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

But looking off, vicious and melancholy.

The snaky paths to each observed 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 followed, 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, From whence he meant to Sestos' forked bay To bring her covertly, where ships must stay, Sent by her father, thoroughly 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 count'nance, and her spirits bereft her.

*From this, and other passages it would seem that Chapman accentuates spirus as a monosyllable.

To look on 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 now ‡ most strangely-intellectual fire,
That proper to my soul hast power t'inspire
Her burning faculties, and with the wings.
Of thy unsphered 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 Pierean flood,

i. e. heated.

+ Chapman's noble address to the spirit of his departed precursor, Marlow.

✰ Following Sir E. Brydges, I have taken the liberty (inexcusable, I fear, by lovers of true editions) to substitute now for how, the reading of the old copies; and which wants nothing but intelligibility to render it superior to any other that could be suggested.

And drunk to me half this Musean 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 crew

Of new-come thoughts, that yet* she never knew,
E'en to herself a stranger was; much like
Th' Iberian city + that War's hand did strike
By English force in princely Essex' guide ‡,
When Peace assur'd her towers had fortified;
And golden-finger'd India had bestow'd

Such wealth on her, that strength and empire flow'd

* yet, for until now.

+ 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.

guide, for guidance.

Into her turrets; and her virgin waist
The wealthy girdle of the sea embrac'd:
Till our Leander, that made Mars his Cupid,
For soft love-suits, with iron thunders chid:
Swum to her towns, 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 mansions possess'd
With war's just spoil, and many a foreign guest
From every corner driving an cnjoyer,
Supplying it with power of a destroyer.
So far'd fair Hero in th' expugned fort
Of her chaste bosom; and of every sort

Strange thoughts possess'd her, ransacking her breast,
For that which 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.