The Tragedy Of Titus Andronicus

1594, by William Shakespeare

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae

titus screenshot 009
Titus Andronicus, from Julie Taymor's Titus
titus screenshot goth queen in pain
“Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. Thrice-noble Titus, spare my first-born son.”
From Julie Taymor's Titus

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)”.

titus screenshot lavinia
Lavinia, from Julie Taymor's Titus

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.)