Preview: Section 15
Reading boundary
Start: Swelleth the breast of Arcite and the sore
Stop after: And maken of my longe tale an end.
The tournament’s public celebration gives way to Arcite’s sickbed, where the narrator describes his injury through medieval medical terms. Emily and Palamon are summoned, and the relationships formed by rivalry must now be spoken about under pressure.
The section then broadens from private suffering to Athens’s ceremonial response. Formal speeches and richly detailed objects sustain its attention to the way personal grief becomes a public event.