Part 9

Lines 1681–1855

1681 'And for my sake, when I might charm thee so,
1682 For she that was thy Lucrece,—now attend me;
1683 Be suddenly revenged on my foe,
1684 Thine, mine, his own: suppose thou dost defend me
1685 From what is past: the help that thou shalt lend me
1686 Comes all too late, yet let the traitor die;
1687 For sparing justice feeds iniquity.
1688 'But ere I name him, you fair lords,' quoth she,
1689 (Speaking to those that came with Collatine)
1690 'Shall plight your honourable faiths to me,
1691 With swift pursuit to venge this wrong of mine;
1692 For 'tis a meritorious fair design
1693 To chase injustice with revengeful arms:
1694 Knights, by their oaths, should right poor ladies' harms.'
1695 At this request, with noble disposition
1696 Each present lord began to promise aid,
1697 As bound in knighthood to her imposition,
1698 Longing to hear the hateful foe bewray'd.
1699 But she, that yet her sad task hath not said,
1700 The protestation stops. 'O, speak,' quoth she,
1701 'How may this forced stain be wip'd from me?
1702 'What is the quality of mine offence,
1703 Being constrain'd with dreadful circumstance?
1704 May my pure mind with the foul act dispense,
1705 My low-declined honour to advance?
1706 May any terms acquit me from this chance?
1707 The poison'd fountain clears itself again;
1708 And why not I from this compelled stain?
1709 With this, they all at once began to say,
1710 Her body's stain her mind untainted clears;
1711 While with a joyless smile she turns away
1712 The face, that map which deep impression bears
1713 Of hard misfortune, carv'd in it with tears.
1714 'No, no,' quoth she, 'no dame, hereafter living,
1715 By my excuse shall claim excuse's giving.
1716 Here with a sigh, as if her heart would break,
1717 She throws forth Tarquin's name: 'He, he,' she says,
1718 But more than 'he' her poor tongue could not speak;
1719 Till after many accents and delays,
1720 Untimely breathings, sick and short assays,
1721 She utters this: 'He, he, fair lords, 'tis he,
1722 That guides this hand to give this wound to me.'
1723 Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast
1724 A harmful knife, that thence her soul unsheath'd:
1725 That blow did bail it from the deep unrest
1726 Of that polluted prison where it breath'd:
1727 Her contrite sighs unto the clouds bequeath'd
1728 Her winged sprite, and through her wounds doth fly
1729 Life's lasting date from cancell'd destiny.
1730 Stone-still, astonish'd with this deadly deed,
1731 Stood Collatine and all his lordly crew;
1732 Till Lucrece' father that beholds her bleed,
1733 Himself on her self-slaughter'd body threw;
1734 And from the purple fountain Brutus drew
1735 The murderous knife, and, as it left the place,
1736 Her blood, in poor revenge, held it in chase;
1737 And bubbling from her breast, it doth divide
1738 In two slow rivers, that the crimson blood
1739 Circles her body in on every side,
1740 Who, like a late-sack'd island, vastly stood
1741 Bare and unpeopled, in this fearful flood.
1742 Some of her blood still pure and red remain'd,
1743 And some look'd black, and that false Tarquin stain'd.
1744 About the mourning and congealed face
1745 Of that black blood a watery rigol goes,
1746 Which seems to weep upon the tainted place:
1747 And ever since, as pitying Lucrece' woes,
1748 Corrupted blood some watery token shows;
1749 And blood untainted still doth red abide,
1750 Blushing at that which is so putrified.
1751 'Daughter, dear daughter,' old Lucretius cries,
1752 'That life was mine which thou hast here depriv'd.
1753 If in the child the father's image lies,
1754 Where shall I live now Lucrece is unliv'd?
1755 Thou wast not to this end from me deriv'd
1756 If children pre-decease progenitors,
1757 We are their offspring, and they none of ours.
1758 'Poor broken glass, I often did behold
1759 In thy sweet semblance my old age new born;
1760 But now that fair fresh mirror, dim and old,
1761 Shows me a bare-bon'd death by time outworn;
1762 O, from thy cheeks my image thou hast torn!
1763 And shiver'd all the beauty of my glass,
1764 That I no more can see what once I was!
1765 'O time, cease thou thy course and last no longer,
1766 If they surcease to be that should survive.
1767 Shall rotten death make conquest of the stronger,
1768 And leave the faltering feeble souls alive?
1769 The old bees die, the young possess their hive:
1770 Then live, sweet Lucrece, live again, and see
1771 Thy father die, and not thy father thee!'
1772 By this starts Collatine as from a dream,
1773 And bids Lucretius give his sorrow place;
1774 And then in key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream
1775 He falls, and bathes the pale fear in his face,
1776 And counterfeits to die with her a space;
1777 Till manly shame bids him possess his breath,
1778 And live, to be revenged on her death.
1779 The deep vexation of his inward soul
1780 Hath serv'd a dumb arrest upon his tongue;
1781 Who, mad that sorrow should his use control,
1782 Or keep him from heart-easing words so long,
1783 Begins to talk; but through his lips do throng
1784 Weak words, so thick come in his poor heart's aid,
1785 That no man could distinguish what he said.
1786 Yet sometime 'Tarquin' was pronounced plain,
1787 But through his teeth, as if the name he tore.
1788 This windy tempest, till it blow up rain,
1789 Held back his sorrow's tide, to make it more;
1790 At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er:
1791 Then son and father weep with equal strife,
1792 Who should weep most, for daughter or for wife.
1793 The one doth call her his, the other his,
1794 Yet neither may possess the claim they lay,
1795 The father says 'She's mine,' 'O, mine she is,'
1796 Replies her husband: 'do not take away
1797 My sorrow's interest; let no mourner say
1798 He weeps for her, for she was only mine,
1799 And only must be wail'd by Collatine.'
1800 'O,' quoth Lucretius, 'I did give that life
1801 Which she too early and too late hath spill'd.'
1802 'Woe, woe,' quoth Collatine, 'she was my wife,
1803 I owed her, and 'tis mine that she hath kill'd.'
1804 'My daughter' and 'my wife' with clamours fill'd
1805 The dispers'd air, who, holding Lucrece' life,
1806 Answer'd their cries, 'My daughter!' and 'My wife!'
1807 Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' side,
1808 Seeing such emulation in their woe,
1809 Began to clothe his wit in state and pride,
1810 Burying in Lucrece' wound his folly's show.
1811 He with the Romans was esteemed so
1812 As silly-jeering idiots are with kings,
1813 For sportive words, and uttering foolish things:
1814 But now he throws that shallow habit by,
1815 Wherein deep policy did him disguise;
1816 And arm'd his long-hid wits advisedly,
1817 To check the tears in Collatinus' eyes.
1818 'Thou wronged lord of Rome,' quoth he, 'arise;
1819 Let my unsounded self, suppos'd a fool,
1820 Now set thy long-experienc'd wit to school.
1821 'Why, Collatine, is woe the cure for woe?
1822 Do wounds help wounds, or grief help grievous deeds?
1823 Is it revenge to give thyself a blow,
1824 For his foul act by whom thy fair wife bleeds?
1825 Such childish humour from weak minds proceeds:
1826 Thy wretched wife mistook the matter so,
1827 To slay herself, that should have slain her foe.
1828 'Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart
1829 In such relenting dew of lamentations,
1830 But kneel with me, and help to bear thy part,
1831 To rouse our Roman gods with invocations,
1832 That they will suffer these abominations,
1833 (Since Rome herself in them doth stand disgrac'd,)
1834 By our strong arms from forth her fair streets chas'd.
1835 'Now, by the Capitol that we adore,
1836 And by this chaste blood so unjustly stain'd,
1837 By heaven's fair sun that breeds the fat earth's store,
1838 By all our country rights in Rome maintain'd,
1839 And by chaste Lucrece' soul that late complain'd
1840 Her wrongs to us, and by this bloody knife,
1841 We will revenge the death of this true wife.'
1842 This said, he struck his hand upon his breast,
1843 And kiss'd the fatal knife, to end his vow;
1844 And to his protestation urg'd the rest,
1845 Who, wondering at him, did his words allow;
1846 Then jointly to the ground their knees they bow;
1847 And that deep vow, which Brutus made before,
1848 He doth again repeat, and that they swore.
1849 When they had sworn to this advised doom,
1850 They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence;
1851 To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,
1852 And so to publish Tarquin's foul offence:
1853 Which being done with speedy diligence,
1854 The Romans plausibly did give consent
1855 To Tarquin's everlasting banishment.

Notes

TLN 1687rhetorical device
“For sparing justice feeds iniquity”
Lucrece argues that a justice which spares the guilty — shows lenience — only nourishes wrongdoing. The line is a sententious couplet-close (a maxim clinching a rhyme-royal stanza), a device running throughout the poem to crystallize argument into memorable form.
TLN 1690archaic vocab
“Shall plight your honourable faiths to me”
'Plight' means to pledge or bind oneself by solemn oath. Lucrece demands that Collatine's companions formally swear revenge before she names Tarquin. Requiring the oath first — before naming the offender — is a deliberate rhetorical strategy: she cannot take back the name once spoken, so she secures their commitment while she still has leverage.
TLN 1698archaic vocab
“the hateful foe bewray'd”
'Bewray'd' means revealed or exposed. The lords want to hear the enemy's name disclosed. The word is now obsolete; it shares its root with 'betray' (Old English wregan, to accuse) and carried a shade of both denunciation and treacherous unmasking.
TLN 1702syntax grammar
“What is the quality of mine offence”
Lucrece asks whether the rape counts as her offence at all, since she was forced ('constrain'd with dreadful circumstance'). The next question — 'May my pure mind with the foul act dispense' — means: can my innocent will be counted as pardoning the physical act, so that my honour can be restored? She is reasoning through a legal-moral puzzle: if the mind did not consent, does the body's defilement still make her guilty?
TLN 1725archaic vocab
“That blow did bail it from the deep unrest / Of that polluted prison”
'Bail' is a legal term: to release a prisoner into someone's custody, securing their freedom by a guarantee. The knife-blow bails Lucrece's soul out of its 'prison' — the violated body — releasing it. The body, contaminated by rape, is figured as a jail from which death is the only lawful discharge.
TLN 1728archaic vocab
“through her wounds doth fly / Life's lasting date from cancell'd destiny”
'Cancell'd' is a legal term: a document is cancelled when it is crossed out or annulled, making it void. Lucrece's death cancels the fate decreed for her — by dying she escapes ('flies from') the dishonoured destiny her rape has written for her. 'Date' means the fixed term or duration of something (as in 'the date of a contract').
TLN 1734historical topical
“from the purple fountain Brutus drew / The murderous knife”
'Purple' here means crimson-red, the color of blood (from Latin purpureus, used for deep red as well as purple in classical texts). This Brutus is Lucius Junius Brutus, Lucrece's kinsman — not the Brutus who kills Julius Caesar centuries later. In Roman tradition, it is his act of taking the knife from Lucrece's body and displaying it publicly that transforms a private tragedy into a political revolution. He is an ancestor, not the same man.
historical The founding of the Roman Republichistorical Tarquin and the First Brutus
TLN 1740rhetorical device
“Who, like a late-sack'd island, vastly stood / Bare and unpeopled”
Lucrece's body, ringed by blood flowing outward in two streams, is compared to a recently plundered island: stripped of people and goods after an enemy raid ('sack'), left desolate. The simile maps military violence onto the violated body — the rape was itself a kind of sacking — and the flowing blood becomes the surrounding sea. 'Vastly' means as if a vast, empty waste.
TLN 1744archaic vocab
“About the mourning and congealed face / Of that black blood a watery rigol goes”
A 'rigol' is a ring or circle. The watery, lighter serum that separates from clotting blood forms a circular ring around the darker clot. The narrator's careful attention to the two kinds of blood — the red (pure) and the black (corrupted by Tarquin's crime) — gives the passage a clinical, almost ritual quality: even Lucrece's blood testifies to the distinction between her innocence and his guilt.
TLN 1774archaic vocab
“key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream”
'Key-cold' means as cold as a metal key — proverbially the coldest thing kept on a person's body, and hence a byword for the chill of death. Collatine falls and bathes his face in the stream of blood still flowing from Lucrece's cold body. The compound appears in a few other Elizabethan texts as a fixed expression for the coldness of a corpse.
TLN 1780archaic vocab
“Hath serv'd a dumb arrest upon his tongue”
Grief has 'served an arrest' on Collatine's tongue — stopped it legally, as a bailiff serves an arrest warrant on a person, seizing them and barring them from moving freely. The metaphor pictures anguish as a legal officer that silences speech. 'Dumb' means silent, unable to speak (not related to intelligence).
TLN 1809historical topical
“Began to clothe his wit in state and pride, / Burying in Lucrece' wound his folly's show”
Brutus has spent years pretending to be a fool — 'silly-jeering,' apparently witless — to survive under the tyrant king. Now, at Lucrece's body, he drops that disguise ('his folly's show') and reveals his true political intelligence. This feigned madness is a central element of the Brutus legend in both Livy and Ovid.
historical The founding of the Roman Republichistorical Tarquin and the First Brutus
TLN 1819archaic vocab
“Let my unsounded self, suppos'd a fool, / Now set thy long-experienc'd wit to school”
'Unsounded' means unfathomed, not yet plumbed to its depths — like a depth of water no one has measured. Brutus is saying: 'Let me, whose true depth has never been tested, now teach your long experience.' He is inverting the expected order: the apparent fool corrects the experienced lord. 'Set to school' means to instruct, as a teacher does a pupil.
TLN 1835historical topical
“Now, by the Capitol that we adore”
Brutus swears by Rome's most sacred hill, the Capitoline, site of the great temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus — the national seat of Roman religion and the focal point of state oaths. To swear 'by the Capitol' is the most solemn oath a Roman could take; this one becomes the founding oath of the Republic.
historical The founding of the Roman Republic
TLN 1849archaic vocab
“When they had sworn to this advised doom, / They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence”
'Advised' means deliberate, taken after careful consideration (not impulsive). 'Doom' means a solemn judgment or decree, not necessarily a death sentence — here it is the formal resolution to punish Tarquin. The oath they have sworn is a carefully weighed legal verdict before it is an act of vengeance.
TLN 1854archaic vocab
“The Romans plausibly did give consent / To Tarquin's everlasting banishment”
'Plausibly' here does not mean 'convincingly' (the modern sense) but means 'with applause, approvingly' — from Latin plausus (a clapping of hands). The Romans applauded and openly assented to the decree. The poem's final couplet delivers the political outcome of Lucrece's sacrifice: Rome expels its king forever. This is the founding moment of the Roman Republic.
historical The founding of the Roman Republic