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- 1 8 LUCRECE
It is pretty certain that the work of other contemporary
English poets offered Shakespeare's imagination material susten-
ance while he was developing the Roman legend. Several phrases
come almost literally from Constable's Diana ^, of which the
first edition was in 1^94 two years old, and the second was
just published.
The debt But the closcst parallels with Shakespeare's Lncrece^ alike
to
Daniels
-^^
phrase,
episode,
and
sentiment,
are
to
be
found
in
Daniel's
(159-)
contemporary
narrative
poem,
entitled
The
Complaint
of
J{osamond.
This
poem
was
appended
in
15-92
to a
second
' When Tarquin (+77-5)) describes Lucrece's complexion —
That even for anger makes the lily fale^
And tke red rose blush at her own disgrace^
he echoes Constable's description of his mistress (ist edit. Sonnet xvii) —
My Ladle's presence makes the roses red^
Because to see her lips they blush for shame.
The Lilys 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. 1 592) of his mistress in bed. Constable's * whiter ski?i with ivhite
sheet* anticipated Shakespeare's line (4.71), 'o'er the ivhite sheet peers her
whiter skin' In the reference in Luo-ece to Narcissus {x6')-6) Shakespeare
echoes his own poem o^ Venus and Adonis. The allusion ultimately came from
Marlowe's Hero and Leander, In Venus and Adonis [\6i-z) Shakespeare
wrote :—
Narcissus so himself himself forsook,
And died to kiss his shadow in the brook.
In Lucrece {z6<^-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. 4.07 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, 11. 7+-^, 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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