the bride, espying the male chorus, enter on a rivalry in argument and song as to the merits of Hesperus, whom they note as he shows his evening fires over Œta—a sight which seems to have a connection with some myth as to the love of Hesper for a youth named Hymenæus localised at Œta, as the story of Diana and Endymion was at Latmos, to which Virgil alludes in his eighth eclogue. Both bevies gird themselves for a lively encounter of words, from their diverse points of view. First sing the virgins:—
That canst from mother's arms her child untwine?
From mother's arms a clinging daughter part,
To dower a headstrong bridegroom's eager heart?
Wrong like to this do captured cities know?
Ho! Hymen, Hymen! Hymenæus, ho!"—D.
The band of youths reply in an antistrophe which negatives the averment of the maidens:—
Whose flame still crowns true lovers' unity;
The troth that parents first, then lovers plight,
Nor deem complete till thou illum'st the night?
What hour more blissful do the gods bestow?
Hail! Hymen, Hymen! Hymenæus, ho!"—D.
To judge of the next plea of the chorus of maidens by the fragmentary lines which remain of the original, it took the grave form of a charge of abduction against the incriminated evening star. If he were not a principal in the felonious act, at least he winked at it, when it was the express vocation of his rising to pre-
