Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and the Rape of Lucrece: Research Notes 1

in #proofofbrain • last year (edited)

" "MachiavelliShakespeareLucrece.jpg""

This is the first in a series of research notes towards a paper on Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece that I may be presenting to an academic conference in Hiroshima in August 2024. This blog seems like a good place to accumulate and edit notes. I won't be providing any explanations except for my own reference in this series. Feel free to comment - I will certainly respond to any questions, feedback or insights. :)

The Rape of Lucrece in Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance Literature

Gifford Lecture: Lucretia and the Politics of Sexual Violence, Mary Beard

  • Mars rapes Rhea Silva, vestal virgin, who bears Romulus and Remus (wolf sacred to Mars).
  • Romulus et al rape the Sabine women
  • Rape of Lucretia
  • Rape of Virginia

According to Livy, Lucretia kills herself so as not to provide an excuse to other women.

Lorenzo Lotto's portrait of Lucretia includes a quotation from Livy:

nec ulla impudica Lucretiae exemplo vivet
(no unchaste woman shall live by Lucretia's example)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_a_Woman_Inspired_by_Lucretia

If she was innocent, why did she commit suicide?
If she was guilty, why is she an example of chastity?
Augustine

William Vaughan: She was complicit.

(See https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Ovidian_Myth_and_Sexual_Deviance_in_Earl/pF2hCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=william+vaughan+lucretia+was+complicit&pg=PA59&printsec=frontcover )

Coluccio Salutati: She may have enjoyed it.

Succubuit famae victa puella metu
The girl gave in, conquered by fear of bad reputation.
(The girl, overcome by fear, submitted to celebrity.)
Ovid

Artists who painted the Rape of Lucretia

Gentileschi herself was raped by Agostino Tassi (who was influenced by Caravaggio) and tortured to check her evidence.

Pushkin's parody of Lucretia: Count Nulin (1825)

Shakespeare's Patterns of Self Knowledge, Rolf Soellner

Part 1, Humanism and Antihumanism
Chapter 1 Nosce teipsum: Learning the Method

P. 12. Cicero's theory of moral decorum.

  • Lucrece appeals to Tarquin's "likeness" to a man and a prince:
  • As a man he must control his appetites,
  • As a prince he must be a model to his subjects.
  • He should observe decorum.

Begin here: Machiavelli on the uselessness of this.

Shakespeare's Lucrece uses Ciceronian arguments to try and persuade Tarquin not to rape her.
p, 13 Tarquin's artistic decorum, but lack of moral decorum.

The Theme of Rape in Elizabethan and Jacobean Texts, Stephanie Schnabel

Paul Edmondson's nonsensical "second rape." (129/2408, Kindle)

Footnote 37: Gardiner: Women in Roman Law, p. 121 (208/2408, Kindle):

  • "In the case of a married woman having been raped, a pregnancy even brought up more problems and damage to the family honour."

Footnote 54: Bains, Effacing Rape: How Women Should Supply Evidence (243/2408, Kindle)

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    The usefulness of this exercise is already evident, as I have been able to edit the notes, arrange them in a more coherent order, and add links where appropriate.

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