Page:Shakespeare Collection of Poems.djvu/118

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
106
The Rape of Lucrece.
Yield to my hand, and it shall conquer thee;
Thou dead, both die, and both shall victors be.'

10.Lucrece resolved to kill her self, determines first to send her Husband word. This plot of death when sadly she had laid,
And wip'd the brinish pearl from her bright eyes,
With untun'd tongue she hoarsely call'd her maid,
Whose swift obedience to her mistress hies;
For fleet-wing'd duty with thoughts feathers flies;
Poor Lucrece cheeks unto her maid seem so,
As winter meads when Sun doth melt their snow.

Her mistress she doth give demure good morrow,
With soft slow tongue, true mark of modesty,
And soars a sad look to her Ladies sorrow,
(For why her face wore sorrows livery)
But durst not ask of her audaciously,
Why her two suns were clowd-eclipsed so,
Nor why her fair cheeks over-washt with woe.

But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set,
Each flower moisten'd like a melting eye;
Even so the maid with swelling drops gan wet
Her circled eyne, enforc'd by sympathy
Of those fair Suns set in her mistress sky,
Who in a salt-wav'd Ocean quench their light,
Which makes the maid weep like the dewy night.

A pretty while these pretty creatures stand,
Like ivory conduits coral cesterns filling:
One justly weeps; the other takes in hand;

No