touches. Like the pleasurable thoughts we think they are quickly told and gone. Then she conditions that if he fail to pay, as agreed, the penalty of the bond shall be doubled as the obligations of such nature usually run, at common law-and consoles him with the reflection that this double penalty in case of breach of the obligation assumed, would not be very hard on him to pay, in any event. This whole proposition and reasoning is a legal offer and statement of the effect of the breach of the proposal to contract on the terms stated by the Roman goddess of Love.

Sec. 492. Inheritance by next of blood.

112

"Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast; Thou art the next of blood, and 'tis thy right.' Adonis' birth-right is placed as it would be, in law, in case of the descent of real estate, wherein the law would devolve the title on the first-born, or "next of blood." In other words, the goddess of love, goes further back than in mere recognition of the right of Adonis, but characterizes his right as that of descent, through his own father, who had enjoyed the right before him. A right by inheritance is the best title known to the law and this title only devolves upon the "next of blood," so the recognition of the right, on Adonis' part, could not have been by better title.3

1 1 Lawson, on Contracts (3d ed.).

2 Venus and Adonis, 1183, 1184.

3 Tiedeman, R. P. (3d ed.).

Sec. 493.

494.

495.

496.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

"THE RAPE OF LUCRECE."

Loving against Law and Duty.

Pleading for right, in wilderness without Law.

Holy human Law.

Attestation by Notary.

497. The assault upon Lucrece.

Sec. 493. Loving against law and duty.

"I know what thorns the growing rose defends;
I think the honey guarded with a sting;
All this beforehand counsel comprehends:
But will is deaf and hears no heedful friends;
Only he hath an eye to gaze on beauty,

And dotes on what he looks, 'gainst law or duty." Contemplating the crosses that his attempt upon Lucrece will bring, Tarquin places his will in the attitude of a client, taking counsel from an adviser. His better judgment, before the deed, counsels his will to refrain from such a slaughter of another's right. But his will is deaf to the appeal of his counsel, and, with an eye sole to the beauty of Lucrece, like the thief, who would possess what he longs for, regardless of the infraction of another's rights, he "dotes on what he looks, 'gainst law or duty."

Sec. 494. Pleading for right, in wilderness without law.

"While she, the picture of true piety,

Like a white hind, under the gripe's sharp claws,

1 The Rape of Lucrece, 492, 497.

Pleads, in a wilderness where are no laws,

To the rough beast that knows no gentle righ
Nor aught obeys but his foul appetite."1

It is passing strange that the Poet, even in describing the distress of Lucrece, in her effort to avoid the lust of the debased Tarquin, would think of legal illustrations to express her anguish. In a wilderness without law, it would of course be unavailing to plead to a beast who knew no law, except his own foul appetite, for the recognition of the "gentle right," since the right is recognized only where the law abides. Like the frail beast which is powerless in the embrace of the mighty one that hunger leads by natural law to destroy the weaker, the poor Lucrece is powerless in her pleading, for the recognition of the right can find no lodging place in a bosom as debased as that of Tarquin. The adherence to the rules of conduct prescribed for the recognition of the others' rights, and the use of our own in such manner as not to cause injury to others in their own, is what distinguishes civilized man from the beasts of the wilderness who know no law, but that of the claw and fang; and to this latter class is Tarquin properly likened.

Sec. 495. Holy human law.

"She conjures him by high almighty Jove,

By knighthood, gentry, and sweet friendship's oath,
By her untimely tears, her husband's love,

By holy human law and common troth

By heaven and earth and all the power of both,
That to his borrow'd bed he make retire,

And stoop to honor, not to foul desire."2

The veneration for law, which this verse evidences, is characteristic of the great Shakespeare, at all times. Appealing first, in the name of the great Jove, then to his chivalry, his family, the friendship of her husband, her

1 The Rape of Lucrece, 542, 546. The Rape of Lucrece, 568, 574.

own tears, and her husband's love, as a final appeal, she places her right to exemption from his lecherous embrace, upon the "holy human law," which, in all civilized countries, protects the husband's right to the affection and society of his wife. Upon this protection of the home the strongest laws of society are based, for without protection of the domestic relations, mankind becomes but little better than beasts of the field. The law so far protects the happiness and sacredness of the home that anyone who destroys such happiness is both civilly and criminally liable and to such an extent is the society of the wife recognized, as a property right of the husband, that for any alienation of her affection, he is given a cause of action, at law.1

Sec. 496. Attestation by notary.

"O comfort-killing Night, image of hell:
Dim register and notary of shame."

A notary is an officer known to the civil law of Rome as tabellio forensis. In England this officer was appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury and his duties. were to take and administer oaths and affirmations; to attest the execution of legal instruments and certify to contracts and other documents generally.

Frantic with grief, Lucrece expresses her spite, and compares the night of her undoing to a notary, which with seal and commission attested or bore witness to her shame, so that it would be known to all men.

pitiful scene which the Poet depicts in this and succeeding verses, by comparing night to this somber officer of the law, responsible for the "cureless crime" against Lucrece.

1 Schouler's Domestic Relations. The Rape of Lucrece, 764, 765. "Bouvier's Law Dictionary.

Sec. 497. The assault upon Lucrece.

"If, Collatine, thine honor lay in me,
From me by strong assault, it is bereft."

An assault is an attempt to inflict bodily injury upon another, coupled with a present intent to carry such attempt into execution. Battery is the consummation of the assault, or the actual infliction of threatened violence.3 Assaults with the intent to commit a rape, such as the assault by Tarquin upon Lucrece, in the domain of criminal law, are known as the most aggravated forms of assault, and are followed by the most severe punishment. In other words, as reflected by the wronged Lucrece, her husband's honor was bereft of her by "strong assault," but it is strange that the Poet would have this wronged woman bewail her fate in the use of such legal terms.

Sec. 498. Opportunity spurns right and law.

"Opportunity, thy guilt is great:

"Tis thou that executest the traitor's treason;
Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
Whoever plots the sin, thou point'st the season;
'Tis thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason;
And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,
Sits Sin, to seize the souls that wander by him."

This personification of Opportunity, as the accessory to treason and the executor of such dire crimes, as to render the guilt of Opportunity so apparent, is of course a forced conclusion, to carry out the idea of the Poet's thoughts, for the same reasoning could be urged to show that Opportunity was the blessing of the innocent and the means of obtaining and carrying out philanthropy, charity and beneficence. But of course in the way in

The Rape of Lucrece, 834, 835.

2 Cooley on Torts.

"Ante idem. Bouvier's Law Dictionary. 4 The Rape of Lucrece, 876, 882.