The Rape of Lucrece
Encyclopedia
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
about the legendary Lucretia
Lucretia
Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by the Roman historian Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the...
. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)
Venus and Adonis is a poem by William Shakespeare, written in 1592–1593, with a plot based on passages from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is a complex, kaleidoscopic work, using constantly shifting tone and perspective to present contrasting views of the nature of love.-Publication:Venus and Adonis was...
(1593), Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...
, in which he promised to write a "graver work". Accordingly, The Rape of Lucrece lacks the humorous tone of the earlier poem.
Publication and title
The Rape of Lucrece was entered into the Stationers' RegisterStationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
on 9 May 1594, and published later that year, in a quarto
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
printed by Richard Field
Richard Field (printer)
Richard Field was a printer and publisher in Elizabethan London, best known for his close association with the poems of William Shakespeare, with whom he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon.-Life and career:...
for the bookseller John Harrison ("the Elder"); Harrison sold the book from his shop at the sign of the White Greyhound in St. Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
Churchyard. The title given on the title page was simply Lucrece, though the running title throughout the volume, as well as the heading at the beginning of the text, is The Rape of Lucrece. (The Arden edition of Shakespeare's [The] Poems, ed F.T.Prince, London and New York, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1960), from which this information is taken, calls the poem Lucrece.) Harrison's copyright was transferred to Roger Jackson in 1614; Jackson issued a sixth edition (O5) in 1616. Other octavo editions followed in 1624, 1632, and 1655.
Historical background
Lucrece draws on the story described in both OvidOvid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Fasti
Fasti (poem)
The Fasti is a six-book Latin poem by Ovid believed to have been left unfinished when the poet was exiled to Tomis by the emperor Augustus in the year 8...
and Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
's history of Rome. In 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius
Sextus Tarquinius
Sextus Tarquinius was a Roman prince, the third and youngest son of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus . He is primarily known for his rape of Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, wife of Collatinus....
, son of Tarquin
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final King of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is more commonly known by his cognomen Tarquinius Superbus and was a member of the so-called Etruscan...
, the king of Rome, raped Lucretia
Lucretia
Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by the Roman historian Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the...
(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. This incited a full-scale revolt against the Tarquins led by Lucius Junius Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. He was claimed as an ancestor of the Roman gens Junia, including Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Caesar's assassins.- Background :...
, the banishment of the royal family, and the founding of the Roman republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
.
Literary use
Shakespeare retains the essence of the classic story, incorporating LivyLivy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
's account that Tarquin's lust for Lucrece sprang from her husband's own praise of her. Shakespeare later used the same idea in the late romance Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
(circa 1609–1610). In this play, Iachimo bets Posthumus (Imogen's husband) that he can make Imogen commit adultery with him. He does not succeed. However, Iachimo convinces Posthumus otherwise using information about Imogen's bedchamber and body. Iachimo hid in a trunk which was delivered to Imogen's chamber under the pretence of safekeeping some jewels, a gift for her father King Cymbeline. The scene in which he emerges from the trunk (2.2) mimics the scene in The Rape of Lucrece. Indeed, Iachimo compares himself to Tarquin in the scene: "Our Tarquin thus, / Did softly press the rushes ere he waken'd / The chastity he wounded" (2.2.12–14). Lucrece is also closely related to the early Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, and possibly George Peele, believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is often seen as his attempt to emulate the violent and bloody revenge plays of his contemporaries, which were...
(circa 1590–94). In this revenge play
Revenge play
The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a form of tragedy which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. The best-known of these are Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and William Shakespeare's Hamlet...
, when the raped and mutilated Lavinia reveals the identity of her rapists, her uncle Marcus invokes the story of Lucrece to urge an oath to revenge the crime: "And swear with me—as, with the woeful fere / And father of that chaste dishonoured dame, / Lord Junius Brutus swore for Lucrece' rape-- / That we will prosecute by good advice / Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths, / And see their blood, or die with this reproach" (4.1.89–94).The rapist Tarquin is also mentioned in Macbeth's soliloquy from Act 2 Scene 1 of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
: "wither'd Murther . . . With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design / Moves like a ghost" (2.1.52–56). Tarquin's actions and cunning are compared with Macbeth's indecision – both rape and regicide are unforgivable crimes. In Taming of the Shrew Act 2, Scene 1, Petruchio promises Baptista, the father of Katherine (the Shrew), that once he marries Katherine "for patience she will prove second Grisel
Griselda (folklore)
Griselda is a figure from certain folklores whose name is eponymous for patience and obedience.In the tale as written by Giovanni Boccaccio, Griselda marries Gualtieri, the Marquis of Saluzzo. He tests her by declaring that their first child—a daughter—must be put to death, likewise their second...
, / And Roman Lucrece for her chastity" (3.2.288-89).
The raped woman
Lucrece is described as if she were a work of art, objectified in as if she were a material possession. 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 metamorphoseMétamorphose
"Métamorphose" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1989 by Carrere Records.- Song information :"Métamorphose" was the first single from Amanda's French-Italian album Tant qu'il y aura des hommes. The album was actually a re-release of Uomini più uomini, and consisted mostly of down-...
s into a political symbol.
Shakespeare turns rape into a form of wound or mutilation of Lucrece's flesh. The loss of chastity as a symbolic wound is closely associated to the self-inflicted stab wound which puts an end to Lucrece's life. Tarquin's sex is indeed recurrently compared to a dagger or sword piercing through Lucrece's flesh. When Tarquin starts contemplating the rape, his sexual impulses are equated with the spirit of a soldier marching on his foe: « By reprobate desire so madly led / The Roman lord marcheth to Lucrece' bed »(300–301). The verb 'to march', describing Tarquin's progression towards Lucrece's bedroom, evokes military movements and the violence of armed combat. The association between the phallus and the blade later becomes quite clear when Tarquin enters Lucrece's chamber and threatens the young woman with his sword.
Analysis and criticism
In an important post-structuralistPost-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American academics to denote the heterogeneous works of a series of French intellectuals who came to international prominence in the 1960s and '70s...
analysis of the poem, Joel Fineman argues that The Rape of Lucrece, like Shakespeare's sonnets, fundamentally deconstructs the traditional poetics of praise. Fineman observes that the tragic events of the poem are set in motion precisely by Collatine’s hyperbolic praise of Lucrece; it is his “boast of Lucrece' sov’reignty” (29) that kindles Tarquin’s profane desire. It is not the fact of Lucrece’s chastity, but rather the fact that her husband’s praise gives her the “name of ‘chaste’” that inspires his crime: “Haply, that name of ‘chaste’ unhapp’ly set / This bateless edge on his keen appetite” (8–9). In Fineman’s reading, Collatine’s praise paradoxically creates the circumstances that will ruin not only the woman that he praises, but also the integrity of the very rhetoric of praise itself. Furthermore, the poem itself draws attention to its own complicity in Collatine’s fatal rhetoric of praise: “the poem itself performs or activates this same praising word of which it speaks” by citing, in the first line of the second stanza, its own use of “chaste” in the last line of the first stanza: “Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chaste”(7). To Fineman, the poem’s initial self-citation is just one example of how the “poem’s own rhetoricity is... performatively implicated in the rape it reports”. The linguistic excess of Shakespeare’s Lucrece is indicative of a new poetics in which the materiality of language itself disrupts a rhetorical tradition oriented toward pure idealisation.
Jane Newman's feminist analysis of the poem focuses on its relationship to a different part of the literary tradition: the myth of Philomel and Procne from Book VI of the Metamorphoses by Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
. In Newman's reading, the tradition of violent female revenge for rape represented by the myth of Philomel is submerged or repressed in Shakespeare's Lucrece. Ovid's myth appears only as a ghostly intertext, not an authentic option for Lucrece. Although at first glance, Lucrece would seem to have greater agency because she maintains the ability to speak after the rape (in contrast to the mutilated Philomela who loses all speech), Newman argues that the poem actually limits the Lucrece's ability to act precisely by valorising her self-sacrifice as a political act: "The apparent contrast of a silent Philomela, robbed of the potential for such an impact on the political moment to which she belongs, effectively casts Lucretia's suicide as the only form of political intervention available to women". Ironically, Lucrece's rhetorical eloquence forecloses the possibility that she herself could seek out a more active, violent retribution on Tarquin, her rapist, and the monarchical regime that he represents. Instead, her revenge must be carried out by male agents acting in her name, particularly Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. He was claimed as an ancestor of the Roman gens Junia, including Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Caesar's assassins.- Background :...
, the founder of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
, who imitates the rhetoric that accompanies her death as he leads the rebellion against Tarquin's father, the king of Rome.
External links
- The Rape of Lucrece at Open Source Shakespeare
- The Rape of Lucrece: A Study Guide