But worst with thee, of noble lineage born,
My kinsman, and in arms my brother sworn.
Have we not plighted each our holy oath,

That one should be the common good of both;
One foul should both infpire, and neither prove
His fellow's hindrance in purfuit of love?
To this before the Gods we gave our hands,
And nothing but our death can break the bands.
This binds thee, then, to further my defign:
As I am bound by vow to further thine:
Nor canft, nor dar'ft thou, traitor, on the plain
Appeach my honour, or thine own maintain,
Since thou art of my council, and the friend
Whofe faith I truft, and on whofe care depend
And would't thou court my lady's love, which I
Much rather than releafe would choose to die?
But thou, falfe Arcite, never fhalt obtain
Thy bad pretence; I told thee first my pain:
For first my love began ere thine was born;
Thou, as my council, and my brother fworn,
Art bound t'affift my eldership of right:
Or justly to be deem'd a perjur'd knight.

Thus Palamon: but Arcite with disdain
In haughty language thus reply'd again;
Forfworn thyself: the traitor's odious name
I first return, and then difprove thy claim.
If love be passion, and that passion nurst
With ftrong defires, I lov'd the lady first.
Canft thou pretend defire, whom zeal inflam'd
To worship, and a power celeftial nam'd ?

:

Thine

Thine was devotion to the blest above,

I faw the woman, and desir'd her love;
Firft own'd my paffion, and to thee commend
Th' important fecret, as my chofen friend.
Suppofe (which yet I grant not) thy defire
A moment elder than my rival fire;

Can chance of feeing firft thy title prove?
And know'st thou not, no law is made for love;
Law is to things which to free choice relate;
Love is not in our choice, but in our fate;
Laws are but pofitive; love's power, we see,
Is Nature's fanction, and her first decree.
Each day we break the bond of human laws
For love, and vindicate the common caufe.
Laws for defence of civil rights are plac'd,

Love throws the fences down, and makes a general waste:
Maids, widows, wives, without distinction fall;
The fweeping deluge, love, comes on, and covers all.
If then the laws of friendship I tranfgrefs,

I keep the greater, while I break the lefs;
And both are mad alike, fince neither can poffefs.
Both hopeless to be ranfom'd, never more
To fee the fun, but as he paffes o'er.

Like fop's hounds contending for the bone,
Each pleaded right, and would be lord alone :
The fruitless fight continued all the day;
A cur came by, and fnatch'd the prize away.
As courtiers therefore justle for a grant,

And when they break their friendship plead their want,

So

So thou, if fortune will thy fuit advance,
Love on, nor envy me my equal chance :
For I must love, and am refolv'd to try
My fate, or failing in th' adventure die.

Great was their ftrife, which hourly was renew'd,
Till each with mortal hate his rival view'd:

Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand;
But when they met, they made a furly stand;
And glar'd like angry lions as they pass'd,
And wish'd that every look might be their last.
It chanc'd at length, Pirithous came t'attend
This worthy Thefeus, his familiar friend ;
Their love in early infancy began,

And rofe as childhood ripen'd into man.
Companions of the war; and lov'd so well,
That when one dy'd, as ancient stories tell,
His fellow to redeem him went to hell.

But to purfue my tale; to welcome home
His warlike brother is Pirithous come:

Arcite of Thebes was known in arms long fince,
And honour'd by this young Theffalian prince,
Thefeus, to gratify his friend and guest,
Who made our Arcite's freedom his request,
Reftor'd to liberty the captive knight,
But on thefe hard conditions I recite:
That if hereafter Arcite fhould be found
Within the compass of Athenian ground,
By day or night, or on whate'er pretence,
His head fhould pay the forfeit of th' offence.

}

To this Pirithous for his friend agreed,
And on his promise was the prisoner freed.
Unpleas'd and penfive hence he takes his way,
At his own peril; for his life must pay.
Who now but Arcite mourns his bitter fate,
Finds his dear purchase, and repents too late?
What have I gain'd, he faid, in prifon pent,
If I but change my bonds for banishment?
And banish'd from her fight, I fuffer more
In freedom, than I felt in bonds before;
Forc'd from her prefence, and condemn'd to live:
Unwelcome freedom, and unthank'd reprieve:
Heaven is not, but where Emily abides;
And where fhe's abfent, all is hell befides.
Next to my day of birth, was that accurft,
Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first :
Had I not known that prince, I still had been
In bondage, and had ftill Emilia feen :
For though I never can her grace deferve,
'Tis recompence enough to fee and serve.
O Palamon, my kinfman and my friend,
How much more happy fates thy love attend!
Thine is th' adventure; thine the victory :
Well has thy fortune turn'd the dice for thee:
Thou on that angel's face may'ft feed thine eyes,
In prifon, no; but blissful paradise !

Thou daily feeft that fun of beauty shine,
And lov't at least in love's extremeft line.

I mourn

L

I mourn in absence, love's eternal night;
And who can tell but fince thou hast her sight,
And art a comely, young, and valiant knight,
Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown,
And by fome ways unknown thy wishes crown?
But I, the moft forlorn of human kind,

Nor help can hope, nor remedy can find;
But, doom'd to drag my loathfome life in care,
For my reward, must end it in despair.
Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates
That governs all, and heaven that all creates,
Nor art, nor nature's hand can ease my grief;
Nothing but death, the wretch's last relief:
Then farewel youth, and all the joys that dwell,
With youth and life, and life itself farewel.

But why, alas do mortal men in vain
Of fortune, fate, or Providence complain ?
God gives us what he knows our wants require,
And better things than those which we defire :
Some pray for riches; riches they obtain;
But, watch'd by robbers, for their wealth are flain
Some pray from prison to be freed; and come,
When guilty of their vows, to fall at home;
Murder'd by those they trusted with their life,
A favour'd fervant, or a bofom wife.

Such dear-bought bleffings happen every day,
Because we know not for what things to pray.
Like drunken fots about the street we roam :
Well knows the fet he has a certain home;