The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus

Read

1. ACT 1.

   Rome chooses a new emperor as Titus returns in triumph with Gothic captives. His ritual sacrifice of Tamora's son, and his own killing of a son who defies him, plant the seeds of catastrophe; the new emperor Saturninus spurns Titus's daughter and weds the captive queen, who vows vengeance.

   1. Scene 1 — Rome. Before the Capitol.

      The late emperor's sons Saturninus and Bassianus contend for the throne. Titus returns victorious with the captive Tamora and her sons and, despite her pleas, sacrifices her eldest son Alarbus to appease his own slain sons. Offered the crown, Titus yields it to the elder Saturninus, who claims Titus's daughter Lavinia — already betrothed to Bassianus. When Bassianus carries her off and Titus's son Mutius helps, Titus kills Mutius in fury. Spurning Lavinia, Saturninus instead marries Tamora, who secretly swears to destroy the whole house of Andronicus while pretending to reconcile them.

2. ACT II.

   In the forest during a royal hunt, Tamora's revenge begins: her lover Aaron plots the murder of Bassianus and the rape of Lavinia. Bassianus is killed, Titus's sons are framed for it, and Lavinia is ravished and mutilated so she cannot name her attackers.

   1. Scene 1 — Rome. Before the palace.

      Aaron, raised high as the new empress's secret lover, exults in his fortune. Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius draw swords over their shared lust for Lavinia; Aaron stops the quarrel and counsels them to rape her together during the next day's hunt, where her cries will not be heard.

   2. Scene 2 — A Forest near Rome; a Lodge seen at a distance.

      At dawn the emperor's hunting party sets out into the forest with horns and hounds.

   3. Scene 3 — A lonely part of the Forest.

      Aaron buries gold to plant false evidence. Tamora joins him; Bassianus and Lavinia come upon them and taunt the empress, and her sons stab Bassianus and drag Lavinia away to rape her, deaf to her pleas. Aaron then lures Titus's sons Quintus and Martius to the pit where Bassianus's body lies and produces a forged letter, so Saturninus condemns the two innocent brothers for the murder.

   4. Scene 4 — Another part of the Forest.

      Chiron and Demetrius abandon the ravished Lavinia in the forest, her tongue cut out and her hands cut off so she can neither speak nor write her attackers' names, and mock her as they go. Her uncle Marcus finds her and pours out his grief.

3. ACT III.

   Titus pleads in vain for his condemned sons, is tricked into cutting off his own hand, and receives in return their severed heads. Grief tips toward madness, and he turns wholly to revenge as his banished son Lucius goes to raise an army of Goths.

   1. Scene 1 — Rome. A street.

      Titus begs the indifferent tribunes for his sons' lives. Aaron brings false word that the emperor will spare them if Titus, Marcus, or Lucius sends a severed hand; Titus lets Aaron strike off his own hand — and a messenger soon returns it with the heads of both sons. Past tears, Titus laughs and swears revenge, sending the banished Lucius to gather the Goths against Rome.

   2. Scene 2 — Rome. A Room in TITUS'S House. A banquet set out.

      At a meagre family meal the half-mad Titus reads sorrow into every gesture and strikes at a fly Marcus has killed — then stabs at it again because it is black, 'like to the empress' Moor.' (This 'fly scene' appears only in the 1623 Folio text.)

4. ACT IV.

   Lavinia names her attackers, and the Andronici learn the truth. Aaron's child by Tamora is born and betrays the affair; Aaron flees to protect it. Titus, in apparent madness, pelts the heavens and the court with petitions, while Lucius's Gothic army nears Rome.

   1. Scene 1 — Rome. Before TITUS'S House.

      Helped by her stumps and a staff guided in her mouth, Lavinia turns to the tale of Philomela in Ovid's Metamorphoses and writes her rapists' names — Chiron and Demetrius — in the sand. The family kneels and swears revenge.

   2. Scene 2 — Rome. A Room in the Palace.

      Titus sends Chiron and Demetrius weapons wrapped in a mocking Latin tag they fail to understand. A nurse brings out the baby Tamora has just borne — unmistakably Aaron's by its dark skin — with orders to kill it; Aaron instead kills the nurse, defends his son fiercely, and flees with him to the Goths.

   3. Scene 3 — Rome. A public Place.

      The grief-crazed Titus has his kinsmen shoot arrows carrying petitions to the gods over the palace walls, and sends a clown with a letter to the emperor.

   4. Scene 4 — Rome. Before the Palace.

      Saturninus, enraged by the arrows and Titus's message, hangs the clown — then learns that Lucius is marching on Rome at the head of a Gothic army, beloved by the people. Tamora, confident in her cunning, promises to lull Titus and persuade him to call off his son.

5. ACT V.

   Aaron, captured, confesses everything to save his child. Tamora's scheme to manage the mad Titus backfires: he traps and kills her sons, and at a banquet feeds them to her before the final bloodbath. Lucius is left to refound a shattered Rome.

   1. Scene 1 — Plains near Rome.

      Lucius and the Goths capture Aaron and his infant son. To save the child's life Aaron coldly recounts the whole conspiracy — the rape, the framing, the severed hand — glorying in his villainy and regretting only the good he failed to do.

   2. Scene 2 — Rome. Before TITUS'S House.

      Tamora, with her sons, comes disguised to the supposedly mad Titus as the allegorical figures 'Revenge,' 'Rape,' and 'Murder,' meaning to lure Lucius to a parley. Titus pretends to be deceived, persuades 'Revenge' to leave her two attendants with him, and has Chiron and Demetrius bound. He cuts their throats as Lavinia catches their blood, to grind their bones and bake them in a pie.

   3. Scene 3 — Rome. A Pavilion in TITUS'S Gardens, with tables, &c.

      At the banquet Titus, dressed as a cook, first kills Lavinia to end her shame, then reveals that Tamora has eaten her own sons and stabs her. Saturninus kills Titus; Lucius kills Saturninus. Order returns with the survivors: Lucius is proclaimed emperor, sentences Aaron to be buried chest-deep and starved, casts Tamora's corpse to the beasts, and calls Rome to heal its self-inflicted wounds.

Characters

• Titus Andronicus protagonist

  A victorious Roman general, rigid in honour and piety, who returns from ten years of war against the Goths having lost twenty-one sons. His ritual sacrifice of Tamora's eldest son sets a chain of revenge in motion that destroys his family; driven to apparent madness by the rape and mutilation of his daughter Lavinia, he repays Tamora with a monstrous banquet of her own children.

• Tamora antagonist

  Queen of the Goths, taken captive by Titus, who sacrifices her eldest son before her eyes. Married almost at once to the new Emperor Saturninus, she uses her place to revenge herself on the Andronici, abetting the rape of Lavinia and the framing of Titus's sons, while carrying on a secret affair with the Moor Aaron.

• Aaron antagonist

  A Moor, Tamora's lover and the play's chief schemer, who devises the rape and mutilation of Lavinia and the destruction of Titus's sons, and exults in his own villainy. The other characters heap racist contempt on him — language the play voices and Aaron defies; his one human bond is fierce devotion to his infant son, whom he refuses to let die.

• Marcus Andronicus major

  Titus's brother and a tribune of the people, the family's voice of grief and restraint. He finds the ravished, mutilated Lavinia and helps her name her attackers, and at the close calls on Rome to knit itself back together.

• Lucius major

  Titus's eldest surviving son, who demands the sacrifice that begins the feud and is later banished. He raises an army among Rome's enemies the Goths, marches on the city, and is proclaimed emperor at the play's end.

• Saturninus major

  Elder son of the late emperor, made emperor with Titus's backing. Petty, suspicious, and ruled by appetite, he takes the captive Tamora to wife when Lavinia is claimed by his brother, and becomes the instrument of her revenge.

• Lavinia major

  Titus's daughter, betrothed to Bassianus. After Bassianus is murdered she is raped by Chiron and Demetrius, who cut out her tongue and cut off her hands so she cannot name them; she at last reveals her attackers by writing their names in the sand with a staff held in her mouth.

• Bassianus supporting

  Saturninus's younger brother, betrothed to Lavinia, whom he carries off when Titus offers her to the new emperor. He is murdered by Tamora's sons in the forest, and his body used to frame Titus's sons.

• Demetrius supporting

  One of Tamora's two surviving sons. With his brother Chiron he murders Bassianus and rapes and mutilates Lavinia; Titus at last cuts both their throats and bakes them into the pie he serves their mother.

• Chiron supporting

  One of Tamora's two surviving sons, who with his brother Demetrius rapes and mutilates Lavinia. He is killed by Titus and baked into the banquet served to Tamora.

• Quintus minor

  A son of Titus, framed with his brother Martius for the murder of Bassianus and executed on Saturninus's order.

• Martius minor

  A son of Titus, framed with his brother Quintus for Bassianus's murder and beheaded. (Not to be confused with Caius Marcius of Coriolanus.)

• Mutius minor

  A son of Titus, killed by his own father in the opening scene for helping Bassianus carry off Lavinia.

• Young Lucius minor

  Lucius's young son and Titus's grandson, a frightened, loving boy who carries weapons and messages for his grandfather and recoils from the maimed Lavinia before she comforts him with Ovid.

• Publius minor

  Marcus's son and Titus's nephew, who helps seize Chiron and Demetrius for the final revenge.

• Aemilius minor

  A noble Roman who carries messages between Saturninus and the advancing Goths and proclaims Lucius emperor at the close.

• Nurse minor

  The nurse who brings out Tamora's newborn child by Aaron and is killed by Aaron to keep the birth secret.

• Clown minor

  A rustic countryman with a basket of pigeons whom Titus uses to carry a defiant message to the emperor; Saturninus has him hanged for it.

• Captain minor

  A Roman captain who announces the triumphant return of Titus in the opening scene.

• Messenger minor

  A messenger who brings Titus the severed heads of his sons and his own hand.

• Alarbus minor

  Tamora's eldest son (a silent role), sacrificed by the Andronici to appease the spirits of Titus's dead sons — the atrocity that sets Tamora's revenge in motion.

• Aaron's Child minor

  The infant born to Tamora and Aaron (a silent role), whose dark skin betrays the affair; Aaron kills to protect it and surrenders to save its life.

• First Goth minor

  One of the Goth soldiers who join Lucius's march on Rome.

• Second Goth minor

  One of the Goth soldiers in Lucius's army.

• Third Goth minor

  One of the Goth soldiers in Lucius's army.

• A Goth minor

  A Goth soldier who discovers Aaron and the child hiding in a ruined monastery and brings them to Lucius.

• Goths ensemble

  The army of Goths who follow the banished Lucius against Rome, speaking as one.

• Tribunes ensemble

  The tribunes and senators of Rome speaking together.

• Romans ensemble

  The Roman people speaking as one, who at the close acclaim Lucius emperor.

• All ensemble

  The company on stage answering in unison.

Cross-references

• Folger Shakespeare
• MIT plain text
• Wikipedia