Lucrece (Quarto, 1594)
Not Peer Reviewed
¶And now this pale Swan in her watrie nest,
¶Begins the sad Dirge of her certaine ending,
1615In me moe woes then words are now depending,
¶_And my laments would be drawn out too long,
¶_To tell them all with one poore tired tong.
¶Then be this all the taske it hath to say,
¶Deare husband in the interest of thy bed
1620A stranger came, and on that pillow lay,
¶And what wrong else may be imagined,
¶_By foule inforcement might be done to me,
1625For in the dreadfull dead of darke midnight,
¶A creeping creature with a flaming light,
¶And softly cried, awake thou Romaine Dame,
1630_On thee and thine this night I will inflict,
¶For some hard fauour'd Groome of thine, quoth he,
1635And sweare I found you where you did fulfill
¶_The lechors in their deed, this Act will be
¶_My Fame, and thy perpetuall infamy.
