Then from his inmoft foul he figh'd, and faid,
The beauty I behold has ftruck me dead :
Unknowingly she strikes; and kills by chance;
Poison is in her eyes, and death in ev'ry glance.
O, I must afk; nor afk alone, but move
Her mind to mercy, or muft die for love.

Thus Arcite and thus Palamon replies,
(Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes.)
Speak'st thou in earnest, or in jefting vein ?
Jefting, faid Arcite, fuits but ill with pain.
It fuits far worse, (faid 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 kinfman, and in arms my brother (worn.
Have we not plighted each our holy oath,
That one should be the common good of both;
One foul should both inspire, and neither
His fellow's hindrance in pursuit 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:

prove

Nor can'ft, nor dar'ft thou, traitor, on the plain Appeach my honor, or thine own maintain,

VOL. III.

F

Since thou art of my council, and the friend
Whose faith I truft, and on whose care depend:
And wou'd'ft thou court my lady's love, which I
Much rather than release would choose to die?
But thou falfe Arcite never shall 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 sworn,
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 disprove thy claim:
If love be paffion, and that paffion nurst
With strong defires, I lov'd the lady first.
Can'ft thou pretend defire, whom zeal inflam'd
To worship, and a pow'r celestial nam'd?
Thine was devotion to the bleft above,

I faw the woman and defir'd her love;
First 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 seeing first 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 pow'r, we fee,
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 throw's the fences down, and makes a gene-
ral waste :

Maids, widows, wives, without distinction fall;
The sweeping deluge, love, comes on, and covers all.
If then the laws of friendship 1 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 Æsop's hounds contending for the bone,
Each pleaded right, and wou'd be lord alone :
The fruitless fight continued all the day;
A cur came by, and fnatch'd the prize away.
As courtiers therefore juftle for a grant,

And when they break their friendship plead their

want,

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 pafs'd,
And wish'd that ev'ry 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 fo well,
That when one dy'd, as ancient ftories tell,
His fellow to redeem him went to hell.

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

Arcite of Thebes was known in arms long fince, And honor'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 these hard conditions I recite:
That if hereafter Arcite should be found
Within the compafs of Athenian ground,

way,

By day or night, or on whate'er pretence,
His head fhou'd 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
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's fhe's abfent, all is hell befides.
Next to my day of birth, was that accurst,
Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first :
Had I not known that prince, I ftill had been
In bondage, and had ftill Emilia feen:
For tho I never can her grace deserve,
'Tis recompence enough to fee and serve.

O Palamon, my

kinsman and my friend,'

How much more happy fates thy love attend!