The authorship of the last scene admits of no doubt. The manner is Shakspeare's, and some parts are little inferior to his very finest passages. Palamon has been vanquished, and he and his friends are to undergo execution of the sentence to which the laws of the combat subjected them. The depth of the interest is now fixed on these unfortunate knights, and a fine spirit of resigned melancholy inspires the scene in which they pass to their deaths.[52:2] (_Enter Palamon and his knights, pinioned; jailor, executioner, and guard._) _Palamon._ There's many a man alive that hath outlived The love of the people; yea, in the self-same state [53:1]Stands many a father with his child; some com|fort We have by so considering. We expire,-- And not without men's pity;--to live still, Have their good wishes. We prevent [53:2]The loathsome misery of age, beguile The gout and rheum, that in lag hours attend For grey approachers. We come towards the gods Young and unwarped, not halting under crimes Many and stale; that sure shall please the gods [53:3]Sooner than such, to give us nectar with | them,-- For we are more clear spir|its!|... _2 Knight._ Let us bid farewell; And with our patience anger tottering for|tune, Who at her certain'st reels. _3 Knight._ Come, who begins? _Palamon._ Even he that led you to this banquet shall Taste to you all.... . . . . . Adieu, and let my life be now as short As my leave-taking. (_Lies on the block._) If we were in a situation to give due effect to the supernatural part of the story, the miserable end of Palamon would affect us with a mingled sense of pity and indignation. He has been promised success by the divinity whom he adored, and yet he lies vanquished with the uplifted axe glittering above his head. Both the drama and Chaucer's poem assume the existence of such feelings on our part, and hasten to remove the cause of them. [Sidenote: Chaucer's celestial agency to work out the plot.] A way is devised for reconciling the contending oracles; and the catastrophe which effects that end, is, in the old poet, anxiously prepared by celestial agency.[53:4] Arcite has got the victory in the field, as his warlike divinity had promised him; and an evil spirit is raised for the purpose of bringing about his death, that the votary of the Queen of Love may be allowed to enjoy the gentler meed which his protectress had pledged herself to bestow. These supernal intrigues are, in the play, no more than hinted at in the way of metaphor.