Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood.
Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?
Draw near them in being merciful.

Violent, gory, awful.* Set in a nebulous time period that feels at first as if Shakespeare said "I like Rome" and threw Roman references in at random, but later emerges as a clever always-and-never Rome, a nonexistent time that serves to critique Rome in all her actual existing forms. This play is very hard to read, and I do not think I would like to see it performed (though I am rather interested in watching the 1999 movie). But I am glad I read it.

O, why should nature build so foul a den,
Unless the gods delight in tragedies?

Behind and amidst the horrors of this play is an important question: what happens when we are educated about Roman history and literature, but have no virtue? References to Ovid and other sources abound (much of the plot is patterned on the Philomela episode of Metamorphoses as well as Seneca's Thyestes), but despite their classical literacy, these characters have learned nothing from their forebears except how to kill and maim and rape. This is Rome without virtus and pietas. Perhaps it is the inevitable result of Aeneas' failure to spare Turnus.

Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you.

Shakespeare is telling us that tragedy is not beautiful, and suffering is meaningless and horrific, at least if it happens in a world where God is a passing mention and mercy is scorned. And he's doing it really well. This is an ugly play, but I'm glad I read it, and I think I will write about it for my term paper.

Oh cruel, irreligious piety!

*You are in for rape, throat cutting, dismemberment, and cannibalism if you read this play, in addition to other forms of murder.

I must close with this quote:

DEMETRIUS. Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON. That which thou canst not undo.
CHIRON. Thou hast undone our mother.
AARON. Villain, I have done thy mother.