So that if Palamon were wounded sore, Arcite was hurt as much as he, or more. Then from his inmost soul he sigh'd, and said:

"The beauty I behold has struck me dead: Unknowingly she strikes, and kills by chance;

Poison is in her eyes, and death in ev'ry glance.

O, I must ask; nor ask alone, but move 280 Her mind to mercy, or must die for love." Thus Arcite: and thus Palamon replies (Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes): "Speak'st thou in earnest, or in jesting vein?"

"Jesting," said Arcite, "suits but ill with pain."

"It suits far worse," said Palamon again,

And bent his brows, "with men who honor weigh,

Their faith to break, their friendship to betray;

But worst with thee, of noble lineage born, My kinsman, and in arms my brother

Appeach my honor, or thy own maintain, 300 Since thou art of my council, and the friend Whose faith I trust, and on whose care depend.

And wouldst thou court my lady's love, which I

Much rather than release would choose to die ?

But thou, false Arcite, never shalt obtain Thy bad pretense; I told thee first my pain, For first my love began ere thine was born; Thou, as my council, and my brother sworn, Art bound t' assist my eldership of right, Or justly to be deem'd a perjur'd knight." Thus Palamon; but Arcite with disdain In haughty language thus replied again: 312 "Forsworn thyself: the traitor's odious

name

I first return, and then disprove thy claim. If love be passion, and that passion nurs'd With strong desires, I lov'd the lady first. Canst thou pretend desire, whom zeal inflam'd

To worship, and a pow'r celestial nam'd? Thine was devotion to the blest above;

I saw the woman, and desir'd her love; 320 First own'd my passion, and to thee commend

Th' important secret, as my chosen friend.
Suppose (which yet I grant not) thy desire
A moment elder than my rival fire;
Can chance of seeing first thy title prove
And know'st thou not, no law is made for
love?

?

Law is to things which to free choice re

late;

Love is not in our choice, but in our fate: Laws are but positive; love's pow'r, we see, Is Nature's sanction, and her first decree. 330 Each day we break the bond of human laws For love, and vindicate the common cause. Laws for defense of civil rights are plac'd,

Love throws the fences down, and makes a general waste:

Maids, widows, wives, without distinction fall;

The sweeping deluge, love, comes on, and covers all.

If then the laws of friendship I transgress, I keep the greater, while I break the less; And both are mad alike, since neither can possess.

Both hopeless to be ransom'd, never more To see the sun, but as he passes o'er.

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"Like Esop'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 snatch'd the prize away.
As courtiers therefore justle for a grant,
And when they break their friendship,
plead their want,

So thou, if fortune will thy suit advance,
Love on, nor envy me my equal chance:
For I must love, and am resolv'd to try 350
My fate, or failing in th' adventure die.".

Great was their strife, which hourly was

With briny tears he bath'd his fetter'd feet, And dropp'd all o'er with agony of sweat. "Alas!" he cried, "I, wretch, in prison pine,

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Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine. Thou liv❜st at large, thou draw'st thy native air,

Pleas'd with thy freedom, proud of my despair:

Thou may'st, since thou hast youth and courage join'd,

A sweet behavior and a solid mind,
Assemble ours, and all the Theban race,
To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace;
And after (by some treaty made) possess
Fair Emily, the pledge of lasting peace.
So thine shall be the beauteous prize,
while I
460

Must languish in despair, in prison die. Thus all th' advantage of the strife is thine;

Thy portion double joys, and double sorrows mine."

The rage of jealousy then fir'd his soul, And his face kindled like a burning coal: Now cold despair, succeeding in her stead, To livid paleness turns the glowing red. His blood, scarce liquid, creeps within his veins,

Like water which the freezing wind constrains.

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Then thus he said: "Eternal deities,
Who rule the world with absolute decrees,
And write whatever time shall bring to
pass,

With pens of adamant, on plates of brass;
What is the race of humankind your care
Beyond what all his fellow creatures are?
He with the rest is liable to pain,

And like the sheep, his brother beast, is slain.

Cold, hunger, prisons, ills without a cure, All these he must, and guiltless oft, endure: Or does your justice, pow'r, or prescience fail;

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When the good suffer, and the bad prevail? What worse to wretched virtue could befall, If Fate or giddy Fortune govern'd all? Nay, worse than other beasts is our estate; Them, to pursue their pleasures, you create; We, bound by harder laws, must curb our will,

And your commands, not our desires, fulfil: Then, when the creature is unjustly slain, Yet after death at least he feels no pain;

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This let divines decide; but well I know,
Just, or unjust, I have my share of woe,
Thro' Saturn seated in a luckless place,
And Juno's wrath, that persecutes my race;
Or Mars and Venus, in a quartil, move
My pangs of jealousy for Arcite's love."
Let Palamon oppress'd in bondage mourn,
While to his exil'd rival we return.
By this, the sun, declining from his height,
The day had shorten'd to prolong the night;
The lengthen'd night gave length of misery
Both to the captive lover and the free;
For Palamon in endless prison mourns,
And Arcite forfeits life if he returns:
The banish'd never hopes his love to see,
Nor hopes the captive lord his liberty.
'Tis hard to say who suffers greater pains:
One sees his love, but cannot break his

chains;

509