us, that “in Eriphila, overthrown by Rogero and not killed, we may observe that the liberality that men make great show of in their youthful pleasures and entertainments, is not the true virtue that doth quite extinguish and kill that monster of covetousness.”
As the whole of this canto, at least, must be allowed to be allegorical, even by the most incredulous, I am tempted to transcribe more of his observations, which tally, as well as what I have already cited, with the notions of the Italian critics. “I showed before how by Eriphila is meant covetousness, which our young gallants beat down but kill not,” &c. “Whereas in the eighth staff, the way was said to be unpleasant (though that seem contrary to the saying of Hercules, two ways, of vice and pleasure), yet no doubt but even in this way of pleasure there may be many ill-favoured and dangerous passages; as one of the fathers well noteth, that a wretched worldling doth often toil more to go to hell for his labour, than a virtuous man doth to win heaven. The things that allure most to sensuality are set down in order: in the ninth staff, kind entertainment: in the tenth, sumptuous building: in the eleventh, and so forward to the sixteenth, artificial behaviour and exquisite beauty: in the eighteenth, music and wanton sonnets of love: riotous fare in the nineteenth, in the twentieth wanton discourses and purposes,” &c. &c. &c.
To meet the child, Alcina, falr of hue,
Advanced.
Stanza ix. lines 1 and 2.
We have here the personification of pleasure, so common in eastern and western romance; the Circe of the Odyssey, and the Labe of the Arabian Nights.
