But he ne wot which is the right way thider, 1265 And certes in this world fo faren we. But we go wrong ful often trewely. 1270 1257 Of all our ftri£, God wot, the frute is thin. 1285 And of my wo thou yevest litel charge. . 1281. The pure fetters] The very fetters; fo in the Duck. ver. 583, the pure deth. The Greeks used zabapos in the fame fenfe, (Txwv natapos. Avery 'Timon, Ariftoph. Opv. 1548,] and the Latins purus putus. See Froif. v. ¡¡, c. 104, fur Angioisde courage. Volume 11. G And make a werre fo fharpe on this contree, Thou maist have hire to lady and to wif Sith thou art at thy large of prison free, And art a lord, gret is thin avantage, 1290 1295 More than is min, that fterve here in a cage: 1300 The box-tree, or the afhen ded and cold. Than faid he; O cruel Goddes! that governe 1305 This world with binding of your word eterne, And writen in the table of athamant Your parlement and your eterne grant, What is mankind more unto yhold Than is the fhepe that rouketh in the fold? 1310 For flain is man right as another beeft, What governance is in this prefcience That gilteles turmenteth innocence? 1315 And yet encrefeth this all my penance, But man after his deth mote wepe and pleine, The answer of this lete I to divines, That many a trewe man hath do mefchefe,' Now wol I ftent of Palamon a lite," The fommer paffeth, and the nightes long 1320 1325 1330 1335 1340 In chaines and in fetters to ben ded; 1343 You lovers axe I now this queftion, Who hath the werfe, Arcite of Palamon? 1350 That on may fe his lady day by day, But in prifon mofte he dwellen alway: That other wher him luft may ride or go, Now demeth as you lifte, ye that can, 1355 For I wol tell you forth as I began. Whan that Arcite to Thebes comen was, Ful oft a day he fwelt and faid Alas! For fen his lady fhal he never mo. And fhortly to concluden all his wo, 1360 So mochel forwe hadde never creature That is or fhal be while the world may dure. His flepe, his mete, his drinke, is him byraft, That lene he wex, and drie as is a fhaft. His eyen holwe, and grifly to behold, 1365 His hewe falwe, and pale as afhen cold, And folitary he was, and ever alone, And wailing all the night, making his mone: V. 1346. exiled on his bed So in Froi. v. i. c. 241. orders were given "que nul fur fa tefte ne s'advancaft d'aller devant." In v. ii. c. 41, he ufes indifferently "fur la tefte" and "fur "peine de la tefte." And if he herde fong or inftrument, Than wold he wepe, he mighte not be ftent. 1370 And changed fo, that no man coude know 1375 1380 Whan he endured had a yere or two At Thebes, in his contree, as I faid, This cruel torment, and this peine and wo, Upon a night in flepe as he him laid, 1385 Him thought how that the winged god Mercury 1390 v. 1378. Beforne his bed in his celle] This is the reading of mf. E. The m. C. i, and HA. read beforn his oven celle--and perhaps their authority ought to have been followed in the text |