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The Rape of Lucrece

William Shakespeare

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The Rape of Lucrece | William Shakespeare

The Rape of Lucrece

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The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. Lucrece draws on the story described in both Ovid's Fasti and Livy's history of Rome. In 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius, son of Tarquin, the king of Rome, raped Lucretia (Lucrece), wife of Collatinus, one of the king's aristocratic retainers. As a result, Lucrece committed suicide. Her body was paraded in the Roman Forum by the king's nephew. This incited a full-scale revolt against the Tarquins led by Lucius Junius Brutus, the banishment of the royal family, and the founding of the Roman republic. (Summary by Wikipedia)
ect should have;
  Then my digression is so vile, so base,
  That it will live engraven in my face.

'Yea, though I die, the scandal will survive,

And be an eye-sore in my golden coat;
Some loathsome dash the herald will contrive,
To cipher me how fondly I did dote;
That my posterity, shamed with the note,
  Shall curse my bones, and hold it for no sin
  To wish that I their father had not been.

'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?
  Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
  Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?

'If Collatinus dream of my intent,
Will he not wake, and in a desperate rage
Post hither, this vile purpose to prevent?
This siege that hath engirt his marriage,
This blur to youth, this sorrow to the sage,
  This dying virtue, this surviving shame,
  Whose crime will bear an ever-during blame?

'O, what excuse can my invention make,
When thou shalt charge me with so black a deed?
Will not my tongue be mute, my frail joints shake,
Mine eyes forego their light, my false heart bleed?
The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed;
  And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly,
  But coward-like with trembling terror die.

'Had Collatinus kill'd my son or sire,
Or lain in ambush to betray my life,
Or were he not my dear friend, this desire
Might have excuse to work upon his wife,
As in revenge or quittal of such strife:
  But as he is my kinsman, my dear friend,
  T

Tori 07/12/2023
I count it a real reading victory to have finished and appreciated this poem considering it was what derailed me several years ago in my first attempt to read the whole Shakespeare canon. The military images, in particular everything related to the Trojan War, especially captured my imagination.

(Lit
Kay 06/29/2023
Didn't think I'd like at all a story with this subject matter, but I was just wowed by it . Shakespeare's words, rhythm, and rhymes, plus listening to Richard Burton read it so perfectly, made this a truly metaphorical rendering of the story. The images and ideas kept me in the story and yet detache
Amber 03/20/2022
Read for English lit - read an extremely in-depth analysis of quotes and the plot as a translation. It is powerful and moving to see the effects of rape on a young woman in the Elizabethan era and male dominance. Another example of Shakespeare not being completely novel in his ideas but still a very
Jazzy 07/21/2020
A brutal and touching poem based on an historical event.
Ben 07/18/2015
It's Shakespeare. I don't need to rave on about why this is excellent, but I'll settle for a little summary. In this poem, what is most important (and given the most of Shakespeare's words) is the reaction to the rape. The sorrow that is felt, the guilt, the anger, the despair. The lines themselves
Randyy 11/13/2012
Phenomenal insight into the psyche of victim and attacker. Beautifully written. Wonderful uses of figurative language that provokes thought. Still relevent and can be applied to present day

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