To the Right Honourable HENRY WRIOTHES LY, Earl of Southampton, and Baron of Tichfield. Right Honourable, The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end whereof this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a fuperfluous moiety. The warrant I have of your honourable difpofition, not the worth of my untutor'd lines, makes it affured of acceptance. What I have done is yours, what I have to do is yours, being part in all I have devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty fhould thew greater: mean time, as it is, it is bound to your lordship : to whom I wish long life, ftill lengthened with all happiness. The ARGUMENT. Lucius Tarquinius (for his exceflive pride furnamed Superbus) after he had caused his father-inlaw, Servius Tullius, to be cruelly murdered, and contrary to the Roman laws and cuftoms, not requiring or ftaying for the people's fuffrages, had poffeffed himself of the kingdom; went, accompanied with his fons, and other noblemen of Rome, to befiege Ardea. During which fiege, the principal men of the army meeting one evening at the tent of Sextus Tarquinius, the king's fon, in their difcourfes after fupper, every one commended the virtues of his own wife; among whom Colatinus extolled the incomparable chaftity of his wife Lucrece. In that pleafant humour they all pofted to Rome; and intending, by their fecret and fudden arrival, to make trial of that which every one had before avouched only Colatinus finds his wife (though it were late in the night) fpinning amongst her maids, the other ladies were found all dancing and revelling, or in feveral difports. Whereupon the noblemen yielded Colatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At that time, Sextus Tarquinius being inflamed with Lucrece's beauty, yet smothering his paffion for the present, departed with the reft back to the camp; from whence he shortly after privily withdrew himfelf, and was (according to his ftate) royally entertained, and lodged by Lucrece at Colatium. The fame night, he treacherously ftealing into her chamber, violently ravished her; and early in the morning speeded away. Lucrece, in this lamentable plight, haftily dispatcheth meffengers, one to Rome for her father, another to the camp for Colatine. They came, the one accompanied with Junius Brutus, the other with Publius Valerius and finding Lucrece attired in a mourning habit, demanded the cause of her forrow. She first taking an oath of them for her revenge, revealed the actor, and whole matter of his dealing, and withal fuddenly ftabbed herself. Which done, with one confent, they all vowed to root out the whole hated family of the Tarquins: and bearing the dead body to Rome, Brutus acquainted the people with the doer, and manner of the vile deed; with a bitter invective against the tyranny of the king: wherewith the people were fo moved, that with one confent, and a general acclamation, the Tarquins were all exiled, and the ftate-government changed, from kings to confuls. L TARQUIN and LUCRECE. From the befieg'd Ardea all in poft, And girdle, with imbracing flames, the waste Haply that name of chafte, unhaply fet To praise the clear unmatched red and white, Where mortal ftar, as bright as heaven's beauties, For he the night before, in Tarquin's tent, That kings might be efpoufed to more fame, O happiness enjoy'd but of a few! Honour and beauty in the owner's arms, Beauty itself doth of itself persuade Of that rich jewel he fhould keep unknown Perchance his boast of Lucrece' fov'reignty [vant His high-pitcht thoughts, that meaner men fhould The golden-hap, which their superiors want. But fome untimely thought did instigate When at Colatium this falfe lord arriv'd, |