Part 7

Lines 1261–1470

1261 The precedent whereof in Lucrece view,
1262 Assail'd by night with circumstances strong
1263 Of present death, and shame that might ensue
1264 By that her death, to do her husband wrong:
1265 Such danger to resistance did belong;
1266 The dying fear through all her body spread;
1267 And who cannot abuse a body dead?
1268 By this, mild Patience bid fair Lucrece speak
1269 To the poor counterfeit of her complaining:
1270 'My girl,' quoth she, 'on what occasion break
1271 Those tears from thee, that down thy cheeks are raining?
1272 If thou dost weep for grief of my sustaining,
1273 Know, gentle wench, it small avails my mood:
1274 If tears could help, mine own would do me good.
1275 'But tell me, girl, when went'—(and there she stay'd
1276 Till after a deep groan) 'Tarquin from, hence?'
1277 'Madam, ere I was up,' replied the maid,
1278 'The more to blame my sluggard negligence:
1279 Yet with the fault I thus far can dispense;
1280 Myself was stirring ere the break of day,
1281 And, ere I rose, was Tarquin gone away.
1282 'But, lady, if your maid may be so bold,
1283 She would request to know your heaviness.'
1284 'O peace!' quoth Lucrece: 'if it should be told,
1285 The repetition cannot make it less;
1286 For more it is than I can well express:
1287 And that deep torture may be call'd a hell,
1288 When more is felt than one hath power to tell.
1289 'Go, get me hither paper, ink, and pen—
1290 Yet save that labour, for I have them here.
1291 What should I say?—One of my husband's men
1292 Bid thou be ready, by and by, to bear
1293 A letter to my lord, my love, my dear;
1294 Bid him with speed prepare to carry it;
1295 The cause craves haste, and it will soon be writ.'
1296 Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write,
1297 First hovering o'er the paper with her quill:
1298 Conceit and grief an eager combat fight;
1299 What wit sets down is blotted straight with will;
1300 This is too curious-good, this blunt and ill:
1301 Much like a press of people at a door,
1302 Throng her inventions, which shall go before.
1303 At last she thus begins:—'Thou worthy lord
1304 Of that unworthy wife that greeteth thee,
1305 Health to thy person! next vouchsafe to afford
1306 (If ever, love, thy Lucrece thou wilt see)
1307 Some present speed to come and visit me:
1308 So, I commend me from our house in grief:
1309 My woes are tedious, though my words are brief.'
1310 Here folds she up the tenor of her woe,
1311 Her certain sorrow writ uncertainly.
1312 By this short schedule Collatine may know
1313 Her grief, but not her grief's true quality;
1314 She dares not thereof make discovery,
1315 Lest he should hold it her own gross abuse,
1316 Ere she with blood had stain'd her stain'd excuse.
1317 Besides, the life and feeling of her passion
1318 She hoards, to spend when he is by to hear her;
1319 When sighs, and groans, and tears may grace the fashion
1320 Of her disgrace, the better so to clear her
1321 From that suspicion which the world my might bear her.
1322 To shun this blot, she would not blot the letter
1323 With words, till action might become them better.
1324 To see sad sights moves more than hear them told;
1325 For then the eye interprets to the ear
1326 The heavy motion that it doth behold,
1327 When every part a part of woe doth bear.
1328 'Tis but a part of sorrow that we hear:
1329 Deep sounds make lesser noise than shallow fords,
1330 And sorrow ebbs, being blown with wind of words.
1331 Her letter now is seal'd, and on it writ
1332 'At Ardea to my lord with more than haste;'
1333 The post attends, and she delivers it,
1334 Charging the sour-fac'd groom to hie as fast
1335 As lagging fowls before the northern blast.
1336 Speed more than speed but dull and slow she deems:
1337 Extremely still urgeth such extremes.
1338 The homely villain court'sies to her low;
1339 And, blushing on her, with a steadfast eye
1340 Receives the scroll, without or yea or no,
1341 And forth with bashful innocence doth hie.
1342 But they whose guilt within their bosoms lie
1343 Imagine every eye beholds their blame;
1344 For Lucrece thought he blush'd to see her shame:
1345 When, silly groom! God wot, it was defect
1346 Of spirit, life, and bold audacity.
1347 Such harmless creatures have a true respect
1348 To talk in deeds, while others saucily
1349 Promise more speed, but do it leisurely:
1350 Even so this pattern of the worn-out age
1351 Pawn'd honest looks, but laid no words to gage.
1352 His kindled duty kindled her mistrust,
1353 That two red fires in both their faces blaz'd;
1354 She thought he blush'd, as knowing Tarquin's lust,
1355 And, blushing with him, wistly on him gaz'd;
1356 Her earnest eye did make him more amaz'd:
1357 The more saw the blood his cheeks replenish,
1358 The more she thought he spied in her some blemish.
1359 But long she thinks till he return again,
1360 And yet the duteous vassal scarce is gone.
1361 The weary time she cannot entertain,
1362 For now 'tis stale to sigh, to weep, to groan:
1363 So woe hath wearied woe, moan tired moan,
1364 That she her plaints a little while doth stay,
1365 Pausing for means to mourn some newer way.
1366 At last she calls to mind where hangs a piece
1367 Of skilful painting, made for Priam's Troy;
1368 Before the which is drawn the power of Greece,
1369 For Helen's rape the city to destroy,
1370 Threat'ning cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy;
1371 Which the conceited painter drew so proud,
1372 As heaven (it seem'd) to kiss the turrets bow'd.
1373 A thousand lamentable objects there,
1374 In scorn of Nature, Art gave lifeless life:
1375 Many a dry drop seem'd a weeping tear,
1376 Shed for the slaughter'd husband by the wife:
1377 The red blood reek'd, to show the painter's strife;
1378 The dying eyes gleam'd forth their ashy lights,
1379 Like dying coals burnt out in tedious nights.
1380 There might you see the labouring pioner
1381 Begrim'd with sweat, and smeared all with dust;
1382 And from the towers of Troy there would appear
1383 The very eyes of men through loopholes thrust,
1384 Gazing upon the Greeks with little lust:
1385 Such sweet observance in this work was had,
1386 That one might see those far-off eyes look sad.
1387 In great commanders grace and majesty
1388 You might behold, triumphing in their faces;
1389 In youth, quick bearing and dexterity;
1390 And here and there the painter interlaces
1391 Pale cowards, marching on with trembling paces;
1392 Which heartless peasants did so well resemble,
1393 That one would swear he saw them quake and tremble.
1394 In Ajax and Ulysses, O, what art
1395 Of physiognomy might one behold!
1396 The face of either 'cipher'd either's heart;
1397 Their face their manners most expressly told:
1398 In Ajax' eyes blunt rage and rigour roll'd;
1399 But the mild glance that sly Ulysses lent
1400 Show'd deep regard and smiling government.
1401 There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand,
1402 As't were encouraging the Greeks to fight;
1403 Making such sober action with his hand
1404 That it beguiled attention, charm'd the sight:
1405 In speech, it seem'd, his beard, all silver white,
1406 Wagg'd up and down, and from his lips did fly
1407 Thin winding breath, which purl'd up to the sky.
1408 About him were a press of gaping faces,
1409 Which seem'd to swallow up his sound advice;
1410 All jointly listening, but with several graces,
1411 As if some mermaid did their ears entice;
1412 Some high, some low, the painter was so nice:
1413 The scalps of many, almost hid behind,
1414 To jump up higher seem'd to mock the mind.
1415 Here one man's hand lean'd on another's head,
1416 His nose being shadow'd by his neighbour's ear;
1417 Here one being throng'd bears back, all boll'n and red;
1418 Another smother'd seems to pelt and swear;
1419 And in their rage such signs of rage they bear,
1420 As, but for loss of Nestor's golden words,
1421 It seem'd they would debate with angry swords.
1422 For much imaginary work was there;
1423 Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,
1424 That for Achilles' image stood his spear,
1425 Grip'd in an armed hand; himself, behind,
1426 Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind:
1427 A hand, a foot, a face, a leg, a head,
1428 Stood for the whole to be imagined,
1429 And from the walls of strong-besieged Troy
1430 When their brave hope, bold Hector, march'd to field,
1431 Stood many Trojan mothers, sharing joy
1432 To see their youthful sons bright weapons wield;
1433 And to their hope they such odd action yield,
1434 That through their light joy seemed to appear,
1435 (Like bright things stain'd) a kind of heavy fear,
1436 And, from the strond of Dardan, where they fought,
1437 To Simois' reedy banks, the red blood ran,
1438 Whose waves to imitate the battle sought
1439 With swelling ridges; and their ranks began
1440 To break upon the galled shore, and than
1441 Retire again, till, meeting greater ranks,
1442 They join, and shoot their foam at Simois' banks.
1443 To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come,
1444 To find a face where all distress is stell'd.
1445 Many she sees where cares have carved some,
1446 But none where all distress and dolour dwell'd,
1447 Till she despairing Hecuba beheld,
1448 Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eyes,
1449 Which bleeding under Pyrrhus' proud foot lies.
1450 In her the painter had anatomiz'd
1451 Time's ruin, beauty's wrack, and grim care's reign:
1452 Her cheeks with chops and wrinkles were disguis'd;
1453 Of what she was no semblance did remain:
1454 Her blue blood, chang'd to black in every vein,
1455 Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed,
1456 Show'd life imprison'd in a body dead.
1457 On this sad shadow Lucrece spends her eyes,
1458 And shapes her sorrow to the beldame's woes,
1459 Who nothing wants to answer her but cries,
1460 And bitter words to ban her cruel foes:
1461 The painter was no god to lend her those;
1462 And therefore Lucrece swears he did her wrong,
1463 To give her so much grief, and not a tongue.
1464 'Poor instrument,' quoth she, 'without a sound,
1465 I'll tune thy woes with my lamenting tongue;
1466 And drop sweet balm in Priam's painted wound,
1467 And rail on Pyrrhus that hath done him wrong,
1468 And with my tears quench Troy that burns so long;
1469 And with my knife scratch out the angry eyes
1470 Of all the Greeks that are thine enemies.

Notes

TLN 1261syntax grammar
“The precedent whereof in Lucrece view”
'Precedent' here means 'example' or 'proof.' The narrator has just argued that no one can blame Lucrece for yielding under threat of death and public dishonour, and now says: look at Lucrece herself as the proof of that claim. 'Whereof' means 'of which.' 'Circumstances strong / Of present death' means the immediate threat of being killed if she resisted.
TLN 1268rhetorical device
“mild Patience bid fair Lucrece speak”
Patience is personified as a calming figure who prompts Lucrece to speak. This is prosopopoeia: giving an abstract quality a body that can act. The narrator tracks Lucrece's inner recovery — she has moved from numb shock to a moment of composure enough to address her weeping maid.
TLN 1298rhetorical device
“Conceit and grief an eager combat fight”
'Conceit' means 'thought' or 'imagination' — what the mind formulates to write. 'Will' (line 1299) means desire or raw feeling, not resolve. The stanza describes Lucrece hovering over the blank page, unable to commit words: every considered sentence ('what wit sets down') is immediately crossed out by her grief ('blotted straight with will'), and the press of competing drafts crowds together like people fighting to get through a door.
TLN 1310archaic vocab
“folds she up the tenor of her woe”
'Tenor' means 'substance' or 'main content' — the sum of what she has written. 'Schedule' (line 1312) is a short document or summary. The stanza explains why the letter says so little: Lucrece fears that if she writes out her rape, Collatine might believe she invited it ('hold it her own gross abuse') before she has had the chance to tell him in person with her tears and presence as proof of her innocence.
historical The founding of the Roman Republic
TLN 1332historical topical
“At Ardea to my lord with more than haste”
Ardea was the besieged city where Collatine and the other Roman officers, including Tarquin, were stationed when the poem's events began. Livy explains that the conversation about their wives' chastity — and the bet that Lucrece won — took place during the siege of Ardea. That scene of military boasting is the direct cause of everything that follows.
classical Tarquin and the rape of Lucrecehistorical The founding of the Roman Republic
TLN 1338archaic vocab
“The homely villain court'sies to her low”
'Homely villain' means a plain, humble servant — not a bad person. 'Villain' in Shakespeare's day still carried its older sense of 'farm-hand' or low-born man (from Latin villa, a farm). 'Without or yea or no' (line 1340) means without saying a word either way — the servant takes the letter in bashful silence. 'Pawn'd honest looks' (line 1351) means 'gave honest glances as a pledge,' substituting a look for a verbal promise.
TLN 1380archaic vocab
“the labouring pioner / Begrim'd with sweat”
A 'pioner' (also spelled 'pioneer') was a soldier whose job was digging — sapping trenches, undermining walls, clearing ground ahead of the main army. The word comes from French pionnier (a foot-soldier who goes ahead). Here the painting includes ordinary labourers of the siege, not just commanders, giving it documentary realism alongside the heroic scenes.
TLN 1394classical allusion
“In Ajax and Ulysses, O, what art / Of physiognomy might one behold”
Ajax and Ulysses were two of the greatest Greek warriors at Troy: Ajax was a massive, blunt fighter, and Ulysses (the Greek name is Odysseus) was famously clever and eloquent. The painter has put their characters into their faces — Ajax's 'blunt rage' versus Ulysses's 'deep regard and smiling government.' 'Physiognomy' was the practice of reading a person's character from their facial features, widely accepted in the period as a real science.
classical The Greek and Trojan heroes
TLN 1401classical allusion
“grave Nestor stand”
Nestor was the oldest of the Greek commanders at Troy, famous for long-winded but wise counsel; Homer repeatedly shows him working through his hand gestures and silver beard to hold the generals' attention. The stanza imagines the crowd around him so eager to hear that they crane and jostle — some so far back that only their scalps are visible, straining to jump up and see over others' heads.
classical The Greek and Trojan heroes
TLN 1417archaic vocab
“one being throng'd bears back, all boll'n and red”
'Boll'n' means 'swollen' — the man pushed in the crowd is red-faced and puffed up with the effort of shoving back. 'Pelt and swear' (line 1418) means to push hard and curse. 'As, but for loss of Nestor's golden words' (1420) means: the only thing stopping them from drawing swords is that they do not want to miss what Nestor is saying. The crowd scene captures the realistic friction of men pressed together in a mob trying to hear.
TLN 1430classical allusion
“bold Hector, march'd to field”
Hector was the greatest Trojan warrior, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, and Troy's chief defender against the Greeks. The painting shows the Trojan mothers watching their sons march out to fight behind Hector. Their joy is shadowed by fear — 'like bright things stain'd' — because every observer knows (as Shakespeare's reader knows) that Hector will eventually die at Achilles's hands, and Troy will fall.
classical The Greek and Trojan heroes
TLN 1444archaic vocab
“To find a face where all distress is stell'd”
'Stell'd' means 'fixed in place' like a star (from Latin stella), or engraved, painted permanently. Lucrece is looking through the painted faces for one that holds the whole weight of grief in a single expression — and eventually finds it in Hecuba's staring face. The word suggests both the painter's skill at fixing an expression and the totality of grief crystallized in one image.
TLN 1447classical allusion
“despairing Hecuba beheld, / Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eyes, / Which bleeding under Pyrrhus' proud foot lies”
Hecuba was the queen of Troy, wife of King Priam and mother of Hector and Paris. Pyrrhus (also called Neoptolemus) was the son of Achilles, who killed Priam at the altar of his own palace as Troy burned. Hecuba watches Priam die under Pyrrhus's foot — the image of absolute grief at total destruction. The painter has turned her face into a portrait of ruin itself: wrinkles, collapsed flesh, blue blood gone black in her veins.
classical Hecuba, Queen of Troyclassical The fall of Troy: Pyrrhus and Priam
TLN 1458rhetorical device
“shapes her sorrow to the beldame's woes”
'Beldame' means an old woman — here Hecuba. Lucrece uses the painted figure as a mould for her own grief: she 'shapes' (forms, models) her sorrow to fit the old queen's. This is the scene's central rhetorical move — finding an objective correlative in art for a private feeling. The narrator's complaint that the painter 'did her wrong / To give her so much grief, and not a tongue' frames the limitation of visual art: the painting cannot speak, only suffer.
classical Hecuba, Queen of Troyclassical Philomela
TLN 1465rhetorical device
“I'll tune thy woes with my lamenting tongue”
Lucrece addresses the painted Hecuba directly, promising to give the mute image a voice. She will 'tune' (set to her own key of grief) the old queen's silent woes, drop imaginary balm on Priam's painted wound, curse Pyrrhus, and even scratch out the eyes of the painted Greeks with a knife. The speech turns outward violence on a canvas image as a surrogate for the violence she cannot yet act on in reality.
historical The founding of the Roman Republic