See their wide ftreaming wounds; they neither came
For pride of empire, nor defire of fame :

Kings fight for kingdoms, madmen for applause:
But love for love alone; that crowns the lover's cause.
This thought, which ever bribes the beauteous kind,
Such pity wrought in every lady's mind,

They left their steeds, and proftrate on the place,
From the fierce king, implor'd th' offenders grace.
He paus'd a while, ftood filent in his mood
(For yet his rage was boiling in his blood);
But foon his tender mind th' impreffion felt,
(As fofteft metals are not flow to melt
And pity fooneft runs in softest minds) :
Then reasons with himfelf; and first he finds
His paffion caft a mift before his fenfe,

And either made, or magnify'd th' offence.
Offence! of what? to whom? who judg'd the cause ?
The prifoner freed himself by nature's laws :
Born free, he fought his right: the man he freed
Was perjur'd, but his love excus'd the deed:
Thus pondering, he look'd under with his eyes,
And faw the women's tears, and heard their cries;
Which mov'd compaffion more, he fhook his head,
And foftly fighing to himself he faid:

Curfe on th' unpardoning prince, whom tears can draw

To no remorse; who rules by lions law;

And deaf to prayers, by no fubmission bow'd,
Rends all alike; the penitent, and proud:

At this, with look ferene, he rais'd his head;
Reason refum'd her place, and passion fled :
Then thus aloud he fpoke: The power of love,
In earth, and feas, and air, and heaven above,
Rules, unrefifted, with an awful nod;

By daily miracles declar'd a God:

He blinds the wife, gives eye-fight to the blind;
And moulds and ftamps anew the lover's mind.
Behold that Arcite, and this Palamon,
Freed from my fetters, and in safety gone,
What hinder'd either in their native foil
At eafe to reap the harvest of their toil;
But Love, their lord, did otherwise ordain,
And brought them in their own despite again,
To fuffer death deferv'd; for well they know,
'Tis in my power, and I their deadly foe;
The proverb holds, that to be wife and love,
Is hardly granted to the Gods above.

See how the madmen bleed: behold the gains
With which their master, Love, rewards their pains;
For feven long years, on duty every day,

Lo their obedience, and their monarch's pay:
Yet, as in duty bound, they ferve him on ;
And, afk the fools, they think it wifely done;
Nor eafe, nor wealth, nor life itself regard,
For 'tis their maxim, Love is love's reward.
This is not all; the fair for whom they strove
Nor knew before, nor could fufpect their love,
Nor thought, when the beheld the fight from far,
Her beauty was th' occafion of the war.

But

But fure a general doom on man is past,
And all are fools and lovers, first or last:
This both by others and myself I know,
For I have ferv'd their sovereign long ago;
Oft have been caught within the winding train
Of female fnares, and felt the lover's pain,

And learn'd how far the God can human hearts conftrain.

To this remembrance, and the prayers of those
Who for th' offending warriors interpose,
I give their forfeit lives ; on this accord,
To do me homage as their fovereign lord;
And as my vaffals, to their utmost might,
Affift my perfon, and affert my right.

This freely fworn, the knights their grace obtain'd.
Then thus the king his fecret thoughts 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 fuch is fhe you ferve:
For Emily is fifter to the crown,

And but too well to both her beauty known:
But fhould you combat till you both were dead,
Two lovers cannot fhare a fingle 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 deserves her love!
Depart from hence in peace, and free as air,
Search the wide world, and where you please repair;

}

But

But on the day when this returning fun

To the fame point through every sign 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 opposite,
Or kill, or make him recreant on the plain,
The prize of valour and of love shall gain;
The vanquish'd party shall their claim release,
And the long jars conclude in lasting 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 heaven of me fo judge as I fhall judge aright.
If both are fatisfied with this accord,

Swear by the laws of knighthood on my fword.
Who now but Palamon exults with joy?

And ravish'd Arcite feems to touch the sky:
The whole affembled 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 ardour look,

And from her eyes their inspiration took.

From thence to Thebes' old walls pursue their way,
Each to provide his champions for the day.

}

It

It might be deem'd, on our hiftorian's part,
Or too much negligence, or want of art,
If he forgot the vaft magnificence
Of royal Thefeus, and his large expence.
He first inclos'd for lifts a level ground,
The whole circumference a mile around;
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 oppofite.
A nobler object than this fabric was,
Rome never faw; nor of fo vaft a space:

For, rich with fpoils 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 fports her chafte delight.

Within