(If ever, love, tny Lucrece thou wilt see),
Some present speed, to come and visit me :

So 1 commend me from our house in grief;

•My woes are tedious, though my words are brief.*"

Here folds she up the tenour of her woe,

Her certain sorrow writ uncertainly.

By this short schedule Oollatine may know

Her ffrief, but not her grief's true quality :

She dJEires not thereof make discovery.
Lest he should hold it her own gross abuse,
Ere she with blood hath stain'd ner stain'd excuse.

Besides, the life and feeling of her passion

She hoards to spend when ne is by to hear her ;

When si^ and groans and tears may grace the fashion

Of her disgrace, the better so to clear her

From that suspicion which the world might bear her,

* Conception. t Fftstidionsly framed.

Digitized by ^OOQ IC



438 THE £APE OF LUCfiECB.

To shun this blot ahe would not blot the letter
With words, till action might become them better.

To see sad sights moves more than hear tiiem toAd ;

For then the e^e interprets to the ear

The heavy motion that it doth behold.

When every part a part of woe doth bear.

'Tis but a iwurt of sorrow that we hear :
Deep floods make lesser noise than shallow fords.
And sorrow ebbs^ being blown with wind of words.

Her letter now is seal'd, and on it writ^
At Ardea to my lord vnth more than haste :
The P96t attends, and she delivers it^
Charging the sour-faced groom to hie as fast
As lagging fowls before the northern blast.

Speed more than speed, but dull and slow she deems :

Extremity still urgeth such extremes.

The homely villein* curtesies to her low ;
And blushing on her, with a steadfast eye
Eeoeives the scroll, without or yea or no,
And forthwith bashful innocence doth hie.
But they whose guilt within their bosoms lie,

Inuudne every eye beholds their blame ;

For Lucrece thought he blush'd to see ner shame^

When, silly groom ! God wot, it was defect

Of spirit, life, and bold audacity.

Such harmless creatures have a true respect

To talk in deeds, while others saucily

Promise more speed, but do it leisurely :
Even so. this pattern of the worn-out age
Pawn'd Honest looks, but laid no words to gage.

His kindled duty kindled her mistrust,
That two red fires in both their faces blazed ;
She thought he blush'd, as knowine Tarquin's lust^
And, blusning with him, wistly on nim gazed ;
Her earnest eye did make him more amazed :
The more she saw the blood his cheeks replenish.
The more she thought he spied in her some blenush.

But long she thinks till he return again.
And yet the duteous vassal scarce is gone.
The weary time she cannot entertain.
For now 'tis stale to sigh, to weep, and groan :
So woe hath wearied woe, moan tired moan.
That she her plaints a Uttle while doth stay.
Pausing for means to mourn some newer way.

At last she calls to mind where hangs a piece
Of skilful painting, made for Priam^ Troy ;
Before the which is drawnf the power of Greece,

• Slave. t Drawn tip in battle array.



dbyGoOgk



THB RAPE OF LT7CRECB. 489

Por Helen's rape the city to destroy.

Threatening cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy,
Which the conceited* painter drew so proud,
As heayen (it seem'd) to kiss the turrets bow'd.

A thousand lamentable objects there.
In scorn of Nature, Art gave lifeless life :
Many a dry dr^f seemed a weeping tear,
Shed for the slaughtered husband by the wife :
The red blood reek*d to show the painter's strife ;
And dying eyes gleam'd forth their ashy lights,
Like dying coals burnt out in tedious nights.

There might you see the labouring pioneer
Begrimed with sweat, and smeared all with dust ;
And from the towers of Troy there would appear
The very eyes of men through loopholes thrust,
Gazing upon the Greeks with little lust :%
Such sweet observance § in this work was had.
That one might see those far-off eyes look sad.

In great commanders grace and maiesty
You might behold, triumphing in their fSaces ;
In youth, quick bearing and dexteritv ;
And here and there the painter interlaces
Pale cowards, marching on with trembling paces ;
Which heartless peasants did so well resembla
That one would swear he saw them quake and tremble.

In Ajax and Ulysses, O what art

Of physiognomy might one behold !

The face of either 'ciphered || cither's heart :

Their face their manners most expressly told :

In AJax' eyes blunt rage and rigour roU'd ;
But the mild glance that sl;^ Ulysses lent,
Showed deep regard and smiling govemment-IT

There pleading migjht you see grave Nestor stand.

As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight ;

Making such sober action with his hand.

That it beaniiled attention, charm'd the sight :

In speech,** it seem'd, his beard, all silver white,
Wagged up and down, and from his lips did fly
Thin winding breath, which purrdft up to the sky.

About him were a press of gaping faces.

Which seem'd to swallow up nis sound advice ;

All jointly listening but with several graces,

As u some mermaid did their ears entice ;

Some high, some low, the painter was so nice :
The s(»lps of many, almost hid behind.
To jump up higher seem'd, to mock the mind.
* Fandftd, ingenious. t I. e. dry on the canvas.

t Pleasure, satisfaction. S Careful congraity.

R Deciphered. \ Profound wisdom, self-controL

•« With speaking. tt Curled, eddied.



dbyGoOgk



10 TBI SAPE or LT70BBCV.

Here one man's hand leaned on another's head.

His nose being shadoVd by his neighbour's ear ;

Here one beins throng'd bears back, all blown and red ;

Another, smotner'd, seems to pelt* and swear ;

And in their rage such signs of rage they bear.
As, but for loss of Nestor's golden words.
It seem'd they would debate with angry sword%

For much imaftinary work was there ;
Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,t
That for AchiUer image stood his spewTj
Griped in an armed hand : himself behmd.
Was left unseen, save to uie eye or mind :

A hand, a foo^ a face, a le^ a heacL

Stood for the whole to be unagined.
And from the Wis of strong-besieged Troy
When their brave hope^ bold Hector, march'd to field,
Stood many Trojan mothers, sharing joy
To see their youthful sons bright 'weapons wield ;
And to their hope they such od I action yield,

That, through their light joy, seemed to appear

(like bright things stain'd) a kind of heavy fear.

AndL from the strond of Dardant where they fought,
To oimois' reedy banks the red blood ran.
Whose waves to imitate the battle sought
With sw^ling ridges: and their ranks benm
To break upon the galled shore, and than §
Betire again, till meeting greater ranks
They join, and shoot their foam at Simois' banks.

To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come.

To find a face where all distress is st^l'dH

Many she sees, where cares have carved some.

But none where all distress and dolour dwellNl,

Till she despairing Hecuba beheld,
Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eves,
Which IF bleeding under Pyrrhus* proud foot lies.

In her the painter had anatomized
Time's ruin, beaulnr's wreck, and grim care's rei^ *
Her cheeks with cnaps and wrinkles were disguised ;
Of what she was, no semblance did remain :
Her blue blood changed to black in every vein.

Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed,

Show'd me imprison'd in a body dead.

On this sad shadow Lucrece spends** her eyes,
And shapes her sorrow to the beldame's woes,
Who nothing wants to answer her but cries,

* To be in a fury. t So natural.

t Shore of Dardania, f. e. the district of Troy.

I Than for then. | Steeled, engraved as an 8te4*

5 /. e. wdirnds. ** Fixes.



dbyGoogk



THB RAPE OF LUCRIOS. 4tt

And bitter words to ban her cmd foes :

The painter was no god to lend her those ;
And therefore Lucreoe swears he did her wrong,
To give her so much grief, and not a tongue.

** Poor instrument,** quoth she, "without a sound,
111 tune thy woes witn my lamenting tongue ;
And drop sweet balm in Friam's painted wound,
And rail on Pyrrhus that hath done him wrone.
And with my tears quench Troy that bums so long ;

And with my knife scratch out the angry eyes

Of all the Greeks that are thine enemies.

** Show me the strumpet that began this stir.

That with my nails her beaul^ I may tear.

Thy hieat of lust, fond Paris, did incur

This load of wrath that burning Troy doth bear ;

Thy eye kindled the fire that bumetn here :
And here in Troy, for trespass of thine eye,
The sire, the son, the dame, and daughter, die.

** Why should the priyate pleasure of some one
Become the pubhc plague of many moe ?*
Let sin, alone committed, Ught alone
Upon his head that hath transgressed sa
Let guiltless souls be freed from guilty woe :

Por one's offence wh^ should so many fiEdl,

To plague a priyate sin in general ?

** Lo here weeps Hecuba, here Priam diest,
Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds \
Here friend by friend in bloody channel Ues,
And friend to friend giyes unadyised wounds,t
And one man's lust these msLHj liyes confounds :
Had doting Priam check'd ms son's desire,
Troy had been bright with fame, and not with fire.**

Here feelingly she weeps Troy's painted woes :
Por sorrow, like a hea^-hanging bell^
Once set on ringing, with his own weight goes ,
Then little strength rings out the doleful uiell :
So Lucrece set a-work, sad tales doth tell

To pencill'd pensiyeness and oolour'd sorrow ;

She lends them words, and she their looks doth borrow.

She throws her eyes about the paintine, round,
And whom she finds forlorn, she doth lament :
At last she sees a wretched image bound,
That piteous looks to Phrygian shepherds lent ;
His face, thpugh frill of cares, yet snoVd content :
Onward to Troy with the blunt swains he goes,
Sq mild, that Patience seem'd to scorn his woes.

* Moe for more, f ^* «• not knowing each other.



dbyGoOgk



448 THE BAPE OF LT7CSECB.

In him the iMunter laboured with his skill
To hide deceit, and give the harmless show*
An humble gait, calm look& eyes wailing still,
A brow unbent, that seem'd to welcome woe ;
Cheeks neither red nor pale, but mingled so
That blushing red no guilty instance gave.
Nor ashy pale the fear that false hearts haye.
But, like a constant and confirmed devil.
He entertain'd a show so seeming just,
And therein so ensconced his secret evil.
That jealousy itself could not mistrust
False-creeping craft and penury should thrust
Into so brignt a day such black-faced storms,
Or blot with hell-born sin such saint-Uke forms.
The well-skill'd workman this mild image drew
For perjured Sinon, whose enchanting story
The credulous old Priam after slew :
"Whose words, like wild-fire, burnt the shining glory
Of rich-built lUon, that the skies were sorry.
And little stars shot from their fixed places,
When their glass fell wherein they view'd their fiioea.
This picture she advisedly f perused.
And chid the painter for his wondrous skill ;
Saying, some shape in Sinon's was abused.
So fair a form lodged not a mind so ill ;
And still on him she gazed, and gazing still.
Such signs of truth in his plain face she spied.
That she concludes the picture was beUecL
** It cannot be," quoth she, " that so much guile"
(She would have said) " can lurk in such a look ;"
But Tarquin's shape came in her mind the while.
And from her tongne, can lurk from cannot took ;
It cannot be she in that sense forsook,
And tum'd it thus : " it cannot be, I find,
But such a face should bear a wicked mind :
** For even as subtle Sinon here is painted.
So sober-sad, so weary, and so mild
(As if with grief or travail he had fainted),
To me came Tarquin arm'd ; so beguiled J
With outward honesty, but yet denied
With inward vice : as Priam him did cherish.
So did I Tarquin ; so my Troy did perish.
** Look, look, how listening Priam wets his eyes,
To see those borrowed tears that Sinon sheds.
Priam, why art thou old, and yet not wise ?
For every tear he falls,§ a Trojan bleeds ;
His eye drops fire, no water thence proceeds :
Those round clear pearls of his that move thy pity.
Are balls of quenchless fire to bum thy city.
* /. e. painted figure: t Attentively.

t So covered, so masked. ^ He lets faU.



dbyGoogk



THE BAPB 07 LVCBECB. 44$

" Such deTils steal effects Arom lightless hell ;

Por Sinon in his fire doth quake with cold,

And in that cold, hot-burninK fire doth dwell ;

These contraries such unity do hold,

Only to flatter fools, and make them bold :
So Priam's trust raise Sinon's tears doth flatter,
That he finds n:eans to burn his Troy with water."

Here, all enraged, such passion her assuls.

That patience is quite beaten from her breast.

She tears the senseless Sinon with her nails,

Comparing him to that unhappy guest

Whose deed hath made herself herself detest :
At last she smilingly with this gives o'er ;
** Fool ! fool ! " quoth she, " his wounds will not be sore."

Thus ebbs and flows the current of her sorrow,

And time doth weary time with her complaining.

She looks for night, and then she longs for morrow.

And both she thinks too long with her remaining :

Short time seems long in sorrow's sharp sustaining.
Though woe be heavy, yet it seldom sleei)6 ;
And tney that watch, see time how slow it creeps.

Which all this time hath overalipp'd her thought,

That she with painted images hs^in spent ;

Being from the feeling of her own gnef brought

By deep surmise of others' detriment ;

Losing ner woes in shows of discontent.
It easeth some, though none it ever cured.
To think their dolour others have endured.

But now the mindful messenger, come back.

Brings home his lord and other company ;

Who finds his Lucreoe clad in mourning black ;

And round about her tear-distained eye

Blue circles stream'd, like rainbows in the sky.
These water-galls in her dim element*
Poretell new storms to those already spent.

Which when her sad-beholding husband saw,

Amazedly in her sad face he stares:

Her eyes, though sod in tears, bok'd red and raw.

Her Uvely colour kill'd with deadly cares.

He hath no power to ask her how she fares.
But stood, like old aoquaintanoe in a trance.
Met far m>m home, wondering eadi othefs chance.

At last he takes her by the bloodless hand,

And thus begins : " What uncouth ill event

Hath thee befallen, that thou dost trembling stand ?

Sweet love, what spite hath thy fair colour spent ?t

Why art tnou thus attired in discontent ?
Unmask, dear dear, this moody heaviness.
And tell thy grief, that we may give redress."

* The wtUer-gall is some i^pearance attendant on the rainbow.
-•■ Exhausted.



dbyGoOgk



I THE BAPE OF LTTCBECB.

Three times with sighs she gives her sorrows fire.

Ere once she caa discharge one word of woe : •

At length address'dt to answer his desire,

She modestly prepares to let them know

Her honour is ta^en prisoner hy the foe ;
While Collatine and his consorted lords ^
WiUi sad attention long to hear her words.

And now this pale swan in her watery nest
B^fins the sad dirge of her certain ending :
" !Few words,'' quoth she, ^ shall fit the trespass best,
Where no excuse can give the fault amending :
In me more woes than words are now depending ;

And my laments would be drawn out too long;

To tell them all with one poor tired tongue.

•• Then be this all the task it hath to say :—

Dear husband, in the interest of thy bed

A stranger came, and on that pillow lay

Where thou wast wont to rest thy weary head;

And what wrong else may be imagined
By foul enforcement might be done to me.
Prom that, alas ! thy Lucrece is not free.

** For in the dreadful dead of dark midnight^
With shining falchion in my chamber came
A creeping creature, with a flaming light,
And softly cried. Awake, thou Boman dame.
And entertain xn;^ love \ else lasting shame ,

On thee and thine this night I will infiiot^

If thou my love's desire do contradict.

'* For some hard-favour'd groom of thine, quoth he^
Unless thou yoke thy liking to mv will,
111 murder straight, and then ril slaughter thee,
And swear I found you where you did mlfil
The loathsome act of lust, and so did kill

The lechers in their deed : this act will be

My fame, and thy perpetual in£uny.

** With this I did begin to start and cry.
And then against my heart he set his sword,
Swearing, unless I took all patiently,
I should not Hve to speak another word :
So should my shame still rest upon record.
And never be forgot in mighty Eome
The adulterate death of Lucrece and h«r groom.

** Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak.

And for the weaker with so strong a fear :

My bloodv judge forbade my ton^e to speaJc ;

No rightful plea might plead for justice there :

His scarlet lust came evidence to swear
That my poor beauty had purloin'd his eyes.
And when the judge is robb'd, the pnaonor dies.

• An image derived from a gun-shot. f FKpwed.

Digitized by VjOOQ IC



r



1«B RA?B OF L17CBECX. 444

''O teach me how to make mine own excusal

Or, at the least, this refuge let me find ;

Though my gross blood be stain'd with this abuse,

Immaculate and spoUess is my mind \

That was not forced j that never was mdined

To accessary yieldmgs, but still pure

Doth in her p(»8on'd closet yet endure.**

Lo here, the hopeless merchant of this loss,*
With head dedmed, and voice damm'd up with woe,
With sad-set eyes, and wretched arms across,
From lips new-waxen pale begins to blow
The grief away, that stops his answer so :

But wretched as he is, he strives in vain ;

What he breathes out, his breath drinks up again.

As through an arch the violent roaring tide

Out-mns the eye that doth behold his naste ;

Yet in the eddy boundeth in his pride

Back to the strait that forced him on so fast ;

In rage sent oat, recalled in rage, b^g past :
Even so his sighs, his sorrows, make a saw,
To push grief on, and badL the same grief draw.

Which speechless woe of his, poor she attendeth.

And his untimely frenzy thus awaketh :

** Dear lord, thy sorrow to my sorrow lendeth

Another power ; no flood by raining slaketh.

My woe too sensible thy passion maketh
More feeling-painful : let it then suffice
To drown one woe, one pair of weeping eyes.

"And for my sake.-'whent I might diarm thee so.
For she that was thy Lucrece,— now attend me ;
Be suddenly r^veng^ on my foew
Thine, mine^ his own ; suppose tnou dost defend me
From what is past : the h^p that thou shalt lend me

Comes all too late, yet let the traitor die ;

For sparing justice feeds iniquity.

" But ere I name him, you fair lords," quoth she
(Speaking to those that came with OoUatine),
Slmll pU^t your honouraUe faiths to me,
With swift pursuit to 'venge this wrong of mine ;
For 'tis a meritorious fair design.

To chase injustice with revengeftd arms :

Knights, by th^ oaths, should hght poor ladies' harms."

At this request, with noUe disposltiim

Each present lord began to promise aid.

As bound in knighthood to ner imposition.

Longing to hear the hateful fDC bewray'd.

But she, that yet her sad task hath not said.
The protestation stops. " O speak," quoth she,
" How may this forced stain be wiped from me ?

• /. e. CoUatiniu, the owner at the ressel wrecked, as it were.'
t If.



dbyGoOgk



44G THX BAPB OV LUOSBCE.

" What is the quality of mine offence,

Being oonstrain'd with dreadful circuimrtanoe ?

May my pure mind with the foul act dispeoise.

My low-declined honour to advance P

May any terms acquit me firom this chance ?

The poisoned fountain clears itself again ;

And why not I from this compelled stain ?"
With this thej; all at once hegan to say.
Her body's stain her mind untainted clean ;
While with a joyless smile she turns away
The face, that map which deep iminression bears
Of hard misfortune, carved in it with tears.

** No, no," quoth she, "no dame, hereafter living.

By my excuse shall claim excuse's giving."

Here with a sigh, as if her heart would break.
She throws forth Tarquin's name : He, he, she says.
But more than he her poor tongue could not speak ;
Till after many accents and delays,
Untimely breathings, sick and short assays,



She utters this : " He, he, fair lords, 'tis he,
That guides this hand to give this wound ta me.'*

Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast
A harmful knife, that thence her soul unsheathed :
Q?hat blow did bail it from the deep unrest
Of that polluted prison where it breathed :
Her contrite sighs unto the clouds bequeathed
Her winged sprite,* and through her wounds doth fly
Life's lasting date from canoell^ destiny.

Stone-still, astonish'd with this deadly deed*

Stood Collatine and all his brdlv crew ;

Till Lucrece' fother, that beholds her bleed,

Himself on her self-slaughter'd body threw ;

And from the purple fountain Brutus drew
The murderous Knife, and as it left the place,
Her blood, in poor revenge, held it in onase ;

And bubblin£[ from her breast, it doth divide
In two slow nvers, that the cnmson blood
Circles her body in on every side.
Who like a late-saok'd island vastly f stood
Bare and unpeopled, in this fearful flood.

Some of her blood still pure and red remain'd.

And pome look'd Uaok, and that folse Taiquin stain'd.
About the mourning and congeoded face
Of that black blood, a watei^ rigol t goes.
Which seems to weej> upon the tainted place :
And ever since, as pitying Lucrece* woes,
Corrupted blood some watery token shows ;

And blood untainted still doth red abide,

Blushing at that which is so putrified.
* Spirit. t /. e.like awMte. t CIrcie.



dbyGoogk



THB BAPB OF LVCBSCB. 4^

"Daughter, dear daughter" old Lucretius cries,

** That Ufe was mine, which thou hast here deprived.

If in the child the father's image lies,

Where shall I hve, now Lucrece is unUved P

Thou wast not to this end from me derived.
If children pre-decease progenitors.
We are their o£&pring, and they none of ours.

** Poor broken glass, I often did behold
In thy sweet semblance my old a^ new-bom ;
But now that fair fresh mirror, dim and cold,
Shows me a bare-boned death oy time out-worn ;
O, from thy cheeks my image thou hast torn !

And shivered all the beaul^ of my dass.

That I no more can see what once I was.

" O time, cease thou thy course, and last no longer,
If they surcease to be, that should survive.
Shall rotten death make conquest of the stronger.
And leave the faltering feeble souls aUve ?
The old bees die, the young possess their hive :

Then live, sweet Lucrece. live again, and see

Thy father die, and not tny father tnee !"

By this* starts Collatine as firom a dream.
And bids Lucretius give his sorrow place ;
And then in key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream
He falls, and bathes the pale fear in his foce.
And counterfeits to die with her a space :

Till manly shame bids him possess his breath.

And live, to be revenged on ner death.

The deep vexation of his inward soul
Hath served a dumb arrest upon his tongue :
Who mad that sorrow shoula his use control.
Or keep him from heart-easing words so long,
Befidns to talk ; but through his lips do throng
Weak words, so thick come, in his poor heart's aid.
That no man could distinguish what he said.

Yet sometime Tarquin was pronounced plain.
But through his teeth^ as if the name he tore.
This windy tempest, till it blew up rain.
Held back his sorrow's tide^ to make it more ;
At last it rains, and busy winds sive o'er :
Then son and father weep with equal strife.
Who should weep most for daughter or for wife.

The one doth call her his, the other his,
Yet neither may possess the claim the^ lay.
The fiither says, ''^She's mme :" ** O mine she is,"
KepHes her hushaud : ''Do not take away
My^sorrow's interest : let no mourner say

He weeps for her, for she was only mine.

And only must be wail'd by CoUatine.**
* At this point.



dbyGoOgk



448 THB SAPI OF LUCfiBCS.

" O" quoih Lucretius, " I did give that life,
Which she too early and too late hath spill'd.''
**Woe. woe,** ({uoth OoUatine, " she was my wife,
I owed* her, and *tis mine that she hath kul'd.**
Mvdaughter and mp wife with ckunours fill'd
The disnersed air, whof holding Lucreoe* life,
Answerd their cries, my damghdter and my noife,

Brutus, who pluck*d the knife from Lucreoe* aide,
Seeing such emulation in their woe,
Began to clothe his wit in state and pride,
Burying in Lucreoe* wound his folly's show.
He with the Romans was esteemed so
As silly-jeering idiots are with kings,
For sportiye words, and uttering foolish things :

But now he throws that diallow habit by.

Wherein deep nolicy did him disjguise ;

And ann*d his long-hid wits advisedly,

To check the tears in Collatinus* eyes.

** Thou wronged lord of Bome,** quoth he, " arise ;