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- li LUCRECE
A further proof of the complete naturalization of the story
in sixteenth-century England is to be deduced from the fact
that one of the earliest printers of repute, Thomas Bcrthelet,
took a figure of the Roman wife for the sign of his business
premises, and that his successors in trade through Shake-
speare's lifetime continued to employ the same device. From
1723 to if6z the sign of <Lucretia Romana'or 'Lucrece' (as it
was commonly called) hung before Berthelet's house near the
conduit in Fleet Street. In 1^62 the well-known Elizabethan
* stationer ', Thomas Purfoot, placed the same sign over his
printing-office in St. Paul's Churchyard ', and when in 1^78
he removed his press to a new building ' within the New
Rents of Newgate Market ' he carried the sign with him.
It was announced on the title-pages of almost all the
numerous volumes that Berthelet and Purfoot undertook that
they were printed ' at the sign of Lucrece '. When Purfoot
retired from active work his son and successor, Thomas
Purfoot, junior, continued the concern under the same symbol
in Newgate Market until 1^40. Another use to which the
figure of the Roman matron was commonly put is illustrated
by Shakespeare himself, when he represents Olivia in Twelfth
Night (ii. J. 104) as employing a seal with the figure of Lucrece
engraved upon it.
Shake- Shakcspcarc was continuing a long chain of precedents in
choosing the story of Lucrece for his new poem. Authorities
abounded in his own and other languages, and after his wont
he used or adapted them with much freedom. Despite his
tendency to amplify details, he adheres to the main lines of
' Purfoot permitted one of the chief Italian teachers of Shakespeare's day,
Claudius Hollyband,to advertize from 1 575 on the title-pages of his philological
handbooks that he was « teaching in Poules Churchyarde at the signe of the
Lucrece*. Cf. Hollybande's Pr^//V a^idWhte Hhforie ofArfi.tlt and Lucettda^ i TTT*
speaie s
sources.
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