Titus Andronicus

Rome’s victorious general returns from war with captive Goths and, by sacrificing one of them, unleashes a spiral of revenge that consumes his own family. This is Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy and by far his bloodiest, heaping murder, mutilation, and a notorious cannibal banquet into a single relentless play. Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her lover Aaron drive much of the cruelty, matching Titus atrocity for atrocity until almost no one is left standing. Long scorned for its gore, the play has been reclaimed in modern times for its raw theatrical force and its clear-eyed view of vengeance breeding vengeance. Probably written in the early 1590s, it shows a young playwright testing the limits of the stage. Read it here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.