THE STAGE-HISTORY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
Summary
The origins of Titus Andronicus, probably in 1593, and the records of early performances in 1594 have been discussed in the Introduction. No notice of any production between 1594 and 1660 happens to have come down to us, but it must have had a vogue for at least a decade and a half, since Q2 of 1600 and Q3 of 1611 each refers to its having been performed ‘sundry times’ by the Lord Chamberlain's men (who by 1611 were ‘the Kinges Maiesties' Seruants’). And Ben Jonson's reference to it in 1614 points to continued and considerable popularity. At the Restoration it was assigned (with nineteen other plays of Shakespeare) by the Lord Chamberlain to the King's men at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane; and it appears last in Downes' list of twenty-one old plays revived by them between the opening of the Theatre Royal in May 1663 and the amalgamation of the King's and the Duke's men in November 1682. These were in addition to their old stock plays (which included Henry IV, Julius Caesar, and Othello); ‘being old plays’, writes Downes, they ‘were acted but now and then; yet…were very satisfactory to the Town’. It is doubtful, however, whether they ever presented the original play.
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- Information
- Titus AndronicusThe Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare, pp. lxvi - lxxiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1948