Part 2

Lines 211–420

211 'What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
212 A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy:
213 Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
214 Or sells eternity to get a toy?
215 For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
216 Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
217 Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?
218 'If Collatinus dream of my intent,
219 Will he not wake, and in a desperate rage
220 Post hither, this vile purpose to prevent?
221 This siege that hath engirt his marriage,
222 This blur to youth, this sorrow to the sage,
223 This dying virtue, this surviving shame,
224 Whose crime will bear an ever-during blame?
225 'O, what excuse can my invention make
226 When thou shalt charge me with so black a deed?
227 Will not my tongue be mute, my frail joints shake?
228 Mine eyes forego their light, my false heart bleed?
229 The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed;
230 And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly,
231 But, coward-like, with trembling terror die.
232 'Had Collatinus kill'd my son or sire,
233 Or lain in ambush to betray my life,
234 Or were he not my dear friend, this desire
235 Might have excuse to work upon his wife;
236 As in revenge or quittal of such strife:
237 But as he is my kinsman, my dear friend,
238 The shame and fault finds no excuse nor end.
239 'Shameful it is;—ay, if the fact be known:
240 Hateful it is:— there is no hate in loving;
241 I'll beg her love;—but she is not her own;
242 The worst is but denial and reproving:
243 My will is strong, past reason's weak removing.
244 Who fears a sentence or an old man's saw
245 Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe.'
246 Thus, graceless, holds he disputation
247 'Tween frozen conscience and hot-burning will,
248 And with good thoughts makes dispensation,
249 Urging the worser sense for vantage still;
250 Which in a moment doth confound and kill
251 All pure effects, and doth so far proceed,
252 That what is vile shows like a virtuous deed.
253 Quoth he, 'She took me kindly by the hand,
254 And gaz'd for tidings in my eager eyes,
255 Fearing some hard news from the warlike band,
256 Where her beloved Collatinus lies.
257 O how her fear did make her colour rise!
258 First red as roses that on lawn we lay,
259 Then white as lawn, the roses took away.
260 'And how her hand, in my hand being lock'd,
261 Forc'd it to tremble with her loyal fear;
262 Which struck her sad, and then it faster rock'd,
263 Until her husband's welfare she did hear;
264 Whereat she smiled with so sweet a cheer,
265 That had Narcissus seen her as she stood,
266 Self-love had never drown'd him in the flood.
267 'Why hunt I then for colour or excuses?
268 All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth;
269 Poor wretches have remorse in poor abuses;
270 Love thrives not in the heart that shadows dreadeth:
271 Affection is my captain, and he leadeth;
272 And when his gaudy banner is display'd,
273 The coward fights and will not be dismay'd.
274 'Then, childish fear, avaunt! debating, die!
275 Respect and reason wait on wrinkled age!
276 My heart shall never countermand mine eye;
277 Sad pause and deep regard beseem the sage;
278 My part is youth, and beats these from the stage:
279 Desire my pilot is, beauty my prize;
280 Then who fears sinking where such treasure lies?'
281 As corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear
282 Is almost chok'd by unresisted lust.
283 Away he steals with opening, listening ear,
284 Full of foul hope, and full of fond mistrust;
285 Both which, as servitors to the unjust,
286 So cross him with their opposite persuasion,
287 That now he vows a league, and now invasion.
288 Within his thought her heavenly image sits,
289 And in the self-same seat sits Collatine:
290 That eye which looks on her confounds his wits;
291 That eye which him beholds, as more divine,
292 Unto a view so false will not incline;
293 But with a pure appeal seeks to the heart,
294 Which once corrupted takes the worser part;
295 And therein heartens up his servile powers,
296 Who, flatter'd by their leader's jocund show,
297 Stuff up his lust, as minutes fill up hours;
298 And as their captain, so their pride doth grow.
299 Paying more slavish tribute than they owe.
300 By reprobate desire thus madly led,
301 The Roman lord marcheth to Lucrece' bed.
302 The locks between her chamber and his will,
303 Each one by him enforc'd retires his ward;
304 But, as they open they all rate his ill,
305 Which drives the creeping thief to some regard,
306 The threshold grates the door to have him heard;
307 Night-wand'ring weasels shriek to see him there;
308 They fright him, yet he still pursues his fear.
309 As each unwilling portal yields him way,
310 Through little vents and crannies of the place
311 The wind wars with his torch, to make him stay,
312 And blows the smoke of it into his face,
313 Extinguishing his conduct in this case;
314 But his hot heart, which fond desire doth scorch,
315 Puffs forth another wind that fires the torch:
316 And being lighted, by the light he spies
317 Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks;
318 He takes it from the rushes where it lies,
319 And griping it, the neeld his finger pricks:
320 As who should say this glove to wanton tricks
321 Is not inur'd: return again in haste;
322 Thou see'st our mistress' ornaments are chaste.
323 But all these poor forbiddings could not stay him;
324 He in the worst sense construes their denial:
325 The doors, the wind, the glove that did delay him,
326 He takes for accidental things of trial;
327 Or as those bars which stop the hourly dial,
328 Who with a lingering stay his course doth let,
329 Till every minute pays the hour his debt.
330 'So, so,' quoth he, 'these lets attend the time,
331 Like little frosts that sometime threat the spring.
332 To add a more rejoicing to the prime,
333 And give the sneaped birds more cause to sing.
334 Pain pays the income of each precious thing;
335 Huge rocks, high winds, strong pirates, shelves and sands,
336 The merchant fears, ere rich at home he lands.'
337 Now is he come unto the chamber door,
338 That shuts him from the heaven of his thought,
339 Which with a yielding latch, and with no more,
340 Hath barr'd him from the blessed thing he sought.
341 So from himself impiety hath wrought,
342 That for his prey to pray he doth begin,
343 As if the heavens should countenance his sin.
344 But in the midst of his unfruitful prayer,
345 Having solicited the eternal power,
346 That his foul thoughts might compass his fair fair,
347 And they would stand auspicious to the hour,
348 Even there he starts:—quoth he, 'I must de-flower;
349 The powers to whom I pray abhor this fact,
350 How can they then assist me in the act?
351 'Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide!
352 My will is back'd with resolution:
353 Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried,
354 The blackest sin is clear'd with absolution;
355 Against love's fire fear's frost hath dissolution.
356 The eye of heaven is out, and misty night
357 Covers the shame that follows sweet delight.'
358 This said, his guilty hand pluck'd up the latch,
359 And with his knee the door he opens wide:
360 The dove sleeps fast that this night-owl will catch;
361 Thus treason works ere traitors be espied.
362 Who sees the lurking serpent steps aside;
363 But she, sound sleeping, fearing no such thing,
364 Lies at the mercy of his mortal sting.
365 Into the chamber wickedly he stalks,
366 And gazeth on her yet unstained bed.
367 The curtains being close, about he walks,
368 Rolling his greedy eyeballs in his head:
369 By their high treason is his heart misled;
370 Which gives the watch-word to his hand full soon
371 To draw the cloud that hides the silver moon.
372 Look, as the fair and fiery-pointed sun,
373 Rushing from forth a cloud, bereaves our sight;
374 Even so, the curtain drawn, his eyes begun
375 To wink, being blinded with a greater light:
376 Whether it is that she reflects so bright,
377 That dazzleth them, or else some shame supposed;
378 But blind they are, and keep themselves enclosed.
379 O, had they in that darksome prison died,
380 Then had they seen the period of their ill!
381 Then Collatine again by Lucrece' side
382 In his clear bed might have reposed still:
383 But they must ope, this blessed league to kill;
384 And holy-thoughted Lucrece to their sight
385 Must sell her joy, her life, her world's delight.
386 Her lily hand her rosy cheek lies under,
387 Cozening the pillow of a lawful kiss;
388 Who, therefore angry, seems to part in sunder,
389 Swelling on either side to want his bliss;
390 Between whose hills her head entombed is:
391 Where, like a virtuous monument, she lies,
392 To be admir'd of lewd unhallow'd eyes.
393 Without the bed her other fair hand was,
394 On the green coverlet; whose perfect white
395 Show'd like an April daisy on the grass,
396 With pearly sweat, resembling dew of night,
397 Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheath'd their light,
398 And canopied in darkness sweetly lay,
399 Till they might open to adorn the day.
400 Her hair, like golden threads, play'd with her breath;
401 O modest wantons! wanton modesty!
402 Showing life's triumph in the map of death,
403 And death's dim look in life's mortality:
404 Each in her sleep themselves so beautify,
405 As if between them twain there were no strife,
406 But that life liv'd in death, and death in life.
407 Her breasts, like ivory globes circled with blue,
408 A pair of maiden worlds unconquered,
409 Save of their lord no bearing yoke they knew,
410 And him by oath they truly honoured.
411 These worlds in Tarquin new ambition bred:
412 Who, like a foul usurper, went about
413 From this fair throne to heave the owner out.
414 What could he see but mightily he noted?
415 What did he note but strongly he desir'd?
416 What he beheld, on that he firmly doted,
417 And in his will his wilful eye he tir'd.
418 With more than admiration he admir'd
419 Her azure veins, her alabaster skin,
420 Her coral lips, her snow-white dimpled chin.

Notes

TLN 212rhetorical device
“a breath, a froth of fleeting joy”
Tarquin's soliloquy opens with a compressed list of contemptuous one-liners for lust's reward: 'a dream, a breath, a froth.' The rapid triplet is an example of tricolon — three parallel short phrases building to the same conclusion — a classical rhetorical figure used here to enact how quickly the pleasure dissolves even in imagination. 'Froth' and 'fleeting' together stress insubstantiality and speed.
TLN 213rhetorical device
“Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week”
Three stacked rhetorical questions — buying a minute's pleasure for a week's grief, selling eternity for a toy, destroying a whole vine for one grape — form a set of analogies designed to show the bargain is catastrophically bad. The questions are addressed to Tarquin's own conscience; he is the 'who' indicting himself. 'Toy' means a trifle.
TLN 221archaic vocab
“This siege that hath engirt his marriage”
'Engirt' means encircled or surrounded — the word is from military siege-craft. Tarquin's lust is figured as an army that has ringed Collatine's marriage and threatens to breach it. 'Ever-during' (TLN 224) means everlasting. The stanza piles up four parallel 'this' phrases (anaphora) — 'this siege,' 'this blur,' 'this sorrow,' 'this dying virtue' — each hammering the scale of the coming damage.
TLN 244historical topical
“Who fears a sentence or an old man's saw / Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe”
A 'saw' is a wise saying or proverb (cognate with 'saga'). A 'painted cloth' was a cheap wall-hanging — canvas painted with moral scenes and slogans, used in taverns and middling households instead of expensive tapestry. Tarquin dismisses moral warnings as fit only to cow those who are frightened by pub decorations: only the credulous and faint-hearted are stopped by proverbs and pictures. This is his will overriding his reason.
TLN 246rhetorical device
“graceless, holds he disputation / 'Tween frozen conscience and hot-burning will”
The narrator steps back to describe what we have just witnessed: a formal internal debate, a 'disputation,' between conscience (cold, rational) and will (hot, desiring). 'Graceless' means lacking divine grace — a theological word that marks Tarquin's will as already corrupt. The pair 'frozen conscience / hot-burning will' is an antithesis that frames lust as moral thermodynamics: cold reason is being melted by heat.
TLN 271rhetorical device
“Affection is my captain, and he leadeth”
Tarquin abandons rational debate and surrenders to lust by personifying it as a military captain with a 'gaudy banner' and himself as a coward who fights under that banner. The metaphor casts desire as a war-commander and conscience as cowardice to be overcome — exactly inverting the moral valences. 'Affection' here means passionate desire, not merely fondness.
TLN 281rhetorical device
“As corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear / Is almost chok'd by unresisted lust”
The narrator breaks from Tarquin's voice to summarize his state in an agricultural simile: as weeds choke out a wheat-crop, so lust chokes out fear and good sense. 'Heedful' means careful, cautious. This simile — drawn from everyday farm life — translates abstract moral psychology into a visible, practical image a student reader can picture immediately.
TLN 303archaic vocab
“Each one by him enforc'd retires his ward”
A lock's 'ward' is the set of ridges inside it that match a key's cuts; when a key turns, the ward 'retires' (pulls back) to allow the bolt to move. The line means Tarquin forces each lock open in sequence. The word is from the armourer's and locksmith's vocabulary, and gives the passage a precise, mechanical quality — each door yields as a fort falls, lock by lock.
TLN 309rhetorical device
“As each unwilling portal yields him way”
The doors, the wind, the torch, and Lucrece's glove all become participants that actively protest Tarquin's approach — the narrator gives each object a moral response it cannot quite have. 'Portal' (a door or gateway) 'yields unwillingly'; the wind 'wars' with the torch; the prick of the needle 'says' the glove is not used to 'wanton tricks.' This repeated personification of inanimate things as moral resisters is a sustained rhetorical figure, and it makes the violation feel cosmic: not just one woman objects, but the whole material world.
TLN 319archaic vocab
“the neeld his finger pricks”
'Neeld' is an archaic form of 'needle' — the sewing needle still lodged in Lucrece's glove. The glove on the rush-strewn floor with its unfinished needlework is a detail that characterizes Lucrece as a woman of domestic virtue: she sews, she rests, she is not on guard. The prick of the needle is then read as a moral omen — the glove, like everything else, objects to Tarquin's purpose.
TLN 327archaic vocab
“those bars which stop the hourly dial, / Who with a lingering stay his course doth let”
A 'dial' here is a clock. Its 'bars' are the escapement mechanism — the small catches that briefly halt each advance of the gear-train to regulate its movement. 'Let' means to hinder or impede (an archaic sense still surviving in tennis's 'let'). Tarquin reinterprets every obstacle (the doors, the wind, the glove) as the clock's temporary catches that actually ensure the hour arrives on schedule — obstacles become proofs that his goal is inevitable.
TLN 333archaic vocab
“give the sneaped birds more cause to sing”
'Sneaped' means nipped or pinched by cold — especially of plants and young shoots checked by late frost. Here Tarquin applies it to birds silenced by a spring frost: the brief hardship makes their eventual singing sweeter. The word is rare outside Shakespeare; it appears also in Love's Labour's Lost (1.1). The stanza is Tarquin consoling himself that obstacles sharpen the final pleasure.
TLN 342wordplay
“for his prey to pray he doth begin, / As if the heavens should countenance his sin”
'Prey' (his target, Lucrece) and 'pray' (to offer prayer) are homophones that the poem puns on: Tarquin prays for his prey. The contradiction is deliberately absurd and damning — he petitions the heavens to assist him in the very act the heavens forbid. The narrator uses the pun to expose the corruption in Tarquin's thinking; he himself recognizes it in the next stanza ('the powers to whom I pray abhor this fact').
TLN 351classical allusion
“Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide”
Having recognized that the Christian God cannot sanction his purpose, Tarquin invokes two pagan deities instead: Cupid (Love) and Fortuna (Fortune). This is a deliberate apostasy — he dismisses 'the eye of heaven' (the sun and divine providence) and substitutes blind desire and blind chance. The move is characteristic of villains in Shakespeare's Rome: they appeal to Fortune precisely because she is arbitrary and amoral.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 360rhetorical device
“The dove sleeps fast that this night-owl will catch”
The narrator casts Lucrece as a dove — emblem of chastity and innocence — and Tarquin as a night-owl, a bird of ill-omen that hunts in darkness. The dove's sleep is her innocence; the owl's predation is hidden by night. The simile is followed immediately by the serpent image of line 362 ('the lurking serpent'), which adds a biblical dimension: the innocent sleeper cannot see the predator because she has no cause to fear one.
TLN 371rhetorical device
“To draw the cloud that hides the silver moon”
The bed-curtain that conceals Lucrece is metaphorically 'the cloud that hides the silver moon' — Lucrece is the moon, the curtain a cloud, and Tarquin the force that draws it aside. When the curtain is pulled, he is momentarily blinded by 'a greater light' (TLN 374-375), and the narrator notes his eyes 'wink' (close) from the brightness. The moon-simile elevates Lucrece to a celestial body; the blinding of Tarquin's eyes is ironic — he can see her perfectly but is morally blind.