Stanza 182 - Explanation

Original Stanza

By this, mild patience bid fair Lucrece speak
To the poor counterfeit of her complaining:
'My girl,' quoth she, 'on what occasion break
Those tears from thee, that down thy cheeks are
raining?
If thou dost weep for grief of my sustaining,
Know, gentle wench, it small avails my mood:
If tears could help, mine own would do me good.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Okay, let's break down Stanza 182 from Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece:

Line-by-Line Breakdown:

• "By this, mild patience bid fair Lucrece speak"

  • "By this": This is a temporal marker, meaning "at this point in time" or "now." It indicates a shift in the narrative.
  • "mild patience": Personification. Patience, an abstract quality, is given the agency to bid or command. "Mild" suggests Lucrece is exercising restraint despite her trauma.
  • "fair Lucrece speak": "Fair" is a common epithet for beautiful women in Shakespeare. "Speak" signals a turn in the poem. Lucrece, who has been silently suffering, finally decides to talk.
  • Overall: After a period of silence and inner turmoil, Lucrece, fueled by a degree of controlled "patience", begins to speak. The poem's movement is towards speech, towards Lucrece's articulation of her trauma.

• "To the poor counterfeit of her complaining:"

  • "To": This establishes the direction of Lucrece's speech. She is speaking to someone.
  • "poor counterfeit of her complaining": This is a tricky, but essential line. "Counterfeit" can mean "imitation" or "image." The "counterfeit of her complaining" is most likely the painting of the fall of Troy. It is a representation of suffering, a visual complaint that mirrors, but also falls short of, Lucrece's own agony. The painting is an image, a copy, not the real thing. "Poor" implies inadequacy, suggesting that the painting's depiction of woe can't compare to Lucrece's real experience.
  • Overall: Lucrece is addressing the painting (or more specifically, what the painting represents), recognizing it as a representation of suffering, but simultaneously belittling its ability to capture the full extent of human pain.

• "'My girl,' quoth she, 'on what occasion break"

  • "'My girl,' quoth she": A direct quotation begins. "Quoth she" is an archaic way of saying "said she." "My girl" is an address, a term of endearment that may be slightly patronising.
  • "'on what occasion break": This begins the actual question Lucrece is asking. "Occasion" refers to the reason or cause.
  • Overall: Lucrece begins to question the painting, in a way addressing it as if it were a person.

• "Those tears from thee, that down thy cheeks are raining?"

  • "Those tears from thee": She refers to the "tears" of the painting, or metaphorically, the sorrow it represents. "Thee" is the archaic second-person singular pronoun ("you").
  • "that down thy cheeks are raining": A vivid image! Hyperbole. The tears are not literally raining down the painting's cheeks (as a painting does not have actual cheeks), but the image creates a sense of overflowing grief. The word "raining" is a powerful verb emphasizing the abundance and relentlessness of sorrow.
  • Overall: Lucrece asks the painting (or the person depicted in it) why it is crying so profusely, intensifying the image of sorrow.

• "If thou dost weep for grief of my sustaining,"

  • "If thou dost weep": A conditional clause. Lucrece proposes a hypothetical reason for the painting's (or subject's) tears.
  • "for grief of my sustaining": "Sustaining" means "suffering" or "enduring." Lucrece is saying, "If you are weeping because of the pain I am going through..."
  • Overall: Lucrece is suggesting that the painting's tears are sympathetic, that it weeps in response to her ordeal.

• "Know, gentle wench, it small avails my mood:"

  • "Know, gentle wench": "Know" is an imperative verb (a command). "Gentle wench" is another address. "Wench" can sometimes have negative connotations, but here it seems to be a mild, perhaps slightly condescending, term of affection.
  • "it small avails my mood": This is the key statement. "Avails" means "helps" or "benefits." "My mood" refers to Lucrece's emotional state. The line essentially means "It doesn't really help me."
  • Overall: Lucrece diminishes the value of the painting's (or the figure's) sympathy. She suggests that its sorrow is not effective in alleviating her own pain.

• "If tears could help, mine own would do me good."

  • "If tears could help": Another conditional clause, building on the previous one.
  • "mine own would do me good": "Mine own" refers to Lucrece's own tears. She is implying that if tears had any power, her own tears, which she has suppressed, would have already solved her problem.
  • Overall: Lucrece emphasizes the futility of tears. Her own suffering is so profound that even if tears were capable of healing, hers would have already done the trick. Since she is still suffering, tears are clearly useless. This line reinforces her Stoic resignation.

Overall Meaning of the Stanza:

In this stanza, Lucrece, with great restraint, begins to address the painting of the fall of Troy. She questions the source of its lament, acknowledging that it may be weeping in sympathy for her plight. However, she asserts that the painting's sorrow, or the representation of grief in the painting, is ultimately useless to her. Lucrece argues that if tears held any curative power, her own immense suffering would have already been alleviated. This shows a degree of emotional detachment, a Stoic acceptance of her fate, and a recognition that her inner turmoil is too great to be resolved by mere expressions of sympathy or grief. The stanza underscores Lucrece's isolation in her suffering.

Literary Devices:

• Personification: Giving patience the ability to bid Lucrece speak.
• Hyperbole: Exaggerating the tears "raining" down the cheeks, emphasizing the magnitude of the grief.
• Apostrophe: Addressing the painting (or its subject) as if it were a person.
• Allusion: The painting is an allusion to the fall of Troy, a story rife with suffering, betrayal, and violence, mirroring Lucrece's own situation.
• Irony: There's a layer of dramatic irony here, as the reader knows the true depth of Lucrece's suffering and the reason for it, whereas the painting remains a distant, inadequate reflection.
• Rhetorical Questions: Lucrece is more concerned with her own problem than the reason for the tears of the counterfeit.
• Stoicism: This stanza is steeped in stoicism. Lucrece refuses to be comforted by the painting.
• Metaphor: Implied comparison between the tears of the counterfeit and the tears Lucrece could be crying.

This stanza is a powerful example of Shakespeare's ability to convey complex emotions through rich language and imagery. It reveals Lucrece's stoic nature, her profound isolation, and the inadequacy of mere representation in the face of true, devastating trauma.