The Rape of Lucrece
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The Rape of Lucrece (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia.
In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis (1593), Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work". Accordingly, The Rape of Lucrece lacks the humorous tone of the earlier poem.
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[edit] Historical Background
Lucrece draws on the story described in both Ovid's Fasti and Livy's history of Rome. In 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius, son of Tarquin, the king of Rome, raped Lucretia (Lucrece), wife of Collatinus, one of the king's aristocratic retainers. As a result, Lucrece committed suicide. Her body was paraded in the Roman Forum by the king's nephew, Lucius Junius Brutus. This incited a full-scale revolt against the Tarquins, the banishment of the royal family, and the founding of the Roman republic.
[edit] Literary Use
Shakespeare retains the essence of this story, adding that Tarquin's lust for Lucrece springs from her husband's own praise of her. Shakespeare later used the same idea in Cymbeline, in which Imogen is symbolically raped by Giacomo, who is inspired by her husband Posthumus's praise of her virtues.
The rapist Tarquin is also mentioned in Macbeth's soliloquy from Act 2 Scene 1 of Macbeth. Tarquin's actions and cunning are compared with Macbeth's indecision - both rape and regicide are unforgiveable crimes.
[edit] The Raped Woman
Lucrece is described as if she were a work of art, objectified in as if she were a material posession. Tarquin's rape of her is described as if she were a fortress under attack -- conquering her various physical attributes. Although Lucrece is raped, the poem offers an apology to absolve her of guilt (lines 1240-46). Like Shakespeare's other raped women, Lucrece gains symbolic value: through her suicide, her body metamorphoses into a political symbol.
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[edit] References
Charney, Maurice (2000) Shakespeare on Love & Lust New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN: 0-231-10429-4
[edit] External links
- The Rape of Lucrece, available at Project Gutenberg.
- The Rape of Lucrece: A Study Guide
- The Rape of Lucrece Full Text.
- The Online Text of Rape of Lucrece
