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.

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' arins 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.

Joy graven in sense, like snow in water wastes
Without preserve of virtue, nothing lasts.
What man is he, that 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 flow'ry body of the earth,
In sacred harmony, and every birth
Of men, audacious, makes legitimate,
Being us'd aright; the use of time is fate.