BOOK III.

The day approached when Fortune should decide

The important enterprize, and give the bride;

For now the rivals round the world had sought,

And each his number, well-appointed, brought.

The nations, far and near, contend in choice,

And send the flower of war by public voice;

That after, or before, were never known

Such chiefs, as each an army seemed alone:

Beside the champions, all of high degree,

Who knighthood loved, and deeds of chivalry,

Thronged to the lists, and envied to behold

The names of others, not their own, enrolled.

Nor seems it strange; for every noble knight, }

Who loves the fair, and is endued with might, }

In such a quarrel would be proud to fight. }

There breathes not scarce a man on British ground,

(An isle for love, and arms, of old renowned,)

But would have sold his life to purchase fame,

To Palamon or Arcite sent his name;

And had the land selected of the best,

Half had come hence, and let the world provide the rest.

A hundred knights with Palamon there came,

Approved in fight, and men of mighty name;

Their arms were several, as their nations were,

But furnished all alike with sword and spear.

Some wore coat armour, imitating scale,

And next their skins were stubborn shirts of mail;

Some wore a breastplate and a light juppon,

Their horses clothed with rich caparison;

Some for defence would leathern bucklers use,

Of folded hides, and others shields of Pruce.[158]

One hung a pole-axe at his saddle-bow,

And one a heavy mace to stun the foe;

One for his legs and knees provided well,

With jambeux[159] armed, and double plates of steel;[160]

This on his helmet wore a lady's glove,

And that a sleeve embroidered by his love.

With Palamon, above the rest in place, }

Lycurgus came, the surly king of Thrace; }

Black was his beard, and manly was his face: }

The balls of his broad eyes rolled in his head,

And glared betwixt a yellow and a red;

He looked a lion with a gloomy stare,

And o'er his eye-brows hung his matted hair;

Big-boned, and large of limbs, with sinews strong,

Broad-shouldered, and his arms were round and long:

Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian use of old)

Were yoked to draw his car of burnished gold.

Upright he stood, and bore aloft his shield,

Conspicuous from afar, and overlooked the field.

His surcoat was a bear-skin on his back;

His hair hung long behind, and glossy raven-black.

His ample forehead bore a coronet

With sparkling diamonds, and with rubies set;

Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair, }

And tall as stags, ran loose, and coursed around his chair, }

A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear. }

With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound,

And collars of the same their necks surround.

Thus through the field Lycurgus took his way;

His hundred knights attend in pomp and proud array.

To match this monarch, with strong Arcite came

Emetrius king of Inde, a mighty name!

On a bay courser, goodly to behold,

The trappings of his horse embossed with barbarous gold.

Not Mars bestrode a steed with greater grace;

His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace,

Adorned with pearls, all orient, round, and great;

His saddle was of gold, with emeralds set;

His shoulders large a mantle did attire,

With rubies thick, and sparkling as the fire;

His amber-coloured locks in ringlets run,

With graceful negligence, and shone against the sun.

His nose was aquiline, his eyes were blue,

Ruddy his lips, and fresh and fair his hue;

Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen,

Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin:

His awful presence did the crowd surprise,

Nor durst the rash spectator meet his eyes;

Eyes that confessed him born for kingly sway,

So fierce, they flashed intolerable day.

His age in nature's youthful prime appeared,

And just began to bloom his yellow beard.

Whene'er he spoke, his voice was heard around,

Loud as a trumpet, with a silver sound;

A laurel wreathed his temples, fresh and green,

And myrtle sprigs, the marks of love, were mixed between.

Upon his fist he bore, for his delight,

An eagle well reclaimed, and lily white.

His hundred knights attend him to the war,

All armed for battle, save their heads were bare.

Words and devices blazed on every shield,

And pleasing was the terror of the field.

For kings, and dukes, and barons, you might see, }

Like sparkling stars, though different in degree, }

All for the increase of arms, and love of chivalry. }

Before the king tame leopards led the way,

And troops of lions innocently play.

So Bacchus through the conquered Indies rode,

And beasts in gambols frisked before the honest god.

In this array, the war of either side

Through Athens passed with military pride.

At prime, they entered on the Sunday morn;

Rich tapestry spread the streets, and flowers the posts[161] adorn.

The town was all a jubilee of feasts;

So Theseus willed, in honour of his guests:

Himself with open arms the kings embraced,

Then all the rest in their degrees were graced.

No harbinger was needful for the night,

For every house was proud to lodge a knight.

I pass the royal treat, nor must relate

The gifts bestowed, nor how the champions sate;

Who first, who last, or how the knights addressed

Their vows, or who was fairest at the feast;

Whose voice, whose graceful dance did most surprise;

Soft amorous sighs, and silent love of eyes.

The rivals call my muse another way,

To sing their vigils for the ensuing day.

'Twas ebbing darkness, past the noon of night,

And Phosphor, on the confines of the light,

Promised the sun; ere day began to spring, }

The tuneful lark already stretched her wing, }

And flickering on her nest, made short essays to sing, }

When wakeful Palamon, preventing day, }

Took to the royal lists his early way, }

To Venus at her fane, in her own house, to pray. }

There, falling on his knees before her shrine,

He thus implored with prayers her power divine:--

Creator Venus, genial power of love,

The bliss of men below, and Gods above!

Beneath the sliding sun thou runn'st thy race,

Dost fairest shine, and best become thy place.

For thee the winds their eastern blasts forbear,

Thy month reveals the spring, and opens all the year.

Thee, Goddess, thee the storms of winter fly, }

Earth smiles with flowers renewing, laughs the sky, }

And birds to lays of love their tuneful notes apply. }

For thee the lion loaths the taste of blood,

And roaring hunts his female through the wood;

For thee the bulls rebellow through the groves,

And tempt the stream, and snuff their absent loves.

'Tis thine, whate'er is pleasant, good, or fair; }

All nature is thy province, life thy care; }

Thou mad'st the world, and dost the world repair. }

Thou gladder of the mount of Cytheron,

Increase of Jove, companion of the sun!

If e'er Adonis touched thy tender heart,

Have pity, Goddess, for thou know'st the smart!

Alas! I have not words to tell my grief;

To vent my sorrow would be some relief:

Light sufferings give us leisure to complain;

We groan, but cannot speak, in greater pain.

O Goddess, tell thyself what I would say,

Thou know'st it, and I feel too much to pray.

So grant my suit, as I enforce my might

In love to be thy champion, and thy knight;

A servant to thy sex, a slave to thee,

A foe profest to barren chastity.

Nor ask I fame or honour of the field,

Nor choose I more to vanquish than to yield:

In my divine Emilia make me blest,

Let fate, or partial chance, dispose the rest:

Find thou the manner, and the means prepare;

Possession, more than conquest, is my care.

Mars is the warrior's God; in him it lies

On whom he favours to confer the prize;

With smiling aspect you serenely move

In your fifth orb, and rule the realm of love.

The fates but only spin the coarser clue,

The finest of the wool is left for you.

Spare me but one small portion of the twine,

And let the sisters cut below your line:

The rest among the rubbish may they sweep,

Or add it to the yarn of some old miser's heap.

But, if you this ambitious prayer deny,

(A wish, I grant, beyond mortality,)

Then let me sink beneath proud Arcite's arms,

And I, once dead, let him possess her charms!--

Thus ended he; then, with observance due,

The sacred incense on her altar threw:

The curling smoke mounts heavy from the fires;

At length it catches flame, and in a blaze expires;

At once the gracious Goddess gave the sign,

Her statue shook, and trembled all the shrine:

Pleased Palamon the tardy omen took;

For, since the flames pursued the trailing smoke,

He knew his boon was granted; but the day

To distance driven, and joy adjourned with long delay.

Now morn with rosy light had streaked the sky,

Up rose the sun, and up rose Emily;

Addressed her early steps to Cynthia's fane,

In state attended by her maiden train,

Who bore the vests that holy rites require,

Incense, and odorous gums, and covered fire.

The plenteous horns with pleasant mead they crown,

Nor wanted aught besides in honour of the moon.

Now while the temple smoked with hallowed steam,

They wash the virgin in a living stream;

The secret ceremonies I conceal,

Uncouth, perhaps unlawful, to reveal:

But such they were as pagan use required,

Performed by women when the men retired,

Whose eyes profane their chaste mysterious rites

Might turn to scandal, or obscene delights.

Well-meaners think no harm; but for the rest,

Things sacred they pervert, and silence is the best.

Her shining hair, uncombed, was loosely spread,

A crown of mastless oak adorned her head:

When to the shrine approached, the spotless maid

Had kindling fires on either altar laid:

(The rites were such as were observed of old,

By Statius in his Theban story told.)

Then kneeling with her hands across her breast,

Thus lowly she preferred her chaste request:--

O Goddess, haunter of the woodland green,

To whom both heaven and earth and seas are seen;

Queen of the nether skies, where half the year

Thy silver beams descend, and light the gloomy sphere;

Goddess of maids, and conscious of our hearts,

So keep me from the vengeance of thy darts,

(Which Niobe's devoted issue felt,

When hissing through the skies the feathered deaths were dealt,)

As I desire to live a virgin life,

Nor know the name of mother or of wife.

Thy votress from my tender years I am,

And love, like thee, the woods and sylvan game.

Like death, thou know'st, I loath the nuptial state, }

And man, the tyrant of our sex, I hate, }

A lowly servant, but a lofty mate; }

Where love is duty, on the female side;

On their's mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride.

Now by thy triple shape, as thou art seen

In heaven, earth, hell, and every where a queen,

Grant this my first desire; let discord cease,

And make betwixt the rivals lasting peace:

Quench their hot fire, or far from me remove

The flame, and turn it on some other love;

Or if my frowning stars have so decreed,

That one must be rejected, one succeed,

Make him my lord, within whose faithful breast

Is fixed my image, and who loves me best.

But, oh! even that avert! I chuse it not,

But take it as the least unhappy lot.

A maid I am, and of thy virgin train;

Oh, let me still that spotless name retain!

Frequent the forests, thy chaste will obey,

And only make the beasts of chace my prey!--

The flames ascend on either altar clear,

While thus the blameless maid addressed her prayer.

When lo! the burning fire, that shone so bright,

Flew off all sudden, with extinguished light,

And left one altar dark a little space,

Which turned self-kindled, and renewed the blaze;

That[162] other victor-flame a moment stood,

Then fell, and lifeless left the extinguished wood;

For ever lost, the irrevocable light

Forsook the black'ning coals, and sunk to night:

At either end it whistled as it flew, }

And as the brands were green, so dropped the dew; }

Infected as it fell with sweat of sanguine hue. }

The maid from that ill omen turned her eyes,

And with loud shrieks and clamours rent the skies;

Nor knew what signified the boding sign,

But found the powers displeased, and feared the wrath divine.

Then shook the sacred shrine, and sudden light

Sprung through the vaulted roof, and made the temple bright.

The Power, behold! the Power in glory shone,

By her bent bow and her keen arrows known;

The rest, a huntress issuing from the wood,

Reclining on her cornel spear she stood.

Then gracious thus began:--Dismiss thy fear,

And heaven's unchanged decrees attentive hear:

More powerful gods have torn thee from my side,

Unwilling to resign, and doomed a bride:

The two contending knights are weighed above;

One Mars protects, and one the Queen of love:

But which the man, is in the Thunderer's breast;

This he pronounced, 'tis he who loves thee best.

The fire, that, once extinct, revived again,

Foreshews the love allotted to remain.

Farewell!--she said, and vanished from the place;

The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case.

Aghast at this, the royal virgin stood,

Disclaimed, and now no more a sister of the wood:

But to the parting Goddess thus she prayed; }

Propitious still, be present to my aid, }

Nor quite abandon your once-favoured maid.-- }

Then sighing she returned; but smiled betwixt,

With hopes, and fears, and joys with sorrows mixt.

The next returning planetary hour

Of Mars, who shared the heptarchy of power,

His steps bold Arcite to the temple bent,

To adore with pagan rites the power armipotent:

Then prostrate low before his altar lay,

And raised his manly voice, and thus began to pray:--

Strong God of Arms, whose iron sceptre sways

The freezing North, and Hyperborean seas,

And Scythian colds, and Thracia's wintry coast,

Where stand thy steeds, and thou art honoured most:

There most; but every where thy power is known,

The fortune of the fight is all thy own:

Terror is thine, and wild amazement, flung

From out thy chariot, withers even the strong;

And disarray and shameful rout ensue,

And force is added to the fainting crew--

Acknowledged as thou art, accept my prayer!

If aught I have achieved deserve thy care;

If to my utmost power with sword and shield }

I dared the death, unknowing how to yield, }

And falling in my rank, still kept the field, }

Then let my arms prevail, by thee sustained,

That Emily by conquest may be gained.

Have pity on my pains; nor those unknown

To Mars, which, when a lover, were his own.

Venus, the public care of all above,

Thy stubborn heart has softened into love:

Now, by her blandishments and powerful charms,

When yielded she lay curling in thy arms,

Even by thy shame, if shame it may be called,

When Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled;

(O envied ignominy, sweet disgrace,

When every God that saw thee wished thy place!)

By those dear pleasures, aid my arms in fight,

And make me conquer in my patron's right:

For I am young, a novice in the trade,

The fool of love, unpractised to persuade:

And want the soothing arts that catch the fair,

But, caught myself, lie struggling in the snare;

And she I love, or laughs at all my pain,

Or knows her worth too well, and pays me with disdain.

For sure I am, unless I win in arms,

To stand excluded from Emilia's charms:

Nor can my strength avail, unless, by thee

Endued with force, I gain the victory;

Then for the fire which warmed thy generous heart,

Pity thy subject's pains, and equal smart.

So be the morrow's sweat and labour mine,

The palm and honour of the conquest thine:

Then shall the war, and stern debate, and strife

Immortal, be the business of my life;

And in thy fane, the dusty spoils among,

High on the burnished roof, my banner shall be hung,

Ranked with my champions' bucklers; and below,

With arms reversed, the achievements of my foe;

And while these limbs the vital spirit feeds,

While day to night, and night to day succeeds,

Thy smoking altar shall be fat with food

Of incense, and the grateful steam of blood;

Burnt-offerings morn and evening shall be thine,

And fires eternal in thy temple shine.

This bush of yellow beard, this length of hair,

Which from my birth inviolate I bear,

Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free,

Shall fall a plenteous crop, reserved for thee.

So may my arms with victory be blest,

I ask no more, let fate dispose the rest.--

The champion ceased: there followed in the close

A hollow groan; a murmuring wind arose;

The rings of iron, that on the doors were hung,

Sent out a jarring sound, and harshly rung:

The bolted gates flew open at the blast,

The storm rushed in, and Arcite stood aghast;

The flames were blown aside, yet shone they bright,

Fanned by the wind, and gave a ruffled light.

Then from the ground a scent began to rise,

Sweet smelling as accepted sacrifice:

This omen pleased, and, as the flames aspire,

With odorous incense Arcite heaps the fire:

Nor wanted hymns to Mars, or heathen charms:

At length the nodding statue clashed his arms,

And with a sullen sound and feeble cry,

Half-sunk, and half-pronounced the word of victory.

For this, with soul devout, he thanked the God,

And, of success secure, returned to his abode.

These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above

Betwixt the God of War and Queen of Love.

She, granting first, had right of time to plead;

But he had granted too, nor would recede.

Jove was for Venus, but he feared his wife,

And seemed unwilling to decide the strife;

Till Saturn from his leaden throne arose,

And found a way the difference to compose:

Though sparing of his grace, to mischief bent,

He seldom does a good with good intent.

Wayward, but wise; by long experience taught,

To please both parties, for ill ends, he sought:

For this advantage age from youth has won,

As not to be outridden, though outrun.

By fortune he was now to Venus trined,

And with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined:

Of him disposing in his own abode,

He soothed the Goddess, while he gulled the God:--

Cease, daughter, to complain, and stint the strife;

Thy Palamon shall have his promised wife:

And Mars, the lord of conquest, in the fight

With palm and laurel shall adorn his knight.

Wide is my course, nor turn I to my place,

Till length of time, and move with tardy pace.

Man feels me, when I press the ethereal plains;

My hand is heavy, and the wound remains.

Mine is the shipwreck, in a watery sign;

And in an earthy, the dark dungeon mine.

Cold shivering agues, melancholy care, }

And bitter blasting winds, and poisoned air, }

Are mine, and wilful death, resulting from despair. }

The throttling quinsey 'tis my star appoints,

And rheumatisms ascend to rack the joints:

When churls rebel against their native prince,

I arm their hands, and furnish the pretence;

And housing in the lion's hateful sign,

Bought senates, and deserting troops are mine.[163]

Mine is the privy poisoning; I command

Unkindly seasons, and ungrateful land.

By me king's palaces are pushed to ground,

And miners crushed beneath their mines are found.

'Twas I slew Sampson, when the pillared hall

Fell down, and crushed the many with the fall.

My looking is the sire of pestilence,

That sweeps at once the people and the prince.

Now weep no more, but trust thy grandsire's art;

Mars shall be pleased, and thou perform thy part.

'Tis ill, though different your complexions are,

The family of heaven for men should war.--

The expedient pleased, where neither lost his right;

Mars had the day, and Venus had the night.

The management they left to Chronos' care;

Now turn we to the effect, and sing the war.

In Athens, all was pleasure, mirth, and play,

All proper to the spring, and spritely May:

Which every soul inspired with such delight,

'Twas jesting all the day, and love at night.

Heaven smiled, and gladded was the heart of man;

And Venus had the world as when it first began.

At length in sleep their bodies they compose,

And dreamt the future fight, and early rose.

Now scarce the dawning day began to spring,

As at a signal given, the streets with clamours ring:

At once the crowd arose; confused and high, }

Even from the heaven, was heard a shouting cry, }

For Mars was early up, and rouzed the sky. }

The gods came downward to behold the wars,

Sharpening their sights, and leaning from their stars.

The neighing of the generous horse was heard,

For battle by the busy groom prepared:

Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield,

Clattering of armour, furbished for the field.

Crowds to the castle mounted up the street,

Battering the pavement with their coursers' feet:

The greedy sight might there devour the gold

Of glittering arms, too dazzling to behold;

And polished steel, that cast the view aside,

And crested morions, with their plumy pride.

Knights, with a long retinue of their squires,

In gaudy liveries march, and quaint attires.

One laced the helm, another held the lance;

A third the shining buckler did advance.

The courser pawed the ground with restless feet,

And snorting foamed, and champed the golden bit.

The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride, }

Files in their hands, and hammers at their side, }

And nails for loosened spears, and thongs for shields provide.[164] }

The yeomen guard the streets, in seemly bands;

And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands.

The trumpets, next the gate, in order placed,

Attend the sign to sound the martial blast:

The palace-yard is filled with floating tides,

And the last comers bear the former to the sides.

The throng is in the midst; the common crew

Shut out, the hall admits the better few

In knots they stand, or in a rank they walk,

Serious in aspect, earnest in their talk:

Factious, and favouring this or t'other side.

As their strong fancies and weak reason guide.

Their wagers back their wishes; numbers hold

With the fair freckled king, and beard of gold:

So vigorous are his eyes, such rays they cast,

So prominent his eagle's beak is placed.

But most their looks on the black monarch bend,

His rising muscles, and his brawn commend;

His double-biting axe, and beamy spear,

Each asking a gigantic force to rear.

All spoke as partial favour moved the mind;

And, safe themselves, at others' cost divined.

Waked by the cries, the Athenian chief arose,

The knightly forms of combat to dispose;

And passing through the obsequious guards, he sate

Conspicuous on a throne, sublime in state;

There, for the two contending knights he sent;

Armed cap-a-pee, with reverence low they bent;

He smiled on both, and with superior look

Alike their offered adoration took.

The people press on every side to see

Their awful prince, and hear his high decree.

Then signing to the heralds with his hand,

They gave his orders from their lofty stand.

Silence is thrice enjoined; then thus aloud

The king at arms bespeaks the knights and listening crowd:--

Our sovereign lord has pondered in his mind

The means to spare the blood of gentle kind;

And of his grace, and inborn clemency,

He modifies his first severe decree,

The keener edge of battle to rebate,

The troops for honour fighting, not for hate.

He wills, not death should terminate their strife,

And wounds, if wounds ensue, be short of life;

But issues, ere the fight, his dread command,

That slings afar, and poniards hand to hand,

Be banished from the field; that none shall dare

With shortened sword to stab in closer war;

But in fair combat fight with manly strength,

Nor push with biting point, but strike at length.

The tourney is allowed but one career,

Of the tough ash, with the sharp-grinded spear;

But knights unhorsed may rise from off the plain,

And fight on foot their honour to regain;

Nor, if at mischief[165] taken, on the ground

Be slain, but prisoners to the pillar bound,

At either barrier placed; nor (captives made,)

Be freed, or armed anew the fight invade.

The chief of either side, bereft of life,

Or yielded to his foe, concludes the strife.

Thus dooms the lord; now, valiant knights and young,

Fight each his fill with swords and maces long.--

The herald ends: The vaulted firmament

With loud acclaims and vast applause is rent:

Heaven guard a prince so gracious and so good,

So just, and yet so provident of blood!

This was the general cry. The trumpets sound,

And warlike symphony is heard around.

The marching troops through Athens take their way,

The great earl-marshal orders their array.

The fair from high the passing pomp behold;

A rain of flowers is from the windows rolled.

The casements are with golden tissue spread,

And horses hoofs, for earth, on silken tapestry tread.

The king goes midmost, and the rivals ride

In equal rank, and close his either side.

Next after these, there rode the royal wife,

With Emily, the cause, and the reward of strife.

The following cavalcade, by three and three,

Proceed by titles marshalled in degree.

Thus through the southern gate they take their way,

And at the lists arrived ere prime of day.

There, parting from the king, the chiefs divide,

And wheeling east and west, before their many ride.

The Athenian monarch mounts his throne on high,

And after him the queen and Emily:

Next these, the kindred of the crown are graced

With nearer seats, and lords by ladies placed.

Scarce were they seated, when with clamours loud

In rushed at once a rude promiscuous crowd:

The guards, and then each other overbear,

And in a moment throng the spacious theatre.

Now changed the jarring noise to whispers low,

As winds forsaking seas more softly blow;

When at the western gate, on which the car

Is placed aloft, that bears the God of war,

Proud Arcite, entering armed before his train,

Stops at the barrier, and divides the plain.

Red was his banner, and displayed abroad

The bloody colours of his patron God.

At that self moment enters Palamon

The gate of Venus, and the rising Sun;

Waved by the wanton winds, his banner flies,

All maiden white, and shares the people's eyes.

From east to west, look all the world around,

Two troops so matched were never to be found;

Such bodies built for strength, of equal age,

In stature sized; so proud an equipage:

The nicest eye could no distinction make,

Where lay the advantage, or what side to take.

Thus ranged, the herald for the last proclaims

A silence, while they answered to their names:

For so the king decreed, to shun with[166] care

The fraud of musters false, the common bane of war.

The tale was just, and then the gates were closed;

And chief to chief, and troop to troop opposed.

The heralds last retired, and loudly cried,--

The fortune of the field be fairly tried!

At this, the challenger, with fierce defy, }

His trumpets sounds; the challenged makes reply. }

With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky. }

Their vizors closed, their lances in the rest,

Or at the helmet pointed, or the crest,

They vanish from the barrier, speed the race,

And spurring see decrease the middle space.

A cloud of smoke envelopes either host,

And all at once the combatants are lost:

Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen,

Coursers with coursers jostling, men with men:

As labouring in eclipse, a while they stay,

Till the next blast of wind restores the day.

They look anew; the beauteous form of fight

Is changed, and war appears a grizzly sight.[167]

Two troops in fair array one moment shewed,

The next, a field with fallen bodies strewed:

Not half the number in their seats are found;

But men and steeds lie grovelling on the ground.

The points of spears are stuck within the shield,

The steeds without their riders scour the field.

The knights, unhorsed, on foot renew the fight;

The glittering faulchions cast a gleaming light;

Hauberks and helms are hewed with many a wound;

Out spins the streaming blood, and dyes the ground.

The mighty maces with such haste descend,

They break the bones, and make the solid armour bend.

This thrusts amid the throng with furious force;

Down goes, at once, the horseman and the horse:

That courser stumbles on the fallen steed,

And floundring throws the rider o'er his head.

One rolls along, a foot-ball to his foes;

One with a broken truncheon deals his blows.

This halting, this disabled with his wound,

In triumph led, is to the pillar bound,

Where by the king's award he must abide;

There goes a captive led on t'other side.

By fits they cease; and leaning on the lance,

Take breath a while, and to new fight advance.

Full oft the rivals met, and neither spared

His utmost force, and each forgot to ward.

The head of this was to the saddle bent,

That[168] other backward to the crupper sent:

Both were by turns unhorsed; the jealous blows

Fall thick and heavy, when on foot they close.

So deep their faulchions bite, that every stroke

Pierced to the quick, and equal wounds they gave and took.

Borne far asunder by the tides of men,

Like adamant and steel they meet again.

So when a tyger sucks the bullock's blood, }

A famished lion issuing from the wood }

Roars lordly fierce, and challenges the food. }

Each claims possession, neither will obey,

But both their paws are fastened on the prey;

They bite, they tear; and while in vain they strive,

The swains come armed between, and both to distance drive.

At length, as fate foredoomed, and all things tend

By course of time to their appointed end;

So when the sun to west was far declined,

And both afresh in mortal battle joined,

The strong Emetrius came in Arcite's aid,

And Palamon with odds was overlaid:

For turning short, he[169] struck with all his might

Full on the helmet of the unwary knight.

Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow,

And turned him to his unexpected foe;

Whom with such force he struck, he felled him down,

And cleft the circle of his golden crown.

But Arcite's men, who now prevailed in fight,

Twice ten at once surround the single knight:

O'erpowered, at length, they force him to the ground,

Unyielded as he was, and to the pillar bound;

And king Lycurgus, while he fought in vain

His friend to free, was tumbled on the plain.

Who now laments but Palamon, compelled

No more to try the fortune of the field!

And, worse than death, to view with hateful eyes

His rival's conquest, and renounce the prize!

The royal judge on his tribunal placed,

Who had beheld the fight from first to last,

Bade cease the war; pronouncing from on high

Arcite of Thebes had won the beauteous Emily.

The sound of trumpets to the voice replied, }

And round the royal lists the heralds cried,-- }

Arcite of Thebes has won the beauteous bride! }

The people rend the skies with vast applause;

All own the chief, when fortune owns the cause.

Arcite is owned even by the Gods above,

And conquering Mars insults the Queen of Love.

So laughed he, when the rightful Titan failed,

And Jove's usurping arms in heaven prevailed.

Laughed all the powers who favour tyranny,

And all the standing army of the sky.[170]

But Venus with dejected eyes appears,

And, weeping, on the lists distilled her tears;

Her will refused, which grieves a woman most,

And, in her champion foiled, the cause of Love is lost.

Till Saturn said:--Fair daughter, now be still:

The blustering fool has satisfied his will;

His boon is given; his knight has gained the day,

But lost the prize; the arrears are yet to pay.

Thy hour is come, and mine the care shall be

To please thy knight, and set thy promise free.

Now while the heralds run the lists around,

And Arcite, Arcite, heaven and earth resound;

A miracle (nor less could it be called)

Their joy with unexpected sorrow palled.

The victor knight had laid his helm aside,

(Part for his ease, the greater part for pride,)

Bare-headed, popularly low he bowed,

And paid the salutations of the crowd;

Then, spurring, at full speed, ran endlong on

Where Theseus sat on his imperial throne;

Furious he drove, and upward cast his eye,

Where next the queen was placed his Emily;

Then passing, to the saddle-bow he bent;

A sweet regard the gracious virgin lent;

(For women, to the brave an easy prey,

Still follow Fortune where she leads the way;)

Just then from earth sprung out a flashing fire,[171]

By Pluto sent, at Saturn's bad desire:

The startling steed was seized with sudden fright,

And, bounding, o'er the pommel cast the knight:

Forward he flew, and, pitching on his head,

He quivered with his feet, and lay for dead.

Black was his countenance in a little space,

For all the blood was gathered in his face.

Help was at hand: they reared him from the ground,

And from his cumberous arms his limbs unbound;

Then lanced a vein, and watched returning breath;

It came, but clogged with symptoms of his death.

The saddle-bow the noble parts had prest,

All bruised and mortified his manly breast.

Him still entranced, and in a litter laid,

They bore from field, and to his bed conveyed.

At length he waked, and with a feeble cry,

The word he first pronounced was Emily.

Meantime the king, though inwardly he mourned,

In pomp triumphant to the town returned,

Attended by the chiefs, who fought the field;

(Now friendly mixed, and in one troop compelled.)

Composed his looks to counterfeited cheer,

And bade them not for Arcite's life to fear.

But that which gladded all the warrior train,

Though most were sorely wounded, none were slain.

The surgeons soon despoiled them of their arms,

And some with salves they cure, and some with charms;

Foment the bruises, and the pains assuage,

And heal their inward hurts with sovereign draughts of sage.

The king, in person, visits all around,

Comforts the sick, congratulates the sound;

Honours the princely chiefs, rewards the rest,

And holds, for thrice three days, a royal feast.

None were disgraced, for falling is no shame,

And cowardice alone is loss of fame.

The venturous knight is from the saddle thrown;

But 'tis the fault of fortune, not his own:

If crowns and palms the conquering side adorn,

The victor under better stars was born:

The brave man seeks not popular applause,

Nor, overpowered with arms, deserts his cause;

Unshamed, though foiled, he does the best he can;

Force is of brutes, but honour is of man.

Thus Theseus smiled on all with equal grace,

And each was set according to his place;

With ease were reconciled the differing parts,

For envy never dwells in noble hearts.

At length they took their leave, the time expired,

Well pleased, and to their several homes retired.

Meanwhile the health of Arcite still impairs;

From bad proceeds to worse, and mocks the leeches' cares:

Swollen is his breast, his inward pains increase,

All means are used, and all without success.

The clotted blood lies heavy on his heart,

Corrupts, and there remains in spite of art;

Nor breathing veins, nor cupping, will prevail;

All outward remedies and inward fail:

The mould of nature's fabric is destroyed,

Her vessels discomposed, her virtue void:

The bellows of his lungs begins to swell; }

All out of frame is every secret cell, }

Nor can the good receive, nor bad expel. }

Those breathing organs, thus within opprest,

With venom soon distend the sinews of his breast.

Nought profits him to save abandoned life,

Nor vomits upward aid, nor downward laxative.

The midmost region battered and destroyed,

When nature cannot work, the effect of art is void;

For physic can but mend our crazy state,

Patch an old building, not a new create.

Arcite is doomed to die in all his pride, }

Must leave his youth, and yield his beauteous bride, }

Gained hardly, against right, and unenjoyed. }

When 'twas declared all hope of life was past, }

Conscience (that of all physic works the last) }

Caused him to send for Emily in haste. }

With her, at his desire, came Palamon;

Then, on his pillow raised, he thus began:--

"No language can express the smallest part

Of what I feel, and suffer in my heart,

For you, whom best I love and value most:

But to your service I bequeath my ghost;

Which, from this mortal body when untied,

Unseen, unheard, shall hover at your side;

Nor fright you waking, nor your sleep offend,

But wait officious, and your steps attend.

How I have loved, excuse my faultering tongue,

My spirits feeble, and my pains are strong:

This I may say, I only grieve to die,

Because I lose my charming Emily.

To die, when heaven had put you in my power!

Fate could not chuse a more malicious hour.

What greater curse could envious fortune give,

Than just to die, when I began to live!

Vain men! how vanishing a bliss we crave,

Now warm in love, now withering in the grave!

Never, O never more to see the sun!

Still dark, in a damp vault, and still alone!

This fate is common; but I lose my breath

Near bliss, and yet not blessed, before my death.

Farewell! but take me, dying, in your arms,

'Tis all I can enjoy of all your charms:

This hand I cannot but in death resign;

Ah, could I live! but while I live 'tis mine.

I feel my end approach, and, thus embraced,

Am pleased to die; but hear me speak my last:

Ah, my sweet foe! for you, and you alone,

I broke my faith with injured Palamon.

But love the sense of right and wrong confounds;

Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds.

And much, I doubt, should heaven my life prolong,

I should return to justify my wrong;

For, while my former flames remain within,

Repentance is but want of power to sin.

With mortal hatred I pursued his life,

Nor he, nor you, were guilty of the strife;

Nor I, but as I loved; yet all combined,

Your beauty, and my impotence of mind;

And his concurrent flame, that blew my fire;

For still our kindred souls had one desire.

He had a moment's right, in point of time;

Had I seen first, then his had been the crime.

Fate made it mine, and justified his right;

Nor holds this earth a more deserving knight,

For virtue, valour, and for noble blood,

Truth, honour, all that is comprised in good;

So help me heaven, in all the world is none

So worthy to be loved as Palamon.

He loves you too, with such a holy fire,

As will not, cannot, but with life expire:

Our vowed affections both have often tried,

Nor any love but yours could ours divide.

Then, by my love's inviolable band,

By my long-suffering, and my short command,

If e'er you plight your vows when I am gone,

Have pity on the faithful Palamon.--

This was his last; for death came on amain,

And exercised below his iron reign;

Then upward to the seat of life he goes;

Sense fled before him, what he touched he froze:

Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw,

Though less and less of Emily he saw;

So, speechless, for a little space he lay;

Then grasped the hand he held, and sighed his soul away.

But whither went his soul, let such relate

Who search the secrets of the future state:

Divines can say but what themselves believe;

Strong proofs they have, but not demonstrative;

For, were all plain, then all sides must agree,

And faith itself be lost in certainty.

To live uprightly, then, is sure the best;

To save ourselves, and not to damn the rest.

The soul of Arcite went where heathens go,

Who better live than we, though less they know.

In Palamon a manly grief appears;

Silent he wept, ashamed to show his tears.

Emilia shrieked but once; and then, oppressed

With sorrow, sunk upon her lover's breast:

Till Theseus in his arms conveyed, with care,

Far from so sad a sight, the swooning fair.

'Twere loss of time her sorrow to relate; }

Ill bears the sex a youthful lover's fate, }

When just approaching to the nuptial state: }

But, like a low-hung cloud, it rains so fast,

That all at once it falls, and cannot last.

The face of things is changed, and Athens now,

That laughed so late, becomes the scene of woe:

Matrons and maids, both sexes, every state,

With tears lament the knight's untimely fate.

Nor[172] greater grief in falling Troy was seen

For Hector's death, but Hector was not then.

Old men with dust deformed their hoary hair;

The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear.

"Why would'st thou go, (with one consent they cry,)

When thou hadst gold enough, and Emily!"[173]

Theseus himself, who should have cheered the grief

Of others, wanted now the same relief:

Old Egeus only could revive his son,

Who various changes of the world had known,

And strange vicissitudes of human fate,

Still altering, never in a steady state:

Good after ill, and, after pain, delight,

Alternate, like the scenes of day and night.

Since every man, who lives, is born to die,

And none can boast sincere felicity,

With equal mind, what happens, let us bear,

Nor joy, nor grieve too much, for things beyond our care.

Like pilgrims, to the appointed place we tend;

The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.

Even kings but play; and, when their part is done,

Some other, worse or better, mount the throne.

With words like these the crowd was satisfied,

And so they would have been had Theseus died.

But he, their king, was labouring in his mind, }

A fitting place for funeral pomps to find, }

Which were in honour of the dead designed. }

And, after long debate, at last he found

(As love itself had marked the spot of ground)

That grove, for ever green, that conscious lawnd,[174]

Where he with Palamon fought hand to hand;

That, where he fed his amorous desires

With soft complaints, and felt his hottest fires,

There other flames might waste his earthly part,

And burn his limbs, where love had burned his heart.

This once resolved, the peasants were enjoined,

Sere-wood, and firs, and doddered oaks to find.

With sounding axes to the grove they go,

Fell, split, and lay the fuel on a row;

Vulcanian food: a bier is next prepared,

On which the lifeless body should be reared,

Covered with cloth of gold; on which was laid

The corpse of Arcite, in like robes arrayed.

White gloves were on his hands, and on his head

A wreath of laurel, mixed with myrtle, spread.

A sword, keen-edged, within his right he held,

The warlike emblem of the conquered field.

Bare was his manly visage on the bier;

Menaced his countenance, even in death severe.

Then to the palace-hall they bore the knight,

To lie in solemn state, a public sight:

Groans, cries, and howlings, fill the crowded place,

And unaffected sorrow sat on every face.

Sad Palamon above the rest appears,

In sable garments, dewed with gushing tears;

His auburn locks on either shoulder flowed,

Which to the funeral of his friend he vowed:

But Emily, as chief, was next his side,

A virgin-widow, and a mourning bride.

And, that the princely obsequies might be

Performed according to his high degree,

The steed, that bore him living to the fight, }

Was trapped with polished steel, all shining bright, }

And covered with the achievements of the knight. }

The riders rode abreast; and one his shield,

His lance of cornel-wood another held;

The third his bow; and, glorious to behold,

The costly quiver, all of burnished gold.

The noblest of the Grecians next appear,

And, weeping, on their shoulders bore the bier;

With sober pace they marched, and often staid,

And through the master-street the corpse conveyed.

The houses to their tops with black were spread,

And even the pavements were with mourning hid.

The right side of the pall old Egeus kept,

And on the left the royal Theseus wept;

Each bore a golden bowl, of work divine,

With honey filled, and milk, and mixed with ruddy wine.

Then Palamon, the kinsman of the slain;

And after him appeared the illustrious train.

To grace the pomp, came Emily the bright,

With covered fire, the funeral pile to light.

With high devotion was the service made,

And all the rites of pagan honour paid:

So lofty was the pile, a Parthian bow,

With vigour drawn, must send the shaft below.

The bottom was full twenty fathom broad,

With crackling straw beneath in due proportion strowed.

The fabric seemed a wood of rising green,

With sulphur and bitumen cast between,

To feed the flames; the trees were unctuous fir, }

And mountain-ash, the mother of the spear; }

The mourner-yew, and builder-oak, were there; }

The beech, the swimming alder, and the plane, }

Hard box, and linden of a softer grain, }

And laurels, which the gods for conquering chiefs ordain. }

How they were ranked shall rest untold by me,

With nameless nymphs that lived in every tree;

Nor how the dryads, and the woodland train,

Disherited, ran howling o'er the plain;

Nor how the birds to foreign seats repaired,

Or beasts that bolted out, and saw the forest bared;

Nor how the ground, now cleared, with ghastly fright,

Beheld the sudden sun, a stranger to the light.

The straw, as first I said, was laid below;

Of chips, and sere-wood, was the second row;

The third of greens, and timber newly felled;

The fourth high stage the fragrant odours held,

And pearls, and precious stones, and rich array;

In midst of which, embalmed, the body lay.

The service sung, the maid, with mourning eyes,

The stubble fired; the smouldering flames arise:

This office done, she sunk upon the ground;

But what she spoke, recovered from her swoon,

I want the wit in moving words to dress;

But, by themselves, the tender sex may guess.

While the devouring fire was burning fast,

Rich jewels in the flame the wealthy cast;

And some their shields, and some their lances threw,

And gave the[175] warrior's ghost a warrior's due.

Full bowls of wine, of honey, milk, and blood, }

Were poured upon the pile of burning wood; }

And hissing flames receive, and, hungry, lick the food. }

Then thrice the mounted squadrons ride around

The fire, and Arcite's name they thrice resound.

_Hail and farewell!_ they shouted thrice amain,

Thrice facing to the left, and thrice they turned again:

Still, as they turned, they beat their clattering shields;

The women mix their cries, and clamour fills the fields.

The warlike wakes continued all the night,

And funeral-games were played at new-returning light:

Who, naked, wrestled best, besmeared with oil,

Or who, with gauntlets, gave or took the foil,

I will not tell you, nor would you attend;

But briefly haste to my long story's end.

I pass the rest. The year was fully mourned,

And Palamon long since to Thebes returned.

When, by the Grecians' general consent,

At Athens Theseus held his parliament;

Among the laws that passed, it was decreed,

That conquered Thebes from bondage should be freed;

Reserving homage to the Athenian throne,

To which the sovereign summoned Palamon.

Unknowing of the cause, he took his way,

Mournful in mind, and still in black array.

The monarch mounts the throne, and, placed on high,

Commands into the court the beauteous Emily.

So called, she came; the senate rose, and paid

Becoming reverence to the royal maid.

And first soft whispers through the assembly went;

With silent wonder then they watched the event:

All hushed, the king arose with awful grace,

Deep thought was in his breast, and counsel in his face:

At length he sighed, and, having first prepared

The attentive audience, thus his will declared:--

The Cause and Spring of motion, from above,

Hung down on earth, the golden chain of Love;

Great was the effect, and high was his intent,

When peace among the jarring seeds he sent:

Fire, flood, and earth, and air, by this were bound,

And love, the common link, the new creation crowned.

The chain still holds; for, though the forms decay,

Eternal matter never wears away:

The same first mover certain bounds has placed,

How long those perishable forms shall last;

Nor can they last beyond the time assigned

By that all-seeing, and all-making Mind:

Shorten their hours they may; for will is free;

But never pass the appointed destiny.

So men oppressed, when weary of their breath,

Throw off the burden, and suborn their death.

Then, since those forms begin, and have their end,

On some unaltered cause they sure depend:

Parts of the whole are we; but God the whole;

Who gives us life, and animating soul.

For nature cannot from a part derive

That being, which the whole can only give:

He, perfect, stable; but imperfect we,

Subject to change, and different in degree;

Plants, beasts, and man; and, as our organs are,

We, more or less, of his perfection share.

But, by a long descent, the ethereal fire

Corrupts; and forms, the mortal part, expire.

As he withdraws his virtue, so they pass,

And the same matter makes another mass.

This law the Omniscient Power was pleased to give,

That every kind should by succession live;

That individuals die, his will ordains;

The propagated species still remains.

The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,

Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees;

Three centuries he grows, and three he stays,

Supreme in state, and in three more decays:

So wears the paving pebble in the street,

And towns and towers their fatal periods meet:

So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie,

Forsaken of their springs, and leave their channels dry:

So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat,

Then formed, the little heart begins to beat;

Secret he feeds, unknowing in the cell;

At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell,

And struggles into breath, and cries for aid;

Then, helpless, in his mother's lap is laid.

He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man,

Grudges their life, from whence his own began;

Retchless of laws, affects to rule alone,

Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne;

First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last;

Rich of three souls, and lives all three to waste.

Some thus, but thousands more in flower of age;

For few arrive to run the latter stage.

Sunk in the first, in battle some are slain,

And others whelmed beneath the stormy main.

What makes all this, but Jupiter the king,

At whose command we perish, and we spring?

Then 'tis our best, since thus ordained to die,

To make a virtue of necessity;

Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain;

The bad grows better, which we well sustain;

And could we chuse the time, and chuse aright,

'Tis best to die, our honour at the height.

When we have done our ancestors no shame,

But served our friends, and well secured our fame;

Then should we wish our happy life to close,

And leave no more for fortune to dispose.

So should we make our death a glad relief

From future shame, from sickness, and from grief;

Enjoying, while we live, the present hour,

And dying in our excellence and flower.

Then round our death-bed every friend should run,

And joyous of our conquest early won;

While the malicious world, with envious tears,

Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs.

Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, }

Why should we mourn, that he so soon is freed, }

Or call untimely, what the gods decreed? }

With grief as just, a friend may be deplored,

From a foul prison to free air restored.

Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife,

Could tears recal him into wretched life?

Their sorrow hurts themselves; on him is lost;

And, worse than both, offends his happy ghost.

What then remains, but, after past annoy,

To take the good vicissitude of joy;

To thank the gracious gods for what they give,

Possess our souls, and while we live, to live?

Ordain we then two sorrows to combine,

And in one point the extremes of grief to join;

That thence resulting joy may be renewed,

As jarring notes in harmony conclude.

Then I propose, that Palamon shall be

In marriage joined with beauteous Emily;

For which already I have gained the assent

Of my free people in full parliament.

Long love to her has borne the faithful knight,

And well deserved, had fortune done him right:

'Tis time to mend her fault, since Emily,

By Arcite's death, from former vows is free;

If you, fair sister, ratify the accord,

And take him for your husband and your lord.

'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace

On one descended from a royal race;

And were he less, yet years of service past,

From grateful souls, exact reward at last.

Pity is heaven's and your's; nor can she find

A throne so soft as in a woman's mind.--

He said: she blushed; and, as o'erawed by might,

Seemed to give Theseus what she gave the knight.

Then, turning to the Theban, thus he said:--

Small arguments are needful to persuade

Your temper to comply with my command:--

And, speaking thus, he gave Emilia's hand.

Smiled Venus, to behold her own true knight }

Obtain the conquest, though he lost the fight; }

And blessed, with nuptial bliss, the sweet laborious night. }

Eros and Anteros, on either side,

One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride;

And long-attending Hymen, from above,

Showered on the bed the whole Idalian grove.

All of a tenor was their after-life,

No day discoloured with domestic strife;

No jealousy, but mutual truth believed,

Secure repose, and kindness undeceived.

Thus heaven, beyond the compass of his thought,

Sent him the blessing he so dearly bought.

So may the Queen of Love long duty bless,

And all true lovers find the same success!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 158: Prussia.]

[Footnote 159: Boots, or armour for the legs.]

[Footnote 160: The accoutrements of the knights of yore were as various

as the modern fashions of female dress; and as it was necessary, in the

single combat, that each warrior should be equally armed, it was a

matter of no small nicety, to ascertain exactly, what weapons, offensive

and defensive, should be allowed to them. But in general tournaments,

each knight seems to have used the arms which pleased him best; subject

always to such general regulations as were laid down by the judges, for

lessening the danger of these military games. There is a long

enumeration of various kinds of armour, in the romance of "Clariodus and

Meliadus."]

[Footnote 161: First edition, _pots_.]

[Footnote 162: Derrick's edition, _The_.]

[Footnote 163: This line, containing a political allusion, is Dryden's

exclusively. In Chaucer's time, the "churl's rebellion" excited the

dreadful remembrance of the insurrection of Jack Straw in England, and

that in France called the Jacquerie, both recent events.]

[Footnote 164: The court of chivalry, which, in 1631, regulated the

intended judicial combat between David Ramsay and Lord Rae, appointed,

that until the word _lesser les armes_ was given, the combatants should

have meat and drink, iron-nails, hammer, file, scissars, bodkin, needle

and thread, armourer, and tailor, with their weapons to aid them as need

required. See _State Trials_, Vol. XI. p. 130.]

[Footnote 165: That is, at disadvantage.]

[Footnote 166: Derrick's Edit, the.]

[Footnote 167: This fine passage does not occur in Chaucer, although his

commencement of the battle is in the highest degree animated. Perhaps

Dryden remembered Sidney's "Arcadia."

"And now the often-changing fortune began also to change the hue of the

battles. For at the first, though it were terrible, yet Terror was

decked so bravely with rich furniture, gilt swords, shining armours,

pleasant pensils, that the eye with delight had scarcely leisure to be

afraid: but now all universally defiled with dust, blood, broken armour,

mangled bodies took away the masque, and set forth Horror in his own

horrible manner."--_Arcadia_, Book III.]

[Footnote 168: Derrick's Edit. _The_.]

[Footnote 169: Emetrius.]

[Footnote 170: Another political sarcasm of the Tory poet, unauthorized

by his original.]

[Footnote 171: An "infernal fury," according to the best readings of

Chaucer, though others, which Dryden probably followed, have "fire."]

[Footnote 172: Folio Edit. _Not._]

[Footnote 173: This sort of expostulation is common to many barbarous

nations, and is said to be retained by the native Irish.]

[Footnote 174: The French _launde_, means a wild, uncultivated meadow,

or glade. The word _lawn_, which we have formed from it, has a more

limited signification.]

[Footnote 175: Derrick's Edit. _their._]

THE

COCK AND THE FOX.

The accurate Tyrwhitt detected the original of this fable in the

translation of "Æsop," made by Marie of France into Norman-French for

the amusement of the court of England, by which that language was used

down to the reign of Edward. But the hand of genius gilds what it

touches; and the naked Apologue, which may be found in Tyrwhitt's

"Preliminary Discourse," was amplified by Chaucer into a poem, which, in

grave, ironical narrative, liveliness of illustration, and happiness of

humorous description, yields to none that ever was written. Dryden, whom

"The Hind and Panther" had familiarized with this species of

composition, has executed a version at once literal and spirited, which

seldom omits what is valuable in his original, and often adds those

sparks which genius strikes out, when in collision with the work of a

kindred spirit.

THE

COCK AND THE FOX;

OR, THE

TALE OF THE NUN'S PRIEST.

There lived, as authors tell, in days of yore,

A widow, somewhat old, and very poor;

Deep in a cell her cottage lonely stood,

Well thatched, and under covert of a wood.

This dowager, on whom my tale I found,

Since last she laid her husband in the ground,

A simple sober life in patience led,

And had but just enough to buy her bread;

But housewifing the little heaven had lent,

She duly paid a groat for quarter rent;

And pinched her belly, with her daughters two,

To bring the year about with much ado.

The cattle in her homestead were three sows,

An ewe called Mally, and three brinded cows.

Her parlour-window stuck with herbs around,

Of savoury smell, and rushes strewed the ground.

A maple dresser in her hall she had,

On which full many a slender meal she made:

For no delicious morsel passed her throat;

According to her cloth she cut her coat.

No poignant sauce she knew, no costly treat,

Her hunger gave a relish to her meat.

A sparing diet did her health assure;

Or sick, a pepper posset was her cure.

Before the day was done, her work she sped,

And never went by candle-light to bed.

With exercise she sweat ill humours out;

Her dancing was not hindered by the gout.

Her poverty was glad, her heart content,

Nor knew she what the spleen or vapours meant.

Of wine she never tasted through the year,

But white and black was all her homely cheer;

Brown bread and milk, (but first she skimmed her bowls,)

And rashers of singed bacon on the coals;

On holidays an egg, or two at most;

But her ambition never reached to roast.

A yard she had, with pales enclosed about,

Some high, some low, and a dry ditch without.

Within this homestead lived, without a peer,

For crowing loud, the noble Chanticleer;

So hight her cock, whose singing did surpass

The merry notes of organs at the mass.

More certain was the crowing of the cock

To number hours, than is an abbey-clock;

And sooner than the mattin-bell was rung,

He clapped his wings upon his roost, and sung:

For when degrees fifteen ascended right,

By sure instinct he knew 'twas one at night.

High was his comb, and coral-red withal,

In dents embattled like a castle wall;

His bill was raven-black, and shone like jet;

Blue were his legs, and orient were his feet;

White were his nails, like silver to behold,

His body glittering like the burnished gold.

This gentle cock, for solace of his life,

Six misses had, beside his lawful wife;

Scandal, that spares no king, though ne'er so good,

Says, they were all of his own flesh and blood;

His sisters, both by sire and mother's side,

And sure their likeness shewed them near allied.

But make the worst, the monarch did no more,

Than all the Ptolemys had done before:

When incest is for interest of a nation,

'Tis made no sin by holy dispensation.

Some lines have been maintained by this alone,

Which by their common ugliness are known.

But passing this as from our tale apart,

Dame Partlet[176] was the sovereign of his heart:

Ardent in love, outrageous in his play,

He feathered her a hundred times a day;

And she, that was not only passing fair,

But was withal discreet, and debonair,

Resolved the passive doctrine to fulfil,

Though loth, and let him work his wicked will:

At board and bed was affable and kind, }

According as their marriage-vow did bind, }

And as the church's precept had enjoined. }

Even since she was a se'nnight old, they say, }

Was chaste and humble to her dying day, }

Nor chick nor hen was known to disobey. }

By this her husband's heart she did obtain;

What cannot beauty, joined with virtue, gain!

She was his only joy, and he her pride,

She, when he walked, went pecking by his side;

If, spurning up the ground, he sprung a corn,

The tribute in his bill to her was borne.

But oh! what joy it was to hear him sing

In summer, when the day began to spring,

Stretching his neck, and warbling in his throat,

_Solus cum sola_, then was all his note.

For in the days of yore, the birds of parts

Were bred to speak, and sing, and learn the liberal arts.

It happ'd that perching on the parlour-beam,

Amidst his wives, he had a deadly dream,

Just at the dawn; and sighed, and groaned so fast,

As every breath he drew would be his last.

Dame Partlet, ever nearest to his side,

Heard all his piteous moan, and how he cried

For help from Gods and men; and sore aghast

She pecked and pulled, and wakened him at last.

Dear heart, said she, for love of heaven declare

Your pain, and make me partner of your care.

You groan, Sir, ever since the morning-light,

As something had disturbed your noble sprite.--

And, madam, well I might, said Chanticleer,

Never was shrovetide-cock in such a fear.

Even still I run all over in a sweat,

My princely senses not recovered yet.

For such a dream I had of dire portent,

That much I fear my body will be shent:

It bodes I shall have wars and woeful strife,

Or in a loathsome dungeon end my life.

Know, dame, I dreamt within my troubled breast, }

That in our yard I saw a murderous beast, }

That on my body would have made arrest. }

With waking eyes I ne'er beheld his fellow;

His colour was betwixt a red and yellow:

Tipped was his tail, and both his pricking ears,

With black, and much unlike his other hairs:

The rest, in shape a beagle's whelp throughout,

With broader forehead, and a sharper snout:

Deep in his front were sunk his glowing eyes,

That yet, methinks, I see him with surprise.

Reach out your hand, I drop with clammy sweat,

And lay it to my heart, and feel it beat.--

Now fie for shame! quoth she; by heaven above,

Thou hast for ever lost thy lady's love.

No woman can endure a recreant knight;

He must be bold by day, and free by night:

Our sex desires a husband or a friend,

Who can our honour and his own defend;

Wise, hardy, secret, liberal of his purse;

A fool is nauseous, but a coward worse:

No bragging coxcomb, yet no baffled knight,

How dar'st thou talk of love, and dar'st not fight?

How dar'st thou tell thy dame thou art affeared?

Hast thou no manly heart, and hast a beard?

If aught from fearful dreams may be divined,

They signify a cock of dunghill kind.

All dreams, as in old Galen I have read,

Are from repletion and complexion bred;

From rising fumes of indigested food,

And noxious humours that infect the blood:

And sure, my lord, if I can read aright,

These foolish fancies, you have had to-night,

Are certain symptoms (in the canting style)

Of boiling choler, and abounding bile;

This yellow gall, that in your stomach floats,

Engenders all these visionary thoughts.

When choler overflows, then dreams are bred

Of flames, and all the family of red;

Red dragons, and red beasts, in sleep we view,

For humours are distinguished by their hue.

From hence we dream of wars and warlike things,

And wasps and hornets with their double wings.

Choler adust congeals our blood with fear,

Then black bulls toss us, and black devils tear.

In sanguine airy dreams aloft we bound;

With rheums oppressed, we sink in rivers drowned.

More I could say, but thus conclude my theme,

The dominating humour makes the dream.

Cato was in his time accounted wise,

And he condemns them all for empty lies.[177]

Take my advice, and when we fly to ground, }

With laxatives preserve your body sound, }

And purge the peccant humours that abound. }

I should be loth to lay you on a bier;

And though there lives no 'pothecary near,

I dare for once prescribe for your disease,

And save long bills, and a damned doctor's fees.

Two sovereign herbs, which I by practice know,

And both at hand, (for in our yard they grow,)

On peril of my soul shall rid you wholly

Of yellow choler, and of melancholy:

You must both purge and vomit; but obey,

And for the love of heaven make no delay.

Since hot and dry in your complexion join,

Beware the sun when in a vernal sign;

For when he mounts exalted in the Ram,

If then he finds your body in a flame,

Replete with choler, I dare lay a groat,

A tertian ague is at least your lot.

Perhaps a fever (which the Gods forefend)

May bring your youth to some untimely end:

And therefore, sir, as you desire to live,

A day or two before your laxative,

Take just three worms, nor under nor above,

Because the Gods unequal numbers love.

These digestives prepare you for your purge;

Of fumetery, centaury, and spurge,

And of ground-ivy add a leaf, or two,

All which within our yard or garden grow.

Eat these, and be, my lord, of better cheer;

Your father's son was never born to fear.--

Madam, quoth he, gramercy for your care,

But Cato, whom you quoted, you may spare.

'Tis true, a wise and worthy man he seems,

And (as you say) gave no belief to dreams;

But other men of more authority,

And, by the immortal powers, as wise as he,

Maintain, with sounder sense, that dreams forebode;

For Homer plainly says they come from God.

Nor Cato said it; but some modern fool

Imposed in Cato's name on boys at school.

Believe me, madam, morning dreams foreshow

The events of things, and future weal or woe:

Some truths are not by reason to be tried,

But we have sure experience for our guide.

An ancient author,[178] equal with the best,

Relates this tale of dreams among the rest.

Two friends or brothers, with devout intent,

On some far pilgrimage together went.

It happened so, that, when the sun was down,

They just arrived by twilight at a town;

That day had been the baiting of a bull,

'Twas at a feast, and every inn so full,

That no void room in chamber, or on ground,

And but one sorry bed was to be found;

And that so little it would hold but one,

Though till this hour they never lay alone.

So were they forced to part; one staid behind,

His fellow sought what lodging he could find:

At last he found a stall where oxen stood,

And that he rather chose than lie abroad.

'Twas in a farther yard without a door;

But, for his ease, well littered was the floor.

His fellow, who the narrow bed had kept,

Was weary, and without a rocker slept:

Supine he snored; but in the dead of night,

He dreamt his friend appeared before his sight,

Who, with a ghastly look and doleful cry,

Said, help me, brother, or this night I die:

Arise, and help, before all help be vain,

Or in an ox's stall I shall be slain.

Rouzed from his rest, he wakened in a start,

Shivering with horror, and with aching heart;

At length to cure himself by reason tries; }

'Twas but a dream, and what are dreams but lies? }

So thinking changed his side, and closed his eyes. }

His dream returns; his friend appears again: }

The murderers come, now help, or I am slain:-- }

'Twas but a vision still, and visions are but vain. }

He dreamt the third; but now his friend appeared

Pale, naked, pierced with wounds, with blood besmeared:

Thrice warned, awake, said he; relief is late,

The deed is done; but thou revenge my fate:

Tardy of aid, unseal thy heavy eyes,

Awake, and with the dawning day arise:

Take to the western gate thy ready way,

For by that passage they my corpse convey:

My corpse is in a tumbrel laid, among

The filth, and ordure, and inclosed with dung.

That cart arrest, and raise a common cry;

For sacred hunger of my gold I die:--

Then shewed his grisly wounds; and last he drew

A piteous sigh, and took a long adieu.

The frighted friend arose by break of day,

And found the stall where late his fellow lay.

Then of his impious host inquiring more,

Was answered that his guest was gone before:

Muttering he went, said he, by morning light,

And much complained of his ill rest by night.

This raised suspicion in the pilgrim's mind; }

Because all hosts are of an evil kind, }

And oft to share the spoil with robbers joined. }

His dream confirmed his thought; with troubled look

Straight to the western gate his way he took;

There, as his dream foretold, a cart he found,

That carried compost forth to dung the ground.

This when the pilgrim saw, he stretched his throat,

And cried out murder with a yelling note.

My murdered fellow in this cart lies dead;

Vengeance and justice on the villain's head!

You, magistrates, who sacred laws dispense,

On you I call to punish this offence.--

The word thus given, within a little space,

The mob came roaring out, and thronged the place.

All in a trice they cast the cart to ground, }

And in the dung the murdered body found; }

Though breathless, warm, and reeking from the wound. }

Good heaven, whose darling attribute we find

Is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind,

Abhors the cruel; and the deeds of night

By wondrous ways reveals in open light:

Murder may pass unpunished for a time,

But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.

And oft a speedier pain the guilty feels,

The hue and cry of heaven pursues him at the heels,

Fresh from the fact, as in the present case: }

The criminals are seized upon the place; }

Carter and host confronted face to face. }

Stiff in denial, as the law appoints,

On engines they distend their tortured joints;

So was confession forced, the offence was known,

And public justice on the offenders done.

Here may you see that visions are to dread;

And in the page that follows this, I read

Of two young merchants, whom the hope of gain

Induced in partnership to cross the main;

Waiting till willing winds their sails supplied, }

Within a trading-town they long abide, }

Full fairly situate on a haven's side. }

One evening it befel, that, looking out,

The wind they long had wished was come about;

Well pleased they went to rest; and if the gale

Till morn continued, both resolved to sail.

But as together in a bed they lay,

The younger had a dream at break of day.

A man, he thought, stood frowning at his side, }

Who warned him for his safety to provide, }

Nor put to sea, but safe on shore abide. }

I come, thy genius, to command thy stay; }

Trust not the winds, for fatal is the day, }

And death unhoped[179] attends the watry way. }

The vision said, and vanished from his sight.

The dreamer wakened in a mortal fright;

Then pulled his drowsy neighbour, and declared,

What in his slumber he had seen and heard.

His friend smiled scornful, and, with proud contempt,

Rejects as idle what his fellow dreamt.

Stay, who will stay; for me no fears restrain,

Who follow Mercury, the god of gain;

Let each man do as to his fancy seems,

I wait not, I, till you have better dreams.

Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes;

When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes;

Compounds a medley of disjointed things,

A mob of coblers, and a court of kings:[180]

Light fumes are merry, grosser fumes are sad;

Both are the reasonable soul run mad;

And many monstrous forms in sleep we see,

That neither were, nor are, nor e'er can be.

Sometimes, forgotten things long cast behind

Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.

The nurse's legends are for truths received,

And the man dreams but what the boy believed.

Sometimes we but rehearse a former play, }

The night restores our actions done by day, }

As hounds in sleep will open for their prey. }

In short, the farce of dreams is of a piece,

Chimeras all; and more absurd, or less.

You, who believe in tales, abide alone;

Whate'er I get this voyage is my own.--

Thus while he spoke, he heard the shouting crew

That called aboard, and took his last adieu.

The vessel went before a merry gale,

And for quick passage put on every sail;

But when least feared, and even in open day,

The mischief overtook her in the way:

Whether she sprung a leak, I cannot find,

Or whether she was overset with wind,

Or that some rock below her bottom rent,

But down at once with all the crew she went.

Her fellow-ships from far her loss descried;

But only she was sunk, and all were safe beside.

By this example you are taught again,

That dreams and visions are not always vain;

But if, dear Partlet, you are yet in doubt,

Another tale shall make the former out.

Kenelm, the son of Kenulph, Mercia's king,[181]

Whose holy life the legends loudly sing,

Warned in a dream, his murder did foretel,

From point to point as after it befel:

All circumstances to his nurse he told,

(A wonder from a child of seven years old;)

The dream with horror heard, the good old wife

From treason counselled him to guard his life;

But close to keep the secret in his mind,

For a boy's vision small belief would find.

The pious child, by promise bound, obeyed,

Nor was the fatal murder long delayed;

By Quenda slain, he fell before his time,

Made a young martyr by his sister's crime.

The tale is told by venerable Bede,

Which, at your better leisure, you may read.

Macrobius too relates the vision sent

To the great Scipio, with the famed event;

Objections makes, but after makes replies,

And adds, that dreams are often prophecies.

Of Daniel you may read in holy writ, }

Who, when the king his vision did forget, }

Could word for word the wondrous dream repeat. }

Nor less of patriarch Joseph understand,

Who by a dream enslaved the Egyptian land,

The years of plenty and of death foretold,

When, for their bread, their liberty they sold.

Nor must the exalted butler be forgot,

Nor he whose dream presaged his hanging lot.

And did not Crœsus the same death foresee,

Raised in his vision on a lofty tree?

The wife of Hector, in his utmost pride,

Dreamt of his death the night before he died:[182]

Well was he warned from battle to refrain, }

But men to death decreed are warned in vain; }

He dared the dream, and by his fatal foe was slain. }

Much more I know, which I forbear to speak,

For see the ruddy day begins to break:

Let this suffice, that plainly I foresee

My dream was bad, and bodes adversity;

But neither pills nor laxatives I like,

They only serve to make a well-man sick;

Of these his gain the sharp physician makes,

And often gives a purge, but seldom takes;

They not correct, but poison all the blood,

And ne'er did any but the doctors good.

Their tribe, trade, trinkets, I defy them all,

With every work of 'pothecary's hall.

These melancholy matters I forbear;

But let me tell thee, Partlet mine, and swear,

That when I view the beauties of thy face,

I fear not death, nor dangers, nor disgrace;

So may my soul have bliss, as when I spy

The scarlet red about thy partridge eye,

While thou art constant to thy own true knight, }

While thou art mine, and I am thy delight, }

All sorrows at thy presence take their flight. }

For true it is, as _in principio,[183]

Mulier est hominis confusio_.[184]

Madam, the meaning of this Latin is,

That woman is to man his sovereign bliss.

For when by night I feel your tender side,

Though for the narrow perch I cannot ride,

Yet I have such a solace in my mind,

That all my boding cares are cast behind,

And even already I forget my dream.--

He said, and downward flew from off the beam,

For day light now began apace to spring,

The thrush to whistle, and the lark to sing.

Then crowing, clapped his wings, the appointed call,

To chuck his wives together in the hall.

By this the widow had unbarred the door,

And Chanticleer went strutting out before,

With royal courage, and with heart so light,

As shewed he scorned the visions of the night.

Now roaming in the yard, he spurned the ground,

And gave to Partlet the first grain he found.

Then often feathered her with wanton play,

And trod her twenty times ere prime of day;

And took by turns and gave so much delight,

Her sisters pined with envy at the sight.

He chucked again, when other corns he found,

And scarcely deigned to set a foot to ground;

But swaggered like a lord about his hall,

And his seven wives came running at his call.

'Twas now the month in which the world began,

(If March beheld the first created man;)

And since the vernal equinox, the sun

In Aries twelve degrees, or more, had run;

When casting up his eyes against the light,

Both month, and day, and hour, he measured right,

And told more truly than the Ephemeris;

For art may err, but nature cannot miss.

Thus numbering times and seasons in his breast,

His second crowing the third hour confessed.

Then turning, said to Partlet,--See, my dear,

How lavish nature has adorned the year;

How the pale primrose and blue violet spring,

And birds essay their throats disused to sing:

All these are ours; and I with pleasure see,

Man strutting on two legs, and aping me;

An unfledged creature, of a lumpish frame,

Endued with fewer particles of flame:

Our dame sits cowering o'er a kitchen fire,

I draw fresh air, and nature's works admire;

And even this day in more delight abound,

Than, since I was an egg, I ever found.--

The time shall come, when Chanticleer shall wish

His words unsaid, and hate his boasted bliss;

The crested bird shall by experience know, }

Jove made not him his masterpiece below, }

And learn the latter end of joy is woe. }

The vessel of his bliss to dregs is run,

And Heaven will have him taste his other tun.

Ye wise! draw near and hearken to my tale,

Which proves that oft the proud by flattery fall;

The legend is as true I undertake

As Tristram is, and Launcelot of the lake;

Which all our ladies in such reverence hold,

As if in book of martyrs it were told.

A Fox, full-fraught with seeming sanctity,

That feared an oath, but, like the devil, would lie;[185]

Who looked like Lent, and had the holy leer,

And durst not sin before he said his prayer;

This pious cheat, that never sucked the blood, }

Nor chewed the flesh of lambs, but when he could, }

Had passed three summers in the neighboring wood; }

And musing long, whom next to circumvent,

On Chanticleer his wicked fancy bent;

And in his high imagination cast,

By stratagem to gratify his taste.

The plot contrived, before the break of day,

Saint Reynard through the hedge had made his way;

The pale was next, but proudly, with a bound,

He leapt the fence of the forbidden ground;

Yet fearing to be seen, within a bed

Of coleworts he concealed his wily head;

There sculked till afternoon, and watched his time,

(As murderers use,) to perpetrate his crime.

O hypocrite, ingenious to destroy!

O traitor, worse than Sinon was to Troy!

O vile subverter of the Gallic reign,

More false than Gano was to Charlemaign![186]

O Chanticleer, in an unhappy hour

Didst thou forsake the safety of thy bower;

Better for thee thou hadst believed thy dream,

And not that day descended from the beam!

But here the doctors eagerly dispute;

Some hold predestination absolute;

Some clerks maintain, that Heaven at first foresees,

And in the virtue of foresight decrees.

If this be so, then prescience binds the will,

And mortals are not free to good or ill;

For what he first foresaw, he must ordain,

Or its eternal prescience may be vain;

As bad for us as prescience had not been;

For first, or last, he's author of the sin.

And who says that, let the blaspheming man

Say worse even of the devil, if he can.

For how can that Eternal Power be just

To punish man, who sins because he must?

Or, how can he reward a virtuous deed,

Which is not done by us, but first decreed?

I cannot bolt this matter to the bran,

As Bradwardin[187] and holy Austin can:

If prescience can determine actions so,

That we must do, because he did foreknow,

Or that foreknowing, yet our choice is free,

Not forced to sin by strict necessity;

This strict necessity they simple call,

Another sort there is conditional.

The first so binds the will, that things foreknown

By spontaneity, not choice, are done.

Thus galley-slaves tug willing at their oar, }

Consent to work, in prospect of the shore; }

But would not work at all, if not constrained before. }

That other does not liberty constrain,

But man may either act, or may refrain.

Heaven made us agents free to good or ill,

And forced it not, though he foresaw the will.

Freedom was first bestowed on human race,

And prescience only held the second place.

If he could make such agents wholly free,

I not dispute; the point's too high for me:

For heaven's unfathomed power what man can sound,

Or put to his omnipotence a bound?

He made us to his image, all agree; }

That image is the soul, and that must be, }

Or not the Maker's image, or be free. }

But whether it were better man had been

By nature bound to good, not free to sin,

I wave, for fear of splitting on a rock;

The tale I tell is only of a cock;

Who had not run the hazard of his life,

Had he believed his dream, and not his wife:

For women, with a mischief to their kind,

Pervert, with bad advice, our better mind.

A woman's counsel brought us first to woe,

And made her man his paradise forego,

Where at heart's ease he lived; and might have been

As free from sorrow as he was from sin.

For what the devil had their sex to do,

That, born to folly, they presumed to know,

And could not see the serpent in the grass?

But I myself presume, and let it pass.

Silence in times of suffering is the best,

'Tis dangerous to disturb a hornet's nest.

In other authors you may find enough,

But all they say of dames is idle stuff.

Legends of lying wits together bound,

The wife of Bath would throw them to the ground:

These are the words of Chanticleer, not mine,

I honour dames, and think their sex divine.

Now to continue what my tale begun.

Lay madam Partlet basking in the sun,

Breast-high in sand; her sisters, in a row,

Enjoyed the beams above, the warmth below.

The cock, that of his flesh was ever free,

Sung merrier than the mermaid in the sea;

And so befel, that as he cast his eye,

Among the colworts, on a butterfly,

He saw false Reynard where he lay full low;

I need not swear he had no list to crow;

But cried, _cock, cock_, and gave a sudden start,

As sore dismayed and frighted at his heart.

For birds and beasts, informed by nature, know

Kinds opposite to theirs, and fly their foe.

So Chanticleer, who never saw a fox,

Yet shunned him, as a sailor shuns the rocks.

But the false loon, who could not work his will

By open force, employed his flattering skill:

I hope, my lord, said he, I not offend;

Are you afraid of me, that am your friend?

I were a beast indeed to do you wrong,

I, who have loved and honoured you so long:

Stay, gentle Sir, nor take a false alarm,

For, on my soul, I never meant you harm!

I come no spy, nor as a traitor press,

To learn the secrets of your soft recess:

Far be from Reynard so profane a thought,

But by the sweetness of your voice was brought:

For, as I bid my beads, by chance I heard

The song as of an angel in the yard;

A song that would have charmed the infernal gods,

And banished horror from the dark abodes:

Had Orpheus sung it in the nether sphere, }

So much the hymn had pleased the tyrant's ear, }

The wife had been detained, to keep the husband there. }

My lord, your sire familiarly I knew,

A peer deserving such a son as you:

He, with your lady-mother, (whom heaven rest!)

Has often graced my house, and been my guest:

To view his living features does me good,

For I am your poor neighbour in the wood;

And in my cottage should be proud to see

The worthy heir of my friend's family.

But since I speak of singing, let me say,

As with an upright heart I safely may,

That, save yourself, there breathes not on the ground

One like your father for a silver sound.

So sweetly would he wake the winter-day, }

That matrons to the church mistook their way, }

And thought they heard the merry organ play. }

And he to raise his voice with artful care,

(What will not beaux attempt to please the fair?)

On tiptoe stood to sing with greater strength,

And stretched his comely neck at all the length:

And while he strained his voice to pierce the skies,

As saints in raptures use, would shut his eyes,

That the sound striving through the narrow throat,

His winking might avail to mend the note.

By this, in song, he never had his peer,

From sweet Cecilia down to Chanticleer;

Not Maro's muse, who sung the mighty man,

Nor Pindar's heavenly lyre, nor Horace when a swan.

Your ancestors proceed from race divine:

From Brennus and Belinus is your line;

Who gave to sovereign Rome such loud alarms,

That even the priests were not excused from arms.

Besides, a famous monk of modern times[188]

Has left of cocks recorded in his rhymes,

That of a parish priest the son and heir,

(When sons of priests were from the proverb clear,)

Affronted once a cock of noble kind,

And either lamed his legs, or struck him blind;

For which the clerk his father was disgraced,

And in his benefice another placed.

Now sing, my lord, if not for love of me,

Yet for the sake of sweet saint charity;

Make hills and dales, and earth and heaven, rejoice,

And emulate your father's angel-voice.--

The cock was pleased to hear him speak so fair,

And proud beside, as solar people are;

Nor could the treason from the truth descry,

So was he ravished with this flattery:

So much the more, as from a little elf,

He had a high opinion of himself;

Though sickly, slender, and not large of limb,

Concluding all the world was made for him.

Ye princes, raised by poets to the gods,

And Alexandered up in lying odes,

Believe not every flattering knave's report,

There's many a Reynard lurking in the court;

And he shall be received with more regard,

And listened to, than modest truth is heard.

This Chanticleer, of whom the story sings,

Stood high upon his toes, and clapped his wings;

Then stretched his neck, and winked with both his eyes,

Ambitious, as he sought the Olympic prize.

But while he pained himself to raise his note,

False Reynard rushed, and caught him by the throat.

Then on his back he laid the precious load,

And sought his wonted shelter of the wood;

Swiftly he made his way, the mischief done,

Of all unheeded, and pursued by none.

Alas! what stay is there in human state,

Or who can shun inevitable fate?

The doom was written, the decree was past,

Ere the foundations of the world were cast!

In Aries though the sun exalted stood,

His patron-planet to procure his good;

Yet Saturn was his mortal foe, and he,

In Libra raised, opposed the same degree:

The rays both good and bad, of equal power,

Each thwarting other, made a mingled hour.

On Friday-morn he dreamt this direful dream,

Cross to the worthy native,[189] in his scheme.

Ah blissful Venus! goddess of delight!

How couldst thou suffer thy devoted knight,

On thy own day, to fall by foe oppressed,

The wight of all the world who served thee best?

Who, true to love, was all for recreation,

And minded not the work of propagation?

Ganfride, who couldst so well in rhyme complain

The death of Richard with an arrow slain,

Why had not I thy muse, or thou my heart,

To sing this heavy dirge with equal art!

That I like thee on Friday might complain;

For on that day was Cœur de Lion slain.--[190]

Not louder cries, when Ilium was in flames,

Were sent to heaven by woful Trojan dames,

When Pyrrhus tossed on high his burnished blade, }

And offered Priam to his father's shade, }

Than for the cock the widowed poultry made. }

Fair Partlet first, when he was borne from sight,

With sovereign shrieks bewailed her captive knight;

Far louder than the Carthaginian wife,

When Asdrubal her husband lost his life,

When she beheld the smouldring flames ascend,

And all the Punic glories at an end:

Willing into the fires she plunged her head,

With greater ease than others seek their bed.

Not more aghast the matrons of renown,

When tyrant Nero burned the imperial town,

Shrieked for the downfal in a doleful cry,

For which their guiltless lords were doomed to die.

Now to my story I return again:

The trembling widow, and her daughters twain,

This woful cackling cry with horror heard,

Of those distracted damsels in the yard;

And starting up, beheld the heavy sight,

How Reynard to the forest took his flight,

And cross his back, as in triumphant scorn,

The hope and pillar of the house was borne.

The fox, the wicked fox, was all the cry;

Out from his house ran every neighbour nigh:

The vicar first, and after him the crew,

With forks and staves the felon to pursue.

Ran Coll our dog, and Talbot with the band,

And Malkin, with her distaff in her hand:

Ran cow and calf, and family of hogs,

In panic horror of pursuing dogs;

With many a deadly grunt and doleful squeak,

Poor swine, as if their pretty hearts would break.

The shouts of men, the women in dismay,

With shrieks augment the terror of the day.

The ducks, that heard the proclamation cried,

And feared a persecution might betide,

Full twenty mile from town their voyage take,

Obscure in rushes of the liquid lake.

The geese fly o'er the barn; the bees, in arms,

Drive headlong from their waxen cells in swarms.

Jack Straw at London-stone, with all his rout,

Struck not the city with so loud a shout;

Not when with English hate they did pursue

A Frenchman, or an unbelieving Jew;[191]

Not when the welkin rung with _one and all_, }

And echoes bounded back from Fox's hall; }

Earth seemed to sink beneath, and heaven above to fall. }

With might and main they chaced the murd'rous fox,

With brazen trumpets, and inflated box,

To kindle Mars with military sounds,

Nor wanted horns to inspire sagacious hounds.

But see how fortune can confound the wise,

And when they least expect it, turn the dice.

The captive-cock, who scarce could draw his breath,

And lay within the very jaws of death;

Yet in this agony his fancy wrought,

And fear supplied him with this happy thought:

Your's is the prize, victorious prince, said he,

The vicar my defeat, and all the village see.[192]

Enjoy your friendly fortune while you may,

And bid the churls that envy you the prey

Call back their mongrel curs, and cease their cry: }

See fools, the shelter of the wood is nigh, }

And Chanticleer in your despite shall die; }

He shall be plucked and eaten to the bone.--

'Tis well advised, in faith it shall be done;

This Reynard said: but as the word he spoke,

The prisoner with a spring from prison broke;

Then stretched his feathered fans with all his might,

And to the neighbouring maple winged his flight.

Whom, when the traitor safe on tree beheld,

He cursed the gods, with shame and sorrow filled:

Shame for his folly; sorrow out of time,

For plotting an unprofitable crime:

Yet, mastering both, the artificer of lies,

Renews the assault, and his last battery tries.

Though I, said he, did ne'er in thought offend,

How justly may my lord suspect his friend?

The appearance is against me, I confess,

Who seemingly have put you in distress.

You, if your goodness does not plead my cause,

May think I broke all hospitable laws,

To bear you from your palace-yard by might,

And put your noble person in a fright.

This, since you take it ill, I must repent,

Though heaven can witness, with no bad intent

I practised it, to make you taste your cheer

With double pleasure, first prepared by fear.

So loyal subjects often seize their prince, }

Forced (for his good) to seeming violence, }

Yet mean his sacred person not the least offence. }

Descend; so help me, Jove, as you shall find,

That Reynard comes of no dissembling kind.--

Nay, quoth the cock; but I beshrew us both,

If I believe a saint upon his oath:

An honest man may take a knave's advice,

But idiots only will be cozened twice:

Once warned is well bewared; no flattering lies }

Shall sooth me more to sing with winking eyes, }

And open mouth, for fear of catching flies. }

Who blindfold walks upon a river's brim,

When he should see, has he deserved to swim?--

Better, sir cock, let all contention cease,

Come down, said Reynard, let us treat of peace.--

A peace with all my soul, said Chanticleer;

But, with your favour, I will treat it here:

And lest the truce with treason should be mixt,

'Tis my concern to have the tree betwixt.[193]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 176: Partlet, or Perthelot, as the proper name of a hen, is a

word of difficult and dubious etymology. Ruddiman, in his Glossary to

Douglas's Virgil, gives several derivations; the most plausible is that

which brings it from Partlet, an old word signifying a woman's ruff.]

[Footnote 177: Among the distiches ascribed to Cato, we do in fact find

one to that purpose:--

_Somnia ne cures._--Lib. ii. distich 32.

]

[Footnote 178: Cicero, who tells both the following stories in his

treatise, _De Divinatione_, lib. i. cap. 27. Chaucer has reversed their

order, and added many picturesque circumstances.]

[Footnote 179: _Hoped_ and _unhoped_, anciently meant only _expected_

and _unexpected_. Puttenham, in his "Art of English Poesie," 1589,

mentions the Tanner of Tamworth, who, in his broad dialect, said to King

Edward, upon discovering his rank, and remembering the familiarities he

had used with him while in disguise; "I hope I shall be hanged

to-morrow," for "I fear me I shall be hanged." The use of the verb

_hope_, was therefore limited to its present sense, even in Queen

Elizabeth's time. But Dryden, in translating an old poet, used some

latitude in employing ancient language.]

[Footnote 180: There may be room to suspect, that the line should run,

A court of coblers, and a mob of kings;

as better expressing the confusion of ideas incident to dreaming.]

[Footnote 181: Kenelm, son of Kenulph, king of Mercia, was murdered at

the age of seven years by his sister Quendreda, and accounted a martyr.]

[Footnote 182: This vision Chaucer found, not in Homer, but in Dares

Phrygius. Shakespeare alludes to it:

----Come, Hector, come, go back,

Thy wife hath dreamed.----

]

[Footnote 183: _In principio_ refers to the beginning of Saint John's

Gospel.]

[Footnote 184: Taken from a fabulous conversation between the Emperor

Adrian and the philosopher Secundus, reported by Vincent de Beauvais,

SPEC. HIST. _Quid est Mulier? Hominis confusio; in saturabilis bestia,_

&c. The Cock's polite version is very ludicrous.]

[Footnote 185: Indulging, as usual, his political antipathies, Dryden

fails not to make the fox a Puritan.]

[Footnote 186: According to the romantic history of Charlemaign, Gano,

or Ganelon, betrayed the Christian army, at the battle of Roncesvalles,

where Orlando and the Peers of France were slain. The pun upon _Gallic_,

which is renewed in deriving the cock from Brennus and Belinus, a little

farther down, is entirely Dryden's.]

[Footnote 187: Thomas Bradwardin, archbishop of Canterbury, a

contemporary of Chaucer, composed a treatise on Predestination, and a

work entitled, _De Causu Dei_, against Pelagius.]

[Footnote 188: Nigellus Wireker, who, in Richard the First's reign,

composed a Book, called "_Burnellus, seu Speculum Stultorum_." The story

alluded to, is of a cock, who, having been lamed by a priest's son,

called Gundulfus, in revenge, omitted to crow upon a morning, when his

enemy had directed that he should be called very early, in order to go

to a distant church, where he was to take orders. By this stratagem,

Gundulfus overslept himself, and was disappointed of his ordination.]

[Footnote 189: _Native_, in astrology, is the person whose scheme of

nativity is calculated.]

[Footnote 190: Ganfride, or Geoffrey de Vinsauf, a Norman historian, and

parcel poet, bewailed the death of Richard in plaintive hexameters, in

which he particularly exclaims against Friday, the day on which that

hero was shot by Bertram de Gurdun:

_Oh Veneris lacrymosa dies, O sydus amarum_

_Illa dies tua nox fuit, et Venus illa venenum_, &c.

]

[Footnote 191: Dryden has given Jack Straw the national antipathies of

the mob in his own time. Chaucer says more correctly, their rage was

directed against the Flemings. In the next two lines, Dryden again

alludes to the riots of his own time, whose gathering cry used to be

"one and all."]

[Footnote 192: This excellent parody upon Virgil is introduced by

Dryden, and marks his late labours:

----_Vicisti! et victum tendere palmas

Ausonii videre._--

]

[Footnote 193: In the original, the tale concludes by a reflection of

the Fox. The cock had said,

--he that winketh when he should see

Al wilfully God let him never the.

Nay, quoth the Fox, but God give him mischance

That is so indiscreet of governance,

That jangleth when that he should hold his peace.

]

THE MORAL.