Robert Matz
ENGH 202.011
2/8/13
Handiwork: Beautiful Violence in Titus Andronicus
In the fake letter that frames Martius and Quintius for the murder of Bassanius, the
supposed writer refers to finding Bassanius “handsomely.” The Bantam Titus Andronicus glosses
this word as “conveniently.” While this gloss makes sense in terms of the line’s basic meaning,
it doesn’t account for the peculiarity of the word. “Easily,” for example, would have given the
line the same meaning, and sound less odd. Nor does this gloss consider how “handsomely”
parallels the phrase “sweet huntsman” that follows it, a phrase that similarly adds an element of
beauty to something, a huntsman, that might not be sweet, just as something that is easy doesn’t
have to be something that is handsome. In a further parallel, both “handsomely” and “sweet
huntsman” link together the violent and the beautiful, in the case of the former because what
would be “handsomely” done is kill someone. In both these phrases, Shakespeare seems
interested in the violent underside of beauty, a violence that mocks the idea of Roman civility
and the beauty of the art that depicts it.
The OED shows that the earliest meanings of “handsomely” don’t refer to pleasing looks
(as in “handsomely,” adv. 6) , but to ease or skill (as in 1). A look at the etymology of
“handsome,” from which the adverb is formed, suggests why the earlier meanings of
“handsomely” have this meaning. “Handsome” is related to the word “hand” (OED, “handsome,
adj.”); Just as “adventuresome” means the quality of being adventurous, so “handsome” meant
the quality of being handy, in either the sense of being “at hand” (i.e. nearby) or of being skillful,
good with the hands. Later on, this sense in either case comes to mean well fit for the occasion,
and then, finally, good looking. But it doesn’t mean that initially. Thus in the play Bonduca,
first performed in the early seventeenth century, one man can ask another to kill him
“handsomely”: “There's my sword; and do it handsomely.” Likewise, one of the OED definitions
of the word includes an ironic use of it to refer to severe or well-delivered punishment (4b). The
combination of violence and beauty continues in the notable phrase following, “sweet
huntsman,” where “sweet” can mean charming, lovely, or pleasing to the senses. In one sense
the phrase simply means that the hunter is an appealing man. At the same time, from the point of
view of the animal no hunter can be those things, and the action of hunting itself can seem at
odds with sweetness, in the same way “handsomely” can refer to a good punishment or a
convenient place for murder, rather than to good looks.
We see this very combination of beauty and violence particularly in the hunt during
which Lavinia is raped, Bassanius killed, and Titus’ sons framed for his murder. First, consider
woods in which these crimes take place. Titus describes them as sweet and pleasant: “The hunt
is up, and the morn is bright and gray, / The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green” (2.2.12). However, just several lines earlier, Aaron describes these woods as “ruthless, dreadful, deaf
and dull” (2.1.127), and given the events of this hunt, he appears to have the correct view. The
woods are not a civilized playground for “sweet huntsmen.” Rather, they a place of amorality if
not immorality, “deaf and dull” (“dull” in this line means inanimate or without sense, see OED,
“dull,” adj., 2a) to human suffering. Likewise, the hunt in these woods is both an expression of
aristocratic civility, and a blood sport. Again, the word “handsome” captures this divide.
Literally meaning full of skill, there’s no guarantee that that skill will be “handsome” in the
modern sense of attractive or appealing. It could just as well be handsome punishment. The
hunter’s skill is similarly amoral. His hands are skilled at killing.
Tamora’s description of the sounds of this hunt emphasizes the double nature of the hunt
and extends that doubleness to the events and characters of the play itself.
And whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds
Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once,
Let us sit down and mark their yellowing noise. (2.3.17-20)
The “babbling echo” is the sound of the hounds “yellowing” noise refracted through the wildness
of the woods. That echo make a shrill reply to the “well-tuned” horns that announce the hunt
and it mocks the dogs themselves. The well-tuned aristocratic world of sweet huntsmen is
likewise mocked by a shrill and babbling echo that suggests the dangers Bassanius, Lavinia and
Titus will face in the words. The hunt truly is a “double hunt” in that while the Roman elite are
out in the woods hunting panthers, the vengeful Goths are out hunting them. Notably, in the
letter that frames Martius and Quintus, it is difficult to tell who the “sweet huntsman” is. It
might refer to Bassanius, who is out for an elite Roman pastime, or it could refer to the man who
is supposed to hunt Bassanius down—and that, indeed is how Tamora uses the word when after
the letter is read she says “look sirs, if you can find the huntsman out / That should have
murdered Bassanius here” ( 2.3.278-79). Yet this doubleness go deeper than just the irony that
the Roman hunter instead becomes the hunted. Rather, “double hunt” reminds us that no
huntsmen is really sweet, and that a “handsome” hunter is as much one skilled at killing as it is
one that is beautiful.
For in the clash between Roman civility and Goth barbarianism it soon becomes difficult
to tell the difference between the sweetly civilized and the violently barbaric. As Chriron
remarks as his brother Alarbus is being taken away to be killed in a particularly brutal way,
hacked to pieces, “Was never Scythia half so barbarous” (1.1.131). Scythia, the gloss of the
Bantam edition tells us, was notorious for barbarism, while the Roman empire is associated with
the height of civilization, including great and beautiful art. Yet the Romans have a peculiar
sense of beauty, Tamora remarks, when she charges Titus with parading her through the Roman
streets to “beautify thy triumphs” (1.1.110). In Rome, beauty and violence seem to go together,
we might say, “handsomely.” The same skilled hand that brings captors to Rome in beautiful
triumph is equally likely to kill a captors’ son, even when his mother is begging for mercy.
Perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that so many hands get cut off in this play. For if the hand is
handsome, skillfully or easily bringing enemies to hand, then it is also the target of other hands
that want to destroy the power and beauty of their enemies.
The hand is also that hand that writes crafted and perverse poems such as Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, which contains a lot of rape and murder, and whose story of Philomel provides
the basis for the story of Lavinia. And that hand is Shakespeare’s hand, which produces a
dramatic art that may be beautiful, but as skill or craft is not necessarily moral. Even a murder
may be done “handsomely.”
Preparatory work for the essay
DEFINITIONS AND DRAMATIC USES
Handsomely
In a handsome manner.
†1. Conveniently, handily, readily. Obs.1547—1669
†2. Fitly, appropriately, aptly. Obs.1553—1711
†3. a. Skilfully, dexterously, cleverly. Obs.1551—1655
b. Carefully; without haste, gently, gradually. Now only Naut. (Cf. cannily adv.)1550—1867
4. a. With becoming or elegant action; in good style, neatly, elegantly. Now rare.1582—1870
b. Ironically, in reference to reproof or punishment: Severely, ‘finely’, ‘in fine style’.1553—
1839
5. a. In accordance with what is becoming in conduct; courteously, graciously; decently; now in
stronger sense, Generously, magnanimously.1548—1884
b. Liberally, generously, amply; usually in reference to a payment or gift.1735—1861
6. So as to have a fine or pleasing aspect; admirably, beautifully
.a1616—1814
Handsome
Etymology: Known only from 15th cent., < hand n.1 + -some suffix2: compare toothsome .
Compare early mod. (16th cent.) German handsam , German dialect and East Frisian handsam ,
early modern Dutch handsaem , Dutch handzaam , all in sense A. 1.(Show Less)
A. adj.
†1.
a. Easy to handle or manipulate, or to wield, deal with, or use in any way. Obs.
c1440—1598
Handy, ready at hand, convenient, suitable. Obs. or dial.
1530 Tyndale Prol. Lev. in Doctr. Treat. (1848) 428 Beware of allegories; for there is not a
more handsome or apt thing to beguile withal than an allegory.
1540 R. Jonas tr. E. Roesslin Byrth of Mankynde i. f. liv, Whiche of these partes shall seme
moste commodious and handsome to take it oute bye.
Sweet
5, to the senses; esp. to the sight = Lovely, of charming appearance.
8. a. Dearly loved or prized, precious; beloved, dear.
9. Having pleasant disposition and manners; amiable, kindly; gracious, benignant.
--------------------From Bonduca (first performed between 1611-14)
Petill.
Pray ye dispatch me,
ye are not safe whilest I live: I am dangerous,
troubled extremely, even to mischief, Junius ,
an enemie to all good men: fear not, 'tis justice;
I shall kill you else.
Jun.
Tell me but the cause,
and I will do it.
Petill.
I am disgrac'd, my service
slighted, and unrewarded by the Generall,
my hopes left wilde and naked; besides these,
I am grown ridiculous, an asse, a folly
I dare not trust my self with: Prethee kill me.
Jun.
All these may be redeem'd as easily
as you would heal your finger.
Petill.
Nay--Jun.
Stay, I'll do it,
[75] you shall not need your anger: But first, Petillius ,
you shall unarm your self; I dare not trust
a man so bent to mischief.
Petill.
There's my sword;
and do it handsomely.
Jun.
yes, I will kill ye,
beleeve that certaine: but first i'll lay before ye
the most extreme fool ye have plaid in this,
the honour purpos'd for ye, the great honour
the Generall intended ye,
BRAINSTORMING
Peculiarity of the word “handsomely” and of the juxtaposition of “sweet” and “huntsman”
Also note that “huntsman” seems to refer not to Bassanio—who is out hunting—but to his
“sweet” murderers.
“Handsome” initially means not beautiful but “fit” or “readily available” -- > related to the hand:
ready to “hand.” It specializes to beautiful in some definitions (the sense of the word we’re most
used to) but it is really amoral—so that it can be to kill effectively too, and in the Fletcher play,
or even (as in OED 4.b, effective, stylish punishment).
This amorality of handsomely is like the amorality of Titus’ world—nothing is simply
“handsome” in the sense familiar now. Handsome as a word is split like the “sweet” (pleasing,
etc.) hunter (attractively skillful, but also violent).
Hence also in this world the huntsman is also hunted. Everything is doubled (2.3.19)
The woods and the hunt itself are doubled. Handsome actions of skilful hunting are also cruel.
The woods are the place of the beautiful aristocratic hunt and of cruelty, rape and muder.
Play itself is like the woods: wonderful, handsome, but also double and confusing, potentially
dangerous.