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Apr. 9th, 2007 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasPeople are posting favorite lines and scenes from Shakespeare. Dunno why, but, okay.
So, the background here
Titus Andronicus, Act 4, Scene 2, the second half of it.
Background: the characters are Aaron the Moor, who is Evil But So Damn Cool, and ought to be played by Samuel L Jackson, Chiron and Demetrius, Queen Tamora's more-or-less interchangeable sons, who are also evil but nowhere near as cool, and a nurse carrying a baby.
Queen Tamora was Queen of the Goths, which is when she had these two sons, and, more recently, remarried to the Emperor of Rome, making her the Empress. And, as the scene starts, people have been waiting for her to give birth to the brand new heir to Rome.
So, the background here
Titus Andronicus, Act 4, Scene 2, the second half of it.
Background: the characters are Aaron the Moor, who is Evil But So Damn Cool, and ought to be played by Samuel L Jackson, Chiron and Demetrius, Queen Tamora's more-or-less interchangeable sons, who are also evil but nowhere near as cool, and a nurse carrying a baby.
Queen Tamora was Queen of the Goths, which is when she had these two sons, and, more recently, remarried to the Emperor of Rome, making her the Empress. And, as the scene starts, people have been waiting for her to give birth to the brand new heir to Rome.
Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms
Nurse
Good morrow, lords:
O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?
AARON
Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all,
Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?
Nurse
O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!
Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!
AARON
Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!
What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?
Nurse
O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye,
Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace!
She is deliver'd, lords; she is deliver'd.
AARON
To whom?
Nurse
I mean, she is brought a-bed.
AARON
Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?
Nurse
A devil.
AARON
Why, then she is the devil's dam; a joyful issue.
Nurse
A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue:
Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad
Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:
The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.
AARON
'Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?
Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.
DEMETRIUS
Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON
That which thou canst not undo.
CHIRON
Thou hast undone our mother.
AARON
Villain, I have done thy mother.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-09 11:09 pm (UTC)And Measure for Measure includes a madam character named Mistress Overdone.