Editing Titus Andronicus (section)

===Language===
[[File:Titus Andronicus (1785) - Noel le Mire - Jean-Michel Moreau.jpg|upright=0.70|right|thumb|[[Jean-Michel Moreau]] illustration of Lucius telling his father the tribunes have left, from Act 3, Scene 1; engraved by N. le Mire (1785)]]
The language of ''Titus'' has always had a central role in criticism of the play insofar as those who doubt Shakespeare's authorship have often pointed to the apparent deficiencies in the language as evidence of that claim. However, the quality of the language has had its defenders over the years, critics who argue that the play is more linguistically complex than is often thought, and features a more accomplished use of certain [[Motif (narrative)|linguistic motifs]] than has hitherto been allowed for.

One of the most basic such motifs is repetition. Several words and topics occur time and again, serving to connect and contrast characters and scenes, and to foreground certain [[Theme (narrative)|themes]]. Perhaps the most obvious recurring motifs are those of [[honour]], [[virtue]] and [[nobility]], all of which are mentioned multiple times throughout the play, especially during the first act; the play's opening line is Saturninus' address to "Noble [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]], patrons of my right" (l.1). In the second speech of the play, Bassianus states "And suffer not dishonour to approach/The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,/To [[justice]], continence and nobility;/But let desert in pure election shine" (ll.13–16). From this point onwards, the concept of nobility is at the heart of everything that happens. H. B. Charlton argues of this opening Act that "the standard of moral currency most in use is honour".<ref>H. B. Charlton, ''Shakespearean Tragedy'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1949), 105</ref>

When Marcus announces Titus' imminent arrival, he emphasises Titus' renowned honour and [[integrity]]: "And now at last, laden with honour's spoils,/Returns the good Andronicus to Rome,/Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms./Let us entreat by honour of his name/Whom worthily you would have now succeed" (ll.36–40). Marcus' reference to Titus' name is even itself an allusion to his nobility insofar as Titus' full title (Titus Pius) is an honorary epitaph which "refers to his devotion to patriotic duty".<ref>Waith (1984: 84n23)</ref>

Bassianus then cites his own admiration for all of the Andronici: "Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy/In thy uprightness and integrity,/And so I love and honour thee and thine,/Thy noble brother Titus, and his sons" (ll.47–50). Upon Titus' arrival, an announcement is made: "Patron of virtue, Rome's best champion,/Successful in the battles that he fights,/With honour and with fortune is returned" (ll.65–68). Once Titus has arrived on stage, it is not long before he too is speaking of honour, virtue and integrity, referring to the family tomb as a "sweet cell of virtue and nobility" (l.93). After Titus chooses Saturninus as Emperor, they praise one another's honour, with Saturninus referring to Titus' "honourable family" (ll.239) and Titus claiming "I hold me highly honoured of your grace" (ll.245). Titus then says to Tamora, "Now, madam, are you prisoner to an Emperor –/To him that for your honour and your state/Will use you nobly and your followers" (ll.258–260).

Even when things begin to go awry for the Andronici, each one maintains a firm grasp of his own interpretation of honour. The death of Mutius comes about because Titus and his sons have different concepts of honour; Titus feels the Emperor's desires should have precedence, his sons that Roman law should govern all, including the Emperor. As such, when Lucius reprimands Titus for slaying one of his own sons, Titus responds "Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;/My sons would never so dishonour me" (l.296). Moments later, Saturninus declares to Titus "I'll trust by leisure him that mocks me once,/Thee never, nor thy [[Treason|traitorous]] haughty sons,/Confederates all to dishonour me" (ll.301–303). Subsequently, Titus cannot quite believe that Saturninus has chosen Tamora as his empress and again sees himself dishonoured; "Titus, when wert thou wont to walk alone,/Dishonoured thus and challeng'd of wrongs" (ll.340–341). When Marcus is pleading with Titus that Mutius should be allowed to be buried in the family tomb, he implores, "Suffer thy brother Marcus to inter/His noble nephew here in virtue's nest,/That died in honour and Lavinia's cause" (ll.375–377). Having reluctantly agreed to allow Mutius a royal burial, Titus then returns to the issue of how he feels his sons have turned on him and dishonoured him: "The dismall'st day is this that e'er I saw,/To be dishonoured by my sons in Rome" (ll.384–385). At this point, Marcus, Martius, Quintus and Lucius declare of the slain Mutius, "He lives in fame, that died in virtue's cause" (ll.390).

Other characters also become involved in the affray resulting from the disagreement among the Andronici, and they too are equally concerned with honour. After Saturninus has condemned Titus, Bassianus appeals to him, "This noble gentleman, Lord Titus here,/Is in opinion and in honour wronged" (ll.415–416). Then, in a surprising move, Tamora suggests to Saturninus that he should forgive Titus and his family. Saturninus is at first aghast, believing that Tamora is now dishonouring him as well; "What madam, be dishonoured openly,/And basely put it up without revenge?" (ll.442–443), to which Tamora replies,

{{poemquote|
Not so, my lord; the [[Roman mythology|gods of Rome]] forefend
I should be author to dishonour you.
But on mine honour dare I undertake
For good Lord Titus' [[innocence]] in all,
Whose fury not dissembled speaks his griefs.
Then at my suit look graciously on him;
Lose not so noble a friend on vain suppose.
|ll.434–440}}

The irony here, of course, is that her false appeal to honour is what begins the bloody cycle of revenge which dominates the rest of the play.

[[File:Kirk-TitusAct4ChildAlarmed.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.70|Thomas Kirk illustration of Young Lucius fleeing from Lavinia in Act 4, Scene 1; engraved by B. Reading (1799)]]
Although not all subsequent scenes are as heavily saturated with references to honour, nobility and virtue as is the opening, they are continually alluded to throughout the play. Other notable examples include Aaron's description of Tamora; "Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait,/And virtue stoops and trembles at her frown" (2.1.10–11). An ironic and sarcastic reference to honour occurs when Bassianus and Lavinia encounter Aaron and Tamora in the forest and Bassianus tells Tamora "your swarthy [[Cimmerians|Cimmerian]]/Doth make your honour of his body's hue,/Spotted, detested, and abominable" (2.3.72–74). Later, after the Clown has delivered Titus' letter to Saturninus, Saturninus declares "Go, drag the villain hither by the hair./Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege" (4.4.55–56). Another example is seen outside Rome, when a Goth refers to Lucius "Whose high exploits and honourable deeds/Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt" (5.1.11–12).

A further significant motif is [[metaphor]] related to violence: "the world of ''Titus'' is not simply one of meaningless acts of random violence but rather one in which language engenders violence and violence is done to language through the distance between word and thing, between metaphor and what it represents." For example, in 3.1 when Titus asks Aaron to cut off his hand because he believes it will save his sons' lives he says, "Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine." Therefore, in the language of ''Titus'', "to lend one's hand is to risk dismemberment."<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=2870725 | title = 'Lend Me Thy Hand': Metaphor and Mayhem in Titus Andronicus | last=Kendall | first=Gillian Murray | journal=[[Shakespeare Quarterly]] |volume=40 | issue=3 | date=Autumn 1989 | pages = 299–316 | doi=10.2307/2870725}}</ref>

No discussion of the language of ''Titus'' is complete without reference to Marcus's speech upon finding Lavinia after her rape:

{{poemquote|
Who is this? My niece that flies away so fast?
Cousin, a word: where is your husband?
If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!
If I do wake, some Planet strike me down,
That I may slumber in eternal sleep!
Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands
Hath lopped, and hewed and made thy body bare
Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments,
Whose circling shadows, Kings have sought to sleep in,
And might not gain so great a happiness
As half thy love? Why dost not speak to me?
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirred with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy ros'd lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath.
But sure some Tereus hath deflowered thee,
And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue.
Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame;
And notwithstanding all this loss of blood,
As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,
Yet do thy cheeks look red as [[Helios|Titan's]] face,
Blushing to be encountered with a cloud.
Shall I speak for thee? Shall I say 'tis so?
O, that I knew thy heart, and knew the beast,
That I might rail at him to ease my mind!
Sorrow conceal'd, like an oven stopped,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.
Fair Philomela, why she but lost her tongue,
And in a tedious [[Sampler (needlework)|sampler]] sewed her mind;
But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee.
A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,
And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,
That could have better sowed then Philomel.
O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble, like [[Aspen|aspen leaves]], upon a [[lute]],
And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,
He would not then have touched them for his life.
Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony
Which that sweet tongue hath made,
He would have dropped his knife and fell asleep,
As [[Cerberus]] at the [[Orpheus|Thracian poet's]] feet.
Come, let us go, and make thy father blind,
For such a sight will blind a father's eye.
One hour's storm will drown the fragrant meads;
What will whole months of tears thy father's eyes?
Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee;
O, could our mourning ease thy misery!
|2.4.11–57}}

[[File:Titus - Smith.jpg|upright=0.70|left|thumb|Edward Smith illustration of Lavinia pleading with Tamora for mercy from Act 2, Scene 3 (1841)]]
In this much discussed speech, the discrepancy between the beautiful imagery and the horrific sight before us has been noted by many critics as jarring, and the speech is often severely edited or completely removed for performance; in the 1955 RSC production, for example, director Peter Brook cut the speech entirely. There is also a great deal of disagreement amongst critics as to the essential meaning of the speech. John Dover Wilson, for example, sees it as nothing more than a parody, Shakespeare mocking the work of his contemporaries by writing something so bad. He finds no other tonally analogous speech in all of Shakespeare, concluding it is "a bundle of ill-matched [[conceit]]s held together by sticky sentimentalism".<ref>Dover Wilson (1948: liii–liv)</ref> Similarly, Eugene M. Waith determines that the speech is an aesthetic failure that may have looked good on the page but which is incongruous in performance.<ref>Waith (1984: 61)</ref>

However, defenders of the play have posited several theories which seek to illustrate the thematic relevance of the speech. For example, Nicholas Brooke argues that it "stands in the place of a [[Greek chorus|choric commentary]] on the crime, establishing its significance to the play by making an [[emblem]] of the mutilated woman".<ref>Nicholas Brooke, ''Shakespeare's Early Tragedies'' (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1968), 306</ref> Actress [[Eve Myles]], who played Lavinia in the 2003 RSC production, suggests that Marcus "tries to bandage her wounds with language", thus the speech has a calming effect and is Marcus's attempt to soothe Lavinia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rsc.org.uk/titus/current/actors.html |title=Cast Interviews |publisher=[[Royal Shakespeare Company]]|access-date=16 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108062019/http://www.rsc.org.uk/titus/current/actors.html |archive-date=8 January 2009}}</ref>

Another theory is suggested by Anthony Brian Taylor, who argues simply that Marcus is babbling; "beginning with references to 'dream' and 'slumber' and ending with one to sleep, the speech is an old man's reverie; shaken by the horrible and totally unexpected spectacle before him, he has succumbed to the [[Dementia|senile]] tendency to drift away and become absorbed in his own thoughts rather than confront the harshness of reality."<ref>Taylor (1997: 149)</ref> Jonathan Bate however, sees the speech as more complex, arguing that it attempts to give voice to the indescribable. Bate thus sees it as an illustration of language's ability to "bring back that which has been lost", i.e. Lavinia's beauty and innocence is figuratively returned in the beauty of the language.<ref>Bate (1995: 111)</ref> Similarly, for Brian Vickers, "these sensual pictorial images are appropriate to Lavinia's beauty now forever destroyed. That is, they serve one of the constant functions of tragedy, to document the ''metabolé'', that tragic contrast between what people once were and what they have become."<ref>Vickers (2002: 240)</ref> Jacques Berthoud provides another theory, arguing that the speech "exhibits two qualities seldom found together: an unevasive emotional recognition of the horrors of her injuries, and the knowledge that, despite her transformation into a living grave of herself, she remains the person he knows and loves." Thus, the speech evokes Marcus's "protective identification" with her.<ref>Massai (2001: xxxi–xxxvi)</ref> D. J. Palmer feels that the speech is an attempt to rationalise in Marcus's own mind the sheer horror of what he is seeing;

{{quote|Marcus' lament is an effort to realise a sight that taxes to the utmost the powers of understanding and utterance. The vivid conceits in which he pictures his hapless niece do not transform or depersonalise her: she is already transformed and depersonalised ... Far from being a retreat from the awful reality into some aesthetic distance, then, Marcus' conceits dwell upon this figure that is to him both familiar and strange, fair and hideous, living body and object: this is, and is not, Lavinia. Lavinia's plight is literally unutterable ... Marcus' formal lament articulates unspeakable woes. Here and throughout the play the response to the intolerable is ritualised, in language and action, because [[ritual]] is the ultimate means by which man seeks to order and control his precarious and unstable world.<ref>Palmer (1972: 321–322)</ref>}}

In contradistinction to Dover Wilson and Waith, several scholars have argued that while the speech may not work on the page, it can work in performance. Discussing the [[Deborah Warner]] RSC production at [[The Swan (theatre)|The Swan]] in 1987, which used an unedited text, [[Stanley Wells]] argues that [[Donald Sumpter]]'s delivery of the speech "became a deeply moving attempt to master the facts and thus to overcome the emotional shock of a previously unimagined horror. We had the sense of a suspension of time, as if the speech represented an articulation, necessarily extended in expression, of a sequence of thoughts and emotions, that might have taken no more than a second or two to flash through the character's mind, like a bad dream."<ref>''Shakespeare Survey'', 41 (1988)</ref> Also speaking of the Warner production and Sumpter's performance, Alan C. Dessen writes "we observe Marcus, step-by-step, use his logic and Lavinia's reactions to work out what has happened, so that the spectators both see Lavinia directly ''and'' see through his eyes and images. In the process the horror of the situation is filtered through a human consciousness in a way difficult to describe but powerful to experience."<ref>Dessen (1988: 60)</ref>

[[File:Woodforde-TitusAct2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.70|[[Samuel Woodforde]] illustration of Tamora watching Lavinia dragged away to be raped, from Act 2, Scene 3; engraved by [[Anker Smith]] (1793)]]
Looking at the language of the play in a more general sense has also produced a range of critical theories. For example, Jacques Berthoud argues that the [[rhetoric]] of the play is explicitly bound up with its theme; "the entire dramatic script, [[Soliloquy|soliloquies]] included, functions as a network of responses and reactions. [The language's] primary and consistent function is [[interlocutory]]."<ref>Massai (2001: xxxi)</ref> An entirely different interpretation is that of Jack Reese, who argues that Shakespeare's use of language functions to remove the audience from the effects and implications of violence; it has an almost [[Bertolt Brecht|Brechtian]] {{lang|de|[[distancing effect|verfremdungseffekt]]}}. Using the example of Marcus' speech, Reese argues that the audience is disconnected from the violence through the seemingly incongruent descriptions of that violence. Such language serves to "further emphasise the artificiality of the play; in a sense, they suggest to the audience that it is hearing a poem read rather than seeing the events of that poem put into dramatic form."<ref>Reese (1970: 78)</ref> Gillian Kendall, however, reaches the opposite conclusion, arguing that rhetorical devices such as [[metaphor]] augment the violent imagery, not diminish it, because the [[Literal and figurative language|figurative]] use of certain words complements their literal counterparts. This, however, "disrupts the way the audience perceives [[imagery]]."<ref>Kendall (1989: 300)</ref> An example of this is seen in the body politic/dead body imagery early in the play, as the two images soon become interchangeable. Another theory is provided by [[Peter M. Sacks]], who argues that the language of the play is marked by "an artificial and heavily emblematic style, and above all a revoltingly grotesque series of horrors which seem to have little function but to ironise man's inadequate expressions of pain and loss".<ref>Sacks (1982: 587)</ref>