On t'other fide there stood destruction bare;
Unpunish'd rapine, and a waste of war.

Contest, with sharpen'd knives, in cloisters drawn,
And all with blood befpread the holy lawn.
Loud menaces were heard, and foul disgrace,
And bawling infamy, in language bafe;

Till fenfe was loft in found, and filence fled the place.
The flayer of himself yet saw I there,
The gore congeal'd was clotted in his hair:
With eyes half clos'd, and gaping mouth he lay,
And grim, as when he breath'd his fullen foul away.
In midft of all the dome, misfortune fat,
And gloomy difcontent, and fell debate,
And madness laughing in his ireful mood;

And arm'd complaint on theft; and cries of blood.
There was the murder'd corps, in covert laid,
And violent death in thoufand fhapes difplay'd:
The city to the foldiers rage resign'd:
Succefslefs wars, and poverty behind:

Ships burnt in fight, or forc'd on rocky shores,
And the rafh hunter ftrangled by the boars:
The new-born babe by nurses overlaid;

And the cook caught within the raging fire he made.
All ills of Mars his nature, flame and feel;
The gafping charioteer, beneath the wheel
Of his own car; the ruin'd houfe that falls
And intercepts her lord betwixt the walls:
The whole divifion that to Mars pertains,
All trades of death that deal in steel for gains,
Were there: the butcher, armourer, and smith,
Who forges tharpen'd fauchions, or the scythe.
The fcarlet conquest on a tow'r was plac'd,
With shouts, and foldiers acclamations grac❜d:
A pointed fword hung threatning o'er his head,
Suftain'd but by a flender twine of thread.
There faw I Mars his ides, the capitol,
The feer in vain foretelling Cæfar's fall;

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The laft triumvirs, and the wars they move,
And Anthony, who loft the world for love.
Thefe, and a thousand more, the fane adorn;
Their fates were painted ere the men were born,
All copied from the heav'ns, and ruling force
Of the red ftar, in his revolving courfe.
The form of Mars high on a chariot stood,
All sheath'd in arms, and gruffly look'd the God:
Two geomantic figures were display'd

Above his head, a warrior and a maid,
One when direct, and one when retrograde.
Tir'd with deformities of death, I hafte
To the third temple of Diana chaste.

A fylvan fcene with various greens was drawn,
Shades on the fides, and on the midst a lawn:
The filver Cynthia, with her nymphs around,
Purfu'd the flying deer, the woods with horns refound:
Califto there flood manifest of shame,

And, turn'd a bear, the northern ftar became :
Her fon was next, and by peculiar grace
In the cold circle held the second place:
The stag Acteon in the stream had spy'd
The naked huntrefs, and, for feeing dy'd:
His hounds, unknowing of his change pursue
The chace, and their mistaken mafter flew.
Peneian Daphne too was there to see,
Apollo's love before, and now his tree:
Th' adjoining fane th' affembled Greeks express'd,
And hunting of the Caledonian beast.
Oenides' valor, and his envy'd prize;
The fatal pow'r of Atalanta's eyes;
Diana's vengeance on the victor shown,
The murdrefs mother; and confuming fon;
The Volfcian queen extended on the plain;
The treafon punish'd, and the traitor flain.
The reft were various huntings, well defign'd,
And favage beafts deftroy'd, of ev'ry kind.

The graceful goddess was array'd in green;

About her feet were little beagles feen,

That watch'd with upward eyes the motions of their queen.

Her legs were buskin'd, and the left before;
In act to fhoot, a filver bow the bore,
And at her back a painted quiver wore.

She trod a wexing moon, that foon would wane,
And drinking borrow'd light, be fill'd again:
With downcaft eyes, as feeming to survey
The dark dominions, her alternate sway.
Before her stood a woman in her throes,
And call'd Lucina's aid, her burden to disclose.
All thefe the painter drew with such command,
That Nature fnatch'd the pencil from his hand,
Afham'd and angry that his art could feign
And mend the tortures of a mother's pain.
Thefeus beheld the fanes of ev'ry God,
And thought his mighty coft was well beftow'd.
So princes now their poets fhould regard ;
But few can write, and fewer can reward.

The theatre thus rais'd, the lifts enclos'd,
And all with rail magnificence difpos'd,
We leave the monarch pleas'd, and hafte to bring
The knights to combat; and their arms to fing.

PALAMON

OR, THE

KNIGHT's TA L E.

T

BOOK III.

'HE day approach'd when Fortune should decide Th' important enterprize, and give the bride; For now, the rivals round the world had fought, And each his rival, well appointed, brought. The nations, far and near, contend in choice, And fend the flow'r of war by public voice; That after, or before, were never known Such chiefs, as each an army feem'd alone : Befide the champions; all of high degree, Who knighthood lov'd, and deeds of chivalry, Throng'd to the lifts, and envy'd to behold The names of others, not their own, enroll'd. Nor feems it strange; for ev'ry noble knight Who loves the fair, and is endu'd with might, In fuch a quarrel wou'd be proud to fight. There breathes not fcarce a man on British ground (An ifle for love and arms of old renown'd) But would have fold his life to purchase fame, To Palamon or Arcite fent his name:

And had the land selected of the best,

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Half had come hence, and let the world provide the rest.
A hundred knights with Palamon there came,
Approv'd in fight, and men of mighty name;
Their arms were fev'ral, as their nations were,
But furnifh'd all alike with fword and spear.
Some wore coat armor, imitating scale;
And next their skins were stubborn fhirts of mail.

Some

Some wore a breaftplate and a light juppon,
Their horfes cloth'd with rich caparison ;
Some for defence would leathern bucklers use,
Of folded hides; and other shields of pruce.
One hung a pole-axe at his faddle-bow,
And one a heavy mace to fhun the foe;
One for his legs and knees provided well,
With jambeux arm'd, and double plates of steel :
This on his helmet wore a lady's glove,
And that a fleeve embroider'd by his love.
With Palamon above the reft in place,
Lycurgus came, the furly king of Thrace;
Black was his beard, and manly was his face;
The balls of his broad eyes roll'd in his head,
And glar'd betwixt a yellow and a red:
He look'd a lion with a gloomy stare,

And o'er his eye-brows hung his matted hair:
Big-bon'd, and large of limbs, with finews ftrong,
Broad-fhoulder'd, and his arms were round and long.
Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian use of old)
Were yok'd to draw his car of burnish'd gold.
Upright he ftood, and bore aloft his fhield,
Confpicuous from afar, and overlook'd the field.
His furcoat was a bear-fkin on his back;

His hair hung long behind, and gloffy raven black.
His ample forehead bore a coronet

With sparkling diamonds, and with rubies fet:
Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, fnowy fair,
And tall as ftags, ran loofe, and cours'd around his chair,
A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear:
With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound,
And collars of the fame their necks furround.
Thus through the fields Lycurgus took his way;
His hundred knights attend in pomp and proud array.
To match this monarch, with ftrong Arcite came
Emetrius king of Inde, a mighty name,

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