Page 2139 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty, Exit.
Which dreads not yet their lives’ destruction. [50]

Enter Bassianus and Lavinia.

T AMORA

Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life.

AARON

No more, great empress, Bassianus comes;
Be cross with him, and I’ll go fetch thy sons
To back thy quarrels whatsoe’er they be.

BASSIANUS

Who have we here? Rome’s royal empress,
Unfurnished of her well-beseeming troop?
Or is it Dian, habited like her,
Who hath abandonèd her holy groves
To see the general hunting in this forest?

T AMORA

Saucy controller of my private steps! [60]
Had I the power that some say Dian had,
Thy temples should be planted presently
With horns, as was Actæon’s; and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new-transformèd limbs,
Unmannerly intruder as thou art.

LAVINIA

Under your patience, gentle empress,
’Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning,
And to be doubted that your Moor and you
Are singled forth to try experiments:
Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day! [70]
’Tis pity they should take him for a stag.

BASSIANUS

Believe me, queen, your swarty Cimmerian
Doth make your honour of his body’s hue,