Here is the line-by-line paraphrase of Aaron’s monologue from Titus Andronicus:

Original: Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them:
Modern: Yes, I was their teacher who showed them how to do it.

Original: That codding spirit had they from their mother,
Modern: They got that talent for trickery and deception from their mother,

Original: As sure a card as ever won the set;
Modern: Who’s as reliable a player as anyone who ever won a card game.

Original: That bloody mind, I think, they learn’d of me,
Modern: But their violent, murderous nature—I think they learned that from me,

Original: As true a dog as ever fought at head.
Modern: Since I’m as fierce a fighter as any attack dog ever was.

Original: Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth.
Modern: Well, let my actions speak for themselves and prove what I’m capable of.

Original: I train’d thy brethren to that guileful hole
Modern: I led your brothers to that deceptive pit

Original: Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay:
Modern: Where Bassianus’s dead body was lying.

Original: I wrote the letter that thy father found
Modern: I wrote the letter that your father discovered

Original: And hid the gold within the letter mention’d,
Modern: And I hid the gold that the letter mentioned,

Original: Confederate with the queen and her two sons:
Modern: Working together as conspirators with the queen and her two sons.

Original: And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue,
Modern: And what evil thing that you have reason to regret

Original: Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it?
Modern: Didn’t have my hand in causing some part of the trouble?

Original: I play’d the cheater for thy father’s hand,
Modern: I tricked and deceived your father to get his hand cut off,

Original: And, when I had it, drew myself apart
Modern: And when I had it, I pulled myself aside

Original: And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter:
Modern: And almost burst from laughing so hard.

Original: I pry’d me through the crevice of a wall
Modern: I spied through a crack in a wall

Original: When, for his hand, he had his two sons’ heads;
Modern: When, in exchange for his hand, he received his two sons’ severed heads.

Original: Beheld his tears, and laugh’d so heartily,
Modern: I watched him cry, and I laughed so hard

Original: That both mine eyes were rainy like to his:
Modern: That my own eyes were watering with tears just like his—

Original: And when I told the empress of this sport,
Modern: And when I told the empress about this entertaining game,

Original: She swooned almost at my pleasing tale,
Modern: She nearly fainted from delight at my satisfying story,

Original: And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses.
Modern: And as a reward for my news, she gave me twenty kisses.

Original: Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Modern: Yes, I’m sorry that I didn’t commit a thousand more crimes.

Original: Even now I curse the day—and yet, I think,
Modern: Right now I curse every day of my life—but when I think about it,

Original: Few come within the compass of my curse,—
Modern: Very few days fall within the range of my curse—

Original: Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
Modern: Because there aren’t many days when I didn’t do some terrible evil act,

Original: As kill a man, or else devise his death,
Modern: Like kill a man, or plan out how to kill him,

Original: Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
Modern: Rape a young woman, or scheme about how to do it,

Original: Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
Modern: Falsely accuse an innocent person and lie under oath,

Original: Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Modern: Create deadly hatred between two friends,

Original: Make poor men’s cattle break their necks;
Modern: Make poor men’s livestock fall and break their necks,

Original: Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
Modern: Set barns and haystacks on fire during the night,

Original: And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Modern: And tell the owners they can put out the fires with their tears.

Original: Oft have I digg’d up dead men from their graves,
Modern: Many times I’ve dug up dead bodies from their graves

Original: And set them upright at their dear friends’ doors,
Modern: And propped them up at their loved ones’ front doors,

Original: Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
Modern: Just when their grief had almost been forgotten.

Original: And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Modern: And on their skin, like carving on tree bark,

Original: Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
Modern: I’ve carved with my knife in Roman letters,

Original: ‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’
Modern: “Don’t let your sorrow die, even though I’m dead.”

Original: Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
Modern: Bah, I’ve done a thousand horrible things

Original: As willingly as one would kill a fly,
Modern: As casually and willingly as someone would swat a fly,

Original: And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
Modern: And nothing truly bothers me at all

Original: But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
Modern: Except that I can’t commit ten thousand more evil acts.

In Act V, Scene i of Titus Andronicus, Aaron the Moor is captured by Lucius and his Gothic army. A Goth soldier brings Aaron forward, having discovered him in a ruined monastery carrying his newborn child. Aaron has been fiercely protective of the infant, threatening the Goth who found him. Lucius orders that Aaron be hanged immediately, and that the child be hanged alongside him. Aaron, desperate to save his baby’s life, offers to reveal secrets of great consequence in exchange for a guarantee of the child’s safety. Lucius agrees to spare the infant, and Aaron proceeds to confess to a long catalogue of villainies, detailing with apparent relish the many crimes he has committed, including his role in the rape of Lavinia, the framing of Titus’s sons, and the cutting off of Titus’s hand under false pretenses.

At line 102 specifically, Aaron is deep into his confession, continuing to enumerate his misdeeds with chilling frankness and without remorse. He boasts of setting neighbors at odds, poisoning wells, and committing murders, presenting his crimes not as regrets but as achievements. He declares that if he has done any good deed in his life, he is sorry for it. A messenger then arrives bringing word to Lucius that the Emperor Saturninus summons him to a parley, and that his grandfather Titus has prepared a feast to which the Emperor and Tamora are invited. Lucius agrees to the meeting, orders Aaron to be kept under guard, and prepares to march toward Rome.

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.