Titus Andronicus Act 1 - "hew his limbs... sacrifice his flesh..."

"Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths,
That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile
Ad manes fratrum sacrifice his flesh..."

Titus Andronicus Act 1

Some have argued Shakespeare couldn’t have possibly written this play. The plot is unlike what he had written before, the violence is unlike what up to this point he had written and the pace is unlike most of his other plays. All that said, the verse and dialogue in the play is definitely Shakespeare’s and this is what adds a lyrical beauty to what could almost be an overly violent almost un-performable play.

In 1591, Shakespeare was not the house playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men yet. So he would definitely have not been on profit share in 1591. Profit share would bring in about 1 to 2 pounds for the playwright but Shakespeare probably got as much as 5 pounds after 1599 because he was also a part owner of the Globe Theatre building. I like to think that ‘Titus Andronicus’ is a play that Henslow or someone had had on the books for a while. It is a remake of a story that had been done countless times before. Shakespeare had had a few successes over the last two or three years and he probably decided to take the 2-3 pounds on offer to try to finish what others couldn’t. Besides, another 2 pounds for the script and about 10 pounds of it is successful in performance would get all of his family through the Winter. But first he had to work his way through a city rubbish dump size set of pages of other peoples attempts and see if any shiny trinkets of action, verse and characters were there for the picking. It is not a great play and it is a mish-mash of styles and genres but it does shows the deft hand of a very good dramaturg/editor/playwright.

Even from the outset you can see Shakespeare editing the action but using his gift of verse to lift the action of the events above the litany of violent acts which dominate it. ‘Titus Andronicus’ is like a modern action flick. The play does not stop and is remorseless in its violence. There are about five violent happenings every act and at least one violent act of mutilation, rape  or death every 100 lines. Before the play begins, Titus Andronicus has lost 21 sons in the field of battle and he returns to Rome to bury the latest dead sons. All of Act 1 is done in one long, action-packed scene. Alarbus (Tamora, Queen of the Goth’s eldest son) is killed offstage by the swords of Titus’ remaining sons and his limbs “hewed” or “lopped”. Titus stabs Mutius (his own son) on stage and Mutius dies. Saturninus, the new emperor of Rome, takes Tamora, Queen of the Goths, for his wife since his Lavinia was stolen away by his brother Bassianus. Lavinia is either ravished, a victim of rape or she succumbs to Bassianus offstage. Act 1 ends with Tamora threatening to massacre all of Titus’ family. When was the audience meant to take a breath?