I give their forfeit lives; on this accord,
To do me homage as their fov'reign lord;
And as my vaffals, to their utmoft might,
Affift my perfon, and affert my right.
This freely fworn, the knights their grace obtain❜d.
Then thus the king his fecret thought explain'd;
If wealth, or honour, or a royal race,
Or each, or all, may win a lady's grace,
Then either of you knights may well deserve
A princess born; and such is she
For Emily is fifter to the crown,
And, but too well to both her beauty known:
But fhou'd you combat till you both were dead,
Two lovers cannot fhare a single bed:
As therefore both are equal in degree,
The lot of both be left to deftiny.
Now hear th' award, and happy may it prove
To her, and him who best deferves her love,
Depart from hence in peace, and free as air,
Search the wide world, and where you please repair;
But on the day when this returning fun
To the fame point through ev'ry fign has run,
Then each of you his hundred knights fhall bring,
In royal lifts, to fight before the king;
And then the knight, whom fate or happy chance
Shall with his friends to victory advance,
And grace his arms fo far in equal fight,
From out the bars to force his oppofite,
Or kill, or make him recreant on the plain,
The prize of valour and of love shall gain;
The vanquifh'd party fhall their claim release,
And the long jars conclude in lafting peace.
The charge be mine t' adorn the chofen ground,
The theatre of war, for champions fo renown'd ;
And take the patron's place of either knight,
With eyes impartial to behold the fight;
And Heav'n of me fo judge as I fhall judge aright.
If both are satisfied with this accord,
Swear by the laws of knighthood on my sword.
Who now but Palamon exults with joy?
And ravish'd Arcite seems to touch the sky:
The whole assembled troop was pleas'd as well,
Extol th' award, and on their knees they fell
To bless the gracious king. The knights with leave
Departing from the place, his last commands receive;
On Emily with equal ardor look,
And from her eyes their infpiration took.
From thence to Thebes' old walls pursue their way,
Each to provide his champions for the day.
It might be deem'd, on our historian's part,
Or too much negligence, or want of art,
If he forgot the vast magnificence
Of royal Thefeus, and his large expence.
He first inclos'd for lifts a level ground,
The whole circumference a mile round;
The form was circular; and all without
A trench was funk, to moat the place about.
Within an amphitheatre appear'd,
Rais'd in degrees; to fixty paces rear'd:
That when a man was plac'd in one degree,
Height was allow'd for him above to fee.
Eastward was built a gate of marble white;
The like adorn'd the western opposite.
A nobler object than this fabric was,
Rome never faw; nor of so vaft a space.
For rich with spoils of many a conquer'd land,
All arts and artifts Thefeus could command;
Who fold for hire, or wrought for better fame;
The mafter-painters, and the carvers came.
So rofe within the compafs of the year
An age's work, a glorious theatre.
Then o'er its eastern gate was rais'd above
A temple, facred to the queen of love;
An altar ftood below: on either hand
A prieft with rofes crown'd, who held a myrtle wand.
The dome of Mars was on the gate oppos'd,
And on the north a turret was inclos'd,
Within the wall of alabafter white,
And crimson coral for the queen of night,
Who takes in fylvan sports her chafte delight.
Within thefe oratories might you fee
Rich carvings, pourtraitures, and imagery:
Where ev'ry figure to the life exprefs'd
The godhead's pow'r to whom it was addrefs'd.
In Venus' temple on the fides were seen
The broken flumbers of enamour'd men,
Pray'rs that ev'n fpoke, and pity feem'd to call,
And iffuing fighs that smok'd along the wall.
Complaints, and hot defires, the lover's hell,
And scalding tears that wore a channel where they fell:
And all around were nuptial bonds, the ties,
Of love's affurance, and a train of lies,
That, made in luft, conclude in perjuries.
Beauty, and youth, and wealth, and luxury,
And spritely hope, and fhort-enduring joy;
And forceries to raise th' infernal pow'rs,
And figils fram'd in planetary hours:
Expence, and after-thought, and idle care,
And doubts of motley hue, and dark defpair;
Sufpicious, and fantastical furmife,
And jealoufy fuffus'd, with jaundice in her eyes,
Difcolouring all the view'd, in tawny drefs'd;
Down-look'd, and with a cuckow on her fist.
Oppos'd to her, on t'other fide advance
The coftly feaft, the carol, and the dance,
Minstrels, and mufic, poetry, and play,
And balls by night, and tournaments by day.
All these were painted on the wall, and more;
With acts and monuments of times before;
And others added by prophetic doom,
And lovers yet unborn, and loves to come:
For there th' Idalian mount, and Citheron,
The court of Venus was in colours drawn:
Before the palace-gate, in carclefs dress,
And loose array, fat portress idleness:
There, by the fount, Narciffus pin'd alone;
There Sampfon was; with wifer Solomon,
And all the mighty names by love undone.
Medea's charms were there, Circean feafts,
With bowls that turn'd enamour'd youths to beafts,
Here might be feen, that beauty, wealth, and wit,
And prowess to the pow'r of love submit:
The spreading fnare for all mankind is laid;
And lovers all betray, and are betray'd.
The goddess' felf fome noble hand had wrought;
Smiling the feem'd, and full of pleasing thought:
From ocean as the first began to rife,
And smooth'd the ruffled seas and clear'd the skies;
She trod the brine all bare below the breaft,
And the green waves but ill conceal'd the reft;
A lute fhe held; and on her head was feen
A wreath of rofes red, and myrtles green;
Her turtles fann'd the buxom air above;
And, by his mother, ftood an infant love,
With wings unfledg'd; his eyes were banded o'er:
His hands a bow, his back a quiver bore,
Supply'd with arrows bright and keen, a deadly store.
But in the dome of mighty Mars the red
With diff'rent figures all the fides were spread;
This temple, lefs in form, with equal grace,
Was imitative of the firft in Thrace:
For that cold region was the lov'd abode,
And fov'reign manfion of the warrior god.
The landscape was a forest wide and bare;
Where neither beast, nor human kind repair;
The fowl, that fcent afar, the borders fly,
And, fhun the bitter blaft, and wheel about the fky.
A cake of fcurf lies baking on the ground,
And prickly ftubs, instead of trees, are found;
Or woods with knots and knares deform'd and old;
Headlefs the most, and hideous to behold:
A rattling tempeft through the branches went,
That stripp'd 'em bare, and one fole way they bent.
Heav'n froze above, fevere, the clouds congeal,
And thro' the chryftal vault appear'd the standing hail,
Such was the face without: a mountain flood
Threatning from high, and overlook'd the wood:
Beneath the low'ring brow, and on a bent,
The temple flood of Mars armiponent:
The frame of burnish'd fteel, that caft a glare
From far, and feem'd to thaw the freezing air.
A ftrait long entry to the temple led,
Blind with high walls; and horror over head :
Thence iffued fuch a blast, and hollow roar,
As threaten'd from the hinge to heave the door;
In through that door, a northern light there fhone;
'Twas all it had, for windows there were none,
The gate was adamant; eternal frame!
Which, hew'd by Mars himself, from Indian quarries came,
The labour of a God; and all along
Tough iron plates were clench'd to make it ftrong.
A tun about was ev'ry pillar there;
A polish'd mirror shone not half so clear.
There faw I how the fecret felon wrought,
And treason lab'ring in the traitor's thought:
And midwife time the ripen'd plot to murder brought,
There the red anger dar'd the pallid fear;
Next flood hypocrify, with holy leer;
Soft fmiling, and demurely looking down,
But hid the dagger underneath the gown:
Th' affaffinating wife, the houfhold fiend;
And far the blackeft there, the traitor-friend,
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