Breathless albeit he were, he rested not,
Till to the solitary tower he got:

And knock'd and call'd, at which celestial noise,
The longing heart of Hero much more joys
Than nymphs and shepherds, when the timbrel rings,
Or crooked dolphin, when the sailor sings.

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's sake,
Me in thy bed and maiden bosom take;
At least vouchsafe these arms some little room,
Who, hoping to embrace thee, cheerly swum.
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,
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 Acteon 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 essay'd

To touch those dainties, she the harpy play'd,
And every limb did, as a soldier stout,
Defend the fort, and keep the foeman out.
For though the rising ivory mount he scal'd,
Which is with azure circling lines empal'd,
Much like a globe, (a globe may I term this,
By which love sails to regions full of bliss,)
Yet there with Sysiphus he toil'd in vain,
Till gentle parley did the truce obtain.

* 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

* The Editor of the Select Early English Poets has judiciously transposed this couplet from its situation in the old editions, after the words "means to prey," where it is clearly out of place.

HERO AND LEANDER.

VOL. II.

23

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

* 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.