TITUS ANDRONICUS

an early, experimental tragedy by William Shakespeare, produced in 159394 and published in a quarto edition from foul papers in 1594. The First Folio version was prepared from a copy of the quarto, with additions from a manuscript that had been used as a promptbook. The play's crude, melodramatic style and its many savage incidents led many critics to believe it was not written by Shakespeare. Modern criticism, however, tends to regard the play as authentic. Although not ranked with Shakespeare's other great Roman plays, Titus Andronicus relates its story of revenge and political strife with a uniformity of tone and consistency of dramatic structure. Sources for the story include Euripides' Hecuba, Seneca's Thyestes and Troades, and parts of Ovid and Plutarch. Titus Andronicus returns to Rome after defeating the Goths, bringing with him Queen Tamora, whose eldest son he has sacrificed. The late emperor's son Saturninus is supposed to marry Titus' daughter Lavinia; however, when his brother Bassianus runs away with her instead, Saturninus marries Tamora. Saturninus and Tamora then plot revenge against Titus. Beginning with the rape and mutilation of Lavinia, bloodshed and brutality run rampant, culminating in a cannibalistic banquet scene. a noble Roman general in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. The hero of the play, Titus is an elderly and accomplished general with a deep sense of honour and morality. Yet his devotion to these codes often clouds his better judgment and leads him to rash and cruel behaviour. His simple nature and hot temper leave him vulnerable to deception. He seems to be an early model of the later Shakespearean tragic heroes Othello and King Lear.