“Farewell My Sweet Virginia” – “Die, Die Lavinia”: Defiled Roman Maidens in Webster and Heywood’s Appius and Virginia and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus

The relentless contribution of women’s studies and feminist theory has shaped current academic and cultural perceptions of such a controversial subject as rape, which up to this day has received a fair share of attention but which will never cease to stimulate research, nor satisfy our enquiries. This paper aims to provide an analysis of literary and legal responses to this issue in two near contemporary tragedies: Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare and Appius and Virginia by John Webster and Thomas Heywood, a work awaiting critical consideration. The plays present diegetic and mimetic similarities and are bound by a strong intertextuality which refers to their common sources. The paper also investigates those issues relating to the visual representation and the verbal transmission of rape, problems which feature in earlier and contemporary legal statutes.