Dear Me,

   Hopefully I can do this in one go!

Shakespeare: The Biography

by

Peter Ackroyd

Part Four

Chapter 41: Doth Rauish Like Inchaunting Harmonie

The Lord Chamberlain's Men began performing in June 1594, but before that Shakespeare had completed his second long narrative poem.  The Rape of Lucrece may have been written in Tichfield, while the writer was working under the auspices of the Earl of Southampton.  They mythical event is dated 509 BC, has been used as an explanation for the rise of the Roman republic.  Shakespeare obtained his these from the Fasti, read it quickly, and then put it down without further reference to it.  He needed only the raw materials to excite his imagination.  

The history is not what interests the poet.  Shakespeare is more concerned with the play of feeling between the two protagonists, as Tarquin prepares himself to rape the lady and then,after the deed, slinks away.  The poem is chiefly remarkable for Lucrece's sorrowful meditations after the event, in the course of which she determines to kill herself in front of her husband.

The Rape of Lucrece can be seen as a mine of gold for Shakespeare's later dramas; he becomes fascinated by the idea of the murder of innocence.  The poem may also be the forerunner of the murders in bed, among them those of Duncan and Desdemona.  The musing of Tarquin might almost be read as the inner history of Richard III for which there is no space on the stage.

The Rape of Lucrece itself was almost as popular with the reading public as the earlier Venus and Adonis.  It was reissued in six separate editions during Shakespeare's lifetime, and in two after his death.  

This in turn raises an interesting, if unanswerable, question.  Why at the age of thirty did Shakespeare effectively give up his career as a poet and turn back to play-writing?  From the extensive comment and praise that he received for his  two narrative poems, his future and fame as England's principal poet would seem to be assured.  In one essay on the English tongue, written in 1595, he was placed in the same company as Chaucer and Spencer.  

But he chose another path.  Perhaps Chamberlain's Men offered his financial security.  Shakespeare wanted more than a "competency".  In any case he loved the work of acting and play-writing at the heart of his own company.  Otherwise he would not have chosen to continue it.

The large reason must have been his instinct and judgement informed him that drama was his peculiar skill and specialty.  Attention must also be paid to the urgency of his literary ambition and inventiveness.