TARQUIN AND LUCRECE. Yet sometime TARQUIN was pronounced plain, The one doth call her his, the other his; He weeps for her, for she was only mine, O! quoth LUCRETIUS, I did give that life, The disperst air, who holding LUCRECE' life, BRUTUS, who pluck'd the knife from LUCRECE' side, Began to clothe his wit in state and pride, He with the Romans was esteemed so, As silly jeering ideots are with kings, For sportive words, and uttering foolish things. TARQUIN AND LUCRECE. But now he throws that shallow habit by, Why, COLATINE, is woe the cure for woe? For his foul act, by whom thy fair wife bleeds? Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart (Since Rome herself in them doth stand disgrac'd) By our strong arms from forth her fair streets chas'd. Now by the Capitol that we adore, And by this chaste blood so unjustly stain'd! By heaven's fair sun, that breeds the fat earth's store, TARQUIN AND LUCRECE. This said, he stroke his hand upon his breast, When they had sworn to this advised doom, ILLUSTRATIVE REMARKS; INCLUDING THE VARIOUS OPINIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S COMMENTATORS, Interspersed with ORIGINAL OBSERVATIONS. VENUS AND ADONIS, THIS poem is declared by the author himself to have been his first composition. It was entered in the Stationers' books by Richard Field, April 18, 1593, and Harrison, Sen. June 23, 1594. again by Page 1, line 3. Rose-cheeked Adonis. of Athens : Bring down the rose-cheek'd youth So in Timon "To the tub-fast and the diet." STEEVENS. Shakespeare, perhaps, remembered Marlowe's Hero and Leander :-- "Rose-cheek'd Adonis kept a solemn feast." MALONE. Ib. 1. 10. More white and red than doves or roses are. Dr. Farmer observes, that we should read---doves and roses; and Mr. Malone imputes this slight inaccuracy to the printer; but in all probability it was thus writ |