>>5854135>define poorIn this scene, Anthony Hopkins who has cut off his own hand in an attempt to save his son from execution (this did not work, he was tricked by a black man, his son dies anyway) attempts to console his daughter who has been ravished and violated by two men in a forest who also cut off her hands and tongue. Anthony Hopkins attempts to console his mutilated and disfigured daughter at a banquet where he intends to take revenge upon his tormentor, the barbarian queen Tamora, by serving the decapitated heads of her sons baked in a pie, in a manner similar to the alleged historical fate of Harpagus and Astyages / Istumegu.
This play was apparently extremely popular in Shakespeare's time. In the Julie Taymor film adaptation of this scene, it is portrayed as a whimsical comedy
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
[To LAVINIA]
Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs!
When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating,
Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still.
Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans;
Or get some little knife between thy teeth,
And just against thy heart make thou a hole;
That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall
May run into that sink, and soaking in
Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears.
(later... at the banquet)
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
My lord the emperor, resolve me this:
Was it well done of rash Virginius
To slay his daughter with his own right hand,
Because she was enforced, stain'd, and deflower'd?
SATURNINUS:
It was, Andronicus.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
Your reason, mighty lord?
SATURNINUS:
Because the girl should not survive her shame,
And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
A reason mighty, strong, and effectual;
A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant,
For me, most wretched, to perform the like.
Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee;
[Kills LAVINIA]
And, with thy shame, thy father's sorrow die!
SATURNINUS:
What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made me blind.
I am as woeful as Virginius was,
And have a thousand times more cause than he
To do this outrage: and it now is done.
SATURNINUS:
What, was she ravish'd? tell who did the deed.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
Will't please you eat? will't please your
highness feed?
TAMORA:
Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius:
They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue;
And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong.
SATURNINUS:
Go fetch them hither to us presently.
TITUS ANDRONICUS:
Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point.
[Kills TAMORA]
SATURNINUS:
Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!
[Kills TITUS]
