Original: Madam, though Venus govern your desires,
Modern: Lady, even though love and passion rule your feelings,

Original: Saturn is dominator over mine:
Modern: darkness and revenge control mine:

Original: What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
Modern: What do you think my cold, murderous stare means,

Original: My silence and my cloudy melancholy,
Modern: my quietness and my dark, brooding mood,

Original: My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls
Modern: my thick, curly hair that now stands up

Original: Even as an adder when she doth unroll
Modern: just like a snake when it uncoils itself

Original: To do some fatal execution?
Modern: to strike and kill its victim?

Original: No, madam, these are no venereal signs:
Modern: No, lady, these are not signs of romantic love:

Original: Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Modern: revenge fills my heart, murder is ready in my hand,

Original: Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
Modern: thoughts of bloodshed and revenge are pounding in my brain.

Original: Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,
Modern: Listen, Tamora, you who rule over my very soul,

Original: Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,
Modern: I could never hope for any greater paradise than being with you,

Original: This is the day of doom for Bassianus:
Modern: today is the day Bassianus will die:

Original: His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,
Modern: his wife will be silenced today,

Original: Thy sons make pillage of her chastity
Modern: your sons will violently steal her innocence

Original: And wash their hands in Bassianus’ blood.
Modern: and drench their hands in Bassianus’ blood.

Original: Seest thou this letter? take it up, I pray thee,
Modern: Do you see this letter? Pick it up, please,

Original: And give the king this fatal plotted scroll.
Modern: and give the king this letter that’s part of our deadly scheme.

Original: Now question me no more; we are espied;
Modern: Don’t ask me any more questions now; we’re being watched;

Original: Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty,
Modern: here come some of the victims we hope to destroy,

Original: Which dreads not yet their lives’ destruction.
Modern: who don’t yet suspect that their lives are about to be destroyed.

In Act II, Scene 3 of “Titus Andronicus,” Aaron the Moor enters with Chiron and Demetrius, presenting them with a letter containing a forged poem supposedly written by Bassianus to Tamora, arranging a secret meeting. Aaron instructs the brothers to hide and wait while he ensures that Tamora will come to this remote spot in the forest. He tells them that when Bassianus and Lavinia arrive, they should kill Bassianus and then ravish Lavinia as revenge against the Andronicus family. After Aaron exits, Bassianus and Lavinia enter, and the brothers emerge from hiding. Bassianus and Lavinia taunt Tamora when she arrives, making insulting references to her relationship with Aaron. Tamora calls for Chiron and Demetrius, who appear and immediately stab Bassianus to death at their mother’s command.

After Bassianus is killed, Tamora urges her sons to drag his body into a pit and to assault Lavinia. Lavinia pleads desperately with Tamora for mercy, appealing to her as a woman and even offering to die rather than be violated, but Tamora refuses and leaves her sons to their crime. The brothers drag Lavinia offstage to rape and mutilate her. Meanwhile, Aaron returns with Quintus and Martius, two of Titus’s sons, leading them through the forest under false pretenses. Martius falls into the pit where Bassianus’s body has been hidden, and Quintus, attempting to help his brother, also falls in. Aaron exits to fetch Saturninus, and when the Emperor arrives with attendants, he discovers Titus’s sons in the pit with the murdered body of Bassianus and the forged letter that Aaron had planted, which appears to implicate Quintus and Martius in the murder. Saturninus orders them arrested for the crime.

Titus Andronicus opens with the Roman general Titus returning victorious from war against the Goths, bringing with him prisoners including Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her three sons. Despite Tamora’s pleas, Titus sacrifices her eldest son Alarbus in revenge for his own sons killed in battle. The Emperor Saturninus chooses Tamora as his bride, and she secretly plots revenge against Titus. Meanwhile, Titus’s daughter Lavinia is betrothed to Bassianus, the Emperor’s brother, though Saturninus had wanted to marry her himself.

Tamora’s sons Demetrius and Chiron, aided by the villainous Aaron the Moor, murder Bassianus and brutally assault Lavinia, cutting off her hands and tongue to prevent her from identifying them. Aaron tricks two of Titus’s sons, Quintus and Martius, into falling into the pit where Bassianus’s body lies, and they are arrested for his murder. Aaron then deceives Titus into believing that if he cuts off his own hand and sends it to the Emperor, his sons will be spared. Titus complies, but receives back his severed hand along with the heads of his executed sons.

Lavinia manages to reveal her attackers’ identities by writing in the dirt with a stick held in her mouth. Titus feigns madness while plotting revenge and sends weapons with threatening messages to Tamora’s sons. When Tamora gives birth to Aaron’s child, Aaron flees with the baby but is eventually captured. In the final act, Titus kills Tamora’s sons and serves them to her baked in a pie at a banquet. He then kills Lavinia to end her suffering, murders Tamora, and is immediately killed by Saturninus. Titus’s surviving son Lucius kills Saturninus and is proclaimed the new Emperor, ordering Aaron to be buried alive and vowing to restore order to Rome.