An Excellent Sonnet of the Unfortunate Loves of Hero & Leander.
To the Tune of, Gerard's Mistress.
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Hero.
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HOw fares
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My fair Leander? O vouchsafe to speak
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least my heart break,
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I banisht am from thy sweet company;
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"Tis not
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Thy Fathers anger can abase my love,
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I still will prove
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Thy faithful friend until such time I dye:
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Though fate
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And fortune do conspire,
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to interrupt our love,
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In spight of fate and fortunes hate,
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I still will constant prove:
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And though
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Our angry friends in malice,
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now our bodies parts
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Nor friends nor foes, nor scars nor blows,
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shall separate our hearts.
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Leander.
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What voice
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Is this that calls Leander from her Bower
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from yonder Tower,
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The Eccho of this voice doth sure proceed.
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Hero.
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Leander,
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'Tis thy Hero fain would come to thee,
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if it might be;
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Thy absence makes my tender heart to bleed,
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But oh!
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This pleasant River Hellisponet,
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which is the peoples wonder,
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Those waves so high do injury,
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by parting us asunder:
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And though
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There's Ferry-men good store,
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yet none will stand my friend,
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To waft me o're to that fair shore,
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where all my grief shall end.
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Leander.
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Hero,
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Though I am thy constant Lover still,
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and ever will,
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My angry Father is thy enemy:
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He still
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Doth strive to keep's asunder, now and then,
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poor Ferry-men,
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They dare not waft thee over lest they dye:
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Nor yet
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Dare they convey me
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unto my dear Hero now
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My Fathers rage will not asswage,
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nor will the same allow:
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Be patient
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Then dear Hero now,
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es I am true to thee,
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Even so [I] trust thou art as just,
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and faithful unto me,
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Hero
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IS there
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No way to stay an angry Fathers wrath,
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whose fury hath
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Bereav'd his Child of comfort and content,
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Leander.
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O no,
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Dear Hero, there's no way that I do know,
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to ease my woe,
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My days of joy and comfort now are spent,
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You may
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As well go tame
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a Lyon in the wilderness,
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As to perswade my Fathers aid,
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to help me in distress:
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His anger
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And his River hath
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kept us asunder long,
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He hath his will, his humour still,
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and we have all the wrong.
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Hero.
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'Tis not
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Thy fathers anger, nor his River deep,
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the which shall keep
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Me from the imbracements of my dearest friend
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For through
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This silver stream, my way I mean to take
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even for thy sake,
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For thy dear sake my dearest lite i'le spend:
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Though waves
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And winds should both conspire
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mine enemies to be,
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My love's so strong I fear no wrong,
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can happen unto me:
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O meet
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Me in thy Garden,
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where this pleasant River glides,
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Lend me thy hand, draw me to Land,
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what ever me betides.
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Now must
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I make my tender slender arms my Oars,
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help watery powers;
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Ye little fishes teach me how to swim;
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And all
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Ye sea-nymphs guard me unto yonder banks,
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i'le give you thanks,
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Bear up my body, strengthen every limb:
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I come
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Leander now prepare
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thy lovely arms for me,
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I come dear love, assist me Jove,
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I may so happy be:
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But oh!
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A mighty Tempest rose,
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and he was drownd that Tide,
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In her fair sight, her hearts delight
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and so with grief she dy'd.
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But when
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Her aged father these things understands,
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he wrings his hands;
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And tears his hoary hair from off his head,
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Society
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He shuns, and doth forsake his meat,
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his griefs so great,
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And oft doth make the lowly ground his bed;
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O my
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Leander would that I
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had dy'd to save thy life,
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Or that I had, when I was sad,
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made thee brave Heros wife:
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It was
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My trespass, and I do
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confess I wronged thee
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Posterity shall know hereby
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the fault lay all in me.
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But since
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The waves have cast his body on the Land,
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upon the Sand,
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His Corps shall buried be in solemn wise,
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One Grave
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Shall serve them both & one most stately Tomb,
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she'll make him room,
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Although her Corps be breathless where she lies
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Ye fathers
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Have a special care now,
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whatsoe'r you do,
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For those that part true loyal hearts
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themselves were never true,
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Though Fate
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And Fortune cross poor Lovers,
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sometimes as we do know,
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Pray understand, have you no hand
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even in their overthrow.
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