Musaeus, ON THE LOVES Of HERO AND LEANDER: With Annotations upon the original. By Sir Robert Stapylton KNIGHT, Gentleman of the privy CHAMBER to the PRINCE.  museum ante Omnes. Virg. 
LONDON, Printed by F. B. for Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Prince's arms in Saint Paul's Church Yard 1647.   

The Argument of the poem and frontispiece.  

Famed (ᵃ) Sestos and (ᵇ) Abydos show  
The Miracles of Cupid's (ᶜ) Bow,  
His Mother's priestess through her Tower  
Is (ᵈ) shot, and now obeys his Power;  
Wax that on th' Altar should have burned,  
Into a (ᵉ) Torch by (ᶠ) Hero turned,  
Shines on the (ᵍ) Hellespont, to light  
(ʰ) Leander, swimming o'er by night:  
While she her (ⁱ) sacred Robe designed  
To keep off every single-wind;  
But when they join, in vain she strives;  
Out goes the Lover's Torch and Lives.    

 
Musaeus on The Loves of HERO & LEANDER. With Annotations upon the original by Sir Robert Stapyston Kt. Gent: of the Privy Chamber to the PRINCE   

To the Right Honourable My very good LORD, HENRY LORD marquess of Dorchester, Earl of KINGSTON, &c. AND One of the Lords of His majesty's Most Honourable privy counsel.  
My LORD;  
THe secret love of Hero and Leander first brought to light in the pure Greek of divine Musaeus, was afterward new moulded in Latin by the fluent Ovid; in imitation of whose Epistles, the most eminent poets of all Climates have (in their native languages) written upon this subject so many Paraphrases and essays, that like the numerous streams of Nile, they almost overflow the remembrance of their fountain. I confess the report of poems borrowed from Musaeus made so great a noise, that to me the author had been lost in the crowd of imitators, if I had not heard his soft lines sweetened by your Lordship's accent; but than I could not be satisfied till I made trial how the Greek would go in English: my intent being to translate and dedicate it privately to your Lordship. The Translation was forthwith dispatched, the Dedication is now presented, but the intended Privacy lay not in my power; for my acquaintance (who would know what I was doing) had engaged me for so many Copies, that I held it my safest course, rather to venture upon the Printers pardonable errors, then to run the hazard of gross mistakes in ignorant Transcribers. Yet, as I could not make it altogether private, so I meant it should not be altogether public, and therefore at first I suffered no more to be printed, than the just number promised. But now, finding so many friends as challenge not a few copies but a whole Impression. I am forced to answer them, as Pisistratus did his sons, that I have done my best to convert them to my Opinion, but since I cannot prevail, I am resolved to be of theirs; and for their sakes, what I writ for my private excercise, shall be exposed to common censure, yet among the crowd of Readers if some pretending critic shall assault me, I shall smile to see him retire with double speed, beholding the name of the illustrious and learned person that privileges  
Your Lordship's most humble servant, ROBERT STAPYLTON.   

To the Ladies.  
YOur Ladyships may pardon me, for presuming that you will lay up Musaeus in your richest Cabinets. I confess it is a Confidence, but such a one, as he that wants it, must be guilty of an Impudence, for he must either deny the Harmony of this poem, or of your Spirits. Whereas my Opinion is, like perfections cannot meet without a Sympathy. And therefore I conclude it as impossible, for Musaeus to breathe his Passions in your closets, and you not to feel them in your bosoms: as it is for two of your Lutes to be set at the same Pitch, and not both to move, though but one of them he touched.  
But of late under the counterfeit name of Love, such a vast Multitude of Wanton books have been brought to kiss, or rather soil, the hands of Ladies: that I fear you will be startled at the Title of a Love-Poëm, yet so Musaeus calls his Hero and Leander. To clear all scruple, let me assure your Ladyships, the pure and innocent Love this poem treats of, is consistent both with Yours and the Time's Modesty. For Courtship here is directed to a Sacred end, and only invites you after our Deluge of blood, like Deucalion's Wife after his Deluge of water, to restore your now unpeopled Country. Yet if the Time's necessity required it not, however it would be a strange Injustice, to bar your Sex from being Patronesses to that Power, by which you reign over the hearts of Men.  
Next your Prerogative, give me leave to plead my Author's privilege, who (as I formerly intimated) challenges as due to his first of Love-Stories, the first place in your esteem, which I doubt not but your Ladyships will as freely grant him in those blessed fields your bosoms, as Virgil gave it him in his Elysium. Otherwise how preposterous would the heraldry of Entertainments be, if you should still do honour to the meaner offspring of this poem: and in the mean time throw a neglect upon the Mother; so great a Beauty, as no Age can hopc to parallel. For certainly if this piece could ever have been matched, it must needs have been when Ovid held a pencil, and endeavoured to draw the same Hero and Leander; the Epistles he fancied them to interchange, I have here annexed to their original history: that you may see two, the greatest Masters of Greek and Latin poesy, using their Art upon one Subject, and appealing to your judgement, in your own language.  
How I have taught them to speak English, is likewise most proper for your ladyship's Determination; from whose lips English sounds sweeter than both their learned languages. And if you please to give me your allowance, I care not much what surly Clown dislikes me. Although indeed, I have so high an Opinion of Musaeus in the first place, and in the next of Ovid, that I persuade myself they could arrive upon no Coast so barbarous, where they would not gain a civility from the Wild Inhabitants, if they spoke to them, though by as rude an Interpreter as your servant the Translator.   

TO The Gentlemen.  
IF you expect an account of the Author's Life, how sorry I am, that 'tis not in my power to answer your desires, though at the rate of any Search or Industry. For you could not read of Musaeus with more contentment, than I should have writ. But all Inquiry is in vain, no Record extant how he lived, no Tomb where he died.  
— perit omne cadaver  
More animae—  
Only there remains this eternal Monument of his studies. Of his Name were four famous poets. The first, Musaeus the Elevisinian. The second was Grandchild to the first, and writ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Genealogies of the Gods. The third, a lyric Poet, lived at Thebes before the Trojan War. The fourth, after the death of Alexander the Great, dwelled at Ephesus, and writ of Eumenes and Attalus. But of this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Loves of Hero and Leander, no mention is made by any of the old Greek critics: though Censurers are like Informers, that notwithstanding they know a man guiltless, will yet bring his name upon the Stage. We find likewise (but of a latter date) a Philosopher and a Grammarian of his Name. And out of all these (induced thereto by that silence of the ancient critics, together with the title in Sophianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) Causabon thought Musaeus the Grammarian, author of this poem. For my part I dare not affirm any of them to be the Musaeus, that writ Hero and Leander: but this I dare boldly say, whosoever writ it, had the gifts and endowments of them all. For his language might have become Musaeus the Grammarian, his knowledge in pasions and affections, Musaeus the Philosopher: and the divinity of his verses, the First and Great Musaeus, that dedicated his hymn {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of God to Orpheus. But lest you should suspect I am writing a panegyric on Musaeus, I will shut up my praise of him, with the testimony of the master-critic Julius Caesar Scaliger, in the fift book and the fift Chapter of his critic where he gives this Judgement.  I ho●●●●●●●us to write a much neater and more polished stile than Homer. For as all his lines are incomparable, and the only Greek verses worthy Virgil: so part of them are of such a composition, as cannot be owned by any of his Nation, but Musaeus. Virgil therefore crowned not Homer, nor Orpheus, but made Musaeus Prince of the Elysian poets. In the verses of Musaeus you see no exorbitancy, but every thing exactly done, scare a flaw imaginable. But if Musaeus had writ what Homer did, our judgement is, he would have writ it better far.  

OF SESTOS and ABYDOS.  
WHen you read in Musaeus, that Hero was born at Sestos, and Leander at Abydos: you are then fully informed of the greatest honour those Cities ever had. But for as much as I suppose you will gladly hear of other though less actions done upon the place, I shall give you a description thereof, with all the memorable particulars, which I have either noted in good Authors, or can (at present) call to mind.  
Sestos, famous for the intercourse of a great love (so Pomponius Mela styles it) lies in the 42. degree of Northern latitude, on the Sea-Coast of Thrace in Europe, diametrally opposite to Abydos in Asia, a City built (as Strabo says) for the Milesians, by permission of Gyges' King of Lydia, than Lord of all the signiory of Troas, or Asia the less. Betwixt Sestos and and Abydos flows the Hellespontick Sea, not above a Mile broad, if we trust Xenephon's account; but wanting a Furlong of a Mile, if we believe Pliny in his natural History. These two Cities, divided by nature, the great King of Persia Xerxes joined together with a Bridge of boats, over which he passed his vast Army, designed for the Conquest of Greece, consisting of seventeen hundred millions of foot, and eighty millions of horse, according to Herodotus. Such a moving world might easily drink the river of Scamander dry. Justin is of opinion, the number he himself mentions might have done it, yet he but musters them at 700000. Persians, and 300000. Auxiliaries, with a Fleet of 200000. Saile. But to all this Army there wanted a general. For if you consider the King, you will not admire his Conduct, but his wealth: which did so abound in his Dominions, that although the Rivers were exhausted, yet his Treasury was full. But he himself was still noted, to be the first that fled, and the last that fought, fearful in dangers, and if his fit of fear left him, blown up with pride. Before he had the experience of a war, he was so confident of his strength, that as LORD of Nature, he leveled mountains, filled up valleys, and some Seas he covered with Bridges, others (for the benefit of his Fleet) he cut in a straight line; Whose coming into Greece was not so terrible, but his departure was as base and foul. To this Justin adds, That when Themistocles had got him by stratagem to give the signal of battle at Salamin, Xerxes himself kept aloof off, with part of his Fleet, standing as a Spectator, while Queen Artemisia charged among his foremost Auxiliaries. For as a womanish fear possessed the man, so you might be▪ hold in the woman a manly courage, And when by a second stratagem, Themistocles had frighted him out of Greece, Xerxes (finding his Bridge of boats scattered by the stormy winter) shaking and trembling went aboard a fisher-boat, and so escaped. A strange spectacle, rare in consideration of human frailty and the turns of things, to see him skulking in a Fisherman, whom the Ocean a little before had scarce sea-room enough to entertain; and now not waited on by any servant, whose Army for the multitude was a burden to the Earth. Here you see how Xerxes appears in History, passing from Abydos to Sestos (as Lord of Nature) over the boarded Hellespont, but returning from Sestos to Abydos (as the slave of Fortune) in a poor boat alone. Yet in regard there never was a greater Example of the instability of worldly Honour, I hope you will not think time ill spent, if I show you how he appears in Poesy, whipping the Wind, and fettering of the Sea, for breaking his wooden bridge: till the hand of Providence whipped his Pride, and fettered his Ambition, for a warning to the Insolent. They are the words of the Prince of satirists, Juvenall, Sat. 10.  
— Creditur olim  
velificatus Athos &c.  

We may believe, what was believed of old,  
That Ships put in at Athos, and (what bold  
And lying Greece on History imposed)  
Xerxes that Mountain with his Fleet enclosed;  
That o'er the solid Sea by Coach he passed,  
Drank up whole Rivers when he broke his fast:  
And all that, hovering with her drunken wings,  
The Muse of Sostratus the Poet sings.  
But how from Salamin returned he shipped,  
Whose barbarous pride the East & Northwest whipped,  
Never in Aeolus his jail so paid,  
Who fetters on th'Earth-shaker Neptune laid,  
And 'twas done gently that he spared his Brand;  
What God would not serve under his Command?  
But how returned he? in a Bark he fled,  
Sailing through blood, retarded by the dead,  
Whose bodies to arrest his flight did swim.  
Thus, so much courted Glory punished him.   
But lest I trench too much upon your Patience, I will now pass from old Sestos and Abydos, to a description of those Towers of Love, as they are at this day rebuilt and fortified by the Grand Signior, and their platforms given us by Michael Heberer in a Treatise that bears the name of his Egyptian Bondage. Lib. 11. cap. 29. Then from the I'll of Tenedos and the Trojan Coast, we came to those Straits of the Sea, which they call the Helles-pont: whose entrance is guarded by two gallant Towers, one of which is called Sestos, lying on Europe-side, at the foot of a hill, appearing to us in the form of a Triangle. Towards the sea (hanging over the water) we saw seven and twenty great Cannon planted to command the Landing place, besides the other pieces of Ordnance that are round about the Walls and Towers. In the middle of this Fort stands a goodly quadrangular Tower, encompassed with three distinct Pergula's or terraces, that show like three-leafed Grass, out of which they may easily beat back the danger of a storm. In full diameter to this Tower of Sestos, stands the strong Castle of Abydos, on the Coast of Asia, now called Nat●lia, situate in a plain, and surrounded with deep trenches: this Fort is Quadrangular, and environed with a triple Tower towards the Sea. In the middle stands a noble and conspicuous Square that commands the rest. From sea, the prospect betwixt the Walls and Trenches looks like an open Court, and terminates at a cross-wall built of solid stone, and planted thick with Cannon to scour the Port. At the middle Tower is a draw-bridge over the Ditch, that passes into a fair green Area, adorned with divers trees and a clear spring for the benefit of the Garrison. Not far from this Fort lies a little village, whose Inhabitants are most of them Greeks, and they supply the traveller with necessaries. Thus Mich. Heberer, of the new Sestos and Abydos, now in possession of the Turk, that calls them Bogasaffer. It remains, that I tell how they came into his hands, and so I shall conclude my discourse. It was the same vein of Love, that the sometime-neighbour to the place fair Hero had (but running with degenerate blood) which delivered up the Fort of Abydos to the Enemy of Christendom by the hand of a Christian Lady, daughter to the governor of Abydos, who being frighted in her dream, with falling into a deep foul ditch; either the accident of her sleeping fancy, or her accustomary waking desires, represented to her a handsome young soldier, that with great civility helped her up, and instead of her clothes spoiled with the dirt, presented her with a rich Garment, such as the Eastern Princes cast upon their favourites. The Gentleman's Image made a deep impression in the Lady's tender breast, so that she now dreamed of him waking. Till at length old Accecozza the Turk's general, lays siedg to the Castle, and the young Lady (being all air, and desirous of every new sight) stands upon a Tower to take the pleasure of beholding the continual skirmishes and pickeering, while the gallant Turk young Abduruchman, made his approaches to the Fort, so valiantly, that beyond his expectation, he took in the Lady's heart, who makes herself believe, he is the very man that appeared in her vision. And presently (her invention being as sudden as her resolution) she writes to him, that she was predestinated by the decrees of Heaven to be his, and if he would promise love to her; he must get the general to make a show of raising the seidg, and that night, when her father and his men were brought to a sound sleep by the healths they would drink to their enlargement, she would deliver them up his Prisoners. This letter she fastened to a stone, and so cast it, that it fell at Abduruchman's feet; who prevailed with the general, that his unseen Mistress might be obeyed: nor did she fail of performing her unfortunate Promise. Thus ABYDOS, and shortly after SESTOS, was rendered to the OTTOMAN Family. The keys of Christendom being lost by hanging at a LADY'S girdle.  
If this unhappy LADY put you out of love with ABYDOS, LEANDER will (I hope) reconcile you to his Birth-place: whom you shall now behold swimming from thence to SESTOS, where you may imagine HERO (the greatest beauty of the world) expecting her Love, and your Attention.   

Musaeus, ON THE LOVES OF HERO and LEANDER.  

(SPeak Goddess, of the Torch (Love's () witness made  
At Nuptials stealing through the gloomy shade,  
Ne'er seen by th' () incorrupted morning-light)  
Of Sestos and Abydos: here by night  
Leander swimming, Hero married there.  
Hark, the Torch ruffled by the wind i hear,  
The steering Torch that did to Venus () guide,  
The flaming signal of the clouded Bride,  
The Torch that for night-service airy Jove.  
Should make a Star, the star of wandering Love,  
The Marriage-star, because it still gave aim,  
And watched the Marriage-houres with () sleepless flame,  
Till by the rude wind th'envious Gust was blown;  
And then (ay me) change Hymen's softer tone,  
And let our Verse with one sad () Close be crowned.  
The Torch extinguished, and Leander drowned.   

Upon the Sea▪ shore, parted by the flood  
Two Cities () Sestos and Abydos stood;  
Just o'rethwart neighbours: his bow Cupid bent,  
And to both Cities the () same Arrow sent,  
Wherewith a youth and virgin were () inflamed,  
He sweet Leander, she chaste Hero named,  
He at Abydos, she at Sestos born;  
Stars, like each other, which their towns adorn.  
Do me a favour if you pass that way,  
Ask for the tower where Sestian Hero lay,  
And held the Torch, wafting Leander o'er;  
Ask for his Dwelling on the adverse shore:  
Where still his funerals old Abydos keeps,  
And in his love's and Death's remembrance weeps.  
But dwelled he at Abydos? how then came▪  
He to love Hero, she to catch his flame?   

Fair Hero, virgin-priestess to the Power  
Of Venus, her great Parents in a Tower  
From them apart, near to the Sea had placed;  
Another Venus, but so strictly () chaste,  
That she at female meetings ne'er appeared,  
Nor her young play-mates charming Dances heard,  
Regardful women's envy to decline,  
For at a Beauty women will () repine.  
But she with incense Venus still appeased,  
Oft with his heavenly () Mother Cupid pleased,  
Fearing his Quiver full of shafts that () glow,  
But yet those flaming shasts she scap't not so.  
The Sestians now that Feast, they so much prize,  
To Venus and Adonis solemnize.  
O'er to this holiday in boats-full throng,  
() All th'Jslanders that to the Sea belong;  
Some from () Haemonia, from moist Cyprus some,  
All Phrygia, all Cythera's women come.  
None () dance on Libanon in perfumed air,  
No passengers but to this Feast repair;  
There wants of neighbouring Abydos none,  
Of young men that love maids not any one;  
For they to follow will be sure, where fame  
Shall celebration of a Feast proclaim.  
Not that th'immortal Gods their zeal pursues,  
But troops of mortal beauties to peruse.   

Now through the Temple Virgin-Hero past,  
And from her face a lovely splendour cast,  
Like the clear Moon when rising she's beheld;  
Her snowy cheeks in scarlet circles swelled,  
So looks the blowing () Damask Rose, You'd swear  
Hero () a garden full of Roses were.  
She blushed all over▪ in the polished stone  
Beneath the pure white, Damask Roses shone.  
From her flowed many () Graces, then of old  
They lied that Men but of () three Graces told.  
For in each () smiling eye of Hero sprung  
A hundred Graces: thus said every tongue,  
Venus hath now a priestess worthy her,  
All men this maid before her Sex prefer.  
venus's priestess a new Venus seems,  
So her the heart of conquered Youth esteems.  
Nor was there any but he Hero loved,  
And wished she were his Bride: where e'er she moved  
Through the strong fabric of that sacred place,  
All (ʸ) eyes, all hearts and longings went her pace.   

One Youth admiring of her spoke these words,  
I've seen what beauty Sparta's Clime affords,  
And what in () Lacedaemon so much takes,  
Where beauty to the world her () Challenge makes;  
But one so sweet, so modest I've not seen,  
Sure one o'th' Graces here attends love's Queen?  
I've tired my sight, not () satisfied my eye,  
Let me but sleep with Hero and then () die.  
I would not wish to be a power divine,  
So I might live at home, and Hero mine;  
But if unto thy priestess to pretend  
Be sacrilege, one like her () Venus send.  
Thus every youth said: there another had  
A wound, and with () concealing it, ran () mad.   

But brave Leander, this rare maid when thou  
Beheldest, thou wouldest not of dumb wounds allow,  
But at the fiery arrow's very Fall  
Thou'lt with fair Hero live, or not at all.  
Love at her eye-beams did his torches light,  
And () fired Leander's bosom at first sight.  
For beauty in a maid whose fame is pure,  
flies like the feathered shast, and hits more sure.  
The eyes are loopholes, her eyes fatal () dart  
Glanced through his eye, and grazed upon his () heart.   

Amazement, fear, Shame, Impudence, he felt;  
His sense amazed on her perfections dwelled,  
His heart shook, Shame restrained him, Love controlled  
That Shame, and made him impudently bold.   

He softly walked and stood before the maid,  
And slily to her a () side-look conveyed,  
With silent eyes fording the virgin's mind.  
When she Leander's cunning love did find,  
She joyed in her own beauty: and even She  
Oft lifted her fair eyes by stealth to see  
Leander's face, than looked away again;  
He joyed that he did love, nor she disdain.   

While now a private hour Leander watched,  
Day to the West the light's small stock dispatched,  
And straight the shadowed Evening-star appeared.  
Then to approach her he no longer feared,  
But when he saw the sky with sables hung,  
He silently her rosy fingers wrung,  
And fetched a deep sigh: she did nothing say,  
But as if angry, snatched her hand a way.  
Finding her discomposure he grew bold,  
And of her rich-flowered vesture taking hold,  
Pulled her into the Temples secretest part:  
As 'twere a Pilgrimage against her heart,  
Lingeringly followed the slowfooted maid,  
And threating, thus in womens' language said:  
What, () stranger, art thou mad? why pull'st thou so  
A maid? away, leave, let my garment go.  
Shun my rich Parents anger. To court me,  
Preistess to Venus, it befits not thee.  
'Tis hard to come unto a virgin's bed.  
Thus lessons, maids are perfect in, she read,  
Leander hearing female () fury sound,  
The symptoms straight of yielding virgins found,  
For when with men maids once are furious grown,  
Their very threatenings promise them our own.  
Then her sweet-smelling pure-skinned neck he kissed,  
And spoke these words, wherein love's pangs assist.   

Venus' next Venus, Pallas whom I love  
Next Pallas, daughters to Saturnian Jove,  
For by no mortal form art thou expressed;  
Blessed he that got thee, she that bare thee blessed:  
The womb most happy that did thee create,  
Hear thou my prayer, and pity my love's fate.  
Priestess to Venus like to Venus do,  
Come, be the priestess of her pleasures too,  
These ceremonies learn: a maid and be  
Priestess to Venus, it befits not thee.  
() maids' Venus loves not; her true () rites if thou  
Wouldst know, they are the nuptial bed and vow.  
Do you love Venus? Love's soft laws fulfil,  
Call me your servant (call me, if you will,  
Your husband) chased and caught by Cupid's art,  
Brought to your service by his golden dart,  
As rough Alcides by the Hermian () wand  
To Omphale the Lydian Maid's command;  
But in this voyage to your presence made,  
My steps sweet Venus not sly Hermes swayed.  
The Coy Arcadian, () Atalama fled  
(You know) Milanion's love and marriage-bed,  
But she loved single life; this Venus moved,  
Who made the once-despised her sole-beloved.  
Dear, lest your Goddess frown, be you more kind.  
Thus he persuaded her against her mind,  
Softening her soul with love and passion mixed;  
() Silently on the ground her eye she fixed,  
Ashamed the twilight should her blushes meet,  
repolishing the marble with her feet,  
And gathering, at every little check  
Given by her heart, her robe about her neck.  
All tokens that a maid's consent forerun,  
Who if she be struck speechless () than she's won.  
Love's bitter-sweetness now she working felt,  
Fair Hero's heart gentle flame did melt,  
Leander's lineaments her soul amazed.  
And while her eye upon the pavement gazed,  
On her fair neck his never wearied sight  
He fixed, until prevented by the night,  
The dew that long had on her blushes hung,  
Then dropped, and these words from her sweetest tongue.  
Stranger, thy speech might on a () rock have wrought,  
Who thee the various ways of Courtship taught?  
Who did (alas) thee to my Country send?  
But all which thou hast spoke is to no end,  
For how, a wandering stranger as thou art  
And faithless, can I fix thee in my heart?  
Nor could we marry publicly 'tis clear,  
For of no marriage will my parents hear.  
And should my Country thee a stranger shroud,  
Thy () stolen love could not long be in a cloud;  
news with advantage () slander will unfold,  
What's done in corners in highways is told.  
Yet let me know thy name and native coast;  
My great name Hero I suppose thou know'st.  
In this vast Tower dwell but my Nurse and J.  
And though my native Sestos be so nigh,  
Such is the doom my cruel Parents give,  
Ay, banish'thence, must the Seas neighbour live.  
Nor with young maids at Dancings I appear,  
But day and night from Sea winds blustering hair.  
Thus speaking, with her veil her face she hide,  
Again blushed, and herself for speaking chid.  
Leander on loves highest torture racked,  
Was soon inspired how loves design to act.  
For man's heart () powerful Cupid conquers twice,  
First with his arrows, then with his advice;  
Which ever heals the wounds his arrows made,  
while he that hurts us doth our cure persuade  
He helped love-posed Leander to revolve;  
Who lastly, sighing, uttered this Resolve.   

Virgin, to come to thee, i would not fear  
Billows of fire, or water though it were  
Innavigable: to arrive thy bed,  
No deep gulf, no high-flowing tide I dread;  
But thy wet servant shall the waves confront,  
And nightly swim the raging Helles-pont.  
For Love, I dwell but cross these Narrow-Seas  
Your neighbour at Abydos. Only please  
On your high Turret to set up a Light,  
Which shining in diameter by night,  
I may become love's Ship, that light my star,  
Beholding () which, not looking up so far  
As slow Boots and the frozen wain,  
Or () rough Orion, I may safely gain  
My obvious native soil: but (dearest) watch,  
For fear the boisterous wind the flame should catch,  
And blow my life out, which to air must slide  
With that bright flame, unto my life the guide.  
Of what I am, if you more knowledge claim,  
Leander is fair Hero's husband's name.   

Their secret marriage their night-league now made,  
The Torch, love's ensign, was to be displayed.  
She to prepare the Light, he did indent  
To swim the Sea: their nuptial Eve thus spent,  
Against their wills they part, she to her Tower;  
He, least dark night his sense might overpower,  
Took marks to know the tower by, and sailed o'er  
To fair Abydos his strong native shore,  
Both longing for a whole night's marriage-fight,  
Oft wishing for the bed-adorning night.   

Night now soft () rest upon her () raven-wings  
To all but to love-sick Leander brings;  
Who on the loud Sea's ever-chafing Bay,  
Did but for Hymen's shining summons stay,  
Expecting the sad Torch, and to be led  
By that bright usher to his private bed.   

As soon as e'er thick darkness veiled the night,  
Hero advanced the Torch, which then gave Light;  
Leander's eager spirits Cupid fired,  
And as the Torch burned, still his flame aspired.  
But from Sea hearing th'angry billows scold,  
At first he trembled▪ after growing bold,  
Thus speaking to himself his heart he eased.  
Love's cruel, the Sea not to be appeased;  
But the Sea's water, i Loves fire contain,  
Heart drink in fire, and scorn the flowing Maine.  
'Gainst Lovers what by Sea can be contrived?  
Know'st not, that Venus from the () Sea's derived,  
Who both the Ocean, and our Stars commands?  
Then his fair limbs he stripped with both his hands,  
Turbanted with his silken robe his head,  
Leapt from the shore, o'th'waves his body spread,  
And up against the flaming torch still bore,  
Himself the Ship, the Pilot, and the oar.  
On her high turret Hero watched the flame,  
And as stiff gales from any quarter came,  
Still screened it with the sacred robe she wore,  
Till tired Leander reached the Sestian shore.   

Down from the Turret Hero making haste,  
Her breathless husband at the gates embraced,  
And to her bedchamber in silence led,  
There wiped his locks that trickling foam still shed,  
And () anointed him with Roses, that consumed  
Th' offensive smell, and left him all perfumed;  
Twining about him then, yet panting laid  
On her soft down, these softer words she said.   

Love, thou hast laboured sore, exceeding sore,  
Love, thou hast laboured much, no Lover more;  
Fish-slime and Brine have made thy penance great,  
Come now, into my bosom drop thy sweat.  
Thus she, he straight untied her () zone, and they  
The laws of () gentle Venus did obey.  
They had a Wedding, but no Dancing there,  
A bridebed, but they did no singing here;  
Their sacred Nuptials no Poet praised,  
About their private bed, no Torches blazed,  
No Dancer in a nimble caper sprung,  
No hymns the Father or grave Mother sung.  
But Darkness at Love's hours the bridebed made,  
Dressed up the Room: the Bride's veil was the shade.  
Far from epithalamiums were they matched,  
Night only at their Ceremonies watched;  
Aurora never did Leander view,  
A bridegroom in that bed he so well knew.  
Who swam back to Abydos, breathing still  
Those hymeneal sweets that never fill.  
But long-veyled Hero mocked her parent's sight,  
A Virgin all the day, a () Wife by night;  
Both often chid the Morning to the West,  
And thus the fury of their loves suppressed,  
Enjoying secret, but short-lived delights,  
For short time dates their strange stolen marriage-rites.   

Approaching winter, in a moment, forms  
The sky's Vertigo into horrid storms.  
The howling winds, as with a besom, sweep  
The wet false bottom of the boiling Deep;  
Calked ships, which Mariners dare not commit  
To faithless Seas, are in the Harbour split.  
But no rough Winter-Sea can thee affright,  
Strong-souled Leander, but when th' once kind Light,  
Now false and cruel, gave thy love the sign,  
Fearless thou leapdst into fierce Neptune's Brine.  
Unhappy Hero should, when winter came,  
Have spared Leander, no more fed the flame  
Of that frail Comet, by whose blaze they held  
Their night-commerce; but love and fate compelled.  
And now upon the lofty Turret reared  
Fates brand, no longer Hymen's torch appeared.   

'Twas Night, when most the winds their spirits spent,  
And 'gainst the shore their rallied forces bent,  
When with accustomed hope Leander fed,  
Climbed liquid mountains, bound for Hero's bed;  
Wave upon wave was piled, the Main wrought high,  
Th'earth shook, the Sea was mingled with the sky.  
The winds fell out, the East and west-wind fought,  
The South against the North strong tempests brought,  
The merciless and foaming surges roared;  
Poor youth, he sea▪ born Venus oft implored,  
Oft () Neptune King of Seas would have inclined,  
And () Boreas of Orythia put in mind,  
But none helped. Fate by Love was not controlled,  
Quite over him the () justling billow's rolled  
His strong legs sail him, motionless now stands  
The nimble vigour of his active hands:  
The water down his throat at pleasure flowed,  
The giddy Seas their useless drink bestowed.  
And the false torch out as the () sharp wind tossed,  
His Love and Life bemourned Leander lost.   

The Sea her waking eyes did still survey,  
And in her sad breast flowed another sea.  
●●y, not her Husband, Hero seeing then,  
●●e Sea's broad back viewed to the utmost ken,  
To see if anywhere Leander came,  
Who, as the torch went out, might lose his aim.  
But when she saw him on the billows borne,  
At her tower foot, and by the rocks all torn,  
Near to her heart her opal-coloured gown  
She rent, and shrieking, to the Corpse leapt down.  
For her lost Husband she herself destroyed,  
And even in death each other they enjoyed.    

ANNOTATIONS Upon Musaeus. Speak goddess.  
ᵃ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}▪ Musaeus begins with Invocation, and then sums up the story he intends to write of, after the manner of Homer, Hesiod, and of other Greek and some Latin Poets. But the deity invoked, whether it be Venus (the subject being Love) or Homer's {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} once translated, Great goddess of my Verse, I leave to his Genius, whom Chapman in his Preface calls his first mover: and to such others as are best able to understand and judge, and that well know the POET's Imperative {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, rather signifies an incitall or application to an action, whereof there had been an intermission.  
(ᵇ) The Ancients supposed light to see. Lucian makes a tyrant's Lamp, that burned a-nights in his bedchamber, witness against him in Hell.  
(ᶜ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, not subject to corruption; as the unhappy Torch was.  
(ᵈ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the proper Attribute of Mercury. Qui pias laetis animas reponis sedibus; Hor. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hom. odies. o. v. 138. the Greek Masters call him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. So that I here translate it (Guide) because that as Mercury ferried over the souls, so this mercurial Torch guided poor Leander to the shore of his Elysium.  
(ᵉ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] which with me, Cassius Parmensis would translate [Exsomnem] Ausonius' Vigilacem, not unfitly (you having v. 11.) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Insomnes longo veniunt examine curae. Claudian.  
(ᶠ) For on this Torch depends Leander's Love and Life.  
(ᵍ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Ad Sestum adversum Abydo, & distantem non plus octo stadijs. Xenoph. Philosoph. 4. Rerum Graecarum. Which Helles-pont had not the name from Xerxes' bridge, as Ammianus: But because it wanted a bridge for Hell●.  
(ʰ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Signum indubtatum. For else Cupid might have shot his other arrow that repels Love, as OVID expresseth it.  
(ⁱ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.] burning. Volucrem esse fingit immitem Deum Mortalis error, armat & telis manus, Arcusque sacros miscuit saeva face. Sen. Octav.  
(ᵏ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] nuptiarum ignara, virgineo nullum corpore passa virum. Ovid Fast. lib. 5. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, nuptias non experta Cassiod. lib. 7. Anthol.  
(ˡ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Witness that famous Dispute of Juno, Pallas, and Venus, whereof Paris was the unfortunate Arbiter.  
(ᵐ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Or the Goddess, or the Planet, both causes of the same effect.  
(ⁿ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Which darted make a wildfire in the blood, not to be quenched. Vulnus alit venis et caeco carpitur igni. Virg.  
(ᵒ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] So called, perhaps because celebrated by all the people, at least, by the major part, the vulgar and meaner sort, for so Porphiry interprets {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} out of Homer. Consonant to that of Xenophon, Plato, Theocritus, and others who mention two Venuses, the first, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Urania, Goddess of chaste affection; the other, Pandemos, Queen-Regent of the grosser bodily love common to Man and Beast, and therefore her Feast is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which might be solemnised by any or all the Islanders, for they came, as you see in the very verse following, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or as some, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, that is, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; By companies, multitudes, all the Islanders together.  
(q) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Haemonia from Haemon Pyrrha's son, formerly Pyrrhaea from his Mother, and afterward Thessalia from his son Thessalus.  
(ʳ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Rather then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Libanon being full of the Priests of Venus, that loved dancing like their Goddess. jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus.  
(ˢ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Helliodorus lib. 3. interprets it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
(ᵗ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] A field of Roses. Achilles Tatius fancied in the Peacock's train a meadow full of flowers.  
(ᵘ) Any thing pleasant being accounted to comprehend the Graces.  
(ʷ) Thalia, Aglaia, Euphosyne, Natal. Comes, Mythol. 4. cap. 15.  
(ˣ) Of the wonderful smiling of the Eye, see Nonnus, who particularly ascribes to the Eye, the visible faculty, differencing Man from Beast, the lover's Eye and every sense being banished into his Object.  
(A) chief City of Sparta, named from Lacedaemon son to Jupiter {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
(B) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. I need to say nothing of their Challenges, since the Lady-Combatants of Sparta are so well known as to raise a Proverb. Such was the Prize at the Feast of the Eleusinian Ceres, where Herodice was adjudged {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. The most beautiful & the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the Crown of Beauty set upon her Forehead. Nic. in Rebus Arcadicis: Homer mentions the like Prizes held among the Lesbians.  
(C) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Virgil hath the same expression, where he says of Dido, Expleri mentem nequit, ardescitque tuendo. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} here may therefore be rendered Satiety, The food of the eye being known by that of Terence, Oculos pavere. of Plautus, Oculis epulas dare. And of Martial, Inspexit molles pueros, oculisque comedit. Nay says Plautus, Aures, oculi, animus ampliter fiant saturi. And Aristophanes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} dixit, & {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} dicta exsorbent.  
(D) The Lovers Wish to enjoy and die. Illum ego si cernam tunc tangam vertice caelum. Aus.  
(E) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Venus, so called from her arrival at Cythera in a shell saith Festus.  
(F) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Vulnus alit venis & caeco carpitur igni. Virg lib. 4. Aeneid.  
(G) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, so Theocritus calls Love. Nullam mentem animi habeo, ubi sum ibi non sum. Plautus.  
(H) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Love being a kind of fire, Est mollis flamma medullas interea Virg. lib. 4. Aeneid.  
(Ay) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. A bosom wound so Nonnus, lib. 4.  
(K) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. To a young man a woman's eye's a Dart: Hesychius therefore considering love to spring from the sight, calls him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, all eye. 
Si nescis, oculi sunt in amore deuces,  
— Est via ocellus.  
Ex oculis ictu paulatim labitur ulcus; Na-  Com. lib. 4. Mythol. cap. 14.  
(M) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Looking obliquely▪ Theocritus Idyl.  
(O) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] His Name and Country being as yet unknown to her; or else she calls him Stranger, to show her unwillingness to a nearer relation.  
(P) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] The Oestrum is a creature annoying beasts with her Sting, and making them fling and run, like mad: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (saith Suidas) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, every violent motion is called oestrum. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the deadly rage of necessity, Nonnuslib. 21.  
(Q) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] The neck is first kissed says Achil: Tatius. The Persians salute thus, the equal kisses the mouth, the inferior the hand, the person of honour the cheek or eyelids, the peasant falls prostrate on the ground. Vide sis Drusilum, lib. 9 pag. 380.  
(To) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.] Not knowing the use they were ordained for.  
(V) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] The orgies of Bacchus were full of wild vagaries, perhaps for that reason he uses the word.  
(W) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Commotaculum, Mercury's rod, so called because when he moved it, the Ghosts went forward.  
(X) Daughter to Abbas, King of Arcadia, maid of Honour to Diana. So Callima.  
(Y) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Silence is powerful in the extremes of Passion. Nec vox aut spiritus oris redditur, Claud.  
(Z) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Who is silent, denies not, saith the Law.  
[A] {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Illa graves poterat quercus, adamantaque durum, Surdaque blanditijs saxa movere suis. OVID.  
[B] {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] a stolen bed, Euripides; and Homer calls the offspring of stolen love {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, things of darkness. Hence Phocylides {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
(C) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Pindarus names {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Calumny, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Which I have rendered slander, the true signification of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, being to cut and wound the heart with grief, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. So the Scholiast in Apolonius. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. According to the Scoliast in Oppian.  
(D) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] A frequent epithet of Cupid, whence the distich, perfringunt, penetrant, urunt mea spicula fulmen. Scilicet hinc nomen est mihi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  Non potuit Juno vincere, vicit Amor.  
(E) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Illustrated by Ovid, as you shall read it when his Leander names the Pilot's stars.  
(G) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] ARATUS saith, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Wherefore the Romans called Orion, jugula, from the sword he wears.  
(H) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Euripides agreeing with my sense calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nigro peplo indutam Noctem.  
(Ay) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Nox erat & placidum capiebant fessa soporem Corpora. Virg. lib. 4. Aeneid.  
(K) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Ausonius gives us the pedigree of Venus. Orta salo, suscepta solo, patre edita caelo.  
(M) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.] From this anointing of the Greeks, the Romans had the fashion of their Baths and precious unguents: (the expense whereof is known to every one) though the unguents Cosmus used in's brazen Bath, were all on him diffused Juv. Sat. 8.  
(N) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman},] Petr. Faber. thinks this to be the sacerdotal band or diadem, grounding his opinion upon Hero's Reply to Leander, holding her vesture, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. v. 82.  
(O) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Venus being then in a benevolent aspect, or a propitious inclination, optimâ mente praedita, so the word imports.  
(P) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Quae fuerat virgo credita, mater oer at, says Ovid of Calisto, one of the maids to Diana. So that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} seems to be appropriated to such, quae virum passae sunt.  
(Q) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Potens maris Deus. Her.  
(R) The Ancients say that Boreas ravished Orythia as she was gathering flowers near the Spring Cephisus, and that he carried her into Thrace (whither now Leander was a-swimming) See Natal. Com. lib. 8. Mythol. c. 2.  
(S) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Such as it was not easy to cope with.  
(To) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] Things that disrellish are commonly called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, sharp or bitter things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.   

LEANDER'S LETTER TO HERO, And her answer: Taken out of OVID. With ANNOTATIONS. By Sir Robert Stapylton KNIGHT, Gentleman of the privy CHAMBER to the PRINCE.  — quis enim modus adsit Amori. 
LONDON, Printed by F. B. for Humphrey Mosley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Prince's arms in Saint Paul's Church Yard 1647.   

TO My dear Wife THE LADY STAPYLTON.  
My Love,  
PErhaps the Wits may be as much offended at men for writing to, as Walking with their own Wives: neither is in fashion I confess, but sure they would exceedingly well-become our Age. Indeed Gifts between Man and Wife, were prohibited by the Roman Legislator, yet he intended not to destroy Kindness by a Law, but to declare Community in Marriage, where both have equal Proprieties, in that which either is possessed of. And even in reason (the ground of Law) he that makes a Present to his Wife, offers an Injury in a compliment: for he entitles her to that by his Gift, which is hers in her own Right.  
I will not therefore so much transgress, as to say, I give thee my English of Leander's Epistle and Hero's answer: for that were to imply, an expectation of receiving thanks, for what was thy own as soon as mine. All that (by praefixing of thy Name) I pretend to, is first, to show the World how sensible I am of thy Love, expressed to me in both fortunes, the later being lively represented in these Letters, that past between Husband and Wife divided by a storm. In the next place, I show thee, how I spent part of that time, when I had nothing left but (what Fortune could not take away) some hours for study, wherein I enjoyed myself as much, as I could, in thy absence. Lastly, I do an honour to my author, for I dare boldly say, the strictest and most rigid Modesty will not scruple to read a passion writ by OVID, where his name is placed so near to thine, which nothing unchaste durst ever be so impudent to approach. And if my Augury deceive me not, the Goodness of the Times is such, that the Lady I send to bear thee company, Hero, will be studied by thy Sex in general; her virtue drawn into precedent, and the greatest modesty's discovered in the greatest Beauties; teaching the bold Pretenders to their favour, to court them, not in lewd unmanly Verse (the new-sickness of the mind) but in Leander's primitive way of wooing, timorous blushes, noble undertakings, and gallant performances: but all of the virtuous ancient strain, such as this, wherein Ovid himself presumed not to use one lascivious syllable: and if the Muse of so incomparable a Wit, presumed not upon a looser Flight, when his subject was the fair dead Sestian: how dare our puny Aretine's draw a wanton line, when they write of Hero's yet alive? I hope this pattern will ruin their design; to which good purpose, if my poor Endeavours may conduce, I must account them seasonably bestowed. Howsoever I shall not repent me, since they are crowned with so desired success, that they publish me, as I am,  
Thy most affectionate HUSBAND ROBERT STAPYLTON.   

which this is quoted) to be a Fragment; and so, that he gives not the full number, must be imputed as an injury done by time to him, and not by that eloquent Historian to the noblest poet. I have therefore prefixed a Star before the name of Homer, to signify a space, that should be filled up with the title of Musaeus. This, if it were his Interpreters single Opinion, might perhaps incur the suspicion of partiality. But I have already showed you it to be voted by Virg. and Scaliger, the first of these placing Musaeus above all the blessed souls, and calling him (by Sybil's mouth) the Best of poets: the other, challenging for him particular precedency of Homer; and now to make up a Triumvirate of matchless authors, and confirm them by the authority of a Triumvirate of learned Judges, I produce these Letters penned by OVID, when he thought it an honour to be Secretary to Musaeus his Hero and Leander; wherein the Great Master that taught Love to Rome, acknowledges Greece to be the Mistress of his Learning, for when he had writ so many soft and melting Love-Poëms; never equalled by the Latins, nay after all those Epistles of Penelope to Ulysses, Paris to Helen, and the rest summed up by himself in his Elegyes, yet could not Ovid rest satisfied with the numerous Trophies of his Wit, till he had surprised the Roman Ladies with this Greek Stratagem. Here I cannot but take notice how ridiculous they are, that because OVID names not these Epistles, would infer some other writ them: as if Ovid when he had numbered some, were obliged to write no more, but I will not trouble myself or these Sages of Grammar further, then to wish them a better stock of logic; and if they know not the stile of Ovid when they read it, yet to make submission to the Consent of Times, and scholars, such as Mich. Neander, who in his Description of the orb of the Earth, the first part, pag. 245 says thus. Sestos nota amore Leandri & Herûs &c. Sestos famous for Hero and Leander's Love, celebrated in a peculiar poem by Musaeus, and after him by Ovid in his Heroical Dispatches. But that which I most admire in Ovid, is his Modesty wherewith he copies out this pattern, Love pointing in these Letters to the true Poles, Delight and virtue; which Example may (I hope) reduce Love-Stories to their Primitive Purity, and make Ovid's wanton followers blush at the variation of their Compass. This is the reason that induced me (after I had taken my Leave of Poetry) to suffer this Impression. And yet i hope it would be favourably received, if it were only, like heaving of the Log in Navigation, drawn up to show you, (as Worthy Mr. Sandys did) how many Leagues we have sailed in Language; since you read  

Of bodies changed to sundry shapes I purpose for to treat,  
Ye Gods vouchsafe (for ye are they that wrought this wondrous feat,  
to further this mine enterprise—   
After which old English verse, it will not haply be unseasonable to sweeten you with an Epigram of martial upon Hero and Leander.  

Cum peteret dulces audax Leander amores,  
Et sessus tumidis jam premeretur aquis.  
Sic miser instantes affatus dicitur undas;  
Parcite dum propero, mergite dum redeo.   

To his sweet Love when bold Leander went,  
Thus the poor youth, they say, with swimming spent,  
Bespoke the Waves, if you decree my Wrack,  
Hold now, and drown me in my going back.   
Having now (I hope) prepared you by making Presents in English of all extant in the Greek and Latin, that concerns Hero and Leander; I shall conclude with preferring of a suit, which is, that you will please to take notice, I make it not my business to construe, but to translate: for the first I hold only fit for a Pedant, the other for an Interpreter; the End of Construction being to acquaint us with the Grammar of a Language; whereas Translation, should reduce a foreign tongue to the lustre of our own, not losing any of the author's strength and spirits, but teaching him to speak as if he had been born upon the Place. Which though I pretend not to have done, yet 'twill I am confident find acceptance, that I have endeavoured it.   

LEANDER TO HERO.  

The Argument.  
LEander hindered to perform  
his task of swimming by a storm,  
Finds one that undertakes to land  
His Letter safe in Hero's hand.  
Why he came not, and how he lives,  
A sad account Leander gives.  
Yet makes Misfortune something less,  
By summing up his first success:  
But if the Sky shall longer frown,  
He sets this resolution down,  
That swim he will; and vows a wave  
Shall be his Convoy, or his Grave.   

TO Hero health Leander sends, which he  
Had rather bring, would th' angry waves agree.  
If Gods be kind, and favour Love's designs,  
Thou with unwilling eyes wilt read these lines,  
But they are cruel; for why cross they him  
That hath been used this Sea so oft to swim?  
Thou seest the sky more black than pitch, the North  
Ploughing the Maine up, scarce a ship goes forth;  
Except the bold man that did this convey,  
None of our Mariners dare trust the Sea.  
Yet I had come, but when he put from Land,  
On their housetops did all Abydos stand.  
I could not have deceived my Parents eyes,  
They would have found the Love that we disguise.  
Then, Happy letter, said I writing this,  
Go, she will give thee her fair hand to kiss:  
Perhaps a touch thou from her lips Mayst steal,  
In case her snowy teeth break up the seal.  
This whispered to thy figure in my breast,  
My hand upon the paper spoke the rest:  
O how much more 'twould please me, if it might  
Tug with a wave, and rather swim then write:  
In swimming it would better service do,  
Yet to express my mind 'twill serve me too.  
'Tis now a sennight, longer than a year,  
That I the billows hoarse with scolding hair;  
Since when, if I have one nights slumber had,  
Still to delay me may the Sea be mad.  
Set on a Rock I sadly view thy shore,  
And though my body's stopped, my soul swims o'er.  
The Light upon thy Turret I descry,  
Or else 'tis fancied by my longing eye.  
Thrice on the thirsty Sand my clothes i laid,  
Thrice to begin my voyage I essayed;  
My young Attempt the raging sea withstood,  
And sunk me with a strong high going flood;  
But thou, of winds the fiercest, why so hot?  
Thou dost, o () Boreas, (if thou know'st it not)  
To me, not to the billows cruel prove;  
What wouldst thou do, if thou hadst ne'er known love?  
Though cold by nature, it must be confessed,  
Orythia shot a fire into thy breast▪  
When thou to catch her flewest, had any formed  
A Barricado, How wouldst thou have stormed?  
O spare me, gently move the air I pray,  
So still may () ●olus thee gently sway.  
But my vain prayers, his murmurs more enrage,  
Nor will he any wave he swells, assuage.  
Oh now for Daedalus his wings to fly,  
Though Icarus his Ocean be so nigh;  
My life should run all hazard poised aloft  
In air, that hath on water hung so oft.  
Mean time, while air and Water's both unkind▪  
The story of my Love i call to mind.  
'Twas newly night (the thought on't glads my soul)  
When first out of my father's door i stole:  
Straight with my garments putting off my fears,  
My rowing arms the smooth Sea gently bears,  
The Moon did then her trembling beams display,  
And full of Courtship brought me on my way.  
Looking at her, i said, o bright one, still  
Be gracious, think upon the () Latmian hill,  
Endymion will not let thy heart be hard,  
With a clear Aspect my sweet stealth regard▪  
Down to a mortal you a Goddess came,  
I may speak truth, a Goddess breathed my flame▪  
To wave her inward and celestial grace,  
None but true Goddesses have such a face.  
No other matches Venus or thy mould,  
If thou believest me not, do thou behold▪  
As much as when thou wear'st pure silver rays,  
Heavens lesser fires are darkened by thy rays,  
So much all beauties are by hers out shined,  
If () Cynthia thou doubtest this, thy light is blind.  
Or these, or words to this effect I spoke,  
And hasted o'er the waves that kindly broke:  
The Moon reflected on the water played,  
And even in the still night a daylight made.  
No sound arrived my ear, but what was cast▪  
From off the water, murmuring as i passed;  
Only I know not what, but some sweet thing  
I heard the () Halcyons of loved Ceyx sing.  
My shoulders tired with motion, now I stood  
Pitched on my hands, o'er looking of the flood▪  
When I beheld thy Torch afar▪ and cried  
My fire is there, my life on th'other side.  
Immediately my strength restored i felt,  
And the late boisterous waves seemed now to melt.  
Nor found I the least coldness in the Maine,  
Thanks to the heat my bosom did contain.  
Nearer and nearer swimming to thy shore,  
As my way less, so grew my speed the more:  
But seen by thee my vigour did renew,  
Out of thy eyes another soul i drew.  
Then my proud arms I flourished in thy sight,  
And used my art my Mistress to delight.  
Thy Nurse scarce held thee in her arms above,  
I saw it, thine's no complemental love:  
Do what she could, thy feet she could not save  
From being sprinkled with the foremost wave;  
Thou in thy arms receivedst me with a kiss,  
Should Gods swim o'er sea, no reward like this.  
Your mantle from yourself on me you threw,  
And dried my locks full of the brackish dew.  
The rest we know, and the close tower and Night▪  
And my directer through the sea, thy Light.  
Nor can that one night's joys be numbered more  
Than waves that dash the Hellespontick shore.  
The less our time of stealth, the more we bent  
Our cares, that it should not in vain be spent:  
Old () Tython's wife now hasting night away,  
The Star appears that ushers in the day.  
We heap up kisses, snatched in any sort,  
And moan ourselves that night should be so short▪  
Then our twined arms thy tattling Nurse divorced,  
And from thy tower me to my cold shore forced.  
Weeping we part, the () Virgin-Sea bears me,  
But my last look I leave behind with thee.  
Oh I came hither swimming, but go back  
Believe me little better than a wrack.  
And this believe, to thee I came with ease,  
But going from thee climb the hilly seas.  
And landing sadly, can it be believed?  
To stay in my own country I am grieved.  
ay me, that joined minds the sea should part:  
That there should be two places for one heart.  
Let Sestos or Abydos one of's quit,  
Thy country me, and thee my clime would fit.  
Why should confounded waves confound my mind?  
Why should so light things vex me as the wind?  
The crooked Dolphins now our loves can tell,  
For questionless the Fishes know me well.  
My swimming on the sea a tract hath left,  
Like that aland which by Coach wheels is cleft▪  
To have no way but this, I thought it hard:  
But now it grieves me that this way is barred.  
Thou seest the foamy billows how they chafe,  
The ship that rides at anchor scarce is safe.  
This Sea, when from the Virgin drowned, it took  
The name it bears, did sure thus troubled look:  
Too much did Helle's death these straits defame;  
To spare me, crime enough is in the name.  
I envy () Phryxus, carried by the sheep  
(Whole Fleece was gold) safe through this fatal deep▪  
From Fleece or sheep do I no help require,  
water enough is all that I desire.  
Give me but sea-room and I ask no more,  
I will myself be pilot, Ship, and oar.  
Nor () Charles wain, nor the Tyrians lesser bear  
I mark, by no known Stars our love will steer.  
() Andromeda, the () bright Crown, () she that still  
Shines in the cold Pole, follow they that will▪  
Nor she that Jove or Bacchus did affect,  
Nor she that Perseus loved, shall me direct;  
I have another light, a surer mark▪  
Guided by which, Love cannot fear the dark.  
By this I could to Colchis with more ease  
Than th' Argo sailed, swim () all the Pontic seas.  
A match with young () P●l●mon, or with () him  
The rare herb made a sea-God, I durst swim.  
If sometimes with long toil my strength so fail,  
That through the deep I scarce my arms can trail,  
When I say to them, work but now apace,  
And you anon shall my love's neck embrace:  
Grown fresh they stop not, till the Crown be won,  
Like horse that from th' () Olympic barriers run.  
The Torch thou hold'st to light me, that's my star,  
And thou, a beauty worthier heaven by far:  
Worthy of heaven, but on Earth pray thee stay,  
Unless to heaven thou canst show me the way.  
Here thou art mine, but in a moment lost,  
And when the seas are vexed, my mind is tossed;  
That th'Ocean parts us not, to me what good?  
As much I'm parted by this narrow flood▪  
'twere better (sure) for me, could I remove  
As far as Earth's wide from my hope and love.  
Now at this nearness nearer flames annoy,  
The substance seldom, hope i still enjoy:  
I almost reach my Love, I am so near▪  
Yet this, alas, in sighs hath cost me dear;  
() To hope, what's that, but to catch fruit that slips  
My hand, and water gliding through my lips!  
Now when the sea is pleased we meet, and me  
No winter in thy arms must happy see.  
Though sea and wind all constancy defy,  
Yet on the sea and wind my hopes rely.  
'Tis summer, How, when () Charles, () the Pleiades, () Kid  
And Sea shall meet, our meeting to forbid.  
Either I do not mine own rashness know,  
Or me upon the waves Love then will throw:  
But lest you think my promise keeps aloof  
And takes long day, I'll give a present proof.  
Let but the sea thus rage a few nights more,  
I'll try if sullen waves will pass me o'er.  
A happy boldness shall my venture crown,  
Or me my Love and Cares together drown▪  
Yet I do wish I may be wracked, where you  
My mangled body and torn limbs may view;  
For you will weep and touch the Corpse and cry  
The cause of poor Leander's death am J.  
But 'tis not well thus to fore-speak my end,  
And here perhaps my letter may offend;  
From this part therefore thy sad eye decline,  
And for a calm sea, join thy prayer too mine.  
Till into thy sweet harbour I have swum,  
We need a short calm, then let winter come.  
That Port did nature for my ship provide,  
'Tis there that safest I at anchor ride.  
Let Boreas stop me there, where stay is sweet,  
Then I'll swim slowly, then i'll be discreet.  
Nor on the sea, that hears not, will I rail,  
Nor the unkindness of the sky bewail.  
Me let the wind and thy soft arms delay,  
Let those be the two causes of my stay.  
Yet spite of winter I will swim the deep,  
Only do thou thy Torch still lighted keep.  
▪ mean while, thy Bed-fellow my Letter make,  
Which 'tis my wish I soon may overtake.    

Annotations upon Leander's Letter to HERO.  
ᵃ borea's] so the northwind was called, from his loud and torrent-like noise, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}▪ He is feigned by the poets, to be son to the River Strymon, and that falling in love with Orythia, Daughter to the King of Athens, Ericthonius; he made his suit for the royal assent, but meeting with an absolute denial, the violent Boreas caught up the Princess, and carried her into Thrace, where he had issue by her, two winged sons, zetes and Calais, that went the voyage to Colchis with Jason, and freed their brother-in-law King Phineus of the harpies, those woman-faced vultures, that were so noisome to his Palace. Of this story of the Athaenian Nymph (so Musaeus calls Orythia) Leander remembers Boreas even while he blows to sink him, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. And Boreas of Orythia put in mind.  
[ᵇ] Aeolus] Monarch of the winds, son to Jupiter and Sergesta [or Acesta] Daughter of the Trojan Hippotas, whence Ovid, Metam lib. 1. calls him Aeolus Hippotades, that imprisons the winds. The manner of their imprisonment Juvenal describes Sat. 5. 
— Nam cum se continet Auster  
Dum sedet, & siccat madidas in carcere penna●▪ Charybdim  
Contemnunt mediam temeraria ligna  
— For when the South-wind waits  
A prisoner, and his dewy feathers dries,  
Charybdis our bold Fishermen despise.  Pliny Hist. Nat. lib. 3. delivers Aeolus to be son unto Heleneus and that reigning in the Vulcanian or Aeolian isles he was called King of the winds, because he foretold by the flying of the smoke and Clouds what quarters the Wind would change to. Diod. Siculus says he got this knowledge by the stars. Strabo, that it came by the ebbing and flowing of the Sea. The poetic part of his story is thus moralised. Aeolus is a prudent man, that knows how to moderate his Passions and can (according to the present time and business) fain anger or dissemble it, for that is, to imprison or enlarge the winds; Nat. Comes. Mythologiae lib. 8. cap. 1.  
[ᶜ] Daedalus.] The fable of Daedalus [how, to escape out of the labyrinth he made wings for himself and his son Icarus▪ who would not take his counsel, but ambitiously flying at the sun, fell and was drowned in the Sea, named from his misfortune the Joarian Ocean] is so known a story, that I shall not trouble you with the relation, but if any have not yet read it, I refer him from Ovid here, to Ovid in his Metamorph [as I remember] lib. 8. That Daedalus was an Athenian, we have Juvenal's authority Sat. 3. 
Adsummam, non Maurus erat, nec Sarmata, nec Thrax  
Qui sumpsit pennas, medijs sednatus Athenis.  
In short, wings were not by a Thracian worn,  
Tartar, or Moor, but one at Athens borne.  This rare mechanic [Daedalus] invented the Saw, the Plane, the level, the Wimble, glue and Mortar, Saileyards and sails, which for their swiftness, and because the Wind transports them, being called Wings by the Poets, occasioned the tale of his flying in the air▪ being only his sailing on the Sea; where he alighted, that is, landed, Umbricius in the said 3. Sat. tells us, who removing from Rome to Cuma says 
I mean to go and settle in that town,  
Where Daedalus his wearied wings laid down.   
[ᵈ] Latmian hill] to the top of the hill Latmus in Caria (si Graecia vera) if you credit the Greek Poets, the moon descended to kiss Endymion (sometimes favourite to Jove) awaking him from the long sleep to which Jupiter had condemned him, out of a jealousy that Juno intended to make him her Favourite too. Apolon. lib. 4. Argonaut. tells us, Endymion was a great Mathematician, that by his judgement in Astrology found out the course of the Moon, for which he was entitled the Beloved of the moon.  
[ᵉ] Cynthia] an Attribute given to the moon from Cynthus, a mountain in the Isle of Delos, where Latona was delivered of her twins, Diana and Apollo. Virg. lib. 2. Aeneid. Qualis in Eurotae ripis, aut per juga Cynthi Excercet DIANA Choros. As on Eurota's banks, or Cynthus top DIANA dances.  
(ᶠ) The Halcyons] The birds we call the Kings-Fishers, never seen at Sea but in a calm of fourteen days, seven of which she lays in, and in the other 7. hatches her eggs. Whence peaceable times are titled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Halcyon days. And therefore Ovid in this place describing the smooth Sea favouring the first Love-voyage, elegantly mentions the singing of the Halcyons, which Aristotle confirms {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. They are (according to poetic heraldry) the Issue of that Halcyon that Hero in her Answer tells Neptune of, by whom he had a daughter of that name married to KING Ceyx, who would needs (much against his Wife's mind) make a voyage to the Oracle at Delphos, to know what judgement of the gods his house deserved that his brother had been turned into a goshawk, but meeting with a storm in the Aegean Sea, he and ship were sunk. Poor Halcyons dreams that he was drowned, and in the morning going, as she used to do, to the Port where the King took shipping, she sees a thing floating on the Sea, which coming still nearer, at last she knew it to ●e her husband's Corpse, and running upon the waves to embrace it, the Gods in pity metamorphosed her into a Kings-Fisher, immediately flying to the body, she kissed it, and Ceyx with that 〈◊〉 was likewise turned into a Halcyon. See Ovid. lib. 11. Met.  
(ᵍ) Tithon] The happiest Old man that ever I heard of, being in his gray-hairs ravished to heaven by the young goddess Aurora, 'tis fabled by the Poets that she first carried him in her Chariot into Aethiopia, where he had Memnon by Aurora. Of whom Ovid makes Sappho jealous, that she had catched up him for Cephalus, Ovid in Sappho. 
Hunc ne pro Cephalo raperes Aurora timebam,  
Et faceres: sed te prima rapina tenet.  
This Shafalus I feared Aurora thou  
Wouldst steal: th'▪ hadst done't, but Tithon watches now.  Lastly, the Poets (that can do any thing) turn Tithon into a grasshopper, Ovid. lib. 9 which some of them say came by the grief he conceived for his son Memnon's death, for whom he still cries, to the trouble of his hearers. But Horace attributes his consumption to those infinite years that his celestial Wife by her precious balm caused him to live, Longa Tithonum minuit senectus His old age shrunk up Tithon. The ground of these Fictions, was the long life of Tithon, continued by his rising with the daybreak, which Aurora signifies, who with her morning-dew, gave him perspiration and kept him long in health. Let the youth that hope to be Old, follow this precedent, and spend the early day in business: while they that are regardless of their future health, consume the Morning and themselves in sleep.  
(ʰ)▪ Virgin-Sea] the straits dividing Europe and Asia, named the Helles-pont, because the virgin-princess Helle was there drowned by a fall from the golden ram, on which she rid behind her brother Phryxus. The occasion of their journey through the Sea (for I cannot call it a voyage) was this. These two being the Children of Athamas King of Thebes by Nephele; the King after her decease marrying Jno, Nurse to Bacchus, she like a true stepmother and one that had the tongue of a Nurse, continually night and day filled the King's ears with railing at Phryxus and Helle; to avoid this torment to himself, and the danger of her spleen to his Children, the good Old man delivered to them the ram, whose Fleece was Gold; on which he assured them, they might ride safely through the Sea, and plant themselves out of the reach of their Mother in law: for which Juno sent the furies to him, that so possessed him, as that Ino coming in with her two sons Learchus and Melicertes, he imagined his Wife to be a lioness, and the boys her Whelps, and catching up Learchus, swung him (as Ovid hath it rarely, Met. lib. 4.) twice or thrice about his head, and then knocked out his brains, at which Ino took a fright, and running with little Milicertes in her arms to the Rock Leucothea, cast herself into the Sea together with the Child, both metamorphosed by the compassionate Gods; she into a seanymph named of the rock {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Leucothea, the white Nymph; the Latin calls her Matuta, the Dawning: and Melicertes into a Sea-god, called by the Greeks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Palaemon, P●tron of the Ports▪ which the Romans called Portunus. See Natal. Com. lib. 8. cap. 4.  
(ⁱ) Phryxus] who having lost his Sister Helle in the straits betwixt Sestos and Abydos, passed safely through the Propontick and Pontic sea, and alighting at Colchis sacrificed the golden ram (that bore him) to Mars, and hung up his fleece in the Temple, where it was religiously preserved, till Jason stole it; for how ever the Greeks gloried in it as a Conquest, the honest Roman, Juvenall, terms it plain theft. Sat. 1. — unde alias furtivae devehat aurum pelliculae. What thief obtained The Golden-Fleece.  
(ᵏ) charles-wain] So the English name the Constellation of the greater Arctos or bear, the Grecians call it Helice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, because it turns about the Pole. Betwixt the Pole and the great bear lies Cynosura, or the lesser bear, of both which Constellations Ovid in his Fastis writes so consonant to himself in this place, that it were a madness to suspect that book and this Epistle could be writ by several hands; but if you think me partial, be yourselves the judges. 
Esse duas Arctos, quarum Cynosura petatur▪  
Sydonijs, Helicen Graeca carina note●.  
Two bears there are, Sydonian seamen use  
Cynosure, Helice the Greek Pilot views.   
(ˡ) Andromeda] [or Andromede] Daughter to Cepheus and Cassiopea King and Queen of Aethiopia, in revenge of whose pride (for the Queen had compared herself with the beauties of the Sea) as the Princess Andromeda was walking to take the air by the seaside, the Nymphs catched her, and chaining her to a rock, left her to be devoured by the Sea-monsters, but she was destined to better fortune, Propertius, lib. 1. 
And romede monstris fuer at devorata marinis,  
Hac eadem Persi nobilis uxor erat.  
For Whales to eat, Andromeda was tied,  
But freed by Perseus, proved his noble bride▪  But to be rescued by, and married to Perseus was only the fortune she lived to, for she died to a far nobler fate, being by Minerva's special favour, received into the number of the stars, where she now shines in the North-part of Pisces.  
(ᵐ) The bright Crown] Virg. lib. 1. Georg. calls it the Gnossian crown, of Gnossos' the City where Ariadne's Father Minos kept his Court, this crown (no● a Constellation, jewelled with seven sparkling stars) was a present made to Ariadne by her servant Bacchus, who fell enamoured of her in the Isle of Naxos, where she was left to her fortune, by the ingrateful Theseus, delivered by the guidance of her clew out of her Father's Labyrinth, where he was to be devoured by the Minotaur, half man, half bull, the monstrous issue of her mother Queen Pasiphae, which she had conceived in a Cow of Wood, made her by the rare workman Daedalus, to satisfy her longings for a Bull. A prodigious story, made out of the Clinch or equivocal signification of a word, as you shall hear in the History itself, whereof we have the truth in Plutarch's Theseus; Where he tells us, that Androgeus the son of Minos being reported to be murdered in Attica, Minos in revenge, made war upon the the signiory of Athens by the sword, and the Gods by Famine and Pestilence; the very Rivers being dried up. But when the Oracle had instructed them, that the way ●o be reconciled to the Gods was first to give satisfaction to Minos, they made their peace with him for a yearly Tribute of seven young boys, and as many girls, to continue for nine years. Thus far (he says) all Authors agree. But that Philochoros says the Cretans absolutely deny the monstrous Fable. The Labyrinth they affirm to be the Prison the Children were kept in, which had no other Ill in it, but that it locked them up safe; and that Minos, (ordaining Warlike exercises in memory of Androgeus,) gave the Athaenian prisoners to him that had the Victory, which fell successively the two first years to a Commander greatly favoured by the King, one Tauros, whose name signifying a Bull, and his harsh nature agreeing with his name (for he used the children proudly and cruelly) gave hint for the horrid tale of the Minotaur; a word compounded out of Minos and Tauros, and set forth by Euripides, to be a monstrous birth of the mixed nature of a man and Bull; but 'tis Aristotle's opinion, that the boys were not slain, but lived to be old slaves among the Cretans. Thus a great Prince and one of the justest and Noblest Legislators was reported to be made Cuckold by a Bull, and likewise said to be a judge in Hell, merely for incurring the displeasure of the University of Athens. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and indeed (Says Plutarch) 'tis a sad misfortune, to incur the enmity of a town, that hath the command of language and the Muses.  
(ⁿ) She] Calisto Daughter to Lycaon King of Arcadia, one of the maids of honour to Diana, deceived by Jupiter coming to her in the form of her chaste Mistress, like those Philosophers Juvenal mentions, Sat. 2. that disguised lust. in the figure of Modesty; but poor Calisto might cry out as the satirist does there, Frontis nulla fides— No trust to Faces.— For Diana▪ faced Jove over▪ mastered her (See Ovid. lib. ●.) and had Arcas by her, who gave his name to that much famed Country of Arcadia. But though the Princess Calisto suffered a kind of banishment, wandering in the woods, yet was not Juno so appeased, but changed her beauty into the ugly shape of a bear: but good-natured Jupiter took up that bear with him to heaven, and fixed it there a Constellation in the cold Pole, as Ovid tells us, only her paws are a little without the Arctic Circle, Propertius, l. 2. 
Calisto, Arcadicos erraverat Vrsa per agros  
Haec nocturna suo fidere vela regit.  
Calisto, once th' Arcadian wandering bear,  
Now guides night-saylers, in her heavenly sphere,   
(ᵒ) All the Pontic seas] that is, the Hellespontick, Propontick, and Pontic: through all which Jasons' ship (the Argo) sailed to Colchis, he being taught by King Phineus how to pass the Thracian Bosphorus, the Straits that open into the Pontic or Euxine sea, in which passage Ulysses told the Phaeacks that the Cyan rocks meet. This Argo was built of prophetic wood that grew in Dodona's vocal forest, by Argos a rare workman, who the Poets say, received instructions for the model of her, from the goddess Minerva. Horace, 
— ad charum Tritonia devolat Argum,  
Molire hunc puppem jubet & demittere ferro.  
— to her friend Argos Pallas flies,  
Bids him hew timber and a Ship devise.   
(ᵖ) Palaemon] (see letteth▪) Some say Theseus instituted the Isthmian games in honour of Palaemon; but I think they are as much out in their conjectures, as he that takes the Eve for the Feast-day, for the Isthmian games were consecrated to Neptune by Theseus, and were the solemnity of the day: those little sports he ordained in the memory of Palaemon, being done in the night, and only ushering in the other, see Plutarch.  
(q) Him] Glaucus, a fisherman, who drawing his nets, and tumbling down his fish upon the shore, wondered to see some of them bound back into the sea, as if they had got wings: and marking the rest more narrowly, found the cause thereof to be in the rare quality of an herb whereon they nibbled; this put him into a longing to taste it too, which he had no sooner done, but away he bounced after them into the sea, and was made the sea-God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or the colour Green drawing upon White.  
(ʳ) Olympic barriers] Hercules was the Founder of the Olympic games dedicated to Jupiter, in imitation whereof, Theseus brought in the abovenamed Isthmian exercises, celebrated in honour of Neptune, he that won the Olympic Chariotrace or foot-race, was Crowned with Olive, the Conqueror in the Isthiman games with Pine.  
(ˢ) To hope] Ovid points you to the fable of Tantalus, the perfect Hyrogliphick of bare Hope; for the Poets say, he stands in the water with fruit bobbing at his lips, the water complementing with his thirst, ready to enter his mouth, and yet is never the nearer to his meat or drink.  
(ᵗ) Charles] Arcas, son to Calisto by Jupiter, by other names Boötes and Arctophylax, the Constellation of the Carrman, whom we see pictured in the celestial Globe following of the wain, terga sequentis habet. Ovid.  
(ᵘ) The Pleiades] The seven Stars that keep the Bull from kissing the Ramme's tail: their Winter-rise being much about the time that Boots and the goat rises, when the Sun is in or about Libra, and therefore at their appearance storms may be expected by the seafaring men. But in the Spring the Pleiades rising, signify a fair time for sailing, whence they derive their name {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. They were daughters to the supporter of the heavens, Atlas, by the Nymph Pleione, their names and fortunes my Author takes notice of, l. 4. Fast. 
Pleiades incipient humeros relevare paternos,  
Quae septem dici, sex tamen esse solent.  
Seu quod in amplexus sex hinc venêre Deorum  
Nam Steropen Marti conoubuisse ferunt.  
Neptuno Halcyonem & to formosa Celaeno,  
Maian & Electram Taygetamque Io●i.  
Septima mortali Merope tibi Sysiphe nupsit,  
Paenitet & facti sola pudore latet:  
Sive quod Electrae Trojae spectare ruinas  
Non tulit, ante oculos opposuitque manum.  
Their Father's load the Pleiades help to bear,  
Accounted seven, although but six appear▪  
Perhaps because but six by Gods were kissed,  
For, they say, Sterope could not Mars resist.  
Halcyone and Celaeno Neptune moved,  
Jove, Maja, Electra and Taygeta loved.  
Merope the seventh to Sisyphus was wed,  
A Man, and therefore blushing hides her head.  
Perhaps Electra her grieved eyes retired,  
And serened them with her hand when Troy was fired.   
(ʷ) Kid] The goat, with whose Milk Amalthaea suckled Jupiter, for which service he advanced it into the fellowship of the Stars.   

HERO TO LEANDER.  

The Argument.  
What sorrow springs from croest delights,  
To slow Leander Hero writes,  
And chides his fear, but prays he will  
Of such a storm be fearful still;  
So him a storm, no Mistress stays,  
A doubt, that Absence strives to raise;  
But she knows▪ Neptune stops her Love▪  
For which she does the God reprove:  
And the adventurous Youth conjures,  
Until his hope a calm secures,  
That he will not himself engage;  
Because her fears his fate presage.   

THe health Leander, thou hast sent me home  
In words, if thou wilt make it real, come.  
All stop of joys to me will mortal prove,  
Excuse this Truth, a passion sways my Love.  
Our flames are equal, but our strengths not so,  
Sure Men their crosses better undergo.  
As our sex tender, so our minds are weak,  
Stay a while longer and my heart will break.  
You hunt, you fruitful husbandry intend,  
And tedious time with varied pleasure spend▪  
Buis'ness detains you; for the crowned course  
You 'noint, you manage the rough bounding horse;  
You birds to nets, fish to the hook betray:  
Get Wine, and drink a serious hour away.  
These suit not me, or could my flame remove,  
'Las what remains for me to do, but love▪  
What there remains, my only joy, I do,  
I love, and more than you imagine too.  
My Nurse and I still talk of thee, I say  
Sure 'tis some strange occasion makes him stay.  
Or looking on the sea, that wildly raves,  
I act thy part, and chide the frantic waves;  
Or if their rage a little they restrain,  
That you may come, but will not, I complain;  
While in my wounded eyes the tears do stand,  
Which our old friend wipes with her trembling hand.  
I search the shore too, if thy steps be in't,  
As if the frail sand could retain a print.  
That I may write, or hear, I send to know  
If any of ABYDOS come or go.  
'Twere long to tell, how i with kisses wear  
The robe, that, swimming back thou leavest me here.  
Thus having spent the day, when friendly night  
Hath broke the Sun into a spangled light,  
Forthwith upon the Turret we display  
The waking Torch, that still directs thy way:  
And spinning our round-turning flax the while,  
We lazy time with female art beguile.  
Thou ask'st of what our long discourse we frame,  
My lips breathe nothing but Leander's name.  
Nurse thou believest my Love is now come out,  
Is not the house still waking? that's his doubt.  
Dost thou not think he's going now to swim?  
And that he hath () anointed every limb.  
She nods, not that she thinks we'll meet again,  
But sleep crawls up and jogs her aged brain.  
After a long pause, now he comes I cry;  
And now his slow arms put the water by;  
And ere my spindle thrice the floor can kiss,  
I ask, is he not half way o'er by this?  
Then we look out, and trembling make our prayer,  
Thou Mayst pass safely with a gentle air.  
Our ears then catch at sounds, and if we hoar  
The least noise, we suppose Leander there.  
When we have almost thus deceived the night,  
A slumber steals away my wearied sight.  
I then sleep with thee, howe'er unkind,  
And thou com'st to me, though against thy mind.  
For now methinks I see thee swimming near,  
Now thy wet arms upon my shoulders bear.  
Now, as I used to do, on thee I cast  
My Mantle, now my breast to thine clasp fast;  
With much besides, my tongue must not unfold,  
That's handsome done, that is not handsome told.  
ay me! as false as short these pleasures prove,  
For when I wake, thou ever dost remove.  
Oh may our longings once more firmly meet,  
And find the joys of Love as true as sweet!  
So many widowed nights acold why lay  
Thy wife? Slow swimmer, why so oft away?  
The sea indeed may now a swimmer fright,  
But yet a pleasant gale breathed yester;  
Why was so fair a season lost? or how  
Slipped this uncaught? why didst not fear till now?  
Thou Mayst perhaps be with like fortune blessed.  
But this was first, and doubtless therefore best;  
But soon the sea will have an altered face.  
Yet thou hast swum it in a lesser space.  
Caught with a storm, thou couldst not tremble here,  
Nor I, embracing thee, could winter fear.  
I then should love to hear a tempest roar,  
And wish the sea might ne'er be quiet more.  
Vain as the sea, whence do these changes rise?  
Dost thou now fear, what thou didst once despise?  
Thou swamest it, I remember, when as great,  
Or not a much less storm did ruin threat,  
While I cried to thee, O rash Youth return,  
lest I, alas, thy too much courage mourn.  
Whence springs this fear? that courage whether fled?  
where's the great swimmer that no gulf could dread?  
Yet rather be as y'are, then as you were,  
And come securely when the sky is clear.  
So you continue as (you write) your Love,  
And that great flame does not cold ashes prove.  
For I fear not so much the winds delay,  
As that, like to the wind, thy Love should stray.  
And I a trifle of no price be thought,  
A poor reward with too much danger bought.  
Sometimes I fear, one at Abydos born  
To own a Sestian wife perhaps may scorn.  
Yet any thing I rather would endure,  
Then that a Mistress should thy stay procure;  
And thou shouldst dally out this time, embraced  
In other arms, old love by new defaced.  
Oh let me perish, ere so wounded be,  
And may my death prevent that crime in thee:  
I speak not this, as knowing thee to blame,  
Or as made jealous by the breath of fame;  
But I fear all things, for who loves secure?  
The place makes absent Lovers never sure.  
She's blessed, that by her presence, so finds out  
True crimes, that she the false ones needs not doubt.  
toys, as much vex us, as feared wrong deceives,  
Like stings in th'absence either error leaves.  
Would thou wouldst come, or by the winds wert stayed,  
Or Parents, not by a new Love delayed;  
Which should I know, the grief my life would date;  
Believe it, and thy sin would be my fate.  
But sin thou wilt not, I in vain suspect,  
Thy coming only is by winter checked.  
Woes me! what billows weep upon the shore,  
And with what blacks the sky is covered o'er!  
Sure Helle's () Mother to our sea is come,  
And pours these pious tears on her child's tomb;  
Or because named from Helle it hath been,  
Her () Stepmother turned sea-nymph, shows her spleen  
Poor women ever by this sea were crossed,  
Here Helle perished, and here I am lost.  
But Neptune were thy own flames called to mind▪  
We should methinks not suffer by the wind.  
() Amimone, () Tyro for beauty famed,  
Are of thy faults no fables idly framed.  
() Alymon's child, () Halcyone the fair,  
() Circe; Medusa, ere Snakes curled her hair.  
() Laodice with sunbeams on her head,  
() Celaeno, now a star; names i have read:  
These and more Beauties, Poets do report  
Thy watery Deity found time to court.  
Thou that hast doted on so many a form,  
Canst thou divide poor Lovers with a storm?  
Forbear, o cruel! vex a main more wide,  
These narrow seas two () parts o'th' earth divide▪  
Thou that art Great, shouldst make great vessels shrink  
under a tempest, or whole Navies sink.  
Fie, the sea's Deity a young swimmer fright,  
No pool would glory in so poor a spite.  
he's noble, great his Ancestors have been,  
Yet to () Sea-crost Ulysses he's no kin.  
Oh spare us both, he swims, but thou Mayst save  
Two Lovers, at the mercy of one wave.  
Just at these words the Torch (by which I write)  
Sparkles, and with good omens glad's our sight.  
Nurse on the flame casts wine, and vows she thinks  
Strangers will come to morrow, and then drinks.  
Be thou the stranger, pass the conquered Maine,  
Thou that dost in my conquered bosom reign.  
Come fugitive, that hast from thy colours fled:  
Why do I lie i'th' middle of the bed?  
What art afraid of? thy attempt will please  
() The Sea-born Venus, who will calm the seas.  
Oft would I come to thee, but that I find  
This sea was ever to your sex more kind;  
Phryxus and Helle both for Colchis bound,  
Poor maid, she only in this sea was drowned.  
Perhpas thou fear'st our Ports may shipping lack,  
And 'twill be too much trouble to swim back.  
Or I will swim, and meet thee half the way,  
And kiss thee on the surface of the sea:  
Thence back unto our countries will we go,  
Poor comfort, better this than nothing though.  
Or would the Modesty that hides our flame,  
And timorous Love could but dispense with Fame.  
Now ill-joined fear and Love distract my breast,  
Which shall I choose? that suits, this pleases best.  
When () Jason landed on the Colchian shore,  
Forthwith a shipbord he Medea bore.  
No time at Lacedaemon () Paris spent,  
But with his prize forthwith to sea he went.  
As oft as thou arrivest, thou leavest thy Love:  
And swimest away, when ships dare hardly move.  
But so (thou tamer of a storm) so do,  
That scorning of the sea, thou fear it too.  
Ships built by art, are wracked upon our shores,  
Think'st thou thy arms are stronger than their oars?  
What thou dost wish, to swim, that seamen fear,  
That makes so many ships float, broken here.  
Alas, I would dissuade what I advise,  
My counsel let thy stronger soul despise.  
However come, and thy tired arms, oppressed  
With churlish billows, on my shoulders rest.  
But still when i he hold the azure flood,  
Some horrid instinct freezes up my blood.  
Nor less ill-fortune bodes my dream last night,  
Though I to () purge it missed no holy rite.  
For when, near daybreak, the Torch sleepy grew,  
About the very hour that dreams prove true;  
My distaff from my hand (with sleep now dead)  
Fell down, and on my pillow dropped my head.  
And in my sleep a Dolphin I did see  
Tossed on the waves, still making towards me:  
But on the sand when the poor thing was cast,  
Water and life from it together past.  
Be what it will, I fear; nor slight my dream,  
Nor venture thou, but on a friendly stream.  
Fear, if not for thyself, yet for thy Wife,  
That lives but in the safety of thy life.  
But broken billows hope of peace present,  
Cut thou the smooth waves when the storm is spent.  
Mean time, till thou to swim hast open seas,  
Thy hateful stay let these my lines appease.    

Annotations upon HERO'S Letter TO LEANDER.  
(1 anointed] Leander (it appears) was twice anointed. First, at his going into the water, with plain oil of Olive. 
Jamne fuas humeris illum deponere vestes?  
Tingere jam pingui Pallade membra putes?  
Dost thou not think he▪ s going now to swim▪  
And that he hath anointed every 〈◊〉?  The second time, the fair Hero at his arrival, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} anointed his body, but how? {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}- with fragrant oil of Roses- {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}- that extinguished the fulsome smell, so Musaeus; thus I. 
And anointed him with Roses, that consumed  
The offensive smell, and left him all perfumed.   
(2) Helle's Mother] Nephele wife to King Athamas, (see letter .) who being turned into a Sea-Nymph, is very happily fancied by Ovid to visit her daughter's watery sepulchre; and weeping is no less proper to her, the Greek word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifying a weeping Cloud. Nor do I doubt, but the Poet would have mentioned a visit from her father, whom he Metamorphosed into a River, but that he thinks it not agreeable to Hero's modesty to talk of men, nor with the maxims of her sex, to believe that a Man can love so constantly and passionately as a Woman.  
(3) Her Stepmother] Ino, of whom in the letter ()  
(5) Amimone] Danaus' daughter, a Huntress; and while she used exercise and action (Diana's great Antidote against the Philters of Venus) so severe a punisher of every lascivious thing, that she cast her dart at a sleeping satire, and let out some of his wanton blood; but the Modesty hardened by the Woods, was softened by the Waters, for Neptune prevailed with her, who rescued her from the awaked satire, and enjoyed her himself.  
(6) Tyro] daughter to that proud King of Elis, Salmoneus, who being ambitious to counterfeit Jove's thunder and lightning, made a bridge of brass, which raised upon stupendious arches, covered the greatest part of the City of Elis, over whose heads he thundered in his furious Chariots, and lightened more dangerously than the sky, for that only blasts some, but this fire inevitably destroyed all it fell upon, they being instantly dispatched of their lives, by the miinsters of his fury. But Lucian might have forborn to jeer Jove with Salmoneus, if he had considered a truer History than his own, that assures us, this mock-lightning was revenged with a true-thunderbolt, that struck that proud and cruel Salmoneus: to avoid whose fireworks, perhaps the fair Tyro ('tis Propertius calls her so) fell among the Water-works of Neptune, who had two boys by her, Neleus and Pelias. Propertius l. 7.  
(7) Abymon's child] Iphidemia; who brags in Homer, that she had issue by Neptune.  
(8) Halcyone] one of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and mother to Halcyone the wife of Ceyx▪ (see letter .)  
(9) Circe] daughter to the Sun, and the Nymph Perseis▪ mentioned by Hesiod in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. This Circe was married to the King of Sarmatia, whom she poisoned, and usurped the crown, but governed so tyrannically▪ that the people rose up in arms and expelled her: thence she fled into Italy, and seated herself in the Circean hills▪ (so named from her plantation) a place abounding with excellent Wine and Oysters▪ (Says Juvenal) and affording many herbs which (with help of her Wine) transformed Ulysses his followers into Hogs. Iuv. S. 15. 
Et cum remigibus grunnisse Elpenora porcis▪  
Elpenor grunted with his Mates turned Swine.  In these hills (Than the bounds of Latium) Circe fell in love with the Sea-God Glaucus (Mentioned letter .) and poisoned the fountain where his Mistress Scylla used to drink, transforming her into a Sea-monster.  
(10) Medusa] Begot upon a Whale by Phoroys' King of Corsica and Sardinia, with whose hair (not to be distinguished from the purest threads of Gold) Neptune was so taken, that he could not forbear to make love to her in the Temple of Minerva, which put the Godelesse into such a rage, that she turned those bewitching hairs into horrid snakes, induing them with a quality to transform all their beholders into Stone. And therefore Perseus when he undertook the killing of this Monster, borrowed Minerva's steeleshield, wherein he might see her, without looking upon her, that is by reflection: and coming to the other 2. Gorgon's her sisters threatened her that had the eye (for they had but one betwixt them) that he would kill her, unless she showed him Medusa sleeping, which she did, and he dispatched at a blow, cutting off Medusa's ugly head, which ever after Minerva bore in her Shield. pugnanti Gorgone Maura. Iuv. Sat. 12.  
(11) Laodice] Mother to Cignus, and daughter to Priam.  
(12) Celaeno] Halcyone's Sister and another of Neptune's Mistresses, See Letter ()  
(13) Two parts o'th' world, viz. Europe and Asia▪ severed by the Helles-pont: See the discourse of Sestos and Abydos.  
(14) sea-crossed Ulysses] King of the Isles of Ithaca and Dulichium, a great politician, but no fighter, for when the Greek Princes made their Association against the Trojans, he being desirous to live at home with his young Wife in Peace, gathers together a multitude of several Animals and str●●●es fault before them, the report whereof being spread abroad made the Grecians believe him to be mad, and therefore useless for the Wars. But Palamed who was excellent at invention, for 'tis said he found out Cards and Dice, weights, measures, diverse Greek Letters, Voting in Courts of judicature, &c. among the rest, found out the Knavery of Ulysses, by laying his young son Telemachus before him as he was holding the Plough, who stopping on a sudden for fear of hurting the Child, discovered himself to have the use of reason, and then there was no remedy but he must to the siege of Troy. Where even his affectionate Penelope was afraid his Policy might want success, especially when she heard of the miscarriage of any plot. Ovid in Penelope's Letter. 
Sive Menaetiadem falsis cecidisse sub armis:  
Flebam successu posse carere dolos,  
Or told, that in false arms Patroclus fell,  
I wept to think, deceit might not speed well.  It had been happy for poor Palamedes, if Penelope had proved a prophetess; for the design Ulysses had upon him took so well, that it cost Palamed his life; It was Priam's hand counterfeited to a letter sent to Palamed wherein he thanks him for Intelligence, and mentions a great sum of Gold sent him for intelligence-money. This being read in a council of war, Ulysses rises and delivers his opinion, that no credit is to be given to an Enemy's Letter, only the matter of fact should be insisted on, and his Tent searched, which being done accordingly, the Gold (sent by Ulysses and hid by one of the Palamed's corrupted servants) was found, and guiltless Palamedes stoned to death. See the Metamorph, lib. 13. For these his villainies done aland, Ulysses suffered and was crossed at Sea, where Neptune so persecuted him, that although he was ready sometimes to land in Ithaca, yet he was blown back, and tossed about the world. Read Homer's Odysses where he discovers his adventures, but at last he came off by the favour of the Goddess of Wisdom. I. Sabinus. in Vlyssis Epist. 
Iam mihi nescio quo comitem se litore jungit  
Pallas, & hospitibus per loca tuta trahit,  
On strange coasts shipwrackt, Pallas now descends,  
Finds me safe Lares, and hospitable friends.  Lastly by this Deity's guidance, he got home in the habit of a beggar; where he found his son with his workmen in the fields, and laying the plot to come unexpected upon his Wive's uncivil suitors, he was carried to his Palace by a hoggheard that knew him not, and arms being secretly hid for that purpose, he, his son, and his hinds took them up, and killed all those lewd intruders, to a man. But learning of the Oracle that his son should kill him, he kept out of the way, to avoid his legitimate son Telemachus, and was unwittingly slain by his bastard son Telegonus, one he had by Circe, that came with an intention to wait upon him. Which teaches us the truth of what the Historian Tacitus says, quae fato manent, quamvis significata, non vitantur. What remains in Fate, though foretold, is not to be avoided. And therefore I shall advise the curiosity of men, with the same Author, De moribus Germanorum. Sanctius ac reverentius visum, de actis Deorum credere quam scire. It shows more holy and more reverent, rather to believe then know the actions of the heavenly Powers. In Ulysses, Homer gives the perfect Character of a worldly wiseman, see Natalis Comes. l. 9 c. 1.  
(15) Sea-born] {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. He Sea-born Venus oft implored.  
(16) Jason] Son to Aeson King of Thessaly, and by him, on his deathbed, bequeathed to the tuition of his▪ brother Pelias, to whom he left his Crown, with condition to restore it to Jason, when he came to age fit for government; but the Queen-Dowager Alcimedes, fearing Pelias would make away his Nephew, conveyed her young son to the Centaur Chiron, that rare musician, Martialist, and physician; tutor to Aesculapius, Hercules, and Achilles. Iuv. Sat. 7. 
Metuens virgae jam grandis Achilles,  
Cantabat patris in montibus, &c.  
When's rod his Centaur Singing-master shaked,  
Achilles, in his father's mountain quaked,  
Though a great boy: yet who, even then, could fail  
But laugh, to see a Master with a tail.  Jason now grown learned and accomplished under the hand of Chiron, no sooner was out of his nonage▪ but he came to court, accompanied with the young Gentry of Greece, and made his claim to the Crown. But subtle Pelias, finding that his speculative Learning had inflamed him with a vast desire of glory, complied with his ambitious thoughts so long, till at last he put him upon the famous expedition for Colchis, to restore to the Greeks the Golden-fleece, which Phryxus (see .) had carried from Thebes and consecrated to Mars in Colchis. Who presently, with the good liking of the Grecians, began his voyage in the Argo. (see .) And by the instructions of King Phineas passing safe between the meeting Gyan Rocks that guard the mouth of the Thracian Bosphoros, he arrived at Colchis, where the Princess Medea, enamoured of the gallantry and undaunted courage of Jason, taught him how to quell the Bulls, whose hooves were brass, and to bring into a sleep the everwaking Dragon. Following her advice he carried away the Golden-Fleece and his fair counsellor; another Prize in Hero's account, but Seneca the tragedian reckons it otherwise. 
— Quod fuit huius  
Praetium cursus: Aurea Pellis.  
Majusque Mari Medea Malum,  
Merces prima digna Carina.  
What got the Greeks with such ado?  
The Golden-Fleece, Medea too,  
A curse that did the Sea outstrip,  
A Lading worthy the first Ship.   
(17) Paris] The effeminate son to that stout old Prince, Priam's King of Troy, who had been happy says Juvenal S. 10. 
Si foret extinctus diverso tempore, quo jam  
Caep●rat audaces Paris aedificare carinas.  
Longa dies igitur quid contulit? omnia vidit  
Eversa, & slammis Asiam ferroque cadentem.  
Tunc Miles tremulus positâ tulit arma tiarâ.  
Et ruit ante aram summi Iovis, ut vetulus bos  
Qui domini cultris tenu● et miserable collum  
Praebet, ab in grato jam fastiditus aratro.  
If he had dy'd before his son's foul guilt,  
Ere wanton Paris his bold ships had built,  
What did long life confer? a sight o'th' fall  
Of Asia, fire and sword devouring all.  
Then for his Crown th'old trembling soldier took  
A Helmet; and at great Jove's altar struck,  
Fell like an ox, in his old age despised,  
And by th'ingrateful ploughman sacrificed.  But he had a nobler fate than his aged Queen Hecuba, as it follows in the satirist▪ 
Exitus ille uncunquehominis, sed torua canino  
Latravit rictu, quae post hunc vixerat uxor.  
Yet Priam died a man, his wrinkled Wife  
Survived a Bitch, and barked away her life.  The cause of this fiction was, for that Hecuba following the greeks to the seaside and bitterly lamenting, if not cursing them, for being the ruin of her house, they cried out she barked, and tearing her to pieces, said she was turned into a Bitch. Ulysses in Sabinus tells the passage, where he says the first ill omen of his crosses at Sea, was her strange fate, he means her curses. 
Prima meis Omen metuendum puppibus illa  
Fecit, non membris ipsa reperta suis.  
Latratu miseras finivit maesta querelas,  
Et stetit in rabidam protinus acta canem,  
The first feared Omen to my ship she gave,  
No piece found of her to fill up a grave.  
The poor wretch barking her last woes we heard  
Straight metamorphosed, a mad bitch appeared  But all this which the greeks called barking, was only the violence of dying passion, and the bowels of a mother to her Children, expressed not alone at her own and their funerals, but likewise at the birth of Paris; for she preserved him in his swathing clouts, when Priam had commanded his servant Archelaus to make away the child, upon a declaration of the soothsayers: that Hecuba's dream of her being delivered of a firebrand, signified, the child she went with, [Paris] should be the cause of firing Troy. But notwithstanding the King's severe command, the compassionate Queen Hecuba (for that very act deserving a nobler Metamorphosis) made the infant be put forth to nurse among the shepherds of the mountain Ida, where he fell enamoured of the Nymph Oenone. Of which his love and pastoral life the forsaken Nymph remembers him when he had stolen away Helen; Ovid in Oenone, verse 3. 
Perlegis? an conjux prohibet nova, perlege, non est  
Ista Mycenaea litera scripta manu.  
Quis deus opposuit nostris sua numina votis,  
Ne tua permaneam, quod mihi crimen obest?  
Leniter, ex merito quic quid patiare, ferendum est:  
Quae venit indignè paena dolenda venit.  
Nondum tantus eras, cum to cont●nt● marito,  
Edita de magno Flumine, nympha fui.  
Qui nunc Priamedes (absit reverentia vero)  
Servus eras: servo nubere nympha tuli.  
At oum pauper eras, armentaque pastor agebas,  
Nulla, nisi Oenone, pauperis uxor erat.  
Nec me, fagineâ quod tecum frond jacebam,  
Despice, purpureo sum magis apta thoro.  
Denique tutus amor meus est: tibi nulla parantur  
Bella, nec ultrices advehit unda rates.  
Tyndaris infestis fugitiva reposcitur armis,  
Hac venit in thalamos dote superba tuos.  
Readest thou? or does thy new wife countermand?  
But read, this is not Agamemnon's hand,  And a little further. 
What God opposes to our Wills his Force  
Or what's my Crime, that causes this Divorce?  
What merit suffers, patience must sustain.  
What undeserved comes, that's a grievous pain.  
Thou wert not great, when I, that boast descent  
From a great river, was with thee content.  
Thou now a Prince wert (Truth may be spoke free)  
A servant, I a Nymph then married thee.  
When thou wert poor, and ledest a shepherd's life,  
None but Oenone was the poor man's wife.  
Nor scorn me that with thee I used to sit  
On Beech-tree-leafes, for purple beds more fit.  
Lastly my love is safe, on it attends  
No war, no threatning Fleet to sea it sends.  
Helen the fugitive by arms is sought,  
This Portion to thy bed that proud one brought.  Thus you hear how Paris spent his time in Ida, whether upon the fame of his justice, (his only virtue and soon after put off with his shepherd's weeds) came the three Goddesses, Juno, Pallas, and Venus, to have his judgement in their claims to the Golden apple (by discord shuffled in among the fruit that was served up at Peleus his wedding) with this inscription upon it, Let this be given to the fairest: they appeared to him like Vandike's Mistress when he drew her Picture, and all made large promises, but Venus' offer liked him best, for she promised Helen to him, as he writes to Hellen. OVID in Paride. 
Praeposui regnis ego te, quae maxima qondam  
Pollicita est nobis nupta sororqueIovis,  
Dumque tuo possem circumdare brachia collo,  
Contempta est virtus Pallade dante mihi.  
Although the sister and great wife to Jove  
Promised me kingdoms, I preferred thy love  
And so my arms might thy▪ fair neck surround,  
I scorned the wisdom Fallas did propound▪  Thus the young Inamorato, Paris, contemning the offers of Juno & Pallas, sovereignty and Wisdom, only that he might enjoy Venus' promise, pleasure, had his wish as Agrypina in Tacitus had hers, oecidat dum imperet, let him kill me, so he be an Emperor, for as Nero to his Mother, so was Helen to her Servant, his desired ruin. Her husband Menelaus with the confederate▪ Grecians pursuing of the ravisher, and beseiging him in Troy, to which at last the Flame that Paris fancied to be Love, proved to be the fire his sister Cassandra prophesied, and his Mother dreamed of, that consumed Troy to ashes.  
(18) To purge it] It was the custom of the Ancient Greeks, after any accident portending misfortune, to purge themselves and the place by torchlight, with a lustration made of meal, thereon casting hallowed water, which they call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; and in this water they quenched a brand taken from the altar, wherewith the sprinkled the assembly. The ROMAN▪ added Sulphur and laurel. Juvena▪ Sat. 2. 
— Cuperent lustrari, siqua darentur  
Sulphura cum taedis, & si foret humida laurus.  
Would purify themselves, if they could get  
Sulphur, and Torches, and a laurel wet.    

ERRATA.  
IN Hero and Leander, r. [a gentle flame] various courtship] [banished thence] billows rolled] In the first Annotations [{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] indubitatum] risible faculty] {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, In Leander to Hero [darkened by thy blaze] In the last Annotations [utcunque.]   
FINIS.