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- character of
LtKrece.
8 LUCRECE
characterizes the
second
poem
of
Lucrece
as
compared
with
l^enns
and
Adonis^
its
predecessor,
showed
that
Shakespeare
had
faithfully
carried
into
effect
the
promise
that
he had given
to
his
patron
of offering
him
<
some
graver labour
'.
General
Lucrcce
with
its
1
8
J
J
lines
is
more
than
half
as
long
again as Venus and Adonis with its 1194 lines. It is written
with a flowing pen and shows {qw signs of careful planning
or revision. The most interesting feature of the poem lies
in the moral reflections which the poet scatters with a free hand
about the narrative. They bear witness to great fertility
of mind, to wide reading, and to meditation on life's com-
plexities. The heroine's allegorical addresses (11. 8(^9-1001)
to Opportunity, Time's servant, and to Time, the lackey of
Eternity, turn to poetic account philosophic ideas of pith and
moment.
In general design and execution, Lucrece^ despite its superior
gravity of tone and topic, exaggerates many of the defects
of its forerunner. The digressions are ampler. The longest
of them, which describes with spirit the siege of Troy,
reaches a total of 2 1 7 lines, nearly one-ninth of the whole
poem, and, although it is deserving of the critic's close
attention, it delays the progress of the story beyond all
artistic law. The conceits are more extravagant and the
luxuriant imagery is a thought less fresh and less sharply
pointed than in Fenus and Adonis. Throughout, there is
a lack of directness and a tendency to grandiose language
where simplicity would prove more effective. Haste may
account for some bombastic periphrases. But Shakespeare
often seems to fall a passing victim to the faults of which he
to be sold by Edivard Wkite & Thomas Millhigton^ at the little North doore of
Paules at the signe of the Gunne. 1594..' This volume was on sale on the
London bookstalls at the same time as the 155)4. edition of Lucrece. The
story of Lucrece is twice mentioned in Titus (ii. i. 108 and iv. i. ^3}.
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