although ye fight for evermo’: But one of you, all be him loth or lief, He must go pipe into an ivy leaf: This is to say, she may not have you both, All be ye never so jealous, nor so wroth. And therefore I you put in this degree, That each of you shall have his destiny As him is shape; and hearken in what wise; Lo hear your end of that I shall devise. My will is this, for plain conclusión Withouten any replicatión, If that you liketh, take it for the best, That evereach of you shall go where him lest, Freely withoutë ransom or dangér; And this day fifty weekës, farre ne nerre, Evereach of you shall bring an hundred knights, Armed for listës up at allë rights All ready to darraine her by bataille, And this behete I you withoutë fail Upon my troth, and as I am a knight, That whether of you bothë that hath might, That is to say, that whether he or thou May with his hundred, as I spake of now, Slay his contráry, or out of listës drive, Him shall I given Emily to wive, To whom that fortune gives so fair a grace. The listës shall I make here in this place. And God so wisly on my soulë rue, As I shall even judgë be and true. Ye shall none other endë with me maken Than one of you shallë be dead or taken. And if you thinketh this is well y-said, Say your advice, and hold yourselves apaid. This is your end, and your conclusión.” Who looketh lightly now but Palamon? Who springeth up for joyë but Arcite? Who could it tell, or who could it indite, The joyë that is maked in the place When Theseus hath done so fair a grace? But down on knees went every manner wight, And thanked him with all their heartës’ might, And namëly these Thebans oftë sithe. And thus with good hope and with heartë blithe They take their leave, and homeward gan they ride To Thebes-ward, with his old wallës wide.
I trow men wouldë deem it negligence, If I forgot to tellë the dispence Of Theseus, that went so busily To maken up the listës royally, That such a noble theatre as it was, I dare well say, in all this world there n’as. The circuít a milë was about, Walled of stone, and ditched all without. Round was the shape, in manner of compáss, Full of degrees, the height of sixty pas, That when a man was set on one degree He letted not his fellow for to see. Eastward there stood a gate of marble white, Westward