NOTES TO CANTO XII.
nor aught is seen of wall;
For these, and floor beneath, with tapestry,
Curtain, or carpet, are close covered all.
Stanza x. lines 2, 3, 4.
This description may surprise those acquainted but with English antiquities, and who know that the floors of our richest nobles, and even those of our kings, were, in Ariosto’s age and long after, covered with rushes, under which the filth and offal of the table was often left to rot. Italy had, however, arrived at as high a pitch of refinement, as may be argued from this stanza, even in the time of Dante; a fact made clear by certain passages in the prose works of that writer, and which were for this purpose cited by Mr. Foscolo in his lectures on Italian literature. What a contrast does she now afford to the times when ‘wealth was hers!’
But know thus much, that I by vow am tied
To wear no helm, &c.
Stanza xlii. lines 5 and 6.
Such vows, during the middle ages, were not uncommon even in real life. Thus Froissart tells us of an English knight,
