134 THE KNIGJJTES TALE.
The gayler sleep, he mighte nou^t awake,
And thus he fleeth as faste as evere he may.
The night was schort, and faste by the day,
That needes-cost he moste himselven hyde,
And til a grove faste ther besyde
With dredful foot than stalketh Palamoun.
For schortly this was his opynyoun,
That in that grove he wolde him hyde al day,
And in the night then wolde he take his way
To Thebes-ward, his frendes for to preye
On Theseus to helpe him to werreye;
And schorteliche, or he wolde lese his lyf,
Or wynnen Emelye unto his wyf.
This is theffect and his entente playn.
Now wol I torne unto Arcite agayn,
That litel wiste how nyh that was his care,
Til that fortune hadde brought him in the snare.
The busy larke, messager of daye, Salueth in hire song the morwe graye • And fyry Phebus ryseth up so brighte, That al the orient laugheth of the lighte, And with his stremes dryeth in the greves The silver dropes, hongyng on the leeves. And Arcite, that is in the court ryal With Theseus, his squyer principal, Is risen, and loketh on the merye day. And for to doon his observaunce to May, Remembryng on the poynt of his desir, He on his courser, stertyng as the fir, Is riden into the feeldes him to pleye, Out of the court, were it a myle or tweye. And to the grove, of which that I jyow tolde, By aventure his we'ylie gan to holde, To maken him a garland of the greves, Were it of woodebyne or hawethorn leves. And lowde he song ajpens the sonne scheene: ' May, with alle thy floures and thy greene,