CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

DRYDEN'S LIFE.

1631. Dryden born, August 9th.

CONTEMPORARY LITERARY AND
POLITICAL HISTORY.

1631. Donne and Drayton died.
1633. George Herbert died.

1634. Milton's Comus acted.

1637. Ben Jonson and Dekker died.

1642. Opening of the civil war between Charles I. and Parliament. Newton born.

1644. Milton's Areopagitica.

1649. Execution of Charles I.

1650. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge. 1650. Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest.

Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living.

1653. Walton's The Complete Angler. The Protectorate under Cromwell instituted.

1658. Heroic Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell. 1658. Cromwell died. 1660. Astræa Redux.

1660. Restoration of Charles II. Pepys's

1663. The Wild Gallant, and The Rival 1663.

Diary begun.

1661.

Defoe born.

Butler's Hudibras (Part i.).

Ladies. Dryden married, Decem-
ber, to Lady Elizabeth Howard.

1664. The Indian Queen.

1664.

Hudibras (Part ii.). Naval war with
Holland.

1665. The Indian Emperor (published 1665. The Plague Year in London.

1667).

1666.

1667. Annus Mirabilis. Secret Love, or 1667.
the Maiden Queen (acted). Sir
Martin Mar-all. The Tempest, or
the Enchanted Island (with Dave-
nant. Published 1668). Essay on
Dramatic Poesy.

The Great Fire of London. Victories over the Dutch. Shirley,

last of the Elizabethan dramatists,
died.

Paradise Lost. Cowley and Jeremy
Taylor died. Swift born.

1668. An Evening's Love, or the Mock 1668. Davenant died.

Astrologer. Ladies à la Mode.

1669. Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr. 1669.
1670. Dryden made Poet-laureate and His-1670.
toriographer-royal. The Conquest
of Granada (published 1672).

End of Pepys's Diary.
Congreve born.

1671. Milton's Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Buckingham's The Rehearsal.

1672. Marriage à la Mode. The Assigna- 1672. Steele born. Addison born.

tion, or Love in a Nunnery.

1673. Amboyna.

1674. The State of Innocence.

1675. Aurungzebe, or the Great Mogul.

1674. Milton died.

1678. All for Love, or the World Well 1678. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Parti.).

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.- Concluded

1681. The Spanish Friar. Absalom and 1681. Indictment of Shaftesbury.

1685. Poetical Miscellanies (Part ii.). Al-1685. Death of Charles II. Accession of

PALAMON AND ARCITE

OR

THE KNIGHT'S TALE

FROM CHAUCER

IN THREE BOOKS

PALAMON AND ARCITE

OR THE KNIGHT'S TALE

BOOK I

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;

10

20

7. Warrior queen, Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. 19. The town besieged. Uniformity of construction would require "the siege of the town," or "how the town was besiegel."