Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS I think she means that there was more than one
Confederate in the fact: ay, more there was;
Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.
TITUS ANDRONICUS Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?
Young LUCIUS Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses;
My mother gave it me.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS For love of her that's gone,
Perhaps she cull'd it from among the rest.
TITUS ANDRONICUS Soft! see how busily she turns the leaves!
[Helping her]
What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read?
This is the tragic tale of Philomel,
And treats of Tereus' treason and his rape:
And rape, I fear, was root of thine annoy.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS See, brother, see; note how she quotes the leaves.
TITUS ANDRONICUS Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl,
Ravish'd and wrong'd, as Philomela was,
Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? See, see!
Ay, such a place there is, where we did hunt--
O, had we never, never hunted there!--
Pattern'd by that the poet here describes,
By nature made for murders and for rapes.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS O, why should nature build so foul a den,
Unless the gods delight in tragedies?
TITUS ANDRONICUS Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none
but friends,
What Roman lord it was durst do the deed:
Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst,
That left the camp to sin in Lucrece' bed?
MARCUS ANDRONICUS Sit down, sweet niece: brother, sit down by me.
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