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- The debt to Daniel's *Rosamond* (1592).
But the closest parallels with Shakespeare's *Lucrece*, alike in phrase, episode, and sentiment, are to be found in Daniel's contemporary narrative poem, entitled *The Complaint of Rosamond*. This poem was appended in 1592 to a second
'When Tarquin (477–9) describes Lucrece's complexion—
That even for anger makes the lily pale,
And the red rose blush at her own disgrace,
he echoes Constable's description of his mistress (1st edit. Sonnet xvii)—
My Ladle's presence makes the roses red,
Because to see her lips they blush for shame.
The Lily's leaves, for envy, pale became,
And her white hands in them this envy bred.
In the preceding stanza the impression of 'whiteness' which the sleeping Lucrece gives Tarquin seems derived from Constable's description in Sonnet iv (edit. 1592) of his mistress in bed. Constable's 'whiter skin with white sheet' anticipated Shakespeare's line (472), 'o'er the white sheet peers her whiter skin.' In the reference in *Lucrece* to Narcissus (265–6) Shakespeare echoes his own poem of *Venus and Adonis*. The allusion ultimately came from Marlowe's *Hero and Leander*. In *Venus and Adonis* (161–2) Shakespeare wrote:—
Narcissus so himself himself forsook,
And died to kiss his shadow in the brook.
In *Lucrece* (265–6) Tarquin reflects on Lucrece's beauty—
That had Narcissus seen her as she stood,
Self-love had never drowned him in the flood.
The classical story of Narcissus, as told by Ovid, *Metamorphoses*, iii. 407 sq., tells of his metamorphosis into a flower, and not of his death by drowning. Marlowe set Shakespeare the example of adopting a post-classical version, and related in his *Hero and Leander*, Sestiad i, ii. 74–6, how the Greek boy
Leapt into the water for a kiss
Of his own shadow, and despising many,
Died ere he could enjoy the love of any.
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LUCRECE 19
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edition of Daniel’s collection of sonnets, which he christened *Delia*. In Daniel’s poem the ghost of Rosamond, the mistress of Henry II, gives sorrowful voice to her remorse at having submitted to the adulterous embraces of the king, and finally relates her murder by Queen Eleanor. The whole poem is in the *oratio recta* of the heroine, and the key is that of Lucrece’s moaning. Shakespeare adopted in *Lucrece* the seven-line stanza of *The Complaint of Rosamond*, and handled it very similarly.
At one important point Shakespeare seems to have borrowed Daniel’s machinery. Both heroines seek consolation from a work of art. Shakespeare’s Lucrece closely scans a picture of the siege of Troy, the details of which she applies to her own sad circumstance. Daniel’s Rosamond examines a casket finely engraved with ornament suggesting her own sufferings; on the lid is portrayed Amymone’s strife with Neptune, while ‘figured within the other squares’ is the tale of Jove’s pursuit of the love of Io. Rosamond’s casket was wrought
So rare that art did seem to strive with nature
To express the cunning workman’s curious thought.
(ll. 374–5.)
To Shakespeare’s piece of skilful painting
In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life. (l. 1374.)
Daniel’s phraseology seems to be echoed in single lines such as these:—
An *expir’d date cancell’d* ere well begun. (*Lucrece*, 26.)
*Cancell’d* with Time, will have their *date expir’d*. (*Rosamond*, 242.)
*Sable night, mother of dread and fear*. (*Lucrece*, 117.)
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# LUCRECE
Night, mother of sleep and fear, who with her sable mantle.
(Rosamond, 432.)
I know what thorns the growing rose defends.
(Lucrece, 492.)
The ungather'd Rose, defended with the thorns.
(Rosamond, 210.)
The precedent whereof in Lucrece view.
(Lucrece, 1261.)
These precedents presented to my view.
(Rosamond, 407.)
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