The Rape of Lucrece
A Study Guide
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Notes and Plot Summary by Michael J. Cummings © 2003

Background
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Setting: The time is immediately before the establishment of the Roman republic in 509 B.C. The places are Ardea, 24 miles south of Rome; Collatium, 10 miles east of Rome; and Rome. 
Date of Publication: On May 9, 1594, the poem was entered in the Hall Book of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, the English government's pre-publication registry. The poem was highly popular with educated readers. 
Alternate Titles: The poem was listed in the Hall Book under the title of The Ravyshement [Ravishment] of Lucrece but was published with the title Lucrece. The Rape of Lucrece was substituted as a title at a later date. 

Probable Main Sources

(1) The History of Rome, by Livy (full name, Titus Livius), was one of Shakespeare's most important sources for The Rape of Lucrece . Livy (59 B.C-17 A.D) wrote about early Rome–from its founding in 753 B.C. to the age of Caesar Augustus, down to about 9 B.C. Livy's History–told in 142 volumes, of which 35 survive intact and others survive in fragments or in references to his History in works of other writers–is a masterpiece and required reading for all historians. However, Livy was a moralist who wrote history as a reformer. He was also a layman who had little experience in the day-to-day workings of government. When writing, he sometimes accepted undocumented accounts–accounts more properly categorized as legend than as history. Such is his account of the rape of a woman named Lucretia (the Lucrece of Shakespeare's poem). The account is taken as fact by some, fiction by others. Thus, Livy–a rich source of information about early Rome during the age of kings–was not always reliable. (2) Fasti (Calendar) by the Roman poet Ovid (full name, Publius Ovidius Naso) was another important source of information. Shakespeare may have used an English translation of Fasti by Arthur Golding, although it is just as likely that he used an original Latin text. Of course, he may have paged through both texts while writing his poem. Ovid (43 B.C.-18 A.D.) is famous for his love poems, but Fasti was a 12-volume account of the Roman calendar that listed special events and festivals on a given day. "Book II" of Fasti tells the story of the rape of Lucretia, or Lucrece, because of its importance as a significant turning point in Roman history. Used as evidence of the corruption of the reigning King of Rome (his son was the rapist), the incident led to the overthrow of the king and the establishment of the Roman republic.

Type of Poem, Rhyme Scheme, and Meter

Type of Poem and Length: Narrative poem resembling a revenge tragedy; 1,855 lines 
Rhyme Scheme and Meter: The poem is in rhyme royal (or rime royal) with each stanza having seven lines in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ababbcc–that is, Line 1 rhymes with Line 3, Line 2 rhymes with Lines 4 and 5, and Line 6 rhymes with Line 7. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, pioneered this rhyme scheme in England in his works Troilus and Criseyde and The Parlement of Foules. Rhyme royal was going out of fashion when Shakespeare wrote Lucrece, although later poets–including John Milton in the 17th Century and John Masefield in the 20th–revived it. Stanza 8 of the poem aptly displays rhyme royal and iambic pentameter:
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..............A...From the besieged Ardea all in post,
..............B...Borne by the trustless wings of false desire,
..............A...Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host,
..............B...And to Collatium bears the lightless fire
..............B...Which, in pale embers hid, lurks to aspire
..............C...And girdle with embracing flames the waist
..............C...Of Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chaste.

Imagery

The language and imagery in the poem are elegant and accomplished, demonstrating great technical skill. Shakespeare was attempting to establish his reputation when he wrote the poem. If there is a weakness, it is that Lucrece sometimes resembles an automaton expressing emotions rather than feeling them. 

Dedication

Shakespeare dedicated The Rape of Lucrece to Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton. Wriothesley (1573-1624) was a patron of Shakespeare and other writers of the time. Although a favorite at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, his association with the headstrong Robert Devereux, the Second Earl of Essex–another fixture at court–led him to take part in Devereux’s 1601 rebellion against the queen. Wriothesley was sentenced to life imprisonment. 
Complete Text: Bartleby.com: The 1914 Oxford Text With Numbered Lines

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Summary of the Poem
Including Implied Historical Background and Key Passages
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003
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.......In the mid-Sixth Century, B.C., Lucius Tarquinius murders his father-in-law to become King of Rome. He is an arrogant, despotic ruler, fully deserving his epithet, Tarquin the Proud, or Tarquinius Superbus. Because he covets the town of Ardea, 24 miles south of Rome, he orders troops there to lay siege.
.......While encamped at Ardea, officers gather after supper at the tent of the king’s son, Tarquin, to socialize and tell stories. By and by, they begin extolling the virtues of their wives. One officer, Collatine, boasts that his wife, Lucrece, is by far the most beautiful and virtuous woman of all. His accounting of her excellent qualities arouses lust in the heart of young Tarquin; he must see this wonder for himself. So it is that he steals away to Collatine's home in Collatium, 10 miles east of Rome, where Lucrece manages the household in the absence of her husband. 
.......When he presents himself at her door as a comrade of her husband, she receives him hospitably. Her beauty and innocent charm astound him. Collatine’s praise of her, generous as it was, was not generous enough. He resolves to have her. Lucrece believes him honorable and upright, a fine and noble gentleman like her husband; she is trusting to a fault. The narrator draws back the curtain of her mind:

..............This earthly saint, adored by this devil,
..............Little suspecteth the false worshipper;
..............For unstain'd thoughts do seldom dream on evil. (85-87)

The clever Tarquin ingratiates himself with guileless Lucrece, praising her husband’s soldierly valor and “manly chivalry” (109).He also invents excuses for his visit, deciding to restrain his libido until nightfall. After supper, they while away the evening in conversation. When they retire to separate chambers, the omniscient narrator interprets Tarquin’s motives and, in doing so, preaches a lesson:

..............Those that much covet are with gain so fond,
..............For what they have not, that which they possess
..............They scatter and unloose it from their bond,
..............And so, by hoping more, they have but less;
..............Or, gaining more, the profit of excess
..............Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain,
..............That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain. (134-140)

.......When deepest night silences all living things, save for the howling wolf and the screeching owl, Tarquin steals forth to plunder his treasure. He lifts a latch. He knees open the door. Before him, Lucrece lies fast asleep. “Into the chamber wickedly he stalks, / And gazeth on her yet unstained bed" (365-366). Under his groping hands, Lucrece awakens and "Wrapp'd and confounded in a thousand fears, / Like to a new-kill'd bird she trembling lies" (456-457). She must submit to him willingly, he tells her, or he will take her by force. 'Lucrece,' quoth he,'this night I must enjoy thee: / If thou deny, then force must work my way" (512-513). Lucrece begs him, by all that is right and good, to leave her alone.

..............She conjures him by high almighty Jove,
..............By knighthood, gentry, and sweet friendship's oath,
..............By her untimely tears, her husband's love,
..............By holy human law, and common troth,
..............By heaven and earth, and all the power of both,
..............That to his borrow'd bed he make retire,
..............And stoop to honour, not to foul desire. (568-574)

.......Tarquin deafens his ears to her pleadings–and takes her. “The wolf hath seized his prey, the poor lamb cries” (677). Then he leaves her, a wretched, heartbroken woman, polluted to the deepest fathom of her soul. “She hath lost a dearer thing than life” (687). With her nails, she tears her flesh. She says:

.............."O Night, thou furnace of foul-reeking smoke,
..............Let not the jealous Day behold that face
..............Which underneath thy black all-hiding cloak
..............Immodestly lies martyr'd with disgrace!" (792-802)

In handwritten messages, she summons Collatine from Ardea and her father, Lucretius, from Rome. While awaiting their arrival, she reflects on a painting of the Trojan War and recalls the suffering that resulted in Troy from the event that caused it: the abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Greece, by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy.

.............."Here friend by friend in bloody channel lies,
..............And friend to friend gives unadvised wounds,
..............And one man's lust these many lives confounds:
..............Had doting Priam cheque'd his son's desire, 
..............Troy had been bright with fame and not with fire." (1487-1491)

Lucrece compares Tarquin with Paris, and herself with Priam.

.............."To me came Tarquin armed; so beguiled
..............With outward honesty, but yet defiled
..............With inward vice: as Priam him did cherish,
..............So did I Tarquin; so my Troy did perish." (1544-1547)

.......After her husband and her father arrive with friends,  Lucrece–now dressed in mournful black–tells them the shocking news, that she has been raped. "Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak, / And far the weaker with so strong a fear" (1646-1647). Then, before naming the rapist, she asks them to avenge the terrible crime:

..............“But ere I name him, you fair lords,” quoth she,
..............Speaking to those that came with Collatine,
..............“Shall plight your honourable faiths to me,
..............With swift pursuit to venge this wrong of mine;
..............For 'tis a meritorious fair design
..............To chase injustice with revengeful arms:
..............Knights, by their oaths, should right poor ladies' harms.” (1688-1694)

But when she names Tarquin, she plunges a knife into her own breast. Astonishment paralyzes Collatine. But her father throws himself in grief upon her, and Brutus withdraws the knife, releasing small rivers of blood. Brokenhearted Lucretius cries out to her, “That life was mine which thou hast here deprived” (1752). Collatine falls on his wife and in her blood “bathes the pale fear in his face” (1775) until “manly shame bids him possess his breath and live to be revenged on her death.” Brutus holds out the bloody weapon, saying, “By this bloody knife we will revenge the death of this true wife” (1840-41). His compatriots fall to their knees and swear they will.
.......They then bear the body of Lucrece through the streets of Rome and inform the people of Tarquin’s “foul offence” (1852). At the same time, they denounce the tyrannical rule of Lucius Tarquinius. The entire Tarquin family is rooted out, deposed, and banished. And Rome, in 509 B.C., establishes a republic ruled by representatives of the people. There will be no more Tarquins, no more kings.
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