Read Online Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: William Shakespeare
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believest no god:
That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
AARON What if I do not? — As indeed I do not —
Yet for 75 I know thou art religious
And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
With twenty popish 77 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 80 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 ador’st and hast in reverence,
To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up,
Or else I will discover 86 nought to thee.
LUCIUS Even by my god I swear to thee I will.
AARON First know thou I begot him on the empress.
LUCIUS O most insatiate, luxurious 89 woman!
AARON Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
To 91 that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
’Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus,
They cut thy sister’s tongue and ravished her
And cut her hands off and trimmed 94 her as thou saw’st.
LUCIUS O detestable villain! Call’st thou that trimming?
AARON Why, she was washed and cut and trimmed 96 , and ’twas
Trim 97 sport for them that had the doing of it.
LUCIUS O barbarous, beastly villains, like thyself!
AARON Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them.
That codding 100 spirit had they from their mother,
As sure a card as ever won the set: 101
That bloody 102 mind, I think, they learned of me,
As true a dog as ever fought at head. 103
Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.
I trained 105 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 mentioned,
Confederate 109 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 played the cheater 112 for thy father’s hand,
And when I had it, drew myself apart
And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:
I pried me 115 through the crevice of a wall
When for his hand he had his two sons’ heads,
Beheld his tears and laughed so heartily
That both mine eyes were rainy like to his.
And when I told the empress of this sport,
She swoonèd almost at my pleasing tale
And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.
A GOTH What, canst thou say all this and never blush?
AARON Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is. 123
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, 131
Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men’s cattle break their necks,
Set fire on barns and haystacks in the night
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves
And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,
Even when their sorrows almost was 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. 147
Aaron is made to climb down
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.
Aaron is gagged
LUCIUS Sirs, stop his mouth and let him speak no more.
Enter
That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
AARON What if I do not? — As indeed I do not —
Yet for 75 I know thou art religious
And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
With twenty popish 77 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 80 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 ador’st and hast in reverence,
To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up,
Or else I will discover 86 nought to thee.
LUCIUS Even by my god I swear to thee I will.
AARON First know thou I begot him on the empress.
LUCIUS O most insatiate, luxurious 89 woman!
AARON Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
To 91 that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
’Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus,
They cut thy sister’s tongue and ravished her
And cut her hands off and trimmed 94 her as thou saw’st.
LUCIUS O detestable villain! Call’st thou that trimming?
AARON Why, she was washed and cut and trimmed 96 , and ’twas
Trim 97 sport for them that had the doing of it.
LUCIUS O barbarous, beastly villains, like thyself!
AARON Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them.
That codding 100 spirit had they from their mother,
As sure a card as ever won the set: 101
That bloody 102 mind, I think, they learned of me,
As true a dog as ever fought at head. 103
Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.
I trained 105 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 mentioned,
Confederate 109 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 played the cheater 112 for thy father’s hand,
And when I had it, drew myself apart
And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:
I pried me 115 through the crevice of a wall
When for his hand he had his two sons’ heads,
Beheld his tears and laughed so heartily
That both mine eyes were rainy like to his.
And when I told the empress of this sport,
She swoonèd almost at my pleasing tale
And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.
A GOTH What, canst thou say all this and never blush?
AARON Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is. 123
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, 131
Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men’s cattle break their necks,
Set fire on barns and haystacks in the night
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves
And set them upright at their dear friends’ door,
Even when their sorrows almost was 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. 147
Aaron is made to climb down
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.
Aaron is gagged
LUCIUS Sirs, stop his mouth and let him speak no more.
Enter
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