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 ftand;
And glar'd like angry lions as they pass'd,
And wish'd that every 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 stories tell,
His fellow to redeem him went to hell.

But to purfue my tale; to welcome home
His warlike brother is Pirithous come:
Arcite of Thebes was known in arms long fince,
And honour'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 thefe hard conditions I recite :
That if hereafter Arcite fhould be found
Within the compass of Athenian ground,
By day or night, or on whate'er pretence,
His head should pay the forfeit of th' offence.

To this Pirithous for his friend agreed,
And on his promife was the prifoner freed.
Unpleas'd and pensive hence he takes his way,
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 said, 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 she's abfent, all is hell befides.
Next to my day of birth, was that accurft,
Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first :
Had I not known that prince, I still had been
In bondage, and had ftill Emilia feen:
For though I never can her grace deserve,
'Tis recompence enough to fee and ferve.
O Palamon, my kinsman and my friend,
How much more happy fates thy love attend!
Thine is th' adventure; thine the victory :
Well has thy fortune turn'd the dice for thee :
Thou on that angel's face may'st feed thine eyes,
In prifon, no; but blifsful paradife!

Thou daily fecft that fun of beauty shine,
And lov'ft at leaft in love's extremest line.

I mourn

I mourn in absence, love's eternal night;
And who can tell but fince thou haft her fight,
And art a comely, young, and valiant knight,
Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown,
And by fome ways unknown thy wishes crown?
But I, the most forlorn of human kind,
Nor help can hope, nor remedy can find;
But, doom'd to drag my loathsome life in care,
For my reward, must end it in despair.
Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates
That governs all, and heaven that all creates,
Nor art, nor nature's hand can ease my grief;
Nothing but death, the wretch's laft relief:
Then farewel youth, and all the joys that dwell,
With youth and life, and life itself farewel.

But why, alas! do mortal men in vain
Of fortune, fate, or Providence complain?
God gives us what he knows our wants require,
And better things than those which we defire :
Some pray for riches; riches they obtain;

But, watch'd by robbers, for their wealth are flain;
Some pray from prifon to be freed; and come,
When guilty of their vows, to fall at home;
Murder'd by thofe they trufted with their life,
A favour'd fervant, or a bofom wife.

Such dear-bought bleffings happen every day,
Because we know not for what things to pray.
Like drunken fots about the street we roam :
Well knows the fot he has a certain home;
F 3

Yet

Yet knows not how to find th' uncertain place,
And blunders on, and ftaggers every pace.
Thus all feek happiness; but few can find,
For far the greater part of men are blind.
This is my cafe, who thought our utmost good
Was in one word of freedom understood :
The fatal bleffing came : from prison free,
I ftarve abroad, and lose the fight of Emily.
Thus Arcite; but if Arcite thus deplore
His fufferings, Palamon yet fuffers more.
For when he knew his rival freed and gone,

He fwells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan:
He frets, he fumes, he ftares, he ftamps the ground;
The hollow tower with clamours rings around:
With briny tears he bath'd his fetter'd feet,

And dropt all o'er with agony of sweat.
Alas! he cry'd! I wretch in prifon pine,

Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine :
Thou liv'ff at large, thou draw'ft thy native air,
Pleas'd with thy freedom, proud of my despair:
Thou mayft, fince thou hast youth and courage join'd,
A fweet behaviour and a folid mind,

Affemble ours, and all the Theban race,
To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace ;
And after, by fome treaty made, poffefs
Fair Emily, the pledge of lafting peace.
So thine fhall be the beauteous prize, while I
Muft languish in despair, in prifon die.
Thus all th' advantage of the ftrife is thine,

Thy portion double joys, and double forrows mine.

The

The rage of Jealousy then fir'd his foul,
And his face kindled like a burning coal :
Now cold Despair, fucceeding in her stead,
To livid palenefs turns the glowing red.
His blood, fcarce liquid, creeps within his veins,
Like water which the freezing wind constrains.
Then thus he faid: Eternal Deities,
Who rule the world with absolute decrees,
And write whatever time shall bring to pass,
With pens of adamant, on plates of brass;
What, is the race of human kind your care
Beyond what all his fellow-creatures are ?
He with the rest is liable to pain,

And like the sheep, his brother-beast, is slain.
Cold, hunger, prifons, ills without a cure,
All these he must, and guiltless oft endure;
Or does your justice, power, or prescience fail,
When the good fuffer, and the bad prevail ?
What worse to wretched virtue could befal,
If fate or giddy fortune govern'd all ?
Nay, worse than other beafts is our estate;
Them, to pursue their pleasures, you create;
We, bound by harder laws, must curb our will,
And your commands, not our defires, fulfil;
Then when the creature is unjustly flain,
Yet after death at least he feels no pain;
But man in life furcharg'd with woe before,
Not freed when dead, is doom'd to fuffer more.
A ferpent shoots his fting at unaware ;
An ambush'd thief forelays a traveller :
F 4

The