The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 | Page 7

line is quoted in _England's Parnassus_ with the reading
"ripest."
[20] Hushed.
[21] "To the 'beldam nurse' there occurs the following allusion in
Drayton's _Heroical Epistle from Queen Mary to Charles Brandon_:--
'There is no beldam nurse to powt nor lower
When wantoning we
revell in my tower,
Nor need I top my turret with a light,
To guide
thee to me as thou swim'st by night.'"--_Broughton._

[22] So the old eds.--Dyce reads "about."
[23] We are reminded of _Lycidas_:--
"Comes the blind Fury with the abhorrèd shears
And slits the
thin-spun life."
[24] Omitted in ed. 1600 and later 4tos.
[25] This word cannot be right. Query, "high-aspiring?"
THE SECOND SESTIAD.
_The Argument of the Second Sestiad._
Hero of love takes deeper sense,
And doth her love more recompense:

Their first night's meeting, where sweet kisses
Are th' only crowns
of both their blisses
He swims t' Abydos, and returns:
Cold Neptune
with his beauty burns;
Whose suit he shuns, and doth aspire
Hero's
fair tower and his desire.
By this, sad Hero, with love unacquainted,
Viewing Leander's face,
fell down and fainted.
He kiss'd her, and breath'd life[26] into her lips;

Wherewith, as one displeas'd, away she trips;
Yet, as she went, full
often look'd behind,
And many poor excuses did she find
To linger
by the way, and once she stay'd,
And would have turn'd again, but
was afraid,
In offering parley, to be counted light:
So on she goes,
and, in her idle flight, 10 Her painted fan of curled plumes let fall,

Thinking to train Leander therewithal.
He, being a novice, knew not
what she meant,
But stay'd, and after her a letter sent;
Which joyful
Hero answer'd in such sort,
As he had hope to scale the beauteous fort

Wherein the liberal Graces locked their wealth;
And therefore to
her tower he got by stealth.
Wide open stood the door; he need not
climb;
And she herself, before the pointed time, 20 Had spread the
board, with roses strew'd the room,
And oft looked out, and mused he
did not come.
At last he came: O, who can tell the greeting
These

greedy lovers had at their first meeting?
He asked; she gave; and
nothing was denied;
Both to each other quickly were affied:
Look
how their hands, so were their hearts united,
And what he did, she
willingly requited.
(Sweet are the kisses, the embracements sweet,

When like desires and like[27] affections meet; 30 For from the earth to
heaven is Cupid raised,
Where fancy is in equal balance paised.[28])

Yet she this rashness suddenly repented,
And turn'd aside, and to
herself lamented,
As if her name and honour had been wronged
By
being possessed of him for whom she longed;
I, and she wished,
albeit not from her heart,
That he would leave her turret and depart.

The mirthful god of amorous pleasure smiled
To see how he this
captive nymph beguiled; 40 For hitherto he did but fan the fire,
And
kept it down, that it might mount the higher.
Now wax'd she jealous
lest his love abated,
Fearing her own thoughts made her to be hated.

Therefore unto him hastily she goes,
And, like light Salmacis, her
body throws
Upon his bosom, where with yielding eyes
She offers
up herself a sacrifice
To slake her anger, if he were displeased:
O,
what god would not therewith be appeased? 50 Like Æsop's cock, this
jewel he enjoyed,
And as a brother with his sister toyed,
Supposing
nothing else was to be done,
Now he her favour and goodwill had
won.
But know you not that creatures wanting sense,
By nature
have a mutual appetence,
And, wanting organs to advance a step,

Mov'd by love's force, unto each other lep?
Much more in subjects
having intellect
Some hidden influence breeds like effect. 60 Albeit
Leander, rude in love and raw,
Long dallying with Hero, nothing saw

That might delight him more, yet he suspected
Some amorous rites
or other were neglected.
Therefore unto his body hers he clung:
She,
fearing on the rushes[29] to be flung,
Strived with redoubled strength;
the more she strived,

The more a gentle pleasing heat revived,

Which taught him all that elder lovers know;
And now the same gan
so to scorch and glow, 70 As in plain terms, yet cunningly, he'd
crave[30] it:
Love always makes those eloquent that have it.
She,
with a kind of granting, put him by it,
And ever, as he thought

himself most nigh it,
Like to the tree of Tantalus, she fled,
And,
seeming lavish, saved her maidenhead.
Ne'er king more sought to
keep his diadem,
Than Hero this inestimable gem:
Above our life
we love a steadfast friend;
Yet when a token of great worth we send,
80 We often kiss it, often look thereon,
And stay the messenger that
would be gone;
No marvel, then, though Hero would not yield
So
soon to part from that she dearly held:
Jewels being lost are found
again; this never;
'Tis lost but once, and once lost, lost for ever.
Now had the Morn espied her lover's steeds;
Whereat she starts, puts
on her purple weeds,
And, red for anger that he stayed so long,
All
headlong throws herself the clouds among. 90 And now Leander,
fearing to be missed,
Embraced her suddenly, took leave, and