ABSTRACT
Shakespeare’s poem highlights Tarquin’s inner debate and Lucrece’s dilemma to a greater extent than any versions. Shakespeare offers a cursory survey of the preceding events in a flashback in which not only are the wager and the sight of Lucrece absent, but it is explicitly Collatine’s praise that “inflames” Tarquin’s desire. The usage of the knife is of paramount importance in assessing the implications of the story for the action is, as it were, duplicated and Lucrece twice occupies the same space in relation to the knife. Valerius makes a startling appearance in Heywood’s The Rape of Lucrece in which he sings a good score of bawdy and tasteless songs. The possibility that the personality and actions of the Tarquins were substantially maligned and those of the winners cosmetically arranged remains open. Since the aim of Donaldson's work is to stir up the English to fight for the re-conquest of Ireland, the methods to be deployed, he argues, need not be subject to scrutiny.
