‘Tis good, sir: you are very short with us;

But, if we live, we’ll be as sharp with you.

BASSIANUS

My lord, what I have done, as best I may,

Answer I must and shall do with my life.

Only thus much I give your grace to know:

By all the duties that I owe to Rome,

This noble gentleman, Lord Titus here,

Is in opinion and in honour wrong’d;

That in the rescue of Lavinia

With his own hand did slay his youngest son,

In zeal to you and highly moved to wrath

To be controll’d in that he frankly gave:

Receive him, then, to favor, Saturnine,

That hath express’d himself in all his deeds

A father and a friend to thee and Rome.”

“TAMORA

My worthy lord, if ever Tamora

Were gracious in those princely eyes of thine,

Then hear me speak in indifferently for all;

And at my suit, sweet, pardon what is past.

SATURNINUS

What, madam! be dishonour’d openly,

And basely put it up without revenge?

“TAMORA

(…)

Lose not so noble a friend on vain suppose,

Nor with sour looks afflict his gentle heart.

Aside to SATURNINUS

be won at last;

Dissemble all your griefs and discontents:

You are but newly planted in your throne;

Lest, then, the people, and patricians too,

Upon a just survey, take Titus’ part,

And so supplant you for ingratitude,

Which Rome reputes to be a heinous sin,

Yield at entreats; and then let me alone:

I’ll find a day to massacre them all

And raze their faction and their family,

The cruel father and his traitorous sons,

To whom I sued for my dear son’s life,

And make them know what ‘tis to let a queen

Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.

Aloud

Come, come, sweet emperor; come, Andronicus;

Take up this good old man, and cheer the heart

That dies in tempest of thy angry frown.

SATURNINUS

Rise, Titus, rise; my empress hath prevail’d.”

“This day all quarrels die, Andronicus;

And let it be mine honour, good my lord,

That I have reconciled your friends and you.

For you, Prince Bassianus, I have pass’d

My word and promise to the emperor,

That you will be more mild and tractable.

And fear not lords, and you, Lavinia;

By my advice, all humbled on your knees,

You shall ask pardon of his majesty.”

ACT 2

SCENE I. Rome. Before the Palace.

“AARON

Now climbeth Tamora Olympus’ top,

Safe out of fortune’s shot; and sits aloft,

Secure of thunder’s crack or lightning flash;

Advanced above pale envy’s threatening reach.

As when the golden sun salutes the morn,

And, having gilt the ocean with his beams,

Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach,

And overlooks the highest-peering hills;

So Tamora:

(…)

Then, Aaron, arm thy heart, and fit thy thoughts,

To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress,

And mount her pitch, whom thou in triumph long

Hast prisoner held, fetter’d in amorous chains

And faster bound to Aaron’s charming eyes

Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus.

Away with slavish weeds and servile thoughts!

I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold,¹

To wait upon this new-made empress.

To wait, said I? to wanton with this queen,

This goddess, this Semiramis,² this nymph,

This siren, that will charm Rome’s Saturnine,

And see his shipwreck and his commonweal’s.

Holloa! what storm is this?”

¹ Trocadilho súbito e hoje controverso de Shakespeare: o mouro, negro, mesclando-se com a goda (branca).

² A lendária fundadora da Babilônia. Há registros de uma rainha assíria de mesmo nome que pode ter iniciado o culto da deusa, quase mil anos antes de Cristo. Sua história é muito parecida com a de Artemísia, rainha muito discutido no post recente https://seclusao.org/2023/12/21/depois-de-desligar-o-videogame-o-supercompendio-de-final-fantasy-viii/.

“CHIRON

(…)

‘Tis not the difference of a year or two

Makes me less gracious or thee more fortunate:

I am as able and as fit as thou

To serve, and to deserve my mistress’ grace;

And that my sword upon thee shall approve,

And plead my passions for Lavinia’s love.

AARON

[Aside]

Clubs, clubs! these lovers will not keep

the peace.”

“AARON

[Coming forward]

Why, how now, lords!

So near the emperor’s palace dare you draw,

And maintain such a quarrel openly?

Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge:

I would not for a million of gold

The cause were known to them it most concerns;

Nor would your noble mother for much more

Be so dishonour’d in the court of Rome.

For shame, put up.”

“AARON

Away, I say!

Now, by the gods that warlike Goths adore,

This petty brabble will undo us all.

Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous

It is to jet upon a prince’s right?

What, is Lavinia then become so loose,

Or Bassianus so degenerate,

That for her love such quarrels may be broach’d

Without controlment, justice, or revenge?

Young lords, beware! and should the empress know

This discord’s ground, the music would not please.”

“AARON

Why, are ye mad? or know ye not, in Rome

How furious and impatient they be,

And cannot brook competitors in love?

I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths

By this device.”

“DEMETRIUS

Why makest thou it so strange?

She is a woman, therefore may be woo’d;

She is a woman, therefore may be won;

She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.

What, man! more water glideth by the mill

Than wots the miller of; and easy it is

Of a cut loaf to steal a shive, we know:

Though Bassianus be the emperor’s brother.

Better than he have worn Vulcan’s badge.”¹

¹ O mesmo que dizer: Ele pode ser o irmão do imperador, mas isso não o faz temível como um deus-guerreiro.

“AARON

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: Lucrece¹ 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 villany:

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 villany and vengeance consecrate,

Will we acquaint with all that we intend;

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, and ears:

The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull;

There speak, and strike, brave boys, and take

your turns;

There serve your lusts, shadow’d from heaven’s eye,

And revel in Lavinia’s treasury.”

¹ Grande foreshadowing da peça: “Lucrece, was a noblewoman in ancient Rome, whose rape by Sextus Tarquinius (Tarquin) and subsequent suicide precipitated a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the transition of Roman government from a kingdom to a republic.”

ACT 2

SCENE II. A forest near Rome. Horns and cry of hounds heard.

“DEMETRIUS

Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound,

But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.”

ACT 3

SCENE III. A lonely part of the forest.

“TAMORA

My lovely Aaron, wherefore look’st thou sad,

When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?

The birds chant melody on every bush,

The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,

The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind

And make a chequer’d shadow on the ground:

Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit,

And, whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,

Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,

As if a double hunt were heard at once,

Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise;

And, after conflict such as was supposed

The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy’d,

When with a happy storm they were surprised

And curtain’d with a counsel-keeping cave,¹

We may, each wreathed in the other’s arms,

Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;

Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds

Be unto us as is a nurse’s song

Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.²

[¹ Quando Enéias e Dido fizeram amor às ocultas, algo que estava destinado pelos deuses (ou pelas deusas): “Aphrodite and Hera come together to create a storm, forcing Dido and Aeneas into a cave together. There, they declare their feelings for each other and consummate their love.”

² Quase um quadro digno de princesas da Disney!]

AARON

Madam, though Venus govern your desires,

Saturn is dominator over mine:

What signifies my deadly-standing eye,

My silence and my cloudy melancholy,

My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls

Even as an adder when she doth unroll

To do some fatal execution?

No, madam, these are no venereal signs:

Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,

Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.¹

Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,

Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,

This is the day of doom for Bassianus:

His Philomel² must lose her tongue to-day,

Thy sons make pillage of her chastity

And wash their hands in Bassianus’ blood.

Seest thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,

And give the king this fatal plotted scroll.

Now question me no more; we are espied;

Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,

Which dreads not yet their lives’ destruction.”

¹ A cruel Tamora é uma vilã care-free; Aaron, igualmente – senão mais – mau, no entanto, está concentrado demais em seus próximos planos criminosos para pensar no prazer erótico no momento.

² Semi-deusa, irmã de Procne, a ser citada na peça como Progne. Filomela é estuprada por Tereu(s), marido de Procne, que se vinga deste (junto com sua irmã) da mesma maneira que se vingará Titus de Tamora (que também contará com o auxílio de Lavínia) no fim da peça. No mito, após o estupro Filomela é resgatada pelo Olimpo sendo transformada num rouxinol (podendo assim continuar vivendo, com a honra restaurada). Filomela ou Philo-mela significaria amante da melodia (devido à beleza do canto da ave). Novamente Shakespeare se inspira mais na versão ovidiana, o que é natural, devido ao contexto romano da peça. Sófocles tem uma tragédia chamada Tereus, perdida. O estupro de Filomela por Tereu também se deu num bosque. Então, deixando-a viva e para não ser descoberto em seu ato vil, o estuprador fará o que logo farão os dois irmãos godos… Mesmo assim, Shakespeare ainda foi além em gore e crueldade! Outro ponto em comum entre personagens: tanto Procne quanto Titus não hesitam em matar seus próprios filhos quando necessário em seus projetos de vingança! A Medéia de Eurípides também narra uma saga semelhante…

“Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA

BASSIANUS

Who have we here? Rome’s royal empress,

Unfurnish’d of her well-beseeming troop?

Or is it Dian, habited like her,

Who hath abandoned her holy groves

To see the general hunting in this forest?¹

TAMORA

Saucy controller of our private steps!

Had I the power that some say Dian had,

Thy temples should be planted presently

With horns, as was Actaeon’s; and the hounds

Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,

Unmannerly intruder as thou art!

LAVINIA

Under your patience, gentle empress,

‘Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;

And to be doubted that your Moor and you

Are singled forth to try experiments:

Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day!

‘Tis pity they should take him for a stag.²

BASSIANUS

Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian

Doth make your honour of his body’s hue,³

Spotted, detested, and abominable.

Why are you sequester’d from all your train,

Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed.

And wander’d hither to an obscure plot,

Accompanied but with a barbarous Moor,

If foul desire had not conducted you?

LAVINIA

And, being intercepted in your sport,

Great reason that my noble lord be rated

For sauciness. I pray you, let us hence,

And let her joy her raven-colour’d love;

This valley fits the purpose passing well.⁴

BASSIANUS

The king my brother shall have note of this.

LAVINIA

Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:

Good king, to be so mightily abused!

TAMORA

Why have I patience to endure all this?

Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON

DEMETRIUS

How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother!

Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?

TAMORA

Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?

These two have ‘ticed me hither to this place:

A barren detested vale, you see it is;

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,

O’ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:

Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,

Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven:

And when they show’d me this abhorred pit,

They told me, here, at dead time of the night,

A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,

Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,

Would make such fearful and confused cries

As any mortal body hearing it

Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.

No sooner had they told this hellish tale,

But straight they told me they would bind me here

Unto the body of a dismal yew,

And leave me to this miserable death:

And then they call’d me foul adulteress,

Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms

That ever ear did hear to such effect:

And, had you not by wondrous fortune come,

This vengeance on me had they executed.

Revenge it, as you love your mother’s life,

Or be ye not henceforth call’d my children.

DEMETRIUS

This is a witness that I am thy son.

Stabs BASSIANUS

CHIRON

And this for me, struck home to show my strength.

Also stabs BASSIANUS, who dies

LAVINIA

Ay, come, Semiramis, nay, barbarous Tamora,

For no name fits thy nature but thy own!

TAMORA

Give me thy poniard; you shall know, my boys

Your mother’s hand shall right your mother’s wrong.

DEMETRIUS

Stay, madam; here is more belongs to her;

First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw:

This minion stood upon her chastity,

Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,

And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:

And shall she carry this unto her grave?

CHIRON

An if she do, I would I were an eunuch.

Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,

And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.

TAMORA

But when ye have the honey ye desire,

Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.

CHIRON

I warrant you, madam, we will make that sure.

Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy

That nice-preserved honesty of yours.

LAVINIA

O Tamora! thou bear’st a woman’s face,–

TAMORA

I will not hear her speak; away with her!”

¹ A deusa Diana não gostava da cidade – vivia nas florestas, caçando.

² Lavínia sabe que Arão e Tamora são amantes (que o imperador tem “galhos” ou “chifres” na testa).

³ Bárbaros. Novamente se alude à cor escura de Arão de modo depreciativo, associando a cor preta a coisas ruins, vis, sujas.

⁴ Foreshadowing do buraco escuro em que logo serão depositados dois dos Andronicus – e o próprio Bassiano, já cadavérico.

“LAVINIA

When did the tiger’s young ones teach the dam?

O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;

The milk thou suck’dst from her did turn to marble;

Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.

Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:

To CHIRON

Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.

CHIRON

What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?

LAVINIA

‘Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:

Yet have I heard,–O, could I find it now!–

The lion moved with pity did endure

To have his princely paws pared all away:

Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,

The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:

O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,

Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!”

“LAVINIA

O, let me teach thee! for my father’s sake,

That gave thee life, when well he might have

slain thee,

Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.

TAMORA

Hadst thou in person ne’er offended me,

Even for his sake am I pitiless.

Remember, boys, I pour’d forth tears in vain,

To save your brother from the sacrifice;

But fierce Andronicus would not relent;

Therefore, away with her, and use her as you will,

The worse to her, the better loved of me.

LAVINIA

O Tamora, be call’d a gentle queen,

And with thine own hands kill me in this place!

For ‘tis not life that I have begg’d so long;

Poor I was slain when Bassianus died.

TAMORA

What begg’st thou, then? fond woman, let me go.

LAVINIA

‘Tis present death I beg; and one thing more

That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:^¹

O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,

And tumble me into some loathsome pit,

Where never man’s eye may behold my body:²

Do this, and be a charitable murderer.

TAMORA

So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:

No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.”

¹ Como sempre nessas obras trágicas, os personagens acidentalmente narram seu terrível futuro: “Imploro aquilo que minha língua, como mulher, não pode pronunciar.” Não pode porque seria indecente. Em breve, porém, não poderá, literalmente, mesmo que quisesse e a moral o permitisse.

² Isso também faz parte da previsão: em vez de ser abandonada no escuro, Lavínia será flagrada em seu estado mais lamentável, pelo tio Marcus.

“LAVINIA

No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!

The blot and enemy to our general name!

Confusion fall–

CHIRON

Nay, then I’ll stop your mouth. Bring thou her husband:

This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him.

DEMETRIUS throws the body of BASSIANUS into the pit; then exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, dragging off LAVINIA.

TAMORA

Farewell, my sons: see that you make her sure.

Ne’er let my heart know merry cheer indeed,

Till all the Andronici be made away.

Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor,¹

And let my spleenful sons this trull deflow’r.

Exit”

¹ Choca a ingenuidade dos irmãos em ato futuro da peça quando “descobrem” o produto de dois amantes, como se não fosse conseqüência natural, ao se indignarem com Aaron (ATO 4).

“AARON

Come on, my lords, the better foot before:

Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit

Where I espied the panther fast asleep.

QUINTUS

My sight is very dull, whate’er it bodes.

MARTIUS

And mine, I promise you; were’t not for shame,

Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.

Falls into the pit

QUINTUS

What, art thou fall’n? What subtle hole is this,

Whose mouth is cover’d with rude-growing briers,

Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood

As fresh as morning dew distill’d on flowers?

A very fatal place it seems to me.

Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall?

MARTIUS

O brother, with the dismall’st object hurt

That ever eye with sight made heart lament!

AARON

[Aside] Now will I fetch the king to find them here,

That he thereby may give a likely guess

How these were they that made away his brother.

Exit”

“QUINTUS

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.

MARTIUS

Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here,

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

In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.

QUINTUS

If it be dark, how dost thou know ‘tis he?

MARTIUS

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 bathed in maiden blood.”¹

¹ Píramo e Tisbe: mais um casal trágico de Metamorfoses de Ovídio. Essa história provavelmente inspiraria Romeu & Julieta: dois amantes de duas famílias rivais que cometem cada qual suicídio devido a um mal-entendido (o primeiro achar que o segundo está morto, então se matar de verdade; o segundo acordar e ver o cadáver do primeiro, se matando finalmente). A luz da lua iluminando Píramo, coisa que não existe em Ovídio, pode ser uma referência ao apodo dado por Arão a Tamora: Artemis, deusa da lua, responsável por armar tamanho horror.

“QUINTUS

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.

MARTIUS

Nor I no strength to climb without thy help.

QUINTUS

Thy hand once more; I will not loose again,

Till thou art here aloft, or I below:

Thou canst not come to me: I come to thee.

Falls in

Enter SATURNINUS with AARON

SATURNINUS

Along with me: I’ll see what hole is here,

And what he is that now is leap’d into it.

Say who art thou that lately didst descend

Into this gaping hollow of the earth?

MARTIUS

The unhappy son of old Andronicus:

Brought hither in a most unlucky hour,

To find thy brother Bassianus dead.

SATURNINUS

My brother dead! I know thou dost but jest:

He and his lady both are at the lodge

Upon the north side of this pleasant chase;

‘Tis not an hour since I left him there.

MARTIUS

We know not where you left him all alive;

But, out, alas! here have we found him dead.

Re-enter TAMORA, with Attendants; TITUS ANDRONICUS, and Lucius

TAMORA

Where is my lord the king?

SATURNINUS

Here, Tamora, though grieved with killing grief.

TAMORA

Where is thy brother Bassianus?

SATURNINUS

Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound:

Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.

TAMORA

Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,

The complot of this timeless tragedy;

And wonder greatly that man’s face can fold

In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.

She giveth SATURNINUS a letter

SATURNINUS

[Reads] ‘An if we miss to meet him handsomely–

Sweet huntsman, Bassianus ‘tis we mean–

Do thou so much as dig the grave for him:

Thou know’st our meaning. Look for thy reward

Among the nettles at the elder-tree

Which overshades the mouth of that same pit

Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.

Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.’

O Tamora! was ever heard the like?

This is the pit, and this the elder-tree.

Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out

That should have murdered Bassianus here.

AARON

My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.

SATURNINUS

[To TITUS] Two of thy whelps, fell curs of

bloody kind,

Have here bereft my brother of his life.

Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison:

There let them bide until we have devised

Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.

TAMORA

What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!

How easily murder is discovered!

TITUS ANDRONICUS

High emperor, upon my feeble knee

I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,

That this fell fault of my accursed sons,

Accursed if the fault be proved in them,–

SATURNINUS

If it be proved! you see it is apparent.

Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you?

TAMORA

Andronicus himself did take it up.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

I did, my lord: yet let me be their bail;

For, by my father’s reverend tomb, I vow

They shall be ready at your highness’ will

To answer their suspicion with their lives.

SATURNINUS

Thou shalt not bail them: see thou follow me.

Some bring the murder’d body, some the murderers:

Let them not speak a word; the guilt is plain;

For, by my soul, were there worse end than death,

That end upon them should be executed.

TAMORA

Andronicus, I will entreat the king;

Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them.

Exeunt”

ACT 2

SCENE IV. Another part of the forest. [na íntegra]

“Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON with LAVINIA, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out.

DEMETRIUS

So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak,

Who ‘twas that cut thy tongue and ravish’d thee.

CHIRON

Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so,

An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe.

DEMETRIUS

See, how with signs and tokens she can scrowl.¹

CHIRON

Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.

DEMETRIUS

She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;

And so let’s leave her to her silent walks.

CHIRON

An ‘twere my case, I should go hang myself.

DEMETRIUS

If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.

Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON

Enter MARCUS”

¹ Outro foreshadowing!

Curioso para saber como representam tantos membros amputados no teatro!

“MARCUS

Who is this? my niece, that flies away so fast!

Cousin, a word; where is your husband?

If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!

If I do wake, some planet strike me down,

That I may slumber in eternal sleep!

Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands

Have lopp’d and hew’d and made thy body bare

Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments,

Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,

And might not gain so great a happiness

As have thy love? Why dost not speak to me?

Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,

Like to a bubbling fountain stirr’d with wind,

Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,

Coming and going with thy honey breath.

But, sure, some Tereus hath deflowered thee,

And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.

Ah, now thou turn’st away thy face for shame!

And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood,

As from a conduit with 3 issuing spouts,

Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan’s face

Blushing to be encountered with a cloud.

Shall I speak for thee? shall I say ‘tis so?

O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,

That I might rail at him, to ease my mind!

Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp’d,

Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.

Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue,

And in a tedious sampler sew’d her mind:

But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;

A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,

And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,

That could have better sew’d than Philomel.

O, had the monster seen those lily hands

Tremble, like aspen-leaves, upon a lute,

And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,

He would not then have touch’d them for his life!

Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony

Which that sweet tongue hath made,

He would have dropp’d his knife, and fell asleep

As Cerberus at the Thracian poet’s feet.¹

Come, let us go, and make thy father blind;

For such a sight will blind a father’s eye:

One hour’s storm will drown the fragrant meads;

What will whole months of tears thy father’s eyes?

Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee

O, could our mourning ease thy misery!

Exeunt”

¹ Referência a Orfeu, que conseguia fazer dormir até o cão tricéfalo que guardava o Hades.

ACT 3

SCENE I. Rome. A street.

“O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain,

That shall distil from these two ancient urns,

Than youthful April shall with all his showers:

In summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still;

In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow

And keep eternal spring-time on thy face,

So thou refuse to drink my dear sons’ blood.”

“LUCIUS

O noble father, you lament in vain:

The tribunes hear you not; no man is by;

And you recount your sorrows to a stone.”

“Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,

They would not mark me, or if they did mark,

They would not pity me, yet plead I must;

Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;

Who, though they cannot answer my distress,

Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,

For that they will not intercept my tale:

When I do weep, they humbly at my feet

Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;

And, were they but attired in grave weeds,

Rome could afford no tribune like to these.

A stone is soft as wax,–tribunes more hard than stones;

A stone is silent, and offendeth not,

And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.”

“Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive

That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?

Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey

But me and mine: how happy art thou, then,

From these devourers to be banished!

But who comes with our brother Marcus here?

Enter MARCUS and LAVINIA

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep;

Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break:

I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Will it consume me? let me see it, then.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

This was thy daughter.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Why, Marcus, so she is.

LUCIUS

Ay me, this object kills me!

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her.

Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand

Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight?

What fool hath added water to the sea,

Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?

My grief was at the height before thou camest,

And now like Nilus, it disdaineth bounds.

Give me a sword, I’ll chop off my hands too;

For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain;

And they have nursed this woe, in feeding life;

In bootless prayer have they been held up,

And they have served me to effectless use:

Now all the service I require of them

Is that the one will help to cut the other.

‘Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands;

For hands, to do Rome service, are but vain.

LUCIUS

Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr’d thee?

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

O, that delightful engine of her thoughts

That blabb’d them with such pleasing eloquence,

Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage,

Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung

Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear!

LUCIUS

O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed?

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

O, thus I found her, straying in the park,

Seeking to hide herself, as doth the deer

That hath received some unrecuring wound.”

“This way to death my wretched sons are gone;

Here stands my other son, a banished man,

And here my brother, weeping at my woes.

But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn,

Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.

Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,

It would have madded me: what shall I do

Now I behold thy lively body so?

Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears:

Nor tongue, to tell me who hath martyr’d thee:

Thy husband he is dead: and for his death

Thy brothers are condemn’d, and dead by this.

Look, Marcus! ah, son Lucius, look on her!

When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears

Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew

Upon a gather’d lily almost wither’d.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Perchance she weeps because they kill’d her husband;

Perchance because she knows them innocent.”

“Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips.

Or make some sign how I may do thee ease:

Shall thy good uncle, and thy brother Lucius,

And thou, and I, sit round about some fountain,

Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks

How they are stain’d, as meadows, yet not dry,

With miry slime left on them by a flood?”

“Or shall we cut away our hands, like thine?

Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows

Pass the remainder of our hateful days?

What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues,

Plot some deuce of further misery,

To make us wonder’d at in time to come.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs:

Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say

That to her brother which I said to thee:

His napkin, with his true tears all bewet,

Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks.

O, what a sympathy of woe is this,

As far from help as Limbo is from bliss!”

“AARON

Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor

Sends thee this word,–that, if thou love thy sons,

Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,

Or any one of you, chop off your hand,

And send it to the king: he for the same

Will send thee hither both thy sons alive;

And that shall be the ransom for their fault.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

O gracious emperor! O gentle Aaron!

Did ever raven sing so like a lark,¹

That gives sweet tidings of the sun’s uprise?

With all my heart, I’ll send the emperor My hand:

Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?

LUCIUS

Stay, father! for that noble hand of thine,

That hath thrown down so many enemies,

Shall not be sent: my hand will serve the turn:

My youth can better spare my blood than you;

And therefore mine shall save my brothers’ lives.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Which of your hands hath not defended Rome,

And rear’d aloft the bloody battle-axe,

Writing destruction on the enemy’s castle?

O, none of both but are of high desert:

My hand hath been but idle; let it serve

To ransom my two nephews from their death;

Then have I kept it to a worthy end.

AARON

Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along,

For fear they die before their pardon come.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

My hand shall go.

LUCIUS

By heaven, it shall not go!

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Sirs, strive no more: such wither’d herbs as these

Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine.

LUCIUS

Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son,

Let me redeem my brothers both from death.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

And, for our father’s sake and mother’s care,

Now let me show a brother’s love to thee.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Agree between you; I will spare my hand.

LUCIUS

Then I’ll go fetch an axe.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

But I will use the axe.

Exeunt LUCIUS and MARCUS

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Come hither, Aaron; I’ll deceive them both:

Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine.

AARON

[Aside] If that be call’d deceit, I will be honest,

And never, whilst I live, deceive men so:

But I’ll deceive you in another sort,

And that you’ll say, ere half an hour pass.

Cuts off TITUS’s hand

Re-enter LUCIUS and MARCUS

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Now stay your strife: what shall be is dispatch’d.

Good Aaron, give his majesty my hand:

Tell him it was a hand that warded him

From thousand dangers; bid him bury it

More hath it merited; that let it have.

As for my sons, say I account of them

As jewels purchased at an easy price;

And yet dear too, because I bought mine own.”

¹ Aqui, sem saber, Titus inverte uma das últimas metáforas de Lavínia – e está bastante enganado ao fazê-lo!

“AARON

(…)

Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace.

Aaron will have his soul black like his face.

Exit”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

O brother, speak with possibilities,

And do not break into these deep extremes.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?

Then be my passions bottomless with them.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

But yet let reason govern thy lament.”

“When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o’erflow?

If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,

Threatening the welkin with his big-swollen face?

And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?

I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow!

She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:

Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;

Then must my earth with her continual tears

Become a deluge, overflow’d and drown’d;

For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,

But like a drunkard must I vomit them.”

“Enter a Messenger, with two heads and a hand

Messenger

Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid

For that good hand thou sent’st the emperor.

Here are the heads of thy two noble sons;

And here’s thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back;

Thy griefs their sports, thy resolution mock’d;

That woe is me to think upon thy woes

More than remembrance of my father’s death.

Exit

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Now let hot Aetna cool in Sicily,

And be my heart an ever-burning hell!

These miseries are more than may be borne.

To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal;

But sorrow flouted at is double death.”

“That ever death should let life bear his name,

Where life hath no more interest but to breathe!

LAVINIA kisses TITUS

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless

As frozen water to a starved snake.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

When will this fearful slumber have an end?

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Now, farewell, flattery: die, Andronicus;

Thou dost not slumber: see, thy two sons’ heads,

Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here:

Thy other banish’d son, with this dear sight

Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I,

Even like a stony image, cold and numb.

Ah, now no more will I control thy griefs:

Rend off thy silver hair, thy other hand

Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight

The closing up of our most wretched eyes;

Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Ha, ha, ha!

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Why, I have not another tear to shed:

Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,

And would usurp upon my watery eyes

And make them blind with tributary tears:

Then which way shall I find Revenge’s cave?¹

For these two heads do seem to speak to me,

And threat me I shall never come to bliss

Till all these mischiefs be return’d again

Even in their throats that have committed them.

Come, let me see what task I have to do.

You heavy people, circle me about,

That I may turn me to each one of you,

And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs.

The vow is made. Come, brother, take a head;

And in this hand the other I will bear.

Lavinia, thou shalt be employ’d: these arms!

Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.

As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight;

Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay:

Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there:

And, if you love me, as I think you do,

Let’s kiss and part, for we have much to do.

Exeunt TITUS, MARCUS, and LAVINIA

LUCIUS

Farewell Andronicus, my noble father,

The wofull’st man that ever lived in Rome:

Farewell, proud Rome; till Lucius come again,

He leaves his pledges dearer than his life:

Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister;

O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been!

But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives

But in oblivion and hateful griefs.

If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs;

And make proud Saturnine and his empress

Beg at the gates, like Tarquin and his queen.²

Now will I to the Goths, and raise a power,

To be revenged on Rome and Saturnine.

Exit”

¹ A caverna da vingança, como veremos, será a própria casa de Titus Andronicus.

² Figura despótica que bem inspira Saturninus, e que ao mesmo tempo compartilha o primeiro nome com quem fala: “Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary 7^th and final king of Rome,^a reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. [segundo o historiador Lívio] He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud, from his cognomen Superbus (Latin for proud, arrogant, lofty).” Adicionalmente, o que não se sabe se é História ou mito, este Tarquínio teria matado seu próprio irmão, o rei anterior (estamos falando da monarquia pré-república Romana, que por sua vez é pré-Império Romano, ou seja, período bem remoto e historiograficamente difícil de avaliar), e sua esposa, a fim de sentar no trono, o que excede em maldade tudo que se via ao tempo e acelerou sua ruína e a ruína do sistema monárquico na cidade (realmente houve reis em Roma antes das instituições da República, daí os traços de autenticidade da fábula).

^a A quem aprecia superstições, o número 7 aqui está eivado de maldições!

ACT 3

SCENE II. A room in Titus’ house. A banquet set out.

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

So, so; now sit: and look you eat no more

Than will preserve just so much strength in us

As will revenge these bitter woes of ours.

Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot:

Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands,

And cannot passionate our tenfold grief

With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine

Is left to tyrannize upon my breast;

Who, when my heart, all mad with misery,

Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh,

Then thus I thump it down.”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Fie, brother, fie! teach her not thus to lay

Such violent hands upon her tender life.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

How now! has sorrow made thee dote already?

Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.

What violent hands can she lay on her life?

Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands;

To bid Aeneas tell the tale twice o’er,¹

How Troy was burnt and he made miserable?

O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands,

Lest we remember still that we have none.

Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk,

As if we should forget we had no hands,

If Marcus did not name the word of hands!”

¹ Durante a Eneida Enéias tem de recontar várias vezes suas desventuras desde a queda de Tróia até suas viagens meridionais. Recontar o passado sofrido equivale a revivê-lo, em toda sua dor.

“Here is no drink! Hark, Marcus, what she says;

I can interpret all her martyr’d signs;

She says she drinks no other drink but tears,

Brew’d with her sorrow, mesh’d upon her cheeks:

Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought;

In thy dumb action will I be as perfect

As begging hermits in their holy prayers:

Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,

Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,

But I of these will wrest an alphabet

And by still practise learn to know thy meaning.”¹

¹ Uma linguagem bem sibilina, mais avançada que libras, posto que libras exigem mãos!

“MARCUS strikes the dish with a knife

What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife?

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

At that that I have kill’d, my lord; a fly.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Out on thee, murderer! thou kill’st my heart;

Mine eyes are cloy’d with view of tyranny:

A deed of death done on the innocent

Becomes not Titus’ brother: get thee gone:

I see thou art not for my company.”

“Poor harmless fly,

That, with his pretty buzzing melody,

Came here to make us merry! and thou hast

kill’d him.”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Pardon me, sir; it was a black ill-favor’d fly,

Like to the empress’ Moor; therefore I kill’d him.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

O, O, O,

Then pardon me for reprehending thee,

For thou hast done a charitable deed.

Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;

Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor

Come hither purposely to poison me.–

There’s for thyself, and that’s for Tamora.

Ah, sirrah!

Yet, I think, we are not brought so low,

But that between us we can kill a fly

That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor.”

“He takes false shadows for true substances.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Come, take away. Lavinia, go with me:

I’ll to thy closet; and go read with thee

Sad stories chanced in the times of old.

Come, boy, and go with me: thy sight is young,

And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle.

Exeunt”

ACT 4

SCENE I. Rome. Titus’ garden.

“Young LUCIUS [neto de Titus]

Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia

Follows me every where, I know not why:

Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.

Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.

Young LUCIUS

Ay, when my father was in Rome she did.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

What means my niece Lavinia by these signs?”

“Ah, boy, Cornelia¹ never with more care

Read to her sons than she hath read to thee

Sweet poetry and Tully’s Orator.”²

¹ Grande mulher romana, considerada uma intelectual, e mãe de vários políticos do tempo republicano (matrona da dinastia Graco). Em outros termos, a preceptora ideal, grande elogio a Lavínia, a tia que educou o sobrinho Lucius o Jovem da peça. “Rome worshipped her virtues, and when she died at an advanced age, the city voted for a statue in her honor.”

² Orações de Túlio Marco Cícero.

“For I have heard my grandsire say full oft,

Extremity of griefs would make men mad;¹

And I have read that Hecuba of Troy

Ran mad through sorrow:² that made me to fear;

Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt

Loves me as dear as e’er my mother did,

And would not, but in fury, fright my youth:

Which made me down to throw my books, and fly–³

Causeless, perhaps. …”

¹ Clever wordplay com “extremidades”… os extremos da tristeza, os extremos dos braços, decepados…

² Hécuba, que perdeu muitos parentes na derrota de Tróia, teria ficado louca de tanto sofrimento. Assim o sobrinho justifica o medo de que sua tia Lavínia tivesse também perdido a razão. Shakespeare cita Hécuba mais uma vez em Hamlet: “And all for nothing – For Hecuba! What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba / That he should weep for her?” Quando o tema é vingança, uma mulher que perdeu tudo e que depois conseguiu se vingar de alguns dos assassinos de seus entes queridos é uma das melhores figuras a ser citadas…

³ To fly… correr, fugir. Na cena anterior, a do triste banquete, matam uma mosca (fly). Throw my books, derrubar os livros, como quem não consegue segurá-los por falta de mãos. Creio que Shakespeare tenha utilizado essas referências conscientemente para brincar novamente com a duplicidade do discurso do sobrinho que vê sua dinastia em pedaços.

“LAVINIA turns over with her stumps the books which LUCIUS has let fall”

“Some book there is that she desires to see.

Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy.

But thou art deeper read, and better skill’d

Come, and take choice of all my library,

And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens

Reveal the damn’d contriver of this deed.”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

I think she means that there was more than one

Confederate in the fact: ay, more there was;

Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.”

“Young LUCIUS

Grandsire, ‘tis Ovid’s Metamorphoses;¹

My mother gave it me.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

For love of her that’s gone,

Perhaps she cull’d it from among the rest.”

¹ Um dos livros mais importantes como pano de fundo da peça, com vários de seus episódios trágicos citados ao longo dos atos.

“This is the tragic tale of Philomel,

And treats of Tereus’ treason and his rape:

And rape, I fear, was root of thine annoy.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl,

Ravish’d and wrong’d, as Philomela was,

Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? See, see!

Ay, such a place there is, where we did hunt—

O, had we never, never hunted there!–

Pattern’d by that the poet here describes,

By nature made for murders and for rapes.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

O, why should nature build so foul a den,

Unless the gods delight in tragedies?”

“Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,

Inspire me, that I may this treason find!

My lord, look here: look here, Lavinia:¹

This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst

This after me, when I have writ my name

Without the help of any hand at all.”

¹ Se, na Antiguidade, alguém soubesse que os próprios deuses aprovam seu desejo de vingança, este alguém se sentiria absolutamente justificado. Titus adia sua vingança até ter certeza, por todos os métodos das adivinhações, que conta com o favor dos deuses – para consumar a única coisa que o manteve vivo por tanto tempo.

“He writes his name with his staff, and guides it with feet and mouth”

“Write thou good niece; and here display, at last,

What God will have discover’d for revenge;

Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,

That we may know the traitors and the truth!

She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her stumps, and writes

TITUS ANDRONICUS

O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ?

‘Stuprum. Chiron. Demetrius.’

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

What, what! the lustful sons of Tamora

Performers of this heinous, bloody deed?

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Magni Dominator poli,¹

Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides?

¹ Titus, obviamente arrependido de ter apontado Saturnino como o novo imperador, evoca no vernáculo: Ó, Senhor dessa cidade, vês e ouves tu tão horrendos crimes praticados pelos teus?

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

O, calm thee, gentle lord; although I know

There is enough written upon this earth

To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts

And arm the minds of infants to exclaims.

My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel;

And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector’s hope;¹

And swear with me, as, with the woful fere

And father of that chaste dishonour’d dame,

Lord Junius Brutus² sware for Lucrece’ rape,

That we will prosecute by good advice

Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,

And see their blood, or die with this reproach.”

¹ Numa nação guerreira, de toda criança espera-se que seja um dia um grande herói como o foi o antepassado dos romanos Heitor.

² Referência ao fabuloso Lucius Junius Brutus, um dos vingadores da honra da estuprada Lucrécia (evento já comentado em nota anterior).

“You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let it alone;

And, come, I will go get a leaf of brass,

And with a gad of steel will write these words,

And lay it by: the angry northern wind

Will blow these sands, like Sibyl’s leaves, abroad,

And where’s your lesson, then? Boy, what say you?

Young LUCIUS

I say, my lord, that if I were a man,

Their mother’s bed-chamber should not be safe

For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Come, go with me into mine armoury;

Lucius, I’ll fit thee; and withal, my boy,

Shalt carry from me to the empress’ sons

Presents that I intend to send them both:

Come, come; thou’lt do thy message, wilt thou not?

Young LUCIUS

Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

No, boy, not so; I’ll teach thee another course.¹

Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house:

Lucius and I’ll go brave it at the court:

Ay, marry, will we, sir; and we’ll be waited on.

Exeunt TITUS, LAVINIA, and Young LUCIUS”

¹ Até nessa sanguinária peça Titus tem um freio para sua ambição de vingança, como “bom velhinho” (digito essas palavras em 24/12): seu neto não precisará se envolver diretamente, sua mensagem será apenas isso: uma mensagem, para trazer a cobra ao covil inóspito dos Andronici. As crianças não precisam participar da orgia de sangue (mais do que já participaram nas guerras de Roma, na frente de batalha, os adolescentes, ou simplesmente perdendo seus pais, os mais jovens).

“MARCUS…

…

Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus!

Exit”

Here comes! Revenge is the true protagonist of this oeuvre:

ACT 4

SCENE II. The same. A room in the palace.

“CHIRON

Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius;

He hath some message to deliver us.

AARON

Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.

Young LUCIUS

My lords, with all the humbleness I may,

I greet your honours from Andronicus.

[Aside] And pray the Roman gods confound you both!

DEMETRIUS

Gramercy, lovely Lucius: what’s the news?

Young LUCIUS

[Aside] That you are both decipher’d, that’s the news,

For villains mark’d with rape.–May it please you,

My grandsire, well advised, hath sent by me

The goodliest weapons of his armoury

To gratify your honourable youth,

The hope of Rome; for so he bade me say;

And so I do, and with his gifts present

Your lordships, that, whenever you have need,

You may be armed and appointed well:

And so I leave you both:

[Aside] like bloody villains.

Exeunt Young LUCIUS, and Attendant”

“Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,

Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu. »

“O, ‘tis a verse in Horace; I know it well:

I read it in the grammar long ago.”

“AARON

…

Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!

Here’s no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;

And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines,

That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.

But were our witty empress well afoot,

She would applaud Andronicus’ conceit:

But let her rest in her unrest awhile.

And now, young lords, was’t not a happy star

Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so,

Captives, to be advanced to this height?

It did me good, before the palace gate

To brave the tribune in his brother’s hearing.”

“DEMETRIUS

I would we had a thousand Roman dames

At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust.

CHIRON

A charitable wish and full of love.

AARON

Here lacks but your mother for to say amen.¹

CHIRON

And that would she for 20,000 more.

DEMETRIUS

Come, let us go; and pray to all the gods

For our beloved mother in her pains.

AARON

[Aside] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over.

Trumpets sound within

DEMETRIUS

Why do the emperor’s trumpets flourish thus?

CHIRON

Belike, for joy the emperor hath a son.²

DEMETRIUS

Soft! who comes here?

Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms

Nurse

Good morr ow, lords:³

O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

AARON

Well, more or less, or ne’er a whit at all,

Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?

Nurse

O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!⁴

Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!”

¹ Os parvos filhos de Tamora não entenderam o duplo sentido de Aaron – até que ele fosse mais explícito no chiste!

² Não o imperador, mas a imperatriz apenas!

³ Shakespeare não perde uma oportunidade: Good Morning, Good morrow, se torna Good morr [quase good moor]… O espaço confirma que é um chiste intencional.

⁴ A fala da enfermeira ecoa o própria “pensamento alto” de Aaron de segundos atrás, ou seja: agora há dois grandes problemas para ele e Tamora.

“Nurse

…

Our empress’ shame, and stately Rome’s disgrace!

She is deliver’d, lords; she is deliver’d.”

“AARON

Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?

Nurse

A devil.”

“Nurse

A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue:

Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad¹

Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:

The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,

And bids thee christen it with thy dagger’s point.

AARON

‘Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?

Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.

DEMETRIUS

Villain, what hast thou done?

AARON

That which thou canst not undo.

CHIRON

Thou hast undone our mother.

AARON

Villain, I have done thy mother.²

DEMETRIUS

And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone.

Woe to her chance, and damn’d her loathed choice!³

Accurse[e]d the offspring of so foul a fiend!

CHIRON

It shall not live.

AARON

It shall not die.⁴

Nurse

Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.

AARON

What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I

Do execution on my flesh and blood.⁵

DEMETRIUS

I’ll broach the tadpole on my rapier’s point:

Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it.

AARON

Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up.

Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws

Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother?

Now, by the burning tapers of the sky, [pelo sol: vide glossário ao fim]

That shone so brightly when this boy was got,

He dies upon my scimitar’s sharp point

That touches this my first-born son and heir!

I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,⁶

With all his threatening band of Typhon’s brood,

Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,⁷

Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.

What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!

Ye white-limed walls! ye alehouse painted signs!⁸

Coal-black is better than another hue,

In that it scorns to bear another hue;

For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,

Although she lave them hourly in the flood.

Tell the empress from me, I am of age

To keep mine own, excuse it how she can.⁹

DEMETRIUS

Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus?

AARON

My mistress is my mistress; this myself,

The vigour and the picture of my youth:¹⁰

This before all the world do I prefer;

This maugre all the world will I keep safe,

Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.

DEMETRIUS

By this our mother is forever shamed.

CHIRON

Rome will despise her for this foul escape.

Nurse

The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.”

¹ Certamente alguém cujo fenótipo “traidor” da traição ao imperador não o qualifica como príncipe, portanto é um sapo.

² E aqui, com 9 meses de retardo, os ineptos filhos de Tamora entenderam que Aaron se convertera em seu padrasto! Os godos são devagar com piadas…

³ “Graças às péssimas escolhas de mamãe, sua sorte de sobreviver e reinar acabaram…”

⁴ Esse tipo de contraditório transforma esses momentos da peça em comédia – lembra até Chavo del Ocho, se ainda é mais econômico que as tantrums de Seu madruga, Chaves e Quico, p.ex.! Certamente continuaria a comédia pastelão, não fosse pela preocupada intervenção da nurse!

⁵ O astuto Arão já começa a ganhar tempo… Tanto quanto Demetrius e Chiron são uns parvos e umas lesmas, o mouro pensa rápido!

⁶ Titã grego e espécie de semi-deus egípcio (a influência da mitologia grega permeia essa identidade), filho de filho do lendário rei Aegyptus (descendente de Belus e Nilus, dois deuses locais, e um dos responsáveis pelo nome Egito). A razão da analogia aqui é que Enceladus termina assassinado.

⁷ Alcides não é ninguém menos que Hércules em outra denominação. Godo f war poderia ser Zeus, o rei dos deuses, o Ares, especificamente o deus-guerreiro do Olimpo. Repare que o Word auto-corrigiu (auto-errou!) minha digitação de god of war para godo’f war, o que não deixa de nos vir a calhar nesse mar de trocadilhos shakespeariano! Ou seja: ninguém – humano ou deus – assassinará meu filho, quis dizer Aaron.

⁸ Uma instância de “racismo reverso”, diriam os bolsonaristas! Aaron sabe mesmo como ofender in the brink of an eye (num piscar de olhos); sua língua é tão ferina quanto seus planos são malignos.

⁹ Ao contrário, primeiro, de seus filhos tão infantis; e ao contrário de seu filho mútuo, ainda um bebê: não importa, ele será seu guardião. Com efeito, essa é a única cena que redime Aaron e talvez não nos permita qualificá-lo como o vilão mais atroz das peças de Shakespeare!

¹⁰ “Questões amorosas são questões amorosas – mas aqui se trata de mim, e eu não sou cavalheiro o suficiente para me subordinar a uma imperatriz.”

^{Fonte: seattleshakespeare.org}

“AARON

Why, there’s the privilege your beauty bears:

Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing

The close enacts and counsels of the heart!

Here’s a young lad framed of another leer:

Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father,

As who should say ‘Old lad, I am thine own.’”

“And from that womb where you imprison’d were

He is enfranchised and come to light:

Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,¹

Although my seal be stamped in his face.”

¹ Alusão a uma mãe ser sempre reconhecível devido a ser a grávida afinal de contas; mas também a Tamora ser a própria rainha de Roma.

“Nurse

Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?

DEMETRIUS

Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done,

And we will all subscribe to thy advice:

Save thou the child, so we may all be safe.”

Aqui todos os 3 que contrapunham Arão já estão vendidos: foram psicologicamente convencidos, e acabarão morrendo.

“DEMETRIUS

How many women saw this child of his?”

“Nurse

Cornelia the midwife and myself;

And no one else but the deliver’d empress.

AARON

The empress, the midwife, and yourself:

Two may keep counsel when the third’s away:

Go to the empress, tell her this I said.

He kills the nurse

Weke, weke! so cries a pig prepared to the spit.”

“And now be it known to you my full intent.

Not far, one Muli lives, my countryman;

His wife but yesternight was brought to bed;

His child is like to her, fair as you are:

Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,

And tell them both the circumstance of all;

And how by this their child shall be advanced,

And be received for the emperor’s heir,

And substituted in the place of mine,

To calm this tempest whirling in the court;

And let the emperor dandle him for his own.

Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given her physic,

Pointing to the nurse

And you must needs bestow her funeral;

The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms:

This done, see that you take no longer days,

But send the midwife presently to me.

The midwife and the nurse well made away,

Then let the ladies tattle what they please.

CHIRON

Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air

With secrets.

DEMETRIUS

For this care of Tamora,

Herself and hers are highly bound to thee.

Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON bearing off the Nurse’s body”

O tropo das crianças trocadas no berço é um dos mais antigos da humanidade, e Sh. como bom dramaturgo, que aumenta as coisas pequenas e reles, não hesita em usá-lo.

“Come on, you thick lipp’d slave, I’ll bear you hence;

For it is you that puts us to our shifts:

I’ll make you feed on berries and on roots,

And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,

And cabin in a cave, and bring you up

To be a warrior, and command a camp.

Exit”

Ah, como o próprio Arão não deixa o sarcasmo de lado e a auto-imolação ao conversar com e qualificar seu próprio filho! A caverna, sempre a caverna, é a origem de muitas conseqüências interessantes em Titus Andronicus…

ACT 4

SCENE III. The same. A public place.

“Ah, Rome! Well, well; I made thee miserable

What time I threw the people’s suffrages

On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.

Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,

And leave you not a man-of-war unsearch’d:

This wicked emperor may have shipp’d her hence;

And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.

Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war

Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,

And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Publius, how now! how now, my masters!

What, have you met with her?

PUBLIUS

No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,

If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:

Marry, for Justice, she is so employ’d,

He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,

So that perforce you must needs stay a time.”

“I’ll dive into the burning lake below,

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.

Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we

No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops’ size;

But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,

Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear:

And, sith there’s no justice in earth nor hell,

We will solicit heaven and move the gods

To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.”

“To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine;¹

You were as good to shoot against the wind.

To it, boy! Marcus, loose when I bid.

Of my word, I have written to effect;

There’s not a god left unsolicited.”

¹ Trocadilho com Saturno ou Cronos, o deus do tempo: o tempo de Saturnino está expirando…

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:

We will afflict the emperor in his pride.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Ha, ha!

Publius, Publius, what hast thou done?

See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus’ horns.”

“And who should find them but the empress’ villain?

She laugh’d, and told the Moor he should not choose

But give them to his master for a present.”

“Clown

Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him

in all my life.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Then here is a supplication for you. And when you

come to him, at the first approach you must kneel,

then kiss his foot, then deliver up your pigeons, and

then look for your reward. I’ll be at hand, sir; see

you do it bravely.

Clown

I warrant you, sir, let me alone.”

ACT 4

SCENE IV. The same. Before the palace.

“Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!

What’s this but libelling against the senate,

And blazoning our injustice every where?

A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?

As who would say, in Rome no justice were.

But if I live, his feigned ecstasies

Shall be no shelter to these outrages:

But he and his shall know that justice lives

In Saturninus’ health, whom, if she sleep,

He’ll so awake as she in fury shall

Cut off the proud’st conspirator that lives.”

“TAMORA

My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,

Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,

Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus’ age,

The effects of sorrow for his valiant sons,

Whose loss hath pierced him deep and scarr’d his heart;

And rather comfort his distressed plight

Than prosecute the meanest or the best

For these contempts.”

“Why, thus it shall become

High-witted Tamora to gloze with all:

But, Titus, I have touched thee to the quick,

Thy life-blood out: if Aaron now be wise,

Then is all safe, the anchor’s in the port.”

“Clown

‘Tis he. God and Saint Stephen¹ give you good den:

I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here.

SATURNINUS reads the letter

SATURNINUS

Go, take him away, and hang him presently.

Clown

How much money must I have?

TAMORA

Come, sirrah, you must be hanged.

Clown

Hanged! by’r lady, then I have brought up a neck to

a fair end.

Exit, guarded”

¹ Santo Stefano ou Estêvão é o primeiro santo canonizado pela igreja católica. Teria nascido em 5 a.C. e morrido em 34 d.C., um ano após a crucificação de Cristo, sendo um de seus primeiros pregadores (foi morto por apedrejamento sentenciado pelos judeus romanos). Sua data de celebração é 26 de dezembro, mesma da publicação desse post e da escrita desse parágrafo. Por que pela primeira vez Shakespeare cita um elemento posterior ao paganismo greco-romano? Talvez para indicar a proximidade de uma transição de poder…

“May this be borne?–as if his traitorous sons,

That died by law for murder of our brother,

Have by my means been butcher’d wrongfully!

Go, drag the villain hither by the hair;

Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege:

For this proud mock I’ll be thy slaughterman;

Sly frantic wretch, that holp’st to make me great,

In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.”

“AEMILIUS

Arm, arm, my lord;–Rome never had more cause.

The Goths have gather’d head; and with a power

high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,

They hither march amain, under conduct

Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;

Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do

As much as ever Coriolanus did.

SATURNINUS

Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?

These tidings nip me, and I hang the head

As flowers with frost or grass beat down with storms:

Ay, now begin our sorrows to approach:

‘Tis he the common people love so much;

Myself hath often over-heard them say,

When I have walked like a private man,

That Lucius’ banishment was wrongfully,

And they have wish’d that Lucius were their emperor.”

“TAMORA

King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name.

Is the sun dimm’d, that gnats do fly in it?

The eagle suffers little birds to sing,

And is not careful what they mean thereby,

Knowing that with the shadow of his wings

He can at pleasure stint their melody:

Even so mayst thou the giddy men of Rome.”

“I will enchant the old Andronicus

With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,

Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep,

When as the one is wounded with the bait,

The other rotted with delicious feed.”

“I can smooth and fill his aged ear with golden promises; that, were his heart almost impregnable, his old ears deaf, yet should both ear and heart obey my tongue.”

“To Aemilius

Go thou before, be our ambassador:

Say that the emperor requests a parley

Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting

Even at his father’s house, the old Andronicus.

SATURNINUS

Aemilius, do this message honourably:

And if he stand on hostage for his safety,

Bid him demand what pledge will please him best.”

“TAMORA

Now will I to that old Andronicus;

And temper him with all the art I have,

To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.”

ACT 5

SCENE I. Plains near Rome.

“First 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 flowered fields,

And be avenged on cursed Tamora.

All the Goths

And as he saith, so say we all with him.”

“Second 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,–

‘For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth;

Who, when he knows thou art the empress’ babe,

Will hold thee dearly for thy mother’s sake.’

With this, my weapon drawn, I rush’d upon him,

Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither,

To use as you think needful of the man.

LUCIUS

O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil

That robb’d Andronicus of his good hand;

This is the pearl that pleased your empress’ eye,

And here’s the base fruit of his burning lust.

Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey

This growing image of thy fiend-like face?

Why dost not speak? what, deaf? not a word?

A halter, soldiers! hang him on this tree.

And by his side his fruit of bastardy.”

“AARON

An if it please thee! why, assure thee, Lucius,

‘Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak;

For I must talk of murders, rapes and massacres,

Acts of black night, abominable deeds,

Complots of mischief, treason, villanies

Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform’d:

And this shall all be buried by my death,

Unless thou swear to me my child shall live.”

“LUCIUS

Who should I swear by? thou believest no god:

That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?

AARON

What if I do not? as, indeed, I do not;

Yet, for I know thou art religious

And hast a thing within thee called conscience,

With 20 popish tricks and ceremonies,

Which I have seen thee careful to observe,

Therefore I urge thy oath; for that I know

An idiot holds his bauble for a god

And keeps the oath which by that god he swears,

To that I’ll urge him: therefore thou shalt vow

By that same god, what god soe’er it be,

That thou adorest and hast in reverence,

To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up;

Or else I will discover nought to thee.”

“AARON

First know thou, I begot him on the empress.

LUCIUS

O most insatiate and luxurious woman!

AARON

Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity

To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.

‘Twas her two sons that murder’d Bassianus;

They cut thy sister’s tongue and ravish’d her

And cut her hands and trimm’d her as thou saw’st.

LUCIUS

O detestable villain! call’st thou that trimming?

AARON

Why, she was wash’d and cut and trimm’d, and ‘twas

Trim sport for them that had the doing of it.”

“AARON

…

I train’d thy brethren to that guileful hole

Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay:

I wrote the letter that thy father found

And hid the gold within the letter mention’d,

Confederate with the queen and her two sons:

And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue,

Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?

I play’d the cheater for thy father’s hand,

And, when I had it, drew myself apart

And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:

I pry’d me through the crevice of a wall

When, for his hand, he had his two sons’ heads;

Beheld his tears, and laugh’d so heartily,

That both mine eyes were rainy like to his:

And when I told the empress of this sport,

She swooned almost at my pleasing tale,

And for my tidings gave me 20 kisses.

First Goth

What, canst thou say all this, and never blush?

AARON

Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.

LUCIUS

Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON

Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.

Even now I curse the day–and yet, I think,

Few come within the compass of my curse,–

Wherein I did not some notorious ill,

As kill a man, or else devise his death,

Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,

Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,

Set deadly enmity between two friends,

Make poor men’s cattle break their necks;

Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,

And bid the owners quench them with their tears.

Oft have I digg’d up dead men from their graves,

And set them upright at their dear friends’ doors,

Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;

And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,

Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,

‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’

Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things

As willingly as one would kill a fly,

And nothing grieves me heartily indeed

But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

LUCIUS

Bring down the devil; for he must not die

So sweet a death as hanging presently.

AARON

If there be devils, would I were a devil,

To live and burn in everlasting fire,

So I might have your company in hell,

But to torment you with my bitter tongue!

LUCIUS

Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.

Enter a Goth

Third Goth

My lord, there is a messenger from Rome

Desires to be admitted to your presence.

LUCIUS

Let him come near.

Enter AEMILIUS

Welcome, Aemilius what’s the news from Rome?”

“LUCIUS

Aemilius, let the emperor give his pledges

Unto my father and my uncle Marcus,

And we will come. March away.

Exeunt”

ACT 5

SCENE II. Rome. Before TITUS’ house.

“TAMORA

Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,

I will encounter with Andronicus,

And say I am Revenge, sent from below

To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.

Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,

To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;

Tell him Revenge is come to join with him,

And work confusion on his enemies.

They knock

Enter TITUS, above”

“TAMORA

If thou didst know me, thou wouldest talk with me.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

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 all sorrow, that I know thee well

For our proud empress, mighty Tamora:

Is not thy coming for my other hand?

TAMORA

Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora;

She is thy enemy, and I thy friend:

I am Revenge: sent from the 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 murder or detested rape

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

And in their ears tell them my dreadful name,

Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me,

To be a torment to mine enemies?

TAMORA

I am; therefore come down, and welcome me.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Do me some service, ere I come to thee.

Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands; [os dois irmãos estupradores de Lavínia]

Now give me some surance that thou art Revenge,

Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels;

And then I’ll come and be thy waggoner,

And whirl along with thee about the globe.”

“TAMORA

These are my ministers, and come with me.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Are these thy ministers? what are they call’d?

TAMORA

Rapine and Murder; therefore called so,

Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Good Lord, how like the empress’ sons they are!

And you, the empress! but we worldly men

Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.

O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee;

And, if one arm’s embracement will content thee,

I will embrace thee in it by and by.

Exit above”

“Whate’er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits,

Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,

For now he firmly takes me for Revenge;

And, being credulous in this mad thought,

I’ll make him send for Lucius his son;

And, whilst I at a banquet hold him sure,

I’ll find some cunning practise out of hand,

To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths,

Or, at the least, make them his enemies.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:

Welcome, dread Fury, to my woful house:

Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.

How like the empress and her sons you are!

Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor:

Could not all hell afford you such a devil?

For well I wot the empress never wags

But in her company there is a Moor;

And, would you represent our queen aright,

It were convenient you had such a devil:

But welcome, as you are. What shall we do?”

“TAMORA

Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong,

And I will be revenged on them all.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Look round about the wicked streets of Rome;

And when thou find’st¹ a man that’s like thyself.

Good Murder, stab him; he’s a murderer.

Go thou with him; and when it is thy hap

To find another that is like to thee,

Good Rapine, stab him; he’s a ravisher.

Go thou with them; and in the emperor’s court

There is a queen, attended by a Moor;

Well mayst thou know her by thy own proportion,

for up and down she doth resemble thee:

I pray thee, do on them some violent death;

They have been violent to me and mine.

TAMORA

Well hast thou lesson’d us; this shall we do.

But would it please thee, good Andronicus,

To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son,

Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths,

And bid him come and banquet at thy house;

When he is here, even at thy solemn feast,

I will bring in the empress and her sons,

The emperor himself and all thy foes;

And at thy mercy shalt they stoop and kneel,

And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart.

What says Andronicus to this device?”

¹ Muito estranho que a grafia (os apóstrofos no lugar do ‘e’) variem durante a peça. Será exato?

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me;

Or else I’ll call my brother back again,

And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.

TAMORA

[Aside to her sons] What say you, boys? will you

bide with him,

Whiles I go tell my lord the emperor

How I have govern’d our determined jest?

Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair,

And tarry with him till I turn again.”

“DEMETRIUS

Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.

TAMORA

Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes

To lay a complot to betray thy foes.”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceived;

The one is Murder, Rape is the other’s name;

And therefore bind them, gentle Publius.

Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them.

Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,

And now I find it; therefore bind them sure,

And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry.

Exit

PUBLIUS, &c. lay hold on CHIRON and DEMETRIUS”

“Re-enter TITUS, with LAVINIA; he bearing a knife, and she a basin [como, na cabeça?!]

TITUS ANDRONICUS

…

Here stands the spring whom you have stain’d with mud,

This goodly summer with your winter mix’d.

You kill’d her husband, and for that vile fault

Two of her brothers were condemn’d to death,

My hand cut off and made a merry jest;

Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear

Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,

Inhuman traitors, you constrain’d and forced.

What would you say, if I should let you speak?

…

Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.

This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,

Whilst that Lavinia ‘tween her stumps doth hold

The basin that receives your guilty blood.

You know your mother means to feast with me,

And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:

Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust

And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste,

And of the paste a coffin I will rear

And make two pasties of your shameful heads,

And bid that strumpet, your unhallow’d dam,

Like to the earth swallow her own increase.

This is the feast that I have bid her to,

And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;

For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,

And worse than Progne I will be revenged:

And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,

He cuts their throats

Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,

Let me go grind their bones to powder small

And with this hateful liquor temper it;

And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.

Come, come, be every one officious

To make this banquet; which I wish may prove

More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.”¹

¹ O Centauro (ou Minotauro, o que é uma figura diferente, mas que às vezes se confunde – um seria um homem-cavalo o outro um homem-touro, o primeiro sendo animal na metade inferior, o segundo no hemisfério superior, isto é, sua cabeça é que seria de touro, enquanto não passaria de um bípede ereto) da mitologia grega que comia virgens entregas como tributo pela ilha de Creta.

ACT 5

SCENE III. Court of TITUS’ house. A banquet set out. [DESFECHO]

“LUCIUS

Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor,

This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil;

Let him receive no sustenance, fetter him

Till he be brought unto the empress’ face,

For testimony of her foul proceedings:

And see the ambush of our friends be strong;

I fear the emperor means no good to us.”

“The trumpets show the emperor is at hand.

Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA, with AEMILIUS, Tribunes, Senators, and others”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Rome’s emperor, and nephew, break the parle;

These quarrels must be quietly debated.

The feast is ready, which the careful Titus

Hath ordain’d to an honourable end,

For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome:

Please you, therefore, draw nigh, and take your places.”

“Enter TITUS dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA veiled, Young LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes on the table”

“TITUS ANDRONICUS

…

My lord the emperor, resolve me this:

Was it well done of rash Virginius

To slay his daughter with his own right hand,

Because she was enforced, stain’d, and deflower’d?¹

SATURNINUS

It was, Andronicus.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Your reason, mighty lord?

SATURNINUS

Because the girl should not survive her shame,

And by her presence still renew his sorrows.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

A reason mighty, strong, and effectual;

A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant,

For me, most wretched, to perform the like.

Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;

Kills LAVINIA

And, with thy shame, thy father’s sorrow die!”

Que personagem, Shakespeare! Que personagem!

¹ A origem de uma lei romana que inocentou o pai de Virgínia quando este a matou para preservar-lhe a virgindade. Muitos sustentam que Lucrécia e Virgínia não passam de figuras mitológicas.

“SATURNINUS

What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Kill’d her, for whom my tears have made me blind.

I am as woful as Virginius was,

And have a thousand times more cause than he

To do this outrage: and it now is done.

SATURNINUS

What, was she ravish’d? tell who did the deed.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Will’t please you eat? will’t please your

highness feed?

TAMORA

Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Not I; ‘twas Chiron and Demetrius:

They ravish’d her, and cut away her tongue;

And they, ‘twas they, that did her all this wrong.

SATURNINUS

Go fetch them hither to us presently.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;

Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

‘Tis true, ‘tis true; witness my knife’s sharp point.

Kills TAMORA

SATURNINUS

Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!

Kills TITUS

LUCIUS

Can the son’s eye behold his father bleed?

There’s meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!

Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult. LUCIUS, MARCUS, and others go up into the balcony”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

…

O, let me teach you how to knit again

This scatter’d corn into one mutual sheaf,

These broken limbs again into one body;

Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,

And she whom mighty kingdoms court’sy to,

Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,

Do shameful execution on herself.

But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,

Grave witnesses of true experience,

Cannot induce you to attend my words,

To LUCIUS

Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our ancestor,

When with his solemn tongue he did discourse

To love-sick Dido’s sad attending ear

The story of that baleful burning night

When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy,

Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch’d our ears,¹

Or who hath brought the fatal engine in

That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.

…

But floods of tears will drown my oratory,

And break my utterance, even in the time

When it should move you to attend me most,

Lending your kind commiseration.

Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.”

¹ Quem convence os troianos a abrirem o portão para receber a prenda do cavalo de madeira (Eneida).

“Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I;

My scars can witness, dumb although they are,

That my report is just and full of truth.

But, soft! methinks I do digress too much,

Citing my worthless praise: O, pardon me;

For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.”

“MARCUS ANDRONICUS

…

Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge

These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,

Or more than any living man could bear.

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?

Have we done aught amiss,–show us wherein,

And, from the place where you behold us now,

The poor remainder of Andronici

Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down.

And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,

And make a mutual closure of our house.

Speak, Romans, speak; and if you say we shall,

Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

AEMILIUS

Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,

And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,

Lucius our emperor; for well I know

The common voice do cry it shall be so.

All

Lucius, all hail, Rome’s royal emperor!

MARCUS ANDRONICUS

Go, go into old Titus’ sorrowful house,

To Attendants

And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,

To be adjudged some direful slaughtering death,

As punishment for his most wicked life.”

“O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips,

Kissing TITUS

These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain’d face,

The last true duties of thy noble son!”

“LUCIUS

Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us

To melt in showers: thy grandsire loved thee well:

Many a time he danced thee on his knee,

Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow:

Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet and agreeing with thine infancy;

In that respect, then, like a loving child,

Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,

Because kind nature doth require it so:

Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:

Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;

Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Young LUCIUS

O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart

Would I were dead, so you did live again!

O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping;

My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.¹

Re-enter Attendants with AARON

AEMILIUS

You sad Andronici, have done with woes:

Give sentence on this execrable wretch,

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

LUCIUS

Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;

There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food;

If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom:

Some stay to see him fasten’d in the earth.”

¹ Sem dúvida não importa como intercalemos a leitura desta peça, ficamos exaustos ao final, tantas as lágrimas vertidas!

“Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did

Would I perform, if I might have my will;

If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very soul.”

Que falastrão o Seu Arão! E gosta dos números 20 e 10 mil!

“As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,

No funeral rite, nor man in mourning weeds,

No mournful bell shall ring her burial;

But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:

Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;

And, being so, shall have like want of pity.

See justice done on Aaron, that damn’d Moor,

By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:

Then, afterwards, to order well the State,

That like events may ne’er it ruinate.

Exeunt”

GLOSSÁRIO:

adder: víbora

blowse: mulher envergonhada, de face rubra

dainty doe: corça delicada

desert (em Shakespeare): “often deserts

Something that is deserved or merited, especially a punishment: They got their just deserts when the scheme was finally uncovered.” Punição ou mérito.

lark: cotovia

leer: olhar malicioso

maugre: obsoleto para guilty pleasure (prazer culposo, coisa má que defendo com todas as forças, embora talvez um pouco envergonhado, etc.)

peal: ribombar

shive: nesse contexto, rolha

spleenful: irritável(is)

stag: veado

stumps: toco, coto, cotoco

tadpole: girino

taper(s): nas três citações da peça, vela(s)

trull: prostituta, do alemão Trulle