Jerusalem Delivered | Page 6

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 the smart of other's anguish tries,?If one were hurt, the other felt the sore,?She lost her blood, he spent his life therefore.
LVIII?But these and all, Rinaldo far exceeds,?Star of his sphere, the diamond of this ring,?The nest where courage with sweet mercy breeds:?A comet worthy each eye's wondering,?His years are fewer than his noble deeds,?His fruit is ripe soon as his blossoms spring,?Armed, a Mars, might coyest Venus move,?And if disarmed, then God himself of Love.
LIX?Sophia by Adige's flowery bank him bore,?Sophia the fair, spouse to Bertoldo great,?Fit mother for that pearl, and before?The tender