TITUS ANDRONICUS

(in 10 Minutes)

Abridged by
Joachim Antonio

SETTING: ROME

CHARACTERS: (11-14 actors)

SATURNINUS -son of the late Roman emperor

BASSANIUS -son of the late Roman emperor (can double as
MESSENGER, GOTH, or AEMILIUS)

MARCUS ANDRONICUS -Roman tribune; brother of Titus

TITUS ANDRONICUS -Roman General
LUCIUS -Son of Titus
LAVINIA -Daughter of Titus (can double as GOTH)

TAMORA -Queen of the Goths

CHIRON -Son of Tamora
DEMETRIUS -Son of Tamora
AARON -Moor; secret lover of Tamora (can double as
MESSENGER)

ALARBUS -Son of Tamora (can double as MESSENGER, GOTH, or

AEMILIUS)

MESSENGER
GOTH
AEMILIUS

SET: A table
THE PLAY:

The Tomb of the ANDRONICI appearing; Enter, from one side, SATURNINUS; from the other
side, BASSIANUS. Enter MARCUS with the crown

MARCUS: Princes that strive ambitiously for empery, the people of Rome chose Andronicus
for many good and great deserts to Rome. Plead your deserts in peace.

BASS: Marcus Andronicus, so I honour thy brother Titus and her to whom my thoughts
are humbled, Lavinia, that I commit my cause in balance to be weigh'd.

SATURN: I, to the love and favor of my country commit myself and the cause.

Enter MUTIUS bearing a coffin; then LUCIUS. After them, TITUS ANDRONICUS; and then
TAMORA, with ALARBUS, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON.

TITUS Hail, Rome! As the bark returns cometh Andronicus. Of five and twenty valiant
sons, behold the remains, alive and dead! These that survive let Rome reward
with love; these that I bring home, with burial amongst their ancestors.

The tomb is opened

TAMORA: Victorious Titus, sufficeth not that we are captive to thy Roman yoke, but must
my sons be slaughter'd for valiant doings in their country's cause? Spare my son.

TITUS: Madam, these are their brethren, whom you Goths beheld alive and dead, and for
their brethren slain religiously they ask a sacrifice.

Exeunt LUCIUS with ALARBUS

CHIRON: Was ever Scythia half so barbarous?

DEM: Alarbus goes to rest. Hope withal the gods may favor Tamora, the Queen of Goths
to quit the bloody wrongs upon her foes.

Re-enter LUCIUS, with sword bloody

LUCIUS: Father, we have perform'd our Roman rites: Alarbus' entrails feed sacrificing fire.

TITUS: Let Andronicus make this his farewell to their souls.

Coffin laid in the tomb. Enter LAVINIA

LAVINIA: Noble father! Tributary tears I render for my brethren's obsequies and tears of joy
for thy return to Rome!

TITUS: Rome hast reserved cordial to glad my heart! Lavinia, outlive thy father's days!

MARCUS: Long live Lord Titus, brother! The people name thee in election for the empire
with these our late-deceased emperor's sons. Help to set a head on headless Rome.

TITUS: Rome, give me not a sceptre. Tribunes, create your emperor, Lord Saturnine.

SATURN: Andronicus, I will requite thy gentleness. Lavinia will I make my empress.

BASS: Lord Titus, this maid is mine. [Seizing LAVINIA]

MARCUS: 'Suum cuique': this prince in justice seizeth but his own.

LUCIUS: And that he will, and shall, if Lucius live.

TITUS: Traitors, avaunt!

Exeunt BASSIANUS with LAVINIA

TITUS: What, villain! Barr'st me my way in Rome? Restore Lavinia to the emperor.

SATURN: No, Titus; the emperor needs her not. Give that changing piece to him that
flourish'd for her a son-in-law thou shalt enjoy fit to bandy with thy lawless sons.
Lovely Tamora, queen of Goths, I choose thee for my bride.

TAMORA: The Queen of Goths will a handmaid be to his desires.

Exeunt all but TITUS

TITUS: Titus, when wert thou wont to walk alone, dishonour'd thus?

MARCUS: Thou art a Roman; be not barbarous. How comes it that the Queen of Goths is
thus advanced in Rome?

Enter, from one side, SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON and AARON; from the
other, BASSIANUS, LAVINIA

BASS: Let the laws of Rome determine all; Lord Titus is in opinion and honour wrong'd
in the rescue of Lavinia in zeal to you. Receive, Saturnine, that hath express'd in
his deeds a friend to thee.

TAMORA: My worthy lord, pardon what is past.

SATURN: What! Be dishonour'd without revenge?

TAMORA: Gods forfend! [Aside to SATURNINUS] Lest people take Titus' part and supplant
you for ingratitude, yield at entreats. I'll find a day to massacre them whom I sued
for my son's life, and make them know what 'tis to let a queen beg in vain.

SATURN: Rise, Titus; my empress hath prevail'd.

TAMORA: Let it be mine honour that I have reconciled your friends and you.

SATURN: Marcus, at my lovely Tamora's entreats, I do remit these young men's heinous
faults. Lavinia, though you left me like a churl, I found a friend.

Exeunt. Enter AARON. Enter TAMORA

AARON: Hark Tamora, this is the day of doom for Bassianus: Give the king this fatal
plotted scroll. Question me no more. Bassianus comes. I'll go fetch thy sons.

Exit. Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA

BASS: Rome's royal empress, your swarth Cimmerian doth make your honour of his
body's hue, abominable. The king my brother shall have note of this.

LAVINIA: Ay, these slips have made him noted long: Good king, to be so abused!

Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON

DEM: Gracious mother! Why doth your highness look so pale and wan?

TAMORA: These two have call'd me adulteress. Revenge it or be ye not call'd my children.

DEMETRIUS stabs BASSIANUS. CHIRON also stabs BASSIANUS, who dies

TAMORA: Remember, I pour'd forth tears in vain but fierce Andronicus would not relent;
Away with her, use her as you will, the worse to her, the better loved of me.

LAVINIA: Tamora, be a gentle queen, and kill me in this place!

TAMORA: So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee. No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.

DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, dragging off LAVINIA

TAMORA: Ne'er let my heart cheer till all the Andronici be made away.

Exit. Enter SATURNINUS with AARON. Enter TAMORA, TITUS, and LUCIUS

SATURN: Tamora, Bassianus here lies murdered.

TAMORA: Then all too late I bring this fatal writ, the complot of this timeless tragedy.

She giveth SATURNINUS a letter

SATURN: [Reads. To TITUS] Two of thy whelps have here bereft my brother of his life.
Were there worse end than death, that end upon them should be executed.

Exeunt. Enter LAVINIA, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out. Enter MARCUS.

MARCUS: Who is this? My niece, what ungentle hands have made thy body bare of her two
branches? Alas, some Tereus hath deflowered thee and cut thy tongue. Come, let
us go, and make thy father blind for such a sight will blind a father's eye!

Exeunt. Enter TITUS

TITUS : Hear me, tribunes! Be pitiful to my condemned sons, not corrupted as 'tis thought.
For two and twenty sons I never wept, because they died in honour's lofty bed.

Enter LUCIUS

LUCIUS: O noble father, you lament in vain: no tribune hears you speak.

TITUS : Why, Lucius, dost thou not perceive that Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?

Enter MARCUS and LAVINIA

MARCUS: Titus, prepare thy eyes to weep. This was thy daughter. That delightful engine of
her thoughts is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage! Thus I found her.
Enter AARON

AARON: Titus Andronicus, the emperor sends wordChop off your hand and send it to the
king: for the same will send thee both thy sons alive; that shall ransom their fault.

TITUS: O gracious emperor! I'll send my hand: Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off?

Cuts off TITUS's hand

AARON: [Aside.] How this villany doth fat me! Aaron will have his soul black like his face.

Exit. Enter a MESSENGER, with two heads and a hand

MESSENGER Here are the heads of thy sons and thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back.

Exit

TITUS: I have not another tear to shed. These two heads threat me I shall never come to
bliss till these mischiefs be return'd. Brother, take a head; the other I will bear.
Lavinia, bear my hand between thy teeth. As for thee, boy, hie to the Goths, raise
an army. We have much to do.

Exeunt LUCIUS

MARCUS: Sweet niece, this sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst, when I have writ my
name without the help of any hand at all. [Writes his name with his staff, and
guides it with feet and mouth.] Print thy sorrows, that we may know the traitors!

She takes the staff in her mouth, and guides it with her stumps, and writes

TITUS: 'Chiron. Demetrius.' Beware: the dam's with the lion deeply still in league.

Exeunt TITUS, LAVINIA, and MARCUS. Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, DEMETRIUS,

CHIRON; SATURNINUS with arrows in his hand.
SATURN: What wrongs are these! Disturbers buz in people's ears against the sons of old
Andronicus. If sorrows overwhelm'd his wits, shall we be afflicted in his fits? He
writes to heaven for his redress: Scrolls fly about Rome!

Enter AEMILIUS

AEMILIUS: The Goths gather'd under Lucius, son to old Andronicus who threats revenge.

SATURN: These tidings nip me. The citizens favor Lucius, and will revolt to succor him.

TAMORA: King, be like thy name. Now will I to Andronicus to pluck Lucius from the Goths.

Exeunt. Enter LUCIUS. Enter a GOTH, leading AARON

LUCIUS: O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil that robb'd Andronicus of his good
hand. Say, slave, whither wouldst thou convey this image of thy fiend-like face?

AARON: Tut, Lucius, her two sons murder'd Bassianus, cut thy sister's tongue, her hands,
trimm'd her. I was their tutor to instruct them. I wrote the letter confederate with
the queen and her two sons: I play'd the cheater for thy father's hand.

LUCIUS: Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON: That I had not done a thousand more even now I curse the day.

Exeunt. Enter TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON, disguised. Enter TITUS

TAMORA: Titus, I come to talk with thee. Tamora is thy enemy, I thy friend: I am Revenge.
These are my ministers, Rapine and Murder.

DEM: Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him.

CHIRON: Show me a villain that hath done a rape, and I am sent to be revenged on him.

TAMORA: Be revenged on them. Send for Lucius, bid him banquet at thy house. I will bring
in all thy foes; on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart. What says Andronicus?

TITUS: Marcus, brother! [Enter MARCUS] Go to Lucius; the emperor and the empress
feast at my house, and he shall feast with them. [MARCUS exit.] Let Rape and
Murder stay else I call my brother back and cleave to no revenge but Lucius.

TAMORA: [Aside to her sons] What say you, boys?

DEM: Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here.

TAMORA: Farewell, Andronicus: Revenge now goes to betray thy foes.

Exit TAMORA

CHIRON: Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd?

[Enter LAVINIA bearing a knife and a basin]

TITUS: Chiron and Demetrius! Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud.
You kill'd her husband, her sweet hands, her tongue, and her spotless chastity,
inhuman traitors, you constrain'd and forced. Villains! I will grind your bones to
dust and with your blood I'll make a paste, make two pasties of your shameful
heads, and bid that strumpet swallow her own increase. Prepare your throats.
Lavinia, come, [He cuts their throats.] Receive the blood.

Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies.

Enter LUCIUS, MARCUS. Enter SATURNINUS and TAMORA with AEMILIUS.

MARCUS: The feast is ready, which careful Titus hath ordain'd for peace and good to Rome.
Therefore, draw nigh, take your places.

The Company sit. Enter TITUS like a Cook, LAVINIA. TITUS places the dishes on the table.

TITUS: Welcome, gracious lord; welcome, dread queen; although the cheer be poor, 'twill
fill your stomachs; please eat of it. My emperor, resolve me this: was it well done
of Virginius to slay his daughter because she was stain'd and deflower'd?

SATURN: It was, Andronicus. The girl should not renew his sorrows.

TITUS: A reason mighty and effectual.

Kills LAVINIA

SATURN: What hast thou done? Was she ravish'd? Tell who did the deed.

TITUS: Will't please you eat? Will't please your highness feed? 'Twas Chiron and
Demetrius. Both, baked in that pie; whereof their mother daintily hath fed, eating
the flesh that she herself hath bred.

Kills TAMORA

SATURN: Die, wretch, for this accursed deed!

Kills TITUS

LUCIUS: Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?

Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult.

LUCIUS: Noble auditory, be it known that cursed Chiron and Demetrius murdered our
emperor's brother and ravished our sister: For their fell faults our brothers were
beheaded; Our father's tears despised, and basely cozen'd of that true hand that
fought Rome's quarrel out. My scars can witness my report is just and of truth.

MARCUS: Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge these wrongs, more than any living
man could bear. Speak, Romans; and if you say we shall, Lucius and I will fall.

AEMILIUS: Reverend man of Rome, bring our emperor in thy hand, Lucius our emperor. The
common voice do cry it shall be so.

LUCIUS: Thanks Romans: may I heal Rome's harms! Convey the emperor and give him
burial in his father's grave. My father and Lavinia shall be closed in our
household's monument. As for Tamora, throw her to birds of prey: her life was
beast-like and shall have like want of pity. See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd
Moor. Afterwards, to order well the state, that like events may ne'er it ruinate.

Exeunt

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