81
to potential purchasers that the
author of a book had an eminent
patron, and perhaps in the hope
of a reward—two guineas
was a standard sum—from
the dedicatee. But the warmth
of affection—indeed, the “love...
without end”—expressed here has
understandably given rise to the
suggestion that Shakespeare had a
genuinely close friendship with the
young, precociously talented, and
remarkably good-looking aristocrat.
After the dedication comes
“The Argument,” a prose summary
of the poem’s action. The story it
tells differs somewhat from that of
the poem itself, and it may not have
been written by Shakespeare.
Style and reception
The poem is written in the seven-line
stanza form known as rhyme royal,
which Shakespeare also uses in “A
Lover’s Complaint.” Each line is an
iambic pentameter—ten syllables in
which, normally (although with
variations), every other syllable is
stressed, as, for example in line 6:
“And girdle with embracing flames
the waist.” The lines rhyme a b a b b
c c. The tone, unlike that of Venus
and Adonis, is deadly serious
throughout, and there are many
digressions from the basic narrative.
The opening sequence, with
its intense account of Tarquin’s
tormented state of mind as he
approaches Lucrece’s chamber,
is the most vividly powerful.
Shakespeare recalls the events and
style of this poem in later writings,
most memorably when Macbeth,
on his way to murder King Duncan,
speaks of “withered murder” which,
“With Tarquin’s ravishing strides,
towards his design / Moves like a
ghost” (Macbeth 2.1.52–56).
Like Venus and Adonis, the
poem was popular right from its
first publication. Six editions
appeared in Shakespeare’s lifetime,
with another three by 1655. There
are several admiring contemporary
references to it. In 1818, the English
poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote
of The Rape of Lucrece that the
poem “gave ample proof of his
possession of a most profound,
energetic, and philosophical mind,
without which he might have
pleased, but could not have been
a great dramatic poet.”
The poem’s rhetorical style fell
out of fashion in later times, but
more recently it has come to be
admired for its profoundly dramatic
quality and for its anticipations of
Shakespeare’s later work, especially
in his plays based on Roman
history and in Macbeth.Britten’s opera
In 1946, British composer Benjamin
Britten wrote an opera based on
Shakespeare’s story. He was inspired
on seeing a play adapted from the
poem by French playwright André
Obey. Britten’s work is a “chamber
opera”—an intimate work with
13 musicians and eight singers. ■THE FREELANCE WRITER
Even here she sheathèd in her
harmless breast
A harmful knife, that thence
her soul unsheathed.
That blow did bail it from the
deep unrest
Of that polluted prison where
it breathed.
The Rape of Lucrece
ll.1723–1726Classical tale
Like Venus and Adonis, The
Rape of Lucrece is an example
of a literary genre that
flourished in the 1590s: long,
classically based narrative
poems telling stories of
romantic love, often inspired
in both tone and subject
matter by the Roman poet
Ovid, whose writings were
much studied in grammar
schools such as that of
Stratford-upon-Avon.
Unlike Venus and Adonis,
this time the subject matter
is historical, not mythical.
The events took place in
509 BCE and were already
legendary by the time of the
first surviving account, by
the Roman historian Livy in
his history of Rome published
between 27 and 25 BCE.
Shakespeare seems mainly to
have used the account given
by Ovid in his poem Fasti,
known in English as The Book
of Days, or Chronicles, first
published in 8 CE. He seems
also to have drawn on the
Roman historian Livy and
other sources. Shakespeare
concentrates on the private
rather than the political
aspects of the story, and
makes a little narrative
material go a long way.