104
The Rape of Lucrece.
Than they whose whole is swallowed in confusion.
That mother tries a mercilesse conclusion,
Who having two sweet babes, when death takes one,
Will slay the other, and be nurse to none.
That mother tries a mercilesse conclusion,
Who having two sweet babes, when death takes one,
Will slay the other, and be nurse to none.
My Body or Soul, which was the dearer?
When the one pure, the other made divine;
Whose love of either to my self was nearer?
When both were kept for Heaven and Colatine:
Ay me, the barke peel'd from the lofty Pine,
His leaves will wither, and his sap decay,
So must my soul, her bark being peel'd away.
When the one pure, the other made divine;
Whose love of either to my self was nearer?
When both were kept for Heaven and Colatine:
Ay me, the barke peel'd from the lofty Pine,
His leaves will wither, and his sap decay,
So must my soul, her bark being peel'd away.
Her house is sakt, her quiet interrupted,
Her mansion battered by the enemy,
Her sacred temple spotted, spoil'd, corrupted,
Grosly ingirt with daring infamy.
Then let it not be call'd impiety
If in this blemisht part I make some Hole,
Thro which I may convey this troubled Soul.
Her mansion battered by the enemy,
Her sacred temple spotted, spoil'd, corrupted,
Grosly ingirt with daring infamy.
Then let it not be call'd impiety
If in this blemisht part I make some Hole,
Thro which I may convey this troubled Soul.
Yet die I will not till my Colatine
Have heard the cause of my untimely death,
That he may vow in that sad hour of mine,
Revenge on him that made me stop my breath;
My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath,
Which by him tainted, shall for him be spent
And as his due, writ in my Testament.
Have heard the cause of my untimely death,
That he may vow in that sad hour of mine,
Revenge on him that made me stop my breath;
My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath,
Which by him tainted, shall for him be spent
And as his due, writ in my Testament.
My
