And in Ovid,
Auribus interdum vocem captamus, et omnem
Adventus strepitum credimus esse tui.
Might interpose between the fruit and hand.
Stanza xxv. line 8.
Petrarch says; I believe, versifying a proverb,
Tra la spiga e la man, qual muro, è messo.
Though but in a light sendal clad.
Stanza xxviii. line 1.
This (in the Italian zendado) was a thin species of silk.—See Ducange in vocem Cendalum. The word sendal is of constant occurrence in our old English chronicles and romances.
And that veil remained alone,
Which upon every side the damsel shows,
More than clear glass the lily or the rose.
Stanza xxviii. lines 6, 7, 8.
Though Ariosto’s age was very gross, we may observe great delicacy in this description, compared with a parallel place in Apuleijus; and I mention this, because such an observation would, I believe, hold good, on a comparison of almost all similar passages in modern and classical popular authors. Photis is described, like Alcina, as coming to her lover almost undressed. “Nisi quod tenui panno bombycino inumbrabat spectabilem pubem.”
