HERO AND LEANDER.
THE FIRST SESTIAD.
The Argument of the First Sestiad.[1]
Hero's description and her love's;
The fane of Venus, where he moves
His worthy love-suit, and attains;
Whose bliss the wrath of Fates restrains
For Cupid's grace to Mercury:
Which tale the author doth imply.
On Hellespont, guilty of true love's blood,
In view and opposite two cities stood,
Sea-borderers,[2] disjoin'd by Neptune's might;
The one Abydos, the other Sestos hight.[3]
At Sestos Hero dwelt; Hero the fair,
Whom young Apollo courted for her hair,
And offer'd as a dower his burning throne,
Where she should sit, for men to gaze upon.
The outside of her garments were of lawn,[4]
The lining purple silk, with gilt stars drawn;
Her wide sleeves green, and border'd with a grove,
Where Venus in her naked glory strove
To please the careless and disdainful eyes
Of proud Adonis, that before her lies;
Her kirtle blue, whereon was many a stain,
Made with the blood of wretched lovers slain.
Upon her head she ware[5] a myrtle wreath,
From whence her veil reach'd to the ground beneath:
Her veil was artificial flowers and leaves,
Whose workmanship both man and beast deceives:
Many would praise the sweet smell as she past,
When 'twas the odour which her breath forth cast;
And there for honey bees have sought in vain,
And, beat from thence, have lighted there again.
About her neck hung chains of pebble-stone,
Which, lighten'd by her neck, like diamonds shone.
She ware no gloves; for neither sun nor wind
Would burn or parch her hands, but, to her mind,
Or warm or cool them, for they took delight
To play upon those hands, they were so white.
Buskins of shells, all silver'd, usèd she,
And branch'd with blushing coral to the knee;
Where sparrows perch'd, of hollow pearl and gold,
Such as the world would wonder to behold:
Those with sweet water oft her handmaid fills,
Which, as she went, would cherup through the bills.
Some say, for her the fairest Cupid pin'd,
And, looking in her face, was strooken blind.
But this is true; so like was one the other,
As he imagin'd Hero was his mother;
- ↑ The Argument of the First Sestiad, &c.] The Arguments of all the Sestiads are by Chapman; who, when he continued Hero and Leander, divided into the First and Second Sestiad that portion of the poem which was written by Marlowe. See Account of Marlowe and his writings.
The present text of this poem is formed from a collation of seven editions (see p. 276), of which the earliest are by far the most correct. In noting the various readings at the foot of the page, I originally intended to specify the particular editions which exhibited them: but I found that such minuteness of reference (perhaps, after all, wholly uninteresting to the reader) would occupy a much larger portion of the page than was desirable; and I have therefore been content to give the variæ lectiones without indicating their sources.
- ↑ Sea-borderers] V.R. "Seaborders."
- ↑ hight] i.e. called.
- ↑ The outside of her garments were of lawn] The modern editors print "was of lawn". But see note §, p. 166.
- ↑ ware] V.R. "wore."
