KESERVING the consideration of the external and internal evidence of the authorship of this tragedy, we here supply the facts connected with its publication, and the supposed period of its original production.

The earliest edition, of which any copy is at present known, of Titus Andronicus, appeared in quarto, in 1600, under the following title: 'The most lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. As it hath sundry times been playde by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembroke, the Earle of Darbie, the Earle of Sussex, and the Lorde Chamberlaine, theyr Servants. At London, printed by J. R. for Edward White, 1600.'

The next edition appeared in 1611, under the following title: The most lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. As it hath sundry times beene plaide by the Kings Maiesties Servants. London, printed for Edward White, 1611.'

In the folio collection of 1623 it appears under the title of 'The lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus.' It follows Coriolanus; and precedes Romeo and Juliet.

The copy of the quarto edition of 1600, belonging to Lord Francis Egerton, was collated by Mr. Todd, previous to the publication of the variorum edition of 1803; and the differences between the first and second quartos are inserted by Steevens in that edition. They are very trifling. The variations, on the other hand, between both the quartos, and the folio of 1623, are more important. The second scene of the third act, containing about eighty lines, is only found in the folio; and there are one or two other charges which are evidently the work of an author,

and not of an editor or printer. We have, of course, noticed them in our foot-notes. In the quartos, also, we have no division into acts, as in the folio. The stage directions, in each copy, are nearly alike; and these we have copied with scarcely any variation. But, with these exceptions, we may say that the folio of 1623 is printed from the quarto of 1611, as that was probably printed from the quarto of 1600. The accuracy of all the copies is very remarkable. But Gerard Langbaine, in his 'Account of the English Dramatick Poets,' 1691, says of Titus Andronicus, "This play was first printed 4to, Lond. 1594, and acted by the Earls of Derby, Pembroke, and Essex, their Servants." This circumstantiality would show that Langbaine had seen such an edition; and his account is confirmed by an entry in the Stationers' Registers, under date of Feb. 6, 1593: "John Danter. A booke entitled a noble Roman Historye of Tytus Andronicus." This entry is accompanied by the following: "Entered also unto him, by warrant from Mr. Woodcock, the ballad thereof." The ballad here entered was most probably that printed by Percy, in his 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' and which we here insert :—

"You noble minds, and famous martiall wights,
That in defence of native country fights,
Give eare to me, that ten yeeres fought for Rome,
Yet reapt disgrace at my returning home.

In Rome I lived in fame fulle threescore yeeres,
My name beloved was of all my peeres;
Full five and twenty valiant sonnes I had,
Whose forwarde vertues made their father glad.
For when Rome's foes their warlike forces bent,
Against them stille my sonnes and I were sent;
Against the Goths full ten yeeres weary warre
We spent, receiving many a bloudy scarre.

Just two and twenty of my sonnes were slaine
Before we did return to Rome againe;
of five and twenty sonnes I brought but three
Alive, the stately towers of Rome to see.

When wars were done, I conquest home did bring,
And did present my prisoners to the king,
The queene of Goths, her sons, and eke a Moore,
Which did such murders, like was nere before.

The emperour did make this queene his wife,
Which bred in Rome debate and deadlie strife;
The Moore, with her two sonnes, did growe soe proud
That none like them in Rome might bee allowd.

The Moore so pleas'd this new-made empress' eie,
That she consented to him secretlye
For to abuse her husband's marriage-bed,
And soe in time a blackamore she bred.

Then she, whose thoughts to murder were inclinde,
Consented with the Moor of bloody minde
Against myselfe, my kin, and all my friendes,
In cruell sort to bring them to their endes.

Soe when in age I thought to live in peace,
Both care and griefe began then to increase:
Amongst my sonnes I had one daughter bright.
Which joy'd and pleased best my aged sight;

My deare Lavinia was betrothed then
To Cæsar's sonne, a young and noble man:
Who in a hunting, by the emperour's wife
And her two sonnes, bereaved was of life.

He, being slain, was cast in cruel wise
Into a darksome den from light of skies:
The cruel Moore did come that way as then
With my three sonnes, who fell into the den.

The Moore then fetcht the emperour with speed
For to accuse them of the murderous deed;
And when my sonnes within the den were found,
In wrongfull prison they were cast and bound.

But nowe, behold! what wounded most my mind,
The empresse's two sonnes of savage kind
My daughter ravished without remorse,
And took away her honour, quite perforce.
When they had tasted of soe sweet a flowre,
Fearing this sweete should shortly turn to sowre,
They cutt her tongue, whereby she could not tell
How that dishonoure unto her befell.

Then both her hands they basely cutt off quite,
Whereby their wickednesse she could not write,
Nor with her needle on her sampler sowe
The bloudye workers of her direfull woe.

My brother Marcus found her in the wood,
Staining the grassie ground with purple bloud,
That trickled from her stumpes and bloudlesse armes:
Noe tongue at all she had to tell her harmes.
But when I sawe her in that woefull case,
With teares of bloud I wet mine aged face:
For my Lavinia I lamented more
Then for my two and twenty sonnes before.

When as I sawe she could not write nor speake,
With grief mine aged heart began to breake;
We spred an heape of sand upon the ground,
Whereby those bloudy tyrants out we found.

For with a staffe, without the helpe of hand,
She writt these wordes upon the plat of sand:-
"The lustfull sonnes of the proud emperesse
Are doers of this hateful wickednesse.'

I tore the milk-white hairs from off mine head,

I curst the houre wherein I first was bred;

I wisht this hand, that fought for countrie's fame.
In cradle rockt had first been stroken lame.

The Moore, delighting still in villainy,
Did say, to sett my sounes from prison free,
I should unto the king my right hand give,
And then my three imprisoned sonnes should live.

The Moore I caus'd to strike it off with speede,
Whereat I grieved not to see it bleed,
But for my sonnes would willingly impart.
And for their ransome send my bleeding heart.

But as my life did linger thus in paine,
They sent to me my bootless hand againe,
And therewithal the heades of my three sonnes,
Which filled my dying heart with fresher moanes.
Then past reliefe I upp and downe did goe,
And with my tears writ in the dust my woe:

I shot my arrowes towards heaven hie,
And for revenge to hell did often crye.

The empresse then, thinking that I was mad,
Like furies she and both her sonnes were clad,
(She nam'd Revenge, and Rape and Murder they,)
To undermine and heare what I would say.

I fed their foolish veinesa a certaine space,
Untill my friendes did find a secret place,
Where both her sonnes unto a post were bound,
And just revenge in cruell sort was found.

I cut their throates, my daughter held the pan
Betwixt her stumpes, wherein the bloud it ran:
And then I ground their bones to powder small,
And made a paste for pyes straight therewithall.

Then with their fleshe I made two mighty pyes,
And at a banquet, served in stately wise,
Before the empresse set this loathsome meat;
So of her sonnes own flesh she well did eat.
Myselfe bereav'd my daughter then of life,
The empresse then I slewe with bloudy knife,
And stabb'd the emperour immediatelie,
And then myself: even soe did Titus die.

Then this revenge against the Moore was found,
Alive they sett him halfe into the ground,
Whereas he stood untill such time he starv'd.
And soe God send all murderers may be serv'd."

Percy has pointed out the variations between this ballad and the tragedy; and inclines to the opinion that the ballad preceded the tragedy, for the reason that it "differs from the play in several particulars; which a simple ballad-writer would be less likely to alter than an inventive tragedian." The terms of the entry of the ballad in the Stationers' Registers-if the ballad printed by Percy be one and the same-would appear to show that the ballad had been in existence longer than the tragedy, for it is assigned by a previous publisher to John Danter, who enters the "booke," or play. We have unquestionable authority, however, that the tragedy was popular as an acted play before 1593, as the ballad may also have had an earlier popularity. Ben Jonson, in the Induction to 'Bartholomew Fair,' first produced in 1614, has a passage which carries the date of Titus Andronicus further back than twenty years from that period:-"He that will swear, Jeronimo, or Andronicus, are the best plays yet, shall pass unexcepted at here, as a man whose judgment shows it is constant, and hath stood still these five-and-twenty or thirty years." We know that Kyd's 'Jeronimo' belongs to the earliest period of our regular drama. It was acted by "the Lord Strange's men in 1591. Twenty-five years earlier than 1614 would give us the date of 1589 for both plays;-the medium of twenty-five or thirty years would give us the date of 1586-7.

a Vcines-humours.