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


¶Her pittie-pleading eyes are
sadlie fixed
¶In the remor
sele
sse wrinckles of his face.
¶Her mode
st eloquence with
sighes is mixed,
¶VVhich to her Oratorie addes more grace.
565Shee puts the period often from his place,
¶_And mid
st the
sentence
so her accent breakes,
¶_That twi
se
she doth begin ere once
she
speakes.
¶She coniures him by high Almightie loue,
¶By knighthood, gentrie, and
sweete friend
ships oth,
570By her vntimely teares, her husbands loue,
¶By holie humaine law, and common troth,
¶By Heauen and Earth, and all the power of both:
¶_That to his borrowed bed he make retire,
¶_And
stoope to Honor, not to fowle de
sire.
575Quoth
shee, reward not Ho
spitalitie,
¶VVith
such black payment, as thou ha
st pretended,
¶Mudde not the fountaine that gaue drinke to thee,
¶Mar not the thing that cannot be amended.
¶End thy ill ayme, before thy
shoote be ended.
580_He is no wood-man that doth bend his bow,
¶_To
strike a poore vn
sea
sonable Doe.
¶My husband is thy friend, for his
sake
spare me,
¶Thy
selfe art mightie, for thine own
sake leaue me:
¶My
selfe a weakling, do not then in
snare me.
585Thou look'
st not like deceipt, do not deceiue me.
¶My
sighes like whirlewindes labor hence to heaue
(thee.
¶_If euer man were mou'd with womās mones,
¶_Be moued with my teares, my
sighes, my grones.
¶All which together like a troubled Ocean,
590Beat at thy rockie, and wracke-threatning heart,
¶To
soften it with their continuall motion:
¶For
stones di
ssolu'd to water do conuert.
¶O if no harder then a
stone thou art,
¶_Melt at my teares and be compa
ssionate,
595_Soft pittie enters at an iron gate.

