The Shakespeare Book

78

WHO BUYS

A MINUTE’S

MIRTH TO

WAIL A WEEK

THE RAPE OF LUCRECE (1593–1594)

T

he Rape of Lucrece is a poem

that tells the classical story of

the Roman general Tarquin,

who desires and rapes Lucrece, the

wife of his fellow warrior Collatinus

(called Collatine in the poem).

Shakespeare jumps straight into

the action in the opening lines:

“Lust-breathèd Tarquin leaves the

Roman host / And to Collatium

bears the lightless fire / Which, in

pale embers hid, lurks to aspire /

And girdle with embracing flames

the waist / Of Collatine’s fair love,

Lucrece the chaste.”

The narrator explains that

Tarquin has left the Roman camp

for Collatium because, on the

previous night, the warriors had

IN CONTEXT

THEMES

Lust, betrayal, honor

SETTING

Rome, 509 BCE

SOURCES

27–25 BCE History of Rome

by the Roman historian Livy.

8 CE The Book of Days by

the Roman poet Ovid.

LEGACY

1616 Six editions published

by the time of Shakespeare’s

death attest to the poem’s

popularity.

1818 English poet Samuel

Taylor Coleridge praises the

dramatic qualities of the work.

1931 French playwright André

Obey adapts the poem for the

stage in Le Viol de Lucrèce.

1946 English composer

Benjamin Britten writes an

opera based on the poem.