Rome. Before the palace.
[It’s not clear if the suddenly important character
of Aaron comes on here, or, ironically forgotten
about, simply stays on at the end of the previous
scene while everyone else walks off. This difficult
soliloquy could even be the final speech of Act 1.
To add to the confusion, some editors don’t end
the first act – which is really just the first scene ‐
until the start of Act 2 Scene 2. I stop it here for
the sake of giving the audience a break. However
it’s divided, this apparently lowly slave is now by
himself and can speak his thoughts to the audience, about how glad
he is that Tamora has married the Emperor but that she’s really
Aaron’s slave, being in love with him, rather than the other way round.
When Aaron’s finished speaking Tamora’s sons come on stage,
fighting over Lavinia. Aaron intervenes, telling them that if they make
a play for Bassianus’s fiancée they’ll disgrace their mother, spoil things
for the Goth party at court, and maybe end up dead. He puts forward
a “better” idea: the brothers rape Lavinia in the woods during the ceremonial hunt the next day