As courtiers therefore juftle for a gran
And when they break their friendship

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So thou, if fortune will thy fuit advance,
Love on, nor envy me my equal chance :
For I must love, and am refolv'd to try
My fate, or failing in th' adventure die.

Great was their ftrife, which hourly was renew'd,
Till each with mortal hate his rival view'd:

Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand;
But when they met, they made a furly stand;
And glar'd like angry lions as they pass'd,
And wish'd that every look might be their laft.
It chanc'd at length, Pirithous came t'attend
This worthy Thefeus, his familiar friend ;
Their love in early infancy began,

And rofe as childhood ripen'd into man.
Companions of the war; and lov'd fo well,
That when one dy'd, as ancient stories tell,
His fellow to redeem him went to hell.

But to pursue my tale; to welcome home
His warlike brother is Pirithous come:

Arcite of Thebes was known in arms long fince,
And honour'd by this young Theffalian prince.
Thefeus, to gratify his friend and guest,
Who made our Arcite's freedom his request,
Reftor'd to liberty the captive knight,
But on thefe hard conditions I recite:
That if hereafter Arcite fhould be found
Within the compafs of Athenian ground,
By day or night, or on whate'er pretence,
His head fhould pay the forfeit of th' offence.

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To this Pirithous for his friend agreed,
And on his promife was the prisoner freed.
Unpleas'd and pensive hence he takes his way,
At his own peril; for his life must pay.
Who now but Arcite mourns his bitter fate,
Finds his dear purchase, and repents too late?
What have I gain'd, he said, in prison pent,
If I but change my bonds for banishment?
And banish'd from her fight, I fuffer more
In freedom, than I felt in bonds before;
Forc'd from her prefence, and condemn'd to live;
Unwelcome freedom, and unthank'd reprieve:
Heaven is not, but where Emily abides
And where she's abfent, all is hell befides.
Next to my day of birth, was that accurft,
Which bound my friendship to Pirithous first :
Had I not known that prince, I still had been
In bondage, and had ftill Emilia seen :
For though I never can her grace deserve,
'Tis recompence enough to see and serve.
O Palamon, my kinsman and my friend,
How much more happy fates thy love attend!
Thine is th' adventure; thine the victory :

Well has thy fortune turn'd the dice for thee:
Thou on that angel's face may't feed thine eyes,
In prifon, no; but blissful paradise !

Thou daily feeft that fun of beauty shine,
And lov'ft at least in love's extremeft line.

I mourn

I mourn in absence, love's eternal night;
And who can tell but fince thou hast her sight,
And art a comely, young, and valiant knight,
Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown,
And by fome ways unknown thy wishes crown?
But I, the moft forlorn of human kind,

Nor help can hope, nor remedy can find;
But, doom'd to drag my loathsome life in care,
For my reward, must end it in despair.
Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates
That governs all, and heaven that all creates,
Nor art, nor nature's hand can eafe my grief;
Nothing but death, the wretch's last relief:
Then farewel youth, and all the joys that dwell,
With youth and life, and life itself farewel.

But why, alas! do mortal men in vain
Of fortune, fate, or Providence complain?
God gives us what he knows our wants require,
And better things than those which we defire :
Some pray
for riches; riches they obtain;
But, watch'd by robbers, for their wealth are flain;
Some pray from prison to be freed;
and come,
When guilty of their vows, to fall at home ;
Murder'd by thofe they trufted with their life,
A favour'd fervant, or a bofom wife.

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

Yet knows not how to find th' uncertain place,
And blunders on, and staggers every pace.
Thus all feek happiness; but few can find,
For far the greater part of men are blind.
This is my cafe, who thought our utmost good.
Was in one word of freedom understood:
The fatal bleffing came: from prison free,
I ftarve abroad, and lose the fight of Emily.
Thus Arcite; but if Arcite thus deplore
His fufferings, Palamon yet fuffers more.
For when he knew his rival freed and gone,
He fwells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan:
He frets, he fumes, he flares, he ftamps the ground;
The hollow tower with clamours rings around:
With briny tears he bath'd his fetter'd feet,

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

Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine:
Thou liv'ft at large, thou draw'st thy native air,
Pleas'd with thy freedom, proud of my despair:
Thou mayft, fince thou haft youth and courage join'd,
A fweet behaviour and a folid mind,
Affemble ours, and all the Theban race,
To vindicate on Athens thy disgrace ¿
And after, by fome treaty made, poffefs
Fair Emily, the pledge of lafting peace.
So thine fhall be the beauteous prize, while I
Muft languish in defpair, in prifon die.
Thus all th' advantage of the ftrife is thine,

Thy portion double joys, and double forrows mine.

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