Hero and Leander (Marlowe)/Dedication

by Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL

SIR T. WALSINGHAM, KNIGHT.

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⁠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.^[1]

1. 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.

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