Hero and Leander
1598
Christopher Marlowe's luminous fragment tells the story of two young lovers separated by the most unforgiving stretch of water in the ancient world: the Hellespont. Hero, a priestess of Venus, guards her chastity in a tower on the shore of Sestos. Leander, a beautiful youth from the opposite bank in Abydos, sees her at a festival and is undone. What follows is one of literature's most searing explorations of desire meeting obstacle: they exchange glances, then words, then themselves, meeting in secret as Leander swims the treacherous strait each night to reach her. Marlowe's verse burns with physical longing and lyrical precision, building toward a climax of almost unbearable tenderness before the storm that drowns the young man and drives Hero to her own fatal embrace of the sea. George Chapman completed the poem after Marlowe's mysterious death, but the masterpiece lives in Marlowe's fraction. Who ever loved that loved not at first sight? Five centuries later, we still have no answer.
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“It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is overruled by fate.””
— Christopher Marlowe
“Love deeply grounded, hardly is dissembled.””
— Christopher Marlowe
“As in plain terms (yet cunningly) he crav'd it; / Love always makes those eloquent that have it (II.71-2).””
— Christopher Marlowe
“His body was as straight as Circe's wand; Jove might have spit out nectar from his hand. Even as delicious meat is to taste, So was his neck in touching, and surpast The white of Pelop's shoulder: I could tell ye, How smooth his breast was, and how white his belly, And whose immortal fingers did imprint That heavenly path with many a curious dint, That runs along his back; but my rude pen Can hardly blazen forth the loves of men, Much less of powerful Gods: let it suffice That my slack muse sings of Leander's eyes, Those Orient cheeks and lips, exceeding his That lept into the water for a kiss Of his own shadow, and despising many, Died ere he could enjoy the love of any.””
— Christopher Marlowe
“Things senseless live by art, and rational dieBy rude contempt of art and industry.””
— Christopher Marlowe
“Love is not full of pity (as men say)/ But deaf and cruel where he means to prey. (Hero and Leander, 771–72)””
— Christopher Marlowe
“A diamond set in lead his worth retains.””
— Christopher Marlowe
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Marlowe, Christopher. Hero and Leander. Lex, lex-books.com/book/hero-and-leander-34b276e0-d331-4889-a768-cc2db95cb8fa.Marlowe, C. (1598). Hero and Leander. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/hero-and-leander-34b276e0-d331-4889-a768-cc2db95cb8faMarlowe, Christopher. Hero and Leander. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/hero-and-leander-34b276e0-d331-4889-a768-cc2db95cb8fa.
