And to some corner secretly have gone, THE ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD SESTYAD. Leander to the envious light Resigns his night-sports with the night, 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, More harsh, at least more hard, more grave and high 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, 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, Might be express'd, that had no stay t' employ Would on the stock dispend, and rudely fall Which for Lust's plague doth perish with possessing. |