Coosening the pillow of a lawfull kisse Who therefore angry seems to part in sunder Swelling on either side to want his blisse Between whose hils her head intombed is Where like a vertuous monument she lies To be admir'd of lewde vnhallowed eies Without the bed hir other faire hand was On the greene couerlet whose perfect white Showed like an Aprill dazie on the grasse With pearly swet resembling dewe of night Her eyes like Marigolds had sheathd their light And canopied in darknesse sweetly lay Till they might open to adorne the day Her haire like golden threeds plaid with her breath O modest wantons wanton modesty Showring lifes triumph in the map of death And deaths dim looke in lifes mortality Each in her sleepe themselues so beautifie As if between them twaine there were no strife But that life liu'd in death and death in life Her breasts like iuory globes cirdled with blew A paire of maiden worlds vnconquered Saue of their Lord no bearing yoke they knew And him by oath they truly honoured These worlds in Tarquin new ambition bred Who like a foule vsurper went about From this faire throne to heaue the owner out What could he see but mightely he noted What did he note but strongly he desired What he beheld on that he firmly doted And in his will his wilfull eye he tired With more then admiration he admired Her azure vaines her alablaster skinne Her corall lips her snow white dimpled chin As the grim Lion fauneth ore his pray Sharpe hunger by the conquest satisfied So ore this sleeping soule doth TARQVIN stay His rage of lust by gazing qualified Slackt not supprest for standing by her side His eye which late this mutiny restraines Vnto a greater vprore tempts his vaines And they like stragling slaues for pillage fighting Obdurate vassals fell exploits effecting In bloudy death and rauishment delighting Nor childrens teares nor mothers grones respecting Swell in their pride the onset still expecting Anon his beating heart alarum striking Giues the hot charge and bids them doe their liking His drumming heart cheares vp his burning eye His eye commends the leading to his hand His hand as proud of such a dignity Smoking with pride marcht on to make his stand On her bare breasts the heart of all her land VVhose ranckes of blew vaines as his hand did scale Left their round turrets destitute and pale They mustring to the quiet Cabinet Where their deare gouernesse and Lady lies Do tell her she is dreadfully beset And fright her with confusion of their cries She much amaz'd breakes ope her lockt vp eies Who peeping foorth this tumult to behold Are by his flaming torch dim'd and controld Imagine her as one in dead of night From forth dull sleepe by dreadfull fancy waking That thinks she hath beheld some gastly sprite Whose grim aspect sets euery ioynt a shaking What terrour t is but she in worser taking From sleepe disturbd heedfully doth view The sight which makes supposed terror rue Wrapt and confounded in a thousand feares Like to a new-kild bird she trembling lies She dares not looke yet winking there appeares Quicke shifting Antiques vgly in her eyes Such shadowes are the weake braines forgeries Who angry that the eyes flie from their lights In darknesse daunts them with more dreadfull sights His hand that yet remaines vpon her brest Rude Ram to batter such an Iuory wall May feele her heart poore Citizen distrest Wounding it selfe to death rise vp and fall Beating her bulke that his hand shakes withall This moues in him more rage and lesser pitty To make the breach and enter this sweet City First like a trumpet doth his tongue begin To sound a parly to his hartlesse foe Who ore the white sheet peeres her whiter chin The reason of this rash alarme to know Which he by dumbe demeanor seekes to show But she with vehement prayers vrgeth still Vnder what colour he commits this ill Thus he replies the colour in thy face That euen for anger makes the Lilly pale And the red Rose blush at her owne disgrace Shall plead for me and tell my louing tale Vnder that colour am I come to scale Thy neuer conquered Fort the fault is thine For those thine eyes betray thee vnto mine Thus I forestall thee if thou meane to chide Thy beauty hath insnar'd thee to this night Where thou with patience must my will abide My will that markes thee for my earths delight Which I to conquer sought with all my might But as reproofe and reason beat it dead By thy bright beauty it was newly bred I see what crosses my attempts will bring I know what thornes the growing Rose defends I thinke the hony garded with a sting All this before hand counsell comprehends But will is deafe and heares no heedfull friends Onely he hath an eie to gaze on beauty And dotes on what he lookes gainst law or duty I haue debated euen in my soule What wrong what shame what sorrow I shall breed But nothing can affections course controle Or stop the headlong fury of his speed I know repentant teares insue the deed Reproch disdaine and deadly enmity Yet striue I to imbrace mine infamy This said he shakes aloft his Romane blade Which like a Faulcon towring in the skies Coucheth the fowle below with his wings shade Whose crooked beake threats if he mount he dies So vnder his insulting Fauchion lies Harmelesse Lucretia marking what he tels With trembling feare as fowle heare Faulcons bels Lucrece quoth he this night I must enioy thee If thou deny then force must work my way For in thy bed I purpose to destroy thee That done some worthlesse slaue of thine I le slay To kill thine honor with thy liues decay And in thy dead armes doe I meane to place him Swearing I slew him seeing thee imbrace him So thy suruiuing husband shall remaine The scornefull marke of euery open eye Thy kinsmen hang their heads at this disdaine Thy issue blurd with namelesse bastardy And thou the Author of their obloquy Shall haue thy trespasse cited vp in rimes And sung by children in succeeding times But if thou yeeld I rest thy secret friend The fault vnknowne is as a thought vnacted A little harme done to a great good end Fot lawfull policy remaines enacted The poisonous simple sometime is compacted In purest compounds being so applied His venome in effect is purified Then for thy husband and thy childrens sake Tender my suit bequeath not to their lot The shame that from them no deuice can take The blemish that will neuer be forgot Worse then a slauish wipe or birth-houres blot For markes descried in mens natiuity Are Natures faults not their owne infamy Here with a Cocka-trice dead killing eye He rowseth vp himselfe and makes a pause While she the picture of pure piety Like a white Hinde beneath the gripes sharpe clawes Pleads in a wildernesse where are no lawes To the rough beast that knowes no gentle
sounds weake arbitrators Busie your selues in skil-contending schooles Debate where leasure serues with dul debators To trembling Clyents be you mediators For me I force not argument a straw Since that my case is past the help of law In vaine I raile at Opportunity At Time at Tarquin and vnsearchfull night In vaine I cauill with mine infamy In vaine I spurne at my confirm'd despight This helplesse smoke of words doth me no right The remedy indeed to do me good Is to let foorth my foule defiled blood Poore hand why quiuerest thou at this decree Honor thy selfe to rid me of this shame For if I die my Honor liues in thee But if I liue thou liu'st in my defame Since thou couldst not defend thy loyall Dame And wast affeard to scratch her wicked Foe Kill both thy selfe and her for yeelding so This said from her betumbled couch she starts To finde some desperate instrument of death But this no slaughterhouse no toole imparts To make more vent for passage of her breath Which thrunging through her lips so vanisheth As smoake from Aetna that in aire consumes Or that which from discharged Canon fumes In vaine quoth she I liue and seeke in vaine Some happy meane to end a haplesse life I fear'd by Tarquins Fauchion to be slaine Yet for the selfe-same purpose seeke a knife But when I feard I was a loyall wife So am I now O no that cannot be Of that true type hath Tarquin rifled me O that is gone for which I sought to liue And therefore now I need not feare to die To cleare this spot by death at least I giue A badge of Fame to slaunders liuery A dying life to liuing infamy Poore helplesse helpe the treasure stolne away To burne the guiltlesse casket where it lay Well well deare Colatine thou shalt not know The stained tast of violated troth I will not wrong thy true affection so To flatter thee with an infringed oath This bastard grasse shall neuer come to growth He shall not boast who did thy stocke pollute That thou art doting father of his fruit Nor shall he smile at thee in secret thought Nor laugh with his companions at thy state But thou shalt know thy interest was not bought Basely with gold but stolne from forth thy gate For me I am the mistresse of my fate And with my trespasse neuerwill dispence Till life to death acquit my forst offence I will not poison thee with my attaint Nor fold my fault in cleanly coyn'd excuses My sable ground of sinne I will not paint To hide the truth of this false nights abules My tongue shall vtter all mine eyes like sluces As from a mountaine spring that feeds a dale Shall gush pure streames to purge my impure tale By this lamenting Philomele had ended The well-tun'd warble ofher nightly sorrow And solemne night with slow sad gate descended To ougly Hell when loe the blushing morrow Lends light to all faire eyes that light would borrow But clowdy Lucrece shames her selfe to see And therefore still in night would cloistred be Reuealing day through euery cranny spies And seems to point her out where she sits weeping To whom she sobbing speakes O eye of eyes Why pry'st thou through my window leaue thy peeping Mock with thy tickling beames eyes that are sleeping Brand not my forehead with thy piercing light For day hath nought to do what 's done by night Thus cauils she with euery thing she sees True griefe is fond and testie as a childe Who way-ward once his mood with nought agrees Old woes not infant sorrowes beare them milde Continuance tames the one the other wilde Like an vnpractiz'd swimmer plunging stil With too much labour drowns for want of skill So she deepe drenched in a Sea of care Holds disputation with each thing she viewes And to her selfe all sorrow doth compare No obiect but her passions strength renewes And as one shifts another straight insewes Sometimes her griefe is dumbe and hath no words Sometime t is mad and too much talke affoords The little birds that tune their mornings ioy Make her mones mad with their sweet melodie For mirth doth search the bottome of annoy Sad soules are slaine in merry company Griefe best is pleased with griefes societie True sorrow then is feelingly suffiz'd When with like semblance it is simpathiz'd T is double death to drowne in ken of shore He ten times pines that pines beholding food To see the salue doth make the wound ake more Great griefe grieues most at that would do it good Deepe woes roule forward like a gentle floud Who being stopt the bounding banks oreflowes Griefe dallied with nor law nor limit knowes You mocking Birds quoth she your tunes intombe Within your hollow swelling feathred breasts And in my hearing be you euer dumbe My restlesse discord loues no stops nor rests A wofull hostesse brooks not merry guests Relish your nimble notes to pleasing eares Distresse likes dumps when time is kept with teares Come Philomele that singst of rauishment Make thy sad groue in my disheueld heare As the danke earth weepes at thy languishment So I at each sad straine will straine a teare And with deepe groanes the Diapason beare For burthen-wise I le hum on Tarquin still While thou on Tereus descants better skill And whiles against a thorne thou bearst thy part To keepe thy sharpe woes waking wretched I To imitate thee well against my heart Will sixe a sharpe knife to affright mine eye Who if it winke shall thereon fall and die These meanes as frets vpon an instrument Shall tune our heart-strings to true languishment And for poore bird thou sing'st not in the day As shaming any eye should thee behold Some darke deepe desart seated from the way That knowes nor parching heat nor freezing cold Will we finde out and there we will vnfold To creatures stern sad tunes to change their kinds Since men proue beasts let beasts beare gentle minds As the poore frighted Deere that stands at gaze Wildly determining which way to fly Or one incompast with a winding maze That cannot tread the way out readily So with her selfe is she in mutinie To liue or die which of the twaine were better When life is sham'd and death reproches detter To kill my selfe quoth she alacke what were it But with my body my poore soules pollution They that loose halfe with greater patience beare it Then they whose whole is swallowed in confusion That mother tries a mercilesse conclusion Who hauing two sweet babes when death takes one Will slay the other and be nurse to none My body or my soule which was the dearer When the one pure the other made diuine Whose loue of either to my selfe was nearer When both were kept for Heauen and Colatine Ay me the barke pild from the lofty Pine His leaues will wither and his sap decay So must my soule her barke being pild away Her house is sackt her quiet interrupted Her mansion battered by
my will I le murther straight and then I le slaughter thee And sweare I found you where you did fulfill The lothsome act of Lust and so did kill The Leachers in their deed this act will be My fame and thy perpetuall infamie With this I did begin to start and cry And then against my heart he sets his sword Swearing vnlesse I tooke all patiently I should not liue to speake another word So should my shame still rest vpon record And neuer be forgot in mightie Rome Th' adulterat death of Lucrece and her groome Mine enemy was strong my poore selfe weake And farre the weaker with so strong a feare My bloudie Iudge forbad my tongue to speake No rightfull plea might plead for Iustice there His scarlet lust came euidence to sweare That my poore beautie had purloin'd his eies And when the Iudge is rob'd the prisoner dies O teach me how to make mine owne excuse Or at the least this refuge let me finde Though my grose bloud be staind with this abuse Immaculate and spotlesse is my minde That was not forc't that neuer was inclin'd To accessarie yeeldings but still pure Doth in her poison'd closet yet indure Loe here the hopelesse Marchant of this losse With head inclin'd and voice dam'd vp with wo With sad set eies and wretched armes a crosse From lips new waxen pale begins to blow The griefe away that stops his answere so But wretched as he is he striues in vaine What he breaths out his breath drinks vp againe As through an Arch the violent roaring Tide Out runs the eye that doth behold his hast Yet in the Edie boundeth in his pride Back to the straite that forst him on so fast In rage sent out recald in rage being past Euen so his sighs his sorrows make a saw To push griefe on and back the same griefe draw Which speechlesse woe of his poore she attendeth And his vntimely frenzie thus awaketh Deare Lord thy sorrow to my sorrow lendeth Another power no floud by raining slaketh My woe too sensible thy passion maketh More feeling painfull let it then suffice To drowne one woe one paire of weeping eyes And for my sake when I might charme thee so For she that was thy Lucrece now attend me Be sodainly reuenged on my foe Thine mine his owne suppose thou dost defend me From what is past the help that thou shalt lend me Comes all too late yet let the Traytor die For sparing Iustice feeds iniquitie But ere I name him you faire Lords quoth she Speaking to those that came with Collatine Shall plight your honourable faiths to me With swift pursute to venge this wrong of mine For t is a meritorious faire designe To chase Iniustice with reuengefull armes Knights by their oaths should right poore Ladies harms At this request with noble disposition Each present Lord began to promise aid As bound in knighthood to her imposition Longing to heare the hatefull foe bewrard But the that yet her sad taske hath not said The protestation stops O speake quoth she How may this forced staine be wipt from me What is the qualitie of mine offence Being constrain'd with dreadfull circumstances May my pure mind with the foule act dispence My low declined honour to aduance May any termes acquit me from this chance The poysoned fountaine cleares it selfe againe And why not I from this compelled staine With this they all at once began to say Her bodies staine the minde vntainted cleares While with a ioylesse smile she turnes away The face that map which deepe impression beares Of hard misfortune caru'd it in with teares No no quoth she no Dame hereafter liuing By my excuse shall claime excuses giuing Here with a sigh as if her heart would breake She throwes forth Tarquins name he he she saies But more then he her poore tongue could not speake Till after many accents and delaies Vntimely breathings sick and short assaies She vtters this he he faire Lord t is he That guids this hand to giue this wound to me Euen here sheath'd in her harmelesse breast A harmefull knife that thence her soule vnsheathed That blow did bayle it from the deepe vnrest Of that polluted prison where it breathed Her contrite sighs vnto the clouds bequeathed Her winged spright and through her wounds doth flye Lifes lasting date from cancel'd destinie Stone still astonisht with this deadly deed Stood Colatine and all his Lordly crue Till Lucrece father that beholds her bleed Himselfe on her self-slaughtered body threw And from the purple fountaine Brutus drew The murdrous knife and as it left the place Her bloud in poore reuenge held it in chase And bubling from her brest it doth deuide In two slow riuers that the crimson bloud Circles her body in on euery side Who like a late sackt Iland vastly stood Bare and vnpeopled in this fearefull flood Some of her blood still pure and red remain'd And some lookt blacke and that false Tarquin stain'd About the mourning and congealed face Of that black blood a watry rigoll goes Which seemes to weepe vpon the tainted place And euer since as pitying Lucrece woes Corrupted blood some watry token showes And bloud vntainted still doth red abide Blushing at that which is so putrifide Daughter deare daughter old Lucretius cries That life was mine which thou hast here depriued If in the childe the fathers image lies Where shall I liue now Lucrece is vnliued Thou wast not to this end from me deriued If children praedecease progenitours We are their off-spring and they none of ours Poore broken glasse I often did behold In thy sweete semblance my old age new borne But now that faire fresh mirrour dim and old Shewes me a barebon'd death by time out worne O from my cheeks my image thou hast torne And shiuerd all the beautie from my glasse That I no more can see what once I was O time cease thou thy course and hast no longer If thou surcease to be that should suruiue Shall rotten death make conquest of the stronger And leaue the foultring feeble soules a liue The old Bees die the yong possesse their hiue Then liue sweet Lucrece liue againe and see Thy father die and not thy father thee By this stars Collatine as from a dreame And bids Lucretius giue his sorrow place And then in Key cold Lucrece bleeding streame He fals and bathes the pale feare in his face And counterfeits to die with her a space Till manly shame bids him possesse his breath And liue to be reuenged on her death The deepe vexation of his inward soule Hath seru'd a dumbe arrest vpon his tongue Who made that sorrow should his vse controle Or keepe him from heart-easing words so long Begins to talke but through his lips do throng Weak words so thick comes in his poore hearts aid That no man could distinguish what he said Yet sometime Tarquin was pronounced plaine But through his teeth as if his name he tore This