Analysis of Palamon And Arcite; Or, The Knight's Tale. From Chaucer. In Three Books. Book I.

John Dryden 1631 (Aldwincle) – 1631 (London)



In days of old there lived, of mighty fame,
A valiant Prince, and Theseus was his name;
A chief, who more in feats of arms excelled,
The rising nor the setting sun beheld.
Of Athens he was lord; much land he won,
And added foreign countries to his crown.
In Scythia with the warrior Queen he strove,
Whom first by force he conquered, then by love;
He brought in triumph back the beauteous dame,
With whom her sister, fair Emilia, came.
With honour to his home let Theseus ride,
With Love to friend, and Fortune for his guide,
And his victorious army at his side.
I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array,
Their shouts, their songs, their welcome on the way;
But, were it not too long, I would recite
The feats of Amazons, the fatal fight
Betwixt the hardy Queen and hero Knight;
The town besieged, and how much blood it cost
The female army, and the Athenian host;
The spousals of Hippolyta the Queen;
What tilts and turneys at the feast were seen;
The storm at their return, the ladies' fear:
But these and other things I must forbear.

The field is spacious I design to sow
With oxen far unfit to draw the plough:
The remnant of my tale is of a length
To tire your patience, and to waste my strength;
And trivial accidents shall be forborn,
That others may have time to take their turn,
As was at first enjoined us by mine host,
That he, whose tale is best and pleases most,
Should win his supper at our common cost.
And therefore where I left, I will pursue
This ancient story, whether false or true,
In hope it may be mended with a new.
The Prince I mentioned, full of high renown,
In this array drew near the Athenian town;
When, in his pomp and utmost of his pride
Marching, he chanced to cast his eye aside,
And saw a quire of mourning dames, who lay
By two and two across the common way:
At his approach they raised a rueful cry,
And beat their breasts, and held their hands on high,
Creeping and crying, till they seized at last
His courser's bridle and his feet embraced.
“Tell me,” said Theseus, “what and whence you are,
“And why this funeral pageant you prepare?
Is this the welcome of my worthy deeds,
To meet my triumph in ill-omened weeds?
Or envy you my praise, and would destroy
With grief my pleasures, and pollute my joy?
Or are you injured, and demand relief?
Name your request, and I will ease your grief.”
The most in years of all the mourning train
Began; but swounded first away for pain;
Then scarce recovered spoke: “Nor envy we
“Thy great renown, nor grudge thy victory;
'Tis thine, O King, the afflicted to redress,
And fame has filled the world with thy success:
We wretched women sue for that alone,
Which of thy goodness is refused to none;
Let fall some drops of pity on our grief,
If what we beg be just, and we deserve relief;
For none of us, who now thy grace implore,
But held the rank of sovereign queen before;
Till, thanks to giddy Chance, which never bears
That mortal bliss should last for length of years,
She cast us headlong from our high estate,
And here in hope of thy return we wait,
And long have waited in the temple nigh,
Built to the gracious goddess Clemency.
But reverence thou the power whose name it bears,
Relieve the oppressed, and wipe the widows' tears.
I, wretched I, have other fortune seen,
The wife of Capaneus, and once a Queen;
At Thebes he fell; cursed be the fatal day!
And all the rest thou seest in this array
To make their moan their lords in battle lost,
Before that town besieged by our confederate host.
But Creon, old and impious, who commands
The Theban city, and usurps the lands,
Denies the rites of funeral fires to those
Whose breathless bodies yet he calls his foes.
Unburned, unburied, on a heap they lie;
Such is their fate, and such his tyranny;
No friend has leave to bear away the dead,
But with their lifeless limbs his hounds are fed.”
At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train
Echoed her grief, and grovelling on the plain,
With groans, and hands upheld, to move his mind,
Besought his pity to their helpless kind.

The Prince was touched, his tears began to flow,
And, as his tender heart would break in two,
He sighed; and could not but their fate deplore,
So wretched now, so fortunate before.
Then lightly from his lofty steed he flew,
And raising one by one the suppliant crew,
To comfort each, full solemnly he swore,
That by the faith which knights to knighthood bore,
And whate'er else


Scheme AABBCDXXAAEEEFFGGGHIJJXF KKLLCXIIHMMMDDEEFFNNXXXXOOPPQQRRSSTTXCQQUUVXWWNSVVJJFFXIXXYYNSZZRR1 1 XMUUMMUUX
Poetic Form
Metre 0111111101 010101111 0111011101 010101011 1101111111 0101010111 0110100111 1111110111 110101011 11010101001 11111111 1111010111 01010010111 111111101 1111110101 1011111101 011100101 0101010101 0101011111 01100001001 011101 110110101 0111010101 110101111 0111010111 1101011101 0101111101 11011001111 0100100111 1101111111 1111011111 1111110101 11110110101 011111101 1101010111 0111110101 0111011101 010111001001 101101111 1011111101 0101110111 1101010101 1101110101 0111011111 1001011111 111001101 111110111 01110010101 1101011101 111100111 1101110101 1111000111 1111000101 1101011111 0101110101 011110111 1101011101 1101111100 11110010101 0111011101 1101011101 1111010111 11111101101 111111010101 1111111101 1101110101 1111011101 1101111111 1111110101 0101110111 0111000101 1101010100 110010101111 01001010101 1101110101 01110101 1111110101 0101110101 1111110101 01110111001001 1110010101 01100101 010111001011 1101011111 01110111 1111011100 1111110101 1111011111 1111010101 100101101 1101011111 111011101 0111110111 0111011101 1101111101 1101110001 1101110111 010111011 1101110011 110111111 0101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,404
Words 816
Sentences 22
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 24, 68, 9
Lines Amount 101
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,139
Words per stanza (avg) 271
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

4:05 min read
82

John Dryden

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. more…

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