Appendix E

The drawing and script reproduced at the head of this edition of Titus Andronicus is of special interest as the first known illustration to any play of the Shakespearean canon. It is from the pen of Henry Peacham, artist, schoolmaster, epigrammatist, and pamphleteer, and was discovered by Sir E. K. Chambers in Volume I of the Harley Papers at Longleat.

The document, dating from 1595, is important as indicating that the Elizabethans regarded Moors as coal-black, not tawny. In the drawing, Tamora is represented kneeling before Titus, pleading for the life of her sons. Two bound figures, presumably her sons, kneel behind her, and Aaron the Moor stands beside them. The figures behind Titus are supposedly the executioners. The only known text to which Peacham could have had access is the First Quarto of 1594. The text of the MS. is an arrangement of lines from the speeches of Tamora and Titus (I. i. 104–121) and of Aaron (V. i. 125–144), with an interpolation of two lines and a half for Titus which are not found in any of the printed texts. Peacham has supplied his own stage directions. Certain minor variations between the lines of the MS. and those of the printed texts are noticeable, and the possibility of an earlier version of the play might thence be inferred. There seems to be some confusion as to whether the death of only one son (Alarbus) or of more than one is contemplated. Titus's lines, as well as Tamora's last line, seem to indicate that only one is to be put to death, and this circumstance agrees substantially with the texts of the versions which we have. Chambers thinks that the drawing clearly indicates that both sons are to be put to death, but this does not seem necessarily to be the purport of the illustration.

The text of the dialogue accompanying the drawing reads as follows:

Enter Tamora pleadinge for her sonnes going to executionTam: Stay Romane bretheren gratious ConquerorsVictorious Titus rue the teares I shedA mothers teares in passion of her sonnesAnd if thy sonnes were ever deare to theeOh thinke my sonnes to bee as deare to meeSuffizeth not that wee are brought to RoomeTo beautify thy triumphes and returneCaptiue to thee and to thy Romane yoakeBut must my sonnes be slaughtered in the streetesfor valiant doinges in there Cuntryes causeOh if to fight for kinge and Common wealeWere piety in thine it is in theseAndronicus staine not thy tombe with bloodWilt thou drawe neere the nature of the GodesDrawe neere them then in being mercifullSweete mercy is nobilityes true badgeThrice noble Titus spare my first borne sonneTitus: Patient your self madame for dy hee mustAaron do you likewise prepare your selfeAnd now at last repent your wicked lifeAron: Ah now I curse the day and yet I thinkefew comes within the compasse of my curseWherein I did not some notorious illAs kill a man or els devise his deathRavish a mayd or plott the way to do itAcuse some innocent and forsweare my selfeSet deadly enmity betweene too freendesMake poore mens cattell breake theire neckesSet fire on barnes and haystackes in the nightAnd bid the owners quench them with their tearesOft have I digd vp dead men from their gravesAnd set them vpright at their deere frendes doreEven almost when theire sorrowes was forgottAnd on their brestes as on the barke of treesHave with my knife carvd in Romane lettersLett not your sorrowe dy though I am deadTut I have done a thousand dreadfull thingesAs willingly as one would kill a flyAnd nothing greives mee hartily indeedefor that I cannot doo ten thousand more & ceteraAlarbus