Hero and Leander | Page 6

your
vows and promises be kept."
Then standing at the door she turned
about
As loath to see Leander going out.
And now the sun that
through th' horizon peeps,
As pitying these lovers, downward creeps,

So that in silence of the cloudy night,
Though it was morning, did

he take his flight.
But what the secret trusty night concealed

Leander's amorous habit soon revealed.
With Cupid's myrtle was his
bonnet crowned,
About his arms the purple riband wound

Wherewith she wreathed her largely spreading hair.
Nor could the
youth abstain, but he must wear
The sacred ring wherewith she was
endowed
When first religious chastity she vowed.
Which made his
love through Sestos to be known,
And thence unto Abydos sooner
blown
Than he could sail; for incorporeal fame
Whose weight
consists in nothing but her name,
Is swifter than the wind, whose
tardy plumes
Are reeking water and dull earthly fumes.
Home when
he came, he seemed not to be there,
But, like exiled air thrust from
his sphere,
Set in a foreign place; and straight from thence,
Alcides
like, by mighty violence
He would have chased away the swelling
main
That him from her unjustly did detain.
Like as the sun in a
diameter
Fires and inflames objects removed far,
And heateth
kindly, shining laterally,
So beauty sweetly quickens when 'tis nigh,

But being separated and removed,
Burns where it cherished,
murders where it loved.
Therefore even as an index to a book,
So to
his mind was young Leander's look.
O, none but gods have power
their love to hide,
Affection by the countenance is descried.
The
light of hidden fire itself discovers,
And love that is concealed
betrays poor lovers,
His secret flame apparently was seen.

Leander's father knew where he had been
And for the same mildly
rebuked his son,
Thinking to quench the sparkles new begun.
But
love resisted once grows passionate,
And nothing more than counsel
lovers hate.
For as a hot proud horse highly disdains

To have his
head controlled, but breaks the reins,
Spits forth the ringled bit, and
with his hooves
Checks the submissive ground; so he that loves,

The more he is restrained, the worse he fares.
What is it now, but mad
Leander dares?
"O Hero, Hero!" thus he cried full oft;
And then he
got him to a rock aloft,
Where having spied her tower, long stared he
on't,
And prayed the narrow toiling Hellespont
To part in twain,
that he might come and go;
But still the rising billows answered,

"No."
With that he stripped him to the ivory skin
And, crying "Love,
I come," leaped lively in.
Whereat the sapphire visaged god grew
proud,
And made his capering Triton sound aloud,
Imagining that
Ganymede, displeased,
Had left the heavens; therefore on him he
seized.
Leander strived; the waves about him wound,
And pulled
him to the bottom, where the ground
Was strewed with pearl, and in
low coral groves
Sweet singing mermaids sported with their loves

On heaps of heavy gold, and took great pleasure
To spurn in careless
sort the shipwrack treasure.
For here the stately azure palace stood

Where kingly Neptune and his train abode.
The lusty god embraced
him, called him "Love,"
And swore he never should return to Jove.

But when he knew it was not Ganymede,
For under water he was
almost dead,
He heaved him up and, looking on his face,
Beat down
the bold waves with his triple mace,
Which mounted up, intending to
have kissed him,
And fell in drops like tears because they missed him.

Leander, being up, began to swim
And, looking back, saw Neptune
follow him,
Whereat aghast, the poor soul 'gan to cry
"O, let me
visit Hero ere I die!"
The god put Helle's bracelet on his arm,
And
swore the sea should never do him harm.
He clapped his plump
cheeks, with his tresses played
And, smiling wantonly, his love
bewrayed.
He watched his arms and, as they opened wide
At every
stroke, betwixt them would he slide
And steal a kiss, and then run out
and dance,
And, as he turned, cast many a lustful glance,
And threw
him gaudy toys to please his eye,
And dive into the water, and there
pry
Upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb,
And up again, and
close beside him swim,
And talk of love.

Leander made reply,

"You are deceived; I am no woman, I."
Thereat smiled Neptune, and
then told a tale,
How that a shepherd, sitting in a vale,
Played with a
boy so fair and kind,
As for his love both earth and heaven pined;

That of the cooling river durst not drink,
Lest water nymphs should
pull him from the brink.
And when he sported in the fragrant lawns,

Goat footed satyrs and upstaring fauns
Would steal him thence. Ere
half this tale was done,
"Ay me," Leander cried, "th' enamoured sun


That now should shine on Thetis' glassy bower,
Descends upon my
radiant Hero's tower.
O, that these tardy arms of mine were wings!"

And, as he spake, upon the waves he springs.
Neptune was angry
that he gave no ear,
And in his heart revenging malice bare.
He
flung at him his mace but, as it went,
He called it in, for love made
him repent.
The mace, returning back, his own hand hit
As meaning
to be venged for darting it.
When this fresh bleeding wound Leander
viewed,
His colour went and came, as