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 :

66

"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 ;

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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:

1030

"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.

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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

1040

"That being which the whole can only give :

1045

"He perfect, stable; but imperfect we,

66

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 etherial fire

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66

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,

"And towns and towers their fatal periods meet:

“Forsaken of their springs,* and leave their channels dry.
So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat,

66

Then, formed, the little heart begins to beat ;

1066

*For instances of this Gallicism, forsaken of, see "The Medal," line 79 and note.

оо

"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.

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66

He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man, Grudges their life from whence his own began; "Reckless* of laws, affects to rule alone, "Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne;

1075

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;

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"Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain;
"The bad grows better, which we well sustain ;
"And could we choose the time, and choose 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;

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Then should we wish our happy life to close,

"And leave no more for fortune to dispose;

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"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.

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"Then round our death-bed every friend should run,
"And joy us 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,

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"From a foul prison to free air restored.
"Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife,
"Could tears recall him into wretched life?

"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,

1115

"And in one point the extremes of grief to join ;

*Reckless printed in the folio edition retchless.

+ This line has been spoilt in all modern editions by changing joy us into joyous.

"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.

66

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

66

By Arcite's death from former vows is free;

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

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

1135

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,

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One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride; 1145

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,

1150

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.

Cupid and his brother.

1155

THE COCK AND THE FOX, OR THE TALE OF
THE NUN'S PRIEST,

FROM CHAUCER.*

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 huswifing 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,

5

10

15

20

25

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 holy days, an egg or two at most;

But her ambition never reached to roast.

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35

* Chaucer's "Tale of the Nun's Priest," which Dryden has freely translated, and produced with the new title of "The Cock and the Fox," was probably taken from a poem of Marie of France in Norman-French, "Dou Coc et dou Werpil," which again was borrowed from the old French metrical "Roman de Renart."

↑ Mr. R. Bell has substituted dale for cell, dale being the word in Chaucer. been a misprint for dell, but cell is the word in the folio edition.

Cell may have

1

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 a cock
To number hours, than is an abbey-clock;
And sooner than the matin-bell was rung,

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45

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;

50

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.

And sure their likeness showed them near allied.

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65

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 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 sennight 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,