Three times with sighs she gives her sorrow fire, And now this pale swan in her watery nest Then be this all the task it hath to say: By foul enforcement might be done to me, 2 At length ADDRESS'D to answer his desire,] Address'd, is ready, prepared. So, in King Henry V.: "To-morrow for the march are we address'd." MALONE. 3 Dear husband, in the interest of thy bed A stranger came, and on THAT PILLOW LAY WHERE THOU WAST WONT TO REST THY WEARY HEAD;] Vestigia viri alieni, Collatine, in lecto sunt tuo." Liv. lib. i. сар. 58. Since the former edition I find these words had been translated by Painter in his novel: "Alas, Collatine, the steppes of another man be now fixed in thy bed." Palace of Pleasure, vol. i. fol. 6. MALONE. Peradventure the pillow which the lady here speaketh of, was what in a former stanza is denominated the heart of all her land. Tarquin slept not, it is to be presumed, though, like lachimo, he had that was well worth watching. AMNER. For in the dreadful dead of dark midnight, For some hard-favour'd groom of thine, quoth he, I'll murder straight, and then I'll slaughter thee, With this I did begin to start and cry, I should not live to speak another word: The adulterate death of Lucrece and her groom. Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak, That my poor beauty had purloin'd his eyes, O, teach me how to make mine own excuse! Though my gross blood be stain'd with this abuse, Immaculate and spotless is my mind; That was not forc'd; that never was inclin'd To accessary yieldings, but still pure Lo here, the hopeless merchant of this loss, But wretched as he is, he strives in vain ; As through an arch the violent roaring tide Back to the strait that forc'd him on so fast; Which speechless woe of his, poor she attendeth, 4 As through an arch the violent roaring tide Out-runs the eye that doth behold his haste, &c.] So, in Coriolanus: "Ne'er through an arch so hurry'd the blown tide, "As the recomforted through the gates." MALOne. 5 In rage sent out, recall'd in rage, being past :] Should we not read: "In rage sent out, recall'd, the rage being past." FARMER. 6 To drown ONE woe, one pair of weeping eyes.] The quarto has: "To drown on woe-." On and one are perpetually confounded in old English books. And for my sake, when I might charm thee so, Thine, mine, his own; suppose thou dost defend me From what is past; the help that thou shalt lend me But ere I name him, you fair lords, quoth she, To chase injustice with revengeful arms: At this request, with noble disposition What is the quality of mine offence, See vol. xv. p. 291, n. 6. The former does not seem to have any meaning here. The edition of 1600 has-one woe. We might read: "To drown in woe one pair of weeping eyes." MALONE. 7 For sparing justice feeds iniquity.] So, in Romeo and Juliet: Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill." MALONE. 8 Knights, by their oaths, should right poor ladies' harms.] Here one of the laws of chivalry is somewhat prematurely introduced. MALONE. My low-declined honour to advance ? The poison'd fountain clears itself again; And why not I from this compelled stain ?] There are perhaps few who would not have acquiesced in the justice of this reasoning. It did not however, as we learn from history, satisfy this admired heroine of antiquity. Her conduct on this occasion has been the subject, of much speculation. It is not alledged by any of the historians that actual violence was offered to her. Διὰ μεν ἂν ταυτ' (says Dion) ΟΥΚ ΑΚΟΥΣΑ δὴ ἐμοιχεύθη. Why then, it is asked, did she not suffer death rather than submit to her ravisher? An ingenious French writer thinks she killed herself too late to be entitled to any praise. [Les Oeuvres de Sarazin, p. 182, edit. 1694.]-A venerable father of the church (St. Austin) censures her still more severely, concluding his strictures on her conduct with this dilemma: "Ita hæc causa ex utroque latere coarctatur; ut, si extenuatur homicidium, adulterium confirmetur; si purgatur adulterium, homicidium cumulatur; nec omnino invenitur exitus, ubi dicitur, si adulterata, cur laudata? si pudica, cur occisa?"-On these words a writer of the last century [Renatus Laurentius de la Barre] formed the following Latin Epigram: Si tibi forte fuit, Lucretia, gratus adulter, Quis furor est hostis crimine velle mori?. "If Tarquin's guilt, Lucretia, pleas'd thy soul, The ladies must determine the question. I am indebted to a friend for perhaps the best defence that can be made for this celebrated suicide: Heu! misera, ante alias, Lucretia! rumor iniquus Me referet pactam me violâsse fidem? Criminis et socius fingetur servus? Imago |