Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/128

 adamant, what more in your sight are the race of mankind than sheep huddled in the fold? For, like another beast, man is slain; and pounded in prison, and tormented: he suffers sickness, and great adversity, and often with a guiltless and unupbraiding heart.' Many such impatient complaints did he continue to pour forth; but I must leave him for a time, and give you some tidings of Arcite.

The summer had passed away, and the long nights increased the distresses both of the lover and the prisoner. It were hard to say whose condition was the more deplorable. Palamon condemned to perpetual imprisonment, loaded with chains and fetters: Arcite exiled evermore from the country where his lady dwelt, and never again to behold her face. I would put the question to you, who are lovers, which of these two had the harder lot; the one who is able to see his lady day by day, yet must ever remain in prison; or the other, who can go whither he pleases, but must never again look upon her whom he loves?

When Arcite returned to Thebes, his loss so pressed upon his heart that he became estranged