And to some corner secretly have gone,
Leaving Leander in the bed alone.
But as her naked feet were whipping out,
He on the sudden clung her so about,
That mermaid-like unto the floor she slid;
One half appear'd, the other half was hid.
Thus near the bed she blushing stood upright,
And from her countenance behold ye might
A kind of twilight break, which through the air,
As from an orient cloud, glimps'd here and there;
And round about the chamber this false morn
Brought forth the day before the day was born.
So Hero's ruddy cheek Hero betray'd,
And her all naked to his sight display'd:
Whence his admiring eyes more pleasure took,
Than Dis, on heaps of gold fixing his look.-
By this Apollo's golden harp began
To sound forth music to the Ocean,
Which watchful Hesperus no sooner heard,
But he the day bright-bearing car prepar'd,
And ran before, as harbinger of light,
And with his flaring beams mock'd ugly Night,
Till she, o'ecome with anguish, shame and rage,
Dang'd down to hell her loathsome carriage.

HERO AND LEANDER.

23

VOL. II.

THE ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD SESTYAD.

Leander to the envious light

Resigns his night-sports with the night,
And swims the Hellespont again.

Thesme the deity sovereign

Of customs and religious rites

Appears, reproving his delights,

Since nuptial honours he neglected;

Which straight he vows shall be effected.

Fair Hero, left devirginate,

Weighs, and with fury wails her state:

But with her love and woman wit

She argues, and approveth it.

HERO AND LEANDER.

THE THIRD SESTYAD*.

NEW light gives new directions, fortunes new,
To fashion our endeavours that ensue.

More harsh, at least more hard, more grave and high
Our subject runs, and our stern Muse must fly.
Love's edge is taken off, and that light flame,
Those thoughts, joys, longings, that before became

66

* It has generally been supposed that Marlowe wrote the first and second sestyads, and a portion of the third: that portion is stated in a note to Warton, on the authority of Mr. Malone, to be about one hundred lines. Mr. Malone's opinion probably originated in the circumstance, that in the collection entitled England's Parnassus," the passage describing Ceremony, beginning at the 105th line, is given to Chapman; for in a note appended to the copy of the poem in the British Museum signed E. M., I suppose Edmund Malone, that circumstance is stated as a reason for assigning a portion of the third sestyad to Marlowe, but certainly does not warrant any such conclusion. Indeed in the same collection two other extracts from this sestyad, commencing at the 35th and 60th lines are also given to Chapman; which would be sufficient to justify me in attributing the whole of the third sestyad to him, independently of the evidence afforded by the style, which can leave little doubt that Marlowe wrote no part of it.

High unexperienc'd blood, and maids' sharp plights,
Must now grow staid, and censure the delights,
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 Loves' stol'n 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
Before his time, to that unblessed blessing,

Which for Lust's plague doth perish with possessing.