Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus may be
Shakespeare's earliest
tragedy. It depicts a fictional
Roman general engaged in a cycle of
revenge with his enemy, the Queen of the
Goths.
Date and Authorship
Titus was written in the early 1590s. There is strong evidence that the first Act was written by George Peele, who may also have written the scene in which Lavinia uses Ovid's Metamorphoses to explain that she has been raped. The assertion of Peele's hand in the play is controversial, and those who admire the play tend to argue against it, but calling a play a collaboration does not necessarily mean that it is unworthy of attention.
Reputation
Titus Andronicus is perhaps 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). The play is frequently dismissed for its violence, and more fastidious Shakespeare lovers refer to it either as childish juvenilia, or believe that he wrote it solely to make money with some populist trash. However, in the late twentieth century, the play has been revived frequently on stage and has been revealed as a powerful and moving exploration of violence that is precursor of King Lear's bleakness. The play speaks to modern audiences, who are used to violence in film, in a way that it could not to Victorian audiences. The character of Titus has been played by important actors such as Laurence Olivier, Brian Cox, Anthony Sher and Anthony Hopkins, and is increasingly being regarded as one of the great Shakespearean roles.
Movie Versions
\n* \Titus 1999, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange
External links
\n* http://classics.mit.edu/Shakespeare/titus/ - Full text of play\n* Titus Andronicus - searchable, indexed e-text.\n*The Tragedie of Titus Andronicus - HTML version of this title.\n*Titus Andronicus - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
\nCategory:Shakespearean tragedies
