The Rape of Lucrece

Chapter 2: TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, and Baron of Titchfield.

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About This Book

A nobleman's son becomes obsessed with a woman famed for her chastity, gains access to her chamber, and violently assaults her; she summons family and allies, reveals the crime, and takes her own life. The ensuing public outrage and grief mobilize leaders to denounce the ruling house and force its exile, transforming the political order. The poem combines detailed psychological portraiture of shame, guilt, and rage with moral reflection on honor, the corrupting power of desire, and the public consequences of private atrocity, delivered in sustained, ornate narrative verse.

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, makes 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.