To Venus what her gentle statutes bound. Here weddings were, but not a musical sound;

Here bed-rites offer'd, but no hymns of praise,

Nor poet sacred wedlock's worth did raise. No torches gilt the honour'd nuptial bed, Nor any youths much-moving dances led. No father, nor no reverend mother, sung Hymen, O Hymen, blessing loves so young. But when the consummating hours had crown'd

The downright nuptials, a calm bed was found;

Silence the room fix'd; Darkness deck'd the bride;

But hymns and such rites far were laid aside.

Night was sole gracer of this nuptial house;
Cheerful Aurora never saw the spouse
In any beds that were too broadly known,
Away he fled still to his region,
And breathed insatiate of the absent Sun.
Hero kept all this from her parents still,
Her priestly weed was large, and would not
fill,

A maid by day she was, a wife by night; Which both so loved they wish'd it never light.

And thus both, hiding the strong need of love,

In Venus' secret sphere rejoiced to move. But soon their joy died; and that stilltoss'd state

Of their stolen nuptials drew but little date.

For when the frosty Winter kept his justs,
Rousing together all the horrid gusts
That from the ever-whirling pits arise,
And those weak deeps that drive up to the
skies,

Against the drench'd foundations making knock

Their curled foreheads; then with many a shock

The winds and seas met, made the storms aloud

Beat all the rough sea with a pitchy cloud. And then the black bark, buffeted with gales,

Earth checks so rudely that in two it

falls;

The seaman flying winter's faithless sea. Yet, brave Leander, all this bent at thee Could not compel in thee one fit of fear; But when the cruel faithless messenger, The tower, appear'd, and show'd th' accustom'd light,

It stung thee on, secure of all the spite

The raging sea spit. But since Winter

came,

Unhappy Hero should have cool'd her flame,

And lie without Leander, no more lighting Her short-lived bed-star; but strange fate exciting

As well as Love, and both their powers combined

Enticing her, in her hand never shined The fatal love-torch, but this one hour,

more.

Night came. And now the Sea against the shore,

Muster'd her winds up; from whose wintry jaws

They belch'd their rude breaths out in bitterest flaws.

In

midst of which Leander, with the pride

Of his dear hope to bord his matchless bride,

Upon the rough back of the high sea leaps;

And then waves thrust-up waves; the watery heaps

Tumbled together; sea and sky were mix'd; The fighting winds the frame of earth unfix'd;

Zephyr and Eurus flew in either's face, Notus and Boreas wrastler-like embrace, And toss each other with their bristled backs.

Inevitable were the horrid cracks
The shaken Sea gave; ruthful were the
wracks

Leander suffer'd in the savage gale
Th' inexorable whirlpits did exhale.
Often he pray'd to Venus born of seas,
Neptune their King; and Boreas, that
'twould please

His godhead, for the Nymph Althea's sake,

Not to forget the like stealth he did make For her dear love, touch'd then with his

sad state.

But none would help him; Love compels not Fate.

Every way toss'd with waves and Air's rude breath

Justling together, he was crush'd to death. No more his youthful force his feet commands,

Unmoved lay now his late all-moving hands.

His throat was turn'd free channel to the flood,

And drink went down that did him far

from good.

That of Leander ever-to-be-mourn'd Blew out the love and soul. When Hero still

Had watchful eyes, and a most constant will

To guide the voyage; and the morning shined,

Yet not by her light she her love could find.

She stood distract with miserable woes, And round about the sea's broad shoulders throws

And tried if any way her husband's sight Erring in any part she should descry. When at her turret's foot she saw him lie Mangled with rocks, and all embrued, she

tore

About her breast the curious weed she wore ;

And with a shriek from off her turret's height

Cast her fair body headlong, that fell right On her dead husband, spent with him her breath;

And each won other in the worst of death.

1 Tapoσróλos signifies one qui nuptias apparat vel instruit.

2 Νυμφοστόλον ἄστρον ερώτων. Νυμφοστόλος est qui sponsam sponso adducit seu conciliat. 3 Zvvépidos, socius in aliquo opere.

4 Ερωμανέων ὀδυνάων ἐρωμανες. Ἐρωμανής signifies perdite amans, and therefore I enlarge the verbal translation.

• 'Ayyeλíŋu d' éþúλažev åkоyμýτwv, &c. 'Ayyeλía, besides what is translated in the Latin res est nuntiata, item mandatum a nuntio perlatum, item fama, and therefore I translate it fame-freighted ship, because Leander calls himself ὁλκὸς ἔρωτος, which is translated nαυίς amoris, though oλKòs properly signifies sulcus, or tractus navis, vel serpentis, vel ætherea sagitta, &c.

* Εχθρὸν ἀήτην. Εχθος, Εχθρα, and 'Εχθρὸς are of one signification, or have their deduction one; and seem to be deduced arò Tоû exeσbaι, 1. hærere. Ut sit odium quod animo infixum hæret. For odium is by Cicero defined ira inveterata. I have therefore translated it according to this deduction, because it expresses better; and taking the wind for the fate of the wind; which conceived and appointed before, makes it as inveterate or infixed.

· Χροιὴν γὰρ μελέων ερυθαίνετο, colore enim membrorum rubebat. A most excellent hyperbole, being to be understood she blushed all over her. Or, then follows another elegancy, as strange and hard to conceive. The mere verbal translation of the Latin being in the sense either imperfect, or utterly inelegant, which I must yet leave to your judgment, for your own satisfaction. The words are

Euntis vero

absurd; and as gross to have her stuck all over with roses. And therefore to make the sense answerable in heighth and elegancy to the former, she seemed (blushing all over her white robe, even below her ankles as she went) a moving rose, as having the blush of many roses about her.

8 'Ανέφαινε βαθύσκιος ἔσπερος ἀστήρ. Αβρα ruit umbrosa Hesperus stella. E regione is before; which I English And east; the Evenstar took vantage of her shade; viz., of the evening shade, which is the cause that stars appear.

5 Χαλίφρονα νεύματα κ. instabilis nutus puella. I English her would and would not. Xaλippwv, ò xáλis τàs opévas, signifying cui mens laxata est et enerva; and of extremity therein amens, demens. Χαλιφρονέω, sum χαλίφρων.

10 Demens sum-she calls him duopope, which signifies cui difficile fatum obtingit; according to which I English it, infelix (being the word in the Latin) not expressing so particularly, because the unhappy in our language hath divers understandings, as waggish, or subtle, &c. And the other well expressing an ill abodement in Hero of his ill or hard fate; imagining straight the strange and sudden alteration in her to be fatal.

Η Δέκτρον ἀμήχανον. Παρθενικής going before, it is Latined, virginis ad lectum difficile est ire; but aμnxavos signifies nullis machinis expugnabilis: the way unto a virgin's bed is utterly barred.

14 Κυπριδίων σάρων αυτάγγελοί εἰσιν ἀπειλαί. Venerearum consuetudinum per se nuntiæ sunt mina; exceeding elegant. Avτáyyeλos signifying qui sibi nuntius est, id est, qui sine aliorum οpera sua ipse nuntiat; according to which I have Englished it. "Oapes, lusus venerei. 'Aneidai also, which signifies mine, having a

splendebant puellæ.

To understand which, that her white weed was all underlined with roses, and that they shined out of it as she went, is passing poor and

Englished, mines. Mines, as it is privileged amongst us, being English, signifying mines made under the earth. I have passed it with that word, being fit for this place in that understanding.

13 Ερωτοτόκοισι μύθοις, ἐρωτοτόκος σάρξ, corpus amorem pariens et alliciens, according

to which I have turned it.

14 'Απαλόχροον αυχένα. Απαλόχροος signifies qui tenera et delicata est cute; tenerum therefore not enough expressing, I have enlarged the expression as in his place.

is Пoλurλavéwv énéwv is turned variorum verborum, ñoλvñdavǹs signifying multivagus, erroneus, or errorum plenus, intending that sort of error that is in the planets; of whose wandering they are called λavĥtes āσTepes, sidera errantia. So that Hero taxed him for so bold a liberty in words, as erred toto cælo from what was fit, or became the youth of one so graceful; which made her break into the admiring exclamation, that one so young and

gracious should put on so experienced and licentious a boldness, as in that holy temple encouraged him to make love to her.

16 Δόμος ουρανομήκης. It is translated domo altissima; but because it is a compound, and hath a grace superior to the others in his more near and verbal conversion, oupavoμýens signifying cælum sua proceritate tangens, I have so rendered it.

17 'Yypòs ȧkoiTMηs, translated madidus maritus, when as άkoirηs is taken here for oμokoirηs, signifying unum et idem cubile habens, which is more particular and true.

18 Ηλιβάτου σέο πύργου, &c. Ηλίβατος signifies tam altus aut profundus ut ab ejus accessu aberres, intending the tower upon which Hero stood.

NOT like that loose and party-liver'd sect Of idle lovers, that (as different lights, On colour'd subjects, different hues reflect)

Change their affections with their mistress' sights,

That with her praise, or dispraise, drown, or float,

And must be fed with fresh conceits, and fashions;

Never wax cold, but die; love not, but doat:

Love's fires staid judgments blow, not humorous passions,

Whose loves upon their lovers' pomp depend,

And quench as fast as her eyes' sparkle twinkles,

"Divers Poeticall Essaies on the Turtle and Phonix. Done by the best and chiefest of our moderne writers, with their names subscribed to their particular workes: never before extant. And now first consecrated by them all generally to the love and merite of the truenoble Knight, Sir John Salisburie. Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori. MDCI. (Printed at the end of Love's Martyr, &c., by Robert Chester.) London: Imprinted for E. B. 1601, page 176."

So brings the wealth-contracting jeweller Pearls and dear stones from richest shores and streams,

As thy accomplish'd travail doth confer From skill-enriched souls, their wealthier gems;

So doth his hand enchase in amell'd gold, Cut and adorn'd beyond their native merits,

His solid flames, as thine hath here enroll'd

In more than golden verse, those better'd spirits;

So he entreasures Princes' Cabinets

As thy wealth will their wished libraries; So on the throat of the rude sea he sets His venturous foot, for his illustrious prize;

As if he fear'd his stream abroad to bring,

Lest profane feet should wrong it, and rude gales;

But finding happy channels, and supplies
Of other fords mix with his modest course,
He grows a goodly river, and descries
The strength that mann'd him since he
left his source;

wilder beasts,

As thou adventurest on the multitude, Upon the boggy and engulfed breasts

Of hirelings, sworn to find most right most rude;

And he, in storms at sea, doth not endure, Nor in vast deserts, amongst wolves, more danger,

Than we that would with virtue live secure, Sustain for her in every vice's anger. Nor is this allegory unjustly rack'd

To this strange length, only that jewels

are,

In estimation merely, so exact;

And thy work, in itself, is dear and rare. Wherein Minerva had been vanquished

Had she, by it, her sacred looms advanced,

And through thy subject woven her graphic thread,

Contending therein, to be more entranced;

* Verses prefixed to "Seianvs his fall. Written by Ben: Ionson. Mart. non hic Centauros, non Gorgonas Harpyasgo inuenies: Hominem pagina nostra sapit. At London: Printed by G. Elld, for Thomas Thorpe. 1605."

groves,

And with his two-edged waters, flourishes Before great palaces, and all men's loves

Build by his shores to greet his passages: So thy chaste muse, by virtuous selfmistrust,

Which is a true mark of the truest merit, In virgin fear of men's illiterate lust,

Shut her soft wings, and durst not show her spirit;

Till, nobly cherish'd, now thou lett'st her fly, Singing the sable orgies of the Muses, And in the highest pitch of Tragedy,

Makest her command all things thy ground produces.

But, as it is a sign of love's first firing
Not pleasure by a lovely presence taken,
And boldness to attempt; but close
retiring

To places desolate and fever-shaken ;
So, when the love of knowledge first affects