Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

"And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators!"
- William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III.1



Shakespeare's first Tragedy is not perfect. It is bloody, predictable, racist, and gratuitous to the extreme. However, it probably deserves better attention than it usually gets (well there is the Julie Taymor film). I think this early Shakespeare's villain (Aaron the Moor) is diabolical and fantastic. Yes, I'm not a fan of the easy way the moor (or often the Jew) becomes the bad guy in Shakespeare's plays, but I'm also not a fan (at all) of judging Shakespeare by a morality that the 21st century only so far corrects. We have plenty of racist motes in our own eyes, thank you very much. I love the wickedness of the Goth Queen Tamora. I love Titus and his brother Marcus. Again, the poetry is not fully mature. The plot is still a bit overripe and overwrought. But ye gads, Shakespeare's pen can still pull some dangerous couplets out of the air.

I can, however, also see how this "horror opera" (Bloom followed those two words with "Stephen King turned loose among the Romans and the Goths), with its "nasty power" could unsettle most readers. Especially if taken straight. Bloom thinks without Aaron, this play "would be unendurable". Again, I'm not as critical of this violent, surrealist, bloody farce as Bloom. Perhaps, that has less to do with the actual text and more to do with our own experiences. I was raised watching Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch movies. I think Bloom had a bit higher brow experience.

One SPECIFIC, indirect, aspect does give me pause. A real pause. I recently heard that Titus Andronicus was Stephen Bannon's favorite Shakespeare play (Yes, that Bannon. Trump's Bannon). While that probably says more about Stephen K. Bannon (co-executive producer) than it does about the play. But, IT still says something about the play, methinks.

There were also several nice lines, specifically:

- "For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar.
'Tis policy and stratagem must do
That you affect; and so you must resolve,
That what you cannot as you would achieve,
You must perforce accomplish as you may.
- "Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee,
O, could our mourning ease thy misery!"
- "Let fools do good, and fair me call for grace,
Aaron will have his should black like his face."
- "Now is the time to storm; why art thou still?"
- "Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?
There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!"
- "For when no friends are by, men praise themselves."
- "If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul."