TITUS ANDRONICUS

'''Titus Andronicus''', or '''The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus''', may be Shakespeare's earliest tragedy. It depicts a fictional Roman general engaged in a cycle of revenge with his enemy Tamora, the Queen of the Goths. The play is by far Shakespeare's bloodiest work, taking its inspiration from the tragedies of Seneca the Younger (the Senecan Tragedies) of Ancient Rome, the gory theatre that was played to bloodthirsty circus audiences between gladiatorial combats. The play lost popularity during the Victorian era because of its gore, and has only recently begun to revive its fortunes.

Contents

Date and text

Performance

Characters

Synopsis

Reputation

Adaptations and cultural references

Literary works

Film

Television

Theatre

References

External links

Date and text

Most scholars date the play to the early 1590's. In his Arden edition, Jonathan Bate points out that on 24 January, 1594, it was apparently listed as a new play in Philip Henslowe's diary. However, Bate reports that many scholars have doubted its newness in 1594, given that Ben Jonson's ''Bartholomew Fair'' (1614) describes the play as 25 to 30 years old, which would date it to ca. 1584-89. ^[1]
The play' was published in three separate quarto editions prior to the First Folio of 1623, which are referred to as Q1, Q2, and Q3 by Shakespeare scholars. The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on Feb. 6, 1594, by the printer John Danter. Danter sold the rights to the booksellers Thomas Millington and Edward White; they issued the first quarto edition (Q1) later that year, with printing done by Danter. The title page is unusual in that it assigns the play to three different companies of actors—Pembroke's Men, Derby's Men, and Sussex's Men. White published Q2 in 1600 (printed by James Roberts), and Q3 in 1611 (printed by Edward Allde). The First Folio text (1623) was printed from Q3 with an additional scene, III, ii.
Q1 is regarded as a reasonably "good" (complete and reliable) text, and is the basis for most modern editions, although it does not include some material found in the First Folio. Only a single copy is known to exist today; Q2 appears to be based on a damaged copy of Q1, as it is a good reproduction of the Q1 text, but is missing a number of lines. Two copies are known to exist today; Q3 appears to be a further degradation of the Q2 text: it includes a number of corrections to Q2, but introduces even more errors. The First Folio text of 1623 seems to be based on the Q3 text, but also includes material found in none of the quarto editions, including the entirety of Act 3, Scene 2 (in which Titus seems to be losing his sanity). This scene is generally regarded as authentic and included in modern editions of the play.
None of the three quarto editions names the author (as was normal in the publication of playtexts in the early 1590s). However, Francis Meres lists the play as one of Shakespeare's tragedies in a publication of 1598, and the editors of the First Folio included it among his works. Despite this, Shakespeare's full authorship has been doubted. In the introduction to his 1678 adaptation of the play (printed nine years later, in 1687), Edward Ravenscroft states: "I have been told by some anciently conversant with the Stage, that it was not Originally his, but brought by a private Author to be Acted, and he only gave some Master-touches to one or two Principal Parts or Characters". ^[2] There are problems with Ravenscroft's statement: the old men "conversant with the Stage" could not have been more than children when ''Titus'' was written, and Ravenscroft may be biased, since he uses the story to justify his alterations of Shakespeare's play. However, the story has been used to bolster arguments that another author was partly responsible.
The principal candidate is the dramatist George Peele, whose linguistic characteristics have been detected in both the first act, and the scene in which Lavinia uses Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' to explain that she has been raped.^[3] The assertion of Peele's hand in the play remains controversial, however, and those who admire the play tend to argue against it.^[4] It has even been posited that Shakespeare didn't write ''Titus Andronicus'' at all; for example, the 19th century ''Globe Illustrated Shakespeare'' (still in print in 2005) goes so far as to claim there was a general agreement on the matter due to the un-Shakespearean "barbarity" of the play's action.

Performance

Although ''Titus Andronicus'' is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, it is hard to say exactly how early it is. The anonymous play ''A Knack to Know a Knave,'' acted in 1592, alludes to Titus and the Goths, which clearly indicates Shakespeare's play, since other versions of the Titus story involve Moors, not Goths. Philip Henslowe's Diary records performances of a ''Titus and Vespasian'' in 1592-93, and some critics have identified this with Shakespeare's play.^[5]
In January and February of 1594, Sussex's Men gave three performances of ''Titus Andronicus;'' two more performances followed in June of the same year, at the Newington Butts theatre, by either the Admiral's Men or the Lord Chamberlain's Men. A private performance occurred in 1596 at Sir John Harington's house in Rutland.
In the Restoration, the play was performed in 1678 at Drury Lane, in an adaptation by Edward Ravenscroft. The eighteenth-century actor James Quin considered Aaron, the villain in ''Titus,'' one of his favorite roles.^[6]

Characters

★ 'Titus Andronicus', ''a noble Roman, General against the Goths.''

★ ''Children of '' Titus Andronicus:

★
★ 'Lucius'

★
★
★ 'Young Lucius', ''a Boy, Son to'' Lucius.

★
★ 'Quintus'

★
★ 'Martius'

★
★ 'Mutius'

★
★ 'Lavinia', ''Daughter to'' Titus Andronicus.

★ 'Marcus Andronicus', ''Tribune of the People, and Brother to'' Titus.

★
★ 'Publius', ''Son to'' Marcus ''the Tribune.''

★ 'Tamora', ''Queen of the Goths.''

★ ''Sons to'' Tamora:

★
★ 'Alarbus'

★
★ 'Demetrius'

★
★ 'Chiron'

★ 'Saturninus', ''Son to the late Emperor of Rome, and afterwards declared Emperor.''

★ 'Bassianus', ''Brother to'' Saturninus, ''in love with'' Lavinia.

★ ''A'' 'Nurse', ''and a black'' 'Child'.

★ 'Ǣmilius', ''a noble Roman''.

★ 'Aaron', ''a Moor beloved by'' Tamora.

★ ''A'' 'Captain, Tribune, Messenger', ''and a'' 'Clown': ''Romans''.

Synopsis

The Emperor of Rome has died, and his sons Saturninus and Bassianus are squabbling over who will succeed him. The Tribune of the People, Marcus Andronicus, announces that the people's choice for new emperor is his brother, Titus Andronicus, a Roman general newly returned from ten years' campaigning against the empire's foes, the Goths. Titus enters Rome to much fanfare, bearing with him Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her sons, and Aaron the Moor. Titus feels a religious duty to sacrifice Tamora’s eldest son Alarbus, in order to avenge his sons, dead from the war, and allow them to rest in peace. Tamora begs for the life of Alarbus, but Titus refuses her pleas. Tamora secretly plans for horrible revenge on Titus and all of his remaining sons.
Titus Andronicus refuses the throne in favour of the late emperor's eldest son Saturninus, much to Saturninus' delight. The two agree that Saturninus will marry Titus' daughter Lavinia. However, Bassianus was previously betrothed to the girl. Titus' surviving sons help them escape the marriage. In the fighting, Titus kills his son Mutius. Titus is at first angry at his sons for bringing what he sees as dishonor upon his name, but his anger is eventually softened by Saturninus. The new emperor, Saturninus, marries Tamora instead.
During a hunting party the next day, Tamora's lover, Aaron the Moor, meets Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius. The two are arguing over which should take sexual advantage of the newlywed Lavinia. They are easily persuaded by Aaron to ambush Bassianus and kill him in the presence of Tamora and Lavinia, in order to have their way with her. Lavinia begs Tamora to stop her sons, but Tamora refuses—she wants revenge. Chiron and Demetrius take Lavinia away and rape her over her husband's body. To keep her from revealing what she's seen and endured, they cut out her tongue and cut off her hands.
Aaron brings Titus' sons Martius and Quintus to the scene and frames them for the murder of Bassianus with a forged letter outlining their plan to kill him. Angry, the Emperor arrests them. Marcus then discovers Lavinia and takes her to her father. When she and Titus are reunited, he is overcome with grief. He and his remaining son Lucius have begged for the lives of Martius and Quintus, but the two are found guilty and are marched off to execution. Aaron enters, and falsely tells Titus, Lucius, and Marcus that the emperor will spare the prisoners if one of the three sacrifices a hand. Each demands the right to do so, but it is Titus who has Aaron hack off his (Titus') hand and take it to the emperor. In return, a messenger brings Titus the heads of his sons. Desperate for revenge, Titus orders Lucius to flee Rome and raise an army among their former enemy, the Goths.
Later, Titus' grandson (Lucius' son), who has been helping Titus read to Lavinia, complains that she won't leave his book alone. In the book, she indicates to Titus and Marcus the story of Philomela, in which a similarly mute victim ''wrote'' the name of her wrongdoer. Marcus gives her a stick to hold with her mouth and stumps; she writes the names of her attackers in the dirt. Titus vows revenge. Feigning madness, he ties written prayers for justice to arrows and commands his kinsmen to aim them at the sky. Marcus directs the arrows to land inside the palace of Saturninus, who is enraged by this. He confronts the Andronici and orders the execution of a Clown who had delivered a further supplication from Titus.
Tamora delivers a mixed-race child, and the nurse can tell it must have been fathered by Aaron. Aaron kills the nurse and flees with the baby to save it from the Emperor's inevitable wrath. Later, Lucius, marching on Rome with an army, captures Aaron and sentences him to hang. To save the baby, Aaron reveals the entire plot to Lucius, relishing every murder, rape, and dismemberment.
Tamora, convinced of Titus' madness, approaches him along with her two sons, dressed as the spirits of Revenge, Murder, and Rape. She tells Titus that she (as a supernatural spirit) will grant him revenge if he will convince Lucius to stop attacking Rome. Titus agrees, sending Marcus to invite Lucius to a feast. "Revenge" (Tamora) offers to invite the Emperor and Tamora, and is about to leave, but Titus insists that "Rape" and "Murder" (Chiron and Demetrius) stay with him. She agrees. When she is gone Titus' servants bind Chiron and Demetrius, and Titus cuts their throats, while Lavinia holds a basin in her stumps to catch their blood. He plans to cook them into a pie for their mother.^[7]
The next day, during the feast at his house, Titus asks Saturninus whether a father should kill his daughter if she has been raped — ^[8]. When the Emperor agrees, Titus kills Lavinia and tells Saturninus what Tamora's sons had done. He reveals that they were in the pie Tamora has just been enjoying, and then kills Tamora. Saturninus kills Titus just as Lucius arrives, and Lucius kills Saturninus to avenge his father's death.
Lucius tells his family's story to the people and is proclaimed Emperor. He orders that Saturninus be given a proper burial, that Tamora's body be thrown to the wild beasts, and that Aaron be buried chest-deep and left to die of thirst and starvation. Aaron, however, is unrepentant to the end, proclaiming:

"If one good Deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very Soule."''

Reputation

''Titus Andronicus'' is certainly Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy; some measure of its matter can be gleaned from a single stage-direction: ''"Enter the empress' sons with Lavinia, her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out, and ravished."'' (Act II, scene IV). Critics from Lewis Theobald and Edmond Malone to J. M. Robertson doubted Shakespeare's authorship because of its lurid violence and generally uninspired verse. However, it was an extremely popular play in its day, on a par with such plays as Marlowe's ''Tamburlaine'' and Thomas Kyd's ''The Spanish Tragedy''.
Since the late twentieth century, however, the play has been revived frequently on stage and has been revealed to some as a powerful and moving exploration of violence that presages ''King Lear'' in its bleakness. (Some other elements of ''King Lear'' may be found in ''Titus Andronicus'': the close relationship between Titus and his daughter Lavinia, the battle for succession and Titus' own foolish actions that touch off the carnage, Titus' seeming madness, and the Goneril-like figure of Tamora.) The play can speak to modern audiences, who are used to violence in film, in a way that it could not to Victorian audiences. Modern audiences may, however, still find the play's graphic cruelty absurd, unused as they are to attending public executions and dismemberment of the kind that were familiar to Shakespeare's audience. However, literary critic and Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom has claimed that the play cannot be taken seriously and that the best imaginable production would be one directed by Mel Brooks.
The character of Titus has been played by important actors such as Brian Cox, Anthony Sher, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier. During one run of the play, Olivier would utter a blood-curdling scream in imitation of a trapped skunk he had once heard in Canada.

Adaptations and cultural references

Literary works

★ ''Titus Andronicus. Komödie nach Shakespeare'' by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt

★ ''Die Schändung'' by German author Botho Strauss

★ "Greensleeves" (monologue), (''At the Drop of a Hat'', 1956) by Flanders and Swann. Michael Flanders, in a reference to drunkenness, refers to someone as being "Titus Andronicus" (a pun on "tight as Andronicus").

★ In Simpson Comic #76 there's an adaption with Itchy & Scratchy named "Titus Andronicus", which is made in the typical Itchy and Scratchy bloody way.

★ "Anatomie Titus Fall of Rome. Ein Shakespearekommentar" by (East)German author Heiner Müller

Film

★ ''Titus Andronicus'' (1985), a TV movie directed by Jane Howell for the BBC Shakespeare series. Stars Trevor Peacock and Eileen Atkins as Titus and Tamora.

★ ''Titus'' (1999), directed by Julie Taymor. Stars Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange as Titus and Tamora.

★ The film ''Shakespeare in Love'' depicts a young John Webster as saying that "Titus Andronicus" is his favorite Shakespeare play.

Television

★ ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' - one of the ships in Episode 8 is referred to as ''Titus Andronicus''.

★ ''Theatre of Blood'' - a motion picture in which Vincent Price's character murders theatre critics using Shakespearean themes. Robert Morley's character is duped into eating a pie into which his 'babies' - his pet poodles- have been baked.

Theatre

★ Tragedy! (A Musical Comedy)- A musical adaptation of Titus Andronicus written by Mike Johnson of Burlington, NC. Tragedy! first premiered at the College of William and Mary as Mike Johnson's Monroe project but was later accepted by the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) to perform Off Broadway August 21-26 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Tragedy! (A Musical Comedy)

★ The Reduced Shakespeare Company rendered Titus Andronicus as a cooking show and referred to the time of its writing as Shakespeare's "Quentin Tarantino phase".

References

1. Bate, ''Titus'', 70.
2. Quoted in Jonathan Bate, ed. ''Titus Andronicus'' (Arden Shakespeare, 1996), p. 79
3. Brian Vickers, ''Shakespeare: Co-Author'' (Oxford University Press, 2004) describes the history of this attribution and adds more evidence of his own.
4. For a summary of this debate, see Bate, ''Titus'', p. 79-83.
5. F. E. Halliday, ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964,'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 496-97.
6. Halliday, ''Shakespeare Companion,'' pp. 399, 403-4, 497.
7. This is the same revenge Procne took for the rape of her sister Philomel
8. citing the story of Verginia, told in Livy

External links

★ Titus Andronicus - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg.

★ The Tragedie of Titus Andronicus - HTML version of this title.

★ The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus Annotated HTML version with links back to Wikipedia articles.

★ Lucius, the Severely Flawed Redeemer of Titus Andronicus by Anthony Brian Taylor.