ABSTRACT
The Rape of Lucrece (1594), Willobie His Avisa (1594), Locrine (1594), Edward III (c.1593), and Titus Andronicus (1594) all address the choices confronting a woman when threatened with rape. All works are related to William Shakespeare. In this first chapter on “Rewriting Rape,” evidence is presented that the feminist Aemilia Lanyer was well-qualified to write the poems, Willobie His Avisa (also addressed in Chapter 1) and The Rape of Lucrece. The first two threatened assaults in Willobie His Avisa are from the aged nobleman resembling Lord Hunsdon, and a cavalier/captain, like Captain Lanyer. This work also directly cites Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece, and textual parallels of this poem with Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum suggest that, like Pericles, she could be an unacknowledged author of the poem.
