The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
by Shakespeare, William; Drew, J. Michael; Lake, James H.Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2014-06-15
Publisher(s): Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co.
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Summary
George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.
Author Biography
Michael Drew teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at Ohio University.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to the Kittredge Edition Introduction to the Focus Edition The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus How to Read The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus as Performance Timeline Topics for Discussion and Further Study Bibliography Filmography
Excerpts
INTRODUCTION to the Kittredge Edition
Titus Andronicus
On January 24, 1594, Henslowe’sDiaryrecords“Titus & Ondronicous”as a new play acted by the Earl of Sussex’s men. On February 6th “a Noble Roman Historye of Tytus Andronicus” was entered in the Stationers’ Register by John Danter, who printed the First Quarto in the same year. The title page professes to give the tragedy “As it was Plaide by the…Earle of Darbie, Earle of Pembrooke, and Earle of Sussex their Seruants.” This identifies it with that recorded by Henslowe as “new,” and would fix the date of composition as not later than 1593.
In the Induction to Jonson’sBartholomew Fair,the Articles of Agreement between the spectators and the author (dated October 31, 1614) provide that “he that will swearJeronimo[i.e. Kyd’sSpanish Tragedy] orAndronicusare the best plays yet, shall pass unexcepted at here, as a man whose judgment shows it is constant, and hath stood still these five-and-twenty or thirty years.” This would putThe Spanish Tragedyback to 1584–1589; but twenty-five and thirty are obviously round numbers. It is certainly older thanTitus Andronicus; and, if we date Kyd’s play about 1589, we are at liberty to putTitus Andronicusanywhere in the first half of the next decade. On the whole, it is safe to settle upon 1592 or 1593, with preference for 1592. For the text, the First Quarto (1594) is the authority. Two other quartos, which came out in 1600 and 1611, supply act 5, scene 3, lines 201–04. The second scene of act 3 appears for the first time in the Folio.
Shakespeare’s connection withTitus Andronicushas been a moot question for two centuries and a half, ever since the irresponsible minor playwright Edward Ravenscroft, in the Address prefixed to hisTitus Andronicus, or the Rape of Lavinia(acted in 1678, printed in 1687), acknowledged his indebtedness to Shakespeare’s play and remarked, “I have been told by some anciently conversant with the Stage, that it was not Originally his, but brought by a private Authour to be Acted, and he only gave some Master-touches to one or two of the Principal Parts or Characters.” The idle gossip which he reports (or invents) cannot weigh against the positive assertion of Meres—made in 1598, when the play was only five or six years old—that it is one of Shakespeare’s ‘excellent’ tragedies. Nobody would have listened to Ravenscroft but for the feeling thatTitus Andronicusis too horrible to be Shakespeare’s. But Shakespeare was always prone to try experiments, and it would be strange if he had not written one out-and-out tragedy of blood when Kyd had shown how powerfully such things appealed to playgoers…
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