The Rape of Lucrece is one of Shakespeare’s earlier completed works of poetry and one of the pieces that most established his reputation. The poem itself extends to 1,855 lines organised into the Rhyme (or Rime) Royal structure previously employed by Chaucer: that is, seven line verses in iambic pentameter with a rhyming scheme of ABABBCC. The poem appears to have become immediately popular with readers and, presumably, assisted Shakespeare in his career, although we have no information of this level of detail about the great playwright’s life.

The poem dates back to the days when Rome was still ruled by kings, particularly one Tarquin the Proud, who is the villain. Having established his position, Tarquin seeks to enjoy his position and, when he hears one of his soldiers (Collatine) boasting about the virtues and beauty of his wife Lucrece, he resolves to find out whether she is the equal of this praise. The reader, hearing Collatine’s praise, will surely be mentally urging him to shut up since it is well-known that pride (of which boasting is a form) comes before a fall and, bearing in mind the title of the poem, it seems clear who is going to suffer most. And this, of course, is exactly how the plot plays itself out: Tarquin insinuates himself into Collatine’s house and begins his appraisal of the unfortunate eponymous heroine. After interaction and observation, he accepts that Collatine if anything did not go far enough in praising her. He also resolves to have sexual intimacy with her whether she will or not. That night he enters her bedchamber and forces himself upon her. Lucrece is destroyed mentally (we can ignore the pre-modern spiritual element) and, eventually, reveals the truth to her husband while stabbing herself. Collatine in turn resolves to root out the evil of Tarquin and his brood by putting together what might be considered a posse and rounding up the king and his supporters and running them out of Rome. Henceforth, the city will be governed as a republic – which was a complex conclusion to reach during the reign of Elizabeth I (the poem was written by 1594 when the queen was ageing but still deadly). It is possible to consider deeper, political and indeed historical meanings in the narrative and Shakespeare’s language and allusions inspire all manners of other consideration.

The form of the poem is a revenger’s tragedy, since it ends with bodies strewn across the page as a result of the fault of one of the protagonists (Collatine’s boasting) combined with the propensity to evil of the villain, against whom vengeance is finally wrought. Acts of violence under the pretext of revenge remain one of the central tropes of art up to the twenty-first century.