Today’s Totally Random
Lines
For
he the night before, in Tarquin’s tent,
Unlocks
the treasure of his happy state;
What
priceless wealth the heavens had him lent
In
the possession of his beauteous mate;
Reckoning
his fortune at so high-proud rate,
That kings might be espoused to more fame,
But king nor peer to such a peerless dame.
Narrator
Lucrece Line
20
Well, today we have a line from neither a play nor a sonnet. Remember, if you will, that Shakespeare wrote plays, sonnets, and also a handful of long poems. And today we have lines from one of the latter, Lucrece, sometimes titled The Rape of Lucrece because it’s about, well, the rape of Lucrece. Yes, the whole poem, all 1,855 lines are about the lead up, the rape, and the aftermath of the rape. So it’s not one of Will’s most up-beat works.
Today’s lines are from the beginning of the poem, and it has a somewhat odd beginning. The very first lines of the poem (previous to the lines above) are about Tarquin (he’s the rapist) hightailing it from Arda and heading for Collatium in haste because he’s hot in desire. What’s got him all fired up? The previous night Collatine (he’s Lucrece’s husband) telling him (in today’s lines) about his wife back home in Collatium and what a babe she is. So that’s today’s lines, Collatine describing his wife.
Well, that was a bit of a long way around, eh?
The ‘he’ in today’s lines is Collatine. So, do
today’s lines make sense now? You should read it again, because I’m sure it
will make more sense with my brief intro.
Zzzzzzzz
Okay, perhaps not quite as brief as it could have been.
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