The Knight’s Tale (Scene 1)

As history teaches us, it happened to be
That Theseus, the governor of Athens in Greece
Attacked and besieged, with wisdom and honour
The land of the Amazon women, and conquered
And wedded their Queen Ypolita; along with her
Young sister Emilye, his plundered possessions
Theseus met them with a humble reception
And he let them come back with him, under protection
From hundreds of weapons, to Athens and kept them

Upon his return to Greece, Theseus learned of these
Awful and shameful dishonoured injustices
Brought to the name of the monarch entrusted with
Keeping the city of Thebes
In the dust with his
Power obsolete in a coward’s defeat
He now was deceased and cast out in the streets
Where the hounds with their teeth would devour his meat
His widow, the queen, in her hour of need
Showered pleas on Theseus from down on her knees
So he proudly agreed to put the town under siege
And surrounded Thebes with all his men
And pounded the city’s walls, and when
Those towers were downfallen, then
His troops to dust demolished them
And when the brawl was ended he finally obtained
And returned to the Thebian Queen, for her pains
The rest of her husband’s majestic remains

Deep in the wreckage the people were left with
Two knights were detected, well dressed and connected
By royal bloodlines, though it was expected
They would be dead soon from the head-wounds inflicted
But Theseus ordered that they be protected
And sent them to Athens where they could be hidden
And by his decision, the two knights were given
A prison to live in, though they were forbidden
To step from within ‘til their ghosts had up-risen
The names of these knights, in plain language:
Arcite and Palamon. Utterly thankless
That they were not hanged with the rest of the vanquished
They were caged in a tower for ages to languish
And waste away hours and days with their anguish

Years pass, ‘til at last on a bright May morning
Emilye rose, as dawn was just forming
To walk in the garden, with flowers adorning
Her head as a tribute to spring, and her singing
As soft as an angel’s, rose up and just happened
To waft in a window and cause a distraction
And that’s when the passionate noise then up-rose
To where Palamon paced, giving voice to his woes
“Woe is me, woe woe...”
And then he sees her
“Whoah!”
Palamon, struck to the quick by this vision
In his heart knew his lust to conflict his religion
I mean, she looked like a goddess, and he must be forgiven
If he thought she was Venus and asked for deliverance
As he felt an up-surging of happiness in him
A hope was emerging that perhaps she would give him
A premature evacuation from prison

Meanwhile, Arcite had noticed the cracks in
His cousin’s demeanor and focus, and asked him:
“Why are you looking so hopeless, what’s happened?
What have you seen to provoke this reaction?”
And Palamon sighed: “I’m choked with such passion
For her that I see down below, yet I’m trapped in
This prison, my station the lowest in Athens
Until I escape, I’ll have no satisfaction.”
See Palamon had gazed, and had paid the price
And Arcite now bravely laid his eyes
Amazed upon the maiden guise
Of Emilye, and to his great surprise
She made him sigh, and feel as sore
Inside as Palamon, and more
Arcite fell to the stone and swore:
“This fresh beauty and peerless grace
Has rescued me; it clears away
The sorrow of this dreary place
If only she’d appear each day
I’d cheerfully stay here just to see her face.”
Palamon’s answer was close to delirious:
“Be clear with this, brother, are you joking or serious?”
Choking on tears, his emotions were furious
Arcite just sneered at this like:
“I would never say
Anything as heavyweight as this merely in clever play.”

Palamon felt his pleasure fade:
“Well, then you have betrayed me, and openly broken
Your oath to me, plainly by both of us spoken
So faithfully, traded to pose as a token
Of total devotion; we must put that above
Any quarrel we have over matters of love
All we have is our blood, and that is a trust
Rather tough to just patch up after it’s cut.”

Arcite laughed as if touched, with a covered smirk:
“In other words, since you loved her first
I’m supposed to pretend like it doesn’t hurt
And I’m not even allowed to covet her
When I’m the one who suffers worst
Why should I thirst while my brother flirts?
It’s enough to reverse one’s trusted word.”

Their hate and need were great indeed
And made them seethe impatiently
But destiny soon gave them leave
Of one another’s company
When Arcite was released suddenly
Cause one of his friends did something
To please Theseus who grudgingly agreed
To let Arcite run free
But the pardon came with one decree
That, once released from his country
If Arcite came within a hundred feet
Of Athens, he’d soon be underneath
The axe and be beheaded violently
So he returned to abide in Thebes
Now, try and see the irony
Palamon was left in the tyrant’s keep
With shackled hands and ironed feet
And every day his eyes could peek
At Emilye, in all her vibrancy
While Arcite was unconfined, yet he
Was not allowed inside the city
Of Athens
And if he tried to sneak
Or slyly creep by, it’d be
Like a deadly game of hide and seek
So Emilye was outside his reach
But it’s up to you to decide which of these
Two knights’ bleak lives was the highest defeat