A Lamentabilíssima Tragédia Romana de Tito Andrónico

by William Shakespeare

«Isto é Roma, não esqueçam! Esta gente é dada ao destempero e à fúria.»
Um general romano, de regresso a Roma após mais uma vitória, pratica um ato cruel e gratuto, desencadeando assim uma espiral de vingança sanguinária inédita.
Tradução e introdução de Miguel Romeira

Após uma pesada derrota às mãos de Roma, Tamora, rainha dos Godos, e os seus três filhos são levados, cativos, para a capital do império. Saturnino e Bassiano, filhos do falecido imperador romano, disputam a sucessão de um trono que o povo quer ver entregue a Tito Andrónico, o general responsável pela longa e vitoriosa campanha de Roma contra os Godos. Tito rejeita a honra, que entrega a Saturnino, mas decide sacrificar um dos filhos de Tamora, em memória da própria descendência morta em combate. A crueldade deste ato desencadeará uma reação violenta por parte da rainha e uma vingança de crueza e horror inéditos.

Escrita no final do século XVI, A Lamentabilíssima Tragédia Romana de Tito Andrónico, apontada como a primeira tragédia de Shakespeare, é famosa pela violência irredimível e pelo carácter sanguinário dos atos descritos. A aversão e desprezo a que a votaram a sociedade vitoriana e alguns críticos literários contemporâneos apenas confirmam o seu inegável interesse.

«[Tito Andrónico] é tragédia crua, sem deus nem redenção.»

Kenneth Tynan, crítico britânico

155 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 16, 2026

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[CCB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma das mais violentas e sangrentas tragédias de Shakespeare que já li, a experiência de leitura é voraz mas em algumas passagens, perturbadora. Mas o génio de Shakespeare é mesmo esse, de ser visceral, de proporcionar (mesmo a quem lê - o que será quando se vê em cena!) uma narrativa com muito ritmo e ação, e bastante dramática.
Ler Tito Andrónico de um fôlego, num só dia, é uma permanente divisão entre horror e admiração. É uma peça muito ousada e à medida do seu autor, genial.
A tradução é excelente, está edição é muito meritória.