Hero and Leander (eBook)

Christopher Marlowe (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018
78 Seiten
Charles River Editors (Verlag)
978-1-5378-0484-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Christopher Marlowe was one of the most famous playwrights in all of literature.  Marlowe's tragic plays, noted for their blank verse and unique protagonists, were a great influence on the legendary William Shakespeare.Some of Marlowe's classics include Doctor Faustus, Edward II, and Tamburlaine the Great.

Hero and Leander is an epic poem based off the Greek myth of two lovers and their tragic fate.A table of contents is included.

Textauszug

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 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,

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 hoped to scale the beauteous fort

Wherein the liberal Graces lock’d 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,

Had spread the board, with roses strew’d the room,

And oft look’d out, and mus’d he did not come.

At last he came: O, who can tell the greeting

These greedy lovers had at their first meeting?

He ask’d; 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 affections meet;

For from the earth to heaven is Cupid rais’d,

Where fancy is in equal balance pais’d.)

Yet she this rashness suddenly repented,

And turn’d aside, and to herself lamented,

As if her name and honour had been wrong’d,

By being possess’d of him for whom she long’d;

Ay, and she wish’d, albeit not from her heart,

That he would leave her turret and depart.

The mirthful god of amorous pleasure smil’d

To see how he this captive nymph beguil’d;

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 his anger, if he were displeas’d:

O, what god would not therewith be appeas’d?

Like Æsop’s cock, this jewel he enjoy’d,

And as a brother with his sister toy’d,

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.

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 to be flung,

Striv’d with redoubled strength; the more she striv’d,

The more a gentle pleasing heat reviv’d,

Which taught him all that elder lovers know;

And now the same gan so to scorch and glow,

As in plain terms, yet cunningly, he crave 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, sav’d 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,

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 stay’d so long,

All headlong throws herself the clouds among.

And now Leander, fearing to be miss’d,

Embrac’d her suddenly, took leave, and kiss’d:

Long was he taking leave, and loathe to go,

And kiss’d again, as lovers use to do.

Sad Hero wrung him by the hand, and wept,

Saying, “Let your vows and promises be kept”:

Then standing at the door, she turn’d about,

As loathe 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 conceal’d,

Leander’s amorous habit soon reveal’d:

With Cupid’s myrtle was his bonnet crown’d,

About his arms the purple riband wound,

Wherewith she wreath’d her largely-spreading hair;

Nor could the youth abstain, but he must wear

The sacred ring wherewith she was endow’d,

When first religious chastity she vow’d;

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 seem’d 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 chas’d 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 remov’d,

Burns where it cherish’d, murders where it lov’d.

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 conceal’d betrays poor lovers.

His secret flame apparently was seen:

Leander’s father knew where he had been,

And for the same mildly rebuk’d 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 controll’d, but breaks the reins,

Spits forth the ringled bit, and with his hoves

Checks the submissive ground; so he that loves,

The more he is restrain’d, 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 star’d he on’t,

And pray’d the narrow toiling Hellespont

To part in twain, that he might come and go;

But still the rising billows answer’d, “No.”

With that, he stripp’d him to the ivory skin,

And, crying, “Love, I come,” leap’d lively in:

Whereat the sapphire-visag’d god grew proud,

And made his capering Triton sound aloud,

Imagining that Ganymede, displeas’d,

Had left the heavens; therefore on him he seiz’d.

Leander striv’d; the waves about him wound,

And pull’d him to the bottom, where the ground

Was strew’d 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...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.3.2018
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Historische Romane
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Märchen / Sagen
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: British • Classic • Doctor Faustus • Drama • Edward II • Hero and Leander • Historical • Shakespeare • Tragedian
• ISBN-10: 1-5378-0484-7 / 1537804847
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5378-0484-2 / 9781537804842