ABSTRACT
Preceding chapters demonstrate that Aemilia Lanyer has a propensity to write allegorically of her life in her poems and plays. This provides a guiding perspective in reconstructing Titus and Vespasian. Lanyer had access to the untranslated Epitome of the Caesars which describes Caesar Titus's love for Berenice, Queen of the Jews, yet when he became Emperor, he was compelled to dismiss her. This provides a historical base upon which to build Lanyer's allegory. Berenice didn't have Titus's child, so the Biblical second layer gives Berenice the name of Tamar/Tamora who became a mother in Genesis and matriarch of King David and Jesus Christ in Matthew. Numerous allusions suggest Tamora was like the African Queen Dido loved by pious Titus/Aeneas as in Virgil's Aeneid. This third layer introduces the strong theme of skin colour. Tamora and Titus' child would be the blackamoor child. Based on the Aeneid, Tamora/Dido was in rivalry with the Roman Lavinia. The fourth layer is based upon Tamora being the Philomel of Ovid's Metamorphosis. The resulting play structure provides an integrity to Lanyer's personal allegory and the numerous half-allusions in Titus Andronicus. It also illustrates Lanyer's identification with Philomel in her poetry.
