ENGL 431 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3.1: Actaeon, Edward Ravenscroft, Philomela
Document Summary
Worse than philomela : violence, revenge and meta-allusion in titus. Characters referring to philomela: inspires aaron, chiron and demetrius to rape lavinia, marcus refers to it when he nds lavinia. Titus andronicus is histrionic in its virtuosic almost gleeful depiction of bodily destruction. Dense foregrounding: pulled from seneca, livy, virgil and ovid. Lavinia based o her ovid counterpoint philomela: rape, mutilation and cannibalism, is invoked by characters and is a prop in the story. Shakespeare"s allusive masterpiece: encountered serious censure, edward ravenscroft questioned the authorship. Caused a period of critical disrespect of the play: not stomached until the twentieth century, believed to be a collaboration with george peele. A craftier philomela: meta-allusion and the andronici: most classically saturated through allusion, lavinia evokes. Her vergilian namesake: complained about for the overlapping myths. But elizabethan readers enjoyed copia: shakespeare played into this preference.
