On Shakespeare's Narrative Poem : The Rape of Lucrece

Abstract

When Shakespeare dedicated his first narrative poem, Venus and Adonis, to Earl of Southampton, he promised the earl a graver work, if the poem met with his approval. The poet dedicated his second narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, to the earl in 1594,one year after the publication of Venus. There are many modern critics who consider this poem 'an interesting failure.' The poem, however, was so successful among his contemporaries as it had been printed 9 times by 1655. In those days Lucrece was regarded by everyone as 'a graver moral work.' The poem roughly consists of two parts, the first half dealing with Tarquin's lust for Lucrece and the last half, Lucrece's tragic complaint and her suicide. Lucrece can be traced in the tradition of the complaint poem which was in vogue in England during the 1590s. The chief interest of the poem lies in the plight of the victim and her complaint. In the first part of her complaint she rails at Night, Oppotunity and Time, in turn. In the latter part of the complaint, the poet tells us the Troy episode, especially about Perjured Sinon, who deceived the Trojans into breaking down the walls and taking the horse inside. Lucrece compares him to Tarquin who destroyed her Troy.