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TITUS ANDRONICUS
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A monologue from Act II, Scene iii
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by: William Shakespeare
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NOTE: Titus Andronicus was originally published in a quarto of 1594. It is now a public domain work and may be performed without royalties. |
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- TAMORA: Have I not reason to look pale?
- These two have ticed [1] me hither to this place,
- A barren detested vale you see it is;
- The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
- Overcome with moss and baleful mistletoe.
- Here never shines the sun; her nothing breeds,
- Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven:
- And when they showed me this abhorrèd pit,
- They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
- A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
- Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins [2],
- Would make such fearful and confusèd cries
- As any mortal body hearing it
- Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
- No sooner had they told this hellish tale
- But straight they told me they would bind me here
- Unto the body of a dismal yew
- And leave me to this miserable death.
- And then they called me foul adulteress,
- Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
- That ever ear did hear to such effect;
- 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 called my children.
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