By Arcite's death, from former vows is free; If you, fair sister, ratify the accord, And take him for your husband and your lord. 'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace On one descended from a royal race; And were he less, yet years of service past, From grateful souls, exact reward at last. Pity is heaven's and your's; nor can she find A throne so soft as in a woman's mind.-- He said: she blushed; and, as o'erawed by might, 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, One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride; 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, 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! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 158: Prussia.] [Footnote 159: Boots, or armour for the legs.] [Footnote 160: The accoutrements of the knights of yore were as various as the modern fashions of female dress; and as it was necessary, in the single combat, that each warrior should be equally armed, it was a matter of no small nicety, to ascertain exactly, what weapons, offensive and defensive, should be allowed to them. But in general tournaments, each knight seems to have used the arms which pleased him best; subject always to such general regulations as were laid down by the judges, for lessening the danger of these military games. There is a long enumeration of various kinds of armour, in the romance of "Clariodus and Meliadus."] [Footnote 161: First edition, _pots_.] [Footnote 162: Derrick's edition, _The_.] [Footnote 163: This line, containing a political allusion, is Dryden's exclusively. In Chaucer's time, the "churl's rebellion" excited the dreadful remembrance of the insurrection of Jack Straw in England, and that in France called the Jacquerie, both recent events.] [Footnote 164: The court of chivalry, which, in 1631, regulated the intended judicial combat between David Ramsay and Lord Rae, appointed, that until the word _lesser les armes_ was given, the combatants should have meat and drink, iron-nails, hammer, file, scissars, bodkin, needle and thread, armourer, and tailor, with their weapons to aid them as need required. See _State Trials_, Vol. XI. p. 130.] [Footnote 165: That is, at disadvantage.] [Footnote 166: Derrick's Edit, the.]