Titus Andronicus Famous Quotes

She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; She is a woman, therefore may be won.

Demetrius arguing with Chiron in Act 2, Scene 1 over Lavinia — the logic (she is a woman, therefore she can be won) immediately precedes her rape. Shakespeare will use almost the same words in 1 Henry VI for courtship; here they introduce violence.

I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow! She is the weeping welkin, I the earth: Then must my sea be moved with her sighs.

Titus in Act 3, Scene 1, watching his mutilated daughter Lavinia weep — the meteorological metaphor (sea, sky, earth) turns private grief into something as large as the natural world, which is the only scale adequate to it.

Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey But me and mine: how happy art thou, then, From these devourers to be banished!

Titus in Act 3, Scene 1, ironically congratulating his exiled son Lucius — Rome has become a place where only Titus and his family remain as prey for the powerful. The tiger image encapsulates the play's worldview.

What fool hath added water to the sea, Or brought a faggot to bright-burning Troy?

Titus in Act 3, Scene 1, on the futility of adding tears to a grief already too large to measure — the burning of Troy is both a classical comparison and a foreshadowing of the play's own violence.

If there were reason for these miseries, Then into limits could I bind my woes.

Titus in Act 3, Scene 1 — his argument is that suffering with a cause can be contained, but suffering without reason is boundless. By this point in the play, the causes have been abundant. The point is that they stopped mattering.

Why, I have not another tear to shed: Besides, this sorrow is an enemy, And would usurp upon my watery eyes.

Titus in Act 3, Scene 1, after discovering he has been tricked into cutting off his hand for nothing — his tears run out and he moves toward something beyond grief. The turn toward comedy and vengeance follows shortly.

The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, The fields are fragrant and the woods are green.

Titus opening Act 2, Scene 2 before the hunt — a lyrical morning passage that sits in painful contrast with what the forest scenes immediately become.

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? Draw near them then in being merciful.

Tamora pleading for her son Alarbus's life in Act 1, Scene 1 — the irony is total. She is arguing for mercy from Titus, and within three scenes she will unleash the cruelty that destroys his family. The speech is genuine, which makes the reversal worse.

O, let me teach you how to knit again This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf.

Marcus in Act 5, Scene 3, calling on the Romans to unite after the massacre — the corn image gathers everything that has been scattered by the play's violence into a fragile possibility of reunion.

When will this fearful slumber have an end?

Titus in Act 3, Scene 1, asking whether any of this nightmare will cease — the slumber is the horror of the play's events, described as a dream because that is the only cognitive frame adequate to events this extreme.

I am not bid to wait upon this bride.

Titus in Act 1, Scene 1, refusing to attend Saturninus's wedding — one of his few early decisions made on principle rather than duty. The rejection is minor; the consequences eventually destroy his family.

Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top, Safe out of fortune's shot; and sits aloft, Secure of thunder's crack or lightning flash.

Aaron in Act 2, Scene 1, contemplating Tamora's rise to Empress of Rome — the Olympus image places her above fate itself, which is premature. The speech also reveals Aaron's own ambitions and his pleasure in her power.

I am no baby, I, that with base prayers I should repent the evils I have done.

Aaron captured in Act 5, Scene 1, refusing to confess or repent — one of the most self-aware villains in early Shakespeare, he identifies repentance as a form of weakness he does not possess and does not want.

Ay, that I had not done a thousand more. Even now I curse the day — and yet I think Few come within the compass of my curse.

Aaron's catalogue of crimes in Act 5, Scene 1, delivered with apparent satisfaction — the complaint that he has not cursed enough people is typical of his perverse pride in the harm he has caused.