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She stay'd not for her robes, but straight arose,
And, drunk with gladness, to the door she goes;
Where seeing a naked man, she screech'd for fear,
(Such sights as this to tender maids are rare,)
And ran into the dark herself to hide
(Rich jewels in the dark are soonest spied).
Unto her was he led, or rather drawn,

By those white limbs which sparkled through
the lawn.

The nearer that he came, the more she fled,
And, seeking refuge, slipt into her bed;
Whereon Leander sitting, thus began,
Through numbing cold, all feeble, faint, and

wan.

"If not for love, yet, love, for pity-sake,
Me in thy bed and maiden bosom take;

At least vouchsafe these arms some little room,
Who, hoping to embrace thee, cheerly swoom:
This head was beat with many a churlish billow,
And therefore let it rest upon thy pillow."
Herewith affrighted, Hero shrunk away,
And in her lukewarm place Leander lay;
Whose lively heat, like fire from heaven fet,t
Would animate gross clay, and higher set
The drooping thoughts of base-declining souls,
Than dreary-Mars-carousing nectar bowls.
His hands he cast upon her like a snare:
She, overcome with shame and sallow § fear,
Like chaste Diana when Actæon spied her,
Being suddenly betray'd, div'd down to hide her;
And, as her silver body downward went,
With both her hands she made the bed a tent,
And in her own mind thought herself secure,
O'ercast with dim and darksome coverture.
And now she lets him whisper in her ear,
Flatter, entreat, promise, protest, and swear:
Yet ever, as he greedily assay'd

Even as a bird, which in our hands we wring,
Forth plungeth, and oft flutters with her wing,*
She trembling strove this strife of hers, like
that

Which made the world, another world begat
Of unknown joy. Treason was in her thought,
And cunningly to yield herself she sought.
Seeming not won, yet won she was at length:
In such wars women use but half their strength.
Leander now, like Theban Hercules,

Enter'd the orchard of th Hesperides;

Whose fruit none rightly can describe, but he
That pulls or shakes it from the golden tree.
Wherein Leander, on her quivering breast,
Breathless spoke something,† and sigh'd out the

rest;

Which so prevail'd, as he,‡ with small ado,
Enclos'd her in his arms, and kiss'd her too:
And every kiss to her was as a charm,
And to Leander as a fresh alarm:
So that the truce was broke, and she, alas,
Poor silly maiden, at his mercy was
Love is not full of pity, as men say,
But deaf and cruel where he means to prey.

And now she § wish'd this night were never

done,

And sigh'd to think upon th' approaching sun;
For much it griev'd her that the bright day-light
Should know the pleasure of this blessèd night,
And them, like Mars and Erycine, display ¶
Both in each other's** arms chain'd as they lay.++
Again, she knew not how to frame her look,
Or speak to him, who ‡‡ in a moment took
That which so long, so charily she kept;
And fain by stealth away she would have crept,
And to some corner secretly have gone,
Leaving Leander in the bed alone.

To touch those dainties, she the harpy play'd, But as her naked feet were whipping out,

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He on the sudden cling'd her so about,

* Even as a bird, which in our hands we wring, Forth plungeth, and oft flutters with her wing] "The Editor has taken the liberty to alter the situation of this couplet, which as it originally stands after 'But deaf and cruel where he means to prey' [the 22nd line of this col. is an awkward excrescence. By the present transposition it becomes a lively and beautifully appropriate simile." Ed. 1821. The transposition is unquestionably right. + something] V. R. "some things."

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And all the air she purpled round about," &c. glimps'd] Old eds. "glympse" ("glymse" and "glimse ").

reproving] Old eds. "improuing" (Compare, at p. 291, first col. ;

"Thus she appear'd, and sharply did reprove
Leander's bluntness in his violent love," &c.)

woman's] V. R. "womens."

¶ ma›ds'] V. R. "made" and "make."

** censure] i. e. pass judgment on.

That, being enjoy'd, ask judgment; now we praise,

As having parted: evenings crown the days.

And now, ye wanton Loves, and young

Desires,

Pied Vanity, the mint of strange attires,
Ye lisping Flatteries, and obsequious Glances,
Relentful Musics, and attractive Dances,
And you detested Charms constraining love!
Shun love's stoln sports by that these lovers

prove.

By this, the sovereign of heaven's golden fires, And young Leander, lord of his desires, Together from their lovers' arms arose: Leander into Hellespontus throws His Hero-handled body, whose delight Made him disdain each other epithite. And as amidst th' enamour'd waves he swims, The god of gold of § purpose gilt his limbs, That, this word gilt including double sense, The double guilt of his incontinence Might be express'd, that had no stay t' employ The treasure which the love-god let him joy In his dear Hero, with such sacred thrift As had beseem'd so sanctified|| a gift; But, like a greedy vulgar prodigal, Would on the stock dispend, and rudely fall,

Dis] i. e. Pluto,-whom even the Greeks themselves occasionally confounded with Plutus, the god of riches.

the bright Day-bearing car] Old eds. "the day brightbearing car."

Dang'd down to hell her loathsome carriage] V R. "Hurld down," &c.-2to 1598 ends here, with the words "Desunt nonnulla." The continuation of the poem is wholly by Chapman: see note*, p. 279.

of i. e. on.-V. R. "a."

so sanctified] V. it. "to sanctifie."

U

Before his time, to that unblessèd blessing Which, for lust's plague, doth perish with possessing:

Joy graven in sense, like snow in water, wasts; *
Without preserve of virtue, nothing lasts.
What man is he, thatt with a wealthy eye
Enjoys a beauty richer than the sky,
Through whose white skin, softer than soundest
sleep,

With damask eyes the ruby blood doth peep,
And runs in branches through her azure veins,
Whose mixture and first fire his love attains;
Whose both hands limit both love's deities,
And sweeten human thoughts like Paradise;
Whose disposition silken is and kind,
Directed with an earth-exempted mind;—
Who thinks not heaven with such a love is given?
And who, like earth, would spend that dower §
of heaven,

With rank desire to joy it all at first?
What simply kills our hunger, quencheth thirst,
Clothes but our nakedness, and makes us live,
Praise doth not any of her favours give:
But what doth plentifully minister
Beauteous apparel and delicious cheer,
So order'd that it still excites desire,
And still gives pleasure freeness to aspire,
The palm of Bounty ever moist preserving;
To Love's sweet life this is the courtly carving.
Thus Time and all-states-ordering Ceremony
Had banish'd all offence: Time's golden thigh
Upholds the flowery body of the earth
In sacred harmony, and every birth
Of men and actions makes legitimate;
Being us'd aright, the use of time is fate.

Yet did the gentle flood transfer once more This prize of love home to his father's shore; Where he unlades himself of that false wealth That makes few rich,-treasures compos'd by stealth;

And to his sister, kind Hermione,

(Who on the shore kneel'd, praying to the sea For his return,) he all love's goods ¶ did show, In Hero seis'd for him, in him for Hero.

His most kind sister all his secrets knew, And to her, singing, like a shower, he flew,

Sprinkling the earth, that to their tombs took in
Streams dead for love, to leave his ivory skin,
Which yet a snowy foam did leave above,
As soul to the dead water that did love;
And from thence did the first white roses spring
(For love is sweet and fair in every thing),
And all the sweeten'd shore, as he did go,
Was crown'd with odorous roses, white as snow,
Love-blest Leander was with love so fill'd,
That love to all that touch'd him he instill'd;
And as the colours of all things we see,
To our sight's powers communicated be,
So to all objects that in compass came
Of any sense he had, his senses' flame
Flow'd from his parts with force so virtual,
It fir'd with sense things mere† insensual.

*

Now, with warm baths and odours comforted,
When he lay down, he kindly kiss'd his bed,
As consecrating it to Hero's right,

And vow'd thereafter, that whatever sight
Put him in mind of Hero or her bliss,
Should be her altar to prefer a kiss.

Then laid he forth his late-enriched arms,
In whose white circle Love writ all his charms,
And made his characters sweet Hero's limbs,
When on his breast's warm sea she sideling
swims;

And as those arms, held up in circle, met,
He said, "See, sister, Hero's carquenet! §
Which she bad rather wear about her neck,
Than all the jewels that do Juno deck."

But, as he** shook with passionate desire
To put in flame his other secret fire,
A music so divine did pierce his ear,
As never yet his ravish'd sense did hear;
When suddenly a light of twenty hues
Brake through the roof, and, like the rainbow,

views

Amaz'd Leander: in whose beams came down
The goddess Ceremony, with a crown

Of all the stars; and Heaven with her descended:
Her flaming hair to her bright feet extended,
By which hung all the bench of deities;
And in a chain, compact of ears and eyes,
She led Religion: all her body was
Clear and transparent as the purest glass,

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For she was all* presented to the sense:
Devotion, Order, State, and Reverence,
Her shadows were; Society, Memory;

All which her sight made live, her absence die.

A rich disparent pentacle she wears,
Drawn full of circles and strange characters.
Her face was changeable to every eye;
One way look'd ill, another graciously;

Which while men view'd, they cheerful were and holy,

But looking off, vicious and melancholy.

The suaky paths to each observèd law

Did Policy in her broad bosom draw.

One hand a mathematic crystal sways,
Which, gathering in one line a thousand rays
From her bright eyes, Confusion burns to death,
And all estates of men distinguisheth:+
By it Morality and Comeliness

Themselves in all their sightly figures dress.
Her other hand a laurel rod applies,
To beat back Barbarism and Avarice,
That follow'd, eating earth and excrement

And human limbs; and would make proud

ascent

To seats of gods, were Ceremony slain.

The Hours and Graces bore her glorious train; And all the sweets of our society

Were spher'd and treasur'd in her bounteous eye.

Thus she appear'd, and sharply did reprove
Leander's bluntness in his violent love;
Told him how poor was substance without rites,
Like bills unsign'd; desires without delights;
Like meats unseason'd; like rank corn that
grows

On cottages, that none or reaps or sows;

Not being with civil forms confirm'd and bounded,

For human dignities and comforts founded;
But loose and secret all their glories hide;
Fear fills the chamber, Darkness decks the bride.
She vanish'd, leaving pierc'd Leander's heart
With sense of his unceremonious part,
In which, with plain neglect of nuptial rites,
He close and flatly fell to his delights:
And instantly he vow'd to celebrate
All rites pertaining to his married state.
So up he gets, and to his father goes,

To whose glad ears he doth his vows disclose.
The nuptials are resolv'd with utmost power;
And he at night would swim to Hero's tower,

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From whence he meant to Sestos' forked * bay To bring her covertly, where ships must stay, Sent by his father, throughly rigg'd and mann'd,

To waft her safely to Abydos' strand.

There leave we him; and with fresh wing pursue
Astonish'd Hero, whose most wished view

I thus long have forborne, because I left her
So out of countenance, and her spirits bereft her:
To look of one abash'd is impudence,
When of slight faults he hath too deep a sense.
Her blushing het § her chamber: she look'd out,
And all the air she purpled round about;
And after it a foul black day befell,

Which ever since a red morn doth foretell,
And still renews our woes for Hero's woe;
And foul it prov'd, because it figur'd so
The next night's horror; which prepare to hear;
I fail, if it profane your daintiest ear.

Then, ho,|| most strangely-intellectual fire,
That, proper to my soul, hast power t' inspire
Her burning faculties, and with the wings
Of thy unspherèd flame visit'st the springs
Of spirits immortal! Now (as swift as Time
Doth follow Motion) find th' eternal clime
Of his ¶ free soul, whose living subject stood
Up to the chin in the Pierian flood,
And drunk to me half this Musæan story,
Inscribing it to deathless memory:
Confer with it, and make my pledge as deep,
That neither's draught be consecrate to sleep;
Tell it how much his late desires I tender
(If yet it know not), and to light** surrender
My soul's dark offspring, willing it should die
To loves, to passions, and society.

Sweet Hero, left upon her bed alone, Her maidenhead, her vows, Leander gone, And nothing with her but a violent crow Of new-come thoughts, that yet she never knew, Even to herself a stranger, was much like Th' Iberian city ++ that War's hand did strike

* forked] V. R. "forged." this] Old eds. "her."

t of i. e. on.-V. R. "on." § het] i. e. heated.

ho] Spelt in the old eds. (as the word was often spelt formerly) "how." The modern editors print "now." This] i. e Marlowe's.

** it know not. . . . to light] V. R. "I know not. . . . to delight."

+ Th' Iberian city] "Cadiz. The expedition against it sailed June 1, 1596; and was under the joint command of Essex, and Lord Howard, the High Admiral of England; assisted by the councils and presence of Lord Thomas Howard, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir F. Vere, Sir George Carew, and Sir Conyers Clifford." Ed. 1821.

By English force in princely Essex' guide,*
When† Peace assur'd her towers had fortified,

And golden-finger'd India had bestow'd

Conceives a form, in seeking to display it
Through all our cloudy parts, it doth convey it
Forth at the eye, as the most pregnant place,

Such wealth on her, that strength and empire And that reflects it round about the face.
flow'd

Into her turrets, and her virgin waist
The wealthy girdle of the sea embrac'd; ‡
Till our Leauder, that made Mars his Cupid,
For soft love-suits, with iron thunders chid;
Swum to her town,§ dissolv'd her virgin || zone;
Led in his power, and made Confusion

Run through her streets amaz'd, that she
suppos'd

She had not been in her own walls enclos'd,
But rapt by wonder to some foreign state,
Seeing all her issue so disconsolate,
And all her peaceful mansious possess'd

With war's just spoil, and many a foreign guest
From every corner driving an enjoyer,
Supplying it with power of a destroyer.
So far'd fair Hero in th' expugnèd fort

Of her chaste bosom; and of every sort

And this event, uncourtly Hero thought,
Her inward guilt would in her looks have wrought;
For yet the world's stale cunning she resisted,
To bear foul thoughts, yet forge what looks she
And held it for a very silly sleight, [listed,
To make a perfect metal counterfeit,
Glad to disclaim herself, proud of an art
That makes the face a pandar to the heart.
Those be thet painted moons, whose lights profane
Beauty's true heaven, at full still in their wane;
Those be the lapwing-faces that still cry,
"Here 'tis !" when that they vow is nothing nigh:
Base fools! when every moorish fool
That which men think the height of human reach.
But custom, that the § apoplexy is
Of bed-rid nature and lives led amiss,

can teach

And takes away all feeling of offence,
Yet braz'd not Hero's brow with impudence;

Strange thoughts possess'd her, ransacking her And this she thought most hard to bring to pass,

breast

For that that I was not there, her wonted rest.
She was a mother straight, and bore with pain
Thoughts that spake straight, and wish'd their
mother slain;

She hates their lives, and they their own and
hers:

Such strife still grows where sin the race prefers:
Love is a golden bubble, full of dreams,

That waking breaks, and fills us with extremes.
She mus'd how she could look upon her sire,
And not shew that without, that was intire; **
For as a glass is an inanimate eye,
And outward forms embraceth inwardly,
So is the eye an animate glass, that shews
In-forms without us; and as Phoebus throws
His beams abroad, though he in clouds be clos'd,
Still glancing by them till he find oppos'd
A loose and rorid vapour that is fit
T' event his searching beams, and useth it
To form a tender twenty-colour'd eye,
Cast in a circle round about the sky;
So when our fiery soul, our body's star,
(That ever is in motion circular,)

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To seem in countenance other than she was,
As if she had two souls, one for the face,
One for the heart, and that they shifted place
As either list to utter or conceal
What they conceiv'd, or as one soul did deal
With both affairs at once, keeps and ejects
Both at an instant contrary effects; ||
Retention and ejection in her powers
Being acts alike; for this one vice of ours,
That forms the thought, and sways the counte-
nance,

Rules both our motion and our utterance.

These and more grave conceits toil'd Hero's

spirits;

For, though the light of her discoursive wits
Perhaps might find some little hole to pass
Through all these worldly cinctures, yet, alas !
There was a heavenly flame encompass'd her,-
Her goddess, in whose fane she did prefer
Her virgin vows, from whose impulsive sight
She knew the black shield of the darkest night
Could not defend her, nor wit's subtlest art:
This was the point pierc'd Hero to the heart;

*Forth] V. R. "For."

the] V. R. "his."

↑ moorish fool] i. e. silly bird of the moor,-such as the lapwing before alluded to.-(Since Chapman, like our other early poets, affects the repetition of words, we are forbidden to conjecture that here he wrote “moorish fowl.")

§ the] Omitted in one 4to.
effects] V. R. "affects."

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