SOURCE: "The Ceremonies of Titus Andronicus," in Mirror up to Shakespeare: Essays in Honour of G. R. Hibbard, edited by J. C. Gray, University of Toronto Press, 1984, pp. 159-70.

In the following excerpt, Waith examines the use of ceremonial gestures in Titus Andronicus to dramatize conflicts between opposing sets of values and to present differing perspectives on the actions of the characters.

Burley-on-the-Hill, where James I was to be so delighted by the masque of The Gypsies Metamorphosed, was the scene of Christmas holiday festivities in 1595-6 which included a performance of Titus Andronicus on 1 January. The choice of this play for such an occasion now seems very odd, to say the least, but perhaps less so when we notice that in the one known account of the occasion, the tragedy is valued mainly as a 'show.' Jaques Petit, the Gascon servant of Anthony Bacon, writes to...