Speeches (Lines) for Shakespeare
in "Rape of Lucrece"
Total: 269

1

I,0,1

TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY,...

2

I,0,4

The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end; whereof
this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety....

3

I,0,12

Your lordship's in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

4

I,1,14

Lucius Tarquinius, for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus,
after he had caused his own father-in-law Servius Tullius to be...

5

I,2,52

From the besieged Ardea all in post,
Borne by the trustless wings of false desire,...

6

I,2,59

Haply that name of 'chaste' unhappily set
This bateless edge on his keen appetite;...

7

I,2,66

For he the night before, in Tarquin's tent,
Unlock'd the treasure of his happy state;...

8

I,2,73

O happiness enjoy'd but of a few!
And, if possess'd, as soon decay'd and done...

9

I,2,80

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
The eyes of men without an orator;...

10

I,2,87

Perchance his boast of Lucrece' sovereignty
Suggested this proud issue of a king;...

11

I,2,94

But some untimely thought did instigate
His all-too-timeless speed, if none of those:...

12

I,2,101

When at Collatium this false lord arrived,
Well was he welcomed by the Roman dame,...

13

I,2,108

But beauty, in that white intituled,
From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field:...

14

I,2,115

This heraldry in Lucrece' face was seen,
Argued by beauty's red and virtue's white...

15

I,2,122

Their silent war of lilies and of roses,
Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field,...

16

I,2,129

Now thinks he that her husband's shallow tongue,—
The niggard prodigal that praised her so,—...

17

I,2,136

This earthly saint, adored by this devil,
Little suspecteth the false worshipper;...

18

I,2,143

For that he colour'd with his high estate,
Hiding base sin in plaits of majesty;...

19

I,2,150

But she, that never coped with stranger eyes,
Could pick no meaning from their parling looks,...

20

I,2,157

He stories to her ears her husband's fame,
Won in the fields of fruitful Italy;...

21

I,2,164

Far from the purpose of his coming hither,
He makes excuses for his being there:...

22

I,2,171

For then is Tarquin brought unto his bed,
Intending weariness with heavy spright;...

23

I,2,178

As one of which doth Tarquin lie revolving
The sundry dangers of his will's obtaining;...

24

I,2,185

Those that much covet are with gain so fond,
For what they have not, that which they possess...

25

I,2,192

The aim of all is but to nurse the life
With honour, wealth, and ease, in waning age;...

26

I,2,199

So that in venturing ill we leave to be
The things we are for that which we expect;...

27

I,2,206

Such hazard now must doting Tarquin make,
Pawning his honour to obtain his lust;...

28

I,2,213

Now stole upon the time the dead of night,
When heavy sleep had closed up mortal eyes:...

29

I,2,220

And now this lustful lord leap'd from his bed,
Throwing his mantle rudely o'er his arm;...

30

I,2,227

His falchion on a flint he softly smiteth,
That from the cold stone sparks of fire do fly;...

31

I,2,234

Here pale with fear he doth premeditate
The dangers of his loathsome enterprise,...

32

I,2,241

'Fair torch, burn out thy light, and lend it not
To darken her whose light excelleth thine:...

33

I,2,248

'O shame to knighthood and to shining arms!
O foul dishonour to my household's grave!...

34

I,2,255

'Yea, though I die, the scandal will survive,
And be an eye-sore in my golden coat;...

35

I,2,262

'What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy....

36

I,2,269

'If Collatinus dream of my intent,
Will he not wake, and in a desperate rage...

37

I,2,276

'O, what excuse can my invention make,
When thou shalt charge me with so black a deed?...

38

I,2,283

'Had Collatinus kill'd my son or sire,
Or lain in ambush to betray my life,...

39

I,2,290

'Shameful it is; ay, if the fact be known:
Hateful it is; there is no hate in loving:...

40

I,2,297

Thus, graceless, holds he disputation
'Tween frozen conscience and hot-burning will,...

41

I,2,304

Quoth he, 'She took me kindly by the hand,
And gazed for tidings in my eager eyes,...

42

I,2,311

'And how her hand, in my hand being lock'd
Forced it to tremble with her loyal fear!...

43

I,2,318

'Why hunt I then for colour or excuses?
All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth;...

44

I,2,325

'Then, childish fear, avaunt! debating, die!
Respect and reason, wait on wrinkled age!...

45

I,2,332

As corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear
Is almost choked by unresisted lust....

46

I,2,339

Within his thought her heavenly image sits,
And in the self-same seat sits Collatine:...

47

I,2,346

And therein heartens up his servile powers,
Who, flatter'd by their leader's jocund show,...

48

I,2,353

The locks between her chamber and his will,
Each one by him enforced, retires his ward;...

49

I,2,360

As each unwilling portal yields him way,
Through little vents and crannies of the place...

50

I,2,367

And being lighted, by the light he spies
Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks:...

51

I,2,374

But all these poor forbiddings could not stay him;
He in the worst sense construes their denial:...

52

I,2,381

'So, so,' quoth he, 'these lets attend the time,
Like little frosts that sometime threat the spring,...

53

I,2,388

Now is he come unto the chamber-door,
That shuts him from the heaven of his thought,...

54

I,2,395

But in the midst of his unfruitful prayer,
Having solicited th' eternal power...

55

I,2,402

'Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide!
My will is back'd with resolution:...

56

I,2,409

This said, his guilty hand pluck'd up the latch,
And with his knee the door he opens wide....

57

I,2,416

Into the chamber wickedly he stalks,
And gazeth on her yet unstained bed....

58

I,2,423

Look, as the fair and fiery-pointed sun,
Rushing from forth a cloud, bereaves our sight;...

59

I,2,430

O, had they in that darksome prison died!
Then had they seen the period of their ill;...

60

I,2,437

Her lily hand her rosy cheek lies under,
Cozening the pillow of a lawful kiss;...

61

I,2,444

Without the bed her other fair hand was,
On the green coverlet; whose perfect white...

62

I,2,451

Her hair, like golden threads, play'd with her breath;
O modest wantons! wanton modesty!...

63

I,2,458

Her breasts, like ivory globes circled with blue,
A pair of maiden worlds unconquered,...

64

I,2,465

What could he see but mightily he noted?
What did he note but strongly he desired?...

65

I,2,472

As the grim lion fawneth o'er his prey,
Sharp hunger by the conquest satisfied,...

66

I,2,479

And they, like straggling slaves for pillage fighting,
Obdurate vassals fell exploits effecting,...

67

I,2,486

His drumming heart cheers up his burning eye,
His eye commends the leading to his hand;...

68

I,2,493

They, mustering to the quiet cabinet
Where their dear governess and lady lies,...

69

I,2,500

Imagine her as one in dead of night
From forth dull sleep by dreadful fancy waking,...

70

I,2,507

Wrapp'd and confounded in a thousand fears,
Like to a new-kill'd bird she trembling lies;...

71

I,2,514

His hand, that yet remains upon her breast,—
Rude ram, to batter such an ivory wall!—...

72

I,2,521

First, like a trumpet, doth his tongue begin
To sound a parley to his heartless foe;...

73

I,2,528

Thus he replies: 'The colour in thy face,
That even for anger makes the lily pale,...

74

I,2,535

'Thus I forestall thee, if thou mean to chide:
Thy beauty hath ensnared thee to this night,...

75

I,2,542

'I see what crosses my attempt will bring;
I know what thorns the growing rose defends;...

76

I,2,549

'I have debated, even in my soul,
What wrong, what shame, what sorrow I shall breed;...

77

I,2,556

This said, he shakes aloft his Roman blade,
Which, like a falcon towering in the skies,...

78

I,2,563

'Lucrece,' quoth he,'this night I must enjoy thee:
If thou deny, then force must work my way,...

79

I,2,570

'So thy surviving husband shall remain
The scornful mark of every open eye;...

80

I,2,577

'But if thou yield, I rest thy secret friend:
The fault unknown is as a thought unacted;...

81

I,2,584

'Then, for thy husband and thy children's sake,
Tender my suit: bequeath not to their lot...

82

I,2,591

Here with a cockatrice' dead-killing eye
He rouseth up himself and makes a pause;...

83

I,2,598

But when a black-faced cloud the world doth threat,
In his dim mist the aspiring mountains hiding,...

84

I,2,605

Yet, foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally,
While in his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth:...

85

I,2,612

Her pity-pleading eyes are sadly fix'd
In the remorseless wrinkles of his face;...

86

I,2,619

She conjures him by high almighty Jove,
By knighthood, gentry, and sweet friendship's oath,...

87

I,2,626

Quoth she, 'Reward not hospitality
With such black payment as thou hast pretended;...

88

I,2,633

'My husband is thy friend; for his sake spare me:
Thyself art mighty; for thine own sake leave me:...

89

I,2,640

'All which together, like a troubled ocean,
Beat at thy rocky and wreck-threatening heart,...

90

I,2,647

'In Tarquin's likeness I did entertain thee:
Hast thou put on his shape to do him shame?...

91

I,2,654

'How will thy shame be seeded in thine age,
When thus thy vices bud before thy spring!...

92

I,2,661

'This deed will make thee only loved for fear;
But happy monarchs still are fear'd for love:...

93

I,2,668

'And wilt thou be the school where Lust shall learn?
Must he in thee read lectures of such shame?...

94

I,2,675

'Hast thou command? by him that gave it thee,
From a pure heart command thy rebel will:...

95

I,2,682

'Think but how vile a spectacle it were,
To view thy present trespass in another....

96

I,2,689

'To thee, to thee, my heaved-up hands appeal,
Not to seducing lust, thy rash relier:...

97

I,2,696

'Have done,' quoth he: 'my uncontrolled tide
Turns not, but swells the higher by this let....

98

I,2,703

'Thou art,' quoth she, 'a sea, a sovereign king;
And, lo, there falls into thy boundless flood...

99

I,2,710

'So shall these slaves be king, and thou their slave;
Thou nobly base, they basely dignified;...

100

I,2,717

'So let thy thoughts, low vassals to thy state'—
No more,' quoth he; 'by heaven, I will not hear thee:...

101

I,2,724

This said, he sets his foot upon the light,
For light and lust are deadly enemies:...

102

I,2,731

For with the nightly linen that she wears
He pens her piteous clamours in her head;...

103

I,2,738

But she hath lost a dearer thing than life,
And he hath won what he would lose again:...

104

I,2,745

Look, as the full-fed hound or gorged hawk,
Unapt for tender smell or speedy flight,...

105

I,2,752

O, deeper sin than bottomless conceit
Can comprehend in still imagination!...

106

I,2,759

And then with lank and lean discolour'd cheek,
With heavy eye, knit brow, and strengthless pace,...

107

I,2,766

So fares it with this faultful lord of Rome,
Who this accomplishment so hotly chased;...

108

I,2,773

She says, her subjects with foul insurrection
Have batter'd down her consecrated wall,...

109

I,2,780

Even in this thought through the dark night he stealeth,
A captive victor that hath lost in gain;...

110

I,2,787

He like a thievish dog creeps sadly thence;
She like a wearied lamb lies panting there;...

111

I,2,794

He thence departs a heavy convertite;
She there remains a hopeless castaway;...

112

I,2,801

'They think not but that every eye can see
The same disgrace which they themselves behold;...

113

I,2,808

Here she exclaims against repose and rest,
And bids her eyes hereafter still be blind....

114

I,2,815

'O comfort-killing Night, image of hell!
Dim register and notary of shame!...

115

I,2,822

'O hateful, vaporous, and foggy Night!
Since thou art guilty of my cureless crime,...

116

I,2,829

'With rotten damps ravish the morning air;
Let their exhaled unwholesome breaths make sick...

117

I,2,836

'Were Tarquin Night, as he is but Night's child,
The silver-shining queen he would distain;...

118

I,2,843

'Where now I have no one to blush with me,
To cross their arms and hang their heads with mine,...

119

I,2,850

'O Night, thou furnace of foul-reeking smoke,
Let not the jealous Day behold that face...

120

I,2,857

'Make me not object to the tell-tale Day!
The light will show, character'd in my brow,...

121

I,2,864

'The nurse, to still her child, will tell my story,
And fright her crying babe with Tarquin's name;...

122

I,2,871

'Let my good name, that senseless reputation,
For Collatine's dear love be kept unspotted:...

123

I,2,878

'O unseen shame! invisible disgrace!
O unfelt sore! crest-wounding, private scar!...

124

I,2,885

'If, Collatine, thine honour lay in me,
From me by strong assault it is bereft....

125

I,2,892

'Yet am I guilty of thy honour's wrack;
Yet for thy honour did I entertain him;...

126

I,2,899

'Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud?
Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows' nests?...

127

I,2,906

'The aged man that coffers-up his gold
Is plagued with cramps and gouts and painful fits;...

128

I,2,913

'So then he hath it when he cannot use it,
And leaves it to be master'd by his young;...

129

I,2,920

'Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;
Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;...

130

I,2,927

'O Opportunity, thy guilt is great!
'Tis thou that executest the traitor's treason:...

131

I,2,934

'Thou makest the vestal violate her oath;
Thou blow'st the fire when temperance is thaw'd;...

132

I,2,941

'Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,
Thy private feasting to a public fast,...

133

I,2,948

'When wilt thou be the humble suppliant's friend,
And bring him where his suit may be obtain'd?...

134

I,2,955

'The patient dies while the physician sleeps;
The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds;...

135

I,2,962

'When Truth and Virtue have to do with thee,
A thousand crosses keep them from thy aid:...

136

I,2,969

Guilty thou art of murder and of theft,
Guilty of perjury and subornation,...

137

I,2,976

'Mis-shapen Time, copesmate of ugly Night,
Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care,...

138

I,2,983

'Why hath thy servant, Opportunity,
Betray'd the hours thou gavest me to repose,...

139

I,2,990

'Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light,...

140

I,2,997

'To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,
To feed oblivion with decay of things,...

141

I,2,1004

'To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,
To make the child a man, the man a child,...

142

I,2,1011

'Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage,
Unless thou couldst return to make amends?...

143

I,2,1018

'Thou ceaseless lackey to eternity,
With some mischance cross Tarquin in his flight:...

144

I,2,1025

'Disturb his hours of rest with restless trances,
Afflict him in his bed with bedrid groans;...

145

I,2,1032

'Let him have time to tear his curled hair,
Let him have time against himself to rave,...

146

I,2,1039

'Let him have time to see his friends his foes,
And merry fools to mock at him resort;...

147

I,2,1046

'O Time, thou tutor both to good and bad,
Teach me to curse him that thou taught'st this ill!...

148

I,2,1053

'The baser is he, coming from a king,
To shame his hope with deeds degenerate:...

149

I,2,1060

'The crow may bathe his coal-black wings in mire,
And unperceived fly with the filth away;...

150

I,2,1067

'Out, idle words, servants to shallow fools!
Unprofitable sounds, weak arbitrators!...

151

I,2,1074

'In vain I rail at Opportunity,
At Time, at Tarquin, and uncheerful Night;...

152

I,2,1081

'Poor hand, why quiver'st thou at this decree?
Honour thyself to rid me of this shame:...

153

I,2,1088

This said, from her be-tumbled couch she starteth,
To find some desperate instrument of death:...

154

I,2,1095

'In vain,' quoth she, 'I live, and seek in vain
Some happy mean to end a hapless life....

155

I,2,1102

'O, that is gone for which I sought to live,
And therefore now I need not fear to die....

156

I,2,1109

'Well, well, dear Collatine, thou shalt not know
The stained taste of violated troth;...

157

I,2,1116

'Nor shall he smile at thee in secret thought,
Nor laugh with his companions at thy state:...

158

I,2,1123

'I will not poison thee with my attaint,
Nor fold my fault in cleanly-coin'd excuses;...

159

I,2,1130

By this, lamenting Philomel had ended
The well-tuned warble of her nightly sorrow,...

160

I,2,1137

Revealing day through every cranny spies,
And seems to point her out where she sits weeping;...

161

I,2,1144

Thus cavils she with every thing she sees:
True grief is fond and testy as a child,...

162

I,2,1151

So she, deep-drenched in a sea of care,
Holds disputation with each thing she views,...

163

I,2,1158

The little birds that tune their morning's joy
Make her moans mad with their sweet melody:...

164

I,2,1165

'Tis double death to drown in ken of shore;
He ten times pines that pines beholding food;...

165

I,2,1172

'You mocking-birds,' quoth she, 'your tunes entomb
Within your hollow-swelling feather'd breasts,...

166

I,2,1179

'Come, Philomel, that sing'st of ravishment,
Make thy sad grove in my dishevell'd hair:...

167

I,2,1186

'And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part,
To keep thy sharp woes waking, wretched I,...

168

I,2,1193

'And for, poor bird, thou sing'st not in the day,
As shaming any eye should thee behold,...

169

I,2,1200

As the poor frighted deer, that stands at gaze,
Wildly determining which way to fly,...

170

I,2,1207

'To kill myself,' quoth she, 'alack, what were it,
But with my body my poor soul's pollution?...

171

I,2,1214

'My body or my soul, which was the dearer,
When the one pure, the other made divine?...

172

I,2,1221

'Her house is sack'd, her quiet interrupted,
Her mansion batter'd by the enemy;...

173

I,2,1228

'Yet die I will not till my Collatine
Have heard the cause of my untimely death;...

174

I,2,1235

'My honour I'll bequeath unto the knife
That wounds my body so dishonoured....

175

I,2,1242

'Dear lord of that dear jewel I have lost,
What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?...

176

I,2,1249

'This brief abridgement of my will I make:
My soul and body to the skies and ground;...

177

I,2,1256

'Thou, Collatine, shalt oversee this will;
How was I overseen that thou shalt see it!...

178

I,2,1263

This Plot of death when sadly she had laid,
And wiped the brinish pearl from her bright eyes,...

179

I,2,1270

Her mistress she doth give demure good-morrow,
With soft-slow tongue, true mark of modesty,...

180

I,2,1277

But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set,
Each flower moisten'd like a melting eye;...

181

I,2,1284

A pretty while these pretty creatures stand,
Like ivory conduits coral cisterns filling:...

182

I,2,1291

For men have marble, women waxen, minds,
And therefore are they form'd as marble will;...

183

I,2,1298

Their smoothness, like a goodly champaign plain,
Lays open all the little worms that creep;...

184

I,2,1305

No man inveigh against the wither'd flower,
But chide rough winter that the flower hath kill'd:...

185

I,2,1312

The precedent whereof in Lucrece view,
Assail'd by night with circumstances strong...

186

I,2,1319

By this, mild patience bid fair Lucrece speak
To the poor counterfeit of her complaining:...

187

I,2,1327

'But tell me, girl, when went'—and there she stay'd
Till after a deep groan—'Tarquin from hence?'...

188

I,2,1334

'But, lady, if your maid may be so bold,
She would request to know your heaviness.'...

189

I,2,1341

'Go, get me hither paper, ink, and pen:
Yet save that labour, for I have them here....

190

I,2,1348

Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write,
First hovering o'er the paper with her quill:...

191

I,2,1355

At last she thus begins: 'Thou worthy lord
Of that unworthy wife that greeteth thee,...

192

I,2,1362

Here folds she up the tenor of her woe,
Her certain sorrow writ uncertainly....

193

I,2,1369

Besides, the life and feeling of her passion
She hoards, to spend when he is by to hear her:...

194

I,2,1376

To see sad sights moves more than hear them told;
For then eye interprets to the ear...

195

I,2,1383

Her letter now is seal'd, and on it writ
'At Ardea to my lord with more than haste.'...

196

I,2,1390

The homely villain court'sies to her low;
And, blushing on her, with a steadfast eye...

197

I,2,1397

When, silly groom! God wot, it was defect
Of spirit, Life, and bold audacity....

198

I,2,1404

His kindled duty kindled her mistrust,
That two red fires in both their faces blazed;...

199

I,2,1411

But long she thinks till he return again,
And yet the duteous vassal scarce is gone....

200

I,2,1418

At last she calls to mind where hangs a piece
Of skilful painting, made for Priam's Troy:...

201

I,2,1425

A thousand lamentable objects there,
In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life:...

202

I,2,1432

There might you see the labouring pioner
Begrimed with sweat, and smeared all with dust;...

203

I,2,1439

In great commanders grace and majesty
You might behold, triumphing in their faces;...

204

I,2,1445

In Ajax and Ulysses, O, what art
Of physiognomy might one behold!...

205

I,2,1452

There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand,
As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight;...

206

I,2,1459

About him were a press of gaping faces,
Which seem'd to swallow up his sound advice;...

207

I,2,1466

Here one man's hand lean'd on another's head,
His nose being shadow'd by his neighbour's ear;...

208

I,2,1473

For much imaginary work was there;
Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,...

209

I,2,1480

And from the walls of strong-besieged Troy
When their brave hope, bold Hector, march'd to field,...

210

I,2,1487

And from the strand of Dardan, where they fought,
To Simois' reedy banks the red blood ran,...

211

I,2,1494

To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come,
To find a face where all distress is stell'd....

212

I,2,1501

In her the painter had anatomized
Time's ruin, beauty's wreck, and grim care's reign:...

213

I,2,1508

On this sad shadow Lucrece spends her eyes,
And shapes her sorrow to the beldam's woes,...

214

I,2,1515

'Poor instrument,' quoth she,'without a sound,
I'll tune thy woes with my lamenting tongue;...

215

I,2,1522

'Show me the strumpet that began this stir,
That with my nails her beauty I may tear....

216

I,2,1529

'Why should the private pleasure of some one
Become the public plague of many moe?...

217

I,2,1536

'Lo, here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies,
Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds,...

218

I,2,1543

Here feelingly she weeps Troy's painted woes:
For sorrow, like a heavy-hanging bell,...

219

I,2,1550

She throws her eyes about the painting round,
And whom she finds forlorn she doth lament....

220

I,2,1557

In him the painter labour'd with his skill
To hide deceit, and give the harmless show...

221

I,2,1564

But, like a constant and confirmed devil,
He entertain'd a show so seeming just,...

222

I,2,1571

The well-skill'd workman this mild image drew
For perjured Sinon, whose enchanting story...

223

I,2,1578

This picture she advisedly perused,
And chid the painter for his wondrous skill,...

224

I,2,1585

'It cannot be,' quoth she,'that so much guile'—
She would have said 'can lurk in such a look;'...

225

I,2,1592

'For even as subtle Sinon here is painted.
So sober-sad, so weary, and so mild,...

226

I,2,1599

'Look, look, how listening Priam wets his eyes,
To see those borrow'd tears that Sinon sheds!...

227

I,2,1606

'Such devils steal effects from lightless hell;
For Sinon in his fire doth quake with cold,...

228

I,2,1613

Here, all enraged, such passion her assails,
That patience is quite beaten from her breast....

229

I,2,1620

Thus ebbs and flows the current of her sorrow,
And time doth weary time with her complaining....

230

I,2,1627

Which all this time hath overslipp'd her thought,
That she with painted images hath spent;...

231

I,2,1634

But now the mindful messenger, come back,
Brings home his lord and other company;...

232

I,2,1641

Which when her sad-beholding husband saw,
Amazedly in her sad face he stares:...

233

I,2,1648

At last he takes her by the bloodless hand,
And thus begins: 'What uncouth ill event...

234

I,2,1655

Three times with sighs she gives her sorrow fire,
Ere once she can discharge one word of woe:...

235

I,2,1662

And now this pale swan in her watery nest
Begins the sad dirge of her certain ending;...

236

I,2,1669

'Then be this all the task it hath to say
Dear husband, in the interest of thy bed...

237

I,2,1676

'For in the dreadful dead of dark midnight,
With shining falchion in my chamber came...

238

I,2,1683

'For some hard-favour'd groom of thine,' quoth he,
'Unless thou yoke thy liking to my will,...

239

I,2,1690

'With this, I did begin to start and cry;
And then against my heart he sets his sword,...

240

I,2,1697

'Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak,
And far the weaker with so strong a fear:...

241

I,2,1704

'O, teach me how to make mine own excuse!
Or at the least this refuge let me find;...

242

I,2,1711

Lo, here, the hopeless merchant of this loss,
With head declined, and voice damm'd up with woe,...

243

I,2,1718

As through an arch the violent roaring tide
Outruns the eye that doth behold his haste,...

244

I,2,1725

Which speechless woe of his poor she attendeth,
And his untimely frenzy thus awaketh:...

245

I,2,1732

'And for my sake, when I might charm thee so,
For she that was thy Lucrece, now attend me:...

246

I,2,1739

'But ere I name him, you fair lords,' quoth she,
Speaking to those that came with Collatine,...

247

I,2,1746

At this request, with noble disposition
Each present lord began to promise aid,...

248

I,2,1753

'What is the quality of mine offence,
Being constrain'd with dreadful circumstance?...

249

I,2,1760

With this, they all at once began to say,
Her body's stain her mind untainted clears;...

250

I,2,1767

Here with a sigh, as if her heart would break,
She throws forth Tarquin's name; 'He, he,' she says,...

251

I,2,1774

Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast
A harmful knife, that thence her soul unsheathed:...

252

I,2,1781

Stone-still, astonish'd with this deadly deed,
Stood Collatine and all his lordly crew;...

253

I,2,1788

And bubbling from her breast, it doth divide
In two slow rivers, that the crimson blood...

254

I,2,1795

About the mourning and congealed face
Of that black blood a watery rigol goes,...

255

I,2,1802

'Daughter, dear daughter,' old Lucretius cries,
'That life was mine which thou hast here deprived....

256

I,2,1809

'Poor broken glass, I often did behold
In thy sweet semblance my old age new born;...

257

I,2,1816

'O time, cease thou thy course and last no longer,
If they surcease to be that should survive....

258

I,2,1823

By this, starts Collatine as from a dream,
And bids Lucretius give his sorrow place;...

259

I,2,1830

The deep vexation of his inward soul
Hath served a dumb arrest upon his tongue;...

260

I,2,1837

Yet sometime 'Tarquin' was pronounced plain,
But through his teeth, as if the name he tore....

261

I,2,1844

The one doth call her his, the other his,
Yet neither may possess the claim they lay....

262

I,2,1851

'O,' quoth Lucretius,' I did give that life
Which she too early and too late hath spill'd.'...

263

I,2,1858

Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' side,
Seeing such emulation in their woe,...

264

I,2,1865

But now he throws that shallow habit by,
Wherein deep policy did him disguise;...

265

I,2,1872

'Why, Collatine, is woe the cure for woe?
Do wounds help wounds, or grief help grievous deeds?...

266

I,2,1879

'Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart
In such relenting dew of lamentations;...

267

I,2,1886

'Now, by the Capitol that we adore,
And by this chaste blood so unjustly stain'd,...

268

I,2,1893

This said, he struck his hand upon his breast,
And kiss'd the fatal knife, to end his vow;...

269

I,2,1900

When they had sworn to this advised doom,
They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence;...