And madness laughing in his ireful mood;
And arm'd complaint on theft; and cries of blood.
There was the murder'd corpfe, in covert laid,
And violent death in thousand shapes display'd:
The city to the foldier's rage refign'd :
Succefslefs wars, and poverty behind:

Ships burnt in fight, or forc'd on rocky fhores,
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's nature, flame and steel;
The gasping charioteer, beneath the wheel
Of his own car; the ruin'd house that falls
And intercepts her lord betwixt the walls:
The whole divifion that to Mars pertains,
All trades of death that deal in fteel for gains,
Were there: the butcher, armourer, and fmith,
Who forges sharpen'd faulchions, or the scythe.
The fcarlet conqueft on a tower was plac'd,
With shouts, and foldiers acclamations grac’d :
A pointed fword hung threatening o'er his head,
Suftain'd but by a flender twine of thread.
There faw I Mars's ides, the capitol,
The feer in vain foretelling Cæfar's fall;
The last triumvirs, and the wars they move,
And Anthony, who loft 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

The form of Mars high on a chariot stood,
All fheath'd in arms, and gruffly look'd the God:
Two geomantic figures were display'd

Above his head, a warrior and a maid;
One when direct, and one when retrograde,
Tir'd with deformities of death, I haste
To the third temple of Diana chafte.

A sylvan scene with various greens was drawn,
Shades on the fides, and on the midst a lawn:
The filver Cynthia, with her nymphs around,

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Pursued the flying deer, the woods with horns refound : Califto there ftood manifest of shame,

And, turn'd a bear, the northern star became

Her fon was next, and by peculiar grace

In the cold circle held the fecond place:

The ftag Acteon in the stream had spy'd
The naked huntress, and, for feeing, dy'd :
His hounds, unknowing of his change, purfue
The chace, and their mistaken mafter flew.
Peneian Daphne too was there to fee,
Apollo's love before, and now his tree:

Th' adjoining fane th' affembled Greeks exprefs'd,
And hunting of the Caledonian beast.
Oenides' valour, and his envy'd prize;
The fatal power of Atalanta's eyes;
Diana's vengeance on the victor shown,
The murdrefs mother; and confuming fon;
The Volfcian queen extended on the plain;
The treason punish'd, and the traitor flain.

VOL. II.

H

The

The rest were various huntings, well defign'd,
And favage beasts destroy'd, of every kind.
The graceful goddess was array'd in green ;
About her feet were little beagles feen,

That watch'd with upward eyes the motions of their queen.

Her legs were buskin'd, and the left before;
In act to shoot, a filver bow the bore,
And at her back a painted quiver wore.

She trod a wexing moon, that foon would wane,
And drinking borrow'd light, be fill'd again :
With downcaft eyes, as feeming to survey
The dark dominions, her alternate sway.
Before her stood a woman in her throes,
And call'd Lucina's aid, her burden to disclose.
All these the painter drew with fuch command,
That Nature fnatch'd the pencil from his hand,
Afham'd and angry that his art could feign
And mend the tortures of a mother's pain.
Thefeus beheld the fanes of every God,
And thought his mighty cost was well beftow'd.
So princes now their poets should regard ;

But few can write, and fewer can reward.

The theatre thus rais'd, the lifts enclos'd,
And all with vaft magnificence difpos'd,
We leave the monarch pleas'd, and haste to bring
The knights to combat; and their arms to fing.

PALA

PALAMON AND ARCITE:

OR, THE KNIGHT's TALE.

TH

BOOK III.

HE day approach'd when Fortune should decide Th' important enterprize, and give the bride; For now, the rivals round the world had fought, And each his rival, well appointed, brought. The nations, far and near, contend in choice, And fend the flower of war by public voice; That after, or before, were never known Such chiefs, as each an army seem'd alone: Befide the champions: all of high degree, Who knighthood lov'd, and deeds of chivalry, Throng'd to the lifts, and envy'd to behold The names of others, not their own, enroll'd. Nor feems it ftrange; for every noble knight Who loves the fair, and is endued with might, In fuch a quarrel would be proud to fight. There breathes not scarce a man on British ground (An ifle for love and arms of old renown'd) But would have fold his life to purchase fame, To Palamon or Arcite fent his name:

And had the land felected of the beft,

Half had come hence, and let the world provide the reft. A hundred knights with Palamon there came,

Approv'd in fight, and men of mighty name;

Their arms were feveral, as their nations were,
But furnish'd all alike with fword and fpear.
Some wore coat armour, imitating fcale;

And next their skins were stubborn fhirts of mail.
Some wore a breaft-plate and a light juppon,
Their hortes cloth'd with rich caparison :

Some for defence would leathern bucklers ufe,
Of folded hides; and others fhields of pruce.
One hung a pole-axe at his faddle-bow,
And one a heavy mace to fhun the foe;
One for his legs and knees provided well,
With jambeux arm'd, and double plates of steel:
This on his helmet wore a lady's glove,
And that a fleeve embroider'd by his love.
With Palamon above the rest in place,
Lycurgus came, the furly king of Thrace;
Black was his beard, and manly was his face;
The balls of his broad eyes roll'd in his head,
And glar'd betwixt a yellow and a red :-
He look'd a lion with a gloomy ftare,

And o'er his eye-brows hung his matted hair:
Big-bon'd, and large of limbs, with finews ftrong,
Broad-fhoulder'd, and his arms were round and long.
Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian ufe of old)
Were yok'd to draw his car of burnish'd gold.
Upright he stood, and bore aloft his shield,
Confpicuous from afar, and overlook'd the field.
His furcoat was a bear-skin on his back;
His hair hung long behind, and gloffy raven black.

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