And the red rose blush at her own disgrace,
Shall plead for me and tell my loving tale:
Under that colour am I come to scale

Thy never-conquer'd fort: the fault is thine,
For those thine eyes betray thee unto mine.

"Thus I forestall thee, if thou mean to chide:
Thy beauty hath ensnared thee to this night,
Where thou with patience must my will abide;
My will that marks thee for my earth's delight,
Which I to conquer sought with all my might;

But as reproof and reason beat it dead,
By thy bright beauty was it newly bred.

"I see what crosses my attempt will bring;
I know what thorns the growing rose defends;
I think the honey guarded with a sting;
All this beforehand counsel comprehends:
But will is deaf and hears no heedful friends;
Only he hath an eye to gaze on beauty,

And dotes on what he looks, 'gainst law or duty.

"I have debated, even in my soul,

What wrong, what shame, what sorrow I shall breed;

...

481-482 I come to scale fort] Cf. Lord Vaux's "When Cupid scaled first the fort," in Tottel's Miscellany (1557), and see note on line 433, supra.

492 I know what thorns... defends] Cf. Daniel's Rosamond (1592), 217: "The ungather'd Rose, defended with the thorns."

480

490

But nothing can affection's course control,
Or stop the headlong fury of his speed.
I know repentant tears ensue the deed,

Reproach, disdain and deadly enmity;
Yet strive I to embrace mine infamy."

This said, he shakes aloft his Roman blade,
Which, like a falcon towering in the skies,
Coucheth the fowl below with his wings' shade,
Whose crooked beak threats if he mount he dies:
So under his insulting falchion lies

Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells
With trembling fear, as fowl hear falcon's bells.
"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.

500 affection's course] the course of lustful passion. 502 ensue] follow on, pursue.

507 Coucheth the fowl] Makes the fowl cower or crouch.

511 falcon's bells] Bells were attached to the claws of hawks or falcons in the sport of hawking or falconry. Cf. As you like it, III, iii, 70: "As the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires."

515 some worthless slave of thine] Cf. Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, line 1807: "thy knave," and Bandello's novel "uno dei tuoi servi.' Painter makes Tarquin refer to a slave of his own. Livy and Ovid give the word "slave” no epithet, and leave the ownership undetermined. See lines 670-671 and 1632, infra.

500

510

"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 rhymes
And sung by children in succeeding times.

"But if thou yield, I rest thy secret friend:
The fault unknown is as a thought unacted;
A little harm done to a great good end
For lawful policy remains enacted.
The poisonous simple sometime is compacted
In a pure compound; being so applied,
His venom in effect is purified.

"Then, for thy husband and thy children's sake,
Tender my suit: bequeath not to their lot
The shame that from them no device can take,
The blemish that will never be forgot;

Worse than a slavish wipe or birth-hour's blot:

522 nameless bastardy] Cf. Two Gent., III, i, 310-312: "bastard virtues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.' 524 cited up in rhymes] fully described in ballads.

530 simple] drug.

534 Tender] Cherish, treat with tenderness. Cf. Hamlet, I, iii, 107: "Tender yourself more dearly."

535 no device can take] no heraldry can remove. The poet's predilection for heraldic terminology is again illustrated. See lines 57 and 205, supra.

537 a slavish wipe or birth-hour's blot] the mark branding a slave or ugly

520

530

For marks descried in men's nativity
Are nature's faults, not their own infamy."

Here with a cockatrice' dead-killing eye
He rouseth up himself, and makes a pause;
While she, the picture of true piety,

Like a white hind under the gripe's sharp claws,
Pleads, in a wilderness where are no laws,

To the rough beast that knows no gentle right,
Nor aught obeys but his foul appetite.

540

But when a black-faced cloud the world doth threat,
In his dim mist the aspiring mountains hiding,
From earth's dark womb some gentle gust doth get,
Which blows these pitchy vapours from their biding, 550
Hindering their present fall by this dividing;

So his unhallow'd haste her words delays,

And moody Pluto winks while Orpheus plays.

Yet, foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally,
While in his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth:

birthmark. Cf. Mids. N. Dr., V, i, 398: "the blots of Nature's hand."

540 a cockatrice' dead-killing eye] a reference to the fabulous serpent also called the "basilisk” which killed with a glance. Cf. Rom. and Jul., III, ii, 47: “the death-darting eye of cockatrice."

543 the gripe's] the griffin; a fabulous animal with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. Cf. Cotgrave, Fr.-Engl. Dict.: "Griffon: m., a gripe or griffon." In Golding's translation of Ovid's Metam., bk. iv (ed. 1612, f. 50a): "(Tityus) Did with his bowels feede a Grype that tare them out by strength."

Her sad behaviour feeds his vulture folly,
A swallowing gulf that even in plenty wanteth:
His ear her prayers admits, but his heart granteth
No penetrable entrance to her plaining:

Tears harden lust, though marble wear with
raining.

Her pity-pleading eyes are sadly fixed
In the remorseless wrinkles of his face;
Her modest eloquence with sighs is mixed,
Which to her oratory adds more grace.
She puts the period often from his place,

And midst the sentence so her accent breaks
That twice she doth begin ere once she speaks.

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.

556 vulture folly] greedy lust. Cf. Venus and Adonis, 551: "vulture thought." For "folly " cf. Othello, V, ii, 135: "She turned to folly," and line 851, infra.

565-566 She puts the period... breaks] She interrupts her sentences, postpones their due conclusions. Cf. Mids. N. Dr., V, i, 96-98: "Makes periods in the midst of sentences, Throttle their practised accent in their fears, And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off." 573 make retire] make retreat, withdraw.

574 stoop] make obeisance, yield.

560

570