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


¶And being lighted, by the light he
spies
¶LVCRECIAS gloue, wherein her needle
sticks,
¶He takes it from the ru
shes where it lies,
¶And griping it, the needle his finger pricks.
320As who
should
say, this gloue to wanton trickes
¶_Is not inur'd; returne againe in ha
st,
¶_Thou
see
st our mi
stre
sse ornaments are cha
st.
¶But all the
se poore forbiddings could not
stay him,
¶He in the wor
st
sence con
sters their deniall:
325The dores, the wind, the gloue that did delay him,
¶He takes for accidentall things of triall.
¶Or as tho
se bars which
stop the hourely diall,
¶_VVho with a lingring
staie his cour
se doth let,
¶_Till euerie minute payes the howre his debt.
330So
so, quoth he, the
se lets attend the time,
¶Like little fro
sts that
sometime threat the
spring,
¶To ad a more reioy
sing to the prime,
¶And giue the
sneaped birds more cau
se to
sing.
¶Pain payes the income of ech precious thing,
335_Huge rocks, high winds,
strong pirats,
shelues and
(sands
¶_The marchant feares, ere rich at home he lands.
¶Now is he come vnto the chamber dore,
¶That
shuts him from the Heauen of his thought,
¶VVhich with a yeelding latch, and with no more,
340Hath bard him from the ble
ssed thing he
sought.
¶So from him
selfe impiety hath wrought,
¶_That for his pray to pray he doth begin,
¶_As if the Heauens
should countenance his
sin.
¶But in the mid
st of his vnfruitfull prayer,
345Hauing
solicited th'eternall power,
¶That his foule thoughts might cōpa
sse his fair faire,
¶And they would
stand au
spicious to the howre.
¶Euen there he
starts, quoth he, I mu
st deflowre;
¶_The powers to whom I pray abhor this fact,
350_How can they then a
ssi
st me in the act?

