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


¶To kill my
selfe, quoth
shee, alacke what were it,
¶But with my body my poore
soules pollu
sion?
¶They that loo
se halfe with greater patience beare it,
¶Then they who
se whole is
swallowed in confu
sion.
1160That mother tries a mercile
sse conclu
sion,
¶_VVho hauing two
sweet babes, when death takes
(one,
¶_VVill
slay the other, and be nur
se to none.
¶My bodie or my
soule which was the dearer?
¶VVhen the one pure, the other made deuine,
1165VVho
se loue of eyther to my
selfe was nearer?
¶VVhen both were kept for Heauen and COLATINE:
¶Ay me, the Barke pild from the loftie Pine,
¶_His leaues will wither, and his
sap decay,
¶_So mu
st my
soule her barke being pild away.
1170Her hou
se is
sackt, her quiet interrupted,
¶Her man
sion batterd by the enemie,
¶Her
sacred temple
spotted,
spoild, corrupted,
¶Gro
slie ingirt with daring infamie.
¶Then let it not be cald impietie,
1175_If in this blemi
sht fort I make
some hole,
¶_Through which I may conuay this troubled
soule.
¶Yet die I will not, till my
COLATINE
¶Haue heard the cau
se of my vntimelie death,
¶That he may vow in that
sad houre of mine,
1180Reuenge on him that made me
stop my breath,
¶My
stained bloud to
TARQVIN ile bequeath,
¶_VVhich by him tainted,
shall for him be
spent,
¶_And as his due writ in my te
stament.
¶My Honor ile bequeath vnto the knife
1185That wounds my bodie
so di
shonored,
¶Tis Honor to depriue di
shonord life,
¶The one will liue, the other being dead.
¶So of
shames a
shes
shall my Fame be bred,
¶_For in my death I murther
shamefull
scorne,
1190_My
shame
so dead, mine honor is new borne.

