Hewers of Wood, Drawers of Gall: The Wooden Economies of Race in Titus Andronicus and Lust’s Dominion

Abstract

ance 39/ n the opening scene of Titus Andronicus (ca. 1594), the victorious Andronicus clan demands that the Goth queen’s eldest son, Alarbus, be seized, “That we may hew his limbs and on a pile, /Admanes fratrum, sacrifice his flesh / Before this earthly prison” (1.1.100–102; emphasis added). When Tamora’s plea for mercy fails to assuage her captors, Lucius orders his brothers to “make a fire straight, / And with our swords upon a pile of wood / Let’s hew his limbs till they be clean consumed” (1.1.130–32; emphasis added).When the Andronicus sons return a few moments later, Lucius draws attention to the offstage spectacle of smoke rising in the air: