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 paw'd the ground with restless feet,
And snorting foam'd, and champ'd the golden bit.
The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride,
Files in their hands, and hammers at their side, And nails for loosen'd spears, and thongs for shields provide.
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 fill'd 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 :
Arm'd cap-a-pee, with reverence low they bent.
He smiled on both, and with superior look,
Alike their offer'd adoration took.
The people press on every side to see
Their awful prince, and hear his high decree.
Then signing to their heralds with his hand,
They gave his orders from their lofty stand.
Silence is thrice enjoin'd; then thus aloud
The king at arms bespeaks the knights and listen-
ing crowd:
'Our sovereign lord has ponder'd 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 banish'd from the field; that none shall dare
With shorten'd 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 allow'd 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 takeu, on the ground
Be slain, but prisoners to the pillar bound,
At either barrier placed; or, captives made,
Be freed; or, arm'd 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 trumpet's 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 roll'd.
The casements are with golden tissue spread,
And horses' hoofs, for earth, on silken tapestry
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 marshall'd 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 meiny ride.
The Athenian monarch mounts his throne on high,
Aud 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 rush'd 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 arm'd before his train,
Stops at the barrier and divides the plain:
Red was his banner, and display'd 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 match'd 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 answer'd to their names :
For so the king decreed, to shuu with care
The fraud of musters false, the common bane of
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 trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply; With clangor rings the field, resounds the vaulted
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 justling, men with men.
As labouring in eclipse, awhile 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 grisly sight.
Two troops in fair array one moment show'd,
The next, a field with fallen bodies strow'd:
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 falchions cast a gleaming light:
Hauberks and helms are hew'd 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,
Aud, floundering, throws the rider o'er his head.
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