The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene &c., &c., &c., ed. for popular perusal with current illustrations and explanatory notes, by D. Laing Purves.

32 THE CANTERBURY TALES.
To Thebes-ward, his friendes for to pray Is gearful,14 right so changeth she array.
On Theseus to help him to warray.1 Seldom is Friday all the weeke like.
And shortly either he would lose his life, When Arcite had y-sung, he gan to sike,l5
Or winnen Emily unto his wife. And sat him down withouten any more:
This is th' effect, and his intention plain. "Alas! " quoth h," the day that I was bore!
Now will I turn to Arcita again, How longS, Juno, through thy cruelty
That little wist how nighe was his care, Wilt thou warrayen16 Thebes the city?
Till that Fortine had brought him in the snare. Alas! y-brought is to confusion
The busy lark, the messenger of day, The blood royal of Cadm' and Amphion:
Saluteth in her song the morning gray; Of Cadmus, which that was the firste man,
And fiery Phoebus riseth up so bright, That Thebes built, or first the town began,
That all the orient laugheth at the sight, And of the city first was crowned king.
And with his streames 2 drieth in the greves 3 Of his lineage am I, and his offspring
The silver droppes, hanging on the leaves; By very line, as of the stock royal;
And Arcite, that is in the court royal And now I am so caitiff and so thrall,l7
With Theseus, his squier principal, That he that is my mortal enemy,
Is ris'n, and looketh on the merry day. I serve him as his squier poorely.
And for to do his 6bservance to May, And yet doth Juno me well morb shame,
Remembering the point 4 of his desire, For I dare not beknow 18 mine owen name,
He on his courser, starting as the fire, But there as I was wont to hight Arcite,
Is ridden to the fieldes him to play, Now hight I Philostrate, not worth a mite.
Out of the court, were it a mile or tway. Alas! thou fell Mars, and alas! Juno,
And to the grove, of which I have you told, Thus hath your ire our lineage all fordo'.19
By aventure his way began to hold, Save only me, and wretched Palamon,
To makB him a garland of the greves,3 That Theseus martfreth in pris6n.
Were it of woodbine, or of hawthorn leaves, And over all this, to slay me utterly,
And loud he sang against the sun so sheen.5 Love hath his fiery dart so brenningly 20
" O May, with all thy flowers and thy green, Y-sticked through my true careful heart,
Right welcome be thou, faire freshB May, That shapen was my death erst than my shert.2
I hope that I some green here getten may." Ye slay me with your eyen, Emily;
And from his courser, with a lusty heart, Ye be the cause wherefore that I die.
Into the grove full hastily he start, Of all the remnant of mine other care
And in a path he roamed up and down, Ne set I not the mountance of a tare,22
There as by fventure this Palamon So that I could do aught to your pleasance."
Was in a bush, that no man might him see, And with that word he fell down in a trance
For sore afeared of his death was he. A longe time; and afterward upstart
Nothing ne knew he that it was Arcite; This Palamon, that thought thorough his heart
God wot he would have trowed it full lite.6 He felt a cold sword suddenly to glide:
But sooth is said, gone since full many years,7 For ire he quoke,2 no longer would he hide.
The field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears. And when that he had heard Arcite's tale,
It is full fair a man to bear him even,8 As he were wood,24 with face dead and pale,
For all day meeten men at unset steven.9 He start him up out of the bushes thick,
Full little wot Arcite of his fellaw, And said: " False Arcita, false traitor wick',25
That was so nigh to hearken of his saw,10 Now art thou hent,26 that lov'st my lady so,
For in the bush he sitteth now full still. For whom that I have all this pain and woe,
When that Arcite had roamed all his fill, And art my blood, and to my counsel sworn,
And sungen all the roundel 1 lustily, As I full oft have told thee herebeforn,
Into a study he fell suddenly, And hast bejaped27 here Duke Theseus,
As do those lovers in their quainte gears,l2 And falsely changed hast thy name thus;
Now in the crop, and now down in the breres,l3 I will be dead, or ellbs thou shalt die.
Now up, now down, as bucket in a well. Thou shalt not love my lady Emily,
Right as the Friday, soothly for to tell, But I will love her only and no mo';
Now shineth it, and now it raineth fast, For I am Palamon thy mortal foe.
Right so can geary 14 Venus overcast And though I have no weapon in this place,
The heartes of her folk, right as her day But out of prison am astart 28 by grace,
l To make war; French, "guerroyer," to molest; 14 Changeful, full of "gears" or humours, inconhence, perhaps, "to worry." stant.
2 Beams, rays. 3 Groves. 4 Object. 15 Sigh. 16 Torment.
5 Shining, bright. 6 Full little believed it. 17 So wretched and enslaved.
7 It is an old and true saying. 18 Avow, acknowledge; German, -" bekennen."
8 To be always of the same demeanour; on his guard. 19 Undone, ruined. 20 Burningly.
9 Every day men meet at unexpected time. To 21 My death was decreed before my shirt was shaped
" set a steven," is to fix a time, make an appointment. -that is, before any clothes were made for me, before
o1 Saying, speech. my birth.
11 Roundelay; song coming round again to the words 22 The value of a tare or a straw.
with which it opened. 12 Odd fashions. 23 Or "quook," from "quake," as "shook" from
13 Now in the tree-top, now in the briars. "Crop "shake." 21 Mad.
and root," top and bottom, is used to express the per- 25 Wicked. 26 Caught.
fection or totality of anything. 27 Deceived, imposed upon, 28 Escaped.