"Thus passeth yere by yere, and day by day,
Till it felle ones in a morwe of May,
That Emelie that fayrer was to sene
Than is the lilie upon his stalke grene;
And fresher than the May with floures newe,
For with the rose-colour strof hire hewe:
I n'ot which was the finer of hem two."

This scrupulousness about the literal preference, as if some question of
matter of fact was at issue, is remarkable. I might mention that other,
where he compares the meeting between Palamon and Arcite to a hunter
waiting for a lion in a gap;--

"That stondeth at a gap with a spere,
Whan hunted is the lion or the bere,
And hereth him come rushing in the greves,
And breking both the boughes and the leves:"--

or that still finer one of Constance, when she is condemned to death:--

"Have ye not seen somtime a pale face
(Among a prees) of him that hath been lad
Toward his deth, wheras he geteth no grace,
And swiche a colour in his face hath had,
Men mighten know him that was so bestad,
Amonges all the faces in that route;
So stant Custance, and loketh hire aboute."

The beauty, the pathos here does not seem to be of the poet's seeking,