Preview: Section 8
Reading boundary
Start: Thus passed year by year, and day by day,
Stop after: Let him beware, his necke lieth *to wed*.
Years pass in the Athenian tower until a May morning brings Emily into the adjoining garden. Chaucer contrasts the season’s color, song, and movement with the barred chamber where Palamon and Arcite remain confined.
The cousins describe what they see through religious awe, courtly love, and the language of sworn brotherhood. Their elevated vocabulary can sound conventional, but each phrase also reveals how a speaker defines loyalty, desire, and the limits of life in prison.