Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/153

The virgin tapers that on th' altar stood,
When she inflamed them burned as blood^[1]:
All sad ostents of that too near success^[2],
That made such moving beauties motionless.
Then Hero wept, but her affrighted eyes
She quickly wrested from the sacrifice;
Shut them, and inwards for Leander look'd,
Search'd her soft bosom, and from thence she pluck'd
His lovely picture: which when she had view'd,
Her beauties were with all Love's joys^[3] renew'd;
The odours sweeten'd, and the fires burn'd clear,
Leander's form left no ill object there.
Such was his beauty, that the force of light,
Whose knowledge teacheth numbers infinite,
The strength of number and proportion,
Nature had plac'd in it to make it known.
Art was her daughter, and what human wits
For study lost, intomb'd in drossy spirits.
After this accident, which for her glory
Hero could not but make a history,
Th' inhabitants of Sestos and Abydos
Did every year, with feasts propitious,

1. 'When she inflam'd them, then they burn'd as blood,' edit. 1637.
2. i.e. succeeding event.
3. love-joys, edit. 1637.