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TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL

SIR T. WALSINGHAM, KNIGHT.

SIR,

WE thinke not our selues discharged of the duty we owe to our friend, when we haue brought the breathles bodie to the earth: for albeit the eie there taketh his euer farewell of that beloved object, yet the impression of the man that hath been deare vnto vs, liuing an after life in our memorie, there putteth us in minde of farther obsequies due vnto the deceased. And namely of the performance of whatsoeuer we may iudge shall make to his liuing credit, and to the affecting of his determinations preuented by the stroke of death. By these meditations (as by an intellectual will) I suppose my selfe executor to the vnhappie deceased author of this Poem, vpon whom knowing that in his life time you bestowed many kind fauours, entertaining the partes of reckoning and worth which you found in him,

with good countenance and liberall affection: I cannot but see so far into the will of him dead, that whatsoever issue of his braine should chance to come abroad, that the first breath it should take might be the gentle air of your liking: for since his selfe had been accustomed thereunto, it would proue more agreeable and thriuing to his right children, than any other foster countenance whatsoeuer. At this time seeing that this unfinished Tragedy happens vnder my hands to be imprinted; of a double duty, the one to your selfe, the other to the deceased, I present the same to your most fauourable allowance, offering my

vtmost selfe now and

euer to be readie,

at your Worships
disposing

E. B. *

* This dedication is prefixed to the first edition of Marlowe's part of the poem " Printed by Adam Islip, for Edward Blunt, 1598." It was reprinted with Chapman's continuation, "for John Flasket, 1600." Some copies of this edition have the first book of Lucan, in blank verse, appended to them. The whole poem was printed again in 1606 and 1657.

HERO AND LEANDER.

FIRST SESTYAD.

The Argument of the First Sestyad.

Hero's description, and her loves;

The Fane of Venus, where he moves
His worthy love-suit, and attains;
Whose bliss the wrath of Fates restrains,

For Cupid's grace to Mercury:
Which tale the author doth imply.

HERO AND LEANDER.

THE FIRST SESTYAD.

ON Hellespont, guilty of true love's blood,

In view and opposite two cities stood,
Sea-borderers, disjoin'd by Neptune's might:
The one Abydos, the other Sestos hight.
At Sestos HERO dwelt; HERO the fair,
Whom young Apollo courted for her hair;
And offer'd as a dower his burning throne,
Where she should sit for men to gaze upon.
The outside of her garments was of lawn,
The lining, purple silk, with gilt stars drawn,
Her wide sleeves green, and border'd with a grove,
Where Venus in her naked glory strove

To please the careless and disdainful eyes
Of proud Adonis, that before her lies;

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