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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7490-8.txt b/7490-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e0f532 --- /dev/null +++ b/7490-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4913 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Palamon and Arcite, by John Dryden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Palamon and Arcite + +Author: John Dryden + +Editor: George E. Eliot + + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7490] +This file was first posted on May 10, 2003 +Last Updated: May 10, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALAMON AND ARCITE *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Charles Franks and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + + + + + + + + +DRYDEN'S PALAMON AND ARCITE + + +Edited With Introduction And Notes By George E. Eliot, A.M. +English Master In The Morgan School + + +To + +Henry A. Beers + +Professor Of English Literature In Yale University + +Who First Aroused My Interest In Dryden + +And Directed My Study Of His Works + +This Volume Is Respectfully Inscribed + + + + +PREFACE. + +To edit an English classic for study in secondary schools is difficult. +The lack of anything like uniformity in the type of examination required +by the colleges and universities complicates treatment. Not only do two +distinct institutions differ in the scope and character of their +questions, but the same university varies its demands from year to year. +The only safe course to pursue is, therefore, a generally comprehensive +one. But here, again, we are hampered by limited space, and are forced +to content ourselves with a bare outline, which the individual +instructor can fill in as much or as little as he pleases. + +The ignorance of most of our classical students in regard to the history +of English literature is appalling; and yet it is impossible properly to +study a given work of a given author without some knowledge of the +background against which that particular writer stands. I have, +therefore, sketched the politics, society, and literature of the age in +which Dryden lived, and during which he gave to the world his _Palamon +and Arcite_. In the critical comments of the introduction I have +contented myself with little more than hints. That particular line of +study, whether it concerns the poet's style, his verse forms, or the +possession of the divine instinct itself, can be much more +satisfactorily developed by the instructor, as the student's knowledge +of the poem grows. + +It is certainly a subject for congratulation that so many youth will be +introduced, through the medium of Dryden's crisp and vigorous verse, to +one of the tales of Chaucer. May it now, as in his own century, +accomplish the poet's desire, and awaken in them appreciative admiration +for the old bard, the best story-teller in the English language. + +G. E. E. CLINTON, CONN., July 26, 1897. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + + +THE BACKGROUND. + + +The fifty years of Dryden's literary production just fill the last half +of the seventeenth century. It was a period bristling with violent +political and religious prejudices, provocative of strife that amounted +to revolution. Its social life ran the gamut from the severity of the +Commonwealth Puritan to the unbridled debauchery of the Restoration +Courtier. In literature it experienced a remarkable transformation in +poetry, and developed modern prose, watched the production of the +greatest English epics, smarted under the lash of the greatest English +satires, blushed at the brilliant wit of unspeakable comedies, and +applauded the beginnings of English criticism. + +When the period began, England was a Commonwealth. Charles I., by +obstinate insistence upon absolutism, by fickleness and faithlessness, +had increased and strengthened his enemies. Parliament had seized the +reins of government in 1642, had completely established its authority at +Naseby in 1645, and had beheaded the king in front of his own palace in +1649. The army had accomplished these results, and the army proposed to +enjoy the reward. Cromwell, the idolized commander of the Ironsides, was +placed at the head of the new-formed state with the title of Lord +Protector; and for five years he ruled England, as she had been ruled by +no sovereign since Elizabeth. He suppressed Parliamentary dissensions +and royalist uprisings, humbled the Dutch, took vengeance on the +Spaniard, and made England indisputably mistress of the ocean. He was +succeeded, at his death in 1658, by his son Richard; but the father's +strong instinct for government had not been inherited by the son. The +nation, homesick for monarchy, was tiring of dissension and bickering, +and by the Restoration of 1660 the son of Charles I became Charles II of +England. + +Scarcely had the demonstrations of joy at the Restoration subsided when +London was visited by the devouring plague of 1665. All who could fled +from the stricken city where thousands died in a day. In 1666 came the +great fire which swept from the Tower to the Temple; but, while it +destroyed a vast deal of property, it prevented by its violent +purification a recurrence of the plague, and made possible the +rebuilding of the city with great sanitary and architectural +improvements. + +Charles possessed some of the virtues of the Stuarts and most of their +faults. His arbitrary irresponsibility shook the confidence of the +nation in his sincerity. Two parties, the Whigs and the Tories, came +into being, and party spirit and party strife ran high. The question at +issue was chiefly one of religion. The rank and file of Protestant +England was determined against the revival of Romanism, which a +continuation of the Stuart line seemed to threaten. Charles was a +Protestant only from expediency, and on his deathbed accepted the Roman +Catholic faith; his brother James, Duke of York, the heir apparent, was +a professed Romanist. + +Such an outlook incited the Whigs, under the leadership of Shaftesbury, +to support the claims of Charles' eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of +Monmouth, who, on the death of his father in 1685, landed in England; +but the promised uprising was scarcely more than a rabble of peasantry, +and was easily suppressed. Then came the vengeance of James, as foolish +as it was tyrannical. Judge Jeffries and his bloody assizes sent scores +of Protestants to the block or to the gallows, till England would endure +no more. William, Prince of Orange, who had married Mary, the eldest +daughter of James, was invited to accept the English crown. He landed at +Torbay, was joined by Churchill, the commander of the king's forces, +and, on the precipitate flight of James, mounted the throne of England. +This event stands in history as the Protestant Revolution of 1688. + +During William's reign, which terminated in 1702, Stuart uprisings were +successfully suppressed, English liberties were guaranteed by the famous +Bill of Rights, Protestant succession was assured, and liberal +toleration was extended to the various dissenting sects. + +Society had passed through quite as great variations as had politics +during this half-century. The roistering Cavalier of the first Charles, +with his flowing locks and plumed hat, with his maypoles and morrice +dances, with his stage plays and bear-baitings, with his carousals and +gallantries, had given way to the Puritan Roundhead. It was a serious, +sober-minded England in which the youth Dryden found himself. If the +Puritan differed from the Cavalier in political principles, they were +even more diametrically opposed in mode of life. An Act of Parliament +closed the theaters in 1642. Amusements of all kinds were frowned upon +as frivolous, and many were suppressed by law. The old English feasts at +Michaelmas, Christmas, Twelfth Night, and Candlemas were regarded as +relics of popery and were condemned. The Puritan took his religion +seriously, so seriously that it overpowered him. The energy and fervor +of his religious life were illustrated in the work performed by +Cromwell's chaplain, John Howe, on any one of the countless fast days. +"He began with his flock at nine in the morning, prayed during a quarter +of an hour for blessing upon the day's work, then read and explained a +chapter for three-quarters of an hour, then prayed for an hour, preached +for an hour, and prayed again for a half an hour, then retired for a +quarter of an hour's refreshment--the people singing all the +while--returned to his pulpit, prayed for another hour, preached for +another hour, and finished at four P.M." + +At the Restoration the pendulum swung back again. From the strained +morality of the Puritans there was a sudden leap to the most extravagant +license and the grossest immorality, with the king and the court in the +van. The theaters were thrown wide open, women for the first time went +upon the stage, and they acted in plays whose moral tone is so low that +they cannot now be presented on the stage or read in the drawing-room. +Of course they voiced the social conditions of the time. Marriage ties +were lightly regarded; no gallant but boasted his amours. Revelry ran +riot; drunkenness became a habit and gambling a craze. The court +scintillated with brilliant wits, conscienceless libertines, and +scoffing atheists. It was an age of debauchery and disbelief. + +The splendor of this life sometimes dazzles, the lack of conveniences +appalls. The post left London once a week. A journey to the country must +be made in your own lumbering carriage, or on the snail-slow stagecoach +over miserable roads, beset with highwaymen. The narrow, ill-lighted +streets, even of London, could not be traversed safely at night; and +ladies, borne to routs and levees in their sedan chairs, were lighted by +link-boys, and were carried by stalwart, broad-shouldered bearers who +could wield well the staves in a street fight. Such were the conditions +of life and society which Dryden found in the last fifty years of the +seventeenth century. + +Strong as were the contrasts in politics and manners during Dryden's +lifetime, they were paralleled by contrasts in literature no less +marked. Dryden was born in 1631; he died in 1700. In the year of his +birth died John Donne, the father of the Metaphysical bards, or +Marinists; in the year of his death was born James Thomson, who was to +give the first real start to the Romantic movement; while between these +two dates lies the period devoted to the development of French +Classicism in English literature. + +At Dryden's birth Ben Jonson was the only one of the great Elizabethan +dramatists still living, and of the lesser stars in the same galaxy, +Chapman, Massinger, Ford, Webster, and Heywood all died during his +boyhood and youth, while Shirley, the last of his line, lingered till +1667. Of the older writers in prose, Selden alone remained; but as +Dryden grew to manhood, he had at hand, fresh from the printers, the +whole wealth of Commonwealth prose, still somewhat clumsy with Latinism +or tainted with Euphuism, but working steadily toward that simple +strength and graceful fluency with which he was himself to mark the +beginning of modern English prose. + +Clarendon, with his magnificently involved style, began his famous +_History of the Great Rebellion_ in 1641. Ten years later Hobbes +published the _Leviathan_, a sketch of an ideal commonwealth. Baxter, +with his _Saints' Everlasting Rest_ sent a book of religious consolation +into every household. In 1642 Dr. Thomas Browne, with the simplicity of +a child and a quaintness that fascinates, published his _Religio +Medici_; and in 1653 dear old simple-hearted Isaak Walton told us in his +_Compleat Angler_ how to catch, dress, and cook fish. Thomas Fuller, +born a score or more of years before Dryden, in the same town, +Aldwinkle, published in 1642 his _Holy and Profane State_, a collection +of brief and brisk character sketches, which come nearer modern prose +than anything of that time; while for inspired thought and purity of +diction the _Holy Living_, 1650, and the _Holy Dying_, 1651, of Jeremy +Taylor, a gifted young divine, rank preëminent in the prose of the +Commonwealth. + +But without question the ablest prose of the period came from the pen of +Cromwell's Latin Secretary of State, John Milton. Milton stands in his +own time a peculiarly isolated figure. We never in thought associate him +with his contemporaries. Dryden had become the leading literary figure +in London before Milton wrote his great epic; yet, were it not for +definite chronology, we should scarcely realize that they worked in the +same century. While, therefore, no sketch of seventeenth-century +literature can exclude Milton, he must be taken by himself, without +relation to the development, forms, and spirit of his age, and must be +regarded, rather, as a late-born Elizabethan. + +When Dryden was born, Milton at twenty-three was just completing his +seven years at Cambridge, and as the younger poet grew through boyhood, +the elder was enriching English verse with his _Juvenilia_. Then came +the twenty years of strife. As Secretary of the Commonwealth, he threw +himself into controversial prose. His _Iconoclast_, the _Divorce_ +pamphlets, the _Smectymnuus_ tracts, and the _Areopagitica_ date from +this period. A strong partisan of the Commonwealth, he was in emphatic +disfavor at the Restoration. Blind and in hiding, deserted by one-time +friends, out of sympathy with his age, he fulfilled the promise of his +youth: he turned again to poetry; and in _Paradise Lost_, _Paradise +Regained_, and _Samson Agonistes_ he has left us "something so written +that the world shall not willingly let it die." + +I have said that Milton's poetry differed distinctly from the poetry of +his age. The verse that Dryden was reading as a schoolboy was quite +other than _L'Allegro_ and _Lycidas_. In the closing years of the +preceding century, John Donne had traveled in Italy. There the poet +Marino was developing fantastic eccentricities in verse. Donne under +similar influences adopted similar methods. + +To seize upon the quaintest possible thought and then to express it in +as quaint a manner as possible became the chief aim of English poets +during the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century. Donne had +encountered trouble in obtaining his wife from her father. Finding one +morning a flea that had feasted during the night on his wife and +himself, he was overcome by its poetic possibilities, and wrote: + + + "This flea is you and I, and this + Our marriage bed and temple is; + Tho' parents frown, and you, we're met + And cloister'd in these living walls of jet." + + +To strain after conceits, to strive for quaintness of thought and +expression, was the striking characteristic of all the poets of the +generation, to whom Dr. Johnson gave the title Metaphysical, and who are +now known as the Marinists. There were Quarles, with his Dutch +_Emblems_; Vaughan, Sandys, Crashaw, and pure-souled George Herbert, +with his _Temple_. There were Carew, with the _Rapture_; Wither and his +"Shall I wasting in despair"; the two dashing Cavaliers Suckling and +Lovelace, the latter the only man who ever received an M.A. for his +personal beauty. There was Herrick, the dispossessed Devonshire rector, +with _Hesperides_ and _Noble Numbers_, freer than were the others from +the beauty-marring conceits of the time. There, too, were to be found +the gallant love-maker Waller, Cowley, the queen's secretary during her +exile, and Marvell, Milton's assistant Secretary of State. But these +three men were to pledge allegiance to a new sovereignty in English +verse. + +In the civil strife, Waller had at first sided with Parliament, had +later engaged in a plot against it, and after a year's imprisonment was +exiled to France. At this time the Academy, organized to introduce form +and method in the French language and literature, held full sway. +Malherbe was inculcating its principles, Corneille and Molière were +practicing its tenets in their plays, and Boileau was following its +rules in his satires, when Waller and his associates came in contact +with this influence. The tendency was distinctly toward formality and +conventionality. Surfeited with the eccentricities and far-fetched +conceits of the Marinists, the exiled Englishmen welcomed the change; +they espoused the French principles; and when at the Restoration they +returned to England with their king, whose taste had been trained in the +same school, they began at once to formalize and conventionalize English +poetry. The writers of the past, even the greatest writers of the past, +were regarded as men of genius, but without art; and English poetry was +thenceforth, in Dryden's own words, to start with Waller. + +Under the newly adopted canons of French taste, narrative and didactic +verse, or satire, took first place. Blank verse was tabooed as too +prose-like; so, too, were the enjambed rhymes. A succession of rhymed +pentameter couplets, with the sense complete in each couplet, was set +forth as the proper vehicle for poetry; and this unenjambed distich +fettered English verse for three-quarters of a century. In the drama the +characters must be noble, the language dignified; the metrical form must +be the rhymed couplet, and the unities of time, place, and action must +be observed. + +Such, in brief, were the principles of French Classicism as applied to +English poetry, principles of which Dryden was the first great exponent, +and which Pope in the next generation carried to absolute perfection. +Waller, Marvell, and Cowley all tried their pens in the new method, +Cowley with least success; and they were the poets in vogue when Dryden +himself first attracted attention. Denham quite caught the favor of the +critics with his mild conventionalities; the Earl of Roscommon delighted +them with his rhymed _Essay on Translated Verse_; the brilliant court +wits, Rochester, Dorset, and Sedley, who were writing for pleasure and +not for publication, still clung to the frivolous lyric; but the most-read +and worst-treated poet of the Restoration was Butler. He published +his _Hudibras_, a sharp satire on the extreme Puritans, in 1663. Every +one read the book, laughed uproariously, and left the author to starve +in a garret. Of Dryden's contemporaries in prose, there were Sir William +Temple, later the patron of Swift, John Locke who contributed to +philosophy his _Essay Concerning the Human Understanding_, the two +diarists Evelyn and Pepys, and the critics Rymer and Langbaine; there +was Isaac Newton, who expounded in his _Principia_, 1687, the laws of +gravitation; and there was the preaching tinker, who, confined in +Bedford jail, gave to the world in 1678 one of its greatest allegories, +_Pilgrim's Progress_. + +Dryden was nearly thirty before the production of the drama was resumed +in England. Parliament had closed the theaters in 1642, and that was an +extinguisher of dramatic genius. Davenant had vainly tried to elude the +law, and finally succeeded in evading it by setting his _Siege of +Rhodes_ to music, and producing the first English opera. At the +Restoration, when the theaters were reopened, the dramas then produced +reflected most vividly the looseness and immorality of the times. Their +worst feature was that "they possessed not wit enough to keep the mass +of moral putrefaction sweet." + +Davenant was prolific, Crowne wallowed in tragedy, Tate remodeled +Shakspere; so did Shadwell, who was later to measure swords with Dryden, +and receive for his rashness an unmerciful castigation. But by all odds +the strongest name in tragedy was Thomas Otway, who smacks of true +Elizabethan genius in the _Orphan_ and _Venice Preserved_. In comedy we +receive the brilliant work of Etheridge, the vigor of Wycherley, and, as +the century drew near its close, the dashing wit of Congreve, Vanbrugh, +and Farquhar. This burst of brilliancy, in which the Restoration drama +closes, was the prelude to the Augustan Age of Queen Anne and the first +Georges, the period wherein flourished that group of self-satisfied, +exceptionally clever, ultra-classical wits who added a peculiar zest and +charm to our literature. As Dryden grew to old age, these younger men +were already beginning to make themselves heard, though none had done +great work. In poetry there were Prior, Gay, and Pope, while in prose we +find names that stand high in the roll of fame,--the story-teller Defoe, +the bitter Swift, the rollicking Dick Steele, and delightful Addison. + +This is the background in politics, society, and letters on which the +life of Dryden was laid during the last half of the seventeenth century. +There were conditions in his environment which materially modified his +life and affected his literary form, and without a knowledge of these +conditions no study of the man or his works can be effective or +satisfactory. Dryden was preëminently a man of his times. + + + + +LIFE OF DRYDEN. + + +John Dryden was born at the vicarage of Aldwinkle, All Saints, in +Northamptonshire, August 9, 1631. His father, Erasmus Dryden, was the +third son of Sir Erasmus Dryden of Cannons Ashby. The estate descended +to Dryden's uncle, John, and is still in the family. His mother was Mary +Pickering. Both the Drydens and Pickerings were Puritans, and were +ranged on the side of Parliament in its struggle with Charles I. As a +boy Dryden received his elementary education at Tichmarsh, and went +thence to Westminster School, where he studied under the famous Dr. +Busby. Here he first appeared in print with an elegiac poem on the death +of a schoolfellow, Lord Hastings. It possesses the peculiarities of the +extreme Marinists. The boy had died from smallpox, and Dryden writes: + + +"Each little pimple had a tear in it To wail the fault its rising did +commit." + + +He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, May 18, 1650, took his B.A. in +1654, and then, though he received no fellowship, lingered at the +university for three years. Tradition tells us that he had no fondness +for his Alma Mater, and certainly his verse contains compliments only +for Oxford. + +His father had died in 1654 and had bequeathed him a small estate. When, +in 1657, he finally left the university, he attached himself to his +uncle, Sir Gilbert Pickering, a general of the Commonwealth. In 1658 he +wrote _Heroic Stanzas on Cromwell's Death;_ but shortly thereafter he +went to London, threw himself into the life of literary Bohemia, and at +the Restoration, in 1660, wrote his _Astroea Redux_, as enthusiastically +as the veriest royalist of them all. This sudden transformation of the +eulogist of Cromwell to the panegyrist of Charles won for Dryden in some +quarters the name of a political turncoat; but such criticism was +unjust. He was by birth and early training a Puritan; add to this a +poet's admiration for a truly great character, and the lines on Cromwell +are explained; but during his London life he rubbed elbows with the +world, early prejudices vanished, his true nature asserted itself, and +it was John Dryden himself, not merely the son of his father, who +celebrated Charles' return. + +On December 1, 1663, he married Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter +of the Earl of Berkshire, and the sister of a literary intimate. +Tradition has pronounced the marriage an unhappy one, but facts do not +bear out tradition. He nowhere referred other than affectionately to his +wife, and always displayed a father's warm affection for his sons, John, +Charles, and Erasmus. Lady Elizabeth outlived her husband and eventually +died insane. + +During the great plague in London, 1665, Dryden fled with his wife to +Charleton. He lived there for two years, and during that time wrote +three productions that illustrate the three departments of literature to +which he devoted himself: _Annus Mirabilis_, a narrative and descriptive +poem on the fire of 1666 and the sea fight with the Dutch, the _Essay on +Dramatic Poesy_, his first attempt at literary criticism in prose, and +the _Maiden Queen_, a drama. In _Annus Mirabilis_ we find the best work +yet done by him. Marinist quaintness still clings here and there, and he +has temporarily deserted the classical distich for a quatrain stanza; +but here, for the first time, we taste the Dryden of the _Satires_ and +the _Fables_. His _Essay on Dramatic Poesy_ started modern prose. +Hitherto English prose had suffered from long sentences, from involved +sentences, and from clumsy Latinisms or too bald vernacular. Dryden +happily united simplicity with grace, and gave us plain, straightforward +sentences, musically arranged in well-ordered periods. This was the +vehicle in which he introduced literary criticism, and he continued it +in prefaces to most of his plays and subsequent poems. + +At this same time he not only discussed the drama, but indulged in its +production; and for a score of years from the early sixties he devoted +himself almost exclusively to the stage. It was the most popular and the +most profitable mode of expression. He began with a comedy, the _Wild +Gallant_, in 1662. It was a poor play and was incontinently condemned. +He then developed a curious series of plays, of which the _Indian +Emperor_, the _Conquest of Grenada_, and _Aurengzebe_ are examples. He +professedly followed French methods, observed the unities, and used the +rhymed couplet. But they were not French; they were a nondescript +incubation by Dryden himself, and were called heroic dramas. They were +ridiculed in the Duke of Buckingham's farce, the _Rehearsal_; but their +popularity was scarcely impaired. + +In 1678 Dryden showed a return to common sense and to blank verse in +_All for Love_, and, though it necessarily suffers from its comparison +with the original, Shakspere's _Antony and Cleopatra_, it nevertheless +possesses enough dramatic power to make it his best play. He had +preceded this by rewriting Milton's _Paradise Lost_ as an opera, in the +_State of Innocence_, and he followed it in 1681 with perhaps his best +comedy, the _Spanish Friar_. + +Dryden was now far the most prominent man of letters in London. In 1670 +he had been appointed Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal with a +salary of two hundred pounds and a butt of sack. His connection with the +stage had been a decided financial success, and he was in receipt of an +income of about seven hundred pounds, which at modern values would +approximate $15,000. His house on Gerard Street, Soho, backed upon +Leicester's gardens. There he spent his days in writing, but the evening +found him at Will's Coffee House. In this famous resort of the wits and +writers of the day the literary dictator of his generation held his +court. Seated in his particular armchair, on the balcony in summer, by +the fire in winter, he discoursed on topics current in the literary +world, pronounced his verdict of praise or condemnation, and woe to the +unfortunate upon whom the latter fell. A week before Christmas, in 1679, +as Dryden was walking home from an evening of this sort, he was waylaid +by masked ruffians in Rose Alley and was beaten to unconsciousness. The +attack was supposed to have been incited by Rochester, who smarted under +an anonymous satire mistakenly attributed to Dryden. + +Though wrongly accused of this particular satire, it was not long before +he did turn his attention to that department of verse. It was the time +of the restless dissent of the Whigs from the succession of James; and +in 1681 Dryden launched _Absalom and Achitophel_, one of the most +brilliant satires in our language, against Shaftesbury and his +adherents, who were inciting Monmouth to revolt. He found an admirable +parallel in Absalom's revolt from his father David, and he sustained the +comparison. The Scriptural names concealed living characters, and +Shaftesbury masked as Achitophel, the evil counsellor, and Buckingham as +Zimri. Feeling ran high. Shaftesbury was arrested and tried, but was +acquitted, and his friends struck off a medal in commemoration. In 1682, +therefore, came Dryden's second satire, the _Medal_. These two political +satires called forth in the fevered state of the times a host of +replies, two of the most scurrilous from the pens of Shadwell and +Settle. Of these two poor Whigs the first was drawn and quartered in +_MacFlecnoe_, while the two were yoked for castigation in Part II. of +_Absalom and Achitophel_, which appeared in 1682. Dryden possessed +preëminently the faculty for satire. He did not devote himself +exclusively to an abstract treatment, nor, like Pope, to bitter +personalities; he blends and combines the two methods most effectively. +Every one of his brisk, nervous couplets carries a sting; every distich +is a sound box on the ear. + +We reach now a most interesting period in Dryden's career and one that +has provoked much controversy. In 1681 he published a long argument in +verse, entitled _Religio Laici_ (the Religion of a Layman), in which he +states his religious faith and his adherence to the Church of England. +When King James came to the throne in 1685 he made an immediate attempt +to establish the Roman Catholic faith; and now Dryden, too, turned +Romanist, and in 1687 supported his new faith in the long poetical +allegory, the _Hind and the Panther_. Of course his enemies cried +turncoat; and it certainly looked like it. Dryden was well into manhood +before the religious instinct stirred in him, and then, once waking, he +naturally walked in the beaten track. But these instincts, though roused +late, possessed the poet's impetuosity; and it was merely a natural +intensifying of the same impulse that had brought him into the Church of +England, which carried him to a more pronounced religious manifestation, +and landed him in the Church of Rome. His sincerity is certainly backed +by his acts, for when James had fled, and the staunch Protestants +William and Mary held the throne, he absolutely refused to recant, and +sacrificed his positions and emoluments. He was stripped of his royal +offices and pensions, and, bitter humiliation, the laurel, torn from his +brow, was placed on the head of that scorned jangler in verse, Shadwell. + + +Deprived now of royal patronage and pensions, Dryden turned again to the +stage, his old-time purse-filler; and he produced two of his best plays, +_Don Sebastian_ and _Amphitryon_. The rest of his life, however, was to +be spent, not with the drama, but in translation and paraphrase. Since +1684 he had several times published _Miscellanies_, collections of verse +in which had appeared fragments of translations. With that indefatigable +energy which characterized him, he now devoted himself to sustained +effort. In 1693 he published a translation of _Juvenal_, and in the same +year began his translation of _Virgil_, which was published in 1697. The +work was sold by subscription, and the poet was fairly well paid. +Dryden's translations are by no means exact; but he caught the spirit of +his poet, and carried something of it into his own effective verse. + +Dryden was not great in original work, but he was particularly happy in +adaptation; and so it happened that his best play, _All for Love_, was +modeled on Shakspere's _Antony and Cleopatra_, and his best poem, +_Palamon and Arcite_, was a paraphrase of the _Knight's Tale_ of +Chaucer. Contrary to the general taste of his age, he had long felt and +often expressed great admiration for the fourteenth-century poet. His +work on Ovid had first turned his thought to Chaucer, he tells us, and +by association he linked with him Boccaccio. As his life drew near its +close he turned to those famous old story-tellers, and in the _Fables_ +gave us paraphrases in verse of eight of their most delightful tales, +with translations from Homer and Ovid, a verse letter to his kinsman +John Driden, his second _St. Cedlia's Ode_, entitled _Alexander's +Feast_, and an _Epitaph_. + +The _Fables_ were published in 1700. They were his last work. Friends of +the poet, and they were legion, busied themselves at the beginning of +that year in the arrangement of an elaborate benefit performance for him +at the Duke's Theater; but Dryden did not live to enjoy the compliment. +He suffered severely from gout; a lack of proper treatment induced +mortification, which spread rapidly, and in the early morning of the +first of May, 1700, he died. + +He had been the literary figurehead of his generation, and the elaborate +pomp of his funeral attested his great popularity. His body lay in state +for several days and then with a great procession was borne, on the 13th +of May, to the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. The last years of his +life had been spent in fond study of the work of Chaucer, and so it +happened that just three hundred years after the death of elder bard +Dryden was laid to rest by the side of his great master. + + + + +PALAMON AND ARCITE + + +The _Fables_, in which this poem appears, were published in 1700. The +word fable as here used by Dryden holds its original meaning of story or +tale. Besides the _Palamon and Arcite_, he paraphrased from Chaucer the +_Cock and the Fox_, the _Flower and the Leaf_, the _Wife of Bath's +Tale_, the _Character of the Good Parson_. From Boccaccio he gave us +_Sigismonda and Guiscardo, Theodore and Honoria_, and _Cymon and +Iphigenia_, while he completed the volume with the first book of the +_Iliad_, certain of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, the _Epistle to John Driden, +Alexander's Feast_, and an _Epitaph_. The _Fables_ were dedicated to the +Duke of Ormond, whose father and grandfather Dryden had previously +honored in a prose epistle, full of the rather excessive compliment then +in vogue. _Palamon and Arcite_ is itself preceded by a dedication in +verse to the Duchess of Ormond. In the graceful flattery of this +inscription Dryden excelled himself, and he was easily grand master of +the art in that age of superlative gallantry. The Duke acknowledged the +compliment by a gift of five hundred pounds. The preface to the volume +is one of Dryden's best efforts in prose. It is mainly concerned with +critical comment on Chaucer and Boccaccio; and, though it lacks the +accuracy of modern scholarship, it is full of a keen appreciation of his +great forerunners. + +The work of Dryden in _Palamon and Arcite_ may seem to us superfluous, +for a well-educated man in the nineteenth century is familiar with his +Chaucer in the original; but in the sixteenth century our early poets +were regarded as little better than barbarians, and their language was +quite unintelligible. It was, therefore, a distinct addition to the +literature of his age when he rescued from oblivion the _Knight's Tale_, +the first of the _Canterbury Tales_, and gave it to his world as +_Palamon and Arcite_. + +Here, as in his translations, Dryden catches the spirit of his original +and follows it; but he does not track slavishly in its footprints. In +this particular poem he follows his leader more closely than in some of +his other paraphrases, and the three books in which he divides his +_Palamon and Arcite_ scarcely exceed in length the original _Knight's +Tale_. The tendency toward diffuse expansion, an excess of diluting +epithets, which became a feature of eighteenth-century poetry, Dryden +has sensibly shunned, and has stuck close to the brisk narrative and +pithy descriptions of Chaucer. If the subject in hand be concrete +description, as in the Temple of Mars, Dryden is at his best, and +surpasses his original; but if the abstract enters, as in the +portraiture on the walls, he expands, and when he expands he weakens. To +illustrate: + + + "The smiler with the knif under the cloke" + + +has lost force when Dryden stretches it into five verses: + + + "Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer; + Soft smiling, and demurely looking down, + But hid the dagger underneath the gown: + The assassinating wife, the household fiend, + And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend." + + +The anachronisms in the poem are Chaucer's. When he put this story of +Greek love and jealousy and strife into the mouth of his Knight, he was +living in the golden age of chivalry; and he simply transferred its +setting to this chivalrous story of ancient Greece. The arms, the lists, +the combat, the whole environment are those of the England of Edward +III, not the Athens of Theseus. Dryden has left this unchanged, +realizing the charm of its mediaeval simplicity. As Dryden gives it to +us the poem is an example of narrative verse, brisk in its movement, +dramatic in its action, and interspersed with descriptive passages that +stimulate the imagination and satisfy the sense. + +Coming as it did in the last years of his life, the poem found him with +his vocabulary fully developed and his versification perfected; and +these are points eminently essential in narrative verse. When Dryden +began his literary career, he had but just left the university, and his +speech smacked somewhat of the pedantry of the classical scholar of the +times. Then came the Restoration with its worship of French phrase and +its liberal importation. His easy-going life as a Bohemian in the early +sixties strengthened his vernacular, and his association with the wits +at Will's Coffee House developed his literary English. A happy blending +of all these elements, governed by his strong common sense, gave him at +maturity a vocabulary not only of great scope, but of tremendous energy +and vitality. + +At the time of the production of _Palamon and Arcite_ Dryden had, by +long practice, become an absolute master of the verse he used. As we +have seen, his early work was impregnated with the peculiarities of the +Marinists; and even after the ascendency of French taste at the +Restoration he still dallied with the stanza, and was not free from +conceits. But his work in the heroic drama and in satire had determined +his verse form and developed his ability in its use. In this poem, as in +the bulk of his work, he employs the unenjambed pentameter distich; that +is, a couplet with five accented syllables in each verse and with the +sense terminating with the couplet. Dryden's mastery of this couplet was +marvelous. He did not attain to the perfect polish of Pope a score of +years later, but he possessed more vitality; and to this strength must +be added a fluent grace and a ready sequence which increased the beauty +of the measure and gave to it a nervous energy of movement. The great +danger that attends the use of the distich is monotony; but Dryden +avoided this. By a constant variation of cadence, he threw the natural +pause now near the start, now near the close, and now in the midst of +his verse, and in this way developed a rhythm that never wearies the ear +with monotonous recurrence. He employed for this same purpose the +hemistich or half-verse, the triplet or three consecutive verses with +the same rhyme, and the Alexandrine with its six accents and its +consequent well-rounded fullness. + +So much for _Palamon and Arcite_. First put into English by the best +story-teller in our literature, it was retold at the close of the +seventeenth century by the greatest poet of his generation, one of whose +chief claims to greatness lies in his marvelous ability for adaptation +and paraphrase. + + + + +DRYDEN'S PLACE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. + + +It remains to indicate briefly Dryden's position in English literature. +To the critics of his own time he was without question the greatest man +of letters in his generation, and so he undeniably was after the death +of Milton. We are not ready to say with Dr. Johnson that "he found +English of brick and left it of marble," for there was much marble +before Dryden was dreamed of, and his own work is not entirely devoid of +brick; but that Dryden rendered to English services of inestimable value +is not to be questioned. For forty years the great aim of his life was, +as he tells us himself, to improve the English language and English +poetry, and by constant and tireless effort in a mass of production of +antipodal types he accomplished his object. He enriched and extended our +vocabulary, he modulated our meters, he developed new forms, and he +purified and invigorated style. + +There are a few poets in our literature who are better than Dryden; +there are a great many who are worse; but there has been none who worked +more constantly and more conscientiously for its improvement. Mr. +Saintsbury has admirably summarized the situation: "He is not our +greatest poet; far from it. But there is one point in which the +superlative may safely be applied to him. Considering what he started +with, what he accomplished, and what advantages he left to his +successors, he must be pronounced, without exception, the greatest +craftsman in English Letters." + + + + +REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + + +HISTORY: Green, _History of the English People_, vols. iii, iv; +Knight, _Popular History of England_, vols. iii, iv, v; Gardiner, +_The First Two Stuarts, and the Puritan Revolution_; Hale, _Fall +of the Stuarts, and Western Europe_; Green, _Short History of +the English People_; Ransome, _A Short History of England_; +Montgomery, _English History_. + +BIOGRAPHY: Lives of Dryden in the editions of his Works by Scott, +Malone, Christie; Johnson, _Dryden (Lives of the Poets)_; +Saintsbury, _Dryden (English Men of Letters)_. + +CRITICISM: Mitchell, _English Lands, Letters, and Kings +(Elizabeth to Anne)_; Gosse, _From Shakespeare to Pope_; +Lowell, _Dryden (Among my Books)_; Garnett, _The Age of Dryden_; +Masson, _Dryden and the Literature of the Restoration +(Three Devils)_; Hamilton, _The Poets Laureate of England_; +Hazlitt, _On Dryden and Pope_. + +ROMANCE: Scott, _Woodstock, Peveril of the Peak_; Defoe, +_The Plague in London_. + +MYTHOLOGY: Bulfinch, _Age of Fable_; Gayley, _Classic Myths +in English Literature_; Smith, _Classical Dictionary_. + + +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. + + Dryden's Life. History. English Literature. + 1631, Born Aug. 9th. 1631, Herbert, Temple. + + 1632, Milton, L'Allegro + and II Penseroso. + + 1633. Birth of Prince James. + 1633, Massinger, New Way + to Pay Old Debts. + Ford, Broken Heart. + Prynne, Histrio-mastix + + 1634. First Ship-money Writ. + 1634, Fletcher, Purple Island. + Cowley, Poetical Blossoms. + Milton, Comus. + + 1635. Second Ship-money Writ. + 1635, Quarles, Emblems. + + 1636, Sandys, + Paraphrase of the + Psalms. + + 1637, Riot in Edinburgh. + 1637, Milton, Lycidas. + + 1638, Scottish National Covenant. + Judgment against John Hampden. + + 1639. First Bishops' War. + + 1640. Short Parliament. + 1640, Suckling, + Ballad of a Wedding. + Second Bishops' War. + Carew, Poems. + Long Parliament assembled. + + 1641. Execution of Strafford. + Constitutional + + 1641, Milton, + Smectymnuus Tracts, + Reforms. Debate + Clarendon begins History of + on Grand Remonstrance. + Civil War. + + 1642. Committee of Public Safety. + 1642, Fuller, Holy + and Profane State. + Battle of Edgehill. + Theaters closed. Browne, + Religio Medici. + + + 1643. Westminster Assembly. Solemn + 1643, Denham, + Cooper's Hill. + League and Covenant taken + by House. + + 1644. Scotch Army crosses Tweed. + 1644, Milton, + Doctrine and + Discipline + Royalist defeat + at Marston of Divorce, + Areopagitica, On + Moor. Education. + + 1645. Laud beheaded. 1645, Waller, + Poems, lst edition. + Royalists crushed + at Naseby. + 1646, Charles surrendered + to Scots. + 1646, Crashaw, + Steps to the + Temple. Browne, + Vulgar Errors. + + 1647, Charles surrendered + by Scots. Army in + possession of London. + Charles' flight from + Hampton Court. + 1647, Cowley, The + Mistress. + + 1648, Second Civil War. + Pride's Purge. + 1648, Herrick, + Hesperides. + Noble Numbers. + + 1649, Poem on Death of Lord Hastings. + 1649, Charles beheaded. + Cromwell subdues Ireland. + 1649, Lovelace, + Lucasta. Gauden, + Eikon Basilike. + Milton, + Eikonoklastes. + + 1650, Entered Trinity, Cambridge. + 1650, Battle of Dunbar. + 1650, Baxter, + Saints' Everlasting + Rest. Taylor, Holy + Living. + + 1651, Cromwell wins at + Worcester. + 1651, Davenant, + Gondibert. Taylor, + Holy Dying. + Hobbes, Leviathan. + + 1652, Punished for disobedience, Cambridge. + + 1653, Cromwell dissolves + Long Parliament. + Barebones Parliament. + Made Lord Protector by + Little Parliament. + 1653, Walton, + Compleat Angler, + + 1654, Father died. Received B.A. from Cambridge. + 1654, First Protectorate + Parliament, Dutch routed + on the sea. + + 1655. Yreaty with France. + Jamaica seized from Spain. + 1656. Second Protectorate + Parliament. + 1656, Cowley, + Works, lst edition. + Davenant, Siege of + Rhodes. + + 1657. Left Cambridge. Attached to Sir Gilbert Pickering. + + 1658. Heroic Stanzas on Cromwell's Death. + 1658, Dunkirk seized from + Spain. Cromwell dies. His + son Richard succeeds. + + 1659, Richard Cromwell resigns. + Long Parliament restored. + Military government. + + 1660, Astraea Redux. + 1660, Long Parliament again + restored. + Declaration of Breda. + Convention Parliament. + Restoration Charles II. + 1660, Milton, + Ready and Easy Way + to Establish a + Free Commonwealth. + Pepys, Diary begun. + + 1661, Panegyric on Coronation. + 1661, Meeting of Cavalier + Parliament. Corporation Act. + + 1662, Poem to Lord Clarendon. + 1662, Act of Uniformity. + Dissenting ministers expelled. + Royal Society founded. King + declares for Toleration. Dunkirk + sold to France. + 1662, Fuller, + Worthies of + England. + + 1663, Married Lady Elizabeth Howard. Poem to Dr. Charleton. Wild Gallant. + 1663, Butler, + Hudibras. + + 1664. Reference in Pepys to 'Dryden, the poet.' + 1664, Repeal of Triennial Act. + Conventicle Act. + 1664, Etheridge, Comical Revenge. Evelyn, Sylva. + + 1665, Poem to the Duchess of York. Indian Emperor. + Poem to Lady Castlemaine. + Left London for Charleton. + 1665, First Dutch War of + Restoration. Great Plague. + Five-Mile Act. + 1665, Dorset, + Song at Sea. + + 1666, Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Son Charles born. + 1666, Great Fire. + + 1667, Annus Mirabilis. Maiden Queen. Sir Martin Marall. Tempest. + 1667, Dutch blockade Thames. + Peace of Breda. Clarendon's Fall. + 1667, Milton, + Paradise Lost. + + 1668, Mock Astrologer. Son John born. + 1668, Etheridge, + She Would if She + Could. Sedley, A + Mulberry Garden. + + 1669. Tyrannic Love. Son Erasmus born. + 1669, Pepys, Diary + closes. Shadwell, + The Royal Shepherdess. + Penn, No Cross, no + Crown. + + 1670, Conquest of Granada. Appointed Poet Laureate and + Historiographer Royal. + Mother died. + 1670, Treaty of Dover. + 1670, Shadwell, + Sullen Lovers. + + 1671, Buckingham, Rehearsal. Milton, Paradise Regained. Samson Agonistes. + + 1672. Marriage à la Mode. + 1672, Second Dutch War + of Restoration. Declaration + of Indulgence. + + 1673. Assignation, Amboyna. + 1673, Test Act. Shaftesbury dismissed. + 1673, Settle, Empress of Morocco. + + 1674, A State of Innocence. + 1675. Aurengzebe. + 1678, All for Love, Limberham. + 1679. OEdipus. Additional Pension + of One Hundred + Pounds. Troilus and + Cressida. Cudgeled in + Rose Alley. + 1680. Ovid's Heroides. + 1681, Spanish Friar. Absalom + and Achitophel, Part I. + 1682. The Medal, MacFlecnoe, + Absalom and Achitophel, + Part II. Religio + Laici. + 1683. Collector of Customs at the + Port of London. + 1684. Miscellanies, vol. i. Translates + Maimbourg's History + of League. + 1685. Miscellanies, vol. ii. Albion + and Albanius. + Threnodia Augustalis. + 1686. Ode on Memory of Mrs. + Killegrew. + 1687. Hind and the Panther. + St. Cecilia Ode. + + + 1674, Peace with the Dutch. + 1675, Non-resistance Bill rejected. + 1677, Marriage of William and Mary. + 1678, Peace of Nymwegen. + Popish plot. + 1679, Habeas Corpus Act. Dissolution + Cavalier Parliament. + First Short Parliament. + 1680, Second Short Parliament. + 1681, Third Short Parliament. + Tory Reaction. + 1682, Flight of Shaftesbury. + 1683, London City forfeits Charter. + Rye House Plot. + Russell and Sydney executed. + 1685, Death of Charles II. Accession + of James II. + Prorogation of Parliament. + Meeting of Parliament. + Battle of Edgemore. + Bloody Assizes. + 1686, Judges allowed King's Dispensing + Power. + 1687, First Declaration of Indulgence. + + English Literature. + + 1675, Mulgrave, Essay on Satire. + 1676, Etheridge, The Man of Mode. + 1677, Crowne, Destruction of Jerusalem. + Behn, The Rover. + Wycherley, Plain Dealer. + 1678, Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. + Rymer, Tragedies of the Last Age. + 1679, Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits. + 1680, Otway, The Orphan. + 1681, Marvell, Poems. + Roscommon, Essay on Translated + Verse. + 1682, Otway, Venice Preserved. + 1687, Newton, Principia. + Prior and Montague, Country + Mouse and City Mouse. + + 1688, Britannia Rediviva. + 1688, Second Declaration of Indulgence. Bishops sent to Tower. + Birth of Prince of Wales. William and Mary invited to take English Throne. + William lands at Torbay. James flees. + + 1689, Lost his offices and pensions. + 1689, William and Mary crowned. Toleration Act. Bill of Rights. + Grand Alliance. Jacobite Rebellion. + 1689, Locke, Letters on Toleration, Treatise on Government. + + 1690, Don Sebastian. Amphitryon. + 1690, Battle of the Boyne. + 1690, Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding. + + 1691, King Arthur + 1691, Treaty of Limerick. + 1691, Langbane, Account of English Dramatic Poets. Rochester, Poems. + + 1692, Eleonora, Cleomines. + 1692, Massacre of Glencoe. Churchill deprived of office. + 1692, Dennis, The Impartial Critick. + + 1693, Miscellanies, vol. iii. Perseus and Juvenal. + 1693, Beginning of National Debt. + 1693, Congreve, Old Bachelor. + + 1694, Miscellanies, vol. iv. + 1694, Bank of England established. Death of Queen Mary. + 1694, Southern, The Fatal Marriage. Addison, Account of Greatest + English Poets. Congreve, Double Dealer. + + 1695, Poems to Kneller and Congreve. Fresnoy's Art of Painting. + 1695, Censorship of Press removed. + 1695, Congreve, Love for Love. Blackmore, Prince Arthur. + + 1696, Life of Lucian. + 1696, Trials for Treason Act. + 1696, Southern, Oroonoko. + + 1697, Virgil, Alexander's Feast composed. + 1697, Peace of Ryswick. + 1697, Congreve, Mourning Bride. Vanbrugh, The Relapse. + + 1698, Partition Treaties. + 1698, Swift begins Battle of Books. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle. + Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife. Collier, Short View of the Immorality + and Profaneness of the English Stage. + + 1700, Fables. Died May 1st. + 1700, Severe Acts against Roman Catholics. + 1700, Congreve, Way of the World. Prior, Carmen Seculare. + + +TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND,<br> + +WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM OF PALAMON AND ARCITE. + + +MADAM, + + The bard who first adorned our native tongue + Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song; + Which Homer might without a blush reherse, + And leaves a doubtful palm in Virgil's verse: + He matched their beauties, where they most excel; + Of love sung better, and of-arms as well. + + Vouchsafe, illustrious Ormond, to behold + What power the charms of beauty had of old; + Nor wonder if such deeds of arms were done, + Inspired by two fair eyes that sparkled like your own. + + If Chaucer by the best idea wrought, + And poets can divine each other's thought, + The fairest nymph before his eyes he set; + And then the fairest was Plantagenet, + Who three contending princes made her prize, + And ruled the rival nations with her eyes; + Who left immortal trophies of her fame, + And to the noblest order gave the name. + + Like her, of equal kindred to the throne, + You keep her conquests, and extend your own: + + As when the stars, in their etherial race, + At length have rolled around the liquid space, + At certain periods they resume their place, + From the same point of heaven their course advance, + And move in measures of their former dance; + Thus, after length of ages, she returns, + Restored in you, and the same place adorns: + Or you perform her office in the sphere, + Born of her blood, and make a new Platonic year. + + O true Plantagenet, O race divine, + (For beauty still is fatal to the line,) + Had Chaucer lived that angel-face to view, + Sure he had drawn his Emily from you; + Or had you lived to judge the doubtful right, + Your noble Palamon had been the knight; + And conquering Theseus from his side had sent + Your generous lord, to guide the Theban government. + + Time shall accomplish that; and I shall see + A Palamon in him, in you an Emily. + + Already have the Fates your path prepared, + And sure presage your future sway declared: + When westward, like the sun, you took your way, + And from benighted Britain bore the day, + Blue Triton gave the signal from the shore, + The ready Nereids heard, and swam before + To smooth the seas; a soft Etesian gale + But just inspired, and gently swelled the sail; + Portunus took his turn, whose ample hand + Heaved up the lightened keel, and sunk the sand, + And steered the sacred vessel safe to land. + The land, if not restrained, had met your way, + Projected out a neck, and jutted to the sea. + Hibernia, prostrate at your feet, adored + In you the pledge of her expected lord, + + Due to her isle; a venerable name; + His father and his grandsire known to fame; + Awed by that house, accustomed to command, + The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand, + Nor bear the reins in any foreign hand. + + At your approach, they crowded to the port; + And scarcely landed, you create a court: + As Ormond's harbinger, to you they run, + For Venus is the promise of the Sun. + + The waste of civil wars, their towns destroyed, + Pales unhonoured, Ceres unemployed, + Were all forgot; and one triumphant day + Wiped all the tears of three campaigns away. + Blood, rapines, massacres, were cheaply bought, + So mighty recompense your beauty brought. + As when the dove returning bore the mark + Of earth restored to the long-labouring ark, + The relics of mankind, secure of rest, + Oped every window to receive the guest, + And the fair bearer of the message blessed: + So, when you came, with loud repeated cries, + The nation took an omen from your eyes, + And God advanced his rainbow in the skies, + To sign inviolable peace restored; + The saints with solemn shouts proclaimed the new accord. + + When at your second coming you appear, + (For I foretell that millenary year) + The sharpened share shall vex the soil no more, + But earth unbidden shall produce her store; + The land shall laugh, the circling ocean smile, + And Heaven's indulgence bless the holy isle. + + Heaven from all ages has reserved for you + That happy clime, which venom never knew; + Or if it had been there, your eyes alone + Have power to chase all poison, but their own. + + Now in this interval, which Fate has cast + Betwixt your future glories and your past, + This pause of power, 'tis Ireland's hour to mourn; + While England celebrates your safe return, + By which you seem the seasons to command, + And bring our summers back to their forsaken land. + + The vanquished isle our leisure must attend, + Till the fair blessing we vouchsafe to send; + Nor can we spare you long, though often we may lend. + The dove was twice employed abroad, before + The world was dried, and she returned no more. + + Nor dare we trust so soft a messenger, + New from her sickness, to that northern air; + Rest here awhile your lustre to restore, + That they may see you, as you shone before; + For yet, the eclipse not wholly past, you wade + Through some remains and dimness of a shade. + + A subject in his prince may claim a right, + Nor suffer him with strength impaired to fight; + Till force returns, his ardour we restrain, + And curb his warlike wish to cross the main. + + Now past the danger, let the learned begin + The inquiry, where disease could enter in; + How those malignant atoms forced their way, + What in the faultless frame they found to make their prey, + Where every element was weighed so well, + That Heaven alone, who mixed the mass, could tell + Which of the four ingredients could rebel; + And where, imprisoned in so sweet a cage, + A soul might well be pleased to pass an age. + + And yet the fine materials made it weak; + Porcelain by being pure is apt to break. + Even to your breast the sickness durst aspire, + And forced from that fair temple to retire, + Profanely set the holy place on fire. + In vain your lord, like young Vespasian, mourned, + When the fierce flames the sanctuary burned; + And I prepared to pay in verses rude + A most detested act of gratitude: + Even this had been your Elegy, which now + Is offered for your health, the table of my vow. + + Your angel sure our Morley's mind inspired, + To find the remedy your ill required; + As once the Macedon, by Jove's decree, + Was taught to dream an herb for Ptolemy: + Or Heaven, which had such over-cost bestowed + As scarce it could afford to flesh and blood, + So liked the frame, he would not work anew, + To save the charges of another you; + Or by his middle science did he steer, + And saw some great contingent good appear, + Well worth a miracle to keep you here, + And for that end preserved the precious mould, + Which all the future Ormonds was to hold; + And meditated, in his better mind, + An heir from you who may redeem the failing kind. + + Blessed be the power which has at once restored + The hopes of lost succession to your lord; + Joy to the first and last of each degree, + Virtue to courts, and, what I longed to see, + To you the Graces, and the Muse to me. + + O daughter of the Rose, whose cheeks unite + The differing titles of the Red and White; + Who heaven's alternate beauty well display, + The blush of morning and the milky way; + Whose face is Paradise, but fenced from sin; + For God in either eye has placed a cherubin. + + All is your lord's alone; even absent, he + Employs the care of chaste Penelope. + For him you waste in tears your widowed hours, + For him your curious needle paints the flowers; + Such works of old imperial dames were taught, + Such for Ascanius fair Elisa wrought. + The soft recesses of your hours improve + The three fair pledges of your happy love: + All other parts of pious duty done, + You owe your Ormond nothing but a son, + To fill in future times his father's place, + And wear the garter of his mother's race. + + + + +PALAMON AND ARCITE; + +OR, THE KNIGHT'S TALE. + +FROM CHAUCER. + + + + +BOOK I. + + In days of old there lived, of mighty fame, + A valiant Prince, and Theseus was his name; + A chief, who more in feats of arms excelled, + The rising nor the setting sun beheld. + Of Athens he was lord; much land he won, + And added foreign countries to his crown. + In Scythia with the warrior Queen he strove, + Whom first by force he conquered, then by love; + He brought in triumph back the beauteous dame, + With whom her sister, fair Emilia, came. + With honour to his home let Theseus ride, + With Love to friend, and Fortune for his guide, + And his victorious army at his side. + I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array, + Their shouts, their songs, their welcome on the way; + But, were it not too long, I would recite + The feats of Amazons, the fatal fight + Betwixt the hardy Queen and hero Knight; + The town besieged, and how much blood it cost + The female army, and the Athenian host; + The spousals of Hippolyta the Queen; + What tilts and turneys at the feast were seen; + The storm at their return, the ladies' fear: + But these and other things I must forbear. + + The field is spacious I design to sow + With oxen far unfit to draw the plough: + The remnant of my tale is of a length + To tire your patience, and to waste my strength; + And trivial accidents shall be forborn, + That others may have time to take their turn, + As was at first enjoined us by mine host, + That he, whose tale is best and pleases most, + Should win his supper at our common cost. + And therefore where I left, I will pursue + This ancient story, whether false or true, + In hope it may be mended with a new. + The Prince I mentioned, full of high renown, + In this array drew near the Athenian town; + When, in his pomp and utmost of his pride + Marching, he chanced to cast his eye aside, + And saw a quire of mourning dames, who lay + By two and two across the common way: + At his approach they raised a rueful cry, + And beat their breasts, and held their hands on high, + Creeping and crying, till they seized at last + His courser's bridle and his feet embraced. + "Tell me," said Theseus, "what and whence you are, + "And why this funeral pageant you prepare? + Is this the welcome of my worthy deeds, + To meet my triumph in ill-omened weeds? + Or envy you my praise, and would destroy + With grief my pleasures, and pollute my joy? + Or are you injured, and demand relief? + Name your request, and I will ease your grief." + The most in years of all the mourning train + Began; but swounded first away for pain; + Then scarce recovered spoke: "Nor envy we + "Thy great renown, nor grudge thy victory; + 'Tis thine, O King, the afflicted to redress, + And fame has filled the world with thy success: + We wretched women sue for that alone, + Which of thy goodness is refused to none; + Let fall some drops of pity on our grief, + If what we beg be just, and we deserve relief; + For none of us, who now thy grace implore, + But held the rank of sovereign queen before; + Till, thanks to giddy Chance, which never bears + That mortal bliss should last for length of years, + She cast us headlong from our high estate, + And here in hope of thy return we wait, + And long have waited in the temple nigh, + Built to the gracious goddess Clemency. + But reverence thou the power whose name it bears, + Relieve the oppressed, and wipe the widows' tears. + I, wretched I, have other fortune seen, + The wife of Capaneus, and once a Queen; + At Thebes he fell; cursed be the fatal day! + And all the rest thou seest in this array + To make their moan their lords in battle lost, + Before that town besieged by our confederate host. + But Creon, old and impious, who commands + The Theban city, and usurps the lands, + Denies the rites of funeral fires to those + Whose breathless bodies yet he calls his foes. + Unburned, unburied, on a heap they lie; + Such is their fate, and such his tyranny; + No friend has leave to bear away the dead, + But with their lifeless limbs his hounds are fed." + At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train + Echoed her grief, and grovelling on the plain, + With groans, and hands upheld, to move his mind, + Besought his pity to their helpless kind. + + The Prince was touched, his tears began to flow, + And, as his tender heart would break in two, + He sighed; and could not but their fate deplore, + So wretched now, so fortunate before. + Then lightly from his lofty steed he flew, + And raising one by one the suppliant crew, + To comfort each, full solemnly he swore, + That by the faith which knights to knighthood bore, + And whate'er else to chivalry belongs, + He would not cease, till he revenged their wrongs; + That Greece should see performed what he declared, + And cruel Creon find his just reward. + He said no more, but shunning all delay + Rode on, nor entered Athens on his way; + But left his sister and his queen behind, + And waved his royal banner in the wind, + Where in an argent field the God of War + Was drawn triumphant on his iron car. + Red was his sword, and shield, and whole attire, + And all the godhead seemed to glow with fire; + Even the ground glittered where the standard flew, + And the green grass was dyed to sanguine hue. + High on his pointed lance his pennon bore + His Cretan fight, the conquered Minotaur: + The soldiers shout around with generous rage, + And in that victory their own presage. + He praised their ardour, inly pleased to see + His host, the flower of Grecian chivalry. + All day he marched, and all the ensuing night, + And saw the city with returning light. + The process of the war I need not tell, + How Theseus conquered, and how Creon fell; + Or after, how by storm the walls were won, + Or how the victor sacked and burned the town; + How to the ladies he restored again + The bodies of their lords in battle slain; + And with what ancient rites they were interred; + All these to fitter time shall be deferred: + I spare the widows' tears, their woful cries, + And howling at their husbands' obsequies; + How Theseus at these funerals did assist, + And with what gifts the mourning dames dismissed. + + Thus when the victor chief had Creon slain, + And conquered Thebes, he pitched upon the plain + His mighty camp, and when the day returned, + The country wasted and the hamlets burned, + And left the pillagers, to rapine bred, + Without control to strip and spoil the dead. + + There, in a heap of slain, among the rest + Two youthful knights they found beneath a load oppressed + Of slaughtered foes, whom first to death they sent, + The trophies of their strength, a bloody monument. + Both fair, and both of royal blood they seemed, + Whom kinsmen to the crown the heralds deemed; + That day in equal arms they fought for fame; + Their swords, their shields, their surcoats were the same: + Close by each other laid they pressed the ground, + Their manly bosoms pierced with many a grisly wound; + Nor well alive nor wholly dead they were, + But some faint signs of feeble life appear; + The wandering breath was on the wing to part, + Weak was the pulse, and hardly heaved the heart. + These two were sisters' sons; and Arcite one, + Much famed in fields, with valiant Palamon. + From these their costly arms the spoilers rent, + And softly both conveyed to Theseus' tent: + Whom, known of Creon's line and cured with care, + He to his city sent as prisoners of the war; + Hopeless of ransom, and condemned to lie + In durance, doomed a lingering death to die. + + This done, he marched away with warlike sound, + And to his Athens turned with laurels crowned, + Where happy long he lived, much loved, and more renowned. + But in a tower, and never to be loosed, + The woful captive kinsmen are enclosed. + + Thus year by year they pass, and day by day, + Till once ('twas on the morn of cheerful May) + The young Emilia, fairer to be seen + Than the fair lily on the flowery green, + More fresh than May herself in blossoms new, + (For with the rosy colour strove her hue,) + Waked, as her custom was, before the day, + To do the observance due to sprightly May; + For sprightly May commands our youth to keep + The vigils of her night, and breaks their sluggard sleep; + Each gentle breast with kindly warmth she moves; + Inspires new flames, revives extinguished loves. + In this remembrance Emily ere day + Arose, and dressed herself in rich array; + Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair, + Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair: + A ribband did the braided tresses bind, + The rest was loose, and wantoned in the wind: + Aurora had but newly chased the night, + And purpled o'er the sky with blushing light, + When to the garden-walk she took her way, + To sport and trip along in cool of day, + And offer maiden vows in honour of the May. 190 + + At every turn she made a little stand, + And thrust among the thorns her lily hand + To draw the rose; and every rose she drew, + She shook the stalk, and brushed away the dew; + + Then party-coloured flowers of white and red + She wove, to make a garland for her head: + This done, she sung and carolled out so clear, + That men and angels might rejoice to hear; + Even wondering Philomel forgot to sing, + And learned from her to welcome in the spring. + The tower, of which before was mention made, + Within whose keep the captive knights were laid, + Built of a large extent, and strong withal, + Was one partition of the palace wall; + The garden was enclosed within the square, + Where young Emilia took the morning air. + + It happened Palamon, the prisoner knight, + Restless for woe, arose before the light, + And with his jailor's leave desired to breathe + An air more wholesome than the damps beneath. + This granted, to the tower he took his way, + Cheered with the promise of a glorious day; + Then cast a languishing regard around, + And saw with hateful eyes the temples crowned + With golden spires, and all the hostile ground. + He sighed, and turned his eyes, because he knew + 'Twas but a larger jail he had in view; + Then looked below, and from the castle's height + Beheld a nearer and more pleasing sight; + The garden, which before he had not seen, + In spring's new livery clad of white and green, + Fresh flowers in wide parterres, and shady walks between. + This viewed, but not enjoyed, with arms across + He stood, reflecting on his country's loss; + Himself an object of the public scorn, + And often wished he never had been born. + At last (for so his destiny required), + With walking giddy, and with thinking tired, + + He through a little window cast his sight, + Though thick of bars, that gave a scanty light; + But even that glimmering served him to descry + The inevitable charms of Emily. + + Scarce had he seen, but, seized with sudden smart, + Stung to the quick, he felt it at his heart; + Struck blind with overpowering light he stood, + Then started back amazed, and cried aloud. + + Young Arcite heard; and up he ran with haste, + To help his friend, and in his arms embraced; + And asked him why he looked so deadly wan, + And whence, and how, his change of cheer began? + Or who had done the offence? "But if," said he, + "Your grief alone is hard captivity, + For love of Heaven with patience undergo + A cureless ill, since Fate will have it so: + So stood our horoscope in chains to lie, + And Saturn in the dungeon of the sky, + Or other baleful aspect, ruled our birth, + When all the friendly stars were under earth; + Whate'er betides, by Destiny 'tis done; + And better bear like men than vainly seek to shun." + Nor of my bonds," said Palamon again, + Nor of unhappy planets I complain; + But when my mortal anguish caused my cry, + The moment I was hurt through either eye; + Pierced with a random shaft, I faint away, + And perish with insensible decay: + A glance of some new goddess gave the wound, + Whom, like Actaeon, unaware I found. + Look how she walks along yon shady space; + Not Juno moves with more majestic grace, + And all the Cyprian queen is in her face. + If thou art Venus (for thy charms confess + That face was formed in heaven), nor art thou less, + Disguised in habit, undisguised in shape, + O help us captives from our chains to scape! + But if our doom be past in bonds to lie + For life, and in a loathsome dungeon die, + Then be thy wrath appeased with our disgrace, + And show compassion to the Theban race, + Oppressed by tyrant power!"--While yet he spoke, + Arcite on Emily had fixed his look; + The fatal dart a ready passage found + And deep within his heart infixed the wound: + So that if Palamon were wounded sore, + Arcite was hurt as much as he or more: + Then from his inmost soul he sighed, and said, + "The beauty I behold has struck me dead: + Unknowingly she strikes, and kills by chance; + Poison is in her eyes, and death in every glance. + Oh, I must ask; nor ask alone, but move + Her mind to mercy, or must die for love." + + Thus Arcite: and thus Palamon replies + (Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes,) + "Speakest thou in earnest, or in jesting vein?" + "Jesting," said Arcite, "suits but ill with pain." + "It suits far worse," (said Palamon again, + And bent his brows,) "with men who honour weigh, + Their faith to break, their friendship to betray; + But worst with thee, of noble lineage born, + My kinsman, and in arms my brother sworn. + Have we not plighted each our holy oath, + That one should be the common good of both; + One soul should both inspire, and neither prove + 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 farther my design, + As I am bound by vow to farther thine: + Nor canst, nor darest thou, traitor, on the plain + Appeach my honour, or thy own maintain, + Since thou art of my council, and the friend + Whose faith I trust, and on whose care depend. + And wouldst thou court my lady's love, which I + Much rather than release, would choose to die? + But thou, false Arcite, never shalt 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 to assist my eldership of right, + Or justly to be deemed a perjured knight." + + Thus Palamon: but Arcite with disdain + In haughty language thus replied again: + "Forsworn thyself: the traitor's odious name + I first return, and then disprove thy claim. + If love be passion, and that passion nurst + With strong desires, I loved the lady first. + Canst thou pretend desire, whom zeal inflamed + To worship, and a power celestial named? + Thine was devotion to the blest above, + I saw the woman, and desired her love; + First owned my passion, and to thee commend + The important secret, as my chosen friend. + Suppose (which yet I grant not) thy desire + A moment elder than my rival fire; + Can chance of seeing first thy title prove? + And knowst 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 not positive; love's power we see + Is Nature's sanction, and her first decree, + Each day we break the bond of human laws + For love, and vindicate the common cause. + Laws for defence of civil rights are placed, + Love throws the fences down, and makes a general waste. + Maids, widows, wives without distinction fall; + The sweeping deluge, love, comes on and covers all. + If then the laws of friendship I transgress, + I keep the greater, while I break the less; + And both are mad alike, since neither can possess. + Both hopeless to be ransomed, never more + To see the sun, but as he passes o'er. + Like Æsop's hounds contending for the bone, + Each pleaded right, and would be lord alone; + The fruitless fight continued all the day, + A cur came by and snatched the prize away. + As courtiers therefore justle for a grant, + And when they break their friendship, plead their want, + So thou, if Fortune will thy suit advance, + Love on, nor envy me my equal chance: + For I must love, and am resolved to try + My fate, or failing in the adventure die." + + Great was their strife, which hourly was renewed, + Till each with mortal hate his rival viewed: + Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand; + But when they met they made a surly stand, + And glared like Angry lions as they passed, + And wished that every look might be their last. + + It chanced at length, Pirithous came to attend + This worthy Theseus, his familiar friend: + Their love in early infancy began, + And rose as childhood ripened into man, + Companions of the war; and loved so well, + That when one died, as ancient stories 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 since, + And honoured by this young Thessalian prince. + Theseus, to gratify his friend and guest, + Who made our Arcite's freedom his request, + Restored to liberty the captive knight, + But on these hard conditions I recite: + That if hereafter Arcite should be found + Within the compass of Athenian ground, + By day or night, or on whate'er pretence, + His head should pay the forfeit of the offence. + To this Pirithous for his friend agreed, + And on his promise was the prisoner freed. + + Unpleased 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 gained," he said, "in prison pent, + If I but change my bonds for banishment? + And banished from her sight, I suffer more + In freedom than I felt in bonds before; + Forced from her presence and condemned to live, + Unwelcome freedom and unthanked reprieve: + Heaven is not but where Emily abides, + And where she's absent, all is hell besides. + Next to my day of birth, was that accurst + Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first: + Had I not known that prince, I still had been + In bondage and had still Emilia seen: + For though I never can her grace deserve, + 'Tis recompense enough to see and serve. + O Palamon, my kinsman and my friend, + How much more happy fates thy love attend I + + Thine is the adventure, thine the victory, + Well has thy fortune turned the dice for thee: + Thou on that angel's face mayest feed thy eyes, + In prison, no; but blissful paradise! + Thou daily seest that sun of beauty shine, + And lovest at least in love's extremest line. + I mourn in absence, love's eternal night; + And who can tell but since thou hast her sight, + And art a comely, young, and valiant knight, + Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown, + And by some ways unknown thy wishes crown? + But I, the most forlorn of human kind, + Nor help can hope nor remedy can find; + But doomed 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 last relief: + Then farewell youth, and all the joys that dwell + With youth and life, and life itself, farewell! + 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 desire: + Some pray for riches; riches they obtain; + But, watched by robbers, for their wealth are slain; + Some pray from prison to be freed; and come, + When guilty of their vows, to fall at home; + Murdered by those they trusted with their life, + A favoured servant or a bosom wife. + Such dear-bought blessings happen every day, + Because we know not for what things to pray. + Like drunken sots about the streets we roam: + + "Well knows the sot he has a certain home, + Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, + And blunders on and staggers every pace. + Thus all seek happiness; but few can find, + For far the greater part of men are blind. + This is my case, who thought our utmost good + Was in one word of freedom understood: + The fatal blessing came: from prison free, + I starve abroad, and lose the sight of Emily." + + Thus Arcite: but if Arcite thus deplore + His sufferings, Palamon yet suffers more. + For when he knew his rival freed and gone, + He swells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan; + He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground; + The hollow tower with clamours rings around: + With briny tears he bathed his fettered feet, + And dropped all o'er with agony of sweat. + "Alas!" he cried, "I, wretch, in prison pine, + Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine: + Thou livest at large, thou drawest thy native air, + Pleased with thy freedom, proud of my despair: + Thou mayest, since thou hast youth and courage joined, + A sweet behaviour and a solid mind, + Assemble ours, and all the Theban race, + To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace; + And after (by some treaty made) possess + Fair Emily, the pledge of lasting peace. + So thine shall be the beauteous prize, while I + Must languish in despair, in prison die. + Thus all the advantage of the strife is thine, + Thy portion double joys, and double sorrows mine." + + The rage of jealousy then fired his soul, + And his face kindled like a burning coal + Now cold despair, succeeding in her stead, + To livid paleness turns the glowing red. + His blood, scarce liquid, creeps within his veins, + Like water which the freezing wind constrains. + Then thus he said: "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, prisons, ills without a cure, + All these he must, and guiltless oft, endure; + Or does your justice, power, or prescience fail, + When the good suffer and the bad prevail? + What worse to wretched virtue could befal, + If Fate or giddy Fortune governed all? + Nay, worse than other beasts is our estate: + Them, to pursue their pleasures, you create; + We, bound by harder laws, must curb our will, + And your commands, not our desires, fulfil: + Then, when the creature is unjustly slain, + Yet, after death at least, he feels no pain; + But man in life surcharged with woe before, + Not freed when dead, is doomed to suffer more. + A serpent shoots his sting at unaware; + An ambushed thief forelays a traveller; + The man lies murdered, while the thief and snake, + One gains the thickets, and one thrids the brake. + This let divines decide; but well I know, + Just or unjust, I have my share of woe, + Through Saturn seated in a luckless place, + And Juno's wrath that persecutes my race; + Or Mars and Venus in a quartil, move + My pangs of jealousy for Arcite's love." + + Let Palamon oppressed in bondage mourn, + While to his exited rival we return. + By this the sun, declining from his height, + The day had shortened to prolong the night: + The lengthened night gave length of misery, + Both to the captive lover and the free: + For Palamon in endless prison mourns, + And Arcite forfeits life if he returns; + The banished never hopes his love to see, + Nor hopes the captive lord his liberty. + 'Tis hard to say who suffers greater pains; + One sees his love, but cannot break his chains; + One free, and all his motions uncontrolled, + Beholds whate'er he would but what he would behold. + Judge as you please, for I will haste to tell + What fortune to the banished knight befel. + When Arcite was to Thebes returned again, + The loss of her he loved renewed his pain; + What could be worse than never more to see + His life, his soul, his charming Emily? + He raved with all the madness of despair, + He roared, he beat his breast, he tore his hair. + Dry sorrow in his stupid eyes appears, + For wanting nourishment, he wanted tears; + His eyeballs in their hollow sockets sink, + Bereft of sleep; he loathes his meat and drink; + He withers at his heart, and looks as wan + As the pale spectre of a murdered man: + That pale turns yellow, and his face receives + The faded hue of sapless boxen leaves; + In solitary groves he makes his moan, + Walks early out, and ever is alone; + Nor, mixed in mirth, in youthful pleasure shares, + But sighs when songs and instruments he hears. + + His spirits are so low, his voice is drowned, + He hears as from afar, or in a swound, + Like the deaf murmurs of a distant sound: + Uncombed his locks, and squalid his attire, + Unlike the trim of love and gay desire; + But full of museful mopings, which presage + The loss of reason and conclude in rage. + + This when he had endured a year and more, + Now wholly changed from what he was before, + It happened once, that, slumbering as he lay, + He dreamt (his dream began at break of day) + That Hermes o'er his head in air appeared, + And with soft words his drooping spirits cheered; + His hat adorned with wings disclosed the god, + And in his hand he bore the sleep-compelling rod; + Such as he seemed, when, at his sire's command, + On Argus' head he laid the snaky wand. + "Arise," he said, "to conquering Athens go; + There Fate appoints an end of all thy woe." + The fright awakened Arcite with a start, + Against his bosom bounced his heaving heart; + But soon he said, with scarce recovered breath, + "And thither will I go to meet my death, + Sure to be slain; but death is my desire, + Since in Emilia's sight I shall expire." + By chance he spied a mirror while he spoke, + And gazing there beheld his altered look; + Wondering, he saw his features and his hue + So much were changed, that scarce himself he knew. + A sudden thought then starting in his mind, + "Since I in Arcite cannot Arcite find, + The world may search in vain with all their eyes, + But never penetrate through this disguise. + Thanks to the change which grief and sickness give, + In low estate I may securely live, + And see, unknown, my mistress day by day." + He said, and clothed himself in coarse array, + A labouring hind in show; then forth he went, + And to the Athenian towers his journey bent: + One squire attended in the same disguise, + Made conscious of his master's enterprise. + Arrived at Athens, soon he came to court, + Unknown, unquestioned in that thick resort: + Proffering for hire his service at the gate, + To drudge, draw water, and to run or wait. + + So fair befel him, that for little gain + He served at first Emilia's chamberlain; + And, watchful all advantages to spy, + Was still at hand, and in his master's eye; + And as his bones were big, and sinews strong, + Refused no toil that could to slaves belong; + But from deep wells with engines water drew, + And used his noble hands the wood to hew. + He passed a year at least attending thus + On Emily, and called Philostratus. + But never was there man of his degree + So much esteemed, so well beloved as he. + So gentle of condition was he known, + That through the court his courtesy was blown: + All think him worthy of a greater place, + And recommend him to the royal grace; + That exercised within a higher sphere, + His virtues more conspicuous might appear. + Thus by the general voice was Arcite praised, + And by great Theseus to high favour raised; + Among his menial servants first enrolled, + And largely entertained with sums of gold: + Besides what secretly from Thebes was sent, + + Of his own income and his annual rent. + This well employed, he purchased friends and fame, + But cautiously concealed from whence it came. + Thus for three years he lived with large increase + In arms of honour, and esteem in peace; + To Theseus' person he was ever near, + And Theseus for his virtues held him dear. + + + + +BOOK II. + + + While Arcite lives in bliss, the story turns + Where hopeless Palamon in prison mourns. + For six long years immured, the captive knight + Had dragged his chains, and scarcely seen the light: + Lost liberty and love at once he bore; + His prison pained him much, his passion more: + Nor dares he hope his fetters to remove, + Nor ever wishes to be free from love. + But when the sixth revolving year was run, + And May within the Twins received the sun, + Were it by Chance, or forceful Destiny, + Which forms in causes first whate'er shall be, + Assisted by a friend one moonless night, + This Palamon from prison took his flight: + A pleasant beverage he prepared before + Of wine and honey mixed, with added store + Of opium; to his keeper this he brought, + Who swallowed unaware the sleepy draught, + And snored secure till morn, his senses bound + In slumber, and in long oblivion drowned. + Short was the night, and careful Palamon + Sought the next covert ere the rising sun. + A thick-spread forest near the city lay, + To this with lengthened strides he took his way, + (For far he could not fly, and feared the day.) + + Safe from pursuit, he meant to shun the light, + Till the brown shadows of the friendly night + To Thebes might favour his intended flight. + When to his country come, his next design + Was all the Theban race in arms to join, + And war on Theseus, till he lost his life, + Or won the beauteous Emily to wife. + Thus while his thoughts the lingering day beguile, + To gentle Arcite let us turn our style; + Who little dreamt how nigh he was to care, + Till treacherous fortune caught him in the snare. + The morning-lark, the messenger of day, + Saluted in her song the morning gray; + And soon the sun arose with beams so bright, + That all the horizon laughed to see the joyous sight; + He with his tepid rays the rose renews, + And licks the dropping leaves, and dries the dews; + When Arcite left his bed, resolved to pay + Observance to the month of merry May, + Forth on his fiery steed betimes he rode, + That scarcely prints the turf on which he trod: + At ease he seemed, and prancing o'er the plains, + Turned only to the grove his horse's reins, + The grove I named before, and, lighting there, + A woodbind garland sought to crown his hair; + Then turned his face against the rising day, + And raised his voice to welcome in the May: + "For thee, sweet month, the groves green liveries wear, + If not the first, the fairest of the year: + For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours, + And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers: + When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun + The sultry tropic fears, and moves more slowly on. + So may thy tender blossoms fear no blight, + Nor goats with venomed teeth thy tendrils bite, + As thou shalt guide my wandering feet to find + The fragrant greens I seek, my brows to bind." + His vows addressed, within the grove he strayed, + Till Fate or Fortune near the place conveyed + His steps where secret Palamon was laid. + Full little thought of him the gentle knight, + Who flying death had there concealed his flight, + In brakes and brambles hid, and shunning mortal sight; + And less he knew him for his hated foe, + But feared him as a man he did not know. + But as it has been said of ancient years, + That fields are full of eyes and woods have ears, + For this the wise are ever on their guard, + For unforeseen, they say, is unprepared. + Uncautious Arcite thought himself alone, + And less than all suspected Palamon, + Who, listening, heard him, while he searched the grove, + And loudly sung his roundelay of love: + But on the sudden stopped, and silent stood, + (As lovers often muse, 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 see a Friday clear. + Thus Arcite, having sung, with altered hue + Sunk on the ground, and from his bosom drew + A desperate sigh, accusing Heaven and Fate, + And angry Juno's unrelenting hate: + "Cursed be the day when first I did appear; + Let it be blotted from the calendar, + Lest it pollute the month, and poison all the year. + 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 involved in Cadmus' doom. + I suffer for my blood: unjust decree, + That punishes another's crime on me. + In mean estate I serve my mortal foe, + The man who caused my country's overthrow. + This is not all; for Juno, to my shame, + Has forced me to forsake my former name; + Arcite I was, Philostratus I am. + That side of heaven is all my enemy: + Mars ruined Thebes; his mother ruined me. + Of all the royal race remains but one + Besides myself, the unhappy Palamon, + Whom Theseus holds in bonds and will not free; + Without a crime, except his kin to me. + Yet these and all the rest I could endure; + But love's a malady without a cure: + Fierce Love has pierced me with his fiery dart, + He fires within, and hisses at my heart. + Your eyes, fair Emily, my fate pursue; + I suffer for the rest, I die for you. + Of such a goddess no time leaves record, + Who burned the temple where she was adored: + And let it burn, I never will complain, + Pleased with my sufferings, if you knew my pain." + At this a sickly qualm his heart assailed, + His ears ring inward, and his senses failed. + No word missed Palamon of all he spoke; + But soon to deadly pale he changed his look: + He trembled every limb, and felt a smart, + As if cold steel had glided through his heart; + Nor longer stayed, but starting from his place, + Discovered stood, and showed his hostile face: + "False traitor, Arcite, traitor to thy blood, + Bound by thy sacred oath to seek my good, + Now art thou found forsworn for Emily, + And darest attempt her love, for whom I die. + So hast thou cheated Theseus with a wile, + Against thy vow, returning to beguile + Under a borrowed name: as false to me, + So false thou art to him who set thee free. + But rest assured, that either thou shalt die, + Or else renounce thy claim in Emily; + For, though unarmed I am, and freed by chance, + Am here without my sword or pointed lance, + Hope not, base man, unquestioned hence to go, + For I am Palamon, thy mortal foe." + Arcite, who heard his tale and knew the man, + His sword unsheathed, 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 last; or in this grove + This hand should force thee to renounce thy love; + The surety 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 serve the fair in thy despite: + But since thou art my kinsman and a knight, + Here, have my faith, to-morrow in this grove + Our arms shall 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; + Choose thou the best, and leave the worst to me. + And, that at better ease thou mayest abide, + Bedding and clothes I will this night provide, + And needful sustenance, that thou mayest be + A conquest better won, and worthy me." + + His promise Palamon accepts; but prayed, + 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 dost thy power maintain, + And wilt not bear a rival in thy reign! + Tyrants and thou all fellowship disdain. + This was in Arcite proved and Palamon: + Both in despair, yet each would love alone. + Arcite returned, and, as in honour tied, + His foe with bedding and with food supplied; + Then, ere the day, two suits of armour sought, + Which borne before him on his steed he brought: + Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure + As might the strokes of two such arms endure. + Now, at the time, and in the appointed place, + The challenger and challenged, face to face, + Approach; each other from afar they knew, + And from afar their hatred changed their hue. + So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear, + Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear, + And hears him rustling in the wood, and sees + His course at distance 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 chillness seizes 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 surliness each armed with care + His foe professed, as brother of the war; + Then both, no moment lost, at once advance + Against each other, armed with sword and lance: + They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore + Their corslets, and the thinnest parts explore. + Thus two long hours in equal arms they stood, + And wounded wound, till both are bathed in blood + And not a foot of ground had either got, + As if the world depended on the spot. + Fell Arcite like an angry tiger fared, + And like a lion Palamon appeared: + Or, as two boars whom love to battle draws, + With rising bristles and with frothy jaws, + Their adverse breasts with tusks oblique they wound + With grunts and groans the forest rings around. + So fought the knights, and fighting must abide, + Till Fate an umpire sends their difference to decide. + The power that ministers to God's decrees, + And executes on earth what Heaven foresees, + Called Providence, or Chance, or Fatal sway, + Comes with resistless force, and finds or makes her way. + Nor kings, nor nations, nor united power + One moment can retard the appointed hour, + And some one day, some wondrous chance appears, + Which happened not in centuries of years: + For sure, whate'er we mortals hate or love + Or hope or fear depends on powers above: + They move our appetites to good or ill, + And by foresight necessitate the will. + In Theseus this appears, whose youthful joy + Was beasts of chase in forests to destroy; + This gentle knight, inspired by jolly May, + Forsook his easy couch at early day, + And to the wood and wilds pursued his way. + Beside him rode Hippolita the queen, + And Emily attired in lively green, + With horns and hounds and all the tuneful cry, + To hunt a royal hart within the covert nigh: + And, as he followed Mars before, so now + He serves the goddess of the silver bow. + The way that Theseus took was to the wood, + Where the two knights in cruel battle stood: + The laund on which they fought, the appointed place + In which the uncoupled hounds began the chase. + Thither forth-right he rode to rouse the prey, + That shaded by the fern in harbour lay; + And thence dislodged, was wont to leave the wood + For open fields, and cross the crystal flood. + Approached, and looking underneath the sun, + He saw proud Arcite and fierce Palamon, + In mortal battle doubling blow on blow; + Like lightning flamed their fauchions to and fro, + And shot a dreadful gleam; so strong they strook, + There seemed less force required to fell an oak. + He gazed with wonder on their equal might, + Looked eager on, but knew not either knight. + Resolved to learn, he spurred his fiery steed + With goring rowels to provoke his speed. + The minute ended that began the race, + So soon he was betwixt them on the place; + And with his sword unsheathed, on pain of life + Commands both combatants to cease their strife; + Then with imperious tone pursues his threat: + "What are you? why in arms together met? + How dares your pride presume against my laws, + As in a listed field to fight your cause, + Unasked the royal grant; no marshal by, + As knightly rites require, nor judge to try?" + Then Palamon, with scarce recovered breath, + Thus hasty spoke: "We both deserve the death, + And both would die; for look the world around, + And pity soonest runs in gentle minds; + Then reasons with himself; and first he finds + His passion cast a mist before his sense, + And either made or magnified the offence. + Offence? Of what? To whom? Who judged the cause? + The prisoner freed himself by Nature's laws; + Born free, he sought his right; the man he freed + Was perjured, but his love excused the deed: + Thus pondering, he looked under with his eyes, + And saw the women's tears, and heard their cries, + Which moved compassion more; he shook his head, + And softly sighing to himself he said: + + Curse on the unpardoning prince, whom tears can draw + "To no remorse, who rules by lion's law; + And deaf to prayers, by no submission bowed, + Rends all alike, the penitent and proud!" + At this with look serene he raised his head; + Reason resumed her place, and passion fled: + Then thus aloud he spoke:--" The power of Love, + "In earth, and seas, and air, and heaven above, + Rules, unresisted, with an awful nod, + By daily miracles declared a god; + He blinds the wise, gives eye-sight to the blind; + And moulds and stamps anew the lover's mind. + Behold that Arcite, and this Palamon, + Freed from my fetters, and in safety gone, + What hindered either in their native soil + At ease to reap the harvest of their toil? + But Love, their lord, did otherwise ordain, + And brought them, in their own despite again, + To suffer death deserved; for well they know + 'Tis in my power, and I their deadly foe. + The proverb holds, that to be wise 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 seven long years, on duty every day, + Lo! their obedience, and their monarch's pay! + Yet, as in duty bound, they serve him on; + And ask the fools, they think it wisely done; + Nor ease nor wealth nor life it self 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 suspect their love, + Nor thought, when she beheld the fight from far, + Her beauty was the occasion of the war. + But sure a general doom on man is past, + And all are fools and lovers, first or last: + This both by others and my self I know, + For I have served their sovereign long ago; + Oft have been caught within the winding train + Of female snares, and felt the lover's pain, + And learned how far the god can human hearts constrain. + To this remembrance, and the prayers of those + Who for the offending warriors interpose, + I give their forfeit lives, on this accord, + To do me homage as their sovereign lord; + And as my vassals, to their utmost might, + Assist my person and assert my right." + This freely sworn, the knights their grace obtained; + Then thus the King his secret thought explained: + "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 such is she you serve: + For Emily is sister to the crown, + And but too well to both her beauty known: + But should you combat till you both were dead, + Two lovers cannot share a single bed + As, therefore, both are equal in degree, + The lot of both be left to destiny. + Now hear the 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 sun + To the same point through every sign has run, + Then each of you his hundred knights shall bring + In royal lists, 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 so 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 vanquished party shall their claim release, + And the long jars conclude in lasting peace. + The charge be mine to adorn the chosen ground, + The theatre of war, for champions so renowned; + And take the patron's place of either knight, + With eyes impartial to behold the fight; + And Heaven of me so judge as I shall judge aright. + If both are satisfied with this accord, + Swear by the laws of knighthood on my sword." + + Who now but Palamon exults with joy? + And ravished Arcite seems to touch the sky. + The whole assembled troop was pleased as well, + Extolled the 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 might be deemed, on our historian's part, + Or too much negligence or want of art, + If he forgot the vast magnificence + Of royal Theseus, and his large expense. + He first enclosed for lists a level ground, + The whole circumference a mile around; + The form was circular; and all without + A trench was sunk, to moat the place about. + Within, an amphitheatre appeared, + Raised in degrees, to sixty paces reared: + That when a man was placed in one degree, + Height was allowed for him above to see. + + Eastward was built a gate of marble white; + The like adorned the western opposite. + A nobler object than this fabric was + Rome never saw, nor of so vast a space: + For, rich with spoils of many a conquered land, + All arts and artists Theseus could command, + Who sold for hire, or wrought for better fame; + The master-painters and the carvers came. + So rose within the compass of the year + An age's work, a glorious theatre. + Then o'er its eastern gate was raised above + A temple, sacred to the Queen of Love; + An altar stood below; on either hand + A priest with roses crowned, who held a myrtle wand. + + The dome of Mars was on the gate opposed, + And on the north a turret was enclosed + Within the wall of alabaster white + And crimson coral, for the Queen of Night, + Who takes in sylvan sports her chaste delight. + + Within those oratories might you see + Rich carvings, portraitures, and imagery; + Where every figure to the life expressed + The godhead's power to whom it was addressed. + In Venus' temple on the sides were seen + The broken slumbers of enamoured men; + Prayers that even spoke, and pity seemed to call, + And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall; + Complaints and hot desires, 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 assurance, and a train of lies, + That, made in lust, conclude in perjuries; + Beauty, and Youth, and Wealth, and Luxury, + And sprightly Hope and short-enduring Joy, + And Sorceries, to raise the infernal powers, + And Sigils framed in planetary hours; + Expense, and After-thought, and idle Care, + And Doubts of motley hue, and dark Despair; + Suspicions and fantastical Surmise, + And Jealousy suffused, with jaundice in her eyes, + Discolouring all she viewed, in tawny dressed, + Down-looked, and with a cuckow on her fist. + Opposed to her, on the other side advance + The costly feast, the carol, and the dance, + Minstrels and music, poetry and play, + And balls by night, and turnaments by day. + All these were painted on the wall, and more; + With acts and monuments of times before; + And others added by prophetic doom, + And lovers yet unborn, and loves to come: + For there the Idalian mount, and Citheron, + The court of Venus, was in colours drawn; + Before the palace gate, in careless dress + And loose array, sat portress Idleness; + There by the fount Narcissus pined alone; + There Samson was; with wiser Solomon, + And all the mighty names by love undone. + Medea's charms were there; Circean feasts, + With bowls that turned enamoured youths to beasts. + Here might be seen, that beauty, wealth, and wit, + And prowess to the power of love submit; + The spreading snare for all mankind is laid, + And lovers all betray, and are betrayed. + The Goddess' self some noble hand had wrought; + Smiling she seemed, and full of pleasing thought; + From ocean as she first began to rise, + And smoothed the ruffled seas, and cleared the skies, + She trod the brine, all bare below the breast, + And the green waves but ill-concealed the rest: + A lute she held; and on her head was seen + A wreath of roses red and myrtles green; + Her turtles fanned the buxom air above; + And by his mother stood an infant Love, + With wings unfledged; his eyes were banded o'er, + His hands a bow, his back, a quiver bore, + Supplied with arrows bright and keen, a deadly store. + + But in the dome of mighty Mars the red + With different figures all the sides were spread; + This temple, less in form, with equal grace, + Was imitative of the first in Thrace; + For that cold region was the loved abode + And sovereign mansion of the warrior god. + The landscape was a forest wide and bare, + Where neither beast nor human kind repair, + The fowl that scent afar the borders fly, + And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky. + A cake of scurf lies baking on the ground, + And prickly stubs, instead of trees, are found; + Or woods with knots and knares deformed and old, + Headless the most, and hideous to behold; + A rattling tempest through the branches went, + That stripped them bare, and one sole way they bent. + Heaven froze above severe, the clouds congeal, + And through the crystal vault appeared the standing hail. + Such was the face without: a mountain stood + Threatening from high, and overlooked the wood: + Beneath the lowering brow, and on a bent, + The temple stood of Mars armipotent; + The frame of burnished steel, that cast a glare + From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air. + A straight long entry to the temple led, + Blind with high walls, and horror over head; + Thence issued such a blast, and hollow roar, + As threatened from the hinge to heave the door; + In through that door a northern light there shone; + 'Twas all it had, for windows there were none. + The gate was adamant; eternal frame, + Which, hewed by Mars himself, from Indian quarries came, + The labour of a God; and all along + Tough iron plates were clenched to make it strong. + A tun about was every pillar there; + A polished mirror shone not half so clear. + There saw I how the secret felon wrought, + And treason labouring in the traitor's thought, + And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought. + There the red Anger dared the pallid Fear; + Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer, + Soft, smiling, and demurely looking down, + But hid the dagger underneath the gown; + The assassinating wife, the household fiend; + And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend. + On the other side there stood Destruction bare, + Unpunished Rapine, and a waste of war; + Contest with sharpened knives in cloisters drawn, + And all with blood bespread the holy lawn. + Loud menaces were heard, and foul disgrace, + And bawling infamy, in language base; + Till sense was lost in sound, and silence fled the place. + The slayer of himself yet saw I there, + The gore congealed was clotted in his hair; + With eyes half closed and gaping mouth he lay, + And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away. + In midst of all the dome, Misfortune sate, + And gloomy Discontent, and fell Debate, + And Madness laughing in his ireful mood; + And armed Complaint on theft; and cries of blood. + There was the murdered corps, in covert laid, + And violent death in thousand shapes displayed: + The city to the soldier's rage resigned; + Successless wars, and poverty behind: + Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores, + And the rash hunter strangled by the boars: + The new-born babe by nurses overlaid; + And the cook caught within the raging fire he made. + All ills of Mars' his nature, flame and steel; + The gasping charioteer beneath the wheel + Of his own car; the ruined house that falls + And intercepts her lord betwixt the walls: + The whole division that to Mars pertains, + All trades of death that deal in steel for gains + Were there: the butcher, armourer, and smith, + Who forges sharpened fauchions, or the scythe. + The scarlet conquest on a tower was placed, + With shouts and soldiers' acclamations graced: + A pointed sword hung threatening o'er his head, + Sustained but by a slender twine of thread. + There saw I Mars his ides, the Capitol, + The seer in vain foretelling Caesar's fall; + The last Triumvirs, and the wars they move, + And Antony, who lost the world for love. + These, and a thousand more, the fane adorn; + Their fates were painted ere the men were born, + All copied from the heavens, and ruling force + Of the red star, in his revolving course. + The form of Mars high on a chariot stood, + All sheathed in arms, and gruffly looked the god; + Two geomantic figures were displayed + Above his head, a warrior and a maid, + One when direct, and one when retrograde. + + Tired with deformities of death, I haste + To the third temple of Diana chaste. + A sylvan scene with various greens was drawn, + Shades on the sides, and on the midst a lawn; + The silver Cynthia, with her nymphs around, + Pursued the flying deer, the woods with horns resound: + Calisto there stood manifest of shame, + And, turned a bear, the northern star became: + Her son was next, and, by peculiar grace, + In the cold circle held the second place; + The stag Actson in the stream had spied + The naked huntress, and for seeing died; + His hounds, unknowing of his change, pursue + The chase, and their mistaken master slew. + Peneian Daphne too, was there to see, + Apollo's love before, and now his tree. + The adjoining fane the assembled Greeks expressed, + And hunting of the Calydonian beast. + OEnides' valour, and his envied prize; + The fatal power of Atalanta's eyes; + Diana's vengeance on the victor shown, + The murderess mother, and consuming son; + The Volscian queen extended on the plain, + The treason punished, and the traitor slain. + The rest were various huntings, well designed, + And savage beasts destroyed, of every kind. + The graceful goddess was arrayed in green; + About her feet were little beagles seen, + That watched with upward eyes the motions of their Queen. + Her legs were buskined, and the left before, + In act to shoot; a silver bow she bore, + And at her back a painted quiver wore. + She trod a wexing moon, that soon would wane, + And, drinking borrowed light, be filled again; + With downcast eyes, as seeming to survey + The dark dominions, her alternate sway. + Before her stood a woman in her throes, + And called Lucina's aid, her burden to disclose. + All these the painter drew with such command, + That Nature snatched the pencil from his hand, + Ashamed and angry that his art could feign, + And mend the tortures of a mother's pain. + Theseus beheld the fanes of every god, + And thought his mighty cost was well bestowed. + So princes now their poets should regard; + But few can write, and fewer can reward. + + The theatre thus raised, the lists enclosed, + And all with vast magnificence disposed, + We leave the monarch pleased, and haste to bring + The knights to combat, and their arms to sing. + + + + +BOOK III. + + + The day approached when Fortune should decide + The important enterprise, and give the bride; + For now the rivals round the world had sought, + And each his number, well appointed, brought. + The nations far and near contend in choice, + And send the flower of war by public voice; + That after or before were never known + Such chiefs, as each an army seemed alone: + Beside the champions, all of high degree, + Who knighthood loved, and deeds of chivalry, + Thronged to the lists, and envied to behold + The names of others, not their own, enrolled. + Nor seems it strange; for every noble knight + Who loves the fair, and is endued with might, + In such a quarrel would be proud to fight. + There breathes not scarce a man on British ground + (An isle for love and arms of old renowned) + But would have sold his life to purchase fame, + To Palamon or Arcite sent his name; + And had the land selected of the best, + Half had come hence, and let the world provide the rest. + A hundred knights with Palamon there came, + Approved in fight, and men of mighty name; + Their arms were several, as their nations were, + But furnished all alike with sword and spear. + + Some wore coat armour, imitating scale, + And next their skins were stubborn shirts of mail; + Some wore a breastplate and a light juppon, + Their horses clothed with rich caparison; + Some for defence would leathern bucklers use + Of folded hides, and others shields of Pruce. + One hung a pole-axe at his saddle-bow, + And one a heavy mace to stun the foe; + One for his legs and knees provided well, + With jambeux armed, and double plates of steel; + This on his helmet wore a lady's glove, + And that a sleeve embroidered by his love. + + With Palamon above the rest in place, + Lycurgus came, the surly king of Thrace; + Black was his beard, and manly was his face + The balls of his broad eyes rolled in his head, + And glared betwixt a yellow and a red; + He looked a lion with a gloomy stare, + And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair; + Big-boned and large of limbs, with sinews strong, + Broad-shouldered, and his arms were round and long. + Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian use of old) + Were yoked to draw his car of burnished gold. + Upright he stood, and bore aloft his shield, + Conspicuous from afar, and overlooked the field. + His surcoat was a bear-skin on his back; + His hair hung long behind, and glossy raven-black. + His ample forehead bore a coronet, + With sparkling diamonds and with rubies set. + Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair, + And tall as stags, ran loose, and coursed around his chair, + A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear; + With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound, + And collars of the same their necks surround. + + Thus through the fields Lycurgus took his way; + His hundred knights attend in pomp and proud array. + + To match this monarch, with strong Arcite came + Emetrius, king of Inde, a mighty name, + On a bay courser, goodly to behold, + The trappings of his horse embossed with barbarous gold. + Not Mars bestrode a steed with greater grace; + His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace, + Adorned with pearls, all orient, round, and great; + His saddle was of gold, with emeralds set; + His shoulders large a mantle did attire, + With rubies thick, and sparkling as the fire; + His amber-coloured locks in ringlets run, + With graceful negligence, and shone against the sun. + His nose was aquiline, his eyes were blue, + Ruddy his lips, and fresh and fair his hue; + Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen, + Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin. + His awful presence did the crowd surprise, + Nor durst the rash spectator meet his eyes; + Eyes that confessed him born for kingly sway, + So fierce, they flashed intolerable day. + His age in nature's youthful prime appeared, + And just began to bloom his yellow beard. + Whene'er he spoke, his voice was heard around, + Loud as a trumpet, with a silver sound; + A laurel wreathed his temples, fresh, and green, + And myrtle sprigs, the marks of love, were mixed between. + Upon his fist he bore, for his delight, + An eagle well reclaimed, and lily white. + + His hundred knights attend him to the war, + All armed for battle; save their heads were bare. + Words and devices blazed on every shield, + And pleasing was the terror of the field. + For kings, and dukes, and barons you might see, + Like sparkling stars, though different in degree, + All for the increase of arms, and love of chivalry. + Before the king tame leopards led the way, + And troops of lions innocently play. + So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode, + And beasts in gambols frisked before their honest god. + + In this array the war of either side + Through Athens passed with military pride. + At prime, they entered on the Sunday morn; + Rich tapestry spread the streets, and flowers the posts adorn. + The town was all a jubilee of feasts; + So Theseus willed in honour of his guests; + Himself with open arms the kings embraced, + Then all the rest in their degrees were graced. + No harbinger was needful for the night, + For every house was proud to lodge a knight. + + I pass the royal treat, nor must relate + The gifts bestowed, nor how the champions sate; + Who first, who last, or how the knights addressed + Their vows, or who was fairest at the feast; + Whose voice, whose graceful dance did most surprise, + Soft amorous sighs, and silent love of eyes. + The rivals call my Muse another way, + To sing their vigils for the ensuing day. + 'Twas ebbing darkness, past the noon of night: + And Phosphor, on the confines of the light, + Promised the sun; ere day began to spring, + The tuneful lark already stretched her wing, + And flickering on her nest, made short essays to sing. + + When wakeful Palamon, preventing day, + Took to the royal lists his early way, + To Venus at her fane, in her own house, to pray. + There, falling on his knees before her shrine, + He thus implored with prayers her power divine: + "Creator Venus, genial power of love, + The bliss of men below, and gods above! + Beneath the sliding sun thou runst thy race, + Dost fairest shine, and best become thy place. + For thee the winds their eastern blasts forbear, + Thy month reveals the spring, and opens all the year. + Thee, Goddess, thee the storms of winter fly; + Earth smiles with flowers renewing, laughs the sky, + And birds to lays of love their tuneful notes apply. + For thee the lion loathes the taste of blood, + And roaring hunts his female through the wood; + For thee the bulls rebellow through the groves, + And tempt the stream, and snuff their absent loves. + 'Tis thine, whate'er is pleasant, good, or fair; + All nature is thy province, life thy care; + Thou madest the world, and dost the world repair. + Thou gladder of the mount of Cytheron, + Increase of Jove, companion of the Sun, + If e'er Adonis touched thy tender heart, + Have pity, Goddess, for thou knowest the smart! + Alas! I have not words to tell my grief; + To vent my sorrow would be some relief; + Light sufferings give us leisure to complain; + We groan, but cannot speak, in greater pain. + O Goddess, tell thyself what I would say! + Thou knowest it, and I feel too much to pray. + So grant my suit, as I enforce my might, + In love to be thy champion and thy knight, + A servant to thy sex, a slave to thee, + A foe professed to barren chastity: + Nor ask I fame or honour of the field, + Nor choose I more to vanquish than to yield: + In my divine Emilia make me blest, + Let Fate or partial Chance dispose the rest: + Find thou the manner, and the means prepare; + Possession, more than conquest, is my care. + Mars is the warrior's god; in him it lies + On whom he favours to confer the prize; + With smiling aspect you serenely move + In your fifth orb, and rule the realm of love. + The Fates but only spin the coarser clue, + The finest of the wool is left for you: + Spare me but one small portion of the twine, + And let the Sisters cut below your line: + The rest among the rubbish may they sweep, + Or add it to the yarn of some old miser's heap. + But if you this ambitious prayer deny, + (A wish, I grant; beyond mortality,) + Then let me sink beneath proud Arcite's arms, + And, I once dead, let him possess her charms." + + Thus ended he; then, with observance due, + The sacred incense on her altar threw: + The curling smoke mounts heavy from the fires; + At length it catches flame, and in a blaze expires; + At once the gracious Goddess gave the sign, + Her statue shook, and trembled all the shrine: + Pleased Palamon the tardy omen took; + For since the flames pursued the trailing smoke, + He knew his boon was granted, but the day + To distance driven, and joy adjourned with long delay. + + Now morn with rosy light had streaked the sky, + Up rose the sun, and up rose Emily; + Addressed her early steps to Cynthia's fane, + In state attended by her maiden train, + Who bore the vests that holy rites require, + Incense, and odorous gums, and covered fire. + The plenteous horns with pleasant mead they crown + Nor wanted aught besides in honour of the Moon. + Now, while the temple smoked with hallowed steam, + They wash the virgin in a living stream; + The secret ceremonies I conceal, + Uncouth, perhaps unlawful to reveal: + But such they were as pagan use required, + Performed by women when the men retired, + Whose eyes profane their chaste mysterious rites + Might turn to scandal or obscene delights. + Well-meaners think no harm; but for the rest, + Things sacred they pervert, and silence is the best. + Her shining hair, uncombed, was loosely spread, + A crown of mastless oak adorned her head: + When to the shrine approached, the spotless maid + Had kindling fires on either altar laid; + (The rites were such as were observed of old, + By Statius in his Theban story told.) + Then kneeling with her hands across her breast, + Thus lowly she preferred her chaste request. + + "O Goddess, haunter of the woodland green, + To whom both heaven and earth and seas are seen; + Queen of the nether skies, where half the year + Thy silver beams descend, and light the gloomy sphere; + Goddess of maids, and conscious of our hearts, + So keep me from the vengeance of thy darts, + (Which Niobe's devoted issue felt, + When hissing through the skies the feathered deaths + were dealt,) + + "As I desire to live a virgin life, + Nor know the name of mother or of wife. + Thy votress from my tender years I am, + And love, like thee, the woods and sylvan game. + Like death, thou knowest, I loathe the nuptial state, + And man, the tyrant of our sex, I hate, + A lowly servant, but a lofty mate; + Where love is duty on the female side, + On theirs mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride. + Now by thy triple shape, as thou art seen + In heaven, earth, hell, and everywhere a queen, + Grant this my first desire; let discord cease, + And make betwixt the rivals lasting peace: + Quench their hot fire, or far from me remove + The flame, and turn it on some other love; + Or if my frowning stars have so decreed, + That one must be rejected, one succeed, + Make him my lord, within whose faithful breast + Is fixed my image, and who loves me best. + But oh! even that avert! I choose it not, + But take it as the least unhappy lot. + A maid I am, and of thy virgin train; + Oh, let me still that spotless name retain! + Frequent the forests, thy chaste will obey, + And only make the beasts of chase my prey!" + + The flames ascend on either altar clear, + While thus the blameless maid addressed her prayer. + When lo! the burning fire that shone so bright + Flew off, all sudden, with extinguished light, + And left one altar dark, a little space, + Which turned self-kindled, and renewed the blaze; + That other victor-flame a moment stood, + Then fell, and lifeless, left the extinguished wood; + For ever lost, the irrevocable light + Forsook the blackening coals, and sunk to night: + At either end it whistled as it flew, + And as the brands were green, so dropped the dew, + Infected as it fell with sweat of sanguine hue. + + The maid from that ill omen turned her eyes, + And with loud shrieks and clamours rent the skies; + Nor knew what signified the boding sign, + But found the powers displeased, and feared the wrath divine. + + Then shook the sacred shrine, and sudden light + Sprung through the vaulted roof, and made the temple bright. + The Power, behold! the Power in glory shone, + By her bent bow and her keen arrows known; + The rest, a huntress issuing from the wood, + Reclining on her cornel spear she stood. + Then gracious thus began: "Dismiss thy fear, + And Heaven's unchanged decrees attentive hear: + More powerful gods have torn thee from my side, + Unwilling to resign, and doomed a bride; + The two contending knights are weighed above; + One Mars protects, and one the Queen of Love: + But which the man is in the Thunderer's breast; + This he pronounced, 'Tis he who loves thee best.' + The fire that, once extinct, revived again + Foreshows the love allotted to remain. + Farewell!" she said, and vanished from the place; + The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case. + Aghast at this, the royal virgin stood, + Disclaimed, and now no more a sister of the wood: + But to the parting Goddess thus she prayed: + "Propitious still, be present to my aid, + Nor quite abandon your once favoured maid." + Then sighing she returned; but smiled betwixt, + With hopes, and fears, and joys with sorrows mixt. + + The next returning planetary hour + of Mars, who shared the heptarchy of power, + His steps bold Arcite to the temple bent, + To adorn with pagan rites the power armipotent: + Then prostrate, low before his altar lay, + And raised his manly voice, and thus began, to pray: + "Strong God of Arms, whose iron sceptre sways + The freezing North, and Hyperborean seas, + And Scythian colds, and Thracia's wintry coast, + Where stand thy steeds, and thou art honoured most: + There most, but everywhere thy power is known, + The fortune of the fight is all thy own: + Terror is thine, and wild amazement, flung + From out thy chariot, withers even the strong; + And disarray and shameful rout ensue, + And force is added to the fainting crew. + Acknowledged as thou art, accept my prayer! + If aught I have achieved deserve thy care, + If to my utmost power with sword and shield + I dared the death, unknowing how to yield, + And falling in my rank, still kept the field; + Then let my arms prevail, by thee sustained, + That Emily by conquest may be gained. + Have pity on my pains; nor those unknown + To Mars, which, when a lover, were his own. + Venus, the public care of all above, + Thy stubborn heart has softened into love: + Now, by her blandishments and powerful charms, + When yielded she lay curling in thy arms, + Even by thy shame, if shame it may be called, + When Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled; + O envied ignominy, sweet disgrace, + When every god that saw thee wished thy place! + By those dear pleasures, aid my arms in fight, + And make me conquer in my patron's right: + For I am young, a novice in the trade, + The fool of love, unpractised to persuade, + And want the soothing arts that catch the fair, + But, caught my self, lie struggling in the snare; + And she I love or laughs at all my pain + Or knows her worth too well, and pays me with disdain. + For sure I am, unless I win in arms, + To stand excluded from Emilia's charms: + Nor can my strength avail, unless by thee + Endued with force I gain the victory; + Then for the fire which warmed thy generous heart, + Pity thy subject's pains and equal smart. + So be the morrow's sweat and labour mine, + The palm and honour of the conquest thine: + Then shall the war, and stern debate, and strife + Immortal be the business of my life; + And in thy fane, the dusty spoils among, + High on the burnished roof, my banner shall be hung, + Ranked with my champion's bucklers; and below, + With arms reversed, the achievements of my foe; + And while these limbs the vital spirit feeds, + While day to night and night to day succeeds, + Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food + Of incense and the grateful steam of blood; + Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine, + And fires eternal in thy temple shine. + The bush of yellow beard, this length of hair, + Which from my birth inviolate I bear, + Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free, + Shall fall a plenteous crop, reserved for thee. + So may my arms with victory be blest, + I ask no more; let Fate dispose the rest." + + The champion ceased; there followed in the close + A hollow groan; a murmuring wind arose; + The rings of iron, that on the doors were hung, + Sent out a jarring sound, and harshly rung: + The bolted gates blew open at the blast, + The storm rushed in, and Arcite stood aghast: + The flames were blown aside, yet shone they bright, + Fanned by the wind, and gave a ruffled light. + Then from the ground a scent began to rise, + Sweet smelling as accepted sacrifice: + This omen pleased, and as the flames aspire, + With odorous incense Arcite heaps the fire: + Nor wanted hymns to Mars or heathen charms: + At length the nodding statue clashed his arms, + And with a sullen sound and feeble cry, + Half sunk and half pronounced the word of Victory. + For this, with soul devout, he thanked the God, + And, of success secure, returned to his abode. + + These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above + Betwixt the God of War and Queen of Love. + She, granting first, had right of time to plead; + But he had granted too, nor would recede. + Jove was for Venus, but he feared his wife, + And seemed unwilling to decide the strife: + Till Saturn from his leaden throne arose, + And found a way the difference to compose: + Though sparing of his grace, to mischief bent, + He seldom does a good with good intent. + Wayward, but wise; by long experience taught, + To please both parties, for ill ends, he sought: + For this advantage age from youth has won, + As not to be outridden, though outrun. + By fortune he was now to Venus trined, + And with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined: + Of him disposing in his own abode, + He soothed the Goddess, while he gulled the God: + "Cease, daughter, to complain, and stint the strife; + Thy Palamon shall have his promised wife: + And Mars, the lord of conquest, in the fight + With palm and laurel shall adorn his knight. + Wide is my course, nor turn I to my place, + Till length of time, and move with tardy pace. + Man feels me when I press the etherial plains; + My hand is heavy, and the wound remains. + Mine is the shipwreck in a watery sign; + And in an earthy the dark dungeon mine. + Cold shivering agues, melancholy care, + And bitter blasting winds, and poisoned air, + Are mine, and wilful death, resulting from despair. + The throttling quinsey 'tis my star appoints, + And rheumatisms I send to rack the joints: + When churls rebel against their native prince, + I arm their hands, and furnish the pretence; + And housing in the lion's hateful sign, + Bought senates and deserting troops are mine. + Mine is the privy poisoning; I command + Unkindly seasons and ungrateful land. + By me kings' palaces are pushed to ground, + And miners crushed beneath their mines are found. + 'Twas I slew Samson, when the pillared hall + Fell down, and crushed the many with the fall. + My looking is the sire of pestilence, + That sweeps at once the people and the prince. + Now weep no more, but trust thy grandsire's art, + Mars shall be pleased, and thou perform thy part. + 'Tis ill, though different your complexions are, + The family of Heaven for men should war." + The expedient pleased, where neither lost his right; + Mars had the day, and Venus had the night. + The management they left to Chronos' care. + Now turn we to the effect, and sing the war. + + In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play, + All proper to the spring and sprightly May: + Which every soul inspired with such delight, + 'Twas justing all the day, and love at night. + Heaven smiled, and gladded was the heart of man; + And Venus had the world as when it first began. + At length in sleep their bodies they compose, + And dreamt the future fight, and early rose. + + Now scarce the dawning day began to spring, + As at a signal given, the streets with clamours ring: + At once the crowd arose; confused and high, + Even from the heaven was heard a shouting cry, + For Mars was early up, and roused the sky. + The gods came downward to behold the wars, + Sharpening their sights, and leaning from their stars. + The neighing of the generous horse was heard, + For battle by the busy groom prepared: + Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield, + Clattering of armour, furbished for the field. + Crowds to the castle mounted up the street; + Battering the pavement with their coursers' feet: + The greedy sight might there devour the gold + Of glittering arms, too dazzling to behold: + And polished steel that cast the view aside, + And crested morions, with their plumy pride. + Knights, with a long retinue of their squires, + In gaudy liveries march, and quaint attires. + One laced the helm, another held the lance; + A third the shining buckler did advance. + The courser pawed the ground with restless feet, + And snorting foamed, and champed the golden bit. + The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride, + Files in their hands, and hammers at their side, + And nails for loosened spears and thongs for shields provide. + The yeomen guard the streets in seemly bands; + And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands. + + The trumpets, next the gate, in order placed, + Attend the sign to sound the martial blast: + The palace yard is filled with floating tides, + And the last comers bear the former to the sides. + The throng is in the midst; the common crew + Shut out, the hall admits the better few. + In knots they stand, or in a rank they walk, + Serious in aspect, earnest in their talk; + Factious, and favouring this or t'other side, + As their strong fancies and weak reason guide; + Their wagers back their wishes; numbers hold + With the fair freckled king, and beard of gold: + So vigorous are his eyes, such rays they cast, + So prominent his eagle's beak is placed. + But most their looks on the black monarch bend; + His rising muscles and his brawn commend; + His double-biting axe, and beamy spear, + Each asking a gigantic force to rear. + All spoke as partial favour moved the mind; + And, safe themselves, at others' cost divined. + + Waked by the cries, the Athenian chief arose, + The knightly forms of combat to dispose; + And passing through the obsequious guards, he sate + Conspicuous on a throne, sublime in state; + There, for the two contending knights he sent; + Armed cap-a-pie, with reverence low they bent; + He smiled on both, and with superior look + Alike their offered adoration took. + The people press on every side to see + Their awful Prince, and hear his high decree. + Then signing to their heralds with his hand, + They gave his orders from their lofty stand. + Silence is thrice enjoined; then thus aloud + The king-at-arms bespeaks the knights and listening crowd: + "Our sovereign lord has pondered in his mind + The means to spare the blood of gentle kind; + And of his grace and inborn clemency + He modifies his first severe decree, + The keener edge of battle to rebate, + The troops for honour fighting, not for hate. + He wills, not death should terminate their strife, + And wounds, if wounds ensue, be short of life; + But issues, ere the fight, his dread command, + That slings afar, and poniards hand to hand, + Be banished from the field; that none shall dare + With shortened sword to stab in closer war; + But in fair combat fight with manly strength, + Nor push with biting point, but strike at length. + The turney is allowed but one career + Of the tough ash, with the sharp-grinded spear; + But knights unhorsed may rise from off the plain, + And fight on foot their honour to regain; + Nor, if at mischief taken, on the ground + Be slain, but prisoners to the pillar bound, + At either barrier placed; nor, captives made, + Be freed, or armed anew the fight invade: + The chief of either side, bereft of life, + Or yielded to his foe, concludes the strife. + Thus dooms the lord: now valiant knights and young, + Fight each his fill, with swords and maces long." + + The herald ends: the vaulted firmament + With loud acclaims and vast applause is rent: + Heaven guard a Prince so gracious and so good, + So just, and yet so provident of blood! + This was the general cry. The trumpets sound, + And warlike symphony is heard around. + The marching troops through Athens take their way, + The great Earl-marshal orders their array. + The fair from high the passing pomp behold; + A rain of flowers is from the window rolled. + The casements are with golden tissue spread, + And horses' hoofs, for earth, on silken tapestry tread. + The King goes midmost, and the rivals ride + In equal rank, and close his either side. + Next after these there rode the royal wife, + With Emily, the cause and the reward of strife. + The following cavalcade, by three and three, + Proceed by titles marshalled in degree. + Thus through the southern gate they take their way, + And at the list arrived ere prime of day. + There, parting from the King, the chiefs divide, + And wheeling east and west, before their many ride. + The Athenian monarch mounts his throne on high, + And after him the Queen and Emily: + Next these, the kindred of the crown are graced + With nearer seats, and lords by ladies placed. + Scarce were they seated, when with clamours loud + In rushed at once a rude promiscuous crowd, + The guards, and then each other overbare, + And in a moment throng the spacious theatre. + Now changed the jarring noise to whispers low, + As winds forsaking seas more softly blow, + When at the western gate, on which the car + Is placed aloft that bears the God of War, + Proud Arcite entering armed before his train + Stops at the barrier, and divides the plain. + Red was his banner, and displayed abroad + The bloody colours of his patron god. + + At that self moment enters Palamon + The gate of Venus, and the rising Sun; + Waved by the wanton winds, his banner flies, + All maiden white, and shares the people's eyes. + From east to west, look all the world around, + Two troops so matched were never to be found; + Such bodies built for strength, of equal age, + In stature sized; so proud an equipage: + The nicest eye could no distinction make, + Where lay the advantage, or what side to take. + + Thus ranged, the herald for the last proclaims + A silence, while they answered to their names: + For so the king decreed, to shun with care + The fraud of musters false, the common bane of war. + The tale was just, and then the gates were closed; + And chief to chief, and troop to troop opposed. + The heralds last retired, and loudly cried, + "The fortune of the field be fairly tried!" + + At this the challenger, with fierce defy, + His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply: + With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky. + Their vizors closed, their lances in the rest, + Or at the helmet pointed or the crest, + They vanish from the barrier, speed the race, + And spurring see decrease the middle space. + A cloud of smoke envelopes either host, + And all at once the combatants are lost: + Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen, + Coursers with coursers justling, men with men: + As labouring in eclipse, a while they stay, + Till the next blast of wind restores the day. + They look anew: the beauteous form of fight + Is changed, and war appears a grisly sight. + Two troops in fair array one moment showed, + The next, a field with fallen bodies strowed: + Not half the number in their seats are found; + But men and steeds lie grovelling on the ground. + The points of spears are stuck within the shield, + The steeds without their riders scour the field. + The knights unhorsed, on foot renew the fight; + The glittering fauchions cast a gleaming light; + Hauberks and helms are hewed with many a wound, + Out spins the streaming blood, and dyes the ground. + The mighty maces with such haste descend, + They break the bones, and make the solid armour bend. + This thrusts amid the throng with furious force; + Down goes, at once, the horseman and the horse: + That courser stumbles on the fallen steed, + And, floundering, throws the rider o'er his head. + One rolls along, a football to his foes; + One with a broken truncheon deals his blows. + This halting, this disabled with his wound, + In triumph led, is to the pillar bound, + Where by the king's award he must abide: + There goes a captive led on t'other side. + By fits they cease, and leaning on the lance, + Take breath a while, and to new fight advance. + + Full oft the rivals met, and neither spared + His utmost force, and each forgot to ward: + The head of this was to the saddle bent, + The other backward to the crupper sent: + Both were by turns unhorsed; the jealous blows + Fall thick and heavy, when on foot they close. + So deep their fauchions bite, that every stroke + Pierced to the quick; and equal wounds they gave and took. + Borne far asunder by the tides of men, + Like adamant and steel they met agen. + + So when a tiger sucks the bullock's blood, + A famished lion issuing from the wood + Roars lordly fierce, and challenges the food. + Each claims possession, neither will obey, + But both their paws are fastened on the prey; + They bite, they tear; and while in vain they strive, + The swains come armed between, and both to distance drive. + At length, as Fate foredoomed, and all things tend + By course of time to their appointed end; + So when the sun to west was far declined, + And both afresh in mortal battle joined, + The strong Emetrius came in Arcite's aid, + And Palamon with odds was overlaid: + For, turning short, he struck with all his might + Full on the helmet of the unwary knight. + Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow, + And turned him to his unexpected foe; + Whom with such force he struck, he felled him down, + And cleft the circle of his golden crown. + But Arcite's men, who now prevailed in fight, + Twice ten at once surround the single knight: + O'erpowered at length, they force him to the ground, + Unyielded as he was, and to the pillar bound; + And king Lycurgus, while he fought in vain + His friend to free, was tumbled on the plain. + + Who now laments but Palamon, compelled + No more to try the fortune of the field, + And, worse than death, to view with hateful eyes + His rival's conquest, and renounce the prize! + + The royal judge on his tribunal placed, + Who had beheld the fight from first to last, + Bade cease the war; pronouncing from on high, + Arcite of Thebes had won the beauteous Emily. + The sound of trumpets to the voice replied, + And round the royal lists the heralds cried, + "Arcite of Thebes has won the beauteous bride!" + + The people rend the skies with vast applause; + All own the chief, when Fortune owns the cause. + Arcite is owned even by the gods above, + And conquering Mars insults the Queen of Love. + So laughed he when the rightful Titan failed, + And Jove's usurping arms in heaven prevailed. + Laughed all the powers who favour tyranny, + And all the standing army of the sky. + But Venus with dejected eyes appears. + And weeping on the lists distilled her tears; + Her will refused, which grieves a woman most, + And, in her champion foiled, the cause of Love is lost. + Till Saturn said:--"Fair daughter, now be still, + "The blustering fool has satisfied his will; + His boon is given; his knight has gained the day, + But lost the prize; the arrears are yet to pay. + Thy hour is come, and mine the care shall be + To please thy knight, and set thy promise free." + + Now while the heralds run the lists around, + And Arcite! Arcite! heaven and earth resound, + A miracle (nor less it could be called) + Their joy with unexpected sorrow palled. + The victor knight had laid his helm aside, + Part for his ease, the greater part for pride: + Bareheaded, popularly low he bowed, + And paid the salutations of the crowd; + Then spurring, at full speed, ran headlong on + Where Theseus sat on his imperial throne; + Furious he drove, and upward cast his eye, + Where, next the Queen, was placed his Emily; + Then passing, to the saddle-bow he bent; + A sweet regard the gracious virgin lent; + (For women, to the brave an easy prey, + Still follow Fortune, where she leads the way:) + Just then from earth sprung out a flashing fire, + By Pluto sent, at Saturn's bad desire: + The startling steed was seized with sudden fright, + And, bounding, o'er the pummel cast the knight; + Forward he flew, and pitching on his head, + He quivered with his feet, and lay for dead. + + Black was his countenance in a little space, + For all the blood was gathered in his face. + Help was at hand: they reared him from the ground, + And from his cumbrous arms his limbs unbound; + Then lanced a vein, and watched returning breath; + It came, but clogged with symptoms of his death. + The saddle-bow the noble parts had prest, + All bruised and mortified his manly breast. + Him still entranced, and in a litter laid, + They bore from field, and to his bed conveyed. + At length he waked; and, with a feeble cry, + The word he first pronounced was Emily. + + Mean time the King, though inwardly he mourned, + In pomp triumphant to the town returned, + Attended by the chiefs who fought the field, + (Now friendly mixed, and in one troop compelled;) + Composed his looks to counterfeited cheer, + And bade them not for Arcite's life to fear. + But that which gladded all the warrior train, + Though most were sorely wounded, none were slain. + The surgeons soon despoiled them of their arms, + And some with salves they cure, and some with charms; + Foment the bruises, and the pains assuage, + And heal their inward hurts with sovereign draughts of sage. + The King in person visits all around, + Comforts the sick, congratulates the sound; + Honours the princely chiefs, rewards the rest, + And holds for thrice three days a royal feast. + None was disgraced; for falling is no shame, + And cowardice alone is loss of fame. + The venturous knight is from the saddle thrown, + But 'tis the fault of fortune, not his own; + If crowds and palms the conquering side adorn, + The victor under better stars was born: + + The brave man seeks not popular applause, + Nor, overpowered with arms, deserts his canse; + Unshamed, though foiled, he does the best he can: + Force is of brutes, but honour is of man. + + Thus Theseus smiled on all with equal grace, + And each was set according to his place; + With ease were reconciled the differing parts, + For envy never dwells in noble hearts. + At length they took their leave, the time expired, + Well pleased, and to their several homes retired. + + Mean while, the health of Arcite still impairs; + From bad proceeds to worse, and mocks the leech's cares; + Swoln is his breast; his inward pains increase; + All means are used, and all without success. + The clottered blood lies heavy on his heart, + Corrupts, and there remains in spite of art; + Nor breathing veins nor cupping will prevail; + All outward remedies and inward fail. + The mould of nature's fabric is destroyed, + Her vessels discomposed, her virtue void: + The bellows of his lungs begins to swell; + All out of frame is every secret cell, + Nor can the good receive, nor bad expel. + Those breathing organs, thus within opprest, + With venom soon distend the sinews of his breast. + Nought profits him to save abandoned life, + Nor vomit's upward aid, nor downward laxative. + The midmost region battered and destroyed, + When nature cannot work, the effect of art is void: + For physic can but mend our crazy state, + Patch an old building, not a new create. + Arcite is doomed to die in all his pride, + Must leave his youth, and yield his beauteous bride, + Gained hardly against right, and unenjoyed. + + When 'twas declared all hope of life was past, + Conscience, that of all physic works the last, + Caused him to send for Emily in haste. + With her, at his desire, came Palamon; + Then, on his pillow raised, he thus begun: + "No language can express the smallest part + Of what I feel, and suffer in my heart, + For you, whom best I love and value most; + But to your service I bequeath my ghost; + Which, from this mortal body when untied, + Unseen, unheard, shall hover at your side; + Nor fright you waking, nor your sleep offend, + But wait officious, and your steps attend. + How I have loved, excuse my faltering tongue, + My spirit's feeble, and my pains are strong: + This I may say, I only grieve to die, + Because I lose my charming Emily. + To die, when Heaven had put you in my power! + Fate could not choose a more malicious hour. + What greater curse could envious Fortune give, + Than just to die when I began to live! + Vain men! how vanishing a bliss we crave; + Now warm in love, now withering in the grave! + Never, O never more to see the sun! + Still dark, in a damp vault, and still alone! + This fate is common; but I lose my breath + Near bliss, and yet not blessed before my death. + Farewell! but take me dying in your arms; + 'Tis all I can enjoy of all your charms: + This hand I cannot but in death resign; + Ah, could I live! but while I live 'tis mine. + I feel my end approach, and thus embraced + Am pleased to die; but hear me speak my last: + Ah, my sweet foe! for you, and you alone, + I broke my faith with injured Palamon. + But love the sense of right and wrong confounds; + Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds. + And much I doubt, should Heaven my life prolong, + I should return to justify my wrong; + For while my former flames remain within, + Repentance is but want of power to sin. + With mortal hatred I pursued his life, + Nor he nor you were guilty of the strife; + Nor I, but as I loved; yet all combined, + Your beauty and my impotence of mind, + And his concurrent flame that blew my fire, + For still our kindred souls had one desire. + He had a moment's right in point of time; + Had I seen first, then his had been the crime. + Fate made it mine, and justified his right; + Nor holds this earth a more deserving knight + For virtue, valour, and for noble blood, + Truth, honour, all that is comprised in good; + So help me Heaven, in all the world is none + So worthy to be loved as Palamon. + He loves you too, with such a holy fire, + As will not, cannot, but with life expire: + Our vowed affections both have often tried, + Nor any love but yours could ours divide. + Then, by my love's inviolable band, + By my long suffering and my short command, + If e'er you plight your vows when I am gone, + Have pity on the faithful Palamon." + This was his last; for Death came on amain, + And exercised below his iron reign; + Then upward to the seat of life he goes; + Sense fled before him, what he touched he froze: + Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw, + Though less and less of Emily he saw; + So, speechless, for a little space he lay; + Then grasped the hand he held, and sighed his soul away. + + But whither went his soul? let such relate + Who search the secrets of the future state: + Divines can say but what themselves believe; + Strong proofs they have, but not demonstrative; + For, were all plain, then all sides must agree, + And faith itself be lost in certainty. + To live uprightly then is sure the best; + To save ourselves, and not to damn the rest. + The soul of Arcite went where heathens go, + Who better live than we, though less they know. + + In Palamon a manly grief appears; + Silent he wept, ashamed to show his tears. + Emilia shrieked but once; and then, opprest + With sorrow, sunk upon her lover's breast: + Till Theseus in his arms conveyed with care + Far from so sad a sight the swooning fair. + 'Twere loss of time her sorrow to relate; + Ill bears the sex a youthful lover's fate, + When just approaching to the nuptial state: + But, like a low-hung cloud, it rains so fast, + That all at once it falls, and cannot last. + The face of things is changed, and Athens now + That laughed so late, becomes the scene of woe. + Matrons and maids, both sexes, every state, + With tears lament the knight's untimely fate. + Not greater grief in falling Troy was seen + For Hector's death; but Hector was not then. + Old men with dust deformed their hoary hair; + The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear. + "Why wouldst thou go," with one consent they cry, + When thou hadst gold enough, and Emily?" + Theseus himself, who should have cheered the grief + Of others, wanted now the same relief: + Old Ægeus only could revive his son, + Who various changes of the world had known, + And strange vicissitudes of human fate, + Still altering, never in a steady state: + Good after ill and after pain delight, + Alternate, like the scenes of day and night. + Since every man who lives is born to die, + And none can boast sincere felicity, + With equal mind, what happens, let us bear, + Nor joy, nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. + Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; + The world's an inn, and death the journey's end. + Even kings but play, and when their part is done, + Some other, worse or better, mount the throne. + With words like these the crowd was satisfied; + And so they would have been, had Theseus died. + But he, their King, was labouring in his mind + A fitting place for funeral pomps to find, + Which were in honour of the dead designed. + And, after long debate, at last he found + (As Love itself had marked the spot of ground,) + That grove for ever green, that conscious laund, + Where he with Palamon fought hand to hand; + That, where he fed his amorous desires + With soft complaints, and felt his hottest fires, + There other flames might waste his earthly part, + And burn his limbs, where love had burned his heart. + + This once resolved, the peasants were enjoined + Sere-wood, and firs, and doddered oaks to find. + With sounding axes to the grove they go, + Fell, split, and lay the fuel in a row; + Vulcanian food: a bier is next prepared, + On which the lifeless body should be reared, + Covered with cloth of gold; on which was laid + The corps of Arcite, in like robes arrayed. + White gloves were on his hands, and on his head + A wreath of laurel, mixed with myrtle, spread. + A sword keen-edged within his right he held, + The warlike emblem of the conquered field: + Bare was his manly visage on the bier; + Menaced his countenance, even in death severe. + Then to the palace-hall they bore the knight, + To lie in solemn state, a public sight: + Groans, cries, and bowlings fill the crowded place, + And unaffected sorrow sat on every face. + Sad Palamon above the rest appears, + In sable garments, dewed with gushing tears; + His auburn locks on either shoulder flowed, + Which to the funeral of his friend he vowed; + But Emily, as chief, was next his side, + A virgin-widow and a mourning bride. + And, that the princely obsequies might be + Performed according to his high degree, + The steed, that bore him living to the fight, + Was trapped with polished steel, all shining bright, + And covered with the atchievements of the knight. + The riders rode abreast; and one his shield, + His lance of cornel-wood another held; + The third his bow, and, glorious to behold, + The costly quiver, all of burnished gold. + The noblest of the Grecians next appear, + And weeping on their shoulders bore the bier; + With sober pace they marched, and often stayed, + And through the master-street the corps conveyed. + The houses to their tops with black were spread, + And even the pavements were with mourning hid. + The right side of the pall old Ægeus kept, + And on the left the royal Theseus wept; + Each bore a golden bowl of work divine, + With honey filled, and milk, and mixed with ruddy wine. + Then Palamon, the kinsman of the slain, + And after him appeared the illustrious train. + To grace the pomp came Emily the bright, + With covered fire, the funeral pile to light. + With high devotion was the service made, + And all the rites of pagan honour paid: + So lofty was the pile, a Parthian bow, + With vigour drawn, must send the shaft below. + The bottom was full twenty fathom broad, + With crackling straw, beneath in due proportion strowed. + The fabric seemed a wood of rising green, + With sulphur and bitumen cast between + To feed the flames: the trees were unctuous fir, + And mountain-ash, the mother of the spear; + The mourner-yew and builder-oak were there, + The beech, the swimming alder, and the plane, + Hard box, and linden of a softer grain, + And laurels, which the gods for conquering chiefs ordain. + How they were ranked shall rest untold by me, + With nameless Nymphs that lived in every tree; + Nor how the Dryads and the woodland train, + Disherited, ran howling o'er the plain: + Nor how the birds to foreign seats repaired, + Or beasts that bolted out and saw the forests bared: + Nor how the ground now cleared with ghastly fright + Beheld the sudden sun, a stranger to the light. + + The straw, as first I said, was laid below: + Of chips and sere-wood was the second row; + The third of greens, and timber newly felled; + The fourth high stage the fragrant odours held, + And pearls, and precious stones, and rich array; + In midst of which, embalmed, the body lay. + The service sung, the maid with mourning eyes + The stubble fired; the smouldering flames arise: + This office done, she sunk upon the ground; + But what she spoke, recovered from her swound, + I want the wit in moving words to dress; + But by themselves the tender sex may guess. + While the devouring fire was burning fast, + Rich jewels in the flame the wealthy cast; + And some their shields, and some their lances threw, + And gave the warrior's ghost a warrior's due. + Full bowls of wine, of honey, milk and blood + Were poured upon the pile of burning wood, + And hissing flames receive, and hungry lick the food. + Then thrice the mounted squadrons ride around + The fire, and Arcite's name they thrice resound: + "Hail and farewell!" they shouted thrice amain, + Thrice facing to the left, and thrice they turned again: + Still, as they turned, they beat their clattering shields; + The women mix their cries, and clamour fills the fields. + The warlike wakes continued all the night, + And funeral games were played at new returning light: + Who naked wrestled best, besmeared with oil, + Or who with gauntlets gave or took the foil, + I will not tell you, nor would you attend; + But briefly haste to my long story's end. + + I pass the rest; the year was fully mourned, + And Palamon long since to Thebes returned: + When, by the Grecians' general consent, + At Athens Theseus held his parliament; + Among the laws that passed, it was decreed, + That conquered Thebes from bondage should be freed; + Reserving homage to the Athenian throne, + To which the sovereign summoned Palamon. + Unknowing of the cause, he took his way, + Mournful in mind, and still in black array. + + The monarch mounts the throne, and, placed on high, + Commands into the court the beauteous Emily. + So called, she came; the senate rose, and paid + Becoming reverence to the royal maid. + And first, soft whispers through the assembly went; + With silent wonder then they watched the event; + All hushed, the King arose with awful grace; + Deep thought was in his breast, and counsel in his face: + At length he sighed, and having first prepared + The attentive audience, thus his will declared: + + "The Cause and Spring of motion from above + Hung down on earth the golden chain of Love; + Great was the effect, and high was his intent, + When peace among the jarring seeds he sent; + Fire, flood, and earth and air by this were bound, + And Love, the common link, the new creation crowned. + The chain still holds; for though the forms decay, + Eternal matter never wears away: + The same first mover certain bounds has placed, + How long those perishable forms shall last; + Nor can they last beyond the time assigned + By that all-seeing and all-making Mind: + Shorten their hours they may, for will is free, + But never pass the appointed destiny. + So men oppressed, when weary of their breath, + Throw off the burden, and suborn their death. + Then, since those forms begin, and have their end, + On some unaltered cause they sure depend: + Parts of the whole are we, but God the whole, + Who gives us life, and animating soul. + For Nature cannot from a part derive + "That being which the whole can only give: + He perfect, stable; but imperfect we, + Subject to change, and different in degree; + Plants, beasts, and man; and, as our organs are, + We more or less of his perfection share. + But, by a long descent, the etherial fire + Corrupts; and forms, the mortal part, expire. + As he withdraws his virtue, so they pass, + And the same matter makes another mass: + This law the omniscient Power was pleased to give, + That every kind should by succession live; + That individuals die, his will ordains; + The propagated species still remains. + The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, + Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees; + Three centuries he grows, and three he stays, + Supreme in state, and in three more decays: + So wears the paving pebble in the street, + And towns and towers their fatal periods meet: + So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie, + Forsaken of their springs, and leave their channels dry. + So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat, + Then, formed, the little heart begins to beat; + Secret he feeds, unknowing, in the cell; + At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell, + And struggles into breath, and cries for aid; + Then helpless in his mother's lap is laid. + He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man, + Grudges their life from whence his own began; + Reckless of laws, affects to rule alone, + Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne; + First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last; + Rich of three souls, and lives all three to waste. + Some thus; but thousands more in flower of age, + For few arrive to run the latter stage. + Sunk in the first, in battle some are slain, + And others whelmed beneath the stormy main. + What makes all this, but Jupiter the king, + At whose command we perish, and we spring? + Then 'tis our best, since thus ordained to die, + To make a virtue of necessity; + Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain; + The bad grows better, which we well sustain; + And could we choose the time, and choose aright, + 'Tis best to die, our honour at the height. + When we have done our ancestors no shame, + But served our friends, and well secured our fame; + Then should we wish our happy life to close, + And leave no more for fortune to dispose; + So should we make our death a glad relief + From future shame, from sickness, and from grief; + Enjoying while we live the present hour, + And dying in our excellence and flower. + Then round our death-bed every friend should run, + And joy us of our conquest early won; + While the malicious world, with envious tears, + Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs. + Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, + Why should we mourn, that he so soon is freed, + Or call untimely what the gods decreed? + With grief as just a friend may be deplored, + From a foul prison to free air restored. + Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife, + Could tears recall him into wretched life? + Their sorrow hurts themselves; on him is lost, + And worse than both, offends his happy ghost. + What then remains, but after past annoy + To take the good vicissitude of joy; + To thank the gracious gods for what they give, + Possess our souls, and, while we live, to live? + Ordain we then two sorrows to combine, + And in one point the extremes of grief to join; + That thence resulting joy may be renewed, + As jarring notes in harmony conclude. + Then I propose that Palamon shall be + In marriage joined with beauteous Emily; + For which already I have gained the assent + Of my free people in full parliament. + Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, + And well deserved, had Fortune done him right: + 'Tis time to mend her fault, since Emily + By Arcite's death from former vows is free; + If you, fair sister, ratify the accord, + And take him for your husband and your lord, + 'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace + On one descended from a royal race; + And were he less, yet years of service past + From grateful souls exact reward at last. + Pity is Heaven's and yours; nor can she find + A throne so soft as in a woman's mind." + + He said; she blushed; and as o'erawed by might, + Seemed to give Theseus what she gave the knight. + Then, turning to the Theban, thus he said: + + "Small arguments are needful to persuade + Your temper to comply with my command:" + + And speaking thus, he gave Emilia's hand. + Smiled Venus, to behold her own true knight. + Obtain the conquest, though he lost the fight; + And blessed with nuptial bliss the sweet laborious night. + Eros and Anteros on either side, + One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride; + And long-attending Hymen from above + + Showered on the bed the whole Idalian grove. + All of a tenor was their after-life, + No day discoloured with domestic strife; + No jealousy, but mutual truth believed, + Secure repose, and kindness undeceived. + Thus Heaven, beyond the compass of his thought, + Sent him the blessing he so dearly bought. + + So may the Queen of Love long duty bless, + And all true lovers find the same success. + + + + +NOTES. + +DEDICATION. + + +Her Grace the Duchess of Ormond was by birth Lady Margaret +Somerset. Her husband, to whom Dryden dedicated the volume of +the _Fables_, was one of King William's supporters. He had been with +him at the Battle of the Boyne, in the war on the Continent, had +received marked evidences of his favor, and stood by his bedside at his +death. + +1 1. The bard. Chaucer, whose _Knight's Tale_, paraphrased as +_Palamon and Arcite_, Dryden dedicated in these verses. + +1 10. An Alexandrine, i.e., a verse of six accented syllables instead +of five. + +1 14. Plantagenet. The surname of the royal family of England +from Henry II. to Richard III. + +1 18. noblest order. The Order of the Garter, which is the highest +order of knighthood in Great Britain, was founded by Edward III. +about 1348. + +2 21, 22, 23. A triplet, i.e., three successive verses with the same +rhyme; one device of Dryden's to avoid monotony. + +2 29. Platonic year. A great cycle of years, at the end of which it +was supposed that the celestial bodies will occupy the same positions +as at the creation. + +2 42. westward. The Duchess' visit to Ireland. + +2 43. benighted Britain. Deprived of the light of her Grace's +presence. + +2 44. Triton. A son of Neptune, generally represented with the +body of a man and the tail of a fish. His duty was to calm the sea by +a blast on his conch-shell horn. + +2 45. Nereids. Nymphs of the sea as distinguished from the +Naiads, nymphs of streams and lakes. + +2 46. Etesian gale. The Etesian winds were any steady periodical +winds. + +2 48. Portunus. A lesser sea-god, more particularly the harbor-god. + +2 51, 52. In these verses Dryden shows us that he had not shaken +off entirely the conceits of his early verse. + +2 53. Hibernia. Ireland. + +2 56. His father and his grandsire. Ormond's father was the gallant +Earl of Ossory, and his grandsire, the first Duke of Ormond, +Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the famous supporter of the Stuart cause. + +3 58. Kerns. The Irish peasantry. + +3 63. Venus is the promise of the sun. Venus, as morning star, is +visible in the east just before sunrise. + +3 65. Pales. A Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds. Ceres. +The goddess of agriculture. + +3 67. three campaigns. The Jacobites had found sympathy in Ireland +and made a stand there. Vigorous efforts were made by William +to dislodge them and subjugate the island; but years passed before +civil strife was ended and peace restored. + +3 72. relics of mankind. The human beings preserved in the ark, +all that was left of mankind after the flood. + +3 82, 83. Dryden copies Virgil's golden age,_Eclogue IV_., 39, 40. + +3 87. venom never known. This refers to the absence of reptiles +in Ireland. + +4 102. New from her sickness. Recently recovered from a serious +illness. + +4 117. four ingredients. Earth, air, fire, water, then supposed to be +the elements of all created substances. + +5 125. young Vespasian. Titus Vespasianus, the conqueror of +Jerusalem, was so impressed by the beauty of the Temple that he +wept as it was destroyed. + +5 128. A most detested act of gratitude. The elegy which the +danger of her death rendered imminent. Detested because the occasion +for the act would fill him with grief. + +5 131. Morley. A celebrated physician of the seventeenth century. + +S 133. Macedon. Thessalus, the son of Hippocrates, a famous +physician of antiquity, who resided at the Macedonian court. + +5 134. Ptolemy. One of Alexander the Great's generals, who became, +after the great conqueror's death, the ruler of Egypt. + +5 138. you. Used here as a noun. + +5 151. daughter of the rose. The Duchess of Ormond was a descendant of +Somerset, who plucked the red rose in the Temple garden when Plantagenet +plucked the white,--an incident which badged the houses of York and +Lancaster during the War of the Roses. + +5 158. Penelope. The wife of Ulysses, during the long years of her +lord's absence, steadfastly withstood the persuasions of suitors, and +remained true to her husband. + +6 162. Ascanius. The son of Aeneas. Elissa. Another name for Dido. It is +Andromache, not Dido, who in Virgil's narrative presents Ascanius with +the elaborately embroidered mantle. Aeneid, Bk. III., 483, etc. + +6 168. wear the garter. Become a Knight of the Garter. + + +BOOK I. + + +7 2. Theseus. A legendary hero of Greece, son of Aegeus. He freed Athens +from human tribute to the Cretan Minotaur, with the assistance of +Ariadne, whom he deserted. Succeeded Aegeus as king of Athens. +Expedition against the Amazons resulted in a victory for him, and he +married their queen, Antiope, not Hippolyta, as in Chaucer, Shakspere, +and Dryden. He joined in Caledonian hunt, fought the Centaurs, attempted +to carry off Proserpina for Pirithous. On his return found his kingdom +usurped, and, retiring to Scyros, was treacherously killed by Lycomedes. + +7 7. warrior queen. Hippolyta, daughter of Mars, queen of the +Amazons, here confused with her sister Antiope, whom legend makes +the bride of Theseus. + +7 21. spousals. Espousal, marriage. + +7 22. tilts and turneys. Notice the anachronism of the transfer +of the mediaeval sport to legendary Greece. Dryden follows Chaucer's +general method, though here the elder poet makes no such statement. + +8 29. accidents. Happenings, literal derivation from _accidere_, to happen. + +8 31. enjoined us by mine host. The host of the Tabard, whence +Chaucer led his Canterbury pilgrims, had proposed that each member +of the company tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two on +the return, and that the best narrator should receive a supper at the +expense of the others. The plan was not fulfilled, but such stories as +were told form Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. + +8 50. weeds. Garments, not restricted to mourning garments. + +9 76. Capaneus. One of the seven heroes who marched from Argos (not +Athens) against Thebes. He defied Jupiter and was struck by lightning as +he was scaling the walls. His wife, Evadne, leaped into the flames ahd +perished. In presenting her here, Dryden followed Chaucer. + +9 81. Creon. King of Thebes, surrendered the city to Aedipus, who had +freed it from the sphinx, resumed rule after death of Aedipus' sons, +killed by his son Haeemon for cruelty to Antigone, daughter of Aedipus. + +10 116. Minotaur. A monster lurking in the labyrinth of Crete, +which devoured the tribute of seven youths and seven maidens sent by +Athens every ninth year. It was slain by Theseus. + +11 150. An Alexandrine verse. + +11 160. An Alexandrine verse. + +12 165. An Alexandrine verse. + +12 169. morn of cheerful May. The conventional month for love +in the old poets. Dryden followed Chaucer. + +12 186. Aurora. Goddess of the morning-red. Each morning she +rose from the couch of Tithonus, and drove swiftly from Oceanus to +Olympus to announce to gods and mortals the coming of day. + +13 199. Philomel. Nightingale. Philomela, dishonored by her +brother-in-law, was changed to a nightingale. + +13 214. hateful eyes. Eyes full of hate. + +14 245. horoscope. A diagram of the heavens by which astrologers +calculated nativities. Dryden resembled Chaucer in his belief in +astrology. + +14 246. Saturn in the dungeon of the sky. Arcite declares that the +horoscope of their birth predicted chains, for it showed the planet +Saturn, an evil star at best, in the dungeon of the sky. + +14 252. Unhappy planets. Planets that were thought to cause +unhappiness. + +14 258. Actaeon. He unintentionally came upon Diana and her +nymphs while they were bathing in the stream, was transformed into +a stag by the goddess, and was coursed to death by his own hounds. + +14 261. Cyprian Queen. Venus; Cyprus was a chief seat of her +worship. + +15 264. habit. Dress. We retain the word with same meaning in +riding-habit. + +16 300. Appeach. To impeach. Old form. + +17 334, 335, 336, 339. Alexandrines, possibly used by Dryden in such +close succession to show Arcite's violent emotions. + +17 342 Aesop's hounds. The hounds of the fable by Aesop. Their +story is told in succeeding verses. + +17 346, 347. These verses indicate a condition with which both Chaucer +and Dryden were very familiar. + +17 358. Pirithous. A legendary hero, between Theseus and whom +existed strong friendship. A Centaur's discourtesy to the bride at the +wedding of Pirithous was avenged by Theseus in the battle with the +Centaurs. + +17 364. His fellow to redeem him went to hell. Chaucer and Dryden +have here confused the story of Theseus and Pirithous with account +of Castor and Pollux. Theseus did not go to the lower world to rescue +Pirithous; but went with him to abduct Proserpina, and they were both +seized and held by Pluto, till Hercules rescued Theseus. + +18 382. Finds his dear purchase. Finds his purchase to be dear, +i.e., expensive. + +19 414. Fire, water, air, and earth. These were regarded by the +ancients as the primary elements of created matter. + +20 433. a certain home. The house is a definite existence. + +20 434. uncertain place. It is uncertain in the sense that the drunkard +has difficulty in finding it. + +21 493. forelays. Awaits before, a survival of an old English compound. + +21 495. thrids. Threads, as in the phrase, "threads the mazes of +the dance." + +21 498. Saturn, seated in a luckless place. A second reference to +the planet of his nativity and its unlucky position in heaven at the hour +of his birth. + +21 500. Mars and Venus in a quartil move. Mars and Venus are +here the planets. When their longitudes differ by 90° they move in a +quartile. It was regarded in astrology as an omen of ill. + +23 545. slumbering as he lay. As he lay slumbering. A favorite +inversion with Chaucer. + +23 547. Hermes. Lat. Mercury, son of Jupiter. One of his chief +duties, to act as a messenger of Jupiter to carry sleep and dreams to +mortals. + +23 550. sleep-compelling rod. Hermes carried a staff, the caduceus, +given him by Apollo, about which two serpents were twined. Its touch +induced sleep. + +23 552. Argus. He had a hundred eyes and was sent by Juno to +guard the cow into which lo had been transformed. He was killed by +Mercury at the command of Jupiter, and Juno transferred his eyes to +the tail of her peacock. + +24 573. A labouring hind in show. In appearance a laboring +peasant. + +24 590. Philostratus. In Chaucer written Philostrate, and so in +Shakspere's _Midsummer Night's Dream_, the characters of which +plainly followed Chaucer. + + +BOOK II. + + +26 10. And May within the Twins received the sun. In May the +sun is in the sign of the zodiac known as Gemini, or the Twins. Dryden +here copies a favorite phrasing of Chaucer, though not used by him +in this particular instance. + +26 16. Notice the enjambment, i.e., the overflow of this verse into +the next. It very rarely occurs in Dryden's later poems. + +27 34. Style. Pen, from _stylus_. + +27 55. Graces. Three sisters, Aglaia (the brilliant), Euphrosyne +(cheerfulness), and Thalia (bloom of life). They were the daughters +of Jupiter and Aurora. + +27 58. The sultry tropic fears. At the end of May the sun, +approaching the summer solstice, gives the longest days; hence its +slowness. + +28 78. roundelay. It is technically a lyric in which a phrase or idea +is continually repeated. + +28 84. Friday. Named from Frigga, a Teutonic goddess, identified +with Venus. This day of the week among the Latin races is still named +from Venus. Italian, _Venerdì_; French,_Vendredi_. + +28 93. Cadmus. He was the son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. His sister +Europa had been carried off by Jupiter and he suffered from the +consequent jealousy of Juno. While searching for his sister he founded +Thebes, with the aid of Minerva, and was its first king. The legend of +Cadmus indicates the introduction of written language from the East, the +Theban city was. Compare "_Ilium fuit_" of Virgil, Aeneid, Bk. II., 325. + +30 153. Our arms shall plead the titles of our love. We will make +good our right to love by strife in arms. + +31 165. pawn. Pledge,i.e., each has pledged his faith. + +31 182. hopes. Hopes for, syncope. + +32 196. foin. To thrust with a weapon, a term used in fencing. +32 228. lively. Bright, like the living green of vegetation. + +32 329. the tuneful cry. Compare _Midsummer Night's Dream,_ +Act IV., Sc. I. + +33 232. goddess of the silver bow. Diana, goddess of the chase,--her +symbol, the crescent moon; hence the silver bow. + +33 237. forth-right. Straight forward; an archaism. + +33 245. strook. Archaic for struck. + +33 258. listed field. A field properly arranged for a tournament. + +35 313. quire. Group. This is the proper spelling, not choir; see +Bk. I., v. 41. + +35 314. contended maid. The maid contended for. + +36 344, 347. In these verses Dryden follows Chaucer, but states the +thought more forcibly. He was undoubtedly glad of the chance to slap +the powers that were. + +38 400. share a single bed. Two lovers cannot marry the same +woman. + +38 414. From out the bars. Beyond the barriers,i.e., out of the lists. + +38 415. recreant. Acknowledging defeat. + +39 445. degrees. With the seats raised in tiers. + +39 461. myrtle wand. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. + +39 465. Queen of Wight. Diana, because she was goddess of the +moon. + +39 467. oratories. Places for prayer. + +40483. Sigils. Literally, a seal or sign; here an occult sign or mark +in astrology, another evidence of Dryden's leaning toward that +so-called science, for Chaucer makes no such statement here. + +40 498. Idalian mount. Idalium, a town in Cyprus sacred to Venus; +here, as often, confused with Mount Ida. + +40 498. Citheron. Cythera, not Citheron, is the island near which +Venus rose from the sea, and a famous seat of her worship. Cithaeron +is a mountain in Boeotia sacred to Zeus. + +41 505. Medea's charms. Medea, daughter of Aetes, king of Colchis, +was a famous sorceress of antiquity. She aided Jason to get the +golden fleece, and fled with him. Deserted by him, she subsequently +became involved with Theseus and Hercules, eventually going to Asia. +From her sprung the Medes. + +41 505. Circean feasts. A mythical sorceress, who feasted mariners +landed on her shores, and by charmed drinks changed them to swine. +Ulysses spent a year with her, and frustrated her arts. + +41 515. bare below the breast. Bare from the shoulders to a point +below the breasts. + +41534. scurf. Scaly matter on the surface,--scum. + +42 536. knares. Knots on, a tree; an archaism. + +42 544. bent. A declivity or slope. + +42 558. tun. A huge cask for holding wine, ale, etc. + +43 590. overlaid. Lain upon by the nurse to smother it. + +44 604. Mars his ides. The Ides of March, the date of Caesar's +assassination. The month was named from the god. + +44 607. Antony, Infatuated with Cleopatra, he lost his empire. +Dryden had previously told the story in his best play,_All for Love_. + +44 614. geomantic. Pertaining to geomancy, the art of divining +future events by means of signs connected with the earth. The figure +here represents two constellations, Rubeus, which signifies Mars +direct, Puella, Mars retrograde. + +44 616. direct... retrograde. The motion of a planet is direct +when it seems to move from west to east in the zodiac, and retrograde +when its apparent motion is reversed. + +44 623. Calisto. Properly Callisto, one of Diana's nymphs. Jupiter +loved her and changed her to a bear to escape the notice of Juno; +but the latter discovered the ruse, and caused Diana to kill the bear. +Thereupon Jupiter transferred her to heaven as the constellation of +Arctos, in which is the pole-star. + +44 631. Peneian Daphne. Daughter of the river-god Peneus. +Loved by Apollo and pursued by him, she prayed for assistance, +and was changed into a laurel tree. Thenceforth the laurel became +Apollo's favorite tree. + +44 634. Calydonian beast. A huge boar sent by Diana to devastate the +territory of Aeneus, king of Calydon in Atolia, because he had not paid +her due honor. Theseus, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Nestor, all the famous +heroes gathered to destroy the beast, and with them the swift-footed +maiden Atalanta. Her arrow gave the first wound. The story is +exquisitely told by Swinburne in Atalanta in Calydon. + +44 635. Aenides. Meleager, son of Aeneus, who actually killed the +boar. He loved Atalanta and gave to her the head and hide of the +animal as a trophy. Jealously attacked by his uncles, he slew them. +At his birth, the fates had prophesied his death when a certain brand +upon the hearth should have burned. Thereupon his mother plucked +it from the fire, quenched it, and put it away. Angered by the death +of her brothers, she throws this brand upon the fire. It is consumed, +and Meleager dies. + +45 639. The Volscian queen. Camilla, an Amazon, allied with +Turnus in his strife with Aeneas in Italy. She was treacherously +killed by Aruns, while pursuing a fleeing enemy. As Aruns was +stealthily withdrawing, he was slain by an arrow, fired by one of +Diana's nymphs. + +45 654. Lucina. The name given to Diana as one of the goddesses +who presides at childbirth. + +45 661, 662. Inserted by Dryden, a satirical reference to the wretched +Whig poets then in favor, and to his own removal from royal patronage. + + +BOOK III. + + +47 28. juppon. A light coat worn over armor, reaching to mid-thigh +and finished in points at the bottom. + +47 31. Pruce. Prussia. + +47 35. jambeux. Armor for the legs, from the French _jambé_, leg. + +47 39. Lycurgus. King of Thrace; he persecuted Bacchus, and +was made mad by that god. In his madness he slew his son under the +impression that he was cutting down vines. The country now produced +no fruit, and the inhabitants carried the impious king to Mount +Pangaeus, where he was torn to pieces by horses. + +48 63. Emetrius. A creation of Chaucer's whom Dryden follows. +Notice the poet's unusual representation of an Indian prince with fair +complexion and yellow hair. + +48 88. Upon his fist he bore. It was customary in the time of +Chaucer to hunt with tame falcons, which were carried perched upon +the wrist when not after quarry. + +49 99. So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode. Bacchus, +a son of Jupiter, was the god of wine. His birth and up-bringing were +attended with dangers bred by the jealousy of Juno. When full grown, +Juno drove him mad, and in this state he journeyed over the earth. +He spent several years in India, introducing the vine and elements of +civilization. It was on his return that he was expelled from Thrace by +Lycurgus. + +49 103. prime. Early morning, the first hour after sunrise. + +49 109. harbinger. One who provides or secures lodgings for another, +from the Old French herbegtsr, whence harbor. + +49 120. Phosphor. Light bringer, from phos and phero. + +49 124. preventing. With the literal significance of the word, coming +before, i.e., he rose before day. + +50 134. Thy month. May referred to as the month of Venus, since +it is, in the poets, particularly a season for love-making. + +50 145. gladder. Thou who makest glad. + +50 146. Increase. Offspring of Jove. + +50 147. Adonis. A beautiful youth, loved by Venus, with whom he +spent eight months of the year. When he was killed by a boar, so +great was the sorrow of the goddess, that the deities of the nether +world allowed her to possess him for half of each year. + +51 164. Notice the force of Palamon's request. He cares not so +much for glory of conquest as for the delights of possession. His +prayer is answered, for, though conquered, he eventually weds Emilia. + +51 168. your fifth orb. The heavens werel supposed to consist of +concentric hollow spheres called orbs, and the sun, moon, stars, and +planets moved in their respective orbs, the planet Venus in the fifth. + +51 169. clue. Thread. + +51 172. And let the Sisters cut below your line. The sisters are the +three Fates. Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis held it, and +Atropos cut it. Palamon is willing that the Fates end his life, if they +will first allow him to enjoy love. + +51 191. Cynthia. Another name for Diana, from Mount Cynthus, +her birthplace. + +51 193. Vests. Vestments, robes. + +52 200. Uncouth. Literally, unknown, hence strange. + +52 205. Well-meaners think no harm. Compare the famous epigram +adopted by the Order of the Garter: "_honi soit qui mal y pense_" +(shamed be he who thinks evil of it). This order was founded during +Chaucer's life, and this sentiment may have been in his mind. + +52 208. mastless oak. Oak leaves without acorns, i.e., without the +fruit, hence an appropriate garland for a maid. + +52 212. Statius. A Latin author who died 96 A.D. Among his +works was an heroic poem in twelve books, embodying the legends +touching the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. + +52 231. Niobe. She was the mother of seven sons and seven +daughters, and so thought herself superior to Latona, who had given +birth to only two, Apollo and Diana. To avenge their mother, they +slew all of Niobe's children with their darts. Hence the "devoted" +children, i.e., devoted to death. + +53 231. gust. The sense or pleasure of tasting, hence relish; more +common form, gusto. + +53 232. thy triple shape. Diana is often confused with Hecate, a +most mysterious divinity. Hecate is represented with three heads and +three bodies, and possessed the attributes of Luna in heaven, of Diana +on earth, and of Proserpina in the lower world. + +53 238. frowning stars. If the stars at her birth were such and so +placed that they boded ill, they might be said to frown. + +53 250-260. The omen foretells the event. One altar seems extinguished +and then relights when the other goes out entirely. So Palamon seems to +fail, but eventually wins Emilia after the death of Arcite. + +54 290. planetary hour. This was the fourth hour of the day. + +54 291. heptarchy. A rule by seven. It refers here to the seven +great gods, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Vulcan, Apollo, Mercury. + +55 297. Hyperborean. Beyond the North. Applied originally to a +blessed people who dwelt beyond the north wind. + +55 320. Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled. Vulcan, the husband +of Venus, once discovered improper relations between her and +Mars, and he entrapped the guilty pair in the meshes of an invisible +net and exposed them to the laughter of the gods. This passage would +appeal to the taste of Dryden's Restoration readers, and is developed +with a light grace, characteristic of the period. + +55 325-332. In these verses the poet brings out the character of +Arcite, a more mannish man than Palamon. + +56 355, 356. Arcite prays for victory; nothing else will satisfy. He +obtains his prayer, but loses Emily. + +57 389. trined. An astrological term, meaning that the planets +Saturn and Venus were distant from each other 120°, or one-third of +the zodiac, a benign aspect. + +57 390. with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined. Both Mars and +Saturn were in the sign of the zodiac, Capricorn. + +58 401. watery sign. The so-called watery signs of the zodiac +were Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. When Saturn is in one of these +signs, look out for shipwreck. + +58 402. earthy. The so-called earthy signs were Taurus, Virgo, +and Capricornus. When Saturn is in one of these signs, look out for +the dungeon. + +58 408, 409. Though these verses are taken from Chaucer, they +fitted Dryden's times and sentiment; for he had seen his own king, +James II., ousted from his throne and supplanted by William and +Mary. He was not in sympathy with the Revolution. + +58 410. housing in the lion's hateful sign. Saturn in the sign Leo +was regarded as baleful. + +58 411. This verse is Dryden's own, and contains satirical reference +to Whig disloyalty at the time of the Revolution of '88. + +58 418. pestilence. Both Chaucer and Dryden had experienced +great plagues in London, the Black Death in the fourteenth century +and the Great Plague of 1665. + +58 432. gladded. Made glad. + +59 452. morions with their plumy pride. A helmet with a crest of +feathers. + +59 453. retinue. Here accented on the penult. + +59 459. palfrey. A small horse in contrast with the mighty war horse. + + +59 463. clowns. The peasants, the common people. + +60 480. double-biting axe. Two-edged battle-ax. + +60 489. Armed cap-a-pe. From head to foot. From the old +French, _de cap a pie_. + +60 497. king-at-arms. The chief of the heralds, an important +office in the Middle Ages. + +61 512. The turney is allowed but one career. The two bands of +knights shall rush together on horseback but once. + +61 516. at mischief taken. Caught at a disadvantage. + +63 569. equipage. So well equipped. + +63 590. justling. An archaism for jostling. + +64 603. Hauberks. A part of mail armor, originally intended to +protect neck and shoulders; later it reached to the knees. + +65 669. the rightful Titan failed. The Titans were the six sons +and six daughters of Ccelus and Terra. One of them, Saturn, indignant +at the tyranny of his father, dethroned him with the others' aid. +The Titans then ruled in heaven with Saturn at their head. A prophecy +to the effect that one of his children would dethrone him caused him +to swallow each one as it was born; but Jupiter was concealed at his +birth and grew to manhood. He compelled Saturn to disgorge his +brothers and sisters, and in company with them waged a ten years' war +against the Titans. They were overcome and hurled to the depths +below Tartarus, while Jupiter usurped the throne of heaven. + +66 697, 698. A touch of light satire in Chaucer which Dryden repeats +with gusto, for it tallied well with the sentiments of his day. + +67 709. lanced a vein. The sovereign remedy in the olden time +was blood-letting. + +67 726. charms. They played an important part in medical practice, +not only in Chaucer's time, but later even than Dryden. + +68 750. leech's cares. Leech was a common name for doctor. + +68 755. breathing veins nor cupping. Two different methods of +bleeding. To breathe a vein was to open the vein directly. To cup +was to apply the cupping glass, which, being a partial vacuum, caused +the flesh to puff up in it, and then the lancet was used. + +68 772. against right. Arcite is said to have gained Emily against +right, because Palamon, having seen and loved her first, had priority of +claim. + +72 877 Aegeus. According to the generally accepted legend, +Aegeus, Theseus' father, had died when Theseus returned from Crete, +years before. + +72 889, 890. These verses are an insertion by Dryden, and are another +reference to the change of dynasty at the Revolution of 1688, +when James II. was dethroned, and William, Prince of Orange, +succeeded him. + +72 898. conscious laund. Knowing lawn or glade, i.e., the spot that had +been familiar with their first encounter. Laund is, of course, an archaism. + +72 905. Sere-wood. Modern form, searwood, wood dry enough to +burn well. + +72 905. doddered oaks. Oaks covered with dodder, that is, with +parasitic plants, and therefore dead or dying. + +72 908. Vulcanian food. Food for fire, Vulcan being the god of +fire. + +73 940. master-street. Main street of the town. + +74 953. Parthian bow. The Parthians were famous bowmen. + +74 955. fathom. A fathom is a measure of six feet. + +74 956. strowed. Archaism for strewn. + +75 998. wakes. A wake is, literally, an all-night watch by the body +of the dead, sometimes attended by unseemly revelry. Here it refers +to the celebration of funeral rites for Arcite. + +75 1007. Theseus held his parliament. Theseus is reputed to +have introduced constitutional government in Attica. + +76 1031. The principle of the indestructibility of matter, a result +of scientific investigation, which in Dryden's time was attracting +much attention. + +76 1039. suborn. To procure by indirect means. + +77 1076. vegetive. Growing, having the power of growth. + +78 nil. annoy. Annoyance. + +79 1114. while we live, to live. To live happily while life lasts. + +79 1144. Eros and Anteros. Both different names for the god of +love, Eros signifying direct, sensual love, and Anteros, return love. + +79 1146. long-attending Hymen. Hymen, the god of marriage, +had waited long to consummate this match. + +80 1154, 1155. This couplet is original with Dryden, and forms a + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Palamon and Arcite, by John Dryden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALAMON AND ARCITE *** + +***** This file should be named 7490-8.txt or 7490-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/9/7490/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Charles Franks and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Not Only Do Two + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + .side { float: right; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; margin-left: 0.8em; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + pre {font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 100%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Palamon and Arcite, by John Dryden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Palamon and Arcite + +Author: John Dryden + +Editor: George E. Eliot + + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7490] +This file was first posted on May 10, 2003 +Last Updated: May 10, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALAMON AND ARCITE *** + + + + +Text file produced by Ted Garvin, Charles Franks and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + DRYDEN'S PALAMON AND ARCITE + </h1> + <h3> + Edited With Introduction And Notes<br /> By George E. Eliot, A.M.<br /> + English Master In The Morgan School + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + To + </h4> + <h4> + Henry A. Beers <br /> <br /> Professor Of English Literature In Yale + University <br /> Who First Aroused My Interest In Dryden <br /> And + Directed My Study Of His Works <br /> This Volume Is Respectfully Inscribed + <br /><br /> + </h4> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE BACKGROUND. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> LIFE OF DRYDEN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> PALAMON AND ARCITE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> DRYDEN'S PLACE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_REFE"> REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> <b>PALAMON AND ARCITE;</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> BOOK I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> BOOK II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> BOOK III. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> NOTES. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE. + </h2> + <p> + To edit an English classic for study in secondary schools is difficult. + The lack of anything like uniformity in the type of examination required + by the colleges and universities complicates treatment. Not only do two + distinct institutions differ in the scope and character of their + questions, but the same university varies its demands from year to year. + The only safe course to pursue is, therefore, a generally comprehensive + one. But here, again, we are hampered by limited space, and are forced to + content ourselves with a bare outline, which the individual instructor can + fill in as much or as little as he pleases. + </p> + <p> + The ignorance of most of our classical students in regard to the history + of English literature is appalling; and yet it is impossible properly to + study a given work of a given author without some knowledge of the + background against which that particular writer stands. I have, therefore, + sketched the politics, society, and literature of the age in which Dryden + lived, and during which he gave to the world his <i>Palamon and Arcite</i>. + In the critical comments of the introduction I have contented myself with + little more than hints. That particular line of study, whether it concerns + the poet's style, his verse forms, or the possession of the divine + instinct itself, can be much more satisfactorily developed by the + instructor, as the student's knowledge of the poem grows. + </p> + <p> + It is certainly a subject for congratulation that so many youth will be + introduced, through the medium of Dryden's crisp and vigorous verse, to + one of the tales of Chaucer. May it now, as in his own century, accomplish + the poet's desire, and awaken in them appreciative admiration for the old + bard, the best story-teller in the English language. + </p> + <p> + G. E. E. CLINTON, CONN., July 26, 1897. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION. + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE BACKGROUND. + </h2> + <p> + The fifty years of Dryden's literary production just fill the last half of + the seventeenth century. It was a period bristling with violent political + and religious prejudices, provocative of strife that amounted to + revolution. Its social life ran the gamut from the severity of the + Commonwealth Puritan to the unbridled debauchery of the Restoration + Courtier. In literature it experienced a remarkable transformation in + poetry, and developed modern prose, watched the production of the greatest + English epics, smarted under the lash of the greatest English satires, + blushed at the brilliant wit of unspeakable comedies, and applauded the + beginnings of English criticism. + </p> + <p> + When the period began, England was a Commonwealth. Charles I., by + obstinate insistence upon absolutism, by fickleness and faithlessness, had + increased and strengthened his enemies. Parliament had seized the reins of + government in 1642, had completely established its authority at Naseby in + 1645, and had beheaded the king in front of his own palace in 1649. The + army had accomplished these results, and the army proposed to enjoy the + reward. Cromwell, the idolized commander of the Ironsides, was placed at + the head of the new-formed state with the title of Lord Protector; and for + five years he ruled England, as she had been ruled by no sovereign since + Elizabeth. He suppressed Parliamentary dissensions and royalist uprisings, + humbled the Dutch, took vengeance on the Spaniard, and made England + indisputably mistress of the ocean. He was succeeded, at his death in + 1658, by his son Richard; but the father's strong instinct for government + had not been inherited by the son. The nation, homesick for monarchy, was + tiring of dissension and bickering, and by the Restoration of 1660 the son + of Charles I became Charles II of England. + </p> + <p> + Scarcely had the demonstrations of joy at the Restoration subsided when + London was visited by the devouring plague of 1665. All who could fled + from the stricken city where thousands died in a day. In 1666 came the + great fire which swept from the Tower to the Temple; but, while it + destroyed a vast deal of property, it prevented by its violent + purification a recurrence of the plague, and made possible the rebuilding + of the city with great sanitary and architectural improvements. + </p> + <p> + Charles possessed some of the virtues of the Stuarts and most of their + faults. His arbitrary irresponsibility shook the confidence of the nation + in his sincerity. Two parties, the Whigs and the Tories, came into being, + and party spirit and party strife ran high. The question at issue was + chiefly one of religion. The rank and file of Protestant England was + determined against the revival of Romanism, which a continuation of the + Stuart line seemed to threaten. Charles was a Protestant only from + expediency, and on his deathbed accepted the Roman Catholic faith; his + brother James, Duke of York, the heir apparent, was a professed Romanist. + </p> + <p> + Such an outlook incited the Whigs, under the leadership of Shaftesbury, to + support the claims of Charles' eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of + Monmouth, who, on the death of his father in 1685, landed in England; but + the promised uprising was scarcely more than a rabble of peasantry, and + was easily suppressed. Then came the vengeance of James, as foolish as it + was tyrannical. Judge Jeffries and his bloody assizes sent scores of + Protestants to the block or to the gallows, till England would endure no + more. William, Prince of Orange, who had married Mary, the eldest daughter + of James, was invited to accept the English crown. He landed at Torbay, + was joined by Churchill, the commander of the king's forces, and, on the + precipitate flight of James, mounted the throne of England. This event + stands in history as the Protestant Revolution of 1688. + </p> + <p> + During William's reign, which terminated in 1702, Stuart uprisings were + successfully suppressed, English liberties were guaranteed by the famous + Bill of Rights, Protestant succession was assured, and liberal toleration + was extended to the various dissenting sects. + </p> + <p> + Society had passed through quite as great variations as had politics + during this half-century. The roistering Cavalier of the first Charles, + with his flowing locks and plumed hat, with his maypoles and morrice + dances, with his stage plays and bear-baitings, with his carousals and + gallantries, had given way to the Puritan Roundhead. It was a serious, + sober-minded England in which the youth Dryden found himself. If the + Puritan differed from the Cavalier in political principles, they were even + more diametrically opposed in mode of life. An Act of Parliament closed + the theaters in 1642. Amusements of all kinds were frowned upon as + frivolous, and many were suppressed by law. The old English feasts at + Michaelmas, Christmas, Twelfth Night, and Candlemas were regarded as + relics of popery and were condemned. The Puritan took his religion + seriously, so seriously that it overpowered him. The energy and fervor of + his religious life were illustrated in the work performed by Cromwell's + chaplain, John Howe, on any one of the countless fast days. "He began with + his flock at nine in the morning, prayed during a quarter of an hour for + blessing upon the day's work, then read and explained a chapter for + three-quarters of an hour, then prayed for an hour, preached for an hour, + and prayed again for a half an hour, then retired for a quarter of an + hour's refreshment—the people singing all the while—returned + to his pulpit, prayed for another hour, preached for another hour, and + finished at four P.M." + </p> + <p> + At the Restoration the pendulum swung back again. From the strained + morality of the Puritans there was a sudden leap to the most extravagant + license and the grossest immorality, with the king and the court in the + van. The theaters were thrown wide open, women for the first time went + upon the stage, and they acted in plays whose moral tone is so low that + they cannot now be presented on the stage or read in the drawing-room. Of + course they voiced the social conditions of the time. Marriage ties were + lightly regarded; no gallant but boasted his amours. Revelry ran riot; + drunkenness became a habit and gambling a craze. The court scintillated + with brilliant wits, conscienceless libertines, and scoffing atheists. It + was an age of debauchery and disbelief. + </p> + <p> + The splendor of this life sometimes dazzles, the lack of conveniences + appalls. The post left London once a week. A journey to the country must + be made in your own lumbering carriage, or on the snail-slow stagecoach + over miserable roads, beset with highwaymen. The narrow, ill-lighted + streets, even of London, could not be traversed safely at night; and + ladies, borne to routs and levees in their sedan chairs, were lighted by + link-boys, and were carried by stalwart, broad-shouldered bearers who + could wield well the staves in a street fight. Such were the conditions of + life and society which Dryden found in the last fifty years of the + seventeenth century. + </p> + <p> + Strong as were the contrasts in politics and manners during Dryden's + lifetime, they were paralleled by contrasts in literature no less marked. + Dryden was born in 1631; he died in 1700. In the year of his birth died + John Donne, the father of the Metaphysical bards, or Marinists; in the + year of his death was born James Thomson, who was to give the first real + start to the Romantic movement; while between these two dates lies the + period devoted to the development of French Classicism in English + literature. + </p> + <p> + At Dryden's birth Ben Jonson was the only one of the great Elizabethan + dramatists still living, and of the lesser stars in the same galaxy, + Chapman, Massinger, Ford, Webster, and Heywood all died during his boyhood + and youth, while Shirley, the last of his line, lingered till 1667. Of the + older writers in prose, Selden alone remained; but as Dryden grew to + manhood, he had at hand, fresh from the printers, the whole wealth of + Commonwealth prose, still somewhat clumsy with Latinism or tainted with + Euphuism, but working steadily toward that simple strength and graceful + fluency with which he was himself to mark the beginning of modern English + prose. + </p> + <p> + Clarendon, with his magnificently involved style, began his famous <i>History + of the Great Rebellion</i> in 1641. Ten years later Hobbes published the + <i>Leviathan</i>, a sketch of an ideal commonwealth. Baxter, with his <i>Saints' + Everlasting Rest</i> sent a book of religious consolation into every + household. In 1642 Dr. Thomas Browne, with the simplicity of a child and a + quaintness that fascinates, published his <i>Religio Medici</i>; and in + 1653 dear old simple-hearted Isaak Walton told us in his <i>Compleat + Angler</i> how to catch, dress, and cook fish. Thomas Fuller, born a score + or more of years before Dryden, in the same town, Aldwinkle, published in + 1642 his <i>Holy and Profane State</i>, a collection of brief and brisk + character sketches, which come nearer modern prose than anything of that + time; while for inspired thought and purity of diction the <i>Holy Living</i>, + 1650, and the <i>Holy Dying</i>, 1651, of Jeremy Taylor, a gifted young + divine, rank preëminent in the prose of the Commonwealth. + </p> + <p> + But without question the ablest prose of the period came from the pen of + Cromwell's Latin Secretary of State, John Milton. Milton stands in his own + time a peculiarly isolated figure. We never in thought associate him with + his contemporaries. Dryden had become the leading literary figure in + London before Milton wrote his great epic; yet, were it not for definite + chronology, we should scarcely realize that they worked in the same + century. While, therefore, no sketch of seventeenth-century literature can + exclude Milton, he must be taken by himself, without relation to the + development, forms, and spirit of his age, and must be regarded, rather, + as a late-born Elizabethan. + </p> + <p> + When Dryden was born, Milton at twenty-three was just completing his seven + years at Cambridge, and as the younger poet grew through boyhood, the + elder was enriching English verse with his <i>Juvenilia</i>. Then came the + twenty years of strife. As Secretary of the Commonwealth, he threw himself + into controversial prose. His <i>Iconoclast</i>, the <i>Divorce</i> + pamphlets, the <i>Smectymnuus</i> tracts, and the <i>Areopagitica</i> date + from this period. A strong partisan of the Commonwealth, he was in + emphatic disfavor at the Restoration. Blind and in hiding, deserted by + one-time friends, out of sympathy with his age, he fulfilled the promise + of his youth: he turned again to poetry; and in <i>Paradise Lost</i>, <i>Paradise + Regained</i>, and <i>Samson Agonistes</i> he has left us "something so + written that the world shall not willingly let it die." + </p> + <p> + I have said that Milton's poetry differed distinctly from the poetry of + his age. The verse that Dryden was reading as a schoolboy was quite other + than <i>L'Allegro</i> and <i>Lycidas</i>. In the closing years of the + preceding century, John Donne had traveled in Italy. There the poet Marino + was developing fantastic eccentricities in verse. Donne under similar + influences adopted similar methods. + </p> + <p> + To seize upon the quaintest possible thought and then to express it in as + quaint a manner as possible became the chief aim of English poets during + the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century. Donne had encountered + trouble in obtaining his wife from her father. Finding one morning a flea + that had feasted during the night on his wife and himself, he was overcome + by its poetic possibilities, and wrote: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "This flea is you and I, and this + Our marriage bed and temple is; + Tho' parents frown, and you, we're met + And cloister'd in these living walls of jet." +</pre> + <p> + To strain after conceits, to strive for quaintness of thought and + expression, was the striking characteristic of all the poets of the + generation, to whom Dr. Johnson gave the title Metaphysical, and who are + now known as the Marinists. There were Quarles, with his Dutch <i>Emblems</i>; + Vaughan, Sandys, Crashaw, and pure-souled George Herbert, with his <i>Temple</i>. + There were Carew, with the <i>Rapture</i>; Wither and his "Shall I wasting + in despair"; the two dashing Cavaliers Suckling and Lovelace, the latter + the only man who ever received an M.A. for his personal beauty. There was + Herrick, the dispossessed Devonshire rector, with <i>Hesperides</i> and <i>Noble + Numbers</i>, freer than were the others from the beauty-marring conceits + of the time. There, too, were to be found the gallant love-maker Waller, + Cowley, the queen's secretary during her exile, and Marvell, Milton's + assistant Secretary of State. But these three men were to pledge + allegiance to a new sovereignty in English verse. + </p> + <p> + In the civil strife, Waller had at first sided with Parliament, had later + engaged in a plot against it, and after a year's imprisonment was exiled + to France. At this time the Academy, organized to introduce form and + method in the French language and literature, held full sway. Malherbe was + inculcating its principles, Corneille and Molière were practicing its + tenets in their plays, and Boileau was following its rules in his satires, + when Waller and his associates came in contact with this influence. The + tendency was distinctly toward formality and conventionality. Surfeited + with the eccentricities and far-fetched conceits of the Marinists, the + exiled Englishmen welcomed the change; they espoused the French + principles; and when at the Restoration they returned to England with + their king, whose taste had been trained in the same school, they began at + once to formalize and conventionalize English poetry. The writers of the + past, even the greatest writers of the past, were regarded as men of + genius, but without art; and English poetry was thenceforth, in Dryden's + own words, to start with Waller. + </p> + <p> + Under the newly adopted canons of French taste, narrative and didactic + verse, or satire, took first place. Blank verse was tabooed as too + prose-like; so, too, were the enjambed rhymes. A succession of rhymed + pentameter couplets, with the sense complete in each couplet, was set + forth as the proper vehicle for poetry; and this unenjambed distich + fettered English verse for three-quarters of a century. In the drama the + characters must be noble, the language dignified; the metrical form must + be the rhymed couplet, and the unities of time, place, and action must be + observed. + </p> + <p> + Such, in brief, were the principles of French Classicism as applied to + English poetry, principles of which Dryden was the first great exponent, + and which Pope in the next generation carried to absolute perfection. + Waller, Marvell, and Cowley all tried their pens in the new method, Cowley + with least success; and they were the poets in vogue when Dryden himself + first attracted attention. Denham quite caught the favor of the critics + with his mild conventionalities; the Earl of Roscommon delighted them with + his rhymed <i>Essay on Translated Verse</i>; the brilliant court wits, + Rochester, Dorset, and Sedley, who were writing for pleasure and not for + publication, still clung to the frivolous lyric; but the most-read and + worst-treated poet of the Restoration was Butler. He published his <i>Hudibras</i>, + a sharp satire on the extreme Puritans, in 1663. Every one read the book, + laughed uproariously, and left the author to starve in a garret. Of + Dryden's contemporaries in prose, there were Sir William Temple, later the + patron of Swift, John Locke who contributed to philosophy his <i>Essay + Concerning the Human Understanding</i>, the two diarists Evelyn and Pepys, + and the critics Rymer and Langbaine; there was Isaac Newton, who expounded + in his <i>Principia</i>, 1687, the laws of gravitation; and there was the + preaching tinker, who, confined in Bedford jail, gave to the world in 1678 + one of its greatest allegories, <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>. + </p> + <p> + Dryden was nearly thirty before the production of the drama was resumed in + England. Parliament had closed the theaters in 1642, and that was an + extinguisher of dramatic genius. Davenant had vainly tried to elude the + law, and finally succeeded in evading it by setting his <i>Siege of Rhodes</i> + to music, and producing the first English opera. At the Restoration, when + the theaters were reopened, the dramas then produced reflected most + vividly the looseness and immorality of the times. Their worst feature was + that "they possessed not wit enough to keep the mass of moral putrefaction + sweet." + </p> + <p> + Davenant was prolific, Crowne wallowed in tragedy, Tate remodeled + Shakspere; so did Shadwell, who was later to measure swords with Dryden, + and receive for his rashness an unmerciful castigation. But by all odds + the strongest name in tragedy was Thomas Otway, who smacks of true + Elizabethan genius in the <i>Orphan</i> and <i>Venice Preserved</i>. In + comedy we receive the brilliant work of Etheridge, the vigor of Wycherley, + and, as the century drew near its close, the dashing wit of Congreve, + Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. This burst of brilliancy, in which the Restoration + drama closes, was the prelude to the Augustan Age of Queen Anne and the + first Georges, the period wherein flourished that group of self-satisfied, + exceptionally clever, ultra-classical wits who added a peculiar zest and + charm to our literature. As Dryden grew to old age, these younger men were + already beginning to make themselves heard, though none had done great + work. In poetry there were Prior, Gay, and Pope, while in prose we find + names that stand high in the roll of fame,—the story-teller Defoe, + the bitter Swift, the rollicking Dick Steele, and delightful Addison. + </p> + <p> + This is the background in politics, society, and letters on which the life + of Dryden was laid during the last half of the seventeenth century. There + were conditions in his environment which materially modified his life and + affected his literary form, and without a knowledge of these conditions no + study of the man or his works can be effective or satisfactory. Dryden was + preëminently a man of his times. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LIFE OF DRYDEN. + </h2> + <p> + John Dryden was born at the vicarage of Aldwinkle, All Saints, in + Northamptonshire, August 9, 1631. His father, Erasmus Dryden, was the + third son of Sir Erasmus Dryden of Cannons Ashby. The estate descended to + Dryden's uncle, John, and is still in the family. His mother was Mary + Pickering. Both the Drydens and Pickerings were Puritans, and were ranged + on the side of Parliament in its struggle with Charles I. As a boy Dryden + received his elementary education at Tichmarsh, and went thence to + Westminster School, where he studied under the famous Dr. Busby. Here he + first appeared in print with an elegiac poem on the death of a + schoolfellow, Lord Hastings. It possesses the peculiarities of the extreme + Marinists. The boy had died from smallpox, and Dryden writes: + </p> + <p> + "Each little pimple had a tear in it To wail the fault its rising did + commit." + </p> + <p> + He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, May 18, 1650, took his B.A. in + 1654, and then, though he received no fellowship, lingered at the + university for three years. Tradition tells us that he had no fondness for + his Alma Mater, and certainly his verse contains compliments only for + Oxford. + </p> + <p> + His father had died in 1654 and had bequeathed him a small estate. When, + in 1657, he finally left the university, he attached himself to his uncle, + Sir Gilbert Pickering, a general of the Commonwealth. In 1658 he wrote <i>Heroic + Stanzas on Cromwell's Death;</i> but shortly thereafter he went to London, + threw himself into the life of literary Bohemia, and at the Restoration, + in 1660, wrote his <i>Astroea Redux</i>, as enthusiastically as the + veriest royalist of them all. This sudden transformation of the eulogist + of Cromwell to the panegyrist of Charles won for Dryden in some quarters + the name of a political turncoat; but such criticism was unjust. He was by + birth and early training a Puritan; add to this a poet's admiration for a + truly great character, and the lines on Cromwell are explained; but during + his London life he rubbed elbows with the world, early prejudices + vanished, his true nature asserted itself, and it was John Dryden himself, + not merely the son of his father, who celebrated Charles' return. + </p> + <p> + On December 1, 1663, he married Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter of + the Earl of Berkshire, and the sister of a literary intimate. Tradition + has pronounced the marriage an unhappy one, but facts do not bear out + tradition. He nowhere referred other than affectionately to his wife, and + always displayed a father's warm affection for his sons, John, Charles, + and Erasmus. Lady Elizabeth outlived her husband and eventually died + insane. + </p> + <p> + During the great plague in London, 1665, Dryden fled with his wife to + Charleton. He lived there for two years, and during that time wrote three + productions that illustrate the three departments of literature to which + he devoted himself: <i>Annus Mirabilis</i>, a narrative and descriptive + poem on the fire of 1666 and the sea fight with the Dutch, the <i>Essay on + Dramatic Poesy</i>, his first attempt at literary criticism in prose, and + the <i>Maiden Queen</i>, a drama. In <i>Annus Mirabilis</i> we find the + best work yet done by him. Marinist quaintness still clings here and + there, and he has temporarily deserted the classical distich for a + quatrain stanza; but here, for the first time, we taste the Dryden of the + <i>Satires</i> and the <i>Fables</i>. His <i>Essay on Dramatic Poesy</i> + started modern prose. Hitherto English prose had suffered from long + sentences, from involved sentences, and from clumsy Latinisms or too bald + vernacular. Dryden happily united simplicity with grace, and gave us + plain, straightforward sentences, musically arranged in well-ordered + periods. This was the vehicle in which he introduced literary criticism, + and he continued it in prefaces to most of his plays and subsequent poems. + </p> + <p> + At this same time he not only discussed the drama, but indulged in its + production; and for a score of years from the early sixties he devoted + himself almost exclusively to the stage. It was the most popular and the + most profitable mode of expression. He began with a comedy, the <i>Wild + Gallant</i>, in 1662. It was a poor play and was incontinently condemned. + He then developed a curious series of plays, of which the <i>Indian + Emperor</i>, the <i>Conquest of Grenada</i>, and <i>Aurengzebe</i> are + examples. He professedly followed French methods, observed the unities, + and used the rhymed couplet. But they were not French; they were a + nondescript incubation by Dryden himself, and were called heroic dramas. + They were ridiculed in the Duke of Buckingham's farce, the <i>Rehearsal</i>; + but their popularity was scarcely impaired. + </p> + <p> + In 1678 Dryden showed a return to common sense and to blank verse in <i>All + for Love</i>, and, though it necessarily suffers from its comparison with + the original, Shakspere's <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, it nevertheless + possesses enough dramatic power to make it his best play. He had preceded + this by rewriting Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i> as an opera, in the <i>State + of Innocence</i>, and he followed it in 1681 with perhaps his best comedy, + the <i>Spanish Friar</i>. + </p> + <p> + Dryden was now far the most prominent man of letters in London. In 1670 he + had been appointed Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal with a salary + of two hundred pounds and a butt of sack. His connection with the stage + had been a decided financial success, and he was in receipt of an income + of about seven hundred pounds, which at modern values would approximate + $15,000. His house on Gerard Street, Soho, backed upon Leicester's + gardens. There he spent his days in writing, but the evening found him at + Will's Coffee House. In this famous resort of the wits and writers of the + day the literary dictator of his generation held his court. Seated in his + particular armchair, on the balcony in summer, by the fire in winter, he + discoursed on topics current in the literary world, pronounced his verdict + of praise or condemnation, and woe to the unfortunate upon whom the latter + fell. A week before Christmas, in 1679, as Dryden was walking home from an + evening of this sort, he was waylaid by masked ruffians in Rose Alley and + was beaten to unconsciousness. The attack was supposed to have been + incited by Rochester, who smarted under an anonymous satire mistakenly + attributed to Dryden. + </p> + <p> + Though wrongly accused of this particular satire, it was not long before + he did turn his attention to that department of verse. It was the time of + the restless dissent of the Whigs from the succession of James; and in + 1681 Dryden launched <i>Absalom and Achitophel</i>, one of the most + brilliant satires in our language, against Shaftesbury and his adherents, + who were inciting Monmouth to revolt. He found an admirable parallel in + Absalom's revolt from his father David, and he sustained the comparison. + The Scriptural names concealed living characters, and Shaftesbury masked + as Achitophel, the evil counsellor, and Buckingham as Zimri. Feeling ran + high. Shaftesbury was arrested and tried, but was acquitted, and his + friends struck off a medal in commemoration. In 1682, therefore, came + Dryden's second satire, the <i>Medal</i>. These two political satires + called forth in the fevered state of the times a host of replies, two of + the most scurrilous from the pens of Shadwell and Settle. Of these two + poor Whigs the first was drawn and quartered in <i>MacFlecnoe</i>, while + the two were yoked for castigation in Part II. of <i>Absalom and + Achitophel</i>, which appeared in 1682. Dryden possessed preëminently the + faculty for satire. He did not devote himself exclusively to an abstract + treatment, nor, like Pope, to bitter personalities; he blends and combines + the two methods most effectively. Every one of his brisk, nervous couplets + carries a sting; every distich is a sound box on the ear. + </p> + <p> + We reach now a most interesting period in Dryden's career and one that has + provoked much controversy. In 1681 he published a long argument in verse, + entitled <i>Religio Laici</i> (the Religion of a Layman), in which he + states his religious faith and his adherence to the Church of England. + When King James came to the throne in 1685 he made an immediate attempt to + establish the Roman Catholic faith; and now Dryden, too, turned Romanist, + and in 1687 supported his new faith in the long poetical allegory, the <i>Hind + and the Panther</i>. Of course his enemies cried turncoat; and it + certainly looked like it. Dryden was well into manhood before the + religious instinct stirred in him, and then, once waking, he naturally + walked in the beaten track. But these instincts, though roused late, + possessed the poet's impetuosity; and it was merely a natural intensifying + of the same impulse that had brought him into the Church of England, which + carried him to a more pronounced religious manifestation, and landed him + in the Church of Rome. His sincerity is certainly backed by his acts, for + when James had fled, and the staunch Protestants William and Mary held the + throne, he absolutely refused to recant, and sacrificed his positions and + emoluments. He was stripped of his royal offices and pensions, and, bitter + humiliation, the laurel, torn from his brow, was placed on the head of + that scorned jangler in verse, Shadwell. + </p> + <p> + Deprived now of royal patronage and pensions, Dryden turned again to the + stage, his old-time purse-filler; and he produced two of his best plays, + <i>Don Sebastian</i> and <i>Amphitryon</i>. The rest of his life, however, + was to be spent, not with the drama, but in translation and paraphrase. + Since 1684 he had several times published <i>Miscellanies</i>, collections + of verse in which had appeared fragments of translations. With that + indefatigable energy which characterized him, he now devoted himself to + sustained effort. In 1693 he published a translation of <i>Juvenal</i>, + and in the same year began his translation of <i>Virgil</i>, which was + published in 1697. The work was sold by subscription, and the poet was + fairly well paid. Dryden's translations are by no means exact; but he + caught the spirit of his poet, and carried something of it into his own + effective verse. + </p> + <p> + Dryden was not great in original work, but he was particularly happy in + adaptation; and so it happened that his best play, <i>All for Love</i>, + was modeled on Shakspere's <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, and his best poem, + <i>Palamon and Arcite</i>, was a paraphrase of the <i>Knight's Tale</i> of + Chaucer. Contrary to the general taste of his age, he had long felt and + often expressed great admiration for the fourteenth-century poet. His work + on Ovid had first turned his thought to Chaucer, he tells us, and by + association he linked with him Boccaccio. As his life drew near its close + he turned to those famous old story-tellers, and in the <i>Fables</i> gave + us paraphrases in verse of eight of their most delightful tales, with + translations from Homer and Ovid, a verse letter to his kinsman John + Driden, his second <i>St. Cedlia's Ode</i>, entitled <i>Alexander's Feast</i>, + and an <i>Epitaph</i>. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Fables</i> were published in 1700. They were his last work. Friends + of the poet, and they were legion, busied themselves at the beginning of + that year in the arrangement of an elaborate benefit performance for him + at the Duke's Theater; but Dryden did not live to enjoy the compliment. He + suffered severely from gout; a lack of proper treatment induced + mortification, which spread rapidly, and in the early morning of the first + of May, 1700, he died. + </p> + <p> + He had been the literary figurehead of his generation, and the elaborate + pomp of his funeral attested his great popularity. His body lay in state + for several days and then with a great procession was borne, on the 13th + of May, to the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. The last years of his + life had been spent in fond study of the work of Chaucer, and so it + happened that just three hundred years after the death of elder bard + Dryden was laid to rest by the side of his great master. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PALAMON AND ARCITE + </h2> + <p> + The <i>Fables</i>, in which this poem appears, were published in 1700. The + word fable as here used by Dryden holds its original meaning of story or + tale. Besides the <i>Palamon and Arcite</i>, he paraphrased from Chaucer + the <i>Cock and the Fox</i>, the <i>Flower and the Leaf</i>, the <i>Wife + of Bath's Tale</i>, the <i>Character of the Good Parson</i>. From + Boccaccio he gave us <i>Sigismonda and Guiscardo, Theodore and Honoria</i>, + and <i>Cymon and Iphigenia</i>, while he completed the volume with the + first book of the <i>Iliad</i>, certain of Ovid's <i>Metamorphoses</i>, + the <i>Epistle to John Driden, Alexander's Feast</i>, and an <i>Epitaph</i>. + The <i>Fables</i> were dedicated to the Duke of Ormond, whose father and + grandfather Dryden had previously honored in a prose epistle, full of the + rather excessive compliment then in vogue. <i>Palamon and Arcite</i> is + itself preceded by a dedication in verse to the Duchess of Ormond. In the + graceful flattery of this inscription Dryden excelled himself, and he was + easily grand master of the art in that age of superlative gallantry. The + Duke acknowledged the compliment by a gift of five hundred pounds. The + preface to the volume is one of Dryden's best efforts in prose. It is + mainly concerned with critical comment on Chaucer and Boccaccio; and, + though it lacks the accuracy of modern scholarship, it is full of a keen + appreciation of his great forerunners. + </p> + <p> + The work of Dryden in <i>Palamon and Arcite</i> may seem to us + superfluous, for a well-educated man in the nineteenth century is familiar + with his Chaucer in the original; but in the sixteenth century our early + poets were regarded as little better than barbarians, and their language + was quite unintelligible. It was, therefore, a distinct addition to the + literature of his age when he rescued from oblivion the <i>Knight's Tale</i>, + the first of the <i>Canterbury Tales</i>, and gave it to his world as <i>Palamon + and Arcite</i>. + </p> + <p> + Here, as in his translations, Dryden catches the spirit of his original + and follows it; but he does not track slavishly in its footprints. In this + particular poem he follows his leader more closely than in some of his + other paraphrases, and the three books in which he divides his <i>Palamon + and Arcite</i> scarcely exceed in length the original <i>Knight's Tale</i>. + The tendency toward diffuse expansion, an excess of diluting epithets, + which became a feature of eighteenth-century poetry, Dryden has sensibly + shunned, and has stuck close to the brisk narrative and pithy descriptions + of Chaucer. If the subject in hand be concrete description, as in the + Temple of Mars, Dryden is at his best, and surpasses his original; but if + the abstract enters, as in the portraiture on the walls, he expands, and + when he expands he weakens. To illustrate: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The smiler with the knif under the cloke" +</pre> + <p> + has lost force when Dryden stretches it into five verses: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer; + Soft smiling, and demurely looking down, + But hid the dagger underneath the gown: + The assassinating wife, the household fiend, + And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend." +</pre> + <p> + The anachronisms in the poem are Chaucer's. When he put this story of + Greek love and jealousy and strife into the mouth of his Knight, he was + living in the golden age of chivalry; and he simply transferred its + setting to this chivalrous story of ancient Greece. The arms, the lists, + the combat, the whole environment are those of the England of Edward III, + not the Athens of Theseus. Dryden has left this unchanged, realizing the + charm of its mediaeval simplicity. As Dryden gives it to us the poem is an + example of narrative verse, brisk in its movement, dramatic in its action, + and interspersed with descriptive passages that stimulate the imagination + and satisfy the sense. + </p> + <p> + Coming as it did in the last years of his life, the poem found him with + his vocabulary fully developed and his versification perfected; and these + are points eminently essential in narrative verse. When Dryden began his + literary career, he had but just left the university, and his speech + smacked somewhat of the pedantry of the classical scholar of the times. + Then came the Restoration with its worship of French phrase and its + liberal importation. His easy-going life as a Bohemian in the early + sixties strengthened his vernacular, and his association with the wits at + Will's Coffee House developed his literary English. A happy blending of + all these elements, governed by his strong common sense, gave him at + maturity a vocabulary not only of great scope, but of tremendous energy + and vitality. + </p> + <p> + At the time of the production of <i>Palamon and Arcite</i> Dryden had, by + long practice, become an absolute master of the verse he used. As we have + seen, his early work was impregnated with the peculiarities of the + Marinists; and even after the ascendency of French taste at the + Restoration he still dallied with the stanza, and was not free from + conceits. But his work in the heroic drama and in satire had determined + his verse form and developed his ability in its use. In this poem, as in + the bulk of his work, he employs the unenjambed pentameter distich; that + is, a couplet with five accented syllables in each verse and with the + sense terminating with the couplet. Dryden's mastery of this couplet was + marvelous. He did not attain to the perfect polish of Pope a score of + years later, but he possessed more vitality; and to this strength must be + added a fluent grace and a ready sequence which increased the beauty of + the measure and gave to it a nervous energy of movement. The great danger + that attends the use of the distich is monotony; but Dryden avoided this. + By a constant variation of cadence, he threw the natural pause now near + the start, now near the close, and now in the midst of his verse, and in + this way developed a rhythm that never wearies the ear with monotonous + recurrence. He employed for this same purpose the hemistich or half-verse, + the triplet or three consecutive verses with the same rhyme, and the + Alexandrine with its six accents and its consequent well-rounded fullness. + </p> + <p> + So much for <i>Palamon and Arcite</i>. First put into English by the best + story-teller in our literature, it was retold at the close of the + seventeenth century by the greatest poet of his generation, one of whose + chief claims to greatness lies in his marvelous ability for adaptation and + paraphrase. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DRYDEN'S PLACE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. + </h2> + <p> + It remains to indicate briefly Dryden's position in English literature. To + the critics of his own time he was without question the greatest man of + letters in his generation, and so he undeniably was after the death of + Milton. We are not ready to say with Dr. Johnson that "he found English of + brick and left it of marble," for there was much marble before Dryden was + dreamed of, and his own work is not entirely devoid of brick; but that + Dryden rendered to English services of inestimable value is not to be + questioned. For forty years the great aim of his life was, as he tells us + himself, to improve the English language and English poetry, and by + constant and tireless effort in a mass of production of antipodal types he + accomplished his object. He enriched and extended our vocabulary, he + modulated our meters, he developed new forms, and he purified and + invigorated style. + </p> + <p> + There are a few poets in our literature who are better than Dryden; there + are a great many who are worse; but there has been none who worked more + constantly and more conscientiously for its improvement. Mr. Saintsbury + has admirably summarized the situation: "He is not our greatest poet; far + from it. But there is one point in which the superlative may safely be + applied to him. Considering what he started with, what he accomplished, + and what advantages he left to his successors, he must be pronounced, + without exception, the greatest craftsman in English Letters." + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_REFE" id="link2H_REFE"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + </h2> + <p> + HISTORY: Green, <i>History of the English People</i>, vols. iii, iv; + Knight, <i>Popular History of England</i>, vols. iii, iv, v; Gardiner, <i>The + First Two Stuarts, and the Puritan Revolution</i>; Hale, <i>Fall of the + Stuarts, and Western Europe</i>; Green, <i>Short History of the English + People</i>; Ransome, <i>A Short History of England</i>; Montgomery, <i>English + History</i>. + </p> + <p> + BIOGRAPHY: Lives of Dryden in the editions of his Works by Scott, Malone, + Christie; Johnson, <i>Dryden (Lives of the Poets)</i>; Saintsbury, <i>Dryden + (English Men of Letters)</i>. + </p> + <p> + CRITICISM: Mitchell, <i>English Lands, Letters, and Kings (Elizabeth to + Anne)</i>; Gosse, <i>From Shakespeare to Pope</i>; Lowell, <i>Dryden + (Among my Books)</i>; Garnett, <i>The Age of Dryden</i>; Masson, <i>Dryden + and the Literature of the Restoration (Three Devils)</i>; Hamilton, <i>The + Poets Laureate of England</i>; Hazlitt, <i>On Dryden and Pope</i>. + </p> + <p> + ROMANCE: Scott, <i>Woodstock, Peveril of the Peak</i>; Defoe, <i>The + Plague in London</i>. + </p> + <p> + MYTHOLOGY: Bulfinch, <i>Age of Fable</i>; Gayley, <i>Classic Myths in + English Literature</i>; Smith, <i>Classical Dictionary</i>. + </p> + <h3> + CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Dryden's Life. History. English Literature. + 1631, Born Aug. 9th. 1631, Herbert, Temple. + + 1632, Milton, L'Allegro + and II Penseroso. + + 1633. Birth of Prince James. + 1633, Massinger, New Way + to Pay Old Debts. + Ford, Broken Heart. + Prynne, Histrio-mastix + + 1634. First Ship-money Writ. + 1634, Fletcher, Purple Island. + Cowley, Poetical Blossoms. + Milton, Comus. + + 1635. Second Ship-money Writ. + 1635, Quarles, Emblems. + + 1636, Sandys, + Paraphrase of the + Psalms. + + 1637, Riot in Edinburgh. + 1637, Milton, Lycidas. + + 1638, Scottish National Covenant. + Judgment against John Hampden. + + 1639. First Bishops' War. + + 1640. Short Parliament. + 1640, Suckling, + Ballad of a Wedding. + Second Bishops' War. + Carew, Poems. + Long Parliament assembled. + + 1641. Execution of Strafford. + Constitutional + + 1641, Milton, + Smectymnuus Tracts, + Reforms. Debate + Clarendon begins History of + on Grand Remonstrance. + Civil War. + + 1642. Committee of Public Safety. + 1642, Fuller, Holy + and Profane State. + Battle of Edgehill. + Theaters closed. Browne, + Religio Medici. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1643. Westminster Assembly. Solemn + 1643, Denham, + Cooper's Hill. + League and Covenant taken + by House. + + 1644. Scotch Army crosses Tweed. + 1644, Milton, + Doctrine and + Discipline + Royalist defeat + at Marston of Divorce, + Areopagitica, On + Moor. Education. + + 1645. Laud beheaded. 1645, Waller, + Poems, lst edition. + Royalists crushed + at Naseby. + 1646, Charles surrendered + to Scots. + 1646, Crashaw, + Steps to the + Temple. Browne, + Vulgar Errors. + + 1647, Charles surrendered + by Scots. Army in + possession of London. + Charles' flight from + Hampton Court. + 1647, Cowley, The + Mistress. + + 1648, Second Civil War. + Pride's Purge. + 1648, Herrick, + Hesperides. + Noble Numbers. + + 1649, Poem on Death of Lord Hastings. + 1649, Charles beheaded. + Cromwell subdues Ireland. + 1649, Lovelace, + Lucasta. Gauden, + Eikon Basilike. + Milton, + Eikonoklastes. + + 1650, Entered Trinity, Cambridge. + 1650, Battle of Dunbar. + 1650, Baxter, + Saints' Everlasting + Rest. Taylor, Holy + Living. + + 1651, Cromwell wins at + Worcester. + 1651, Davenant, + Gondibert. Taylor, + Holy Dying. + Hobbes, Leviathan. + + 1652, Punished for disobedience, Cambridge. + + 1653, Cromwell dissolves + Long Parliament. + Barebones Parliament. + Made Lord Protector by + Little Parliament. + 1653, Walton, + Compleat Angler, + + 1654, Father died. Received B.A. from Cambridge. + 1654, First Protectorate + Parliament, Dutch routed + on the sea. + + 1655. Yreaty with France. + Jamaica seized from Spain. + 1656. Second Protectorate + Parliament. + 1656, Cowley, + Works, lst edition. + Davenant, Siege of + Rhodes. + + 1657. Left Cambridge. Attached to Sir Gilbert Pickering. + + 1658. Heroic Stanzas on Cromwell's Death. + 1658, Dunkirk seized from + Spain. Cromwell dies. His + son Richard succeeds. + + 1659, Richard Cromwell resigns. + Long Parliament restored. + Military government. + + 1660, Astraea Redux. + 1660, Long Parliament again + restored. + Declaration of Breda. + Convention Parliament. + Restoration Charles II. + 1660, Milton, + Ready and Easy Way + to Establish a + Free Commonwealth. + Pepys, Diary begun. + + 1661, Panegyric on Coronation. + 1661, Meeting of Cavalier + Parliament. Corporation Act. + + 1662, Poem to Lord Clarendon. + 1662, Act of Uniformity. + Dissenting ministers expelled. + Royal Society founded. King + declares for Toleration. Dunkirk + sold to France. + 1662, Fuller, + Worthies of + England. + + 1663, Married Lady Elizabeth Howard. Poem to Dr. Charleton. Wild Gallant. + 1663, Butler, + Hudibras. + + 1664. Reference in Pepys to 'Dryden, the poet.' + 1664, Repeal of Triennial Act. + Conventicle Act. + 1664, Etheridge, Comical Revenge. Evelyn, Sylva. + + 1665, Poem to the Duchess of York. Indian Emperor. + Poem to Lady Castlemaine. + Left London for Charleton. + 1665, First Dutch War of + Restoration. Great Plague. + Five-Mile Act. + 1665, Dorset, + Song at Sea. + + 1666, Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Son Charles born. + 1666, Great Fire. + + 1667, Annus Mirabilis. Maiden Queen. Sir Martin Marall. Tempest. + 1667, Dutch blockade Thames. + Peace of Breda. Clarendon's Fall. + 1667, Milton, + Paradise Lost. + + 1668, Mock Astrologer. Son John born. + 1668, Etheridge, + She Would if She + Could. Sedley, A + Mulberry Garden. + + 1669. Tyrannic Love. Son Erasmus born. + 1669, Pepys, Diary + closes. Shadwell, + The Royal Shepherdess. + Penn, No Cross, no + Crown. + + 1670, Conquest of Granada. Appointed Poet Laureate and + Historiographer Royal. + Mother died. + 1670, Treaty of Dover. + 1670, Shadwell, + Sullen Lovers. + + 1671, Buckingham, Rehearsal. Milton, Paradise Regained. Samson Agonistes. + + 1672. Marriage à la Mode. + 1672, Second Dutch War + of Restoration. Declaration + of Indulgence. + + 1673. Assignation, Amboyna. + 1673, Test Act. Shaftesbury dismissed. + 1673, Settle, Empress of Morocco. + + 1674, A State of Innocence. + 1675. Aurengzebe. + 1678, All for Love, Limberham. + 1679. OEdipus. Additional Pension + of One Hundred + Pounds. Troilus and + Cressida. Cudgeled in + Rose Alley. + 1680. Ovid's Heroides. + 1681, Spanish Friar. Absalom + and Achitophel, Part I. + 1682. The Medal, MacFlecnoe, + Absalom and Achitophel, + Part II. Religio + Laici. + 1683. Collector of Customs at the + Port of London. + 1684. Miscellanies, vol. i. Translates + Maimbourg's History + of League. + 1685. Miscellanies, vol. ii. Albion + and Albanius. + Threnodia Augustalis. + 1686. Ode on Memory of Mrs. + Killegrew. + 1687. Hind and the Panther. + St. Cecilia Ode. +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 1674, Peace with the Dutch. + 1675, Non-resistance Bill rejected. + 1677, Marriage of William and Mary. + 1678, Peace of Nymwegen. + Popish plot. + 1679, Habeas Corpus Act. Dissolution + Cavalier Parliament. + First Short Parliament. + 1680, Second Short Parliament. + 1681, Third Short Parliament. + Tory Reaction. + 1682, Flight of Shaftesbury. + 1683, London City forfeits Charter. + Rye House Plot. + Russell and Sydney executed. + 1685, Death of Charles II. Accession + of James II. + Prorogation of Parliament. + Meeting of Parliament. + Battle of Edgemore. + Bloody Assizes. + 1686, Judges allowed King's Dispensing + Power. + 1687, First Declaration of Indulgence. + + English Literature. + + 1675, Mulgrave, Essay on Satire. + 1676, Etheridge, The Man of Mode. + 1677, Crowne, Destruction of Jerusalem. + Behn, The Rover. + Wycherley, Plain Dealer. + 1678, Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. + Rymer, Tragedies of the Last Age. + 1679, Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits. + 1680, Otway, The Orphan. + 1681, Marvell, Poems. + Roscommon, Essay on Translated + Verse. + 1682, Otway, Venice Preserved. + 1687, Newton, Principia. + Prior and Montague, Country + Mouse and City Mouse. + + 1688, Britannia Rediviva. + 1688, Second Declaration of Indulgence. Bishops sent to Tower. + Birth of Prince of Wales. William and Mary invited to take English Throne. + William lands at Torbay. James flees. + + 1689, Lost his offices and pensions. + 1689, William and Mary crowned. Toleration Act. Bill of Rights. + Grand Alliance. Jacobite Rebellion. + 1689, Locke, Letters on Toleration, Treatise on Government. + + 1690, Don Sebastian. Amphitryon. + 1690, Battle of the Boyne. + 1690, Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding. + + 1691, King Arthur + 1691, Treaty of Limerick. + 1691, Langbane, Account of English Dramatic Poets. Rochester, Poems. + + 1692, Eleonora, Cleomines. + 1692, Massacre of Glencoe. Churchill deprived of office. + 1692, Dennis, The Impartial Critick. + + 1693, Miscellanies, vol. iii. Perseus and Juvenal. + 1693, Beginning of National Debt. + 1693, Congreve, Old Bachelor. + + 1694, Miscellanies, vol. iv. + 1694, Bank of England established. Death of Queen Mary. + 1694, Southern, The Fatal Marriage. Addison, Account of Greatest + English Poets. Congreve, Double Dealer. + + 1695, Poems to Kneller and Congreve. Fresnoy's Art of Painting. + 1695, Censorship of Press removed. + 1695, Congreve, Love for Love. Blackmore, Prince Arthur. + + 1696, Life of Lucian. + 1696, Trials for Treason Act. + 1696, Southern, Oroonoko. + + 1697, Virgil, Alexander's Feast composed. + 1697, Peace of Ryswick. + 1697, Congreve, Mourning Bride. Vanbrugh, The Relapse. + + 1698, Partition Treaties. + 1698, Swift begins Battle of Books. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle. + Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife. Collier, Short View of the Immorality + and Profaneness of the English Stage. + + 1700, Fables. Died May 1st. + 1700, Severe Acts against Roman Catholics. + 1700, Congreve, Way of the World. Prior, Carmen Seculare. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND,<br /> + </h3> + <h3> + WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM<br> + OF PALAMON AND ARCITE. + </h3> + <h3> + MADAM, + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The bard who first adorned our native tongue + Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song; + Which Homer might without a blush reherse, + And leaves a doubtful palm in Virgil's verse: + He matched their beauties, where they most excel; + Of love sung better, and of-arms as well. + + Vouchsafe, illustrious Ormond, to behold + What power the charms of beauty had of old; + Nor wonder if such deeds of arms were done, + Inspired by two fair eyes that sparkled like your own. + + If Chaucer by the best idea wrought, + And poets can divine each other's thought, + The fairest nymph before his eyes he set; + And then the fairest was Plantagenet, + Who three contending princes made her prize, + And ruled the rival nations with her eyes; + Who left immortal trophies of her fame, + And to the noblest order gave the name. + + Like her, of equal kindred to the throne, + You keep her conquests, and extend your own: + + As when the stars, in their etherial race, + At length have rolled around the liquid space, + At certain periods they resume their place, + From the same point of heaven their course advance, + And move in measures of their former dance; + Thus, after length of ages, she returns, + Restored in you, and the same place adorns: + Or you perform her office in the sphere, + Born of her blood, and make a new Platonic year. + + O true Plantagenet, O race divine, + (For beauty still is fatal to the line,) + Had Chaucer lived that angel-face to view, + Sure he had drawn his Emily from you; + Or had you lived to judge the doubtful right, + Your noble Palamon had been the knight; + And conquering Theseus from his side had sent + Your generous lord, to guide the Theban government. + + Time shall accomplish that; and I shall see + A Palamon in him, in you an Emily. + + Already have the Fates your path prepared, + And sure presage your future sway declared: + When westward, like the sun, you took your way, + And from benighted Britain bore the day, + Blue Triton gave the signal from the shore, + The ready Nereids heard, and swam before + To smooth the seas; a soft Etesian gale + But just inspired, and gently swelled the sail; + Portunus took his turn, whose ample hand + Heaved up the lightened keel, and sunk the sand, + And steered the sacred vessel safe to land. + The land, if not restrained, had met your way, + Projected out a neck, and jutted to the sea. + Hibernia, prostrate at your feet, adored + In you the pledge of her expected lord, + + Due to her isle; a venerable name; + His father and his grandsire known to fame; + Awed by that house, accustomed to command, + The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand, + Nor bear the reins in any foreign hand. + + At your approach, they crowded to the port; + And scarcely landed, you create a court: + As Ormond's harbinger, to you they run, + For Venus is the promise of the Sun. + + The waste of civil wars, their towns destroyed, + Pales unhonoured, Ceres unemployed, + Were all forgot; and one triumphant day + Wiped all the tears of three campaigns away. + Blood, rapines, massacres, were cheaply bought, + So mighty recompense your beauty brought. + As when the dove returning bore the mark + Of earth restored to the long-labouring ark, + The relics of mankind, secure of rest, + Oped every window to receive the guest, + And the fair bearer of the message blessed: + So, when you came, with loud repeated cries, + The nation took an omen from your eyes, + And God advanced his rainbow in the skies, + To sign inviolable peace restored; + The saints with solemn shouts proclaimed the new accord. + + When at your second coming you appear, + (For I foretell that millenary year) + The sharpened share shall vex the soil no more, + But earth unbidden shall produce her store; + The land shall laugh, the circling ocean smile, + And Heaven's indulgence bless the holy isle. + + Heaven from all ages has reserved for you + That happy clime, which venom never knew; + Or if it had been there, your eyes alone + Have power to chase all poison, but their own. + + Now in this interval, which Fate has cast + Betwixt your future glories and your past, + This pause of power, 'tis Ireland's hour to mourn; + While England celebrates your safe return, + By which you seem the seasons to command, + And bring our summers back to their forsaken land. + + The vanquished isle our leisure must attend, + Till the fair blessing we vouchsafe to send; + Nor can we spare you long, though often we may lend. + The dove was twice employed abroad, before + The world was dried, and she returned no more. + + Nor dare we trust so soft a messenger, + New from her sickness, to that northern air; + Rest here awhile your lustre to restore, + That they may see you, as you shone before; + For yet, the eclipse not wholly past, you wade + Through some remains and dimness of a shade. + + A subject in his prince may claim a right, + Nor suffer him with strength impaired to fight; + Till force returns, his ardour we restrain, + And curb his warlike wish to cross the main. + + Now past the danger, let the learned begin + The inquiry, where disease could enter in; + How those malignant atoms forced their way, + What in the faultless frame they found to make their prey, + Where every element was weighed so well, + That Heaven alone, who mixed the mass, could tell + Which of the four ingredients could rebel; + And where, imprisoned in so sweet a cage, + A soul might well be pleased to pass an age. + + And yet the fine materials made it weak; + Porcelain by being pure is apt to break. + Even to your breast the sickness durst aspire, + And forced from that fair temple to retire, + Profanely set the holy place on fire. + In vain your lord, like young Vespasian, mourned, + When the fierce flames the sanctuary burned; + And I prepared to pay in verses rude + A most detested act of gratitude: + Even this had been your Elegy, which now + Is offered for your health, the table of my vow. + + Your angel sure our Morley's mind inspired, + To find the remedy your ill required; + As once the Macedon, by Jove's decree, + Was taught to dream an herb for Ptolemy: + Or Heaven, which had such over-cost bestowed + As scarce it could afford to flesh and blood, + So liked the frame, he would not work anew, + To save the charges of another you; + Or by his middle science did he steer, + And saw some great contingent good appear, + Well worth a miracle to keep you here, + And for that end preserved the precious mould, + Which all the future Ormonds was to hold; + And meditated, in his better mind, + An heir from you who may redeem the failing kind. + + Blessed be the power which has at once restored + The hopes of lost succession to your lord; + Joy to the first and last of each degree, + Virtue to courts, and, what I longed to see, + To you the Graces, and the Muse to me. + + O daughter of the Rose, whose cheeks unite + The differing titles of the Red and White; + Who heaven's alternate beauty well display, + The blush of morning and the milky way; + Whose face is Paradise, but fenced from sin; + For God in either eye has placed a cherubin. + + All is your lord's alone; even absent, he + Employs the care of chaste Penelope. + For him you waste in tears your widowed hours, + For him your curious needle paints the flowers; + Such works of old imperial dames were taught, + Such for Ascanius fair Elisa wrought. + The soft recesses of your hours improve + The three fair pledges of your happy love: + All other parts of pious duty done, + You owe your Ormond nothing but a son, + To fill in future times his father's place, + And wear the garter of his mother's race. +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PALAMON AND ARCITE; + </h2> + <h3> + OR, THE KNIGHT'S TALE. + </h3> + <h3> + FROM CHAUCER. + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK I. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In days of old there lived, of mighty fame, + A valiant Prince, and Theseus was his name; + A chief, who more in feats of arms excelled, + The rising nor the setting sun beheld. + Of Athens he was lord; much land he won, + And added foreign countries to his crown. + In Scythia with the warrior Queen he strove, + Whom first by force he conquered, then by love; + He brought in triumph back the beauteous dame, + With whom her sister, fair Emilia, came. + With honour to his home let Theseus ride, + With Love to friend, and Fortune for his guide, + And his victorious army at his side. + I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array, + Their shouts, their songs, their welcome on the way; + But, were it not too long, I would recite + The feats of Amazons, the fatal fight + Betwixt the hardy Queen and hero Knight; + The town besieged, and how much blood it cost + The female army, and the Athenian host; + The spousals of Hippolyta the Queen; + What tilts and turneys at the feast were seen; + The storm at their return, the ladies' fear: + But these and other things I must forbear. + + The field is spacious I design to sow + With oxen far unfit to draw the plough: + The remnant of my tale is of a length + To tire your patience, and to waste my strength; + And trivial accidents shall be forborn, + That others may have time to take their turn, + As was at first enjoined us by mine host, + That he, whose tale is best and pleases most, + Should win his supper at our common cost. + And therefore where I left, I will pursue + This ancient story, whether false or true, + In hope it may be mended with a new. + The Prince I mentioned, full of high renown, + In this array drew near the Athenian town; + When, in his pomp and utmost of his pride + Marching, he chanced to cast his eye aside, + And saw a quire of mourning dames, who lay + By two and two across the common way: + At his approach they raised a rueful cry, + And beat their breasts, and held their hands on high, + Creeping and crying, till they seized at last + His courser's bridle and his feet embraced. + "Tell me," said Theseus, "what and whence you are, + "And why this funeral pageant you prepare? + Is this the welcome of my worthy deeds, + To meet my triumph in ill-omened weeds? + Or envy you my praise, and would destroy + With grief my pleasures, and pollute my joy? + Or are you injured, and demand relief? + Name your request, and I will ease your grief." + The most in years of all the mourning train + Began; but swounded first away for pain; + Then scarce recovered spoke: "Nor envy we + "Thy great renown, nor grudge thy victory; + 'Tis thine, O King, the afflicted to redress, + And fame has filled the world with thy success: + We wretched women sue for that alone, + Which of thy goodness is refused to none; + Let fall some drops of pity on our grief, + If what we beg be just, and we deserve relief; + For none of us, who now thy grace implore, + But held the rank of sovereign queen before; + Till, thanks to giddy Chance, which never bears + That mortal bliss should last for length of years, + She cast us headlong from our high estate, + And here in hope of thy return we wait, + And long have waited in the temple nigh, + Built to the gracious goddess Clemency. + But reverence thou the power whose name it bears, + Relieve the oppressed, and wipe the widows' tears. + I, wretched I, have other fortune seen, + The wife of Capaneus, and once a Queen; + At Thebes he fell; cursed be the fatal day! + And all the rest thou seest in this array + To make their moan their lords in battle lost, + Before that town besieged by our confederate host. + But Creon, old and impious, who commands + The Theban city, and usurps the lands, + Denies the rites of funeral fires to those + Whose breathless bodies yet he calls his foes. + Unburned, unburied, on a heap they lie; + Such is their fate, and such his tyranny; + No friend has leave to bear away the dead, + But with their lifeless limbs his hounds are fed." + At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train + Echoed her grief, and grovelling on the plain, + With groans, and hands upheld, to move his mind, + Besought his pity to their helpless kind. + + The Prince was touched, his tears began to flow, + And, as his tender heart would break in two, + He sighed; and could not but their fate deplore, + So wretched now, so fortunate before. + Then lightly from his lofty steed he flew, + And raising one by one the suppliant crew, + To comfort each, full solemnly he swore, + That by the faith which knights to knighthood bore, + And whate'er else to chivalry belongs, + He would not cease, till he revenged their wrongs; + That Greece should see performed what he declared, + And cruel Creon find his just reward. + He said no more, but shunning all delay + Rode on, nor entered Athens on his way; + But left his sister and his queen behind, + And waved his royal banner in the wind, + Where in an argent field the God of War + Was drawn triumphant on his iron car. + Red was his sword, and shield, and whole attire, + And all the godhead seemed to glow with fire; + Even the ground glittered where the standard flew, + And the green grass was dyed to sanguine hue. + High on his pointed lance his pennon bore + His Cretan fight, the conquered Minotaur: + The soldiers shout around with generous rage, + And in that victory their own presage. + He praised their ardour, inly pleased to see + His host, the flower of Grecian chivalry. + All day he marched, and all the ensuing night, + And saw the city with returning light. + The process of the war I need not tell, + How Theseus conquered, and how Creon fell; + Or after, how by storm the walls were won, + Or how the victor sacked and burned the town; + How to the ladies he restored again + The bodies of their lords in battle slain; + And with what ancient rites they were interred; + All these to fitter time shall be deferred: + I spare the widows' tears, their woful cries, + And howling at their husbands' obsequies; + How Theseus at these funerals did assist, + And with what gifts the mourning dames dismissed. + + Thus when the victor chief had Creon slain, + And conquered Thebes, he pitched upon the plain + His mighty camp, and when the day returned, + The country wasted and the hamlets burned, + And left the pillagers, to rapine bred, + Without control to strip and spoil the dead. + + There, in a heap of slain, among the rest + Two youthful knights they found beneath a load oppressed + Of slaughtered foes, whom first to death they sent, + The trophies of their strength, a bloody monument. + Both fair, and both of royal blood they seemed, + Whom kinsmen to the crown the heralds deemed; + That day in equal arms they fought for fame; + Their swords, their shields, their surcoats were the same: + Close by each other laid they pressed the ground, + Their manly bosoms pierced with many a grisly wound; + Nor well alive nor wholly dead they were, + But some faint signs of feeble life appear; + The wandering breath was on the wing to part, + Weak was the pulse, and hardly heaved the heart. + These two were sisters' sons; and Arcite one, + Much famed in fields, with valiant Palamon. + From these their costly arms the spoilers rent, + And softly both conveyed to Theseus' tent: + Whom, known of Creon's line and cured with care, + He to his city sent as prisoners of the war; + Hopeless of ransom, and condemned to lie + In durance, doomed a lingering death to die. + + This done, he marched away with warlike sound, + And to his Athens turned with laurels crowned, + Where happy long he lived, much loved, and more renowned. + But in a tower, and never to be loosed, + The woful captive kinsmen are enclosed. + + Thus year by year they pass, and day by day, + Till once ('twas on the morn of cheerful May) + The young Emilia, fairer to be seen + Than the fair lily on the flowery green, + More fresh than May herself in blossoms new, + (For with the rosy colour strove her hue,) + Waked, as her custom was, before the day, + To do the observance due to sprightly May; + For sprightly May commands our youth to keep + The vigils of her night, and breaks their sluggard sleep; + Each gentle breast with kindly warmth she moves; + Inspires new flames, revives extinguished loves. + In this remembrance Emily ere day + Arose, and dressed herself in rich array; + Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair, + Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair: + A ribband did the braided tresses bind, + The rest was loose, and wantoned in the wind: + Aurora had but newly chased the night, + And purpled o'er the sky with blushing light, + When to the garden-walk she took her way, + To sport and trip along in cool of day, + And offer maiden vows in honour of the May. 190 + + At every turn she made a little stand, + And thrust among the thorns her lily hand + To draw the rose; and every rose she drew, + She shook the stalk, and brushed away the dew; + + Then party-coloured flowers of white and red + She wove, to make a garland for her head: + This done, she sung and carolled out so clear, + That men and angels might rejoice to hear; + Even wondering Philomel forgot to sing, + And learned from her to welcome in the spring. + The tower, of which before was mention made, + Within whose keep the captive knights were laid, + Built of a large extent, and strong withal, + Was one partition of the palace wall; + The garden was enclosed within the square, + Where young Emilia took the morning air. + + It happened Palamon, the prisoner knight, + Restless for woe, arose before the light, + And with his jailor's leave desired to breathe + An air more wholesome than the damps beneath. + This granted, to the tower he took his way, + Cheered with the promise of a glorious day; + Then cast a languishing regard around, + And saw with hateful eyes the temples crowned + With golden spires, and all the hostile ground. + He sighed, and turned his eyes, because he knew + 'Twas but a larger jail he had in view; + Then looked below, and from the castle's height + Beheld a nearer and more pleasing sight; + The garden, which before he had not seen, + In spring's new livery clad of white and green, + Fresh flowers in wide parterres, and shady walks between. + This viewed, but not enjoyed, with arms across + He stood, reflecting on his country's loss; + Himself an object of the public scorn, + And often wished he never had been born. + At last (for so his destiny required), + With walking giddy, and with thinking tired, + + He through a little window cast his sight, + Though thick of bars, that gave a scanty light; + But even that glimmering served him to descry + The inevitable charms of Emily. + + Scarce had he seen, but, seized with sudden smart, + Stung to the quick, he felt it at his heart; + Struck blind with overpowering light he stood, + Then started back amazed, and cried aloud. + + Young Arcite heard; and up he ran with haste, + To help his friend, and in his arms embraced; + And asked him why he looked so deadly wan, + And whence, and how, his change of cheer began? + Or who had done the offence? "But if," said he, + "Your grief alone is hard captivity, + For love of Heaven with patience undergo + A cureless ill, since Fate will have it so: + So stood our horoscope in chains to lie, + And Saturn in the dungeon of the sky, + Or other baleful aspect, ruled our birth, + When all the friendly stars were under earth; + Whate'er betides, by Destiny 'tis done; + And better bear like men than vainly seek to shun." + Nor of my bonds," said Palamon again, + Nor of unhappy planets I complain; + But when my mortal anguish caused my cry, + The moment I was hurt through either eye; + Pierced with a random shaft, I faint away, + And perish with insensible decay: + A glance of some new goddess gave the wound, + Whom, like Actaeon, unaware I found. + Look how she walks along yon shady space; + Not Juno moves with more majestic grace, + And all the Cyprian queen is in her face. + If thou art Venus (for thy charms confess + That face was formed in heaven), nor art thou less, + Disguised in habit, undisguised in shape, + O help us captives from our chains to scape! + But if our doom be past in bonds to lie + For life, and in a loathsome dungeon die, + Then be thy wrath appeased with our disgrace, + And show compassion to the Theban race, + Oppressed by tyrant power!"—While yet he spoke, + Arcite on Emily had fixed his look; + The fatal dart a ready passage found + And deep within his heart infixed the wound: + So that if Palamon were wounded sore, + Arcite was hurt as much as he or more: + Then from his inmost soul he sighed, and said, + "The beauty I behold has struck me dead: + Unknowingly she strikes, and kills by chance; + Poison is in her eyes, and death in every glance. + Oh, I must ask; nor ask alone, but move + Her mind to mercy, or must die for love." + + Thus Arcite: and thus Palamon replies + (Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes,) + "Speakest thou in earnest, or in jesting vein?" + "Jesting," said Arcite, "suits but ill with pain." + "It suits far worse," (said Palamon again, + And bent his brows,) "with men who honour weigh, + Their faith to break, their friendship to betray; + But worst with thee, of noble lineage born, + My kinsman, and in arms my brother sworn. + Have we not plighted each our holy oath, + That one should be the common good of both; + One soul should both inspire, and neither prove + 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 farther my design, + As I am bound by vow to farther thine: + Nor canst, nor darest thou, traitor, on the plain + Appeach my honour, or thy own maintain, + Since thou art of my council, and the friend + Whose faith I trust, and on whose care depend. + And wouldst thou court my lady's love, which I + Much rather than release, would choose to die? + But thou, false Arcite, never shalt 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 to assist my eldership of right, + Or justly to be deemed a perjured knight." + + Thus Palamon: but Arcite with disdain + In haughty language thus replied again: + "Forsworn thyself: the traitor's odious name + I first return, and then disprove thy claim. + If love be passion, and that passion nurst + With strong desires, I loved the lady first. + Canst thou pretend desire, whom zeal inflamed + To worship, and a power celestial named? + Thine was devotion to the blest above, + I saw the woman, and desired her love; + First owned my passion, and to thee commend + The important secret, as my chosen friend. + Suppose (which yet I grant not) thy desire + A moment elder than my rival fire; + Can chance of seeing first thy title prove? + And knowst 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 not positive; love's power we see + Is Nature's sanction, and her first decree, + Each day we break the bond of human laws + For love, and vindicate the common cause. + Laws for defence of civil rights are placed, + Love throws the fences down, and makes a general waste. + Maids, widows, wives without distinction fall; + The sweeping deluge, love, comes on and covers all. + If then the laws of friendship I transgress, + I keep the greater, while I break the less; + And both are mad alike, since neither can possess. + Both hopeless to be ransomed, never more + To see the sun, but as he passes o'er. + Like Æsop's hounds contending for the bone, + Each pleaded right, and would be lord alone; + The fruitless fight continued all the day, + A cur came by and snatched the prize away. + As courtiers therefore justle for a grant, + And when they break their friendship, plead their want, + So thou, if Fortune will thy suit advance, + Love on, nor envy me my equal chance: + For I must love, and am resolved to try + My fate, or failing in the adventure die." + + Great was their strife, which hourly was renewed, + Till each with mortal hate his rival viewed: + Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand; + But when they met they made a surly stand, + And glared like Angry lions as they passed, + And wished that every look might be their last. + + It chanced at length, Pirithous came to attend + This worthy Theseus, his familiar friend: + Their love in early infancy began, + And rose as childhood ripened into man, + Companions of the war; and loved so well, + That when one died, as ancient stories 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 since, + And honoured by this young Thessalian prince. + Theseus, to gratify his friend and guest, + Who made our Arcite's freedom his request, + Restored to liberty the captive knight, + But on these hard conditions I recite: + That if hereafter Arcite should be found + Within the compass of Athenian ground, + By day or night, or on whate'er pretence, + His head should pay the forfeit of the offence. + To this Pirithous for his friend agreed, + And on his promise was the prisoner freed. + + Unpleased 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 gained," he said, "in prison pent, + If I but change my bonds for banishment? + And banished from her sight, I suffer more + In freedom than I felt in bonds before; + Forced from her presence and condemned to live, + Unwelcome freedom and unthanked reprieve: + Heaven is not but where Emily abides, + And where she's absent, all is hell besides. + Next to my day of birth, was that accurst + Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first: + Had I not known that prince, I still had been + In bondage and had still Emilia seen: + For though I never can her grace deserve, + 'Tis recompense enough to see and serve. + O Palamon, my kinsman and my friend, + How much more happy fates thy love attend I + + Thine is the adventure, thine the victory, + Well has thy fortune turned the dice for thee: + Thou on that angel's face mayest feed thy eyes, + In prison, no; but blissful paradise! + Thou daily seest that sun of beauty shine, + And lovest at least in love's extremest line. + I mourn in absence, love's eternal night; + And who can tell but since thou hast her sight, + And art a comely, young, and valiant knight, + Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown, + And by some ways unknown thy wishes crown? + But I, the most forlorn of human kind, + Nor help can hope nor remedy can find; + But doomed 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 last relief: + Then farewell youth, and all the joys that dwell + With youth and life, and life itself, farewell! + 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 desire: + Some pray for riches; riches they obtain; + But, watched by robbers, for their wealth are slain; + Some pray from prison to be freed; and come, + When guilty of their vows, to fall at home; + Murdered by those they trusted with their life, + A favoured servant or a bosom wife. + Such dear-bought blessings happen every day, + Because we know not for what things to pray. + Like drunken sots about the streets we roam: + + "Well knows the sot he has a certain home, + Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, + And blunders on and staggers every pace. + Thus all seek happiness; but few can find, + For far the greater part of men are blind. + This is my case, who thought our utmost good + Was in one word of freedom understood: + The fatal blessing came: from prison free, + I starve abroad, and lose the sight of Emily." + + Thus Arcite: but if Arcite thus deplore + His sufferings, Palamon yet suffers more. + For when he knew his rival freed and gone, + He swells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan; + He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground; + The hollow tower with clamours rings around: + With briny tears he bathed his fettered feet, + And dropped all o'er with agony of sweat. + "Alas!" he cried, "I, wretch, in prison pine, + Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine: + Thou livest at large, thou drawest thy native air, + Pleased with thy freedom, proud of my despair: + Thou mayest, since thou hast youth and courage joined, + A sweet behaviour and a solid mind, + Assemble ours, and all the Theban race, + To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace; + And after (by some treaty made) possess + Fair Emily, the pledge of lasting peace. + So thine shall be the beauteous prize, while I + Must languish in despair, in prison die. + Thus all the advantage of the strife is thine, + Thy portion double joys, and double sorrows mine." + + The rage of jealousy then fired his soul, + And his face kindled like a burning coal + Now cold despair, succeeding in her stead, + To livid paleness turns the glowing red. + His blood, scarce liquid, creeps within his veins, + Like water which the freezing wind constrains. + Then thus he said: "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, prisons, ills without a cure, + All these he must, and guiltless oft, endure; + Or does your justice, power, or prescience fail, + When the good suffer and the bad prevail? + What worse to wretched virtue could befal, + If Fate or giddy Fortune governed all? + Nay, worse than other beasts is our estate: + Them, to pursue their pleasures, you create; + We, bound by harder laws, must curb our will, + And your commands, not our desires, fulfil: + Then, when the creature is unjustly slain, + Yet, after death at least, he feels no pain; + But man in life surcharged with woe before, + Not freed when dead, is doomed to suffer more. + A serpent shoots his sting at unaware; + An ambushed thief forelays a traveller; + The man lies murdered, while the thief and snake, + One gains the thickets, and one thrids the brake. + This let divines decide; but well I know, + Just or unjust, I have my share of woe, + Through Saturn seated in a luckless place, + And Juno's wrath that persecutes my race; + Or Mars and Venus in a quartil, move + My pangs of jealousy for Arcite's love." + + Let Palamon oppressed in bondage mourn, + While to his exited rival we return. + By this the sun, declining from his height, + The day had shortened to prolong the night: + The lengthened night gave length of misery, + Both to the captive lover and the free: + For Palamon in endless prison mourns, + And Arcite forfeits life if he returns; + The banished never hopes his love to see, + Nor hopes the captive lord his liberty. + 'Tis hard to say who suffers greater pains; + One sees his love, but cannot break his chains; + One free, and all his motions uncontrolled, + Beholds whate'er he would but what he would behold. + Judge as you please, for I will haste to tell + What fortune to the banished knight befel. + When Arcite was to Thebes returned again, + The loss of her he loved renewed his pain; + What could be worse than never more to see + His life, his soul, his charming Emily? + He raved with all the madness of despair, + He roared, he beat his breast, he tore his hair. + Dry sorrow in his stupid eyes appears, + For wanting nourishment, he wanted tears; + His eyeballs in their hollow sockets sink, + Bereft of sleep; he loathes his meat and drink; + He withers at his heart, and looks as wan + As the pale spectre of a murdered man: + That pale turns yellow, and his face receives + The faded hue of sapless boxen leaves; + In solitary groves he makes his moan, + Walks early out, and ever is alone; + Nor, mixed in mirth, in youthful pleasure shares, + But sighs when songs and instruments he hears. + + His spirits are so low, his voice is drowned, + He hears as from afar, or in a swound, + Like the deaf murmurs of a distant sound: + Uncombed his locks, and squalid his attire, + Unlike the trim of love and gay desire; + But full of museful mopings, which presage + The loss of reason and conclude in rage. + + This when he had endured a year and more, + Now wholly changed from what he was before, + It happened once, that, slumbering as he lay, + He dreamt (his dream began at break of day) + That Hermes o'er his head in air appeared, + And with soft words his drooping spirits cheered; + His hat adorned with wings disclosed the god, + And in his hand he bore the sleep-compelling rod; + Such as he seemed, when, at his sire's command, + On Argus' head he laid the snaky wand. + "Arise," he said, "to conquering Athens go; + There Fate appoints an end of all thy woe." + The fright awakened Arcite with a start, + Against his bosom bounced his heaving heart; + But soon he said, with scarce recovered breath, + "And thither will I go to meet my death, + Sure to be slain; but death is my desire, + Since in Emilia's sight I shall expire." + By chance he spied a mirror while he spoke, + And gazing there beheld his altered look; + Wondering, he saw his features and his hue + So much were changed, that scarce himself he knew. + A sudden thought then starting in his mind, + "Since I in Arcite cannot Arcite find, + The world may search in vain with all their eyes, + But never penetrate through this disguise. + Thanks to the change which grief and sickness give, + In low estate I may securely live, + And see, unknown, my mistress day by day." + He said, and clothed himself in coarse array, + A labouring hind in show; then forth he went, + And to the Athenian towers his journey bent: + One squire attended in the same disguise, + Made conscious of his master's enterprise. + Arrived at Athens, soon he came to court, + Unknown, unquestioned in that thick resort: + Proffering for hire his service at the gate, + To drudge, draw water, and to run or wait. + + So fair befel him, that for little gain + He served at first Emilia's chamberlain; + And, watchful all advantages to spy, + Was still at hand, and in his master's eye; + And as his bones were big, and sinews strong, + Refused no toil that could to slaves belong; + But from deep wells with engines water drew, + And used his noble hands the wood to hew. + He passed a year at least attending thus + On Emily, and called Philostratus. + But never was there man of his degree + So much esteemed, so well beloved as he. + So gentle of condition was he known, + That through the court his courtesy was blown: + All think him worthy of a greater place, + And recommend him to the royal grace; + That exercised within a higher sphere, + His virtues more conspicuous might appear. + Thus by the general voice was Arcite praised, + And by great Theseus to high favour raised; + Among his menial servants first enrolled, + And largely entertained with sums of gold: + Besides what secretly from Thebes was sent, + + Of his own income and his annual rent. + This well employed, he purchased friends and fame, + But cautiously concealed from whence it came. + Thus for three years he lived with large increase + In arms of honour, and esteem in peace; + To Theseus' person he was ever near, + And Theseus for his virtues held him dear. +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK II. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + While Arcite lives in bliss, the story turns + Where hopeless Palamon in prison mourns. + For six long years immured, the captive knight + Had dragged his chains, and scarcely seen the light: + Lost liberty and love at once he bore; + His prison pained him much, his passion more: + Nor dares he hope his fetters to remove, + Nor ever wishes to be free from love. + But when the sixth revolving year was run, + And May within the Twins received the sun, + Were it by Chance, or forceful Destiny, + Which forms in causes first whate'er shall be, + Assisted by a friend one moonless night, + This Palamon from prison took his flight: + A pleasant beverage he prepared before + Of wine and honey mixed, with added store + Of opium; to his keeper this he brought, + Who swallowed unaware the sleepy draught, + And snored secure till morn, his senses bound + In slumber, and in long oblivion drowned. + Short was the night, and careful Palamon + Sought the next covert ere the rising sun. + A thick-spread forest near the city lay, + To this with lengthened strides he took his way, + (For far he could not fly, and feared the day.) + + Safe from pursuit, he meant to shun the light, + Till the brown shadows of the friendly night + To Thebes might favour his intended flight. + When to his country come, his next design + Was all the Theban race in arms to join, + And war on Theseus, till he lost his life, + Or won the beauteous Emily to wife. + Thus while his thoughts the lingering day beguile, + To gentle Arcite let us turn our style; + Who little dreamt how nigh he was to care, + Till treacherous fortune caught him in the snare. + The morning-lark, the messenger of day, + Saluted in her song the morning gray; + And soon the sun arose with beams so bright, + That all the horizon laughed to see the joyous sight; + He with his tepid rays the rose renews, + And licks the dropping leaves, and dries the dews; + When Arcite left his bed, resolved to pay + Observance to the month of merry May, + Forth on his fiery steed betimes he rode, + That scarcely prints the turf on which he trod: + At ease he seemed, and prancing o'er the plains, + Turned only to the grove his horse's reins, + The grove I named before, and, lighting there, + A woodbind garland sought to crown his hair; + Then turned his face against the rising day, + And raised his voice to welcome in the May: + "For thee, sweet month, the groves green liveries wear, + If not the first, the fairest of the year: + For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours, + And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers: + When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun + The sultry tropic fears, and moves more slowly on. + So may thy tender blossoms fear no blight, + Nor goats with venomed teeth thy tendrils bite, + As thou shalt guide my wandering feet to find + The fragrant greens I seek, my brows to bind." + His vows addressed, within the grove he strayed, + Till Fate or Fortune near the place conveyed + His steps where secret Palamon was laid. + Full little thought of him the gentle knight, + Who flying death had there concealed his flight, + In brakes and brambles hid, and shunning mortal sight; + And less he knew him for his hated foe, + But feared him as a man he did not know. + But as it has been said of ancient years, + That fields are full of eyes and woods have ears, + For this the wise are ever on their guard, + For unforeseen, they say, is unprepared. + Uncautious Arcite thought himself alone, + And less than all suspected Palamon, + Who, listening, heard him, while he searched the grove, + And loudly sung his roundelay of love: + But on the sudden stopped, and silent stood, + (As lovers often muse, 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 see a Friday clear. + Thus Arcite, having sung, with altered hue + Sunk on the ground, and from his bosom drew + A desperate sigh, accusing Heaven and Fate, + And angry Juno's unrelenting hate: + "Cursed be the day when first I did appear; + Let it be blotted from the calendar, + Lest it pollute the month, and poison all the year. + 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 involved in Cadmus' doom. + I suffer for my blood: unjust decree, + That punishes another's crime on me. + In mean estate I serve my mortal foe, + The man who caused my country's overthrow. + This is not all; for Juno, to my shame, + Has forced me to forsake my former name; + Arcite I was, Philostratus I am. + That side of heaven is all my enemy: + Mars ruined Thebes; his mother ruined me. + Of all the royal race remains but one + Besides myself, the unhappy Palamon, + Whom Theseus holds in bonds and will not free; + Without a crime, except his kin to me. + Yet these and all the rest I could endure; + But love's a malady without a cure: + Fierce Love has pierced me with his fiery dart, + He fires within, and hisses at my heart. + Your eyes, fair Emily, my fate pursue; + I suffer for the rest, I die for you. + Of such a goddess no time leaves record, + Who burned the temple where she was adored: + And let it burn, I never will complain, + Pleased with my sufferings, if you knew my pain." + At this a sickly qualm his heart assailed, + His ears ring inward, and his senses failed. + No word missed Palamon of all he spoke; + But soon to deadly pale he changed his look: + He trembled every limb, and felt a smart, + As if cold steel had glided through his heart; + Nor longer stayed, but starting from his place, + Discovered stood, and showed his hostile face: + "False traitor, Arcite, traitor to thy blood, + Bound by thy sacred oath to seek my good, + Now art thou found forsworn for Emily, + And darest attempt her love, for whom I die. + So hast thou cheated Theseus with a wile, + Against thy vow, returning to beguile + Under a borrowed name: as false to me, + So false thou art to him who set thee free. + But rest assured, that either thou shalt die, + Or else renounce thy claim in Emily; + For, though unarmed I am, and freed by chance, + Am here without my sword or pointed lance, + Hope not, base man, unquestioned hence to go, + For I am Palamon, thy mortal foe." + Arcite, who heard his tale and knew the man, + His sword unsheathed, 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 last; or in this grove + This hand should force thee to renounce thy love; + The surety 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 serve the fair in thy despite: + But since thou art my kinsman and a knight, + Here, have my faith, to-morrow in this grove + Our arms shall 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; + Choose thou the best, and leave the worst to me. + And, that at better ease thou mayest abide, + Bedding and clothes I will this night provide, + And needful sustenance, that thou mayest be + A conquest better won, and worthy me." + + His promise Palamon accepts; but prayed, + 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 dost thy power maintain, + And wilt not bear a rival in thy reign! + Tyrants and thou all fellowship disdain. + This was in Arcite proved and Palamon: + Both in despair, yet each would love alone. + Arcite returned, and, as in honour tied, + His foe with bedding and with food supplied; + Then, ere the day, two suits of armour sought, + Which borne before him on his steed he brought: + Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure + As might the strokes of two such arms endure. + Now, at the time, and in the appointed place, + The challenger and challenged, face to face, + Approach; each other from afar they knew, + And from afar their hatred changed their hue. + So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear, + Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear, + And hears him rustling in the wood, and sees + His course at distance 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 chillness seizes 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 surliness each armed with care + His foe professed, as brother of the war; + Then both, no moment lost, at once advance + Against each other, armed with sword and lance: + They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore + Their corslets, and the thinnest parts explore. + Thus two long hours in equal arms they stood, + And wounded wound, till both are bathed in blood + And not a foot of ground had either got, + As if the world depended on the spot. + Fell Arcite like an angry tiger fared, + And like a lion Palamon appeared: + Or, as two boars whom love to battle draws, + With rising bristles and with frothy jaws, + Their adverse breasts with tusks oblique they wound + With grunts and groans the forest rings around. + So fought the knights, and fighting must abide, + Till Fate an umpire sends their difference to decide. + The power that ministers to God's decrees, + And executes on earth what Heaven foresees, + Called Providence, or Chance, or Fatal sway, + Comes with resistless force, and finds or makes her way. + Nor kings, nor nations, nor united power + One moment can retard the appointed hour, + And some one day, some wondrous chance appears, + Which happened not in centuries of years: + For sure, whate'er we mortals hate or love + Or hope or fear depends on powers above: + They move our appetites to good or ill, + And by foresight necessitate the will. + In Theseus this appears, whose youthful joy + Was beasts of chase in forests to destroy; + This gentle knight, inspired by jolly May, + Forsook his easy couch at early day, + And to the wood and wilds pursued his way. + Beside him rode Hippolita the queen, + And Emily attired in lively green, + With horns and hounds and all the tuneful cry, + To hunt a royal hart within the covert nigh: + And, as he followed Mars before, so now + He serves the goddess of the silver bow. + The way that Theseus took was to the wood, + Where the two knights in cruel battle stood: + The laund on which they fought, the appointed place + In which the uncoupled hounds began the chase. + Thither forth-right he rode to rouse the prey, + That shaded by the fern in harbour lay; + And thence dislodged, was wont to leave the wood + For open fields, and cross the crystal flood. + Approached, and looking underneath the sun, + He saw proud Arcite and fierce Palamon, + In mortal battle doubling blow on blow; + Like lightning flamed their fauchions to and fro, + And shot a dreadful gleam; so strong they strook, + There seemed less force required to fell an oak. + He gazed with wonder on their equal might, + Looked eager on, but knew not either knight. + Resolved to learn, he spurred his fiery steed + With goring rowels to provoke his speed. + The minute ended that began the race, + So soon he was betwixt them on the place; + And with his sword unsheathed, on pain of life + Commands both combatants to cease their strife; + Then with imperious tone pursues his threat: + "What are you? why in arms together met? + How dares your pride presume against my laws, + As in a listed field to fight your cause, + Unasked the royal grant; no marshal by, + As knightly rites require, nor judge to try?" + Then Palamon, with scarce recovered breath, + Thus hasty spoke: "We both deserve the death, + And both would die; for look the world around, + And pity soonest runs in gentle minds; + Then reasons with himself; and first he finds + His passion cast a mist before his sense, + And either made or magnified the offence. + Offence? Of what? To whom? Who judged the cause? + The prisoner freed himself by Nature's laws; + Born free, he sought his right; the man he freed + Was perjured, but his love excused the deed: + Thus pondering, he looked under with his eyes, + And saw the women's tears, and heard their cries, + Which moved compassion more; he shook his head, + And softly sighing to himself he said: + + Curse on the unpardoning prince, whom tears can draw + "To no remorse, who rules by lion's law; + And deaf to prayers, by no submission bowed, + Rends all alike, the penitent and proud!" + At this with look serene he raised his head; + Reason resumed her place, and passion fled: + Then thus aloud he spoke:—" The power of Love, + "In earth, and seas, and air, and heaven above, + Rules, unresisted, with an awful nod, + By daily miracles declared a god; + He blinds the wise, gives eye-sight to the blind; + And moulds and stamps anew the lover's mind. + Behold that Arcite, and this Palamon, + Freed from my fetters, and in safety gone, + What hindered either in their native soil + At ease to reap the harvest of their toil? + But Love, their lord, did otherwise ordain, + And brought them, in their own despite again, + To suffer death deserved; for well they know + 'Tis in my power, and I their deadly foe. + The proverb holds, that to be wise 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 seven long years, on duty every day, + Lo! their obedience, and their monarch's pay! + Yet, as in duty bound, they serve him on; + And ask the fools, they think it wisely done; + Nor ease nor wealth nor life it self 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 suspect their love, + Nor thought, when she beheld the fight from far, + Her beauty was the occasion of the war. + But sure a general doom on man is past, + And all are fools and lovers, first or last: + This both by others and my self I know, + For I have served their sovereign long ago; + Oft have been caught within the winding train + Of female snares, and felt the lover's pain, + And learned how far the god can human hearts constrain. + To this remembrance, and the prayers of those + Who for the offending warriors interpose, + I give their forfeit lives, on this accord, + To do me homage as their sovereign lord; + And as my vassals, to their utmost might, + Assist my person and assert my right." + This freely sworn, the knights their grace obtained; + Then thus the King his secret thought explained: + "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 such is she you serve: + For Emily is sister to the crown, + And but too well to both her beauty known: + But should you combat till you both were dead, + Two lovers cannot share a single bed + As, therefore, both are equal in degree, + The lot of both be left to destiny. + Now hear the 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 sun + To the same point through every sign has run, + Then each of you his hundred knights shall bring + In royal lists, 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 so 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 vanquished party shall their claim release, + And the long jars conclude in lasting peace. + The charge be mine to adorn the chosen ground, + The theatre of war, for champions so renowned; + And take the patron's place of either knight, + With eyes impartial to behold the fight; + And Heaven of me so judge as I shall judge aright. + If both are satisfied with this accord, + Swear by the laws of knighthood on my sword." + + Who now but Palamon exults with joy? + And ravished Arcite seems to touch the sky. + The whole assembled troop was pleased as well, + Extolled the 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 might be deemed, on our historian's part, + Or too much negligence or want of art, + If he forgot the vast magnificence + Of royal Theseus, and his large expense. + He first enclosed for lists a level ground, + The whole circumference a mile around; + The form was circular; and all without + A trench was sunk, to moat the place about. + Within, an amphitheatre appeared, + Raised in degrees, to sixty paces reared: + That when a man was placed in one degree, + Height was allowed for him above to see. + + Eastward was built a gate of marble white; + The like adorned the western opposite. + A nobler object than this fabric was + Rome never saw, nor of so vast a space: + For, rich with spoils of many a conquered land, + All arts and artists Theseus could command, + Who sold for hire, or wrought for better fame; + The master-painters and the carvers came. + So rose within the compass of the year + An age's work, a glorious theatre. + Then o'er its eastern gate was raised above + A temple, sacred to the Queen of Love; + An altar stood below; on either hand + A priest with roses crowned, who held a myrtle wand. + + The dome of Mars was on the gate opposed, + And on the north a turret was enclosed + Within the wall of alabaster white + And crimson coral, for the Queen of Night, + Who takes in sylvan sports her chaste delight. + + Within those oratories might you see + Rich carvings, portraitures, and imagery; + Where every figure to the life expressed + The godhead's power to whom it was addressed. + In Venus' temple on the sides were seen + The broken slumbers of enamoured men; + Prayers that even spoke, and pity seemed to call, + And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall; + Complaints and hot desires, 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 assurance, and a train of lies, + That, made in lust, conclude in perjuries; + Beauty, and Youth, and Wealth, and Luxury, + And sprightly Hope and short-enduring Joy, + And Sorceries, to raise the infernal powers, + And Sigils framed in planetary hours; + Expense, and After-thought, and idle Care, + And Doubts of motley hue, and dark Despair; + Suspicions and fantastical Surmise, + And Jealousy suffused, with jaundice in her eyes, + Discolouring all she viewed, in tawny dressed, + Down-looked, and with a cuckow on her fist. + Opposed to her, on the other side advance + The costly feast, the carol, and the dance, + Minstrels and music, poetry and play, + And balls by night, and turnaments by day. + All these were painted on the wall, and more; + With acts and monuments of times before; + And others added by prophetic doom, + And lovers yet unborn, and loves to come: + For there the Idalian mount, and Citheron, + The court of Venus, was in colours drawn; + Before the palace gate, in careless dress + And loose array, sat portress Idleness; + There by the fount Narcissus pined alone; + There Samson was; with wiser Solomon, + And all the mighty names by love undone. + Medea's charms were there; Circean feasts, + With bowls that turned enamoured youths to beasts. + Here might be seen, that beauty, wealth, and wit, + And prowess to the power of love submit; + The spreading snare for all mankind is laid, + And lovers all betray, and are betrayed. + The Goddess' self some noble hand had wrought; + Smiling she seemed, and full of pleasing thought; + From ocean as she first began to rise, + And smoothed the ruffled seas, and cleared the skies, + She trod the brine, all bare below the breast, + And the green waves but ill-concealed the rest: + A lute she held; and on her head was seen + A wreath of roses red and myrtles green; + Her turtles fanned the buxom air above; + And by his mother stood an infant Love, + With wings unfledged; his eyes were banded o'er, + His hands a bow, his back, a quiver bore, + Supplied with arrows bright and keen, a deadly store. + + But in the dome of mighty Mars the red + With different figures all the sides were spread; + This temple, less in form, with equal grace, + Was imitative of the first in Thrace; + For that cold region was the loved abode + And sovereign mansion of the warrior god. + The landscape was a forest wide and bare, + Where neither beast nor human kind repair, + The fowl that scent afar the borders fly, + And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky. + A cake of scurf lies baking on the ground, + And prickly stubs, instead of trees, are found; + Or woods with knots and knares deformed and old, + Headless the most, and hideous to behold; + A rattling tempest through the branches went, + That stripped them bare, and one sole way they bent. + Heaven froze above severe, the clouds congeal, + And through the crystal vault appeared the standing hail. + Such was the face without: a mountain stood + Threatening from high, and overlooked the wood: + Beneath the lowering brow, and on a bent, + The temple stood of Mars armipotent; + The frame of burnished steel, that cast a glare + From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air. + A straight long entry to the temple led, + Blind with high walls, and horror over head; + Thence issued such a blast, and hollow roar, + As threatened from the hinge to heave the door; + In through that door a northern light there shone; + 'Twas all it had, for windows there were none. + The gate was adamant; eternal frame, + Which, hewed by Mars himself, from Indian quarries came, + The labour of a God; and all along + Tough iron plates were clenched to make it strong. + A tun about was every pillar there; + A polished mirror shone not half so clear. + There saw I how the secret felon wrought, + And treason labouring in the traitor's thought, + And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought. + There the red Anger dared the pallid Fear; + Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer, + Soft, smiling, and demurely looking down, + But hid the dagger underneath the gown; + The assassinating wife, the household fiend; + And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend. + On the other side there stood Destruction bare, + Unpunished Rapine, and a waste of war; + Contest with sharpened knives in cloisters drawn, + And all with blood bespread the holy lawn. + Loud menaces were heard, and foul disgrace, + And bawling infamy, in language base; + Till sense was lost in sound, and silence fled the place. + The slayer of himself yet saw I there, + The gore congealed was clotted in his hair; + With eyes half closed and gaping mouth he lay, + And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away. + In midst of all the dome, Misfortune sate, + And gloomy Discontent, and fell Debate, + And Madness laughing in his ireful mood; + And armed Complaint on theft; and cries of blood. + There was the murdered corps, in covert laid, + And violent death in thousand shapes displayed: + The city to the soldier's rage resigned; + Successless wars, and poverty behind: + Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores, + And the rash hunter strangled by the boars: + The new-born babe by nurses overlaid; + And the cook caught within the raging fire he made. + All ills of Mars' his nature, flame and steel; + The gasping charioteer beneath the wheel + Of his own car; the ruined house that falls + And intercepts her lord betwixt the walls: + The whole division that to Mars pertains, + All trades of death that deal in steel for gains + Were there: the butcher, armourer, and smith, + Who forges sharpened fauchions, or the scythe. + The scarlet conquest on a tower was placed, + With shouts and soldiers' acclamations graced: + A pointed sword hung threatening o'er his head, + Sustained but by a slender twine of thread. + There saw I Mars his ides, the Capitol, + The seer in vain foretelling Caesar's fall; + The last Triumvirs, and the wars they move, + And Antony, who lost the world for love. + These, and a thousand more, the fane adorn; + Their fates were painted ere the men were born, + All copied from the heavens, and ruling force + Of the red star, in his revolving course. + The form of Mars high on a chariot stood, + All sheathed in arms, and gruffly looked the god; + Two geomantic figures were displayed + Above his head, a warrior and a maid, + One when direct, and one when retrograde. + + Tired with deformities of death, I haste + To the third temple of Diana chaste. + A sylvan scene with various greens was drawn, + Shades on the sides, and on the midst a lawn; + The silver Cynthia, with her nymphs around, + Pursued the flying deer, the woods with horns resound: + Calisto there stood manifest of shame, + And, turned a bear, the northern star became: + Her son was next, and, by peculiar grace, + In the cold circle held the second place; + The stag Actson in the stream had spied + The naked huntress, and for seeing died; + His hounds, unknowing of his change, pursue + The chase, and their mistaken master slew. + Peneian Daphne too, was there to see, + Apollo's love before, and now his tree. + The adjoining fane the assembled Greeks expressed, + And hunting of the Calydonian beast. + OEnides' valour, and his envied prize; + The fatal power of Atalanta's eyes; + Diana's vengeance on the victor shown, + The murderess mother, and consuming son; + The Volscian queen extended on the plain, + The treason punished, and the traitor slain. + The rest were various huntings, well designed, + And savage beasts destroyed, of every kind. + The graceful goddess was arrayed in green; + About her feet were little beagles seen, + That watched with upward eyes the motions of their Queen. + Her legs were buskined, and the left before, + In act to shoot; a silver bow she bore, + And at her back a painted quiver wore. + She trod a wexing moon, that soon would wane, + And, drinking borrowed light, be filled again; + With downcast eyes, as seeming to survey + The dark dominions, her alternate sway. + Before her stood a woman in her throes, + And called Lucina's aid, her burden to disclose. + All these the painter drew with such command, + That Nature snatched the pencil from his hand, + Ashamed and angry that his art could feign, + And mend the tortures of a mother's pain. + Theseus beheld the fanes of every god, + And thought his mighty cost was well bestowed. + So princes now their poets should regard; + But few can write, and fewer can reward. + + The theatre thus raised, the lists enclosed, + And all with vast magnificence disposed, + We leave the monarch pleased, and haste to bring + The knights to combat, and their arms to sing. +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BOOK III. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The day approached when Fortune should decide + The important enterprise, and give the bride; + For now the rivals round the world had sought, + And each his number, well appointed, brought. + The nations far and near contend in choice, + And send the flower of war by public voice; + That after or before were never known + Such chiefs, as each an army seemed alone: + Beside the champions, all of high degree, + Who knighthood loved, and deeds of chivalry, + Thronged to the lists, and envied to behold + The names of others, not their own, enrolled. + Nor seems it strange; for every noble knight + Who loves the fair, and is endued with might, + In such a quarrel would be proud to fight. + There breathes not scarce a man on British ground + (An isle for love and arms of old renowned) + But would have sold his life to purchase fame, + To Palamon or Arcite sent his name; + And had the land selected of the best, + Half had come hence, and let the world provide the rest. + A hundred knights with Palamon there came, + Approved in fight, and men of mighty name; + Their arms were several, as their nations were, + But furnished all alike with sword and spear. + + Some wore coat armour, imitating scale, + And next their skins were stubborn shirts of mail; + Some wore a breastplate and a light juppon, + Their horses clothed with rich caparison; + Some for defence would leathern bucklers use + Of folded hides, and others shields of Pruce. + One hung a pole-axe at his saddle-bow, + And one a heavy mace to stun the foe; + One for his legs and knees provided well, + With jambeux armed, and double plates of steel; + This on his helmet wore a lady's glove, + And that a sleeve embroidered by his love. + + With Palamon above the rest in place, + Lycurgus came, the surly king of Thrace; + Black was his beard, and manly was his face + The balls of his broad eyes rolled in his head, + And glared betwixt a yellow and a red; + He looked a lion with a gloomy stare, + And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair; + Big-boned and large of limbs, with sinews strong, + Broad-shouldered, and his arms were round and long. + Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian use of old) + Were yoked to draw his car of burnished gold. + Upright he stood, and bore aloft his shield, + Conspicuous from afar, and overlooked the field. + His surcoat was a bear-skin on his back; + His hair hung long behind, and glossy raven-black. + His ample forehead bore a coronet, + With sparkling diamonds and with rubies set. + Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair, + And tall as stags, ran loose, and coursed around his chair, + A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear; + With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound, + And collars of the same their necks surround. + + Thus through the fields Lycurgus took his way; + His hundred knights attend in pomp and proud array. + + To match this monarch, with strong Arcite came + Emetrius, king of Inde, a mighty name, + On a bay courser, goodly to behold, + The trappings of his horse embossed with barbarous gold. + Not Mars bestrode a steed with greater grace; + His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace, + Adorned with pearls, all orient, round, and great; + His saddle was of gold, with emeralds set; + His shoulders large a mantle did attire, + With rubies thick, and sparkling as the fire; + His amber-coloured locks in ringlets run, + With graceful negligence, and shone against the sun. + His nose was aquiline, his eyes were blue, + Ruddy his lips, and fresh and fair his hue; + Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen, + Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin. + His awful presence did the crowd surprise, + Nor durst the rash spectator meet his eyes; + Eyes that confessed him born for kingly sway, + So fierce, they flashed intolerable day. + His age in nature's youthful prime appeared, + And just began to bloom his yellow beard. + Whene'er he spoke, his voice was heard around, + Loud as a trumpet, with a silver sound; + A laurel wreathed his temples, fresh, and green, + And myrtle sprigs, the marks of love, were mixed between. + Upon his fist he bore, for his delight, + An eagle well reclaimed, and lily white. + + His hundred knights attend him to the war, + All armed for battle; save their heads were bare. + Words and devices blazed on every shield, + And pleasing was the terror of the field. + For kings, and dukes, and barons you might see, + Like sparkling stars, though different in degree, + All for the increase of arms, and love of chivalry. + Before the king tame leopards led the way, + And troops of lions innocently play. + So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode, + And beasts in gambols frisked before their honest god. + + In this array the war of either side + Through Athens passed with military pride. + At prime, they entered on the Sunday morn; + Rich tapestry spread the streets, and flowers the posts adorn. + The town was all a jubilee of feasts; + So Theseus willed in honour of his guests; + Himself with open arms the kings embraced, + Then all the rest in their degrees were graced. + No harbinger was needful for the night, + For every house was proud to lodge a knight. + + I pass the royal treat, nor must relate + The gifts bestowed, nor how the champions sate; + Who first, who last, or how the knights addressed + Their vows, or who was fairest at the feast; + Whose voice, whose graceful dance did most surprise, + Soft amorous sighs, and silent love of eyes. + The rivals call my Muse another way, + To sing their vigils for the ensuing day. + 'Twas ebbing darkness, past the noon of night: + And Phosphor, on the confines of the light, + Promised the sun; ere day began to spring, + The tuneful lark already stretched her wing, + And flickering on her nest, made short essays to sing. + + When wakeful Palamon, preventing day, + Took to the royal lists his early way, + To Venus at her fane, in her own house, to pray. + There, falling on his knees before her shrine, + He thus implored with prayers her power divine: + "Creator Venus, genial power of love, + The bliss of men below, and gods above! + Beneath the sliding sun thou runst thy race, + Dost fairest shine, and best become thy place. + For thee the winds their eastern blasts forbear, + Thy month reveals the spring, and opens all the year. + Thee, Goddess, thee the storms of winter fly; + Earth smiles with flowers renewing, laughs the sky, + And birds to lays of love their tuneful notes apply. + For thee the lion loathes the taste of blood, + And roaring hunts his female through the wood; + For thee the bulls rebellow through the groves, + And tempt the stream, and snuff their absent loves. + 'Tis thine, whate'er is pleasant, good, or fair; + All nature is thy province, life thy care; + Thou madest the world, and dost the world repair. + Thou gladder of the mount of Cytheron, + Increase of Jove, companion of the Sun, + If e'er Adonis touched thy tender heart, + Have pity, Goddess, for thou knowest the smart! + Alas! I have not words to tell my grief; + To vent my sorrow would be some relief; + Light sufferings give us leisure to complain; + We groan, but cannot speak, in greater pain. + O Goddess, tell thyself what I would say! + Thou knowest it, and I feel too much to pray. + So grant my suit, as I enforce my might, + In love to be thy champion and thy knight, + A servant to thy sex, a slave to thee, + A foe professed to barren chastity: + Nor ask I fame or honour of the field, + Nor choose I more to vanquish than to yield: + In my divine Emilia make me blest, + Let Fate or partial Chance dispose the rest: + Find thou the manner, and the means prepare; + Possession, more than conquest, is my care. + Mars is the warrior's god; in him it lies + On whom he favours to confer the prize; + With smiling aspect you serenely move + In your fifth orb, and rule the realm of love. + The Fates but only spin the coarser clue, + The finest of the wool is left for you: + Spare me but one small portion of the twine, + And let the Sisters cut below your line: + The rest among the rubbish may they sweep, + Or add it to the yarn of some old miser's heap. + But if you this ambitious prayer deny, + (A wish, I grant; beyond mortality,) + Then let me sink beneath proud Arcite's arms, + And, I once dead, let him possess her charms." + + Thus ended he; then, with observance due, + The sacred incense on her altar threw: + The curling smoke mounts heavy from the fires; + At length it catches flame, and in a blaze expires; + At once the gracious Goddess gave the sign, + Her statue shook, and trembled all the shrine: + Pleased Palamon the tardy omen took; + For since the flames pursued the trailing smoke, + He knew his boon was granted, but the day + To distance driven, and joy adjourned with long delay. + + Now morn with rosy light had streaked the sky, + Up rose the sun, and up rose Emily; + Addressed her early steps to Cynthia's fane, + In state attended by her maiden train, + Who bore the vests that holy rites require, + Incense, and odorous gums, and covered fire. + The plenteous horns with pleasant mead they crown + Nor wanted aught besides in honour of the Moon. + Now, while the temple smoked with hallowed steam, + They wash the virgin in a living stream; + The secret ceremonies I conceal, + Uncouth, perhaps unlawful to reveal: + But such they were as pagan use required, + Performed by women when the men retired, + Whose eyes profane their chaste mysterious rites + Might turn to scandal or obscene delights. + Well-meaners think no harm; but for the rest, + Things sacred they pervert, and silence is the best. + Her shining hair, uncombed, was loosely spread, + A crown of mastless oak adorned her head: + When to the shrine approached, the spotless maid + Had kindling fires on either altar laid; + (The rites were such as were observed of old, + By Statius in his Theban story told.) + Then kneeling with her hands across her breast, + Thus lowly she preferred her chaste request. + + "O Goddess, haunter of the woodland green, + To whom both heaven and earth and seas are seen; + Queen of the nether skies, where half the year + Thy silver beams descend, and light the gloomy sphere; + Goddess of maids, and conscious of our hearts, + So keep me from the vengeance of thy darts, + (Which Niobe's devoted issue felt, + When hissing through the skies the feathered deaths + were dealt,) + + "As I desire to live a virgin life, + Nor know the name of mother or of wife. + Thy votress from my tender years I am, + And love, like thee, the woods and sylvan game. + Like death, thou knowest, I loathe the nuptial state, + And man, the tyrant of our sex, I hate, + A lowly servant, but a lofty mate; + Where love is duty on the female side, + On theirs mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride. + Now by thy triple shape, as thou art seen + In heaven, earth, hell, and everywhere a queen, + Grant this my first desire; let discord cease, + And make betwixt the rivals lasting peace: + Quench their hot fire, or far from me remove + The flame, and turn it on some other love; + Or if my frowning stars have so decreed, + That one must be rejected, one succeed, + Make him my lord, within whose faithful breast + Is fixed my image, and who loves me best. + But oh! even that avert! I choose it not, + But take it as the least unhappy lot. + A maid I am, and of thy virgin train; + Oh, let me still that spotless name retain! + Frequent the forests, thy chaste will obey, + And only make the beasts of chase my prey!" + + The flames ascend on either altar clear, + While thus the blameless maid addressed her prayer. + When lo! the burning fire that shone so bright + Flew off, all sudden, with extinguished light, + And left one altar dark, a little space, + Which turned self-kindled, and renewed the blaze; + That other victor-flame a moment stood, + Then fell, and lifeless, left the extinguished wood; + For ever lost, the irrevocable light + Forsook the blackening coals, and sunk to night: + At either end it whistled as it flew, + And as the brands were green, so dropped the dew, + Infected as it fell with sweat of sanguine hue. + + The maid from that ill omen turned her eyes, + And with loud shrieks and clamours rent the skies; + Nor knew what signified the boding sign, + But found the powers displeased, and feared the wrath divine. + + Then shook the sacred shrine, and sudden light + Sprung through the vaulted roof, and made the temple bright. + The Power, behold! the Power in glory shone, + By her bent bow and her keen arrows known; + The rest, a huntress issuing from the wood, + Reclining on her cornel spear she stood. + Then gracious thus began: "Dismiss thy fear, + And Heaven's unchanged decrees attentive hear: + More powerful gods have torn thee from my side, + Unwilling to resign, and doomed a bride; + The two contending knights are weighed above; + One Mars protects, and one the Queen of Love: + But which the man is in the Thunderer's breast; + This he pronounced, 'Tis he who loves thee best.' + The fire that, once extinct, revived again + Foreshows the love allotted to remain. + Farewell!" she said, and vanished from the place; + The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case. + Aghast at this, the royal virgin stood, + Disclaimed, and now no more a sister of the wood: + But to the parting Goddess thus she prayed: + "Propitious still, be present to my aid, + Nor quite abandon your once favoured maid." + Then sighing she returned; but smiled betwixt, + With hopes, and fears, and joys with sorrows mixt. + + The next returning planetary hour + of Mars, who shared the heptarchy of power, + His steps bold Arcite to the temple bent, + To adorn with pagan rites the power armipotent: + Then prostrate, low before his altar lay, + And raised his manly voice, and thus began, to pray: + "Strong God of Arms, whose iron sceptre sways + The freezing North, and Hyperborean seas, + And Scythian colds, and Thracia's wintry coast, + Where stand thy steeds, and thou art honoured most: + There most, but everywhere thy power is known, + The fortune of the fight is all thy own: + Terror is thine, and wild amazement, flung + From out thy chariot, withers even the strong; + And disarray and shameful rout ensue, + And force is added to the fainting crew. + Acknowledged as thou art, accept my prayer! + If aught I have achieved deserve thy care, + If to my utmost power with sword and shield + I dared the death, unknowing how to yield, + And falling in my rank, still kept the field; + Then let my arms prevail, by thee sustained, + That Emily by conquest may be gained. + Have pity on my pains; nor those unknown + To Mars, which, when a lover, were his own. + Venus, the public care of all above, + Thy stubborn heart has softened into love: + Now, by her blandishments and powerful charms, + When yielded she lay curling in thy arms, + Even by thy shame, if shame it may be called, + When Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled; + O envied ignominy, sweet disgrace, + When every god that saw thee wished thy place! + By those dear pleasures, aid my arms in fight, + And make me conquer in my patron's right: + For I am young, a novice in the trade, + The fool of love, unpractised to persuade, + And want the soothing arts that catch the fair, + But, caught my self, lie struggling in the snare; + And she I love or laughs at all my pain + Or knows her worth too well, and pays me with disdain. + For sure I am, unless I win in arms, + To stand excluded from Emilia's charms: + Nor can my strength avail, unless by thee + Endued with force I gain the victory; + Then for the fire which warmed thy generous heart, + Pity thy subject's pains and equal smart. + So be the morrow's sweat and labour mine, + The palm and honour of the conquest thine: + Then shall the war, and stern debate, and strife + Immortal be the business of my life; + And in thy fane, the dusty spoils among, + High on the burnished roof, my banner shall be hung, + Ranked with my champion's bucklers; and below, + With arms reversed, the achievements of my foe; + And while these limbs the vital spirit feeds, + While day to night and night to day succeeds, + Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food + Of incense and the grateful steam of blood; + Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine, + And fires eternal in thy temple shine. + The bush of yellow beard, this length of hair, + Which from my birth inviolate I bear, + Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free, + Shall fall a plenteous crop, reserved for thee. + So may my arms with victory be blest, + I ask no more; let Fate dispose the rest." + + The champion ceased; there followed in the close + A hollow groan; a murmuring wind arose; + The rings of iron, that on the doors were hung, + Sent out a jarring sound, and harshly rung: + The bolted gates blew open at the blast, + The storm rushed in, and Arcite stood aghast: + The flames were blown aside, yet shone they bright, + Fanned by the wind, and gave a ruffled light. + Then from the ground a scent began to rise, + Sweet smelling as accepted sacrifice: + This omen pleased, and as the flames aspire, + With odorous incense Arcite heaps the fire: + Nor wanted hymns to Mars or heathen charms: + At length the nodding statue clashed his arms, + And with a sullen sound and feeble cry, + Half sunk and half pronounced the word of Victory. + For this, with soul devout, he thanked the God, + And, of success secure, returned to his abode. + + These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above + Betwixt the God of War and Queen of Love. + She, granting first, had right of time to plead; + But he had granted too, nor would recede. + Jove was for Venus, but he feared his wife, + And seemed unwilling to decide the strife: + Till Saturn from his leaden throne arose, + And found a way the difference to compose: + Though sparing of his grace, to mischief bent, + He seldom does a good with good intent. + Wayward, but wise; by long experience taught, + To please both parties, for ill ends, he sought: + For this advantage age from youth has won, + As not to be outridden, though outrun. + By fortune he was now to Venus trined, + And with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined: + Of him disposing in his own abode, + He soothed the Goddess, while he gulled the God: + "Cease, daughter, to complain, and stint the strife; + Thy Palamon shall have his promised wife: + And Mars, the lord of conquest, in the fight + With palm and laurel shall adorn his knight. + Wide is my course, nor turn I to my place, + Till length of time, and move with tardy pace. + Man feels me when I press the etherial plains; + My hand is heavy, and the wound remains. + Mine is the shipwreck in a watery sign; + And in an earthy the dark dungeon mine. + Cold shivering agues, melancholy care, + And bitter blasting winds, and poisoned air, + Are mine, and wilful death, resulting from despair. + The throttling quinsey 'tis my star appoints, + And rheumatisms I send to rack the joints: + When churls rebel against their native prince, + I arm their hands, and furnish the pretence; + And housing in the lion's hateful sign, + Bought senates and deserting troops are mine. + Mine is the privy poisoning; I command + Unkindly seasons and ungrateful land. + By me kings' palaces are pushed to ground, + And miners crushed beneath their mines are found. + 'Twas I slew Samson, when the pillared hall + Fell down, and crushed the many with the fall. + My looking is the sire of pestilence, + That sweeps at once the people and the prince. + Now weep no more, but trust thy grandsire's art, + Mars shall be pleased, and thou perform thy part. + 'Tis ill, though different your complexions are, + The family of Heaven for men should war." + The expedient pleased, where neither lost his right; + Mars had the day, and Venus had the night. + The management they left to Chronos' care. + Now turn we to the effect, and sing the war. + + In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play, + All proper to the spring and sprightly May: + Which every soul inspired with such delight, + 'Twas justing all the day, and love at night. + Heaven smiled, and gladded was the heart of man; + And Venus had the world as when it first began. + At length in sleep their bodies they compose, + And dreamt the future fight, and early rose. + + Now scarce the dawning day began to spring, + As at a signal given, the streets with clamours ring: + At once the crowd arose; confused and high, + Even from the heaven was heard a shouting cry, + For Mars was early up, and roused the sky. + The gods came downward to behold the wars, + Sharpening their sights, and leaning from their stars. + The neighing of the generous horse was heard, + For battle by the busy groom prepared: + Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield, + Clattering of armour, furbished for the field. + Crowds to the castle mounted up the street; + Battering the pavement with their coursers' feet: + The greedy sight might there devour the gold + Of glittering arms, too dazzling to behold: + And polished steel that cast the view aside, + And crested morions, with their plumy pride. + Knights, with a long retinue of their squires, + In gaudy liveries march, and quaint attires. + One laced the helm, another held the lance; + A third the shining buckler did advance. + The courser pawed the ground with restless feet, + And snorting foamed, and champed the golden bit. + The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride, + Files in their hands, and hammers at their side, + And nails for loosened spears and thongs for shields provide. + The yeomen guard the streets in seemly bands; + And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands. + + The trumpets, next the gate, in order placed, + Attend the sign to sound the martial blast: + The palace yard is filled with floating tides, + And the last comers bear the former to the sides. + The throng is in the midst; the common crew + Shut out, the hall admits the better few. + In knots they stand, or in a rank they walk, + Serious in aspect, earnest in their talk; + Factious, and favouring this or t'other side, + As their strong fancies and weak reason guide; + Their wagers back their wishes; numbers hold + With the fair freckled king, and beard of gold: + So vigorous are his eyes, such rays they cast, + So prominent his eagle's beak is placed. + But most their looks on the black monarch bend; + His rising muscles and his brawn commend; + His double-biting axe, and beamy spear, + Each asking a gigantic force to rear. + All spoke as partial favour moved the mind; + And, safe themselves, at others' cost divined. + + Waked by the cries, the Athenian chief arose, + The knightly forms of combat to dispose; + And passing through the obsequious guards, he sate + Conspicuous on a throne, sublime in state; + There, for the two contending knights he sent; + Armed cap-a-pie, with reverence low they bent; + He smiled on both, and with superior look + Alike their offered adoration took. + The people press on every side to see + Their awful Prince, and hear his high decree. + Then signing to their heralds with his hand, + They gave his orders from their lofty stand. + Silence is thrice enjoined; then thus aloud + The king-at-arms bespeaks the knights and listening crowd: + "Our sovereign lord has pondered in his mind + The means to spare the blood of gentle kind; + And of his grace and inborn clemency + He modifies his first severe decree, + The keener edge of battle to rebate, + The troops for honour fighting, not for hate. + He wills, not death should terminate their strife, + And wounds, if wounds ensue, be short of life; + But issues, ere the fight, his dread command, + That slings afar, and poniards hand to hand, + Be banished from the field; that none shall dare + With shortened sword to stab in closer war; + But in fair combat fight with manly strength, + Nor push with biting point, but strike at length. + The turney is allowed but one career + Of the tough ash, with the sharp-grinded spear; + But knights unhorsed may rise from off the plain, + And fight on foot their honour to regain; + Nor, if at mischief taken, on the ground + Be slain, but prisoners to the pillar bound, + At either barrier placed; nor, captives made, + Be freed, or armed anew the fight invade: + The chief of either side, bereft of life, + Or yielded to his foe, concludes the strife. + Thus dooms the lord: now valiant knights and young, + Fight each his fill, with swords and maces long." + + The herald ends: the vaulted firmament + With loud acclaims and vast applause is rent: + Heaven guard a Prince so gracious and so good, + So just, and yet so provident of blood! + This was the general cry. The trumpets sound, + And warlike symphony is heard around. + The marching troops through Athens take their way, + The great Earl-marshal orders their array. + The fair from high the passing pomp behold; + A rain of flowers is from the window rolled. + The casements are with golden tissue spread, + And horses' hoofs, for earth, on silken tapestry tread. + The King goes midmost, and the rivals ride + In equal rank, and close his either side. + Next after these there rode the royal wife, + With Emily, the cause and the reward of strife. + The following cavalcade, by three and three, + Proceed by titles marshalled in degree. + Thus through the southern gate they take their way, + And at the list arrived ere prime of day. + There, parting from the King, the chiefs divide, + And wheeling east and west, before their many ride. + The Athenian monarch mounts his throne on high, + And after him the Queen and Emily: + Next these, the kindred of the crown are graced + With nearer seats, and lords by ladies placed. + Scarce were they seated, when with clamours loud + In rushed at once a rude promiscuous crowd, + The guards, and then each other overbare, + And in a moment throng the spacious theatre. + Now changed the jarring noise to whispers low, + As winds forsaking seas more softly blow, + When at the western gate, on which the car + Is placed aloft that bears the God of War, + Proud Arcite entering armed before his train + Stops at the barrier, and divides the plain. + Red was his banner, and displayed abroad + The bloody colours of his patron god. + + At that self moment enters Palamon + The gate of Venus, and the rising Sun; + Waved by the wanton winds, his banner flies, + All maiden white, and shares the people's eyes. + From east to west, look all the world around, + Two troops so matched were never to be found; + Such bodies built for strength, of equal age, + In stature sized; so proud an equipage: + The nicest eye could no distinction make, + Where lay the advantage, or what side to take. + + Thus ranged, the herald for the last proclaims + A silence, while they answered to their names: + For so the king decreed, to shun with care + The fraud of musters false, the common bane of war. + The tale was just, and then the gates were closed; + And chief to chief, and troop to troop opposed. + The heralds last retired, and loudly cried, + "The fortune of the field be fairly tried!" + + At this the challenger, with fierce defy, + His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply: + With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky. + Their vizors closed, their lances in the rest, + Or at the helmet pointed or the crest, + They vanish from the barrier, speed the race, + And spurring see decrease the middle space. + A cloud of smoke envelopes either host, + And all at once the combatants are lost: + Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen, + Coursers with coursers justling, men with men: + As labouring in eclipse, a while they stay, + Till the next blast of wind restores the day. + They look anew: the beauteous form of fight + Is changed, and war appears a grisly sight. + Two troops in fair array one moment showed, + The next, a field with fallen bodies strowed: + Not half the number in their seats are found; + But men and steeds lie grovelling on the ground. + The points of spears are stuck within the shield, + The steeds without their riders scour the field. + The knights unhorsed, on foot renew the fight; + The glittering fauchions cast a gleaming light; + Hauberks and helms are hewed with many a wound, + Out spins the streaming blood, and dyes the ground. + The mighty maces with such haste descend, + They break the bones, and make the solid armour bend. + This thrusts amid the throng with furious force; + Down goes, at once, the horseman and the horse: + That courser stumbles on the fallen steed, + And, floundering, throws the rider o'er his head. + One rolls along, a football to his foes; + One with a broken truncheon deals his blows. + This halting, this disabled with his wound, + In triumph led, is to the pillar bound, + Where by the king's award he must abide: + There goes a captive led on t'other side. + By fits they cease, and leaning on the lance, + Take breath a while, and to new fight advance. + + Full oft the rivals met, and neither spared + His utmost force, and each forgot to ward: + The head of this was to the saddle bent, + The other backward to the crupper sent: + Both were by turns unhorsed; the jealous blows + Fall thick and heavy, when on foot they close. + So deep their fauchions bite, that every stroke + Pierced to the quick; and equal wounds they gave and took. + Borne far asunder by the tides of men, + Like adamant and steel they met agen. + + So when a tiger sucks the bullock's blood, + A famished lion issuing from the wood + Roars lordly fierce, and challenges the food. + Each claims possession, neither will obey, + But both their paws are fastened on the prey; + They bite, they tear; and while in vain they strive, + The swains come armed between, and both to distance drive. + At length, as Fate foredoomed, and all things tend + By course of time to their appointed end; + So when the sun to west was far declined, + And both afresh in mortal battle joined, + The strong Emetrius came in Arcite's aid, + And Palamon with odds was overlaid: + For, turning short, he struck with all his might + Full on the helmet of the unwary knight. + Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow, + And turned him to his unexpected foe; + Whom with such force he struck, he felled him down, + And cleft the circle of his golden crown. + But Arcite's men, who now prevailed in fight, + Twice ten at once surround the single knight: + O'erpowered at length, they force him to the ground, + Unyielded as he was, and to the pillar bound; + And king Lycurgus, while he fought in vain + His friend to free, was tumbled on the plain. + + Who now laments but Palamon, compelled + No more to try the fortune of the field, + And, worse than death, to view with hateful eyes + His rival's conquest, and renounce the prize! + + The royal judge on his tribunal placed, + Who had beheld the fight from first to last, + Bade cease the war; pronouncing from on high, + Arcite of Thebes had won the beauteous Emily. + The sound of trumpets to the voice replied, + And round the royal lists the heralds cried, + "Arcite of Thebes has won the beauteous bride!" + + The people rend the skies with vast applause; + All own the chief, when Fortune owns the cause. + Arcite is owned even by the gods above, + And conquering Mars insults the Queen of Love. + So laughed he when the rightful Titan failed, + And Jove's usurping arms in heaven prevailed. + Laughed all the powers who favour tyranny, + And all the standing army of the sky. + But Venus with dejected eyes appears. + And weeping on the lists distilled her tears; + Her will refused, which grieves a woman most, + And, in her champion foiled, the cause of Love is lost. + Till Saturn said:—"Fair daughter, now be still, + "The blustering fool has satisfied his will; + His boon is given; his knight has gained the day, + But lost the prize; the arrears are yet to pay. + Thy hour is come, and mine the care shall be + To please thy knight, and set thy promise free." + + Now while the heralds run the lists around, + And Arcite! Arcite! heaven and earth resound, + A miracle (nor less it could be called) + Their joy with unexpected sorrow palled. + The victor knight had laid his helm aside, + Part for his ease, the greater part for pride: + Bareheaded, popularly low he bowed, + And paid the salutations of the crowd; + Then spurring, at full speed, ran headlong on + Where Theseus sat on his imperial throne; + Furious he drove, and upward cast his eye, + Where, next the Queen, was placed his Emily; + Then passing, to the saddle-bow he bent; + A sweet regard the gracious virgin lent; + (For women, to the brave an easy prey, + Still follow Fortune, where she leads the way:) + Just then from earth sprung out a flashing fire, + By Pluto sent, at Saturn's bad desire: + The startling steed was seized with sudden fright, + And, bounding, o'er the pummel cast the knight; + Forward he flew, and pitching on his head, + He quivered with his feet, and lay for dead. + + Black was his countenance in a little space, + For all the blood was gathered in his face. + Help was at hand: they reared him from the ground, + And from his cumbrous arms his limbs unbound; + Then lanced a vein, and watched returning breath; + It came, but clogged with symptoms of his death. + The saddle-bow the noble parts had prest, + All bruised and mortified his manly breast. + Him still entranced, and in a litter laid, + They bore from field, and to his bed conveyed. + At length he waked; and, with a feeble cry, + The word he first pronounced was Emily. + + Mean time the King, though inwardly he mourned, + In pomp triumphant to the town returned, + Attended by the chiefs who fought the field, + (Now friendly mixed, and in one troop compelled;) + Composed his looks to counterfeited cheer, + And bade them not for Arcite's life to fear. + But that which gladded all the warrior train, + Though most were sorely wounded, none were slain. + The surgeons soon despoiled them of their arms, + And some with salves they cure, and some with charms; + Foment the bruises, and the pains assuage, + And heal their inward hurts with sovereign draughts of sage. + The King in person visits all around, + Comforts the sick, congratulates the sound; + Honours the princely chiefs, rewards the rest, + And holds for thrice three days a royal feast. + None was disgraced; for falling is no shame, + And cowardice alone is loss of fame. + The venturous knight is from the saddle thrown, + But 'tis the fault of fortune, not his own; + If crowds and palms the conquering side adorn, + The victor under better stars was born: + + The brave man seeks not popular applause, + Nor, overpowered with arms, deserts his canse; + Unshamed, though foiled, he does the best he can: + Force is of brutes, but honour is of man. + + Thus Theseus smiled on all with equal grace, + And each was set according to his place; + With ease were reconciled the differing parts, + For envy never dwells in noble hearts. + At length they took their leave, the time expired, + Well pleased, and to their several homes retired. + + Mean while, the health of Arcite still impairs; + From bad proceeds to worse, and mocks the leech's cares; + Swoln is his breast; his inward pains increase; + All means are used, and all without success. + The clottered blood lies heavy on his heart, + Corrupts, and there remains in spite of art; + Nor breathing veins nor cupping will prevail; + All outward remedies and inward fail. + The mould of nature's fabric is destroyed, + Her vessels discomposed, her virtue void: + The bellows of his lungs begins to swell; + All out of frame is every secret cell, + Nor can the good receive, nor bad expel. + Those breathing organs, thus within opprest, + With venom soon distend the sinews of his breast. + Nought profits him to save abandoned life, + Nor vomit's upward aid, nor downward laxative. + The midmost region battered and destroyed, + When nature cannot work, the effect of art is void: + For physic can but mend our crazy state, + Patch an old building, not a new create. + Arcite is doomed to die in all his pride, + Must leave his youth, and yield his beauteous bride, + Gained hardly against right, and unenjoyed. + + When 'twas declared all hope of life was past, + Conscience, that of all physic works the last, + Caused him to send for Emily in haste. + With her, at his desire, came Palamon; + Then, on his pillow raised, he thus begun: + "No language can express the smallest part + Of what I feel, and suffer in my heart, + For you, whom best I love and value most; + But to your service I bequeath my ghost; + Which, from this mortal body when untied, + Unseen, unheard, shall hover at your side; + Nor fright you waking, nor your sleep offend, + But wait officious, and your steps attend. + How I have loved, excuse my faltering tongue, + My spirit's feeble, and my pains are strong: + This I may say, I only grieve to die, + Because I lose my charming Emily. + To die, when Heaven had put you in my power! + Fate could not choose a more malicious hour. + What greater curse could envious Fortune give, + Than just to die when I began to live! + Vain men! how vanishing a bliss we crave; + Now warm in love, now withering in the grave! + Never, O never more to see the sun! + Still dark, in a damp vault, and still alone! + This fate is common; but I lose my breath + Near bliss, and yet not blessed before my death. + Farewell! but take me dying in your arms; + 'Tis all I can enjoy of all your charms: + This hand I cannot but in death resign; + Ah, could I live! but while I live 'tis mine. + I feel my end approach, and thus embraced + Am pleased to die; but hear me speak my last: + Ah, my sweet foe! for you, and you alone, + I broke my faith with injured Palamon. + But love the sense of right and wrong confounds; + Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds. + And much I doubt, should Heaven my life prolong, + I should return to justify my wrong; + For while my former flames remain within, + Repentance is but want of power to sin. + With mortal hatred I pursued his life, + Nor he nor you were guilty of the strife; + Nor I, but as I loved; yet all combined, + Your beauty and my impotence of mind, + And his concurrent flame that blew my fire, + For still our kindred souls had one desire. + He had a moment's right in point of time; + Had I seen first, then his had been the crime. + Fate made it mine, and justified his right; + Nor holds this earth a more deserving knight + For virtue, valour, and for noble blood, + Truth, honour, all that is comprised in good; + So help me Heaven, in all the world is none + So worthy to be loved as Palamon. + He loves you too, with such a holy fire, + As will not, cannot, but with life expire: + Our vowed affections both have often tried, + Nor any love but yours could ours divide. + Then, by my love's inviolable band, + By my long suffering and my short command, + If e'er you plight your vows when I am gone, + Have pity on the faithful Palamon." + This was his last; for Death came on amain, + And exercised below his iron reign; + Then upward to the seat of life he goes; + Sense fled before him, what he touched he froze: + Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw, + Though less and less of Emily he saw; + So, speechless, for a little space he lay; + Then grasped the hand he held, and sighed his soul away. + + But whither went his soul? let such relate + Who search the secrets of the future state: + Divines can say but what themselves believe; + Strong proofs they have, but not demonstrative; + For, were all plain, then all sides must agree, + And faith itself be lost in certainty. + To live uprightly then is sure the best; + To save ourselves, and not to damn the rest. + The soul of Arcite went where heathens go, + Who better live than we, though less they know. + + In Palamon a manly grief appears; + Silent he wept, ashamed to show his tears. + Emilia shrieked but once; and then, opprest + With sorrow, sunk upon her lover's breast: + Till Theseus in his arms conveyed with care + Far from so sad a sight the swooning fair. + 'Twere loss of time her sorrow to relate; + Ill bears the sex a youthful lover's fate, + When just approaching to the nuptial state: + But, like a low-hung cloud, it rains so fast, + That all at once it falls, and cannot last. + The face of things is changed, and Athens now + That laughed so late, becomes the scene of woe. + Matrons and maids, both sexes, every state, + With tears lament the knight's untimely fate. + Not greater grief in falling Troy was seen + For Hector's death; but Hector was not then. + Old men with dust deformed their hoary hair; + The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear. + "Why wouldst thou go," with one consent they cry, + When thou hadst gold enough, and Emily?" + Theseus himself, who should have cheered the grief + Of others, wanted now the same relief: + Old Ægeus only could revive his son, + Who various changes of the world had known, + And strange vicissitudes of human fate, + Still altering, never in a steady state: + Good after ill and after pain delight, + Alternate, like the scenes of day and night. + Since every man who lives is born to die, + And none can boast sincere felicity, + With equal mind, what happens, let us bear, + Nor joy, nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. + Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; + The world's an inn, and death the journey's end. + Even kings but play, and when their part is done, + Some other, worse or better, mount the throne. + With words like these the crowd was satisfied; + And so they would have been, had Theseus died. + But he, their King, was labouring in his mind + A fitting place for funeral pomps to find, + Which were in honour of the dead designed. + And, after long debate, at last he found + (As Love itself had marked the spot of ground,) + That grove for ever green, that conscious laund, + Where he with Palamon fought hand to hand; + That, where he fed his amorous desires + With soft complaints, and felt his hottest fires, + There other flames might waste his earthly part, + And burn his limbs, where love had burned his heart. + + This once resolved, the peasants were enjoined + Sere-wood, and firs, and doddered oaks to find. + With sounding axes to the grove they go, + Fell, split, and lay the fuel in a row; + Vulcanian food: a bier is next prepared, + On which the lifeless body should be reared, + Covered with cloth of gold; on which was laid + The corps of Arcite, in like robes arrayed. + White gloves were on his hands, and on his head + A wreath of laurel, mixed with myrtle, spread. + A sword keen-edged within his right he held, + The warlike emblem of the conquered field: + Bare was his manly visage on the bier; + Menaced his countenance, even in death severe. + Then to the palace-hall they bore the knight, + To lie in solemn state, a public sight: + Groans, cries, and bowlings fill the crowded place, + And unaffected sorrow sat on every face. + Sad Palamon above the rest appears, + In sable garments, dewed with gushing tears; + His auburn locks on either shoulder flowed, + Which to the funeral of his friend he vowed; + But Emily, as chief, was next his side, + A virgin-widow and a mourning bride. + And, that the princely obsequies might be + Performed according to his high degree, + The steed, that bore him living to the fight, + Was trapped with polished steel, all shining bright, + And covered with the atchievements of the knight. + The riders rode abreast; and one his shield, + His lance of cornel-wood another held; + The third his bow, and, glorious to behold, + The costly quiver, all of burnished gold. + The noblest of the Grecians next appear, + And weeping on their shoulders bore the bier; + With sober pace they marched, and often stayed, + And through the master-street the corps conveyed. + The houses to their tops with black were spread, + And even the pavements were with mourning hid. + The right side of the pall old Ægeus kept, + And on the left the royal Theseus wept; + Each bore a golden bowl of work divine, + With honey filled, and milk, and mixed with ruddy wine. + Then Palamon, the kinsman of the slain, + And after him appeared the illustrious train. + To grace the pomp came Emily the bright, + With covered fire, the funeral pile to light. + With high devotion was the service made, + And all the rites of pagan honour paid: + So lofty was the pile, a Parthian bow, + With vigour drawn, must send the shaft below. + The bottom was full twenty fathom broad, + With crackling straw, beneath in due proportion strowed. + The fabric seemed a wood of rising green, + With sulphur and bitumen cast between + To feed the flames: the trees were unctuous fir, + And mountain-ash, the mother of the spear; + The mourner-yew and builder-oak were there, + The beech, the swimming alder, and the plane, + Hard box, and linden of a softer grain, + And laurels, which the gods for conquering chiefs ordain. + How they were ranked shall rest untold by me, + With nameless Nymphs that lived in every tree; + Nor how the Dryads and the woodland train, + Disherited, ran howling o'er the plain: + Nor how the birds to foreign seats repaired, + Or beasts that bolted out and saw the forests bared: + Nor how the ground now cleared with ghastly fright + Beheld the sudden sun, a stranger to the light. + + The straw, as first I said, was laid below: + Of chips and sere-wood was the second row; + The third of greens, and timber newly felled; + The fourth high stage the fragrant odours held, + And pearls, and precious stones, and rich array; + In midst of which, embalmed, the body lay. + The service sung, the maid with mourning eyes + The stubble fired; the smouldering flames arise: + This office done, she sunk upon the ground; + But what she spoke, recovered from her swound, + I want the wit in moving words to dress; + But by themselves the tender sex may guess. + While the devouring fire was burning fast, + Rich jewels in the flame the wealthy cast; + And some their shields, and some their lances threw, + And gave the warrior's ghost a warrior's due. + Full bowls of wine, of honey, milk and blood + Were poured upon the pile of burning wood, + And hissing flames receive, and hungry lick the food. + Then thrice the mounted squadrons ride around + The fire, and Arcite's name they thrice resound: + "Hail and farewell!" they shouted thrice amain, + Thrice facing to the left, and thrice they turned again: + Still, as they turned, they beat their clattering shields; + The women mix their cries, and clamour fills the fields. + The warlike wakes continued all the night, + And funeral games were played at new returning light: + Who naked wrestled best, besmeared with oil, + Or who with gauntlets gave or took the foil, + I will not tell you, nor would you attend; + But briefly haste to my long story's end. + + I pass the rest; the year was fully mourned, + And Palamon long since to Thebes returned: + When, by the Grecians' general consent, + At Athens Theseus held his parliament; + Among the laws that passed, it was decreed, + That conquered Thebes from bondage should be freed; + Reserving homage to the Athenian throne, + To which the sovereign summoned Palamon. + Unknowing of the cause, he took his way, + Mournful in mind, and still in black array. + + The monarch mounts the throne, and, placed on high, + Commands into the court the beauteous Emily. + So called, she came; the senate rose, and paid + Becoming reverence to the royal maid. + And first, soft whispers through the assembly went; + With silent wonder then they watched the event; + All hushed, the King arose with awful grace; + Deep thought was in his breast, and counsel in his face: + At length he sighed, and having first prepared + The attentive audience, thus his will declared: + + "The Cause and Spring of motion from above + Hung down on earth the golden chain of Love; + Great was the effect, and high was his intent, + When peace among the jarring seeds he sent; + Fire, flood, and earth and air by this were bound, + And Love, the common link, the new creation crowned. + The chain still holds; for though the forms decay, + Eternal matter never wears away: + The same first mover certain bounds has placed, + How long those perishable forms shall last; + Nor can they last beyond the time assigned + By that all-seeing and all-making Mind: + Shorten their hours they may, for will is free, + But never pass the appointed destiny. + So men oppressed, when weary of their breath, + Throw off the burden, and suborn their death. + Then, since those forms begin, and have their end, + On some unaltered cause they sure depend: + Parts of the whole are we, but God the whole, + Who gives us life, and animating soul. + For Nature cannot from a part derive + "That being which the whole can only give: + He perfect, stable; but imperfect we, + Subject to change, and different in degree; + Plants, beasts, and man; and, as our organs are, + We more or less of his perfection share. + But, by a long descent, the etherial fire + Corrupts; and forms, the mortal part, expire. + As he withdraws his virtue, so they pass, + And the same matter makes another mass: + This law the omniscient Power was pleased to give, + That every kind should by succession live; + That individuals die, his will ordains; + The propagated species still remains. + The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, + Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees; + Three centuries he grows, and three he stays, + Supreme in state, and in three more decays: + So wears the paving pebble in the street, + And towns and towers their fatal periods meet: + So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie, + Forsaken of their springs, and leave their channels dry. + So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat, + Then, formed, the little heart begins to beat; + Secret he feeds, unknowing, in the cell; + At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell, + And struggles into breath, and cries for aid; + Then helpless in his mother's lap is laid. + He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man, + Grudges their life from whence his own began; + Reckless of laws, affects to rule alone, + Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne; + First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last; + Rich of three souls, and lives all three to waste. + Some thus; but thousands more in flower of age, + For few arrive to run the latter stage. + Sunk in the first, in battle some are slain, + And others whelmed beneath the stormy main. + What makes all this, but Jupiter the king, + At whose command we perish, and we spring? + Then 'tis our best, since thus ordained to die, + To make a virtue of necessity; + Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain; + The bad grows better, which we well sustain; + And could we choose the time, and choose aright, + 'Tis best to die, our honour at the height. + When we have done our ancestors no shame, + But served our friends, and well secured our fame; + Then should we wish our happy life to close, + And leave no more for fortune to dispose; + So should we make our death a glad relief + From future shame, from sickness, and from grief; + Enjoying while we live the present hour, + And dying in our excellence and flower. + Then round our death-bed every friend should run, + And joy us of our conquest early won; + While the malicious world, with envious tears, + Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs. + Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, + Why should we mourn, that he so soon is freed, + Or call untimely what the gods decreed? + With grief as just a friend may be deplored, + From a foul prison to free air restored. + Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife, + Could tears recall him into wretched life? + Their sorrow hurts themselves; on him is lost, + And worse than both, offends his happy ghost. + What then remains, but after past annoy + To take the good vicissitude of joy; + To thank the gracious gods for what they give, + Possess our souls, and, while we live, to live? + Ordain we then two sorrows to combine, + And in one point the extremes of grief to join; + That thence resulting joy may be renewed, + As jarring notes in harmony conclude. + Then I propose that Palamon shall be + In marriage joined with beauteous Emily; + For which already I have gained the assent + Of my free people in full parliament. + Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, + And well deserved, had Fortune done him right: + 'Tis time to mend her fault, since Emily + By Arcite's death from former vows is free; + If you, fair sister, ratify the accord, + And take him for your husband and your lord, + 'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace + On one descended from a royal race; + And were he less, yet years of service past + From grateful souls exact reward at last. + Pity is Heaven's and yours; nor can she find + A throne so soft as in a woman's mind." + + He said; she blushed; and as o'erawed by might, + Seemed to give Theseus what she gave the knight. + Then, turning to the Theban, thus he said: + + "Small arguments are needful to persuade + Your temper to comply with my command:" + + And speaking thus, he gave Emilia's hand. + Smiled Venus, to behold her own true knight. + Obtain the conquest, though he lost the fight; + And blessed with nuptial bliss the sweet laborious night. + Eros and Anteros on either side, + One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride; + And long-attending Hymen from above + + Showered on the bed the whole Idalian grove. + All of a tenor was their after-life, + No day discoloured with domestic strife; + No jealousy, but mutual truth believed, + Secure repose, and kindness undeceived. + Thus Heaven, beyond the compass of his thought, + Sent him the blessing he so dearly bought. + + So may the Queen of Love long duty bless, + And all true lovers find the same success. +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTES. + </h2> + <h3> + DEDICATION. + </h3> + <p> + Her Grace the Duchess of Ormond was by birth Lady Margaret Somerset. Her + husband, to whom Dryden dedicated the volume of the <i>Fables</i>, was one + of King William's supporters. He had been with him at the Battle of the + Boyne, in the war on the Continent, had received marked evidences of his + favor, and stood by his bedside at his death. + </p> + <p> + 1 1. The bard. Chaucer, whose <i>Knight's Tale</i>, paraphrased as <i>Palamon + and Arcite</i>, Dryden dedicated in these verses. + </p> + <p> + 1 10. An Alexandrine, i.e., a verse of six accented syllables instead of + five. + </p> + <p> + 1 14. Plantagenet. The surname of the royal family of England from Henry + II. to Richard III. + </p> + <p> + 1 18. noblest order. The Order of the Garter, which is the highest order + of knighthood in Great Britain, was founded by Edward III. about 1348. + </p> + <p> + 2 21, 22, 23. A triplet, i.e., three successive verses with the same + rhyme; one device of Dryden's to avoid monotony. + </p> + <p> + 2 29. Platonic year. A great cycle of years, at the end of which it was + supposed that the celestial bodies will occupy the same positions as at + the creation. + </p> + <p> + 2 42. westward. The Duchess' visit to Ireland. + </p> + <p> + 2 43. benighted Britain. Deprived of the light of her Grace's presence. + </p> + <p> + 2 44. Triton. A son of Neptune, generally represented with the body of a + man and the tail of a fish. His duty was to calm the sea by a blast on his + conch-shell horn. + </p> + <p> + 2 45. Nereids. Nymphs of the sea as distinguished from the Naiads, nymphs + of streams and lakes. + </p> + <p> + 2 46. Etesian gale. The Etesian winds were any steady periodical winds. + </p> + <p> + 2 48. Portunus. A lesser sea-god, more particularly the harbor-god. + </p> + <p> + 2 51, 52. In these verses Dryden shows us that he had not shaken off + entirely the conceits of his early verse. + </p> + <p> + 2 53. Hibernia. Ireland. + </p> + <p> + 2 56. His father and his grandsire. Ormond's father was the gallant Earl + of Ossory, and his grandsire, the first Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of + Ireland, the famous supporter of the Stuart cause. + </p> + <p> + 3 58. Kerns. The Irish peasantry. + </p> + <p> + 3 63. Venus is the promise of the sun. Venus, as morning star, is visible + in the east just before sunrise. + </p> + <p> + 3 65. Pales. A Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds. Ceres. The goddess + of agriculture. + </p> + <p> + 3 67. three campaigns. The Jacobites had found sympathy in Ireland and + made a stand there. Vigorous efforts were made by William to dislodge them + and subjugate the island; but years passed before civil strife was ended + and peace restored. + </p> + <p> + 3 72. relics of mankind. The human beings preserved in the ark, all that + was left of mankind after the flood. + </p> + <p> + 3 82, 83. Dryden copies Virgil's golden age,<i>Eclogue IV</i>., 39, 40. + </p> + <p> + 3 87. venom never known. This refers to the absence of reptiles in + Ireland. + </p> + <p> + 4 102. New from her sickness. Recently recovered from a serious illness. + </p> + <p> + 4 117. four ingredients. Earth, air, fire, water, then supposed to be the + elements of all created substances. + </p> + <p> + 5 125. young Vespasian. Titus Vespasianus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, was + so impressed by the beauty of the Temple that he wept as it was destroyed. + </p> + <p> + 5 128. A most detested act of gratitude. The elegy which the danger of her + death rendered imminent. Detested because the occasion for the act would + fill him with grief. + </p> + <p> + 5 131. Morley. A celebrated physician of the seventeenth century. + </p> + <p> + S 133. Macedon. Thessalus, the son of Hippocrates, a famous physician of + antiquity, who resided at the Macedonian court. + </p> + <p> + 5 134. Ptolemy. One of Alexander the Great's generals, who became, after + the great conqueror's death, the ruler of Egypt. + </p> + <p> + 5 138. you. Used here as a noun. + </p> + <p> + 5 151. daughter of the rose. The Duchess of Ormond was a descendant of + Somerset, who plucked the red rose in the Temple garden when Plantagenet + plucked the white,—an incident which badged the houses of York and + Lancaster during the War of the Roses. + </p> + <p> + 5 158. Penelope. The wife of Ulysses, during the long years of her lord's + absence, steadfastly withstood the persuasions of suitors, and remained + true to her husband. + </p> + <p> + 6 162. Ascanius. The son of Aeneas. Elissa. Another name for Dido. It is + Andromache, not Dido, who in Virgil's narrative presents Ascanius with the + elaborately embroidered mantle. Aeneid, Bk. III., 483, etc. + </p> + <p> + 6 168. wear the garter. Become a Knight of the Garter. + </p> + <h3> + BOOK I. + </h3> + <p> + 7 2. Theseus. A legendary hero of Greece, son of Aegeus. He freed Athens + from human tribute to the Cretan Minotaur, with the assistance of Ariadne, + whom he deserted. Succeeded Aegeus as king of Athens. Expedition against + the Amazons resulted in a victory for him, and he married their queen, + Antiope, not Hippolyta, as in Chaucer, Shakspere, and Dryden. He joined in + Caledonian hunt, fought the Centaurs, attempted to carry off Proserpina + for Pirithous. On his return found his kingdom usurped, and, retiring to + Scyros, was treacherously killed by Lycomedes. + </p> + <p> + 7 7. warrior queen. Hippolyta, daughter of Mars, queen of the Amazons, + here confused with her sister Antiope, whom legend makes the bride of + Theseus. + </p> + <p> + 7 21. spousals. Espousal, marriage. + </p> + <p> + 7 22. tilts and turneys. Notice the anachronism of the transfer of the + mediaeval sport to legendary Greece. Dryden follows Chaucer's general + method, though here the elder poet makes no such statement. + </p> + <p> + 8 29. accidents. Happenings, literal derivation from <i>accidere</i>, to + happen. + </p> + <p> + 8 31. enjoined us by mine host. The host of the Tabard, whence Chaucer led + his Canterbury pilgrims, had proposed that each member of the company tell + two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two on the return, and that the + best narrator should receive a supper at the expense of the others. The + plan was not fulfilled, but such stories as were told form Chaucer's <i>Canterbury + Tales</i>. + </p> + <p> + 8 50. weeds. Garments, not restricted to mourning garments. + </p> + <p> + 9 76. Capaneus. One of the seven heroes who marched from Argos (not + Athens) against Thebes. He defied Jupiter and was struck by lightning as + he was scaling the walls. His wife, Evadne, leaped into the flames ahd + perished. In presenting her here, Dryden followed Chaucer. + </p> + <p> + 9 81. Creon. King of Thebes, surrendered the city to Aedipus, who had + freed it from the sphinx, resumed rule after death of Aedipus' sons, + killed by his son Haeemon for cruelty to Antigone, daughter of Aedipus. + </p> + <p> + 10 116. Minotaur. A monster lurking in the labyrinth of Crete, which + devoured the tribute of seven youths and seven maidens sent by Athens + every ninth year. It was slain by Theseus. + </p> + <p> + 11 150. An Alexandrine verse. + </p> + <p> + 11 160. An Alexandrine verse. + </p> + <p> + 12 165. An Alexandrine verse. + </p> + <p> + 12 169. morn of cheerful May. The conventional month for love in the old + poets. Dryden followed Chaucer. + </p> + <p> + 12 186. Aurora. Goddess of the morning-red. Each morning she rose from the + couch of Tithonus, and drove swiftly from Oceanus to Olympus to announce + to gods and mortals the coming of day. + </p> + <p> + 13 199. Philomel. Nightingale. Philomela, dishonored by her + brother-in-law, was changed to a nightingale. + </p> + <p> + 13 214. hateful eyes. Eyes full of hate. + </p> + <p> + 14 245. horoscope. A diagram of the heavens by which astrologers + calculated nativities. Dryden resembled Chaucer in his belief in + astrology. + </p> + <p> + 14 246. Saturn in the dungeon of the sky. Arcite declares that the + horoscope of their birth predicted chains, for it showed the planet + Saturn, an evil star at best, in the dungeon of the sky. + </p> + <p> + 14 252. Unhappy planets. Planets that were thought to cause unhappiness. + </p> + <p> + 14 258. Actaeon. He unintentionally came upon Diana and her nymphs while + they were bathing in the stream, was transformed into a stag by the + goddess, and was coursed to death by his own hounds. + </p> + <p> + 14 261. Cyprian Queen. Venus; Cyprus was a chief seat of her worship. + </p> + <p> + 15 264. habit. Dress. We retain the word with same meaning in + riding-habit. + </p> + <p> + 16 300. Appeach. To impeach. Old form. + </p> + <p> + 17 334, 335, 336, 339. Alexandrines, possibly used by Dryden in such close + succession to show Arcite's violent emotions. + </p> + <p> + 17 342 Aesop's hounds. The hounds of the fable by Aesop. Their story is + told in succeeding verses. + </p> + <p> + 17 346, 347. These verses indicate a condition with which both Chaucer and + Dryden were very familiar. + </p> + <p> + 17 358. Pirithous. A legendary hero, between Theseus and whom existed + strong friendship. A Centaur's discourtesy to the bride at the wedding of + Pirithous was avenged by Theseus in the battle with the Centaurs. + </p> + <p> + 17 364. His fellow to redeem him went to hell. Chaucer and Dryden have + here confused the story of Theseus and Pirithous with account of Castor + and Pollux. Theseus did not go to the lower world to rescue Pirithous; but + went with him to abduct Proserpina, and they were both seized and held by + Pluto, till Hercules rescued Theseus. + </p> + <p> + 18 382. Finds his dear purchase. Finds his purchase to be dear, i.e., + expensive. + </p> + <p> + 19 414. Fire, water, air, and earth. These were regarded by the ancients + as the primary elements of created matter. + </p> + <p> + 20 433. a certain home. The house is a definite existence. + </p> + <p> + 20 434. uncertain place. It is uncertain in the sense that the drunkard + has difficulty in finding it. + </p> + <p> + 21 493. forelays. Awaits before, a survival of an old English compound. + </p> + <p> + 21 495. thrids. Threads, as in the phrase, "threads the mazes of the + dance." + </p> + <p> + 21 498. Saturn, seated in a luckless place. A second reference to the + planet of his nativity and its unlucky position in heaven at the hour of + his birth. + </p> + <p> + 21 500. Mars and Venus in a quartil move. Mars and Venus are here the + planets. When their longitudes differ by 90° they move in a quartile. It + was regarded in astrology as an omen of ill. + </p> + <p> + 23 545. slumbering as he lay. As he lay slumbering. A favorite inversion + with Chaucer. + </p> + <p> + 23 547. Hermes. Lat. Mercury, son of Jupiter. One of his chief duties, to + act as a messenger of Jupiter to carry sleep and dreams to mortals. + </p> + <p> + 23 550. sleep-compelling rod. Hermes carried a staff, the caduceus, given + him by Apollo, about which two serpents were twined. Its touch induced + sleep. + </p> + <p> + 23 552. Argus. He had a hundred eyes and was sent by Juno to guard the cow + into which lo had been transformed. He was killed by Mercury at the + command of Jupiter, and Juno transferred his eyes to the tail of her + peacock. + </p> + <p> + 24 573. A labouring hind in show. In appearance a laboring peasant. + </p> + <p> + 24 590. Philostratus. In Chaucer written Philostrate, and so in + Shakspere's <i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, the characters of which + plainly followed Chaucer. + </p> + <h3> + BOOK II. + </h3> + <p> + 26 10. And May within the Twins received the sun. In May the sun is in the + sign of the zodiac known as Gemini, or the Twins. Dryden here copies a + favorite phrasing of Chaucer, though not used by him in this particular + instance. + </p> + <p> + 26 16. Notice the enjambment, i.e., the overflow of this verse into the + next. It very rarely occurs in Dryden's later poems. + </p> + <p> + 27 34. Style. Pen, from <i>stylus</i>. + </p> + <p> + 27 55. Graces. Three sisters, Aglaia (the brilliant), Euphrosyne + (cheerfulness), and Thalia (bloom of life). They were the daughters of + Jupiter and Aurora. + </p> + <p> + 27 58. The sultry tropic fears. At the end of May the sun, approaching the + summer solstice, gives the longest days; hence its slowness. + </p> + <p> + 28 78. roundelay. It is technically a lyric in which a phrase or idea is + continually repeated. + </p> + <p> + 28 84. Friday. Named from Frigga, a Teutonic goddess, identified with + Venus. This day of the week among the Latin races is still named from + Venus. Italian, <i>Venerdì</i>; French,<i>Vendredi</i>. + </p> + <p> + 28 93. Cadmus. He was the son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. His sister + Europa had been carried off by Jupiter and he suffered from the consequent + jealousy of Juno. While searching for his sister he founded Thebes, with + the aid of Minerva, and was its first king. The legend of Cadmus indicates + the introduction of written language from the East, the Theban city was. + Compare "<i>Ilium fuit</i>" of Virgil, Aeneid, Bk. II., 325. + </p> + <p> + 30 153. Our arms shall plead the titles of our love. We will make good our + right to love by strife in arms. + </p> + <p> + 31 165. pawn. Pledge,i.e., each has pledged his faith. + </p> + <p> + 31 182. hopes. Hopes for, syncope. + </p> + <p> + 32 196. foin. To thrust with a weapon, a term used in fencing. 32 228. + lively. Bright, like the living green of vegetation. + </p> + <p> + 32 329. the tuneful cry. Compare <i>Midsummer Night's Dream,</i> Act IV., + Sc. I. + </p> + <p> + 33 232. goddess of the silver bow. Diana, goddess of the chase,—her + symbol, the crescent moon; hence the silver bow. + </p> + <p> + 33 237. forth-right. Straight forward; an archaism. + </p> + <p> + 33 245. strook. Archaic for struck. + </p> + <p> + 33 258. listed field. A field properly arranged for a tournament. + </p> + <p> + 35 313. quire. Group. This is the proper spelling, not choir; see Bk. I., + v. 41. + </p> + <p> + 35 314. contended maid. The maid contended for. + </p> + <p> + 36 344, 347. In these verses Dryden follows Chaucer, but states the + thought more forcibly. He was undoubtedly glad of the chance to slap the + powers that were. + </p> + <p> + 38 400. share a single bed. Two lovers cannot marry the same woman. + </p> + <p> + 38 414. From out the bars. Beyond the barriers,i.e., out of the lists. + </p> + <p> + 38 415. recreant. Acknowledging defeat. + </p> + <p> + 39 445. degrees. With the seats raised in tiers. + </p> + <p> + 39 461. myrtle wand. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. + </p> + <p> + 39 465. Queen of Wight. Diana, because she was goddess of the moon. + </p> + <p> + 39 467. oratories. Places for prayer. + </p> + <p> + 40483. Sigils. Literally, a seal or sign; here an occult sign or mark in + astrology, another evidence of Dryden's leaning toward that so-called + science, for Chaucer makes no such statement here. + </p> + <p> + 40 498. Idalian mount. Idalium, a town in Cyprus sacred to Venus; here, as + often, confused with Mount Ida. + </p> + <p> + 40 498. Citheron. Cythera, not Citheron, is the island near which Venus + rose from the sea, and a famous seat of her worship. Cithaeron is a + mountain in Boeotia sacred to Zeus. + </p> + <p> + 41 505. Medea's charms. Medea, daughter of Aetes, king of Colchis, was a + famous sorceress of antiquity. She aided Jason to get the golden fleece, + and fled with him. Deserted by him, she subsequently became involved with + Theseus and Hercules, eventually going to Asia. From her sprung the Medes. + </p> + <p> + 41 505. Circean feasts. A mythical sorceress, who feasted mariners landed + on her shores, and by charmed drinks changed them to swine. Ulysses spent + a year with her, and frustrated her arts. + </p> + <p> + 41 515. bare below the breast. Bare from the shoulders to a point below + the breasts. + </p> + <p> + 41534. scurf. Scaly matter on the surface,—scum. + </p> + <p> + 42 536. knares. Knots on, a tree; an archaism. + </p> + <p> + 42 544. bent. A declivity or slope. + </p> + <p> + 42 558. tun. A huge cask for holding wine, ale, etc. + </p> + <p> + 43 590. overlaid. Lain upon by the nurse to smother it. + </p> + <p> + 44 604. Mars his ides. The Ides of March, the date of Caesar's + assassination. The month was named from the god. + </p> + <p> + 44 607. Antony, Infatuated with Cleopatra, he lost his empire. Dryden had + previously told the story in his best play,<i>All for Love</i>. + </p> + <p> + 44 614. geomantic. Pertaining to geomancy, the art of divining future + events by means of signs connected with the earth. The figure here + represents two constellations, Rubeus, which signifies Mars direct, + Puella, Mars retrograde. + </p> + <p> + 44 616. direct... retrograde. The motion of a planet is direct when it + seems to move from west to east in the zodiac, and retrograde when its + apparent motion is reversed. + </p> + <p> + 44 623. Calisto. Properly Callisto, one of Diana's nymphs. Jupiter loved + her and changed her to a bear to escape the notice of Juno; but the latter + discovered the ruse, and caused Diana to kill the bear. Thereupon Jupiter + transferred her to heaven as the constellation of Arctos, in which is the + pole-star. + </p> + <p> + 44 631. Peneian Daphne. Daughter of the river-god Peneus. Loved by Apollo + and pursued by him, she prayed for assistance, and was changed into a + laurel tree. Thenceforth the laurel became Apollo's favorite tree. + </p> + <p> + 44 634. Calydonian beast. A huge boar sent by Diana to devastate the + territory of Aeneus, king of Calydon in Atolia, because he had not paid + her due honor. Theseus, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Nestor, all the famous + heroes gathered to destroy the beast, and with them the swift-footed + maiden Atalanta. Her arrow gave the first wound. The story is exquisitely + told by Swinburne in Atalanta in Calydon. + </p> + <p> + 44 635. Aenides. Meleager, son of Aeneus, who actually killed the boar. He + loved Atalanta and gave to her the head and hide of the animal as a + trophy. Jealously attacked by his uncles, he slew them. At his birth, the + fates had prophesied his death when a certain brand upon the hearth should + have burned. Thereupon his mother plucked it from the fire, quenched it, + and put it away. Angered by the death of her brothers, she throws this + brand upon the fire. It is consumed, and Meleager dies. + </p> + <p> + 45 639. The Volscian queen. Camilla, an Amazon, allied with Turnus in his + strife with Aeneas in Italy. She was treacherously killed by Aruns, while + pursuing a fleeing enemy. As Aruns was stealthily withdrawing, he was + slain by an arrow, fired by one of Diana's nymphs. + </p> + <p> + 45 654. Lucina. The name given to Diana as one of the goddesses who + presides at childbirth. + </p> + <p> + 45 661, 662. Inserted by Dryden, a satirical reference to the wretched + Whig poets then in favor, and to his own removal from royal patronage. + </p> + <h3> + BOOK III. + </h3> + <p> + 47 28. juppon. A light coat worn over armor, reaching to mid-thigh and + finished in points at the bottom. + </p> + <p> + 47 31. Pruce. Prussia. + </p> + <p> + 47 35. jambeux. Armor for the legs, from the French <i>jambé</i>, leg. + </p> + <p> + 47 39. Lycurgus. King of Thrace; he persecuted Bacchus, and was made mad + by that god. In his madness he slew his son under the impression that he + was cutting down vines. The country now produced no fruit, and the + inhabitants carried the impious king to Mount Pangaeus, where he was torn + to pieces by horses. + </p> + <p> + 48 63. Emetrius. A creation of Chaucer's whom Dryden follows. Notice the + poet's unusual representation of an Indian prince with fair complexion and + yellow hair. + </p> + <p> + 48 88. Upon his fist he bore. It was customary in the time of Chaucer to + hunt with tame falcons, which were carried perched upon the wrist when not + after quarry. + </p> + <p> + 49 99. So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode. Bacchus, a son of + Jupiter, was the god of wine. His birth and up-bringing were attended with + dangers bred by the jealousy of Juno. When full grown, Juno drove him mad, + and in this state he journeyed over the earth. He spent several years in + India, introducing the vine and elements of civilization. It was on his + return that he was expelled from Thrace by Lycurgus. + </p> + <p> + 49 103. prime. Early morning, the first hour after sunrise. + </p> + <p> + 49 109. harbinger. One who provides or secures lodgings for another, from + the Old French herbegtsr, whence harbor. + </p> + <p> + 49 120. Phosphor. Light bringer, from phos and phero. + </p> + <p> + 49 124. preventing. With the literal significance of the word, coming + before, i.e., he rose before day. + </p> + <p> + 50 134. Thy month. May referred to as the month of Venus, since it is, in + the poets, particularly a season for love-making. + </p> + <p> + 50 145. gladder. Thou who makest glad. + </p> + <p> + 50 146. Increase. Offspring of Jove. + </p> + <p> + 50 147. Adonis. A beautiful youth, loved by Venus, with whom he spent + eight months of the year. When he was killed by a boar, so great was the + sorrow of the goddess, that the deities of the nether world allowed her to + possess him for half of each year. + </p> + <p> + 51 164. Notice the force of Palamon's request. He cares not so much for + glory of conquest as for the delights of possession. His prayer is + answered, for, though conquered, he eventually weds Emilia. + </p> + <p> + 51 168. your fifth orb. The heavens werel supposed to consist of + concentric hollow spheres called orbs, and the sun, moon, stars, and + planets moved in their respective orbs, the planet Venus in the fifth. + </p> + <p> + 51 169. clue. Thread. + </p> + <p> + 51 172. And let the Sisters cut below your line. The sisters are the three + Fates. Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis held it, and Atropos cut + it. Palamon is willing that the Fates end his life, if they will first + allow him to enjoy love. + </p> + <p> + 51 191. Cynthia. Another name for Diana, from Mount Cynthus, her + birthplace. + </p> + <p> + 51 193. Vests. Vestments, robes. + </p> + <p> + 52 200. Uncouth. Literally, unknown, hence strange. + </p> + <p> + 52 205. Well-meaners think no harm. Compare the famous epigram adopted by + the Order of the Garter: "<i>honi soit qui mal y pense</i>" (shamed be he + who thinks evil of it). This order was founded during Chaucer's life, and + this sentiment may have been in his mind. + </p> + <p> + 52 208. mastless oak. Oak leaves without acorns, i.e., without the fruit, + hence an appropriate garland for a maid. + </p> + <p> + 52 212. Statius. A Latin author who died 96 A.D. Among his works was an + heroic poem in twelve books, embodying the legends touching the expedition + of the Seven against Thebes. + </p> + <p> + 52 231. Niobe. She was the mother of seven sons and seven daughters, and + so thought herself superior to Latona, who had given birth to only two, + Apollo and Diana. To avenge their mother, they slew all of Niobe's + children with their darts. Hence the "devoted" children, i.e., devoted to + death. + </p> + <p> + 53 231. gust. The sense or pleasure of tasting, hence relish; more common + form, gusto. + </p> + <p> + 53 232. thy triple shape. Diana is often confused with Hecate, a most + mysterious divinity. Hecate is represented with three heads and three + bodies, and possessed the attributes of Luna in heaven, of Diana on earth, + and of Proserpina in the lower world. + </p> + <p> + 53 238. frowning stars. If the stars at her birth were such and so placed + that they boded ill, they might be said to frown. + </p> + <p> + 53 250-260. The omen foretells the event. One altar seems extinguished and + then relights when the other goes out entirely. So Palamon seems to fail, + but eventually wins Emilia after the death of Arcite. + </p> + <p> + 54 290. planetary hour. This was the fourth hour of the day. + </p> + <p> + 54 291. heptarchy. A rule by seven. It refers here to the seven great + gods, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Vulcan, Apollo, Mercury. + </p> + <p> + 55 297. Hyperborean. Beyond the North. Applied originally to a blessed + people who dwelt beyond the north wind. + </p> + <p> + 55 320. Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled. Vulcan, the husband of + Venus, once discovered improper relations between her and Mars, and he + entrapped the guilty pair in the meshes of an invisible net and exposed + them to the laughter of the gods. This passage would appeal to the taste + of Dryden's Restoration readers, and is developed with a light grace, + characteristic of the period. + </p> + <p> + 55 325-332. In these verses the poet brings out the character of Arcite, a + more mannish man than Palamon. + </p> + <p> + 56 355, 356. Arcite prays for victory; nothing else will satisfy. He + obtains his prayer, but loses Emily. + </p> + <p> + 57 389. trined. An astrological term, meaning that the planets Saturn and + Venus were distant from each other 120°, or one-third of the zodiac, a + benign aspect. + </p> + <p> + 57 390. with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined. Both Mars and Saturn were + in the sign of the zodiac, Capricorn. + </p> + <p> + 58 401. watery sign. The so-called watery signs of the zodiac were Cancer, + Scorpio, and Pisces. When Saturn is in one of these signs, look out for + shipwreck. + </p> + <p> + 58 402. earthy. The so-called earthy signs were Taurus, Virgo, and + Capricornus. When Saturn is in one of these signs, look out for the + dungeon. + </p> + <p> + 58 408, 409. Though these verses are taken from Chaucer, they fitted + Dryden's times and sentiment; for he had seen his own king, James II., + ousted from his throne and supplanted by William and Mary. He was not in + sympathy with the Revolution. + </p> + <p> + 58 410. housing in the lion's hateful sign. Saturn in the sign Leo was + regarded as baleful. + </p> + <p> + 58 411. This verse is Dryden's own, and contains satirical reference to + Whig disloyalty at the time of the Revolution of '88. + </p> + <p> + 58 418. pestilence. Both Chaucer and Dryden had experienced great plagues + in London, the Black Death in the fourteenth century and the Great Plague + of 1665. + </p> + <p> + 58 432. gladded. Made glad. + </p> + <p> + 59 452. morions with their plumy pride. A helmet with a crest of feathers. + </p> + <p> + 59 453. retinue. Here accented on the penult. + </p> + <p> + 59 459. palfrey. A small horse in contrast with the mighty war horse. + </p> + <p> + 59 463. clowns. The peasants, the common people. + </p> + <p> + 60 480. double-biting axe. Two-edged battle-ax. + </p> + <p> + 60 489. Armed cap-a-pe. From head to foot. From the old French, <i>de cap + a pie</i>. + </p> + <p> + 60 497. king-at-arms. The chief of the heralds, an important office in the + Middle Ages. + </p> + <p> + 61 512. The turney is allowed but one career. The two bands of knights + shall rush together on horseback but once. + </p> + <p> + 61 516. at mischief taken. Caught at a disadvantage. + </p> + <p> + 63 569. equipage. So well equipped. + </p> + <p> + 63 590. justling. An archaism for jostling. + </p> + <p> + 64 603. Hauberks. A part of mail armor, originally intended to protect + neck and shoulders; later it reached to the knees. + </p> + <p> + 65 669. the rightful Titan failed. The Titans were the six sons and six + daughters of Ccelus and Terra. One of them, Saturn, indignant at the + tyranny of his father, dethroned him with the others' aid. The Titans then + ruled in heaven with Saturn at their head. A prophecy to the effect that + one of his children would dethrone him caused him to swallow each one as + it was born; but Jupiter was concealed at his birth and grew to manhood. + He compelled Saturn to disgorge his brothers and sisters, and in company + with them waged a ten years' war against the Titans. They were overcome + and hurled to the depths below Tartarus, while Jupiter usurped the throne + of heaven. + </p> + <p> + 66 697, 698. A touch of light satire in Chaucer which Dryden repeats with + gusto, for it tallied well with the sentiments of his day. + </p> + <p> + 67 709. lanced a vein. The sovereign remedy in the olden time was + blood-letting. + </p> + <p> + 67 726. charms. They played an important part in medical practice, not + only in Chaucer's time, but later even than Dryden. + </p> + <p> + 68 750. leech's cares. Leech was a common name for doctor. + </p> + <p> + 68 755. breathing veins nor cupping. Two different methods of bleeding. To + breathe a vein was to open the vein directly. To cup was to apply the + cupping glass, which, being a partial vacuum, caused the flesh to puff up + in it, and then the lancet was used. + </p> + <p> + 68 772. against right. Arcite is said to have gained Emily against right, + because Palamon, having seen and loved her first, had priority of claim. + </p> + <p> + 72 877 Aegeus. According to the generally accepted legend, Aegeus, + Theseus' father, had died when Theseus returned from Crete, years before. + </p> + <p> + 72 889, 890. These verses are an insertion by Dryden, and are another + reference to the change of dynasty at the Revolution of 1688, when James + II. was dethroned, and William, Prince of Orange, succeeded him. + </p> + <p> + 72 898. conscious laund. Knowing lawn or glade, i.e., the spot that had + been familiar with their first encounter. Laund is, of course, an + archaism. + </p> + <p> + 72 905. Sere-wood. Modern form, searwood, wood dry enough to burn well. + </p> + <p> + 72 905. doddered oaks. Oaks covered with dodder, that is, with parasitic + plants, and therefore dead or dying. + </p> + <p> + 72 908. Vulcanian food. Food for fire, Vulcan being the god of fire. + </p> + <p> + 73 940. master-street. Main street of the town. + </p> + <p> + 74 953. Parthian bow. The Parthians were famous bowmen. + </p> + <p> + 74 955. fathom. A fathom is a measure of six feet. + </p> + <p> + 74 956. strowed. Archaism for strewn. + </p> + <p> + 75 998. wakes. A wake is, literally, an all-night watch by the body of the + dead, sometimes attended by unseemly revelry. Here it refers to the + celebration of funeral rites for Arcite. + </p> + <p> + 75 1007. Theseus held his parliament. Theseus is reputed to have + introduced constitutional government in Attica. + </p> + <p> + 76 1031. The principle of the indestructibility of matter, a result of + scientific investigation, which in Dryden's time was attracting much + attention. + </p> + <p> + 76 1039. suborn. To procure by indirect means. + </p> + <p> + 77 1076. vegetive. Growing, having the power of growth. + </p> + <p> + 78 nil. annoy. Annoyance. + </p> + <p> + 79 1114. while we live, to live. To live happily while life lasts. + </p> + <p> + 79 1144. Eros and Anteros. Both different names for the god of love, Eros + signifying direct, sensual love, and Anteros, return love. + </p> + <p> + 79 1146. long-attending Hymen. Hymen, the god of marriage, had waited long + to consummate this match. + </p> + <p> + 80 1154, 1155. This couplet is original with Dryden, and forms a + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Palamon and Arcite, by John Dryden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALAMON AND ARCITE *** + +***** This file should be named 7490-h.htm or 7490-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/9/7490/ + + +Text file produced by Ted Garvin, Charles Franks and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Palamon and Arcite + +Author: John Dryden + +Editor: George E. Eliot + + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7490] +This file was first posted on May 10, 2003 +Last Updated: May 10, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALAMON AND ARCITE *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Charles Franks and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + + + + + + + + +DRYDEN'S PALAMON AND ARCITE + + +Edited With Introduction And Notes By George E. Eliot, A.M. +English Master In The Morgan School + + +To + +Henry A. Beers + +Professor Of English Literature In Yale University + +Who First Aroused My Interest In Dryden + +And Directed My Study Of His Works + +This Volume Is Respectfully Inscribed + + + + +PREFACE. + +To edit an English classic for study in secondary schools is difficult. +The lack of anything like uniformity in the type of examination required +by the colleges and universities complicates treatment. Not only do two +distinct institutions differ in the scope and character of their +questions, but the same university varies its demands from year to year. +The only safe course to pursue is, therefore, a generally comprehensive +one. But here, again, we are hampered by limited space, and are forced +to content ourselves with a bare outline, which the individual +instructor can fill in as much or as little as he pleases. + +The ignorance of most of our classical students in regard to the history +of English literature is appalling; and yet it is impossible properly to +study a given work of a given author without some knowledge of the +background against which that particular writer stands. I have, +therefore, sketched the politics, society, and literature of the age in +which Dryden lived, and during which he gave to the world his _Palamon +and Arcite_. In the critical comments of the introduction I have +contented myself with little more than hints. That particular line of +study, whether it concerns the poet's style, his verse forms, or the +possession of the divine instinct itself, can be much more +satisfactorily developed by the instructor, as the student's knowledge +of the poem grows. + +It is certainly a subject for congratulation that so many youth will be +introduced, through the medium of Dryden's crisp and vigorous verse, to +one of the tales of Chaucer. May it now, as in his own century, +accomplish the poet's desire, and awaken in them appreciative admiration +for the old bard, the best story-teller in the English language. + +G. E. E. CLINTON, CONN., July 26, 1897. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + + +THE BACKGROUND. + + +The fifty years of Dryden's literary production just fill the last half +of the seventeenth century. It was a period bristling with violent +political and religious prejudices, provocative of strife that amounted +to revolution. Its social life ran the gamut from the severity of the +Commonwealth Puritan to the unbridled debauchery of the Restoration +Courtier. In literature it experienced a remarkable transformation in +poetry, and developed modern prose, watched the production of the +greatest English epics, smarted under the lash of the greatest English +satires, blushed at the brilliant wit of unspeakable comedies, and +applauded the beginnings of English criticism. + +When the period began, England was a Commonwealth. Charles I., by +obstinate insistence upon absolutism, by fickleness and faithlessness, +had increased and strengthened his enemies. Parliament had seized the +reins of government in 1642, had completely established its authority at +Naseby in 1645, and had beheaded the king in front of his own palace in +1649. The army had accomplished these results, and the army proposed to +enjoy the reward. Cromwell, the idolized commander of the Ironsides, was +placed at the head of the new-formed state with the title of Lord +Protector; and for five years he ruled England, as she had been ruled by +no sovereign since Elizabeth. He suppressed Parliamentary dissensions +and royalist uprisings, humbled the Dutch, took vengeance on the +Spaniard, and made England indisputably mistress of the ocean. He was +succeeded, at his death in 1658, by his son Richard; but the father's +strong instinct for government had not been inherited by the son. The +nation, homesick for monarchy, was tiring of dissension and bickering, +and by the Restoration of 1660 the son of Charles I became Charles II of +England. + +Scarcely had the demonstrations of joy at the Restoration subsided when +London was visited by the devouring plague of 1665. All who could fled +from the stricken city where thousands died in a day. In 1666 came the +great fire which swept from the Tower to the Temple; but, while it +destroyed a vast deal of property, it prevented by its violent +purification a recurrence of the plague, and made possible the +rebuilding of the city with great sanitary and architectural +improvements. + +Charles possessed some of the virtues of the Stuarts and most of their +faults. His arbitrary irresponsibility shook the confidence of the +nation in his sincerity. Two parties, the Whigs and the Tories, came +into being, and party spirit and party strife ran high. The question at +issue was chiefly one of religion. The rank and file of Protestant +England was determined against the revival of Romanism, which a +continuation of the Stuart line seemed to threaten. Charles was a +Protestant only from expediency, and on his deathbed accepted the Roman +Catholic faith; his brother James, Duke of York, the heir apparent, was +a professed Romanist. + +Such an outlook incited the Whigs, under the leadership of Shaftesbury, +to support the claims of Charles' eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of +Monmouth, who, on the death of his father in 1685, landed in England; +but the promised uprising was scarcely more than a rabble of peasantry, +and was easily suppressed. Then came the vengeance of James, as foolish +as it was tyrannical. Judge Jeffries and his bloody assizes sent scores +of Protestants to the block or to the gallows, till England would endure +no more. William, Prince of Orange, who had married Mary, the eldest +daughter of James, was invited to accept the English crown. He landed at +Torbay, was joined by Churchill, the commander of the king's forces, +and, on the precipitate flight of James, mounted the throne of England. +This event stands in history as the Protestant Revolution of 1688. + +During William's reign, which terminated in 1702, Stuart uprisings were +successfully suppressed, English liberties were guaranteed by the famous +Bill of Rights, Protestant succession was assured, and liberal +toleration was extended to the various dissenting sects. + +Society had passed through quite as great variations as had politics +during this half-century. The roistering Cavalier of the first Charles, +with his flowing locks and plumed hat, with his maypoles and morrice +dances, with his stage plays and bear-baitings, with his carousals and +gallantries, had given way to the Puritan Roundhead. It was a serious, +sober-minded England in which the youth Dryden found himself. If the +Puritan differed from the Cavalier in political principles, they were +even more diametrically opposed in mode of life. An Act of Parliament +closed the theaters in 1642. Amusements of all kinds were frowned upon +as frivolous, and many were suppressed by law. The old English feasts at +Michaelmas, Christmas, Twelfth Night, and Candlemas were regarded as +relics of popery and were condemned. The Puritan took his religion +seriously, so seriously that it overpowered him. The energy and fervor +of his religious life were illustrated in the work performed by +Cromwell's chaplain, John Howe, on any one of the countless fast days. +"He began with his flock at nine in the morning, prayed during a quarter +of an hour for blessing upon the day's work, then read and explained a +chapter for three-quarters of an hour, then prayed for an hour, preached +for an hour, and prayed again for a half an hour, then retired for a +quarter of an hour's refreshment--the people singing all the +while--returned to his pulpit, prayed for another hour, preached for +another hour, and finished at four P.M." + +At the Restoration the pendulum swung back again. From the strained +morality of the Puritans there was a sudden leap to the most extravagant +license and the grossest immorality, with the king and the court in the +van. The theaters were thrown wide open, women for the first time went +upon the stage, and they acted in plays whose moral tone is so low that +they cannot now be presented on the stage or read in the drawing-room. +Of course they voiced the social conditions of the time. Marriage ties +were lightly regarded; no gallant but boasted his amours. Revelry ran +riot; drunkenness became a habit and gambling a craze. The court +scintillated with brilliant wits, conscienceless libertines, and +scoffing atheists. It was an age of debauchery and disbelief. + +The splendor of this life sometimes dazzles, the lack of conveniences +appalls. The post left London once a week. A journey to the country must +be made in your own lumbering carriage, or on the snail-slow stagecoach +over miserable roads, beset with highwaymen. The narrow, ill-lighted +streets, even of London, could not be traversed safely at night; and +ladies, borne to routs and levees in their sedan chairs, were lighted by +link-boys, and were carried by stalwart, broad-shouldered bearers who +could wield well the staves in a street fight. Such were the conditions +of life and society which Dryden found in the last fifty years of the +seventeenth century. + +Strong as were the contrasts in politics and manners during Dryden's +lifetime, they were paralleled by contrasts in literature no less +marked. Dryden was born in 1631; he died in 1700. In the year of his +birth died John Donne, the father of the Metaphysical bards, or +Marinists; in the year of his death was born James Thomson, who was to +give the first real start to the Romantic movement; while between these +two dates lies the period devoted to the development of French +Classicism in English literature. + +At Dryden's birth Ben Jonson was the only one of the great Elizabethan +dramatists still living, and of the lesser stars in the same galaxy, +Chapman, Massinger, Ford, Webster, and Heywood all died during his +boyhood and youth, while Shirley, the last of his line, lingered till +1667. Of the older writers in prose, Selden alone remained; but as +Dryden grew to manhood, he had at hand, fresh from the printers, the +whole wealth of Commonwealth prose, still somewhat clumsy with Latinism +or tainted with Euphuism, but working steadily toward that simple +strength and graceful fluency with which he was himself to mark the +beginning of modern English prose. + +Clarendon, with his magnificently involved style, began his famous +_History of the Great Rebellion_ in 1641. Ten years later Hobbes +published the _Leviathan_, a sketch of an ideal commonwealth. Baxter, +with his _Saints' Everlasting Rest_ sent a book of religious consolation +into every household. In 1642 Dr. Thomas Browne, with the simplicity of +a child and a quaintness that fascinates, published his _Religio +Medici_; and in 1653 dear old simple-hearted Isaak Walton told us in his +_Compleat Angler_ how to catch, dress, and cook fish. Thomas Fuller, +born a score or more of years before Dryden, in the same town, +Aldwinkle, published in 1642 his _Holy and Profane State_, a collection +of brief and brisk character sketches, which come nearer modern prose +than anything of that time; while for inspired thought and purity of +diction the _Holy Living_, 1650, and the _Holy Dying_, 1651, of Jeremy +Taylor, a gifted young divine, rank preeminent in the prose of the +Commonwealth. + +But without question the ablest prose of the period came from the pen of +Cromwell's Latin Secretary of State, John Milton. Milton stands in his +own time a peculiarly isolated figure. We never in thought associate him +with his contemporaries. Dryden had become the leading literary figure +in London before Milton wrote his great epic; yet, were it not for +definite chronology, we should scarcely realize that they worked in the +same century. While, therefore, no sketch of seventeenth-century +literature can exclude Milton, he must be taken by himself, without +relation to the development, forms, and spirit of his age, and must be +regarded, rather, as a late-born Elizabethan. + +When Dryden was born, Milton at twenty-three was just completing his +seven years at Cambridge, and as the younger poet grew through boyhood, +the elder was enriching English verse with his _Juvenilia_. Then came +the twenty years of strife. As Secretary of the Commonwealth, he threw +himself into controversial prose. His _Iconoclast_, the _Divorce_ +pamphlets, the _Smectymnuus_ tracts, and the _Areopagitica_ date from +this period. A strong partisan of the Commonwealth, he was in emphatic +disfavor at the Restoration. Blind and in hiding, deserted by one-time +friends, out of sympathy with his age, he fulfilled the promise of his +youth: he turned again to poetry; and in _Paradise Lost_, _Paradise +Regained_, and _Samson Agonistes_ he has left us "something so written +that the world shall not willingly let it die." + +I have said that Milton's poetry differed distinctly from the poetry of +his age. The verse that Dryden was reading as a schoolboy was quite +other than _L'Allegro_ and _Lycidas_. In the closing years of the +preceding century, John Donne had traveled in Italy. There the poet +Marino was developing fantastic eccentricities in verse. Donne under +similar influences adopted similar methods. + +To seize upon the quaintest possible thought and then to express it in +as quaint a manner as possible became the chief aim of English poets +during the first three-quarters of the seventeenth century. Donne had +encountered trouble in obtaining his wife from her father. Finding one +morning a flea that had feasted during the night on his wife and +himself, he was overcome by its poetic possibilities, and wrote: + + + "This flea is you and I, and this + Our marriage bed and temple is; + Tho' parents frown, and you, we're met + And cloister'd in these living walls of jet." + + +To strain after conceits, to strive for quaintness of thought and +expression, was the striking characteristic of all the poets of the +generation, to whom Dr. Johnson gave the title Metaphysical, and who are +now known as the Marinists. There were Quarles, with his Dutch +_Emblems_; Vaughan, Sandys, Crashaw, and pure-souled George Herbert, +with his _Temple_. There were Carew, with the _Rapture_; Wither and his +"Shall I wasting in despair"; the two dashing Cavaliers Suckling and +Lovelace, the latter the only man who ever received an M.A. for his +personal beauty. There was Herrick, the dispossessed Devonshire rector, +with _Hesperides_ and _Noble Numbers_, freer than were the others from +the beauty-marring conceits of the time. There, too, were to be found +the gallant love-maker Waller, Cowley, the queen's secretary during her +exile, and Marvell, Milton's assistant Secretary of State. But these +three men were to pledge allegiance to a new sovereignty in English +verse. + +In the civil strife, Waller had at first sided with Parliament, had +later engaged in a plot against it, and after a year's imprisonment was +exiled to France. At this time the Academy, organized to introduce form +and method in the French language and literature, held full sway. +Malherbe was inculcating its principles, Corneille and Moliere were +practicing its tenets in their plays, and Boileau was following its +rules in his satires, when Waller and his associates came in contact +with this influence. The tendency was distinctly toward formality and +conventionality. Surfeited with the eccentricities and far-fetched +conceits of the Marinists, the exiled Englishmen welcomed the change; +they espoused the French principles; and when at the Restoration they +returned to England with their king, whose taste had been trained in the +same school, they began at once to formalize and conventionalize English +poetry. The writers of the past, even the greatest writers of the past, +were regarded as men of genius, but without art; and English poetry was +thenceforth, in Dryden's own words, to start with Waller. + +Under the newly adopted canons of French taste, narrative and didactic +verse, or satire, took first place. Blank verse was tabooed as too +prose-like; so, too, were the enjambed rhymes. A succession of rhymed +pentameter couplets, with the sense complete in each couplet, was set +forth as the proper vehicle for poetry; and this unenjambed distich +fettered English verse for three-quarters of a century. In the drama the +characters must be noble, the language dignified; the metrical form must +be the rhymed couplet, and the unities of time, place, and action must +be observed. + +Such, in brief, were the principles of French Classicism as applied to +English poetry, principles of which Dryden was the first great exponent, +and which Pope in the next generation carried to absolute perfection. +Waller, Marvell, and Cowley all tried their pens in the new method, +Cowley with least success; and they were the poets in vogue when Dryden +himself first attracted attention. Denham quite caught the favor of the +critics with his mild conventionalities; the Earl of Roscommon delighted +them with his rhymed _Essay on Translated Verse_; the brilliant court +wits, Rochester, Dorset, and Sedley, who were writing for pleasure and +not for publication, still clung to the frivolous lyric; but the most-read +and worst-treated poet of the Restoration was Butler. He published +his _Hudibras_, a sharp satire on the extreme Puritans, in 1663. Every +one read the book, laughed uproariously, and left the author to starve +in a garret. Of Dryden's contemporaries in prose, there were Sir William +Temple, later the patron of Swift, John Locke who contributed to +philosophy his _Essay Concerning the Human Understanding_, the two +diarists Evelyn and Pepys, and the critics Rymer and Langbaine; there +was Isaac Newton, who expounded in his _Principia_, 1687, the laws of +gravitation; and there was the preaching tinker, who, confined in +Bedford jail, gave to the world in 1678 one of its greatest allegories, +_Pilgrim's Progress_. + +Dryden was nearly thirty before the production of the drama was resumed +in England. Parliament had closed the theaters in 1642, and that was an +extinguisher of dramatic genius. Davenant had vainly tried to elude the +law, and finally succeeded in evading it by setting his _Siege of +Rhodes_ to music, and producing the first English opera. At the +Restoration, when the theaters were reopened, the dramas then produced +reflected most vividly the looseness and immorality of the times. Their +worst feature was that "they possessed not wit enough to keep the mass +of moral putrefaction sweet." + +Davenant was prolific, Crowne wallowed in tragedy, Tate remodeled +Shakspere; so did Shadwell, who was later to measure swords with Dryden, +and receive for his rashness an unmerciful castigation. But by all odds +the strongest name in tragedy was Thomas Otway, who smacks of true +Elizabethan genius in the _Orphan_ and _Venice Preserved_. In comedy we +receive the brilliant work of Etheridge, the vigor of Wycherley, and, as +the century drew near its close, the dashing wit of Congreve, Vanbrugh, +and Farquhar. This burst of brilliancy, in which the Restoration drama +closes, was the prelude to the Augustan Age of Queen Anne and the first +Georges, the period wherein flourished that group of self-satisfied, +exceptionally clever, ultra-classical wits who added a peculiar zest and +charm to our literature. As Dryden grew to old age, these younger men +were already beginning to make themselves heard, though none had done +great work. In poetry there were Prior, Gay, and Pope, while in prose we +find names that stand high in the roll of fame,--the story-teller Defoe, +the bitter Swift, the rollicking Dick Steele, and delightful Addison. + +This is the background in politics, society, and letters on which the +life of Dryden was laid during the last half of the seventeenth century. +There were conditions in his environment which materially modified his +life and affected his literary form, and without a knowledge of these +conditions no study of the man or his works can be effective or +satisfactory. Dryden was preeminently a man of his times. + + + + +LIFE OF DRYDEN. + + +John Dryden was born at the vicarage of Aldwinkle, All Saints, in +Northamptonshire, August 9, 1631. His father, Erasmus Dryden, was the +third son of Sir Erasmus Dryden of Cannons Ashby. The estate descended +to Dryden's uncle, John, and is still in the family. His mother was Mary +Pickering. Both the Drydens and Pickerings were Puritans, and were +ranged on the side of Parliament in its struggle with Charles I. As a +boy Dryden received his elementary education at Tichmarsh, and went +thence to Westminster School, where he studied under the famous Dr. +Busby. Here he first appeared in print with an elegiac poem on the death +of a schoolfellow, Lord Hastings. It possesses the peculiarities of the +extreme Marinists. The boy had died from smallpox, and Dryden writes: + + +"Each little pimple had a tear in it To wail the fault its rising did +commit." + + +He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, May 18, 1650, took his B.A. in +1654, and then, though he received no fellowship, lingered at the +university for three years. Tradition tells us that he had no fondness +for his Alma Mater, and certainly his verse contains compliments only +for Oxford. + +His father had died in 1654 and had bequeathed him a small estate. When, +in 1657, he finally left the university, he attached himself to his +uncle, Sir Gilbert Pickering, a general of the Commonwealth. In 1658 he +wrote _Heroic Stanzas on Cromwell's Death;_ but shortly thereafter he +went to London, threw himself into the life of literary Bohemia, and at +the Restoration, in 1660, wrote his _Astroea Redux_, as enthusiastically +as the veriest royalist of them all. This sudden transformation of the +eulogist of Cromwell to the panegyrist of Charles won for Dryden in some +quarters the name of a political turncoat; but such criticism was +unjust. He was by birth and early training a Puritan; add to this a +poet's admiration for a truly great character, and the lines on Cromwell +are explained; but during his London life he rubbed elbows with the +world, early prejudices vanished, his true nature asserted itself, and +it was John Dryden himself, not merely the son of his father, who +celebrated Charles' return. + +On December 1, 1663, he married Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter +of the Earl of Berkshire, and the sister of a literary intimate. +Tradition has pronounced the marriage an unhappy one, but facts do not +bear out tradition. He nowhere referred other than affectionately to his +wife, and always displayed a father's warm affection for his sons, John, +Charles, and Erasmus. Lady Elizabeth outlived her husband and eventually +died insane. + +During the great plague in London, 1665, Dryden fled with his wife to +Charleton. He lived there for two years, and during that time wrote +three productions that illustrate the three departments of literature to +which he devoted himself: _Annus Mirabilis_, a narrative and descriptive +poem on the fire of 1666 and the sea fight with the Dutch, the _Essay on +Dramatic Poesy_, his first attempt at literary criticism in prose, and +the _Maiden Queen_, a drama. In _Annus Mirabilis_ we find the best work +yet done by him. Marinist quaintness still clings here and there, and he +has temporarily deserted the classical distich for a quatrain stanza; +but here, for the first time, we taste the Dryden of the _Satires_ and +the _Fables_. His _Essay on Dramatic Poesy_ started modern prose. +Hitherto English prose had suffered from long sentences, from involved +sentences, and from clumsy Latinisms or too bald vernacular. Dryden +happily united simplicity with grace, and gave us plain, straightforward +sentences, musically arranged in well-ordered periods. This was the +vehicle in which he introduced literary criticism, and he continued it +in prefaces to most of his plays and subsequent poems. + +At this same time he not only discussed the drama, but indulged in its +production; and for a score of years from the early sixties he devoted +himself almost exclusively to the stage. It was the most popular and the +most profitable mode of expression. He began with a comedy, the _Wild +Gallant_, in 1662. It was a poor play and was incontinently condemned. +He then developed a curious series of plays, of which the _Indian +Emperor_, the _Conquest of Grenada_, and _Aurengzebe_ are examples. He +professedly followed French methods, observed the unities, and used the +rhymed couplet. But they were not French; they were a nondescript +incubation by Dryden himself, and were called heroic dramas. They were +ridiculed in the Duke of Buckingham's farce, the _Rehearsal_; but their +popularity was scarcely impaired. + +In 1678 Dryden showed a return to common sense and to blank verse in +_All for Love_, and, though it necessarily suffers from its comparison +with the original, Shakspere's _Antony and Cleopatra_, it nevertheless +possesses enough dramatic power to make it his best play. He had +preceded this by rewriting Milton's _Paradise Lost_ as an opera, in the +_State of Innocence_, and he followed it in 1681 with perhaps his best +comedy, the _Spanish Friar_. + +Dryden was now far the most prominent man of letters in London. In 1670 +he had been appointed Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal with a +salary of two hundred pounds and a butt of sack. His connection with the +stage had been a decided financial success, and he was in receipt of an +income of about seven hundred pounds, which at modern values would +approximate $15,000. His house on Gerard Street, Soho, backed upon +Leicester's gardens. There he spent his days in writing, but the evening +found him at Will's Coffee House. In this famous resort of the wits and +writers of the day the literary dictator of his generation held his +court. Seated in his particular armchair, on the balcony in summer, by +the fire in winter, he discoursed on topics current in the literary +world, pronounced his verdict of praise or condemnation, and woe to the +unfortunate upon whom the latter fell. A week before Christmas, in 1679, +as Dryden was walking home from an evening of this sort, he was waylaid +by masked ruffians in Rose Alley and was beaten to unconsciousness. The +attack was supposed to have been incited by Rochester, who smarted under +an anonymous satire mistakenly attributed to Dryden. + +Though wrongly accused of this particular satire, it was not long before +he did turn his attention to that department of verse. It was the time +of the restless dissent of the Whigs from the succession of James; and +in 1681 Dryden launched _Absalom and Achitophel_, one of the most +brilliant satires in our language, against Shaftesbury and his +adherents, who were inciting Monmouth to revolt. He found an admirable +parallel in Absalom's revolt from his father David, and he sustained the +comparison. The Scriptural names concealed living characters, and +Shaftesbury masked as Achitophel, the evil counsellor, and Buckingham as +Zimri. Feeling ran high. Shaftesbury was arrested and tried, but was +acquitted, and his friends struck off a medal in commemoration. In 1682, +therefore, came Dryden's second satire, the _Medal_. These two political +satires called forth in the fevered state of the times a host of +replies, two of the most scurrilous from the pens of Shadwell and +Settle. Of these two poor Whigs the first was drawn and quartered in +_MacFlecnoe_, while the two were yoked for castigation in Part II. of +_Absalom and Achitophel_, which appeared in 1682. Dryden possessed +preeminently the faculty for satire. He did not devote himself +exclusively to an abstract treatment, nor, like Pope, to bitter +personalities; he blends and combines the two methods most effectively. +Every one of his brisk, nervous couplets carries a sting; every distich +is a sound box on the ear. + +We reach now a most interesting period in Dryden's career and one that +has provoked much controversy. In 1681 he published a long argument in +verse, entitled _Religio Laici_ (the Religion of a Layman), in which he +states his religious faith and his adherence to the Church of England. +When King James came to the throne in 1685 he made an immediate attempt +to establish the Roman Catholic faith; and now Dryden, too, turned +Romanist, and in 1687 supported his new faith in the long poetical +allegory, the _Hind and the Panther_. Of course his enemies cried +turncoat; and it certainly looked like it. Dryden was well into manhood +before the religious instinct stirred in him, and then, once waking, he +naturally walked in the beaten track. But these instincts, though roused +late, possessed the poet's impetuosity; and it was merely a natural +intensifying of the same impulse that had brought him into the Church of +England, which carried him to a more pronounced religious manifestation, +and landed him in the Church of Rome. His sincerity is certainly backed +by his acts, for when James had fled, and the staunch Protestants +William and Mary held the throne, he absolutely refused to recant, and +sacrificed his positions and emoluments. He was stripped of his royal +offices and pensions, and, bitter humiliation, the laurel, torn from his +brow, was placed on the head of that scorned jangler in verse, Shadwell. + + +Deprived now of royal patronage and pensions, Dryden turned again to the +stage, his old-time purse-filler; and he produced two of his best plays, +_Don Sebastian_ and _Amphitryon_. The rest of his life, however, was to +be spent, not with the drama, but in translation and paraphrase. Since +1684 he had several times published _Miscellanies_, collections of verse +in which had appeared fragments of translations. With that indefatigable +energy which characterized him, he now devoted himself to sustained +effort. In 1693 he published a translation of _Juvenal_, and in the same +year began his translation of _Virgil_, which was published in 1697. The +work was sold by subscription, and the poet was fairly well paid. +Dryden's translations are by no means exact; but he caught the spirit of +his poet, and carried something of it into his own effective verse. + +Dryden was not great in original work, but he was particularly happy in +adaptation; and so it happened that his best play, _All for Love_, was +modeled on Shakspere's _Antony and Cleopatra_, and his best poem, +_Palamon and Arcite_, was a paraphrase of the _Knight's Tale_ of +Chaucer. Contrary to the general taste of his age, he had long felt and +often expressed great admiration for the fourteenth-century poet. His +work on Ovid had first turned his thought to Chaucer, he tells us, and +by association he linked with him Boccaccio. As his life drew near its +close he turned to those famous old story-tellers, and in the _Fables_ +gave us paraphrases in verse of eight of their most delightful tales, +with translations from Homer and Ovid, a verse letter to his kinsman +John Driden, his second _St. Cedlia's Ode_, entitled _Alexander's +Feast_, and an _Epitaph_. + +The _Fables_ were published in 1700. They were his last work. Friends of +the poet, and they were legion, busied themselves at the beginning of +that year in the arrangement of an elaborate benefit performance for him +at the Duke's Theater; but Dryden did not live to enjoy the compliment. +He suffered severely from gout; a lack of proper treatment induced +mortification, which spread rapidly, and in the early morning of the +first of May, 1700, he died. + +He had been the literary figurehead of his generation, and the elaborate +pomp of his funeral attested his great popularity. His body lay in state +for several days and then with a great procession was borne, on the 13th +of May, to the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. The last years of his +life had been spent in fond study of the work of Chaucer, and so it +happened that just three hundred years after the death of elder bard +Dryden was laid to rest by the side of his great master. + + + + +PALAMON AND ARCITE + + +The _Fables_, in which this poem appears, were published in 1700. The +word fable as here used by Dryden holds its original meaning of story or +tale. Besides the _Palamon and Arcite_, he paraphrased from Chaucer the +_Cock and the Fox_, the _Flower and the Leaf_, the _Wife of Bath's +Tale_, the _Character of the Good Parson_. From Boccaccio he gave us +_Sigismonda and Guiscardo, Theodore and Honoria_, and _Cymon and +Iphigenia_, while he completed the volume with the first book of the +_Iliad_, certain of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, the _Epistle to John Driden, +Alexander's Feast_, and an _Epitaph_. The _Fables_ were dedicated to the +Duke of Ormond, whose father and grandfather Dryden had previously +honored in a prose epistle, full of the rather excessive compliment then +in vogue. _Palamon and Arcite_ is itself preceded by a dedication in +verse to the Duchess of Ormond. In the graceful flattery of this +inscription Dryden excelled himself, and he was easily grand master of +the art in that age of superlative gallantry. The Duke acknowledged the +compliment by a gift of five hundred pounds. The preface to the volume +is one of Dryden's best efforts in prose. It is mainly concerned with +critical comment on Chaucer and Boccaccio; and, though it lacks the +accuracy of modern scholarship, it is full of a keen appreciation of his +great forerunners. + +The work of Dryden in _Palamon and Arcite_ may seem to us superfluous, +for a well-educated man in the nineteenth century is familiar with his +Chaucer in the original; but in the sixteenth century our early poets +were regarded as little better than barbarians, and their language was +quite unintelligible. It was, therefore, a distinct addition to the +literature of his age when he rescued from oblivion the _Knight's Tale_, +the first of the _Canterbury Tales_, and gave it to his world as +_Palamon and Arcite_. + +Here, as in his translations, Dryden catches the spirit of his original +and follows it; but he does not track slavishly in its footprints. In +this particular poem he follows his leader more closely than in some of +his other paraphrases, and the three books in which he divides his +_Palamon and Arcite_ scarcely exceed in length the original _Knight's +Tale_. The tendency toward diffuse expansion, an excess of diluting +epithets, which became a feature of eighteenth-century poetry, Dryden +has sensibly shunned, and has stuck close to the brisk narrative and +pithy descriptions of Chaucer. If the subject in hand be concrete +description, as in the Temple of Mars, Dryden is at his best, and +surpasses his original; but if the abstract enters, as in the +portraiture on the walls, he expands, and when he expands he weakens. To +illustrate: + + + "The smiler with the knif under the cloke" + + +has lost force when Dryden stretches it into five verses: + + + "Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer; + Soft smiling, and demurely looking down, + But hid the dagger underneath the gown: + The assassinating wife, the household fiend, + And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend." + + +The anachronisms in the poem are Chaucer's. When he put this story of +Greek love and jealousy and strife into the mouth of his Knight, he was +living in the golden age of chivalry; and he simply transferred its +setting to this chivalrous story of ancient Greece. The arms, the lists, +the combat, the whole environment are those of the England of Edward +III, not the Athens of Theseus. Dryden has left this unchanged, +realizing the charm of its mediaeval simplicity. As Dryden gives it to +us the poem is an example of narrative verse, brisk in its movement, +dramatic in its action, and interspersed with descriptive passages that +stimulate the imagination and satisfy the sense. + +Coming as it did in the last years of his life, the poem found him with +his vocabulary fully developed and his versification perfected; and +these are points eminently essential in narrative verse. When Dryden +began his literary career, he had but just left the university, and his +speech smacked somewhat of the pedantry of the classical scholar of the +times. Then came the Restoration with its worship of French phrase and +its liberal importation. His easy-going life as a Bohemian in the early +sixties strengthened his vernacular, and his association with the wits +at Will's Coffee House developed his literary English. A happy blending +of all these elements, governed by his strong common sense, gave him at +maturity a vocabulary not only of great scope, but of tremendous energy +and vitality. + +At the time of the production of _Palamon and Arcite_ Dryden had, by +long practice, become an absolute master of the verse he used. As we +have seen, his early work was impregnated with the peculiarities of the +Marinists; and even after the ascendency of French taste at the +Restoration he still dallied with the stanza, and was not free from +conceits. But his work in the heroic drama and in satire had determined +his verse form and developed his ability in its use. In this poem, as in +the bulk of his work, he employs the unenjambed pentameter distich; that +is, a couplet with five accented syllables in each verse and with the +sense terminating with the couplet. Dryden's mastery of this couplet was +marvelous. He did not attain to the perfect polish of Pope a score of +years later, but he possessed more vitality; and to this strength must +be added a fluent grace and a ready sequence which increased the beauty +of the measure and gave to it a nervous energy of movement. The great +danger that attends the use of the distich is monotony; but Dryden +avoided this. By a constant variation of cadence, he threw the natural +pause now near the start, now near the close, and now in the midst of +his verse, and in this way developed a rhythm that never wearies the ear +with monotonous recurrence. He employed for this same purpose the +hemistich or half-verse, the triplet or three consecutive verses with +the same rhyme, and the Alexandrine with its six accents and its +consequent well-rounded fullness. + +So much for _Palamon and Arcite_. First put into English by the best +story-teller in our literature, it was retold at the close of the +seventeenth century by the greatest poet of his generation, one of whose +chief claims to greatness lies in his marvelous ability for adaptation +and paraphrase. + + + + +DRYDEN'S PLACE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. + + +It remains to indicate briefly Dryden's position in English literature. +To the critics of his own time he was without question the greatest man +of letters in his generation, and so he undeniably was after the death +of Milton. We are not ready to say with Dr. Johnson that "he found +English of brick and left it of marble," for there was much marble +before Dryden was dreamed of, and his own work is not entirely devoid of +brick; but that Dryden rendered to English services of inestimable value +is not to be questioned. For forty years the great aim of his life was, +as he tells us himself, to improve the English language and English +poetry, and by constant and tireless effort in a mass of production of +antipodal types he accomplished his object. He enriched and extended our +vocabulary, he modulated our meters, he developed new forms, and he +purified and invigorated style. + +There are a few poets in our literature who are better than Dryden; +there are a great many who are worse; but there has been none who worked +more constantly and more conscientiously for its improvement. Mr. +Saintsbury has admirably summarized the situation: "He is not our +greatest poet; far from it. But there is one point in which the +superlative may safely be applied to him. Considering what he started +with, what he accomplished, and what advantages he left to his +successors, he must be pronounced, without exception, the greatest +craftsman in English Letters." + + + + +REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY + + +HISTORY: Green, _History of the English People_, vols. iii, iv; +Knight, _Popular History of England_, vols. iii, iv, v; Gardiner, +_The First Two Stuarts, and the Puritan Revolution_; Hale, _Fall +of the Stuarts, and Western Europe_; Green, _Short History of +the English People_; Ransome, _A Short History of England_; +Montgomery, _English History_. + +BIOGRAPHY: Lives of Dryden in the editions of his Works by Scott, +Malone, Christie; Johnson, _Dryden (Lives of the Poets)_; +Saintsbury, _Dryden (English Men of Letters)_. + +CRITICISM: Mitchell, _English Lands, Letters, and Kings +(Elizabeth to Anne)_; Gosse, _From Shakespeare to Pope_; +Lowell, _Dryden (Among my Books)_; Garnett, _The Age of Dryden_; +Masson, _Dryden and the Literature of the Restoration +(Three Devils)_; Hamilton, _The Poets Laureate of England_; +Hazlitt, _On Dryden and Pope_. + +ROMANCE: Scott, _Woodstock, Peveril of the Peak_; Defoe, +_The Plague in London_. + +MYTHOLOGY: Bulfinch, _Age of Fable_; Gayley, _Classic Myths +in English Literature_; Smith, _Classical Dictionary_. + + +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. + + Dryden's Life. History. English Literature. + 1631, Born Aug. 9th. 1631, Herbert, Temple. + + 1632, Milton, L'Allegro + and II Penseroso. + + 1633. Birth of Prince James. + 1633, Massinger, New Way + to Pay Old Debts. + Ford, Broken Heart. + Prynne, Histrio-mastix + + 1634. First Ship-money Writ. + 1634, Fletcher, Purple Island. + Cowley, Poetical Blossoms. + Milton, Comus. + + 1635. Second Ship-money Writ. + 1635, Quarles, Emblems. + + 1636, Sandys, + Paraphrase of the + Psalms. + + 1637, Riot in Edinburgh. + 1637, Milton, Lycidas. + + 1638, Scottish National Covenant. + Judgment against John Hampden. + + 1639. First Bishops' War. + + 1640. Short Parliament. + 1640, Suckling, + Ballad of a Wedding. + Second Bishops' War. + Carew, Poems. + Long Parliament assembled. + + 1641. Execution of Strafford. + Constitutional + + 1641, Milton, + Smectymnuus Tracts, + Reforms. Debate + Clarendon begins History of + on Grand Remonstrance. + Civil War. + + 1642. Committee of Public Safety. + 1642, Fuller, Holy + and Profane State. + Battle of Edgehill. + Theaters closed. Browne, + Religio Medici. + + + 1643. Westminster Assembly. Solemn + 1643, Denham, + Cooper's Hill. + League and Covenant taken + by House. + + 1644. Scotch Army crosses Tweed. + 1644, Milton, + Doctrine and + Discipline + Royalist defeat + at Marston of Divorce, + Areopagitica, On + Moor. Education. + + 1645. Laud beheaded. 1645, Waller, + Poems, lst edition. + Royalists crushed + at Naseby. + 1646, Charles surrendered + to Scots. + 1646, Crashaw, + Steps to the + Temple. Browne, + Vulgar Errors. + + 1647, Charles surrendered + by Scots. Army in + possession of London. + Charles' flight from + Hampton Court. + 1647, Cowley, The + Mistress. + + 1648, Second Civil War. + Pride's Purge. + 1648, Herrick, + Hesperides. + Noble Numbers. + + 1649, Poem on Death of Lord Hastings. + 1649, Charles beheaded. + Cromwell subdues Ireland. + 1649, Lovelace, + Lucasta. Gauden, + Eikon Basilike. + Milton, + Eikonoklastes. + + 1650, Entered Trinity, Cambridge. + 1650, Battle of Dunbar. + 1650, Baxter, + Saints' Everlasting + Rest. Taylor, Holy + Living. + + 1651, Cromwell wins at + Worcester. + 1651, Davenant, + Gondibert. Taylor, + Holy Dying. + Hobbes, Leviathan. + + 1652, Punished for disobedience, Cambridge. + + 1653, Cromwell dissolves + Long Parliament. + Barebones Parliament. + Made Lord Protector by + Little Parliament. + 1653, Walton, + Compleat Angler, + + 1654, Father died. Received B.A. from Cambridge. + 1654, First Protectorate + Parliament, Dutch routed + on the sea. + + 1655. Yreaty with France. + Jamaica seized from Spain. + 1656. Second Protectorate + Parliament. + 1656, Cowley, + Works, lst edition. + Davenant, Siege of + Rhodes. + + 1657. Left Cambridge. Attached to Sir Gilbert Pickering. + + 1658. Heroic Stanzas on Cromwell's Death. + 1658, Dunkirk seized from + Spain. Cromwell dies. His + son Richard succeeds. + + 1659, Richard Cromwell resigns. + Long Parliament restored. + Military government. + + 1660, Astraea Redux. + 1660, Long Parliament again + restored. + Declaration of Breda. + Convention Parliament. + Restoration Charles II. + 1660, Milton, + Ready and Easy Way + to Establish a + Free Commonwealth. + Pepys, Diary begun. + + 1661, Panegyric on Coronation. + 1661, Meeting of Cavalier + Parliament. Corporation Act. + + 1662, Poem to Lord Clarendon. + 1662, Act of Uniformity. + Dissenting ministers expelled. + Royal Society founded. King + declares for Toleration. Dunkirk + sold to France. + 1662, Fuller, + Worthies of + England. + + 1663, Married Lady Elizabeth Howard. Poem to Dr. Charleton. Wild Gallant. + 1663, Butler, + Hudibras. + + 1664. Reference in Pepys to 'Dryden, the poet.' + 1664, Repeal of Triennial Act. + Conventicle Act. + 1664, Etheridge, Comical Revenge. Evelyn, Sylva. + + 1665, Poem to the Duchess of York. Indian Emperor. + Poem to Lady Castlemaine. + Left London for Charleton. + 1665, First Dutch War of + Restoration. Great Plague. + Five-Mile Act. + 1665, Dorset, + Song at Sea. + + 1666, Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Son Charles born. + 1666, Great Fire. + + 1667, Annus Mirabilis. Maiden Queen. Sir Martin Marall. Tempest. + 1667, Dutch blockade Thames. + Peace of Breda. Clarendon's Fall. + 1667, Milton, + Paradise Lost. + + 1668, Mock Astrologer. Son John born. + 1668, Etheridge, + She Would if She + Could. Sedley, A + Mulberry Garden. + + 1669. Tyrannic Love. Son Erasmus born. + 1669, Pepys, Diary + closes. Shadwell, + The Royal Shepherdess. + Penn, No Cross, no + Crown. + + 1670, Conquest of Granada. Appointed Poet Laureate and + Historiographer Royal. + Mother died. + 1670, Treaty of Dover. + 1670, Shadwell, + Sullen Lovers. + + 1671, Buckingham, Rehearsal. Milton, Paradise Regained. Samson Agonistes. + + 1672. Marriage a la Mode. + 1672, Second Dutch War + of Restoration. Declaration + of Indulgence. + + 1673. Assignation, Amboyna. + 1673, Test Act. Shaftesbury dismissed. + 1673, Settle, Empress of Morocco. + + 1674, A State of Innocence. + 1675. Aurengzebe. + 1678, All for Love, Limberham. + 1679. OEdipus. Additional Pension + of One Hundred + Pounds. Troilus and + Cressida. Cudgeled in + Rose Alley. + 1680. Ovid's Heroides. + 1681, Spanish Friar. Absalom + and Achitophel, Part I. + 1682. The Medal, MacFlecnoe, + Absalom and Achitophel, + Part II. Religio + Laici. + 1683. Collector of Customs at the + Port of London. + 1684. Miscellanies, vol. i. Translates + Maimbourg's History + of League. + 1685. Miscellanies, vol. ii. Albion + and Albanius. + Threnodia Augustalis. + 1686. Ode on Memory of Mrs. + Killegrew. + 1687. Hind and the Panther. + St. Cecilia Ode. + + + 1674, Peace with the Dutch. + 1675, Non-resistance Bill rejected. + 1677, Marriage of William and Mary. + 1678, Peace of Nymwegen. + Popish plot. + 1679, Habeas Corpus Act. Dissolution + Cavalier Parliament. + First Short Parliament. + 1680, Second Short Parliament. + 1681, Third Short Parliament. + Tory Reaction. + 1682, Flight of Shaftesbury. + 1683, London City forfeits Charter. + Rye House Plot. + Russell and Sydney executed. + 1685, Death of Charles II. Accession + of James II. + Prorogation of Parliament. + Meeting of Parliament. + Battle of Edgemore. + Bloody Assizes. + 1686, Judges allowed King's Dispensing + Power. + 1687, First Declaration of Indulgence. + + English Literature. + + 1675, Mulgrave, Essay on Satire. + 1676, Etheridge, The Man of Mode. + 1677, Crowne, Destruction of Jerusalem. + Behn, The Rover. + Wycherley, Plain Dealer. + 1678, Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. + Rymer, Tragedies of the Last Age. + 1679, Oldham, Satires upon the Jesuits. + 1680, Otway, The Orphan. + 1681, Marvell, Poems. + Roscommon, Essay on Translated + Verse. + 1682, Otway, Venice Preserved. + 1687, Newton, Principia. + Prior and Montague, Country + Mouse and City Mouse. + + 1688, Britannia Rediviva. + 1688, Second Declaration of Indulgence. Bishops sent to Tower. + Birth of Prince of Wales. William and Mary invited to take English Throne. + William lands at Torbay. James flees. + + 1689, Lost his offices and pensions. + 1689, William and Mary crowned. Toleration Act. Bill of Rights. + Grand Alliance. Jacobite Rebellion. + 1689, Locke, Letters on Toleration, Treatise on Government. + + 1690, Don Sebastian. Amphitryon. + 1690, Battle of the Boyne. + 1690, Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding. + + 1691, King Arthur + 1691, Treaty of Limerick. + 1691, Langbane, Account of English Dramatic Poets. Rochester, Poems. + + 1692, Eleonora, Cleomines. + 1692, Massacre of Glencoe. Churchill deprived of office. + 1692, Dennis, The Impartial Critick. + + 1693, Miscellanies, vol. iii. Perseus and Juvenal. + 1693, Beginning of National Debt. + 1693, Congreve, Old Bachelor. + + 1694, Miscellanies, vol. iv. + 1694, Bank of England established. Death of Queen Mary. + 1694, Southern, The Fatal Marriage. Addison, Account of Greatest + English Poets. Congreve, Double Dealer. + + 1695, Poems to Kneller and Congreve. Fresnoy's Art of Painting. + 1695, Censorship of Press removed. + 1695, Congreve, Love for Love. Blackmore, Prince Arthur. + + 1696, Life of Lucian. + 1696, Trials for Treason Act. + 1696, Southern, Oroonoko. + + 1697, Virgil, Alexander's Feast composed. + 1697, Peace of Ryswick. + 1697, Congreve, Mourning Bride. Vanbrugh, The Relapse. + + 1698, Partition Treaties. + 1698, Swift begins Battle of Books. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle. + Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife. Collier, Short View of the Immorality + and Profaneness of the English Stage. + + 1700, Fables. Died May 1st. + 1700, Severe Acts against Roman Catholics. + 1700, Congreve, Way of the World. Prior, Carmen Seculare. + + +TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND,<br> + +WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM OF PALAMON AND ARCITE. + + +MADAM, + + The bard who first adorned our native tongue + Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song; + Which Homer might without a blush reherse, + And leaves a doubtful palm in Virgil's verse: + He matched their beauties, where they most excel; + Of love sung better, and of-arms as well. + + Vouchsafe, illustrious Ormond, to behold + What power the charms of beauty had of old; + Nor wonder if such deeds of arms were done, + Inspired by two fair eyes that sparkled like your own. + + If Chaucer by the best idea wrought, + And poets can divine each other's thought, + The fairest nymph before his eyes he set; + And then the fairest was Plantagenet, + Who three contending princes made her prize, + And ruled the rival nations with her eyes; + Who left immortal trophies of her fame, + And to the noblest order gave the name. + + Like her, of equal kindred to the throne, + You keep her conquests, and extend your own: + + As when the stars, in their etherial race, + At length have rolled around the liquid space, + At certain periods they resume their place, + From the same point of heaven their course advance, + And move in measures of their former dance; + Thus, after length of ages, she returns, + Restored in you, and the same place adorns: + Or you perform her office in the sphere, + Born of her blood, and make a new Platonic year. + + O true Plantagenet, O race divine, + (For beauty still is fatal to the line,) + Had Chaucer lived that angel-face to view, + Sure he had drawn his Emily from you; + Or had you lived to judge the doubtful right, + Your noble Palamon had been the knight; + And conquering Theseus from his side had sent + Your generous lord, to guide the Theban government. + + Time shall accomplish that; and I shall see + A Palamon in him, in you an Emily. + + Already have the Fates your path prepared, + And sure presage your future sway declared: + When westward, like the sun, you took your way, + And from benighted Britain bore the day, + Blue Triton gave the signal from the shore, + The ready Nereids heard, and swam before + To smooth the seas; a soft Etesian gale + But just inspired, and gently swelled the sail; + Portunus took his turn, whose ample hand + Heaved up the lightened keel, and sunk the sand, + And steered the sacred vessel safe to land. + The land, if not restrained, had met your way, + Projected out a neck, and jutted to the sea. + Hibernia, prostrate at your feet, adored + In you the pledge of her expected lord, + + Due to her isle; a venerable name; + His father and his grandsire known to fame; + Awed by that house, accustomed to command, + The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand, + Nor bear the reins in any foreign hand. + + At your approach, they crowded to the port; + And scarcely landed, you create a court: + As Ormond's harbinger, to you they run, + For Venus is the promise of the Sun. + + The waste of civil wars, their towns destroyed, + Pales unhonoured, Ceres unemployed, + Were all forgot; and one triumphant day + Wiped all the tears of three campaigns away. + Blood, rapines, massacres, were cheaply bought, + So mighty recompense your beauty brought. + As when the dove returning bore the mark + Of earth restored to the long-labouring ark, + The relics of mankind, secure of rest, + Oped every window to receive the guest, + And the fair bearer of the message blessed: + So, when you came, with loud repeated cries, + The nation took an omen from your eyes, + And God advanced his rainbow in the skies, + To sign inviolable peace restored; + The saints with solemn shouts proclaimed the new accord. + + When at your second coming you appear, + (For I foretell that millenary year) + The sharpened share shall vex the soil no more, + But earth unbidden shall produce her store; + The land shall laugh, the circling ocean smile, + And Heaven's indulgence bless the holy isle. + + Heaven from all ages has reserved for you + That happy clime, which venom never knew; + Or if it had been there, your eyes alone + Have power to chase all poison, but their own. + + Now in this interval, which Fate has cast + Betwixt your future glories and your past, + This pause of power, 'tis Ireland's hour to mourn; + While England celebrates your safe return, + By which you seem the seasons to command, + And bring our summers back to their forsaken land. + + The vanquished isle our leisure must attend, + Till the fair blessing we vouchsafe to send; + Nor can we spare you long, though often we may lend. + The dove was twice employed abroad, before + The world was dried, and she returned no more. + + Nor dare we trust so soft a messenger, + New from her sickness, to that northern air; + Rest here awhile your lustre to restore, + That they may see you, as you shone before; + For yet, the eclipse not wholly past, you wade + Through some remains and dimness of a shade. + + A subject in his prince may claim a right, + Nor suffer him with strength impaired to fight; + Till force returns, his ardour we restrain, + And curb his warlike wish to cross the main. + + Now past the danger, let the learned begin + The inquiry, where disease could enter in; + How those malignant atoms forced their way, + What in the faultless frame they found to make their prey, + Where every element was weighed so well, + That Heaven alone, who mixed the mass, could tell + Which of the four ingredients could rebel; + And where, imprisoned in so sweet a cage, + A soul might well be pleased to pass an age. + + And yet the fine materials made it weak; + Porcelain by being pure is apt to break. + Even to your breast the sickness durst aspire, + And forced from that fair temple to retire, + Profanely set the holy place on fire. + In vain your lord, like young Vespasian, mourned, + When the fierce flames the sanctuary burned; + And I prepared to pay in verses rude + A most detested act of gratitude: + Even this had been your Elegy, which now + Is offered for your health, the table of my vow. + + Your angel sure our Morley's mind inspired, + To find the remedy your ill required; + As once the Macedon, by Jove's decree, + Was taught to dream an herb for Ptolemy: + Or Heaven, which had such over-cost bestowed + As scarce it could afford to flesh and blood, + So liked the frame, he would not work anew, + To save the charges of another you; + Or by his middle science did he steer, + And saw some great contingent good appear, + Well worth a miracle to keep you here, + And for that end preserved the precious mould, + Which all the future Ormonds was to hold; + And meditated, in his better mind, + An heir from you who may redeem the failing kind. + + Blessed be the power which has at once restored + The hopes of lost succession to your lord; + Joy to the first and last of each degree, + Virtue to courts, and, what I longed to see, + To you the Graces, and the Muse to me. + + O daughter of the Rose, whose cheeks unite + The differing titles of the Red and White; + Who heaven's alternate beauty well display, + The blush of morning and the milky way; + Whose face is Paradise, but fenced from sin; + For God in either eye has placed a cherubin. + + All is your lord's alone; even absent, he + Employs the care of chaste Penelope. + For him you waste in tears your widowed hours, + For him your curious needle paints the flowers; + Such works of old imperial dames were taught, + Such for Ascanius fair Elisa wrought. + The soft recesses of your hours improve + The three fair pledges of your happy love: + All other parts of pious duty done, + You owe your Ormond nothing but a son, + To fill in future times his father's place, + And wear the garter of his mother's race. + + + + +PALAMON AND ARCITE; + +OR, THE KNIGHT'S TALE. + +FROM CHAUCER. + + + + +BOOK I. + + In days of old there lived, of mighty fame, + A valiant Prince, and Theseus was his name; + A chief, who more in feats of arms excelled, + The rising nor the setting sun beheld. + Of Athens he was lord; much land he won, + And added foreign countries to his crown. + In Scythia with the warrior Queen he strove, + Whom first by force he conquered, then by love; + He brought in triumph back the beauteous dame, + With whom her sister, fair Emilia, came. + With honour to his home let Theseus ride, + With Love to friend, and Fortune for his guide, + And his victorious army at his side. + I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array, + Their shouts, their songs, their welcome on the way; + But, were it not too long, I would recite + The feats of Amazons, the fatal fight + Betwixt the hardy Queen and hero Knight; + The town besieged, and how much blood it cost + The female army, and the Athenian host; + The spousals of Hippolyta the Queen; + What tilts and turneys at the feast were seen; + The storm at their return, the ladies' fear: + But these and other things I must forbear. + + The field is spacious I design to sow + With oxen far unfit to draw the plough: + The remnant of my tale is of a length + To tire your patience, and to waste my strength; + And trivial accidents shall be forborn, + That others may have time to take their turn, + As was at first enjoined us by mine host, + That he, whose tale is best and pleases most, + Should win his supper at our common cost. + And therefore where I left, I will pursue + This ancient story, whether false or true, + In hope it may be mended with a new. + The Prince I mentioned, full of high renown, + In this array drew near the Athenian town; + When, in his pomp and utmost of his pride + Marching, he chanced to cast his eye aside, + And saw a quire of mourning dames, who lay + By two and two across the common way: + At his approach they raised a rueful cry, + And beat their breasts, and held their hands on high, + Creeping and crying, till they seized at last + His courser's bridle and his feet embraced. + "Tell me," said Theseus, "what and whence you are, + "And why this funeral pageant you prepare? + Is this the welcome of my worthy deeds, + To meet my triumph in ill-omened weeds? + Or envy you my praise, and would destroy + With grief my pleasures, and pollute my joy? + Or are you injured, and demand relief? + Name your request, and I will ease your grief." + The most in years of all the mourning train + Began; but swounded first away for pain; + Then scarce recovered spoke: "Nor envy we + "Thy great renown, nor grudge thy victory; + 'Tis thine, O King, the afflicted to redress, + And fame has filled the world with thy success: + We wretched women sue for that alone, + Which of thy goodness is refused to none; + Let fall some drops of pity on our grief, + If what we beg be just, and we deserve relief; + For none of us, who now thy grace implore, + But held the rank of sovereign queen before; + Till, thanks to giddy Chance, which never bears + That mortal bliss should last for length of years, + She cast us headlong from our high estate, + And here in hope of thy return we wait, + And long have waited in the temple nigh, + Built to the gracious goddess Clemency. + But reverence thou the power whose name it bears, + Relieve the oppressed, and wipe the widows' tears. + I, wretched I, have other fortune seen, + The wife of Capaneus, and once a Queen; + At Thebes he fell; cursed be the fatal day! + And all the rest thou seest in this array + To make their moan their lords in battle lost, + Before that town besieged by our confederate host. + But Creon, old and impious, who commands + The Theban city, and usurps the lands, + Denies the rites of funeral fires to those + Whose breathless bodies yet he calls his foes. + Unburned, unburied, on a heap they lie; + Such is their fate, and such his tyranny; + No friend has leave to bear away the dead, + But with their lifeless limbs his hounds are fed." + At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train + Echoed her grief, and grovelling on the plain, + With groans, and hands upheld, to move his mind, + Besought his pity to their helpless kind. + + The Prince was touched, his tears began to flow, + And, as his tender heart would break in two, + He sighed; and could not but their fate deplore, + So wretched now, so fortunate before. + Then lightly from his lofty steed he flew, + And raising one by one the suppliant crew, + To comfort each, full solemnly he swore, + That by the faith which knights to knighthood bore, + And whate'er else to chivalry belongs, + He would not cease, till he revenged their wrongs; + That Greece should see performed what he declared, + And cruel Creon find his just reward. + He said no more, but shunning all delay + Rode on, nor entered Athens on his way; + But left his sister and his queen behind, + And waved his royal banner in the wind, + Where in an argent field the God of War + Was drawn triumphant on his iron car. + Red was his sword, and shield, and whole attire, + And all the godhead seemed to glow with fire; + Even the ground glittered where the standard flew, + And the green grass was dyed to sanguine hue. + High on his pointed lance his pennon bore + His Cretan fight, the conquered Minotaur: + The soldiers shout around with generous rage, + And in that victory their own presage. + He praised their ardour, inly pleased to see + His host, the flower of Grecian chivalry. + All day he marched, and all the ensuing night, + And saw the city with returning light. + The process of the war I need not tell, + How Theseus conquered, and how Creon fell; + Or after, how by storm the walls were won, + Or how the victor sacked and burned the town; + How to the ladies he restored again + The bodies of their lords in battle slain; + And with what ancient rites they were interred; + All these to fitter time shall be deferred: + I spare the widows' tears, their woful cries, + And howling at their husbands' obsequies; + How Theseus at these funerals did assist, + And with what gifts the mourning dames dismissed. + + Thus when the victor chief had Creon slain, + And conquered Thebes, he pitched upon the plain + His mighty camp, and when the day returned, + The country wasted and the hamlets burned, + And left the pillagers, to rapine bred, + Without control to strip and spoil the dead. + + There, in a heap of slain, among the rest + Two youthful knights they found beneath a load oppressed + Of slaughtered foes, whom first to death they sent, + The trophies of their strength, a bloody monument. + Both fair, and both of royal blood they seemed, + Whom kinsmen to the crown the heralds deemed; + That day in equal arms they fought for fame; + Their swords, their shields, their surcoats were the same: + Close by each other laid they pressed the ground, + Their manly bosoms pierced with many a grisly wound; + Nor well alive nor wholly dead they were, + But some faint signs of feeble life appear; + The wandering breath was on the wing to part, + Weak was the pulse, and hardly heaved the heart. + These two were sisters' sons; and Arcite one, + Much famed in fields, with valiant Palamon. + From these their costly arms the spoilers rent, + And softly both conveyed to Theseus' tent: + Whom, known of Creon's line and cured with care, + He to his city sent as prisoners of the war; + Hopeless of ransom, and condemned to lie + In durance, doomed a lingering death to die. + + This done, he marched away with warlike sound, + And to his Athens turned with laurels crowned, + Where happy long he lived, much loved, and more renowned. + But in a tower, and never to be loosed, + The woful captive kinsmen are enclosed. + + Thus year by year they pass, and day by day, + Till once ('twas on the morn of cheerful May) + The young Emilia, fairer to be seen + Than the fair lily on the flowery green, + More fresh than May herself in blossoms new, + (For with the rosy colour strove her hue,) + Waked, as her custom was, before the day, + To do the observance due to sprightly May; + For sprightly May commands our youth to keep + The vigils of her night, and breaks their sluggard sleep; + Each gentle breast with kindly warmth she moves; + Inspires new flames, revives extinguished loves. + In this remembrance Emily ere day + Arose, and dressed herself in rich array; + Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair, + Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair: + A ribband did the braided tresses bind, + The rest was loose, and wantoned in the wind: + Aurora had but newly chased the night, + And purpled o'er the sky with blushing light, + When to the garden-walk she took her way, + To sport and trip along in cool of day, + And offer maiden vows in honour of the May. 190 + + At every turn she made a little stand, + And thrust among the thorns her lily hand + To draw the rose; and every rose she drew, + She shook the stalk, and brushed away the dew; + + Then party-coloured flowers of white and red + She wove, to make a garland for her head: + This done, she sung and carolled out so clear, + That men and angels might rejoice to hear; + Even wondering Philomel forgot to sing, + And learned from her to welcome in the spring. + The tower, of which before was mention made, + Within whose keep the captive knights were laid, + Built of a large extent, and strong withal, + Was one partition of the palace wall; + The garden was enclosed within the square, + Where young Emilia took the morning air. + + It happened Palamon, the prisoner knight, + Restless for woe, arose before the light, + And with his jailor's leave desired to breathe + An air more wholesome than the damps beneath. + This granted, to the tower he took his way, + Cheered with the promise of a glorious day; + Then cast a languishing regard around, + And saw with hateful eyes the temples crowned + With golden spires, and all the hostile ground. + He sighed, and turned his eyes, because he knew + 'Twas but a larger jail he had in view; + Then looked below, and from the castle's height + Beheld a nearer and more pleasing sight; + The garden, which before he had not seen, + In spring's new livery clad of white and green, + Fresh flowers in wide parterres, and shady walks between. + This viewed, but not enjoyed, with arms across + He stood, reflecting on his country's loss; + Himself an object of the public scorn, + And often wished he never had been born. + At last (for so his destiny required), + With walking giddy, and with thinking tired, + + He through a little window cast his sight, + Though thick of bars, that gave a scanty light; + But even that glimmering served him to descry + The inevitable charms of Emily. + + Scarce had he seen, but, seized with sudden smart, + Stung to the quick, he felt it at his heart; + Struck blind with overpowering light he stood, + Then started back amazed, and cried aloud. + + Young Arcite heard; and up he ran with haste, + To help his friend, and in his arms embraced; + And asked him why he looked so deadly wan, + And whence, and how, his change of cheer began? + Or who had done the offence? "But if," said he, + "Your grief alone is hard captivity, + For love of Heaven with patience undergo + A cureless ill, since Fate will have it so: + So stood our horoscope in chains to lie, + And Saturn in the dungeon of the sky, + Or other baleful aspect, ruled our birth, + When all the friendly stars were under earth; + Whate'er betides, by Destiny 'tis done; + And better bear like men than vainly seek to shun." + Nor of my bonds," said Palamon again, + Nor of unhappy planets I complain; + But when my mortal anguish caused my cry, + The moment I was hurt through either eye; + Pierced with a random shaft, I faint away, + And perish with insensible decay: + A glance of some new goddess gave the wound, + Whom, like Actaeon, unaware I found. + Look how she walks along yon shady space; + Not Juno moves with more majestic grace, + And all the Cyprian queen is in her face. + If thou art Venus (for thy charms confess + That face was formed in heaven), nor art thou less, + Disguised in habit, undisguised in shape, + O help us captives from our chains to scape! + But if our doom be past in bonds to lie + For life, and in a loathsome dungeon die, + Then be thy wrath appeased with our disgrace, + And show compassion to the Theban race, + Oppressed by tyrant power!"--While yet he spoke, + Arcite on Emily had fixed his look; + The fatal dart a ready passage found + And deep within his heart infixed the wound: + So that if Palamon were wounded sore, + Arcite was hurt as much as he or more: + Then from his inmost soul he sighed, and said, + "The beauty I behold has struck me dead: + Unknowingly she strikes, and kills by chance; + Poison is in her eyes, and death in every glance. + Oh, I must ask; nor ask alone, but move + Her mind to mercy, or must die for love." + + Thus Arcite: and thus Palamon replies + (Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes,) + "Speakest thou in earnest, or in jesting vein?" + "Jesting," said Arcite, "suits but ill with pain." + "It suits far worse," (said Palamon again, + And bent his brows,) "with men who honour weigh, + Their faith to break, their friendship to betray; + But worst with thee, of noble lineage born, + My kinsman, and in arms my brother sworn. + Have we not plighted each our holy oath, + That one should be the common good of both; + One soul should both inspire, and neither prove + 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 farther my design, + As I am bound by vow to farther thine: + Nor canst, nor darest thou, traitor, on the plain + Appeach my honour, or thy own maintain, + Since thou art of my council, and the friend + Whose faith I trust, and on whose care depend. + And wouldst thou court my lady's love, which I + Much rather than release, would choose to die? + But thou, false Arcite, never shalt 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 to assist my eldership of right, + Or justly to be deemed a perjured knight." + + Thus Palamon: but Arcite with disdain + In haughty language thus replied again: + "Forsworn thyself: the traitor's odious name + I first return, and then disprove thy claim. + If love be passion, and that passion nurst + With strong desires, I loved the lady first. + Canst thou pretend desire, whom zeal inflamed + To worship, and a power celestial named? + Thine was devotion to the blest above, + I saw the woman, and desired her love; + First owned my passion, and to thee commend + The important secret, as my chosen friend. + Suppose (which yet I grant not) thy desire + A moment elder than my rival fire; + Can chance of seeing first thy title prove? + And knowst 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 not positive; love's power we see + Is Nature's sanction, and her first decree, + Each day we break the bond of human laws + For love, and vindicate the common cause. + Laws for defence of civil rights are placed, + Love throws the fences down, and makes a general waste. + Maids, widows, wives without distinction fall; + The sweeping deluge, love, comes on and covers all. + If then the laws of friendship I transgress, + I keep the greater, while I break the less; + And both are mad alike, since neither can possess. + Both hopeless to be ransomed, never more + To see the sun, but as he passes o'er. + Like AEsop's hounds contending for the bone, + Each pleaded right, and would be lord alone; + The fruitless fight continued all the day, + A cur came by and snatched the prize away. + As courtiers therefore justle for a grant, + And when they break their friendship, plead their want, + So thou, if Fortune will thy suit advance, + Love on, nor envy me my equal chance: + For I must love, and am resolved to try + My fate, or failing in the adventure die." + + Great was their strife, which hourly was renewed, + Till each with mortal hate his rival viewed: + Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand; + But when they met they made a surly stand, + And glared like Angry lions as they passed, + And wished that every look might be their last. + + It chanced at length, Pirithous came to attend + This worthy Theseus, his familiar friend: + Their love in early infancy began, + And rose as childhood ripened into man, + Companions of the war; and loved so well, + That when one died, as ancient stories 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 since, + And honoured by this young Thessalian prince. + Theseus, to gratify his friend and guest, + Who made our Arcite's freedom his request, + Restored to liberty the captive knight, + But on these hard conditions I recite: + That if hereafter Arcite should be found + Within the compass of Athenian ground, + By day or night, or on whate'er pretence, + His head should pay the forfeit of the offence. + To this Pirithous for his friend agreed, + And on his promise was the prisoner freed. + + Unpleased 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 gained," he said, "in prison pent, + If I but change my bonds for banishment? + And banished from her sight, I suffer more + In freedom than I felt in bonds before; + Forced from her presence and condemned to live, + Unwelcome freedom and unthanked reprieve: + Heaven is not but where Emily abides, + And where she's absent, all is hell besides. + Next to my day of birth, was that accurst + Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first: + Had I not known that prince, I still had been + In bondage and had still Emilia seen: + For though I never can her grace deserve, + 'Tis recompense enough to see and serve. + O Palamon, my kinsman and my friend, + How much more happy fates thy love attend I + + Thine is the adventure, thine the victory, + Well has thy fortune turned the dice for thee: + Thou on that angel's face mayest feed thy eyes, + In prison, no; but blissful paradise! + Thou daily seest that sun of beauty shine, + And lovest at least in love's extremest line. + I mourn in absence, love's eternal night; + And who can tell but since thou hast her sight, + And art a comely, young, and valiant knight, + Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown, + And by some ways unknown thy wishes crown? + But I, the most forlorn of human kind, + Nor help can hope nor remedy can find; + But doomed 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 last relief: + Then farewell youth, and all the joys that dwell + With youth and life, and life itself, farewell! + 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 desire: + Some pray for riches; riches they obtain; + But, watched by robbers, for their wealth are slain; + Some pray from prison to be freed; and come, + When guilty of their vows, to fall at home; + Murdered by those they trusted with their life, + A favoured servant or a bosom wife. + Such dear-bought blessings happen every day, + Because we know not for what things to pray. + Like drunken sots about the streets we roam: + + "Well knows the sot he has a certain home, + Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, + And blunders on and staggers every pace. + Thus all seek happiness; but few can find, + For far the greater part of men are blind. + This is my case, who thought our utmost good + Was in one word of freedom understood: + The fatal blessing came: from prison free, + I starve abroad, and lose the sight of Emily." + + Thus Arcite: but if Arcite thus deplore + His sufferings, Palamon yet suffers more. + For when he knew his rival freed and gone, + He swells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan; + He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground; + The hollow tower with clamours rings around: + With briny tears he bathed his fettered feet, + And dropped all o'er with agony of sweat. + "Alas!" he cried, "I, wretch, in prison pine, + Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine: + Thou livest at large, thou drawest thy native air, + Pleased with thy freedom, proud of my despair: + Thou mayest, since thou hast youth and courage joined, + A sweet behaviour and a solid mind, + Assemble ours, and all the Theban race, + To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace; + And after (by some treaty made) possess + Fair Emily, the pledge of lasting peace. + So thine shall be the beauteous prize, while I + Must languish in despair, in prison die. + Thus all the advantage of the strife is thine, + Thy portion double joys, and double sorrows mine." + + The rage of jealousy then fired his soul, + And his face kindled like a burning coal + Now cold despair, succeeding in her stead, + To livid paleness turns the glowing red. + His blood, scarce liquid, creeps within his veins, + Like water which the freezing wind constrains. + Then thus he said: "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, prisons, ills without a cure, + All these he must, and guiltless oft, endure; + Or does your justice, power, or prescience fail, + When the good suffer and the bad prevail? + What worse to wretched virtue could befal, + If Fate or giddy Fortune governed all? + Nay, worse than other beasts is our estate: + Them, to pursue their pleasures, you create; + We, bound by harder laws, must curb our will, + And your commands, not our desires, fulfil: + Then, when the creature is unjustly slain, + Yet, after death at least, he feels no pain; + But man in life surcharged with woe before, + Not freed when dead, is doomed to suffer more. + A serpent shoots his sting at unaware; + An ambushed thief forelays a traveller; + The man lies murdered, while the thief and snake, + One gains the thickets, and one thrids the brake. + This let divines decide; but well I know, + Just or unjust, I have my share of woe, + Through Saturn seated in a luckless place, + And Juno's wrath that persecutes my race; + Or Mars and Venus in a quartil, move + My pangs of jealousy for Arcite's love." + + Let Palamon oppressed in bondage mourn, + While to his exited rival we return. + By this the sun, declining from his height, + The day had shortened to prolong the night: + The lengthened night gave length of misery, + Both to the captive lover and the free: + For Palamon in endless prison mourns, + And Arcite forfeits life if he returns; + The banished never hopes his love to see, + Nor hopes the captive lord his liberty. + 'Tis hard to say who suffers greater pains; + One sees his love, but cannot break his chains; + One free, and all his motions uncontrolled, + Beholds whate'er he would but what he would behold. + Judge as you please, for I will haste to tell + What fortune to the banished knight befel. + When Arcite was to Thebes returned again, + The loss of her he loved renewed his pain; + What could be worse than never more to see + His life, his soul, his charming Emily? + He raved with all the madness of despair, + He roared, he beat his breast, he tore his hair. + Dry sorrow in his stupid eyes appears, + For wanting nourishment, he wanted tears; + His eyeballs in their hollow sockets sink, + Bereft of sleep; he loathes his meat and drink; + He withers at his heart, and looks as wan + As the pale spectre of a murdered man: + That pale turns yellow, and his face receives + The faded hue of sapless boxen leaves; + In solitary groves he makes his moan, + Walks early out, and ever is alone; + Nor, mixed in mirth, in youthful pleasure shares, + But sighs when songs and instruments he hears. + + His spirits are so low, his voice is drowned, + He hears as from afar, or in a swound, + Like the deaf murmurs of a distant sound: + Uncombed his locks, and squalid his attire, + Unlike the trim of love and gay desire; + But full of museful mopings, which presage + The loss of reason and conclude in rage. + + This when he had endured a year and more, + Now wholly changed from what he was before, + It happened once, that, slumbering as he lay, + He dreamt (his dream began at break of day) + That Hermes o'er his head in air appeared, + And with soft words his drooping spirits cheered; + His hat adorned with wings disclosed the god, + And in his hand he bore the sleep-compelling rod; + Such as he seemed, when, at his sire's command, + On Argus' head he laid the snaky wand. + "Arise," he said, "to conquering Athens go; + There Fate appoints an end of all thy woe." + The fright awakened Arcite with a start, + Against his bosom bounced his heaving heart; + But soon he said, with scarce recovered breath, + "And thither will I go to meet my death, + Sure to be slain; but death is my desire, + Since in Emilia's sight I shall expire." + By chance he spied a mirror while he spoke, + And gazing there beheld his altered look; + Wondering, he saw his features and his hue + So much were changed, that scarce himself he knew. + A sudden thought then starting in his mind, + "Since I in Arcite cannot Arcite find, + The world may search in vain with all their eyes, + But never penetrate through this disguise. + Thanks to the change which grief and sickness give, + In low estate I may securely live, + And see, unknown, my mistress day by day." + He said, and clothed himself in coarse array, + A labouring hind in show; then forth he went, + And to the Athenian towers his journey bent: + One squire attended in the same disguise, + Made conscious of his master's enterprise. + Arrived at Athens, soon he came to court, + Unknown, unquestioned in that thick resort: + Proffering for hire his service at the gate, + To drudge, draw water, and to run or wait. + + So fair befel him, that for little gain + He served at first Emilia's chamberlain; + And, watchful all advantages to spy, + Was still at hand, and in his master's eye; + And as his bones were big, and sinews strong, + Refused no toil that could to slaves belong; + But from deep wells with engines water drew, + And used his noble hands the wood to hew. + He passed a year at least attending thus + On Emily, and called Philostratus. + But never was there man of his degree + So much esteemed, so well beloved as he. + So gentle of condition was he known, + That through the court his courtesy was blown: + All think him worthy of a greater place, + And recommend him to the royal grace; + That exercised within a higher sphere, + His virtues more conspicuous might appear. + Thus by the general voice was Arcite praised, + And by great Theseus to high favour raised; + Among his menial servants first enrolled, + And largely entertained with sums of gold: + Besides what secretly from Thebes was sent, + + Of his own income and his annual rent. + This well employed, he purchased friends and fame, + But cautiously concealed from whence it came. + Thus for three years he lived with large increase + In arms of honour, and esteem in peace; + To Theseus' person he was ever near, + And Theseus for his virtues held him dear. + + + + +BOOK II. + + + While Arcite lives in bliss, the story turns + Where hopeless Palamon in prison mourns. + For six long years immured, the captive knight + Had dragged his chains, and scarcely seen the light: + Lost liberty and love at once he bore; + His prison pained him much, his passion more: + Nor dares he hope his fetters to remove, + Nor ever wishes to be free from love. + But when the sixth revolving year was run, + And May within the Twins received the sun, + Were it by Chance, or forceful Destiny, + Which forms in causes first whate'er shall be, + Assisted by a friend one moonless night, + This Palamon from prison took his flight: + A pleasant beverage he prepared before + Of wine and honey mixed, with added store + Of opium; to his keeper this he brought, + Who swallowed unaware the sleepy draught, + And snored secure till morn, his senses bound + In slumber, and in long oblivion drowned. + Short was the night, and careful Palamon + Sought the next covert ere the rising sun. + A thick-spread forest near the city lay, + To this with lengthened strides he took his way, + (For far he could not fly, and feared the day.) + + Safe from pursuit, he meant to shun the light, + Till the brown shadows of the friendly night + To Thebes might favour his intended flight. + When to his country come, his next design + Was all the Theban race in arms to join, + And war on Theseus, till he lost his life, + Or won the beauteous Emily to wife. + Thus while his thoughts the lingering day beguile, + To gentle Arcite let us turn our style; + Who little dreamt how nigh he was to care, + Till treacherous fortune caught him in the snare. + The morning-lark, the messenger of day, + Saluted in her song the morning gray; + And soon the sun arose with beams so bright, + That all the horizon laughed to see the joyous sight; + He with his tepid rays the rose renews, + And licks the dropping leaves, and dries the dews; + When Arcite left his bed, resolved to pay + Observance to the month of merry May, + Forth on his fiery steed betimes he rode, + That scarcely prints the turf on which he trod: + At ease he seemed, and prancing o'er the plains, + Turned only to the grove his horse's reins, + The grove I named before, and, lighting there, + A woodbind garland sought to crown his hair; + Then turned his face against the rising day, + And raised his voice to welcome in the May: + "For thee, sweet month, the groves green liveries wear, + If not the first, the fairest of the year: + For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours, + And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers: + When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun + The sultry tropic fears, and moves more slowly on. + So may thy tender blossoms fear no blight, + Nor goats with venomed teeth thy tendrils bite, + As thou shalt guide my wandering feet to find + The fragrant greens I seek, my brows to bind." + His vows addressed, within the grove he strayed, + Till Fate or Fortune near the place conveyed + His steps where secret Palamon was laid. + Full little thought of him the gentle knight, + Who flying death had there concealed his flight, + In brakes and brambles hid, and shunning mortal sight; + And less he knew him for his hated foe, + But feared him as a man he did not know. + But as it has been said of ancient years, + That fields are full of eyes and woods have ears, + For this the wise are ever on their guard, + For unforeseen, they say, is unprepared. + Uncautious Arcite thought himself alone, + And less than all suspected Palamon, + Who, listening, heard him, while he searched the grove, + And loudly sung his roundelay of love: + But on the sudden stopped, and silent stood, + (As lovers often muse, 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 see a Friday clear. + Thus Arcite, having sung, with altered hue + Sunk on the ground, and from his bosom drew + A desperate sigh, accusing Heaven and Fate, + And angry Juno's unrelenting hate: + "Cursed be the day when first I did appear; + Let it be blotted from the calendar, + Lest it pollute the month, and poison all the year. + 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 involved in Cadmus' doom. + I suffer for my blood: unjust decree, + That punishes another's crime on me. + In mean estate I serve my mortal foe, + The man who caused my country's overthrow. + This is not all; for Juno, to my shame, + Has forced me to forsake my former name; + Arcite I was, Philostratus I am. + That side of heaven is all my enemy: + Mars ruined Thebes; his mother ruined me. + Of all the royal race remains but one + Besides myself, the unhappy Palamon, + Whom Theseus holds in bonds and will not free; + Without a crime, except his kin to me. + Yet these and all the rest I could endure; + But love's a malady without a cure: + Fierce Love has pierced me with his fiery dart, + He fires within, and hisses at my heart. + Your eyes, fair Emily, my fate pursue; + I suffer for the rest, I die for you. + Of such a goddess no time leaves record, + Who burned the temple where she was adored: + And let it burn, I never will complain, + Pleased with my sufferings, if you knew my pain." + At this a sickly qualm his heart assailed, + His ears ring inward, and his senses failed. + No word missed Palamon of all he spoke; + But soon to deadly pale he changed his look: + He trembled every limb, and felt a smart, + As if cold steel had glided through his heart; + Nor longer stayed, but starting from his place, + Discovered stood, and showed his hostile face: + "False traitor, Arcite, traitor to thy blood, + Bound by thy sacred oath to seek my good, + Now art thou found forsworn for Emily, + And darest attempt her love, for whom I die. + So hast thou cheated Theseus with a wile, + Against thy vow, returning to beguile + Under a borrowed name: as false to me, + So false thou art to him who set thee free. + But rest assured, that either thou shalt die, + Or else renounce thy claim in Emily; + For, though unarmed I am, and freed by chance, + Am here without my sword or pointed lance, + Hope not, base man, unquestioned hence to go, + For I am Palamon, thy mortal foe." + Arcite, who heard his tale and knew the man, + His sword unsheathed, 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 last; or in this grove + This hand should force thee to renounce thy love; + The surety 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 serve the fair in thy despite: + But since thou art my kinsman and a knight, + Here, have my faith, to-morrow in this grove + Our arms shall 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; + Choose thou the best, and leave the worst to me. + And, that at better ease thou mayest abide, + Bedding and clothes I will this night provide, + And needful sustenance, that thou mayest be + A conquest better won, and worthy me." + + His promise Palamon accepts; but prayed, + 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 dost thy power maintain, + And wilt not bear a rival in thy reign! + Tyrants and thou all fellowship disdain. + This was in Arcite proved and Palamon: + Both in despair, yet each would love alone. + Arcite returned, and, as in honour tied, + His foe with bedding and with food supplied; + Then, ere the day, two suits of armour sought, + Which borne before him on his steed he brought: + Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure + As might the strokes of two such arms endure. + Now, at the time, and in the appointed place, + The challenger and challenged, face to face, + Approach; each other from afar they knew, + And from afar their hatred changed their hue. + So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear, + Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear, + And hears him rustling in the wood, and sees + His course at distance 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 chillness seizes 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 surliness each armed with care + His foe professed, as brother of the war; + Then both, no moment lost, at once advance + Against each other, armed with sword and lance: + They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore + Their corslets, and the thinnest parts explore. + Thus two long hours in equal arms they stood, + And wounded wound, till both are bathed in blood + And not a foot of ground had either got, + As if the world depended on the spot. + Fell Arcite like an angry tiger fared, + And like a lion Palamon appeared: + Or, as two boars whom love to battle draws, + With rising bristles and with frothy jaws, + Their adverse breasts with tusks oblique they wound + With grunts and groans the forest rings around. + So fought the knights, and fighting must abide, + Till Fate an umpire sends their difference to decide. + The power that ministers to God's decrees, + And executes on earth what Heaven foresees, + Called Providence, or Chance, or Fatal sway, + Comes with resistless force, and finds or makes her way. + Nor kings, nor nations, nor united power + One moment can retard the appointed hour, + And some one day, some wondrous chance appears, + Which happened not in centuries of years: + For sure, whate'er we mortals hate or love + Or hope or fear depends on powers above: + They move our appetites to good or ill, + And by foresight necessitate the will. + In Theseus this appears, whose youthful joy + Was beasts of chase in forests to destroy; + This gentle knight, inspired by jolly May, + Forsook his easy couch at early day, + And to the wood and wilds pursued his way. + Beside him rode Hippolita the queen, + And Emily attired in lively green, + With horns and hounds and all the tuneful cry, + To hunt a royal hart within the covert nigh: + And, as he followed Mars before, so now + He serves the goddess of the silver bow. + The way that Theseus took was to the wood, + Where the two knights in cruel battle stood: + The laund on which they fought, the appointed place + In which the uncoupled hounds began the chase. + Thither forth-right he rode to rouse the prey, + That shaded by the fern in harbour lay; + And thence dislodged, was wont to leave the wood + For open fields, and cross the crystal flood. + Approached, and looking underneath the sun, + He saw proud Arcite and fierce Palamon, + In mortal battle doubling blow on blow; + Like lightning flamed their fauchions to and fro, + And shot a dreadful gleam; so strong they strook, + There seemed less force required to fell an oak. + He gazed with wonder on their equal might, + Looked eager on, but knew not either knight. + Resolved to learn, he spurred his fiery steed + With goring rowels to provoke his speed. + The minute ended that began the race, + So soon he was betwixt them on the place; + And with his sword unsheathed, on pain of life + Commands both combatants to cease their strife; + Then with imperious tone pursues his threat: + "What are you? why in arms together met? + How dares your pride presume against my laws, + As in a listed field to fight your cause, + Unasked the royal grant; no marshal by, + As knightly rites require, nor judge to try?" + Then Palamon, with scarce recovered breath, + Thus hasty spoke: "We both deserve the death, + And both would die; for look the world around, + And pity soonest runs in gentle minds; + Then reasons with himself; and first he finds + His passion cast a mist before his sense, + And either made or magnified the offence. + Offence? Of what? To whom? Who judged the cause? + The prisoner freed himself by Nature's laws; + Born free, he sought his right; the man he freed + Was perjured, but his love excused the deed: + Thus pondering, he looked under with his eyes, + And saw the women's tears, and heard their cries, + Which moved compassion more; he shook his head, + And softly sighing to himself he said: + + Curse on the unpardoning prince, whom tears can draw + "To no remorse, who rules by lion's law; + And deaf to prayers, by no submission bowed, + Rends all alike, the penitent and proud!" + At this with look serene he raised his head; + Reason resumed her place, and passion fled: + Then thus aloud he spoke:--" The power of Love, + "In earth, and seas, and air, and heaven above, + Rules, unresisted, with an awful nod, + By daily miracles declared a god; + He blinds the wise, gives eye-sight to the blind; + And moulds and stamps anew the lover's mind. + Behold that Arcite, and this Palamon, + Freed from my fetters, and in safety gone, + What hindered either in their native soil + At ease to reap the harvest of their toil? + But Love, their lord, did otherwise ordain, + And brought them, in their own despite again, + To suffer death deserved; for well they know + 'Tis in my power, and I their deadly foe. + The proverb holds, that to be wise 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 seven long years, on duty every day, + Lo! their obedience, and their monarch's pay! + Yet, as in duty bound, they serve him on; + And ask the fools, they think it wisely done; + Nor ease nor wealth nor life it self 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 suspect their love, + Nor thought, when she beheld the fight from far, + Her beauty was the occasion of the war. + But sure a general doom on man is past, + And all are fools and lovers, first or last: + This both by others and my self I know, + For I have served their sovereign long ago; + Oft have been caught within the winding train + Of female snares, and felt the lover's pain, + And learned how far the god can human hearts constrain. + To this remembrance, and the prayers of those + Who for the offending warriors interpose, + I give their forfeit lives, on this accord, + To do me homage as their sovereign lord; + And as my vassals, to their utmost might, + Assist my person and assert my right." + This freely sworn, the knights their grace obtained; + Then thus the King his secret thought explained: + "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 such is she you serve: + For Emily is sister to the crown, + And but too well to both her beauty known: + But should you combat till you both were dead, + Two lovers cannot share a single bed + As, therefore, both are equal in degree, + The lot of both be left to destiny. + Now hear the 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 sun + To the same point through every sign has run, + Then each of you his hundred knights shall bring + In royal lists, 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 so 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 vanquished party shall their claim release, + And the long jars conclude in lasting peace. + The charge be mine to adorn the chosen ground, + The theatre of war, for champions so renowned; + And take the patron's place of either knight, + With eyes impartial to behold the fight; + And Heaven of me so judge as I shall judge aright. + If both are satisfied with this accord, + Swear by the laws of knighthood on my sword." + + Who now but Palamon exults with joy? + And ravished Arcite seems to touch the sky. + The whole assembled troop was pleased as well, + Extolled the 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 might be deemed, on our historian's part, + Or too much negligence or want of art, + If he forgot the vast magnificence + Of royal Theseus, and his large expense. + He first enclosed for lists a level ground, + The whole circumference a mile around; + The form was circular; and all without + A trench was sunk, to moat the place about. + Within, an amphitheatre appeared, + Raised in degrees, to sixty paces reared: + That when a man was placed in one degree, + Height was allowed for him above to see. + + Eastward was built a gate of marble white; + The like adorned the western opposite. + A nobler object than this fabric was + Rome never saw, nor of so vast a space: + For, rich with spoils of many a conquered land, + All arts and artists Theseus could command, + Who sold for hire, or wrought for better fame; + The master-painters and the carvers came. + So rose within the compass of the year + An age's work, a glorious theatre. + Then o'er its eastern gate was raised above + A temple, sacred to the Queen of Love; + An altar stood below; on either hand + A priest with roses crowned, who held a myrtle wand. + + The dome of Mars was on the gate opposed, + And on the north a turret was enclosed + Within the wall of alabaster white + And crimson coral, for the Queen of Night, + Who takes in sylvan sports her chaste delight. + + Within those oratories might you see + Rich carvings, portraitures, and imagery; + Where every figure to the life expressed + The godhead's power to whom it was addressed. + In Venus' temple on the sides were seen + The broken slumbers of enamoured men; + Prayers that even spoke, and pity seemed to call, + And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall; + Complaints and hot desires, 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 assurance, and a train of lies, + That, made in lust, conclude in perjuries; + Beauty, and Youth, and Wealth, and Luxury, + And sprightly Hope and short-enduring Joy, + And Sorceries, to raise the infernal powers, + And Sigils framed in planetary hours; + Expense, and After-thought, and idle Care, + And Doubts of motley hue, and dark Despair; + Suspicions and fantastical Surmise, + And Jealousy suffused, with jaundice in her eyes, + Discolouring all she viewed, in tawny dressed, + Down-looked, and with a cuckow on her fist. + Opposed to her, on the other side advance + The costly feast, the carol, and the dance, + Minstrels and music, poetry and play, + And balls by night, and turnaments by day. + All these were painted on the wall, and more; + With acts and monuments of times before; + And others added by prophetic doom, + And lovers yet unborn, and loves to come: + For there the Idalian mount, and Citheron, + The court of Venus, was in colours drawn; + Before the palace gate, in careless dress + And loose array, sat portress Idleness; + There by the fount Narcissus pined alone; + There Samson was; with wiser Solomon, + And all the mighty names by love undone. + Medea's charms were there; Circean feasts, + With bowls that turned enamoured youths to beasts. + Here might be seen, that beauty, wealth, and wit, + And prowess to the power of love submit; + The spreading snare for all mankind is laid, + And lovers all betray, and are betrayed. + The Goddess' self some noble hand had wrought; + Smiling she seemed, and full of pleasing thought; + From ocean as she first began to rise, + And smoothed the ruffled seas, and cleared the skies, + She trod the brine, all bare below the breast, + And the green waves but ill-concealed the rest: + A lute she held; and on her head was seen + A wreath of roses red and myrtles green; + Her turtles fanned the buxom air above; + And by his mother stood an infant Love, + With wings unfledged; his eyes were banded o'er, + His hands a bow, his back, a quiver bore, + Supplied with arrows bright and keen, a deadly store. + + But in the dome of mighty Mars the red + With different figures all the sides were spread; + This temple, less in form, with equal grace, + Was imitative of the first in Thrace; + For that cold region was the loved abode + And sovereign mansion of the warrior god. + The landscape was a forest wide and bare, + Where neither beast nor human kind repair, + The fowl that scent afar the borders fly, + And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky. + A cake of scurf lies baking on the ground, + And prickly stubs, instead of trees, are found; + Or woods with knots and knares deformed and old, + Headless the most, and hideous to behold; + A rattling tempest through the branches went, + That stripped them bare, and one sole way they bent. + Heaven froze above severe, the clouds congeal, + And through the crystal vault appeared the standing hail. + Such was the face without: a mountain stood + Threatening from high, and overlooked the wood: + Beneath the lowering brow, and on a bent, + The temple stood of Mars armipotent; + The frame of burnished steel, that cast a glare + From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air. + A straight long entry to the temple led, + Blind with high walls, and horror over head; + Thence issued such a blast, and hollow roar, + As threatened from the hinge to heave the door; + In through that door a northern light there shone; + 'Twas all it had, for windows there were none. + The gate was adamant; eternal frame, + Which, hewed by Mars himself, from Indian quarries came, + The labour of a God; and all along + Tough iron plates were clenched to make it strong. + A tun about was every pillar there; + A polished mirror shone not half so clear. + There saw I how the secret felon wrought, + And treason labouring in the traitor's thought, + And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought. + There the red Anger dared the pallid Fear; + Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer, + Soft, smiling, and demurely looking down, + But hid the dagger underneath the gown; + The assassinating wife, the household fiend; + And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend. + On the other side there stood Destruction bare, + Unpunished Rapine, and a waste of war; + Contest with sharpened knives in cloisters drawn, + And all with blood bespread the holy lawn. + Loud menaces were heard, and foul disgrace, + And bawling infamy, in language base; + Till sense was lost in sound, and silence fled the place. + The slayer of himself yet saw I there, + The gore congealed was clotted in his hair; + With eyes half closed and gaping mouth he lay, + And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away. + In midst of all the dome, Misfortune sate, + And gloomy Discontent, and fell Debate, + And Madness laughing in his ireful mood; + And armed Complaint on theft; and cries of blood. + There was the murdered corps, in covert laid, + And violent death in thousand shapes displayed: + The city to the soldier's rage resigned; + Successless wars, and poverty behind: + Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores, + And the rash hunter strangled by the boars: + The new-born babe by nurses overlaid; + And the cook caught within the raging fire he made. + All ills of Mars' his nature, flame and steel; + The gasping charioteer beneath the wheel + Of his own car; the ruined house that falls + And intercepts her lord betwixt the walls: + The whole division that to Mars pertains, + All trades of death that deal in steel for gains + Were there: the butcher, armourer, and smith, + Who forges sharpened fauchions, or the scythe. + The scarlet conquest on a tower was placed, + With shouts and soldiers' acclamations graced: + A pointed sword hung threatening o'er his head, + Sustained but by a slender twine of thread. + There saw I Mars his ides, the Capitol, + The seer in vain foretelling Caesar's fall; + The last Triumvirs, and the wars they move, + And Antony, who lost the world for love. + These, and a thousand more, the fane adorn; + Their fates were painted ere the men were born, + All copied from the heavens, and ruling force + Of the red star, in his revolving course. + The form of Mars high on a chariot stood, + All sheathed in arms, and gruffly looked the god; + Two geomantic figures were displayed + Above his head, a warrior and a maid, + One when direct, and one when retrograde. + + Tired with deformities of death, I haste + To the third temple of Diana chaste. + A sylvan scene with various greens was drawn, + Shades on the sides, and on the midst a lawn; + The silver Cynthia, with her nymphs around, + Pursued the flying deer, the woods with horns resound: + Calisto there stood manifest of shame, + And, turned a bear, the northern star became: + Her son was next, and, by peculiar grace, + In the cold circle held the second place; + The stag Actson in the stream had spied + The naked huntress, and for seeing died; + His hounds, unknowing of his change, pursue + The chase, and their mistaken master slew. + Peneian Daphne too, was there to see, + Apollo's love before, and now his tree. + The adjoining fane the assembled Greeks expressed, + And hunting of the Calydonian beast. + OEnides' valour, and his envied prize; + The fatal power of Atalanta's eyes; + Diana's vengeance on the victor shown, + The murderess mother, and consuming son; + The Volscian queen extended on the plain, + The treason punished, and the traitor slain. + The rest were various huntings, well designed, + And savage beasts destroyed, of every kind. + The graceful goddess was arrayed in green; + About her feet were little beagles seen, + That watched with upward eyes the motions of their Queen. + Her legs were buskined, and the left before, + In act to shoot; a silver bow she bore, + And at her back a painted quiver wore. + She trod a wexing moon, that soon would wane, + And, drinking borrowed light, be filled again; + With downcast eyes, as seeming to survey + The dark dominions, her alternate sway. + Before her stood a woman in her throes, + And called Lucina's aid, her burden to disclose. + All these the painter drew with such command, + That Nature snatched the pencil from his hand, + Ashamed and angry that his art could feign, + And mend the tortures of a mother's pain. + Theseus beheld the fanes of every god, + And thought his mighty cost was well bestowed. + So princes now their poets should regard; + But few can write, and fewer can reward. + + The theatre thus raised, the lists enclosed, + And all with vast magnificence disposed, + We leave the monarch pleased, and haste to bring + The knights to combat, and their arms to sing. + + + + +BOOK III. + + + The day approached when Fortune should decide + The important enterprise, and give the bride; + For now the rivals round the world had sought, + And each his number, well appointed, brought. + The nations far and near contend in choice, + And send the flower of war by public voice; + That after or before were never known + Such chiefs, as each an army seemed alone: + Beside the champions, all of high degree, + Who knighthood loved, and deeds of chivalry, + Thronged to the lists, and envied to behold + The names of others, not their own, enrolled. + Nor seems it strange; for every noble knight + Who loves the fair, and is endued with might, + In such a quarrel would be proud to fight. + There breathes not scarce a man on British ground + (An isle for love and arms of old renowned) + But would have sold his life to purchase fame, + To Palamon or Arcite sent his name; + And had the land selected of the best, + Half had come hence, and let the world provide the rest. + A hundred knights with Palamon there came, + Approved in fight, and men of mighty name; + Their arms were several, as their nations were, + But furnished all alike with sword and spear. + + Some wore coat armour, imitating scale, + And next their skins were stubborn shirts of mail; + Some wore a breastplate and a light juppon, + Their horses clothed with rich caparison; + Some for defence would leathern bucklers use + Of folded hides, and others shields of Pruce. + One hung a pole-axe at his saddle-bow, + And one a heavy mace to stun the foe; + One for his legs and knees provided well, + With jambeux armed, and double plates of steel; + This on his helmet wore a lady's glove, + And that a sleeve embroidered by his love. + + With Palamon above the rest in place, + Lycurgus came, the surly king of Thrace; + Black was his beard, and manly was his face + The balls of his broad eyes rolled in his head, + And glared betwixt a yellow and a red; + He looked a lion with a gloomy stare, + And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair; + Big-boned and large of limbs, with sinews strong, + Broad-shouldered, and his arms were round and long. + Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian use of old) + Were yoked to draw his car of burnished gold. + Upright he stood, and bore aloft his shield, + Conspicuous from afar, and overlooked the field. + His surcoat was a bear-skin on his back; + His hair hung long behind, and glossy raven-black. + His ample forehead bore a coronet, + With sparkling diamonds and with rubies set. + Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair, + And tall as stags, ran loose, and coursed around his chair, + A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear; + With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound, + And collars of the same their necks surround. + + Thus through the fields Lycurgus took his way; + His hundred knights attend in pomp and proud array. + + To match this monarch, with strong Arcite came + Emetrius, king of Inde, a mighty name, + On a bay courser, goodly to behold, + The trappings of his horse embossed with barbarous gold. + Not Mars bestrode a steed with greater grace; + His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace, + Adorned with pearls, all orient, round, and great; + His saddle was of gold, with emeralds set; + His shoulders large a mantle did attire, + With rubies thick, and sparkling as the fire; + His amber-coloured locks in ringlets run, + With graceful negligence, and shone against the sun. + His nose was aquiline, his eyes were blue, + Ruddy his lips, and fresh and fair his hue; + Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen, + Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin. + His awful presence did the crowd surprise, + Nor durst the rash spectator meet his eyes; + Eyes that confessed him born for kingly sway, + So fierce, they flashed intolerable day. + His age in nature's youthful prime appeared, + And just began to bloom his yellow beard. + Whene'er he spoke, his voice was heard around, + Loud as a trumpet, with a silver sound; + A laurel wreathed his temples, fresh, and green, + And myrtle sprigs, the marks of love, were mixed between. + Upon his fist he bore, for his delight, + An eagle well reclaimed, and lily white. + + His hundred knights attend him to the war, + All armed for battle; save their heads were bare. + Words and devices blazed on every shield, + And pleasing was the terror of the field. + For kings, and dukes, and barons you might see, + Like sparkling stars, though different in degree, + All for the increase of arms, and love of chivalry. + Before the king tame leopards led the way, + And troops of lions innocently play. + So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode, + And beasts in gambols frisked before their honest god. + + In this array the war of either side + Through Athens passed with military pride. + At prime, they entered on the Sunday morn; + Rich tapestry spread the streets, and flowers the posts adorn. + The town was all a jubilee of feasts; + So Theseus willed in honour of his guests; + Himself with open arms the kings embraced, + Then all the rest in their degrees were graced. + No harbinger was needful for the night, + For every house was proud to lodge a knight. + + I pass the royal treat, nor must relate + The gifts bestowed, nor how the champions sate; + Who first, who last, or how the knights addressed + Their vows, or who was fairest at the feast; + Whose voice, whose graceful dance did most surprise, + Soft amorous sighs, and silent love of eyes. + The rivals call my Muse another way, + To sing their vigils for the ensuing day. + 'Twas ebbing darkness, past the noon of night: + And Phosphor, on the confines of the light, + Promised the sun; ere day began to spring, + The tuneful lark already stretched her wing, + And flickering on her nest, made short essays to sing. + + When wakeful Palamon, preventing day, + Took to the royal lists his early way, + To Venus at her fane, in her own house, to pray. + There, falling on his knees before her shrine, + He thus implored with prayers her power divine: + "Creator Venus, genial power of love, + The bliss of men below, and gods above! + Beneath the sliding sun thou runst thy race, + Dost fairest shine, and best become thy place. + For thee the winds their eastern blasts forbear, + Thy month reveals the spring, and opens all the year. + Thee, Goddess, thee the storms of winter fly; + Earth smiles with flowers renewing, laughs the sky, + And birds to lays of love their tuneful notes apply. + For thee the lion loathes the taste of blood, + And roaring hunts his female through the wood; + For thee the bulls rebellow through the groves, + And tempt the stream, and snuff their absent loves. + 'Tis thine, whate'er is pleasant, good, or fair; + All nature is thy province, life thy care; + Thou madest the world, and dost the world repair. + Thou gladder of the mount of Cytheron, + Increase of Jove, companion of the Sun, + If e'er Adonis touched thy tender heart, + Have pity, Goddess, for thou knowest the smart! + Alas! I have not words to tell my grief; + To vent my sorrow would be some relief; + Light sufferings give us leisure to complain; + We groan, but cannot speak, in greater pain. + O Goddess, tell thyself what I would say! + Thou knowest it, and I feel too much to pray. + So grant my suit, as I enforce my might, + In love to be thy champion and thy knight, + A servant to thy sex, a slave to thee, + A foe professed to barren chastity: + Nor ask I fame or honour of the field, + Nor choose I more to vanquish than to yield: + In my divine Emilia make me blest, + Let Fate or partial Chance dispose the rest: + Find thou the manner, and the means prepare; + Possession, more than conquest, is my care. + Mars is the warrior's god; in him it lies + On whom he favours to confer the prize; + With smiling aspect you serenely move + In your fifth orb, and rule the realm of love. + The Fates but only spin the coarser clue, + The finest of the wool is left for you: + Spare me but one small portion of the twine, + And let the Sisters cut below your line: + The rest among the rubbish may they sweep, + Or add it to the yarn of some old miser's heap. + But if you this ambitious prayer deny, + (A wish, I grant; beyond mortality,) + Then let me sink beneath proud Arcite's arms, + And, I once dead, let him possess her charms." + + Thus ended he; then, with observance due, + The sacred incense on her altar threw: + The curling smoke mounts heavy from the fires; + At length it catches flame, and in a blaze expires; + At once the gracious Goddess gave the sign, + Her statue shook, and trembled all the shrine: + Pleased Palamon the tardy omen took; + For since the flames pursued the trailing smoke, + He knew his boon was granted, but the day + To distance driven, and joy adjourned with long delay. + + Now morn with rosy light had streaked the sky, + Up rose the sun, and up rose Emily; + Addressed her early steps to Cynthia's fane, + In state attended by her maiden train, + Who bore the vests that holy rites require, + Incense, and odorous gums, and covered fire. + The plenteous horns with pleasant mead they crown + Nor wanted aught besides in honour of the Moon. + Now, while the temple smoked with hallowed steam, + They wash the virgin in a living stream; + The secret ceremonies I conceal, + Uncouth, perhaps unlawful to reveal: + But such they were as pagan use required, + Performed by women when the men retired, + Whose eyes profane their chaste mysterious rites + Might turn to scandal or obscene delights. + Well-meaners think no harm; but for the rest, + Things sacred they pervert, and silence is the best. + Her shining hair, uncombed, was loosely spread, + A crown of mastless oak adorned her head: + When to the shrine approached, the spotless maid + Had kindling fires on either altar laid; + (The rites were such as were observed of old, + By Statius in his Theban story told.) + Then kneeling with her hands across her breast, + Thus lowly she preferred her chaste request. + + "O Goddess, haunter of the woodland green, + To whom both heaven and earth and seas are seen; + Queen of the nether skies, where half the year + Thy silver beams descend, and light the gloomy sphere; + Goddess of maids, and conscious of our hearts, + So keep me from the vengeance of thy darts, + (Which Niobe's devoted issue felt, + When hissing through the skies the feathered deaths + were dealt,) + + "As I desire to live a virgin life, + Nor know the name of mother or of wife. + Thy votress from my tender years I am, + And love, like thee, the woods and sylvan game. + Like death, thou knowest, I loathe the nuptial state, + And man, the tyrant of our sex, I hate, + A lowly servant, but a lofty mate; + Where love is duty on the female side, + On theirs mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride. + Now by thy triple shape, as thou art seen + In heaven, earth, hell, and everywhere a queen, + Grant this my first desire; let discord cease, + And make betwixt the rivals lasting peace: + Quench their hot fire, or far from me remove + The flame, and turn it on some other love; + Or if my frowning stars have so decreed, + That one must be rejected, one succeed, + Make him my lord, within whose faithful breast + Is fixed my image, and who loves me best. + But oh! even that avert! I choose it not, + But take it as the least unhappy lot. + A maid I am, and of thy virgin train; + Oh, let me still that spotless name retain! + Frequent the forests, thy chaste will obey, + And only make the beasts of chase my prey!" + + The flames ascend on either altar clear, + While thus the blameless maid addressed her prayer. + When lo! the burning fire that shone so bright + Flew off, all sudden, with extinguished light, + And left one altar dark, a little space, + Which turned self-kindled, and renewed the blaze; + That other victor-flame a moment stood, + Then fell, and lifeless, left the extinguished wood; + For ever lost, the irrevocable light + Forsook the blackening coals, and sunk to night: + At either end it whistled as it flew, + And as the brands were green, so dropped the dew, + Infected as it fell with sweat of sanguine hue. + + The maid from that ill omen turned her eyes, + And with loud shrieks and clamours rent the skies; + Nor knew what signified the boding sign, + But found the powers displeased, and feared the wrath divine. + + Then shook the sacred shrine, and sudden light + Sprung through the vaulted roof, and made the temple bright. + The Power, behold! the Power in glory shone, + By her bent bow and her keen arrows known; + The rest, a huntress issuing from the wood, + Reclining on her cornel spear she stood. + Then gracious thus began: "Dismiss thy fear, + And Heaven's unchanged decrees attentive hear: + More powerful gods have torn thee from my side, + Unwilling to resign, and doomed a bride; + The two contending knights are weighed above; + One Mars protects, and one the Queen of Love: + But which the man is in the Thunderer's breast; + This he pronounced, 'Tis he who loves thee best.' + The fire that, once extinct, revived again + Foreshows the love allotted to remain. + Farewell!" she said, and vanished from the place; + The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case. + Aghast at this, the royal virgin stood, + Disclaimed, and now no more a sister of the wood: + But to the parting Goddess thus she prayed: + "Propitious still, be present to my aid, + Nor quite abandon your once favoured maid." + Then sighing she returned; but smiled betwixt, + With hopes, and fears, and joys with sorrows mixt. + + The next returning planetary hour + of Mars, who shared the heptarchy of power, + His steps bold Arcite to the temple bent, + To adorn with pagan rites the power armipotent: + Then prostrate, low before his altar lay, + And raised his manly voice, and thus began, to pray: + "Strong God of Arms, whose iron sceptre sways + The freezing North, and Hyperborean seas, + And Scythian colds, and Thracia's wintry coast, + Where stand thy steeds, and thou art honoured most: + There most, but everywhere thy power is known, + The fortune of the fight is all thy own: + Terror is thine, and wild amazement, flung + From out thy chariot, withers even the strong; + And disarray and shameful rout ensue, + And force is added to the fainting crew. + Acknowledged as thou art, accept my prayer! + If aught I have achieved deserve thy care, + If to my utmost power with sword and shield + I dared the death, unknowing how to yield, + And falling in my rank, still kept the field; + Then let my arms prevail, by thee sustained, + That Emily by conquest may be gained. + Have pity on my pains; nor those unknown + To Mars, which, when a lover, were his own. + Venus, the public care of all above, + Thy stubborn heart has softened into love: + Now, by her blandishments and powerful charms, + When yielded she lay curling in thy arms, + Even by thy shame, if shame it may be called, + When Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled; + O envied ignominy, sweet disgrace, + When every god that saw thee wished thy place! + By those dear pleasures, aid my arms in fight, + And make me conquer in my patron's right: + For I am young, a novice in the trade, + The fool of love, unpractised to persuade, + And want the soothing arts that catch the fair, + But, caught my self, lie struggling in the snare; + And she I love or laughs at all my pain + Or knows her worth too well, and pays me with disdain. + For sure I am, unless I win in arms, + To stand excluded from Emilia's charms: + Nor can my strength avail, unless by thee + Endued with force I gain the victory; + Then for the fire which warmed thy generous heart, + Pity thy subject's pains and equal smart. + So be the morrow's sweat and labour mine, + The palm and honour of the conquest thine: + Then shall the war, and stern debate, and strife + Immortal be the business of my life; + And in thy fane, the dusty spoils among, + High on the burnished roof, my banner shall be hung, + Ranked with my champion's bucklers; and below, + With arms reversed, the achievements of my foe; + And while these limbs the vital spirit feeds, + While day to night and night to day succeeds, + Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food + Of incense and the grateful steam of blood; + Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine, + And fires eternal in thy temple shine. + The bush of yellow beard, this length of hair, + Which from my birth inviolate I bear, + Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free, + Shall fall a plenteous crop, reserved for thee. + So may my arms with victory be blest, + I ask no more; let Fate dispose the rest." + + The champion ceased; there followed in the close + A hollow groan; a murmuring wind arose; + The rings of iron, that on the doors were hung, + Sent out a jarring sound, and harshly rung: + The bolted gates blew open at the blast, + The storm rushed in, and Arcite stood aghast: + The flames were blown aside, yet shone they bright, + Fanned by the wind, and gave a ruffled light. + Then from the ground a scent began to rise, + Sweet smelling as accepted sacrifice: + This omen pleased, and as the flames aspire, + With odorous incense Arcite heaps the fire: + Nor wanted hymns to Mars or heathen charms: + At length the nodding statue clashed his arms, + And with a sullen sound and feeble cry, + Half sunk and half pronounced the word of Victory. + For this, with soul devout, he thanked the God, + And, of success secure, returned to his abode. + + These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above + Betwixt the God of War and Queen of Love. + She, granting first, had right of time to plead; + But he had granted too, nor would recede. + Jove was for Venus, but he feared his wife, + And seemed unwilling to decide the strife: + Till Saturn from his leaden throne arose, + And found a way the difference to compose: + Though sparing of his grace, to mischief bent, + He seldom does a good with good intent. + Wayward, but wise; by long experience taught, + To please both parties, for ill ends, he sought: + For this advantage age from youth has won, + As not to be outridden, though outrun. + By fortune he was now to Venus trined, + And with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined: + Of him disposing in his own abode, + He soothed the Goddess, while he gulled the God: + "Cease, daughter, to complain, and stint the strife; + Thy Palamon shall have his promised wife: + And Mars, the lord of conquest, in the fight + With palm and laurel shall adorn his knight. + Wide is my course, nor turn I to my place, + Till length of time, and move with tardy pace. + Man feels me when I press the etherial plains; + My hand is heavy, and the wound remains. + Mine is the shipwreck in a watery sign; + And in an earthy the dark dungeon mine. + Cold shivering agues, melancholy care, + And bitter blasting winds, and poisoned air, + Are mine, and wilful death, resulting from despair. + The throttling quinsey 'tis my star appoints, + And rheumatisms I send to rack the joints: + When churls rebel against their native prince, + I arm their hands, and furnish the pretence; + And housing in the lion's hateful sign, + Bought senates and deserting troops are mine. + Mine is the privy poisoning; I command + Unkindly seasons and ungrateful land. + By me kings' palaces are pushed to ground, + And miners crushed beneath their mines are found. + 'Twas I slew Samson, when the pillared hall + Fell down, and crushed the many with the fall. + My looking is the sire of pestilence, + That sweeps at once the people and the prince. + Now weep no more, but trust thy grandsire's art, + Mars shall be pleased, and thou perform thy part. + 'Tis ill, though different your complexions are, + The family of Heaven for men should war." + The expedient pleased, where neither lost his right; + Mars had the day, and Venus had the night. + The management they left to Chronos' care. + Now turn we to the effect, and sing the war. + + In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play, + All proper to the spring and sprightly May: + Which every soul inspired with such delight, + 'Twas justing all the day, and love at night. + Heaven smiled, and gladded was the heart of man; + And Venus had the world as when it first began. + At length in sleep their bodies they compose, + And dreamt the future fight, and early rose. + + Now scarce the dawning day began to spring, + As at a signal given, the streets with clamours ring: + At once the crowd arose; confused and high, + Even from the heaven was heard a shouting cry, + For Mars was early up, and roused the sky. + The gods came downward to behold the wars, + Sharpening their sights, and leaning from their stars. + The neighing of the generous horse was heard, + For battle by the busy groom prepared: + Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield, + Clattering of armour, furbished for the field. + Crowds to the castle mounted up the street; + Battering the pavement with their coursers' feet: + The greedy sight might there devour the gold + Of glittering arms, too dazzling to behold: + And polished steel that cast the view aside, + And crested morions, with their plumy pride. + Knights, with a long retinue of their squires, + In gaudy liveries march, and quaint attires. + One laced the helm, another held the lance; + A third the shining buckler did advance. + The courser pawed the ground with restless feet, + And snorting foamed, and champed the golden bit. + The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride, + Files in their hands, and hammers at their side, + And nails for loosened spears and thongs for shields provide. + The yeomen guard the streets in seemly bands; + And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands. + + The trumpets, next the gate, in order placed, + Attend the sign to sound the martial blast: + The palace yard is filled with floating tides, + And the last comers bear the former to the sides. + The throng is in the midst; the common crew + Shut out, the hall admits the better few. + In knots they stand, or in a rank they walk, + Serious in aspect, earnest in their talk; + Factious, and favouring this or t'other side, + As their strong fancies and weak reason guide; + Their wagers back their wishes; numbers hold + With the fair freckled king, and beard of gold: + So vigorous are his eyes, such rays they cast, + So prominent his eagle's beak is placed. + But most their looks on the black monarch bend; + His rising muscles and his brawn commend; + His double-biting axe, and beamy spear, + Each asking a gigantic force to rear. + All spoke as partial favour moved the mind; + And, safe themselves, at others' cost divined. + + Waked by the cries, the Athenian chief arose, + The knightly forms of combat to dispose; + And passing through the obsequious guards, he sate + Conspicuous on a throne, sublime in state; + There, for the two contending knights he sent; + Armed cap-a-pie, with reverence low they bent; + He smiled on both, and with superior look + Alike their offered adoration took. + The people press on every side to see + Their awful Prince, and hear his high decree. + Then signing to their heralds with his hand, + They gave his orders from their lofty stand. + Silence is thrice enjoined; then thus aloud + The king-at-arms bespeaks the knights and listening crowd: + "Our sovereign lord has pondered in his mind + The means to spare the blood of gentle kind; + And of his grace and inborn clemency + He modifies his first severe decree, + The keener edge of battle to rebate, + The troops for honour fighting, not for hate. + He wills, not death should terminate their strife, + And wounds, if wounds ensue, be short of life; + But issues, ere the fight, his dread command, + That slings afar, and poniards hand to hand, + Be banished from the field; that none shall dare + With shortened sword to stab in closer war; + But in fair combat fight with manly strength, + Nor push with biting point, but strike at length. + The turney is allowed but one career + Of the tough ash, with the sharp-grinded spear; + But knights unhorsed may rise from off the plain, + And fight on foot their honour to regain; + Nor, if at mischief taken, on the ground + Be slain, but prisoners to the pillar bound, + At either barrier placed; nor, captives made, + Be freed, or armed anew the fight invade: + The chief of either side, bereft of life, + Or yielded to his foe, concludes the strife. + Thus dooms the lord: now valiant knights and young, + Fight each his fill, with swords and maces long." + + The herald ends: the vaulted firmament + With loud acclaims and vast applause is rent: + Heaven guard a Prince so gracious and so good, + So just, and yet so provident of blood! + This was the general cry. The trumpets sound, + And warlike symphony is heard around. + The marching troops through Athens take their way, + The great Earl-marshal orders their array. + The fair from high the passing pomp behold; + A rain of flowers is from the window rolled. + The casements are with golden tissue spread, + And horses' hoofs, for earth, on silken tapestry tread. + The King goes midmost, and the rivals ride + In equal rank, and close his either side. + Next after these there rode the royal wife, + With Emily, the cause and the reward of strife. + The following cavalcade, by three and three, + Proceed by titles marshalled in degree. + Thus through the southern gate they take their way, + And at the list arrived ere prime of day. + There, parting from the King, the chiefs divide, + And wheeling east and west, before their many ride. + The Athenian monarch mounts his throne on high, + And after him the Queen and Emily: + Next these, the kindred of the crown are graced + With nearer seats, and lords by ladies placed. + Scarce were they seated, when with clamours loud + In rushed at once a rude promiscuous crowd, + The guards, and then each other overbare, + And in a moment throng the spacious theatre. + Now changed the jarring noise to whispers low, + As winds forsaking seas more softly blow, + When at the western gate, on which the car + Is placed aloft that bears the God of War, + Proud Arcite entering armed before his train + Stops at the barrier, and divides the plain. + Red was his banner, and displayed abroad + The bloody colours of his patron god. + + At that self moment enters Palamon + The gate of Venus, and the rising Sun; + Waved by the wanton winds, his banner flies, + All maiden white, and shares the people's eyes. + From east to west, look all the world around, + Two troops so matched were never to be found; + Such bodies built for strength, of equal age, + In stature sized; so proud an equipage: + The nicest eye could no distinction make, + Where lay the advantage, or what side to take. + + Thus ranged, the herald for the last proclaims + A silence, while they answered to their names: + For so the king decreed, to shun with care + The fraud of musters false, the common bane of war. + The tale was just, and then the gates were closed; + And chief to chief, and troop to troop opposed. + The heralds last retired, and loudly cried, + "The fortune of the field be fairly tried!" + + At this the challenger, with fierce defy, + His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply: + With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky. + Their vizors closed, their lances in the rest, + Or at the helmet pointed or the crest, + They vanish from the barrier, speed the race, + And spurring see decrease the middle space. + A cloud of smoke envelopes either host, + And all at once the combatants are lost: + Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen, + Coursers with coursers justling, men with men: + As labouring in eclipse, a while they stay, + Till the next blast of wind restores the day. + They look anew: the beauteous form of fight + Is changed, and war appears a grisly sight. + Two troops in fair array one moment showed, + The next, a field with fallen bodies strowed: + Not half the number in their seats are found; + But men and steeds lie grovelling on the ground. + The points of spears are stuck within the shield, + The steeds without their riders scour the field. + The knights unhorsed, on foot renew the fight; + The glittering fauchions cast a gleaming light; + Hauberks and helms are hewed with many a wound, + Out spins the streaming blood, and dyes the ground. + The mighty maces with such haste descend, + They break the bones, and make the solid armour bend. + This thrusts amid the throng with furious force; + Down goes, at once, the horseman and the horse: + That courser stumbles on the fallen steed, + And, floundering, throws the rider o'er his head. + One rolls along, a football to his foes; + One with a broken truncheon deals his blows. + This halting, this disabled with his wound, + In triumph led, is to the pillar bound, + Where by the king's award he must abide: + There goes a captive led on t'other side. + By fits they cease, and leaning on the lance, + Take breath a while, and to new fight advance. + + Full oft the rivals met, and neither spared + His utmost force, and each forgot to ward: + The head of this was to the saddle bent, + The other backward to the crupper sent: + Both were by turns unhorsed; the jealous blows + Fall thick and heavy, when on foot they close. + So deep their fauchions bite, that every stroke + Pierced to the quick; and equal wounds they gave and took. + Borne far asunder by the tides of men, + Like adamant and steel they met agen. + + So when a tiger sucks the bullock's blood, + A famished lion issuing from the wood + Roars lordly fierce, and challenges the food. + Each claims possession, neither will obey, + But both their paws are fastened on the prey; + They bite, they tear; and while in vain they strive, + The swains come armed between, and both to distance drive. + At length, as Fate foredoomed, and all things tend + By course of time to their appointed end; + So when the sun to west was far declined, + And both afresh in mortal battle joined, + The strong Emetrius came in Arcite's aid, + And Palamon with odds was overlaid: + For, turning short, he struck with all his might + Full on the helmet of the unwary knight. + Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow, + And turned him to his unexpected foe; + Whom with such force he struck, he felled him down, + And cleft the circle of his golden crown. + But Arcite's men, who now prevailed in fight, + Twice ten at once surround the single knight: + O'erpowered at length, they force him to the ground, + Unyielded as he was, and to the pillar bound; + And king Lycurgus, while he fought in vain + His friend to free, was tumbled on the plain. + + Who now laments but Palamon, compelled + No more to try the fortune of the field, + And, worse than death, to view with hateful eyes + His rival's conquest, and renounce the prize! + + The royal judge on his tribunal placed, + Who had beheld the fight from first to last, + Bade cease the war; pronouncing from on high, + Arcite of Thebes had won the beauteous Emily. + The sound of trumpets to the voice replied, + And round the royal lists the heralds cried, + "Arcite of Thebes has won the beauteous bride!" + + The people rend the skies with vast applause; + All own the chief, when Fortune owns the cause. + Arcite is owned even by the gods above, + And conquering Mars insults the Queen of Love. + So laughed he when the rightful Titan failed, + And Jove's usurping arms in heaven prevailed. + Laughed all the powers who favour tyranny, + And all the standing army of the sky. + But Venus with dejected eyes appears. + And weeping on the lists distilled her tears; + Her will refused, which grieves a woman most, + And, in her champion foiled, the cause of Love is lost. + Till Saturn said:--"Fair daughter, now be still, + "The blustering fool has satisfied his will; + His boon is given; his knight has gained the day, + But lost the prize; the arrears are yet to pay. + Thy hour is come, and mine the care shall be + To please thy knight, and set thy promise free." + + Now while the heralds run the lists around, + And Arcite! Arcite! heaven and earth resound, + A miracle (nor less it could be called) + Their joy with unexpected sorrow palled. + The victor knight had laid his helm aside, + Part for his ease, the greater part for pride: + Bareheaded, popularly low he bowed, + And paid the salutations of the crowd; + Then spurring, at full speed, ran headlong on + Where Theseus sat on his imperial throne; + Furious he drove, and upward cast his eye, + Where, next the Queen, was placed his Emily; + Then passing, to the saddle-bow he bent; + A sweet regard the gracious virgin lent; + (For women, to the brave an easy prey, + Still follow Fortune, where she leads the way:) + Just then from earth sprung out a flashing fire, + By Pluto sent, at Saturn's bad desire: + The startling steed was seized with sudden fright, + And, bounding, o'er the pummel cast the knight; + Forward he flew, and pitching on his head, + He quivered with his feet, and lay for dead. + + Black was his countenance in a little space, + For all the blood was gathered in his face. + Help was at hand: they reared him from the ground, + And from his cumbrous arms his limbs unbound; + Then lanced a vein, and watched returning breath; + It came, but clogged with symptoms of his death. + The saddle-bow the noble parts had prest, + All bruised and mortified his manly breast. + Him still entranced, and in a litter laid, + They bore from field, and to his bed conveyed. + At length he waked; and, with a feeble cry, + The word he first pronounced was Emily. + + Mean time the King, though inwardly he mourned, + In pomp triumphant to the town returned, + Attended by the chiefs who fought the field, + (Now friendly mixed, and in one troop compelled;) + Composed his looks to counterfeited cheer, + And bade them not for Arcite's life to fear. + But that which gladded all the warrior train, + Though most were sorely wounded, none were slain. + The surgeons soon despoiled them of their arms, + And some with salves they cure, and some with charms; + Foment the bruises, and the pains assuage, + And heal their inward hurts with sovereign draughts of sage. + The King in person visits all around, + Comforts the sick, congratulates the sound; + Honours the princely chiefs, rewards the rest, + And holds for thrice three days a royal feast. + None was disgraced; for falling is no shame, + And cowardice alone is loss of fame. + The venturous knight is from the saddle thrown, + But 'tis the fault of fortune, not his own; + If crowds and palms the conquering side adorn, + The victor under better stars was born: + + The brave man seeks not popular applause, + Nor, overpowered with arms, deserts his canse; + Unshamed, though foiled, he does the best he can: + Force is of brutes, but honour is of man. + + Thus Theseus smiled on all with equal grace, + And each was set according to his place; + With ease were reconciled the differing parts, + For envy never dwells in noble hearts. + At length they took their leave, the time expired, + Well pleased, and to their several homes retired. + + Mean while, the health of Arcite still impairs; + From bad proceeds to worse, and mocks the leech's cares; + Swoln is his breast; his inward pains increase; + All means are used, and all without success. + The clottered blood lies heavy on his heart, + Corrupts, and there remains in spite of art; + Nor breathing veins nor cupping will prevail; + All outward remedies and inward fail. + The mould of nature's fabric is destroyed, + Her vessels discomposed, her virtue void: + The bellows of his lungs begins to swell; + All out of frame is every secret cell, + Nor can the good receive, nor bad expel. + Those breathing organs, thus within opprest, + With venom soon distend the sinews of his breast. + Nought profits him to save abandoned life, + Nor vomit's upward aid, nor downward laxative. + The midmost region battered and destroyed, + When nature cannot work, the effect of art is void: + For physic can but mend our crazy state, + Patch an old building, not a new create. + Arcite is doomed to die in all his pride, + Must leave his youth, and yield his beauteous bride, + Gained hardly against right, and unenjoyed. + + When 'twas declared all hope of life was past, + Conscience, that of all physic works the last, + Caused him to send for Emily in haste. + With her, at his desire, came Palamon; + Then, on his pillow raised, he thus begun: + "No language can express the smallest part + Of what I feel, and suffer in my heart, + For you, whom best I love and value most; + But to your service I bequeath my ghost; + Which, from this mortal body when untied, + Unseen, unheard, shall hover at your side; + Nor fright you waking, nor your sleep offend, + But wait officious, and your steps attend. + How I have loved, excuse my faltering tongue, + My spirit's feeble, and my pains are strong: + This I may say, I only grieve to die, + Because I lose my charming Emily. + To die, when Heaven had put you in my power! + Fate could not choose a more malicious hour. + What greater curse could envious Fortune give, + Than just to die when I began to live! + Vain men! how vanishing a bliss we crave; + Now warm in love, now withering in the grave! + Never, O never more to see the sun! + Still dark, in a damp vault, and still alone! + This fate is common; but I lose my breath + Near bliss, and yet not blessed before my death. + Farewell! but take me dying in your arms; + 'Tis all I can enjoy of all your charms: + This hand I cannot but in death resign; + Ah, could I live! but while I live 'tis mine. + I feel my end approach, and thus embraced + Am pleased to die; but hear me speak my last: + Ah, my sweet foe! for you, and you alone, + I broke my faith with injured Palamon. + But love the sense of right and wrong confounds; + Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds. + And much I doubt, should Heaven my life prolong, + I should return to justify my wrong; + For while my former flames remain within, + Repentance is but want of power to sin. + With mortal hatred I pursued his life, + Nor he nor you were guilty of the strife; + Nor I, but as I loved; yet all combined, + Your beauty and my impotence of mind, + And his concurrent flame that blew my fire, + For still our kindred souls had one desire. + He had a moment's right in point of time; + Had I seen first, then his had been the crime. + Fate made it mine, and justified his right; + Nor holds this earth a more deserving knight + For virtue, valour, and for noble blood, + Truth, honour, all that is comprised in good; + So help me Heaven, in all the world is none + So worthy to be loved as Palamon. + He loves you too, with such a holy fire, + As will not, cannot, but with life expire: + Our vowed affections both have often tried, + Nor any love but yours could ours divide. + Then, by my love's inviolable band, + By my long suffering and my short command, + If e'er you plight your vows when I am gone, + Have pity on the faithful Palamon." + This was his last; for Death came on amain, + And exercised below his iron reign; + Then upward to the seat of life he goes; + Sense fled before him, what he touched he froze: + Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw, + Though less and less of Emily he saw; + So, speechless, for a little space he lay; + Then grasped the hand he held, and sighed his soul away. + + But whither went his soul? let such relate + Who search the secrets of the future state: + Divines can say but what themselves believe; + Strong proofs they have, but not demonstrative; + For, were all plain, then all sides must agree, + And faith itself be lost in certainty. + To live uprightly then is sure the best; + To save ourselves, and not to damn the rest. + The soul of Arcite went where heathens go, + Who better live than we, though less they know. + + In Palamon a manly grief appears; + Silent he wept, ashamed to show his tears. + Emilia shrieked but once; and then, opprest + With sorrow, sunk upon her lover's breast: + Till Theseus in his arms conveyed with care + Far from so sad a sight the swooning fair. + 'Twere loss of time her sorrow to relate; + Ill bears the sex a youthful lover's fate, + When just approaching to the nuptial state: + But, like a low-hung cloud, it rains so fast, + That all at once it falls, and cannot last. + The face of things is changed, and Athens now + That laughed so late, becomes the scene of woe. + Matrons and maids, both sexes, every state, + With tears lament the knight's untimely fate. + Not greater grief in falling Troy was seen + For Hector's death; but Hector was not then. + Old men with dust deformed their hoary hair; + The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear. + "Why wouldst thou go," with one consent they cry, + When thou hadst gold enough, and Emily?" + Theseus himself, who should have cheered the grief + Of others, wanted now the same relief: + Old AEgeus only could revive his son, + Who various changes of the world had known, + And strange vicissitudes of human fate, + Still altering, never in a steady state: + Good after ill and after pain delight, + Alternate, like the scenes of day and night. + Since every man who lives is born to die, + And none can boast sincere felicity, + With equal mind, what happens, let us bear, + Nor joy, nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. + Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; + The world's an inn, and death the journey's end. + Even kings but play, and when their part is done, + Some other, worse or better, mount the throne. + With words like these the crowd was satisfied; + And so they would have been, had Theseus died. + But he, their King, was labouring in his mind + A fitting place for funeral pomps to find, + Which were in honour of the dead designed. + And, after long debate, at last he found + (As Love itself had marked the spot of ground,) + That grove for ever green, that conscious laund, + Where he with Palamon fought hand to hand; + That, where he fed his amorous desires + With soft complaints, and felt his hottest fires, + There other flames might waste his earthly part, + And burn his limbs, where love had burned his heart. + + This once resolved, the peasants were enjoined + Sere-wood, and firs, and doddered oaks to find. + With sounding axes to the grove they go, + Fell, split, and lay the fuel in a row; + Vulcanian food: a bier is next prepared, + On which the lifeless body should be reared, + Covered with cloth of gold; on which was laid + The corps of Arcite, in like robes arrayed. + White gloves were on his hands, and on his head + A wreath of laurel, mixed with myrtle, spread. + A sword keen-edged within his right he held, + The warlike emblem of the conquered field: + Bare was his manly visage on the bier; + Menaced his countenance, even in death severe. + Then to the palace-hall they bore the knight, + To lie in solemn state, a public sight: + Groans, cries, and bowlings fill the crowded place, + And unaffected sorrow sat on every face. + Sad Palamon above the rest appears, + In sable garments, dewed with gushing tears; + His auburn locks on either shoulder flowed, + Which to the funeral of his friend he vowed; + But Emily, as chief, was next his side, + A virgin-widow and a mourning bride. + And, that the princely obsequies might be + Performed according to his high degree, + The steed, that bore him living to the fight, + Was trapped with polished steel, all shining bright, + And covered with the atchievements of the knight. + The riders rode abreast; and one his shield, + His lance of cornel-wood another held; + The third his bow, and, glorious to behold, + The costly quiver, all of burnished gold. + The noblest of the Grecians next appear, + And weeping on their shoulders bore the bier; + With sober pace they marched, and often stayed, + And through the master-street the corps conveyed. + The houses to their tops with black were spread, + And even the pavements were with mourning hid. + The right side of the pall old AEgeus kept, + And on the left the royal Theseus wept; + Each bore a golden bowl of work divine, + With honey filled, and milk, and mixed with ruddy wine. + Then Palamon, the kinsman of the slain, + And after him appeared the illustrious train. + To grace the pomp came Emily the bright, + With covered fire, the funeral pile to light. + With high devotion was the service made, + And all the rites of pagan honour paid: + So lofty was the pile, a Parthian bow, + With vigour drawn, must send the shaft below. + The bottom was full twenty fathom broad, + With crackling straw, beneath in due proportion strowed. + The fabric seemed a wood of rising green, + With sulphur and bitumen cast between + To feed the flames: the trees were unctuous fir, + And mountain-ash, the mother of the spear; + The mourner-yew and builder-oak were there, + The beech, the swimming alder, and the plane, + Hard box, and linden of a softer grain, + And laurels, which the gods for conquering chiefs ordain. + How they were ranked shall rest untold by me, + With nameless Nymphs that lived in every tree; + Nor how the Dryads and the woodland train, + Disherited, ran howling o'er the plain: + Nor how the birds to foreign seats repaired, + Or beasts that bolted out and saw the forests bared: + Nor how the ground now cleared with ghastly fright + Beheld the sudden sun, a stranger to the light. + + The straw, as first I said, was laid below: + Of chips and sere-wood was the second row; + The third of greens, and timber newly felled; + The fourth high stage the fragrant odours held, + And pearls, and precious stones, and rich array; + In midst of which, embalmed, the body lay. + The service sung, the maid with mourning eyes + The stubble fired; the smouldering flames arise: + This office done, she sunk upon the ground; + But what she spoke, recovered from her swound, + I want the wit in moving words to dress; + But by themselves the tender sex may guess. + While the devouring fire was burning fast, + Rich jewels in the flame the wealthy cast; + And some their shields, and some their lances threw, + And gave the warrior's ghost a warrior's due. + Full bowls of wine, of honey, milk and blood + Were poured upon the pile of burning wood, + And hissing flames receive, and hungry lick the food. + Then thrice the mounted squadrons ride around + The fire, and Arcite's name they thrice resound: + "Hail and farewell!" they shouted thrice amain, + Thrice facing to the left, and thrice they turned again: + Still, as they turned, they beat their clattering shields; + The women mix their cries, and clamour fills the fields. + The warlike wakes continued all the night, + And funeral games were played at new returning light: + Who naked wrestled best, besmeared with oil, + Or who with gauntlets gave or took the foil, + I will not tell you, nor would you attend; + But briefly haste to my long story's end. + + I pass the rest; the year was fully mourned, + And Palamon long since to Thebes returned: + When, by the Grecians' general consent, + At Athens Theseus held his parliament; + Among the laws that passed, it was decreed, + That conquered Thebes from bondage should be freed; + Reserving homage to the Athenian throne, + To which the sovereign summoned Palamon. + Unknowing of the cause, he took his way, + Mournful in mind, and still in black array. + + The monarch mounts the throne, and, placed on high, + Commands into the court the beauteous Emily. + So called, she came; the senate rose, and paid + Becoming reverence to the royal maid. + And first, soft whispers through the assembly went; + With silent wonder then they watched the event; + All hushed, the King arose with awful grace; + Deep thought was in his breast, and counsel in his face: + At length he sighed, and having first prepared + The attentive audience, thus his will declared: + + "The Cause and Spring of motion from above + Hung down on earth the golden chain of Love; + Great was the effect, and high was his intent, + When peace among the jarring seeds he sent; + Fire, flood, and earth and air by this were bound, + And Love, the common link, the new creation crowned. + The chain still holds; for though the forms decay, + Eternal matter never wears away: + The same first mover certain bounds has placed, + How long those perishable forms shall last; + Nor can they last beyond the time assigned + By that all-seeing and all-making Mind: + Shorten their hours they may, for will is free, + But never pass the appointed destiny. + So men oppressed, when weary of their breath, + Throw off the burden, and suborn their death. + Then, since those forms begin, and have their end, + On some unaltered cause they sure depend: + Parts of the whole are we, but God the whole, + Who gives us life, and animating soul. + For Nature cannot from a part derive + "That being which the whole can only give: + He perfect, stable; but imperfect we, + Subject to change, and different in degree; + Plants, beasts, and man; and, as our organs are, + We more or less of his perfection share. + But, by a long descent, the etherial fire + Corrupts; and forms, the mortal part, expire. + As he withdraws his virtue, so they pass, + And the same matter makes another mass: + This law the omniscient Power was pleased to give, + That every kind should by succession live; + That individuals die, his will ordains; + The propagated species still remains. + The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, + Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees; + Three centuries he grows, and three he stays, + Supreme in state, and in three more decays: + So wears the paving pebble in the street, + And towns and towers their fatal periods meet: + So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie, + Forsaken of their springs, and leave their channels dry. + So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat, + Then, formed, the little heart begins to beat; + Secret he feeds, unknowing, in the cell; + At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell, + And struggles into breath, and cries for aid; + Then helpless in his mother's lap is laid. + He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man, + Grudges their life from whence his own began; + Reckless of laws, affects to rule alone, + Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne; + First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last; + Rich of three souls, and lives all three to waste. + Some thus; but thousands more in flower of age, + For few arrive to run the latter stage. + Sunk in the first, in battle some are slain, + And others whelmed beneath the stormy main. + What makes all this, but Jupiter the king, + At whose command we perish, and we spring? + Then 'tis our best, since thus ordained to die, + To make a virtue of necessity; + Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain; + The bad grows better, which we well sustain; + And could we choose the time, and choose aright, + 'Tis best to die, our honour at the height. + When we have done our ancestors no shame, + But served our friends, and well secured our fame; + Then should we wish our happy life to close, + And leave no more for fortune to dispose; + So should we make our death a glad relief + From future shame, from sickness, and from grief; + Enjoying while we live the present hour, + And dying in our excellence and flower. + Then round our death-bed every friend should run, + And joy us of our conquest early won; + While the malicious world, with envious tears, + Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs. + Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, + Why should we mourn, that he so soon is freed, + Or call untimely what the gods decreed? + With grief as just a friend may be deplored, + From a foul prison to free air restored. + Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife, + Could tears recall him into wretched life? + Their sorrow hurts themselves; on him is lost, + And worse than both, offends his happy ghost. + What then remains, but after past annoy + To take the good vicissitude of joy; + To thank the gracious gods for what they give, + Possess our souls, and, while we live, to live? + Ordain we then two sorrows to combine, + And in one point the extremes of grief to join; + That thence resulting joy may be renewed, + As jarring notes in harmony conclude. + Then I propose that Palamon shall be + In marriage joined with beauteous Emily; + For which already I have gained the assent + Of my free people in full parliament. + Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, + And well deserved, had Fortune done him right: + 'Tis time to mend her fault, since Emily + By Arcite's death from former vows is free; + If you, fair sister, ratify the accord, + And take him for your husband and your lord, + 'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace + On one descended from a royal race; + And were he less, yet years of service past + From grateful souls exact reward at last. + Pity is Heaven's and yours; nor can she find + A throne so soft as in a woman's mind." + + He said; she blushed; and as o'erawed by might, + Seemed to give Theseus what she gave the knight. + Then, turning to the Theban, thus he said: + + "Small arguments are needful to persuade + Your temper to comply with my command:" + + And speaking thus, he gave Emilia's hand. + Smiled Venus, to behold her own true knight. + Obtain the conquest, though he lost the fight; + And blessed with nuptial bliss the sweet laborious night. + Eros and Anteros on either side, + One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride; + And long-attending Hymen from above + + Showered on the bed the whole Idalian grove. + All of a tenor was their after-life, + No day discoloured with domestic strife; + No jealousy, but mutual truth believed, + Secure repose, and kindness undeceived. + Thus Heaven, beyond the compass of his thought, + Sent him the blessing he so dearly bought. + + So may the Queen of Love long duty bless, + And all true lovers find the same success. + + + + +NOTES. + +DEDICATION. + + +Her Grace the Duchess of Ormond was by birth Lady Margaret +Somerset. Her husband, to whom Dryden dedicated the volume of +the _Fables_, was one of King William's supporters. He had been with +him at the Battle of the Boyne, in the war on the Continent, had +received marked evidences of his favor, and stood by his bedside at his +death. + +1 1. The bard. Chaucer, whose _Knight's Tale_, paraphrased as +_Palamon and Arcite_, Dryden dedicated in these verses. + +1 10. An Alexandrine, i.e., a verse of six accented syllables instead +of five. + +1 14. Plantagenet. The surname of the royal family of England +from Henry II. to Richard III. + +1 18. noblest order. The Order of the Garter, which is the highest +order of knighthood in Great Britain, was founded by Edward III. +about 1348. + +2 21, 22, 23. A triplet, i.e., three successive verses with the same +rhyme; one device of Dryden's to avoid monotony. + +2 29. Platonic year. A great cycle of years, at the end of which it +was supposed that the celestial bodies will occupy the same positions +as at the creation. + +2 42. westward. The Duchess' visit to Ireland. + +2 43. benighted Britain. Deprived of the light of her Grace's +presence. + +2 44. Triton. A son of Neptune, generally represented with the +body of a man and the tail of a fish. His duty was to calm the sea by +a blast on his conch-shell horn. + +2 45. Nereids. Nymphs of the sea as distinguished from the +Naiads, nymphs of streams and lakes. + +2 46. Etesian gale. The Etesian winds were any steady periodical +winds. + +2 48. Portunus. A lesser sea-god, more particularly the harbor-god. + +2 51, 52. In these verses Dryden shows us that he had not shaken +off entirely the conceits of his early verse. + +2 53. Hibernia. Ireland. + +2 56. His father and his grandsire. Ormond's father was the gallant +Earl of Ossory, and his grandsire, the first Duke of Ormond, +Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the famous supporter of the Stuart cause. + +3 58. Kerns. The Irish peasantry. + +3 63. Venus is the promise of the sun. Venus, as morning star, is +visible in the east just before sunrise. + +3 65. Pales. A Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds. Ceres. +The goddess of agriculture. + +3 67. three campaigns. The Jacobites had found sympathy in Ireland +and made a stand there. Vigorous efforts were made by William +to dislodge them and subjugate the island; but years passed before +civil strife was ended and peace restored. + +3 72. relics of mankind. The human beings preserved in the ark, +all that was left of mankind after the flood. + +3 82, 83. Dryden copies Virgil's golden age,_Eclogue IV_., 39, 40. + +3 87. venom never known. This refers to the absence of reptiles +in Ireland. + +4 102. New from her sickness. Recently recovered from a serious +illness. + +4 117. four ingredients. Earth, air, fire, water, then supposed to be +the elements of all created substances. + +5 125. young Vespasian. Titus Vespasianus, the conqueror of +Jerusalem, was so impressed by the beauty of the Temple that he +wept as it was destroyed. + +5 128. A most detested act of gratitude. The elegy which the +danger of her death rendered imminent. Detested because the occasion +for the act would fill him with grief. + +5 131. Morley. A celebrated physician of the seventeenth century. + +S 133. Macedon. Thessalus, the son of Hippocrates, a famous +physician of antiquity, who resided at the Macedonian court. + +5 134. Ptolemy. One of Alexander the Great's generals, who became, +after the great conqueror's death, the ruler of Egypt. + +5 138. you. Used here as a noun. + +5 151. daughter of the rose. The Duchess of Ormond was a descendant of +Somerset, who plucked the red rose in the Temple garden when Plantagenet +plucked the white,--an incident which badged the houses of York and +Lancaster during the War of the Roses. + +5 158. Penelope. The wife of Ulysses, during the long years of her +lord's absence, steadfastly withstood the persuasions of suitors, and +remained true to her husband. + +6 162. Ascanius. The son of Aeneas. Elissa. Another name for Dido. It is +Andromache, not Dido, who in Virgil's narrative presents Ascanius with +the elaborately embroidered mantle. Aeneid, Bk. III., 483, etc. + +6 168. wear the garter. Become a Knight of the Garter. + + +BOOK I. + + +7 2. Theseus. A legendary hero of Greece, son of Aegeus. He freed Athens +from human tribute to the Cretan Minotaur, with the assistance of +Ariadne, whom he deserted. Succeeded Aegeus as king of Athens. +Expedition against the Amazons resulted in a victory for him, and he +married their queen, Antiope, not Hippolyta, as in Chaucer, Shakspere, +and Dryden. He joined in Caledonian hunt, fought the Centaurs, attempted +to carry off Proserpina for Pirithous. On his return found his kingdom +usurped, and, retiring to Scyros, was treacherously killed by Lycomedes. + +7 7. warrior queen. Hippolyta, daughter of Mars, queen of the +Amazons, here confused with her sister Antiope, whom legend makes +the bride of Theseus. + +7 21. spousals. Espousal, marriage. + +7 22. tilts and turneys. Notice the anachronism of the transfer +of the mediaeval sport to legendary Greece. Dryden follows Chaucer's +general method, though here the elder poet makes no such statement. + +8 29. accidents. Happenings, literal derivation from _accidere_, to happen. + +8 31. enjoined us by mine host. The host of the Tabard, whence +Chaucer led his Canterbury pilgrims, had proposed that each member +of the company tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two on +the return, and that the best narrator should receive a supper at the +expense of the others. The plan was not fulfilled, but such stories as +were told form Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. + +8 50. weeds. Garments, not restricted to mourning garments. + +9 76. Capaneus. One of the seven heroes who marched from Argos (not +Athens) against Thebes. He defied Jupiter and was struck by lightning as +he was scaling the walls. His wife, Evadne, leaped into the flames ahd +perished. In presenting her here, Dryden followed Chaucer. + +9 81. Creon. King of Thebes, surrendered the city to Aedipus, who had +freed it from the sphinx, resumed rule after death of Aedipus' sons, +killed by his son Haeemon for cruelty to Antigone, daughter of Aedipus. + +10 116. Minotaur. A monster lurking in the labyrinth of Crete, +which devoured the tribute of seven youths and seven maidens sent by +Athens every ninth year. It was slain by Theseus. + +11 150. An Alexandrine verse. + +11 160. An Alexandrine verse. + +12 165. An Alexandrine verse. + +12 169. morn of cheerful May. The conventional month for love +in the old poets. Dryden followed Chaucer. + +12 186. Aurora. Goddess of the morning-red. Each morning she +rose from the couch of Tithonus, and drove swiftly from Oceanus to +Olympus to announce to gods and mortals the coming of day. + +13 199. Philomel. Nightingale. Philomela, dishonored by her +brother-in-law, was changed to a nightingale. + +13 214. hateful eyes. Eyes full of hate. + +14 245. horoscope. A diagram of the heavens by which astrologers +calculated nativities. Dryden resembled Chaucer in his belief in +astrology. + +14 246. Saturn in the dungeon of the sky. Arcite declares that the +horoscope of their birth predicted chains, for it showed the planet +Saturn, an evil star at best, in the dungeon of the sky. + +14 252. Unhappy planets. Planets that were thought to cause +unhappiness. + +14 258. Actaeon. He unintentionally came upon Diana and her +nymphs while they were bathing in the stream, was transformed into +a stag by the goddess, and was coursed to death by his own hounds. + +14 261. Cyprian Queen. Venus; Cyprus was a chief seat of her +worship. + +15 264. habit. Dress. We retain the word with same meaning in +riding-habit. + +16 300. Appeach. To impeach. Old form. + +17 334, 335, 336, 339. Alexandrines, possibly used by Dryden in such +close succession to show Arcite's violent emotions. + +17 342 Aesop's hounds. The hounds of the fable by Aesop. Their +story is told in succeeding verses. + +17 346, 347. These verses indicate a condition with which both Chaucer +and Dryden were very familiar. + +17 358. Pirithous. A legendary hero, between Theseus and whom +existed strong friendship. A Centaur's discourtesy to the bride at the +wedding of Pirithous was avenged by Theseus in the battle with the +Centaurs. + +17 364. His fellow to redeem him went to hell. Chaucer and Dryden +have here confused the story of Theseus and Pirithous with account +of Castor and Pollux. Theseus did not go to the lower world to rescue +Pirithous; but went with him to abduct Proserpina, and they were both +seized and held by Pluto, till Hercules rescued Theseus. + +18 382. Finds his dear purchase. Finds his purchase to be dear, +i.e., expensive. + +19 414. Fire, water, air, and earth. These were regarded by the +ancients as the primary elements of created matter. + +20 433. a certain home. The house is a definite existence. + +20 434. uncertain place. It is uncertain in the sense that the drunkard +has difficulty in finding it. + +21 493. forelays. Awaits before, a survival of an old English compound. + +21 495. thrids. Threads, as in the phrase, "threads the mazes of +the dance." + +21 498. Saturn, seated in a luckless place. A second reference to +the planet of his nativity and its unlucky position in heaven at the hour +of his birth. + +21 500. Mars and Venus in a quartil move. Mars and Venus are +here the planets. When their longitudes differ by 90 deg. they move in a +quartile. It was regarded in astrology as an omen of ill. + +23 545. slumbering as he lay. As he lay slumbering. A favorite +inversion with Chaucer. + +23 547. Hermes. Lat. Mercury, son of Jupiter. One of his chief +duties, to act as a messenger of Jupiter to carry sleep and dreams to +mortals. + +23 550. sleep-compelling rod. Hermes carried a staff, the caduceus, +given him by Apollo, about which two serpents were twined. Its touch +induced sleep. + +23 552. Argus. He had a hundred eyes and was sent by Juno to +guard the cow into which lo had been transformed. He was killed by +Mercury at the command of Jupiter, and Juno transferred his eyes to +the tail of her peacock. + +24 573. A labouring hind in show. In appearance a laboring +peasant. + +24 590. Philostratus. In Chaucer written Philostrate, and so in +Shakspere's _Midsummer Night's Dream_, the characters of which +plainly followed Chaucer. + + +BOOK II. + + +26 10. And May within the Twins received the sun. In May the +sun is in the sign of the zodiac known as Gemini, or the Twins. Dryden +here copies a favorite phrasing of Chaucer, though not used by him +in this particular instance. + +26 16. Notice the enjambment, i.e., the overflow of this verse into +the next. It very rarely occurs in Dryden's later poems. + +27 34. Style. Pen, from _stylus_. + +27 55. Graces. Three sisters, Aglaia (the brilliant), Euphrosyne +(cheerfulness), and Thalia (bloom of life). They were the daughters +of Jupiter and Aurora. + +27 58. The sultry tropic fears. At the end of May the sun, +approaching the summer solstice, gives the longest days; hence its +slowness. + +28 78. roundelay. It is technically a lyric in which a phrase or idea +is continually repeated. + +28 84. Friday. Named from Frigga, a Teutonic goddess, identified +with Venus. This day of the week among the Latin races is still named +from Venus. Italian, _Venerdi_; French,_Vendredi_. + +28 93. Cadmus. He was the son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. His sister +Europa had been carried off by Jupiter and he suffered from the +consequent jealousy of Juno. While searching for his sister he founded +Thebes, with the aid of Minerva, and was its first king. The legend of +Cadmus indicates the introduction of written language from the East, the +Theban city was. Compare "_Ilium fuit_" of Virgil, Aeneid, Bk. II., 325. + +30 153. Our arms shall plead the titles of our love. We will make +good our right to love by strife in arms. + +31 165. pawn. Pledge,i.e., each has pledged his faith. + +31 182. hopes. Hopes for, syncope. + +32 196. foin. To thrust with a weapon, a term used in fencing. +32 228. lively. Bright, like the living green of vegetation. + +32 329. the tuneful cry. Compare _Midsummer Night's Dream,_ +Act IV., Sc. I. + +33 232. goddess of the silver bow. Diana, goddess of the chase,--her +symbol, the crescent moon; hence the silver bow. + +33 237. forth-right. Straight forward; an archaism. + +33 245. strook. Archaic for struck. + +33 258. listed field. A field properly arranged for a tournament. + +35 313. quire. Group. This is the proper spelling, not choir; see +Bk. I., v. 41. + +35 314. contended maid. The maid contended for. + +36 344, 347. In these verses Dryden follows Chaucer, but states the +thought more forcibly. He was undoubtedly glad of the chance to slap +the powers that were. + +38 400. share a single bed. Two lovers cannot marry the same +woman. + +38 414. From out the bars. Beyond the barriers,i.e., out of the lists. + +38 415. recreant. Acknowledging defeat. + +39 445. degrees. With the seats raised in tiers. + +39 461. myrtle wand. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. + +39 465. Queen of Wight. Diana, because she was goddess of the +moon. + +39 467. oratories. Places for prayer. + +40483. Sigils. Literally, a seal or sign; here an occult sign or mark +in astrology, another evidence of Dryden's leaning toward that +so-called science, for Chaucer makes no such statement here. + +40 498. Idalian mount. Idalium, a town in Cyprus sacred to Venus; +here, as often, confused with Mount Ida. + +40 498. Citheron. Cythera, not Citheron, is the island near which +Venus rose from the sea, and a famous seat of her worship. Cithaeron +is a mountain in Boeotia sacred to Zeus. + +41 505. Medea's charms. Medea, daughter of Aetes, king of Colchis, +was a famous sorceress of antiquity. She aided Jason to get the +golden fleece, and fled with him. Deserted by him, she subsequently +became involved with Theseus and Hercules, eventually going to Asia. +From her sprung the Medes. + +41 505. Circean feasts. A mythical sorceress, who feasted mariners +landed on her shores, and by charmed drinks changed them to swine. +Ulysses spent a year with her, and frustrated her arts. + +41 515. bare below the breast. Bare from the shoulders to a point +below the breasts. + +41534. scurf. Scaly matter on the surface,--scum. + +42 536. knares. Knots on, a tree; an archaism. + +42 544. bent. A declivity or slope. + +42 558. tun. A huge cask for holding wine, ale, etc. + +43 590. overlaid. Lain upon by the nurse to smother it. + +44 604. Mars his ides. The Ides of March, the date of Caesar's +assassination. The month was named from the god. + +44 607. Antony, Infatuated with Cleopatra, he lost his empire. +Dryden had previously told the story in his best play,_All for Love_. + +44 614. geomantic. Pertaining to geomancy, the art of divining +future events by means of signs connected with the earth. The figure +here represents two constellations, Rubeus, which signifies Mars +direct, Puella, Mars retrograde. + +44 616. direct... retrograde. The motion of a planet is direct +when it seems to move from west to east in the zodiac, and retrograde +when its apparent motion is reversed. + +44 623. Calisto. Properly Callisto, one of Diana's nymphs. Jupiter +loved her and changed her to a bear to escape the notice of Juno; +but the latter discovered the ruse, and caused Diana to kill the bear. +Thereupon Jupiter transferred her to heaven as the constellation of +Arctos, in which is the pole-star. + +44 631. Peneian Daphne. Daughter of the river-god Peneus. +Loved by Apollo and pursued by him, she prayed for assistance, +and was changed into a laurel tree. Thenceforth the laurel became +Apollo's favorite tree. + +44 634. Calydonian beast. A huge boar sent by Diana to devastate the +territory of Aeneus, king of Calydon in Atolia, because he had not paid +her due honor. Theseus, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Nestor, all the famous +heroes gathered to destroy the beast, and with them the swift-footed +maiden Atalanta. Her arrow gave the first wound. The story is +exquisitely told by Swinburne in Atalanta in Calydon. + +44 635. Aenides. Meleager, son of Aeneus, who actually killed the +boar. He loved Atalanta and gave to her the head and hide of the +animal as a trophy. Jealously attacked by his uncles, he slew them. +At his birth, the fates had prophesied his death when a certain brand +upon the hearth should have burned. Thereupon his mother plucked +it from the fire, quenched it, and put it away. Angered by the death +of her brothers, she throws this brand upon the fire. It is consumed, +and Meleager dies. + +45 639. The Volscian queen. Camilla, an Amazon, allied with +Turnus in his strife with Aeneas in Italy. She was treacherously +killed by Aruns, while pursuing a fleeing enemy. As Aruns was +stealthily withdrawing, he was slain by an arrow, fired by one of +Diana's nymphs. + +45 654. Lucina. The name given to Diana as one of the goddesses +who presides at childbirth. + +45 661, 662. Inserted by Dryden, a satirical reference to the wretched +Whig poets then in favor, and to his own removal from royal patronage. + + +BOOK III. + + +47 28. juppon. A light coat worn over armor, reaching to mid-thigh +and finished in points at the bottom. + +47 31. Pruce. Prussia. + +47 35. jambeux. Armor for the legs, from the French _jambe_, leg. + +47 39. Lycurgus. King of Thrace; he persecuted Bacchus, and +was made mad by that god. In his madness he slew his son under the +impression that he was cutting down vines. The country now produced +no fruit, and the inhabitants carried the impious king to Mount +Pangaeus, where he was torn to pieces by horses. + +48 63. Emetrius. A creation of Chaucer's whom Dryden follows. +Notice the poet's unusual representation of an Indian prince with fair +complexion and yellow hair. + +48 88. Upon his fist he bore. It was customary in the time of +Chaucer to hunt with tame falcons, which were carried perched upon +the wrist when not after quarry. + +49 99. So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode. Bacchus, +a son of Jupiter, was the god of wine. His birth and up-bringing were +attended with dangers bred by the jealousy of Juno. When full grown, +Juno drove him mad, and in this state he journeyed over the earth. +He spent several years in India, introducing the vine and elements of +civilization. It was on his return that he was expelled from Thrace by +Lycurgus. + +49 103. prime. Early morning, the first hour after sunrise. + +49 109. harbinger. One who provides or secures lodgings for another, +from the Old French herbegtsr, whence harbor. + +49 120. Phosphor. Light bringer, from phos and phero. + +49 124. preventing. With the literal significance of the word, coming +before, i.e., he rose before day. + +50 134. Thy month. May referred to as the month of Venus, since +it is, in the poets, particularly a season for love-making. + +50 145. gladder. Thou who makest glad. + +50 146. Increase. Offspring of Jove. + +50 147. Adonis. A beautiful youth, loved by Venus, with whom he +spent eight months of the year. When he was killed by a boar, so +great was the sorrow of the goddess, that the deities of the nether +world allowed her to possess him for half of each year. + +51 164. Notice the force of Palamon's request. He cares not so +much for glory of conquest as for the delights of possession. His +prayer is answered, for, though conquered, he eventually weds Emilia. + +51 168. your fifth orb. The heavens werel supposed to consist of +concentric hollow spheres called orbs, and the sun, moon, stars, and +planets moved in their respective orbs, the planet Venus in the fifth. + +51 169. clue. Thread. + +51 172. And let the Sisters cut below your line. The sisters are the +three Fates. Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis held it, and +Atropos cut it. Palamon is willing that the Fates end his life, if they +will first allow him to enjoy love. + +51 191. Cynthia. Another name for Diana, from Mount Cynthus, +her birthplace. + +51 193. Vests. Vestments, robes. + +52 200. Uncouth. Literally, unknown, hence strange. + +52 205. Well-meaners think no harm. Compare the famous epigram +adopted by the Order of the Garter: "_honi soit qui mal y pense_" +(shamed be he who thinks evil of it). This order was founded during +Chaucer's life, and this sentiment may have been in his mind. + +52 208. mastless oak. Oak leaves without acorns, i.e., without the +fruit, hence an appropriate garland for a maid. + +52 212. Statius. A Latin author who died 96 A.D. Among his +works was an heroic poem in twelve books, embodying the legends +touching the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. + +52 231. Niobe. She was the mother of seven sons and seven +daughters, and so thought herself superior to Latona, who had given +birth to only two, Apollo and Diana. To avenge their mother, they +slew all of Niobe's children with their darts. Hence the "devoted" +children, i.e., devoted to death. + +53 231. gust. The sense or pleasure of tasting, hence relish; more +common form, gusto. + +53 232. thy triple shape. Diana is often confused with Hecate, a +most mysterious divinity. Hecate is represented with three heads and +three bodies, and possessed the attributes of Luna in heaven, of Diana +on earth, and of Proserpina in the lower world. + +53 238. frowning stars. If the stars at her birth were such and so +placed that they boded ill, they might be said to frown. + +53 250-260. The omen foretells the event. One altar seems extinguished +and then relights when the other goes out entirely. So Palamon seems to +fail, but eventually wins Emilia after the death of Arcite. + +54 290. planetary hour. This was the fourth hour of the day. + +54 291. heptarchy. A rule by seven. It refers here to the seven +great gods, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Vulcan, Apollo, Mercury. + +55 297. Hyperborean. Beyond the North. Applied originally to a +blessed people who dwelt beyond the north wind. + +55 320. Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled. Vulcan, the husband +of Venus, once discovered improper relations between her and +Mars, and he entrapped the guilty pair in the meshes of an invisible +net and exposed them to the laughter of the gods. This passage would +appeal to the taste of Dryden's Restoration readers, and is developed +with a light grace, characteristic of the period. + +55 325-332. In these verses the poet brings out the character of +Arcite, a more mannish man than Palamon. + +56 355, 356. Arcite prays for victory; nothing else will satisfy. He +obtains his prayer, but loses Emily. + +57 389. trined. An astrological term, meaning that the planets +Saturn and Venus were distant from each other 120 deg., or one-third of +the zodiac, a benign aspect. + +57 390. with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined. Both Mars and +Saturn were in the sign of the zodiac, Capricorn. + +58 401. watery sign. The so-called watery signs of the zodiac +were Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. When Saturn is in one of these +signs, look out for shipwreck. + +58 402. earthy. The so-called earthy signs were Taurus, Virgo, +and Capricornus. When Saturn is in one of these signs, look out for +the dungeon. + +58 408, 409. Though these verses are taken from Chaucer, they +fitted Dryden's times and sentiment; for he had seen his own king, +James II., ousted from his throne and supplanted by William and +Mary. He was not in sympathy with the Revolution. + +58 410. housing in the lion's hateful sign. Saturn in the sign Leo +was regarded as baleful. + +58 411. This verse is Dryden's own, and contains satirical reference +to Whig disloyalty at the time of the Revolution of '88. + +58 418. pestilence. Both Chaucer and Dryden had experienced +great plagues in London, the Black Death in the fourteenth century +and the Great Plague of 1665. + +58 432. gladded. Made glad. + +59 452. morions with their plumy pride. A helmet with a crest of +feathers. + +59 453. retinue. Here accented on the penult. + +59 459. palfrey. A small horse in contrast with the mighty war horse. + + +59 463. clowns. The peasants, the common people. + +60 480. double-biting axe. Two-edged battle-ax. + +60 489. Armed cap-a-pe. From head to foot. From the old +French, _de cap a pie_. + +60 497. king-at-arms. The chief of the heralds, an important +office in the Middle Ages. + +61 512. The turney is allowed but one career. The two bands of +knights shall rush together on horseback but once. + +61 516. at mischief taken. Caught at a disadvantage. + +63 569. equipage. So well equipped. + +63 590. justling. An archaism for jostling. + +64 603. Hauberks. A part of mail armor, originally intended to +protect neck and shoulders; later it reached to the knees. + +65 669. the rightful Titan failed. The Titans were the six sons +and six daughters of Ccelus and Terra. One of them, Saturn, indignant +at the tyranny of his father, dethroned him with the others' aid. +The Titans then ruled in heaven with Saturn at their head. A prophecy +to the effect that one of his children would dethrone him caused him +to swallow each one as it was born; but Jupiter was concealed at his +birth and grew to manhood. He compelled Saturn to disgorge his +brothers and sisters, and in company with them waged a ten years' war +against the Titans. They were overcome and hurled to the depths +below Tartarus, while Jupiter usurped the throne of heaven. + +66 697, 698. A touch of light satire in Chaucer which Dryden repeats +with gusto, for it tallied well with the sentiments of his day. + +67 709. lanced a vein. The sovereign remedy in the olden time +was blood-letting. + +67 726. charms. They played an important part in medical practice, +not only in Chaucer's time, but later even than Dryden. + +68 750. leech's cares. Leech was a common name for doctor. + +68 755. breathing veins nor cupping. Two different methods of +bleeding. To breathe a vein was to open the vein directly. To cup +was to apply the cupping glass, which, being a partial vacuum, caused +the flesh to puff up in it, and then the lancet was used. + +68 772. against right. Arcite is said to have gained Emily against +right, because Palamon, having seen and loved her first, had priority of +claim. + +72 877 Aegeus. According to the generally accepted legend, +Aegeus, Theseus' father, had died when Theseus returned from Crete, +years before. + +72 889, 890. These verses are an insertion by Dryden, and are another +reference to the change of dynasty at the Revolution of 1688, +when James II. was dethroned, and William, Prince of Orange, +succeeded him. + +72 898. conscious laund. Knowing lawn or glade, i.e., the spot that had +been familiar with their first encounter. Laund is, of course, an archaism. + +72 905. Sere-wood. Modern form, searwood, wood dry enough to +burn well. + +72 905. doddered oaks. Oaks covered with dodder, that is, with +parasitic plants, and therefore dead or dying. + +72 908. Vulcanian food. Food for fire, Vulcan being the god of +fire. + +73 940. master-street. Main street of the town. + +74 953. Parthian bow. The Parthians were famous bowmen. + +74 955. fathom. A fathom is a measure of six feet. + +74 956. strowed. Archaism for strewn. + +75 998. wakes. A wake is, literally, an all-night watch by the body +of the dead, sometimes attended by unseemly revelry. Here it refers +to the celebration of funeral rites for Arcite. + +75 1007. Theseus held his parliament. Theseus is reputed to +have introduced constitutional government in Attica. + +76 1031. The principle of the indestructibility of matter, a result +of scientific investigation, which in Dryden's time was attracting +much attention. + +76 1039. suborn. To procure by indirect means. + +77 1076. vegetive. Growing, having the power of growth. + +78 nil. annoy. Annoyance. + +79 1114. while we live, to live. To live happily while life lasts. + +79 1144. Eros and Anteros. Both different names for the god of +love, Eros signifying direct, sensual love, and Anteros, return love. + +79 1146. long-attending Hymen. Hymen, the god of marriage, +had waited long to consummate this match. + +80 1154, 1155. This couplet is original with Dryden, and forms a + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Palamon and Arcite, by John Dryden + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALAMON AND ARCITE *** + +***** This file should be named 7490.txt or 7490.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/4/9/7490/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Charles Franks and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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