"The Lamentable and Tragical History of Titus Andronicus," also called "Titus Andronicus' Complaint," is a ballad from the 17th century about the fictional Roman general, Titus, and his revenge cycle with the Queen of the Goths. Events in the ballad take place near the end of the Roman Empire, and the narrative of the ballad parallels the plot of William Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus. Scholarly debate exists as to which text may have existed first, the ballad or the play (indeed, there is a third potential Titus Andronicus source, a prose history published in chapbook form during the 18th century).[1] The ballad itself was first entered on the Stationers' Register in 1594, the same year the play was entered.[2] Surviving copies of the ballad can be found in the British Library, in the Huntington Library, and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Online copies of the facsimiles are also available for public consumption at sites such as the English Broadside Ballad Archive.
- ^ W.W. Greg, A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, Volume 1: Stationers' Records, Plays to 1616 (London: Bibliographic Society, 1939)
- ^ British Library: "Shakespeare quartos"