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Thy never-conquer'd fort, the fault is thine,
For those thine eyes betray thee unto mine.

Thus I foreftal thee, if thou mean to chide :
Thy beauty hath ensnar'd thee to this night,
Where thou with patience muft my will abide;
My will, that marks thee for my earth's delight,
Which I to conquer fought with all my might.
But as reproof and reafon beat it dead,

By thy bright beauty it was newly bred..

I fee what croffes my attempts will bring;
I know what thorns the growing rofe defends;
I think the honey guarded with a fting.

All this before-hand counfel comprehends ;.
But will is deaf, and hears no heedful friends.
Only he hath an eye to gaze on beauty,

And doats on what he looks, 'gainst law or duty.

I have debated, even in my foul,

What wrong, what fhame, what forrow I fhall breed;
But nothing can affection's course controul,

Or ftop the headlong fury of his speed.
I know repentant tears infue the deed,
Reproach, difdain, and deadly enmity;
Yet ftrive I to embrace mine infamy.

This faid, he shakes aloft his Roman blade, Which like a faulcon tow'ring in the fkies, Coucheth, the fowl below with his wings fhade,. Whofe crooked beak threars, if he mount he dies So under his infulting fauchion lies

Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells

With trembling fear, as fowls hear faulcon's bells.

Lucrece, quoth he, this night I must enjoy thee,
If thou deny, then force mpft work my way;
For in thy bed I purpose to destroy thee:
That done, fome worthlefs flave of thine I'll flay,
To kill thine honour with thy life's decay;

And in thy dead arms do I mean to place him,
Swearing. I flew him, seeing thee embrace him.

So thy furviving husband shall remain
The fcornful mark of every open eye;
Thy kinfmen hang their heads at this difdain,
Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless baftardy;
And thou the author of their obloquy,

Shalt have thy trefpafs cited up in rhymes,
And fung by children in fucceeding times.

But if thou yield, I reft thy fecret friend,
The fault unknown is as a thought unacted;
A little harm done to a great good end,
For lawful policy remains enacted.

The poisonous fimple sometimes is compacted
In pureft compounds; being fo apply'd,
His venom in effect is purify'd.

Then for thy husband, and thy children's fake,-
Tender my fuit, bequeath not to their lot
The fhame, that from them no device can take,
The blemish that will never be forgot,
Worfe than a flavifh wipe, or birth-hour's blot:
For marks defcrib'd in men's nativity,
Are nature's faults, not their own infamy.

Here with a cockatrice dead killing eye,
He roufeth up himself, and makes a paufe;

While fhe, the picture of true piety,

Like a white hind beneath the gripe's fharp claws, Pleads in a wilderness, where are no laws,

To the rough beaft, that knows no gentle right, Nor ought obeys but his foul appetite.

As when a black-fac'd cloud the world does threat,
In his dim mift th' afpiring mountain hiding,
From earth's dark womb fome gentle guft does get,
Which blow these pitchy vapours from their biding,
Hindring their prefent fall by this dividing:

So his unhallowed hafte her words delays,
And moody Pluto winks, while Orpheus plays.

Like foul night-waking cat he doth but dally,
While in his hold-faft foot the weak moufe panteth
Her fad behaviour feeds his vulture folly,
A fwallowing gulf, that e'en in plenty wanteth 5:
His ear her prayer admits, but his heart granteth
No penetrable entrance to her plaining;

Tears harden luft, tho' marble wears with raining.

Her pity-pleading eyes are fadly fix'd
In the remorfelefs wrinkles of his face:
Her modeft eloquence with fighs is mix'd,
Which to her oratory adds more grace.
She puts the period often from his place,

And midft the fentence fo her accent breaks,
That twice the doth begin, ere once she speaks.

She conjures him by high Almighty Jove,
By knighthood, gentry, and fweet friendship's oath';
By her untimely tears, her hufband's love;
By holy human law, and common troth:
By heaven and earth, and all the power of both:

That to his borrow'd bed he make retire,
And stoop to honour, not to foul defire.

Quoth fhe, reward not hofpitality

With fuch black payment as thou haft pretended;
Mud not the fountain that gave drink to thee,
Mar not the thing that cannot be amended:
End thy ill aim before thy fhoot be ended.
He is no wood man that doth bend his bow,
To ftrike a poor unfeafonable doe.

My husband is thy friend, for his fake spare me ;
Thyfelf art mighty, for thy own fake leave me ;.
Myfelf a weakling, do not then enfnare me;
Thou lookft not like deceit, do not deceive me;
My fighs like whirlwinds labour hence to heave thee.
If ever man was mov'd with woman's moans,
Be moved with my tears, my fighs, my groans..

All which together, like a troubled ocean,
Beat at thy rocky and wreck threatening heart,
To foften it with their continual motion;
For ftones diffolv'd to water do convert.
O! if no harder than a ftone thou art,
Melt at my tears, and be compaffionate!
Soft pity enters at an iron gate.

In Tarquin's likeness I did entertain thee,
Haft thou put on his fhape to do him fhame ?
To all the host of heaven I complain me; [name::
Thou wrong'ft his honour, wound'ft his princely
Thou art not what thou feem'ft; and if the fame,

Thou feem'ft not what thou art, a god, a king::
For kings, like gods, fhould govern every thing...

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How will thy fhame be feeded in thine age,
When thus thy vices bud before thy spring?
If in thy hope thou dar'ft do fuch outrage,
What dar'ft thou not when once thou art a king?
O be remembered, no outrageous thing

From vaffal actors can be wip'd away,

Then kings mifdeeds cannot be hid in clay..

This deed fhall make thee only lov'd for fear,
But happy monarchs ftill are fear'd for love:
With foul offenders thou perforce muft bear,
When they in thee the like offences prove:
If but for fear of this, thy will remove.

For princes are the glafs, the fchool, the book,
Where fubjects eyes do learn, do read, do look.

And wilt thou be the fchool where luft shall learn?
Muft he in thee read lectures of fuch fhame ?
Wilt thou be glafs, wherein it fhall difcern.
Authority for fin, warrant for blame?
To privilege difhonour in thy name,

Thou back'ft reproach against long-living laud,
And mak❜st fair reputation but a bawd.

Haft thou commanded? By him that gave it thee,
From a pure heart command thy rebel will:

Draw not thy fword to guard iniquity,
For it was lent thee all that brood to kill.

Thy princely office how can'ft thou fulfil,

When pattern'd by thy fault, foul fin may fay,
He learn❜d to fin, and thou didft teach the way ?

Think but how vile a fpectacle it were,
To view thy present trespass in another :

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