Page:Shakespeare Collection of Poems.djvu/117

My honor I'll bequeath unto the knife,
That wounds my body so dishonoured:
'Tis Honor to deprive dishonored life,
The one will live, the other being dead;
So of shames ashes shall my fame be bred:
For in my death I murther shameful scorn,
My shame so dead, my honor is new-born.

Dear Lord of that dear jewel I have lost,
What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?
My resolution, love, shall be thy boast,
By whose example thou reveng'd mayst be:
How Tarquin must be us'd, read it in me:
My self thy friend will kill my self thy foe,
And for my sake serve thou false Tarquin so.

This brief abridgement of my will I make,
My Soul and Body to the skies and ground,
My resolution (husband) do thou take,
Mine honor be the knife's that makes my wound,
My shame be his that did my fame confound:
And all my fame that lives bisbursed be
To those that live and think no shame of me.

Then Colatine shall oversee this will,
How was I overseen that thou shalt see it?
My blood shall wash the slander of mine ill;
My life's foul deed my life's fair end shall free it,
Faint not faint heart, but stoutly say, so be it.

Yield