As with "Venus and Adonis", "The Rape of Lucrece" was written during the London plague in 1594. It was published a year after Venus and Adonis and is in line with WS's tragedies. This poem closely resembles the themes of rape and revenge in his first tragedy Titus Andronicus.
The poem draws on the Roman story retold by Ovid and Livy (Roman poet and historian) of the Roman King's son, Tarquin, in 509 BCE who raped Lucretia, his friend Collatinus' chaste wife. Lucretia committed suicide after telling her husband of Tarquin's crime. A revolt against the royal family ensued in which they were banished and the Roman Republic was created.
The poem delves into disturbing themes and as readers we are placed in the heart of Tarquin's moral struggle between will and desire and subsequently in the abject terror of Lucrece's rape, followed by her heartbreaking anger, guilt and shame and her ultimate decision to take her life (in Roman times such suicide was honorable, but in Shakespeare's Elizabethan times it was a sin).
While Tarquin initially struggles with his desire and attraction to his friend's wife, he justifies his actions by blaming his friend, Collatine for praising her chastity and for Lucrece's own beauty in contrast to her virtue:
"Or why is Collatine the publisher
Of that rich jewel he should keep unknown
From thievish ears because it is his own?"
"When Virtue bragged, Beauty would blush for shame,
When Beauty boasted blushes, in despite
Virtue would stain that o'er with silver white.
***
Argued by Beauty's red and Virtue's white
...This silent war of lilies and of roses."
Of course Lucrece was naive and Tarquin was a prince and a friend so she welcomed him into her home:
"And reverend welcome to her princely guest,
Whose inward ill no outward harm expressed."
Tarquin knows that:
"my disgression is so vile, so base..."
and there is no good outcome:
"my disgression is so vile, so base..."
and there is no good outcome:
"What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?"
Yet, he justifies his desire:
"My will is strong, past reason's weak removing;...
Respect and reason, wait on wrinkled age!
...My part is youth...
Desire my pilot is, beauty my prize:
Then who fears sinking where such treasure lies?
As Tarquin goes at midnight to Lucrece's bedchamber, outside forces try to intervene and yet he dismisses them:
"Night-wand'ring weasles shriek to see him there,
They fright him, yet he still pursues his fear.
As each unwilling portal yields him way,
Through little vents and crannies of the place,
The wind wars with his torch to make him stay.
And blows the smoke of it into his face,
Extinguishing his conduct in this case.
But his hot heart, which fond desire doth scorch,
Puffs forth another wind that fires the torch."
He tries to pray, but only justifies his future act:
"Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide.
My will is backed with resolution:
Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried,
The blackest sin is cleared with absolution,
Against love's fire fear's frost hath dissolution.
The eye of heaven is out, and misty night
Covers the shame that follows sweet delight."
We feel Lucrece's terror:
"Imagine her as one in dead of night
From forth dull sleep by dreadful fancy waking,
That thinks she hath beheld some ghastly sprite,
Whose grim aspect sets every joint a-shaking -
What terror 'tis! But she, in worser taking,
From sleep disturbed, heedfully doth view
The sight which makes supposed terror true."
Lucrece pleads with Tarquin to recognize his own vile act:
"Think but how vile a spectacle it were
To view thy present trespass in another
Men's faults do seldom to themselves appear:
Their own transgressions partially they smother
This guilt would seem death-worthy in thy brother..."
Afterward, Lucrece rails at Time, Opportunity and Night for allowing not only this to happen but all misfortunes:
"How come it then, vile Opportunity,...
The patient dies while the physician sleeps,
The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds.
Justice is feasting while the widow weeps,...
***
Misshapen Time, copesmate of ugly Night
Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care...
Thou nursest all and murd'rest all that are.
***
Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light,
To stamp the seal of time in aged things,
To wake the morn and sentinel the night,
To wrong the wronger till he render right....
***
O, this dread Night, wouldst thou one hour come back,
I could prevent this storm and shun thy wrack."
Lucrece knows that due to Tarquin being a Royal, this crime will not be overlooked:
"For greatest scandal waits on greatest state...
Poor grooms are sightless night, kings glorious day,
Gnats are unnoted wheresoe'er they fly,
But eagles gazed upon with every eye."
Lucrece sends for her husband, telling him in a letter only that she is grieving, but not telling him about the rape until she can tell him in person:
"With words, till action might become them better.
To see sad sights moves more than hear them told,
For then the eye interprets to the ear..."
As she awaits her husband and the promise of revenge, she grieves as time seems to stand still:
"Thus ebbs and flows the current of her sorrow,
And time doth weary time from her complaining,
She looks for night and then she longs for morrow,
And both she thinks too long with her remaining.
Short time seems long in sorrow's sharp sustaining
Though we be heavy yet it seldom sleeps,
And that they watch see time how slow it creeps."
A final note: Yet another line penned by the Bard, unbeknowst to me, as it became famous later from Dumas:
"That one for all or all for one we gage"
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