Acknowledgement: This work has been summarized using The Complete Works
of Shakespeare Updated Fourth Ed., Longman Addison-Wesley, ed. David
Bevington, 1997. Quotations are for the most part taken from that work,
as are paraphrases of his commentary.
Overall Impression: This is well written and moving poetry.
Per Bevington: This poem followed Venus and Adonis and is closely
related. Both are dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley. It
is reliant on Petrarchan ornament and rhetorical showmanship and steeped in
Ovidian pathos. Whereas V & A is light-hearted and dealing with
sensual pleasure, R of L is about heroic chastity. It uses a seven-line
"rhyme royal" stanza as was used with Chaucer in "Troilus and
Criseyde" and others. Ovid is the chief source ("Fasti"),
and it also draws on Livy's "History of Rome", Chaucer "The
Legend of Good Women", Painter "The Palace of Pleasure",
"A Mirror for Magistrates", and Daniel's "The
Complaint of Rosamond". Plot and character are secondary to attitudes
especially of the two protagonists. It makes much use of rhetorical
disputations presented as debates or formal declamations around antitheses such
as honor vs. lust, rude will vs. conscience, etc. It contrasts pairs: owl and
dove, daylight and darkness, clear and cloudy weather, red and white. It
contains several apostrophes: to marital fidelity, kingship, Night,
Opportunity, Time. It uses elaborate comparisons ("conceits"), such
as the various meanings of "will". It also uses extended military
metaphors. WS explores the ability of art to deceive (via the depiction of
Sinon in the tapestry about Troy).
The composition begins with a
dedication to the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, and is followed by
" The Argument", a historical prose summary provided here verbatim:
"Lucius Tarquinius [a legendary
Etruscan king], for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus [The Proud], after he
had caused his own father-in-law Servius Tullius to be cruelly murdered, and,
contrary to the Roman laws and customs, not requiring or staying for the
people's suffrages, had possessed himself of the kingdom, went, accompanied
with his sons and other noblemen of Rome, to besiege Ardea. During which siege
the principal men of the army meeting one evening at the tent of Sextus Tarquinius,
the king's son, in their discourses after supper every one commended the
virtues of his own wife: among whom Collatinus extolled the incomparable
chastity of his wife Lucretia [Lucrece]. In that pleasant humour they posted to
Rome; and intending, by their secret and sudden arrival, to make trial of that
which every one had before avouched, only Collatinus finds his wife, though it
were late in the night, spinning amongst her maids: the other ladies were all
found dancing and revelling, or in several disports. Whereupon the noblemen
yielded Collatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At that time Sextus
Tarquinius being inflamed with Lucrece' beauty, yet smothering his passions for
the present, departed with the rest back to the camp; from whence he shortly
after privily withdrew himself, and was, according to his estate, royally
entertained and lodged by Lucrece at Collatium. The same night he treacherously
stealeth into her chamber, violently ravished her, and early in the morning
speedeth away. Lucrece, in this lamentable plight, hastily dispatcheth
messengers, one to Rome for her father, another to the camp for Collatine. They
came, the one accompanied with Junius Brutus, the other with Publius Valerius;
and finding Lucrece attired in mourning habit, demanded the cause of her
sorrow. She, first taking an oath of them for her revenge, revealed the actor,
and whole manner of his dealing, and withal suddenly stabbed herself. Which
done, with one consent they all vowed to root out the whole hated family of the
Tarquins; and bearing the dead body to Rome, Brutus acquainted the people with
the doer and manner of the vile deed, with a bitter invective 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 [509 BC], and the state
government changed from kings to consuls [Roman Republic]."
1) The lust-driven Sextus Tarquinius
(called "Tarquin" in the poem) sneaks away from the siege at Ardea
(and Lucrece's husband) to Collatium where the chaste Lucrece and her husband
Collatine live. Collatine should have kept his treasure to himself and not
bragged about her so much. Tarquin was welcomed hospitably at her home, since
he is the son of the king and seemed to bear news about her husband. 57) Sextus
contrasts her white purity and red beautiful blushing. Collatine has actually
underpraised her virtues and beauty. She suspects nothing in him, and he gives
no sign of his intentions that her inexperienced eyes can detect. He praises
Collatine and makes excuses for being there at her home. 114) He goes to bed,
pretending weariness. He lies awake debating the risks of obtaining his will
with her. He worries that he will pawn his honor to satisfy his lust. 162) It
is dead of night, and he is tormented between desire and dread of its
consequences. He lights a torch using flint against his falchion (curved
sword), and continues the debate with himself between "frozen conscience
and hot-burning will". Should he instead quench his unhallowed thoughts
and just go to sleep? 200) How can a martial man be slave to soft fancy
(infatuation)? Collatinus has been his friend, so he can not even have the
excuse of enmity to go after his wife. 241) Perhaps he can beg for her
love--but no, she is not free to grant hers even if she were so inclined. 253)
She had been so concerned about her husband's welfare. 267) Why hunt for a
justification, "desire is my pilot and beauty my prize."
283) He steals toward her
room. He must force the many locks that stand in the way. The wind tries to
blow out his torch. 316) He sees her glove lying on the floor, still holding a
needle in it which pricks his finger. He arrives at her chamber door. His will
is backed by firm resolution. He thinks about praying for success, then
realizes that the eternal powers are opposed to his act, resolving finally that
only "Love and Fortune be my gods". The blackest sin is cleared with
absolution. 358) He enters and sees the "dove" that this owl will
catch. He gazes on her enclosed within her curtain. Drawing her curtain, he is
blinded by her beauty or his shame. He sees her lily-white hands, her closed
eyes, her golden hair playing wantonly with her breath, her breasts, her veins,
her alabaster skin, her coral lips. 421) He fawns over her as a lion over her
prey, and his lust is temporarily moderated. His beating heart gives the
charge. 435) He places his hand on her bare breast, the nipple like a turret
flanked by ranks of blue veins. She knows she is beset and opens her eyes in
fright. He feels her heart beating. He begins his parley with her. She wants to
know why he is there. It is her fault, her beauty has ensnared her. He tells
her how he has debated whether to do this, but nothing can control affection's
course. He shakes his falchion at her, telling her that either she give in or
he will kill her and one of her slaves and claim that he caught the two
together embracing. He recounts how history will be unkind to her reputation,
and for the sake of her husband and children, she should give in without
resistance. 558) He is immune to her appeals. She appeals to his honor, to the
rules of hospitality, to his friendship for her husband, to his sense of pity,
to the shame he will endure, to his need as a prince to set a good example, the
need to be in control of his passions, how it would look to him to see another
man behave this way, etc. 645) But he cannot ignore the huge fire within him.
Yield or suffer the consequences. 673) He puts the torch out and rapes her,
muffling her voice with her own nightwear, cooling his hot face in her
tears.
687) She has lost a dearer thing
than life, Chastity, and Lust is no richer for the theft--as like digestion
souring after an excess of eating. 718) He knows he is eternally disgraced. She
is thrall now to living death and perpetual pain. 736) Like a dog he creeps
away. He hopes for day, she prays to never again see the day, hoping to have
her unseen guilt remain hidden. She invokes Night: "Muster thy mists
against the day". She thinks ahead to when her story will be told by
nurses to children and by orators. She thinks of sparing her husband the shame
by suicide. 841) She did not resist the attack for the sake of her husband's
honor. 874) She apostrophizes Opportunity [chance or circumstance], the series
of events that improbably have led to this attack, and to other tragic
circumstances. 925) She addresses Time, whom she wants to murder her. 941) She
wants Time to allow her attacker time to tear his hair, rave, despair, see his
friends turn to foes. She wants to learn how to curse Sextus. The law cannot
help her case. 1029) Her only recourse is suicide, and she wants her hand, that
could not resist the prior attack on her, to perform this act. How can she kill
herself? 1058) She imagines a conversation with her husband. She will tell him
the full story first.
1079) Day is breaking: the
nightingale (Philomel) has stopped singing. The joyful singing birds seem to
mock her. She wishes Philomel would resume singing her descant on Tereus' rape.
Which is better, to live or die after life is shamed? 1156) She worries that
her suicide will add to the pollution of her soul, as the rape has polluted its
temple, her body. But she will in any event wait until her husband has come.
She has lost her dear jewel (her chastity).
1214) She calls her maid, who weeps
in sympathy though ignorant of the cause of Lucrece's despair--the weaker sex
is often willing to weep. Men are marble, women waxen; men can conceal their
crimes while "women's faces are their own fault's books". She asks
when Sextus left, and the maid says it was before she was up. She asks for
paper and pen and prepares a letter to her husband. She hoards further
expression of her feelings until he arrives. 1338) A messenger takes the
letter, and she suspects he can discern her shame.
1366) Awaiting her husband, she
contemplates a tapestry wall hanging depicting the fall of Troy, an event which
was also prompted by a rape. She views Ajax's rage and Ulysses' slyness, sober
Nestor, bold Hector, the despairing Hecuba, her life imprisoned in a dead body,
Priam and his murderer Pyrrhus. 1483) Why should so many fall for one man's
offense, one man's lust? At last she discerns Sinon, the Greek who deceived the
Trojans and thereby won admission for the horse to the city. The painter has
skillfully hidden his deceit and his evil, just as Sextus hid his to her. How
could the Trojans have been so unwise as to believe him? She tears the image of
Sinon with her nails.
1583) The messenger returns with her
husband, her father and Lucius Junius Brutus. Why is she attired in mourning,
he wonders. 1618) She tells her sad tale briefly, how she was threatened if she
did not comply. Her mind was immaculate though her body violated. Collatine
strives in vain to speak, simply sighing and breathing in and out speechlessly.
She notes his sorrow and says it adds further sorrow to her own [and seem to
depict his concern for his own violated honor]. She demands revenge on her foe:
let him die. The assembled men pledge to do this. 1700) She asks how the stain
can be wiped from her, how can she be acquitted? They answer that her mind is
untainted. 1717) She names Sextus Tarquinius as the rapist, then stabs herself
to death. The men are astonished. Brutus draws the knife out and her father
throws himself on her body. Her body is surrounded by a pool of blood, and the
tainted blood is black. Her father mourns her death; she was his image, the
means by which he would have lived on past his death. Collatine asks the father
to grant the right to his own sorrow over her death. He falls to her blood,
then rises to swear vengeance. He and her father weep equally, and compete for
the right to be the greater mourner. Brutus plucks the knife, throws off the
mantle of feigned madness he had been forced to affect (after his brother had
been put to death by Sextus' father), and rallies them to action. Lucrece
should have slain Sextus. He asks them to kneel and pledge themselves to rouse
the Roman gods, revenge her death, and chase the Tarquins from rule. They
subsequently bear her body to Rome to prove the foul offense and cause the
Tarquin's banishment.
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