And at eyes can fuffer this unworthy fight!
Theo youths of royal blood, renown'd in fight,
Hele maftership of heav'n in face and mind,
Lohd lovers, far beyond their faithlefs kind:
Ree their wide ftreaming wounds; they neither came
Vor pride of empire, nor defire of fame:
Kings fight for kingdoms, madmen for applaufe:
But love for love alone; that crowns the lover's cause.
This thought, which ever bribes the beauteous kind,
Such pity wrought in ev'ry lady's mind,
They left their fteeds, and proftrate on the place,
From th' 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 low to melt,
And pity fooneft runs in fofteft minds:)
Then reasons with himself; 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 pris'ner 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 said:
Curfe on th unpard'ning prince, whom tears can draw
To no remorfe; who rules by lions law;
And deaf to pray'rs, by no fubmiffion bow'd,
Rends all alike; the penitent, and proud:
At this, with look ferene, he rais'd his head;
Reafon refum'd her place, and paffion fled:
Then thus aloud he fpoke: the pow'r of love,
In earth, and feas, and air, and heav'n 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 fafety gone,
What hinder'd either in their native foil
At eafe to reap the harvest of their toll;
But Love, their lord, did otherwife ordain,
And brought 'em in their own despite again,
To fuffer death deferv'd; for well they know,
'Tis in my pow'r, 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 mafter, Love, rewards their pains;
For fev'n long years, on duty ev'ry 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 ease, nor wealth, nor life itfelf 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' occcafion of the war.
But fure a general doom on man is past,
And all are fools and lovers, first or laft:
This both by others and myself 1 know,
For I have ferv'd their fov'reign 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 interpofe,
I give their forfeit lives; on this accord,
To do me homage as their fov'reign 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 thought 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
For Emily is fifter to the crown,
And but too well to both her beauty known :
But fhou'd you combat till you both were dead,
Two lovers cannot share a fingle bed:
As therefore both are equal in degree,
The lot of both be left to destiny.
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 on the day when this returning fun
To the fame point through ev'ry fign 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 fhall gain;
The vanquish'd party fhall 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 so renown'd;
And take the patron's place of either knight,
With eyes impartial to behold the fight;
And Heav'n of me so judge as I shall 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 blefs the gracious king. The knights with leave
Departing from the place, his last commands receive;
On Emily with equal ardor look,
And from her eyes their infpiration took.
From thence to Thebes' old walls pursue their way,
Each to provide his champions for the day.
It might be deem'd, on our historian's part,
Or too much negligence, or want of art,
If he forgot the vast magnificence
Of royal Thefeus, and his large expence.
He firft inclos'd for lifts a level ground,
The whole circumference a mile round;
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 vast a space.
For rich with spoils 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 priest 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 thefe oratories might you fee
Rich carvings, pourtraitures, and imagery:
Where ev'ry figure to the life exprefs'd
The godhead's pow'r to whom it was addrefs'd.
In Venus' temple on the fides were seen
The broken flumbers of enamour'd men,
Pray'rs that ev'n fpoke, and pity feem'd to call,
And iffuing fighs that fmok'd along the wall.
Complaints, and hot defires, the lover's hell,
And scalding tears that wore a channel where they fell;
And all around were nuptial bonds, the ties,
Of love's affurance, and a train of lies,
That, made in luft, conclude in perjuries.
Beauty, and youth, and wealth, and luxury,
And fpritely hope, and fhort-enduring joy;
And forceries to raise th' infernal pow'rs,
And figils fram'd in planetary hours:
Expence, and after-thought, and idle care,
And doubts of motley hue, and dark despair;
Sufpicious, and fantaftical furmife,
And jealoufy fuffus'd, with jaundice in her eyes,
Difcolouring all fhe view'd, in tawny drefs'd;
Down-look'd, and with a cuckow on her fift,
Oppos'd to her, on t'other fide advance
The coftly feaft, the carol, and the dance,
Minstrels, and mufic, poetry, and play,
And balls by night, and tournaments by day,
All these were painted on the wall, and more;
With acts and monuments of times before:
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