Thomas Heywood's The Rape Of Lucrece

According to Kewes, the historically theatrical impact of plays had been aligned according “to the status, education, and profession of members of the audience” (Kewes 241) and focuses on the early seventeenth-century Roman drama of Thomas Heywood’s The Rape of Lucrece. Between 1606 and 1608, Heywood’s The Rape of Lucrece was first performed at the Red Bull playhouse. Through the early years, Heywood’s portrayal of the rape “involves Sextus’ return to Collatia, his monologue before the rape, and his vehement exchange with Lucrece immediately before he forces himself upon her, is modeled on Shakespeare” (Kewes 247). By 1616, Heywood’s play “echoes the poem’s imagery and language but it drastically compresses the rape from Tarquin’s regicide” (Kewes 247) and makes the “rape’s political consequences far more momentous” (Kewes 248).

During the siege of Ardea, the various commanders—Mutius Scevola, Horatius, Valerius, Collatinus, Aruns —gather in Sextus’s (Tarquin’s son) tent. The men praise the virtues of their wives and, Collatinus resolves upon a wager. The commanders ride back to Rome finding Lucrece to be employed in domestic chores. In the dead of the night Sextus was fired with lust and steals into Lucrece’s chamber and then despite her pleas and protestations, Sextus rapes her. Sextus departs from the chamber, Lucrece sends a letter to her husband summoning him to return and requesting that he bring with him his closest friends. When Collatinus and friends arrive, Lucrece reveals what has happened to her, begging them to revenge her wrongs, then kills herself. The men not only vow revenge on Sextus, but they resolve to rid Rome of kings with an army led by Brutus (Kewes