Lucrece (Quarto, 1594)
Author: William ShakespeareEditor: Hardy M. CookNot Peer Reviewed


¶O deeper
sinne then bottomele
sse conceit
¶Can comprehend in
still imagination!
¶Drunken De
sire mu
st vomite his receipt
¶Ere he can
see his owne abhomination.
705VVhile Lu
st is in his pride no exclamation
¶_Can curbe his heat, or reine his ra
sh de
sire,
¶_Till like a Iade,
self-will him
selfe doth tire.
¶And then with lanke, and leane di
scolour'd cheeke,
¶VVith heauie eye, knit-brow, and
strengthle
sse pace,
710Feeble de
sire all recreant, poore and meeke,
¶Like to a banckrout begger wailes his cace:
¶The fle
sh being proud, De
sire doth fight with grace;
¶_For there it reuels, and when that decaies,
¶_The guiltie rebell for remi
ssion praies.
715So fares it with this fault-full Lord of Rome,
¶VVho this accompli
shment
so hotly cha
sed,
¶For now again
st him
selfe he
sounds this doome,
¶That through the length of times he
stāds di
sgraced:
¶Be
sides his
soules faire temple is defaced,
720_To who
se weake ruines mu
ster troopes of cares,
¶_To aske the
spotted Prince
sse how
she fares.
¶Shee
sayes her
subiects with fowle in
surrection,
¶Haue batterd downe her con
secrated wall,
¶And by their mortall fault brought in
subiection
725Her immortalitie, and made her thrall,
¶To liuing death and payne perpetuall.
¶_VVhich in her pre
science
shee controlled
still,
¶_But her fore
sight could not fore
stall their will.
¶Eu'n in this thought through the dark-night he
stea
(leth,
730A captiue victor that hath lo
st in gaine,
¶Bearing away the wound that nothing healeth,
¶The
scarre that will di
spight of Cure remaine,
¶Leauing his
spoile perplext in greater paine.
¶_Shee beares the lode of lu
st he left behinde,
735_And he the burthen of a guiltie minde.

