Titus Andronicus

Be candidatus, then, and put [the white robe] on /
And help to set a head on headless Rome.

Titus, I am incorporate in Rome,
A Roman now adopted happily.

There serve your lust, shadowed from heaven’s eye,
And revel in Lavinia’s treasury.

Revenge it as you love your mother’s life,
Or be you not henceforth called my children.

Remember, boys, I poured forth tears in vain
To save your brother from the sacrifice,
but fierce Andronicus would not relent.
Therefore away with her, and use her as you will;
The worse to her, the better loved of me.

Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom?
Then be my passions bottomless with them.

My lord the Emperor, resolve me this:
Was it well done of rash Virginius
To slay his daughter with his own right hand
Because she was enforced, stained, and deflowered?

Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,
And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die.

There’s meed for meed, death for a deadly deed.

O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body.