Preview: Section 7
Reading boundary
Start: WHILOM*, as olde stories tellen us,
Stop after: For evermore, there may no gold them quite*
The Knight begins not with Theseus’s famous conquest of the Amazons, but with his triumphant journey home beside Hippolyta and Emily. The narrator briskly sets grand adventures aside, reminding the pilgrims that his tale must share time with theirs.
Near Athens, public celebration meets a procession of mourning women. Their appeal tests what Theseus’s chivalry means when conquest gives way to mercy and justice. The telling compresses battle, reversals of fortune, and a shift toward two young Theban knights caught in the aftermath.