Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit, 16
And, whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying shrilly to the well-tun'd horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once,
Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise; 20
And after conflict, such as was suppos'd
The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd,
When with a happy storm they were surpris'd,
And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave, 24
We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;
Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds
Be unto us as is a nurse's song 28
Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep.
Aar. Madam, though Venus govern your desires,
Saturn is dominator over mine:
What signifies my deadly-standing eye, 32
My silence and my cloudy melancholy,
My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls
Even as an adder when she doth unroll
To do some fatal execution? 36
No, madam, these are no venereal signs:
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Hark, Tamora, the empress of my soul, 40
Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee:
This is the day of doom for Bassianus;
His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,
Thy sons make pillage of her chastity, 44
And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.
Seest thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,
17 echo mocks the hounds, etc.; cf. n.
22 The wandering prince: Æneas (cf. Vergil, Æneid 4. 165 ff.)
23 happy: lucky
31 Saturn is dominator; cf. n.
32 deadly-standing: fixedly staring like that of the dead
37 venereal: erotic
43 Philomel; cf. n.
