Thou daily feeft that fun of beauty fhine,
And lov'ft at least in love's extremest line.
I mourn in absence, love's eternal night;
And who can tell but fince thou haft her fight,
And art a comely, young, and valiant knight,
Fortune (a various pow'r) may ceafe 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 loathfom life in care,
For my reward, must end it in despair.

Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates
That governs all, and heav'n that all creates,
Nor art, nor nature's hand can ease 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 those they trufted with their life,
A favor'd fervant, or a bofom wife.

Such dear-bought bleffings happen ev'ry 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 ev'ry pace.
Thus all feek happiness; but few can find,
For far the greater part of men are blind,
C 3

}

This

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 lofe the fight of Emily.
Thus Arcite; but if Arcite thus deplore
His fuff'rings, 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 ftares, he ftamps the ground;
The hollow tow'r with clamours rings around:
With briny tears he bathed his fetter'd feet,
And dropp'd all o'er with agony of sweat.
Alas! he cry'd! I wretch in prison pine,
Too happy rival, while the fruit is thine:
Thou liv'it at large, thou draw'ft thy native air,
Pleas'd with thy freedom, proud of my defpair:
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 difgrace;
And after, by fome treaty made, poffefs
Fair Emily, the pledge of lafting peace.
So thine shall 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.
The rage of jealousy then fir'd his foul,
And his face kindled like a burning coal:
Now cold defpair, fucceeding in her stead,
To livid palenefs turns the glowing red.
His blood, fcarce liquid, creeps within his veins,
Like water which the freezing wind conftrains.
Then thus he faid: Eternal Deities,
Who rule the world with abfolute decrees,
And write whatever time shall bring to pass,
With pens of adamant, on plates of brafs;

What,

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 flain.
Cold, hunger, prisons, ills without a cure,
All these he muft, and guiltlefs oft endure;
Or does your juftice, pow'r, or prescience fail;
When the good fuffer, and the bad prevail ?
What worse to wretched virtue could befal,
If fate or giddy fortune govern'd all ?
Nay, worfe than other beafts is our estate;
Them, to pursue their pleasures, you create;
We, bound by harder laws, muft curb our will,
And
your commands, not our defires, fulfil;
Then when the creature is unjustly slain,
Yet after death at least he feels no pain;
But man in life furcharg'd with woe before,
Not freed when dead, is doom'd to fuffer more.
A ferpent shoots his sting at unaware;

An ambush'd thief forelays a traveller:

The man lies murder'd, while the thief and snake,
One gains the thickets, and one thrids the brake.
This let divines decide; but well I know,

Juft, or unjust, I have my share of woe,
Through Saturn feated in a lucklefs place,
And Juno's wrath, that perfecutes my race;
Or Mars and Venus, in a quartil, move
My pangs of jealousy for Arcite's love.

Let Palamon opprefs'd in bondage mourn,
While to his exil'd rival we return.

By this, the fun, declining from his height,
The day had fhorten'd to prolong the night:
The lengthen'd 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 banish'd never hopes his love to fee,

Nor hopes the captive lord his liberty:
'Tis hard to fay who fuffers greater pains:

One fees his love, but cannot break his chains:

One free, and all his motions uncontrol'd,

Beholds whate'er he wou'd, but what he wou'd behold.
Judge as you please, for I will hafte to tell
What fortune to the banish'd knight befel.
When Arcite was to Thebes return'd again,
The lofs of her he lov'd renew'd his pain;
What cou'd be worse, than never more to fee
His life, his foul, his charming Emily?
He rav'd with all the madness of despair,
He roar'd, he beat his breaft, he tore his hair.
Dry forrow in his ftupid eyes appears,
For wanting nourishment, he wanted tears:
His eye-balls in their hollow fockets fink,
Bereft of fleep he loaths his meat and drink,
He withers at his heart, and looks as wan
As the pale spectre of a murder'd man:
That pale turns yellow, and his face receives
The faded hue of sapless boxen leaves :
In folitary groves he makes his moan,
Walks early out, and ever is alone:

Nor, mix'd in mirth, in youthful pleafures fhares,
But fighs when fongs and inftruments he hears.
His fpirits are fo low, his voice is drown'd,
He hears as from afar, or in a fwoon,
Like the deaf murmurs of a diftant found:
Uncomb'd his locks, and fqualid his attire,
Unlike the trim of love and gay defire;
But full of mufeful mopings, which prefage
The lofs of reason, and conclude in rage.
This when he had endur'd a year and more,
Now wholly chang'd from what he was before,
It happen'd once, that, flumb'ring as he lay,
He dream'd, (his dream began at break of day)

That Hermes o'er his head in air appear'd, And with foft words his drooping fpirits chear'd: His hat, adorn'd with wings, difclos'd the God, And in his hand he bore the fleep-compelling rod: Such as he feem'd, when, at his fire's command, On Argus' head he laid the fnaky wand. Arife, he said, to conqu'ring Athens go, There fate appoints an end to all thy woe. The fright awaken'd Arcite with a start, Against his bofom bounc'd his heaving heart; But foon he said, with fcarce-recover'd breath, And thither will I go, to meet my death, Sure to be flain; but death is my defire, Since in Emilia's fight I fhall expire. By chance he spy'd a mirror while he spoke, And gazing there beheld his alter'd look; Wond'ring, he faw his features and his hue

So much were chang'd, that scarce himself he knew. A fudden thought then starting in his mind,

Since I in Arcite cannot Arcite find,

The world may fearch in vain with all their eyes, But never penetrate thro' this disguise.

Thanks to the change which grief and fickness give,
In low estate I may fecurely live,

And fee unknown my mistress day by day.
He faid; and cloth'd himself in coarse array :
A lab'ring hind in fhew; then forth he went,
And to th' Athenian tow'rs his journey bent:
One fquire attended in the same disguise,
Made confcious of his mafter's enterprize.
Arriv'd at Athens foon he came to court,
Unknown, unqueftion'd in that thick refort:
Proff'ring for hire his fervice at the gate,
To drudge, draw water, and to run or wait.
So fair befel him, that for little gain
He ferv'd at first Emilia's chamberlain ;