Begging & Poor, Dust & Stones in Titus Andronicus (1593)
"Poor" occurs 16 times in Titus Andronicus (1593):
- Titus speaks of "the poor remains": only four of his 25 "valiant sons" survived battle with the Goths (1.1).
- He speaks of himself and his daughter Lavina as "poor creatures," and of his "poor right hand" (3.2) after he was deceived to have the left cut off to ransom two sons.
[Cover page from the 1594 Quarto of [Titus Andronicus] The most lamentable Romaine tragedie of Titus Andronicus As it was plaide by the right honourable the Earle of Darbie, Earle of Pembrooke, and Earle of Sussex their seruants. Image via Wikipedia and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Public Domain.]
"Beg" occurs 10 times, including Lavina in 2.3 begging Tamora to kill her: Her beloved Bassianus had been slain; she'd rather be killed than raped by Tamora's sons. They rape her, cut out her tongue, and cut off her hands in hope that she can't identify her attackers.
But later she does identify them, with help from Ovid, and writing in the sand.
In book one of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Io, raped by Zeus and turned into a cow, identifies her rapist by scraping her hoof in the dirt/sand/dust;
in book six of the same, Philomela identifies her rapist through a tapestry
(Wikipedia lists Ovid as among the sources for Shakespeare's play);
in 3 Henry VI [1591], King Edward threatens to write Warwick's name in the dust with Warwick's blood; Jesus writes in the dust in John 8:6, in a tale about a woman accused of adultery.
CANNIBALISM?
Titus, in revenge for his daughter and for the deaths of two sons, kills the sons of Tamora and has them baked in a pie, fed to her and to her husband the emperor.
Christianity defended itself from early on against claims of cannibalism because of how Jesus, at the last supper, asks his disciples to eat his body and drink his blood.
Titus Andronicus is based on classical sources like Ovid (8 C.E.), and Seneca's Thyestes, in turn based on Greek myths, older than all of the Christian gospels. It's not impossible that some of the gospel writers read or heard of Ovid's tales and Thyestes.
SIMILARITIES:
Consider: The classical tales include
a woman sexually wronged, "tainted" by rape, and social anxiety about how women might become tainted sexually;
writing in dust or sand;
and a cannibalistic banquet of deception and revenge.
John's gospel includes
a woman accused of the "taint" of adultery (John 8), and social anxiety about how women might become tainted sexually;
writing in dust (Jn 8:6);
and a banquet of thanksgiving, truth, and reconciliation (even love of enemies), falsely accused of being cannibalistic.
(Note that in Hamlet there is similar anxiety about how women might become tainted sexually, focused on Ophelia, her brother Laertes, and her father Polonius.)
STONES:
Besides Jesus saying in John 8, "Let him that is among you without sin, cast the first stone," we should note that Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, and Luke 19:40 all have stones in common:
Hamlet says of his dead father, "His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, / Would make them capable." (3.4).
In Luke 19:40, Jesus says, if the crowd greeting him "should hold their peace, the stones would cry."
In 3.1 of Titus Andronicus, Titus says,
[...] I tell my sorrows to the *stones*;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A *stone* is soft as wax,—tribunes more hard than *stones*;
A *stone* is silent, and offendeth not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
SUITED TO HIS TIMES?
Does Shakespeare suggest that, more than Christian commentary, this tale of pre-Christian atrocities - pretended reconciliation as bait - is suited to his times?
If some Christian gospels were written with knowledge of Ovid and Thyestes, does this mean the gospels may be claiming that the Christian message of love of enemies transcends and perfects the older classical tradition (as well as the apparent Judaic tradition) of revenge?
Is Shakespeare suggesting that transcendent Christian message has been lost, and his time has given way to old barbarities?
What experiences in Shakespeare's England of political rivalry, of revenge, of atrocities, and of the silencing of truths that might have inspired the play and made it appealing in spite of (or in part because of) all the violence - and made attending the play a cathartic experience?
STRIFE, TORTURE, EXECUTIONS
We know there was Protestant-Catholic strife. We know prisoners were tortured and executed brutally, at least by today's standards.
A QUESTION OF SUCCESSION
Titus Andronicus includes a question of succession - who will be the next ruler? One of the sons of the previous ruler, or Titus Andronicus, popular among the people? We know that people in England were concerned about Elizabeth's lack of a heir, and therefore about succession.
USING PRETENDED RECONCILIATION AS BAIT
In the play, Queen Tamora uses reconciliation as a ruse to bait others into a trap. Elizabeth had claimed to desire toleration, and that she did not want to look into people's souls to see what their honest opinions were about transubstantiation and other religious issues. And yet her government was not the most tolerant, and it used spies and deception to achieve its goals.
So it makes sense that plays like The Spanish Tragedy and Titus Andronicus would enjoy popularity in their time, considering all the things that were taking place in England.
~~~~~~~~~~
I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I use the Advanced Search Engine at OpenSourceShakespeare to search for instances of particular words in Shakespeare's plays. I'd like to explain how I do that, in case any of my readers may benefit. There may also be among my readers those who are much better at this than I am, so feel free to leave comments about your experience or recommendations.
First, one should note that there are some searches that might overwhelm the search engine: If a word or phrase appears too often in the works of Shakespeare, the search engine may list, alphabetically, some of the plays where that word or phrase is found, but one has to pay attention to see if other plays were cut off.
Second, some tips for narrowing the searches:
If you search only for "beg," the search will include words you don't want in which "beg" appears, such as begin, began, begun, beguile, begotten, etc. So besides searching FOR a word, it's helpful to include in the advanced search some examples of things you're NOT looking for.
If you enter "beg" as the word you're searching for, and begu as something you're NOT searching for, then this will eliminate both "begun" and "beguile." You have a limited number of options, so it can help to be a bit judicious about what you're searching for, and what you're not. Here's an example of what I did in searching for "beg/beggar/begging/beggars" in Taming of the Shrew:
If you're interested in seeing EVERY instance of "beg" and "poor" that I found in preparing for today's blog post, go to OpenSourceShakespeare's advanced search page, and try it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE TO COME: This is part in a new multi-part series: After I came near the end of the previous series, on the Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (to the Biblical tale of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar), I decided that since no other character in Hamlet is described as often as Hamlet as begging or poor, I would investigate other Shakespeare plays to see how those two words are used - and to be open to other insights along the way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. Beg/beggar/begging/poor in "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1589-91 - 3 August, 2021
2. Begging and poor in The Taming of the Shrew - 10 August, 2021
3. Begging and Poor in 1 Henry VI, 1591-92 - 17 August, 2021
4. Begging, Poor, Eve, and Protestant-Catholic Context for 2 Henry VI - 31 August, 2021
5. Begging and Poor in 3 Henry VI (1591) - 7 September, 2021
6. Begging & Poor; Dust & Stones in Titus Andronicus (1593) - 14 September, 2021
7. Begging and Poor in Richard III (1592–1593) - 28 September, 2021 8. Begging and Poor in The Comedy of Errors (1594) - 5 October, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shakespeare quotes: All quotes from Hamlet in older posts have been taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada. In this post and in the future, I will be taking them also from The Folger Shakespeare Library.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes, when taken from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading! My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
- Titus speaks of "the poor remains": only four of his 25 "valiant sons" survived battle with the Goths (1.1).
- He speaks of himself and his daughter Lavina as "poor creatures," and of his "poor right hand" (3.2) after he was deceived to have the left cut off to ransom two sons.
"Beg" occurs 10 times, including Lavina in 2.3 begging Tamora to kill her: Her beloved Bassianus had been slain; she'd rather be killed than raped by Tamora's sons. They rape her, cut out her tongue, and cut off her hands in hope that she can't identify her attackers.
But later she does identify them, with help from Ovid, and writing in the sand.
In book one of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Io, raped by Zeus and turned into a cow, identifies her rapist by scraping her hoof in the dirt/sand/dust;
in book six of the same, Philomela identifies her rapist through a tapestry
(Wikipedia lists Ovid as among the sources for Shakespeare's play);
in 3 Henry VI [1591], King Edward threatens to write Warwick's name in the dust with Warwick's blood; Jesus writes in the dust in John 8:6, in a tale about a woman accused of adultery.
CANNIBALISM?
Titus, in revenge for his daughter and for the deaths of two sons, kills the sons of Tamora and has them baked in a pie, fed to her and to her husband the emperor.
Christianity defended itself from early on against claims of cannibalism because of how Jesus, at the last supper, asks his disciples to eat his body and drink his blood.
Titus Andronicus is based on classical sources like Ovid (8 C.E.), and Seneca's Thyestes, in turn based on Greek myths, older than all of the Christian gospels. It's not impossible that some of the gospel writers read or heard of Ovid's tales and Thyestes.
SIMILARITIES:
Consider: The classical tales include
a woman sexually wronged, "tainted" by rape, and social anxiety about how women might become tainted sexually;
writing in dust or sand;
and a cannibalistic banquet of deception and revenge.
John's gospel includes
a woman accused of the "taint" of adultery (John 8), and social anxiety about how women might become tainted sexually;
writing in dust (Jn 8:6);
and a banquet of thanksgiving, truth, and reconciliation (even love of enemies), falsely accused of being cannibalistic.
(Note that in Hamlet there is similar anxiety about how women might become tainted sexually, focused on Ophelia, her brother Laertes, and her father Polonius.)
STONES:
Besides Jesus saying in John 8, "Let him that is among you without sin, cast the first stone," we should note that Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, and Luke 19:40 all have stones in common:
Hamlet says of his dead father, "His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, / Would make them capable." (3.4).
In Luke 19:40, Jesus says, if the crowd greeting him "should hold their peace, the stones would cry."
In 3.1 of Titus Andronicus, Titus says,
[...] I tell my sorrows to the *stones*;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A *stone* is soft as wax,—tribunes more hard than *stones*;
A *stone* is silent, and offendeth not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.
SUITED TO HIS TIMES?
Does Shakespeare suggest that, more than Christian commentary, this tale of pre-Christian atrocities - pretended reconciliation as bait - is suited to his times?
If some Christian gospels were written with knowledge of Ovid and Thyestes, does this mean the gospels may be claiming that the Christian message of love of enemies transcends and perfects the older classical tradition (as well as the apparent Judaic tradition) of revenge?
Is Shakespeare suggesting that transcendent Christian message has been lost, and his time has given way to old barbarities?
What experiences in Shakespeare's England of political rivalry, of revenge, of atrocities, and of the silencing of truths that might have inspired the play and made it appealing in spite of (or in part because of) all the violence - and made attending the play a cathartic experience?
STRIFE, TORTURE, EXECUTIONS
We know there was Protestant-Catholic strife. We know prisoners were tortured and executed brutally, at least by today's standards.
A QUESTION OF SUCCESSION
Titus Andronicus includes a question of succession - who will be the next ruler? One of the sons of the previous ruler, or Titus Andronicus, popular among the people? We know that people in England were concerned about Elizabeth's lack of a heir, and therefore about succession.
USING PRETENDED RECONCILIATION AS BAIT
In the play, Queen Tamora uses reconciliation as a ruse to bait others into a trap. Elizabeth had claimed to desire toleration, and that she did not want to look into people's souls to see what their honest opinions were about transubstantiation and other religious issues. And yet her government was not the most tolerant, and it used spies and deception to achieve its goals.
So it makes sense that plays like The Spanish Tragedy and Titus Andronicus would enjoy popularity in their time, considering all the things that were taking place in England.
~~~~~~~~~~
I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I use the Advanced Search Engine at OpenSourceShakespeare to search for instances of particular words in Shakespeare's plays. I'd like to explain how I do that, in case any of my readers may benefit. There may also be among my readers those who are much better at this than I am, so feel free to leave comments about your experience or recommendations.
First, one should note that there are some searches that might overwhelm the search engine: If a word or phrase appears too often in the works of Shakespeare, the search engine may list, alphabetically, some of the plays where that word or phrase is found, but one has to pay attention to see if other plays were cut off.
Second, some tips for narrowing the searches:
If you search only for "beg," the search will include words you don't want in which "beg" appears, such as begin, began, begun, beguile, begotten, etc. So besides searching FOR a word, it's helpful to include in the advanced search some examples of things you're NOT looking for.
If you enter "beg" as the word you're searching for, and begu as something you're NOT searching for, then this will eliminate both "begun" and "beguile." You have a limited number of options, so it can help to be a bit judicious about what you're searching for, and what you're not. Here's an example of what I did in searching for "beg/beggar/begging/beggars" in Taming of the Shrew:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE TO COME: This is part in a new multi-part series: After I came near the end of the previous series, on the Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (to the Biblical tale of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar), I decided that since no other character in Hamlet is described as often as Hamlet as begging or poor, I would investigate other Shakespeare plays to see how those two words are used - and to be open to other insights along the way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. Beg/beggar/begging/poor in "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1589-91 - 3 August, 2021
2. Begging and poor in The Taming of the Shrew - 10 August, 2021
3. Begging and Poor in 1 Henry VI, 1591-92 - 17 August, 2021
4. Begging, Poor, Eve, and Protestant-Catholic Context for 2 Henry VI - 31 August, 2021
5. Begging and Poor in 3 Henry VI (1591) - 7 September, 2021
6. Begging & Poor; Dust & Stones in Titus Andronicus (1593) - 14 September, 2021
7. Begging and Poor in Richard III (1592–1593) - 28 September, 2021 8. Begging and Poor in The Comedy of Errors (1594) - 5 October, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shakespeare quotes: All quotes from Hamlet in older posts have been taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada. In this post and in the future, I will be taking them also from The Folger Shakespeare Library.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes, when taken from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading! My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
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