'When he beheld his shadow in the brook, Would bring him mulberries, and ripe-red cherries: If he did see his face, why, then I know, And, nuzzling in his flank, the loving swine With this she falleth in the place she stood, As if they heard the woful words she told: eyes, Where, lo! two lamps, burnt out, in darkness lies:‡ The sea-urchin is a name given to the hedgehog. † On the ground he lay, Blood had left his cheek, For an orpèd swine Smit him in the groin. Sheepheard's Song of Venus and Adonis. It is obvious from this example, as from numerous others, that Two glasses, where herself herself beheld 'Wonder of time,' quoth she, 'this is my spite; 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 shall be waited on with jealousy; Find sweet beginning, but unsavory end; Ne'er settled equally, but high or low; That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe: 'It shall be fickle, false, and full of fraud; 'It shall be sparing, and too full of riot, Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures: It shall be raging-mad, and silly-mild; Make the young old, the old become a child: 'It shall suspect where is no cause of fear; And most deceiving when it seems most just: the Elizabethan violations of time and form cannot always be referred to haste or accident; but that they were sometimes adopted designedly to suit the metre or the rhyme. In such cases as the present, it is possible that the final s came into use as a substitute for the Saxon termination th. *O'erstrewed. † A term generally applied to grave and stately dances. love destroy, 'It shall be cause of war and dire events, And says, within her bosom it shall dwell, She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears 'Poor flower!' quoth she, this was thy father's guise, (Sweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sire) For every little grief to wet his eyes: Το grow unto himself was his desire, And so 'tis thine: but know, it is as good 'Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast; My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night: Thus, weary of the world, away she hies, Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen 80 THE RAPE OF LUCRECE. [THIS poem was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company under the title of The Ravishment of Lucrece, May 9, 1594. It was published in quarto in the same year. Successive editions appeared in 1598, 1600, 1607, 1616, 1620, and 1632. Two other editions are spoken of, in 1596 and 1602; but Malone, who had heard of them, had never seen either. The edition of 1616,‘newly revised and corrected,' and published in the year in which Shakspeare died, contains, in addition to the argument prefixed to the previous edition, a table of contents dividing the story into twelve parts; and these contents, in a rather more explanatory form, are reprinted in the margin of the poem opposite to the places to which they refer. In subsequent editions the table is omitted, and the poem itself is divided into twelve parts, each part being headed by the explanation of its contents. The following is the table of contents, extracted from a rare copy in the possession of J. O. Halliwell, Esq., to whose kindness I am also indebted for the inspection of other early copies which I have collated for the text of this edition.* THE CONTENTS. 1. Lucrece' praises for chaste, virtuous, and beautiful enamoureth Tarquin. 2. Tarquin welcomed by Lucrece. 3. Tarquin overthrows all disputing with his wilfulness. 4. He puts his resolution in practice. 5. Lucrece awakes, and is amazed to be so surprised. 6. She pleads in defence of chastity. 7. Tarquin, all impatient, interrupteth her, and ravisheth her by force. 8. Lucrece complains on her abuse. 9. She disputeth whether she should kill herself or no. husband. *To an edition in Mr. Halliwell's possession of the date of 1655 is added a poem, by J. Quarles, entitled The Banishment of Tarquin; or, The Reward of Lust, in which the history is continued to its sequel. II. Colatinus with his friends returns home. 12. Lucrece relateth the mischief; they swear revenge, and she, to exasperate the matter, killeth herself. Whether this table of contents, or the verbal revisions contained in the edition to which it is prefixed, were prepared, or sanctioned, by Shakspeare, cannot be determined. Malone rejects the revisions as the work of another hand. Some of them, however, are valuable and interesting; and the date of the impression entitles it to attention when the collation of the text is under consideration. The classical sources of the story of Lucrece are well known; but it is not probable that Shakspeare drew upon any of them, except, perhaps, the Fasti, which were translated before 1570. The narrative was accessible to him in Chaucer and Lydgate; it was to be found also in Painter's Palace of Pleasure; and there were several ballads on the subject. It was one of the many popular themes that had come down in sundry forms from the literature of the middle ages. Opinion is divided in the choice between Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Malone pronounces decidedly against the latter, a decision which greatly surprises Boswell. The majority of modern readers will be likely to agree with Malone. The subject of the former piece is, at least, less painful, and its treatment is more compact and effective. In beauty of expression, and passionate depth of feeling, the Venus and Adonis transcends the Lucrece, upon which more elaboration has been bestowed with less success. The interest of Lucrece suffers from attenuation. The agony is too protracted; the horror of the main incident is exhausted by prolonged argumentation; and the close is abrupt and hurried. There is a want of symmetry in the parts; and the catastrophe is not presented with the fulness or solemnity proportionate to the expectations excited by the preparatory details. But the poem abounds in sweet and noble passages; and in both pieces we discover the germs of that unerring genius which impressed the true image of nature upon every scene and character it depicted.] SHAKSPEARE. 6 |