The Rape of Lucrece
Act the First
Scene I The Senate-house
Enter Tarquin, Tullia, Sextus, Aruns, Lucretius, Valerius, Poplicola, and Senators before them.
Tullia.
Withdraw; we must have private conference
With our dear husband.
[Exeunt all except Tarquin and Tullia.
Tarquin.
What wouldst thou, wife?
Tullia.
Be what I am not; make thee greater far
Than thou canst aim to be.
Tarquin.
Why, I am Tarquin.
Tullia.
And I am Tullia—what of that?
What diapason’s more in Tarquin’s name
Than in a subject’s? or what’s Tullia
More in the sound than to become the name
Of a poor maid or waiting gentlewoman?
I am a princess both by birth and thoughts,
Yet all’s but Tullia. There’s no resonance
In a bare style; my title bears no breadth,
Nor hath it any state. O me, I’m sick!
Tarquin.
Sick, lady!
Tullia.
Sick at heart.
Tarquin.
Why, my sweet Tullia?
Tullia.
To be a queen I long, long, and am sick;
With ardency my hot appetite’s a-fire,
Till my swollen fervour be deliverèd
Of that great title queen. My heart’s all royal,
Not to be circumscribed in servile bounds.
While there’s a king that rules the peers of Rome,
Tarquin makes legs,1 and Tullia curtsies low,
Bows at each nod, and must not near the state
Without obeisance. Oh! I hate this awe;
My proud heart cannot brook it.
Tarquin.
Hear me, wife.
Tullia.
I am no wife of Tarquin’s if not king:
Oh, had Jove made me man, I would have mounted
Above the base tribunals of the earth,
Up to the clouds, for pompous sovereignty.
Thou art a man: oh, bear my royal mind,
Mount heaven, and see if Tullia lag behind.
There is no earth in me, I am all fire;
Were Tarquin so, then should we both aspire.
Tarquin.
O Tullia, though my body taste of dulness,
My soul is winged to soar as high as thine;
But note what flags our wings,—forty-five years
The king thy father hath protected Rome.
Tullia.
That makes for us: the people covet change;
Even the best things in time grow tedious.
Tarquin.
’Twould seem unnatural in thee, my Tullia,
The reverend king thy father to depose.
Tullia.
A kingdom’s quest makes sons and fathers foes.
Tarquin.
And but by Servius’ fall we cannot climb;
The balm2 that must anoint us is his blood.
Tullia.
Let’s lave our brows then in that crimson flood;
We must be bold and dreadless: who aspires,
Mounts by the lives of fathers, sons, and sires.
Tarquin.
And so must I, since, for a kingdom’s love,
Thou canst despise a father for a crown.
Tarquin shall mount, Servius be tumbled down,
For he usurps my state, and first deposed
My father in my swathèd infancy,
For which he shall be countant:3 to this end
I have sounded all the peers and senators,
And, though unknown to thee, my Tullia,
They all embrace my faction; and so they
Love change of state, a new king to obey.
Tullia.
Now is my Tarquin worthy Tullia’s grace,
Since in my arms I thus a king embrace.
Tarquin.
The king should meet this day in parliament
With all the Senate and Estates4 of Rome.
His place will I assume, and there proclaim
All our decrees in royal Tarquin’s name.
[Flourish.
Re-enter Sextus, Aruns, Lucretius, Valerius, Collatine, and Senators.
Lucretius.
May it please thee, noble Tarquin, to attend
The king this day in the high Capitol?
Tullia.
Attend!
Tarquin.
We intend this day to see the Capitol.
You knew our father, good Lucretius?
Lucretius.
I did, my lord.
Tarquin.
Was not I his son?
The queen my mother was of royal thoughts,
And heart pure as unblemished innocence.
Lucretius.
What asks my lord?
Tarquin.
Sons should succeed their fathers: but anon
You shall hear more; high time that we were gone.
[Flourish. Exeunt all but Collatine and Valerius.
Collatine.
There’s moral sure in this, Valerius:
Here’s model, yea, and matter too to breed
Strange meditations in the provident brains
Of our grave fathers: some strange project lives
This day in cradle that’s but newly born.
Valerius.
No doubt, Collatine, no doubt, here’s a giddy and drunken world; it reels; it hath got the staggers; the commonwealth is sick of an ague, of which nothing can cure her but some violent and sudden affrightment.
Collatine.
The wife of Tarquin would be a queen—nay, on my life, she is with child till she be so.
Valerius.
And longs to be brought to bed of a kingdom. I divine we shall see scuffling to-day in the Capitol.
Collatine.
If there be any difference among the princes and Senate, whose faction will Valerius follow?
Valerius.
Oh, Collatine, I am a true citizen, and in this I will best show myself to be one, to take part with the strongest. If Servius o’ercome, I am liegeman to Servius; and if Tarquin subdue, I am for vive Tarquinius.
Collatine.
Valerius, no more, this talk does but keep us from the sight of this solemnity: by this the princes are entering the Capitol: come, we must attend.
[Exeunt.