Original: You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
Modern: You men with sorrowful faces, citizens and children of Rome,

Original: By uproar sever’d, like a flight of fowl
Modern: Separated by violent chaos, like a flock of birds

Original: Scatter’d by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
Modern: Scattered by winds and powerful stormy blasts,

Original: O, let me teach you how to knit again
Modern: Oh, let me show you how to unite again

Original: This scatter’d corn into one mutual sheaf,
Modern: This scattered grain into one shared bundle,

Original: These broken limbs again into one body;
Modern: These broken body parts back into one whole body;

Original: Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
Modern: Or else Rome will be the poison that destroys herself,

Original: And she whom mighty kingdoms court’sy to,
Modern: And she whom powerful kingdoms bow down to,

Original: Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Modern: Like an abandoned and hopeless outcast,

Original: Do shameful execution on herself.
Modern: Will bring shameful destruction upon herself.

Original: But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Modern: But if my white hair and wrinkled, cracked skin of old age,

Original: Grave witnesses of true experience,
Modern: Serious proof of real life experience,

Original: Cannot induce you to attend my words,
Modern: Cannot persuade you to listen to my words,

Original: Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
Modern: Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as once our ancestor did,

Original: When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
Modern: When with his serious voice he told the story

Original: To love-sick Dido’s sad attending ear
Modern: To lovesick Dido’s sorrowful listening ear

Original: The story of that baleful burning night
Modern: The story of that evil, fiery night

Original: When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy,
Modern: When cunning Greeks attacked King Priam’s Troy by surprise,

Original: Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch’d our ears,
Modern: Tell us what Sinon has deceived our ears with,

Original: Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
Modern: Or who has brought the deadly war machine in

Original: That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
Modern: That inflicts this civil war wound on our Troy, our Rome.

Original: My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;
Modern: My heart is not made of stone or steel;

Original: Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
Modern: And I cannot express all our painful sorrow,

Original: But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
Modern: Because floods of tears will overwhelm my speech,

Original: And break my utterance, even in the time
Modern: And interrupt my words, even at the moment

Original: When it should move you to attend me most,
Modern: When it should persuade you to listen to me most carefully,

Original: Lending your kind commiseration.
Modern: Giving me your sympathetic understanding.

Original: Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;
Modern: Here is a captain, let him tell the story;

Original: Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Modern: Your hearts will ache and you will cry to hear him speak.

In Act V, Scene 3 of “Titus Andronicus,” the final tragic events unfold at a banquet hosted by Titus Andronicus for the Roman Emperor Saturninus and Empress Tamora. Titus enters dressed as a cook and serves the meal he has prepared. During the feast, Titus asks Saturninus whether a father should kill his daughter if she has been ravished and dishonored, using the classical example of Virginius. When Saturninus agrees that such an action would be justified, Titus immediately kills his daughter Lavinia, explaining that she was raped and mutilated by Chiron and Demetrius. He then reveals that Tamora has unknowingly consumed a pie made from the flesh and bones of her own sons, whom Titus killed in revenge.

The scene erupts into violence as Titus kills Tamora, and Saturninus immediately kills Titus in retaliation. Lucius then kills Saturninus to avenge his father’s death. With the primary antagonists dead, Marcus Andronicus addresses the Roman people, recounting the tragic events that have befallen the Andronicus family. The Romans proclaim Lucius as their new emperor, and he accepts the role, promising to heal Rome’s wounds. The play concludes with Lucius ordering that Titus and Lavinia receive honorable burial, while Tamora’s body is to be thrown to wild beasts as punishment for her crimes. Aaron, who is brought forward as a prisoner, is sentenced to be buried chest-deep and left to starve as punishment for his role in orchestrating the family’s destruction.

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.