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.
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 prefigures King Lear's bleakness. The play can speak 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
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