Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/181

 Then took he the disparent silks, and tied The lovers by the waists, and side to side, In token that thereafter they must bind In one self sacred knot each other mind. Before them on an altar he presented Both fire and water, which was first invented, Since to ingenerate every human creature, And every other birth produc'd by nature, Moisture and heat must mix: so man and wife For human race must join in nuptial life. Then one of Juno's birds, the painted jay, He sacrific'd, and took the gall away; All which he did behind the altar throw, In sign no bitterness of hate should grow, 'Twixt married loves, nor any least disdain. Nothing they spake, for 'twas esteemed too plain For the most silken mildness of a maid, To let a public audience hear it said She boldly took the man: and so respected Was bashfulness in Athens: it erected To chaste Agneia, which is shamefacedness, A sacred temple, holding her a goddess.— And now to feasts, masks, and triumphant shows, The shining troops return'd, e'en till earth's throes