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THE ARGUMENT',

Lucius Tarquinius (for his exceffive pride furhamed Superbus) after he had caused his own fatherin-law, Servius Tullius, to be cruelly murdered, and, contrary to the Roman laws and cuftoms, not requiring or staying for the people's fuffrages, had poffeffed himself of the kingdom; went, accompa nied with his fons and other noblemen of Rome, to befiege Ardea. During which fiege, the principal men of the army meeting one evening at the tent of. Sextus Tarquinius, the king's fon, in their discourses after fupper 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 pofted to Rome; and intending, by their fecret and fudden arrival, to make trial of that which every one had before avouched, only Collatinus finds his wife (though it were late in the night) fpinning amongst her maids the other ladies were all found dancing and revelling, or in feveral difports. Whereupon the noblemen yielded Collatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At that time Sextus Tarquinius be ing inflamed with Lucrece' beauty, yet fmothering his paffions for the prefent, departed with the rest back to the camp; from whence he shortly after pri

This argument appears to have been written by Shakspeare, being prefixed to the original edition in 1594; and is a curiofity, this, and the two dedications to the earl of Southampton, being the only profe compofitions of our great poet (not in a dramatick form) now remaining.

To the edition of 1616, and that printed by Lintot in 1710, a fhorter argument is likewife prefixed, under the name of Contents; which not being the production of our author, nor throwing any light on the poem, is now omitted. MALONE.

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vily withdrew himself, and was (according to his eftate) royally entertained and lodged by Lucrece at Collatium. The fame night, he treacherously stealeth into her chamber, violently ravished her, and early in the morning fpeedeth away. Lucrece, in this lamentable plight, haftily difpatcheth meffengers, 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 forrow. She, first taking an oath of them for her revenge, revealed the actor, and whole manner of his dealing, and withal fuddenly ftabbed herself. Which done, with one confent 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 fo moved, that with one confent and a general acclamation the Tarquins were all exiled, and the ftate government changed from kings to confuls.

THE

THE RAPE

O F

LUCRE CE2.

From the befieged Ardea all in poft,
Borne by the truftlefs wings of false defire,
Luft-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman hoft,

And

This poem was firft printed in quarto, in the year 1594. It was again publifhed in 1598, 1600, and 1607. All these copies have been collated for the prefent edition, and they all correfpond, excepting fuch flight variations as repeated impreffions neceffa rily produce. I have heard of editions of this piece likewife in 1596 and 1602, but I have not feen either of them. In 1616 another edition appeared, which in the title-page is faid to be newly revifed and corrected. When this copy first came to my hands, it occurred to me, that our author had perhaps an inten tion of revifing and publishing all his works, (which his fellowcomedians in their preface to his plays feem to hint he would have done, if he had lived,) and that he began with this early produc tion of his mufe, but was prevented by death from completing his scheme; for he died in the fame year in which this corrected copy of Lucrece (as it is called) was printed. But on an attentive examination of this edition, I have not the least doubt that the piece was revised by fome other hand. It is fo far from being correct, that it is certainly the most inaccurate and corrupt of all the ancient copies. In fome paffages emendations are attempted merely for the fake of harmony; in others, a word of an ancient caft is changed for one fomewhat more modern; but most of the alterations feem to have been made, because the reviser did not understand the poet's meaning, and imagined he faw errors of the prefs, where in fact there were none. Of this the reader will find instances in H h 4 the

And to Collatium bears the lightless fire
Which, in pale embers hid, lurks to afpire,
And girdle with embracing flames the waist
Of Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chafte.

Haply that name of chafte unhapp'ly fet
This bateless edge on his keen appetite;
When Collatine unwifely did not let 3
To praise the clear unmatched red and white
Which triumph'd in that sky of his delight,
Where mortal stars 4, as bright as heaven's beauties,
With pure aspects did him peculiar duties.

For he the night before, in Tarquin's tent,
Unlock'd the treafure of his happy ftate;
What priceless wealth the heavens had him lent

the course of the following notes; for the variations of the editions are constantly fet down. I may likewife add, that this copy (which all the modern editions have followed) appears manifeftly to have been printed from the edition in 1607, the most incorrect of all those that preceded, as being the most distant from the original, which there is reafon to fuppofe was published under the author's immediate infpection. Had he undertaken the task of revifing and correcting any part of his works, he would furely have made his own edition, and not a very incorrect re-impreffion of it, the bafis of his improvements.

The story on which this poem is founded, is related by Dion. Halicarnaffenfis, lib. iv. c. 72; by Livy, lib. i. c. 57, 58; and by Ovid, Faft. lib. ii. Diodorus Siculus and Dion Caffius have alfo related it. The hiftorians differ in fome minute parti culars. MALONE.

3

-did not let] Did not forbear. MALONE.

4 Where mortal stars, -] i. e. eyes. Our author has the fame allufion in The Midfummer Night's Dream:

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who more engilds the night,

"Than all yon firy o's and cyes of light.

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"At my poor house look to behold this night
"Earth-treading fars, that make dark heaven light."

MALONE.

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In the poffeffion of his beauteous mate;
Reckoning his fortune at fuch high-proud rate,
That kings might be espoused to more fame,
But king nor peer to fuch a peerless dame ".

O happiness enjoy'd but of a few!
And, if poffefs'd, as foon decayed and done"
As is the morning's filver-melting dew 7
Against the golden fplendour of the fun!
An expir'd date, cancel'd ere well begun9:
Honour and beauty, in the owner's arms,
Are weakly fortrefs'd from a world of harms.

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Reckoning his fortune at fuch high-proud rate,

That kings might be efpoufed to more fame,

But king nor peer to fuch a peerless dame.] Thus the quarto, 1594, and three fubfequent editions. The duodecimo, 1616, reads:

at fo high a rate, and in the next line but one,

But king nor prince to fuch a peerless dame.

The alteration in the first line was probably made in confequence of the editor's not being fufficiently converfant with Shakspeare's compounded words; (thus, in All's Well that ends Well, we find high-repented blames; and in Twelfth Night, high-fantastical ;) in the laft, to avoid that jingle which the author feems to have confidered as a beauty or received as a fashion. MALONE.

6 —as foon decay'd and done,] Done is frequently used by our ancient writers in the fenfe of confumed. So, in Venus and Adonis:

wafted, thaw'd, and done,

"As mountain fnow melts with the mid-day fun." MALONE.

As is the morning's filver-melting dew,] The duodecimo, 1616, and the modern editions, read corruptedly:

As if the morning's filver-melting dew. MALONE.

'An expir'd date,] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

66

-and expire the term

"Of a despised life." STEEVENS.

9 An expir'd date, cancel'd ere well begun :] Thus the quarto, 1594, the editions of 1598, 16co, and 1607. That of 1616 reads, apparently for the fake of fmoother verfification :

A date expir'd, and cancel'd ere begun. MALONE.

Beauty

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