Scene III. The same. A public place.
Enter Titus, bearing arrows with letters at the ends of them; with him, Marcus, young Lucius, and other Gentlemen (Publius, Sempronius, and Caius), with bows.[4570]
Tit. Come, Marcus, come; kinsmen, this is the way.[4571]
Sir boy, let me see your archery;[4572]
Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.
Terras Astræa reliquit:[4573]
Be you remember'd, Marcus, she's gone, she's fled.[4573][4574] 5
Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall[4573][4575]
Go sound the ocean, and cast your nets;[4573]
Happily you may catch her in the sea;[4573][4576]
Yet there's as little justice as at land:
No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it; 10
'Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade,
And pierce the inmost centre of the earth:
Then, when you come to Pluto's region,
I pray you, deliver him this petition;[4577]
Tell him, it is for justice and for aid, 15
And that it comes from old Andronicus,
Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.
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. 20
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.
Marc. O Publius, is not this a heavy case, 25
To see thy noble uncle thus distract?
Pub. Therefore, my lord, it highly us concerns[4578][4579]
By day and night to attend him carefully,
And feed his humour kindly as we may,
Till time beget some careful remedy. 30
Marc. Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.[4580]
Join with the Goths, and with revengeful war
Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude
And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.
Tit. Publius, how now! how now, my masters![4581] 35
What, have you met with her?[4581]
Pub. No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,[4578]
If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:
Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,[4582]
He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else, 40
So that perforce you must needs stay a time.
Tit. He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.
I'll dive into the burning lake below,
And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.[4583]
Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we, 45
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:[4584]
And sith there's no justice in earth nor hell,[4585]
We will solicit heaven, and move the gods 50
To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.
Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus;[4586]
[He gives them the arrows.