Titus Andronicus (Wordsworth Classics)

　　Titus Andronicus is probably Shakespeare’s first tragedy. Set in approximately the 4th century AD, the macabre plot concerns human sacrifice, torture, rape, mutilation, decapitation, cannibalism and murder. The fashionable theme of revenge is played out against the decadence of Imperial Rome in its decline with much violence and melodrama. Enormously popular with Elizabethan audiences, the play has languished since the reign of James I, but recent productions have commanded recognition of its merits. Conceived on a grand scale, Titus Andronicus has the seeds of greatness and presages the supreme tragedies of Shakespeare’s maturity.