Titus Andronicus

violent and vicious as history is

Shakespeare is deep. Deeply Catholic. And in Titus Andronicus, we see the early stirrings and patterns of the genius that is to come. With Titus Andronicus’s publication, Shakespeare enters into one of the most artistically fruitful decades of any poet, playwright, storyteller or writer to have walked this earth. But Titus Andronicus is not simply his first published play, it is also his first tragedy. And early on in his career, he is literally setting the stage for the whole of his canon, which happens to be the greatest canon of literature published since the New Testament was penned in the streets and jail cells of the Roman empire.

And in this first play of his, we learn how profoundly Catholic his canon will be. His plays are not simply great stories, but they are chronicles of Catholic history. Let us consider a few details from Titus Andronicus to uncover how patterns in his plays disguise religious allegories with the mask of entertaining stories.

One of the first things Shakespeare teaches us in this visceral and violent slasher play is the importance of characters and their names. In this case, he remakes Roman history as a violent and contemporary political thriller. Let’s start with the name of the play’s namesake, Titus Andronicus.

Titus Andronicus is an amalgam of two key historical people.

Titus, who was Roman emperor in A.D. 79, succeeds his father who came to imperial power during the year of four emperors in A.D. 69. Before Titus became emperor, he found renown as a military commander in charge of ending the Jewish rebellion. Specifically, in A.D. 70, he captured Jerusalem and destroyed the city and the temple. The temple in Jerusalem is the only place Jews are allowed to offer sacrifices to God in accordance with the Old Testament laws.

Andronicus is mentioned in the book of Maccabees, a book canonical for Catholics but not for Anglicans. The story of 2nd Maccabees starts with the following honorific commentary about the high priest, “While the holy city was inhabited in all peace and the laws were observed as perfectly as possible, owing to the piety of Onias, the high priest and his hatred of wickedness, it came about that the kings themselves honored the holy place and enhanced the glory of the Temple with the most splendid offerings.” Well, at this point, it may come as no surprise that the one who slays the holy Onias is Andronicus.

“Menelaus then had a quiet word with Andronicus, urging him to get rid of Onais. Andronicus sought out Onias and, resorting to the trick of offering him his right hand on oath, succeeded in persuading him, despite the latter’s lingering suspicions, to leave sanctuary; whereupon, in defiance of all justice, he immediately put him to death.”

Is it just a coincidence or is it possibly part of a masterful design that in Shakespeare’s play, Titus literally loses his right hand, being deceived by Aaron, much like Onias was tricked by Andronicus in the Maccabean story. A type of divine retribution.

So, the name of the story is an amalgam of two historical people who destroy the temple and the high priest of God. Interesting choices by the great Catholic storyteller.

Let us also consider also the character of Lavinia, daughter of Titus Andronicus in Shakespeare’s story. In history, Lavinia is the name of the bride of the founder of Rome and Queen Mother to the Latin people. She stands as a ready symbol of the Church, the bride of Christ and mother to all Catholics. And so, consider in Shakespeare’s story the impact of her savage rape and mutilation by the Queen’s sons, her tongue cut out and hands cut off. Symbolically, these details stand as multiple metaphors to describe Elizabeth’s continued pillaging of the Church, the Crown’s censoring of Catholics and killing of the Church’s priests and people. Very literally, Queen Elizabeth had Catholic priests dismembered, cutting off the very hands that brought the body of Christ to his bride in England.

With these few details in Titus Andronicus, we are only starting to scratch the surface of the deeply Catholic symbolism embedded within this entertaining masterpiece.

Unable to properly plumb the profound depths of this story in a short summary, the desire for brevity means we’ll conclude with this thought. The story is violent because it tells the story of the English church — which is a violent history. The way the State church treated Catholics is barbaric and cruel and violent. When the royals titled “Defenders of the Faith” became the chief martyr makers in English history, well how else would a Catholic playwright chronicle the plight of his kinsmen and countrymen?

Queen Elizabeth, the evil slayer of his beloved cousin and other family members, is represented in Titus Andronicus as the evil character Tamora, Queen of the Goths. If we think Tamora was evil, deceitful, and cruel, well, don’t look into the history of Elizabeth. English royals, especially her, were savage in their cruelty against Roman Catholics. Again, Shakespeare’s story is violent because it’s not simply a story for the stage, but also a history, disguised to avoid censorship, a story meant to chronicle the violent history of English royalty mutilating the Catholic church and her beloved children.

To hear Shakespeare is to learn Church history. And with this background, just consider how powerful these opening lines of the play must have been for English Catholic audiences suffering under tyranny, unable to legally be Catholic since the earlier generation of their fathers.

Noble patricians, patrons of my right,
Defend the just of my cause with arms.
And countrymen, my loving followers,
Plead my successive title with your swords.
I am his first-born son that was the last
That wore the imperial diadem of Rome.
Then let my father's honors live in me,
Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.