SOURCE: Bowers, A. Robin. “Emblem and Rape in Shakespeare's Lucrece and Titus Andronicus.” Studies in Iconography 10 (1984-86): 79-96.

In the following excerpt, Bowers examines the structure and style of Lucrece and Titus Andronicus, and notes that in both Lucrece and Titus the social and political ramifications are emphasized in extended speeches that serve as verbal emblems.

From the beginning of his career, Shakespeare seems to have been fully aware of the poetic and dramatic potential of the emblem. While we are indebted to Rosemary Freeman and Henry Green for reviving our modern interest in Renaissance emblem books, questions about the nature and extent of their influence on the technical aspects of Shakespeare's works require further exploration and analysis. On the one hand, emblem books made sophisticated use of iconology inherited from the previous centuries to produce complex visual picturae combined with a verbal explanation of the picture, resulting...