SOURCE: Introduction to Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare, edited by Alan Hughes, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 1-47.
In the excerpt below, Hughes surveys the various critical controversies surrounding Titus Andronicus, including the debates over the date of composition, sources, and authorship. Hughes also reviews the issues of greatest concern among twentieth-century critics, noting that the violence in the play receives a considerable amount of attention from modern scholars.
