"Had I been tooth'd like him, I must confefs,
"With kiffing him, I should have kill'd him firft.
"But he is dead, and never did he bless

"My mouth with his; the more am I accurs'd.”
With this the falleth in the place the stood,
And stains her face with his congealed blood.

She looks upon his lips, and they are pale;
She takes him by the hand, and that is cold;
She whispers in his ear a heavy tale,
As if he heard the woeful words fhe told :
She lifts the coffer-lids that clofe his eyes,

1122

Where, lo! two lamps, burnt out, in darkness lies. 1128
Two glaffes where herself herself beheld

A thousand times, and now no more reflect;
Their virtue loft, wherein they late excell'd,
And every beauty robb'd of his effect.

1135

"Wonder of time!" quoth fhe, "this is my fpight, "That, you being dead, the day should yet be light. "Since thou art dead, lo! here I prophesy, "Sorrow, on love, hereafter shall attend; "It fhall be waited on with jealousy, "Find fweet beginning, but unfavoury end, "Ne'er fettled equally, too high, or low:

1141

"That all love's pleafures fhall not match his woe. "It fhall be fickle, falfe, and full of fraud, "And shall be blasted in a breathing while, "The bottom poifon, and the top o'erstraw'd "With fweats, that fhall the fharpeft fight beguile. "The ftrongest body fhall it make most weak, "Strike the wife dumb, and teach the fool to speak.

"It fhall be fparing, and the fool of riot,

Teaching decrepid age to tread the measures; "The ftaring ruffian fhall it keep in quiet,

1147

"Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures; "It shall be raging mad, and filly mild,

"Make the young old, the old become a child. 1152

3

"It shall suspect, where is no cause of fear;
"It fhall not fear, where it should most mistrust;
"It shall be merciful, and too fevere,

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1158

"And moft deceiving when it seems most just :
"Perverse it fhall be, when it feems moft toward,
"Put fear to valour, courage to the coward.
"It shall be the caufe of war and dire events,
"And fet diffenfion 'twixt the fon and fire;
"Subject and fervile to all difcontents,
"As dry combuftious matter is to fire.
"Sith in his prime, death doth my love deftroy,
"They that love beft, their love fhall not enjoy. 1164
By this, the boy that by her fide lay kill'd,
Was melted like a vapour from her fight,
And in his blood, that on the ground lay fpill'd,
A purple flow'r fprung up, chequer'd with white,
Refembling well his pale cheeks and the blood, 1169
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
She bows her head, the new-fprung flower to fmell,
Comparing it to her Adonis' breath:

And fays, within her bosom it shall dwell,
Since he himself is reft from her by death:
She

crops the stalk, and in the breach appears Green dropping fap, which the compares to tears. 1176

"Poor flow'r!" quoth fhe, " this was thy father's guife,
"(Sweet iffue of a more fweet-fmelling fire)
"For every little grief to wet his eyes,
"To grow unto himself was his defire,
"And fo 'tis thine; but know it is as good
"To wither in my breast, as in his blood.

"Here was thy father's bed, here is my breaft,
"Thou art the next of Mood, and 'tis thy right;
"Lo, in this hollow cradle take thy reft,

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My throbbing heart fhall rock thee day and night: "There fhall not be one minute of an hour, "Wherein I will not kifs my fweet love's flow'r.

Thus weary of the world, away fhe hies,
And yokes her filver doves, by whose swift aid,
Their mistress mounted, through the empty skies,
In her light chariot quickly is convey'd:
Holding their courfe to Paphos, where their queen
Means to immure herself, and not be seen.

1194

THE RAPE OF LUCRECE.

TO THE RIGHT HON.

HENRY WRIOTHESLY,

Earl of Southampton, and Baron Tichfield.

RIGHT HONOURABLE,

THE

HE love I dedicate to your Lordship, is without. end: whereof this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a fuperfluous moiety. The warrant I have of your honourable difpofition, not the worth of my untutored lines, makes it affured 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 fhould fhew greater: mean time, as it is, it is bound to your Lordship: to whom I wish long life, ftill lengthened with all happiness.

Your Lordship's in all duty,

W. SHAKSPEARE.

THE RAPE OF LUCRECE.

The Argument.

LUCIUS TARQUINIUS (for his exceffive pride furnamed Superbus) after he had caufed his own father-in-law, Servius Tullius to be cruelly murdered, and contrary to the Roman laws and customs, not requiring or taying for the people's fuffrages, had poffeffed himself of the kingdom, went, ac companied with his fons, and other noblemen of Rome, to befiege Ardea. During which fiege, the principai men of the army, meeting one evening at the tent of Sextus Tarquinius, the king's fon, in their difcourfes after fup. per, every one commended the virtues of his own wife; among whom Collatinus extolled the incomparable chastity of his wife Lucrece. In that pleafant 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 among ft her maids, the other ladies were found all dancing and revelling, or in feveral difports. Whereupon the noblemen yielded Collatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At that time, Sextus Tarquinius being inflamed with Lucrece's beauty, yet fmothering his paffions for the prefent, departed with the rest back to the camp; from whence he thortly after privily withdrew himself, and was (according to his tate) royally entertained and lodged by Lucrece at Collatium. The fame night, he treacherously frealeth into her chamber, violently ravished ner, 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 caufe of her forrow. She firft 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 State-government changed from Kings to Confuls.

ROM the befieg'd Arden all in poft,

FR

Born by the trustlefs wings of false defire,
Luft-breathing 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 wafte
Of Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chafte.

Haply that name of chafte unhaply fet,
This batele's edge on his keen appetite:
When Collatine unwifely did not let

To praife the clear unmatched red and white;
Which triumph'd in that sky of his delight;
Where mortal star, as bright as heaven's beauties
With pure alpects did him peculiar duties.

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

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