Finds his dear purchase, and repents too late? What have I gained, he said, in prison pent, If I but change my bonds for banishment? And banished from her sight, I suffer more In freedom, than I felt in bonds before; Forced from her presence, and condemned to live, Unwelcome freedom, and unthanked reprieve: Heaven is not, but where Emily abides, And where she's absent, all is hell besides. Next to my day of birth, was that accurst, Which bound my friendship to Perithous first: Had I not known that prince, I still had been In bondage, and had still Emilia seen: For though I never can her grace deserve, 'Tis recompence enough to see and serve. O Palamon, my kinsman and my friend, How much more happy fates thy love attend! Thine is the adventure; thine the victory; Well has thy fortune turned the dice for thee: Thou on that angel's face may'st feed thine eyes, In prison, no; but blissful paradise! Thou daily seest that sun of beauty shine, And lov'st at least in love's extremest line. I mourn in absence, love's eternal night; } And who can tell but since thou hast her sight, } And art a comely, young, and valiant knight, } Fortune (a various power) may cease to frown, And, by some ways unknown, thy wishes crown? But I, the most forlorn of human kind, Nor help can hope, nor remedy can find; But doomed to drag my loathsome life in care, For my reward, must end it in despair. Fire, water, air, and earth, and force of fates, That governs all, and heaven that all creates, Nor art, nor nature's hand can ease my grief; Nothing but death, the wretch's last relief: Then farewell youth, and all the joys that dwell With youth and life, and life itself, farewell! But why, alas! do mortal men in vain Of fortune, fate, or Providence, complain? God gives us what he knows our wants require, And better things than those which we desire: Some pray for riches; riches they obtain; But, watched by robbers, for their wealth are slain: Some pray from prison to be freed; and come, When guilty of their vows, to fall at home; Murdered by those they trusted with their life, A favoured servant, or a bosom wife. Such dear-bought blessings happen every day, Because we know not for what things to pray. Like drunken sots about the streets we roam; Well knows the sot he has a certain home, Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, And blunders on, and staggers every pace. Thus all seek happiness; but few can find, For far the greater part of men are blind. This is my case, who thought our utmost good Was in one word of freedom understood: The fatal blessing came; from prison free, I starve abroad, and lose the sight of Emily.-- Thus Arcite; but if Arcite thus deplore His sufferings, Palamon yet suffers more. For when he knew his rival freed and gone, He swells with wrath, he makes outrageous moan,