Safe from purfuit, he meant to fhun the light,
Till the brown shadows of the friendly night
To Thebes might favour his intended flight.
When to his country come, his next defign
Was all the Theban race in arms to join,
And war on Thefeus, till he loft his life,
Or won the beauteous Emily to wife.

Thus while his thoughts the ling'ring day beguile,
To gentle Arcite let us turn our stile;

Who little dreamt how nigh he was to care,
Till treacherous fortune caught him in the snare.
The morning-lark, the messenger of day,
Saluted in her fong the morning gray;
And foon the fun arose with beams so bright,
That all th' horizon laugh'd to fee the joyous fight;
He with his tepid rays the rose renews,

And licks the drooping leaves, and dries the dews;
When Arcite left his bed, refolv'd to pay.
Obfervance to the month of merry May:
Forth on his fiery steed betimes he rode,
That scarcely prints the turf on which he trod:
At ease he seem'd, and, prancing o'er the plains,
Turn'd only to the grove his horse's reins,
The grove I nam'd before; and, lighted there,
A woodbine garland fought to crown his hair;
Then turn'd his face against the rifing day,
And rais'd his voice to welcome in the May.

For thee, fweet month, the groves green liv'ries wear, If not the first, the fairest of the year:

For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours,
And Nature's ready pencil paints the flow'rs:
When thy fhort reign is paft, the fev'rish fun
The fultry tropic fears, and moves more flowly on.
So may thy tender bloffoms fear no blite,
Nor goats with venom'd teeth thy tendrils bite,
As thou shalt guide my wand'ring feet to find
The fragrant greens I feek, my brows to bind.

His vows addrefs'd, within the grove he ftray'd, Till fate, or fortune, near the place convey'd His fteps where secret Palamon was laid. Full little thought of him the gentle knight, Who flying death had there conceal'd his flight, In brakes and brambles hid, and fhunning mortal fight. And lefs he knew him for his hated foe,

But fear'd him as a man he did not know.

But as it has been faid of ancient years,

That fields are full of eyes, and woods have ears;
For this the wise are ever on their guard,
For, unforeseen, they fay, is unprepar'd.
Uncautious Arcite thought himself alone,
And less than all suspected Palamon,

Who liftning heard him, while he search'd the grove,
And loudly fung his roundelay of love:
But on the fudden stopp'd, and filent stood,
As lovers often mufe, and change their mood;
Now high as heav'n, and then as low as hell;
Now up, now down, as buckets in a well:
For Venus, like her day, will change her cheer,
And feldom shall we see a Friday clear.
Thus Arcite having fung, with alter'd hue
Sunk on the ground, and from his bofom drew
A defp'rate figh, accufing heav'n and fate,
And angry Juno's unrelenting hate.
Curs'd be the day when first I did appear;
Let it be blotted from the calendar,

Left it pollute the month, and poison all the year.
Still will the jealous queen pursue our race?
Cadmus is dead, the Theban city was:
Yet ceafes not her hate: for all who come
From Cadmus are involv'd in Cadmus' doom.
I fuffer for my blood: unjuft decree!
That punishes another's crime on me.
In mean eftate I ferve my mortal foe,

The man who caus'd my country's overthrow.

}

This is not all; for Juno, to my shame,
Has forc'd me to forfake my former name;
Arcite I was, Philoftratus I am.

That fide of heav'n is all my enemy:

Mars ruin'd Thebes: his mother ruin'd me.
Of all the royal race remains but one
Befides myself, th' unhappy Palamon,

Whom Thefeus holds in bonds, and will not free;
Without a crime, except his kin to me.
Yet these, and all the reft, I cou'd endure;
But love's a malady without a cure;

Fierce love has pierc'd me with his fiery dart,
He fires within, and hiffes at my heart.
Your eyes, fair Emily, my fate pursue ;
I fuffer for the rest, I die for you.

Of fuch a goddefs no time leaves record,
Who burn'd the temple where fhe was ador'd:
And let it burn, I never will complain,
Pleas'd with my fuff'rings, if you knew my pain.
At this a fickly qualm his heart afsail'd,
His ears ring inward, and his senses fail'd.
No word mifs'd Palamon of all he spoke,
But foon to deadly pale he chang'd his look:
He trembled ev'ry limb, and felt a smart,
As if cold fteel had glided through his heart;
No longer ftaid, but ftarting from his place,
Discover'd flood, and fhew'd his hoftile face:
False traitor Arcite, traitor to thy blood,
Bound by thy facred oath to seek my good,
Now art thou found forfworn, for Emily;
And dar'st attempt her love, for whom I die.
So haft thou cheated Thefeus with a wile,
Against thy vow, returning to beguile
Under a borrow'd name: as falfe to me,
So falfe thou art to him who fet thee free:
But reft affur'd, that either thou fhalt die,
Or elfe renounce thy claim in Emily:

}

For tho' unarm'd I am, and (freed by chance)
Am here without my sword, or pointed lance:
Hope not, base man, unquestion'd hence to go,
For I am Palamon, thy mortal foe.

Arcite, who heard his tale, and knew the man,
His fword unfheath'd, and fiercely thus began:
Now by the Gods who govern heav'n above,
Wert thou not weak with hunger, mad with love,
That word had been thy laft, or in this
grove
This hand fhould force thee to renounce thy love.
The furety which I gave thee, I defy:
Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,
And Jove but laughs at lovers perjury.
Know I will ferve the fair in thy defpight;
But fince thou art my kinfman, and a knight,
Here, have my faith, to-morrow in this grove
Qur arms fhall plead the titles of our love:
And Heaven fo help my right, as I alone

Will come, and keep the cause and quarrel both unknown;
With arms of proof both for myself and thee;
Chufe thou the beft, and leave the worst to me.
And, that a better ease thou may'st abide,
Bedding and cloaths I will this night provide,
And needful fuftenance, that thou may'st be
A conqueft better won, and worthy me.
His promife Palamon accepts; but pray'd,
To keep it better than the first he made.
Thus fair they parted till the morrow's dawn,
For each had laid his plighted faith to pawn.
Oh Love! thou fternly doft thy pow'r maintain,
And wilt not bear a rival in thy reign,
Tyrants and thou all fellowship difdain.
This was in Arcite prov'd, and Palamon
Both in despair, yet each would love alone.
Arcite return'd, and, as in honor ty'd,
His foe with bedding, and with food supply'd;

}

Then,

1

Then, ere the day, two fuits of armour fought,
Which borne before him on his steed he brought:
Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure,
As might the strokes of two fuch arms endure.
Now, at the time, and in th' appointed place,
The challenger and challeng'd, face to face,
Approach; each other from afar they knew,
And from afar their hatred chang'd their hue.
So ftands the Thracian herdsman with his fpear,
Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear,
And hears him ruftling in the wood, and fees
His course at diftance by the bending trees;
And thinks, here comes my mortal enemy,
And either he must fall in fight, or I:
This while he thinks, he lifts aloft his dart;
A gen'rous chilness feizes ev'ry part:

The veins pour back the blood, and fortify the heart.
Thus pale they meet; their eyes with fury burn;
None greets; for none the greeting will return:
But in dumb furlinefs, each arm'd with care
His foe profeft, as brother of the war:

Then both, no moment loft, at once advance
Against each other, arm'd with fword and lance:
They lafh, they foin, they pafs, they ftrive to bore
Their corflets and the thinneft parts explore.
Thus two long hours in equal arms they stood,
And wounded, wound; till both were bath'd in blood;
And not a foot of ground had either got,
As if the world depended on the spot.
Fell Arcite like an angry tyger far'd,
And like a lion Palamon appear'd:

Or as two boars whom love to battle draws,
With rifing briftles, and with froathy jaws,
Their adverfe breafts with tufks oblique they wound;
With grunts and groans the foreft rings around.
So fought the knights, and fighting muft abide,
Till fate an umpire fends their diff'rence to decide.