court ( 1. 1. 265 – 66 ). Although the impertinence of these remarks has caused
editors to mark the couplet as an aside, in the play the only response comes
from Lavinia, who praises the emperor’s treatment of the Gothic queen as a
sign of “true nobility” and “princely courtesy” ( 1. 1. 275 – 76 ).^43 When Saturni-
nus then stages his imperious change of heart, Titus does protest, yet not be-
cause the emperor chooses Tamora but because he rejects Lavinia—separate
acts which, though they happen almost simultaneously, are decidedly not the
same. Cutting off Titus’s efforts to “restore Lavinia to the emperor,” Saturni-
nus asserts that “the emperor needs her not, / Nor her, nor thee, nor any of thy
stock” and insists that Titus “go give that changing piece” to Bassianus
( 1. 1. 301 , 304 – 5 , 314 ). These alone are the “monstrous” and “reproachful” words
that Titus declares “razors” to his “wounded heart” ( 1. 1. 313 , 319 ). When the
emperor subsequently announces his intentions to “create [Tamora] empress
of Rome” and exits with her to “consummate [their] spousal rites,” Titus
objects only that he is “not bid to wait upon this bride” and instead must “walk
alone,” “dishonoured” and “challenged” (i.e., accused) “of wrongs”
( 1. 1. 343 – 45 ). Despite his own valorization of a Roman Rome, in both cases
what worries him is not the connection between Roman and Goth but his
disconnection from the Roman court.
Similarly, the other Andronici, who come on stage to sift through the
wreckage, make no mention of the impending intermarriage, being preoccu-
pied rather with the crises that have divided their family from within and
caused their own political displacement. Directing Titus to “see what thou
hast done,” “in a bad quarrel slain a virtuous son,” Marcus ignites a family ar-
gument over whether that (in Titus’s mind, treasonous) son, Mutius, should
be honorably interred ( 1. 1. 346 – 47 ). Marcus eventually questions “how comes
it that the subtle queen of Goths / Is of a sudden thus advanced in Rome,” but
only after the matter of burial is settled and only in order, he says, “to step out
of these dreary dumps” ( 1. 1. 396 – 98 ). If, in his case, the subject of the Gothic
queen’s advance serves as a useful distraction, in Titus’s it provides a site where
he can project and address his own dejected status. Unable to tell whether Ta-
mora’s rise has come “by device or no,” he leaves that question to “the heav-
ens” and asks rather: “Is she not then beholden to the man / That brought her
for this high good turn so far?” ( 1. 1. 400 – 402 ). Caught up, like Lear, in his
own narrative of “filial ingratitude,” the Roman patriarch is less interested in
whether the Gothic queen has manipulated her way into power than he is in
whether she will show her new husband the due gratitude that Saturninus did
not show to him (Lear 3. 4. 14 ).
“Incorporate in Rome” 77