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

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

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.

2

with roses. And therefore to make the sense

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

5'Ayyeλínu d'éþúλağev ȧкoiμýτwv, &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 oдKos epwTos, which is translated navis amoris, though oλròs 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 anò TOû exeσbat, 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 ἐρυθαίνετο, 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

Νισσομένης δὲ Καὶ ῥόδα λευκοχίτωνος ὑπὸ σφυρὰ "λάμπετο

κούρης.

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 ἕσπερος ἀστήρ. Αρρα 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.

9Xaλiopova veúμaтaк.instabilis nutus puellæ. I English her would and would not. Xaλíopwv, ỏ xáλis ràs Opévas, signifying cui mens laxata est et enerva; and of extremity therein amens, demens. Χαλιφρονέω, sum χαλίφρων.

10 Demens sum-she calls him duoμope, 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 Λέκτρον ἀμήχανον. Παρθενικής going before, it is Latined, virginis ad lectum difficile est ire; but àunxavos signifies nullis machinis expugnabilis: the way unto a virgin's bed is utterly barred.

14 Κυπριδίων ὀάρων αυτάγγελοί εἰσιν ἀπειλαί. Venerearum consuetudinum per se nuntiæ sunt mina; exceeding elegant. Auτáyyeλos signifying qui sibi nuntius est, id est, qui sine aliorum opera sua ipse nuntiat; according to which I have Englished it. "Oapes, lusus venerei. 'Arredai also, which signifies mine, having a Englished, mines. Mines, as it is privileged reciprocal signification in our tongue, being 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.

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;

And through wild deserts, arm'd with 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 "Seianos 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.'

to draw

or can, saith Eschylus, a fair young dame,

Kept long without a husband, more

contain

er amorous eye from breaking forth in flame,

When she beholds a youth that fits her vein;

an any man's first taste of knowledge truly

Can bridle the affection she inspireth ; t let it fly on men that most unduly Haunt her with hate, and all the loves she fireth.

ɔur teeth, head, or but our finger ache, We straight seek the physician; if a fever,

any cureful malady we take,

The grave physician is desired ever; tif proud melancholy, lunacy,

Or direct madness over-heat our brains, rage, beat out, or the physician fly, osing with vehemence even the sense of pains.

of offenders, they are past recure,

Chat with a tyrannous spleen, their stings extend

inst their reprovers; they that will endure

All discreet discipline, are not said t' offend.

ough others qualified, then, with natural skill

More sweet-mouth'd, and affecting shrewder wits)

inch coals, call illness good, and goodness ill,

Breathe thou the fire, that true-spoke knowledge fits.

ou canst not then be great? yes: who is he

Said the good Spartan king-greater than I,

at is not likewise juster? No degree Can boast of eminence, or Empery s the great Stagyrite held) in any one Beyond another, whose soul farther sees,

id in whose life the gods are better known:

Degrees of knowledge difference all degrees.

hy Poem, therefore, hath this due re

spect, That serving Vorthy instruction; or that might correct Rude manners, and renown the welldeserving:

lets pass nothing without ob

Performing such a lively evidence

In thy narrations, that thy hearers still Thou turn'st to thy spectators, and the

serise

That thy spectators have of good or ill, Thou inject'st jointly to thy reader's souls, So dear is held, so deck'd thy numerous task

As thou putt'st handles to the Thespian bowls,

Or stuck'st rich plumes in the Palladian cask.

All thy worth, yet, thyself must patronize

By quaffing more of the Castalian head; In expiscation of whose mysteries,

Our nets must still be clogg'd with heavy lead,

To make them sink and catch; for cheerful gold

Was never found in the Pierian streams, But wants, and scorns, and shames for silver sold.

What, what shall we elect in these extremes ?

Now by the shafts of the great Cyrrhan poet,

That bear all light that is about the world,

I would have all dull poet-haters know it, They shall be soul-bound, and in darkness hurl'd

A thousand years, as Satan was, their sire,

Ere any worthy the poetic name (Might I, that warm but at the muse' fire,

Presume to guard it), should let deathless fame

Light half a beam of all her hundred eyes,

At his dim taper, in their memories. Fly, fly, you are too near; so odorous flowers,

Being held too near the censer of our sense,

Render not pure nor so sincere their

So others, great in the sciential grace, His Chancellor, fautor of all human skills:

His Treasurer taking them into his place,

Northumber, that with them his crescent fills,

Grave Worcester, in whose nerves they guard their fire,

Northampton, that to all his height in blood,

Heightens his soul with them, and Devonshire,

In whom their streams, ebb'd to their

spring, are flood, Oraculous Salisbury, whose inspired voice In state proportions sings their mysteries,

And, though last named, first in whom they rejoice,

To whose true worth they vow most obsequies,

Most noble Suffolk, who by nature noble, And judgment virtuous, cannot fall by Fortune,

Who, when our herd came not to drink, but trouble

The Muses waters, did a wall impor

tune

Midst of assaults-about their sacred

river;

In whose behalfs my poor soul, con

secrate

To poorest virtue, to the longest liver

His name, in spite of death, shall propa

gate.

O, could the world but feel how sweet a touch

A good deed hath in one in love with goodness

(If Poesy were not ravished so much, And her composed rage held the simplest woodness,

brains,

Hers ever was most subtle, high, an