The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus
1594, by William Shakespeare
Table of Contents
- Act 1 Scene 1 (Goth queen's son sacrificed; Saturninus throned. Titus slays his son; War prisoners freed; Tamora rises.)
- Act 2 Scene 1 (Aaron plots with Demetrius and Chiron.)
- Act 2 Scene 2 (The hunt with the Emperor)
- Act 2 Scene 3 (Death of Bassianus.)
- Act 2 Scene 4 (Lavinia raped, hands and tongue cut off.)
- Act 3 Scene 1 (Titus pleads for his son's life, Lucius banished. Titus's hand cut off, and returned with his sons's heads.)
- Act 3 Scene 2 (Grievous humor at Titus's house.)
- Act 4 Scene 1 (Lavinia reveals her assailers.)
- Act 4 Scene 2 (Lucius's son delivers a message from Titus to Aaron et al. Aaron begets a son.)
- Act 4 Scene 3 (Titus send letters to gods.)
- Act 4 Scene 4 (Saturninus huffy and puffy, receiving news of impending invasion.)
- Act 5 Scene 1 (Lucius prepares Goth army. Aaron caught.)
- Act 5 Scene 2 (Goth queen schemes Titus as Revenge; Chiron and Demetrius made into a pie)
- Act 5 Scene 3 (Lavinia dies; Goth Queen, Titus, Emperor, die.)
Notes from Xah Lee
“Titus Andronicus” is a tale of revenge. It is the first of Shakespeare's plays. It is one of the bloodiest literature.
The image inserts are screenshots from the 1999 film adaptation, directed by Julie Taymor. Buy at amazon For more screenshots, see: Julie Taymor's Titus. I highly recommend the film.
The annotations on the side are by me, Xah Lee, for the study of the English language and humanities. AHD = American Heritage Dictionary. JB = Jonathan Bate.
I started reading and annotating this work in , using nothing but Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. The bulk of the annotations are based on American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) and Wikipedia. First pass of annotation was completed in . Even reading this work word-for-word and looking up general references along the way (and having seen a wonderful film realization repeatedly), many terms, phrases, passages, allusions remain puzzling.
In , i started to reread the work from professionally annotated sources, notably The Arden Shakespeare, (3rd ed, 1995), edited by Jonathan Bate (born 1958). Buy at amazon. Notes or direct quotes from him are indicated by “(JB)”.
Thanks to people on alt.usage.english. In particular, John Dean, Alan Jones, Mike Lyle, Pat Durkin, Donna Richoux, Lars Eighner, Josh Hill, CDB, Don Phillipson. (and more.)