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


¶Reuealing day through euery crannie
spies,
¶And
seems to point her out where
she
sits weeping,
¶To whom
shee
sobbing
speakes, ô eye of eyes,
¶VVhy pry'
st thou throgh my window? leaue thy pee
(ping,
1090Mock with thy tickling beams, eies that are
sleeping;
¶_Brand not my forehead with thy percing light,
¶_For day hath nought to do what's done by night.
¶Thus cauils
shee with euerie thing
shee
sees,
¶True griefe is fond and te
stie as a childe,
1095VVho wayward once, his mood with naught agrees,
¶Old woes, not infant
sorrowes beare them milde,
¶Continuance tames the one, the other wilde,
¶_Like an vnpractiz'd
swimmer plunging
still,
¶_VVith too much labour drowns for want of skill.
1100So
shee deepe drenched in a Sea of care,
¶Holds di
sputation with ech thing
shee vewes,
¶And to her
selfe all
sorrow doth compare,
¶No obiect but her pa
ssions
strength renewes:
¶And as one
shiftes another
straight in
sewes,
1105_Somtime her griefe is dumbe and hath no words,
¶_Sometime tis mad and too much talke affords.
¶The little birds that tune their mornings ioy,
¶Make her mones mad, with their
sweet melodie,
¶"For mirth doth
search the bottome of annoy,
1110"Sad
soules are
slaine in merrie companie,
¶"Griefe be
st is plea
s'd with griefes
societie;
¶_"True
sorrow then is feelinglie
suffiz'd,
¶_"
VVhen with like
semblance it is
simpathiz'd.
¶"Tis double death to drowne in ken of
shore,
1115"He ten times pines, that pines beholding food,
¶"To
see the
salue doth make the wound ake more:
¶"Great griefe greeues mo
st at that wold do it good;
¶"Deepe woes roll forward like a gentle flood,
¶_VVho being
stopt, the boūding banks oreflowes,
1120_Griefe dallied with, nor law, nor limit knowes.

