GODDESS, relate the witness-bearing light Of Loves, that would not bear a humane sight;

The Sea-man that transported marriages, Shipp'd in the night, his bosom plowing th'

seas;

The love-joys that in gloomy clouds did fly The clear beams of th' immortal Morning's eye;

Abydus and fair Sestus, where I hear
The night-hid Nuptials of young Hero

were ;

Leander's swimming to her; and a Light,
A Light that was administress of sight
To cloudy Venus, and did serve t' address1
Night-wedding Hero's nuptial offices:
A Light that took the very form of Love;
Which had been justice in ethereal Jove,
When the nocturnal duty had been done,
T'advance amongst the consort of the Sun,
And call the Star that Nuptial Loves did
guide,

And to the Bridegroom gave and graced the Bride,

Because it was companion to the death Of Loves, whose kind cares cost their dearest breath;

And that fame-freighted ship from shipwrack kept

That such sweet nuptials brought they never slept,

Till air was with a bitter flood inflate, That bore their firm loves as infix'd a hate. But, Goddess, forth, and both one issue sing,

The Light extinct, Leander perishing.

Two towns there were, that with one sea were wall'd,

Built near, and opposite; this Sestus call'd, Abydus that; then Love his bow bent high,

And at both Cities let one arrow fly,

That two (a Virgin and a Youth) inflamed: The youth was sweetly-graced Leander named,

The virgin, Hero; Sestus she renowns, Abydus he, in birth; of both which towns Both were the beauty-circled stars; and both

Graced with like looks, as with one love and troth.

He (at Abydus born) to feel the flame
Of Hero's love at Sestus, and to bind
In chains of equal fire bright Hero's mind?
The graceful Hero, born of gentle blood,
Was Venus' Priest: and since she under-
stood

No nuptial language, from her parents she
Dwelt in a tower that overlook'd the sea.
For shamefacedness and chastity, she
reign'd

Another goddess; nor was ever train'd In women's companies; nor learn'd to tread

A graceful dance, to which such years are bred.

The envious spites of women she did fly
(Women for beauty their own sex envy),
All her devotion was to Venus done,
And to his heavenly Mother her great Son
Would reconcile with sacrifices ever,
And ever trembled at his flaming quiver.
Yet 'scaped not so his fiery -shafts her
breast;

For now the popular Venerean Feast,
Which to Adonis, and great Cypria's
State,

The Sestians yearly used to celebrate,
Was come; and to that holy-day came all
That in the bordering isles the sea did
wall.

To it in flocks they flew; from Cyprus these,

Environ'd with the rough Carpathian seas; These from Hæmonia; nor remain'd a

man

Of all the towns in th' isles Cytherean;
Not one was left, that used to dance upon
The tops of odoriferous Libanon ;
Not one of Phrygia, not one of all
The neighbours seated near the Festival;

Nor one of opposite Abydus' shore;
None of all these, that virgins' favours

wore,

Were absent; all such fill the flowing way,
When Fame proclaims a solemn holy-day,
Not bent so much to offer holy flames,
As to the beauties of assembled dames.

The virgin Hero enter'd th' holy place, And graceful beams cast round about her face,

Like to the bright orb of the rising Moon. The top-spheres of her snowy cheeks put

on

A glowing redness, like the two-hued rose
Her odorous bud beginning to disclose.
You would have said, in all her lineaments
A meadow full of roses she presents.
All over her she blush'd; which (putting

on

Her white robe, reaching to her ankles) shone

(While she in passing did her feet dispose) As she had wholly been a moving rose. Graces in numbers from her parts did flow. The Ancients, therefore (since they did not

know

Hero's unbounded beauties), falsely feign'd Only three Graces; for, when Hero strain'd

Into a smile her priestly modesty,

A hundred Graces grew from either eye.
A fit one, sure, the Cyprian Goddess found
To be her ministress; and so highly
crown'd

With worth her grace was, past all other dames,

That, of a priest made to the Queen of Flames,

A new Queen of them she in all eyes shined;

And did so undermine each tender mind Of all the young men, that there was not

one

But wish'd fair Hero was his wife, or none. Nor could she stir about the well-built Fane,

This way or that, but every way she wan A following mind in all men ; which their eyes,

Lighted with all their inmost faculties, Clearly confirm'd; and one, admiring, said,

"All Sparta I have travell'd, and survey'd
The City Lacedæmon, where we hear
All Beauties' labours and contentions were,
A woman, yet so wise and delicate
I never saw. It may be Venus gat
One of the younger Graces to supply
The place of priesthood to her Deity.

Ev'n tired I am with sight, yet doth not find

A satisfaction by my sight my mind.
O could I once ascend sweet Hero's bed,
Let me be straight found in her bosom
dead!

I would not wish to be in heaven a God,
Were Hero here my wife. But, if forbod
To lay profane hands on thy holy priest,
O Venus, with another such assist
My nuptial longings." Thus pray'd all
that spake ;

The rest their wounds hid, and in frenzies brake;

Her beauty's fire, being so suppress'd, so raged.

But thou, Leander, more than all engaged, Wouldst not, when thou hadst view'd th' amazing Maid,

Waste with close stings, and seek no open aid,

But, with the flaming arrows of her eyes Wounded unwares, thou wouldst in sacrifice Vent th' inflammation thy burnt blood did prove,

Or live with sacred medicine of her love.

But now the love-brand in his eye-beams burn'd,

And with unconquer'd fire his heart was turn'd

Into a coal; together wrought the flame; The virtuous beauty of a spotless dame Sharper to men is than the swiftest shaft ; His eye the way by which his heart is caught :

And, from the stroke his eye sustains, th wound

Opens within, and doth his entrails sound. Amaze then took him, Impudence and Shame

Made earthquakes in him with their fros and flame.

His heart betwixt them toss'd, till Reve

rence

Took all these prisoners in him; and from thence

Her matchless beauty, with astonishment, Increased his bands: till aguish Love, that lent

Shame and Observance, licensed their re

move;

And, wisely liking impudence in love, Silent he went, and stood against the Maid,

And in side glances faintly he convey'd His crafty eyes about her; with dumb shows Tempting her mind to error. And now grows

She to conceive his subtle flame, and joy'd

Since he was graceful. Then herself employ'd

Her womanish cunning, turning from him quite

Her lovely countenance; giving yet some light,

Even by her dark signs, of her kindling fire,

With up and down-looks whetting his desire.

He joy'd at heart to see Love's sense in her,

And no contempt of what he did prefer. And while he wish'd unseen to urge the rest,

The day shrunk down her beams to lowest West,

And East; the Even-Star took vantage of her shade.

Then boldly he his kind approaches made, And as he saw the russet clouds increase, He strain'd her rosy hand, and held his peace,

But sigh'd, as silence had his bosom broke.

When she, as silent, put on anger's cloak, And drew her hand back. He discerning well

Her 'would and would-not, to her boldlier fell;

And her elaborate robe, with much cost wrought,

About her waist embracing, on he brought His love to th' in-parts of the reverend fane;

She (as her love-sparks more and more did wane)

Went slowly on, and, with a woman's words

Threatening Leander, thus his boldness bords:

"Why, stranger, are you 10mad? Ill-
fated man,

Why hale you thus a virgin Sestian?
Keep on your way: let go, fear to offend
The noblesse of my birth-right's either
friend.

It ill becomes you to solicit thus

The priest of Venus. Hopeless, dangerous, The "barr'd-up way is to a virgin's bed.' Thus, for the maiden form, she menaced. But he well knew that when these female 12mines

Break out in fury, they are certain signs Of their persuasions. Women's threats once shown,

Shows in it only all you wish your own.

VOL. II.

And therefore of the ruby-colour'd maid The odorous neck he with a kiss assay'd, And, stricken with the sting of love, he pray'd:

"Dear Venus, next to Venus you must go;

And next Mir.erva, trace Minerva too; Your like with earthly dames no light can show;

To Jove's great Daughters I must liken you.

Blest was thy great Begetter; blest was she Whose womb did bear thee; but most blessedly

The womb itself fared that thy throes did prove.

O hear my prayer: pity the need of Love.
As priest of Venus, practise Venus' rites.
Come, and instruct me in her bed's-
delights.

It fits not you, a virgin, to vow aids
To Venus' service; Venus loves no maids.
If Venus' institutions you prefer,
And faithful ceremonies vow to her,
Nuptials and beds they be. If her love
binds,

Love love's sweet laws, that soften human minds.

Make me your servant; husband, if you pleased;

Whom Cupid with his burning shafts hath seised,

And hunted to you, as swift Hermes drave With his gold-rod Jove's bold son to be slave

To Lydia's sovereign Virgin; but for me,
Venus insulting forced my feet to thee.
I was not guided by wise Mercury.
Virgin, you know, when Atalanta fled
Out of Arcadia, kind Melanion's bed,
Affecting virgin-life, your angry Queen,
Whom first she used with a malignant
spleen,

At last possess'd him of her complete heart.

And you, dear love, because I would avert Your Goddess' anger, I would fain persuade."

With these 13love-luring words conform'd

he made

The maid recusant to his blood's desire, And set her soft mind on an erring fire. Dumb she was strook; and down to earth she threw

Her rosy eyes, hid in vermilion hue,

Made red with shame. Oft with her foot she raced

Earth's upper part; and oft (as quite ungraced)

H

About her shoulders gather'd up her weed. All these fore-tokens are that men shall speed.

Of a persuaded virgin, to her bed Promise is most given when the least is said.

And now she took in Love's sweet bitter sting,

Burn'd in a fire that cool'd her surfeiting. Her beauties likewise strook her friend amazed

For, while her eyes fix'd on the pavement gazed,

Love on Leander's looks show'd fury seas'd.

Never enough his greedy eyes were pleased To view the fair gloss of her tender neck. At last this sweet voice past, and out did break

A ruddy moisture from her bashful eyes: "Stranger, perhaps thy words might exercise

Motion in flints, as well as my soft breast. Who taught thee words, 15 that err from East to West

In their wild liberty? O woe is me!

To this my native soil who guided thee? All thou hast said is vain: for how canst

To meet in some delights, dances, or so; But day and night the windy sea doth throw

Wild murmuring cuffs about our deafen'd

ears.

This said, her white robe hid her cheeks like spheres.

And then (with shame affected, since she used

Words that desired youths, and her friends accused)

She blamed herself for them, and them for her.

Mean-space Leander felt Love's arrow err Through all his thoughts; devising how he might

Encounter Love, that dared him so to fight.

Mind-changing Love wounds men and cures again.

Those mortals over whom he lists to reign, Th' All-tamer stoops to, in advising how They may with some ease bear the yoke, his bow.

So our Leander, whom he hurt, he heal'd. Who having long his hidden fire conceal'd,

And vex'd with thoughts he thirsted to impart,

But on th' opposed shore of the noiseful seas
The messenger of glittering marriages
Look'd wishly for; or rather long'd to see
The witness of their Light to misery,
Far off discover'd in their covert bed.
When Hero saw the blackest curtain spread
That veil'd the dark night, her bright torch
she show'd.

Whose light no sooner th' eager lover view'd,

But love his blood set on as bright a fire: Together burn'd the torch and his desire. But hearing of the sea the horrid roar, With which the tender air the mad waves tore,

At first he trembled; but at last he rear'd High as the storm his spirit, and thus cheer'd

(Using these words to it) his resolute mind: "Love dreadful is; the Sea with nought inclined;

But Sea is water, outward all his ire; When Love lights his fear with an inward fire.

Take fire, my heart, fear nought that flits and raves,

Be Love himself to me, despise these

waves.

Art thou to know that Venus' birth was here?

Commands the sea, and all that grieves us there?"

This said, his fair limbs of his weed he stript;

Which, at his head with both hands bound, he shipt,

Leapt from the shore, and cast into the

sea

His lovely body; thrusting all his way
Up to the torch, that still he thought did
call;

He oars, he steerer, he the ship and all.
Hero advanced upon a tower so high,
As soon would lose on it the fixed'st eye;
And, like the Goddess Star, with her light
shining,

The winds, that always (as at her repining) Would blast her pleasures, with her veil she check'd,

And from their envies did her torch protect.

And this she never left, till she had brought Leander to the havenful shore he sought. When down she ran, and up she lighted then,

To her tower's top, the weariest of men. First at the gates (without a syllable used) She hugg'd her panting husband, all diffused

With foamy drops still stilling from his hair.

Then brought she him into the inmost fair Of all, her virgin-chamber, that, at best, Was with her beauties ten times better dress'd.

His body then she cleansed; his body oil'd

With rosy odours, and his bosom (soil'd With the unsavoury sea) she render'd sweet. Then, in the high-made bed (even panting yet)

Herself she pour'd about her husband's breast,

And these words utter'd: "With too much unrest,

O husband, you have bought this little peace!

Husband! No other man hath paid th' in

crease

Of that huge sum of pains you took for me.
And yet I know it is enough for thee
To suffer for my love the fishy savours
The working sea breathes. Come, lay all
thy labours

On my all-thankful bosom." All this said, He straight ungirdled her; and both parts paid