"How dearly it would touch thee to the quick,
Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious,
And that this body, consecrate to thee,
By ruffian lust should be contaminate!
Wouldst them not spit at me and spurn at me,
And hurl the name of husband in my face,
And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot brow,
And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring...?
My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:
For, if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digest the poison of thy flesh."
There is no other poetry of this intensity in the play.
It is interesting to compare Shakespeare's mind with Plautus's in the description of Epidamnum. Plautus says—
"This is the home of the greatest lechers and drunkards.
"Very many tricksters and cheaters live in this city.
"Nowhere are wheedling whores more cunning at bilking people."
Shakespeare gives the horror a spiritual turn that adds much to the intensity of the farce.
"They say, this town is full of cozenage:
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such like liberties of sin."
The play is amusing. The plot is intricate. The interest of the piece is in the plot. When a plot engrosses the vitality of a dramatist's mind, his character-drawing dies; so here. It is sufficient to say that the character of Ægeon is the best in the play
Titus Andronicus.