Note to As You Like It, 4.1.100: "Leander"


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As You Like It,
Act 4, Scene 1, line 100.
Leander: Leander did die "in a love-cause," but Rosalind changes the story to make it unromantic. In the original story, Leander swam the Hellespont to be with Hero, who kept a lamp alight in a tower to guide Leander to her. One winter night the lamp blew out, so Leander was blown off course and drowned. However, in her telling, Rosalind says that Leander simply wanted to go swimming, and had the bad luck to get a cramp while in the water.




Hero and Leander

Hero lamenting over the drowned Leander, c1626
by Nicholas Regnier, 1591-1667