end, his plots take shape suggestively in the domains, if not under the
authority, of the Roman court.
Granted, when Aaron begins his reign of terror, he engineers the inaugu-
ral crimes—the murder of Bassianus and the rape and mutilation of
Lavinia—in the “ruthless, dreadful” and “unfrequented” forest that he de-
clares fit “by kind” for “rape and villainy,” its deadly pit providing an ominous
parallel to the Andronici tomb ( 1. 1 .628, 615– 16 ). In taking Aaron’s incorpora-
tion as the sign that Rome itself has devolved into a “wilderness of tigers,”
critics have associated the Moor with a beastly wild, endorsing images certain
characters pointedly invoke as they defame Aaron for being a “ravenous tiger”
or “inhuman dog.” Yet even as the play gives Aaron rein and domain in
Rome’s unsettled outskirts, it also emphasizes his physical and figurative prox-
imity to the court. For starters, he improvises his very first conspiracy practi-
cally in the emperor’s backyard. Just after, and in the same space that, the
Romans have installed their new regime, Aaron stands alone, there imagining
how Tamora will “charm” Saturninus into “shipwreck.” When Chiron and
Demetrius then enter, dueling over “Lavinia’s love” ( 1. 1. 535 ), he rebukes them
for “maintain[ing] such a quarrel openly” “so near the emperor’s palace,” and
then uses their “storm” to invent a rape plot that will better “serve [their]
turns” as well, of course, as his own ( 1. 1. 545 – 46 , 524 , 596 ). His insistence on
the perils of transgressing “so near the emperor’s palace” exposes how near he
himself is, in both physical place and cultural fluency. Speaking with the au-
thority of an insider, the Moor informs the Goths “how dangerous / It is to jet
upon a prince’s right” and “in Rome / How furious and impatient they be, /
And cannot brook competitors in love” ( 1. 1. 562 – 63 , 574 – 76 ); witness Saturn-
inus and Bassianus. In a not too subtle play on the idea of “ground,” the scene
here urges a contrast between the centrality of the position that Aaron inhab-
its and articulates and the eccentricity of the Goths’ intentions. As he asserts,
“the ground of all [their] grudge,” “this discord’s ground,” would both defame
and displease the Gothic queen ( 1. 1. 547 , 569 ). The “path” he finds to solve the
Goth boys’ problem leads them to the forest ( 1. 1. 611 ), but it is no small mat-
ter that he directs their progress from the court, with a keen eye to Roman
ways and values.
It is not just the Goths but also the Romans who look to Aaron for direc-
tion. The primary victims of his schemes are, of course, the Andronici, and if
their insouciant disregard for signs of trouble undermines their credibility, it
nonetheless underlines his. Bestowing upon Aaron “an absolute trust” as naive
as Duncan’s upon Cawdor (Macbeth 1. 4. 14 ), Titus’s sons Quintus and Martius
“Incorporate in Rome” 83