For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours,
And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers:
When thy fhort reign is paft, the feverish fun
The fultry tropic fears, and moves more flowly on.
So may thy tender bloffoms fear no blight,
Nor goats with venom'd teeth thy tendrils bite,
As thou shalt guide my wandering feet to find
The fragrant greens I feek, my brows to bind.
His vows addrefs'd, within the grove he stray'd,
Till fate, or fortune, near the place convey'd
His steps 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 wife are ever on their guard,
For, unforeseen, they fay, is unprepar'd.
Uncautious Arcite thought himfelf alone,
And lefs than all fufpected Palamon,
Who liftening heard him, while he search'd the grove,
And loudly fung his roundelay of love :
But on the fudden ftopp'd, and filent stood,
As lovers often mufe, and change their mood;
Now high as heaven, 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 seldom shall we fee a Friday clear.
Thus Arcite, having fung, with alter'd hue
Sunk on the ground, and from his bofom drew
A desperate figh, accufing heaven 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
Still will the jealous Queen pursue our race?
Cadmus is dead, the Theban city was :
Yet ceases not her hate: for all who come
From Cadmus are involv'd in Cadmus' doom.
I fuffer for my blood: unjust 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 heaven is all my enemy:
Mars ruin'd Thebes : his mother ruin'd me.
Of all the royal race remains but one
Befides myfelf, th' unhappy Palamon,
Whom Thefeus holds in bonds, and will not free;
Without a crime, except his kin to me.
Yet thefe, and all the reft, I could 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 reft, I die for you.
Of fuch a Goddess no time leaves record,
Who burn'd the temple where she was ador'd:
And let it burn, I never will complain,
Pleas'd with my sufferings, if you knew my pain.
At this a fickly qualm his heart affail'd,
His ears ring inward, and his fenfes fail'd.
No word mifs'd Palamon of all he spoke,
But foon to deadly pale he chang'd his look:
He trembled every limb, and felt a smart,
As if cold steel had glided through his heart;
No longer ftaid, but, starting from his place,
Difcover'd ftood, and fhew'd his hoftile face:
Falle traitor Arcite, traitor to thy blood,
Bound by thy facred oath to seek my good,
Now art thou found forefworn, for Emily;
And dar'ft 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 false to me,
So falfe thou art to him who fet thee free:
But reft affur'd, that either thou shalt die,
Or else renounce thy claim in Emily:
For, though unarm'd I am, and (free'd by chance)
Am here without my fword, or pointed launce:
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 heaven above,
Wert thou not weak with hunger, mad with love,
That word had been thy laft, or in this grove
This hand should 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
Our arms fhall plead the titles of our love:
And Heaven so 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 worft to me.
And, that a better ease thou may'st abide,
Bedding and cloaths I will this night provide,
And needful fuftenance, that thou mayst 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 sternly doft thy power 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 honour ty'd,
His foe with bedding and with food supply'd';
VOL. III.
Then, ere the day, two fuits of armour fought,
Which borne before him on his fteed he brought :
Both were of fhining fteel, and wrought fo pure,
As might the ftrokes 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 herdfman with his fpear,
Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear,
And hears him ruftling in the wood, and sees
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 generous chilnefs feizes every 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 furliness, 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 food,
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.
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