The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus

by William Shakespeare

TITUS.
No, not a word; how can I grace my talk,
Wanting a hand to give it action?
Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more.

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

TITUS.
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 th’ infernal kingdom
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind
By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
Come down and welcome me to this world’s light;
Confer with me of murder and of death.
There’s not a hollow cave or lurking-place,
No vast obscurity or misty vale,
Where bloody 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.
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.
Do me some service ere I come to thee.
Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands;
Now give 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.
Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet,
To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away,
And find out murderers in their guilty caves.
And when thy car is loaden with their heads,
I will dismount, and by the waggon-wheel
Trot like a servile footman all day long,
Even from Hyperion’s rising in the east
Until his very downfall in the sea.
And day by day I’ll do this heavy task,
So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.

TAMORA.
These are my ministers, and come with me.

TITUS.
Are they thy ministers? What are they called?

TAMORA.
Rapine and Murder; therefore called so
’Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.