from The Rape of Lucretia

Rembrandt van Rijn

Lucretia

Titian

Tarquin and Lucretia

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lucretia

from
The Rape of Lucretia

…..
'Lucrece,' quoth he, 'this night I must enjoy thee:

If thou deny, then force must work my way,

For in thy bed I purpose to destroy thee:

That done, some worthless slave of thine I'll slay,

To kill thine honour with thy life's decay;

And in thy dead arms do I mean to place him,

Swearing I slew him, seeing thee embrace him.

'So thy surviving husband shall remain

The scornful mark of every open eye;

Thy kinsmen hang their heads at this disdain,

Thy issue blurr'd with nameless bastardy:

And thou, the author of their obloquy,

Shalt have thy trespass cited up in rimes,

And sung by children in succeeding times.
…….
…….
'Yet die I will not till my Collatine

Have heard the cause of my untimely death;

That he may vow, in that sad hour of mine,

Revenge on him that made me stop my breath.

My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath,

Which by him tainted, shall for him be spent,

And as his due writ in my testament.

'Mine honour I'll bequeath unto the knife

That wounds my body so dishonoured.

'Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd life;

The one will live, the other being dead:

So of shame's ashes shall my fame be bred;

For in my death I murder shameful scorn:

My shame so dead, mine honour is new-born.

'Dear lord of that dear jewel I have lost,

What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?

My resolution, love, shall be thy boast,

By whose example thou reveng'd mayst be.

~ William Shakespeare ~