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Part II Roedy of Titus Andronicus

Of the four plays and one narrative history which are set in Rome, Titus Andronicus is the only one that does not deal with accepted Roend It is utter fiction Not one character in it, not one event, is to be found in history

What's ruesome of Shakespeare's plays, and the one in which the horror seems present entirely for the sake of horror

Indeed, Titus Andronicus is so unpleasant a play that hted to be able to believe it was not written by Shakespeare They cannot do so, however There are conteedy, which also place the ti at about 1593 It is an early play but by no means the earliest, and Shakespeare could surely have done better than Titus Andronicus by this time

Apparently, what Shakespeare was doing was experie I-270) These blood-and-thunder plays written about horrible cries were immensely popular in Elizabethan tunes Thomas Kyd, for instance, had written such a draun his dramatic career, and had scored an immense success

Shakespeare had no objection to success and was perfectly willing to adjust hiave full vent to blood, cruelty, disaster, and revenge Indeed, he went so far that one can al ust of the whole genre

the imperial diadem of Rome

The play opens in Ro a new Emperor

The two candidates for the throne are the two sons of the old Eer Both are cla for acceptance by the people Saturninus stresses the fact that he is the elder:

/ am his first-born son that was the last

That ware the imperial diadem of Rome;

Then let my father's honors live in me

- Act I, scene i, lines 5-7

The younger son, with a lesser claiins:

// ever Bassianus, Caesar's son,

Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,

- Act I, scene i, lines 10-11

Who the Emperor as "the last that ware the imperial diadem of Rome" is never stated

To be sure, Bassianus calls himself "Caesar's son," but this is not a reference to Julius Caesar (see page I-253) or Octavius Caesar (see page I-292) All Roman emperors were called "Caesar," for that was one of the royal titles (see page I-390)

In fact, the identity of the just-dead Roman Emperor couldn't possibly be deteramation of different periods of Roman history There is a panoply of senators, tribunes, and coh it were of the stern period of the Roman Republic, as in Coriolanus On the other hand, we have emperors, of a later period, and barbarian invaders of a still later period

The names of the sons have some points of interest The only important Saturninus in real Roman history was a radical politician as killed about 100 bc in the years when the Roan the public disorders that were eventually to kill it As for Bassianus, the na the names of three of the emperors of the dynasty of Septimius Severus, who ruled in the early third century

The elder son of Septimius Severus was Bassianus He succeeded on his father's death in 211 Bassianus did not rule under that name but was universally called "Caracalla," a nickna cloak (caracalla) he habitually wore

Bassianus had a younger brother, Geta, as supposed to have inherited the e with him The two brothers were deadly enemies, however, and by 212 Bassianus had killed Geta under particularly cruel circumstances

Thus, the competition between Saturninus and Bassianus in the play seems to reflect, faintly, the competition between Bassianus and Geta in history

In one respect, in fact, the tiht to be the latest period in which the play could be set, for it treats of a thoroughly pagan Ron of Christianity in the play, yet after Cara-calla's tiion inore

There are, however, other aspects of the play that make the time of Caracalla far too early

As it happens, there is in existence a tale called The Tragical History of Titus Andronicus, of which the only known copy was published about a century and a half after Shakespeare's play ritten That copy inal h to serve as Shakespeare's source

In the booklet the tin of Theodosius, by whom is probably meant the most famous Emperor of that name, Theodosius I He ruled from 379 to 395, nearly two centuries after Caracalla

When Theodosius died, he left behind two sons, but these, unlike the sons of Septimius Severus (or those in the play), did not compete for the throne They inherited the co-e the Eastern half fro the Western half from Rome

To be sure, by the tihly Christian and Theodosius hianism of the play would then beco the horrible events that take place in it, the existence of Christianity would be e)

surnamed Pius

It turns out that there are factions in Rome ant neither son of the old Eeneral The announcement is made by Marcus Andronicus the tribune, who happens to be a brother of that general He says:

Know that the people of Rome, for e stand

A special party, have by common voice,

Chosen Andronicus, surnamed Pius

For reat deserts to Rome

- Act I, scene i, lines 20-23

Andronicus is the Titus Andronicus of the tide The surname of "Pius" was sometimes used in Roman history to indicate a ods The e is that of Ened fron saw the Roman Empire at its most peaceful

the barbarous Goths

The special clairatitude of Ro Marcus says:

He by the senate is accited home

Froainst the barbarous Goths

- Act I, scene i, lines 27-28

Further time, as Marcus further explains:

Ten years are spent since first he undertook

This cause of Rome, and chastised with arms

Our enemies' pride:

- Act I, scene i, lines 31-33

The Goths were a group of Ger the Ro after the time of Caracalla They were badly defeated in 269 by the Roman Emperor Claudius II, who called himself Claudius Gothicus in consequence, but who died the year after

The Gothic htened for a century thereafter In 375, however, a group of these Goths (of tribes known as Visigoths) were driven into the Roman Empire by the Huns Within the border of the Ereat battle at Adrianople in 378 Theodosius, e have ed to contain the Gothic menace by diplomacy and judicious bribery, rather than by military victories

After Theodosius' death, the Visigoths raided Italy and took Rome itself in 410 They were not defeated at this tune but wandered out of Italy of their own accord and finally set up a kingdom in southern France that eventually expanded into and over all Spaoths, invaded Italy and set up a kingdom there

Up to this point, there isn'tany Roman that can serve as an inspiration for Titus Andronicus Nowhere is there a general who fought long wars against the Goths and won We must look still later in time

In the prose story The Tragical History of Titus Andronicus, the Goths are said to have invaded Italy under their king "Tottilius"

Actually there was a king of the Ostrogoths, of nearly that naht in Italy He was Totila, who ruled from 541 to 552

Here is what happened Although the Germanic tribes had settled the Western provinces of the Roman Empire, the Eastern provinces remained intact and were ruled from Constantinople In 527 Justinian became Roman Emperor in Constantinople and was detereneral, Belisarius, to Italy, and with that began a twenty-year (not a mere ten-year) war of Roman and Goth, in which the Romans were eventually victorious

Belisarius won initial victories, but the Goths rallied when Totila becaeneral, Narses (a eunuch, the only one of importance in military history), who finally defeated Totila in 552 and coical History Titus Andronicus was a governor of Greece and came from Greece to rescue Italy, and that fits too

Again, the name "Andronicus" is best known in history as that of several emperors who ruled in Constantinople, so that the very name of Titus Andronicus focuses our attention on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire Finally, both Belisarius and Narses were ill requited by ungrateful eeneral of the title is ill requited by an ungrateful Emperor

We can suppose then that Titus Andronicus was inspired by the events of the tune of Belisarius and Narses, but none of the events in the play actually match the events in history

Half of the number

The two royal brothers retire before the awesoeneral

In comes Titus Andronicus with a coffin and draws sad attention to his fas in the wars:

of five and twenty valiant sons,

Half of the nu Priam had,

Behold the poor remains, alive and dead!

- Act I, scene i, lines 79-81

Priaend credited with fifty sons Of Titus' twenty-five sons, no less than twenty have died in the course of the ten-year ith the Goths The twenty-first is brought back dead in his coffin fro sons attend it sorrowfully

Also with them are Tamora, the captured Queen of the Goths, and her three sons

the dreadful shore of Styx

Andronicus' first care is to bury the dead son with due pagan rites He reproaches hi so slow to do it:

Titus, unkind and careless of thine own,

Why suffer'st thou thy sons, unburied yet,

To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?

- Act I, scene i, lines 86-88

The Styx is the river that marks the boundary of Hades The shades of dead men cannot cross that river till they have been buried with the proper ritual, and must till then hover disconsolately on its shore

Scythia

Andronicus' sons demand that a human sacrifice be dedicated on the occasion of the funeral of their dead brother so that his soul may rest in peace (An exa)

Titus Andronicus orders Alarbus, the oldest son of Tamora, Queen of the Goths, to be so sacrificed Taainst it in a speech that can't help but appeal to us, but the stern Titus insists, not out of cruelty but out of what he conceives to be religious devotion

Chiron, Taest son, cries out:

Was never Scythia half so barbarous

- Act I, scene i, line 131

When Greece was at its height, the Scythians were a nomadic people who lived on the plains north of the Black Sea The Greeks knew little about them, but knew the area they inhabited to be tree They were for some reason considered the epitoned, has been used in that fashion ever since

the Thracian tyrant

Ta son, Demetrius, sounds a darker note:

The selfsaods that armed the Queen of Troy

With opportunity of sharp revenge

Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent

May favor Tamora, the Queen of Goths,

- Act I, scene i, lines 136-39

The Trojan Queen is Hecuba (see page I-85), who had sent her youngest son, Polydorus, for safekeeping to the court of the Thracian king, Polymnestor After the fall of Troy, when all of Hecuba's other children were killed (save Helenus), Polymnestor was persuaded by the Greeks to kill Polydorus too

Hecuba discovered this and persuaded Poly to reveal to him a treasure in its ruins He ca to the tale, Hecuba in a fit of despairing fury ed to stab his two sons to death and tear out Polymnestor's eyes

Nevertheless, the sacrifice takes place and Lucius, the oldest of Titus' reoriness:

Alarbus' limbs are lopped,

And entrails feed the sacrificing fires,

- Act I, scene i, lines 143-44

With that, the tale of double revenge begins-first Tamora's and then Titus' And Demetrius' allusion to Hecuba indicates the crude and brutal bloodiness of what is ahead

to Solan's happiness

Titus' twenty-first son is thus buried and his brother, Marcus, points out (prophetically) that it is safer to be dead:

safer triumph is this funeral pomp,

That hath aspired to Salon's happiness

- Act I, scene i, lines 176-77

This refers to the tale (probably apocryphal) of the visit of the great Athenian lawgiver, Solon, to the Asia Minor kingdo of Lydia, Croesus, displayed his treasures to Solon and then asked the Greek if this was not happiness indeed Solon replied, sternly, "Call no man happy till he is dead" In other words, while there is life there is the possibility of disaster

Of course, the disasters come Croesus is defeated by Cyrus the Persian, his country is taken away, his throne is lost, and he himself is placed at the stake to be burned to death Then he remembers Solon's remark and calls out the Athenian's na the story, spares Croesus' life

the sacred Pantheon

The throne is offered Titus Andronicus, who refuses it on the ground that he is too old The sons of the old Eain, but Andronicus ends it by speaking for Saturninus, the elder He calls him:

Lord Saturnine; whose virtues will, I hope,

Reflect on Rome as Titan's rays on Earth,

- Act I, scene i, lines 225-26

Titan is, of course, one of the nae I-11) Saturninus is proratitude:

Titus, to advance Thy name and honorable family,

Lavinia will I make my empress

Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart,

And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse

- Act I, scene i, lines 238-42

Lavinia is Titus' daughter, noble and virtuous Her nahter of Latinus, as king of that region in Italy where Ro to Italy froe I-20), married Lavinia and founded the city of Lavinium, naa and that, in turn, was the parent city of Rome

A pantheon ("all gods") is any building dedicated to the gods generally The Pantheon is in Rorippa (see page I-340), the general and son-in-law of Octavius Caesar, in 27 bc It was rebuilt in its present form about ad 120 by the E that remains in perfect preservation and it is still a place of worship, having been consecrated a Christian church in 609 In the tian teans left in Italy)

the stately Phoebe

All seems well and then, with the suddenness of a su falls apart

Bassianus, the new Eer brother, sets up a cry that Lavinia is his and begins to carry her away Lavinia's four brothers are on Bassianus' side in this-apparently there is a recognized betrothal here, although no hint of that was given earlier-and so is Lavinia's uncle, Marcus

Only Titus Andronicus stands out against theiven Lavinia to Saturninus

Titus dashes after his sons and kills Mutius, one of them This is the twenty-second son of Titus to die

Saturninus, however, orders Andronicus to et Lavinia back He has suddenly fallen in love with Tamora anyway and prefers to have the Gothic Queen as his wife He describes her as:

lovely Tamora, Queen of Goths,

That like the stately Phoebe 'st her nymphs

Dost overshine the gallant'st dames of Rome,

- Act I, scene i, lines 316-18

This cooddess of the moon (with alternate names like Selene, Diana, and Arteht aptly be cooddess, but is the ed rown sons

Nevertheless, Saturninus prepares to marry her at once:

Sith priest and holy water are so near,

And tapers burn so bright and everything

In readiness for Hymenaeus stand,

- Act I, scene i, lines 324-26

Hye I-55)

wise Laertes' son

Titus Andronicus, defied by his fa, suddenly finds himself alone and dishonored, only minutes after he had been offered the imperial crown itself

Yet Titus sticks to honor He is even unwilling to have his dead son buried in the fa Titus' conception of proper obedience to the Eues:

The Greeks upon advice did bury Ajax

That slew himself; and wise Laertes' son

Did graciously plead for his funerals:

- Act I, scene i, lines 380-82

Ajax and Ulysses contended for the are I-110) When Ulysses received the award, Ajax went mad and killed himself Marcus points out that the Greeks, despite the dishonor of Ajax's last deeds, his ive hireatness of his earlier deeds Ulysses hiued in favor of that

Given this precedent, Titus allows the burial of his twenty-second son

Other reconciliations are also made Tamora, the new E the Eer brother, Bassianus (now eneral, Titus Andronicus (Nevertheless, she proe on them all in due time)

Titus Andronicus accepts the new peace and suggests a great hunt for the next day

Prometheus tied to Caucasus

All now leave the stage after the single action-packed scene of the first act, and one person alone ree le line It is Aaron the Moor Behind his existence is soround

The ancient Greeks could not help but notice that the inhabitants of the southern shores of the Mediterranean were somewhat darker in complexion than they themselves were There would be a tendency to call the inhabitants of northern Africa "the dark ones"

The Greek word for "dark" is mauros, and this name came to be applied to north Africans In Latin the word becain, in particular, of the nadom on the northwestern shoulder of the African continent, which cadoustus' tie I-385)

From the Latin lish "Moors" In the eighth century arion) invaded Spain and southern France In the ninth century they invaded Sicily and Italy Europeans ca intimacy

(There was a tendency for the Spaniards, who did not evict the Moors till nearly eight centuries had passed after their first invasion, to apply the name to all Moslems In 1565 they occupied the Philippine Islands and were astonished to find tribes in the southern islands ere Moslems Two centuries before the Spaniards ca the islands and Moslem missionaries had converted the natives The Spaniards called these southern Filipinos Moros, and the name is retained even today)

In the fifteenth century, the Portuguese ht back black slaves and there began a new version of the abominable practice of human slavery Since it was customary to call Africans "Moors," this new variety of African was called "black Moors" or "blackaht still be called simply "Moors"

Aaron, in this play, though called a Moor, is distinctly a blackamoor, as we can tell fro present in the Italy of Belisarius' time is not entirely zero After all, the power of the East Roman Emperor, Justinian, extended far up the Nile Why he should be associated with the Gothic ar-but then there is no question of any historical accuracy He is introduced merely as a convenient villain

A "Moor" would make a wonderful villain and an inhue and therefore repulsive features of a black face and the habit of equating blackness with the devil made blacks a natural stereotype for villainy (Such irrational thinking on the part of whites has caused innuonies then and since)

Aaron ruminates on Tamora's sudden climb to the peak but is not disturbed thereby Her rise is his as well, and he tells himself to:

fit thy thoughts

To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress,

And

Hast prisoner held, fettered in amorous chains,

And faster bound to Aaron's char eyes

Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus

- Act II, scene i, lines 12-17

Proave it to poor shivering mortals, in defiance of a decree of Zeus In punishment Zeus chained him with divine, unbreakable fetters to Mount Caucasus (which Greeks iave its nae of mountains which is really there)

The fact that Tamora is so in love with Aaron mirrors another convention that was found in the literature of the tiine that black men had some unusual power of attraction over white women; perhaps because of their supposedly more primitive "animal" nature and therefore their supposedly more powerful sexual prowess

this Semiramis

Aaron goes on to glory in the prospect of ill come He expects

To wanton with this queen,

This goddess, this Semiramis, this nymph,

This siren, that will charm Rome's Saturnine

And see his shipwrack and his commonweal's

- Act II, scene i, lines 21-24

In 810 bc a queen, Sado or effectively, and Assyria was, at the time, rather weak In the next century, however, Assyria rose to world power and dominated western Asia with its fearful and ruthless armies

The dunAssyria was once ruled by a woman seemed to impress the Greeks, for they distorted Saends around her She was supposed to have been a great conquering ned forty-two years, and even tried to conquer India

As if this were not enough to render her colorful, the Greeks also iined her to be a monster of lust and luxury with numerous lovers and insatiable desires, so that the name "Seh place

Vulcan's badge

Aaron's soliloquy is interrupted by Ta sons, Chiron and Demetrius, who have suddenly decided, each one of the over it Aaron reminds them that she is the wife of Bassianus, the Emperor's brother This does not bother Demetrius, who says:

Though Bassianus be the Emperor's brother,

Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge

- Act II, scene i, lines 88-89

This is a reference to Vulcan's cuckoldry, thanks to the love affair of his wife, Venus, with Mars (see page I-11)

Aaron thinks the quarrel is foolish Why don't they both enjoy Lavinia in turn? To do this, persuasion will not be enough, for, as he says:

Lucrece was not more chaste

Than this Lavinia,

- Act II, scene i, lines 108-9

Lucrece, of course, is the Roe I-205), and is Shakespeare's favorite symbol of chastity (The Rape of Lucrece ritten at just about the tiht it be that this line set Shakespeare to thinking of the poe on in his mind and inspired this line?)

There are other ways than persuasion to win Lavinia, however Coolly, Aaron points out that in the course of the next day's hunt, they ht aree enthusiastically

Saturn is dominator

Ti its course, Aaron finds a spot in the forest where he old for a nefarious purpose that is still in the future

Taes him on to dalliance such as

The wandering prince and Dido once enjoyed,

- Act II, scene iii, line 22

This is another reference to Dido and Aeneas (see page I-20), a favorite mythical standby of Shakespeare's

Aaron, however, has more important business at hand He says:

Madaovern your desires,

Saturn is dominator over mine:

- Act II, scene iii, lines 30-31

Astrologically speaking, each person is born under the domination of a particular planet which determines the major component of his or her personality The nature of the influence of Venus is obvious

Saturn is, of all the planets visible to the unaided eye, the farthest fro the stars To be born under Saturn then is to be as heavy, grave, and gloo planet; to be "saturnine," in short

His Philomel

Aaron goes on to explain why he is so grave and glooe are in his mind and he refers to:

My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls

Even as an adder when she doth unroll

To do some fatal execution?

- Act II, scene iii, lines 34-36

Mention of his "fleece of woolly hair" shows clearly that Shakespeare has in mind a black African and not the swarthy but non-black Moors of north Africa

Aaron goes on to specifics, indicating that he has set in motion a horrible fate for Lavinia He says:

This is the day of doom for Bassianus:

His Philoue today,

- Act II, scene iii, lines 42-43

One of the ruesome Greek myths deals with two sisters: Philo of Athens The latter was given inof Thrace Tereus, however, fell in love with Philo her to his court, raped her Then, in order to prevent her fro his slaves

The phrase "lose her tongue" can therefore be a metaphoric reference to rape It turns out to be a literal forecast in this play

as was Actaeon's

Aaron gives Tamora a letter to be used later in the development of his plan and leaves

At this point, Bassianus and Lavinia enter All are at the hunt, of course, and Ta costuoddess of the hunt, by Bassianus Ta and says:

Had I the power that some say Dion had

Thy temples should be planted presently

With horns, as was Actaeon's, and the hounds

Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs,

- Act II, scene iii, lines 61-64

Actaeon was a hunter in the Greek myths, who, in the course of a hunt, ca, he stopped to watch When he was caught at his peeping by Diana's ny so that his own hounds ran him down and killed him

The reference to the horns on Bassianus' head undoubtedly has the secondary purpose of referring to the planned rape of his wife

your swart Cimmerian

Bassianus and Lavinia strike back by i far less innocent than bathing and speak openly of her liaison with Aaron Bassianus says:

Believe me, Queen, your swart Cimmerian

Doth make your honor of his body's hue,

- Act II, scene iii, lines 72-73

The Scythians, who lived north of the Black Sea (see page I-397), ar-rived there only in 700 bc Before that, the land was populated by those who into he northern riht to derive its name from hem)

The Ciions were ends arose concerning thelooht back tales of the polar regions)

As a result, one speaks of "Ci the ultimate in darkness Aaron is a "Cimmerian" not because he comes from the Far North, but because his skin is so dark

Cocytus" misty mouth

But now the cruel in to work

Tamora's two sons, Chiron and Demetrius, enter Tamora tells them that she has been lured to the spot by Bassianus and Lavinia for evil purposes The two Gothic princes pro Lavinia offstage to rape her, each in turn, with Tairl's pleas forher of how Titus Andronicus had refused her own pleas for mercy for her oldest son

She leaves and Aaron enters, guiding Quintus and Martius, two of Andronicus' three re sons Martius slips into the pit in which Bassianus' body is hidden and while Quintus leans over anxiously to find out if he is hurt, Aaron slips away

Martius discovers the body of Bassianus and is horrified He says:

So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus,

When he by night lay bathed in maiden blood

O brother, helphand-

If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath-

Out of this fell devouring receptacle

As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth

- Act II, scene iii, lines 231-36

Pyramus was an ill-fated lover in the ancient tale, who died by e I-23) Cocytus is one of the five rivers of the underworld and its na" It is meant to symbolize the sorrow of death

A craftier Tereus

The horrors continue Aaron brings the Emperor Saturninus on the scene and Quintus and Martius are found with Bassianus' body The forged letter, prepared by Aaron, is produced to make it seem that the two had bribed a huntsold Aaron had planted on the scene is also produced

Titus' sons, having been effectively fraed off to imprisonment at once

All leave and Tae They have raped Lavinia and have cut out her tongue to prevent her telling They have, however, gone the old Greek myth one better, for they have cut off her hands as well Chiron says, with sadistic humor:

Write down thyso,

And if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe

- Act II, scene iv, lines 3-4

The princes leave, and Marcus, the brother of Titus Andronicus, corasps the ht at once and says:

Fair Philoue,

And in a tedious sampler sewed her mind:

But lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee;

A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,

And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,

That could have better sewed than Philomel

- Act II, scene iv, lines 38-43

In the Greek ue cut out and been placed in the slaves' quarters She could use her hands to reveal her secret, however, for she prepared a tapestry in which she wove the legend, "Philo the slaves" This was delivered to her sister, Procne, who took instant action, liberating Philoe

By cutting off Lavinia's hands, the villainous princes had deprived her of Philomela's chance

Marcus Andronicus finds it hard to believe anyone could havethe malefactor, Marcus says that

had he heard the heavenly harmony

Which that sweet tongue hath made,

He would have dropped his knife, and fell asleep

As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet

- Act II, scene iv, lines 48-51

Orpheus, the sweet-singing minstrel from Thrace ("the Thracian poet"), descended into the underworld in order to win back his dead love, Eurydice (see page I-47) On approaching Cerberus (see page I-101), the three-headed hellhound who guarded the entrance, he sang so soft and sweet a lullaby that even that horrible creature fell asleep and let him pass unharmed

Tarquin and his queen

Uniinable miseries now heap themselves on Titus Andronicus His two sons, Quintus and Martius, are being led to execution and no one will hear his pleas on their behalf His one re son, Lucius, has tried to rescue his brothers by force, has failed, and is sentenced to exile Marcus then brings him the mutilated Lavinia and Titus breaks into fresh woe

All is interrupted by Aaron, who brings the news that if one of the Andronici, Titus, Marcus, or Lucius, will sacrifice a hand, that hand would be accepted as an exchange for the lives of Titus' two sons, ould then be returned free After an argument over which Andronicus should make the sacrifice, Titus wins out and his hand is struck off

This is but to add to the sorrows of Titus, however, for his stricken hand is soon returned and with it the heads of his two sons, who had been executed anyway Of all Titus' children, there now remain only Lucius and the mutilated Lavinia

Tae for the loss of her son and now it is Titus who begins to plan revenge So does Lucius, still under sentence of exile Alone on the stage, he plans to go abroad and raise an ar to his absent father, in soliloquy:

// Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs, And ates, like Tarquin and his queen

- Act III, scene i, lines 296-98

Tarquin was the last king of ancient Roe I-211) He had occasion to stand at the gates of Roet the throne back, and failed To be sure, he didn't beg in the usual sense of the word He had an army at his back

The idea of revenge by means of an outside army fits in just a little with the time of Belisarius and Narses Belisarius hirateful Eend has hi in the streets (The legend has no basis in truth, however)

Belisarius' successor, Narses, is a different e, and after Justinian's death, when Narses was eneral was ordered hoend (probably not true) his recall was accoe He was told that since he was a eunuch, he should return and confine hi ith the palace maidens

The insulted Narses said, "I will spin them such a skein as they will not easily unravel" and invited the barbarous Lombards to invade Italy-which they did most effectively

Cornelia never with more care

The play now shifts to the Andronicus house For the first tirandson of Titus appears He is a son of Lucius and is also named Lucius

Young Lucius enters, carrying books and running Mute Lavinia is running after hihtened but Titus and Marcus catch and co him that Lavinia means him no harm, and loves him Titus says:

Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care

Read to her sons than she hath read to thee

Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator

- Act IV, scene i, lines 12-14

The Cornelia referred to was a daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio, the Roeneral who finally defeated Hannibal in 202 bc Cornelia was considered the model of the virtuous Ro-and utterly devoted to her two sons

These two sons received the finest education available at the time So proud was she of them that when another Roman matron, on a visit, displayed her jewelry and asked to see Cornelia's, the latter merely pointed to her sons "These are my jewels," she said

As for Tully, that is a nareat Roe I-268) is solish One of his fa the Orator), and it is to this that Titus refers

Ovid's Metamorphoses

But Lavinia stirs the books that young Lucius has let fall, concentrating on one, which the boy identifies for his grandfather:

Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses:

My ave it me

- Act IV, scene i, lines 42-43

One of the e I-8), which deals with tales of transfors into other forms, is that of Philomela and Procne, for in the end, Philoale and Procne into a s Lavinia wants to find that tale in order to have Titus and Marcus understand that her mutilation was the result of a rape

Clearly, this shows haste on Shakespeare's part After all, Marcus has guessed as much when he first encountered Lavinia after the mutilation He then said:

But, sure, some Tereus hath deflowered thee,

And, lest thou shouldst detect hiue

- Act II, scene iv, lines 26-27

It now occurs to Marcus that a person can write with a stick in the sand by holding that stick in hisit with his wrists Hands are not required at all Lavinia uses this uilty ones Now Titus is certain against whoe

not Enceladus

Apparently considerable ti of the play, for Tamora is about to have a baby and it is to be presumed that the Emperor Saturninus is the father However, events have miscarried It is Aaron, not Saturninus who is the father, and this is shown all too plainly in that the baby is a black infant

Naturally, this fact must be hidden, or Tamora's infidelity will be plain even to Saturninus and she will be destroyed The Nurse who attended Tas the baby to Aaron, with instructions from Tamora to kill it and destroy the evidence

But Aaron, in this one respect, departs from the line of flat villainy He becoely fore-echo the pride of the black activists of the 1960s, cries out to the Nurse, who is expressing disgust at the child:

Zounds, ye whore! Is black so base a hue?

Sweet blowze, you are a beauteous blossom, sure

- Act IV, scene ii, lines 71-72

When Chiron and Demetrius, who are also present, offer to kill their baby half brother to secure their :

I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus,

With all his threat'ning band of Typhon's brood,

Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war,

Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands

- Act IV, scene ii, lines 93-96

Enceladus was one of a brood of treht forth by Mother Earth, as annoyed to see Jupiter (Zeus) and his fellow gods destroy the Titans, for the Titans had been her children

The giants, under Enceladus' leadership, fought the gods in a battle which, in the versions that reach us, seem to be described as a burlesque of Hoerations For instance, Enceladus is killed by Athena, who throws a huge mountain at him; a mountain that flattens him and becomes the island of Sicily

Aaron's reiants are the offspring of Typhon, but this is not so Typhon was born after the defeat of the giants and was the greatest and reat duel and was almost victor, for he cut out and hid the sinews of Jupiter's hands and feet and paralyzed the great god It wasn't till Mercury (Herod of thieves, stole back the sinews and restored Jupiter's powers ofbolts of the king of the gods

After the o on to Alcides (Hercules) and the god of war (Mars) seems distinct anticlimax

The Gothic princes wilt before Aaron's fury and ask him what he , by one, the nue the baby for a white one ill be made heir to the throne while Aaron will secretly raise his own black baby to become a warrior

one of Taurus' horns

In preparing his revenge, Titus feigns madness, meanwhile, in order to throw Saturninus and Tamora off the scent and lull them into a false security Titus' h to make the onset of madness plausible) consists of a wild search for justice through Heaven and Hell He cries out:

I'll dive into the burning lake below,

And pull her [justice] out of Acheron by the heels

- Act IV, scene iii, lines 44-45

The Acheron is another of the rivers of Hades (Two others, Styx and Cocytus, have already been mentioned in this play)

Titus goes on to bes of the Andronici, in the face of so huge an undertaking as the search for justice He says to his brother:

Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we,

No big-boned men framed of the Cyclops' size

- Act IV, scene iii, lines 46-47

The Cyclopes were one-eyed giants who forged the lightning for Jupiter They were also a race of giants who lived on Sicily in the time of the Trojan War At least Ulysses, on his return from Troy, falls in with one of them in particular, Polyphemus, and defeats him-one of the best-known events in the Odyssey

The main thrust of the search for justice, however, consists in shooting arrows into the sky with letters attached; letters that plead with the gods for justice Titus has all the Andronici helping him in this respect He advances his own apparentto see the effects of the action in the constellations, which he describes as though having literal existence

He exclai Lucius:

Good boy, in Virgo's lap; give it Pallas

- Act IV, scene iii, line 65

To Publius, the son of Marcus, he says:

Publius, Publius, what hast thou done!

See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns

- Act IV, scene iii, lines 69-70

Virgo (the Maiden) and Taurus (the Bull) are both included ans of the zodiac Very likely inary creatures pieced out in the sky by the i stars existed there in literal truth The huht that man-hurled arrows could reach theoddess Athena)

Marcus keeps the play atHe says to Titus:

When Publius shot,

The bull being galled, gave Aries such a knock

That down fell both the Ram's horns in the court,

And who should find them but the Empress' villain? [Aaron]

She [Tahed, and told the Moor he should not

choose But give them to his master for a present

- Act IV, scene iii, lines 71-76

Aries (the Rahbors Taurus so that one can well iet off a kind of joke beloved by the Elizabethans, concerning the cuckolding of the Emperor

as ever Coriolanus did

If it is Titus' plan to lull the Emperor and Empress into total security, it falls short Saturninus is furious at the letters of appeal to the heavens, since they end in Rorow to sympathize with the ill-treated Titus

The Emperor is further irritated by a Clown (a lowborn person, that is) who delivers a e to hied

He prepares to go further and have Titus arrested, when a ates of Rome:

They hither march amain, under conduct

Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;

Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do

As much as ever Coriolanus did

- Act IV, scene iv, lines 66-69

Coriolanus was a legendary figure in early Roe for what he considered mistreatment, raised an enee to Rome Fifteen years after Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus he wrote Coriolanus about the earlier event (see page I-245)

Tamora, however, promises to make Lucius into a Coriolanus indeed Coriolanus withdreithout taking Roe I-250) Now Ta his son to withdraw (She is not aware that Titus has discovered the full extent of the villainy of her sons)

worse than Procne

The scene shifts to the outskirts of Ro the Gothic army to the city's walls A Goth has captured Aaron, who has been trying to find a place of safety for his baby Lucius, when Aaron is brought to hi father and child, and, to save the baby, Aaron confesses all

Meanwhile, Tamora has worked out her plan to persuade Titus to call off his son She proposes to take advantage of his e and her two sons as Rape and Murder (that is, as spirits specifically designed to avenge those two crimes)