Orlando Furioso Part 128

LV "O happy town! whereof" (the warrior cried) "Spake Malagigi, having, far and near, The fixt and wandering fires of heaven espied, And forced some subject spirit to appear, To me foretelling that in future tide, -- What time with him I took his way whilere -- Even to such pitch thy glorious fame should rise, Thou from all Italy wouldst bear the prize."

LVI So saying, in his barge he all this while Hurries, as if the bark with pinions flew, Scowering the king of rivers, to that isle Nearest the town; and, though it not to view (Deserted and neglected then) doth smile, This yet rejoices to behold anew; Nor makes small mirth thereat; because aware Hereafter how adorned 'twill be and fair.

LVII Before when he with him that way had gone, From Malagigi, his cousin, did he hear That when seven hundred times his course had run, Circling the heaven in Aries, the fourth sphere, Of islands this should be the fairest one In sea, or pool, or river, far and near, So that who this beheld, would brook no more To hear that praised which fair Nausicaa bore.

LVIII He heard, it in fair mansions would outdo That island which Tiberius held so dear; And trees that in Hesperian gardens grew Would yield to what this beauteous place should bear; -- So rare its race of beasts -- no fairer shew Herded or housed erewhile by Circe were; Venus with Loves and Graces there should sport, Nor more in Gnide and Cyprus keep her court;

LIX And so would flourish through his study and care, Who will with knowledge and with power should blend; And who so safely should that bright repair With circling wall and sheltering d.y.k.e defend, The united world's a.s.sault it well might dare, Nor call on foreign power its aid to lend; And that Duke Hercules' sire and Hercules' son Was he by whom this marvel should be done.

LX So wends the warrior summing in his mind What erst to him had told his cousin wise; What time the sage of future things divined, Whereof with him he often wont devize; And aye contemplating that city blind, "How can it ever be," Rinaldo cries, "That in all liberal and all worthy arts Shall flourish so these waste and watery parts?

LXI "And that to city of such amplitude And beauty such a petty burgh should grow, And where but marsh and miry pool is viewed, Henceforth should full and fruitful harvests glow?

Even now I rise, to hail the gentle blood, The love, the courtesy thy lords shall show, O thou fair city, in succeeding years; Thy burghers' honours and thy cavaliers'.

LXII "The grace ineffable of powers above, Thy princes' wisdom and their love of right, Shall with perpetual peace, perpetual love Preserve thee in abundance and delight; And a defence from all the fury prove Of such as hate thee; and unmask their spite.

Be thy content thy neighbours' wide annoy, Rather than thou shouldst envy other's joy!"

LXIII While thus Rinaldo speaks, so swiftly borne By the quick current flies that nimble yawl; Not to the lure more swiftly makes return The falcon, hurrying at his lord's recall.

Thenceforth the right-hand branch of the right horn Rinaldo takes; and hid are roof and wall: St. George recedes; recede from that swift boat The turrets OF GAIBANA and OF THE MOAT.

LXIV Montalban's martial lord (as it befell, That thought moved thought, which others moved again) In memory chances on the knight to dwell, That him at supper late did entertain; That, through this city's cause, the truth to tell, Hath reason evermore to be in pain; And of the magic vessel him bethinks Which shows his consort's guilt to him that drinks;

LXV And him bethinks therewith of what the knight Related; how of all that he had tried, Who of his goblet drank, there was no wight But split the wine he to his lips would guide.

Now he repents him; now, "'Tis my delight,"

(Mutters) "that I the proof would not abide: Succeeding I should prove but what I thought; And not succeeding, to what pa.s.s am brought!

LXVI "This my belief I deem a certainty; And faith could have but small increase in me: So, if I this should by the touchstone try, My present good would little bettered be: But small the evil would not prove, if I Saw of my Clarice what I would not see.

This were a thousand against one to stake; To hazard much where I could nothing take."

LXVII The knight of Clermont buried in this mood, Who lifted not his visage from the floor, A mariner with much attention viewed, That overright was seated at his oar; And, for he deemed he fully understood The thought that prest the cavalier so sore, Made him (well-spoken was the man and bold) Wake from his muse, some talk with him to hold.

LXVIII The substance of the talk between the two Was, that the husband little wit possest, Who, wis.h.i.+ng to a.s.say if she was true, Had tried his wife by too severe a test: For woman, proof to gold and silver, who, Armed but with modesty, defends her breast, This from a thousand faulchions will defend More surely, and through burning fires will wend.

LXIX The mariner subjoined: "Thou saidest well; With gifts so rich he should not her have prest; For, these a.s.saults, these charges, to repel, Not good alike is every human breast.

I know not if of wife thou has heard tell (For haply not with us the tale may rest) That in the very sin her husband spied, For which she by his sentence should have died.

LXX "My lord should have remembered, gold and meed Have upon every hardest matter wrought: But he forgot this truth in time of need; And so upon his head this ruin brought, Ah! would that he in proof, like me, a deed Done in this neighbouring city had been taught, His country and mine own; which lake and fen, Br.i.m.m.i.n.g with Mincius' prisoned waters, pen.

LXXI "I of Adonio speak, that in a hound A treasure on the judge's wife conferred."

"Thereof," replied the paladin, "the sound Hath not o'erpast the Alps; for never word Of this neighbouring France, nor in my round Through far and foreign countries have I heard: So tell, if telling irks not," said the peer, "What willingly I bown myself to hear.

LXXII The boatman then: "Erewhile was of this town One Anselm, that of worthy lineage came; A wight that spent his youth in flowing gown, Studying his Ulpian: he of honest fame, Beauty, and state a.s.sorting with his own, A consort sought, and one of n.o.ble name: Nor vainly; in a neighbouring city, crowned With superhuman beauty, one he found.

LXXIII "She such fair manners and so graceful shows, She seems all love and beauty; and much more Perchance than maketh for her lord's repose; Then well befits the reverend charge he bore.

He, wedded, strait in jealousy outgoes All jealous men that ever were before: Yet she affords not other cause for care But that she is too witty and too fair.

LXXIV "In the same city dwelt a cavalier, Numbered that old and honoured race among, Sprung from the haughty lineage, which whilere Out of the jaw-bone of a serpent sprung: Whence Manto, doomed my native walls to rear, Descended, and with her a kindred throng.

The cavalier (Adonio was he named) Was with the beauties of the dame inflamed;

LXXV "And for the furtherance of his amorous quest, To grace himself, began his wealth to spend, Without restraint, in banquet and in vest, And what might most a cavalier commend: If he Tiberius' treasure had possest, He of his riches would have made an end.

I well believe two winters were not done, Ere his paternal fortune was outrun.

LXXVI "The house erewhile, frequented by a horde -- Morning and evening -- of so many friends, Is solitary; since no more his board Beneath the partridge, quail, and pheasant bends.

Of that once n.o.ble troop upon the lord, Save beggars, hardly any one attends.

Ruined, at length he thinks he will begone To other country, where he is unknown.

LXXVII "He leaves his native land with this intent, Nor letteth any his departure know; And coasts, in tears and making sad lament, The marshes that about his city go: He his heart's queen, amid his discontent, Meanwhile forgets not, for this second woe.

Lo! him another accident that falls, From sovereign woe to sovereign bliss recalls!

LXXVIII "He saw a peasant who with heavy stake Smote mid some sapling trunks on every side: Adonio stopt, and wherefore so he strake, Asked of the rustic, that in answer cried, Within that clump a pa.s.sing ancient snake, Amid the tangled stems he had espied: A longer serpent and more thick to view He never saw, nor thought to see anew;

LXXIX "And that from thence he would not wend his way Until the reptile he had found and slain, When so Adonio heard the peasant say, He scarce his speech with patience could sustain, Aye reverence to the serpent wont to pay, The honoured ensign of his ancient strain; In memory that their primal race had grown Erewhile from serpent's teeth by Cadmus sown;

Lx.x.x "And by the churl the offended knight so said, And did withal, he made him quit the emprize; Leaving the hunted serpent neither dead, Nor injured, nor pursued in further wise.

Thither, where he believes would least have spread The story of his woe, Adonio hies; And in discomfort and in sorrow wears, Far from his native land, seven weary years.

Lx.x.xI "Neither for distance nor for straitened cheer, Which will not let Thought run its restless round, Ceased Love, so wont to rein the cavalier, Aye to inflame his heart, aye vex his wound: At length those beauties, to his eyes so dear, Parforce must he revisit, homeward bound.

Unshorn, afflicted, he, in poor array, Thither returns, from whence he went his way.

Lx.x.xII "My city, at the time whereof I tell, To Rome was fain to send an emba.s.sy; That sometime near his holiness should dwell; And for how long a time could none foresee.

Upon our judge the lot of envoy fell: O day, that ever wept by him will be!

To be excused, Anselmo promised, prayed, And bribed; but at the last parforce obeyed.

Lx.x.xIII "As no less cruel and less hard to abide He deemed a woe which caused such piteous smart, Than had he seen a hostile hand his side Lay bare, and from his bosom pluck his heart: Dead-white with jealous fear his cheek is dyed, Through doubt of his fair consort while apart; And in the mode he deems may best avail, He supplicates her not in faith to fail,

Lx.x.xIV "Nor beauty, to his wife the husband cries, Nor n.o.ble blood, nor fortune, are enow To make a woman to true honour rise, Save chaste in name and deed; subjoining how The virtue that mankind most highly prize Is that which triumphs after strife; and now Through his long absense, a fair field and wide Is opened where that virtue may be tried.

Lx.x.xV "With such persuasions, and with many more Anselm exhorts the lady to be true.

His going doth his woful wife deplore.

O heaven, what tears, what loud complaints ensue!

Immersed in her despair, that lady swore, Sooner the sun bedimmed the world should view Than she would break her faith; she would expire Sooner than she would cherish such desire.

Lx.x.xVI "Though to the lady's promise and protest He lent belief, and somewhat calmed his fears, Until he further hear he will not rest; And till he can find matter for his tears, A soothsayer he among his friends possest, Prized for his knowledge, as the first of seers; Who of all witchery and of magic art Had read the whole, or read the greater part.

Lx.x.xVII "To him before departing does he pray, To take the charge upon himself to see If true would be Argia while away (So name his consort), or the contrary.

Won by his prayers, he takes the time o' the day; Figures the heavens as they appear to be.

Anselmo left him at his work, and came His answer on the following day to claim.

Lx.x.xVIII "The astrologer is silent, loath to expose A matter that will work the doctor woe; And would excuse himself with many a gloze: But when he sees, he would the evil know, Argia will break faith with him, he shows, As soon as he shall from his threshold go.

Nor prayer shall soften her, nor beauty fire: Corrupted will she be by gain and hire.

Lx.x.xIX "When to Anselmo's early doubt and fear Are joined the threatnings of the signs above, How stands his heart may well to thee appear, If thou hast known the accidents of love; And worse than every woe, wherewith whilere The afflicted spirits of that husband strove, Is that it by the prophet is foretold, Argais' honour will be bought and sold.

XC "Now to support his wife, as best he may, From falling into such an evil deed.

For man, alas, will sometimes disarray The altar, when he finds himself in need, What gold and gems the judge had put away, (A plenteous store) he leaves; and field and mead, Rents, fruits, and all possessions whatsoe'er Leaves to his consort; all his worldly gear:

XCI " 'With power,' he said, 'not only without measure, These, as thou needest, to enjoy and spend, But do with them according to thy pleasure, Consume and fling away, and give and vend: Other account I ask not of my treasure, If such as now I find thee in the end; But such as now remain; -- at thy command (Even shouldst thou squander both) are house and land.'

XCII "Unless she heard he thither made repair, He prayed that she would dwell not in the town; But would a farm of his inhabit, where She might with all convenience live alone.