THE RAPE OF LUCRECE
by William Shakespeare
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON,
and Baron of Titchfield.
The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end; whereof this pamphlet,without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety. The warrant I have of yourhonourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored lines, makes it assuredof acceptance. What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; beingpart in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would showgreater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your Lordship, to whom I wish longlife, still lengthened with all happiness.
Your Lordship’s in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
THE ARGUMENT.
Lucius Tarquinius (for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus), after he hadcaused his own father-in-law, Servius Tullius, to be cruelly murdered, and,contrary to the Roman laws and customs, not requiring or staying for thepeople’s suffrages, had possessed himself of the kingdom, went, accompaniedwith his sons and other noblemen of Rome, to besiege Ardea. During which siegethe principal men of the army meeting one evening at the tent of SextusTarquinius, the king’s son, in their discourses after supper, everyonecommended the virtues of his own wife; among whom Collatinus extolled theincomparable chastity of his wife Lucretia. In that pleasant humour they allposted to Rome; and intending, by their secret and sudden arrival, to maketrial of that which everyone had before avouched, only Collatinus finds hiswife, though it were late in the night, spinning amongst her maids: the otherladies were all found dancing and revelling, or in several disports. Whereuponthe noblemen yielded Collatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At thattime Sextus Tarquinius being inflamed with Lucrece’s beauty, yet smothering hispassions for the present, departed with the rest back to the camp; from whencehe shortly after privily withdrew himself, and was (according to his estate)royally entertained and lodged by Lucrece at Collatium. The same night hetreacherously stealeth into her chamber, violently ravished her, and early inthe morning speedeth away. Lucrece, in this lamentable plight, hastilydispatched messengers, one to Rome for her father, another to the camp forCollatine. They came, the one accompanied with Junius Brutus, the other withPublius Valerius; and finding Lucrece attired in mourning habit, demanded thecause of her sorrow. She, first taking an oath of them for her revenge,revealed the actor, and whole manner of his dealing, and withal suddenlystabbed herself. Which done, with one consent they all vowed to root out thewhole hated family of the Tarquins; and bearing the dead body to Rome, Brutusacquainted the people with the doer and manner of the vile deed, with a bitterinvective against the tyranny of the king; wherewith the people were so moved,that with one consent and a general acclamation the Tarquins were all exiled,and the state government changed from kings to consuls.
From the besieged Ardea all in post,
Borne by the trustless wings of false desire,
Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host,
And to Collatium bears the lightless fire,
Which in pale embers hid, lurks to aspire
And girdle with embracing flames the waist
Of Collatine’s fair love, Lucrece the chaste