Cousins and knights Palamon and Arcite are captured and imprisoned by Theseus, duke of Athens, after being found unconscious following his battle against Creon. Their cell is in the tower of Theseus's castle, with a window which overlooks his palace garden. The imprisoned Palamon wakes early one morning in May and catches sight of Princess Emily (Emelye), the sister of Theseus's wife Hippolyta, down in the courtyard picking flowers for a garland. He instantly falls in love with her; his moan is heard by Arcite, who then also wakes and sees Emily. He falls in love with her as well, claiming that, because Palamon first recognized Emily as mortal and not as a goddess, Arcite alone has the right to woo her.
The competition brought about by this love causes them to fight one another. After some years, Arcite is released from prison through the good offices of Theseus's friend Pirithoos, amending Arcite's sentence to exile. Arcite secretly returns to Athens in disguise and enters service in Emily's household to get close to her. Palamon eventually escapes by drugging the jailer and, while hiding in a grove, overhears Arcite singing about love and fortune.
They begin to duel with each other over who should get Emily, but are thwarted by the arrival of Theseus, who sentences them both to gather 100 men apiece and to fight a mass judicial tournament, the winner of which is to marry Emily. The forces assemble. Palamon prays to Venus to make Emily his wife; Emily prays to Diana to remain unmarried, or else to marry the one who truly loves her; and Arcite prays to Mars for victory. Theseus lays down rules for the tournament so that, if any man becomes seriously injured, he must be dragged out of the battle and is no longer in combat. Because of this, the story seems to claim at the end that there were almost no deaths on either side.
Both Palamon and Arcite fight valiantly, but Palamon is wounded by a sword thrust from one of Arcite's men and is unhorsed. Theseus declares the fight to be over and Arcite thus wins the battle. But before he can claim Emily as his prize, through a divine intervention by Saturn, he is mortally injured by his horse throwing him off and then falling on him. As he dies, he tells Emily that she should marry Palamon, because he would make a good husband for her. Palamon marries Emily, and thus all three prayers are fulfilled.Theseus begins with a reference to the First Mover, the primum movens, or unmoved mover of Aristotelian philosophy creating the  Great Chain of Love , the kyndely enclyning, or natural inclination, that holds the universe together in Medieval cosmology. He describes the inevitability of death for all things at their proper time, using the destruction of an oak tree, a stone, and a river as examples, and listing all the classes of medieval society as universally subject to death. He then shifts to a discussion of the proper way to respond to this inevitability of death. Theseus maintains that, since every man must die when his time comes, that it is best to die with a good name and reputation, on good terms with his friends, and having died with honour. Theseus's comfort to Emily and Palamon is that Arcite died in just such a manner, having acquitted himself well in a feat of arms.
Output: Why does Arcite return to Athens?