The Rape of Lucrece
By William Shakespeare
- editors: Craig A. Berry, Martin Mueller, and Clifford Wulfman
- technical editors: Jeffrey Cousens and Bill Parod
- editorial assistants: Lawrence Berland, Hilary Bina, Katherine Gould, Kreg Segal, Nicholas Terrell
The WordHoard Shakespeare is a joint project of the Perseus Project at Tufts University, The Northwestern University Library, and Northwestern University Academic Technologies. It is derived from The Globe Shakespeare , the one-volume version of the Cambridge Shakespeare , edited by W. G. Clark, J. Glover, and W. A. Wright (1891-3). The Internet Shakespeare editions of the quartos and folios have been consulted to create a modern text that observes as closely as possible the morphological and prosodic practices of the earliest editions. Spellings, especially of contracted and hyphenated forms, have been standardized across the corpus. The text has been fully lemmatized and morphosyntactically tagged.
© 2003. The copyright to The WordHoard Shakespeare is owned jointly by Northwestern University and Tufts University. The WordHoard Shakespeare is provided for free solely for non-commercial use by students, scholars, and the public. Any commercial use or publication of it, in whole or in part, without prior written authorization of the copyright holders is strictly prohibited.
The Wordhoard Shakespeare is derived from, but not identical with, The Globe Shakespeare , the one-volume version of the Cambridge Shakespeare (1891-3) edited by W. G. Clark, J. Glover, and W. A. Wright.
Stanza 1 | FROM the besieged Ardea all in post, |
Stanza 2 | Haply that name of “chaste” unhappily set |
Stanza 3 | For he the night before, in Tarquin's tent, |
Stanza 4 | O happiness enjoyed but of a few! |
Stanza 5 | Beauty itself doth of itself persuade |
Stanza 6 | Perchance his boast of Lucrece' sovereignty |
Stanza 7 | But some untimely thought did instigate |
Stanza 8 | When at Collatium this false lord arrived, |
Stanza 9 | But beauty, in that white intituled, |
Stanza 10 | This heraldry in Lucrece' face was seen, |
Stanza 11 | This silent war of lilies and of roses, |
Stanza 12 | Now thinks he that her husband's shallow tongue, — |
Stanza 13 | This earthly saint, adored by this devil, |
Stanza 14 | For that he coloured with his high estate, |
Stanza 15 | But she, that never coped with stranger eyes, |
Stanza 16 | He stories to her ears her husband's fame, |
Stanza 17 | Far from the purpose of his coming thither, |
Stanza 18 | For then is Tarquin brought unto his bed, |
Stanza 19 | As one of which doth Tarquin lie revolving |
Stanza 20 | Those that much covet are with gain so fond, |
Stanza 21 | The aim of all is but to nurse the life |
Stanza 22 | So that in venturing ill we leave to be |
Stanza 23 | Such hazard now must doting Tarquin make, |
Stanza 24 | Now stole upon the time the dead of night, |
Stanza 25 | And now this lustful lord leaped from his bed, |
Stanza 26 | His falchion on a flint he softly smiteth, |
Stanza 27 | Here pale with fear he doth premeditate |
Stanza 28 | “Fair torch, burn out thy light, and lend it not |
Stanza 29 | “O shame to knighthood and to shining arms! |
Stanza 30 | “Yea, though I die, the scandal will survive, |
Stanza 31 | “What win I, if I gain the thing I seek? |
Stanza 32 | “If Collatinus dream of my intent, |
Stanza 33 | “O, what excuse can my invention make, |
Stanza 34 | “Had Collatinus killed my son or sire, |
Stanza 35 | “Shameful it is; ay, if the fact be known: |
Stanza 36 | Thus, graceless, holds he disputation |
Stanza 37 | Quoth he, “She took me kindly by the hand, |
Stanza 38 | “And how her hand, in my hand being locked, |
Stanza 39 | “Why hunt I then for colour or excuses? |
Stanza 40 | “Then, childish fear, avaunt! debating, die! |
Stanza 41 | As corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear |
Stanza 42 | Within his thought her heavenly image sits, |
Stanza 43 | And therein heartens up his servile powers, |
Stanza 44 | The locks between her chamber and his will, |
Stanza 45 | As each unwilling portal yields him way, |
Stanza 46 | And being lighted, by the light he spies |
Stanza 47 | But all these poor forbiddings could not stay him; |
Stanza 48 | “So, so,” quoth he, “these lets attend the time, |
Stanza 49 | Now is he come unto the chamber door, |
Stanza 50 | But in the midst of his unfruitful prayer, |
Stanza 51 | “Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide! |
Stanza 52 | This said, his guilty hand plucked up the latch, |
Stanza 53 | Into the chamber wickedly he stalks, |
Stanza 54 | Look, as the fair and fiery-pointed sun, |
Stanza 55 | O, had they in that darksome prison died! |
Stanza 56 | Her lily hand her rosy cheek lies under, |
Stanza 57 | Without the bed her other fair hand was, |
Stanza 58 | Her hair, like golden threads, played with her breath; |
Stanza 59 | Her breasts, like ivory globes circled with blue, |
Stanza 60 | What could he see but mightily he noted? |
Stanza 61 | As the grim lion fawneth o'er his prey, |
Stanza 62 | And they, like straggling slaves for pillage fighting, |
Stanza 63 | His drumming heart cheers up his burning eye, |
Stanza 64 | They, mustering to the quiet cabinet |
Stanza 65 | Imagine her as one in dead of night |
Stanza 66 | Wrapped and confounded in a thousand fears, |
Stanza 67 | His hand, that yet remains upon her breast, — |
Stanza 68 | First, like a trumpet, doth his tongue begin |
Stanza 69 | Thus he replies: “The colour in thy face, |
Stanza 70 | “Thus I forestall thee, if thou mean to chide: |
Stanza 71 | “I see what crosses my attempt will bring; |
Stanza 72 | “I have debated, even in my soul, |
Stanza 73 | This said, he shakes aloft his Roman blade, |
Stanza 74 | “Lucrece,” quoth he, “this night I must enjoy thee: |
Stanza 75 | “So thy surviving husband shall remain |
Stanza 76 | “But if thou yield, I rest thy secret friend: |
Stanza 77 | “Then, for thy husband and thy children's sake, |
Stanza 78 | Here with a cockatrice's dead-killing eye |
Stanza 79 | But when a black-faced cloud the world doth threat, |
Stanza 80 | Yet, foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally, |
Stanza 81 | Her pity-pleading eyes are sadly fixed |
Stanza 82 | She conjures him by high almighty Jove, |
Stanza 83 | Quoth she, “Reward not hospitality |
Stanza 84 | “My husband is thy friend; for his sake spare me: |
Stanza 85 | “All which together, like a troubled ocean, |
Stanza 86 | “In Tarquin's likeness I did entertain thee: |
Stanza 87 | “How will thy shame be seeded in thine age, |
Stanza 88 | “This deed will make thee only loved for fear; |
Stanza 89 | “And wilt thou be the school where Lust shall learn? |
Stanza 90 | “Hast thou command? by him that gave it thee, |
Stanza 91 | “Think but how vile a spectacle it were, |
Stanza 92 | “To thee, to thee, my heaved-up hands appeal, |
Stanza 93 | “Have done,” quoth he: “my uncontrolled tide |
Stanza 94 | “Thou art,” quoth she, “a sea, a sovereign king; |
Stanza 95 | “So shall these slaves be king, and thou their slave; |
Stanza 96 | “So let thy thoughts, low vassals to thy state” — |
Stanza 97 | This said, he sets his foot upon the light, |
Stanza 98 | For with the nightly linen that she wears |
Stanza 99 | But she hath lost a dearer thing than life, |
Stanza 100 | Look, as the full-fed hound or gorged hawk, |
Stanza 101 | O, deeper sin than bottomless conceit |
Stanza 102 | And then with lank and lean discoloured cheek, |
Stanza 103 | So fares it with this faultful lord of Rome, |
Stanza 104 | She says, her subjects with foul insurrection |
Stanza 105 | Even in this thought through the dark night he stealeth, |
Stanza 106 | He like a thievish dog creeps sadly thence; |
Stanza 107 | He thence departs a heavy convertite; |
Stanza 108 | “They think not but that every eye can see |
Stanza 109 | Here she exclaims against repose and rest, |
Stanza 110 | “O comfort-killing Night, image of hell! |
Stanza 111 | “O hateful, vaporous, and foggy Night! |
Stanza 112 | “With rotten damps ravish the morning air; |
Stanza 113 | “Were Tarquin Night, as he is but Night's child, |
Stanza 114 | “Where now I have no one to blush with me, |
Stanza 115 | “O Night, thou furnace of foul reeking smoke, |
Stanza 116 | “Make me not object to the tell-tale Day |
Stanza 117 | “The nurse, to still her child, will tell my story, |
Stanza 118 | “Let my good name, that senseless reputation, |
Stanza 119 | “O unseen shame! invisible disgrace! |
Stanza 120 | “If, Collatine, thine honour lay in me, |
Stanza 121 | “Yet am I guilty of thy honour's wrack; |
Stanza 122 | “Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? |
Stanza 123 | “The aged man that coffers up his gold |
Stanza 124 | “So then he hath it when he cannot use it, |
Stanza 125 | “Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring; |
Stanza 126 | “O Opportunity, thy guilt is great! |
Stanza 127 | “Thou makest the vestal violate her oath; |
Stanza 128 | “Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame, |
Stanza 129 | “When wilt thou be the humble suppliant's friend, |
Stanza 130 | “The patient dies while the physician sleeps; |
Stanza 131 | “When Truth and Virtue have to do with thee, |
Stanza 132 | “Guilty thou art of murder and of theft, |
Stanza 133 | “misshapen Time, copesmate of ugly Night, |
Stanza 134 | “Why hath thy servant, Opportunity, |
Stanza 135 | “Time's glory is to calm contending kings, |
Stanza 136 | “To fill with worm-holes stately monuments, |
Stanza 137 | “To show the beldam daughters of her daughter, |
Stanza 138 | “Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage, |
Stanza 139 | “Thou ceaseless lackey to eternity, |
Stanza 140 | “Disturb his hours of rest with restless trances, |
Stanza 141 | “Let him have time to tear his curled hair, |
Stanza 142 | “Let him have time to see his friends his foes, |
Stanza 143 | “O Time, thou tutor both to good and bad, |
Stanza 144 | “The baser is he, coming from a king, |
Stanza 145 | “The crow may bathe his coal-black wings in mire, |
Stanza 146 | “Out, idle words, servants to shallow fools! |
Stanza 147 | “In vain I rail at Opportunity, |
Stanza 148 | “Poor hand, why quiver'st thou at this decree? |
Stanza 149 | This said, from her be-tumbled couch she starteth, |
Stanza 150 | “In vain,” quoth she, “I live, and seek in vain |
Stanza 151 | “O, that is gone for which I sought to live, |
Stanza 152 | “Well, well, dear Collatine, thou shalt not know |
Stanza 153 | “Nor shall he smile at thee in secret thought, |
Stanza 154 | “I will not poison thee with my attaint, |
Stanza 155 | By this, lamenting Philomel had ended |
Stanza 156 | Revealing day through every cranny spies, |
Stanza 157 | Thus cavils she with every thing she sees: |
Stanza 158 | So she, deep drenched in a sea of care, |
Stanza 159 | The little birds that tune their morning's joy |
Stanza 160 | 'Tis double death to drown in ken of shore; |
Stanza 161 | “You mocking birds,” quoth she, “your tunes entomb |
Stanza 162 | “Come, Philomel, that sing'st of ravishment, |
Stanza 163 | “And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part, |
Stanza 164 | “And for, poor bird, thou sing'st not in the day, |
Stanza 165 | As the poor frighted deer, that stands at gaze, |
Stanza 166 | “To kill myself,” quoth she, “alack, what were it, |
Stanza 167 | “My body or my soul, which was the dearer, |
Stanza 168 | “Her house is sacked, her quiet interrupted, |
Stanza 169 | “Yet die I will not till my Collatine |
Stanza 170 | “My honour I'll bequeath unto the knife |
Stanza 171 | “Dear lord of that dear jewel I have lost, |
Stanza 172 | “This brief abridgement of my will I make: |
Stanza 173 | “Thou, Collatine, shalt oversee this will; |
Stanza 174 | This plot of death when sadly she had laid, |
Stanza 175 | Her mistress she doth give demure good morrow, |
Stanza 176 | But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set, |
Stanza 177 | A pretty while these pretty creatures stand, |
Stanza 178 | For men have marble, women waxen, minds, |
Stanza 179 | Their smoothness, like a goodly champaign plain, |
Stanza 180 | No man inveigh against the withered flower, |
Stanza 181 | The precedent whereof in Lucrece view, |
Stanza 182 | By this, mild patience bid fair Lucrece speak |
Stanza 183 | “But tell me, girl, when went” — and there she stayed |
Stanza 184 | “But, lady, if your maid may be so bold, |
Stanza 185 | “Go, get me hither paper, ink, and pen: |
Stanza 186 | Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write, |
Stanza 187 | At last she thus begins: “Thou worthy lord |
Stanza 188 | Here folds she up the tenor of her woe, |
Stanza 189 | Besides, the life and feeling of her passion |
Stanza 190 | To see sad sights moves more than hear them told: |
Stanza 191 | Her letter now is sealed, and on it writ |
Stanza 192 | The homely villain curtsies to her low; |
Stanza 193 | When, silly groom! God wot, it was defect |
Stanza 194 | His kindled duty kindled her mistrust, |
Stanza 195 | But long she thinks till he return again, |
Stanza 196 | At last she calls to mind where hangs a piece |
Stanza 197 | A thousand lamentable objects there, |
Stanza 198 | There might you see the labouring pioner |
Stanza 199 | In great commanders grace and majesty |
Stanza 200 | In Ajax and Ulysses, O, what art |
Stanza 201 | There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand, |
Stanza 202 | About him were a press of gaping faces, |
Stanza 203 | Here one man's hand leaned on another's head, |
Stanza 204 | For much imaginary work was there; |
Stanza 205 | And from the walls of strong-besieged Troy |
Stanza 206 | And from the strand of Dardan, where they fought, |
Stanza 207 | To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come, |
Stanza 208 | In her the painter had anatomized |
Stanza 209 | On this sad shadow Lucrece spends her eyes, |
Stanza 210 | “Poor instrument,” quoth she, “without a sound, |
Stanza 211 | “Show me the strumpet that began this stir, |
Stanza 212 | “Why should the private pleasure of some one |
Stanza 213 | “Lo, here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies, |
Stanza 214 | Here feelingly she weeps Troy's painted woes: |
Stanza 215 | She throws her eyes about the painting round, |
Stanza 216 | In him the painter laboured with his skill |
Stanza 217 | But, like a constant and confirmed devil, |
Stanza 218 | The well-skilled workman this mild image drew |
Stanza 219 | This picture she advisedly perused, |
Stanza 220 | “It cannot be,” quoth she, “that so much guile” — |
Stanza 221 | “For even as subtle Sinon here is painted, |
Stanza 222 | “Look, look, how listening Priam wets his eyes, |
Stanza 223 | “Such devils steal effects from lightless hell; |
Stanza 224 | Here, all enraged, such passion her assails, |
Stanza 225 | Thus ebbs and flows the current of her sorrow, |
Stanza 226 | Which all this time hath overslipped her thought, |
Stanza 227 | But now the mindful messenger, come back, |
Stanza 228 | Which when her sad-beholding husband saw, |
Stanza 229 | At last he takes her by the bloodless hand, |
Stanza 230 | Three times with sighs she gives her sorrow fire, |
Stanza 231 | And now this pale swan in her watery nest |
Stanza 232 | “Then be this all the task it hath to say: |
Stanza 233 | “For in the dreadful dead of dark midnight, |
Stanza 234 | “‘ For some hard-favoured groom of thine,’ quoth he, |
Stanza 235 | “With this, I did begin to start and cry; |
Stanza 236 | “Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak, |
Stanza 237 | “O, teach me how to make mine own excuse! |
Stanza 238 | Lo, here, the hopeless merchant of this loss, |
Stanza 239 | As through an arch the violent roaring tide |
Stanza 240 | Which speechless woe of his poor she attendeth, |
Stanza 241 | “And for my sake, when I might charm thee so |
Stanza 242 | “But ere I name him, you fair lords,” quoth she, |
Stanza 243 | At this request, with noble disposition |
Stanza 244 | “What is the quality of my offence, |
Stanza 245 | With this, they all at once began to say, |
Stanza 246 | Here with a sigh, as if her heart would break, |
Stanza 247 | Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast |
Stanza 248 | Stone-still, astonished with this deadly deed, |
Stanza 249 | And bubbling from her breast, it doth divide |
Stanza 250 | About the mourning and congealed face |
Stanza 251 | “Daughter, dear daughter,” old Lucretius cries, |
Stanza 252 | “Poor broken glass, I often did behold |
Stanza 253 | “O time, cease thou thy course and last no longer, |
Stanza 254 | By this, starts Collatine as from a dream, |
Stanza 255 | The deep vexation of his inward soul |
Stanza 256 | Yet sometime “Tarquin” was pronounced plain, |
Stanza 257 | The one doth call her his, the other his, |
Stanza 258 | “O,” quoth Lucretius, “I did give that life |
Stanza 259 | Brutus, who plucked the knife from Lucrece' side, |
Stanza 260 | But now he throws that shallow habit by, |
Stanza 261 | “Why, Collatine, is woe the cure for woe? |
Stanza 262 | “Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart |
Stanza 263 | “Now, by the Capitol that we adore, |
Stanza 264 | This said, he struck his hand upon his breast, |
Stanza 265 | When they had sworn to this advised doom, |