Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/68

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lviii
PREFACE.

And ran into the dark herself to hide;
(Rich jewels in the dark are soonest spied)
Unto her was he led, or rather, drawn
By those white limbs which sparkled through the lawn," &c.

How much more truly is this in the genuine nature of woman, and therefore how much more lovely to a healthy mind than either those outrageous personifications of ill-timed chastity, so common in romances ten or twelve years ago, or that unrestrained prostitution of the person which seems considered so venial by Percy B. Shelley and Co.—The two lines

"Then standing at the door she turn'd about
As loth to see Leander going out:"

contain a pretty illustration of the extreme of love:—some of our diluting modern writers would have spun out this light touch to a fine length.—What a brilliant fancy shines out in the following verses:

"The men of wealthy Sestos, every year,
For his sake, whom their goddess held so dear,
Rose-cheek'd Adonis, kept a solemn feast;
Thither resorted many a wand'red guest