Shrighte Emelye, and howleth Palamon,
And Theseus his suster took anon
Swownynge, and baar hire fro the corps away.
What helpeth it to tarien forth the day
To tellen how she weep bothe eve and morwe?
For in swich cas wommen have swich sorwe,
Whan that hir housbondes ben from hem ago,
That for the moore part they sorwen so,
Or ellis fallen in swich maladye
That at the laste certeinly they dye.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Knight’s Tale. Emily shrieks and Palamon howls at the death of Arcite. But Emily has to be carried away from the corpse by Theseus and she continues to weep both evening and morning. The narrator says how some grieving women can become so ill when their husbands are gone from them that they die.