Seven Ages

Tragedy · c. 1594

Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus

Shakespeare’s first tragedy and his bloodiest by a distance: a Roman revenge play of atrocity answered with atrocity, escalating to a banquet that has to be seen (or read) to be believed.

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By the Seven Ages editors2 min read · Contains affiliate links

For centuries critics wished it out of the canon; the modern stage has reclaimed it as genuinely disturbing rather than merely lurid.

Read it for Aaron the Moor — a villain of such exuberant nihilism he nearly walks off with the play — and for the early sketch of ideas about violence, grief, and language that Lear and Hamlet later inherit. Not one to start with, but not one to skip forever.

Which edition?

Typeset series plate: Arden Shakespeare, Third Series — Titus Andronicus. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the book's cover.ARDEN SHAKESPEARE,THIRD SERIESTitusAndronicus

1Arden Shakespeare, Third Series

Ed. Jonathan Bate · Bloomsbury

Bate’s introduction is the essay that made this play respectable again.

Amazon
Typeset series plate: Oxford World’s Classics — Titus Andronicus. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the book's cover.OXFORD WORLD’SCLASSICSTitusAndronicus

2Oxford World’s Classics

Ed. Eugene M. Waith · Oxford University Press

Waith traces every horror in the play back to Ovid, and the play changes shape.

Amazon
Typeset series plate: The New Cambridge Shakespeare — Titus Andronicus. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the book's cover.THE NEW CAMBRIDGESHAKESPEARETitusAndronicus

3The New Cambridge Shakespeare

Ed. Alan Hughes · Cambridge University Press

Hughes edits with the stage in view, and never flinches at what it asks of a director.

Amazon
Typeset series plate: Folger Shakespeare Library — Titus Andronicus. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the book's cover.FOLGER SHAKESPEARELIBRARYTitusAndronicus

4Folger Shakespeare LibraryFirst read? Start here

Ed. Barbara Mowat & Paul Werstine · Simon & Schuster

The gentlest way into the canon’s most brutal play.

Amazon

Titus Andronicus on stage

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Titus Andronicus on screen

Typeset plate for the screen adaptation Titus (1999), directed by Julie Taymor. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the poster.1999TitusJULIE TAYMOR

1Titus (1999)

Film · dir. Julie Taymor

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Reading Titus Andronicus this year?

Mark it in your record when you finish — one seat, kept for decades.

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