The Peacham drawing, or 'Longleat manuscript', is the only surviving contemporary

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

illustration, now in the library of the

Marquess of Bath Marquess of Bath is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1789 for Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth. The Marquess holds the subsidiary titles Baron Thynne, of Warminster in the County of Wiltshire, and Viscount Weymouth ...

Longleat Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire, ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. The drawing appears to depict a performance of ''

Titus Andronicus ''Titus Andronicus'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593, probably in collaboration with George Peele. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy and is often seen ...

'', under which is quoted some dialogue. Eugene M. Waith argues of the illustration that "the gestures and costumes give us a more vivid impression of the visual impact of Elizabethan acting than we get from any other source." In the sketch, Tamora (Queen of the

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

in the play) is shown pleading with her captor, Titus (a renowned

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

in the

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). Behind her, kneel her sons, Chiron and Demetrius, their hands tied behind their backs, and behind them stands Aaron (a

Moor Moor or Moors may refer to: Nature and ecology * Moorland, a habitat characterized by low-growing vegetation and acidic soils. Ethnic and religious groups * Moors, Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during ...

involved in a secret sexual relationship with Tamora), who is armed and pointing at them. Behind Titus are two male figures who may be two of his sons, but due to their dress, are more likely to be attendant soldiers. The illustration depicts no one specific moment from the play. In Act 1, Titus decides to avenge the death of his own sons in battle by sacrificing Tamora's eldest son, Alarbus, prompting her to plead with him for her son's life, which is what she is pictured doing in the illustration. In the play, however, when Tamora is pleading with Titus for the release of Alarbus (who isn't present in the illustration), Aaron is still a prisoner. In the illustration, he is free and armed. It may be this sword is not a literal one but instead was meant by the illustrator to be a sword of lath (a prop associated with the

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

figure of medieval morality plays), as a way of showing Aaron's villainy. Beneath the illustration and above the text is written a stage direction; "Enter Tamora pleadinge for her sonnes going to execution." This is an invented stage direction, not found in any known text of the play. Below this, lines from Act 1 (Tamora's plea to Titus; 1.1.104-120 and one line of Titus' reply; 1.1.121) and Act 5 (Aaron's boast of his many vile deeds; 5.1.125-144) are quoted. After the final line of Aaron is written "et cetera" and below, written as a speech prefix is "Alarbus", although he has no lines in the play itself. The illustration is signed in the lower left, " Henricus Peacham". Below the signature is a date; "Anno m^oq^ogq^to." There is no definitive theory as to the exact form of this date. The most common interpretation is 1595, partly due to an inscription on the facing page reading "Henrye Peachams Hande 1595". However, this note appears to have been written by

John Payne Collier John Payne Collier (11 January 1789, London – 17 September 1883, Maidenhead) was an English Shakespearean critic and forger. Reporter and solicitor His father, John Dyer Collier (1762–1825), was a successful journalist, and his connection wi ...

, notorious Shakespearean forger, and as such cannot be seen as wholly reliable. Another annotation is written above the illustration; "Written by Henry Peacham – author of 'The Complete Gentleman'." This is also thought to be by Collier. Yet another annotation is found opposite the quote from Act 1; "So far from Shakespear Titus Andronicus Sc. 2." This may also be by Collier as it refers to a scene division found only in his edition of the play. There are also some points of interest in the quoted text itself. There are many simple spelling alterations from the printed editions of ''Titus'', but what is especially interesting is that some of them correspond to the first

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

text published in 1594 (Q1); some to the second quarto text, published in 1600 (Q2); some to the third, published in 1611 (Q3); and some to the '' First Folio'' text of 1623 (F1). For example, in Q1, the word "Haystacks" is spelt "Haystalks", in Q2 it is "haystakes" and in Q3 and F1, "haystackes". In the quoted text, the Q3/F1 spelling of "haystackes" is used, suggesting the text was transcribed no earlier than 1611. However, another change is "But" altered to "Tut". This was a change introduced into the text in Q2, and maintained in Q3 and F1, and some take it as evidence that the illustration cannot be earlier than Q2 (1600). Another change is the alteration of "sonne" to "sonnes" twice during Tamora's speech (line 106 and 108), although the singular "sonne" is maintained later. The invented stage direction also uses the plural "sonnes". Only F1 uses the plural form at line 106, in what is obviously a compositors error; but why did Peacham use it, as he must have noticed the error. Was he copying from F1, and if so, how did his other alterations have come about? If the drawing was made in 1595, how is it that some of the alterations to the text correspond exactly to later editions of the play? These questions remain unanswered. To add to the lack of definitive information,

June Schlueter Dr. June Schlueter is Charles A. Dana Professor Emerita of English at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Her areas of specialty are Shakespeare, Early Modern England, and Modern Drama. She is married to Dr. Paul Schlueter, who is a special ...

believes the Peacham drawing does not depict ''Titus'' at all, but a 1620 German version of the play entitled ''Eine sehr klägliche Tragaedia von Tito Andronico''. Schlueter points out that the drawing perfectly illustrates the conclusion of Act 1 of ''Tito Andronico''. At least one major Shakespearean scholar, Brian Vickers, supports Schlueter's arguments. Richard Levin, however, argues against many of Schlueter's claims, and affirms that the drawing is a contemporary "composite" reading of Shakespeare's tragedy.Levin, Richard Lewis. "The Longleat Manuscript and ''Titus Andronicus''", ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 53:3 (Autumn, 2002), 323-340

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