To Adolesche's brain,* a nymph born high, Made all of voice and fire, that upwards fly: Her heart and all her forces' nether train Climb'd to her tongue, and thither fell her brain, Since it could go no higher; and it must go; All powers she had, even her tongue, did so: In spirit and quickness she much joy did take, And lov'd her tongue, only for quickness' sake; And she would haste and tell. The rest all stay: Hymen goes one, the nymph another way; And what became of her I'll tell at last : Yet take her visage now;-moist-lipp'd, long- fac'd,
Thin like an iron wedge, so sharp and tart,
As 'twere of purpose made to cleave Love's heart:
Well were this lovely beauty rid of her. And Hymen did at Athens now prefer His welcome suit, which he with joy aspir'd: A hundred princely youths with him retir'd To fetch the nymphs; chariots and music went; | And home they came: heaven with applauses rent.
Under whose ensigns Wars and Discords fight, Since an even number you may disunite In two parts equal, naught in middle left To reunite each part from other reft; And five they hold in most especial prize,* Since 'tis the first odd number that doth rise From the two foremost numbers' unity, That odd and even are; which aret two and three;
For one no number is; but thence doth flow The powerful race of number. Next, did go A noble matron, that did spinning bear A huswife's rock and spindle, and did wear A wether's skin, with all the snowy fleece, To intimate that even the daintiest piece And noblest-born dame should industrious be: That which does good disgraceth no degree. And now to Juno's temple they are come, Where her grave priest stood in the marriage-
On his right arm‡ did hang a scarlet veil, And from his shoulders to the ground did trail, On either side, ribands of white and blue:
The nuptials straight proceed, whiles all the With the red veil he hid the bashful hue
Fresh in their joys, might do them most renown. First, gold-lock'd Hymen did to church repair, Like a quick offering burn'd in flames of hair; And after, with a virgin firmament The godhead-proving bride attended went Before them all :+ she look'd in her command, As if form-giving Cypria's silver hand
Gripp'd all their beauties, and crush'd out one flame;
She blush'd to see how beauty overcame The thoughts of all men. Next, before her went Five lovely children, deck'd with ornament Of her sweet colours, bearing torches by; For light was held a happy augury Of generation, whose efficient right Is nothing else but to produce to light. The odd disparent number they did choose, To shew the union married loves should use, Since in two equal parts it will not sever, But the midst holds one to rejoin it ever, As common to both parts: men therefore deem That equal number gods do not esteem, Being authors of sweet peace and unity, But pleasing to th' infernal empery,
Of the chaste bride, to shew the modest shame, In coupling with a man, should grace a dame. Then took he the disparent silks, and tied The lovers by the waists, and side to side, In token that thereafter§ they must bind In one self-sacred knot each other's|| mind. Before them on an altar he presented Both fire and water, which was first invented, Since to ingenerate every human creature And every other birth produc'd by Nature, Moisture and heat must mix; so man and wife For human race must join in nuptial life. Then one of Juno's birds, the painted jay, He sacrific'd, and took the gall away; All which he did behind the altar throw, In sign no bitterness of hate ** should grow, 'Twixt married loves, nor any least disdain. Nothing they spake, for 'twas esteem'd too plain For the most silken mildness of a maid, To let a public audience hear it said, She boldly took the man; and so respected Was bashfulness in Athens, it erected
To Adolesche's brain, &c.] "dodioxes, garrulus." Ed. 1821.
tall] Omitted in some 4tos.
*prize] "i. e. value." tare] Omitted in some 4tos.
arm] V. R. "hand."
§ thereafter] V. R. "hereafter." other's] V. R. "other."
Then] V. R. "The."
** bitterness of hate] V. R. "hate of bitternesse."
To chaste Agueia,* which is Shamefacedness, A sacred temple, holding her a goddess. And now to feasts, masks, and triumphant shows,
The shining troops return'd, even till earth throes Brought forth with joy the thickest part of night,
When the sweet nuptial song, that us'd to cite All to their rest, was by Phemonöe+ sung, First Delphian prophetess, whose graces sprung Out of the Muses' well: she sung before The bride into her chamber; at which door A matron and a torch-bearer did stand: A painted box of confits in her hand The matron held, and so did other some
And now brought home by guides, she heard by all,
That her long kept occurrents would be stale, And how fair Hymen's honours did excel Fort those rare news which she came short to tell.
To hear her dear tongue robb'd of such a joy, Made the well-spoken nymph take such a toy,‡ That down she sunk: when lightning from above Shrunk her lean body, and, for mere free love, Turn'd her § into the pied-plum'd Psittacus, That now the Parrot is surnam'd by us,
Who still with counterfeit confusion prates Naught but news common to the common'st
That compass'd round the honour'd nuptial This told, strange Teras touch'd her lute, and
The custom was, that every maid did wear, During her maidenhead, a silken sphere About her waist, above § her inmost weed, Knit with Minerva's knot, and that was freed By the fair bridegroom on the marriage-night, With many ceremonies of delight:
And yet eterniz'd Hymen's tender bride, To suffer it dissolv'd so, sweetly cried.
The maids that heard, so lov'd and did adore her,
They wish'd with all their hearts to suffer for her.
So had the matrons, that with confits stood About the chamber, such affectionate blood, And so true feeling of her harmless pains, That every one a shower of confits rains; For which the bride-youths scrambling || on the ground,
In noise of that sweet hail her cries were drown'd.
And thus blest Hymen joy'd his gracious bride, And for his joy was after deified.
The saffron mirror by which Phoebus' love, Green Tellus, decks her, now he held above The cloudy mountains: and the noble maid, Sharp-visag'd Adolesche, that was stray'd Out of her way, in hasting with her news, Not till this** hour th' Athenian turrets views;
* Agneia] “¿yvía, pudicitia." Ed. 1821.
+ Phemonbe] "Vid. Pausan. 1. x. c. 5."-Ed. 1821. Old
eds. "Phemonor" and "Phemoner."
confits] i. e. comfits.
§ above] V. R. "about."
I scrambling] V. R. "scrabling" (the mark for the m,
over the a, having been omitted).
¶her] Old eds. "their."
**this] Old eds. "his."
Day is abstracted* here,
And varied in a triple sphere.
Hero, Alcmane, Mya, so outshine thee,
Ere thou come here, let Thetis thrice refine thee. Love calls to war;
Sighs his alarms,
Lips his swords are,
The field his arms.
The evening star I see:
Rise, youths! the evening star Helps Love to summon war; Both now embracing be.
Rise, youths! Love's rite claims more than banquets; rise !
Now the bright marigolds, that deck † the skies, Phoebus' celestial flowers, that, contrary
To his flowers here, ope when he shuts his eye, And shut when he doth open, crown your sports:
Now Love in Night, and Night in Love exhorts Courtship and dances: all your parts employ, And suit Night's rich expansure with your joy. Love paints his longings in sweet virgins' eyes: Rise, youths! Love's rite claims more than banquets; rise!
Rise, virgins! let fair nuptial loves enfold Your fruitless breasts: the maidenheads ye‡ hold
Are not your own alone, but parted are; Part in disposing them your parents share,* And that a third part is; so must ye save Your loves a third, and you your thirds must have.
Love paints his longings in sweet virgins' eyes: Rise, youths! Love's rite claims more than banquets; rise!
Herewith the amorous spirit, that was 80
To Teras' hair, and comb'd it down with wind, Still as it, comet-like, brake from her brain, Would needs have Teras gone, and did refrain To blow it down: which, staring up,† dismay'd The timorous feast; and she no longer stay'd; But, bowing to the bridegroom and the bride, Did, like a shooting exhalation, glide Out of their sights: the turning of her back Made them all shriek, it look'd so ghastly
O hapless Hero! that most hapless cloud Thy soon-succeeding tragedy foreshow'd. Thus all the nuptial crew to joys depart; But much-wrung + Hero, stood Hell's blackest dart:
Whose wound because I grieve so to display, I use digressions thus t'increase the day.
The Winds yet, like the flowers, to cease began; For bright Leucote, Venus' whitest swan, That held sweet Hero dear, spread her fair wings, Like to a field of snow, and message brings From Venus to the Fates, t'entreat them lay Their charge upon the Winds their rage to stay, That the stern battle of the seas might cease, And guard Leander to his love in peace. The Fates consent;-ay me, dissembling Fates! They shew'd their favours to conceal their hates, And draw Leander on, lest seas too high Should stay his too obsequious destiny: Who like a fleering slavish parasite,
In warping profit or a traitorous sleight, Hoops round his rotten body with devotes, And pricks his descant face full of false notes; Praising with open throat, and oaths as foul As his false heart, the beauty of an owl; Kissing his skipping hand with charmèd skips, That cannot leave, but leaps upon his lips Like a cock-sparrow, or a + shameless quean Sharp at a red-lipp'd youth, and naught doth
Of all his antic shows, but doth repair More tender fawns, and takes a scatter'd hair From his tame suhject's shoulder; whips and calls
For every thing he lacks; creeps 'gainst the walls With backward humbless,‡ to give needless way: Thus his false fate did with Leander play.
First to black Eurus flies the white Leucote, (Born 'mongst the negroes in the Levant sea, On whose curl'd head[s] the glowing sun doth rise,)
And shews the sovereign will of Destinies, To have him cease his blasts; and down he lies. Next, to the fenny Notus course she holds, And found him leaning, with his arms in folds, Upon a rock,§ his white hair full of showers; And him she chargeth by the fatal powers, To hold in his wet cheeks his cloudy voice. To Zephyr then that doth in flowers rejoice: To snake-foot Boreas next she did remove, And found him tossing of his ravish'd love, || To heat his frosty bosom hid in snow; Who with Leucote's eight did cease to blow. Thus all were still to Hero's heart's desire; Who with all speed did consecrate a fire
Of flaming gums and comfortable spice, To light her torch, which in such curious price She held, being object to Leander's sight, That naught but fires perfum'd must give it light. She lov'd it so, she griev'd to see it burn, Since it would waste, and soon to ashes turn: Yet, if it burn'd not, 'twere not worth her eyes; What made it nothing, gave it all the prize. Sweet torch, true glass of our society! What man does good, but he consumes thereby? But thou wert lov'd for good, held high, given show;
Poor virtue loath'd for good, obscur'd, held low: Do good, be pin'd,—be deedless good, disgrac'd; Unless we feed on men, we let them fast.
Yet Hero with these thoughts her torch did spend:
When bees make * wax, Nature doth not intend It should be made a torch; but we, that know The proper virtue of it, make it so,
And, when 'tis made, we light it: nor did Nature Propose one life to maids; but each such creature Makes by her soul the best of her true state, Which without love is rude, disconsolate, And wants love's fire to make it mild and bright, Till when, maids are but torches wanting light. Thus 'gainst our grief, not cause of grief, we fight: The right of naught is glean'd, but the delight. Up went she: but to tell how she descended, Would God she were not dead, or my verse
She was the rule of wishes, sum, and end, For all the parts that did on love depend: Yet cast the torch his brightness further forth; But what shines nearest best, holds truest worth. Leander did not through such tempests swim To kiss the torch, although it lighted him: But all his powers in her desires awaked, Her love and virtues cloth'd him richly naked. Men kiss but fire that only shows pursue; Her torch and Hero. figure show and virtue.
Now at oppos'd Abydos naught was heard But bleating flocks, and many a bellowing herd, Slain for the nuptials; cracks of falling woods; Blows of broad axes; pourings out of floods. The guilty Hellespont was mix'd and stain'd With bloody torrent § that the shambles rain'd; Not arguments of feast, but shows that bled, Foretelling that red night that followed.
fleering] V. R. "fleeting." ta] Omitted in one 4to. thumbless] V. R. "humblenesse."
§ rock] V. R. "rocky."
his ravish'd love] i. e. Orithyia.
* make] V. R. "makes."
+ should] V. R. "shall."
pourings] V. R. "powring." § torrent] Qy. "torrents"?
More blood was spilt, more honours were addrest, Than could have graced any happy feast; Rich banquets, triumphs, every pomp employs His sumptuous hand; no miser's nuptial joys. Air felt continual thunder with the noise Made in the general marriage-violence; And no man knew the cause of this * expense, But the two hapless lords, Leander's sire, And poor Leander, poorest where the fire Of credulous love made him most rich surmis'd: As short was he of that himself so priz'd,+ As is an empty gallant full of form, That thinks each look an act, each drop a storm, That falls from his brave breathings; most brought up
In our metropolis, and hath his cup
Brought after him to feasts; and much palm bears For his rare judgment in th' attire he wears; Hath seen the hot Low-Countries, not their heat, Observes their rampires and their buildings yet; And, for your sweet discourse with mouths, is heard
Giving instructions with his very beard; Hath gone with an ambassador, and been
A great man's mate in travelling, even to Rhene; And then puts all his worth in such a face As he saw brave men make, and strives for grace To get his news forth: as when you descry A ship, with all her sail contends to fly Out of the narrow Thames with winds unapt, Now crosseth here, then there, then this way rapt, And then hath one point reach'd, then alters all, And to another crookèd reach doth fall
Of half a bird-bolt's shoot,|| keeping more coil Than if she danc'd upon the ocean's toil; So serious is his trifling company,
In all his swelling ship of vacantry And so short of himself in his high thought Was our Leander in his fortunes brought, And in his fort of love that he thought won; But otherwise he scorns comparison.
O sweet Leander, thy large worth I hide In a short grave! ill-favour'd storms must chide Thy sacred favour; ¶ I in floods of ink
Even as thy beauties* did the foul black seas; I must describe the hell of thy decease, That heaven did merit: yet I needs must see Our painted fools and cockhorse peasantry Still, still usurp, with long lives, loves, and lust, The seats of Virtue, cutting short as dust Her dear-bought + issue: ill to worse converts, And tramples in the blood of all deserts.
Night close and silent now goes fast before The captains and the soldiers to the shore, On whom attended the appointed fleet At Sestos' bay, that should Leander meet, Who feign'd he in another ship would pass : Which must not be, for no one mean there was To get his love home, but the course he took. Forth did his beauty for his beauty look, And saw her through her torch, as you behold Sometimes within the sun a face of gold, Form'd in strong thoughts, by that tradition's force
That says a god sits there and guides his course. His sister was with him; to whom he shew'd His guide by sea, and said, "Oft have you view'd In one heaven many stars, but never yet In one star many heavens till now were met. See, lovely sister! see, now Hero shines, No heaven but her § appears; each star repines, And all are clad in clouds, as if they mourn'd To be by influence of earth out-burn'd. Yet doth she shine, and teacheth Virtue's train Still to be constant in hell's blackest reign, Though even the gods themselves do so entreat]]
As they did hate, and earth as she would eat them."
Off went his silken Trobe, and in he leapt, Whom the kind waves so licorously cleapt,** Thickening for haste, one in another, so, To kiss his skin, that he might almost go
To Hero's tower, had that kind minute lasted. But now the cruel Fates with Até hasted To all the Winds, and made them battle fight Upon the Hellespont, for either's right Pretended to the windy monarchy;
Must drown thy graces, which white papers drink, And forth they brake, the seas mix'd with the sky,
himself so priz'd] Old eds. "himselfe he prisde," "himselfe he surprisde," and "himselfe surpris'd." tis] V. R. "in."
§ And, for] V. R. "And as for."
a bird-bolt's shoot]-bird-bolt, i. e. an arrow so formed as to kill birds by the force of the blow, without piercing them.
favour] i e. look, countenance,-beauties.
And toss'd distress'd Leander, being in hell,
As high as heaven: bliss not in height doth dwell.
* beauties] V. R. "beauty."
dear-bought] V. R. "deare brought."
attended] V. R. "attend."
her] V. R. "hers."
Il entreat] i e. treat.
silken] V. R. "silke."
** cleapt] An alteration, for the rhyme, of clipt, 1. e. einbraced.
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