Fair Venus' heart to see her most delighted,
And one she choosed, for temper of her mind,
To be the only ruler of her kind,
So soon to let her virgin race be ended!
Not simply for the fault a whit offended,
But that in strife for chasteness with the Moon,
Spiteful Diana bade her show but one
That was her servant vowed, and lived a maid;
And, now she thought to answer that upbraid, 1530
Hero had lost her answer: who knows not
Venus would seem as far from any spot
Of light demeanor, as the very skin
'Twixt Cynthia's brows? Sin is ashamed of sin.
Up Venus flew, and scarce durst up for fear
Of Phoebe's laughter, when she passed her sphere:
And so most ugly-clouded was the light,
That day was hid in day; night came ere night:
And Venus could not through the thick air pierce,
Till the day's king, god of undaunted verse, 40
Because she was so plentiful a theme
To such as wore his laurel anademe,*
Like to a fiery bullet made descent,
And from her passage those fat vapors rent,
That, being not thoroughly rarefied to rain,
Melted like pitch, as blue as any vein;
And scalding tempests made the earth to shrink
Under their fervor, and the world did think
In every drop a torturing spirit flew,
It pierced so deeply, and it burned so blue.
Betwixt all this and Hero, Hero held
Leander's picture, as a Persian shield;
And she was free from fear of worst success:
The more ill three
sus, we suspect the less:
Dumb, des+apless, violence subtle grows,
af, and blind, and comes when no man knows.
* Chaplet, or wreath.
"Of garlands, anademes, and wreaths,
This nymphal nought but sweetness breathes.'
DRAYTON.-The Muses Elysium, Nymph. V.
THE ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH SESTIAD.
Day doubles her accustomed date,
As loth the Night, incensed by Fate,
Should wreck our lovers. Hero's plight;
Longs for Leander and the night:
Which ere her thirsty wish recovers,
She sends for two betrothed lovers,
And marries them, that, with their crew,
Their sports, and ceremonies due,
She covertly might celebrate,
With secret joy her own estate.
She makes a feast, at which appears
The wild nymph Teras, that still bears
An ivory lute, tells ominous tales,
And sings at solemn festivals.
Now was bright Hero weary of the day,
Thought an Olympiad in Leander's stay.
Sol and the soft-foot Hours hung on his arms,
And would not let him swim, foreseeing his harms;
That day Aurora double grace obtained
Of her love Phoebus; she his horses reined,
Set on his golden knee, and, as she list,
She pulled him back; and, as she pulled, she kissed,
To have him turned to bed: he loved her more,
To see the love Leander Hero bore:
Examples profit much; ten times in one,
In persons full of note, good deeds are done.
Day was so long, men walking fell asleep;
The heavy humors that their eyes did steep
Made them fear mischiefs. The hard streets were beds
For covetous churls and for ambitious heads,
That, spite of Nature, would their business ply:
All thought they had the falling epilepsy,
Men groveled so upon the smothered ground;
And pity did the heart of heaven confound.
The Gods, the Graces, and the Muses came
Down to the Destinies, to stay the frame
Of the true lovers' deaths, and all world's tears:
But Death before had stopped their cruel ears.
All the celestials parted mourning then,
Pierced with our human miseries more than men:
Ah, nothing doth the world with mischief fill,
But want of feeling one another's ill!"
With their descent the day grew something fair, And cast a brighter robe upon the air. Hero, to shorten time with merriment, For young Alcmane and bright Mya sent, Two lovers that had long craved marriage-dues At Hero's hands: but she did still refuse; 1590 For lovely Mya was her consort vowed In her maid state, and therefore not allowed To amorous nuptials: yet fair Hero now Intended to dispense with her cold vow, Since hers was broken, and to marry her: The rites would pleasing matter minister To her conceits, and shorten tedious day. They came; sweet Music ushered th' odorous way, And wanton Air in twenty sweet forms danced After her fingers; Beauty and Love advanced Their ensigns in the downless rosy faces o Of youths and maids, led after by the Graces. For all these Hero made a friendly feast, Welcomed them kindly, did much love protest, Winning their hearts with all the means she might, That, when her fault should chance t' abide the light, Their loves might cover or extenuate it,
And high in her worst fate make pity sit.
She married them; and in the banquet came,
Borne by the virgins. Hero strived to frame
Her thoughts to mirth: ah me, but hard it is 10
To imitate a false and forced bliss;
Ill may a sad mind forge a merry face,
Nor hath constrainèd laughter any grace.
Then laid she wine on cares to make them sink:
Who fears the threats of Fortune, let him drink.
To these quick nuptials entered suddenly
Admired Teras with the ebon thigh;
A nymph that haunted the green Sestian groves,
And would consort soft virgins in their loves,
At gaysome triumphs and on solemn days. 1620
Singing prophetic elegies and lays,
And fingering of a silver lute she tied
With black and purple scarfs by her left side.
Apollo gave it, and her skill withal,
And she was termed his dwarf, she was so small:
Yet great in virtue, for his beams inclosed
His virtues in her; never was proposed
Riddle to her, or augury, strange of new,
But she resolved it; never slight tale flew
From her charmed lips, without important sense, 30
Shown in some grave succeeding consequence.
This little sylvan, with her songs and tales
Gave such estate to feasts and nuptials,
That though ofttimes she forewent* tragedies,
Yet for her strangeness still she pleased their eyes;
And for her smallness they admired her so,
They thought her perfect born, and could not grow.
All eyes were on her. Hero did command
An altar decked with sacred state should stand
At the feast's upper end, close by the bride, 0
On which the pretty nymph might sit espied.
Then all were silent; every one so hears,
As all their senses climbed into their ears:
And first this amorous tale, that fitted well
Fair Hero and the nuptials, she did tell.
Hymen, that now is god of nuptial rites,
And crowns with honor Love and his delights,
Of Athens was, a youth so sweet of face,
That many thought him of the female race;
Such quickening brightness did his clear eyes dart, 0
Warm went their beams to his beholder's heart;
In such pure leagues his beauties were combined,
That there your nuptial contracts first were signed;
For as proportion, white and crimson, meet
In beauty's mixture, all right clear and sweet,
The eye responsible, the golden hair,
And none is held, without the other, fair;
All spring together, all together fade;
Such intermixed affections should invade
Two perfect lovers; which being yet unseen,
Their virtues and their comforts copied been
In beauty's concord, subject to the eye;
And that, in Hymen, pleased so matchlessly,
That lovers were esteemed in their full grace,
Like form and color mixed in Hymen's face;
And such sweet concord was thought worthy then
Of torches, music, feasts, and greatest men:
So Hymen looked, that even the chastest mind
He moved to join in joys of sacred kind;
For only now his chin's first down consorted 1670
His head's rich fleece, in golden curls contórted;
And as he was so loved, he loved so too:
So should best beauties, bound by nuptials, do.
Bright Eucharis, who was by all men said
The noblest, fairest, and the richest maid
Of all th' Athenian damsels, Hymen loved
With such transmission, that his heart removed
From his white breast to hers: but her estate,
In passing his, was so interminate*
For wealth and honor, that his love durst feed.
On nought but sight and hearing, nor could breed
Hope of requital, the grand prize of love;
Nor could he hear or see, but he must prove
How his rare beauty's music would agree
With maids in consort; therefore robbed he
His chin of those same few first fruits it bore,
And, clad in such attire as virgins wore,
He kept them company; and might right well,
For he did all but Eucharis excel
In all the fairt of beauty: yet he wanted 7:
Virtue to make his own desires implanted'
In his dear Eucharis; for women never
Love beauty in their sex, but envy ever.
Disproportioned, unequal.
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