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My story now shalt thou hear quick;
I have been asked by you
To tell my share that is due first,
So hear a tale full true.
I would not prevent one of you
From telling his fair lot.
For my own part my words are short:
Yet hear my total plot.
Ten characters are there—and some.
There are five mortal souls
Of mankind, there were five all true.
What two and three make whole.
For each their part, a deity,
One in likeness, blessing,
Or by plain association,
Were five to five telling.
The Duke of Athens: Theseus,
The Amazons he won,
Was similar to great Saturn,
With power less than noone.
This mighty duke (his name I’ve said)
Married Hippolyta,
Queen of the Amazons he won
Faster than a cheetah.
Hippolyta, now Athen’s queen,
Had with her a sister.
And her name was fair Emily,
All men her admire.
Theseus with triumphant host
Returned with both ladies,
Having sent all his hated foes
To deepest throned Hades.
And on his way, near by the road,
He was stopped by squabble.
Many widows, by Creon’s hand,
Their men were turned rubble.
Theseus raged, returned the act,
And killed Creon fairly.
No time have I to tell there more,
Details must be sparely.
Suffice to say he and his men
Were returned for their blow,
And having killed, the Duke did find
Two men alive: the foe!
These two were mostly dead, yet not,
And with much time they healed.
These two were jailed most righteously,
Ransom was thus afield.
Arcite, the first of these two kin,
Was blessed by great Venus,
Yet swore an oath to his cousin
That, “None come between us!”
Palamon, the other of those,
Was blessed by mighty Mars.
He too did swear the same said oath,
Yet now he’s behind bars.
Emily, the second most fair,
Was out in the garden
One morn, when Palamon saw her
And longed to be pardoned.
Ah! To go to her and be wed!
Arcite, at his great call,
Awoke and saw Emily too
Through the pillared jail wall.
A fight broke out amongst the two,
About which had his claim,
But consented to both look on
For both prisoned the same.
After time passed, one was released!
Arcite, the lucky one,
Was freed, yet banished from Athens,
Arcite, the luckless one.
Palamon remained in prison,
Arcite was wholly free,
Yet Palamon alone could see
That pretty Emily.
Arcite called shame and cursed the day
He ever was let free,
For Palamon alone could see
That pretty Emily.
Yet Mercury had a message
And told him to go back
To Athens in disguiséd gear,
To Emily, go back!
And so he did but at that time
Escaped brave Palamon,
And the two met in open field
Not long from the day’s dawn.
Challenged to fight, they came again
When armour both they wear.
A day later and both do fight,
Both fierce as any bear!
Thesesus interrupted them,
(For they fought on his ground)
And asked them who that dared to fight
And called neither to wound.
Palamon first, the escapee,
Revealed identity,
Of himself and Arcite he told,
And showed his enmity.
The Duke at first was resolute:
They were both to be killed!
But his wife and sister stayed him;
His threat left unfulfilled.
An arena he would then build,
And bid both men return
One year hence with one hundred men
To fight, and bride-earn!
A year past and it all happened
As ‘twas instructed then:
A battle of two hundred knights
Crammed into a large pen.
Each prisoner’s last chance to have:
Emily and Freedom.
To fight it out and come what come
In the coliseum.
Before the fight, to their patrons,
Both men did pray and plead
Yet both gods pledged to help their man,
Victory guaranteed.
And now Saturn (the poor father)
Had his work all cut out:
Neither let Mars nor Venus fail;
He found a middle route.
In battle fierce, chaos did swell,
And Mars gave victory,
And Palamon would loose his love
If not for trickery.
Arcite, blessed with godly powers,
Did win as I did tell,
Yet as he left the battlefield,
Saturn acted his spell.
Arcite, struck with godly powers,
Did fall as I did tell,
Yet as he left the battlefield,
He bid a faint farewell.
Arcite, killed with godly powers,
Praised Palamon in all,
And gave unto him Emily,
And ended death’s forestall.
Palamon and Emily wed,
And lived happy after.
But just to the gods belong the
Final utmost laughter.
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