Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write, First hovering o”er the paper with her quill. Conceit and grief an eager combat fight: What wit sets down is blotted straight with will. This is too curious-good; this blunt and ill. Much like a press of people at a door Throng her inventions which shall go before.
This stanza from Lucrece (ll. 1296-1302) offers a description of aspects of the act of writing quite possibly as they were experienced by Shakespeare himself. “Will” himself famously “never blotted out a line”, while Lucrece’s tears or shaking hand blot her words. But if at first she cannot get a word onto her paper (the writing materials have been contemporized to that extent), it is through having just too many words volunteering themselves, a throng of suggestions
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Citation: Booth, Roy. "A Lover's Complaint". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15969, accessed 21 November 2024.]
