"Leander, thou art made for amorous play:
"Why art thou not in love, and loved of all?
"Though thou be fair, yet be not thine own thrall."
Openly pederastic, in the same poem by Marlowe, is the passion of Neptune to possess the swimming Leander. Neptune supposes that so beautiful a mortal must be Ganymede, and determines to "enjoy him". The-god swims beside Leander, eager to rape the lad in the very waters:
"He watched his arms, and as they opened wide
At every stroke between them he would slide
And steal a kiss, and then run out and dance,
And, as he turned steal many a lustful glance,
And throw him gaudy toys to please his eye,
And dive into the water, and there pry
Upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb,
And up again, and close beside him swim,
And talk of love."
The opening of Marlowe's tragedy "Dido", presents to us "Jupiter dandling Ganymede upon his knee, and Hermes lying asleep", with the exclamation from Jupiter:
"Come, gentle Ganymede, and play with me:
I love thee well, say Juno what she will"!
—continued by a dialogue in which the boy bargains his favours to Jove like a knavish young harlot; his final demand being—
And a fine brooch to put into my hat,
And then I'll hug with you an hundred times".
In the English drama of the Elizabethan quality and epoch, occur certain catch-words and sobriquets, some of them of Anglo-Saxon, some of other derivation, that refer to homosexual characters and passions. Such are however more intelligible to philologists than to less erudite readers, being largely obsolete in the language to-day.
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