The Gesta Romanorum
Shakespeare could read Latin, so it is extremely likely that he got his hands on a copy or pamphlets based on the Romanorum. The following are some interesting tidbits in relation to Titus (and some of Shakespeare’s other works):
- The Medieval were so into telling people what to do, that they would mash historical and imaginary stories together in order to prove a point.
- The author(s) reflect the people of their time through their belief in the existence of giants and dwarfs, fairies, spells and enchantments, fond of inventing combats with dragons and monsters.
- An English version didn’t appear until 1824
- The stories are in a similar vein as Aesop’s Fables
- Warton thinks that the Gesta Romanorum was composed by Peter Bercheur, prior of the convent of Saint Eloy who died in 1362
- Bercheur allegorized the Metamorphoses of Ovid
- He was French, or at least spent a lot of time in Paris
- Chap 1 and 21 are: King Lear-- dying king bequeaths all of his stuff to his three sons, they argue about it.
- Chap 27: Antony, emperor of Rome, loves chess. He notices that when you put all of the pieces together in a bag, the king is cofounded with all the rest. He sees this as a representation of his moral state. He realizes that when he’s buried he’ll be mixed up with everyone else. He divides his kingdom up and retires to the Holy Land.
- Chap 49: an emperor makes a law that whoever violates a virgin will lose both eyes. His son does this, and the emperor carries out his law.
- Tale 108: Of Contancy in Adhering to Promises: Two thieves vow to do everything together. They murder together, steal together, etc. They end up betraying each other in the end. Similar to Chiron and Demetrius.
- Tale 114: a man falls into a hole in the woods. The pit is mortal sin. The man licks a great tasting stone to get out, the stone represents Christ.
- A lot of the stories focus on emperors educated their sons
- And animals doing crazy things
- The book is full of roughly thousand-word stories which teach morals and religious values. Sometimes the characters in the stories (often Roman nobility) do not act according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and so they are punished accordingly. It seems that Shakespeare was interested in creating a cast of characters who had this moral basis (or something similar to it) but chose to ignore it or disobey it. Although not everyone could read Latin in Shakespeare’s time, the morals and archetypes of the stories found in the Romanorum would have been well-known. Shakespeare takes the teachings, warps them and explores what happens when a group of people stop caring about community and start only caring about themselves and their vengeance.
- Shakespeare got the name “Titus” from this book