Original: Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound.
Modern: Come here, Lavinia; look, your enemies are tied up.

Original: Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me;
Modern: Men, gag them so they can’t talk to me;

Original: But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
Modern: But make sure they can hear the terrible things I’m going to say.

Original: O villains, Chiron and Demetrius!
Modern: You evil monsters, Chiron and Demetrius!

Original: Here stands the spring whom you have stain’d with mud,
Modern: Here stands the pure young woman you have dirtied and ruined,

Original: This goodly summer with your winter mix’d.
Modern: This beautiful life you have destroyed with your cruelty.

Original: You kill’d her husband, and for that vile fault
Modern: You killed her husband, and because of that horrible crime

Original: Two of her brothers were condemn’d to death,
Modern: Two of her brothers were sentenced to die,

Original: My hand cut off and made a merry jest;
Modern: My hand was cut off while you laughed about it;

Original: Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear
Modern: You cut off both her gentle hands, her tongue, and that which was more precious

Original: Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Modern: Than hands or tongue—her pure innocence—

Original: Inhuman traitors, you constrain’d and forced.
Modern: You inhuman traitors destroyed by force.

Original: What would you say, if I should let you speak?
Modern: What could you possibly say if I let you talk?

Original: Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace.
Modern: You villains are so shameful you couldn’t even ask for mercy.

Original: Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.
Modern: Listen, you miserable creatures! Here’s how I plan to torture and kill you.

Original: This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Modern: I still have one hand left to slit your throats,

Original: Whilst that Lavinia ‘tween her stumps doth hold
Modern: While Lavinia will hold between her arm stumps

Original: The basin that receives your guilty blood.
Modern: The bowl that will catch your evil blood.

Original: You know your mother means to feast with me,
Modern: You know your mother plans to have dinner with me,

Original: And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:
Modern: And she calls herself Revenge, and thinks I’m crazy:

Original: Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust
Modern: Listen, you villains! I will crush your bones to powder

Original: And with your blood and it I’ll make a paste,
Modern: And mix it with your blood to make a dough,

Original: And of the paste a coffin I will rear
Modern: And from that dough I will make a pie crust

Original: And make two pasties of your shameful heads,
Modern: And bake two meat pies using your disgusting heads,

Original: And bid that strumpet, your unhallow’d dam,
Modern: And I’ll make that prostitute, your unholy mother,

Original: Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
Modern: Eat her own children, like the earth swallows what it produces.

Original: This is the feast that I have bid her to,
Modern: This is the dinner I’ve invited her to,

Original: And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;
Modern: And this is the meal she’ll stuff herself with;

Original: For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,
Modern: Because you treated my daughter worse than Philomel was treated,

Original: And worse than Progne I will be revenged:
Modern: And I will get revenge that’s worse than Progne’s:

Original: And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,
Modern: Now get ready to die. Lavinia, come here,

Original: Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,
Modern: Catch their blood: and after they’re dead,

Original: Let me go grind their bones to powder small
Modern: Let me go crush their bones into fine powder

Original: And with this hateful liquor temper it;
Modern: And mix it with this disgusting blood;

Original: And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.
Modern: And bake their horrible heads in that dough.

Original: Come, come, be every one officious
Modern: Come on, everyone help out

Original: To make this banquet; which I wish may prove
Modern: To prepare this feast; I hope it will be

Original: More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.
Modern: More harsh and violent than the Centaurs’ famous bloody banquet.

Original: So, now bring them in, for I’ll play the cook,
Modern: So now bring them inside, because I’ll be the chef,

Original: And see them ready ‘gainst their mother comes.
Modern: And get them prepared before their mother arrives.

In Act V, Scene ii of Titus Andronicus, Tamora, disguised as Revenge, arrives at Titus’s house accompanied by her sons Chiron and Demetrius, who are disguised as Rape and Murder respectively. Tamora attempts to deceive the seemingly mad Titus by claiming she has come to help him achieve vengeance against his enemies. She promises that if he will call his son Lucius to a banquet, she will deliver all his foes to him for punishment. Titus appears to play along with the deception, addressing her as “sweet Revenge” and agreeing to her proposal.

However, Titus recognizes Tamora despite her disguise and privately reveals his awareness of her true identity. When Tamora leaves to fetch the Emperor and others to the banquet, she instructs her sons to remain behind to keep watch over Titus. Once alone with Chiron and Demetrius, Titus drops his pretense of madness and, with the help of his kinsman Marcus and son Lucius’s servant, binds the two young men. He reveals that he knows exactly who they are and announces his intention to kill them as revenge for their rape and mutilation of his daughter Lavinia. The scene ends with Titus preparing to exact his bloody vengeance upon Tamora’s sons.

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.