So closely connected with Circe are the Sirens of fable that it is almost impossible to treat of them separately. As usual, Alciat’s is the Emblem-book (edition 1551) from which we obtain the illustrative print and the Latin stanzas. Sirenes. [Illustration: _Alciat, 1551._] _Abſque alis volucres, & cruribus abſque puellas, Roſtro abſque, & piſces, qui tamen ore canant: Quis putet eſſe vllos? iungi hæc natura negauit Sirenes fieri ſed potuiſſe docent. Illicitum eſt mulier, quæ in piſcem deſinit atrum, Plurima quòd ſecum monſtra libido vehit. Aſpectu, verbis, animi candore, trahuntur, Parthenope, Ligia, Leucoſiaque viri. Has muſæ explumant, has atque illudit Vlyſſes. Scilicet eſt doctis cum meretrice nihil._ It is Whitney who provides the poetic comment (p. 10),— “Withe pleasaunte tunes, the SYRENES did allure Vlisses wise, to listen to theire songe: But nothinge could his manlie harte procure, Hee sailde awaie, and scap’d their charming stronge, The face, he lik’de, the nether parte, did loathe: For womans shape, and fishes had they bothe. Which shewes to vs, when Bewtie seekes to snare The carelesse man, whoe dothe no daunger dreede, That he shoulde flie, and shoulde in time beware, And not on lookes, his fickle fancie feede: Such Mairemaides liue, that promise onelie ioyes: But hee that yeldes, at lengthe him selffe distroies.” The Dialogue, from the _Comedy of Errors_ (act iii. sc. 2, lines 27 and 45, vol. i. pp. 425, 6), between Luciana and Antipholus of Syracuse, maintains,— “’Tis holy sport, to be a little vain, When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife;” and the remonstrance urges,— “O train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note, To drown me in thy sister flood of tears: Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote: Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs, And, as a bed I'll take them, and there lie; And, in that glorious supposition, think He gains by death that hath such means to die.” And in the _Titus Andronicus_ (act ii. sc. 1, l. 18, vol. vi. p. 451), Aaron, the Moor, resolves, when speaking of Tamora his imperial mistress,— “Away with slavish weeds and servile thoughts! I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold, To wait upon this new-made empress. To wait, said I? to wanton with this queen, This goddess, this Semiramis, this nymph. This siren, that will charm Rome’s Saturnine, And see his shipwreck and his commonweal’s.”[129] To recommend the sentiment that “Art is a help to nature,” Alciatus (edition 1551, p. 107) introduces the god Mercury and the goddess Fortune,—