“In vain I rail at Opportunity,
At Time, at Tarquin, and uncheerful Night;
In vain I cavil with mine infamy,
In vain I spurn at my confirmed despite:
This helpless smoke of words doth me no right.
The remedy indeed to do me good
Is to let forth my foul defiled blood.
| 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, |