Titus Andronicus (play)

About

Written in an attempt to emulate a bloody, revenge play that many of his peers were writing at the time, Titus Andronicus is William Shakespeare's first tragedy and by far his most violent. Set in the waning days of the Roman Empire, the play tells the story of a fictional general who is embroiled in a bitter cycle of revenge with the queen of a powerful eastern Germanic tribe. Titus Andronicus was extremely popular upon its initial release, it came to be regarded as crass and vulgar during the Victorian era, although it experienced a popularity resurgence in the mid-twentieth century.