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Summary
Titus brings Marcus, Young Lucius, and his kinsmen Publius, Sempronius, and Caius to shoot arrows at the constellations. These arrows are tipped with petitions calling to the gods for justice. Marcus adds a practical touch by advising the men to make certain their shafts fall into the court so as to scare the emperor. As this is happening, a Country Fellow—in some edition named only as the “Clown”—comes along carrying two pigeons. The man says he’s on his way to court to settle a personal dispute. However, Titus convinces him to carry a message on his behalf to the emperor, with the promise of a hefty monetary reward.
In the court, Saturninus is furious about the arrows he has found, for they have advertised his crimes to all of Rome. The Country Fellow enters with the two pigeons and Titus’s letter. Saturninus reads the letter and immediately orders the man hanged. Next, the messenger Aemilius enters with word that Lucius has gathered an army of Goths and is already advancing on Rome. Saturninus flies into a panic and reflects that he has often heard rumors that the people would support Lucius over him. Tamora calms him by comparing him to an eagle that tolerates the song of smaller birds because he has the power to silence them at will. Furthermore, she promises him that she can persuade Titus to entreat Lucius to desist in his war efforts. She sends Aemilius to the Goth camp to ask Lucius to go to a meeting at the house of Titus.
Analysis
As Titus convenes his supporters to shoot arrow-borne messages to the gods in the sky, his mounting madness seems to be on full display. He cries out with apparent earnestness: “We will solicit heaven and move the gods / To send down justice for to wreak out wrongs” (4.3.52–53). He then hands out rolled-up notes addressing all the major gods in the Roman pantheon, making pleas for their aid now that, as he puts it, “Terras Astraea reliquit” (4.3.4)—that is, Astraea, the goddess of justice, has left the earth. Titus’s language here is at once moving and confusing. Does he really intend for these arrows to reach the gods, or is this all a ploy? But if it is a ploy, then why does he feign lunacy among his own supporters? One possible answer is that Titus aims to convince his enemies of his madness, and he may think the best way to do that is to convince everyone around him of the same. However, this point remains ambiguous in the play. What’s important, though, is that Tamora and Saturninus both believe he’s lost his mind, and Tamora, at least, thinks she can take advantage of this fact.
Regardless of the true state of Titus’s mind, the ever-reasonable Marcus is by his side to ensure that the arrows have practical, disruptive consequences. We don’t know initially know what those consequences will be, since we don’t know what the messages to the gods contain. However, we gain some clarity in the final scene of act 4. This scene opens with Saturninus fretting about how Titus’s messages have just been made the emperor’s crimes public knowledge. This plot has attacked not his physical person but rather his political reputation, and as such it has stricken a blow against the metaphorical body of the Roman state. To make matters worse, the approaching Goth army, now headed by Lucius, is well poised to overwhelm the wounded and vulnerable empire. And yet, even as the future of Rome hangs in the balance, it is telling that Saturninus seems more concerned with optics than with the impending threat. He’s personally hurt by the idea that ordinary Romans would prefer Lucius over him. In this sense, it hardly matters what the military outcome will be should Rome and Scythia come to blows. Either way, in the hearts and minds of the people he rules, the throne doesn’t really belong to the current emperor.
