Act 4, Scene 3

Rome. A public Place.

[Enter TITUS, bearing arrows with letters at the ends of them; with him MARCUS, YOUNG LUCIUS, and other gentlemen, with bows.]
Titus Andronicus
1739 Come, Marcus, come:—kinsmen, this is the way.—
1740 Sir boy, let me see your archery;
1741 Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.—
1742 Terras Astrea reliquit:
1743 Be you remember'd, Marcus; she's gone, she's fled.
1744 Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall
1745 Go sound the ocean and cast your nets;
1746 Happily you may catch her in the sea;
1747 Yet there's as little justice as at land.—
1748 No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it;
1749 'Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade,
1750 And pierce the inmost centre of the earth:
1751 Then, when you come to Pluto's region,
1752 I pray you deliver him this petition;
1753 Tell him it is for justice and for aid,
1754 And that it comes from old Andronicus,
1755 Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome.—
1756 Ah, Rome!—Well, well; I made thee miserable
1757 What time I threw the people's suffrages
1758 On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me.—
1759 Go, get you gone; and pray be careful all,
1760 And leave you not a man-of-war unsearch'd:
1761 This wicked emperor may have shipp'd her hence;
1762 And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice.
Marcus Andronicus
1763 O Publius, is not this a heavy case,
1764 To see thy noble uncle thus distract?
Publius
1765 Therefore, my lords, it highly us concerns
1766 By day and night to attend him carefully,
1767 And feed his humour kindly as we may,
1768 Till time beget some careful remedy.
Marcus Andronicus
1769 Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy.
1770 Join with the Goths; and with revengeful war
1771 Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude,
1772 And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine.
Titus Andronicus
1773 Publius, how now! how now, my masters!
1774 What, have you met with her?
Publius
1775 No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,
1776 If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:
1777 Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,
1778 He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,
1779 So that perforce you must needs stay a time.
Titus Andronicus
1780 He doth me wrong to feed me with delays.
1781 I'll dive into the burning lake below,
1782 And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.—
1783 Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we,
1784 No big-bon'd men, fram'd of the Cyclops' size;
1785 But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back,
1786 Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear:
1787 And, sith there's no justice in earth nor hell,
1788 We will solicit heaven, and move the gods
1789 To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.—
1790 Come, to this gear.—You are a good archer, Marcus.
[He gives them the arrows.]
Titus Andronicus
1791 'Ad Jovem' that's for you; here, 'Ad Apollinem':—
1792 'Ad Martem' that's for myself:—
1793 Here, boy, to Pallas:—here, tTo Mercury:—
1794 To Saturn, Caius, not to Saturnine;
1795 You were as good to shoot against the wind.—
1796 To it, boy.—Marcus, loose when I bid.—
1797 Of my word, I have written to effect;
1798 There's not a god left unsolicited.
Marcus Andronicus
1799 Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court:
1800 We will afflict the emperor in his pride.
Titus Andronicus
1801 Now, masters, draw.
[They shoot.]
Titus Andronicus
1802 O, well said, Lucius!
1803 Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas.
Marcus Andronicus
1804 My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon:
1805 Your letter is with Jupiter by this.
Titus Andronicus
1806 Ha! ha!
1807 Publius, Publius, hast thou done?
1808 See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns.
Marcus Andronicus
1809 This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot,
1810 The Bull, being gall'd, gave Aries such a knock
1811 That down fell both the Ram's horns in the court;
1812 And who should find them but the empress' villain?
1813 She laugh'd, and told the Moor he should not choose
1814 But give them to his master for a present.
Titus Andronicus
1815 Why, there it goes: God give his lordship joy!
[Enter a CLOWN, with a basket and two pigeons in it.]
Titus Andronicus
1816 News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.
1817 Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?
1818 Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter?
Clown
1819 Ho, the gibbet-maker? he says that he hath taken them
1820 down again, for the man must not be hanged till the next week.
Titus Andronicus
1821 But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?
Clown
1822 Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him in all my
1823 life.
Titus Andronicus
1824 Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?
Clown
1825 Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.
Titus Andronicus
1826 Why, didst thou not come from heaven?
Clown
1827 From heaven! alas, sir, I never came there: God forbid I
1828 should be so bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am
1829 going with my pigeons to the tribunal plebs, to take up a matter
1830 of brawl betwixt my uncle and one of the imperial's men.
Marcus Andronicus
1831 Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for your
1832 oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to the emperor from
1833 you.
Titus Andronicus
1834 Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor with a grace?
Clown
1835 Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.
Titus Andronicus
1836 Sirrah, come hither: make no more ado,
1837 But give your pigeons to the emperor:
1838 By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.
1839 Hold, hold; meanwhile here's money for thy charges.—
1840 Give me pen and ink.—
1841 Sirrah, can you with a grace deliver up a supplication?
Clown
1842 Ay, sir.
Titus Andronicus
1843 Then here is a supplication for you. And when you come to
1844 him, at the first approach you must kneel; then kiss his
1845 foot; then deliver up your pigeons; and then look for your
1846 reward. I'll be at hand, sir; see you do it bravely.
Clown
1847 I warrant you, sir; let me alone.
Titus Andronicus
1848 Sirrah, hast thou a knife? Come let me see it.
1849 Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration;
1850 For thou hast made it like a humble suppliant.:—
1851 And when thou hast given it to the emperor,
1852 Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.
Clown
1853 God be with you, sir; I will.
Titus Andronicus
1854 Come, Marcus, let us go.—Publius, follow me.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1742classical allusion
“Terras Astrea reliquit”
'Terras Astraea reliquit' is Latin for 'Astraea has left the earth.' Astraea was the goddess of justice who, in classical myth, abandoned the wicked world of men and was transformed into the constellation Virgo. Titus cries the line as he hunts for Justice among the gods, meaning justice no longer exists on earth.
classical Astraea
TLN 1750classical allusion
“Pierce the inmost centre of the earth: Then, when you come to Pluto's region”
Pluto was the Roman god of the dead, who ruled the underworld beneath the earth. Titus sends his kinsmen to dig down to Pluto's realm with a petition for justice, since he cannot find it anywhere on the surface of the world. The joke — digging to hell to file a legal complaint — shows Titus's anguished absurdity.
TLN 1757archaic vocab
“I threw the people's suffrages”
'Suffrages' means votes. Titus bitterly recalls that he handed the people's electoral support to Saturninus — an act that allowed a tyrant to rise and then destroy him. The word survives in English as 'suffrage' (the right to vote), but in Shakespeare's time it simply meant votes cast.
TLN 1762archaic vocab
“we may go pipe for justice”
'Go pipe for it' was a proverbial expression meaning to whistle fruitlessly for something you will never get — like a man who whistles for a dog that will never come. If the emperor has shipped Justice out of the country, they can forget about ever finding her.
TLN 1781classical allusion
“burning lake below, And pull her out of Acheron by the heels”
Acheron was one of the rivers of the classical underworld, sometimes described as a burning or black lake rather than a flowing river. Titus threatens to dive in and drag Justice out bodily if Pluto will not send her up. The defiant image is characteristically Senecan — the hero who would wrestle death itself rather than endure injustice.
TLN 1783classical allusion
“no cedars we, No big-bon'd men, fram'd of the Cyclops' size”
The Cyclopes were giant one-eyed smiths of Greek myth who forged armour for the gods in Vulcan's underground forge, famous for their immense size and strength. Titus admits he and Marcus are not enormous fighting men but claims they are 'metal... steel to the very back' — inwardly tougher than any giant. The cedars are equally an image of towering natural strength.
TLN 1803wordplay
“in Virgo's lap”
Virgo is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, pictured as a seated woman; a shot landing 'in Virgo's lap' means it flew so high it reached the stars. The joke doubles on the name: Astraea, the goddess of Justice Titus is hunting, was identified with the constellation Virgo (Titus cited that at TLN 1742). So landing in Virgo's lap is nearly arriving at Justice herself.
TLN 1816archaic vocab
“Marcus, the post is come”
A 'post' was a courier or messenger, especially one who travelled between fixed relay stations (each called a 'post') along a road, changing horses as he went. Titus mistakes the Clown for a divine messenger arriving from heaven with an answer to his arrows — a delusion that drives the scene's comedy.
TLN 1829historical topical
“going with my pigeons to the tribunal plebs, to take up a matter of brawl betwixt my uncle”
The Clown mangles 'tribunal plebis' — the court of the tribunes of the people, a Roman legal assembly where commoners brought disputes. The garbled Latin is part of his characterisation as an ordinary man out of his depth in a world of soldiers and senators; he is going, in his own terms, to the local magistrate to settle a neighbourhood fight.
TLN 1834wordplay
“can you deliver an oration to the emperor with a grace? Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.”
Titus uses 'grace' to mean the dignified manner in which an oration is delivered — rhetorical grace, elegance of bearing. The Clown hears only the word's everyday domestic sense: saying grace before a meal, a simple religious routine he has presumably never managed. The exchange is one of the scene's moments of genuine comedy inside the surrounding violence.