Bas. The king my brother shall have note of this.[4196] 85
Lav. Ay, for these slips have made him noted long:[4197]
Good king, to be so mightily abused!
Tam. Why have I patience to endure all this?[4198]
Enter Demetrius and Chiron.
Dem. How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother![4199]
Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?[4200] 90
Tam. 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;[4201]
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:[4202] 95
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, 100
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make such fearful and confused cries,
As any mortal body hearing it[4203]
Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
No sooner had they told this hellish tale, 105
But straight they told me they would bind me here
Unto the body of a dismal yew,[4204]
And leave me to this miserable death:
And then they call'd me foul adulteress,
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms 110
That ever ear did hear to such effect:[4205]
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.[4206] 115
Dem. This is a witness that I am thy son. [Stabs Bassianus.[4207]
Chi. And this for me, struck home to show my strength.[4208]
[Also stabs Bassianus, who dies.