THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

William Shakespeare

Jan 1707 · YouHui Culture Publishing Company

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1594

THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

by William Shakespeare

DEDICATION

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 your honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored

lines, make it assured of acceptance. What I have done is yours;

what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours.

Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater; meantime, as it is,

it is bound to your lordship, to whom I wish long life 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 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. In that pleasant humour

they all 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, and the state government changed from kings to

consuls.