Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/90

And in the midst a silver altar stood;
There Hero, sacrificing turtles' blood,
Kneel'd to the ground, veiling her eyelids close;
And modestly they open'd as she rose:
Thence flew Love's arrow with the golden head;
And thus Leander was enamoured.
Stone still he stood, and evermore he gaz'd,
Till with the fire, that from his countenance blaz'd,
Relenting Hero's gentle heart was strook:
Such force and virtue hath an amorous look.

It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overrul'd by fate.
When two are stripp'd long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should lose, the other win.
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots like in each respect:
The reason no man knows; let it suffice,
What we behold is censur'd by our eyes.
Where both deliberate the love is slight:
Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?

He kneel'd; but unto her devoutly pray'd:
Chaste Hero to herself thus softly said: