TITUS ANDRONICUS. (WRITTEN ABOUT 1588-90.) INTRODUCTION. this play is a perfect slaughter-house, and It reeks blood, it smells of blood, we almost feel The great majority of English critics either reject this play altogether, upon the ground that in style and subject it is unlike any other work of Shakespeare, or accept as true the tradition of Ravenscroft, who altered the play in 1687, that "it was not his (Shakespeare's]," but that he only gave "some master-touches to one or two of the principal parts or characters." Says one critic: "Shakespeare's tragedy is never bloodily sensual; the blood makes appeal to all the senses. that we have handled blood-it is so gross." Besides the tradition of Ravenscroft, the external evidence with reference to the authorship of Titus is the following: (1) It is mentioned by Meres (1598) among other undoubted plays of Shakespeare. (2) It is printed in the First Folio. A play called Titus and Vespasian was acted in 1592, and though itself lost, a translation into German, acted early in the 17th century by English comedians in Germany, remains in existence. It is not the play attributed to Shakespeare. Henslowe also mentions a Titus and Andronicus as a new play, acted January 23, 1594: it is doubtful whether this was the Shakespearean play. If it be, and it was then written, the tragedy is certainly not by Shakespeare. It is impossible to believe that in 1594, when Shakespeare had written his Venus and Adonis and his Lucrece, he could have dealt so coarsely with details of outrage and unnatural cruelty as does the author of this tragedy. Ben Jonson, in the introduction to Bartholomew Fair (1614), speaks of Titus Andronicus, with Jeronimo, as belonging to "twenty-five or thirty years" previously this would carry back the date of the play (if it be of this Titus Andronicus that Jonson speaks) to 1589, or earlier. That it was a play of that period, and was re-touched by Shakespeare, we may accept as the opinion best supported by internal evidence and by the weight of critical authority. The importance of the tragedy lies in the fact that, if Shakespeare wrote it, we find him as a young man carried away by the influence of a"storm and stress" movement similar to that which urged Schiller to write his Robbers. Tous Andronicus belongs essentially to the pre-Shakespearean group of bloody tragedies, of which Kyd's Spanish Tragedy is the most conspicuous example. If it is of Shakespearean authorship, it may be regarded as representing the years of crude and violent youth before he had found his true self; his second tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, as representing the years of transition; and Hamlet, the period of maturity and adult power. ACT I. SCENE L. Rome. Before the Capitol. The Tomb of the ANDRONICI appearing; the Tribunes and Senators aloft. Enter, below, from one side, SATURNINUS and his Followers; and, from the other side. BASSIANUS and his Followers; with drum and colors. Sat. Noble patricians, patrons of my right, Defend the justice of my cause with arms, And, countrymen, my loving followers, Plead my successive title with your swords: I am his first-born son, that was the last That wore the imperial diadem of Rome; Then let my father's honors live in me, Nor wrong mine age with this indignity. Bas. Romans, friends, followers, favorers of my right, 10 If ever Bassianus, Cæsar's son, Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS, aloft, with the crown. And so I love and honor thee and thine, all, 50 Gracious Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament, I thank you all and here dismiss you all, [Exeunt the followers of Saturninus. Rome, be as just and gracious unto me 60 Bas. Tribunes, and me, a poor competitor. [Flourish. Saturninus and Bassianus go up into the Capitol. Enter a Captain. Cap. Romans, make way: the good An dronicus, Patron of virtue, Rome's best champion, Successful in the battles that he fights, With honor and with fortune is return'd From where he circumscribed with his sword And brought to yoke, the enemies of Rome. Drums and trumpets sounded. Enter MARTIUS and MUTIUS; after them, two Men bearing a coffin covered with black; then Lucius and QUINTUS. After them, TITUS ANDRONICUS ; and then TAMORA, with ALARBUS, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, AARON, and other Goths, prisoners; Soldiers and people following. The Bearers set down the coffin, and TITUS speaks. weeds! 70 Tit. Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning Lo, as the bark, that hath discharged her fraught, Returns with precious lading to the bay From whence at first she weigh'd her anchor age, Stand gracious to the rites that we intend ! Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword. Titus, unkind and careless of thine own, [The tomb is opened. There greet in silence, as the dead are wont, 90 And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars! |