4:38 Titus Andronicus

Day 4 of 38:38
Titus Andronicus

Oh, Titus Andronicus. I find this to be clearly one of Shakespeare's earlier works, because even though there are a lot of things I love about it, the verse just isn't that elegant. And the plotting in the second half of the play is rather weak ("You look just like Tamora." "I'm not, I'm Revenge." "Oh, great." "Ha, we fooled him!") Still, I'm a fan of the play. One of my great sadnesses in life is that I will never get to play Aaron. Maybe there will be some crazy director who would let me play Edmund or Iago... but I'm pretty sure Aaron is never going to happen. Ah well, I will just have to wait until I am old enough for Tamora and then play the hell out of that role.

As for what aspect of the play I will blog about... well let's talk about sources and influences. Whenever talking about why Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus, people tend to point to Marlowe. Well I'm here to point you to an under-appreciated early modern playwright who truly began the genre of Revenge Tragedy. That would be none other than Marlowe's one-time roommate, Thomas Kyd. The play, under-appreciated as well, The Spanish Tragedy. This is a really good play, that no one ever puts on. Which is why I directed about one year ago. The Spanish Tragedy works as a piece of theatre, but it is also fascinating as a piece of theatre history. If you ever read or see this play, you will find echoes in the work of Shakespeare.


The Spanish Tragedy was immensely popular in the Elizabethan era. One of the most popular plays of the day. Titus Andronicus was Shakespeare throwing his hat into the ring of Revenge Tragedy. And Hamlet was Shakespeare's elevation of this genre. Titus is crude in comparison, Hamlet much more intellectual. Both draw from The Spanish Tragedy.

Titus Andronicus is not a very valued play, perhaps because scholarship snobs don't like all the gore and violence. Its authorship has been much debated; both Marlowe and Kyd have been suggested as having a hand on it. But frankly, I'm a scholarship snob, and I like this play a lot. But then, I like gore and violence, and am a big fan of the entire genre of Revenge Tragedy.

Titus Andronicus has the chopping off of a hand, the rape and disfigurement of Lavinia, the eating of children as pies. The Spanish Tragedy has a letter written in blood, a hanging, and the main character ends the play in a bloodbath and then BITES OFF HIS OWN TONGUE.

So Shakespeare seems to take the gore and put it into Titus Andronicus. But then he takes the more refined aspects of The Spanish Tragedy and uses them for Hamlet. There is a ghost. There is a woman going crazy. There is the question of whether the hero is crazy or not (in Titus also). A play within is an important aspect of the hero's revenge. The question of suicide versus revenge is discussed. And then Shakespeare does one major flip. In The Spanish Tragedy the plot concerns a father seeking revenge for his murdered son. In Hamlet, it is of course a son seeking revenge for the murder of his father.


Okay, I'll admit it. This blog posting isn't so much about Titus Andronicus as it is me blatantly trying to spread the love for the first Elizabethan revenge tragedy, The Spanish Tragedy.


Okay, fine, I will speak more about Titus Andronicus. I will contract two fine production I have seen, specifically with what the directors chose to leave the audience with, i.e. how they ended the play.

First there is the movie available for all to see starring Anthony Hopkins and directed by Julie Taymor. Taymor clearly believes in the nobility of Lucius. She believes he will keep his promise to Aaron not to kill the child. She believe that Lucius will stop the circle of violence and restore peace. Her ending is a hopeful ending. Taymor also used Young Lucius as part of that hope, increasing his role, and using him to provide a sort of frame. Children, the hope of the future, I guess.

Gale Edwards directed a production at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC a couple years ago. Edwards, like Taymor, saw Young Lucius as key to what happens after the play. But Edwards directed an ending directly opposed to Taymor's. Edwards believed that the point of Titus Andronicus, and perhaps of all revenge tragedy, is that violence breeds more violence, and that children learn what they are taught. Her ending, horrific and sad, was incredibly memorable. Marcus and Lucius do their final speeches, Lucius promising peace to Rome. Young Lucius during this time is sitting downstage, holding Aaron's baby. As the lights begin to dim, they stay brighter around Young Lucius and the baby. Young Lucius lifts and knife, and just as he is moving downward to stab Aaron's baby, blackout. Wow.

As great as I generally think Julie Taymor is, I much preferred Edwards interpretation. I don't think we are supposed to feel hope at the end of revenge tragedies. We are supposed to be horrified by the acts human beings are capable of, all human beings. Edwards gave us that. And Edwards interpretation seemed much more in line with the text, given that Young Lucius at one point says, "if I were a man, / Their mother's bed-chamber should not be safe / For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome."
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Favorite Female Character:
Tamora, duh.
Favorite Male Character:
Aaron the Moor, duh.
Laugh out loud:
Titus Ha, ha, ha!

(bad joke?)

Oh, misogyny:
Demetrius She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd,
She is a woman, therefore may be won.
Down with the Patriarchy:

"That's what she said!":
Chiron Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron Villain, I have done thy mother.

Famous Last Words:
Titus Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells,
Here grow no damned grudges, here are no storms,
No noise, but silence and eternal sleep:
In peace and honor rest you here, my sons!

Oh, Titus... if you only knew, you silly, silly man.

Favorite Moment/Line:
Aaron Even now I curse the day--and yet, I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse,--
Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
As kill a man, or else devise his death,
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

Come on, that's amazing. He dug up corpses from their graves and set them in front of doors. WTF? Love it!