Speeches (Lines) for Nurse
in "Titus Andronicus"
Total: 10

1

IV,2,1739

(stage directions). [Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms]

Nurse. Good morrow, lords:
O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

2

IV,2,1743

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!

3

IV,2,1747

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.

4

IV,2,1751

Aaron. To whom?

Nurse. I mean, she is brought a-bed.

5

IV,2,1753

Aaron. Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?

Nurse. A devil.

6

IV,2,1755

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.

7

IV,2,1771

Aaron. It shall not die.

Nurse. Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so.

8

IV,2,1804

Chiron. Rome will despise her for this foul escape.

Nurse. The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death.

9

IV,2,1818

Aaron. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears:
Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing
The close enacts and counsels of the heart!
Here's a young lad framed of another leer:
Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father,
As who should say 'Old lad, I am thine own.'
He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed
Of that self-blood that first gave life to you,
And from that womb where you imprison'd were
He is enfranchised and come to light:
Nay, he is your brother by the surer side,
Although my seal be stamped in his face.

Nurse. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress?

10

IV,2,1832

Aaron. Why, so, brave lords! when we join in league,
I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor,
The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
But say, again; how many saw the child?

Nurse. Cornelia the midwife and myself;
And no one else but the deliver'd empress.