SOURCE: "Titus Andronicus: Rome and the Family," in Shakespeare 's Rome, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 42-75.

In the following essay, Miola considers the Roman setting, themes, and sources of Titus Andronicus.

Probably the most striking feature of modern critical reaction to Titus Andronicus is the persistent refusal to consider it one of Shakespeare's Roman plays. Early in the century, the abundant bloodletting and lurid action caused John M. Robertson to discern various hands in the play and to deny it a place in Shakespeare's canon.¹ The disintegrationist furor having died down, most critics now emphasize the importance of Titus Andronicus to Shakespeare's artistic development, specifically to the histories and great tragedies that follow.² Critics of Shakespeare's Rome generally follow the precedent of M. W. MacCallum, who relegates Titus Andronicus to a place apart from the Plutarchan tragedies:

It is pretty certain then that Julius Caesar is the first...