Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/76

They loiter round, and strange it were
and If no man conquest made of her,
For when on every side a fort
Is pressed, resistance is but short.

If plain she be, she’ll welcome all:
And when a tower prepares to fall,
And those within its gates betray,
Who shall defend it or upstay?
For if with all the world he fights,
A man would scarce dare sleep o’ nights,9020
And after all were said and done,
By first assault the prize were won.

Penelope and Lucretia The best of wives who lived in Greece,
Penelope, alas! small peace
Enjoyed—yet saved her fame at last.
Lucretia, she whose name hath passed
Into a proverb, was seduced
Through brutal force, by Tarquin used
Most shamefully, and then she killed
Herself, with grief and horror filled.9030
Nowise, as Titus Livius saith,
Could sire or husband save from death
This matron chaste; whate’er they said,
Herself she boldly poignarded
Before their eyes.
To calm her grief
They spake wise words, but no relief
She took therefrom, e’en though her spouse
Avowed that she her marriage vows
Had straightly kept, and nothing blamed
Her for the deed which so had shamed9040