Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/76

48

They loiter round, and strange it were

and If no man conquest made of her,

For when on every side a fort

Is pressed, resistance is but short.

If plain she be, she’ll welcome all:

And when a tower prepares to fall,

And those within its gates betray,

Who shall defend it or upstay?

For if with all the world he fights,

A man would scarce dare sleep o’ nights,

And after all were said and done,

By first assault the prize were won.

The best of wives who lived in Greece,

Penelope, alas! small peace

Enjoyed—yet saved her fame at last.

Lucretia, she whose name hath passed

Into a proverb, was seduced

Through brutal force, by Tarquin used

Most shamefully, and then she killed

Herself, with grief and horror filled.

Nowise, as Titus Livius saith,

Could sire or husband save from death

This matron chaste; whate’er they said,

Herself she boldly poignarded

Before their eyes.

To calm her grief

They spake wise words, but no relief

She took therefrom, e’en though her spouse

Avowed that she her marriage vows

Had straightly kept, and nothing blamed

Her for the deed which so had shamed