TITUS ANDRONICUS is
certainly as unlike Shakespeare's usual style as it is possible. It
is an accumulation of vulgar physical horrors, in which the power
exercised by the poet bears no proportion to the repugnance excited
by the subject. The character of Aaron the Moor is the only thing
which shows any originality of conception; and the scene in which he
expresses his joy 'at the blackness and ugliness of his child begot
in adultery', the only one worthy of Shakespeare. Even this is
worthy of him only in the display of power, for it gives no
pleasure. Shakespeare managed these things differently. Nor do we
think it a sufficient answer to say that this was an embryo or crude
production of the author. In its kind it is full grown, and its
features decided and overcharged. It is not like a first imperfect
essay, but shows a confirmed habit, a systematic preference of
violent effect to everything else. There are occasional detached
images of great beauty and delicacy, but these were not beyond the
powers of other writers then living. The circumstance which inclines
us to reject the external evidence in favour of this play being
Shakespeare's is, that the grammatical construction is constantly
false and mixed up with vulgar abbreviations, a fault that never
occurs in any of his genuine plays. A similar defect, and the
halting measure of the verse are the chief objections to PERICLES OF
TYRE, if we except the far-fetched and complicated absurdity of the
story.
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