TO THE
    RIGHT HONOURABLE
    HENRY WRIOTHESLEY,
    EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON,
           AND BARON OF TITCHFIELD

    The love I
          dedicate to your lordship is
         without end:
        whereof this pamphlet,
           without beginning is
             but a superfluous moiety.

    The warrant I
          have of your honourable disposition,
           not the worth
               of my untutored lines,
         make it assured of acceptance.

    What I have done
         is yours;
        what I have to do
             is yours;
        being part
               in all I have,
           devoted yours.

    Were my worth greater,
           my duty would show greater;
        meantime,
           as it is,
         it is
              bound to your lordship,
        to whom I wish
           long life still
               lengthened with all happiness.

    Your lordship's in all duty,
            William Shakespeare

    THE ARGUMENT

    Lucius Tarquinius,
        for his excessive pride
              surnamed Superbus,
         after he
            had caused
                   his own father-in-law Servius Tullius
                  to be cruelly murdered,
           and,
         contrary to the Roman laws
               and customs,
           not requiring or
              staying for the people's suffrages,
         had possessed
               himself of the kingdom,
           went accompanied
               with his sons
                   and other noblemen of Rome,
         to besiege Ardea.

    During which siege
           the principal men
         of the army
          meeting one
              evening at the tent
                   of Sextus Tarquinius,
           the king's son,
         in their discourses
              after supper every one
            commended the virtues
                   of his own wife;
        among whom Collatinus
              extolled the
                 incomparable
                    chastity of his wife Lucretia.

    In that pleasant humour
         they all posted to Rome;
        and intending,
           by their secret
               and sudden arrival,
         to make trial of
             that which every one had
               before avouched,
           only Collatinus finds his wife,
         though it
            were late in the night,
           spinning amongst her maids:
        the other ladies
            were all found
                   dancing and revelling,
           or in several disports.

    Whereupon the noblemen
          yielded Collatinus the victory,
           and his wife the fame.

    At that time Sextus Tarquinius
        being inflamed with Lucrece' beauty,
           yet smothering his passions
               for the present,
         departed with the rest
               back to the camp;
        from whence
             he shortly after privily
                withdrew himself,
           and was,
         according to his estate,
           royally entertained
            and lodged
                   by Lucrece at Collatium.

    The same night
         he treacherously
            stealeth into her chamber,
           violently ravished her,
         and early
               in the morning speedeth away.

    Lucrece,
           in this lamentable plight,
         hastily dispatcheth messengers,
           one to Rome
               for her father,
         another to
               the camp for Collatine.

    They came,
           the one
              accompanied with Junius Brutus,
         the other with Publius Valerius;
        and finding Lucrece attired
               in mourning habit,
           demanded the cause
               of her sorrow.

    She,
           first taking an oath
               of them
             for her revenge,
         revealed the actor
               and whole manner
                   of his dealing,
           and withal suddenly stabbed herself.

    Which done,
           with one consent
             they all vowed
                  to root out the whole
                      hated family of the Tarquins;
        and bearing the dead body
               to Rome,
           Brutus acquainted the people
               with the doer
                   and manner
                       of the vile deed,
         with a bitter invective
               against the tyranny
                   of the king:
        wherewith the people
            were so moved,
           that with one
             consent and
                   a general acclamation
                 the Tarquins
            were all exiled,
         and the state government
              changed from kings to consuls.

    From the besieged Ardea all
           in post,
         Borne by the trustless wings
               of false desire,
         Lust-breathed Tarquin
              leaves the Roman host,
           And to Collatium
              bears the lightless fire Which,
         in pale embers hid,
           lurks to aspire
    And girdle with embracing
           flames the waist
               Of Collatine's fair love,
           Lucrece the chaste.

    Haply that name
           of chaste unhapp'ly
          set This bateless edge
               on his keen appetite;
        When Collatine unwisely
            did not
                  let To praise
                       the clear unmatched red
                     and white
              Which triumphed in
             that sky of his delight,