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Hero and Leander
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===In theatre=== *[[Shakespeare]] mentions the story in the opening scene of ''[[Two Gentlemen of Verona]]'', in a dialogue between Valentine and Proteus (the two gentlemen in the play): :VALENTINE: And on a love-book pray for my success? :PROTEUS: Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee. :VALENTINE: That's on some shallow story of deep love: How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont. :PROTEUS: That's a deep story of a deeper love: For he was more than over shoes in love. :VALENTINE: 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never swum the Hellespont. * Hero and Leander are again mentioned in ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' in Act III Scene I when Valentine is tutoring the Duke of Milan on how to woo the lady from Milan. Shakespeare also alludes to the story in ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', both when Benedick states that Leander was "never so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love" and in the name of the character Hero, who, despite accusations to the contrary, remains chaste before her marriage; and in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' in the form of a [[malapropism]] accidentally using the names Helen and Limander in the place of Hero and Leander, as well as in [[Edward III (play)|Edward III]] (Act II, Scene II), [[Othello]] (Act III, Scene III), and [[Romeo and Juliet]] (Act II, Scene IV). The most famous Shakespearean allusion is the debunking one by Rosalind, in Act IV scene I of ''[[As You Like It]]'': <blockquote>"Leander, he would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and being taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' But these are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love."</blockquote> * [[Ben Jonson]]'s play [[Bartholomew Fair (play)|''Bartholomew Fair'']] (1614) features a puppet show of Hero and Leander in Act V, translated to London, with the Thames serving as the Hellespont between the lovers. * [[Dion Boucicault]] mentions Leander in his play ''[[The Colleen Bawn]]'' (1860). Corrigan refers to Hardress Cregan and his nocturnal boat-rides to his secret wife as being "like Leander, barring the wetting". * The [[song cycle]] ''[[Myths and Hymns]]'', composed by [[Adam Guettel]], references the myth in the seventh song of the cycle, "Hero and Leander".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/44948/myths-hymns | title=Myths & Hymns }}</ref>
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