THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

by William Shakespeare




TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY,

EARL OF SOUTHHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD.

THE love I dedicate to your lordship is without end; whereof this
pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety. The
warrant I have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of
my untutored lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have
done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I
have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would show
greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your lordship, to
whom I wish long life, still lengthened with all happiness.

Your lordship's in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

LUCIUS TARQUINIUS, for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus,
after he had caused his own father-in-law Servius Tullius to be
cruelly murdered, and, contrary to the Roman laws and customs,
not requiring or staying for the people's suffrages, had
possessed himself of the kingdom, went, accompanied with his sons