Two sons of the late Roman Emperor, Saturninus (the elder) and Bassianus, strive to succeed him, but Titus Andronincus, veteran general triumphant against the Goths, is chosen. He has just returned with his prisoners: Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her sons, and Aaron, her Moorish paramour. Heedless of entreaty, Titus orders her eldest son, Alarbus, to be sacrificed to appease the spirits of his own dead sons. He refuses the crown, urging the choice of Saturninus, to whom he gives his daughter Lavinia and yields his Gothic prisoners. Bassianus, secretly pledged to Lavinia, runs off with her; Saturninus, to curb the influence of Titus, announces that he will marry Tamora, who tells him to remain silent while she plans revenge upon the Andronici.

In a rush of events orchestrated by Aaron, Tamora’s sons, Demetrius and Chiron, kill Bassianus during a hunt in the forest. They rape Lavinia, cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Meanwhile, Aaron manages to implicate the sons of Titus in the murder of Bassianus. They are sentenced to death and another son, Lucius, is banished. Titus, already overcome by the plight of Lavinia, is tricked into losing his hand as fruitless ransom for his sons.

While Lucius is raising a revenging army among the Goths, the mutilated Lavinia, by the manipulation of a staff in the sand, accuses Chiron and Demetrius. Titus behaves like a mad man, dispatching messages to the gods to redress his wrongs.

Tamora has had a black child by Aaron, who removes it for safety; captured by the Gothic army on its way, under Lucius, to attack Rome, he tells the whole story. Tamora, seeking to persuade Titus – whom she regards as merely crazed – to recall Lucius, has come to him dressed as Revenge, with her two sons as Murder and Rape. Having promised to invite “the Empress and her sons” and Saturninus, with Lucius, to a feast, Titus – who has seen through the charade – later kills Chiron and Demetrius and at the banquet serves their flesh baked in a pie. The end is a frenzy in which Lavinia, Tamora, Titus and Saturninus all die. Lucius becomes Emperor and after sentences Aaron to be buried breast-deep and starved to death.

-The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare’s Plays by J C Trewin