The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3). Christopher Marlowe

the earth, that to their tombs took in

      Streams dead for love, to leave his ivory shin,

      Which yet a snowy foam did leave above,

      As soul to the dead water that did love;

      And from hence did the first white roses spring

      (For love is sweet and fair in everything),

      And all the sweeten'd shore, as he did go,

      Was crown'd with odorous roses, white as snow.

      Love-blest Leander was with love so fill'd,

      That love to all that touch'd him he instill'd;

      And as the colours of all things we see,

      To our sight's powers communicated be,

      So to all objects that in compass came

      Of any sense he had, his senses' flame

      Flow'd from his parts with force so virtual,

      It fir'd with sense things mere50 insensual.

      Now, with warm baths and odours comforted,

      When he lay down, he kindly kiss'd his bed,

      As consecrating it to Hero's right,

      And vow'd thereafter, that whatever sight

      Put him in mind of Hero or her bliss,

      Should be her altar to prefer a kiss.

      Then laid he forth his late-enrichèd arms,

      In whose white circle Love writ all his charms,

      And made his characters sweet Hero's limbs,

      When on his breast's warm sea she sideling swims;

      And as those arms, held up in circle, met,

      He said, "See, sister, Hero's carquenet!

      Which she had rather wear about her neck,

      Than all the jewels that do Juno deck."

      But, as he shook with passionate desire

      To put in flame his other secret fire,

      A music so divine did pierce his ear,

      As never yet his ravish'd sense did hear;

      When suddenly a light of twenty hues

      Brake through the roof, and, like the rainbow, views,

      Amaz'd Leander: in whose beams came down

      The goddess Ceremony, with a crown

      Of all the stars; and Heaven with her descended:

      Her flaming hair to her bright feet extended,

      By which hung all the bench of deities;

      And in a chain, compact of ears and eyes,

      She led Religion: all her body was

      Clear and transparent as the purest glass,

      For she was all51 presented to the sense:

      Devotion, Order, State, and Reverence,

      Her shadows were; Society, Memory;

      All which her sight made live, her absence die.

      A rich disparent pentacle52 she wears,

      Drawn full of circles and strange characters.

      Her face was changeable to every eye;

      One way look'd ill, another graciously;

      Which while men view'd, they cheerful were and holy,

      But looking off, vicious and melancholy.

      The snaky paths to each observèd law

      Did Policy in her broad bosom draw.

      One hand a mathematic crystal sways,

      Which, gathering in one line a thousand rays

      From her bright eyes, Confusion burns to death,

      And all estates of men distinguisheth:

      By it Morality and Comeliness

      Themselves in all their sightly figures dress.

      Her other hand a laurel rod applies,

      To beat back Barbarism and Avarice,

      That follow'd, eating earth and excrement

      And human limbs; and would make proud ascent

      To seats of gods, were Ceremony slain.

      The Hours and Graces bore her glorious train;

      And all the sweets of our society

      Were spher'd and treasur'd in her bounteous eye.

      Thus she appear'd, and sharply did reprove

      Leander's bluntness in his violent love;

      Told him how poor was substance without rites,

      Like bills unsign'd; desires without delights;

      Like meats unseason'd; like rank corn that grows

      On cottages, that none or reaps or sows;

      Not being with civil forms confirm'd and bounded,

      For human dignities and comforts founded;

      But loose and secret all their glories hide;

      Fear fills the chamber, Darkness decks the bride.

      She vanish'd, leaving pierc'd Leander's heart

      With sense of his unceremonious part,

      In which, with plain neglect of nuptial rites,

      He close and flatly fell to his delights:

      And instantly he vow'd to celebrate

      All rites pertaining to his married state.

      So up he gets, and to his father goes,

      To whose glad ears he doth his vows disclose.

      The nuptials are resolv'd with utmost power;

      And he at night would swim to Hero's tower,

      From whence he meant to Sestos' forkèd bay

      To bring her covertly, where ships must stay,

      Sent by his53 father, throughly rigg'd and mann'd,

      To waft her safely to Abydos' strand.

      There leave we him; and with fresh wing pursue

      Astonish'd Hero, whose most wishèd view

      I thus long have foreborne, because I left her

      So out of countenance, and her spirits bereft her:

      To look on one abash'd is impudence,

      When of slight faults he hath too deep a sense.

      Her blushing het54 her chamber; she look'd out,

      And all the air she purpled round about;

      And after it a foul black day befell,

      Which ever since a red morn doth foretell,

      And still renews our woes for Hero's woe;

      And foul it prov'd because it figur'd so

      The next night's horror; which prepare to hear;

      I fail, if it profane your daintiest ear.

      Then, ho,55 most strangely-intellectual fire,

      That, proper to my soul, hast power t' inspire

      Her burning faculties, and with the wings

      Of thy unspherèd flame visit'st the springs

      Of spirits immortal! Now (as swift as Time

      Doth follow

50

Wholly.

51

Some eds. give "For as she was."

52

A magical figure formed of intersected triangles. It was supposed to preserve the wearer from the assaults of demons. "Disparent would seem to mean that the five points of the ornaments radiated distinctly one from the other."—Cunningham.

53

Old eds. "her."

54

Heated.

55

Old eds. "how."