Hero and Leander Ramblings

Update 12/12/19: I just realized I should have titled this "Hero and Leanderings". What a missed opportunity.

17 September 2019: Reading the First Sestiad of "Hero and Leander" by Christopher Marlowe

The reason no man knows, let it suffice,

What we behold is censur'd by our eyes.

Where both deliberate, the love is slight:

Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?
(lines 173-176)

Hero's looks yielded, but her words made war
(331)

I want to remove this quote from the context of its story to unpack its potential. Historically the lines between men and women and how they "fight" have been deftly drawn. When removed from the story it reflects the prescribed gender roles. Women use their looks for as long as possible until words become their weapons. What does it mean to yield? Is it Hero's looks waning to age, or is it a look on her face that is betraying her feelings? When your face betrays you do your words become something more? When is it that women make the exchange for looks to weaponized words?

Contextually, Leander using so many words to untangle Hero's arguments for not having sex does come off as a battle. She does in fact yield to his desires shortly after that line, and for that reason the reading of her face betraying her seems to fit. The battle becomes a war and war in the sense of the story expresses a deep passion between the two.

Who taught thee rhetoric to deceive a maid? 
Ay me! such words as these should I abhor, 
And yet I like them for the orator.
(338-340)

There's an inclination to be annoyed by these lines. Reading this line as romanic is difficult in the face of modern reason. The line, "Who taught thee rhetoric to deceive a maid?" calls attention to the fact that men have been prying at women for centuries to have sex and use a multitude of convoluted reasonings as to why. Logically, Hero knows she should hate everything Leander is saying but she 'like them for the orator". If that is her reasoning for giving in to Leander's desires it did not matter what he said to her. It is a dangerous idea to understand the reasonable and ignore logic in favor of feeling. The lines cover a problem that society still does not seem to have a solution for; the problem being sexual impulse and the unrelenting entanglement of sex equating love. If we were strip away the romanic whirl wind of being in a moment does that change the way we interact between sex and emotions with others? However, if Hero had equal desires for Leander the entire exchange is just placating the social mores of the time. The meandering arguments are her defense against the stigmatized shame of ownership of her sexuality.