Jerusalem Delivered | Page 6

seas and Arden Wood,
Where Mosel streams and Rhene
the meadows wear,
A battel soil for grain, for pasture good,
Their
islanders with them, who oft repair
Their earthen bulwarks 'gainst the
ocean flood,
The flood, elsewhere that ships and barks devours,
But
there drowns cities, countries, towns and towers;
XLIV
Both in one troop, and but a thousand all,
Under another
Robert fierce they run.
Then the English squadron, soldiers stout and
tall,
By William led, their sovereign's younger son,
These archers
be, and with them come withal,
A people near the Northern Pole that
wone,
Whom Ireland sent from loughs and forests hoar,
Divided far
by sea from Europe's shore.
XLV
Tancredi next, nor 'mongst them all was one,
Rinald except, a
prince of greater might,
With majesty his noble countenance shone,

High were his thoughts, his heart was bold in fight,
No shameful vice
his worth had overgone,
His fault was love, by unadvised sight,

Bred in the dangers of adventurous arms,
And nursed with griefs,
with sorrows, woes, and harms.
XLVI
Fame tells, that on that ever-blessed day,
When Christian
swords with Persian blood were dyed,
The furious Prince Tancredi
from that fray
His coward foes chased through forests wide,
Till
tired with the fight, the heat, the way,
He sought some place to rest
his wearied side,
And drew him near a silver stream that played

Among wild herbs under the greenwood shade.
XLVII
A Pagan damsel there unwares he met,
In shining steel, all
save her visage fair,
Her hair unbound she made a wanton net,
To
catch sweet breathing from the cooling air.
On her at gaze his longing
looks he set,
Sight, wonder; wonder, love; love bred his care;

O
love, o wonder; love new born, new bred,
Now groan, now armed,
this champion captive led.

XLVIII
Her helm the virgin donned, and but some wight
She
feared might come to aid him as they fought,
Her courage earned to
have assailed the knight;
Yet thence she fled, uncompanied, unsought,

And left her image in his heart ypight;
Her sweet idea wandered
through his thought,
Her shape, her gesture, and her place in mind

He kept, and blew love's fire with that wind.
XLIX
Well might you read his sickness in his eyes,
Their banks
were full, their tide was at the flow,
His help far off, his hurt within
him lies,
His hopes unstrung, his cares were fit to mow;
Eight
hundred horse (from Champain came) he guies,
Champain a land
where wealth, ease, pleasure, grow,
Rich Nature's pomp and pride,
the Tirrhene main
There woos the hills, hills woo the valleys plain.
L
Two hundred Greeks came next, in fight well tried,
Not surely
armed in steel or iron strong,
But each a glaive had pendant by his
side,
Their bows and quivers at their shoulders hung,
Their horses
well inured to chase and ride,
In diet spare, untired with labor long;

Ready to charge, and to retire at will,
Though broken, scattered, fled,
they skirmish still;
LI
Tatine their guide, and except Tatine, none
Of all the Greeks
went with the Christian host;
O sin, O shame, O Greece accurst alone!

Did not this fatal war affront thy coast?
Yet safest thou an idle
looker-on,
And glad attendest which side won or lost:
Now if thou
be a bondslave vile become,
No wrong is that, but God's most
righteous doom.
LII
In order last, but first in worth and fame,
Unfeared in fight,
untired with hurt or wound,
The noble squadron of adventurers came,

Terrors to all that tread on Asian ground:
Cease Orpheus of thy
Minois, Arthur shame
To boast of Lancelot, or thy table round:

For
these whom antique times with laurel drest,
These far exceed them,
thee, and all the rest.

LIII
Dudon of Consa was their guide and lord,
And for of worth
and birth alike they been,
They chose him captain, by their free
accord,
For he most acts had done, most battles seen;
Grave was the
man in years, in looks, in word,
His locks were gray, yet was his
courage green,
Of worth and might the noble badge he bore,
Old
scars of grievous wounds received of yore.
LIV
After came Eustace,
well esteemed man
For Godfrey's sake his brother, and his own;

The King of Norway's heir Gernando than,
Proud of his father's title,
sceptre, crown;
Roger of Balnavill, and Engerlan,
For hardy knights
approved were and known;
Besides were numbered in that warlike
train
Rambald, Gentonio, and the Gerrards twain.
LV
Ubaldo then, and puissant Rosimond,
Of Lancaster the heir, in
rank succeed;
Let none forget Obizo of Tuscain land,
Well worthy
praise for many a worthy deed;
Nor those three brethren, Lombards
fierce and yond,
Achilles, Sforza, and stern Palamede;
Nor Otton's
shield he conquered in those stowres,
In which a snake a naked child
devours.
LVI
Guascher and Raiphe in valor like there was.
The one and
other Guido, famous both,
Germer and Eberard to overpass,
In foul
oblivion would my Muse be loth,
With his Gildippes dear, Edward
alas,
A loving pair, to war among them go'th
In bond of virtuous
love together tied,
Together served they, and together died.
LVII
In school of love are all things taught we see,
There learned
this maid of arms the ireful guise,
Still by his side a faithful guard
went she,
One true-love knot their lives together ties,
No would to
one alone could dangerous be,
But each