And faid him thus; To Athenes shalt thou wende; Ther is thee shapen of thy wo an ende. And with that word Arcite awoke and ftert. 1395 Now trewely how fore that ever me fmert, Quod he, to Athenes right now wol I fare; Ne for no drede of deth fhal I not fpare To fe my lady, that I love and ferve; In hire prefence I rekke not to fterve, 1400 And with that word he caught a gret mirrour, And faw that changed was all his colour, And faw his vifage all in another kind; Of maladie the which he had endured, To drugge and draw what fo men wold devife. He fell in office with a chamberlain, 3405 1450 3415 1420 The which that dwelling was with Emelie, A yere or two he was in this fervice, f 1425 1430 Ne was ther never in court of his degre.. Ther as he might his vertues exercise. That Thefeus hath taken him fo ner ' 1449 1430. Philofirate] In The Thefeida Arcite takes the name of Pentheo. See the Discourse, &c. p. 186. The name of Philoftrate might be fuggefted to Chaucer either by Boccace's poem entitled Philoftrato, or by 'The Decameron, in which one of the characters is fo called. In The Midfum. Night's Dream, of which the principal fubject is plainly taken from this Tale, a Philoftrate is alfo introduced as a favourite fervant of Thefeus, and mafter of his fports. And gave him gold to mainteine his degre; 1445 But honeftly and fleighly he it spent, That no man wondred how that he it hadde. And bare him fo in pees and eke in werre Ther n'as no man that Thefeus hath derre. 1450 And in this bliffe let I now Arcite, And fpeke I wol of Palamon a lite. In derkeneffe and horrible and strong prison Who coude rime in English proprely 1455 1460 1465 1470 And fleeth the cite faste as he may go, That all the night though that men wold him shake, The gailer flept, he mighte not awake: 1476 And thus he fleeth as fafte as ever he may. The night was fhort, and faste by the day, That nedes coft he mofte himfelven hide; And to a grove faste ther befide 1480 With dredful foot than stalketh Palamon: That in that grove he wold him hide all day, This is the effect, and his entente plein. Now wol I turnen to Arcite agein, That litel wift how neighe was his care, Til that Fortune had brought him in the fnare. 1485 1490 . 1479. That nedes coft] The fenfe of this paffage, as it ftands in the mff. is fo obfcure that I am inclined to adopt the alteration proposed in Gl. Urr. v. Nede; "That nedes caft he "motte himselven hide;" i. e. that he must needs caft or con trive to hide himself.—But I find the fame expression in Z. 17. 2686; Or nedes cofte this thing mote have an ende. The befy larke, the meffager of day, 'Maye, with all thy floures and thy grene, Ther as by aventure this Palamon Was in a bufh, that no man might him fe, For fore afered of his deth was he. 1520 |