Orlando Furioso (Rose)/Canto 1
THE ORLANDO FURIOSO.
CANTO I.
ARGUMENT.
Angelica whom pressing danger frights,
Flies in disorder through the greenwood shade.
Rinaldo’s horse escapes: he, following, fights
Ferrau, the Spaniard, in a forest glade.
A second oath the haughty paynim plights,
And keeps it better than the first he made.
King Sacripant regains his long-lost treasure;
But good Rinaldo mars his promised pleasure.
THE ORLANDO FURIOSO.
CANTO I.
I.
Of loves and ladies, knights and arms, I sing,
Of courtesies, and many a daring feat;
And from those ancient days my story bring,
When Moors from Afric passed in hostile fleet,
And ravaged France, with Agramant their king,
Flushed with his youthful rage and furious heat;
Who on king Charles’, the Roman emperor’s head
Had vowed due vengeance for Troyano dead.
II.
In the same strain of Roland[1] will I tell
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme,
On whom strange madness and rank fury fell,
A man esteemed so wise in former time;
If she, who to like cruel pass has well
Nigh brought my feeble wit which fain would climb
And hourly wastes my sense, concede me skill
And strength my daring promise to fulfil.
III.
Good seed of Hercules[2] give ear and deign,
Thou that this age’s grace and splendour art,
Hippolitus, to smile upon his pain
Who tenders what he has with humble heart,
For though all hope to quit the score were vain,
My pen and page may pay the debt in part;
Then, with no jealous eye my offering scan,
Nor scorn my gift who give thee all I can.
IV.
And me, amid the worthiest shalt thou hear,
Whom I with fitting praise prepare to grace,
Record the good Rogero[3], valiant peer,
The ancient root of thine illustrious race.
Of him, if thou wilt lend a willing ear,
The worth and warlike feats I shall retrace;
So thou thy graver cares some little time
Postponing, lend thy leisure to my rhyme.
V.
Roland, who long the lady of Catay[4],
Angelica, had loved, and with his brand
Raised countless trophies to that damsel gay,
In India, Median, and Tartarian land,
Westward with her had measured back his way;
Where, nigh the Pyrenees, with many a band
Of Germany and France, King Charlemagne
Had camped his faithful host upon the plain.
VI.
To make king Agramant, for penance, smite
His cheek, and rash Marsilius rue the hour;
This, when all trained with lance and sword to fight,
He led from Africa to swell his power;
That other when he pushed, in fell despite,
Against the realm of France Spain’s martial flower.
’Twas thus Orlando came where Charles was tented
In evil hour, and soon the deed repented.
VII.
For here was seized his dame of peerless charms,
(How often human judgment wanders wide)!
Whom in long warfare he had kept from harms,
From western climes to eastern shores her guide
In his own land, ’mid friends and kindred arms,
Now without contest severed from his side,
Fearing the mischief kindled by her eyes,
From him the prudent emperor reft the prize.
VIII.
For bold Orlando and his cousin[5], free
Rinaldo late contended for the maid,
Enamoured of that beauty rare; since she
Alike the glowing breast of either swayed.
But Charles, who little liked such rivalry,
And drew an omen thence of feebler aid,
To abate the cause of quarrel, seized the fair,
And placed her in Bavarian Namus’ care.
IX.
Vowing with her the warrior to content,
Who in that conflict, on that fatal day,
With his good hand most gainful succour lent,
And slew most paynims in the martial fray.
But counter to his hopes the battle went,
And his thinned squadrons fled in disarray;
Namus, with other christian captains taken,
And his pavilion in the rout forsaken.
X.
There, lodged by Charles, that gentle bonnibel,
Ordained to be the valiant victor’s meed,
Before the event had sprung into her sell,
And from the combat turned in time of need;
Presaging wisely Fortune would rebel
That fatal day against the Christian creed:
And, entering a thick wood, discovered near,
In a close path, a horseless cavalier,
XI.
With shield upon his arm, in knightly wise,
Belted and mailed, his helmet on his head;
The knight more lightly through the forest hies
Than half-clothed churl to win the cloth of red[6].
But not from cruel snake more swiftly flies[7]
The timid shepherdess, with startled tread,
Than poor Angelica the bridle turns
When she the approaching knight on foot discerns.
XII.
This was that Paladin, good Aymon’s seed,
Who Mount Albano had in his command;
And late Bayardo lost, his gallant steed,
Escaped by strange adventure from his hand.
As soon as seen, the maid who rode at speed
The warrior knew, and, while yet distant, scanned
The angelic features and the gentle air
Which long had held him fast in Cupid’s snare.
XIII.
The affrighted damsel turns her palfrey round,
And shakes the floating bridle in the wind;
Nor in her panic seeks to choose her ground,
Nor open grove prefers to thicket blind.
But reckless, pale and trembling, and astound,
Leaves to her horse the devious way to find.
He up and down the forest bore the dame,
Till to a sylvan river’s bank he came.
XIV.
Here stood the fierce Ferrau[8] in grisly plight,
Begrimed with dust, and bathed with sweat and blood;
Who lately had withdrawn him from the fight,
To rest and drink at that refreshing flood:
But there had tarried in his own despite,
Since bending from the bank, in hasty mood,
He dropped his helmet in the crystal tide,
And vainly to regain the treasure tried.
XV.
Thither at speed she drives, and evermore
In her wild panic utters fearful cries;
And at the voice, upleaping on the shore,
The Saracen her lovely visage spies.
And, pale as is her cheek, and troubled sore,
Arriving, quickly to the warrior’s eyes
(Though many days no news of her had shown)
The beautiful Angelica is known.
XVI.
Courteous, and haply gifted with a breast
As warm as either of the cousins two[1];
As bold, as if his brows in steel were dressed,
The succour which she sought he lent, and drew
His faulchion, and against Rinaldo pressed,
Who saw with little fear the champion true.
Not only each to each was known by sight,
But each had proved in arms his foeman’s might.
XVII.
Thus, as they are, on foot the warriors vie
In cruel strife, and blade to blade oppose;
No marvel plate or brittle mail should fly,
When anvils had not stood the deafening blows.
It now behoves the palfrey swift to ply
His feet; for while the knights in combat close,
Him vexed to utmost speed, with goading spurs,
By waste or wood the frighted damsel stirs.
XVIII.
After the two had struggled long to throw
Each other in the strife, and vainly still;
Since neither valiant warrior was below
His opposite in force and knightly skill:
The first to parley with his Spanish foe
Was the good master of Albano’s hill
(As one within whose raging breast was pent
A reckless fire which struggled for a vent).
XIX.
“Thou think’st,” he said, “to injure me alone,
“But know thou wilt thyself as much molest:
“For if we fight because yon rising sun
“This raging heat has kindled in thy breast,
“What were thy gain, and what the guerdon won,
“Though I should yield my life, or stoop my crest;
“If she shall never be thy glorious meed,
“Who flies, while vainly we in battle bleed?
XX.
“Then how much better, since our stake’s the same,
“Thou, loving like myself, should’st mount and stay
“To wait this battle’s end, the lovely dame,
“Before she fly yet further on her way.
“The lady taken, we repeat our claim
“With naked faulchion to that peerless prey:
“Else by long toil I see not what we gain
“But simple loss and unrequited pain.”
XXI.
The peer’s proposal pleased the paynim well.
And so their hot contention was foregone;
And such fair truce replaced that discord fell,
So mutual wrongs forgot and mischief done;
That for departure seated in his sell,
On foot the Spaniard left not Aymon’s son;
But him to mount his courser’s crupper prayed;
And both united chased the royal maid.
XXII.
Oh! goodly truth in cavaliers of old!
Rivals they were, to different faith were bred.
Not yet the weary warriors’ wounds were cold—
Still smarting from those strokes so fell and dread.
Yet they together ride by waste and wold,
And, unsuspecting, devious dingle thread.
Them, while four spurs infest his foaming sides,
Their courser brings to where the way divides.
XXIII.
And now the warlike pair at fault, for they
Knew not by which she might her palfrey goad,
(Since both, without distinction, there survey
The recent print of hoofs on either road),
Commit the chase to fortune. By this way
The paynim pricked, by that Rinaldo strode.
But fierce Ferrau, bewildered in the wood,
Found himself once again where late he stood.
XXIV.
Beside the water, where he stoop’d to drink,
And dropt the knightly helmet,—to his cost,
Sunk in the stream; and since he could not think
Her to retrieve, who late his hopes had crossed,
He, where the treasure fell, descends the brink
Of that swift stream, and seeks the morion lost.
But the casque lies so bedded in the sands,
’Twill ask no light endeavour at his hands.
XXV.
A bough he severs from a neighbouring tree,
And shreds and shapes the branch into a pole:
With this he sounds the stream, and anxiously
Fathoms, and rakes, and ransacks shelf and hole.
While angered sore at heart, and restless, he
So lingered, where the troubled waters roll,
Breast-high, from the mid river rose upright,
The apparition of an angry knight.
XXVI.
Armed at all points he was, except his head,
And in his better hand a helmet bore;
The very casque, which in the river’s bed
Ferrau sought vainly, toiling long and sore.
Upon the Spanish knight he frowned, and said:
“Thou traitor to thy word, thou perjured Moor,
“Why grieve the goodly helmet to resign,
“Which, due to me long since, is justly mine?
XXVII.
“Remember, pagan, when thine arm laid low
“The brother of Angelica[9]. That knight
“Am I; thy word was plighted then to throw
“After my other arms this helmet bright.
“If Fortune now compel thee to forego
“The prize, and do my will in thy despite,
“Grieve not at this, but rather grieve that thou
“Art found a perjured traitor to thy vow.
XXVIII.
“But if thou seek’st a helmet, be thy task
“To win and wear it more to thy renown.
“A noble prize were good Orlando’s casque;
“Rinaldo’s such, or yet a fairer crown;
“Almontes’, or Mambrino’s iron masque:
“Make one of these, by force of arms, thine own.
“And this good helm will fitly be bestowed
“Where (such thy promise) it has long been owed.”
XXIX.
Bristled the paynim’s every hair at view
Of that grim shade, uprising from the tide,
And vanished was his fresh and healthful hue,
While on his lips the half-formed accents died.
Next hearing Argalìa, whom he slew,
(So was the warrior hight) that stream beside,
Thus his unknightly breach of promise blame,
He burned all over, flushed with rage and shame.
XXX.
Nor having time his falsehood to excuse,
And knowing well how true the phantom’s lore,
Stood speechless; such remorse the words infuse.
Then by Lanfusa’s life the warrior swore,
Never in fight, or foray would he use
Helmet but that which good Orlando bore
From Aspramont, where bold Almontes[10] paid
His life a forfeit to the Christian blade.
XXXI.
And this new vow discharged more faithfully
Than the vain promise which was whilom plight;
And from the stream departing heavily,
Was many days sore vexed and grieved in sprite;
And still intent to seek Orlando, he
Roved wheresoe’er he hoped to find the knight.
A different lot befel Rinaldo; who
Had chanced another pathway to pursue.
XXXII.
For far the warrior fared not, ere he spied,
Bounding across the path, his gallant steed,
And, “stay, Bayardo mine,” Rinaldo cried,
“Too cruel care the loss of thee does breed.”
The horse for this returned not to his side,
Deaf to his prayer, but flew with better speed.
Furious, in chase of him, Rinaldo hies.
But follow we Angelica, who flies.
XXXIII.
Through dreary woods and dark the damsel fled,
By rude unharboured heath and savage height,
While every leaf or spray that rustled, bred
(Of oak, or elm, or beech), such new affright,
She here and there her foaming palfrey sped
By strange and crooked paths with furious flight;
And at each shadow, seen in valley blind,
Or mountain, feared Rinaldo was behind.
XXXIV.
As a young roe or fawn of fallow deer,
Who, mid the shelter of its native glade,
Has seen a hungry pard or tiger tear
The bosom of its bleeding dam, dismayed,
Bounds, through the forest green in ceaseless fear
Of the destroying beast, from shade to shade,
And at each sapling touched, amid its pangs,
Believes itself between the monster’s fangs,
XXXV.
One day and night, and half the following day,
The damsel wanders wide, nor whither knows;
Then enters a deep wood, whose branches play,
Moved lightly by the freshening breeze which blows.
Through this two clear and murmuring rivers stray:
Upon their banks a fresher herbage grows;
While the twin streams their passage slowly clear,
Make music with the stones, and please the ear.
XXXVI.
Weening removed the way by which she wends,
A thousand miles from loathed Rinaldo’s beat,
To rest herself a while the maid intends,
Wearied with that long flight and summer’s heat.
She from her saddle ’mid spring flowers descends,
And takes the bridle from her courser fleet;
And loose along the river lets him pass,
Roving the banks in search of lusty grass.
XXXVII.
Behold! at hand a thicket she surveys
Gay with the flowering thorn and vermeil rose:
The tuft reflected in the stream which strays
Beside it, overshadowing oaks enclose.
Hollow within, and safe from vulgar gaze,
It seemed a place constructed for repose;
With boughs so interwoven, that the light
Pierced not the tangled screen, far less the sight.
XXXVIII.
Within soft moss and herbage form a bed;
And to delay and rest the traveller woo.
’Twas there her limbs the weary damsel spread,
Her eye-balls bathed in slumber’s balmy dew.
But little time had eased her drooping head,
Ere, as she weened, a courser’s tramp she knew.
Softly she rises, and the river near,
Armed cap-à-pè, beholds a cavalier.
XXXIX.
If friend or foe, she nothing comprehends,
(So hope and fear her doubting bosom tear)
And that adventure’s issue mute attends,
Nor even with a sigh disturbs the air.
The cavalier upon the bank descends;
And sits so motionless, so lost in care,
(His visage propt upon his arm) to sight
Changed into senseless stone appeared the knight.
XL.
Pensive, above an hour, with drooping head,
He rested mute, ere he began his moan;
And then his piteous tale of sorrow said,
Lamenting in so soft and sweet a tone,
He in a tiger’s breast had pity bred,
Or with his mournful wailings rent a stone.
And so he sighed and wept; like rivers flowed
His tears, his bosom like an Ætna glowed.
XLI.
“Thought which now makes me burn, now freeze with hate,
“Which gnaws my heart and rankles at its root!
“What’s left to me,” he said, “arrived too late,
“While one more favoured bears away the fruit?
“Bare words and looks scarce cheered my hopeless state,
“And the prime spoils reward another’s suit.
“Then since for me nor fruit nor blossom hangs,
“Why should I longer pine in hopeless pangs?
XLII.
“The virgin has her image in the rose[11]
“Sheltered in garden on its native stock,
“Which there in solitude and safe repose,
“Blooms unapproached by shepherd or by flock.
“For this earth teems, and freshening water flows,
“And breeze and dewy dawn their sweets unlock:
“With such the wishful youth his bosom dresses,
“With such the enamoured damsel braids her tresses.
XLIII.
“But wanton hands no sooner this displace
“From the maternal stem, where it was grown,
“Than all is withered; whatsoever grace
“It found with man or heaven; bloom, beauty, gone.
“The damsel who should hold in higher place
“Than light or life the flower which is her own,
“Suffering the spoiler’s hand to crop the prize,
“Forfeits her worth in every other’s eyes.
XLIV.
“And be she cheap with all except the wight
“On whom she did so large a boon bestow.
“Ah! false and cruel Fortune! foul despite!
“While others triumph, I am drown’d in woe.
“And can it be that I such treasure slight?
“And can I then my very life forego?
“No! let me die; ’twere happiness above
“A longer life, if I must cease to love.”
XLV.
If any ask who made this sorrowing,
And pour’d into the stream so many tears,
I answer, it was fair Circassia’s king[12],
That Sacripant, oppressed with amorous cares.
Love is the source from which his troubles spring,
The sole occasion of his pains and fears;
And he to her a lover’s service paid,
Now well remembered by the royal maid.
XLVI.
He for her sake from Orient’s farthest reign
Roved thither, where the sun descends to rest;
For he was told in India, to his pain,
That she Orlando followed to the west.
He after learned in France that Charlemagne
Secluded from that champion and the rest,
As a fit guerdon, mewed her for the knight
Who should protect the lilies best in fight.
XLVII.
The warrior in the field had been, and viewed,
Short time before, king Charlemagne’s disgrace;
And vainly had Angelica pursued,
Nor of the damsel’s footsteps found a trace.
And this is what the weeping monarch rued,
And this he so bewailed in doleful case:
Hence, into words his lamentations run,
Which might for pity stop the passing sun.
XLVIII.
While Sacripant laments him in this plight,
And makes a tepid fountain of his eyes;
And, what I deem not needful to recite,
Pours forth yet other plaints and piteous cries;
Propitious Fortune wills his lady bright
Should hear the youth lament him in such wise:
And thus a moment compassed what, without
Such chance, long ages had not brought about.
XLIX.
With deep attention, while the warrior weeps,
She marks the fashion of the grief and tears
And words of him, whose passion never sleeps;
Nor this the first confession which she hears.
But with his plaint her heart no measure keeps,
Cold as the column which the builder rears.
Like haughty maid, who holds herself above
The world, and deems none worthy of her lore.
L.
But her from harm amid those woods to keep,
The damsel weened she might his guidance need;
For the poor drowning caitiff, who, chin-deep,
Implores not help, is obstinate indeed.
Nor will she, if she let the occasion sleep,
Find escort that will stand her in such stead:
For she that king by long experience knew,
Above all other lovers, kind and true.
LI.
But not the more for this the maid intends
To heal the mischief which her charms had wrought,
And for past ills to furnish glad amends
In that full bliss by pining lover sought.
To keep the king in play are all her ends,
His help by some device or fiction bought,
And having to her purpose taxed his daring,
To reassume as wont her haughty bearing.
LII.
An apparition bright and unforeseen,
She stood like Venus or Diana fair,
In solemn pageant, issuing on the scene
From out of shadowy wood or murky lair.
And “Peace be with you,” cried the youthful queen,
“And God preserve my honour in his care,
“Nor suffer that you blindly entertain
“Opinion of my fame so false and vain!”
LIII.
Not with such wonderment a mother eyes,
With such excessive bliss the son she mourned;
As dead, lamented still with tears and sighs,
Since the thinned files without her boy returned.
—Not such her rapture as the king’s surprise
And ecstasy of joy when he discerned
The lofty presence, cheeks of heavenly hue,
And lovely form which broke upon his view.
LIV.
He, full of fond and eager passion, pressed
Towards his Lady, his Divinity;
And she now clasped the warrior to her breast,
Who in Catày had haply been less free.
And now again the maid her thoughts addressed
Towards her native land and empery:
And feels, with hope revived, her bosom beat
Shortly to repossess her sumptuous seat.
LV.
Her chances all to him the damsel said,
Since he was eastward sent to Sericane
By her to seek the martial monarch’s aid,
Who swayed the sceptre of that fair domain;
And told how oft Orlando’s friendly blade
Had saved her from dishonour, death, and pain;
And how she so preserved her virgin flower
Pure as it blossomed in her natal hour.
LVI.
Haply the tale was true; yet will not seem
Likely to one of sober sense possessed:
But Sacripant, who waked from worser dream,
In all without a cavil acquiesced:
Since Love, who sees without one guiding gleam,
Spies in broad day but that which likes him best:
For one sign of the afflicted man’s disease
Is to give ready faith to things which please.
LVII.
“If good Anglante’s lord the prize forbore,
“Nor seized the fair occasion when he might,
“The loss be his, if Fortune never more
“Him to enjoy so fair a prize invite.
“To imitate that lord of little lore
“I think not,” said, apart, Circassia’s knight,
“To quit such proffered good, and, to my shame,
“Have but myself on after-thought to blame.
LVIII.
“No! I will pluck the fresh and morning rose,
“Which, should I tarry, may be overblown.
“To woman, (this my own experience shows),
“No deed more sweet or welcome can be done[13].
“Then, whatsoever scorn the damsel shows,
“Though she awhile may weep and make her moan,
“I will, unchecked by anger, false or true,
“Or sharp repulse, my bold design pursue.”
LIX.
This said, he for the soft assault prepares,
When a loud noise within the greenwood shade
Beside him, rang in his astounded ears,
And sore against his will the monarch stayed.
He donned his helm (his other arms he wears),
Aye wont to rove in steel, with belted blade,
Replaced the bridle on his courser fleet,
Grappled his lance, and sprang into his seat.
LX.
With the bold semblance of a valiant knight,
Behold a warrior threads the forest hoar.
The stranger’s mantle was of snowy white,
And white alike the waving plume he wore.
Balked of his bliss, and full of fell despite,
The monarch ill the interruption bore,
And spurred his horse to meet him in mid space,
With hate and fury glowing in his face.
LXI.
Him he defies to fight, approaching nigh,
And weens to make him stoop his haughty crest:
The other knight, whose worth I rate as high,
His warlike prowess puts to present test;
Cuts short his haughty threats and angry cry,
And spurs, and lays his levelled lance in rest.
In tempest wheels Circassia’s valiant peer,
And at his foeman’s head each aims his spear.
LXII.
Not brindled bulls or tawny lions spring
To forest warfare with such deadly will
As those two knights, the stranger and the king.
Their spears alike the opposing bucklers thrill:
The solid ground, at their encountering,
Trembles from fruitful vale to naked hill:
And well it was the mail in which they dressed
Their bodies was of proof, and saved the breast.
LXIII.
Nor swerved the chargers from their destined course;
Who met like rams, and butted head to head.
The warlike Saracen’s ill-fated horse,
Well valued while alive, dropt short and dead:
The stranger’s, too, fell senseless; but perforce
Was roused by rowel from his grassy bed.
That of the paynim king, extended straight,
Lay on his battered lord with all his weight.
LXIV.
Upright upon his steed, the knight unknown,
Who at the encounter horse and rider threw,
Deeming enough was in the conflict done,
Cares not the worthless warfare to renew;
But endlong by the readiest path is gone,
And measures, pricking frith and forest through,
A mile, or little less, in furious heat,
Ere the foiled Saracen regains his feet.
LXV.
As the bewildered and astonished clown
Who held the plough (the thunder storm o’erpast)
There, where the deafening bolt had beat him down,
Nigh his death-stricken cattle, wakes aghast,
And sees the distant pine without its crown[14],
Which he saw clad in leafy honours last;
So rose the paynim knight with troubled face,
The maid spectatress of the cruel case.
LXVI.
He sighs and groans, yet not for mischief sore
Endured in wounded arm or foot which bled;
But for mere shame, and never such before
Or after, dyed his cheek so deep a red,
And if he rued his fall, it grieved him more
His dame should lift him from his courser dead.
He speechless had remained, I ween, if she
Had not his prisoned tongue and voice set free.
LXVII.
“Grieve not,” she said, “sir monarch, for thy fall;
“But let the blame upon thy courser be!
“To whom more welcome had been forage, stall,
“And rest, than further joust and jeopardy;
“And well thy foe the loser may I call,
“(Who shall no glory gain) for such is he
“Who is the first to quit his ground, if aught
“Angelica of fighting fields be taught.”
LXVIII.
While she so geeks the Saracen to cheer,
Behold a messenger with pouch and horn,
On panting hackney!—man and horse appear
With the long journey, weary and forlorn.
He questions Sacripant, approaching near,
Had he seen warrior pass, by whom were borne
A shield and crest of white; in search of whom
Through the wide forest pricked the weary groom.
LXIX.
King Sacripant made answer, “As you see,
“He threw me here, and went but now his way:
“Then tell the warrior’s name, that I may be
“Informed whose valour foiled me in the fray.”
To him the groom,—“That which you ask of me
“I shall relate to you without delay:
“Know that you were in combat prostrate laid
“By the tried valour of a gentle maid.
LXX.
“Bold is the maid; but fairer yet than bold,
“Nor the redoubted virgin’s name I veil:
“’Twas Bradamant[15] who marred what praise of old
“Your prowess ever won with sword and mail.”
This said, he spurred again, his story told,
And left him little gladdened by the tale.
He recks not what he says or does, for shame,
And his flushed visage kindles into flame.
LXXI.
After the woeful warrior long had thought
Upon his cruel case, and still in vain,
And found a woman his defeat had wrought,
For thinking but increased the monarch’s pain,
He climbed the other horse, nor spake he aught;
But silently uplifted from the plain,
Upon the croup bestowed that damsel sweet,
Reserved to gladder use in safer seat.
LXXII.
Two miles they had not rode before they hear
The sweeping woods which spread about them, sound
With such loud crash and trample, far and near,
The forest seemed to tremble all around;
And shortly after see a steed appear,
With housings wrought in gold and richly bound;
Who clears the bush and stream, with furious force,
And whatsoever else impedes his course.
LXXIII.
“Unless the misty air,” the damsel cries,
“And boughs deceive my sight, yon noble steed
“Is, sure, Bayardo[16], who before us flies,
“And parts the wood with such impetuous speed.
“—Yes, ’tis Bayardo’s self I recognize.
“How well the courser understands our need!
“Two riders ill a foundered jade would bear,
“But hither speeds the horse to end that care.”
LXXIV.
The bold Circassian lighted, and applied
His hand to seize him by the flowing rein,
Who, swiftly turning, with his heels replied,
For he like lightning wheeled upon the plain.
Woe to the king! but that he leaps aside,
For should he smite, he would not lash in vain.
Such are his bone and sinew, that the shock
Of his good heels had split a metal rock.
LXXV.
Then to the maid he goes submissively,
With gentle blandishment and humble mood;
As the dog greets his lord with frolic glee,
Whom, some short season past, he had not viewed.
For good Bayardo had in memory
Albracca, where her hands prepared his food[17],
What time the damsel loved Rinaldo bold;
Rinaldo, then ungrateful, stern, and cold.
LXXVI.
With her left hand she takes him by the bit,
And with the other pats his sides and chest:
While the good steed (so marvellous his wit),
Lamb-like, obeyed the damsel and caressed.
Meantime the king, who sees the moment fit,
Leapt up, and with his knees the courser pressed.
While on the palfrey, eased of half his weight,
The lady left the croup, and gained the seat.
LXXVII.
Then, as at hazard, she directs her sight,
Sounding in arms a man on foot espies,
And glows with sudden anger and despite;
For she in him the son of Aymon eyes.
Her more than life esteems the youthful knight,
While she from him, like crane from falcon, flies.
Time was the lady sighed, her passion slighted;
’Tis now Rinaldo loves, as ill requited.
LXXVIII.
And this effect two different fountains wrought,
Whose wonderous waters different moods inspire.
Both spring in Arden, with rare virtue fraught:
This fills the heart with amorous desire:
Who taste that other fountain are untaught
Their love, and change for ice their former fire.
Rinaldo drank the first, and vainly sighs;
Angelica the last, and hates and flies.
LXXIX.
Mixed with such secret bane the waters glide,
Which amorous care convert to sudden hate;
The maid no sooner had Rinaldo spied,
Than on her laughing eyes deep darkness sate:
And with sad mien and trembling voice she cried
To Sacripant, and prayed him not to wait
The near approach of the detested knight,
But through the wood with her pursue his flight.
LXXX.
To her the Saracen, with anger hot:
“Is knightly worship sunk so low in me,
“That thou should’st hold my valour cheap, and not
“Sufficient to make yonder champion flee?
“Already are Albracca’s fights forgot,
“And that dread night I singly stood for thee?
“That night when I, though naked, was thy shield
“Against King Agrican and all his field?”
LXXXI.
She answers not, and knows not in her fear
What ’tis she does; Rinaldo is too nigh:
And from afar that furious cavalier
Threats the bold Saracen with angry cry,
As soon as the known steed and damsel dear,
Whose charms such flame had kindled, meet his eye.
But what ensued between the haughty pair
I in another canto shall declare.
- ↑ Orlando and Rinaldo.
NOTES TO CANTO I.
In the same strain of Roland will I tell.
Stanza ii. line 1.
I have used the name by which he is best known in French and English legends. He is called Orlando by Ariosto, and Rotolando by some of the more ancient romancers. His name and signature are said to have been seen in certain charters of Charlemagne. In the Latin Chronicles of the middle ages he is called Rutlandus and Ruitlandus.
Good seed of Hercules give ear and deign.
Stanza iii. line 1.
The Cardinal Ippolito of Este, son of Hercules of Este, Duke of Ferrara.
Record the good Rogero, valiant peer.
Stanza iv. line 3.
This Rogero, Ruggiero in the original, is supposed to be Rizieri of Risa, whose name is changed according to the customary transmutation of Venetian letters into their Tuscan equivalents, as z into g. He, however, is said to have flourished before the time of Charlemagne, and to have died childless. His pedigree is given more at large in the Innamorato. (See the Innamorato, book ii.) The supposed descent of the family of Este from Rizieri, and their pretensions to be of the blood of Charlemagne, for Bradamant was the niece of that emperor, made Ariosto adopt Rogero as the real hero of his poem.
Roland, who long the lady of Catay.
Stanza v. line 1.
Angelica, daughter of Galaphron, king of Cathay, the capital of which was Albracca.
For bold Orlando and hit cousin free,
Rinaldo.
Stanza viii. line 1.
Rinaldo, cousin to Orlando, is known by different names, as Renaud and Arnaud. He was eldest son of Amone, in Italian, Aymon, in French, of Monte Albano, or Mont Auban.
Than half-clothed churl to win the cloth of red.
Stanza xi. line 4.
In the foot-race. Dante uses the same comparison hi his Inferno, canto xv.
Poi si rivolse e parve di coloro
Che corrono à Verona ’l drappo verde
Per la campagna; e parve di costoro
Quegli che vinces[errata 1] e non colui che perde.
With that he turned, and seemed as one of those
Who race upon Verona’s spacious plain
For the green cloth; nor seemed of them who lose,
But he who the disputed prize will gain.
But not from cruel snake more swiftly flies.
Stanza xi. line 5.
Imitated from Virgil's
Improvisum aspris veluti qui sentibus anguem
Pressit humi nitens, trepidumque repente refugit,
Attollentem iras, et cærula colla tumentem.
Here stood the fierce Ferrau in grisly plight.
Stanza xiv. line 1.
He was also called Ferraute and Ferracuto. He is said to have been slain by Orlando, who wounded him in the navel, the only vulnerable part about him. The story is continued from the Innamorato.
The brother of Angelica. That knight, &c.
Stanza xxvii. line 2.
This too is the continuation of an old story, for which see the Innamorato. Argalia was brother to Angelica.
From Aspramont, where bold Almontes paid.
Stanza xxx. line 7.
Almonte in the text, called by others Aimonte. For the rest; these stories, though “half told,” develope themselves in the course of the poem.
“The virgin hat her image in the rose.”
Stanza xlii. line 1.
Translated, and with little variation, from Catullus’s beautiful comparison, in his epithalamium on Manlius and Julia.
Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro;
Quem mulcent auræ, firmat sol, educat imber
Multi ilium pueri, multæ optavêre puellæ:
Idem quum tenui carptus defloruit ungui,
Nulli ilium pueri, nullæ optavêre puellæ.
Sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis est;
Quum castum amisit polluto corpore florem,
Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec cara puellis.
It was fair Circassia’s king.
Stanza xlv. line 3.
Sacripant, who is one of Boiardo’s dramatis personæ, figures more especially in the warfare,
“When Agrican, with all his northern powers,
Besieged Albracca, as romances tell,
The city of Galaphron; from thence to win
The fairest of her sex, Angelica,
His daughter, sought by many prowest knights,
Both paynim and the peers of Charlemagne.”
“To woman, (this my own experience, shows),
“No deed more sweet or welcome can be done.
Stanza lviii. lines 3 and 4.
Vim licet appelles, grata est vis illa puellis;
Quod juvat, invitæ sæpe dedisse volunt.
Ovid.
And sees the distant pine without its crown.
Stanza lxv. line 5.
An Italian commentator writes more than a page to prove that Ariosto must have meant il pino grandissimo, that is, the stone-pine, or pinus pinea of Linnæus, with a top like an umbrella; but has omitted the best reason for supposing so; to wit, that it is the only pine common in Italy.
“’Twas Bradamant.
Stanza lxx. line 3.
Bradamant is also a character in the Innamorato, and her story, which forms one of the prettiest episodes in the work, is afterwards taken up where it was dropt by Boiardo.
Is, sure, Bayardo.
Stanza lxxiii. line 3.
Bayardo, the famous steed of Rinaldo, is said to have been found by Malagigi, the wizard knight, and cousin to Rinaldo, in a grotto, together with a suit of arms and the sword Fusberta, under the watch of a dragon, whom he charmed. Having obtained the prize, he bestowed it upon Rinaldo.
Albracca, where her hands prepared his food.
Stanza lxxv. line 6.
Angelica, then in love with Rinaldo, through the influence of the Fountain of Love, and into whose hands Bayardo fell at Albracca, took care of him, and afterwards returned him to his master, who was among her enemies, he being then under the influence of the Fountain of Hate, as is seen in the text.
One source of love and one of burning hate.
The idea of these two fountains is perhaps taken from Claudian’s picture of the gardens of Venus:
Labuntur gemini fontes: hic dulcis; amarus
Alter, et infusis corrumpit mella venenis;
Unde Cupidineas armavit Fama sagittas.
Two fountains glitter to the solar beam;
This spouts a sweet, and that a bitter stream;
Where Cupid dips his darts, as poets dream.
The idea of miraculous fountains, originating probably in the physical effects of some waters, (since a small substratum of truth is sufficient foundation for a lie), seems to have been a favourite classical fiction, as exemplified in the two springs in Bœotia, of which one was supposed to increase, and the other to take away, the memory. The belief in these was rife during the middle ages, and indeed extended to a later period; as we find the early discoverers reported, among other wonders, a fountain of youth.
It is possible, moreover, that with the idea of Claudian’s two fountains may have been mixed up that of Cupid’s two arrows, one of lead and the other of gold; of which the golden one was supposed to instil love, and the leaden hate.
Errata