文档介绍：THE RAPE OF LUCRECE
THE RAPE OF
LUCRECE
William Shakespeare
1
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY,EARL OF
SOUTHHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD.
THE love I dedicate to your lordship is without end; whereof this
pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety. The warrant I
have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored lines,
makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done is yours; what I have to
do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater,
my duty would show greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your
lordship, to whom I wish long life, still lengthened with all happiness.
Your lordship's in all duty, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
LUCIUS TARQUINIUS, for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus,
after he had caused his own father-in-law Servius Tullius to be cruelly
murdered, and, contrary to the Roman laws and customs, not requiring or
staying for the people's suffrages, had possessed himself of the kingdom,
went, panied with his sons and other noblemen of Rome, to besiege
Ardea. During which siege the principal men of the army meeting one
evening at the tent of Sextus Tarquinius, the king's son, in their discourses
after supper every mended the virtues of his own wife; among
whom Collatinus extolled the parable chastity of his wife Lucretia.
In that pleasant humour they all posted to Rome; and intending, by their
secret and sudden arrival, to make trial of that which every one had before
avouched, only Collatinus finds his wife, though it were late in the night,
spinning amongst her maids: the other ladies were all found dancing and
revelling, or in several disports. Whereupon the noblemen yielded
Collatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At that time Sextus
Tarquinius being inflamed with Lucrece' beauty, yet smothering his
passions for the present, departed with the rest back to the camp; from
whence he shortly after privily withdrew himsel