And hereth hym / come russhyng in the greues
And breketh / bothe bowes / and the leues
And thynketh / heere cometh my mortal enemy
With oute faile / he moot be deed / or I
Line 1644
ffor outher / I moot sleen hym at the gappe
Or he moot sleen me / if þat me myshappe
So ferden they / in chaungyng of hir hewe
As fer / as euerich of hem oother knewe
Line 1648
¶ Ther nas no good day ne no saluyng
But streight with outen word / or rehersyng
Euerich of hem / heelpe for to armen oother
As freenly / as he were his owene brother
Line 1652
And after that with sharpe speres stronge
They foynen ech at oother wonder longe
Thou myghtest wene / that this Palamon
In his fightyng were [as] a wood leon
Line 1656
And as a crueel Tigre was Arcite
As wilde bores / gonne they to smyte
That frothen whit as foom / for Ire wood
Vp to the Anclee / foghte they in hir blood
Line 1660
¶ And in this wise / I lete hem fightyng dwelle [folio 22b]
And forth I wole / of Theseus yow telle
The destinee / Ministre general
That executeth / in the world ouer al
Line 1664
The purueiaunce / that god hath seyn biforn
So strong it is / þat though the world had sworn
The contrarie of a thyng by ye or nay
Yet somtyme / it shal fallen on a day
Line 1668
That falleth nat eft with Inne a thousand yeere
ffor certeinly / oure appetites heere
Be it of werre / or pees / or hate / or loue
Al is this reuled / by the sighte aboue
Line 1672
¶ This mene I now / by myghty Theseus
That for to hunten / is so desirus
And namely / at the grete hert in May
That in his bed / ther daweth hym no day
Line 1676
